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Be The Ball

2012-01-25T16:33:00.003-06:00

"I want you to hit me with the ball" is what I told my cousins oldest kid, Brant, as I was doing action portraits of him and his little brother Connor playing tennis recently. He would have had I not been behind the net -- on his first try. This is what the ball looked like as it was headed right towards my camera:

Click on each image to view it larger:

Notice the smirk on his face -- it's probably there because he already knew he had done just what I had ask him to do. He proceeded to do the same thing multiple times like there was nothing to it. His brother was able to do the same. Not sure which one of them it was, but I recall one of them actually putting the ball in the lens hood of my 24-70 2.8L lens. The net stopped the ball from actually breaking the filter on the the front of the lens. Moral of the story. Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it, and then some.

I was really impressed with how good both of them were at tennis though. I never have cared much for the sport -- to me it's about as exciting to watch on TV as golf or bowling is. I can understand how all are fun to play though, and certainly respect how in shape you have to be to play tennis and play well. You know, I never had any idea that tennis players could put a tennis ball exactly where they wanted with their racket when they served as the boys demonstrated for me that day.

So the whole shoot was a learning experience for me. When my cousin Bert commissioned me to do the shots for them, I mentioned I had never done shots like he expressed interest in as far as tennis went, but that I would give it my best effort. So I did. I showed up that day really knowing little to nothing about the sport or how to best portray it through my camera lens. I only had a couple of basic idea's floating around in my head, but other than that, I had no clue what I was going to do. I had no idea what the tennis courts and their surroundings looked like, what the light would be like out there, or even what his boys looked like at that point since it had been a while since I had seen them. Add in that I didn't quite understand the timing and such that went into tennis when I got there, and well, I was feeling a little lost going into it. That's okay though. You just gotta fake it till you make it sometimes, and you will fall into your grove after you've been at it for a little bit. I've found that it usually takes me a bit to get warmed up on shoots the same way it takes a athlete or musician a bit to get warmed up. This shoot was no different.

As I edited through the images from the shoot I could visually see how I was learning to shoot the sport as I went. Some of the first images I got turned out great, but it took the falling sun and quickly diminishing natural light that went along with that to really force me to get it right -- and also realize I wanted to pretty much get rid of what existing light there was left with my shutter speed, and just light it all myself. Both my cousin and I were happy with the results. These are just a few of many cool shots I got that evening:

This is an example of the type stuff I was getting while the sun was still higher in the sky. I was blending my strobe with the ambient light in this shot of Brant. I love how you see the force he is exerting through his face and neck here.

One I captured of Connor just a split second before he hit the ball with the racket.

Probably my favorite from the shoot. This one begs to be printed larger -- seeing it as smaller image on your monitor just doesn't do it justice. I likely will have a 20x30 print made of it for myself. Where am I gonna hang it? I haven't gotten that far yet, but I got a pretty good idea -- like a tennis shop maybe.

My favorite straight forward portrait I got of Brant.

And my favorite portrait of Connor.

So now I'm wanting to do even more tennis shots. I feel like I can do an even better job of it now that I have a little bit more of an idea of what to expect. I'm gonna have fun with it.

Bert and Cyndi, thank you for the work. Brant and Connor, I often tell my subjects, "I can only capture of you what you allow me to capture of you." Thank you for being patient with me as I did these shots. I understand you both are happy with them, well, your patience and ability had a huge part in making them what they are.

I should also offer a thank you to Chris Valites and the rest of the crew at Pocket Wizard. I used the "loaner kit" you sent me for this shoot and was able to adjust my strobe power from my camera with it rather than having to stop what I was doing to walk over and adjust it from the strobe itself, which is kinda cool. It came in handy. Thanks!

Love Story

2011-11-17T18:54:00.001-06:00

The other day my great Aunt Evelyn came to mind along with some photos I had done of her and her husband while visiting them up in Chattanooga. The photos I got of them that day turned out pretty nice, but the story I got from them is one that deserves to be shared.

Uncle Shorty spotted my Aunt Evelyn across the campus of Norman Park Junior College back in the early days of 1947 and just knew she was beautiful he told me. So he decided to make it his mission to get her in his life I guess. My Aunt Evelyn tells me that he asked her to the movies and she told him that she would go with him -- but only if he would go to church with her. He agreed. It was date.

Here's the part that blows my mind -- on their first date -- he told her that he was going to marry her. She was only sixteen years old at the time. Uncle Shorty apparently was a smoooth talker, because, I don't know about things back in 1947, but in 2011, if you tell some girl you are going to marry her while on a first date with her -- you will send her packing. How can you even feel so strongly about somebody on a first date? I've never felt that.

Uncle Shorty was a man of his word though. Aunt Evelyn turned seventeen years old in April of 1947, and they ended up getting married June 15th of that same year. Uncle Shorty would have been twenty-one years old. Fast forward sixty-four years and they are still happily married today.

I asked Uncle Shorty if there was anything he cared for me to share with the readers of the blog post I was gonna write on them and he said, "The two best things that have ever happened to me is: 1.) When I accepted the Lord into my heart. 2.) You're aunt marrying me -- she's the sweetest thing in the world, Keith." Uncle Shorty is a World War II vet, he served in the Navy on the US Alabama from 1942 till 1946. Uncle Shorty is now eighty-five years old.

When I asked Aunt Evelyn how she responded when he told her that he was gonna marry her (on their first date I remind you) she told me, "I was so naive back then that I believed anything anybody told me, so I married him. It's been a good sixty-four years though -- I don't regret it."

Aunt Evelyn expressed some concern when I mentioned about posting this photo. "I look old in it -- which I am." she said while laughing. My thoughts on that: She has three kids, three grandchildren, and has been married to the same person for sixty-four years -- she's earned the right to look a little old -- and old or not, she's still beautiful.

"What's y'alls secret to staying happily married so long?" I asked. Without missing a beat my Aunt Evelyn said, "You gotta think about the other person before you think of yourself." Uncle Shorty gave me his answer just as fast. He told me, "You gotta be kind and considerate to the other person, and be willing to give in to them sometimes. Not always, but sometimes. And no serious arguments -- you can't talk badly to each other."

As I talked to him more I expressed my admiration for them having stayed together so long. I told him how scary the thought of marriage was to me after having seen a few friends go through some nasty divorces. "Marriage doesn't mean to most people today what it obviously meant to the two of you when you got married, and that that scares me." I told him. I asked how he knew that it was right to marry her so quickly -- expressing that I never could imagine feeling so strongly about somebody so quickly. "How do you know that sorta thing, and then manage to make it work for so many years?" I asked. "There is one way to know that it's right." he said. "Let the Lord lead you, and if possible marry a Christian."

Today Uncle Shorty & Aunt Evelyn seem to be as in love with each other as they were the day they got married -- what more can you ask of a sixty-four year old marriage? You can't ask any more of it. God Bless them both for not only making a tough thing work -- but for making it look like a good idea.

Occupy Atlanta: The Way I Experienced The Raid

2011-11-04T13:15:00.000-05:00

Last week I had the itch to go camping due to the cooler fall weather and came up with the bright idea to go down to Woodruff Park here in Atlanta, set up a tent, and camp out with the Occupy Atlanta protesters. I wasn't going to join or support their cause, whatever that is, I was going to take advantage of the rare opportunity to camp out in a major city park since it's normally not allowed. As somebody that appreciates the city and just observing people -- well -- it seemed like a great idea.

So last Tuesday afternoon I gathered the basics that I would need for a short one night stay. I wrestled with the idea of taking my nicer cameras with me. So many people seemed to appreciate my first blog post about the protesters, and some of them had encouraged me to go back and shoot more. I knew there would be the very real possibility of getting mugged in the earlier morning hours if I did take my nice gear though. I thought it almost would have been like me asking for it, although I couldn't imagine not taking a camera with me at all. So I decided to take a old Canon AE-1 that I bought a few years back for next to nothing, a couple of lenses, and a couple rolls of film for it. I had never even shot a single roll of film through the camera.

I threw my things in a backpack, grabbed my sleeping bag and tent, and "hiked" from my apartment to the local MARTA station. After catching the train south to Five Points Station I "hiked" in to Woodruff Park and set up camp.

Click on images to view them larger.

My beautiful campsite. That's my tent in the bottom right, closest to the camera. It really was kinda beautiful down there if you enjoy a city skyline view. When I laid in my tent and looked out the back window you saw those buildings towering above you. It was nice. I took this with shot with my iPhone.

After I got settled in good, I posted to my Facebook where I was and what I was doing. Within a few minutes I had a few friends contacting me, concerned for my safety. One of those friends (who has asked to not be named) had the inside scoop on what was going to go down there that night. She basically messaged me and told me that I needed to leave soon, and that I did not want to be there later that night.

I really hated to leave at that point. I knew that the police were going to go in soon and force the protesters to leave, and that it wouldn't be a good scene when they did, but I really thought that it would not be for another day or so. I was wrong. The protesters had pretty much given Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed the finger earlier in the day when he told them that they were welcome to protest there at the park, but that they had to follow the laws in place that stated when public parks could be used. The law states that they had to leave each night by 11:00 and come back the next morning when the park reopened. The protesters had no interest in compromising at all. They had decided it was "their park" as evidenced by them marching around the park that night beating on buckets and chanting "Who"s Park? Our Park!" over and over again. They even decided to rename the park. It was no longer Woodruff Park. It was now "Troy Davis Park". Troy Davis was a convicted cop killer that was recently executed here in Georgia. Just in case you're wondering who that is.

Some of my friends thought it was foolish of me to stay, but I wanted to see how things played out that night, and really hoped for a peaceful evening camping out. I wanted to just talk to some of the protesters. Do some photos here and there -- and lie in my tent and chill out. I was doing just that when a fight broke out right outside my tent. The two guys even fell into the side of my tent with me in it while they were fighting. That was not a relaxing experience at all. After that I overheard three different conversations that were all in anger -- people just trying to start fights. I heard all of this while just laying down in my tent. There were some very angry and irrational people there.

Rather than just going on about it in writing, I'm gonna once again share with you the photos and video I managed to capture while there that night. What you see here was all captured with one roll of Ilford Delta 3200 film pushed to 6400 ISO in processing (this is pushing the camera and film to the limit given that I was shooting with only street lights after dark) and my iPhone 4.

I guess you would call this a pep rally that the protesters had just after they had marched down Peachtree Street:

This is Tony. He's 44 years old and had been out there in the park participating in the protest for all but four days of it. He was laid off nine weeks prior to me talking with him and had been homeless for five weeks. He had sent his wife and kid back to South Carolina to live with his in laws until he found work again he told me. He's a master carpenter and also has a culinary arts degree. I asked him what his hope or purpose behind being there was and he told me he was there to fight for four things, being: 1.) Homelessness "There are 24,000 homeless people in this city and only eight to ten thousand beds in the homeless shelters." 2.) Unnecessary War 3.) College Tuition "College tuition is going up when there are no jobs for the grads in their fields when they finish." 4.) "The American government sponsoring child labor by encouraging major corporations to outsource labor overseas and then not taxing those same corporations as much as they should when they bring those goods back into America to be sold." Tony told me that he had been charged and convicted of aggravated assault and served seven years in prison for it.

This is "T Money" and he is 35 years old. I asked what his hope or purpose was by being there and he said: "To get the word out and make sure it gets to different scenes that need redemption for our whole generation. Make sure that we have an effect on some things. No more procrastination from our government. The judges, senators, Congress -- they have been pimping us so long, and it's time for us to pimp them."

This is Craig Hickerson. He is 34 and is a spoken word artist from Washington DC. He told me that he had been in Atlanta ten years too long. I asked why he had not left city if he didn't like it and he went into a long story. I could not get it all, but the basics was that he had stayed because he was charged with a felony and should have been charged with a federal crime. He told me he was charged with terroristic threats on a police officer but was never convicted. He then went on to tell me that he had been charged with fourteen felonies in the past ten years, but was convicted of none of them. I ask what all he had been charged with and he said, "Aggravated assault, aggravated stalking... I can't even remember them all." He spoke of how clueless the police and legal system was down here. So I assume that he was staying in Atlanta because he felt that he could get away with more here? I don't know, he was the one that said all this, not sure why though. He did ask that I take note of it though. I asked what his hope or purpose behind being there was and he said, "Make the people realize they can not go up against a system or enemy that they know nothing about and expect to win. I want to educate people on politics and the law. 75% of the population know nothing about it." He was a very friendly guy by the way, I was a little shocked and disappointed when he started bragging about his criminal record.

This is an example of "The Peoples Mic" that I wrote about in my first blog post on the protesters. Basically it is done here in Atlanta to pay homage to the Wall Street protesters in NYC where it is illegal for them to use a megaphone. So what you have is a leader, or just a random person that feels like getting up and saying something, and a group of people that blindly repeat what that person is saying without thinking of what they are saying first -- like robots. It really doesn't make sense that they are concerned about following any kind of megaphone laws in NYC, Atlanta, or anywhere else since the protesters as a whole are obviously not concerned about following other laws while protesting:

This guy was just slowly walking around the park with this sign and was dressed very nicely -- he looked as if he had no shortage of money. I asked him what his hope or purpose behind being there was and he told me, "I work for Wall Street and that's about all I can say." as he walked away.

This is Officer Fanning. He was one of many police officers around the perimeter of the park that night. I approached him and the group of officers he was with and explained that I was just down there to camp for the night and sorta document things while I was there. I made it clear that I was not one of the protesters and that I had no interest in going to jail for being there. They assured me that everybody would have ample time to get out of the park before anybody got arrested. Their advice to me was "Stay and have fun.", so I did. I asked him what his thoughts were about the protest and he said that he was not allowed to comment on it. All the police officers I spoke with that night were very friendly and did not deserve being called some of the things I heard protesters openly calling them.

Pun intended? I'm thinking maybe a unsatisfied wife made this one. The Occupy Wall Street protest is apparently about voicing ANY frustrations you might have -- hardships of every kind -- or a lack of hardship.

Some people customized their tents for the event.

It was good to see that the protesters were okay with people expressing their religious beliefs. There was also a "Spirituality and Wellness Tent" that nobody was in or around when I was there.

This sign is a joke -- a straight up lie from the protesters. I saw and smelled it with my own eyes and nose respectfully. Matter of fact, one of the people I have shown a portrait of on this post excused themselves to "go to the bathroom" as I was talking with them. After stepping in their tent for a few minutes they came back out reeking of reefer. They went in there to maintain their high, not relieve themselves.

I feel that you always need to question statistics like this and not take them at face value. According to this sign at least 3 million people die a month due to hunger -- 36 million people a year worldwide. I thought this seemed a bit high so I looked into it. Sadly it turns out that about 25,000 people per day die from starvation according to the United Nations and www.poverty.com. Less than what this sign states, but that's still one person every three and a half seconds. Isn't that horrifying enough to think about without exaggerating things as this sign does? Just the thought of one person per day dying from hunger is heartbreaking. Why make something that is already horrible sound worse?

Things were more organized than they were when I went down there the first time. They had set up this "Medic" tent and had a Spiritual & Wellness tent set up. Nobody was in or around that one, but they had one. What really caught my attention about what you see here is the sign in the upper right corner. It reads, "We The People ...ARE PISSED! Our Grandparents gave us a living wage, 40 hr work week, healthcare, vacations, ETC... What will you leave your kids?" Well, if I ever have any, I hope to leave my kids with with a better work ethic and not the ignorant sense of self entitlement that whoever thought up this sign had. Not sure about their grandparents, but both my grandfathers were farmers. The idea of a forty hour work week would have been laughable to both of them. They were both self-employed and didn't take any vacations that I recall. They both believed in paying cash for everything and that debt was bad. They lived below their means and always had plenty of cash around should a emergency come up. And I'm pretty sure that they didn't expect anything to be handed to them on a silver platter like the mastermind behind this sign does. My grandparents would be humiliated if I or any of their other grandchildren were to ever think up some sign like this and then display it with pride.

