"Rushmore" by Wes Aldridge
First and foremost, happy birthday mother! Hope your day finds you well.
The assignment in Gillette was finished. Only one thing left to do... Mount Rushmore. Mike and I loaded up and headed out before God was awake this morning. 3 a.m. is the earliest I have ever risen for a shot, and it was very ruff. I knew I wouldn't get back to Nashville until 10:30 p.m., but armed with true-grit, determination and a 24-ounce RockStar energy drink I was willing to stare the beast in the eyes and get the shot, come hell or high water. I wanted to be there for first light and witness the amazing reddish tone that makes mere rocks etched with men's faces come alive above misty mountain valleys in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
We made it, and I think the juice was worth the squeeze.
"A Simple Trailer" by Wes Aldridge
I'm not exactly sure why I shot this one. I drove by this open field and there a little red trailer sat. The sun was fading fast and everything was awash in gold brilliance from the last rays of day. Three simple colors made a wonderful contrast... the blue, red and yellow. It just wanted me to snap the frame. It had called my name. Something just majestic about the golden rolling fields of Wyoming.
"The Devil's Sunset" by Wes Aldridge
Its been a while since I've posted. I need to do it more often, but only when it really counts. I think this image qualifies.
I'm on assignment in Gillette, Wyoming this week and it isn't too far from The Devil's Tower National Monument. There was no way I was going to miss this one. I met a photographer named Mike yesterday and he joined me on this little trip. Good times. We shot the side of Devil's Tower that everyone knows, got some nice and friendly frames there. Nice soft and golden light, just like I like it... it was the "safety" shot. But I wasn't finished. I wanted to feel the power of the sunset, of course.
We drove farther down the road away from the monument and found the angle. It was tough to tell what the sun was going to do, lots of clouds. We moved around and set up the tripods. Wait. Wait. Almost there, the color is coming. Just a little longer. Shoot. And there it is. The image says sinister to me, just like the vision I'd created of The Devil's Tower in my mind. I think the devil was in the sky there tonight. It just seemed so proper and real, and I captured the essence of this surreal place.
"Enigma of the MRI" by Wes Aldridge
Today I had an interesting experience, and so the story continues...
My assignment took me to Angel Medical Center in Franklin, NC. I was to shoot a photograph of an MRI for the Health story in the magazine. Yeah, no big deal, right? Hardly. For those of you that don't know, an MRI is an enormous magnet. And magnets the size of two soda machines aren't good for things like electronics, such as a Canon camera. Before I went on this assignment, one of the guys from the office had told me that an MRI would pull the camera off my chest if I had it hanging from the strap around my neck. I thought, "ah, whatever."
So, this machine had really intersting lighting, with this skyroof picture thing above casting down a little bit of blue light. I thought I would try to highlight that light and shoot the MRI with a blue gel. The gel was a little too dramatic for the magazine article, but I thought it was interesting to look at. My favorite part of this shot is the small amount of tungsten light in the head hole. It is very subtle, but I understood it.
After I tweaked the lighting for a more natural look, I was very satisfied with the shot. One of the guys that was working with the machine asked if I wanted to see something neat. I thought, why not.
He handed my a finger nail clipper. I put it between my index finger and thumb. He laughed at me and told me, "Not like that," and shoved it into my palm and wrapped my fingers around it. He meant business. He told me the MRI's magnetic field worked algorythmically and explained to me that the larger the magnetic object that you have, the stronger the magnetic pull gets on it as it approaches the MRI. The worker told me a story about a cleaning person that was using an industrial buffer and absent-mindedly got too close to the MRI. The guy said the thing flew across the room and smacked against the MRI about 5-feet off the ground.
I walked toward the MRI a few feet and felt a little pull, but the attraction got exponentially stronger as I walked closer. When I was within a few feet, the attraction was so strong that you could see my arm and hand vibrating from fighting the magnetic field. It was incredible and got to a point where I couldn't control it. Something as small as the finger nail clippers was physically pulling me toward the machine. It was awesome.
Anyway, besides the shitty situations I have been in the past few days, today was an excellent and exciting day for photography. The passion just gets stronger.
