"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.
"Fire Flowers" by Wes Aldridge
I was shooting an assignment for our Williamson County magazine at Harlinsdale Farm when I got this shot. I went over there looking for a great sihouette of a horse in a sunset. Be sure to pick up the Williamson County mag and see what I got. I like it a lot.
This shot of the flowers in the field is very similar to my horse shots. I laid on my side in the field with my ultra-wide 16-35mm lens on and left cheek against the ground because I couldn't get enough of the sunset in the frame with the timberline in front of me.
Ah, I just love to watch the sunset.
"The Gardens" by Wes Aldridge
Today I was assigned to shoot at the historic Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tenn. The grounds consisted of a plantation house complete with a smokehouse and slave quarters. Also, there is a great garden. That is where this shot came from. I was walking through it trying to find a shot and I looked up and saw this great pattern. I had to shoot.
The sunspot was great to capture and I love the lens flare it made diagonally in the right hand corner of the shot. A high shutter speed gave me the shadow of the wooden beam structure in the garden and allowed me to shoot virtually directly into the sun.
"Hollywood Lights" by Wes Aldridge
While I was driving to Jersey Mike's Sub Shop to grab a #13 Boss-style for dinner, I caught a glimpse of the Regal Cinemas Hollywood 27 movie theater neons. I shot this before early on in this project but used a shot of the neons from the marquee reflected in a car window. So, in essence, this is the same location with a totally different view point. I think it is one of the most interesting movie theaters that I have ever been to and totally worth shooting multiple times. There are just so many different ways it can be looked at from different angles.
It was almost last light and the sky hadn't turned black yet, so I decided, this was my shot. There is just something about seeing neons against a dusk filled sky. I guess I have truly fallen in love with neon signs now because I seem to shoot them more and more often.
"Sushi Time" by Wes Aldridge
Today, some of the fellas from photo decided to have lunch out in Cool Springs. We tried the Canton Super Buffet, but strangely enough, Chinese restaurants seem to be closed on Mondays. Don't ask, we had no idea why. But the sweet thought of Oriental cuisine kept fresh on our minds, and taste buds. So, to get our fix, we took a trip to Omikashi to enjoy their sushi buffet lunch. And yes, we very much enjoyed it.
Lunch inspired me. I decided to go grab some props tonight and do a little food shot of some sushi rolls. I bought the nifty little plate from the Pottery Barn, the chopsticks from Pier 1 Imports and the sushi from good ol' Kroger. I spent a little over $20 on the items for the shot and think they were well worth it. I figured I could use these for some stock photos with the possiblity of selling them to potential clients.
I turned my kitchen into a psuedo studio. I used a chair bottom to act as a table to shoot on. I sat up my 550EX E-TTL flash on a light stand and shot it into an umbrella to spread the light over the great little rolls. I ended up shooting the shot at 1/100th of a second at f/4.5 with an ISO of 100.
"W" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight Katie and I went on a little photo adventure. The sunset was closing in and I wanted to get a shot for the blog before last light settled the sky down.
We jumped in the Jeep and started driving. We went to the Parthenon. We headed into downtown. We tried at the Coliseum. We browsed about West Nashville. We searched up and down West End Ave and then rode it out towards Belle Meade. And there it was, we saw the shot. Whitfield's Restaurant and Bar. I liked the single "W" in neons on the top of the building. The sky was at the right exposure to match the red neons and I think it made for a nice color scheme.
"Drops and Ripples" by Wes Aldridge
This is a simple shot of raindrops hitting a puddle of water during a May time shower. I enjoy observing Nature in all her eloquent beauty. Even when the day seems nasty and the weather turns dark, gray and rainy, she is still gorgeous and radiant.
My original idea when I was shooting this shot was to try and catch a raindrop at the time of impact of it hitting the water. Then, I noticed something different: the patterns in the ripple effect of the water puddle. This was the shot.
I bumped my film speed up to 800 at f/4.0 with a 1/2000th of a second shutter speed to precisely stop the action I saw in the frame.
"Fall Creek Falls" by Wes Aldridge
Today concluded our company retreat at Fall Creek Falls. I thought it only proper to give a glimpse of the park's namesake waterfall and share its beauty.
It is wonderful to be out in and a part of Nature. To witness something as amazing as this sight, and to realize it is much larger than one's self, is extremely powerful. I am a country boy from Tunnel Hill, Ga., and I love nothing more than to walk through the wilderness with my camera in hand. I feel everyday is a ticket to an adventure and I try harder than anything to cash my ticket and take that ride on a daily basis. There is a vast importance in exploring and seeing things of this magnitude... to be a part of them for a sliver of time, just for a moment. Every moment in life is special and I want to taste and savor it for all it is worth. Today, looking at this magnificent waterflow, I tasted a little of what life is all about.
I make it a point of my existence to search and share what I see. I feel there is so much to share, and much, much more to see. I want to do it all, see it all, be a part of it all, bear witness and tell the story of all I encounter. I want to do something that matters.
"Mr. Boshier" by Wes Aldridge
The editorial, directories and photography departments from our company went on a two day retreat to Fall Creek Falls. And yes, it has been a fun night tonight.
Meet Mr. Boshier. He is one of my partners in crime, one of the five staff photographers for our company. Per his request, I grabbed my camera and started shooting candids during our cookout tonight. It was rather dark outside and he had the great idea of using stroboscopic flash sequencing to get some interesting shots. Perfect idea Antony, perfect.
I opened the aperture to f/3.5 with an extremely slow shutter speed of 1.6 seconds, which seems like an eternity to shoot with. We loaded the strobe to fire five times during the exposure. During the exposure, he made a slow run in front of the lens and this is what we got. You have a great blue tone in the sky from the ambient light after sundown and five images of him from the individual strobe flashes. There was not Photoshop manipulation involved in the crafting of this image, just FYI. The darkness of the forest allowed for the perfect exposure. Ain't it fun? I think so. More to come from Fall Creek Falls.
