A Post From New York

Okay, I know I should be updating this and everything, seeing as I'm in NYC, taking photos, etc, but I really just don't have much time. That said, I feel that at least one post is necessary. Even if it is just four photos. More are coming soon, I promise. With more interesting stores/writing too, as right now I'm so tired I can barely type.



I was out with friends at the South Street Seaport when I caught this rainbow at sunset. I'm pretty sure everyone with a camera near the East River had it out taking photos of this.

The rest of the photos are from the pier at Coney Island. I've been there about three times now, and every time I like it even more. It's one of those places that seems to attract almost every type of person, no matter the background. Even though it may not be the place it was in the '50s and '60s, it still has the allure of the American golden age.







Later this week, I'll be posting a photoshoot I did with Caitlin involving a NATO gasmask. Get excited.

Chronicles of a bored photographer, pt. 4

So, two days late. Admittedly, that's pretty much par for the course with this blog. I'm pretty sure there aren't too many people sitting there, refreshing their browsers on Mondays and Thursdays anyway.

About a month ago, I was asked to take photos of a program the National Fiddler Hall of Fame was doing in order to expose kids to western swing music. Here in Tulsa, western swing music makes up a significant part of this town's cultural history. The Cain's Ballroom (Tulsa's primary music venue and an overall really cool place) was the site of nationwide broadcasts by musician Bob Wills and his band, The Texas Playboys. In fact, this was what gained the Cain's its notoriety.

As a living demonstration of our town's musical past, local musicians Rick Morton, Shelby Eicher and Mark Bruner (left to right, below) dressed up as Bob Wills and his band and put on a show at a local elementary school similar to those broadcast from the Cain's in the 1930's.



That "Cain's: Home of Bob Wills" is a replica of the one that's currently in the actual Cain's Ballroom downtown.



Mark played the voice of KVOO, the local station which hosted the original Bob Wills broadcasts.



Whenever I've seen these guys play together, whether in an elementary school or a nice restaurant, it's apparent that they absolutely love what they're doing. It's really cool to see people who care that much about the music they make.





After the show, Shelby and Rick took some kids aside and showed them the basics of their instruments. Here, Shelby shows a few kids his violin, which is somewhere in the range of 300 years old. Needless to say, it sounds pretty nice.

It was really interesting to see so many kids being exposed to music that would have otherwise likely slipped far under their radars. Even in a town where western swing was a dominating cultural force, that force has since faded. People like Mark, Shelby and Rick remind us that this music is more than just relevant, it's a style that has major historical implications for both the development of modern music as well as our city's cultural building blocks. Plus, it's a lot of fun to listen to.

Chronicles of a bored photographer, pt. 2

Well, I'm at least trying to keep this up, even though I'm a day late...

There was a meet-up for Tulsa-area strobist folks, and while I'm not an avid reader of said blog, it's at least cool most of the time. So, I decided to go.



Corey (http://www.flickr.com/people/coreylack/), the guy who set all this up, brought a few models for us to shoot. This one was shot outside, in natural light, with a reflector.



That would be Corey. He built a beauty dish out of a CD case and an old floodlight, and stuck his 580 in it. It created a really, really cool catch light in his eye.



He then crawled into a drainage tunnel where there was a bit of concrete missing from the roof. We tried to do things with lights in here, but I was never really able to get a good one.

This whole experience makes me want to start building some kind of lighting setup. Maybe I will soon, who knows.

Chronicles of a bored photographer, pt. 1

So, summer back home is less photography and more photofinishing. I got a job at Wolf Camera, and I haven't really been doing much actual photo work at all. Which is sad.

But! To keep myself doing SOMETHING, I've decided to do regular twice-weekly updates of this thing. Every Monday and Thursday, I'll have at least one photo and mediocre commentary. Hopefully, this will keep me thinking about actually shooting.

Today's photo was actually taken about a month and a half ago.


When I was in Columbia, I saw Stars play a show at the Blue Note. I mostly went because a bunch of friends were going and I kinda liked the band. Turns out their live show was completely and totally mindblowing. They took my expectations, buried them alive and danced on their grave. No really. Plus, they had flowers.

I developed this film (Tri-X 400 @ 2400) in my laundry room. This is yet another reason I need to be shooting more: The laundrydarkroom is pretty amazing. It's very cool to be able to shoot, develop, scan and print all at my house. I kinda love it.

So, I'm hoping I'll be able to keep this up and not totally forget.

Everything Reminds Me Of Summer

I've been going over photos of my Route 66 trips taken about 8 months ago for an art photography magazine I'm working with, and I've come to the conclusion that last summer may have been the best time of my life.



It started with music, both my band's first show at a coffee shop in Broken Arrow and the Riverfield band's annual show. It was something I could show up to with a group of friends and just relax the whole time. Nothing hugely stressful, just songs I liked to play and sing. Of course, I thought it was stressful at the time; anytime I get on stage, I tense up. But now, I look back on it and realize I got stress confused with excitement.



Those friends I spent time with have grown distant over the last few months. I simply don't have time to call and talk to as many people from home as I'd like, and as a result, some of those relationships suffer. In my eyes, this is a terrible shame. Those people from the city I spent almost the entirety of my life in essentially created my personality. I owe them absolutely everything, and some days, it's hard to cope with the fact that I no longer see them every day, that when I go to class or meet someone at a coffee shop, I see different faces. Friendly, nonetheless, but not the same.







Then there was the road. Most people wouldn't understand how waking up at 7AM and driving for close to 15 hours just to come back to the place where you left could be something that was remotely desirable, much less one of the most enjoyable ways to spend time I have ever found. In Erick, OK, right on the Texas border, we waited on our food for what seemed like an eternity, both of us deathly exhausted, falling asleep on each other at the table. Yet, even starving, tired, and a few hundred miles from home, I found that moment to be something more infinitely memorable than any of the times I have eaten after sleeping for 8 hours here at school. And this is only one example from this trip, probably one of the least potent. There's the abandoned house, the beach outside of Oklahoma City with soft-drinks and a small lake, the museums that all had SX-70s, every little bit I've put together in a photographic collage in my head.







It seems strange that I just decided to reminisce now, considering it has been so long since the summer ended. But really, I think I'm only stopping to type this all out because I have finally allowed myself to look back again. This summer will probably be spent at home, with the same people in the same places. The only difference is the wider gulf that opened when I went to Columbia and everyone else stayed in Oklahoma. What this means for me remains to be seen; I just hope that I can find half of the unexpected experiences this year as I did the last.