moving on... you can come too!

so obviously i don't love this blog like i used to. truth is its really hard to use. not really but that sounds better than the real reason. so what do i do? i create another one!

actually i have for a long time wanted to start a more professional blog to show off the now hundreds of images that have never made it anywhere but print... let's be honest who reads print anymore.

my world is quickly transitioning. videography and outdoor adventure lifestyle photography. i don't know how this happened. but in order to do it justice i've decided to move my blog presence over to wordpress. sorry google i know that probably just set a siren off in california. so i invite you to a new blog. if you bookmark or do reader please mark it. i'll be showing off lots of fun shoots over the next few months. thanks

theothersideofnp.com

grayben's been paying attention

between erin, myself, and the business we have 3 facebook pages, 3 blogs, and 1 twitter account. when i realized this this morning my first thought was that i need to simplify. unfortunately we have subdivided our life into so many categories that each one serves a different purpose. i know it sound ridiculous but it is somewhat tried and calculated. for example erin's clients don't want to hear about my brush with birmingham's premier homosexual landmark. so naturally there are times that we want to share something and don't know where to put it. i finally after hours of deliberation (right) decided to stick this video here.

when i'm in the office all day erin will bring grayben down a few times to see me and hang out. it is his favorite place because there are tons of things that could injure or kill him (shredders, damp rid, glue, scissors, paper cutters, etc). he really loves to come downstairs now because his new bff alyssa (our assistant) is down her a couple afternoons a week. so here's a video of him telling us about everyone in our house and then showing us what you do when it's time to put the camera away.

sewage... the great equalizer

there's a saying out there that eloquently sums up the point i'm about to make but i'll refrain from profanity in this post.

where to start? a couple weeks ago we had some issues in our front yard. i'll avoid description but let's just say it wasn't very civilized. so i call the experts out. as i'm standing over my septic tank looking in with my plumber beside me i said something like, "this feels really personal... you looking at my poo". really it kind of felt like i was standing there naked. okay, pretty gross thought but it was very humbling and yes very personal... i mean you can't exactly blame it on someone else. {aside} you know the jefferson county sewer issue is bad when your looking at a tractor (which grayben still is talking about and saying bye to) digging up your yard, smelling the raw sewage filling up your neighborhood, and watching your bank account dwindling yet still are thankful you're on septic.

okay fast forward to this weekend. we just got back from a great weekend of skiing. as i was driving up i thought to myself "i wonder what will be the defining element of this trip". my first thought was an injury. turns out it was sewage. i should preface this by saying we were staying in a NICE house... one of the nicest on the mountain. saturday night we come back in from skiing, all tired yet pretty happy about our day. (cue ominous music). everyone else has gotten a shower and we walk downstairs to our room only to find our bathroom filling up with water... not clean water. again i'll spare the details but from here it only got worse... lot's worse. the rest of the trip we were washing dishes outside (among other things) and giving ourselves sponge baths. the irony was tremendous.

i unfortunately have several other stories along these lines i could share but i'll go ahead and get back to my point. there's really not a whole lot separating the civilized world from the uncivilized. just some pipes. no matter where we live or what class we're in there will always be some things that put us all on the same level. it's a good reminder though some might think it stinks.

i'm happy to recognize feb as black history month. i will also remember it at "sewage epiphany month".

keyframe animations

okay this is totally techy and boring to most but i'm really excited that i'm actually learning how to create animations. i would have never in a million years thought i would have a need for this much less think i would enjoy it. turns out my photography venture has led me to video which has led me to motion graphics. any pros out there will tell you what you are about to see it extremely elementary but i'm stoked. pretty sure this will not make it into the video i'm doing but am happy to have figured it out anyway. the video's about an actress who starred in the play "parade". this would lay over the video.

i have not posted in a very long time. however, every once in a while something happens that i just have to talk about. in this case it's more like therapy.

below is an email I received for a shoot. if you got this email and are familiar with bham, where would you go? even if you're not from birmingham, where would you go?

"Fashion preview –– Thurs. 1 p.m. Coldwater Creek at the Summit (Will take pictures in front of waterfall off Cahaba River going East on Hwy 280) Three models involved. Want group shot and three separate shots."

the cahaba river waterfalls off 280 right!

well some of you may know where this is going. unfortunately 2 hours ago i did not.

so i pull up to the parking lot which appears to be a nice little access to the river and waterfalls. i am 1 of 4 cars... check that, 1 of 5... another car just pulled up. what was interesting, i noticed, is that everyone was sitting in their car, oh yeah and everyone was a man! now excuse my naivety but i did figure since it is lunchtime these guys are just having their lunch by the park.... although no one was actually eating..... okay they've already finished their lunch and are killing the rest of their lunch break enjoying the falls.

