"Building" by Wes Aldridge
Snap, click, boom. Another shot in the books. Hell yes, the show goes on.
The crane building a new and better Belmont University, my alma mater. Gotta love the element of progress.
Back in Nashville. Let the good times roll!
"The Machine" by Wes Aldridge
Today, the trip ended. This is the mouth of the beast that we rode to the end of the road. After 8 hours, it was home. I like home, but I am actually in Atlanta for the night. Old friends, good times, things to come I'm sure.
"The Beach Fence" by Wes Aldridge
Ok, my photo hosting site, flickr, has been screwed up for the past few days. I had to figure out another place to host the last few days' photos and do some work-arounds on my posting. This is why the image quality looks like garbage, i.e., crappy colors and grain, etc. You wouldn't believe how much of a pain in the ass it has been. But here is another shot from the beach. Hopefully flickr will get its head out of its ass soon so the game isn't so painful to complete.
"Pier Walker" by Wes Aldridge
Hell or high water, its up.
"Done Fishing" by Wes Aldridge
Can one man's garbage become another man's art?
Sure. Let the party continue.
"Round 'n' Round" by Wes Aldridge
Vacation took a fun turn last night. I wish I could tell you the adventure with "Dan the Man." He must have been arguably one of the most annoying human beings that I have ever had the misfortune of hanging out with... oh, but the stories we have to tell about him. I have honestly never seen a 55-year-old man falling face first into the crashing waves as the sun was rising on the ocean front. We all had great laughs of this freak show. Thank you for the hilarious, and idiotic memories, Dan. And Deanna, thanks for bringing the wine bottle. Who would have thought an empty bottle could have been so entertaining with that fool!
Anyway, this shot is from The Pavillion amusement park in Myrtle Beach. Just a cool shot of the Ferris wheel. It was neat trying to figure out the lighting patterns of the spinning contraption and the designs it would make at different exposure times. I have always wanted to shoot one, and tonight I finally got my chance. Kind of artsy, but all fun.
Note to self: Always make certain you have a digital film card in your camera when you go out for a shoot. Nuff said.
"Sky Goes Boom" by Wes Aldridge
Yeah, blah, blah, blah, its the 4th of July. I took a few shots of a fireworks display off a pier. What did you expect, anything else?
I look somewhat similar to Neopolitan ice cream, you know, brown, pink and white. Ocean sunshine is a ruthless beast. I hurt, and it isn't getting any better by the minute. I need some Aloe. Gods of the Beach, I call forth upon you to pour down Aloe from the sky. That would be great. Now, back to Miller Lite on the Beach time.
Happy B-day America, you old bastard!
"BYOF" by Wes Aldridge
Bring your own fireworks. Don't forget the beer. Get a little crazy and let chaos take over.
Have you ever tried taking night shots of crazy drunk rednecks from ten feet away as they light fireworks on the beach? I did tonight, and yes it was a blast. I was jumping and dodging the fireworks as they screamed past my head to light the sky. This shot shows that chaos I think.
It is a beautiful thing to be a 24-year-old American on the beach right at the 4th. So many adventures to be had, so little time to have them all.
"Beach Cig" by Wes Aldridge
Today begins the first day of my official summer beach vacation. Thank God for beer and family, in no particular order of course. The four of us, mom, dad and bro, piled in the Grand Cherokee and headed for Myrtle Beach, S.C., for a week of relaxation.
Anyway, the gangster-pimp looking fellow above is my brother, Whit. After messing around with sparklers and fireworks at night on the beach, I decided to go with this shot of him lighting a cigarette. So, now the blog is finished for the night and the fun shall continue.
"TV Man" by Wes Aldridge
Bigger fish to fry. Wisconsin good. TV good. Talk to ya later, G.
"Dells Diver" by Wes Aldridge
Today I visited a place called Dells of the Eau Claire. It was a rock-filled section of the Eau Claire River, just outside of Wausau, Wisconsin. It was very, very interesting. I was able to walk all across the river on these rock formations, and that was pretty awesome.
Anyway, meet Ryan. He is the gentleman diving into the swirling waters of the Eau Claire. What a brave fellow. I wish that could have been me, but alas, I was pushing the shutter button. And, the fine young lady standing above him is Minttu. Yes, that is Minttu. She is from Finland. I would love to go to Finland. Oh well, maybe that is where my photographic expeditions will take me some day.
My general synopsis is this: Wausau is a good place. Things to see and places to go. And above all, it welcomed me here. I felt at home. It has been good.
"Cars, Cars, Cars" by Wes Aldridge
The farewell to Detroit Rock City. I leave you with the General Motors building. Pretty, right? Sure thing.
"Spirit of Detroit" by Wes Aldridge
What an absolutely miserable day for seasonal photography. No sunlight and gray skies. To a photographer on a seasonal assignment, a day without sunshine is like a day without... you can make it through, but man, it ain't pretty. Needless to say I didn't capture a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph today.
