the view

When I visit my parents in Greensburg, Louisiana my room is on the second floor. The house sits atop a hill and when you are two stories up the sun really lights up the room even though it's only six in the morning. You look outside the window and you can see over the entire property. It's really a pretty sight. On Saturday morning, I awoke like this and figured I couldn't fight the sun and got my camera instead to capture the early morning sunrise. The photo below didn't come from the second story window, but my parents' front porch instead. The clouds overhead were on the move and even though the exposure is only about 2/10ths of a second, the clouds were crossing the sky so fast that they still created a bit of blur. I took several exposures then just set my camera and tripod aside, poured myself a cup of coffee, then just sat and enjoyed the view with my naked eye. An experience that even a great photographer has trouble capturing.

i heart louisiana

In just an hour or so, the family and I will be headed to Louisiana to celebrate Easter with our extended families. This trip also marks the last trip intended to be a part of my personal photography project focused on Livingston Parish. Tracing back some of the photos, I believe the project began itself the weekend of fourth of July, 2005. I took some fine art shots that weekend, came home to edit them and before I knew it I had made it a personal mission to continue doing so, every trip, capturing as much of the landscape, and way of life, as possible. The photos are half auto-biography and half documentary, the motivation behind the images always being to show a side of Louisiana one may never see unless you've lived there. Below is the road map I've used to trace out and keep track of the highways, back roads, and pathways I've been down during the project, hopefully not leaving too much undiscovered. It's the best tribute I can think of to a parish, and a state, that for all it's faults, I hold in pretty high esteem.

kayla and dustin-wedding part II

So I finally got the film back from Kayla and Dustin's wedding, here's a few of my favorites from the ones I took. I love, love, love the pony, as well as the shoe shot coupled with Dustin in uniform. The colors are awesome. Ah...my love of film prevails.

kayla and dustin-wedding sneak peak

Somewhere in Burleson, Texas down a winding road you drive through woods and bush and pass an old gas station and then come upon this little patch of land. The front yard is covered in blue bonnets while the back yard looks like a gazebo fashioned out of the imagination of J.R. Tolkien with curiously swirling wrought iron designs set against exotic trees that snake their way to a never ending Texas sky. Thus sets the scene for the wedding of Kayla and Dustin. Here's just a sneak peak at the lovely bride and groom, but save room for a second post, because there's a few more surprises still yet to come. I promise I won't keep you hanging...too long.

at the five and dime-buying nickels

Now this is more of what I had in mind. What inspired these portraits of change, is that one day I just happened to look down at this old dime and all of its discoloration, its nicks and scratches, its dents and tears, and I thought a macro shot showing up close all the imperfections that this dime has would be an interesting fine art piece. The dime, not knowing where it's been, and not knowing where it'll go from here, wears its journey on its face. It may just be a photograph of a ten cent piece, but like a lot of us, you can tell how hard of a life we've lived just by looking at the lines on our face. After toying with this image for a while, I know what I want to change about the penny. So, Honest Abe, here goes nothing...

back to the blog...

Getting back to blogging is something of a challenge for me. I've got my fingers in so many pies these days that it gets a bit overwhelming at times. I just wrapped up an art show last weekend, am currently attending classes online, spend the weeknights working on various art works, and am still very current shooting weddings, and even a few children coming up in the next few weeks. I mean, boredom isn't a word we know in my home, tired is more like it! But, I've had this idea brewing in my brain for a few weeks now, and although it is a work in progress (the end product I'm showing here isn't quite what I had in mind, it's very close though) I decided to put it out there anyway and at least give my blog fans something to look at. Feel free to let me know if it's cool or not, I always enjoy your two cents.

polaroid series IV

Continuing my love of instant prints (you can't say instant photography anymore because with digital, everything is instant). Taken on some old Polaroid 600 film I managed to get my hands on before they left the shelves forever.

polaroid series III

Another series of Polaroids. I did it This American Life Style, choosing a theme then bringing you a variety of photographs based on that theme. This theme: childhood.

old school

If you don't know me at all let me just say that every day I grow just a little more disenchanted with digital photography and find myself longing for analog. I don't know if it's the artist in me, or that I didn't fall in love with just photography, but the medium of film itself. The actual material, the physical light-sensitive, ultra cool, (what's now thought of as) cumbersome, beautiful, film. Or whatever your fancy is, be it photographic paper, tintypes, glass, Polaroid transfers, the list could go on-which is why it continues to fascinate me. The list really could go on. I won't delve into that fascinating and magical world, though. I'll save that for another time. Today, I'll just post some photos I did take with my digital camera *looks down at feet in embarrassment* *shuffles from one foot to the other* but was originally shot in black and white then later cropped as a shout out to my original medium format camera, the Mamiya C330-which I must say is already loaded with another film that is being used for another project altogether and was unavailable for today's shoot. So, I had to use what was available. Regardless, though, I brought home some interesting shots taken from the ghost of a horse farm that I once knew.

introducing brennen

Introducing: Brennen! <= and I may have spelled all wrong so all apologies Mom! I photographed little Brennen and family in Dallas a while back. We took this photograph with an actual Polaroid when he was cooking, then did his newborn pics and combined the two to make this art piece! I muted the colors a bit so that Brennen would really pop, he being the star of the show. Congrats to Shelli and Ronnie, and good luck in the days ahead!