my job at this point is to find a good place to photograph 3 middle age women so i get out of my car and descend the hill to the waterfalls. i'm walking around the banks looking for the right angles and some solid ground. i turn around, satisfied with the location and notice that 4 of the 5 men who were sitting in their cars only 2 minutes ago are now coming down the hill towards me. okay, this is a growing up moment. my innocence is in the process of being destroyed and i'm hoping that's the worst that's going to happen to it. still my first thought was drugs... but then i just kept watching these guys. they were pacing, occasionally looking up at me, then looking down, pacing some more... all except this 1 guy. this guy looked like a suburban little league coach and he was coming right for me.

we made eye contact, i nodded, trying to be polite! (in hindsight i'm thinking that must be the code) realizing nothing good can come of this location i hurry up the hill, quickly get in my car, look in my rear view and see that the little league coach is also already in his car. i step on it barely looking both ways only to catch the longest light on 280 where he enjoyed sitting behind me and getting all the info off my license plate. i then got into the slow lane, called the editor on the phone to gently explain that her email description was unbelievable wrong! (she meant the waterfalls at Grandview Parkway)... the cahaba doesn't even got over there!! thankfully my potential assailant must have concluded that based on my volvo wagon with a roof rack i must be more likely to be a lost outdoorsman than (as my mother so eloquently described it) "fresh meat". so he drove on by.

i called a few people after that and apparently EVERYONE! knows what that place is except for me! i came in and told erin and she was like "oh yeah i saw that on the news". i don't watch the news! stokes comforted me by asking if i thought he was still following me? thanks. another thing that bothers me is why did only 4 out of 5 guys get our of their car? was i not good enough for you #5? doesn't seem like the place for standards.

anyway i feel like i got punched in the stomach. thankfully i didn't really. seriously though look at where this is. that's 280! how much more public does it get? also notice how many cars are there. mine will never be again!



isn't it sad that i felt the need to edit the google satellite image?

beauty in the SC

so i've been gone on vacation for about 3 weeks now which i really don't feel bad about at all... despite all my friends and coworkers attempts to try and make me.  1. because i had to come back home to work each week in between and 2. because if you added up all the Saturday's i have to work over the course of the year it would still be about 10 days more than what I just took off.  i consider it self-employment comp time. so anyway....

i spent hours of my vacation looking at new places and appreciating their beauty.  a lot of that time i had a camera with me.  i was able to really enter into my scenery and try to capture the beauty that it impressed upon me (philosophical, i know).  one of my favorite things to do in life.

as i was back on assignment in between my vacations, it occurred to me that yes the places i went were beautiful but i thought they were more beautiful because i had never seen them before.  as i looked around i began to appreciate what was around me (in Shelby County) a bit more.  they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".  i say "beauty is.  and the beholder is the one who makes an effort to see it".  that is deep.  but really, there are beautiful things all around us.  it is usually us who are too busy or distracted to see them.  

so i've decided to try and look a little harder at the simple things in life.  try and find a little more beauty.

bump n grind

no, that's not the name of the latest kenny chesney album. actually this was the most recent event i covered that made me feel like i needed to get in shape. last week was xterra this week bump. these are both basically outdoor extreme sports races where people, who border on actually being non-human, compete against one another to the death (or at least that's what it would be for me). in this event there were lower categories and i did see a few people that made me feel like i could get by with running 2 miles a day this week rather than 10. still, the amateurs in this event were quite impressive. 

part of my assignment was to get shots at "blood rock". needless to say a lot of people fall there. i felt kindof bad sitting down to watch/hope people busted so i could take their picture. i'm sure the other 20 people there felt the same. 

one of my favorite things about assignments like this is that you get to experience pockets of culture... a variety of things you would never know otherwise. birmingham cycling is definitely it's own culture... quite a big one at that.

i ain't rich but Lord i'm free....

it was a toss up between "much too young" & "amarillo by morning". garth brooks apparently has pulled a Beatles move and made his songs off limits to the downloading community.  anyway, there are few better lines in country music.  it's become my business motto.

a couple weeks ago i got to cover the rodeo. not the big one at the BJCC where all the big dogs ride, but the local one... regional at best. no endorsements, no big checks like in Happy Gilmore, and no real fame. just guys (and girls) traveling around from small town to small town doing what they feel like that have to do. the purse on this rodeo was $5,000. $5,000! to almost die! and that you have to split among the other winners.

there are few times in my life that i felt like i have been truly submersed in another culture (another was when i worked for the JCCEO). really what i mean by that is there are few times i've been submersed in culture. most of us are so homogenous and vanilla that we really don't belong to any real culture, myself included. i think that made me have even more respect for them. they did this because it was a part of who they were and how they were taught to live.

