More India

Here's some more images from my trip to India in Oct.

A little R&B action

Generally, I'm unimpressed with concert photos, mostly because I grew up around musicians. I've shot people playing guitar and singing into a microphone while hiding behind growing piles of sound equipment more times than I could imagine while I was still a baby photographer. I feel concert images are pretty much handed to you and the situation becomes redundant very fast. Unless for work, I try not to bring a camera to concerts, but it is fun to watch groupie photographers attempt to come up with what they think is a cool attempt at the same image everyone makes. I've never been to a R&B concert before and I enjoyed it. I covered a pre-Thanksgiving concert featuring Charlie Wilson, Babyface and Frankie Beverly & Maze. They put on a good show. So, I had some fun in between getting things for the newspaper. These images are just as formulaic as the next guy's, but it was fun. Enjoy.

Date Night at the Shootin' Gallery

This was from an assignment for Date Night at Range USA. So, I went to a shooting range and shot people. It's an entertaining life I lead sometimes.

Delhi Streets

During my trip to Delhi, much of my time was spent riding shotgun through the renown Delhi traffic. These are some of the things I saw from the car, plus a couple of other shots I like.

Vijay and the Delhi woman

Vijay1, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Vijay2, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Vijay3, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Delhi 7, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Delhi

Delhi 1, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Delhi 2, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Delhi 3, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Delhi 4, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Delhi 5, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Delhi 6, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Camp Half-Blood

Finally! Here is my multimedia project on Camp Half-Blood.

Don’t read further until you’ve watched the Soundslide.

This is probably the longest blog I’ll ever post.

I attended a photo workshop in Austin at the beginning on August. Before the workshop started, we were told to come up with some projects to work on while we were in Austin. I struggle at the best of times to come up with a project. Never visiting Austin before, I felt really clueless.

I think it was the Friday before I left for the workshop and Lynn Johnson, one of the workshop coaches, recommended to me to look up this bookstore called Book People for information on things happening in Austin. So, I went to their web site to look up a phone number, was exploring their site and saw this banner advertisement at the bottom of a page that said something about this place called Camp Half-Blood. Curious, I skeptically clicked on the banner ad, because generally nothing good comes from clicking those ads at the top or bottom of web pages. The ad pulled up this web site for a children’s fantasy literature summer camp. They had some photos of kids fighting with swords and shields, and some of the other activities. I’m pretty sure the 9-year-old nerd in me shot up from sleep and said, “hey this looks cool.” The 22-year-old nerd concurred. I was still skeptical, because it was a summer camp. I immediately thought I would hit a wall of policy because I was this random adult male trying to go photograph an organization that works with children. Also, I did not think the coaches at my workshop would be super pumped about it. I definitely had some quizzical looks when I first pitched my idea.

Still, I figured it wouldn’t hurt. I contacted the camp’s director, Topher, and he was really supportive of what I was trying to do while participating at the Austin Photo Workshop. Within hours of first talking to Topher on the phone, he got me clearance and I was set. The camp ran Monday through Friday. I met up with Topher on Monday night and started my project on Tuesday. Monday night, Topher walked me through the camp, and explained a little of the back-story of that week’s main adventure for the kids. I had not heard of Percy Jackson and the Olympians before this week and Topher explained that one of the main locations in the books was a summer camp called, Camp Half-Blood, and this camp was the Austin satellite branch of the camp; the camp in the books is located on Long Island, NY.

The back-story of the week I attended was about this League of Machines and Monsters. They had kidnapped some Naiads (water nymphs) and deployed an army of Spy-bots to observe the kids at camp and prevent them from finding the key to freeing the Naiads. Ok, these Spy-bots were like these spider-like creatures with this camera lens body. I show up Tuesday morning, start shooting to get the kids use to my presence and making sure they weren’t going to stop, look at me and smile every time I tried to photograph them. They were cool with it in about 5 minutes. Well, almost everyone was cool with it.

I had this one group of kids giving me these very suspicious glances and whispering to themselves in a very conspiratorial manner. Great thing about kids is even when they are “whispering” they still talk loud enough for other people to hear. I heard one of them say, “He’s probably with the league. I mean look at him. We need to keep an eye on him.” Confused at first, I look down at what I was wearing, jeans and polo, and then just laughed. I saw the camera hanging off of my shoulder. They thought I was a Spy-bot in human disguise. Then counselors came up to me and were telling me how a group was out to get me because they think I was Spy-bot. Thankfully, the counselors talked to the kids and explained I was only a photographer. Most of the kids in the conspiracy accepted this, but it took a couple more days for the ringleaders’ suspicions to be quenched. With my name cleared, I was accepted as a mortal who had the ability to see the world of the demi-gods, which there are characters in the books like that as well. This helped the kids work me into their imaginations and how they were enjoying the adventure of the camp. Great for me because it relaxed them enough to enjoy their adventure and leave me free to document them. Each day, Topher takes a group of kids out on a quest and I would tag along. A couple times, I had kids seriously approach me and say to me that since I was a mortal and was unarmed; I would be at risk if we were attacked by Spy-bots. Some told me they would use their swords and shields to protect me. The pinnacle moment came on the last day when a parent approached me and asked if I was the “nice mortal who takes pictures.”

