"5 & Diner" by Wes Aldridge
Well, I have driven by this place on a daily basis for more than a year and have never popped in for a vanilla shake and burger. Isn't that a tragedy? The building sits behind Cool Springs mall, less than a mile from our company's office building, and I still haven't given it a spin.
The 5 & Diner... not really sure what the deal with this sock-hoppin' restaurant, but one thing is certain: its neons look pretty cool against the setting sun. Nothing terribly special about this one. The virtue of patience was the only skill exercised in the composition of this shot. I had to wait until the ambient light of the sunset matched to the level of light given off by the neons on the building.
"Industrial Sunset" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight was a wonderful night for an adventure. With less than an eighth tank of gas, and the sun setting in less than 20 minutes, I set out ot find the shot. I drove downtown, in and around, and about. Ideas came and they went. Nothing seemed to want to work for me. So, I kept my persistency and searched on.
As darkness started to fall, with the sun below the horizon, I kept on looking. The corner of 3rd and Lindsley, East Nashville, West Nashville... nothing still. The sun was diminishing and everything pointed toward me wasting a good sunset.
I was lost at this point. I had just kept following roads to wherever and had no idea where I was now. I see Fisk University and then Tennessee State Univeristy in front of me. I was getting close, and lost as lost can be all the while. I knew mere minutes lasted until last light, but I wasn't afraid I would miss anything and stayed calm. Just then, I saw a building in an industrial setting just over the horizon. I went for it and there found my shot. I have no idea where I was or what the place I was shooting at was, but it was my shot.
This shot was captured with my 70-200 lens at 100 ISO with an aperture of f/32 and a shutter speed of 13 seconds. These settings allowed the lamp lights to create stars and grab the right exposure for last light. It felt good to make an industrial park look beautiful.
"Green Bud" by Wes Aldridge
So, I am sitting at my desk and 4:30 p.m. is rolling around. After a day full of dreadful storming, the sun started to break free from the blustery clouds over head. I itched to grab my camera and make a mad dash for the door beside my desk. The world had come to life for the first time today and it was beautiful and I wanted to be a part of it.
My boss could tell that one more minute for me in the office would have drove me mad. It was time to play a game, one that I love. He asked, "You want me to give you an assignment for your blog?"
With an over-eager lust permeating from me, I stared at him with excited eyes and said, "yes."
He told me to go outside, no farther than 100-feet from where I am sitting at my desk and find my shot. Without any reply from me, I lifted from my seat with camera in tow and walked quickly through the door to the beauty our day had become. I looked for only seconds and the shot above caught my eye... and it was only about 40-feet from my point of assignment. I snapped about four frames and knew this was my shot and walked back in the office in less than two minutes from when I walked out.
I can't explain to you how exciting it is to be constrained and to be forced to figure out a shot in a cramped situation. It completes my photographic lust for adventure. The pressure motivates me to accell and I feel an amazing high in times like these. Even something as simple as my "assignment" and the shot I found, it makes me feel stellar to pull through with something cool to share from it.
"Goose" by Wes Aldridge
This is a shot taken of one of my dear old friends, the geese, at the Parthenon. I thought the nearly seamless reflection in this shot was pretty nice. I enjoy photographing wildlife and the Parthenon allows me to get my water fowl fix in this mid-sized concrete jungle of a city. If you don't visit the Parthenon at least once a week, you are robbing yourself. Give it a try and take along a camera if you care to. There is always something there to shoot from peace rallies to birds to lovers in the damp grass. It is a field day there.
Blue is for serenity. It makes this one perfect.
"AJ's Pick" by Wes Aldridge
Today turned out to be rather satisfying. Cheekwood was the destination of the shooting for the day. It was pretty today, just wish it would have been about 10-degrees warmer.
Anyway, I told one of my most special friends I was going to scout out photo locations for a portrait in her future album. The idea that she wants to portray goes along the lines of a "secret," with her dressed in white for innocence. I thought that Cheekwood would be the perfect place to accurately give the feeling she is looking for. I see another Cheekwood shoot coming on soon, and I am excited. Does anyone want to be a photo assistant?
