The Fan

Yard Ornaments

Haley and I went to her parent’s for Thanksgiving. On the way there we pass a home that every year has dozens of lawn ornaments outside. I’m told that they were at once for sale. Haley and I stopped in a bank parking lot close by where I got the tripod out and took some shots of a few of them. Nothing too artistic but they’re interesting. I’m going to try to take plenty of Christmas photographs this year so I can get in the holiday spirit; something I haven’t done since I was a kid.

Sharon Power

A few weeks ago I had a contest. The winner was a girl named Sharon and the prize was a free photo shoot. We had talked for a few weeks about what we’re going to do but we never really seemed to get it together. What we had discussed was some cool toned, depressive, minimalist photos taken at her home. Well, we never really got that worked out either. Yesterday we met with no definite plans. She came with outfits I’d never seen with a vague idea where she would like to shoot and we were off. I’d never shot so blindly so I was pretty nervous and had little confidence in my ability to adapt to whatever environment I was thrown into. I still get nervous before every shoot, fully expecting myself to fall on my face and not get any good shots. It also didn’t help that she had never been to any of these places either. She was, however, an excellent model and the photos reflect that. Here are a few examples of that shoot. The rest can be seen on my Flickr page.

I’m pretty happy with the results of our work. I’m thrilled with the tonal range of the photos. I’ve been fond of using warm tones in the past and wanted to flex my muscles using cool ones. I think photographers, and artists in general, can sometimes get caught in a rut and produce similar work to what they’ve done in the past. I try to go out of my way to make each shoot very different from the rest, I hope that shows.

Funny Photos

Yesterday I talked to Dave Coulier online. More importantly he talked back. It was brief but it happened. I’ve been excited about him coming to The Funny Bone for weeks. I mean, who doesn’t like Uncle Joey? More importantly to me, he was the voice of Peter Venkman on The Real Ghostbusters from 1987 to 1991. I happen to have the complete collection, which I’m going to take for him to sign.

Working at The Funny Bone has been not only exciting but challenging. In the past month or so I’ve been working more and more with manual settings on my camera. It’s gotten to the point I use manual settings about 75% of the time when I shoot. I’ve worked out all kinds of issues just by shooting on a regular basis. The first time I shot there it was for The Disgruntled Clown. He’s quickly become a really good friend of mine and I look forward to the next time he’s in town. He gives me Hell if I don’t call him from time to time. I’ve never seen anyone work a crowd like him.

I’ve also worked with one of my new favorite comedians, Dave Waite. He hasn’t hit that stardom level yet but he’s getting there quick. Give him another week or so. He’s just too funny to not shoot straight to the top. He had me crying the first time I saw him. He and I have talked briefly a few times and he’s a really cool guy.

I didn’t get to talk to The Tennessee Tramp very long. What I experienced though was someone who was genuinely warm and friendly. She was very approachable and social. If you haven’t seen her show it’s something you won’t forget.

So was Brad Williams, in fact he approached me. He told me I must be one of the comedians because of the tie I was wearing. Anyone who knows me is aware of my fondness for fat 70s ties with terrible prints. Nice guy with a really funny act. He doesn’t rely on the physical comedy as much as he could which I respect. He could have done a whole lot more about being a midget but he was genuinely funny on a wide variety of subjects.

Tim Northern is definitely one of my new favorites. When I saw him he was up against a tough crowd. I found it hard not to explode laughing at times. I remember trying to quietly hang over the balcony to get a shot and he told a grammar joke. Before I knew it my laughter echoed above the crowd which garnered me odd looks. His is a different humor and if you don’t get it or don’t like it you’re most likely just not that bright. He and I hung out a little that night talking about social issues, religion, and economics.

Clay Miles is another great up and coming comedian I met there. He has a relatively clean comedy that appeals to a wide audience. He has a LOT of energy on stage and can get people laughing quick. We’ve actually corresponded more online than in person. He’s utilized my photos as I feel they should be. I give all of these comedians access to my photos, some don’t seem to care but like a great business man Clay jumped all over the chance to get free publicity shots. And that’s fine with me as long as I get credit. He’s taken one of my photos and used it as a banner for a new website he’s working on, and he’s also made at least one poster.

