Lucky Day

"Charms" by Wes Aldridge

So last night we went out for a while, nothing really too wild, but I was feeling good when I got home. I dozed off and started having some strange dream about war-torn Europe in the 1940s. In the movies, it never fails that someone jumps into a bathtub to avoid the blast of a hand grenade.

We had decided last night that we would go to the Titans game today and my friend came over to pick me up. I heard the doorbell ringing like crazy and woke up lying in my bathtub. I guess the dream just seemed so real that the only option was to sleep there. Pretty funny stuff.

Walking down Broadway a guy in a Lexus pulls up and tells us we would want his tickets. We ask him where the seats were for, and he says, "Second row, 45-yard line right behind the Titans bench." I said thanks and bought two for $40. It seemed reasonable, what can I say? Felt like it was my lucky day.

Historical Place

"Clisby Austin House" by Wes Aldridge

I went driving around to find a shot today. I ended up close the namesake train tunnel that gives Tunnel Hill its name. Near there is a historic Civil War battleground where the Battle of Tunnel Hill took place. On the property sits the Clisby Austin House. I have no idea what the signifigence of the place is, but here is a photo near sundown.

Something From Nothing

"Fiery Ace" by Wes Aldridge

So, I didn't get out to find a shot before the sun had already went down. I needed to do something. Ideas, ideas... I needed one. Grab the Turkey, gobble gobble. Ideas began to flow.

I grabbed my favorite deck of playing cards that I got from the Harrah's Casino in New Orleans on my 21st birthday and went to the kitchen. I balanced the card with a small plastic bowl behind it. I turned the lights out. I sat the camera on the counter top with a 20 second exposure at f/22 set to fire on a 10-second auto timer. For the first 4 seconds of the exposure, I "painted" light on the face of the playing card with a flashlight to make the lettering appear in the shot. Next, I grabbed my trusty Bic lighter from my pocket and lit it as I made wavey passes along the edges of the card. for the remaining 16 seconds of the exposure.

This shot had zero alteration or manipulation in Photoshop, other than the expected color level corrections and such that go along with any digital photography.

This one is pretty damn cool considering I did it in the freakin' kitchen with a flashlight. Just trying to keep it interesting in the last days of the blog. Gobble, gobble.

A Time of Thanksgiving

"Street Sounds" by Wes Aldridge

Thanksgiving once again. Plenty of food prepared by my incredible Southern cooking mother. We had enough to feed an army, but it was just the four of us including dad and brother. A nice, simple, quiet Thanksgiving.

I was thankful for much today; my health, my family, my talents, etc. But most of all, I was thankful that my brother didn't want to kick my ass for making him stay out in the cold tonight on a Chattanooga, Tennessee, street doing the photos for the blog. He was a good sport and just played and sang while I adjusted lighting and tried different angles. Well, I really like this one. I enjoy the little things in it like the dead leaves and paper cup in the right corner, as well as the "DO NOT ENTER" sign in the background. It looks really natural and it puts a good memory and story in my mind.

Its wonderful just to be with family. Hope you enjoyed your day as much as I did.

Liberty, Detailed

"The Cloth" by Wes Aldridge

This is a shot I saw tonight of a small, old American flag. I flipped my 50mm lens around to get a macro shot. The grainy detail was the goal.

On Assignment: Huntsville, Alabama-Day One

"Caged Rocket" by Wes Aldridge

Today was strange, yet yielded some good photography. Brian (a fellow employee of the JCI Photography Department) and I drove down to Huntsville to get a few assignments in for the magazine. Its kind of funny, and sad I guess, but both of us are slightyly injured right now. We joked all day long about putting us together and getting a fully physically functioning photographer. We shot at a German restaurant and Brian was standing posed in the frame to help test lighting. I got a great shot of Brian posed up with a dish of food in this awesomely decorated German restaurant. The shot was a classic and he looked really funny, so I thought he would never forgive me if I posted it. So, here is a pretty cool shot instead.