If you would like to look at a small gallery of other shots I did today at Cheekwood, feel free to copy and paste this link into a new Web browser window and have a look at the slide show.
https://home.comcast.net/~jessf/CheekwoodGallery/index.htm
"The Statue" by Wes Aldridge
Yes, this is pretty. I like statues, but actually, I am tired and want to go to bed. So here is your shot for the day.
Yes.
"The Ride" by Wes Aldridge
Today I thought a street festival was supposed to be going on in Franklin, so I left work and headed to find a shot. When I got there, not so much of a street festival going on. I was pretty flustered because I was stoked to shoot some people having fun. I decided to keep driving around, because we all know the show must go on... got to get that shot up each day or total failure.
I happened upon a small carnival going on in the back streets of Franklin. I knew this was what I needed to shoot. At times like this, I really wish my camera shot full frame, instead of the multiplication factor that it has because it is digital and the sensor isn't made the same size as 35mm film. I wanted it wider, tisk, tisk.
"On the Bridge" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight was beautiful. It was an adventure. Jess and I were in search of photos, and we found them. We drove to historic downtown Franklin and squeezed off a few frames, then it was a race against the setting sun en route to Leiper's Fork. I just hadn't found the shot I was looking for yet, so off to Natchez Trace Parkway we went.
This shot was taken from the bridge on the Parkway overlooking Highway 96. I didn't have my tripod with me and I wanted to do a long exposure to get streaking headlights that contoured the motion of the cars in the road. So, I found a way to balance my camera on the railing of the bridge to steady it and I made a 30 second exposure at f/22 to get the entire frame in focus. The headlights and taillights made a great design and the motion looks like it goes on forever.
"SunBurst" by Wes Aldridge
I was driving around town tonight, my town, Nashville. I was looking for things that were different because it seems I am never here long enough to notice little changes anymore. I felt like getting back in touch with my city tonight.
I saw this little difference tonight. The SunTrust Bank logo had changed. Such a novel idea to change their logo to some kind of design with a sun in it. It is a great design and I thought it made for a good shot.
"NY Gulls" by Wes Aldridge
Today was another magnificent day for photography, and my life in general. Nothing particularly special happened, I just know how fortunate I am to travel and shoot photographs for a salary. It was a whirlwind adventure, in and out fast. Now time has come to head back to NashVegas.
I miss New York already as I sit in the Buffalo-Niagara Airport munching on some city name-sake "Buffalo" wings as I hack away at the blog. Time is drawing closer to departure on the big red, gold and blue bird to Baltimore and then on to Nashville.
This shot was done on the banks of the Niagara River. It shows a somewhat primal aggressive side of seagulls, general what I consider as gentle creatures. The sounds they made were like women shreiking and chilled your blood. I got in as close as I could, without scaring the little birds into flight, and squeezed off a few frames while they were making their strange noises.
"Fall Colours" by Wes Aldridge
Today was spectacular. The weather was perfect. The photography flowed like clockwork. It was a blessed day to have my camera in my hand.
This is a photo a view of the American side of Niagara Falls from across the river on the Canadian border. At night, the falls have lights projected on them in different colors from the Canadian side. The colors cycle through and change from one to another and it was difficult to get the colors to show properly with a very long exposure. The shot was taken at ISO 100 at 1.6 seconds with an aperture of f/2.8.
"Candian Lights" by Wes Aldridge
This shot is offically my first international photograph. I know, I know, its just Canada. I went across the border tonight to scout out shots of Niagara Falls and I decided to snap a few neons on Centre Street in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The street was bizarre, much like I remember it when my friends and I went on a whirlwind day trip there about five years ago. It is a strange mix of the main strip in Gatlinburg, Tennessee (major tourist trap) with casinos sprinkled into the mix.
Crossing into Canada was strange in itself. I had to stop and let a pair of Canadian customs officers search my vehicle for contraband and answer several questions. I simply had to present my drivers license and after the search, I was free in another country. After flocking about in the streets of Canadia, I went to cross back into the States. It bothered me because only after a few questions like, "Where were you born?" and "How long were you in Canada?," I was able to drive my rental car back into the U.S. It was ultra simple to cross into the border and there was no search of my car or anything of that nature. I thought with the state of New York being as it is after 9/11 and the position of Homeland Security, I imagined the process of coming into the States would be a little more difficult, or thorough, however you want to look at it. Just something to think about.