This is Jeff Hullinger of 11 Alive News reporting live about how quiet things are there at the park, and then a video I did right after he recorded the first clip of the the protesters in the park living it up, singing and making a racket. You can hear a "mic check" and warning about the imminent police raid on the park from one of the protesters too. Then I go back to Jeff Hullinger reporting about how quiet things were, then back to the protesters loudly chanting. I mean no disrespect to Jeff Hullinger. It was really quiet where they were reporting from, and there had been choppers that had been hovering overhead nonstop that just went away all of a sudden. My point behind editing these clips together like this is to show that what you see on the news, and the way things really are may be two very different things, and the reporter, innocently, may not even be aware of it:

Jeff Hullinger of 11 Alive News and his cameraman were nice enough to pause for a second and let me get this shot of them.

Just more of at least 200 hundred Atlanta Police Officers that would end up showing up that night in a show of force to the protesters. Like I mentioned above, every one of them I spoke to was very friendly and was just there doing their job. A job that we the tax payers were paying for -- and a job in that particular case that shouldn't, or wouldn't have been needed if the protesters would have simply been willing to compromise a little and do what the mayor had asked of them. Hats off to the APD for keeping their cool with some of the protesters that were just trying to provoke them -- hoping for them to do something wrong.

This guy walked up to me and proudly stated that he had done what he had come there to do. I asked him what that was and he said something along the lines of "I came to make it clear that I will not be forced from this park and that there will be some dead police bodies outside that fence if they try to force me out." I asked him to follow me over to the street lights where I could get a portrait of him and write down his name and statement. The police made the public announcement over the speakers there in the park that everybody there was in violation of the law seconds after I took this shot. I went to record it and when I turned back around he was gone. I spotted him again later though...

This is the recording / video I got seconds after I took the above shot. It's the Atlanta Police Department letting the Occupy Atlanta protesters know that they had worn out their welcome:

At this point my tent was still set up, but I had everything ready to break down so I could get out in a hurry. I went up to an Officer Dupart and explain to him what I was doing and he assured me that I had a little more time, and then went on to say that all the protesters could have stayed if they would have just followed the park hours. I mentioned to him that I didn't think some of the protesters would go peacefully and he responded with, "They have not seen the mobile field force yet." I asked him what that was and he explained that it would be about 200 officers that were coming that would simply just remove the protesters from the park one by one. He told me that if they didn't want to walk that they would simply just pick them up and carry them out, and that's what they did.

Not too long after that, I believe just about every Atlanta Police Officer on the payroll showed up at the park. They surrounded the park on motorcycles, horses, and even had the chopper hovering overhead shining the night sun down on the park. At that point I quickly broke down my tent -- there was quite a few protesters that started doing the same. I guess they had decided it was not "their park" anymore. After that I approached another officer and once again explained that I was there documenting, not protesting. I asked how much longer I could safely stay and he pointed at some open gates and said, "once those gates close you are under arrest if you're still in here." I took that as my cue to get outside those gates.

Here is some of the other protesters that decided that they were not interested in going to jail and got out of the park as directed. Notice the gentleman that comes into the frame at the twenty-nine second mark waving the flag. He's the same guy that told me he was going to have police bodies lined up if they tried to remove him from the park. I guess he had a change of heart. Later that night I noticed where his flag had been abandoned, he was nowhere to be found. He apparently is a true man of honor -- a man of his word:

Why is it that the protesters expect their rights to be respected when they openly show no respect for the laws and the police officers that help protect those rights?

He wouldn't need a lawyer if he would just get out of the park rather than standing there and making his lame statement with his sign while his mouth is taped shut. It did make for a great photo opportunity though! Took this one with my iPhone.

These two were there making it clear that they had no intentions of leaving the park until they were arrested. The man on the left was in a wheelchair. And I'm pretty sure that is Tony next to him. Tony is the first person I featured in this post.

"Hey! Let go of da homie ear! That's police brutality!" Here is about 20 minutes of video that I've edited down to five minutes and forty seconds for your viewing pleasure. It covers the protesters effort to quickly remove all the tents and such from the park without breaking them down. It covers them all getting in their little circle, insisting on being arrested for being there. It covers the announcement over the park PA that those remaining in the park are under arrest. It covers a guy in a red hat that wanted to be a leader I guess, and then the police officer that had had enough of him and pointed him out to be carried away, and then them doing just that as he mouthed off to them, "Come get me! Yeah, come get me me!". They did, and I was happy to see it. At the 3:45 mark you can see where I thought the protesters outside the fence were about to start rioting. It covers some of the profane and rude things the protesters were saying to the police officers that were just doing their jobs. It covers the protesters cheering for other protesters as they get either dragged or carried out of the park. It covers just how irrational and childish the protesters could be. I never in my life thought I would see people just sit down and basically beg to be taken to jail. Everyone of the protesters that went to jail that night deserved it in every way:

This is Malcolm, and I spoke to him outside the fence after all the protesters inside the park had been arrested. He is a 23 year old welding student at Georgia Piedmont Technical College that's is from Atlanta. I asked him what his hope or purpose behind being there was and he said, "There's a lot of inequality in the world, and this is just a stepping stone to waking up to the injustices that are in the world." I asked him why he was wearing a mask and he said that there was no real reason for it. I kinda just looked at him after he said this, he then told me he was wearing it because he did not want to inhale pepper gas. 1.) It's amazing what you can get people to say sometimes just by looking at them and letting silence hang in the air. 2.) Malcolm obviously has never had pepper gas sprayed around him, because he would realize that the bandanna would do him little good when it came to breathing it. 3.) I saw other people there with mask over their faces like Malcolm. Were they concerned about breathing pepper gas too, or did they just not totally believe in what they were "fighting for" and felt some shame in being there? This is a shot I got with my iPhone

This is all the tents, sleeping bags and such that got piled up on the sidewalk on Peachtree Street after the protesters quickly removed them from the park without even breaking them down. "Who's park? Our Park!" remember?

This guy was taking his job seriously. I asked if he could give me a few minutes so I could do a portrait of him and he said that I was welcome to catch a shot, but that he needed to stay alert to what was going on. Apparently he and several others were part of the "COPWATCH". They were there to fight against police brutality. My thoughts: There would be no need for a COPWATCH if they had just done what the mayor was asking them to do, and there would have been no need for a few hundred cops to show up down there that night on the tax payers dime. All because guys like this have nothing better to do with their time then camp out in a park just waiting for the police to do something wrong after their fellow protesters have blatantly disrespected the police officers and resisted arrest.

Jeff Hullinger's closing clip of the night. He & his cameraman were both glad it was over, and so was I:

"I'm tired of feeling hopeless." and "WANT CHANGE? PRAY & TRUST in GOD!!!" This was on the "What's Your Story" section of fence that I documented in my pervious blog post on the protest. This time it was totally filled with stories and comments, and out of all of it the "Want Change? Pray & Trust in God" may as well have been a flashing neon light when I walked up to it. I then noticed the "I'm tried of feeling helpless." written just above it. Both of them were obviously written by two different people, and both are very powerful statements -- but together -- just think about how one relates to the other if you believe in God. And then think about how hopeless some people must feel in today's economy if they have no God.

So I've been down to Woodruff Park twice now, and both times I've been pretty disappointed with what I saw out of the protesters as a whole. The fact that a bunch of them purely decided that they were not going to obey the law and chose to be arrested instead blows my mind. What point were they trying to make by going to jail for their cause? They are protesting over the lack of jobs and such in the economy right now -- yet their actions may very likely prevent them from getting jobs that would otherwise be offered to them in the future due to the criminal record they will have now. Why? Because they chose to be taken to jail to make their point rather than fighting for their cause in a intelligent way.

As I look back on it all now, I wish I would have asked each of the protesters I interviewed a couple of questions that are far more important than just "What is your hope and purpose by being here?" I wish I would have asked them what they actually expect our government to do about the issues and concerns they have -- and most importantly -- I wish I would have asked what THEY were personally doing to make things better for themselves and others out there. What are they doing to make their own lives better? Are they doing anything to make the world a better place? I'm not talking about camping out in some park for days on end -- whining about how evil our government and corporations are -- all while holding some lame protest sign. I'm talking about actual charitable acts. Regularly giving your time or money to a charity or cause you believe in. Going out of your way to do something nice for others while expecting nothing in return for it. Random acts of kindness. It's little things like that have the potential to really make the world a better place, and most of us have no excuse for not doing a better job of it -- myself included.

"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." -John F. Kennedy

Occupy Atlanta: The way I experienced it.

2011-10-16T15:22:00.000-05:00

The other day I looked up "Occupy Wall Street" on Wikipedia after I kept on hearing about it and was surprised to read the protestors, or "99 percenters" as they call themselves are "mainly protesting against social and economic inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government." I had a hard time wrapping my head around this one sentence. How could the protesters not realize that social and economic inequality is simply a part of life, and history shows that it has always been that way? To me they may as well have been protesting against the laws of physics -- something that simply can not be, or never will be. They are protesting against the influence of "lobbyist" on the government -- but couldn't the protesters technically be considered lobbyist themselves?

I decided after a couple of days that I just had to go and check out the Occupy Atlanta location at Woodruff Park with my camera. I went with the idea of doing portraits of some of the protesters and asking them one simple question, this being: "What is your purpose or hope by being here?" I truly wanted to get a better understanding of who they were, and why they were participating in the event. I took the following photos Friday afternoon in the span of of about two-and-a-half hours. They are all uncropped -- and you are seeing them in the order I took them. The captions below each one is from the notes I took while talking to that particular individual, and their statements/comments to me have not been altered to fit my particular views at all.

Click on each image to see a larger version of it.

At least I know that somebody out there loves me.

99 Percenters

This is Andrew. When I asked him what his purpose or hope behind being there was he asked me if I wanted to know the truth. I told him of course I did. He then went on to tell me that he was 48 years old and that there was a bunch of 19 year old girls running around down there. "I'm here to get laid man -- and stay drunk." You just gotta respect that kind of honesty. Andrew is from Savannah and told me he had been living on the streets since 2002.

He's a 99 Percenter too.

This is James. When I asked him what his hope or purpose behind being there was he said, "I'm here just because I can be." He had nothing to add to that. James is 23 and just hobos across the country.

This is Janis. When I asked her what her hope or purpose behind being there was she didn't really have an answer for me at all. She finally just told me that she was there to support the people that were there. Janis is 22 and also hobos across the country.

This is Oppie. When I asked what his hope or purpose behind being there was he told me that he was there to fight for the homeless and education rights. He was just a little bit drunk I think, so I pressed no further with my questions.

This is "Slidell". I asked what his hope or purpose behind being there was -- his response: "I don't like what's going on." I tried to get more details from him about that but he really only seemed interested in talking about how much sex he got back in the 70's in his home state of Louisiana. Slidell was most certainly drunk when I spoke to him.

This is Diallo. Nice guy. He's from Atlanta, he is 20 years old, and plans to attended UGA next semester for bio-engineering. When I asked what his hope or purpose behind being there was he said: "I'm here to fight for equality. The one percent take the majority and leave the 99 percent at poverty levels." He then went on to tell me that he is a socialist and that he feels that America would be better off with a socialist government." I held off on mentioning to him that a socialist government would put him in jail for protesting like he is. I've seen what East Germany was like as East Germany -- before the wall came down -- and I assure you that "Occupy Wall Street" type protest would have been strongly frowned upon. It wouldn't happen. Think about how Kim Jong-il would deal with an Occupy Wall Street type protest in his country. Meanwhile we have people here in America, like Diallo, saying that's how they want things to be. It blows my mind.

This is Cailyn. Her response was the most thought provoking answer I got from anybody while down there, and she didn't stumble around with her words at all in giving it to me. It was almost like a breath of fresh air after getting some of the answers I did prior to meeting and talking with her. She said:

"I'm here because our government treats corporations better than our own people."

She is 20 years old and is a anthropology / archeology major at UGA.

There was a panel of wood planks put together there with "What's Your Story" painted on it (see the last photo in this blog post) where people could write what their beef was with our government, or simply just tell their sad story. Above you can see what Cailyn wrote, which was one of the more intelligent stories on there that I saw. It reads: "I've worked hard all my educational career. I know that achievement comes from work and effort, but these days that is not enough. I'm graduating a year early because of my hard work and move into the scariest job market in my living memory. My sister is going to college next year. Things have to be better by the time she gets out. I AM HERE FOR HER." So she is not expecting a hand out from our government -- she just wants the economy to recover. Amen sister! Don't we all.

Some guy named Daniel Wise needs a job apparently. I guess this might be his cover letter and resume?

So I'm trying to wrap my head around this one. It doesn't quite make sense, or add up to me for a few reasons.

Some of the people were apparently mad about life in general.

It's pretty sad to hear about anybody losing their home over circumstances that may have been beyond their control. What stood out to me here was the writer ended it with "We are some of the lucky ones." I feel that way about America in general. We are so very lucky as a country and society in comparison to many other countries in the world.

A girl named Kimlee that was there, and is supposedly a media coordinator for Occupy Atlanta ask me to photograph this particular one, claiming that it was a really good thought. I'm not too sure I agree with her on that. It reads: "I think the US should split up. I'm homeless and I think it is just wrong that someone is homeless."

Just somebody else telling their story...

The protesters marched down Peachtree Street, protesting against Emory shutting down its homeless shelter.

They were chanting. Beating on the bottoms of buckets. Just making a racket anyway they could in general. I just stood in front of them and let them march all around me, photographing them as they passed by.

This is probably my favorite shot I got while down there. I love the intense look the guy in the bottom right is giving me. He looks very unhappy with life. It sums up the protest to me in one shot. The diversity of the people / protesters you see in the shot. All of it.

I was not aware that there was "Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialist of Atlanta" here in town -- or that Emory hated poor black and white homeless men.

This is James. Interesting dude. He said he retired as a Master Sergeant from The Alaska State Defense Force. I had not heard of the Alaska State Defense Force before I met him so I looked it up online. It appears that it's a volunteer organization that supports the Alaskan National Guard. I'm trying to figure out how you "retire" from a volunteer organization? His comment to me was that the "corporations destroyed the buffalo herds, and they made us dependent on corporations for jobs and to stay alive." I asked what his hope was by being there and he said, "I hope for permaculture communities and that we could be independent self sufficient people like the Indians were. Live as hunters and gathers -- and artist." James is 68 years old.

James has issues with smokers according to his sign.

This lady was something else. Her name is Bernadette Glenda Allen. She handed out the flyer that I've posted below and had the crowd repeating everything back to her as she read it out loud over her loudspeaker.

This was the front of the flyer she handed out. Notice it says "Locked up over 15 times in the past six years for speaking truth about the foreclosures. " I don't think I've ever seen somebody so proud of how many times they've been "locked up". She even included her booking number and mugshot. I guess that maybe it gives her some street cred with the 99 Percenters?

And this is the back of the flyer that she was reading out loud over her loudspeaker that a whole crowd of people was repeating back to her with real conviction. I was waiting for her to start passing out Kool-Aid to everybody, but she never did.

Maybe they weren't buying it since they were not acting like robots and repeating everything Ms. Allen had to say.

Most everybody else around her was all about it though.

I think these two might have found it as amusing as I did.

This is Cailyn again. She was the one person there that I somewhat could identify with that I met. She seemed to really know what she was doing there. "I'm here because our government treats corporations better than our own people." I just about felt like clapping for her when she said that to me. Not because I totally agreed with her on it, but because she seemed to actually be somebody I could sit down and have a intelligent conversation about it all with.

This is Ray & Betsy. When I asked them what their purpose and hope behind being there was they really didn't have an answer at first other than "We came down to support the occupation." I expected more from them given their older age. I think they realized I was not impressed with their answer after I just kinda looked at them, so after a minute or so they said this: Betsy "We are here to support participatory democracy." Ray "...and we hope that this is the beginning of a reversal of passivity of American people in the face of three decades of corporate rule and inequality." Not so sure why he said it's only been three decades of corporate rule, but I was not there to question or start a debate with anybody, I was just writing down what the people had to say and taking photographs. I love this shot of the two of them. They've been married for 55 years -- you gotta respect that.

