On Assignment: Greenville, North Carolina-Day One

"The Touch" by Wes Aldridge

Tired.

Symbol of Civility

"Ride On, Rosa" by Wes Aldridge

I wanted to share this shot from my time in Alabama and tonight is the night. The large and beautiful white building in the background of the shot is the Alabama State Capital. In the foreground is the bus Rosa Parks decided to assert her God given rights of equality on. The bus tours the city, rich in civil rights history, during the daytime. I just happened to be standing across the street from the capital building when the bus drove by. I think I was pretty lucky on this one. This one strikes me as being politically strong because the capital being a symbol of the Old South and the bus driving by representing the struggles from oppression that people of color fought against in the days of Rosa.

My time (short though it was) in Montgomery was special and I will be making another visit to this city. I really felt like I connected to it and there was much history that I needed to try and take in there. Something that I observed there struck me as strange. There was a quietness in the city streets. No loud traffic with engines revving and horns blowing. No people talking loudly or rushing about. No, there was only the breeze blowing through the air and the beads of sweat running down my back. I guess the tension in Montgomery in the past was enough noise to last a lifetime.

Garden Delight

"Pinkie" by Wes Aldridge

Blah blah blah pink. Blah blah blah flower. Blah blah blah pretty.

A Brothers' Find

"The Plant" by Wes Aldridge

Tonight was great. After spending time with the family today for my father's birthday, I needed a blog shot.

I asked my brother to go on a search with me. We drove around our county for hours searching for a shot with little luck. I didn't mind because I wanted to hang out with him more than I was even worried with finding a cool shot to post. After driving forever, we found our way back to Tunnel Hill. We went down by the old namesake train tunnels that give the city its name, and my brother said, "That chicken feed plant looks kind of creepy." What the hell, lets give it a look, I thought. After setting up the tripod and taking a couple of shots, I knew he was right because it was looking pretty cool. I think the exposure was something around 30 seconds at f/4.5 at ISO 100.

We ended up screwing around for an hour down there with my off camera flash, popping it on my face to make multiple images of me in the shot. It was really fun and looked kind of evil, but a little too cheezy for me to post. The bottom line was we were having a great time coming up with ideas to mess around with the shot. Its times like this one that make me wish I was in Atlanta hanging out with him everyday. We are two pretty creative guys that definetly don't mind stepping "outside the box," regardless of what others think. And I think his new Mohawk hairstyle is testament enough for that.

On Assignment: Prattville, Alabama-Day Four

"Hank's Grave" by Wes Aldridge

This is a shot I did when I visited Hank's grave in Montgomery. Praise the Lord, he saw the light.

On Assignment: Prattville, Alabama-Day Three

"Four Times Even Light" by Wes Aldridge

If there is one good thing about the current hurrican situation, it must be that the weather makes for an extremely interesting sunset shot.

In this shot, all the light completely evened out. First you have the bright colors of the sunset, pretty much exposed on the money, bright and crisp warm colors. Next, you have the silhouettes of the ground and trees that are completely black. The face of the clock on the clocktower is illuminated at the right exposure, with a little flood lighting projected on the the corner wall. And finally, you can't overlook the menacing purple storm cloud that devours the sky with a patch of blue sky showing through the opening at the top.

I waited around for just the right time to shoot, and I am glad I did. Seconds after this frame, the wind began to pick up rather violently and I felt a few raindrops fall on my nose. And then, the damn bottom fell out of the sky and an insane storm came on strong. I really thought I was about to be in the middle of a tornado. Honestly, this shot doesn't even come close to capturing what was going on in nature right then. But, hell, I tried and rode it out until the nasty storm came... and happy I did. I got so excited about this shot that I called two other photographers to rant about it. I was awe struck over what I had seen, and it reassured me that I am doing what I am supposed to do, and loving it.

I wish you could have been there with me.

On Assignment: Prattville, Alabama-Day Two

"The Whole World Calls Me..." by Wes Aldridge

Tonight, I drove into the neighboring city of Montgomery, of course, the state capital of Alabama. Coach told me about the tie-in of Hank Williams to this city and I knew I had to make a quick visit. Honeycutt had introduced me to Hank when I was in highschool, and the things he showed me I will never forget, even since six years have passed from those days.

This is a statue of Hank that sits in the downtown area of Montgomery. I got there as the sky was fading into darkness. I ended up frantically shooting this with a high ISO of 400 at a slow shutter speed of 1/40th of a second (handheld) with my 50mm lens at f/1.8 to squeeze every little bit of light as possible into the scene before it was lights out. I got beneath the statue and the bronze reflected a little light off Hank's face at just the right angle and brought it to life. I like this one a lot.