"Explanation of the Situation" by Wes Aldridge
So, two things to talk about here, although, it could be a thousand. And so the story continues...
I am driving to my North Carolina assignment, almost six hours away, and I find myself on a winding mountain road. The day was miserable with terrential down-pours, long drive, a huge fog bank with the changing elevation. At this moment, can I just send a thank you out to the total stupid asshole that slams on his brakes, without turn signal, in the center of a snaky mountain road in the middle of an awful storm? Well, here's to you "Mr.-I-Should-Have-My-License-Revoked-And-My-Head-Kicked-Down-My-Neck-Out-My-Ass-Guy." Thanks for nearly signing my death certificate.
Yeah, this old geezer decides he wants to turn into a scenic overlook (that he has pretty much passed-by) on the mountainside in these inclement weather conditions. At this point there is no stopping, only a decision to make: Do I plow into the truck or the guard rail. I figure less people would be hurt if I chose the latter, so I ate the guard rail in a head-on, fish-tailing, front-to-back smacking kind of "incident." At least the dumb bastard in his Tacoma truck didn't get hurt. Then it hit me... I trusted a two-foot tall, two-inch thick piece of metal to keep me from plummeting into a mountainous gorge. So, who is the idiot here? That is a wonderful question. Honestly, I thought I was going to fucking die. What's more, I was watching it all happen in slow-motion as I slid and cut the wheels and slide through the grass and watch sparks fly as I rubbed the wall. Oh, did I mention, the gentleman in the afore mentioned Tacoma (gray) went on his merry way? Yeah, sure as hell did.
So, the rental car looks a little, how you say, "worn" in a few places, but she still runs like a virgin on prom night. May I say, trust the guard rails and always opt for the Pontiac Gran Am, regardless of the price of the upgrade. These things are more than likely why the Mind of the Photographer is continuing at this point. Cause if I would have went off into the damn high ravine, well, the rental company could fish the car out their own damn self.
And now on to the photo for the day. Franklin, North Carolina... I love it. This is one of the first really good mags that I shot last year. So, I kind of knew what to expect on this assignment... other than auto-incidentals, of course.
We all know that after a fiasco like I just endured, then any reasonable man would require a cocktail. Here's the kicker... Macon County, NC is a "dry" county. When I found this out, I was down-hearted. Then, I went into a convenience store and I became a little confused. There was an endless walk in cooler of any "red-style" beer you could think of, and wine too. Something tells me that it isn't exactly dry here. I ask someone about it and the person told me, there are no bars, but select restaurants can serve wine, I think I understood. Amazing. I love the fact that this city didn't follow its own rules and I headed to the only ABC (yes package) store. Anyway you slice it, the photo above shows all these things and ties them together with the religious aspect. This place may not have a store that carries a charger for my Palm Pilot cell phone, but it sure as hell has a lot of churches per capita.
In the historic downtown area hang these banners from street lamps. I lined this shot up with that banner with a church steeple in the background and a "No Parking After 5pm Saturday" sign to boot. You know why the parking restriction sign was there... they didn't want any drunk hooligan to leave his vehicle stranded at this particular point of town on a Saturday night after he was snookered and take away any parking spots from all the good church going folk on Sunday morning. Its funny, I laughed and I took the shots. Make the connections, I did. If you can't, take more ginseng and read more HST to get your mind to that strange point mine has grown to love and understand.
"The Icy Hot Situation" by Wes Aldridge
Well, as you may have noticed, there hasn't been a new post on Mind of the Photographer since December 31, 2005. That was one calendar year of posting a photo a day. It was a little something I had challenged myself to do, and I'll be damned if I didn't accomplish that little goal. Now that the craziness and stress over posting a photo-a-day is gone, I am going to actually keep this blog going but on new terms.
There will no longer be a shot up each day, nope, no way in Hell. But I didn't want to kill it off all together. I have decided I should keep posting because it is almost a record of my life in a way. As lame as it sounds, I guess it’s like my diary... that everyone who so chooses can read. It is sort of therapeutic in a way, and I was missing it. So here is my first one for the year, and its pretty funny, well, to me anyway.