This is Danny. He told me his daughter was 25 years old with the mentality of a ten year old. I about wanted to comment back to him that she was better off than some of the people out there in the park, but I decided he may not like that too much. I joke, but the sad thing is that is the truth based on what I saw. I do wish his daughter the best though. Routinely having seizures has to be a tough way to live in itself -- an then add in being stuck emotionally at ten years old when you're 25. It's gotta be tough for her and her family.

This is "Ink". She is a 24 year old busker that describes herself as revolutionary artist that is out there "basically just fighting for what she believes in -- less capitalization." She does all her music impromptu and sounded pretty good at it as she was doing it. I was impressed with how she sounded when I took this shot. I was blown away when she told me she was just making it up on the spot.

Some of the downtown skyline as seen from Woodruff Park as it was getting dark.

How silly of some of us to be out working for a living, when we could just live in the casinos? On a more serious note, I assume this is supposed to be kind of a tongue-in-cheek comment from whoever made the sign. I think the signs creator is accusing all the corporations, banks, business owners, and politicians of gambling with our money -- sometimes making money off it, and sometimes failing miserably. In some ways I agree. Our government has gambled with our money -- foolishly. And it was a foolish gamble for banks to give out a bunch of home loans to people that were not able to show reasonable proof that they would not default on them. Gambling is part of business and life in general though. It's part of living. The trick is too gamble in a intelligent and informed way, and even then the gambler may still lose. I can go on giving my thoughts on this one sign and what it's about -- it inspired more thought out of me than any other I saw down there. I wish its creator would have been around when I took this so I could have met and talked to them.

I saw lots of MacBooks out there. So I guess Apple is one of the corporations that the protesters are okay with.

Education is a right, not an investment -- according to this sign and some of the protesters like The Georgia Students For Higher Education. See the flyer below:

"Radical Childcare" Hmmm? I'm not too sure what to make of this. I guess everybody needs to know how to take care of their kids if they're gonna be living out of a tent in a major city park though right? I assume that's what they mean by "movement spaces". These flyers were being handed out too.

This was the saddest part of the whole experience for me. The guy with the microphone at the center of the image was going on about something or another. The crowd was repeating what he was saying verbatim -- and I mean verbatim. At the end he introduced himself "I'm _______ and thanks for listening." The crowd actually repeating that as a group. Take a minute and imagine how dumb it would sound to you if you heard a large group of people all repeat "I'm _________ and thanks for listening." at the same time and all saying that guys name. It just kinda made me think, "WOW!"

It seemed to me that the protest was just an excuse for some people to whine about anything that's gone wrong in their life. Rather than choosing to be happy with the good things they've got going in life -- they were choosing to dwell on the negative. "We tend to seek happiness, when happiness is actually a choice." -Rodney White

So what's your story? I really wanted to put that Santa Claus had not brought me what I wanted one Christmas as a kid, and that it just wasn't fair. You know, fuss about the inequality of what he brought me in comparison to the Joneses kids -- but I decided it would not be right to belittle some of the very serious comments on there by doing so.

Just another one of the flyers that was being passed around.

   So I can't begin to explain how glad I am that I went down there to see for myself what the Occupy Wall Street protest was all about rather than just depending on the news for information on it. I was disappointed with a lot that I saw. It was not organized at all. There was a lot of drinking. I did smell people smoking weed. I even caught, or saw, one homeless guy with his hand down the front of another homeless guys pants in broad daylight. They were laid down in the park grass not even twenty feet from Peachtree Street (which is the main strip through Atlanta for those of you not from here). Some of the people were in bad need of a shower. Some of the protesters had valid concerns though -- and those were the ones that made my time down there worth it to me.

  Well, I guess when I think about it, everybody I spoke to down there made it worth it to me. I'm a big believer that we all should be willing to open our minds to those that are different than us. Open your mind to those that are from different walks of life that have different viewpoints than you do. You don't have to agree with them -- but you can try and understand them better. That is what I was doing by being down there.

  I love stepping out of my comfort zone -- going up to strangers, doing a portrait of them, and then talking to them and finding out who they are. Where do they come from? How did they get where they are? What do they believe in? It makes me realize just how much I love photography and people in general. People and their intricacies (or lack of intricacy in some cases) fascinate me.

  This has been my best and most honest interpretation of The Occupy Wall Street movement / protest based on what I saw in the short amount of time I was there on Friday evening. I tried to be very diverse in the people I chose to go and speak with and photograph -- not just looking to speak with those that seemed to be the most oblivious. I also have not picked certain events to share and left others out to fit my own personal viewpoints. I simply documented what was going on while I was there.

  I can't explain it, but I could not get my mind to stop racing after I left the other night. I may not agree with the movement or what they were fighting for in general, but I swear, the other night I felt better than I recall feeling in months (years maybe) when I got home. Jason Brown, thank you for encouraging me to go down there and do this.

Branded

2011-10-14T13:35:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago (Sept 30th) was ten years to the day since I moved to Atlanta to start the photography program at The Creative Circus, so that afternoon I celebrated the occasion by getting my first tattoo -- my logo in the center of my back just below my neckline. It's been an idea I've had in my head for a few years now. My life has revolved around that logo since I moved here -- it has been about photography. I've experienced so many great things, yet sacrificed so much over that logo. It feels like it is as much a part of me as my eyes, hands or feet are:

Click to view the image larger.

My friend and very talented designer from The Circus, Bryan Voliton, designed the logo for me as I was about to graduate in 2003. His concept behind it played off me being a country boy -- my nickname those days at school was "Kountry Keith" -- country with a "K". The logo itself is an abstract camera with a "K" in the lens -- designed to look like a brand you would see on cattle. Well, now it's a brand on me. I had Shay Cannon who owns Liberty Tattoo here in Atlanta do it for me. I met Shay and the other guys that worked at his recently opened tattoo shop back when I was doing a school project in 4th quarter -- "People on Ponce". I met some really cool and interesting people through that project, and Shay was one of them. I have a huge amount of respect for tattoo artist and some of the work they do. I love just watching them work, and have avoided getting any tattoo's up till now out of fear of becoming addicted to them. I have a feeling this one will not be my last. The shot above is a self-portrait of me, branded with a symbol of what I will always be -- a photographer.

Brothers

2011-09-15T16:22:00.000-05:00

My brother called me up one day a couple of months back proclaiming that I needed to get down to do some portraits of my nephew Peyton. At that point he had a Mohawk and had just lost one of his baby teeth -- which left him looking like a miniature MMA fighter according to my brother. My sister-in-law had already requested I do some shots of my youngest nephew, Wesley for his 1 year birthday, so last time I drove down that way I took all my gear with me and took the following portraits at their house one night:

Click on each image to see it larger.

This was the shot I was going for. I sprayed him down with water to make his skin glisten more, giving the impression that he was fresh out of the ring.

Loved this one of him too. He just looks plain mean here.

His dad had said something to him to get this expression out of him. I don't remember what it was, but Peyton was obviously disgusted by it.

This one might be my favorite from the shoot. It's right up there with the one of Peyton snarling at least. This is Dixon, the oldest of the three. He is looking like he might come chop you into itty-bitty pieces with an ax here. Dixon is not the type that would chop anybody up with an ax though -- it's just not his style.

Loved the raised eyebrow in this one.

This one was just eerie to me.

Took this one of Dixon before I decided to match the shots of him with what I did of Peyton style wise. I thought this along with the following shot was too good not to show. Plus I would bet money that his mama and and grandmother (my mom) will like these these two of him the most.

This is Dixon.

Wesley, in a chair that he loves to sit in at his grandparents house. Shot this at the request of his mother. It came out pretty good I thought.

The following three shots were some others I got of Wesley that night that I already posted here on my blog for Wesley's birthday. I was going for more of a candid snapshot type feel with them:

JT Keel, Guitars, and me channeling Dan Winters.

2011-09-11T11:48:00.000-05:00

When I was back home visiting this past time I spent the majority a day hanging out with my friend and Big Kettle Drum's guitarist / banjo player Jeffery Todd Keel. We met up for breakfast and just talked about music and art and general -- just kinda feeding off each other as creative people tend to do with each other. We decided to get together later that day-- he was gonna teach me some tricks when it came to playing slide guitar, and as I wanted to do a portrait of him. As I sat their having breakfast with him I saw in my head what I wanted to do. The colors of the shirt and hat he had on reminded me of the overall aesthetics of Dan Winters work.

So a little later that day we spent a couple of hours just messing around on the guitar. He shared some of his musical ideas with me and taught me some cool stuff, and then I set out to doing some portraits of him. I'm not sure if he knew what he was in for when it comes to me doing portraits of someone, but two or three hours later I suppose it was clear to him. I rearranged the den area of his house to set up the lighting I wanted and went to shooting, and did end up getting the Dan Winters type feel that I was looking for. Please note that I was not attempting to outright duplicate his look, but just give it the same feel. I got the look I wanted, and it suited JT's look well:

Click on each image to view it larger.

Both this and the shot just below this one really gave me the Dan Winters type feel I was looking for to begin with.
Everything else was just playing and having fun with it to get some diversity. I guess it was all just playing for me.

This one is my favorite from the shoot.

It's no surprise to me that he looks most relaxed and at ease here in these shots of him playing.

Great expression here.

Deliberately totally blacked out the background on this one to give the appearance or look of him playing live somewhere. It's no lie people -- that somewhere just happened to be his house, and I was his audience!

Please check out Big Kettle Drum and buy their music everybody. They've got a great gritty blues / rock tone with some gospel mixed in. Just click here to listen to it, and then buy their EP if you like what you hear. Also check out Dan Winters website, it's photographers like him that push me to become a better photographer. I aspire to do work as gorgeous as his --- it's worth checking out -- so please do.

One Man and His Horn

2011-08-30T16:19:00.002-05:00

Savannah busker, James Rinalducci, texted me the other day and let me know he was gonna be passing through Atlanta on his One Man and His Horn tour, and asked if I had any recommendations on places he could play in town. I threw out a few for him and told him to give me a call once in town. He wanted to grab a beer once here so we ended up at Unplugged in the Park at Park Tavern drinking beer and catching up before he went out to play for the night.

The view from Park Tavern as we were leaving the other night. I took this with my iPhone. The camera in a iPhone 4 is pretty great.

So I ended up taking him to Centennial Olympic Park downtown. I thought it would have the most people at that time of night on a Sunday, and that it would be just a good busking type atmosphere all together. Centennial Olympic Park is a pretty great place to just go and chill to begin with, but it was even better hearing him play in the background. Buskers just have a way of giving atmosphere and charm to places (as long as they play / sound okay).

James busking at Centennial Olympic Park. Took this one with my iPhone too.

Street artist / musicians really don't get enough credit or appreciation for what they do. These people get out and share their art, their passion, with those that are passing by with no guarantee of anything. There's no guarantee that their audience will even attempt to appreciate what they are trying to share with them. They perform for a minuscule amount in tips at times and sometimes get shooed away by police officers. Sidewalk chalk artist have their work washed away the first time it rains, or even destroyed when some disrespectful teenager decides to ride his bike right over the top of it, hitting the brakes and sliding (yes I have seen this happen) while the artist was still working on it.

My point is that people like James make the world a better place by doing what they do, so be generous next time you see a street performer that is doing something that you like from a audible or visual standpoint. That five or ten dollar bill in your pocket might make their day -- it might very well feed them for the day.

Anyway, it was great to hang with James while he was in town. He was traveling and had played in 12 cities in the Southeast in two weeks -- sleeping in his car almost the whole time. The guy is super polite and is very appreciative of any kind of kindness that is thrown his way. So I invited him to crash at my place for the night, fed him, and let him get a shower before he made his way back to Savannah yesterday afternoon. But not before I took these available light portraits of him at my place real quick before he left:

James is one interesting looking dude. My brother mentioned that he resembles Tommy Lee from Motley Crue. I agree, he does. He also looks to me like he could be the guy that comes to break both your knee caps for a bookie that you owe money too. He also looks like he would have given Rocky Balboa a beat down in all five of the Rocky movies.

Annnnd the much more easy going look for James. This shot represents his personality the best.

My favorite of what I took of him yesterday. To somebody that knows him it's not the best as a portrait, but to any stranger it would stand out most strictly from a photographic standpoint.

So yeah, I very much respect what James is doing. He decided to give up what most people would consider to be a normal life to pursue his dream of being a musician. That is the way of the artist though. His "One Man and His Horn" tour has got me to thinking about doing something similar with my camera. Just traveling around to different cities and doing street portraits of people I find interesting. That's my favorite type of portraiture. That is, after all, how I met James in Savannah to begin with.

"Creative Work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got."

-- Steven Pressfield in The War of Art

Keep on giving James. Cheers to you man.

Keith

Happy Birthday Wesley!

2011-08-03T18:05:00.001-05:00

Today my youngest nephew turned one year old. These are some shots I did of him to mark his one year birthday:

Click on each image to view it larger:

"Ah, no more pictures please."

Happy Birthday Wesley -- I love ya!

Uncle Keith

The Final Mission

2011-08-01T21:19:00.003-05:00

This past month my friend Ericka contacted me and asked if I wanted to join her on a roadtrip down to watch Atlantis lift-off -- which just so happened to be the final mission for the NASA space shuttle program. It had always been something I wanted to see, what better opportunity would I have? There wouldn't be another opportunity. So I took the gamble and headed down to her place, despite there being only a thirty percent chance of the shuttle taking off as scheduled the following morning due to bad weather. I got to her place and ended up sitting up with her talking until 1:30 am, knowing that we were planning on getting up at 3:30am to be on the road by 4:00am. Not a smart move; I was in bad need of some coffee when 3:30 am rolled around. We ignored our desire to go back to bed and loaded up in her car, drove for a few hours, and then battled some crazy bumper-to-bumper traffic once we got close to Kennedy Space Center. Apparently a number of other people were interested in watching the very same thing we were.

We ended up finding a spot right on the water that was just seven miles across Cape Canaveral from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center -- a spot with a clear line of sight to the actual launch pad. Tons of people were there; it was nuts. I'm a photographer, so I felt that I had to take some kind of shot of the lift off, despite not having a long telephoto lens with me to capture it as you usually might see it in the news. So I made the best of what I had and decided to go with more of a landscape approach to the shot. I wanted to catch the mood and atmosphere the way I saw it rather than just the shuttle -- and I did. It was a gloomy overcast morning, the clouds caught my attention, so I decided to make them the hero of the shot, and let the actual lift-off just be a point of interest. I'm glad I did, because I ended up with a shot of the lift-off unlike any other I have seen. Check it out:

Click on it to view it larger:

After battling the traffic getting out of there we made a pit stop at the beach for a couple of hours and then started the long drive back to her place. Was it worth the trip down for all of it? Absolutely. Hearing the rumble of that shuttle a few seconds after it disappeared from sight is something I'll never forget -- I feel lucky to have been there for it.

Hot Pink Hair, Bubbles, Coke, Guns, and Sleeper Holds

2011-07-26T15:18:00.009-05:00

A couple of months ago I was at a friends crawfish boil when I looked across the crowd and noticed a girl that had just shown up with hot pink hair. She was on the other side of the yard so I didn’t pay much attention to her -- until I got up closer to her. She wasn’t just a chick with hot pink hair -- she was a beautiful chick with hot pink hair. After speaking with her briefly I realized that her personality seemed to be as sweet as her looks.

After leaving that day I got to thinking about the cool stuff I could do with her portrait wise, so I messaged the mutual friend about having her contact me if she was interested in working with me. She did contact me and I explained that I had in mind -- this being a very color based “Pin-Up” style shots. Something that had a old time Americana look -- with a modern flair to it -- like her pink hair and the awesome looking red-toned tattoo on her arm. She was excited over the idea and seemed to be down with whatever I wanted to do.

