Last week, I had the honor to work with some wonderful models for an advertisement for an amazing salon in Boone, NC, Haircut 101. These ladies were wonderful to work with and even though it was near 30˚ outside, they were troopers and busted through the chilly winds like it was nothing.
Matt Powell is a good friend of mine as well as a humanitarian photographer. I usually keep up with all of his work and just today he has published more work from a recent trip to Bangladesh.
Here is a great video posted by Chase Jarvis earlier today. Chase has been inspiring me for years now. Check out his site and blog.
My parents bought a computer. After I left home, I took my computer which I’m pretty sure was the only computer my Dad had ever touched. Since then, my Dad has been getting more and more electronic savvy and decided a laptop would be a great investment. This whole experience of showing him how things work and how to do this or that has been really awesome because for one of the first times in a long time, we have a major common interest. My Dad is a big time hunter, like most men in the great South, and I’m a tech kid so to see my Dad jump into my world, it’s really stinking cool. I guess it’s kinda like teaching a kid how to walk. You help him with the baby steps and before you know it, he’s off and running, all grown up and going into Kindergarden.
Next list on the “Things to show Dad about computers” list is YouTube. This should be great.
Thanks for waiting. Here is the remainder of the series “Recollection”
We played basketball here.
This actually means I watched people play basketball. I retrieved the ball when someone overshot the goal and the ball would go into the woods. Now, when I say “woods”, I mean the huge briar thicket that was directly behind the goal.
I was the retriever every time.
This rocker-swing-chair-thing always gave me the creeps.
The paint was always peeling off of it in a few places so therefore I was always afraid that if I sat on it, my skin would begin to peel off.
I don’t know where I would have ever gotten that idea from…
This shed by the woods always smelled like moth balls.
I asked my brother once why the shed always smelled weird and he then replied with the obvious answer, “A giant man eating moth lives in there. Don’t go in because he gets really mad, really easily.”
Forget that. There was no way I was about to go into a confined space with a flesh eating, killer mutant moth. I haven’t been in that building for years. I’m sure it’s safe now.
I had my first snake experience next to the trees beside Nanny’s house. That snake peered into my soul with it’s demon eyes and told me that he would make sure that his family would terrorize me for the rest of my years.
Now, I don’t have documentation to prove it but believe me, it happened.
I hate snakes.
When you spend so much of your time in one place, you have to be able to mold, to adapt. This home became my fortress, teepee, castle and bunker. I owe my life to this place and for my grandmother. She helped mold me into the person I am today and I am forever grateful. This home indirectly helped me decide what I want to do with my life.
Over the past month or so, I have been going to my grandmothers home and taking images of things and places that I remember very vividly from when I was young. I was the youngest of 5 grandchildren so of course I was the one that everyone tormented. What is funny is that the places that I have the most memories of are the places where I almost died numerous times. I don’t really recall what led up to these events happening and I don’t really recall what happened afterward but I do remember the moment where I felt the most pain. All I can say is that I’m lucky to have lived these 22 years. The images below won’t really mean much unless I kinda narrate the story. I hope you enjoy.
Below is well-house that is beside of “Nanny’s” home. The lock for the door is of course on the outside which makes for a great prison. My older brother and cousins would invite me to come in and then sprint outside and close the door behind them, locking me in. For hours. At least they brought me chicken nuggets.
On the backside of the well-house was this random pile of wood. I was told to jump in… from the top of the building.
I did it. Numerous times.
Have you ever read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and Pendulum?” I cringed when I read that poem in High School because it reminded me of the day that my family erected this wonderful tire swing. To assure everyone that the rope would hold, my brother made me lay down underneath the swing. It was of course a fail proof plan.
My grandmothers home was heated by oil. When you would hit the oil drum with a stick, it would make a neat “gong” sound. My brother tried to tell me that the drum would sound like a lion if you rode your bike into it.
I heard no lion.
I don’t post these comments and images to make people feel sorry for me or anything. I post them because I love them. Looking back on everything, I had an amazing childhood that created great relationships with my family members. I would gladly lay under that tire swing any day for them.
Recollection: Part 2 coming soon.
So I was just killing some time this morning before going into the studio and I stumbled across this new trailer from Disney.
I am very excited. I started playing the Prince of Persia games when I was about 12 on the Super Nintendo. To see that a production company has finally picked up this wonderful story line is very exciting and I cannot wait until Summer 2010.
Well, it has taken me a good number of months but I have fully updated my portfolio. It seems that every time I began to update things, something else got in the way of completing it. Tonight, after fixing a wonderful bowl of chicken and rice soup and a delectable pepper jack grilled cheese, I told myself that tonight was the night and indeed it was. I love the feeling you get when you set your mind to something and accomplish it. Consider my Rocky Balboa for the night.
Below are some images from the updated gallery that I have yet to post. There are some tweaks that still need to go on but for the moment, everything is just fine.
I love it when I am able to photograph a friends wedding. I first met Anna in 5th grade and I have considered her a great friend since then. Shane and Anna’s wedding was absolutely beautiful and couldn’t have been better. Rain was immanent but the clouds parted let the sun shine through. Congratulations to both of you.
I had a very humbling experience this evening.
Some may know that I stay pretty busy. A 70+ hour work week isn’t anything new to my life and I honestly welcome it with arms wide open. Between the wedding post processing, product shoots, meetings, scheduling and promotion, I don’t really have a lot of time for other things, let alone myself. Most of the time, I have these amazing ideas that I would like to do, write a book, do this shoot, redesign this, start doing that, but I always cop out and say “If I only had more time.” After thinking about all this tonight, I came to this conclusion; I have always had more time.
I have been choosing to put other things in place of the things that I would rather do and feel that I need to do. I have been choosing something lesser over something better. For the past few years, I have been doing what is expected instead of what is needed and right. This culture that we live in is so demanding and twisted. Our actions communicate what we value. If we work and slave over things for hours, we place that work above all other things because that is what we focus our time on. I’m not saying that you should stop working. I’m not saying you should be lazy. What I am saying is that we all have a passion inside of us that fuels us and we should keep that passion alive by creatively pursuing it.
What do you value?