Huntsville is of course heavy into NASA. We were searching for a shot as the sun was setting and we came across this one. Wow. The only thing that was a problem was a chain link fence between me and a really awesome shot. I popped this shot because I liked the idea of the big rocket ship caged in and locked up. Here it is. I, of course, climbed around on this bridge over-looking I-565 to get another angle of this shot without the chained fence. It looks pretty rock and roll, too.

Where ya do ya wanna chaw, now?

"Little Reminders" by Wes Aldridge

When I find myself with a gigantic, mouth-watering wad of chewing tobacco, sometimes I get lost in the bliss of that sweet product and forget all social skills. Yes, I admit it... I have taken it upon myself to spit on both the walls and floors of the establishment that I am in. Thank goodness signs like this one hang amidst lucky horseshoes to remind me that I am no longer a caveman.

Standing There

"Lazy Sunset" by Wes Aldridge

I guess there must be some kind of feeling that comes over one's person when watching a sky that has the drama of a wonderful sunset. I think I just want to take a picture.

Slumbersome

"Green Monster" by Wes Aldridge

There was no room for a lover, but his bedtime story laid beside him all night long and sang a lullaby to soothe his aching head. The whispers of empty bottles clanging like he had never heard before.

Lurking At My Door

"Green Monster" by Wes Aldridge

This is shot of a scary monster that was lurking at my door. The face will terrify you. Trust me.

Helping Hand

"B.McCord" by Wes Aldridge

So Brian here is one of our staff photogs. He unfortunately tore his shoulder out of socket a few weeks back and has been out of commission on the photo front since his corrective surgery. He was shooting an assignment for Tennessee Home & Farm magazine today and needed some help holding lights and hauling/moving equipment around because his arm is not 100% again as of yet. So I needed to give a brother a helping hand on this story about a guy that restores old cemeteries. We were testing light when I took this shot of him. The reflection you see of him is in a rain puddle that gathered on the top of one of the grave monuments that the guy had recently restored. We both ended up shooting some incredible shots for this feature because Brian is defintely not a Bag de la and decided us working together was much better than one person hogging the photo spotlight. So, here he is. I think he had been itching to make the blog anyway for a while. Today, it was natural for him to get there.

Even the Trees

"Dark Tree" by Wes Aldridge

When winter is approaching, even the trees turn dark and cold. It is that time now. Nature is shifting, changing, hiding itself. The shadow of this tree is testament to that.

On Assignment; El Paso, Texas-Day Seven

"Buffalo Soldier" by Wes Aldridge

I stopped to eat a traditional Mexican lunch in an absolute dive-bar style restaurant today... completely authentic in every way. The food was incredible and I absolutely gouged myself on a hearty plateful of tamales, enchiladas, taquitos, rice and beans, and great chips and salsa.

After the meal, I walked outside to the rental car. I had parked next to a cemetery, so of course I wanted to go exploring. It was rundown and old, and very interesting. I walked around a bit and finally I saw this sign. "BUFFALO SOLDIER." I don't know what it means or why it was there, but here is the shot.

And now, my assignments in El Paso are finished. Back in Nashville after a nice flight delay and hellish weather during the flight. I liked El Paso, but seven days was very much enough.

On Assignment; El Paso, Texas-Day Six

"Crack Donalds: The A-Bomb" by Wes Aldridge

I was driving around as the sun was setting, trying frantically to get a shot that the client wanted for the magazine. Well, I didn't get it because of circumstances beyond my control. It is what it is.

I did find a nice scenic perch that allowed me to look out over the eastern side of El Paso. There were lights everywhere, a very interesting site. I wanted to take a shot, but a plain and normal shot just seemed too dry. And then... there it was.

Amid all the blinking, sparkling and glittering lights of the city, I see the Golden Arches. I had this crazy idea about how Crack Donalds was somehow the Anti-Christ of Western civilization, akin to a bomb exploding inside those of us that choose to consume its foul, but delightfully greasy, filth.

So, BOOM! Its pretty tiny, but you can see the Arches going off like an Atom Bomb.