I didn’t get a chance to talk to John Evans. I had just gotten back from an extended weekend trip to Virginia and had a 4 hour car ride then immediately went to The Funny Bone. I didn’t stick around, I was toasted. He was, however, hilarious. He could work a crowd very well. If you’re obviously bored or talking you might just want to leave because he’ll call you out on it and in the process make himself funnier and you an ass.

And Courtney Gee gave me a card with a bad email address. If you read this and want your photos you know where to find me. Not only was he funny, he was a professional. I love when a comedian will just sit back and enjoy another comedian’s work. There were times I heard his laughter across the room when he was watching John Evans.

So taking photos at The Funny Bone is pretty cool. I’m looking forward to meeting some of the comedians in the next few months. Tom is really bringing in some big names. This week I get to see Dave Coulier. The next time you’re in there pay attention to the photos on the walls. Right now I’ve got two up but soon enough I’ll have a respectable collection of comic photos at The Funny Bone.

Tea and Cake or Death!

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged on a regular basis. At least a week. I’ve been very busy trying to wrap up my thesis, which has turned out to be over 100 pages. The current version is making it’s way through my thesis committee and will be given back to me after Thanksgiving, at which point I will revise it a final time. So right now I’m waiting, and while I wait I’ve decided to take on a new project. It’s a version of the 365 day self portrait project but I definitely know people don’t want to see 365 photos of my ugly mug so I tweaked it. Every day I’m going to try to photograph something mundane to me, some everyday thing around the house. If I’m away for the weekend it will be something where I happen to be. The point is to push myself into seeing photographable material, keep me active, and help me practice technique. Haley is currently doing something similar but taking photos of something that represents the day for her. I’ve been doing this for 5 days now with mixed results.

Day 1 was just me wanting to capture something orange, my favorite color. I like the humor of having an obviously candy drink in a juice glass.

Day 2 was an attempt at minimalist black and white, something I’ve done very little of. This is a candle Haley’s had for years.

Day 3…well…I’m not sure what it was. My muse wasn’t working well that day. I was going for shape but I’m not entirely happy with it.

I might be even less happy with day 4’s photo. I’m not done trying to photograph my pipe collection.

And today’s photo is a tribute to my favorite comedian, Eddie Izzard. In Dress to Kill he talks about the Spanish Inquisition and how it would never happen with the Church of England because you can’t have extreme points of view. He cries out, “you must have tea and cake with the Vicar, or you die!” Then goes into his most famous bit about choosing between “tea and cake or death”. I highly recommend Dress to Kill to anyone with a brain, especially anyone with a fondness for history and a tolerance for a British man dressed as a woman. With that, here’s today’s photo.

The Cunning Ham

I’ve not been blogging like I should, I’ve been concentrating on my thesis this week. It’s put me behind on everything else. I definitely wanted to get today’s done though because not only is this one of my favorites, this is several other people’s favorites as well. Had some requests for this one.

Searching for a Decent Skyline

By: Aaron Varble

Time slips through your hands in ways that you never thought possible. Have you ever had a moment where you had to widen your eyes, look around you and check your wreck? As I stood on top of Smith Hall, essentially 9 stories high looking down on Marshall University’s campus on that piss cold July night in Huntington West Virginia I really had to check myself. As the rain stung me in the face I looked up next to me, standing on a huge stack of unpacked roofing material was Justin Brock taking a picture of the Huntington skyline. This was the same Brock that had the previous distinct privilege of being the subject of a little game that I liked to call “Annoy the Crap Out Of Brock Until He Kicks You The Hell Out Of His Room” when we went to school at ***** ****** College years prior. I would sit on his bed or an adjacent chair and call Eric Clapton gay or keep asking him how to spell words as he tried to focus on his computer screen or television screen until he would finally break and announce “GET THE HELL OUT!”. And I always did, just to return sometime in the next hour.

“I think we’re getting some really great shots” Brock said as he stood up on top of this probably very unsafe stack of roofing material.

“Great” I said looking back up, having to shield my glasses from the rain. “I hope they work!”

“I hope I get paid” Brock quipped back

“Me too, but god knows I don’t” I said. We were talking about Up Late with Jamie LoFiego. It had already consumed my existence at that point. This is why I was up there, to get some skyline shots of the city of Huntington West Virginia to use on the back lit backdrop of the new set. We were going HD and excitement was in the air. I’m still not quite sure why Brock was up there. He wanted to start taking his photography on a more legit level.

