the university..... of alabama

my wife asked me why i keep calling it "the university". probably has something to do with the brain washing i experienced as a child. clearly there is another university in the state that is just as (or more) deserving. however, it's history & reputation is respectable... maybe subconsciously that's why i keep honoring it with that title.

anyway, a few weeks ago i was commissioned to do a shoot for a publication by "the university" of alabama. my main assignment was to replicate a photo that had been taken 30yrs ago. i had a lot of fun experimenting ways to make all the different aspects of the earlier photo come out in our shoot. in the end i got shots of a couple buildings. word is they are giving 2 of the shots a prominent place in the publication.

structural photography is becoming my favorite, i hope to keep getting more gigs like this but i'm pretty sure they are rare.

michael warren

one thing i've learned about doing photography for people is that what you think is good and what they think is good often are different. erin and i have had the priveledge of seeing our images used in various mediums of marketing and often the one(s) we would have used is the one that they don't like & vice versa. this brings me to mw.

i did a shoot with michael and his band a few weeks ago. michael has been an up and coming artist here in birmingham for a few years. his future looks bright (hence the shades). i was thrilled to have the chance to do a shoot with such a high profile artist. i thought it went...well, just okay.... it turns out i was actually using a bum lens that i thought was working properly, at least until i got back home. the shoot was the first one i/we did since it came back from being repaired after a tragic fall. anyway, that along with a few other things i felt like I didn't do well made this shoot average at best.

i learned that when you go into a gig working for someone, you are actually working for them. in other words you need to make dang sure you get what they want before you get what you want. i learned this after the fact when all the good shots were the shots his manager did not want. any of them with his shades on were going to be cut....too bad since they were the only reasonably good ones in the batch. it looks like my names not going to be in lights with mw. if you want to see some of the shots that were kept, check out his myspace. if you want to see some that were cut, look below....



this one was a trial attempt. i wanted to give the impression of him being most significant as the lead man.... it's just hard to get good pics in low light.

citizen cope

i love music however i would not say i am a huge fan of many musicians. like most other people it takes a lot for me to get excited about a song or artist since there are about a billion out there. and though i may like an artist it is extremely rare that i get hooked on their music. well, i can honestly say that i discovered an artist that has changed my life. that sounds extreme i know but it is true. it is like an addiction.... i cannot stop listening. this is a blog about photography but when something really significant happens you just want to tell as many people as possible.

i went to see citizen cope at workplay before i'd ever heard a complete song of his. i went with my friend stokes and his pastor burt. it was good, but it wasn't until weeks later that it reeled me in. i don't know what it is.... i never really do, but it is just solid, authentic music. i write all of this to hopefully turn some others on to the music. here it is.



on a photography note... i think this is a great photo. i've been doing a lot more entertainment shoots lately and trying to get inspired by true professionals. check out my myspace and the website for some of my updated photos....i'll eventually get around to posting on the blog.

the old place

everybody has a history. i'm not talking so much about our own lives as much as the lives before us that made us who we are... our names, our geographic location, our accents, etc. the older i get the more grateful i am that my family still owns and maintains the home and farm (my family doesn't actually still farm) that my great-grandparents bought over 100 years ago. my grandfather was raised there and all the generations since have in some way or other grown up there.

i really admire my papaw and my dad for spending so much time keeping it up over the years. i hope to do as good of a job as they did to make it last another 100 years. now it serves as a place to just get away. there's a lot of land, a lot of trails, a lot of heat, but now thanks to the TVA, a lot of water too. our dog attie is the most thankful for that. my sister casey, my neice alex, erin, attie, and myself got away a few weeks ago.

alex's first fish

auburn architecture

the great things in my life seem to happen without my influence. i am the type of person who likes to get out there and push forward and "make" things happen. well, just about every time i try to "make" something happen i get frustrated because it doesn't. the fact that i am doing photography now and not music is a perfect example.

a couple months ago i was put in contact with the head of the school of architecture at auburn university. he has this really cool project www.designhabitat.org that integrates modern design with factory habitat homes. the idea is to make the homes more efficient & enjoyable to live in as well as be used as a training ground for the university students. he needed some good shots for some publications, and through events that i could not have planned, i was able to get those for him. i am learning not to push so hard these days but rather wait on the things that are already headed my way.

here is a collage of some of the habitat house.

places i've never been

yesterday i was on a pseudo-assignment in greensboro. i'm waiting to see if the shots i took are going to be used before i post them on the blog. anyway, i got up at 4am for the shoot and traveled 2 hours to greensboro. once i was done i got out the map. i figured that in 27 years i've never seen this area of the state and couldn't ever imagine having a reason to be back down there. so i started driving. here's a little of what south-central-western alabama looks like. i know you always wondered.

some field along the way

demopolis, al

one of the weirdest things i've ever seen.
somewhere north of demopolis

newburn, al

band shoot

it's been a week or so now but i thought i would post some pics of the photo shoot i had with Act Of Congress, a bluegrass band here in birmingham.

we all met at 5:30am and went to a field near my house. we were tired, had to walk forever (some of us in heels- i won't say who), and were dodging cow patties right and left. i got bit by something that i've never experienced before but all in all it was a great session. the light was very even and the yellow flowers were perfect.

from there we moved on to some town outside of montevallo where a family had an old stable with some old equipment surrounding it. the scene could not have fit this band any better. they even played some tunes for the owners who came out to watch the photo shoot. all in all it was a great time, and i was pleased with how things turned out. here's a collage of some of the days shots.