In the Yard

I always hated working in the yard. For at least one weekend every summer my brother and sister and I would have to help my mom and dad rake up leaves, pull weeds, pick up the trimmings left behind by the shears and repaint the benches and rocks in the front of the house that had been stripped of their life by the winter. As far as I was concerned though, summer was summer and one weekend was one weekend too much to spend on the yard.

Things are different now. I look forward to giving a haircut to an out of control yard. I have a few ideas as to the reasons my attitude has changed, but mostly, I like getting dirty and hanging out with my wife on our one day off together.

Last Saturday we spent about 7 hours in the yard. It had been about a month since we had done anything more than mow the grass, and it was bursting. We were able to get a lot done though, including throwing down about 8 gallons of some really disgusting compost. Afterwards, as the sun was going down I busted out the lights and attempted to make a portrait of Deborah.

I don’t practice lighting as much as I’d like to. It was slow. Thankfully D was willing, and patient.

Retouched

I came across this opinion about the possible legislation in France regarding disclosure of retouched photos while visiting the David Byrne Journal.

“French public health officials are considering laws that would ban the promotion of eating disorders — including a requirement that magazines reveal the extent to which their images have been artificially retouched. It’s viewed as a public health issue because girls and boys (and men and women) are feeling increasingly ashamed of their bodies as they compare themselves to what they see all around them — images of bodies that are not real, that have been photoshopped, digitally airbrushed and heavily modified.”

Up North

My fiancee, Deborah, and I went up to Minnesota for a week in the beginning of October. My brother beat both me and my sister in the Twin Cities Marathon (the reason for the trip) by 7 and 8 minutes, respectively, and after two days of recovery, D and I headed further north. There is some debate about exactly where “up north” begins in Minnesota. It may begin somewhere around the center of the state in Brainerd, MN which is where a talking statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox stood as the welcoming committee to the state’s upper region before the pair was loaded sideways on the flatbed of a tractor-trailer and relocated. But really, I think “up north” is a state of mind that begins once you are able to get away from everything else. Up north can be anywhere.

We spent a couple days in Duluth, MN at the Voyageur Lakewalk Inn, a throwback motel in the downtown area near the lake shore. Liquor stores close at 10 pm in Minnesota, and as we found out from the hotel manager, after then you have to cross the bridge to go to Superior, WI for a drink. We went to get a six-pack and he asked if we’d grab him a bottle of Crown Royal since we were going that way. It was that kind of motel. We happily obliged.

Deborah commented on the light in northern Minnesota as having a Spirit. She added that she’s felt it before in Santa Fe, New Mexico as well. It was crisp, but maybe that was the just the cold air messing with our senses. We’ve got wonderful orange and pink dripping hot sweaty sunlight down here in Florida. Up there it seemed blue and clear, even sharp at times. But good light is good light, no matter where you are and it certainly added to the trip especially considering we were there while the leaves were changing color.

The main goal of the vacation was to get lost, and we managed to do it a few times. Here are a few photos from the weekend.

FADER – Brisco

I’ve been fortunate to have shot a few assignments for FADER magazine over the past year. It’s an honor to be asked to contribute to a publication that utilizes a lot of incredible documentary photographers and uses their photography extremely well. So when the new issue came in the mail the other day I was excited to see that the latest assignment I shot for them about a rapper named Brisco from South Florida was used for the opening of the Gen-F section.

RNC – Day 4

We wandered to the State Capitol building at around 3:30 pm and within 15 minutes the police swarmed in on bikes and horses and arrested a couple of young looking kids who were just sitting there on the lawn. The police wouldn’t answer as to why they were being arrested. It was just a show of force to let people know that they were ready to go on the final day, a day that had been predicted to have the largest show of violence of the week.

That event kicked off a march. The permit had expired by this time, but it didn’t stop people from marching. It was cut off by the police at every bridge leading downtown. They had to keep delegates and protesters separated, and they did. There were about three standoffs which, despite a few pepper-spray instances, broke down without a large incident.

We broke off to head to the convention when we saw that the group began marching again and was coming toward us. We asked if we could be let through the police line to head downtown and were laughed at by a smug officer who reveled in his ability to make us walk an extra 3/4 mile to get around the police line. Then, while walking off, I believe we intentionally got REALLY bad directions (which we thankfully chose to ignore) from another officer. Whatever. Some of the police had a good nature despite the situation, and some didn’t.

That smug officer actually did me a favor though. At Sunset, while walking all the way around the world to get to the Excel Energy Center to catch McCain’s speech I ran into Mark Jensen, an old friend and mentor who I hadn’t seen since a few years after college. He is an insightful documentary photographer who got me hooked on photography while teaching me how to print b&w photos for the Instructional Support Services department at the University of St. Thomas. He was there with his wife Abbey. We were talking about the scene around town this week when, from about a half-mile away, we began to hear the firing of the smoke grenades and tear gas canisters.

We said goodbye and I told them I was going to go check out the Marion bridge. Police had the each entrance of the bridge blocked. The south entrance was barricaded with two snowplows and a couple other vehicles. On the north side of the bridge stood a thick line of police officers. Sitting down in between, on the bridge, were the 290 people being arrested one-by-one, while further to the north people could be seen moving around in a well-lit parking lot.

Police kept onlookers at a pretty good distance, and without a long lens, it was difficult to see anything. It was getting late and McCain’s speech was starting soon, so I went to the Excel Energy Center.