I was blown away by the power of the children’s imaginations at camp. At times, we would be out questing and a kid caught a splash of moment or a reflection of light, when nothing tangibly was there, and say it was a Spy-bot. They all drew their swords and get into defensive positions until someone could better assess the situation. I would be ducked low with them, thinking how I didn’t have a sword and how unfair that was. Even coaches at the workshop were amazed at the camp when they visited to coach me in field, because on the surface it’s a pavilion in a national park with some props; yet so much more goes on beneath that surface. Topher and the counselors really pull the kids into the story.

So, this is the finished product, more or less. I did not know what shape any of this was going to take ultimately. We had not talked much about distribution at the workshop or even audio. I had brought along my recorder to play with because audio is still a new frontier for me. I know on some level it’s kind of an out-of-date style with a single interview narrating over the photos and no ambient sound, but I’m learning. I don’t have a class or job to do this for, so it’s all on my own time. Also, I’m the kind of person who is way more productive in that threatening sense of a deadline, and something like this that has no set deadline has been tough for me to stay on focus. I’m satisfied with the result. It’s a growing experience. Now I that I have gone through this process of gather and editing both photos and audio on my own time, and have this experience to draw from, I feel I will being to dig deeper into this kind of storytelling.

Please leave any feedback, comments or critiques about the Soundslide. As I said, this is a growing experience for me.

Shakespeare at St. Mary's

I do some freelance work for the TN Shakespeare Co. based here in Memphis. They recently began an education program in which they go into schools with actors, teach students about Shakespeare and play with the kids. The girls at St. Mary's were learning about combat and dance routines.

Thomas Mosiej

Thomas Mosiej, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Thomas Mosiej asked me if, "I was the girl from Chicago" I said, "I was not." He was sad. The photographer who was originally going to do Tom's portrait called in sick at the last minute and I filled in for her. I guess they both were from Chicago and he was pumped to talk to her about their mutual city. I've never been to Chicago, not yet at least, and was a poor replacement for reminiscing purposes, but he showed me some of his architecture designs of a clock tower that he want's to be his legacy. It was cool. Designed completely in American style, but no one has wanted to commission to build it yet. I hope someone does.

Too Abstract

I recently shot this assignment of a church support group and it felt like a dry environment to work in. Maybe 12 people were present and half didn't want to be photographed for sensitivity reasons. It was a big empty church room and the scope of it ran like a church service. So, I attempted to try to shoot things a little more abstract in order to keep my creativity going. It's not often I get feedback from editors on photos. On these, I was told they were different, in a good way, but the editors wanted to know if I had a general overall shot. Mistake: no i didn't. Shame on me: yes. I asked if they were too abstract. And I was told, "yeah, at least for you." What does that mean? Am I not allow to be or incapable of being abstract. Well, bummer either way.

Huntress

huntress, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

A sneak peak at a project I worked on in Austin, TX while attending the Austin Photo Workshop.

Family Apples

Family Apples, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Constantino

Constantino, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Wedding Couple

Wedding Couple, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

How Dan lost his legs.

I shot this portrait in early May of Dan McCleary, Founder of the TN Shakespeare Co., for an article in the upcoming Summer '09 issue of the magazine, Shakespeare Scene. The story focus on how the city of Germantown allowed Dan to use their historic rail station as the temporary main office for the company. Dan is doing some great work with TN Shakespeare, it has been fun to a part of it, even if sporadically. I was kind of pumped about this because it was going to be my first published work in an international magazine.

About a month ago, I received an email from the editor saying that one of their advertisers was actually a train company and they had to send them a proof of the entire edition. Their "health and safety" people for this train company became very unhappy with the fact that Dan was standing on the track because it was some sort of "safety risk." So, of course the magazine yields to the advertiser and chops off Dan's legs to remove the tracks without informing me until after the fact. Personally, it seems like a greater health risk to amputate a person in a photo than to show them standing on an empty track to give the image some compositional flavor. But what do I know, I'm just some photographer.

It's a real tragedy, but that's the world we live in right. It was a learning experience for me at least, because next time I'm going make sure to include something about creative control in the contract. Well, the edition of Shakespeare Scene should be out in your nearest Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstore by now, so go see the damage for yourself. I think the photo is on page 28.

Mind the horn

Mind the horn, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

On Guard!, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

During a recent trip to the United Kingdom, I spent a lot of time in museums. 28 museums total, and after a while I started to get bored and was needing some sort of fun photographic opportunity. I came across this rhino on display in the Theatre section of the V&A Museum in London that was used as a prop in some play. Behind this rhino, images of various actors in plays and ballets were projected on the wall. I spent a good 30 minutes by this rhino, trying to get many different and fun combination and these two were my favorite from my attempts.