Anyway, I did get this image tonight... and I like it! It was raining and windy and many homeless people begged me for money (I felt kinda bad because all I had was a credit card). I was in downtown--you guessed it--Detroit trying to get a shot of the suspended Joe Louis boxing fist sculpture. It didn't exactly work out due to the fist being completely black and not lit with flood lighting at night (sorry Coach, didn't mean to let you down). I walked the streets for a little while and came across this beauty. It is a statue titled "Spirit of Detroit" and it was wearing a Pistons jersey. I saw it on television during the NBA Finals and it was pretty memorable, unlike the Finals itself. It was purely by luck that I saw it tonight. Glad I did.
I think I got this exposure dead on the money. I have the shadows natural in the frame with the tungsten tint from the flood lamp illuminating the statue. But I also metered in a little fill flash that brought the image to life. ISO was set to 200 to get the proper f/stop and shutter speed combination, all shot on a tripod of course.
"Perfect Alley" by Wes Aldridge
Oddly enough, this is the 3rd time that Carter has appeared as a subject on the blog. I must admit, this is one of my favorite places to shoot portraits in Nashville. This alleyway is amazing. Lights hang directly above the alley and make shafts of light that come down. The mood of the light there is incredible. I foresee many shots of bands, singers, musicians, etc., being shot in this alley.
Want to know where this little piece of heaven is?
I'll never tell...
"Lit" by Wes Aldridge
Sometimes I will snap a frame off for the heck of it, with no purpose or intention for it in my mind. There was no reason for it, it held no defined purpose. It was just a moment in time. A slice of life, and it became worth everything to me. And every once in a while I will just fall in love with something like it. That's what happened with this shot. It was real and I didn't even catch her name.
This was shot with my 50mm at f/1.8 to give it that awesome depth of field. No lights, tripod, reflectors or any of that other crap. It was raw.
"Action JaxN" by Wes Aldridge
Another portrait I shot in an empty theatre of one of my best friends in Atlanta, Blake. We have known each other for many years and played in many bands together. A very good drummer, drinking buddy and overall a stellar comrade. We have been through the thick of it all, came out alive, and not with too many broken bones or spirits. We made that strange connection, that Bonnie and Clyde-do-or-die, stroke-it-to-the-end-and-let-it-roll kind of a moment. That's what we've got. And all you out there, may never find that! Ha, we are true ruffs in the broadest sense of the word.
And, here he is in all his beauty. Aviators and a strange pink coat. That is the way we will go out of this world one day too, boy-O. Strange and hard, no fear and kill the regrets. Turn off the lights and set the table, cause daddy is coming to dinner soon. Grrr...
"The Drummer" by Wes Aldridge
This is a portrait of Andres Garban, drummer for Nashville rock band Thaxton Ward, at Mercy Lounge. At most Thaxton Ward shows that I shoot, I never get many shots of Andres because he is always stuck in the back of the stage and the lighting is usually terrible. Well, amigo, I felt like you got left out a few times, so you made the blog.
I love this shot. It is one of my favorite music photos. A simple portrait. I don't want to tell you the shot settings and light set up because I think it would take away from the composition and mood of the photograph. Let's let it be my little secret.
"Face of Fear" by Wes Aldridge
I shot this because it worked at this particular moment in time. I was searching for a "secret garden" at the James K. Polk house in Columbia, Tennessee. I found it. These old marble statues stood in the garden with plants growing all around them. There was something mysterious to it all.
The way the shadows fell over this statue's face was almost haunting. The damage the weather had done to it added an even more chilling effect. I thought it was cool. I like to find fear inside myself about things that are unknown.
"La Chihuahua" by Wes Aldridge
Everyone, meet Chongo. He made an appearance at the studio to help do a product shot of some locally manufactured doggie treats. Chongo is the 6-year old Chihuahua of one of my fellow staff photographers, Brian.
The dog really rocked and was pretty cooperative with the shoot, after we went through the proper channels talking to his manager. Chongo was pretty demanding during the shoot. He wanted 75 green M&M's in his doggie bowl, which was trimmed in gold. That was a pretty standard request from most of our clientele, so we had plenty of greens around. He wanted the four latest issues of PAW, a pretty risque skin-mag in the canine world that had a Lassie centerfold. We sent the intern out for those while we were setting up the lights. The most demanding request he had was for a bottle of Opus One Mondavi, a fine merlot from California in the Sanoma Valley. At $220 per bottle, that was a little difficult to find and it stretched our budget for the shoot a little farther than we had planned.
But, as this shot shows, Chongo was a happy camper and so were we to see this cute little doggie and the bag of treats looking good in this shot.
"Clean" by Wes Aldridge
The Village Cleaners in neon.