So, I set things up and ended up getting exactly what I was looking for. The shots were a combination of ideas I’ve had floating around in my head for a few years now. One being a very color based shot with a girl blowing bubbles. Another being a shot of girl in a 50’s type dress drinking a coke, and another being my general love for how greens and reds complement each other color wise.

I couldn’t have been happier with what I got! Emily -- thank you for being awesome. You could not have done a better job modeling for me.

Check out the shots I got of her -- I’m having a hard time deciding which ones to show on my website and in my portfolio. Please feel free to give me your vote if any stand out to you over the rest.

Click on any shot to see it larger.

This was the third shot I took of her that night. I could have stopped with this and been happy.

Her tattoo is just awesome looking to me. Love it.

Yes, I made sure it was unloaded before I had her point it right at me.

Emily's husband was there while I was doing the shoot and asked me to do some quick shots of the two of them. Well both of them are into martial arts, and this shot kinda shows that. What you see here is Emily putting a sleeper hold on Ethan. When done correctly it cuts off the blood to your brain and it's lights out for you within a few seconds as a result. The expression on both of their faces is just perfect. It is one of my absolute favorite shots from the shoot.

I know, this is pretty twisted and sadistic looking. We were just having fun at this point.

And last but not least. This is the series I got of her blowing bubbles. I 'd had this idea in my head for years. So glad I finally came across the perfect model for it. Thanks Emily!

For those of you that are interested in how I lit and shot these. First and foremost, I made sure the only actual colors in the shots of her were red or green. Everything else is either her skin tone or the neutral white and black tones of her dress. Somewhere along the line I learned that it is best to keep your color palette down to no more than two or three dominate colors in a shot when possible. It was a valuable lesson and couldn't be more true in this case. These shots wouldn't have the impact they do if they were full of just random colors. I have her standing a few feet in front of a 9' roll of key lime green seamless paper. I toned down the color saturation some in post to give it more of the feel I was looking for.

Lighting wise: I had a strip box on each side of her -- maybe 10 feet behind her which creates the highlights you see on the sides of her arms and face. For fill and main light I had a 5' octobox right behind me and a 3' octobox boomed out over the set just in front of her and above my camera. This gave it a more sculpted fashion look by the shadows it created. This style of lighting is really common these days -- it's kinda overdone at this point actually. I just lit it the way I saw it in my head though -- it works for the look I wanted. Not saying there is anything wrong with lighting like this -- it's really cool looking actually. I just wonder if some photographers have any clue how to NOT light something like this -- it's good to have other tricks up your sleeve, that's all I'm saying.

Black Angel

2011-05-25T15:16:00.005-05:00

This past week I photographed musician singer / songwriter Ashley Rivera in Athens, GA. She was a blast to work with and easy to photograph. The girl can sing too! Check out her music with the link I provided above; she definitely has the voice AND looks to be a country music star. I feel so lucky to have been able to work with such talented musicians like her as a photographer. Check out some of my favorite shots I got of her below:

Click on each shot to view in larger.

"Black Angel" I think this one is my favorite from that day. It is just kind of wicked looking, which is what I was going for. Her wearing nothing but black while sitting on an old church pew with with her white "HALO" above her head. An interesting side story, that painting was done by one of the first people I met after moving to Atlanta almost ten years ago, Alex Leapold. It just happened to be hanging in Pigpen Studios where this shot was taken. Turns out Alex and the owner of PigPen Studios are close friends. It's a small world.

I love how this is in such contrast to the shot I posted above. She has such a girl next door look to her here that you don't see at all in the shot above.

A candid I got of her right after I had made her laugh.

I like photographing cool tattoo's.

Daniel Collins at Pigpen Studios, thank you for allowing us to use your space man.

Ashley, work it Ashley. Woooork It!

Keith

Sara & Taylor (Florida Mini-Vacation Part 3of4)

2011-03-31T15:10:00.015-05:00

So, my little Florida mini-vacation was winding down. I was sitting on Anna Maria Island Beach that Sunday morning by myself, not wanting to leave, but had to, due to having already committed to doing some portraits of my first cousins oldest girls that evening in my hometown for my Aunt.

Meet Sara and Taylor everybody, they are both like little sisters to me. I wasn't much older than they are now when they were both born (which makes me feel really old by the way). They were over at my grandmothers or their great-grandmothers house a good bit when I was a teenager -- and so was I. Naturally, I saw it as my duty to pick at them in a good-natured way while there. They were a lot of fun then, and still are now. They were good sports for me when it came to photographing them that evening. I had them outside wearing tank tops when it was entirely too cold to be wearing tank tops, I told them to try and not look as cold as they were, and they did a pretty good job of it I think. Don't you?

Click on each image to view it larger.

This is Sara everybody, and this a great shot of her I think. Very pretty.

And this is Taylor. Beautiful subject. Beautiful location.

The location for these outdoor shots was at Sara's grandparents place on Cherry Lake. It's a beautiful place that I just kinda happen to love. I'm from Cherry Lake originally.

I deliberately had Taylor not smiling for a lot of the shots of her because I knew she was less than thrilled about still having braces on for the shots. Your subject doesn't have to be smiling to get great shots of them though.

This is my absolute favorite shot I got of Sara that day. She looks adorable in it. It's just her being her. Not sure what Taylor or I said to her to get that laugh out of her, but it worked.

So I ended up in a race with Mother Nature as far as how quickly the sun was setting outside. I ran out of light and knew I already had some great stuff of each of them, but I wanted more. I ask them to come back to my folks place to do some studio type shots. I turned my folks living room into my studio and here is what I got:

One of my favorites of Taylor. Her light hair against the darker background just works.

Another candid shot I got of Sara when she wasn't expecting me to shoot.

This one really needs to be blown up bigger to really appreciate it. It's beautiful on my monitor when I have it filling the screen.

Great expression here.

This looks like something you might see in a fashion magazine to me, or as a huge print on the wall at a Abercrombie and Finch store...

...and so do this.

I think this is my favorite of Taylor I got, I love the expression on her face and overall feel of the shot.

Both this shot and the following one of Taylor got picked because I knew their family would appreciate them. More specifically, I knew my grandmother, who is their great-grandmother, would appreciate them. I gave her prints from this shoot for Christmas this past year.

Sara looks a lot like her mom here; she's got Tamara Hudson written all over her face in this one.

I wonder what I said to her to get her to look at me like this? She looks like she has just about had enough of both me and my camera.

Sara looks great here, she's smiling with her eyes. What does that mean? Well, cover her mouth up with your hand and you can still she the smile in her eyes. It's very genuine.

Dorks.

This is a great shot of the two of them. They are really close due to having grown up with each other, so it made sense to get a few shots of them together. This is another favorite of mine that I got that day.

So my thought process behind the shots for those of you into photography was to get some shots of them that their parents, grandparents and great grandparents would love. Something that captured who their 'little girls' were. And then on the flip side, I wanted to get some that were very senior portrait like. Something that would give their peers no choice but to tell them they were beautiful when they saw the shots of them. Give the guys in their life even more reason to crush on them by capturing some of their personality. Mission accomplished I think.

Edit: For those of you interested in how I lit the shots. The outdoor shots were all natural light. I just used a gold reflector to bounce light back into their faces. I was deliberately trying to get a less polished / commercial look to those shots. Don't ask why. It's just something I've been working on recently. I did get the kinda dreamy look I was looking for out of them though. The studio type shots were done with one large octabox at camera left, and a umbrella at camera right a few feet behind them. I shoot portraits with my lighting set like this all the time. It just looks nice to me. It was cramped quarters in my parents living room with all the gear out, but these shots just show that you don't really need a 'studio' to do studio type work. You just gotta make up your mind to do something, figure out a way to do it, and then do it.

Any Act Of Kindness Helps

2011-03-23T16:43:00.004-05:00

This past Monday I was driving back to my place and was at the corner of 17^th Street and Northside Drive here in Atlanta when I saw two panhandlers on the corner, one of them holding a sign that simply said: “ANY ACT OF KINDNESS HELPS”. The light turned green almost as soon as I saw them, so I went on my way, but couldn’t help but think of what a great message that is in general. Not in the sense of “Please give me a handout” though. To me it was more of a message about remembering to be kind to others in your day-to-day life, going out of your way to try and help others on a regular basis, no matter how small of an effort that may sometimes be. It could just be finding somebody you care about, and then letting them know it in one way or another. Random acts of kindness like that can mean the world to people. They serve as a reminder that there is still good in the world, which is easy to lose site of these days due to all the negativity in the media, and just the general crap life throws at you on a regular basis.

So as I drove on I thought of what a great portrait it would make, having one of the guys holding the sign with the other in the background, as they were when I first saw them. I rushed back to my place to get my camera and drove back as quickly as possible, hoping they would still be there. They were still there, so I moseyed on over to them and introduced myself. The guy with the sign was named Bill, and the other guy was named Tim; both seemed to be really nice guys. They were both from the same small town in Connecticut and had basically just decided to go on walkabout I guess. They had been hitching across America, and I guess just working the odd job and panhandling to make their way around. They had been all the way out to San Francisco and were looking to make their way back up North.

I told them I was a portrait photographer and that I really loved photographing random people, like them, especially when they happened to be holding a sign with such a great message to it. The fact that they were holding it and possibly not aware of how some people may see a deeper meaning to it made the idea all the more appealing to me. They both agreed to let me do the shots and acted as if they expected absolutely nothing from me in return. It came out looking like this:

Click on the shot to view it larger...

While there doing the shots somebody rolled down their window and handed them a half-eaten bag of pretzels. They both dug into it -- I could see they were hungry. As a general rule I don’t give money to panhandlers, because I don’t want them using it to buy drugs or alcohol with. Instead I will sometimes offer to meet them at a nearby restaurant and actually buy them something to eat; they will ALWAYS take you up on the offer if they are truly hungry too. In this case I did not have time to actually take them someplace to eat, so I broke my rule and handed them a twenty-dollar bill, wished them well, and thanked them for their time.

I hope they saw my interest in them, and what their sign said, as a greater act of kindness than the twenty I handed them, because in my opinion it was. That twenty is likely gone now, but I bet the memory they have of me taking a portrait of them to remind others that any act of kindness helps, isn’t.

Anna Maria Island (Florida Mini-Vacation Part 3 of 4)

2011-03-03T16:19:00.001-06:00

So, after leaving bVo's place in Tampa, I drove a little further south to Anna Maria Island, where my buddy and fellow photographer, Don Giannatti was teaching one of his lighting workshops. I drove down to just hang out with him for a few days on the beach really, but it turned out to be kind of a sweet deal, I got to hang out with and help other photographers for a couple of days while crashing at Billy Kidd's condo, which is right on the beach. It was a beautiful location, beautiful weather, and great company.

First, let me give Don's workshop a quick plug. If you are new to off-camera lighting, and want to gain a better understanding of it, Don's workshop is for you. I've hung around two of them that he has taught now; he gives solid information and teaches from example. He shows the attendees how to light using the gear they actually own and have brought to the workshop with them. The guy has a solid understanding of how light works and how to manipulate it, which is what photography is all about in its most basic form. On top of all this, Don gives sound advice and input on the business side of photography, ethics, etc. His workshop is totally worth the price of admission.

So, back to Saturday morning at the workshop. I went out for a walk by myself along the beach and found a spot that I thought might make a great shot for a Corona type ad. All I needed was one of the models Don had modeling for the workshop, a couple of people to hold reflectors for me, and a beer or two as a prop. I went back to the condo, got Don's okay to take a few minutes of one of the models time, and then asked Rio, one of the models, if she was game for my idea. She was, so I helped her pick out a bikini for the shots I had in mind and then headed back down to my location with her and a few other photographers, who wanted to try to learn something from watching me work. It always makes things a little more interesting when you're put under pressure like that. All of a sudden, it went from me just casually trying out an idea, to feeling like I had to create these impressive shots, and look like I knew what I was doing! Welcome to the world of commercial photography. Here are my three favorite shots I got from that location:

Click on each shot to view it as a larger image.

This is Rio. She was a good sport and easy to work with.

Yes, this is a pretty sexual shot, but I promise it would sell some Corona if you put it in something like a Sports Illustrated as a full page spread.

Great expression here.

And, here is another shot I got of one of the other models that evening:

I never caught this models name, but I simply just had her hold the position she was already in for me, and look into my lens. That's all she really needed to do with eyes like that.

Here is another shot I got of Rio. I think this is my favorite of her, because it is just her being her. She wasn't in model mode at this point. It's also a favorite because she has her dads Florida State sweatshirt on. Go Noles!

Here is a "grab shot" Josh Anderson caught of me as Don was trying to do a portrait of yours truly. Don was having issues with the radio slaves, and Josh was smart enough to move in and take advantage of that. Great eye and capture on his part, I think:

And, here are the portraits Don captured of me the next morning before I had to head back towards the reality of my life back in Atlanta. Cool shots he got of me I thought:

I had a blast being there. Just getting to meet and hang with other people that share my interest in photography was kinda nice, and the tropical location didn't hurt things either. Don was as cool as the other side of the pillow, as usual. And our host, Billy Kidd, what a cool guy himself. I think I'm gonna try to make it back down there for this annual December get together this year too; it was too good of a time not to.

bVo! (Florida Mini-Vacation Part 2 of 4)

2011-02-10T11:46:00.009-06:00

So, after having finished up the shots I did of Rostick in my previous post I headed back to my friend bVo's place -- bVo stands for Bryan Voliton for those of you who are not lucky enough to know him. bVo is one of the most talented designers I have ever met -- and just a genuinely good guy with a great outlook on life. I met Bryan when I started the photography program at The Creative Circus in 2001; he was a year ahead of me in the design program. He is one of those students that stood out to me. He seemed to be a step above some of the other designers there talent wise -- and he was just a cool guy.

At times, while in school, I would get really frustrated. Sometimes I would get frustrated about being broke -- and worry about how to pay for everything that went along with going to school there. Sometimes I would get frustrated because I didn't feel like my work was good enough, or because I didn't do as well as I knew I could have on a assignment. Other times I would get frustrated because I felt that I had given an assignment my absolute best; yet, my instructor would tear me apart for it not being good enough, and tell me to go make it better. Looking back, I'm glad they did, because; it wasn't about making the shot better, it was about making me better. And it did.

Needless to say, being critiqued not just on my work, but who I was as a person wore thin on my nerves at times.

Well, bVo is one of those guys who would always be up at the school working really late, like me. We would talk about our frustrations, but he always had such a positive view on things. He would offer insight that always made me feel better, but it wasn't like he was saying any of it just to make me feel better. He just genuinely had a good, positive outlook on life.

To this day, this is a favorite portrait of mine. It's of bVo, and I took it when

I was still in school. Through it, I was trying to show the frustration he had with the design job he had at the time. Blue is his favorite color. The rubber ducky tie is just him, and the yellow paint dumped on his head shows the frustration that he was dealing with as a designer. At first, he was a little freaked about the paint getting in his nose and mouth. Then, true to his nature, he just decided to cut loose and have fun with the shoot. This is my favorite from the many great shots that I got of him that day.

Back to my ride from Rostick's studio to Bryan's place. Well, that ride consisted of a difficult phone call that no guy ever wants to deal with -- yeah -- the kind where you have a girl crying uncontrollably on the other end of the line for no understandable reason. Well, when I got to Bryan's place we went out for a beer, I certainly needed one after that call. As always, bVo managed to give me great insight and just made me feel better.

So, after we got back to his place I decided that I wanted to do a portrait of him in front of one of his paintings -- a design that he uses somewhat as a logo or signature these days. He paints it on everything from canvases, to journals, to clipboards. My goal was just to get a great business-style portrait for him to use in his marketing and self-promotion if he liked. I figured that was the least I could do to help him out with his new venture as a freelance designer. This was that one shot that I was really looking to get:

This is the shot that I really set out to get, but all the shots that lead up to it was a nice bonus. I got so many good ones of him that I couldn't take the time to process them all. It took 109 exposures for me to get to this one. I knew I had what I wanted as soon as I hit the shutter button. Could have I done it quicker? Possibly, but I was just having fun with it. I wasn't in any rush, and it's too often that you have to do just that rush on a actual job -- rush.