"Look, an elephant!"

"Look, an elephant!" , originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

"I ain't no saint, but I've tried never to do anything that would hurt my family or offend God...I figure all any kid needs is hope and the feeling he or she belongs. If I could do or say anything that would give some kid that feeling, I would believe I had contributed something to the world."
-Elvis commenting to a reporter, 1950's.

Meeting the Mayor

Meeting the Mayor, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

I had an assignment to cover a press conference at the Shelby County Cemetery. The conference was kicking off a week-long focus on infant mortality, and running along the edge of the cemetery was a sub-division. As the press conference continued, this group of kids started to converge to the stage as kids do when they see any kind of commotion involving a stage. The kid on the right, Garrett, walked from the farthest point of the cemetery, just be bopping along without a care in the world. A couple of the people attending the conference chuckled to themselves watching him cut across the cemetery.

So, this group of 4-5 boys, ages between 10-16, stood around and listened to the problems of infant mortality in Memphis for the last half-hour of the conference, but really enthralled them was the fact that the mayor of Shelby County, A.C. Wharton was present. They were dumbstruck about it. Garrett pulled me aside and asked me, "So, is that REALLY the Mayor?" quickly followed up with, "What's his name?"

They patiently waited for the moment to meet with the Mayor Wharton, and they got to meet him and get a photo taken with him. I kind of pre-visualized how I wanted to try to sneak a chance to snap this moment while I trying to find other little moments more geared for my assignment. So, this was kind of a shot in passing, but it's more or less how I saw it play out in my head. It's always fun when life happens as you visualize it.

Ageless Corndog

Ageless Corndog, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

JAI HO!!!!

JAI HO!!!!, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Christian Esgasane, right, shouts out for joy when Filipino boxer, Manny Pacquiao, knocks out his opponent, Ricky Hatton, in the second round, ending the match. Pacquiao is a popular national hero to the Filipino population.

You know that part in Slumdog Millionaire when 8 year old Jamal, covered in fecal matter, holds up the autograph.....yeah....that's what Christian here reminds me of.

Fan of Fans

John Andrews has collected antique fans since the 1970s when he was a musician in Nashville and could not afford air conditioning, and today donates some classic and unique fans to the Hunter Fan Company's Fan museum here in Memphis. I shot this for the Appeal today and figured I would post these. Some of the fans were pretty neat. For example, the fan in the last photo originally ran on a water driven belt system back around the turn of the 20th Century. I don't know, but I've always appreciated technology from that time period with all the levers, gears and pulleys used to make things work. I mean I find today's technology cool too, but it's all circuits and chips hidden behind LCD screens. There's just something about old things like these fans where you can see how everything works to make the items run that stirs my industrial imagination.

Poppy

Poppy, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

I shot this of my grandfather, Bill Bailey aka Poppy, at Thanksgiving. I was pulling into our driveway as he was having a smoke and shot this. I had it on my old blog before I shut it down. I came across it again, and just wanted to put it up on this blog.

Waiting in Line

Waiting in Line 3, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Spent Easter in Disney world. Did a lot of line waiting. More fun photos on my flickr.

Siblings

Siblings, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Mashal Mirza, left, plays with her brother Omar Mirza, in his playroom. Omar is autistic and Mashal recently won a nationwide essay contest for siblings of those with autism. In the essay, she proposed a festival especially geared toward children with autism. Mashal has raised approximately $5,000 for the festival, which will become a reality on April 4 at Riverdale Elementary School.

Deer Fest

Deer Rally at Brown’s Repair and Sporting Goods

Crazy Valentine's Day

First of all, I am elated to have figured out how to get my slideshows back on my blog. Thank you very much Nic Pfost for helping out with my FTP problems. Alright, so on Valentine's Day my house was filled with about 10 Jr. High girls who were attending a student conference at my parent's church. We were their host home. It was an experience to say the least and I learned how some of these girls were hopelessly obsessed with Twilight. What a depressing day it will be for them when they realize that no Edward Cullen is going to come and whisk them away.

Edgar says Yay Diversity!

Edgar says Yay Diversity!, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

This elementary school held a cultural diversity celebration day. Got called to do this an hour before it went down. Had to get to the other side of Memphis during morning rush hour and somehow made it on time.

obedience school eventually pays off

obedience school eventually pays off, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Little slice of life humor I found at lunch today.

January Photos

Here are some photos I made throughout January. Judge as you like. I'm not in love with any of these in particular. Some probably work better in color than B&W, but whatever, I felt like doing it. So there.

Belly-Off

Belly-Off, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

A portrait assignment for the Commercial Appeal. Thought it was kinda humorous these two civil servants were willing to thrust their guts out for me.

Slideshow Test

Smoke and Parachutes

Smoke and Parachutes, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Shot this at the Liberty Bowl. Just trying to figure this whole blog thing out.