if you've never seen a rodeo you must go. i wouldn't suggest the big ones that tour around the big cities. find a small town or county rodeo. you will see what i'm talking about. i guarantee no matter how different you think the experience is, you'll come away respecting them.

here are a few shots. also, i felt like a slideshow with some appropriate music would help define what i'm talking about. Here it is.

this is supposed to be the off-season.

i look forward to this stretch of time. i should have learned by now.  in my head it's peaceful, restful, slow moving etc.  in reality it's planning, deadlines, conflict, rainy etc.  i'm almost ready to say i'm ready for the busy season.  

one of my assignments last week was a civic event at the university of montevallo.  i arrived right on time for the shoot which was advertised to start at 7.  2 hours later i was standing in the back of the room trying not to fall asleep from lack of calories in my body (oh and they ate a 4 course meal right in front of me). all i could think about was my sweet homewrecker from moe's.  as the event was winding down, i was inching towards the door.  i literally got my shots that ran in the paper as i was walking out of the venue.  now for some reason the workers at moe's in alabaster don't like to make money or at least not from me because they close at 9 o'clock which has been too early for me on several occasions.  you know that feeling when you're hungry and ticked.  it's a very entitled feeling.  so i went to chick fil a and of course nothing was good enough for me.  so i did all that was left to do.  griped all the way home to my wife who was in nashville with a sick baby.  i'm sure there was a lot of true sympathy there.  in my 2 hours on assignment i did manage to take some pictures of a watertower that i really like.  the reason i like them is because i didn't have to do a thing to them before i posted.  i rarely get that luxury.   so this is about the best thing that came of that night for me... did i mention it was a friday night!

 

musical justice

i am a bit of a conspiracy theorist when it comes to mainstream music. i am and have been for a while, under the impression that if a label pays enough money to get their music in a stations rotation enough times, people will EVENTUALLY begin to tap their foot to the crap being put out there. Toby Keith is a great example of this. as i write this it occurs to me that maybe i should narrow this theory down to country.. though i'm pretty sure the pop and hip-hop genres are the same.

thankfully there is (was) Napster, XM, Rhapsody (i'm protesting ITunes at the moment) etc... where people can actually find music they like the first time they listen to it!! i think if you break that down it actually means people simply like the music. as everyone knows, finding music that YOU like can move you... dare i say change you.

this year there were a handful of songs and artist that i would say this is true of for me.. Ollabelle, The Weepies, 2Pac (only kindof kidding), Amos Lee, & Coldplay ... however THE artists of the year for me were hands down Allison Krauss & Robert Plant with "Raising Sand". i first heard that album last Christmas (which technically makes it last years album) through my always musically hip (seriously!) in-laws. i've been listening to it ever since. i've heard NO ONE else talk about it though i would occasionally hear it playing at a restaurant or store. it seemed to fly under the radar completely.

2 nights ago when flipping through the channels i saw them on the grammy's with producer T-Bone Burnett (Oh Brother Where Art Though). the category they were up for was "Best Album of the Year". they were up against "Lil Wayne" "NeYo" "Coldplay" and somebody else...oh yeah the "NKOTB reunion album".... all of whom, with the exception of AK & RP, every living person has heard a song off the albums. well guess who won?

finally some good music is getting some recognition. it's a fantastic album that i highly suggest. that being said i was actually and literally sad that "Viva La Vida" didn't win but later found out that it did get rock song of the year. again, couldn't agree more.

Poll 1: WHO IS MORE FAMOUS?
1. Allison Krauss
2. Robert Plant

Poll 2: WHO IS A BETTER ARTIST?
1. Allison Krauss
2. Kenny Chesney

These actually stem from recent conversations i've had and would love some input.

learning in reverse

on our first wedding anniversary 4 1/2 years ago, erin & I went to Charleston. i took my father in laws 1970's pentax (before either one of us really took pictures) because we didn't have a digital at the time. we walked the streets & alleys. i remember getting really excited and i guess inspired by what we were seeing. i began flying through rolls of film. in my head i had the perfect shots and could not wait to see them. unfortunately that never happened. a full week of waiting and anticipation only led to devestation when wolf returned the film unexposed. i felt so defeated. it was the first and last time i tried to use film... until last month.

erin bought me a full canon film kit complete with lenses and camera. everytime i'd take a shot, i would look at the back of the camera. oh yeah. it began to teach me patience that digital pushes right past. it also made me a lot more careful in what i shot considering that every 24 exposures cost me around $7. learning a bit backwards than the rest of digital photographers out there, i am coming to find i've missed some valuable lessons in composition, focusing, and anticipation.

