On Assignment: Asheville, North Carolina

"Mountain Music" by Wes Aldridge

Today was pretty good, busy as hell, but pretty good. We are working on the Asheville Visitors Guide. Its a pretty big deal publication for our company.

I was fortunate enough to do a portrait of an incredible, multiple Grammy-winning Appalachian musician and storyteller named David Holt. This guy has played with some big timers... one of the most notable is Doc Watson.

We traveled to his mountain home and he had a great view from a porch swing looking into a vast wooded area. David brought out a beautiful steel guitar and banjo for the shoot, amazing instruments to look at and even more amazing to hear him playing a concert for two in the mountains. I worked the angles and lighting for the shot, but it was wonderful because it was a private concert for me in this man's natural element. It was natural and authentic, a sacred moment in my photographic career. This was another one of those moments that it really pays to be a photographer and love what I do.

Statue at Brooks

"Spring" by Wes Aldridge

Well, I am bored as hell right now. In Asheville, NC, and tired as hell after a day full of shooting starting about 6 a.m. Yeah, I love this photo. There isn't much skill involved or anything like that, I just like how it looks. It is from Memphis, Tenn., at the Brooks Museum. Enjoy.

Fashionably Red

"Jill" by Wes Aldridge

Everyone, meet Jill. She had an amazingly red dress. We had a session in a destroyed building. The clash of elegance and decay. I think its beautiful.

On Assignment: Memphis, Tennessee... Beale Street

First things first... Memphis in the summertime is hotter than Hell. My assignment tonight was to shoot some of the night life action on Beale Street. I walked up and down the street for two hours shooting the touristy stuff that I needed, no problem. Then I decided that I needed to have a personal assignment: Find a resounding echo of the Memphis Blues.

My ears ended up following the raspy voice of a Delta Bottom Man, a slide guitar and a dancing bass line coming from the Blues Hall Juke Joint. I walked in and fell in love with the place. The music of "The Dr. Feelgood Potts Band" felt real and perfectly in place. I shot away. Eventually someone started buying beers for me. I made friends and had a great time listening and shooting great music.

Tonight was incredible and I have fallen into love with Memphis. The smells of BBQ on the street and spilt beer on the sidewalks and music coming from every alleyway and summer sweat trickling down my brow. It was a good night to be alive and with a camera in my hand. I went to Beale Street and found the blues.

Here is a serious of shots.


"One" by Wes Aldridge


"Two" by Wes Aldridge


"Three" by Wes Aldridge


"Four" by Wes Aldridge


"Five" by Wes Aldridge


"Six" by Wes Aldridge


"Seven" by Wes Aldridge


"Eight" by Wes Aldridge


"Nine" by Wes Aldridge


"Ten" by Wes Aldridge


"Eleven" by Wes Aldridge


"Twelve" by Wes Aldridge

A Kiss Is A Kiss

"Stealin' Some Sugar" by Wes Aldridge


"The Reaction" by Wes Aldridge

I am actually in beautiful Ft. Collins, Colorado, shooting an assignment this week. I don't feel like posting anything I've shot from here. But I feel like sharing and I go to some recent photos. Again I post some of the B&W shots from our family mountain getaway. I keep coming back to these shots as I feel more comfortable to share them with you. These photographs are among the most precious possessions of mine. They are memories of beautiful times where the whole world stands still, the times that I shared with the ones that mean the most to me. We don't see Spain or Italy or France, but plane tickets to far away places couldn't bring about moments like the ones captured in the frames above from the mountains of Georgia.

My parents, two very animated and lively folks, always show their hearts. They aren't concerned who is watching. They breathe in deeply the sweet breath of life... and live it.

"Stealin' Some Sugar." I think that to be an appropriate title. My sweet mother, out of the blue, lunged at my father and stole a kiss from him. In the following frame my mother adjusts her too-cool Aviator shades (very proud of what she so stealthily accomplished) and laughs a joyful laugh as my father reacts oh so silly to the unexpected flirtation. They are such hams, you couldn't possibly understand until you've stayed a weekend in the Aldridge home in Tunnel Hill, Georgia. And if you haven't, well, I sure they would welcome you, because folk like us don't meet too many strangers.

I can't look at the last three photos I have posted with dry eyes. These are our memories, immortalized. There must be something special about catching a moment. Once again, the light capturing box has served me well.

Watching

"Folks" by Wes Aldridge

This is another one of the shots that I scanned in to digital format from black and white Tmax 400. It was a moment that I walked up on during the vacation with the family in the mountains. My mother was asleep with her head resting on my father's shoulder. Catching a moment like this makes being a photographer the most beautiful thing in the world.