I went to the office today all pumped up about this shot I needed to do for one of the magazines. It was for the Almanac section of the magazine, and we usually don't do too elaborate of a studio set up for those. That section of the magazine is more or less blurbs of information with a simple illustration with a few of them. I knew I wouldn't be getting a photo credit for the shot, but I wanted to do it in a cool way anyhow.
I had thought about this shot of IcyHot for a while last night and was anticipating it when I was on the way to the office today. I had planned to fire this red gel from behind and make the "hot" feeling in the shot, I think that was accomplished. Next, I meticulously crushed ice with a hammer and some paper towels into desirable-sized chunks to give that "icy" feeling around the canister. After I got it all set up the way I wanted it, I made a spotlight that would project light onto the small 3-inch by 2-inch bottle with one of my studio strobes and a black paper cone. I spent about an hour prepping for this shot and it turned out pretty much exactly like I had hoped for. Victory was mine.
One small catch.
After all this, I looked over my shot list for the magazine and my stomach dropped. Yeah, well, that IcyHot shot was definitely supposed to be damn Vicks VaporRub. When I realized this it pretty much crushed me. So, this shot was worthless for the magazine. Then the light in my brain kicked on... it was a perfect shot and story for the blog.
My German friend Susanne said it best. She liked the way I put photos and words together. I think that might have been what kept bringing other folks back each day too... all 15,000+ hits it got last year. The blog was a story of my life, and everybody likes to read an interesting story. I will make a semi-promise: I will post when it is interesting or inspired, and we'll not throw garbage up for the sake of posting everyday. I think that's fair. Its good to post again.
"Celebration" by Wes Aldridge
It’s been a long, hard ride, but it’s been one I’ve enjoyed. About this time last year, I was celebrating the beginning of 2005 with my friend Scott and I ran across a blog site that interested me. It was about a group of 7 photojournalists that lived across the country. Each day one of the photojournalists would post a photograph from one of their assignments of the day and discuss the shot, i.e., how they found it, difficulty of shooting it, camera settings, etc. I thought this was pretty interesting because I always try to learn from other photographers and I enjoy their “war stories” about getting a shot for an assignment.
Well, at this point the champagne had been flowing rather freely. I thought, “That’s cool, but I bet I could do a year-long blog like this all by myself.” I tooled around for a little while on the Internet and figured out what a blog was and signed up for my account at Blogger.com. Then and there, “The Mind of the Photographer” was born.
Needless to say, a photo-a-day is a tough thing to do. There were days when I would be on assignment in the middle of East Nowhere and I couldn’t find an Internet connection to get it posted, but I did. There were days when I was sick, uninspired, pissed off, depressed, or simply uninterested in making a post. There have been all kinds of circumstances that really made this thing hard to do. It took more dedication to keep this going than anything I have ever tried in my entire life. I was not paid or compensated for it in any fashion. There was no incentive to keep it going. It was for me and no one else. It became a part of me. It was a driving force in my life and I think I have been able to witness an evolution in my photographic learning this year.
And now, it is over. I hated it and loved it at the same time and I think it will be interesting to see how my life adjusts to not “have to” find the blog shot each day. It might be wonderful or maybe just drive me insane, who knows at this point. Time will tell.
The final photo I felt had to be a self-portrait of celebration. We spent a couple of hours gathering the props and making the confetti show up in the shot just right. I almost forgot to thank the people that made it happen with me... Brian McCord, Joyce Caruthers, and Jill Wyatt. Without them, this shot would have never materialized. Thank you all very much.
"Concentration" by Wes Aldridge
This is one of my best friends, Blake. He came to visit from ATL for New Years. We decided to shoot a portrait of him, something that looks nice and clean, but a little different. He has been featured on here a few times, but not in a style of shot like this one. Just had some real fun experimenting with studio lighting.
One more post to go, and its gonna be a dandy.
"The Quickness" by Wes Aldridge
"The Intensity" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight was a rather splendid night for photography. Meet my new friend Matt. He is interested in two things: shooting photos and learning more about shooting photos. We share these two things in common. One thing that we don't have in common is his talent in the martial arts. I wanted to do a portrait of him that captured his intensity and showed his ability.