I am not a person that wants or supports more restrictions on free travel and such. But I thought with the gigantic ordeal and emphasis being placed onto the ideal of broken borders and fear of terrorists coming into the country, it would be much more than a 3-minute event to cross the Big Line.
"Thrown" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight Thaxton Ward played a great rock show at the Rivers and Spires Festival in Clarksville, Tennessee. After the show during breakdown, the elusive Mr. Carter decided to throw the frisbee around... and I thought it would be cool to shoot.
Because it was very dark, I had to shoot at ISO 400. I slowed the shutter down to about 1/25th of a second to catch the motion of the frisbee in flight and give it the cool trail through the air. I hit Carter with a little flash from my 550EX to give him a little luminescence and to stop his motion and make his figure look solid.
"In Flight" by Wes Aldridge
This is a shot that I did at the office. We have this great gazebo that we go out to and spend some quality time in while its pretty outside. But, there are several pesky bees that are guarding something. They fly around and buzz by my head and try to keep the other bees from invading their terrirtory.
Anyway, I shot the bee at a very high shutter speed... and I need to hang out with a girl. See ya, bye, its Friday night.
"New Found Vitality" by Wes Aldridge
Ahhh... It is mid-April and spring has sprung. The air we breathe is a little fresher. The skies we see are much bluer. And for the love of all things holy, the greenery has come forth to delight our eyes once again.
This was a shot I did in our office complex parking lot. The light hitting the new found glory of the green leaf sapling was all I could stand to not take a shot at. The sky, perfect in its beautiful, majestic blue. Spring time is here and life has come again.
"Spicy Eggplant" by Wes Aldridge
Well, this is a shot I set up in the studio. The food looked pretty nice and colorful, but the image just needed a little more dressing up. I went to Pier 1 Imports and bought this little place mat that looked pretty Asian and seemed to fit in well. Then, of course, we needed some fly looking chop sticks. Funny though, no stores in Cool Springs had any for sale. Everything they had was for display only, not for sale.
I ended up in Hecht's department store and saw a table setting there... with chop sticks made of black porcelain. I NEEDED them. I told the store manager this in a frantic way, and he felt the desperation in my voice and could read it in my eyes. He agreed to let me take them on the premis that he "trusted me" to bring them back when I was finished with the photo shoot. Believe it or not, I got them back to Hecht's when I was finished. Such a good boy am I.
"Night Light" by Wes Aldridge
This shot is of the rotating guitar at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Nashville. The neons look nice and contrasty against a pitch black sky, so I decided to take a shot. I just exposed for the neons and let the sky totally fall dark.
It was yet another night the post almost didn't happen. The Net was down at my place, so I went all over Nashville trying to find somewhere to hook in Wi-Fi. I had no luck. On my way home, almost giving up, I drove by my alma mater Belmont University and thought eureka. I drove up to the library and searched for a wireless network... and behold there was one. The fun didn't end there, though. I tried logging in with my old college passwords and couldn't remember them for the life of me. After racking my brain another 20 minutes with it, I finally remembered my codes and got online; And the post is up.
"Cards and Cigs" by Wes Aldridge
This is a little diddy set up using the deck of Harrah's playing cards from the casino in New Orleans that was given to me on my 21st birthday there. Not much going on in this one, but I think it looks neat. Could be a great shot for someone to hang in their playing/gaming room, hint, hint.
"Ole Glory" by Wes Aldridge
Well, it was a pretty day, the weather of course. So I shot this flag. Other things could be more to wish for, such as life's little path in general. Just a rather interesting time that I don't fully understand at the present time. But, I am not a person that cares to question the things that go on day to day. I let them come as they will... and yes, they will.
To sum up life's present situations and current events and happenings, I leave you with this quote from one of my greatest influences in life, my senior AP English teacher in high school.
"The rational mind knows limitations that the heart could never understand."- Henry T. Honeycutt
"RC Jones" by Wes Aldridge
This shot is of RC Jones, guitarist from the Nashville rock band Thaxton Ward. The show pretty much rocked tonight at The End. The crowd was happy and the music was tight.
The lighting in the club was terrible, so I was pretty much forced to shoot at a 3200 film speed. That means ultra grain, but I embraced it and thought of it as a creative factor. It adds a certain roughness to the photos and really enhances the situation.
