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.