"Slunt" by Wes Aldridge
I shot this band called Slunt... and they rocked my face off. Such a clever name, on the verge of being vile and certainly naughty. Not to mention the singer/guitar player and bassist were extremely hot. That helped out a bit. But their music was heavy and edgy and these girls mixed raw attitude with real sex appeal on stage.
Just look at her... hard-rockin' Slunt to the core.
I was up front shooting and she looked at me dead-on in the lens and I got this shot. A very seductive look. It was fun. Note the armband. Also, the play on the Coca-Cola Classic logo on her shirt, as if anyone would miss it. And she was also wearing some camo pants that laced up the side with one heck of mid-drift showing.
Now that's what I call pure ROCK.
"The Golden Corridor" by Wes Aldridge
I found a great hallway where the shadows were black and the rest was gold.
"God of War" by Wes Aldridge
I went to the War Memorial building in downtown Nashville and got this one. I didn't want to know the name of the statue, so I didn't look. I wanted to call it "God of War," because that is the feeling that I got when I saw it. Nothing special, but we all know how much I love to shoot a great statue.
"Night Rider" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight turned out much better than I thought it would. I wanted to go downtown to the state capital and try to shoot. On my way there, the sky was very weak. It has been extremely hazy for a couple of weeks now. And with haze, sunsets and sunrise shots pretty much are terrible.
I had wanted the state capital building at sunset, but like so many times, things turned out a little different than I had planned. While I walked around the building searching for a good angle, I saw this horse statue and knew that is where my shot needed to stem from. I waited until the sun faded out and the lights on the capital came on to give that golden-pink light. The sky hadn't fallen completely black and with my chosen white balance, it really brought out and accented the purple in the sky. The colors were rich and the composition was pretty nice. I even enjoy the flags flapping in the background.
"Episcopal Glass" by Wes Aldridge
This is a great stained glass window from an Episcopal church that I randomly wandered into.
Pretty stuff. The angle is cool because I just got right up on the window with my wide angle lens. I used a really shallow depth of field to pull attention to the cross because it was the piece that I found most mesmerizing.
"4 Columns" by Wes Aldridge
These were four pillars at the riverfront in downtown Evansville, Indiana. There you go.
"Audubon Cattails" by Wes Aldridge
I went to Audubon State Park today to do some shooting at the John James Audubon Museum. The museum was interesting, but the nature aspect of the park was beautiful and I felt like I just had to search around to find a shot or two.
It was getting late, around six o'clock or so, and the sun was the wonderfully warm creation that all photographers love to shoot under. I drove around and found the lake on the property. It was stunning. The water was completely still like glass, only rippled by the occasional fish jumping from the water. The reflections were perfect and this one small yellowy-green leafed tree caught my eye. I shot it a couple of times, but it really wasn't the shot I wanted in my heart. So I decided to trek around the lake a little and then I found it.
A patch of tall grass with some cattails in their prime framed the perfect shot for the scene. I popped the 70-200mm telephoto lens on the Canon and sat it on the tripod to shoot a shot with a medium aperture at f/8 with a shutter speed of 1/160th of a second. It gave that perfectly in focus view of the cattails and my favorite tree had a mild blur, but it was still decipherable in the background. Then I decided to shift my position a little and got some of the sky reflected in the water as well. I took a deep breath and fired the winning shot... and I was happy.
Then some weird guy walked up to me and started asking me all kinds of bizarre questions about the park, but that is a totally different conversation altogether. My mojo was good at the time and I wasn't about to let some strange man kill it.
"Blanco" by Wes Aldridge
Luck this one got up. Headache is horrible. Sleeping it off cause it has to go away.
"Shadow of David" by Wes Aldridge
On the way back from dinner in Evansville, Indiana, with one of my best friends, I saw this cool sight. We were driving through a lower income section of town and I see this cast of David. I did somewhat of a double-take because I didn't expect to see this in someone's yard in this neighborhood. I looked a little harder and saw the shadow of the figure projected on the brick wall and knew this was my shot for the night.
"Scallions on Bass" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight I saw "The X's" at 12th & Porter. Fuel frontman, Brett Scallions, played bass and handled some backing vocals. Well, here is Brett.
"Face of Fire" by Wes Aldridge
This is the final image from our excursion in Cloudland Canyon State Park. My brother was kindling the flames of our campfire and it made for a great scene. It was pitch black dark late at night and as I watched him work the fire, all I could see was his slightly lit face and the blazing fire. I think this one has almost a ghostly feeling to it. But it twas no specter, tis the brother of me, merely!
I came back with none of the types of photographs that I had envisioned I would get on this trip. No waterfall shots and barely any nature photographs, but the ones I have brought back are well-pleasing to me in a quite unexpected way. That is one of the most exciting aspects of the world of photography. Many times I think I "know" what I am going to shoot and kind of plan it all out in my head. More times than not, those plans end up changing and the adventure to get the shot begins.
"Off" by Wes Aldridge
Well, we had to travel to a nearby family friend's home to get the blog up tonight because the cottage we are staying in doesn't have a phone line. We are about 30 miles from camp right now in Mentone, Alabama. Oh yeah, it was uploaded by a dial-up modem tonight too. I am just glad its up now.