On Assignment; El Paso, Texas-Day Five

Today I finished the non-appointment exterior photography for my El Paso assignment. I found myself on the eastern outskirts of the city. Someone had mentioned an old mission that was in the neighboring city, Socorro. By pure luck, I saw a sign that said "Texas Mission" with a big white arrow on a blue sign pointing ahead of me. I bought the ticket and took the ride. I hunted for the mission and found it. It was serene and beautiful, worthy of a couple of shots.


"Open Door Welcome" by Wes Aldridge


"Mother and Son" by Wes Aldridge


"View to Heaven" by Wes Aldridge

On Assignment; El Paso, Texas-Day Four

"Another TD RUn" by Wes Aldridge

Tonight I shot the University of Texas El Paso Miners football game against the Texas Southern Tigers. The game was an entire blowout, Miners taking their winning season to 8-1 with a 45-0 shutout, knocking the Tigers further down in the rankings to 1-8. The game was overall pretty boring. UTEP just trounced the Tigers all over the field. So, I tried getting creative with my shot. I slowed down my shutter speed to around 1/30th of a second and panned with the action as a UTEP player caught a 30-yard pass and tried to keep his balance.

On Assignment: El Paso, Texas-Day Three

"Space to Ponder" by Wes Aldridge

Today was long. I spent a good bit of the day in Juarez, Mexico. It was an emotional time for me. What I saw opened my eyes to the reality of poverty. Juarez could only be described by me as a slum. I had never witnessed anything like it before. The houses were tiny shacks, thrown together with anything you could think of. The cars were circa 1987, rundown and on the last leg. The people had grief and defeat written across their sun-beaten faces. There were so many things to see... and I wasn't able to take one photograph of the massive tragic reality that surrounded me. I was with a translator and she sped us around to the locations that I had to get photographs of, never stopping in the thick of it all.

I must return there and document the things I see through photography.

This is a self portrait I did while I was shooting close to sundown in the desert. I was enjoying the beautiful landscape and thinking a lot about the things I saw today. I figured I wanted to make this a lasting memory for me. I sat the camera down on some rocks and got the self-timer going. The shot actually turned out in focus and with a pretty nice and even exposure. With sunlight like that, its pretty hard to go wrong.

"Quelli che passa prima che ci rimarremo nella memoria."

On Assignment: El Paso, Texas-Day Two

"Aquatic Grace" by Wes Aldridge

This is a shot from the El Paso zoo. I wanted to capture the aquatic grace of the sea lions. Think I got it.

On Assignment: El Paso, Texas-Day One

"Wild Lights" by Wes Aldridge

I am in El Paso, Texas, right now. A stones throw away from Juarez, Mexico, and right up the road from New Mexico. I thought I would be excited about this one. Now that I am here, I certainly am not. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but I am not feeling El Paso. I have only been here for a day so far, maybe I will give it a little more time before I make a judgement on it.

El Paso is massive. I drove around for hours tonight, trying to get a feel for the area and how to navigate it. The map of the area is basically useless because it is about 3-feet wide and the roads are so small a magnifying glass would help greatly in reading it. Too bad I can't hold a magnifying glass while I am driving. The city is pretty compacted, everything seemingly built tightly around or on top of each other.

I had envisioned vast desert landscapes with cactus growing and tumbleweeds bouncing by. That isn't the case thus far. All those landscapes are interrupted by sprawling city buildings and strip malls. I hope I can get some time to find locations that will make for nice scenic shots.

Don't know if I am tired or worn down or just getting burned out, but my last trip to Indy and this one now, just haven't seemed right for some reason. I wonder what that means to me?

Well I am pretty undecided about this one: Is it really cool or just garbage? Ah, who cares. I think this shot is an illustration of my frustration today. It was made with a 30 second exposure at f/22 with an ISO rating of 100. I threw on the 16-35mm wide angle lens and waved, panned and zoomed the camera during the exposure.

Mixing the Mood

"The Berries" by Wes Aldridge

I like how this one is mixing all the different visual elements.