I wanted to do some really moody light set-ups. I think they worked. I don't even want to get into the technical aspects of the these shots becuase that would require more of an attention span than I have at this time. I pretty much impressed myself with these.
Only two more days.
"Jukin' Tonight" by Wes Aldridge
"The Regular" by Wes Aldridge
Go ahead, say and think what you like, but tonight was a photographic work of art. We waited until late to hunt for the shot and in all honesty I was worried that I wouldn't get anything worth shit. I just had this gut feeling that I can't explain. I was wrong.
Earlier in the evening I went to Kroger on 8th. On the drive there, I passed the old shopping center where the Sutler and Melrose Lanes recently closed. I noticed there was still a strip of neon lights around one of the doors that said "BILLIARDS" above it. My curiousity started pulling at me.
I got back home a little later and time came to find the shot. We ended up at Melrose Billiards, and to our surprise, yes, it is still open (and will be forever we were politely assured by the bartender Tracy). Jeff, who I dubbed a "regular" took a minute to sit at one of the amazingly lit tables and have a cigarette to let us whet our photographic appetites. We appreciate you guys letting us photograph your beautiful piece of Nashville history while you were closing down for the night. It was a classic scene that I feel very lucky to have re-discovered tonight.
And by all means, stop by Melrose Billiards and grab a pitcher and a table and make good use of one of Nashville's hidden gems.
"The Hunter" by Wes Aldridge
Today concluded my shoot for the Southeast Resource magazine. I hit up some exteriors that were left lingering after the shoot last week. This shot is from the Hunter Museum of Art. It is a very photogenic building and the sun was out and wah-lah.
"My Boy Georgie" by Wes Aldridge
I was in downtown Chattanooga in the art district when I saw this little gem. It is by no means photographic genius, but it is a swell find. I don't know if our Republican visitors to "Mind of the Photographer" would agree or not. I guess you can draw what you want from this shot, it draws a gut-laugh from me.
Now, lets be serious for a moment. This is December 26th. "Mind of the Photographer" started on New Years Eve last year and I wanted to post a photo a day for a year. That goal is almost complete and it feels great. Only five more posts! Yeah! And the last post should be pretty good. I've been thinking about it for a while and we will spend a bit this week preparing for it.
"Nativity" by Wes Aldridge
Another Christmas has come to an end. And here is the final piece of Chrix-Mix for you. I found a creepily lit nativity scene at a Hispanic church buried deep inside the suburbia that is Dalton, Georgia.
Now, lets toast a drink to another holiday served well.
"Xmas Eve" by Wes Aldridge
Fun photo, right? I know. The half eaten cookies in front of the Christmas tree and the lipstick to tell the story on the glass. Santa just might get pissed, that fat bastard! Long live Mr. Claus! And, damnnit, where is the hot little vixen that ate all the cookies and left her lipstick on the milk. Santa, if you would, please leave her in my stocking for me.
Anyway, as usual, another wonderful Christmas unfolding with my family. I have a great family. We may not have as much as everyone else, but I would put our love and joy together up against anything. Tonight, as a part of family tradition, we watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We do this every year, and it never gets old... actually I think it gets funnier. If you could only sit and watch my father gut-laugh at every scene that rolls by. Of course we all know what will happen next in the film, but dad still laughs to the point that he begins to cough. It is a total riot.
This is the scene each year with our little country Georgia Christmas. Its a beautiful time. We rush around to wrap gifts without the family recipient around to see it. We laugh, we get frustrated, we love each other.
"Ornamental Delight" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight, there was a search for a piece of Christmas. I wanted to find one, mind you, not one in a traditional sense. Well, in my own humble opinion, I think I hit the mother load. A merry group of shooters were romping around a mall and we wondered into a store that boasted of being very "metrosexual." This was the ticket, I knew it. We had walked around the mall for an eternity and I found nothing to shoot.
I looked to the far side of the store and saw a half-size pink Christmas tree with a spotlight on it. I instantly felt blessed. I walked toward it and when I got closer I noticed the strange little ornaments that adorned it. Yup, it was a gay Christmas tree. I am sure some people find it ironic and offensive on many levels, but it was perfect to me. I focused in on a little mer-man figurine. He had on the cool shades with his hand cocked on his hip with attitude. Even his little mer-man tail was crooked and stereotypical of, well, you know. This little ornament could only have been better if it had a comb-over mohawk to boot. I took two frames and it was finished. I had captured a little different kind of piece of Christmas tonight and I was very merry.