I consider Hank one of the greatest American poets that ever lived. I mean, how could you not just connect with lyrics like these:
" Did you ever see a robin weep
When leaves begin to die?
Like me he's lost the will to live
I'm so lonesome I could cry"

Hank and Cash made the country music that I love. It meant a lot to find this memorial to him and get a nice shot to share on the blog.

On Assignment: Prattville, Alabama-Day One

Tonight, the format of my blog entry has obviously changed, and for good reason. I have seen the most bizarre place in my photographic travels to date. I don’t know exactly how to take the experience, but it was honestly the most interesting time I have had a camera in my hand. It was startling to walk through this creation and I couldn’t stop pressing my shutter button.

This is "The Cross Garden" in Prattville, Alabama. I knew nothing of the place until our chief photographer Greg showed me some shots that he had taken there. He was pretty insistent that I see this enigma for myself. I am extremely glad I took the time to stop in.

There was no way that posting only one photo from it would do the experience any kind of justice, so here is more of a photo essay where the shots are best viewed together.

This is the former land and art of a man named W.C. Rice, whom died earlier this year. He collected everything from telephone poles to kitchen stoves and assembled this “garden” in his yard. As you can see, he had somewhat of a fixation with expressing his religious views. People would buy these pieces of art straight from his yard for hundreds of dollars each.

I hate to be judgmental or to insert my opinion on someone that I have never and will never meet, but I feel like chiming in on this one. As some of his red-paint scrawlings say on the objects in his yard, here is my conclusion. Hell may be hot and God may be love, but this must be far, far over the edge. Taken seriously, this is the kind of religious throat stuffing that really turns people off from the whole idea of God or Jesus. I am not sure if this can be taken any other way or not. To take it in a comic sense would surely be blasphemy, right?

Please, brings some comments on this one. I would love to see everyone's opinions on it. I just hope the rest of my shots from Prattville will be this interesting.




"Read" by Wes Aldridge


"Hot, Hot, Hot" by Wes Aldridge


"Rugged Cross" by Wes Aldridge


"You Will Die" by Wes Aldridge


"On The Range" by Wes Aldridge


"72" by Wes Aldridge


"Help Me" by Wes Aldridge


"Sin" by Wes Aldridge


"Postmaster" by Wes Aldridge

Feels Almost Like Home

"True Americana" by Wes Aldridge

This is a shot from west Tennessee. It really hits me good. It is real. It is beautiful. It is Americana and I get a feeling that I am at home when I see it.

Can you imagine how lucky and wonderful of a life I have to be traveling about doing photography and to see a scene like this? Yes, some of us were born lucky. This is scene is the stuff that has stitched America together. These old farm scenes with the peeling paint and old red trucks and purple clouds in the sky, this is America. And I am so glad that I get to visit these small towns and countrysides to see such things. I am a city dweller, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I need my Tennessee Titans football games, my rush hour traffic jams and my 3 a.m. Taco Bell runs with the boys after a hard night of fun on 2nd Avenue. But, I also desperately need those real moments of country that are far removed from Urban Hell.

This was one of those majestic times, and I love it.

Reflections of Nature

"The Wetlands" by Wes Aldridge

This is a shot from a place in western Tennessee called the Sugar Creek Wetlands. It is a government funded wildlife and nature reserve. I drove by it and you better believe I turned around to get a shot. I don't think it needs much more explanation than that.

That Feeling

"Main Street Auction" by Wes Aldridge

I shot a freelance assignment of a marching band competition today in Milan, Tennessee. It was really fun, suprisingly. But after the assignment is when I really started having a good time. I felt it today, in that small town, I felt it.

I decided to go and find my shot for the day while I was still down there. It was time for a little exploration. There must be a downtown area with a traditional old courthouse or something of that nature that would make for a good shot. I followed Main Street and there it was.

The street was filled with boxes overflowing with trinkets, junk and just all-around yardsale items strewn about. People sat in lawnchairs on the street with iced tea in hand. A man was running an auction over a loudspeaker in front of the massive crowd of hundreds. The site was incredible. For a minute I felt like I had wondered into a different kind of place, something tucked away and hidden from societal norms. I felt like it was a National Geographic kind of moment. I can't explain it very well, I just know the feelings that I had.

And there they were, sitting proudly in their chairs. These two little ladies had just bid on an auction for a tea kettle... and won. The lady on the left had done the bidding and the one on the right had to pitch in her five dollars to help in the buy. It was just a perfect moment out of an old American novel to me. I felt it, and I caught it.

Farewell, Friend

"Catch It!" by Wes Aldridge

This shot is how I would like to remember things: Jarvis with a giant smile catching a waterballoon tossed some 30-feet by his partner during a game portion of our United Way picnic lunch today.