This shot is, of course, a bottle of Off! insect repellant. I think it is pretty killer though. I didn't do this shot in the studio. Nope, it was done on the picnic table outside of the cottage. I put a fairly bright flashlight behind the translucent bottle and it lit it pretty nicely. I shot it with the 50mm f/1.8 and washed over it with a 550EX flash. I think a person could believe it was shot in the studio and given that rustic look. But no, it was just some fun while having some Evan Williams around the campfire with the fam.
"Golden Rays" by Wes Aldridge
The family is having a mini-vacation at Cloudland Canyon State Park for the next few days. My brother had to work tonight so I drove him back to his gig in Dalton for the night. I had a guy ask me to come and shoot photographs of his family farm and decided to go tonight and give it a few shots and scout it out before we head back to Cloudland Canyon.
This shot is in the loft of an old barn standing on the Gowin Farm in Walker County, Georgia. I was pretty sure I would get some nice shots down on the farm tonight, but I think this one really is a gem. I am very well pleased with it.
Now, time to pick up the brother and head back to Lookout Mountain.
"Structural Distortion" by Wes Aldridge
A cool distorted reflection of a building in downtown.
Time to go on a little holiday.
"Spirit of Nawlins" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight I shot Dancin' In The District on the bank of the Cumberland River. Better Than Ezra was the headling act, and they did it well. They played with Cowboy Mouth who suprisingly were extremely good. The kicker of the show, though, was that both bands are from New Orleans. I think they were playing to Nashville, but they were doing it for the ravaged homeland. They gave it all they had and I was satisfied.
This is the guitarist/vocalist from Better Than Ezra, Kevin Griffin. I like this shot because of the Pedestrian Bridge in the background. I think it really makes the shot interesting and it totally says Nashville. Also, the shadow of Kevin's hand on the guitar body strikes me as pretty neat too.
"King's Eyes" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight I stared into the King's Eyes. They became a mirror and I saw myself in them. Sometimes decisions are tuff, especially when a beautiful blonde is involved in the scenario. But I am home and the blog was posted once again. I was wanted elsewhere, and believe me, elsewhere was looking mighty fine tonight.
I knew one thing though: If I didn't make it home and post a shot for the night, I would have failed. It doesn't mean much to some people, I assume. I don't think that most people can grasp the importance that this daily offering of my work is. I will definetly never win a Pulitzer Prize for anything posted here. I rarely make a sale of any prints from this, although the rarity does happen and is welcomed. No, this site is about a commitment to a very important person in my life. That person is me. I promised myself that I would do this daily posting for an entire year and now that I am into the ninth month of it, there is absolutely no turning back now. This sight owes nothing to anyone. It isn't here to please or entertain anyone. It isn't here as a political statement. It doesn't gain any revenue. Hell, it doesn't even have a visually compelling amount of artistic creativity in the site's design. But it is a piece of me. I would even go as far as to say that it is a testament to the devotion that I have for the gift of photography that I feel I was graced with.
I said that I had to go and do this posting because one day I want to see my work in National Geographic and if I missed posting this commitment that I have to myself, if I let myself down, then I would never achieve this awesome goal that I have set forth for myself. I don't think that I will accomplish it because I am "that" good. I think that I will get there because I won't settle for anything less and I refuse to let anything stop me.
So, The King didn't get Graceland because he thought one night he would let everything go on hold and forget about it. Graceland stands on top of a mighty empire because a young kid from Tupelo gave it everything he had, everyday of his life. And there you have it, he was The King. I don't want to be The King, but I don't want to settle for anything less than the absolute fullest measure of my devotion.
Men aren't created great... but some give it more than they have and one day they walk away with the prize.
"Broken Glass" by Wes Aldridge
Tonight we went to the rockshow. My ears will ring for days.
"The Mantis" by Wes Aldridge
So tonight I stopped at Walgreens to find a rubberband for my hair. Nothing really eventful inside, just made the purchase. When I got to the cashier she was laughing and looking outside. She mumbled something about a bug and I see a kid dancing around on the concrete in front of the sliding glass doors. My interest was caught.
I walked outside and this little boy was dancing around wearing a Native American feathered headdress while cupping his hand around his mouth while mocking Indian chants. This was strange, I mean the child romping about in Indian garb by himself at 9:30 p.m. with no parent in sight. I finally saw the bug: A praying mantis, a very large one, scaling the brick wall of the building. I ran and grabbed my camera and the rest is in the details.
"Tie Your Shoe" by Wes Aldridge
Today was the voyage home. Tired. Worn down. Sleep needed.
Always remember to tie your shoes.
"Rugged Fiddler" by Wes Aldridge
Well, my analysis of Asheville... I love it here. Everything is free and accepted and people are their own people, no matter how far from society's norms they stray. A great T-shirt that I saw gives a great summary: "ASHEVILLE where normal is weird." I really enjoyed this place and felt perfectly at home.
This is a shot of one of the many street performers I saw here. She was incredible and I think I almost fell in love. if you know me, the girls that I go for are not exactly like this one: Blonde, raggedly dressed and with armpit hair. No, I generally don't go for the earthy ones, but this girl was incredible.
She played an accordian from the 1930s and a violin. I can't really describe the music except that it was enchanting and almost dark. It kept me mesmerized while I listened. It made me want to shoot and shoot and shoot. So I did and here she is, as happy as she wants to be.