"A Capital Christmas" by Wes Aldridge
I wanted to capture a little bit of Christmas time in the city this afternoon. I headed down to the state capital building because I knew the giant tree there would be illuminated. I decided to show the busy street in the shot, you know, the feeling of the hustle and bustle of Christmas. I set-up the tripod as low as it would go and took a seat on the ass-freezing sidewalk to frame up the shot. There are three layers in this shot in my eyes. The first layer is the fire hydrant in the foreground. To me, this is the most important layer of the photograph because it gives depth to the second layer. The second layer is made from the streaking headlights and tailights of passing consumer vehicles and the also from the interior lights of a MTA passenger bus going by in the lane closest to me. The hydrant becomes 3-D with those lights being broken and shielded from the lens as the automobiles passed behind it. And, of course, the third layer of the tree, capital building, sky, etc. makes up the background.
To get the great light streaks from the passing cars and the overall warm tint of the shot, the exposure was at 5 seconds to let tons of ambient light drench the image. I was also shooting really wide-angled at 16mm at ISO 100 at f/18 to get a massive depth of field. I think that near infinite DOF is important in this shot because it makes the layers blend together into one.
"Mr. Campbell" by Wes Aldridge
All things considered, tonight was pretty good. A new photog friend wanted to go out and shoot. We headed downtown and decided to try and help-out society. There are always homeless folks sleeping on some heating vents down by the Ryman Auditorium on 4th Ave., so we went to Tigermarket and bought sandwiches, bottled water, fruit and coffee to take to them. When we got to the "usual" spot, much to my surprise, no one was there. We literally drove around downtown Nashville for more than two hours trying to find people in need of the goods we had to offer. It was unbelievably difficult to give away free food and drinks tonight. After giving out a couple of items to a pair of men, we headed to Hillsboro Village to meet some friends.
We parked and saw a gentleman that looked as if he could use a warm drink and something good to eat. We offered, but he kindly denied the help and said he had some food and he would be OK. He told us two of his friends were over at the Acklen post office and they needed food more than he did. I thought that was true human compassion exemplified by him. He obviously didn't have one of the loft apartments above the Pancake Pantry and doubt his Porsche was in the shop tonigh. But none the less, he told us to take the food to his good friends.
This is where we met Mr. Campbell, or Scotty, if you will. He was a hoot. Some might say it was from the beer on his breath, but he seemed to have a pretty happy outlook on life. He laughed, chatted, sipped his beer... and we all just talked and talked. He did say that he was "houseless," rather than what most people would consider "homeless." I think I undestood what he meant by that. A house is a structure a person dwells in, but a home is where the heart stays. I think Scotty's heart stayed with him, no matter how tough things got.
This shot really ironically worked out very well tonight. Scotty said that he had worked for the Postal Service in the past. Tonight, he was seeking warm shelter in a post office. His photo turned into what I consider a perfect, true environmental portrait of Mr. Campbell. I love the position of his body in the frame and the post office kiosk behind him blurred out from shooting the 50mm at f/1.8. But really, the thing I love the most about it is his smile from having a good time talking to a couple of new young photographer friends and knowing that he had something to put in his stomach for a day or two besides a 40-ounce IceHouse beer.
"The Coming Touch" by Wes Aldridge
This was an interesting surprise. I hit the intersection of Ellliston Place and 22nd Ave. and saw Michelangelo's Pizza. On the wall, you guessed it, a painting of Michelangelo's "The Creation" from the roof of the Sistine Chapel. This shot isn't a photographic masterpiece by any means, but I found the subject matter pretty odd for Nashville. I had walked around downtown for a few hours and was terribly uninspired to shoot anything. I tried hard but gave up after I really couldn't feel my icy feet anymore. On the way back to the house, I saw my shot. This one was much more about the hunt than the actual photograph.
"The Watcher" by Wes Aldridge
Eyes were tired, bloodshot. Needed to be rested.