Have a cold one

"IceBox Tunes" by Wes Aldridge


"IceBox Tunes" by Wes Aldridge

Ya know, unless you are a photographer or my brother or mighy cocktail consumer, you probably can't really grasp the true value of this photo. Not that I think it is too intelligent for the comprehension of "normal folk." It more so has to do with the extreme bizarre nature of it. This is actually a piece of slide film that I had been waiting 2 weeks to get developed. I don't think it is a masterwork by any means, but it turned out pretty cool for a piece of tungsten-balanced slide film exposed without using a light meter and light-painted with a flashlight. My brother (photo subject) and I had the great idea for this shot around 4 a.m. one morning after a long night's dance with Jackie D. and JagerBombs and lots of guitar playing. Anyway, I ended up converting this one to B&W because I think it had some nice monochromatic tones.

Ok, so I added the color slide too. I like it as well.

Photo Subject: Unknown

"Frank's Photo" by Wes Aldridge

Strange vibrations during a night of photography in Nashville. My friend Matt and I decided to do some night exposures, so we started searching for interesting and run-down industrial sites to shoot in the downtown area. We found our first suitable location for the night and set our cameras up on tripods. We hadn't shot 3 frames and then we heard a strange rustling sound coming from a garbage dumpster about 20 feet from us. We thought little of it at first, but then there was a scratching sound and heavy, shallow breathing. Curiousity grabbed hold and we went to explore.

One of the sliding panels was open and I peered over the side for a closer look. A thin shaft of light from the full moon fell on a pair of yellow eyes that stared blankly up at me. I thought it was probably a homeless person that might have fallen and gotten trapped in the dumpster.

"Hey fella, are you ok in there?," I asked.

No reply.

Again, I said, "you alright in there?"

There was a small rustle and then a battered blue hand reached up toward me. I said, "Jesus, Matt, this fucking guy looks like he is hurt. We need to get him out of here and to the hospital."

Matt looked at me like I was insane. I wouldn't say he was afraid, but we were both pretty sketched out by now. I leaned over the dumpster and took hold of the hand and started pulling. The hand was cold and limber, and I as I pulled it into the light, something made me question "what" I had my hands on.

The head popped up and that crazy red hair and scabbed white scalp scared the living hell out of me. The eyes were bulging and the mouth looked like it had been beaten with a crowbar. I didn't know what to do after seeing all this, so I let instinct take over and I pulled it out on to the sidewalk. It started making a soft purring sound. Yeah, this wasn't a human.

Matt knew exactly what to do. He ran to the Jeep and grabbed a hand full of orange slices and a crimson backdrop and strated setting up a light... it was portrait time.

"Frank," I said, as I held the orange slice up to his nose. "This is some good stuff. Wanna try some?"

I called him Frank because it seemed as good a name as any. At a time like this, names don't really catch my attention, anyway. I needed to take a picture, and fast.

Matt grabbed a box and I sat an orange slice on it. Frank crawled over to the box and sat on it, enjoying his orange slice all the while.

"Un-damn-believable," Matt whispered. "The strange bastard digs orange slices."

I took a shot and Frank started staring up at the strobe light. He was astonished, and that was the pose I wanted. I snapped one more frame and then he started glaring at me. Things had taken a turn for the weird.

Frank made an ear-piercing screech and jumped down on all fours like a wild cat of some sort. I turned and ran and he came after me. I slipped after getting about 10 feet from him and hit the sidewalk. Frank leaped into the air straight for me and I knew I was done for. Out of the blue, Matt appears with a 2x4 and cracked Frank directly in the mouth with a mighty lumber jack swing. The clown from hell hit the ground and rolled off into the darkness. Needless to say, we grabbed the gear jumped in the Jeep and put the pedal to the floor.

On Assignment: Corpus Christi... luck

"Wading" by Wes Aldridge

So, don't be fooled by the pretty picture... today still sucked weather-wise. I was on my way back to the hotel after shooting an assignment about 45 miles from Corpus Christi. The drive was long and dull and I was pretty exhausted from shooting inside an iron-working factory. Suddenly the black sky split open and sunlight showered down.

At this point, I was desperate to shoot something that looked nice, anything, I would have settled for anything.

