"Perfect Eyes" by Wes Aldridge
I was shooting at a recording studio today and wanted a test subject to help me set the perfect lighting before my main subject came for his portrait. A girl from a band that sings this song about that thing on that label... you get the idea, I didin't even grab her name because it was just a junk shot to get the light metered right.
But then, I noticed her eyes. Magical. Perfectly blue. I snapped off a few frames and got the light rig set the way I wanted it and the entire time I couldn't stop looking at her eyes. They captured me, and in return, I captured them to share.
"Just Fishin' " by Wes Aldridge
Fishin'. So many old memories. So many parallels with this old man and me. A great story I wanted to tell you, but things got in the way of the process. I failed at that tonight.
Something needs to change. It all needs to go back to the river side with a fishing pole in hand. Simple.
"Eager to See" by Wes Aldridge
It is that time again when Nashville is overtaken by country music hungry folk for a few days in June for the annual Fanfare gathering. This event is a series of country music events happening in the city. Other than that much, I really know nothing of what it is all about, what the benefits are and what in the hell the possible joy of the occassion is.
I did find these people interesting. They were eagerly waiting outside one of the bars on Broadway where several tour buses were lined up. I would assume they were waiting to meet the act that was playing in the venue when they made their exit from the stage to the bus. The looks on their tired faces were great and I needed to snap off a frame of them. Yeah, and the reflection of the fans in "their" band's tour bus was pretty cool too.
Just trying to get a shot up and keep this thing alive. It pretty much is harder than hell the last few days, sincerely wearing me out to the point of wanting to quit. But, screw it, it came this far right?
"Writer's Night" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight a friend and I went to the Bluebird Cafe to catch writer's night. It was both of our first times to be there and I have to say that I enjoyed the music greatly. Too bad life isn't always as good as the music you hear, right? Someone was just playing the wrong song for me tonight.
Gotta love Music City.
"Over 21st" by Wes Aldridge
This is a shot of car headlight and taillights streaking in a long time exposure as they drove up and down 21st Avenue. I had wanted to shoot this one for a while, and there it is.
"The Girl" by Wes Aldridge
Green Hills Mall. The shot. Nothing else.
"Candle Trio" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight my roommate challenged me to shoot something within the four walls of our television room. I obliged him. Candles, a simple subject. I lit them up and shot them out.
"The Stage" by Wes Aldridge
This shot is a reflection of the Broadway neons from the top of a big metal box sitting on the street corner in downtown Nashville.
The blog is up once again and I am ready to crash out. Tedious tonight, tedious.
"Crying Out For Help" by Wes Aldridge
Meet Alexandra Deus. She was standing by Legislative Plaza on the corner of Union Street and 6th Avenue in downtown Nashville with the signs pictured above. She said her son, Stephen Gorday, was a student at Nashville Tech... and that he had been "tortured" there and has now disappeared. She said she hasn't seen him for three months.
She said Gorday was a United States citizen and that she went to all the "available organizations for help, and no one cared." She said she has exercised all her options to help him, so now, she was "just going to stand here" with her signs in protest. "Its all I can do... to take it to the streets," she said.
I am not sure of all the story behind her son, Stephen, but it seems like it might be worth at least looking into by some public media outlet. I wish I had more resources and time to investigate, but I don't. Hopefully someone else will.
"Shoulder to Shoulder" by Wes Aldridge
I went out to the veteran cemetary in Madison today for a memorial service. I felt like an intruder, so I couldn't get in close enough for the shots with true grit that I wanted to get. This is about the best one I could come up with and not feel like I was being intrusive on someone's sacred time.
Still tired from my long shoot last week. Too much to think about today. Just want some rest now and maybe everything will be better when I wake in the morning. Then again, maybe it will just get more intense. I guess Karma does come back around, for better or for worse.
"Fiery Steeple" by Wes Aldridge
Today was a new adventure. I went to a church service in Nashville for the first time in the six years that I have lived here. Fellowship Bible Church -- I had never been to a chruch like that. To tell you the truth, it was pretty interesting. The music sounded really good being performed by some professional Christian artist. And there were so many people to watch. I wanted my camera in there, but it just wouldn't have been right. It was strange because I felt oddly at ease there. Who knows.
To keep with the church theme, I shot the steeple of Belmont Heights Baptist Church with the sunset. The sky was too amazing not to share it tonight. It seems that my latest obsession is sunset shots.
"Anxious to Fly" by Wes Aldridge
Today was the voyage home.
I think I spent about 6 hours on planes today. One layover was in the Kansas City Airport, where I got this shot. A little girl had wandered off from her mother. She walked up to the window in the terminal with her hands out to the side making a vrrrooooom sound like an airplane. This was my shot because it was what my day was all about. People, travel and the like.
Now its time for me to go out and rock it a bit. Night all.