He was always taking pictures, even at ***** *****.

Except he wanted to extent his portfolio beyond photos of the baseball team getting away Scott-free with showing up hours after curfew, and drunk as piss, and offense that would have rendered any other student expelled.  Jamie had already seen Brock’s shots, and he liked them. We were going to use a lot of them as bump shots in-between commercials, some pictures I remember him showing me when we were at ***** ***** together. One of them was one of the only reasons that he ever knocked on my door when we lived in the dorms.

“Dude, come down here and look at this picture!” Brock said to me as I opened my dorm door.

“What is it?” I said, surprised to see Brock and not an RA asking, “what’s that smell?”

“Just come down here” Brock said as he turned and went to his room. I lit and incense and walked down the hall to Brock’s. “Check this out!” Brock said to me as he showed me a picture of a haggard looking middle aged Creeker (a resident of Caney Creek) riding a little girl’s bicycle. “What do you think?” he asked. Brock had just gotten a digital camera. I could tell he was enthused in capturing time. It is kinda cool when you think about it.

“I’m gonna take one with **** **** *****” (it is censored because I honestly don’t remember what he said but it was something in nifty photographer speak). Brock said to me as he jumped down from the pile of roofing material. “Then we’re outa here”. As we looked at the skyline of Huntington a red glow was stirring in the horizon, who knows if it was due to the rain, or the cosmic karmic irony that made that night look so damn unusual, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

“Jamie better like these!” Brock said, “cause I’m not coming back up here again!” (we went back up to that roof to take skyline pictures two more times before it was done)… “And I better get paid” (to this day Brock has not been paid).

“I hope he likes them too” I said looking over at Brock. I walked over to the edge of the roof and starred down at the Bike Night festivities at the BBQ restaurant below us. “Taking Care of Business” blared out over the noise of Harley’s raging. “Not a bad cover, Bachman-Turner Overdrive would be proud” I said.

“It’s a recording” Brock said as we heard the voice of the singer wish someone a happy birthday. “Oops” he said smugly. Brock hoped back up on the stack of roofing materials and checked his shots. The rain was clearing up a bit. “These look good” he said.

“Groovy” I replied as he handed his tripod, now sans camera down to me. As I folded up the tripod I laughed at the chances that my expertise as a producer would extend the entire gambit of Brock.

My first job as a producer was at WWJD (not making that up) as producer of a show called “Brock Talk” a political/social commentary radio call-in show, that if we had an audience that had an intellectual conversational ability that extended beyond hunting, fishing, and NASCAR then it would have been very popular, instead “Brock Talk” was only a venue for other DJ’s to call in to nonsensically plug their own shows, damn shame.

My most recent gig as a producer (executive producer at that) is at Up Late with Jamie LoFiego, a late-night comedy talk show.  I had given up on radio as I had already had the epiphany that radio was full of douche bags, and it was also an extremely archaic form of media and moved onto television, but for some reason the gods had put us back together. Brock’s work can be viewed behind Jamie’s desk on a weekly basis now, right along a wide-array of guest of any B-list (or lower) greatness.

Brock packed up his camera, one light-years superior than the one that he cut his teeth on, spying on the privileged baseball in the parking lot across the street from his dorm window 3 stories up. Now he was sporting a camera with gnarly features and digital glory 9 stories up, but still looking over and seeing the same fat douchebag, me.

Holidays

So the holidays are coming up. I’ve been blogging for several weeks now and have rarely plugged my store. Today I’m going to do a shameless plug. The artistic photography I’m doing just doesn’t bring in the money; that’s why the term starving artist is such a cliche.

There’s a bit of bitterness that comes with art. You find people are more than happy to support you in spirit and say things like “I love your work” but you can’t buy bread on other people’s appreciation. Or worse yet, people download your work, effectively stealing from you. But even appreciation doesn’t come easy. I’ve learned this the hard way when select out-of-town friends drove hours to attend my art show in September but many local friends chose not to support me. While art is personally rewarding, it shows the value people put on friendships. I’ve heard this is a common thing in any artistic endeavor.