I caught the glimpse of a steeple rising over some trees and slammed on my brakes and darted off the main highway. I couldn't believe my eyes... I saw this beautifully restored German church founded around 1908 named Old St. Anthony Catholic Church. I came to a rolling stop and and leaped from the car snapping frames furiously. I must have shot 20 different angles on this church in about three minutes. But the last frame I shot is the one I like the most. I got down on the dirty parking lot and balanced my elbows on the edge of a mud puddle to get this reflection. Yeah, it looks like the church is sitting on the edge of a pond or something, but oh no, that is a standing puddle on top of Texas asphalt. I got the shot and then the sky ate the sun once again. I guess I got lucky for a few minutes today.

On Assignment: Corpus Christi

"Split Timber" by Wes Aldridge

This is a shot from the minor league baseball game I shot yesterday. I thought it was pretty neat to capture the instant that the bat split in two.

On Assignment: Corpus Christi, the rain keeps pourin'

"Alien" by Wes Aldridge

The rain fell like a sonuvabitch today. It was yet another gross day for exterior photography, and folk that just wanted to stay dry in general. Enough of that, you get the picture.

I did get to shoot at an aquarium, though. I love doing this. You can really create artistic and photojournalistic pictures in these beautiful places. And if you could have watched me walk through the place, it was pretty funny. I would become mesmerized by beautiful tarpon and angel fish and stand in awe side-by-side with groups of young children. I find these places incredible, just like a child does.

Anyway, this is kind of an abstract shot of some jellyfish floating about in a tank. I stayed and stared at these forever, it seemed. Its as if they were a fluid part of the water. Beautiful and very mysterious.

On Assignment: Corpus Christi... goddamn what a bummer

"Hunger Flight" by Wes Aldridge

Ok, so I am feeling like I have finally started hitting a groove again. Things, as I have previously said, have been kind of screwy in my world here lately. With that dominant in my mind, I figured I should do the one thing that I am good at... find a picture.

You can't understand the difficulty of my assignment this week unless you are a PR photographer. I have a magazine worth of exterior photography to do, but the weather doesn't clear up until several days after I leave. I have two options here: 1.) give up and accept certain defeat or 2.) give it everything I have and become innovative and bring new styles of shots to the doomed magazine. Bob, I think I will take number two.

The weather was disgusting today, but I NEEDED a shot to soothe my soul. I just thought about all my friends and family and co-workers that would be enjoying their 4th of July together and it made me sad because I was in an east Texas town beating my head in for an assignment that I knew the weather wasn't going to be reasonable. But, I wanted to make the best of it. Michael and I went to the beach front because I wanted to get a shot that I had seen in Geographic some time ago. I mounted my TTL flash and dropped my shutter speed and started firing at a young girl feeding seagulls bread on the seashell crusted sand. I think I caught one that I liked. It has a tone of something surreal, just what I was hoping for.

Note the flock of seagulls scrambling for the tossed piece of bread in the top corner.

Star Gazing

"Star Streaks" by Wes Aldridge

So, for all those who keep asking for it... a new shot! It has been a while since I posted anything, but I really just want to put interesting (or at least meaningful) stuff on here now. And besides, my life has been strange as hell here lately and time has become a very rare thing. I'm in Corpus Christi, Texas right now for the week of the 4th on assignment. Hopefully some more shots will find their way to the blog this week.

Anyway, this photo was taken from outside of the mountain-top cabin my brother and I stayed in while vacationing in the Blue Ridge Mountains last week with my parents. It was an awesome time. I think I shot 12 rolls of film ranging from ISO 25 Kodachrome to ISO 3200 Ilford B&W, and about everything in between. Some people told me I was insane for wanting to go on holiday and take photos... but they just don't get it. I'm not a photographer from 9 to 5. I live it, breathe it and hopefully one day I will die snapping a frame off! But let me tell ya, it doesn't get much better than than two artistic brothers getting together and hammering down on a bottle of Jack with some camera gear, guitars and audio recording equipment on a mountain top during a clear night listening to coyotes fight off in the distance as a hundred stars dot the sky overhead. It is always really fun to shoot photos of the people I know and love. They just become themselves and its such a pleasure to photograph the fun and strange times we have together. My brother is a prime example of one of these people. I can't wait to get all those rolls of film developed and scanned to digital files. I will most surely post some of them. There is one with him in a bathrobe sitting by a refrigerator with a guitar inside it. Hope those turn out, because it was just some Gonzo photography for Gonzo times. I have been on this film shooting kick for about two weeks now. I don't know why, but I just am. Its expensive and I can never find the time to get the special process stuff taken to ProPhoto. That really sucks.

This photo was taken with Nikon D2X and I have to say I am pleasantly suprised with how well the digital noise stayed somewhat under control. It only looked decent up to about a 15-minute long exposure (after that, the pixelation really started to kick in and degrade the image). So, this one was shot at f/2.8 for 15.4 minutes to get that neato star trail effect. Also, I light-painted the tree in the foreground with a pretty powerful flashlight for about 5 minutes of the exposure.

