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The pet issue hits the streets on October 3rd. I had just one last assignment and the art for the issue would be complete - so off to this horse farm I went. The story is about learning how to become a horseback rider but after talking with someone I turned around to see kitty sitting like this
My buddy Justin, he’s a Link reporter, had the bright idea he was going to eat mealworms as another part of “I’ll do anything once”. Come on, you guys know you love this series. How gross is this? I couldn’t believe he did it and he finished the entire sandwich, which consisted of sautéed mealworms in a little butter and pepper, some spaghetti sauce and a single piece of bread.
Grabbed this shot of Polly Donohue this afternoon. Donohue is a personality-documentary photographer who has an exhibition going on at the Greenville SC Governor’s School. She was a pleasant woman, soft spoken, dedicated and a bit shy in front of the camera but she does a fantastic job working behind the camera.
Here we go. I’m working on a “Fall for Greenville” cover and an insert cover for it called “The Bar Guide”. This is a possibility for the bar guide cover. The designer made this Link label and we went to it. Usually we focus a great deal on large faces for the covers but we’re trying to pull this one off.
The last of the pet issue photos has been shot. The issue comes out October 3rd.
I shot another wedding this past Saturday. I was walking down to where the ceremony was going to take place when I saw this lonely grandmother sitting on a bench waiting for whatever she was waiting for. Perhaps a wedding?
I shot José González Friday night at The Orange Peel in Asheville, NC after a little scare upon arrival. I had spoken with his publicist earlier in the afternoon and had confirmed a press pass and two tickets on Jose’s list. But when I got there my name wasn’t on the list. I was fortunate enough to get in with no problem and the show was enjoyable, the lighting was lousy and I thought his set was too short (one solid hour) but overall a really good time.
Link’s “I’ll do anything once” series is a barrel of fun, especially when Ana has to shoot a gun. She hates guns. However, she shoots like she’s been doing it for years, I was so impressed by her calm and relaxed demeanor.
Unlike Ana’s ability to shoot her gun with ease, it was not as simple for me to shoot my camera and get a bullet, fire or even smoke coming out of the barrel. This is as close as I came.
I had to shoot a profile of DJ AVX last night in downtown Greenville at Earshot. He was almost 45 minutes late getting there and the crowd was less than I had hoped for – I should try to remember it’s a record store/bar/lounge not a club. But I was so amazed at how far DJing has come since the days of ole when I went out to listen to these guys in the clubs, all digital, digital turntables, hundreds of thousands of MP3’s – my favorite quote by DJ AVX – “it’s like having 200 turntables”.
Link has a pet issue coming out in two weeks and we need a cover. I went out to Greenville’s new dog park this afternoon and shot a ton of K9’s trying to get something that would fit with our style. I’m not sure if this image meets those standards but I sure think it’s funny.
If you pay attention to this blog at all you might have noticed that I have been going through a process of diverse subject matters. I have these two shows coming up at the end of the year and I’m trying to push through some of my creative differences. This is nothing more then an old oil barrel in a friend’s driveway that you are looking at – textures can be out of the ordinary.
Another crazy “I’ll do anything once” from a Link reporter. This time around Erin was hypnotized.
It’s not that I have an obsession with mushrooms, on the contrary, I don’t eat them on my pizza and I don’t take them for the same pleasures that Willie Nelson does (note: Willie Nelson was the first post on this blog). It’s just that E likes to play outside in the yard and for some reason these mushrooms have just been popping up all over the place.
I’ve just been taking it easy today after yesterday’s all-day studio adventure. Working like that makes me feel like I'm on an assembly line. From 9:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. every 15 minutes or so another person comes into the studio sporting their best fall fashion of the year and it’s up to me to catch their personality with these cloths before the next person arrives. Need-less-to-say I decided that today I would photograph and post a non-speaking organic object.
I'm tired.
While I was on vacation Justin took care of most of the profiles for Link’s upcoming issue on cars. When I got back there was one left and I took care of it yesterday. Only in the southeast will you find a girly girl who likes to mudsling with a rebel flag front plate complete with her name and a sticker on the back that says “ain’t skeered”.
“In Your Space” is one of my favorite assignments to get random photographs. For the most part they are about someone’s home, today it was a bar. I grabbed this one at Gottrocks, a bar in Greenville that’s only been around since 2001 but going strong. It was shot from the DJ booth.
First day back to work and this is the most interesting photo I took.
It's the last day of my week-long vacation. It's been nice, I went to Charleston, Atlanta and Asheville. Spent loads of time with many different people I care about and I just didn't have the energy today to go out looking for intersting shots to put on this blog. E wanted to play outside before taking his bath so I grabbed my camera and out the door we went. He's tired, he visited the doctor this morning.
One can find many things when walking the shorelines.
This was the view from my hotel room in Atlanta. I went down to see a contemporary photography exhibition called “New Photography” at the High Museum.
This shot came earlier in the year during another visit to Charleston.
Two upcoming shows this winter have me feeling more pressured by the minute. It’s always hard for me when it comes to showing work. Some I love (and aren’t that good) some I don’t really care for (but the crowd goes wild) - at any rate, I find myself looking over the work I have been creating (on my own time and not the time of my employer) and simply getting a headache. What should I show, how do I want to be perceived outside of the paper I shoot for? The funny thing is, at first I thought how hard can this be? I have tons and tons of work; I’ll just go through and pick some out – no problem. Wrong. I find myself now wanting to go out and shoot brand new stuff, just for these shows – and I will, I’m sure. In the meantime, I usually wouldn’t show work that I find private, like this one of my son. But just look at it, now imagine it on a large scale, say 16x24 framed at maybe 30x40. Distorted, complimentary colors, a kid in the middle of the road – I have to show this if for nothing else, simply to see how people react to it. I don’t think of myself as an “artist” anymore as much as I think of myself as a professional photographer. I create photographs, for the most part, to run beside some sort of text, story or other written idea. The work going in this show was created simply because I wanted to do it – that’s all.
I took a little trip and these are some of the scenes I came across.
The new Copper River Bridge is the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. It connects Charleston and Mount Pleasant along highway 17.
I was heading towards Sullivan’s Island in Charleston while visiting some family when I came across this scene. Tropical-storm/hurricane Ernesto came through a few days ago and the effect has been stunning cloud coverage across the state.
The fair is a great place for photo opportunities. I usually go at night looking to maximize on all the lights and moving objects but I was on an assignment for work and had no real control over what time I was there. This lady wanted her picture taken so bad she had been posing outside the booth saying “take my picture – take my picture” for ten minutes before she went back inside. I walked over to the hole in the glass and she just lit up.
So it’s true, I like shooting cityscapes. The nice thing about Greenville’s cityscape is that you can shoot from the east or the west and it basically looks like the same image mirrored. I shot it from the west at dusk a few months back when we had some nice cloud coverage. This time, with new and improved cloud coverage, I decided to shoot it from the east.
Went to work on another cover for Link today, I shot 9 executive chefs from in and around the Greenville area. We set up studio in a corporate apartment and went wild with ideas - flames, wine, knives, eating raw peppers like apples, you name it we did it. This is one of my favorites from the days work.