I’m hoping the holidays will be a time where I can actually make some money on my photography. I mean, art makes a good gift right? Better your money go to someone you know than a corporation like Wal Mart right? Because holidays are tough for everyone, I’m counting on at least a few purchases to help. Here comes the shameless plug: I have an online store on Etsy here if you like my work. If you don’t see something you like most things on my Flickr account here are available upon request. And if you would rather deal with me in person and avoid the internet purchase I have a Myspace, a Facebook page, and this blog.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have supported me in the last few months in whatever capacity you’ve done it. That is to everyone whether we were friends before or whether you chose to hire me to take photos and we have become friends.

The Hard Hitter

I get a lot of hits on my blog for the Alice Lloyd Photos, last Friday it was over 100. This is by far one of my favorite photos taken that last year at college.

I’d also like to take another direction today and share a video I recorded on my digital camera on one of the last Convocations I attended. I don’t remember who the speaker was, this was simply Dean James’ introduction of some nameless faceless suit who took the stage and told us how to run our lives.

Now, lets be honest. 99% of us ALC students don’t remember 99.9% of the speakers we saw at Convocation let alone what they said. There was a play once, I don’t remember what it was. There was once a guy telling us the time was NOW but I don’t remember what it was time for but it sure as hell wasn’t time for convo to end. The one that stands out the most to me was a man in a black suit and a comb over who basically stood at the podium and stared at his notes the whole time and read them glancing at the crowd once every 7 minutes. He could have been an animatronic cardboard cut out for all I know. It was a required convocation and he was, of course, a mover and shaker in the community. I’m sure he was talking about leadership or some such thing.

Anyway, it was by chance that I recorded this. These are words I’ve remembered in the years since I heard them and I occasionally watch this video to put myself in perspective in relation to everyone else in the world. It was one of those moments where it hit me how small I was and how I was only one of billions of people just like me just trying to get by in the world and how ridiculous it is that we don’t help each other out. I’d like to encourage you all to click here to watch.

For the Love of Music

Photography is a passion of mine, but it isn’t the first. Anyone who knows me knows I’m obsessed with music, and I’ve been called a music Nazi on more than one occasion. This is also kind of where I’m hoping my photography will take me. My first experience with shooting musicians was in 2006 when Buddy Guy, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and Charlie Musselwhite graced the stages at Tall Stacks in Cincy. This was incredibly exciting to me because I’m a fan of all three acts. At the time I was still using a 5 megapixel point and shoot camera from Wal Mart, but as one person aptly put it, I rode that camera hard. I pushed it to the fullest extent and I believe I came away with some great shots.

There was a long period after that where I didn’t get any more decent shots of live music. Not to say I didn’t go see concerts, I frequent blues concerts and try to see at least a few acts every year. I’ve seen Clapton, B.B., Keb’Mo’, Dr. John, Bo Diddley, and a variety of others. The problem is that most venues don’t allow cameras. When Haley and I recently went to see Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt they actually took her camera away. Soon after I got the Nikon we went to a blues festival in Manchester, Oh. It was an open air concert and it was the first time I was able to experiment with the new equipment on live music. I think some of the shots came out well. Towards the end I was getting a little ballsy and all but went up on the stage.

Recently I’ve taken advantage of local venues where friends play. I got to photograph Branden Meade in bad lighting in Charleston. That allowed me to push myself further.

And I’m often invited to The V Club by Aaron Varble to take some shots of him on stage. He knows I like the practice and he likes the photos.

I’v also shot a few sets for Chaz Worm there.

But I really don’t care if I know the artist or not. I got some great shots of this performer recently and I have no idea how to notify her. Help me out if you know who this is. I know her name is Anne Cline but that’s about all I got.

A recent development has me pretty happy. I’ve been asked by the owner, Tom, to be the photographer for the Huntington Funny Bone. This means every week I get to meet famous and semi-famous comedians and further hone my craft. This is a recent favorite of mine, the subject is Dave Waite, a comedian from Cincy who’s sure to make it big any week now.

I’ve gotten work with musicians in the past but hopefully I’ll get paid to shoot live and posed musician shots on a regular basis. I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had with Aaron, Branden and Sasha Colette. I’d love to have some planned-out posed shots with some of the blues giants I listen to on a daily basis. The opportunity to work with people like Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton would be something I wouldn’t pass up for anything.