I got in and made a couple of laps around the 100 level. I couldn’t get on to the floor so I was stuck in the cheap seats, which was just fine. I was able to make a couple of pictures from the hallway around the convention and after the balloons dropped I headed down to the floor where there were all kinds of TV interviews happening and balloons popping, and people tearing down and cleaning up. I met a couple very nice people down there and had fun hanging out on the stage.

The night ended at The Smiling Gnome where we discoverd the wonders of Cliff Richard and watched a so-bad-its-good Billy Squire video. The bar was open until 4 am and had food and wireless access. We were there until about 3:45 when my sister-in-law took me to the airport for a 6 am flight. Plane..sleep…over.

RNC – Day 3

Wednesday, Day 3, at the RNC was relatively calm for me, and it was just what I needed after the previous night. Tuesday was a strange night because within a half hour I went from being in the middle of a police action, in which I inhaled tear gas and was pepper sprayed, to eating dinner with my family at the Green Mill restaurant in St. Paul. I almost didn’t make it to dinner but I got some great help from a couple of protesters who let me use their phone (mine was out of juice) to call my sister-in-law to let her know where I was. She and my brother then picked me up on John Ireland Boulevard while I tried to circumvent the police lines and make it to our meeting place so we could go to dinner. We were 5 minutes late, but I think that was a victory. I got to see my ENTIRE immediate family and my cousin who came out to meet us. It’s always great to hang out with family. It’s even better when my mom has a couple beers, which she did. This time was just as much fun, but it was definitely an odd feeling sitting in a restaurant enjoying the time while knowing what had just happened downtown. The dichotomy between freedom and a police state became strikingly clear. At one point, footage from earlier in the night came on television and I saw myself running away from the police while sitting in the restaurant eating my meal.

I spent most of Wednesday hanging out in Rice Park where the light was beautiful and bouncing around between the tall, light colored buildings that acted like giant reflectors. It was nice to be able to slow down for a minute. On top of that I ran into a couple of friends from Minnesota who I haven’t seen in a while. Mentally it was a good day, and I made a few photos before heading into the Excel Energy Center just in time to hear speeches by Rudy “drill baby drill” Giuliani and Sarah Palin.

RNC – Day 2

Day 2 at the RNC got started with a concert up the street at the State Capitol building. Anti-Flag played the last set, but Rage Against The Machine is in town and once word got out that the group was there on the grounds, anticipation began to build in the crowd in hopes of a show. The police felt the anticipation too as was evident by the third helicopter that began circling the area following the Anti-Flag show. Despite plenty of encouragement from the crowd, they did not play. However, Zack de la Rocha still came out to address the group and RATM blue balls was somewhat avoided. He asked people to be thoughtful about their protests, and spoke about the working class commonalities between the protesters and many of the police, encouraging opposition to be aimed toward the people INSIDE the Excel Energy Center. He then held a memorable two-song a capella show with a mega-phone.

The march that followed began and ended peacefully, but once it broke up it was designated an unlawful assembly by the chief of police, who made the announcement over a loudspeaker with nearly a hundred riot police lined up at the intersection. Next to the famous Mickey’s Diner people were warned about the use of chemical agents if they did not disperse. The crowd began to leave…slowly. They must not have been moving quickly enough however because after about 10 minutes a concussion grenade was launched, followed by smoke bombs, tear gas, and pepper spray. I did not see any sort of instigation for the action (unlike the day before where protesters ran directly into a police line), and heard the same report echoed on CNN later that night. 

 

 

Photo Future

Vincent Laforet put it on table with a heavy article on Sportsshooter.com yesterday. It’s a good read from an industry heavyweight, and although it comes off as a lot of doom and gloom, it simply lays out the obstacles that many photographers may face in the future, and calls for innovation and creativity to deal with a changing marketplace.

from Sportsshooter.com…

I’ll leave you with this. If I were 22-years old right out of college looking for a job or a career path, I wouldn’t be focusing on working on x newspaper to get to y newspaper and then eventually z magazine with my 20 image portfolio that contains 2 spot news photos, 4 sports pix, 4 feature photos, and a 10 picture story. That model is dead – to put it bluntly. I’d be thinking big – realizing that I have a chance to be a pioneer in this new world of opportunity. Trying to think up of the next big thing.         

The next best way that photography and visual journalism can be shared with others and a way of packaging it and delivering it that has yet to exist. I’d be excited. Perhaps I’d consider creating my own web publication, and finding news ways to promote it and to generate income – as opposed to relying on the media giants that rely on the “old world business models” and rights-grabbing contracts. Because the future has never been this wide open and it has never been this easy to reach out to your audience.

On the flip side…sort of…

Matt Eich, a very talented and inspiring photographer, has a great Q&A on the Photoshelter Blog that shares his viewpoint as an emerging professional on a number of topics including the decline of the newspaper industry. He believes strong community can help us wade through the thick waters that Laforet alludes to in his article.

From Photoshelter… 

Q. We hear about the decline of the photo industry practically every day. What’s it like to be a newly minted professional, and worrying about making a living from photography?       

A. I’m no different than any other student about to be thrust out into this changing world, feeling extremely green and largely unprepared for a life of freelance. For the longest time newspapers have been looked at as a safe-haven for those who want job security. So many of my friends have been laid off from their newspaper jobs in recent months, it is really discouraging. I’m very grateful to be surrounded by a group of folks who have managed to make ends meet as photographers and are willing to share their knowledge of how to make it all work. Hopefully if we all pool our knowledge and are willing to help one another out we can all make it through these rough patches in the industry.  

And hopefully they will just be rough patches. Regardless, both of them hit it on the head. Innovation, creativity and community, hard work and a little luck – and a few weddings to photograph – will get us rolling strong.