I am very happy with it, but it took me getting through all the other shots I did to get this one; to find that combination of composition and expression that I was looking for. All the other shots leading up to this one are the most fun; and those who really know Bryan will probably agree that they capture so much more of who he actually is, we were just goofing off and having fun with it. It shows:

Click on each shot to view it larger if you like.

Love this one.

Another personal favorite.

He's trying to wipe the smile of his face here & put on his puppy dog eyes.

And here they are, the puppy dog eyes. "Please hire me, I promise to do a good job Mister."

This is the bVo you will have to deal with if you don't pay on time.

bVo: I think he has been moonlighting as a pimp since birth.

So, as you can see, the first black and white shot I presented above works best as a straight-forward business portrait, but a lot of the shots that led up to it have soooo much more character. All those initial shots allowed him to loosen up and just be himself, which is what I wanted, but you still see it in the final business shot that I was going for.

I guess the point behind all this is something that I was trying to express to my students in class the other night. Enjoy photography. Use it as an escape to life, which is much easier to do when you aren't depending on it to make your living. It can be so relaxing just shooting for fun. And, shoot a lot. Don't just take a few shots and think, "that's good enough." Good is the enemy of great. Aspire to make your work great -- sometimes just taking those few extra shots can be the difference between good and great when you are photographing people.

I guess I also should say how lucky I feel to know people like Bryan. It's good to surround yourself with people like him. People who are positive, talented, ambitious, intelligent, and passionate about what they do, because all of those qualities are contagious.

If you have read this far, thank you for reading what I have to say. Sharing the stories and the thought process behind my portraits can sometimes be just as important as the portraits themselves. The portraits I have posted here of Bryan give those that don't already know him an idea of who he is as a person, but what I have written here affirms it.

Thank you for being you bVo.

Rostick (Florida Mini-Vacation Part 1 of 4)

2011-02-08T15:44:00.013-06:00

This past Thanksgiving I drove back to my folks place for the holiday, and I decided to make a mini-vacation out of it by driving down to central Florida to see a couple of old friends and hang out at a friend's lighting workshop during the first week of December. While there, I got a number of good shots of my friends, the models at the workshop, and two of my cousins -- I thought I would share the photos in four different blog posts -- this being the first of the four.

Meet Rostick everybody. This guy was one of my most influential instructors in photography school, and it wasn't just what he taught me about photography, but what he would teach me about life. The dude has excellent perceptions on life and all that goes along with it. He is a photographer, designer, teacher, friend, husband, and a father.

I took all of these shots at his studio in Tampa with my camera locked down on a tripod -- with the exception of the last three in the post. I like shooting like this sometimes because it allows me to carry on a conversation and interact with the subject more -- without the camera getting between the two of us. Using a cable release in addition to this allows me to kinda catch them without them even really knowing that I'm about to trip the shutter -- because they don't see me reaching for it. They can't tense up.

Rostick is a pretty animated guy as it is, but I was talking to him in a way to try and pull expressions out of him. He was a good subject, and I got the expressions I was looking for. We were talking about my frustrations in photography school, and he also was trying to convince me that I needed to marry the girl I was dating at the time. We were just talking about life in general -- and I feel like I really captured his personality in the process.

Rostick -- I think you are awesome -- and thank you for letting me capture you being you.

At this point he is totally disgusted that I didn't 'appear' to get what he was saying. I did get it Rostick -- you of all people have a way of making me get it -- and I appreciate you for that.

Brooke

2011-01-26T13:53:00.003-06:00

Here are a few of my favorite shots I got of my friend, Brooke, while doing a headshot sitting with her this past weekend -- it was a good time. Lots of fun candid stuff -- and more than enough to choose from for the modeling comp card that they were being shot for. Check em' out:

My absolute favorite from the shoot.

One of the fun candid shots I got of her goofing off with me. My lighting is off here (notice the shadow around here right eye) but the expression is too good not to show. It's nice working with people like Brooke that don't take themselves too seriously and will just cut loose and have fun being photographed. It makes my job easier.

Yes, her eyes are really nice; that is what I was trying to emphasize the most with the shots I got of her.

For those of you interested in how I lit these shots -- I had a Vivitar 283 boomed out over her head with a CTO on it to light the white wall behind her. It's also what is creating the highlight on her hair at the top of her head. That was deliberate on my part. It's also what created the ugly shadow in her right eye in the candid shot I posted. That was not deliberate. Her head being tilted back a bit caught that light strong light source above her, causing the shadow. The sun will do the same thing when you try to photograph people outside in the midday sun -- when it is high in the sky. That's why you will see deep shadows where their eye sockets are if you don't use strobe/flash to eliminate the ugly shadows cast by the sun.The CTO was to balance to color temp of the strobe to the color temp of the ringlight I used to light her -- which was a incandescent/tungsten light source. I built the ring light myself with some plywood, electrical wire, a switch, some light sockets/fixtures and nine 60W tungsten light bulbs. Look closely and you can see the bulbs reflected in her eyes as catch lights -- they form a circle. The whole rig puts out pretty nice light -- as you can see.

JJ Grey & MOFRO, The Variety Playhouse, and my iPhone

2011-01-25T15:39:00.011-06:00

This past Saturday I was at the sold out JJ Grey and MOFRO show at the Variety playhouse with my friends Melissa and Laurie. It was such a good time for all of us I think -- they put on a amazing show -- and we were literally right up on the stage. Like me, JJ Grey is from North Florida -- so he sings about things I can relate to -- like loving ho cakes. He has a loyal fan following; and those fans seemed to be pretty mellow people, my kind of people. I haven't had that much fun at a concert in a long time. Check out these shots I took and edited with my iPhone while there:

All shots are seen here in the reverse order that I took them in. To view the shots a little larger just click on them:

He is singing a song here called "King Hummingbird". It's a lament to a hummingbird he needlessly shot and killed as a kid. So soulful and beautiful. Here is a link to him performing it live -- but I highly recommend you go to iTunes and download it. You can thank me later. It's so gorgeous and sad at the same time. The whole album is worth buying really.

He has a awesome horn section; they were getting down with it.

One of my favorite shots of the night.

He is a great guitar player, singer and harp player. I think he plays drums and piano too, he just didn't at the show. You can see how much of himself he puts into it when he plays though. The dude is a amazing musician.

This is him describing how his mom looked the first time she heard a song played on the radio that is on his new album; while he was in the car with her. It's called Slow, Hot & Sweaty. It's probably the dirtiest song you will ever hear that has no curse words in it. "Get your girl pregnant just listenin' to it..."

Another favorite shot from the show.

And another favorite shot from the show.

His pedal steel and slide player -- he is not lacking in talent either.

You just gotta love a company that decides to call themselves "Trailer Trash".
Trailer Trash, LLC = Funny

Laurie ask me to get a shot of his boots -- so this one is for her.

Another favorite shot.

My first shot of the night taken during the first song of the set. Also a favorite.

As you can see, I was literally right up on the stage to have gotten these shots with my phone. It amazes me what kind of work you can do with an iPhone these days. Sure I could have made them better had I shot them with one of my actual cameras and edited them in Photoshop -- but it's much faster and fun when you do stuff like this with a iPhone.

They were filming for a live DVD at this show, and I suspect my face is gonna be seen in it more than a few times since there was a stationary camera pointed right at JJ Grey's back and my face the whole time. I will be buying that DVD though -- how could I not considering that it was such a good show, right?

Also check out the local Atlanta band that opened for them called Ponderosa -- they put on an excellent show too. I was impressed enough with them that I bought one of their albums after the show.

Resolution

2011-01-17T13:02:00.005-06:00

The other night, as I sat in front of my buddy’s fireplace staring at the fire, I thought about the fact that I have yet to slow down and write out my goals and resolutions for 2011. Lucky for me, one of my friends and a man that I very much respect, Don Giannatti, sent me a very flattering, yet concise, email in response to my recent blog post titled Hillmar Farm Snowpocalypse 2011 that summed it all up for me. His email simply said this:

“those photos from the snow…

…are simply beautiful

…are wonderfully unique for that area

…and show a man who has complete control of his creative and technical abilities.

KICK ASS in 2011, my friend. Get after it.

Chops are tuned up and ready.

- don”

So sure, it’s nice to get compliments from friends and family on my work like that. Sometimes those compliments keep me going after something I love, when it doesn’t seem to love me in return. It is good to be reminded that my work has impact and stands out, otherwise I might just feel like I’m just another one of so many people out there these days trying to earn a living with a camera.

Not sure who wrote and designed this, but it fits this post to a tee; wise words to keep in mind on a day-to-day basis.
I also wish I had the design and typography skills to know how to make words look this cool.

You know though, just being able to take pretty pictures isn’t good enough these days. To survive and truly excel in the commercial photography business you need talent, a bit of luck, a serious drive to succeed, and most importantly -- sound business and marketing skills. The latter being what I need to work on most – and that’s what I intend on working on most in the coming year. Because there is no reason I shouldn’t have to turn away work all the time -- if I can just get that very large piece of the puzzle to fall into place for me. My issue is that I’ve become too complacent with just getting by this past year. I have not been putting myself out there enough this past year. On my bathroom wall I have a list of things, thoughts, to keep in mind on a day-to-day basis. One of the items on that list reads:

“You can’t win if you don’t play -- and if you don’t play, you’ve already lost – to yourself.”

So my resolution is to play more and play harder this year. My resolution this year is to push myself as hard as I did when I was in photography school. My resolution is to regain the desire to excel, and then do just that. My resolution is to surround myself with people like Don – people that are smart, positive, and go after their dreams. My resolution is to surround myself with people that will inspire and drive me to succeed. And I want my friends and family to hold me to it.

My resolution for 2011 is to “KICK ASS in 2011”. I’m going to get after it, and hope to inspire others around me to do the same in the process.

Hillmar Farm Snowpocalypse 2011

2011-01-14T16:41:00.011-06:00

I drove to my buddies cabin at a place called Hillmar Farm in Gainesville, GA in anticipation of the snow the Atlanta area was forcasted to get Sunday night. I figured I would likely get some gorgeous shots considering how nice my friend told me it was up here -- and I did. Check em out -- click on each shot to see it larger if you like:

Just outside the side door of my buddy's new place.

The front yard of his new place.

The snow covered driveway that I got stuck on Monday night trying to get where I could watch the national championship game. I missed it due to the ice.

Jack's new place / cabin. I think I'm gonna be coming up her a bunch on the weekends. So nice.

Yep.

The Creek.

The front porch.

View from front porch.

Brooke

My buddy Jack and his daughter Skye.

Jack and Skye playin' in the snow -- my favorite shot that I've done since I got here.

Punk

Loser

Another favorite.

Brooke's very first snow angel! She's special.

I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky. I think about it every....

Love this one too. It's a candid, just as she is about to get up from doing her first snow angel.

It's a holy fence.

Another favorite. This looks like something you might see on a postcard to me.

Jack waiting on me to hurry up with taking my pretty photos. It was COLD out there.

The front gate at my buddy's new place of employment.

Brooke and Skye

"$h*t and Snow"

A candid shot I got of Jack and Skye -- also one of my favorites of the past few days.

Skye. When told to behave herself she replied simply with "Why?"
Good answer.

Skye asking her mom to come get in the photos with her.

Skye and her mom, Sara.

Skye with mom and dad.

Jack & Landra, one of the horses he is in charge of training.

So here I am -- still -- five full days after having driven up here. At first I was not able to to leave at all, and the past couple of days I've stuck around because I've understood that the roads are still bad. It just seems smart to sit tight. Jack doesn't have cable or Wi-Fi in his cabin yet -- and it's actually been kinda nice that way. I've spent a whole lot of time sitting in front of the fireplace watching the fire and getting work done when I wasn't out shooting. It's been a productive few days for me, I got some shots that I love, and I still haven't ran out of stuff I need to do. I only intended on being here for two nights tops -- tonight will be my fifth. That's ok though. I've been staying at a awesome cabin in a beautiful location, surrounded by snow, sitting in front of a fire, drinking beer with friends -- and I've had my computer, cameras and books to keep my mind occupied. People pay thousands for vacations like this. It's been a good week.

Ouch!

2010-12-31T11:57:00.004-06:00

Today as I look back on this past year, one word comes to mind that sums it all up, this being: "Ouch!'. Looking back, the two events that stand out to me most is me breaking my ankle, and a relationship that lasted almost four years coming to an end. Two less than stellar memories -- but I guess both necessary to help me realize what I don't want in the future.

Check out the my surgeons handiwork -- a metal plate and six screws in my left ankle!

Looking back, it kinda feels like the only thing I have really accomplished this year is taking a handful of pretty pictures, most of which don't really even matter that much when it all comes down to it. Sure they matter to those that I shot them for, because they help promote their product or service, but will they really matter 60 years from now? Will anybody still be looking at them? Will anybody cherish them? I'm thinking that would be a 'no' for most of them -- but the following portrait is different. Out of the thousands of shots I did this past year -- this one is my favorite -- and it was not even for a paid job. It was one of those shots where I knew as soon as I hit the shutter button that I had something great.

This is musician Jon Justice, and his son Jonah. I spent maybe an hour or two just staring at this portrait of them after I processed it one night. It captivated me -- not because of it being some ground breaking portrait -- but because of what it will likely mean sixty or seventy years from now to the little boy in it. The thought of having created something that he will still have and likely cherish years from now when his father is gone fills me with a sense of pride; it gives me chills. Capturing portraits like this make all the bumps in the road that I've dealt with as a photographer over the years seem worth it. Capturing portraits like this gives me more of a sense of purpose in what I do than anything else that goes along with my line of work. I guess I'm just thrilled to have the opportunity and ability to make a living creating something that will still matter to people long after I'm gone. For that I'm so very grateful.

All this being said, I'm thrilled to see a very tough year for me come to an end, and I'm looking forward to all the good that may come my way in 2011. I'm feeling very optimistic about it and hope that you are too.

Happy New Year!

Edit: I should also offer a huge and sincere thank you to the crew at Atlanta Sports Medicine, my parents, Cat, and Jill for making the whole broken ankle incident much easier to deal with in one way or another. Thanks guys.

The 2010 Sean Costello Benefit Concert

2010-12-23T17:53:00.006-06:00

So this past October was the third annual Sean Costello Benefit concert that helps raise money for The Sean Costello Fund For Bipolar Research. I donated a couple of framed prints that I had done of Sean in the past, to see those shots check out the post I made here right after he passed away.

Anyway, this year the day before the concert I got the idea of trying to do portraits of all the musicians and volunteers that actually make the concert happen. I called Glenn Smith (Sean's Step-Dad) and mentioned to him what I had on my mind. He seemed all for it -- and I was excited about doing it.

Let me tell ya though, I had no idea how much work I was setting myself up for. The concert this year was held at the Cotton Club, which is below The Tabernacle. Well, the Tabernacle is not so easy to get around in backstage, especially when you are having to walk in a air cast with a broken ankle. Lots of stairs. Not a good thing when you are needing to get alot of equipment up to where you need to shoot.

Now, after spending a couple of days processing the files -- well -- I am so glad I did because I feel like I got some beautiful portraits of all those who were there contributing. I guess the portraits are my own way of contributing to the whole effort -- saying thank you to the musicians and volunteers that came and gave their time to support such a worthwhile cause, without expecting anything in return. I would hope the portraits I made of everybody that day will serve as reminder to each of the people in them that if you give a little, you will always get back in one way or another on down the road. Even if it's some portrait of yourself that some random photographer took -- a portrait that you may not even like.

So anyway, those of you in the portraits are welcome to use them as you like as long as there is no third party involved other than The Sean Costello Fund For Bipolar Research. If you wanna post it to websites, social networking sites then feel free to, all I ask is that you give me a photo credit for it, preferably in the form of a hyperlink -- as in:

http://www.keithtaylorphotography.com

If you don't wanna do that then "www.keithtaylorphotography.com" will be fine.