erin and i sat down with grayben, her with the new digital and me with the old film. i obviously love her shots but there is something organic about the film that has really drawn me in. i hope to incorporate this into more of our shoots though i'll have to get a lot better and faster. here are some of the results....

and the digital....

housing crisis

i usually get assignments that are ordinary, around county stuff. most of it is good news which i think is a finer point of the SCR. however, i've had to do 2 shoots at the humane society both about overcrowding. this story is pretty sad. i usually think of stray mutts at the humane society but when i was in there recently it looked like dogs lining up for a show. a lot of full breed family pets that were pushed out. not trying to go all sarah mclaughlin on you but it really made me want to adopt a bunch of animals. here are a couple of my saddest pics.

met this guy in a dark alley...

oh wait no this was sports blast on 280... sorry i was thinking of someone else.

if you could only see....

tonic released this song 12 years ago... 12 years ago! you officially are not young if you remember this song. when this song came out, 12 years before that songs like Hall & Oats "Out of Touch", Michael Jackson's "Thriller" & Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" were being released. And those songs seemed ancient in 1996... but now all my alt rock favorites are some young punks "oldies".

so last sunday i was asked to cover this benefit which i also shot last year. this year the headliner was Emerson Hart... former lead singer of Tonic. i almost didn't stay because it was getting late etc and i wasn't expecting much. for some reason i am always surprised when a professional singer actually sounds good. i don't know why, i just don't expect much out of singers these days. Emerson Hart sounded great. he basically performed a consolidated Tonic's greatest hits ... though i'm sure he'd rather us know him for his new stuff. anyway quite an unexpected treat that made me feel more like an out of touch 30 year old (i'm not really 30). but at least i had 200 drunks there with me to help me make it through.

glass class

this is a glass making class at the university of montevallo. i kept waiting to get branded by one of these pokers but the students were especially careful and attentive to my clumsiness.

the thing i found most amazing besides the fact that people ten years younger than me were skillfully using 2,000 degree ovens, was that these students worked for about an hour tediously creating their glass bowl... they would shape it and reheat it, dye it and reheat it, over and over again. .. then at the end they would have to separate the rod from the glass. half the time it breaks and half the time its a clean cut. one of the students that day actually did have their glass break at the very end. i thought it was pretty dramatic to put that much work into something knowing that in the very last step it could all be ruined. that's why i love art. people will sacrifice so much and risk coming out empty handed just for the chance at something beautiful. they did have some make it all the way through and they were very much worth it.

grayben

alright so clearly i am in procrastination mode right now since i've posted twice in 3 hours.

there's usually a lot of crying in our house between 5-7pm. not complaining because that really is the only time there is crying but when it rains it pours. so today grayben went on 2 shoots and out to lunch. he is quite social so he didn't choose to sleep through any of those events. this guaranteed a solid 2 hours of crying for our dinner time entertainment.

erin was cooking dinner so she brought him to me while i was working and for about 20 minutes he cried his eyes out while in my arms staring at the computer screen... maybe they were bad pictures but i'm betting it was sleep deprivation. i can stand it a bit longer than erin but i still have my breaking point. my philosophy is to make more noise than him whick usually works. so with the incessant wailing in my ear, i pulled up itunes and "kicked" a little alicia keys. as soon as the beat started he stopped crying. it was like magic. funny thing was that a kids song that we sing to him came on after alicia keys and he started crying again. so i guess i'm gonna have to start brushing up on my hip hop.

i decided this little story would be a bit more realistic set to a slideshow, so i found some pics on my desktop and set them to grayben's new favorite artist.

Here's the slideshow

fall portraits

tis the season for pictures with pumpkins and hay bales!

photo essays

recently i sold my artistic soul to corporate america. i'll borrow a line from the greatest movie of my era and opinion, Oh Brother Where Art Thou.... "for that you traded your everlasting soul?" "well i wasn't using it." quite true of me recently... i sure wasn't using it. just like Tommy Johnson it's kindof worked out... now I get to get better at my art while working for the man. although in retrospect i should have brokered a deal to play guitar better too.

so anyway, i've really enjoyed my gigs so far. i do think it's advancing me as a photographer and a lot of the time i get creative license to come it with what I think are the best shots. nothing like being judged creatively by thousands of people. this was a photo essay from my first week at the fair.

i'm still here

it's been a long time and lot's of things have changed. i'm starting to shoot more consistently for the paper so hopefully i'll have interesting events to post. this is one i did about a month ago for the top recruited high school football players in shelby county. it ran as a promotional preview magazine just before the season started... so i guess they're not available anymore. i just saw it for the first time this week. anyway, it was a lot of fun technically & creatively figuring how these shots would work. chris, the sports editor had a lot of great ideas. this is what we came up with.