"Cold Water Lake" by Wes Aldridge
Whew, 'tis finished. After a helluva crazy day, another IMAGES Magazine has all photography assignments complete. Now, here are the tales of the day.
It started off with a portrait of an athletic director of a local college. I met him at the college baseball diamond as a tournament was being played. We decided to shoot him in the foreground from the third base line stands with the diamond behind him. As I poised to take my first shot, a line drive foul ball came screaming at me. I dropped the camera from my eye quick enough to watch it slam into my right thigh, dead center. Yes, there is a nice baseball sized bruise there.
Later in the day, I did the 50-mile voyage to Mt. St. Helens to do a photo essay for the magazine. The shot for the day is from a place called Cold Water Lake with the mountain in the background. I was searching high and low for shots for the photo essay and decided to take a three-mile hike around the lake to find a vantage point with a great reflection. I like this one, and the blog is up once again.
Finally, I drove from Cowlitz County to Vancouver, Washington, to be closer to the Portland, Oregon, airport for my morning flight. I sat down at the desk in my executive suite in the Holiday Inn Express to download my photos for the day. Then, my spirit dropped. After calling back to the hotel I stayed at in Cowlitz for the past week, I confirmed that I left my memory card reader, camera battery charger and cell charger in the room. I jumped in the convertible and popped in my Telefon Tel Aviv CD and back to Cowlitz I went, 1 hour and 15 minutes roundtrip.
It was just another day full of adventures. Some people might look at these events as unfortunate, but screw that. I believe what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, and we all know I should have been dead many, many times ago and it has all made me pretty strong. So, if I can keep the adventure going, I promise I will keep it exciting, or at least keep myself entertained. That's what's important anyway, right?
"Washington to Oregon" by Wes Aldridge
I set out looking for a sunset shot tonight, and guess I found one. I was driving through the industrial park of Longview, WA, and saw this big mama bridge. I tried searching all up and down the Washington coast and couldn't get a good solid angle close enough to the water's edge. All the property along the river there is occupied by timber manufacturers with “no trespassing” signs posted everywhere. I needed to get to the other side of the river.
It was time to go to Oregon, and the mighty bridge in the shot, got me there. I was able to go up to the waterfront with no problem. To get the angle I wanted, I climbed down the rocks leading down to the water and got my shot there. It was a pretty steep bank and I imagined how terrible it would be to slip and fall down the ledge, crack my head on the rocks and lose my camera in the river… and maybe myself.
Its probably strange for me to think about hurting myself getting a shot I want, but it doesn't really matter. What is supposed to happen will happen, and there isn't much anyone can do about it. A little something I call Fate, and I guess today just wasn't my day to fall.
Anyway, isn't this sky simply amazing? That is dead on how it looked, no Photoshop screwing around on this shot's colors. It ranks up there as one of the most dramatically painted skies I have ever seen. Real power in the sky, real power.
"On the Dock" by Wes Aldridge
After my weather-screwed trip to Mt. St. Helens on Sunday afternoon, it was time to head back out there today to grab a few shots for the magazine. As you can see, it was a clear day. This is a lake along the 54 mile, 1 hour and 45-minute drive to Mt. St. Helens from Castle Rock, Washington. I even think I grabbed a few options for the magazine cover while I was out there.
Now, for the shot. I watched the guy in the white T-shirt hang the small boat on the dock and I waited for him to walk back to the mainland. I just thought he would add another cool reflective element to the shot. Seems like I have been shooting quite a few reflective surfaces up here in the Pacific Northwest. Go figure, lots of calm, still water and plenty of beauty surrounding it.
Today was extremely long. I didn’t finish shooting at a little league game until 9:45 p.m. and I have a portrait time set with a local DJ at 7 a.m., grrrrrr… I am pretty worn down and the sunburn I’ve collected from cruising with the roof down in the Sebring has drained me too. I love it up here in this part of the country, but I think I am about ready to get back home to Nashville and rest for a little while. I am definitely looking forward to the Memorial Day holiday on Monday.
"The Reflected" by Wes Aldridge
Can I just say? Yes, I am exhausted. It seems like the sun just won't go down in this part of the country. I finally got last light around 9:30 p.m. It gives much time to shoot, but little time to rest for the next day.
Anyway, I was driving along the Columbia River and I see this place. It was filled with yellow flowers growing from the water, dead trees and lily pads. It was amazing and I just had to shoot it. It was pretty tough to get the exposure to work out right because of the high shadow and light contrast. It was simply too cool to not take a shot.
"River's Edge" by Wes Aldridge
I bagged this shot while I was doing a portrait of a sea kayaker on the Columbia River. I was waiting for her to get her kayak in the water and needed a minute or two to clear my mind. The sun hid behind the clouds for a few moments and cooled the color temperture of the water in the shot. I'm glad I found this short time to chill out a little bit.