It's important that I get credit because I'm a starving artist and need to drive as many people to my site as possible that might hire me.

Musicians, I am ok with getting high-res files to you if you would like to use them for self-promotion purposes as a independent artist/musician. This means no third party -- as in record label, or brand of any sort is allowed to use them though. You (or they) need to contact me in the event a third party might want to use them. As a independent musician though -- well please take them and use them to your advantage if you like the shot(s) I got of you. Once again, all I ask is that you make sure I receive a clear photo credit when, or if, you use it.

Big thanks to volunteer Donald Schellhaas, and my most excellent ex, Jill Von Wedel, for helping me get my gear up in and then down and out of that place. It would have been much tougher to have gotten these shots done without your help on that.

Here are the portraits in the order I took them that day:

Note: There was not a clear favorite of mine for some of you, so that's why there might be more than one I have posted of some of you. Also, if you care to see the images larger than click on them.

Donald Shellhaas (Volunteer)

Snave Evans (Volunteer / Snave In The Grass)

Julian of the band Just a Second

Shannon of the band Just A Second

Austin of the band Just A Second

Rod Hamdallah (Coy Bowles & The Fellowship and Sonia Leigh)

Seth Walker (singer/songwriter)

Aaron Trubic (Seth Walker, Coy Bowles and the Fellowship, and John Justice)

Chris Uhler (Burnt Bacon)

Dave Roth (Burnt Bacon)

Jon Liebman (Burnt Bacon)

April Bumpus (Backstage Beat / Press)

Laurie Ann Sanders (Volunteer)

Melissa Bauer (Voluteer)

Coy Bowles (Coy Bowles & The Fellowship & Zac Brown Band)

Jon Justice (musician)

Jon Justice and his son. (one of my favorite shots of the day)

Kelli Stripling (Volunteer)

Allison Dellamaggiora (Volunteer and Sean's sister)

Jordan Shalhoup (Coy Bowles & The Fellowship)

Mark Cobb (Coy Bowles & The Fellowship)

Tom Dausmer (Volunteer / Photographer)

Reid Doughten (Volunteer)

Sam Fletcher (Volunteer)

Oliver Wood (Burnt Bacon and The Wood Brothers)

Marta Slosarska (Volunteer & Sean's girlfriend when he passed away)

Sonia Leigh

Kennan Shaw (Candye Cane)

Bret Hartly of Sonia Leigh's band.

Candye Kane

Debbie Smith (Queen Bee and Sean's mom)

Glenn Smith (King Bee and Sean's dad)

Paul Campanella (Seth Walker and John Justice)

Gregg Shapiro of Sonia Leigh's band.

Dave Anthony of Sonia Leigh's band.

Kyle Smith (Volunteer and Stage Manager)

Paul Campanella & Aaron Trubic (these two completed Sean's trio on the last album he recorded)

If you wanna hear how amazing Sean was as a musician -- check out this video:

Hope eveybody likes the shot(s) I got of them. I know a few of you were less than thrilled to have your photo made, so I appreciate you being willing to let me and hope that I have not disappointed you.

Merry Christmas Everybody

Keith

85mm 1.2 Awesomeness

2010-11-20T19:38:00.005-06:00

So yesterday I pulled Jerry, the maintenance guy at my apartment complex, in my apartment for a few minutes to do a couple of quick available light portraits of him with the most excellent Canon 85mm 1.2 lens. I'm totally blown away by that lens -- just look at how creamy the bokeh is on these two shots. The depth of field at F1.2 is maybe a half-inch to a inch, which creates stunning portraits.

Click on each shot to view it at a larger size.

The second of these two shots is what I was aiming to get when I asked to do the portraits of him -- a very straightforward and honest portrait. No smiling, and no retouching. After having processed it I realized it has a very eerie and creepy quality to it. It's not because of how he looks, but the combination of the extremely shallow depth of field, the absence of a smile and the light just makes it feel almost ghostly.

The first shot with him smiling represents the Jerry I know more -- and I think it's a excellent portrait of him. It's kinda amazing what kind of difference a smile can make in a photo. The moral of the story is for the guys out there that seem to think they are too much of a man to so much as crack a grin for the camera. Do you wanna look like friendly outgoing guy, like Jerry does in the first shot? Or do you wanna look like somebody you might find in the sex offender registry -- like Jerry does in the second shot? Don't be doo-doo heads you guys, smile for the photographer when he asks you to -- it's for your own good.

So anyway, I think the shot of Jerry not smiling is the stronger of the two because it has more impact due to the eerie nature of it. But the one of him smiling certainly shows sooo much more personality. It is a better representation of him. It's amazing how giving somebody a genuine smile/laugh can change how they react and respond to you as a person -- and these two shots are a great example of that.

Which one is your favorite?

Yamada Sensei

2010-10-20T14:11:00.018-05:00

Recently I had the honor of having Yamada Sensei, the highest ranked Aikido practitioner in the Western Hemisphere and Europe, give me a few minutes to do these portraits of him prior to him teaching a seminar here in Atlanta. I say it was an honor doing so because I believe that photographing anybody that is at the top of their game in anything is a true honor. Think Eric Clapton or Bob Dylan when it comes to music. Think Barack Obama or George Bush when it comes to politics -- or think Jerry Springer or Maury Povich when it comes to trashy daytime TV host. Well Yamada Sensei is that guy when it comes to Aikido. He's famous in Aikido circles and travels the globe teaching it -- all the while getting treated like royalty by those that he is teaching while doing so. You can, and should, read more about him on his website or on his Wikipedia page.

The portraits themselves are pretty straight forward from a technique standpoint; one softbox with a medium gray background -- classic Rembrandt lighting. What is not straight forward is how I had to shoot them. I had maybe ten minutes to set things up and get the light metered out before Yamada Sensei was right there waiting on me. So I got him in position and spent maybe two minutes rattling off fifteen shots. I worked to pull a smile out of him and was only given a bit of a smirk from him. I didn't dare push him for more though -- I knew I had already gotten what I was looking for within the first two or three shots anyway. Doing all this with people warming up on the dojo mat only inches away from you, and then having numerous others just watching you can be kinda daunting. The crazy thing is that my doctor had just given me the ok to walk on my ankle again for the first time after having not walked on it for three months, just a couple hours before showing up to do the portraits. What a way to ease into walking on it again don't you think?

I'm pretty happy with the results of it all -- it was totally worth the effort and pain I felt in my ankle later that night from being on it in such intense way all of a sudden. The man made me hurt without so much as laying a finger on me. Just check out the character in his face though -- he just looks cool:

Just click on each picture to see the full size version.

Here are a few candid I shots got of him teaching during the two day seminar that I kinda liked too:

Here is a video of Yamada Sensei at a Aikido demonstration in 1986 -- the 35 second mark in the video is pretty funny:

I so wish I could have gotten on the mat to train with and learn from him, but couldn't due to my ankle injury -- the dude is a true martial arts master. I did get on the mat, but it was to photograph him rather than learn from him -- big surprise me being a photographer and all right.

I so wish I could have gotten on the mat to train with him -- the dude is a true martial arts master. I did get on the mat, but it was to photograph him rather than learn from him -- big surprise me being a photographer and all right?

UPDATE: So it appears that you can only see the video if you are in Safari. In Firefox it just isn't there for whatever reason. Here is a link to the video I tried to embed above.

Twins

2010-10-13T14:40:00.004-05:00

Just a couple of favorites from a recent series of portraits I was commissioned to do. These two siblings just happen to be twins as well:

Just click on the shots to see them larger.

Keith

Blown Away...

2010-08-06T11:03:00.016-05:00

I recently happened upon Joel Grimes website (a photographer that I had never heard of before) and was impressed with his work but at the same time thought to myself, "Oh -- yeah -- he is just another one of those photographers that does that "looK" and only that look." The look I am talking about is the highly stylized look that has been popular since around 2002 or so. Think Jim Fiscus, Tim Tadder and Dave Hill. It was, and still is a very cool "look" that I once admired and spent many hours trying to figure out how to get. But once I figured it out it didn't seem to be such a big deal to me anymore.

It basically is knowing some basic lighting tricks to get the contrast in lighting right, using a prime lens to get as much detail as possible, maybe deliberately under exposing the shot a little bit to allow for how you will push it in Photoshop etc. So there certainly is a lot of craft and know-how that goes behind getting a good base image to work with -- but after that it is all Photoshop know-how to really give it that 'look'. For a long time, not many people knew how to do it since it could involve a series of steps in Photoshop to get it -- high pass filters, blending modes etc. It wasn't easy for me to figure out, but I got pretty close in those days. These days though it is as easy as adjusting a few sliders in Lightroom once you have the base image right in camera. And here is the bad part: Some photographers want to do ONLY that now. They seem to have forgotten (or never have known) how beautiful an image can be just by itself with no Photoshop at all.

Make no mistake about it, I have much respect for all the photographers I have mentioned above. They are pretty amazing. The production value of their work, the locations, lighting, all of it. They know what they are doing for sure, and some of their stuff looks sooooo cool. So cool, in fact, that it seems to be a cancer eating away at other photographers' desires to create images, that stand on their own as great images, with no additional post production work other than what could be done in traditional processing and printing. Think Richard Avedon, Steve McCurry, Mark Seliger and Rodney Smith. All of these guys are heroes to me when it comes to photography. Their work is creative, so beautiful -- yet straightforward at the same time. It is all traditional photography sans all the mumbo-jumbo effects in Photoshop.

This brings me back to Joel Grimes website. I looked at each of the images in the "Sports", "Music" , "Portrait", and "Beauty/Fashion" categories and was impressed with most of them but really was just thinking that he was another photographer doing that 'look' for everything. Then I got to the "Polaroid" section on his site -- stuff that had been shot with Type 55 Polaroid film. This stuff blew me away, it was so much better (to me) than all the work I had seen in the sections before it. Simply beautiful portraits that may have been adjusted some in Photoshop -- but those adjustments seem to be something that could have been done in a traditional darkroom. These portraits reminded me of why I love photography. His other work impressed me, but these Polaroids captivated me. They are just so beautiful.

I went on to the "Everyday Life" section and loved some of what I saw there as well. Then I hit the "Desert Life" section and was once again captivated -- over a bunch of cacti -- something I find far less interesting than people. It was the photography itself that had me this time. The shots were just gorgeous on their own without the help of a bunch of Photoshop tricks. It appears to be just basic contrast filters, dodging, burning and toning. All of which are traditional darkroom techniques.

Anyway, kudos to Mr. Joel Grimes for putting work like this up in addition to the other stuff of his with that 'look' that likely scores him most of his work these days. All the images in his Polaroid and Desert Life section should remind anybody that visits his site that you don't have to do all the digital manipulation in order to get great images.

I should add that people like Joel Grimes and Jim Fiscus do a REALLY good job with that ever-so-popular 'look'. But I think it is sad that some younger and less experienced photographers feel like they have to give that 'look' to EVERYTHING they shoot due to being influenced by them. In an effort to not sound like a hypocrite myself, yes I have shot and processed a few things that have the look I am talking about -- but I by no means feel that I need to apply it to everything I shoot.

Joel's Polaroid work has given me an extra push to go ahead and get out with a 4x5 and do a series of portraits with it, like I have been wanting to do for several months now. I miss shooting with a 4x5 and I miss actually printing in a darkroom. Now I just need to let my ankle heal up and maybe I will. Anyway, Joel Grimes work inspires me to say the least, and I hope maybe it will inspire you too.

Keith

James Rinalducci In The Square

2010-07-20T10:54:00.006-05:00

I just happened to be in one of Savannah's many beautiful squares this past Sunday night where this street musician, James Rinalducci, was doing his thing. Being a music lover I naturally went and found a bench near him, sat back and enjoyed the weather, the square, and his playing. Before long I decided to run back to my hotel room and grab my actual camera to see if I could get a decent available light portrait of him since he was such an interesting looking dude. Here is what I managed to pull off in the last few minutes of daylight that evening:

This is pretty much what I was hoping to get when I decided to make a portrait of him...

...and all the rest were just bonus shots.

James seemed like a pretty genuine guy. He seemed to really care about some of the homeless poeple that lived there in the city and actually put away his tip box when they started feeding them in the square that evening. He told me he just liked to play his horn for them at that point and not make it about money. What a way to be don't you think? We need more people in this world that think like that.

If you care to hear a little of what I heard from him Sunday night then you should check out his myspace music profile here. Also an interesting tid-bit of information -- he has only been playing for five years. Being a sax player myself, I can tell you that James plays very well for somebody that has played for such a short period. Getting a tone like that out of a horn can be kinda hard...

Thank you for letting me do the portraits of you James -- and for the excellent restaurant recommendation. Jill, Jennifer and I all loved Sakura. Excellent food!

Musings Of A Writer...

2010-04-23T17:23:00.006-05:00

This is hilarious -- and it's so on point for people in the creative field. Switch out the word 'writer' for 'photographer' and it still fits perfectly based on some of my experiences in the industry.

WARNING: This is not safe to watch in the work environment -- or if your grandmother is in the room.

My work featured on CNN.com...

2010-04-21T13:11:00.015-05:00

A few shots from my growing collection of Aikido photos were recently featured on CNN.Com in a article written by Penny Bernath Sensei of Florida Aikikai. The photos were made at Peachtree Aikikai here in Atlanta while she and the other top ranked female practioner of Aikido in America was teaching a seminar there. The article can be found here. And here are the photos that were used in the article seen a little larger:

Penny Bernath Sensei (Nage) throwing Jeff Lindsay (Uke)

Penny Bernath (nage) throwing Matt Forrester (Uke)

Penny Bernath Sensei looking on as Kathryn Krupp (Nage) puts a joint lock on Blue Spruell (Uke in this case and the chief instructor at Peachtree Aikikai):

Penny Bernath Sensei -6th Dan, United States Aikido Federation

If you are interested learning more about Penny Bernath Sensei and Aikido then watch this:

If you are here in the Atlanta area and would like to learn even more about Aikido then contact one of the instructors at Peachtree Aikikai. Live in the Fort Lauderdale area? Well, give the instructors at Florida Aikikai a call -- both are excellent dojos. If you live elsewhere in America then check for other USAF dojos that might be near you here.

And on a related note -- here is one of many really cool shots I did for Peachtree Aikikai that is actually lit and staged for advertising purposes. I have yet to get them all processed and up for people to see but will be doing a blog post and adding it to my portfolio etc. in the near future. This is Jeff Silverman (Nage) throwing Matt Forrester (Uke)

Cheers,

Keith

Alex

2010-04-13T13:22:00.012-05:00

As some of you may already know, I like to do portraits of my friends. Well a couple of weeks ago my longtime friend from Germany, Alex, came to visit for a few days (he and I met back when I moved to Germany in second grade). Anyway -- while he was here I did some pretty simple and straightforward portraits with a single light and soft box. My goal was to keep them really straightforward, classic and traditional looking. Check em out -- I was pretty happy with what I got in the few minutes we spent shooting.

This is exactly what I was looking to get to start out with and was able to catch it within the first few shots I took. As soon as I saw it I knew I had what I wanted.

It seemed kinda foolish to just stop there -- so I shot some more for fun:

This was taken a split second after that last one:

Right here I think he can pass for James Hetfield from Metallica:

If anybody cares to see kind of a cool portrait I did of him on his sweet 1932 Arial bike while visiting him a couple of years ago then click here.

Anyway -- I was just telling a friend the other day about the importance of getting really comfortable with just one light. Learning the basics of lighting with it before you complicate things too much by trying to add in too many lights for an effect or look that may not be needed. I thought these portraits were a pretty good example of how nice just one light can look when it comes to portrait work.

It is a matter of personal preference -- but I do believe that when working with people your time is better spent interacting with them and catching as many expressions as you can rather than having them sit and wait while you geek out and adjust the six or eight different lights you have lighting them. If you do happen to do really intricate lighting then have it ready to go and metered out before your client is even on set. I would rather see a portrait where the subject is really engaged in the shoot then one where they look annoyed over you wasting their time by fumbling around with a bunch of lights. That's just my two cents though.