On Assignment: Kankakee, Illinois... another

"Heaven's Door" by Wes Aldridge

Sorry, couldn't pass up posting this one too. It was one pretty sadistic looking church with that wicked tungsten street lamp shining upon it.

On Assignment: Kankakee, Illinois- Pedal to Metal

"Joyful Hell Ride" by Wes Aldridge

Today this assignment went from quaint and cozy to an endless peril chok full of extreme overtones of personal danger and ferocity. I had never experienced flash flooding before... and let me tell you, its a bitch.

The sky was somewhat overcast, but quickly a thick blanket of dark grey swallowed any trace of blue and the thunder came. Lightning looked like concentrated bursts of massive electricty slicing deeply through the sky. Out of nowhere, the rain unleashed its wet fury and the roads became rivers and the chaos took hold.

I have never fully understood what makes some people mutate into extremely dumb bastards when the weather gets hairy outside. It seems that all good levels of thought and understanding are thrown out the damn window when weather goes awry. I saw cars drive through dips under bridges where water came up to the windows. I saw accidents left and right with nimrods whizzing their gas-powered hell buggies past one another in the turning lanes of streets full of stalled commuters. The police came out in full on riot gear and batons to try and stop the mongrels from smashing themselves silly in a smoldering wreckage of twisted metal. The weather was too much for the police so they sounded the huge ominous tornado sirens to try and scare the monkeys off the roads. Nothing was enough, so I watched and laughed.

TW Brings It Again

"Thaxton" by Wes Aldridge

This is a shot from the Thaxton Ward show at 12th & Porter last night. I think it is one of my favorite live music shots.

On Assignment: San Angelo, Texas- On The Water

"The Wake" by Wes Aldridge

The assignment was to shoot wake boarding on Lake Nasworthy. Well, I did that. Many shots of jumps, twists, pushes, pulls, spins and barrel-rolls. But I thought a different kind of shot was in order. Something that showed the action as well as the people having fun. Kasie was having fun, and she really tore it the hell up on the water too.

On Assignment: San Angelo, Texas- What a Day

"The Great American Writer" by Wes Aldridge

Today was incredible. I was fortunate enough to meet Elmer Keltonk, the man considered the greatest Western writer to ever pen a novel. He was a gentleman, a true rare breed rarely seen in our time anymore. He said he was 80 years old (I didn't believe him), but didn't seem tired at all. He always insisted that I walk into rooms before him because I was carrying all the heavy camera and lighting gear.

I chose Ft. Concho, a historic old military fort in downtown San Angelo, to do this shoot. The setting of this shot takes him back in time to the era that is his. It seems surreal to me. If I turn this shot black and white or sepia tone, then it looks like it could be found in one of the pages of the 50+ novels he has written. It was magic to me.

When we first arrived on location, he seemed slightly uninterested because he said his photo had been taken at Ft. Concho many times before. He humored me as we looked around the compound for the perfect place to make the shot. We wandered into an old soldier barracks where many cots were set up to look as they did so many years ago. He instantly told me he had been photographed in the barracks before. I needed something different.

I looked around a little more, hearing the old plank floor pop and crack under my feet, and saw a tiny room off to the side. It was slightly lit from window light and I felt this was the spot. We walked into the room and I asked him to just stand there and talk to me. We were talking to our guide as I was setting up a remote strobe light. It wasn't firing off (as the piece of shit sometimes does), but it opened my eyes to the natural light and mood of the room. I bumped up my ISO rating to 400 and I started firing frames off with the ambient light only. This was the ticket... a pure and wholesome natural setting where he belonged.

He seemed as if he was enjoying himself finally and said, "no one has taken my picture in this room before." At that point everything just came together. I got the ringing sound of silence in my ears and every frame I snapped sounded like a shot from the old six-shooter pistols Elmer wrote about. I felt like we were in his pages and I understood him with my lens. The shot is him, it is an accurate portrayel of the man he is.

I love the photographs of National Geographic and this reminds me of one of Sam Abell's shots of a cowboy from many years ago. I think it worked out.

On Assignment: San Angelo, Texas

"Sun Bleached" by Wes Aldridge

My skin is sticky. My head is clouded. My body is dried out. Texas, it gets hot in Texas. This old ram knows so too.

The Bells Were A Ringin'

"The Bride Part I" by Wes Aldridge


"The Bride Part II" by Wes Aldridge

So, I think Holly's portraits turned out alright.