I had just come from a hospital that I was shooting a special advertising spread for the magazine. I had been at the hospital for over four hours. If you don't know, making shots in a hospital interesting and not too graphic isn't an easy task by any means. Today was my lucky day and I had set up and executed 7 of the 8 shots I needed for this particular spread. I knew the last shot would be the most difficult because it needed to be an emergency room in action.
I shot several different style shots for this one, but I wasn't feeling any of them too strongly yet. A PR guy from the hospital was escorting me throughout this assignment. He asked one of the doctors if we could shot some shots of him consulting with a patient in an exam room. He agreed and I went into the room and started popping shots, kneeling at the foot of the hospital bed. Then came the bombshell from Hell. The patient said he had pain in his lungs and thought it was pneumonia. The doctor, without skipping a beat, said, "I am going to be honest here, I think you might have lung cancer."
I lowered the camera and my eyes widened as I swallowed hard, thinking "for the love of God. This is great." The man looked down at the ground and his wife, who was sitting about three feet to my left, burst into hysterical crying. I couldn't believe the situation that I was crammed in the middle of. I just wanted to get out of there, so I did. I felt like a total piece of trash for shooting those shots while the poor guy was being told he probably had a terminal disease. But, what could I have done and how could I have known? I couldn't and I know that, it was just tough to let this one roll off my shoulder.
"The Great Wide Open" by Wes Aldridge
As I took this shot, I heard wolves begin to howl from the nearby shadows. I stepped back and took a look at my life, and realized that I have it pretty good. There I was, in the middle of nowhere, engulfed by the wilderness, and loving every second of it. This was my job, the thing that makes my living for me. It doesn't get any better than this.
The day had been long and I had been shooting for around 13 hours. My first shoot was at 9 a.m. with some kids at an equestrian farm in Vancouver, WA. Then I drove a couple of hours up to Mt. St. Helens National Park. The weather once again was terrible and I was literally driving through storm clouds as the elevation kept rising en route to the volcano. After that, I was off to the Pacific Ocean to shoot a lighthouse at sunset on the Long Beach Penninsula. After that, it was time to drive two hours back to Cowlitz Co.
I saw this shot at dusk while I was driving to the hotel in Kelso, WA, from the coastline on Highway 101. I had the top down on my convertible Sebring so I could have a panoramic vision of the beauty around me. There were no street lights, but the full moon was shining brightly enough through the fog that I wouldn't even need headlights to see the road ahead of me. I slammed on the brakes and a deer ran across the road little more than 100 feet in front of the car. I popped in my Telefon Tel Aviv cd and it just mellowed the ride out a little more. Everything was in its right place and I was more than content with everything. I love what I do.
"Pacific Mood" by Wes Aldridge
Today the weather was disgusting. The sky was a blanket of gray. The rain poured without end. The wind blew cold and fierce. The locals said it was a normal May day in Eugene, Oregon. The photography for today was nothing near beautiful, so I decided to pull another shot from yesterday at Cannon Beach to share.
This is a different vantage point from up the shoreline a little farther on a lookout point called Ecola State Park. This shot shows what the previous one didn't: the weather was terrible yesterday too. I love the mood set into motion with the dark gray fog and clouds hovering over the mountainside. I was lucky enough to catch a beam of sunshine hitting the rocks in the foreground of the shot to bring them to life and pull them from the dreary background. You can see where the light cut through the bleakness and hit the water turning it a beautiful blue. And at the right second, the decisive moment, a wave broke on the rock and sprayed up the front in a white cascade. The scene was magic to my eyes and I knew I was lucky to be standing where I was standing at that very second in time. In Santiago's words, some of us were born lucky, I guess. I felt it then.
It seems as if Mother Nature is working against me on this trip. Will she have any mercy, or keep throwing her harsh elements in front of the lens of my camera? We shall see, we shall see.
"Haystack Rock" by Wes Aldridge
I was 2,468 miles from Nashville and I felt perfectly at home tonight. I stood on Cannon Beach and stared at Haystack Rock as the sun was melting into the horizon. It was the perfect close to a long day of traveling. After seven hours of flying and around four hours of driving, I needed a little bliss to wrap this long one up. I had been awake since 5:30 a.m. Nashville time (gotta love 7 a.m. flights) and it is approaching the 24 hour marker.
This assignment is going to be a ruff one, I think. A day's worth of shooting in Eugene, Oregon, tomorrow, followed by a day in Vancouver, Washington, then on to the magazine shoot for five days in Cowlitz County, Washington. Lots to shoot, hopefully enough time to work with. Besides the present stress of several hardcore days of shooting, I am in a beautiful place. I had never seen the Pacific Northwest until today. And I must say it is divine. So wonderful how rainshowers over shadow the timberline and vanish as quickly as they appear. The weather is strange here, almost unpredictable. It will just add to the excitement of the hunt to find my shots for this assignment.
Now that the two RockSTAR energy drinks have worn off and my adrenal gland has been sucked dry, my body now demands sleep. For once, I will heed its call.