KISS = Keep it simple stupid. Just don't mistake 'simple' for easy though -- because sometime it's not.

Keith

Bryan Be Ballin' Y'all!

2010-04-06T22:14:00.020-05:00

So yes -- I choose kind of a goofy title for this post because:

1.) I'm just a goofy person

2.) Bryan really is ballin' y'all -- cowboy style! He really is. You should see his Dodge Ram Dually. And just look at them threads he is wearing!

3.) And most importantly, like hip-hop artist, he understands the importance of appearance. No really, I'm dead serious. Appearance and how you portray yourself is important when getting started out in the music business. It really is with any business -- but more so when it comes to music industry I think. I'll explain.

Back in December an aspiring and talented country singer from my hometown of Madison, Fl, Bryan McHargue expressed interest in having me do some press kit photos for him before he even had a demo cut, before he had website or MySpace page, before he so much as had a Facebook fan page for his music. This is quite the opposite of what I am used to though -- because most of the time artists that are starting out just do not understand the value of having nicely shot and designed promo materials -- unless they are hip-hop artist that is. Hip-hop artists are masters of self-promotion. They understand the concept of getting the hype going over them before people have even heard them from their appearance and marketing alone.

This is something I don't notice as much with other artists that are starting out though. Rather than going ahead and investing in having some nice photography and design work done to promote and sell themselves with they try and get by with having a friend with a 'nice camera' take some cliche band shots and then have their mommy or something throw their band name on the page with some God-awful butt ugly type. Then they throw it out there for the world to see with the idea that the music is what's really important and all the rest doesn't really matter.

Well yes -- the music IS what is really important -- but don't ever underestimate the power of captivating and attention grabbing photography / design work when it comes to selling what is most important. What was it? Yes -- the music. You want promo photos of you and your band that will stand out from other promo posters on bar walls. You want to look like you already have made it -- and not like you are starting out and just wanting to make it. Put as much effort into the look of your work as you do the sound of it. Make it where they see your album cover or promo poster and think 'Wow -- this guy looks like he is good -- let's check him out'. Make it where somebody can't tell that you are just a beginning artist unless they look at the record label logo on the album. Make it look like you are one of Warner Music Group's biggest artists.

I thought Bryan McHargue got a good head start with this by having me do the following shots -- I was pretty pleased with how the shoot went:

It is pretty common that I get a lot of shots that the client likes -- but it is rare that I get so many that I really like. I was just happy with how it came out. Not bad for a couple of country boys, a guitar, and a little bit of camera gear on a random December afternoon I thought.

For those of you interested in hearing Bryan's music -- I will be sure to post a link on here as soon as he has some of it up online to be heard. He has a great voice and really is a nice guy. He also is just about the closest thing to a cowboy you might ever meet and has a degree in animal science from the University of Florida with a speciality in beef cattle. Translation -- his clients send him out with a blank check to spend thousands of their dollars on cattle for them based on his opinion of what is a good buy. He's an educated cowboy that has good reason for driving a big dually truck and wearing a cowboy hat. I mean that too. He has to have a way of pulling around all those cows he buys -- and the cowboy hat literally keeps him from being a redneck. That is, the wide brim all the way around the hat keeps the sun off the back of his neck preventing it from getting sunburned while working outside all day. This being where the term 'redneck' comes from.

And there you have it folks -- both a marketing and culture lesson from Keith Taylor Photography -- hope you enjoyed it!

Kind Of Blue

2010-02-25T15:11:00.014-06:00

This past Sunday I made a visit to the Georgia Aquarium; the world's largest. As a whole it was very impressive but I was stopped in my tracks by the jellyfish aquarium. It was just mezemerizing to look at. Something like you might see projected on a huge screen at a Pink Floyd concert; very soothing, just beautiful. Such cool looking creatures backlit in a sea of blue. The photos I got of the display speak more of its beauty than I ever could here in writing, so check em' out:

(click on the images to see them larger)

It's not the type work that you would usually see from me -- but that is what I created this blog for. To post stuff that may never make it onto my website or in my portfolio that I still think is worth sharing. And yes -- I do just happen to be listening to Miles Davis's 'Kind of Blue' album as I write this -- as these photos certainly fit the title of the album. Pink Floyd's music fits the feel of the jellyfish aquarium better though. Does anybody else like to think of music that fits certain types of photos and vise versa; or is that just me?

Hope you all like what you see, if you care to see more from my visit showing other parts of the aquarium than click here; and if you are interested in seeing some of my editorial and advertising portrait work then click here. Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog -- feel free to comment if like.

Keith

The Rubber Ducky Memoirs

2010-02-13T14:51:00.017-06:00

So yesterday Atlanta got more snow than it had gotten in years (right at three inches here at my place). As usual things started shutting down early and grown adults started getting all giddy about it -- kinda like we all did as kids over Santa Claus coming to town. Friends of mine flooded Facebook with photos of it all. Stuff like their house covered in the snow, them in the snow themselves and tons of stuff of their kids or pets playing in the snow. A photographer buddy of mine got some beautiful stuff first thing this morning as the sun was rising -- how dedicated of him to wake up so early to capture such a thing I thought. I had actually thought about doing the same thing last night myself before going to bed -- for maybe t-minus three seconds. I then decide I would rather just stay in my warm bed under the electric blanket. So what was I to do? I had to do SOMETHING today to capture the beauty and fun of the snow we got! I have no kids or dogs to capture playing in the snow -- so I took my rubber duckies out instead. It was their first time even seeing the snow; much less actually playing in it. So without further ado I give you The Rubber Ducky Memoirs:

Mama Ducky (looking down on Junior Ducky): "Ok Junior, you've had enough time to play in the snow now. Time to go back in before we both get sick."

Junior Ducky (looking up at Mama Ducky): "BUT MAAAAAMA! We've only been out here a few minutes!!! Com'on!"

Mama Ducky (looking down on Junior Ducky): "You heard what I said Junior! You're out here barefooted too. That's all I need is you getting sick so I will have to take you to the doctors office and have to overhear everybody's ignorant debates about government run health care in the waiting room."

Junior Ducky (looking up at Mama Ducky with his cutest expression): "Buuut Mamaaaaa! I just wanna stay a little while longer. Will it be okay if I stay out if the nice photographer man is out here to watch after me?"

Junior Ducky (looking up at photographer man and his camera): "Can I PLEAAAASE stay out here with you for a little while longer Mr. Camera Man?"

Mama Ducky (respond to Junior ducky as she gazes out into the horizon): "Junior, you heard what I said! You are not staying out here -- especially with that photographer man. He obviously is not playing with a full deck since he is out here photographing rubber duckies in the snow -- right in front of his neighbors and all as if he has no sense of shame at all."

Junior Ducky (following and pleading with his mother as she walks away): "But Mamaaaa! Just a little while longer!"

Mama Ducky (in a stern voice while walking away): "Junior! We are going back inside and that's final! You are going to go back in the bathroom where you belong next to the cologne and hush your mouth! Do you understand me young man? Maybe if you would learn to eat your veggies like a big boy I would treat you more like a big boy -- do you understand me?"

Junior Ducky (in pleading voice): "But Maaaaama!!!!"

Mama Ducky: "HUSH IT!!!!"

The End

Camera Shy

2010-02-09T15:01:00.022-06:00

So this past December I was sitting down at my Grandmother’s house on Christmas morning as we were exchanging gifts and looked across the room at 'Granny' (who was like a grandmother to me as a kid). She sat there with her red-tipped cane, smiling. I thought her 92-year-old face was full of character and she seemed to be truly enjoying herself. I thought to myself that I need to do a portrait of her -- a few seconds later I decided I should also see about doing a portrait of not only her, but Mama Dot (my actual grandmother) and Mema. Just to be clear, both Mema and Granny are like grandmothers to me as well -- I am only related to them through marriage but have been raised around them and always approach them with the same respect I would my Grandmother.

I knew my work would be cut out for me, as I already knew both Mama Dot and Mema were not fans of having there photos made at all. So I moseyed on over to Granny on the couch and ask if she would let me do a portrait of her that afternoon. With a worried look she reached up with both hands, grabbing her hair, saying something along the lines of 'Baby, I would have to have something done with my hair first.' I quickly told her there was no need to worry about that and that I thought she looked amazing just as she was -- I wasn't lying to her either. She seemed to be encouraged by this, so I mentioned about coming over that afternoon to her house to do the shots and she agreed.

So after this I went to scheming over how to do everything. Not just on how I wanted to photograph them but how I was going to get both Mema and Mama Dot to let me photograph them. I came up with a plan and went at it. The shooting part was pretty simple -- I wanted to get a portrait of all three of them in the chairs they always sat in while at home and then another portrait of each one standing in front of some black felt I happened to have with me. It was the only background like material I had with me that would give some consistency between all three shots. The shots in their chairs were meant to have a casual feel to them and the portraits in front of the black background were meant to be more traditional -- a very honest look at what they look like at this point in their life with no effort to hide either wrinkles or skin blemishes through lighting or in post production. I wanted to capture each of them the way those that loved them saw them on a day-to-day basis, and not the way they may look on Easter Sunday at church after having their hair all made up and such.

So I woke Granny from a nap Christmas afternoon when I came over to do the shots. She cruised into the living room with her walker and pretty much gave me all the time I wanted to do as many shots of her as I wanted. I think both of our efforts paid off...

Click on each image to see it larger if you like.

The Chair Shot:

And the traditional portrait:

Here are a couple of extras I got of her that I felt were too good not to share as well:

I left her place that afternoon feeling great about what I got out of her. She seemed to have a good time with it all so that made it all the better for both of us. I went on to my folks’ place and quickly processed out a couple of the files that stood out to me (the first two seen above) to show both Mama Dot and Mema. As planned, I think them seeing those first shots of Granny worked to my advantage as did knowing that it was likely that neither one of them would want to be the one person that refused to let me photograph them.

Here are the two shots I got of my grandmother, Mama Dot that I was most happy with:

Once I felt like a I had a couple of good shots of her I mentioned to my Uncle James (who was there at the time) about doing a shot of both me and her together. I showed him what to do with my camera and then got in the shot. Right as he was about to take the shot I kissed her on the check. He was a little late catching that but caught something even better instead -- the look of pure disgust with me over the situation I had her in -- a split second after I had kissed her. Where's the love, Mama Dot?

I'm so proud to have that shot with us together -- it captures her to a tee. She is not one to hold back on letting you know when she doesn't like something and this shot shows it.

So I left there once again feeling thrilled to have had her let me do the portraits of her. Two down, one to go. So I made my way on over to Mema's house again, pretty certain that she would go ahead and let me do the shots of her as well. I sat and talked with her for a while and then ended up getting these two shots which I thought were great of her:

So I have now spent over a month now looking at these photos on and off, trying to decide which shots to show and how to process them. Processing some of them out and then reprocessing them, worrying about making the wrong choice. Trying my best to make sure that there will not be anything for any one of the three to feel bad about once they see them. Last night after I started writing this, I thought I would call each of them and find out if there was any one quote or any words of wisdom they might want to share with anybody that might read this post. This is what I got:

Edith 'Granny' Hudson said:

"From Genesis to Revelation -- I believe it's true."

She is currently 92 and will be 93 in October. She has two children, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren with twins on the way. Sadly, she is nearly blind so she will never be able to clearly see the shots I made of her. I can only hope that her family will tell her that I did a good job and captured a little of her personality in them.

Dorothy 'Mama Dot' Reaves said:

"I have nothing to say at this time."

I found this quite funny and ironic since she always seems quite willing to express her opinion on life in general, what somebody might be wearing, anything -- the woman doesn't hold back. I love calling her by her first name by the way -- I like the name Dorothy; it's just fun to say. She has three children, six grandchildren (including me) and eight great-grandchildren with another on the way. She is 84 and will be 85 in December.

Helen 'Mema' McHargue said:

"Family is everything to me -- and that means I'm a very rich woman because of the family I have."

Anybody that has been over to the McHargue family house on Christmas Eve knows this is true. I crash that party every year just because it is good to be around people that are so happy and loving toward each other. Mema has five children, ten grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren with another one on the way. She is 82 and will turn 83 in April.

I truly hope that I have given an honest representation of who each of these ladies are through all of this. I love each of them and so appreciate that they allowed me to photograph them. Thank you Mama Dot, Granny and Mema -- I hope that you will see these shots and feel good about and appreciate who you are -- knowing that a whole lot of other people do, too.

Keith

Paying It Forward...

2010-02-02T11:37:00.024-06:00

So I just responded to a email I received from another photographer that was shooting a wedding I was attending -- one in which I was there just shooting as a friend for the couple that was getting married. My response to this email was pretty comprehensive by the time I was done with it - but I think I covered her questions pretty well. I am sure to have somebody ask similar questions in the future -- as I have in the past -- so I decided to just go ahead and post her email and my response to her so others might be able to get something out of it. Plus in the future I can just direct people that ask the same question to this blog post...

"Okay, I need help. I'm admitting it. That's that first step, right? Once again I have found myself doing a wedding that will be taking place this weekend in St. Pete. But remember... "I don't do weddings!" Or so I keep telling myself. I'm actually looking forward to this - if there was ever a wedding I would want to do, this would be it. However, I'm concerned about the results being similar to what I did for Jack and Jill. You expressed concern over my metering and I know EXACTLY what your talking about, however, I don't know how to alter it. I haven't used an external meter in 6 years but I know that you weren't using one either, so how do you trick you camera into metering correctly? I'm sure that the meter was picking up on her white dress or whatever and was being thrown off. I like to shoot with my straight 50mm lens (which is what we folks that don't have $1700 to spend on a lens use) and I like to shoot on aperture priority at 2.2 or 2.5 to blur the background as much as possible. How do I fix my metering problem? Any suggestions? I'd appreciate your feedback.
Thanks,
Jane Doe"

Shamefully I was not able to respond to this email when I first read it -- and then forgot about it. So Jane Doe emailed again last night with the following:

"Okay, obviously the wedding has come and gone and went well but if you have a sec to respond I would love to get your feedback since I know this is an area that you are passionate about. (see below) Thanks so much!

BTW, are you familiar with Zack Arias' lighting and do you like/use it?

Jane Doe"

I appreciated her caring enough to take the time to write again and ask for my input after I had forgot so here is what I sent her earlier:

"Jane Doe,

So sorry I forgot to respond to your previous email. I got it and read it but couldn't respond right then. It then got buried in my inbox and I forgot.

Your metering problem. No I was not using a external meter at the wedding -- but I was shooting on straight manual. A lot of the time I know when the meter might get fooled so I will check the histogram and image on the back of the camera and add or subtract more light as needed. Also -- another way around your metering problem -- you probably have been shooting with your camera set to average or 'evaluative' metering which takes a reading of various parts of the scene in the view finder and averages it out. This is where the meter can get fooled by say a bright window right behind a bride. It is reading that light source (the window) and may think that the brides face would be properly exposed at say f4 @ 1/125 of a second. But in actuality you might would need to be at f4@ 1/60th of a second or even slower in order to properly expose for her face. This is going to give a really blown out look to the window and might even create some lens flare -- which can be cool sometimes. Anyway - your camera's 'guess' would have had you a full stop off in this case.