Sadly, after a couple of years, Jarvis is moving on from our company as the Photo Department's (and everyone else's) Go-To- Guy. He was such a gigantic helping hand for everything, whether I was out on the road and needed some quick information when I had no access to the Internet, or doing endless color corrections, Jarvis was always there and willing to help.

More than his work ethic and talent with Adobe Photoshop, he was a fun as hell guy to be around. There was rarely a time when he wasn't cracking me up, or saying "Bet" or asking me, "Where your week at, dawg?" The guy was a true gem with a huge heart and a generally happy disposition.

I knew that the last thing I could do for his tenure at Journal Communications was to get a great shot of him, happy as can be, and share it with everyone.

Farewell, friend, and good luck with being an architect. I bet it sure beats rounding up countless submitted photos from elusive story and photo leads! Thanks a million times over... and, "Where your week at?"

R'n'R and a Little Smut

"Slunt" by Wes Aldridge

I shot this band called Slunt... and they rocked my face off. Such a clever name, on the verge of being vile and certainly naughty. Not to mention the singer/guitar player and bassist were extremely hot. That helped out a bit. But their music was heavy and edgy and these girls mixed raw attitude with real sex appeal on stage.

Just look at her... hard-rockin' Slunt to the core.

I was up front shooting and she looked at me dead-on in the lens and I got this shot. A very seductive look. It was fun. Note the armband. Also, the play on the Coca-Cola Classic logo on her shirt, as if anyone would miss it. And she was also wearing some camo pants that laced up the side with one heck of mid-drift showing.

Now that's what I call pure ROCK.

Walk Through This

"The Golden Corridor" by Wes Aldridge

I found a great hallway where the shadows were black and the rest was gold.

Bronze Soldier

"God of War" by Wes Aldridge

I went to the War Memorial building in downtown Nashville and got this one. I didn't want to know the name of the statue, so I didn't look. I wanted to call it "God of War," because that is the feeling that I got when I saw it. Nothing special, but we all know how much I love to shoot a great statue.

Capital Colors

"Night Rider" by Wes Aldridge

Tonight turned out much better than I thought it would. I wanted to go downtown to the state capital and try to shoot. On my way there, the sky was very weak. It has been extremely hazy for a couple of weeks now. And with haze, sunsets and sunrise shots pretty much are terrible.

I had wanted the state capital building at sunset, but like so many times, things turned out a little different than I had planned. While I walked around the building searching for a good angle, I saw this horse statue and knew that is where my shot needed to stem from. I waited until the sun faded out and the lights on the capital came on to give that golden-pink light. The sky hadn't fallen completely black and with my chosen white balance, it really brought out and accented the purple in the sky. The colors were rich and the composition was pretty nice. I even enjoy the flags flapping in the background.

A Pleasant Find

"Episcopal Glass" by Wes Aldridge

This is a great stained glass window from an Episcopal church that I randomly wandered into.

Pretty stuff. The angle is cool because I just got right up on the window with my wide angle lens. I used a really shallow depth of field to pull attention to the cross because it was the piece that I found most mesmerizing.

The Tops

"4 Columns" by Wes Aldridge

These were four pillars at the riverfront in downtown Evansville, Indiana. There you go.

On Assignment: Henderson, Kentucky-Day Three

"Audubon Cattails" by Wes Aldridge

I went to Audubon State Park today to do some shooting at the John James Audubon Museum. The museum was interesting, but the nature aspect of the park was beautiful and I felt like I just had to search around to find a shot or two.

It was getting late, around six o'clock or so, and the sun was the wonderfully warm creation that all photographers love to shoot under. I drove around and found the lake on the property. It was stunning. The water was completely still like glass, only rippled by the occasional fish jumping from the water. The reflections were perfect and this one small yellowy-green leafed tree caught my eye. I shot it a couple of times, but it really wasn't the shot I wanted in my heart. So I decided to trek around the lake a little and then I found it.

A patch of tall grass with some cattails in their prime framed the perfect shot for the scene. I popped the 70-200mm telephoto lens on the Canon and sat it on the tripod to shoot a shot with a medium aperture at f/8 with a shutter speed of 1/160th of a second. It gave that perfectly in focus view of the cattails and my favorite tree had a mild blur, but it was still decipherable in the background. Then I decided to shift my position a little and got some of the sky reflected in the water as well. I took a deep breath and fired the winning shot... and I was happy.

Then some weird guy walked up to me and started asking me all kinds of bizarre questions about the park, but that is a totally different conversation altogether. My mojo was good at the time and I wasn't about to let some strange man kill it.

On Assignment: Henderson, Kentucky-Day Two

"Blanco" by Wes Aldridge

Luck this one got up. Headache is horrible. Sleeping it off cause it has to go away.