Your options here are pretty simple. One -- as mentioned before since you have a digital camera you can check the display and histogram to see what kind of exposure you are getting (which is a luxury we didn't have in the film days) and adjust your exposure based on what you see. Two -- set your camera on spot metering or center weighted metering if you have it and set your camera where when you push the shutter button half-way to set your metering on the faces of your subjects and then recompose to your image to your liking while still holding down the shutter button half-way then push it all the way to take the shot. On a Canon you can set other buttons to do this same function too (see your owners manual -- I asume you can do the same with Nikon). And three -- you can set your exposure for the light coming from the window so you have a correct exposure on it and then use strobe/or flash to bring up the exposure on the bride so it matches what the light is outside -- giving you a correct exposure for both (or anything in between). The key is to get comfortable with how light works and effects exposure and then learn to control the camera and not let it control you. It just takes practice and learning to shoot in a deliberate fashion to get the result you want and not just what the camera thinks you want. Also -- if you shoot JPEG's and not RAW files -- big mistake. RAW files are the way to go. I will not get into that (in detail) -- but they give you a lot more options and control in post production. They are just better. A lot of people want to shoot JPEG's because they take up less room on their hard drives and you can set your camera where they might look better straight out of camera -- but that is the extent of the plus side of JPEG's vs. RAW files. Shoot RAW.

Shooting weddings with nice and fast glass can be a big plus -- but there is no reason why you should not be able to do brilliant work with a single 50mm lens. It is about the vision you have and how you make what you have work for you. I actually have very little gear myself in comparison to most commercial photographers -- but I (have to) make it work for me because I can't afford to go out and buy every single toy my heart may desire photography wise -- and my clients may not have the budget for me to rent all that I might 'want'. Don't get hung up on what you don't have -- make the most out of what you do have. You want some inspiration -- this photographer has created his whole 'look' through shooting with nothing other than a 'normal' lens -- which would be a 50mm in 35mm film format. His work is brilliant: Rodney Smith

Your question about being familiar with Zack Aria's lighting is a little confusing -- not sure what you mean because you talk about it as if it is a product or he has his own lighting style named after him? I personally know Zack -- he is a very talented shooter and a really nice down to earth guy. He is always sharing his knowledge and I think he teaches a great workshop which is based on using just one light and very little gear to get good results. I have never taken it myself - but know people that have and I know that what he teaches is valuable. But it is in no way his own 'style' of lighting. He lights the way other photographers have been lighting for years. He has a great vision and knows how to get dramatic and great results from minimal gear. He understands light and how it works, and on top of it all knows how to use locations to his advantage in a creative way. Add good people skills and you have a great (portrait) photographer.

I think my work is very similar to his in production value and lighting style. As I usually only shoot with one or two lights. And sometimes none at all if the available light is right. There is only a handful of times that I have shot using five or more lights though. Also -- speaking of workshops and all -- here are some great blogs you can learn a lot from:

Don Giannati: http://www.lighting-essentials.com/
(this guy is a friend and really nice guy -- he teaches a great workshop too.)

David Hobby: http://www.strobist.com/
(Also a good guy -- he teaches the occasional workshop as well)

Zack Arias: http://www.zarias.com/
(I already have given my thoughts on him.)

And of course you might get something out of reading mine. I always try and put something informative in when I make a blog post. Sometimes it might be something about lighting and sometimes I might just give insight into the struggles of the business. I do need to start making post more often -- as in at least once a week and not just once every month or so. You can check it out here:

http://www.keithtaylorphotography.blogspot.com/

Hope all this helps.

Cheers,

Keith"

And here is an additional short note I sent her right after that:

"Also -- something I forgot to mention on all that. I pretty much leave my camera on manual all the time. This might sound daunting to somebody that is use to 'Av mode' / 'Tv mode' or straight 'Program'. But you do get use to it and shooting on manual will give you far more predictable and consistent results.

K."

So all of this does not just apply to wedding photography -- but photography in general. I wish I had the time to go out and shoot shots as described to better illustrate what I am trying to explain -- but I hope anybody who reads this gets the picture. No pun intended.

I will also add that I think if you wanna shoot weddings -- you should always find another established wedding shooter and work as a second shooter/assistant with them for a while to get a feel for the flow of things before trying to shoot one on your own. A wedding is not something you wanna mess up for your client's sake and your own. There are no reshoots. Over time you will find a balance of what works best for you -- whether it be your camera on full auto, on manual or anything in between. What is important is the moments and emotions you actually capture effectively -- not how you capture them.

Side Note: I took the photo at the top while working as a second shooter for Karen Ann at Mac N' Cheese Photography this past December. It was lit with a Vivitar 283 off-camera bounced off the white ceiling at camera left. I figured it fit this post -- hope you like.

Keith

This sounds so familiar...

2010-01-19T12:01:00.002-06:00

This is so on point for those that work in the creative industry -- photographers in particular -- I know from personal experience:

My oh my, what a decade...

2009-12-31T16:51:00.041-06:00

So around this time ten years ago it all started for me photography wise. I walked into Photo 1, a professional lab and studio near my hometown with a print and strip of negatives. I handed them to the girl behind the counter and asked if she could darken the print for me. She took a look at the print and then the negative and then replied with something like "well I can darken it but first I am going to show you what it is really supposed to look like". I asked her what she meant and she replied that the print I had was not even close to right. I asked her again what she meant and she then told me that she would show me. A few minutes later she handed me a back a print that looked great.

You see, not long before this I had taken head shots of my then-girlfriend, Brandi, for a beauty paadgent she had been ask to be in that Christmas of 1999. She was told that she would need a current headshot but didn't have the money to pay a professional photographer to do them. I mentioned to her that I had been pretty good at photography as a kid but had never shot people. I suggested that I try doing some and ended up shooting four rolls of her one overcast December afternoon. I really had no idea what I was doing; I had not touched my Canon T70 in years. I put on my 100mm "portrait lens" and let it rip. Lucky for me Brandi was easy to photograph -- about as fast as I could focus she would be ready to go for another shot. Well, I took the film to a local Winn-Dixie to get it processed and was pleased to find that about ninety precent of the shots came out looking really good with some being a little overexposed or soft but most looking pretty good. This brings us back to Photo 1. One of my favorite shots from that day came back looking overexposed -- I thought it was my screw up. The girl behind the counter and daughter of the owner of the lab, Amanda showed me it wasn't when she handed back the new correct print. It looked soooo much better -- she didn't even charge me. I thanked her and left there with my mind racing -- the light bulb inside it flickering. Here is that shot:

And here is another favorite of mine I got that same day:

I came back up to Photo 1 soon after that with all the negatives from that day of shooting and had them all reprinted -- I was a new customer. After doing so I met Gene Shearl, owner of the place and photographer. He looked at the shots and mentioned that I might should look into photography as a career. I showed them around and other people seemed to think the same thing. The light bulb went off in my head -- at last it felt like I had something to concentrate my efforts on that made sense and felt right.

After that I set out to learn everything I could about photography. I contacted Don Farra -- who I credit today for having such supportive parents when it comes to photography. He had told them years ago that if I had ever expressed interest in photography as a career to encourage it. It was him that that gave my dad the Canon T70 and a couple of lenses to my dad one year before Christmas and told him to pass them on to me. My dad tried to pay him for it and he replied by asking them to just donate the money to a charity of their choice. He continued to give after he found out that I had rediscovered my love for photography -- sending tons of books and magazines on the subject, tons of film, a medium format camera, even a dark room setup.

Gene took me under his wing, too. He allowed me to come along with him to weddings and shoot for him as a intern. He would give me film and just let me shoot and watch him. He allowed me to be in studio with him while doing portraits. He taught me more than I could absorb it seemed. Here is a shot I did of Gene with his cousin Kenny at a wedding we were shooting probably sometime in 2000 (that is Gene on the left):

I asked both Gene and Don back then what or how I could pay them back for their generosity and they BOTH responded by just making me promise to do the same for somebody in the future that is trying to learn and I have tried my best to live up to that request.

I made the decesion in the fall of 2001 to invest in a very well respected advertising/photography school at the time called The Creative Circus here in Atlanta. I started the program that fall and it has been such a ride since then. So many ups and downs. I have changed so much since then -- for the better I think -- but I have paid my price for it. Today marks the end of a decade -- a very scary, wild, fun and emotion filled decade. I have so much and so many to be grateful for and to respectively.

So this blog post is my very own written formal thank you to all those that have helped me along the way. The teachers that have influenced me the most: Don Farra, Gene Shearl, Greg Strelecki, Benita VanWinkle, Robert Rostick, Joe Boris and Carlos Garcia. The talented classmates at The Circus that made me want to work harder in an effort to keep up with you. My friends -- I feel so lucky to have such a cool and diverse group of friends. My family for being so supportive and loving me no matter what and to Jill. We have been dating now for almost three years and you seem to love me regardless of my ups and downs financially and emotionally -- it means the world to me. And last but not least all of you who have hired me in some form or another over the years to work for you in the photography industry -- thank you for having faith in me getting the job done to your liking. All of you have encouraged me in one way or another for the past ten years and for that I can't say thank you enough.

I guess my status update on Facebook earlier today says all of the above in a much more concise way:

"So around this time ten years ago I dicovered a new calling in life -- photography -- and had no idea then how much work and sacrifice would go along with it at that time. I owe a huge thanks to all those who have supported and helped me along the way with it -- here's to another ten years."

This blog post is a much more personal thank you to those of you who have been with me along the way and kind of a visual diary of the past ten years for me photography wise. Here is some of my favorite images I made over the past ten years:

My friend Lynn. This is the first photo I had printed larger and framed nicely for display -- at the time I loved the composition and lighting as well as her expression. I still love it and have the same print hanging on my apartment wall today:

"Forbidden Fruit" This photo is literally the answer to a prayer and was made during a very tough period for me. It's very personal to me and represents kind of a turning point for me in photography school which was everything to me at the time:

This is another really personal shot to me. I couldn't sleep late one night while in school and went out in search of a good photo and came up with this. I call it "Burnt". It is a self-portrait. No photoshop here either - everything that you see can be done in camera with a film like Velvia:

I ran into this man one day at the Cherry Lake crossroads just down from my parents place. I saw him and thanked God that I had my camera with me, went up and introduced myself and then ask if I could make a portrait of him. He said yes and inside of ten minutes I watched him just light up with pride -- it was as if me taking his photograph made his whole year. It was a great reminder of how good I could make somebody feel through making a portrait of them:

My goddaughter Maddie. Her mom and long time friend of mine, Anne, asked me to do a conceptual portrait of her and this is what I came up with. And no, this is not a composite image -- she was actually in the dryer. She was only still for about two seconds -- which is when I caught this:

My nephew Peyton:

My other nephew and Peyton's older brother Dixon:

My buddy Jack's daughter Skye:

I'm torn between the two of these -- so I decided to post them both -- I just love the interaction of father and son in them. This is my friend and client Mace and his son Chapman:

One of my favorite music photos: Coy Bowles of the Zac Brown Band (prior to him joining ZBB). This reminds me of a Pink Floyd album cover -- I would love to do more work like this:

One of my favorite guitarists, the late Sean Costello. I feel lucky to have known him, worked with him and seen him play so many times. He was soooooo talented and such a humble, down-to-earth nice guy. Had he not passed away I think he would have been the Buddy Guy, BB King, Hubert Sumlin etc of the future. He suffered from biopolar disorder -- to learn more about it and hear his music click here:

Jill and I -- a very creepy looking shot -- but I love it. We were just having a good time in a old abandoned house:

My dear mom. My goal one day was to do a portrait of both her and my dad that said something about them. Well, my mom is the most religious person I know so I had to include her Bible in the shot:

And my dad. A geezer amongst geezers, he is. I love this man to death -- he is my hero. One of the most kindhearted and laid back people I have ever met and the expression on his face captures him to a tee. He collects and restores old radios and the cap on his head cocked to the side is just him:

A shot from a series I am doing. This was a church sign here in Atlanta -- I love everything about what it says:

And one of my most recent favorites is this shot of my friends Geoff's son Logan. To others this just might be a picture of a cute kid having a blast while being dangled upside down by one leg. To me it represents the idea of trying to keep a positive attitude even when all that is around you is turned upside down and out of control by anything that life might throw at you.

So here is to another decade of craziness in the world of photography for me. I hope that things will be as interesting as the last.

Cheers and Happy New Year,

Keith

Help-Portrait 2009

2009-12-15T15:37:00.031-06:00

This past weekend myself and thousands of other photographers and volunteers all over the world joined together to give back this Christmas through the Help-Portrait project. I could write a lengthy explanation of what Help-Portrait is -- but this short video clip says it better than I ever could in a lot less time.

So as you can see, it was about everybody coming out just to give - not making it about their work or their portfolios. We came out to shoot knowing that we would never see how the shots we took would turn out or how the people in the shots might react to them (which can be the most rewarding part of doing portraits). It was all done in the interest of helping out those that may never be able to afford to have portraits done in such a way -- it was done to make those in the shots feel good about themselves. Due to privacy issues we cannot share any photos that we did of the people/families from the event. I can, however, share with you the portraits I made of the crew from the location I was at here in Atlanta on Collier Road at the Georgian Hills apartments. Somehow I was the one that got elected to be the one to do the individual shots of all the volunteers -- which is fine by me I guess. It was a fun group to work with and and photograph as you can see in the shots:

Cat Gotti (our fearless leader at the Georgian Hills location):

Ed Selby:

James Pennyman:

Aubry Canales:

Tress Ritter:

Lee Starnes:

Elizabeth Johnston:

Sandra Platten:

Andy Clement:

Can't remember her name:

Can't remember her name either:

The lovely Bron Swart:

David Martinez:

Kevin Voth:

Can't remember her name either - I think she worked for Families First though:

Lil' Kaylinn Gilstrap -- droppin' da gangsta signs! Word:

And yours truly:

For a more comprehensive collection of the shots I did click here.

Thank all of you guys for allowing me to capture a little bit of who you are in these shots -- I had never really met or talked to all but two of you prior to Saturday. And props to each of you for for coming out and putting your time and hearts towards such a good cause. Mega props to Cat and all other location leaders for enduring the extra stress that went along with running a location.

Also thank you David Martinez for doing these group shots of all those working at the Georgia Hills location and for the excellent behind-the-scenes video of the crew working (which I think has too much of me in it -- but is still nicely done):

Please remember that there are lots of ways to give -- so think of just one way (or a few ways) and go do it for no reason other than to see somebody smile or make them happy and feel important. In my experience it always feels better to give than to take when you are giving to somebody that appreciates it -- for both parties involved.

Merry Christmas Everybody.

I Shoot Babies, Too

2009-11-19T14:59:00.010-06:00

Just wanted to share these shots I did recently of Logan, who is the five month old son of a high school buddy of mine. Kind of hard not to look at them and not have your spirits lifted a bit -- they make your heart smile. It can be a real challenge / pain shooting kids at times, but it's all worth it when they give you just that one great but fleeting expression that you manage to catch in the camera. I was lucky enough for Logan to have given me multiple expressions like that. Check it out:

If you care to see a few more than just click here. I might be posting even more soon -- because these do not even begin to show all the good expressions I got out of him. It feels good when a shoot goes well with kids like this leaving the parents and myself happy with the outcome. You are at the kids mercy when it comes to getting good shots of them at a young age -- so cheers to Logan for giving me such a great opportunity.

Commercial Photography: At least I'm Not The Only One Stressed Out By It

2009-11-17T15:07:00.007-06:00

"Stressful jobs that pay badly: High stress and a meager paycheck are just another day at the office. Here are 15 of the most overworked and underpaid professions out there" is the title and headline of the story that my friend and fellow photographer Carlos Garcia made me aware of earlier today on CNNMoney.com. It was no surprise to me that commercial photography came in at number eight on the list - stating that the median average photographers salary is $43,600.00 with 100% of those in the field stating that is a very stressful job. This statement is so right on the money: "The job may sound glamorous, but commercial photographers, who capture models, merchandise and landscapes for books, advertisements and catalogs, have to contend with long days, picky personalities and demanding deadlines -- sometimes withstanding precarious positions just to get that perfect shot."

So in all fairness -- being a commercial photographer can be really, really, really interesting, fun, and challenging way to make a living -- but it does come at a price. Sometimes I wonder what I have gotten myself into getting into this field -- but at the same time I can't imagine myself doing anything else. Being a commercial photographer is not just something you do -- it is something you are. It is not a career: it is a lifestyle filled with highs and lows.

Here's to more highs for everybody in the business.

Keith