Kristin and Brian's Wedding

In my earlier post I mentioned that my little sister was getting married. Kristin and Brian had a beautiful outdoor wedding at The Club at Olde Stone. Congratulations to both of them. Here is a sneak peek at some of the images captured that day.

Kristin and Brian

This was a very special engagement session for me. Kristin just happens to be my baby sister. Wow, it's hard to believe the day has come for her to get married. I still remember pulling her around in a little red wagon when she was three years old. I remember the words she couldn't say like ayewape and dot dog (what she meant to say was lemonade and hot dogs). It's funny what you remember 25 years later. Maybe for the reception, i'll have to pull out some of her childhood recordings of the "Bumble Bee" song ;~)

Now she's living in Nashville, has a great fiance and the wedding celebration will be June 6th. We had fun shooting this engagement session. We started out at Centennial Park and worked our way downtown. Got some shots on Broadway and almost ended up in a British documentary film. You just never know in Music City.

Congratulations to both of you.

One More Candle and a Trip Around the Sun

Well, it's just after 1am, April 19, 2009. I waited up for the arrival of my new birthday. Actually, I probably would have been awake anyway, but tonight at least, I had an excuse.

I thought I would take some time to relax, reflect, and do a little reading. My book of choice this evening was Mark Twain, "Following the Equator". I always get a kick out of reading his insights about the world. He was complaining that he's waited all his life to see the Southern Cross and now that he's finally in the Southern Hemisphere, it doesn't look like a cross at all. More like a kite really, but even then, only if you had a good imagination and weren't into perfection. He says that Constellations have always been troublesome things to name. If you give one of them a fanciful name, it will always refuse to live up to it; it will always persist in not resembling the thing it has been named for.

Well, Twain covered astronomy, on the astrology side of things I was born on the cusp of Aries and Taurus. So if you're fascinated by that kind of thing, i've got one foot planted on the Earth and one foot in the fire. Hey, that's actually pretty close to reality for me. Either way you look at it, i've got a 50/50 shot at "something".

The photo above was taken about 10 years ago, in some foreign tropical outdoor beach bar. I was just curious to see what 10 years of roaming the planet has done to me. I don't think too much has changed, I still love to travel, photograph and enjoy life. Since that photo was taken, i've added a wife, a daughter and a few nagging gray hairs, but the basic song line is still the same. With any luck, there's still several thousand more miles in front of me. Lots of stuff left to see and do. I'll see you out there.

An Interesting Life

I have always believed that travel is the best way to grow, to see the world through someone else's eyes. To get a different perspective than the one you were born into. It is particularly evident when you leave the country, that you are on someone else's terms and the learning curve sometimes comes at you quick. I was born with a desire to explore and see the world, so I enjoy the different perspectives. The photo above was made somewhere in Honduras. There's a little Honduran kid playing on that little dock reaching out into the ocean. Most of the kids there didn't have much, but they were just like any other kids around the world, full of energy and big smiles.

In my research and travels, i've collected a group of people both living and dead, who I consider to be influential to me and my life's direction. Some are authors, some adventurers, some, musicians, some business leaders, but they all have a purpose in common with me, something that I could borrow and share and relate to. As the song line goes, "I've read dozens of books about heroes and crooks and i've learned much from both of their styles".

One such person is Don Blanding. He was an author, actor, adventurer and all around interesting person who seemed to live a full and interesting life. I discovered his poetry about 12 years ago. He penned the perfect poem to describe my life's biggest dilemma, and i've never forgotten him or that poem. As I am closing in on another birthday and another year of living, I thought I would share it with you. It is essentially the mental struggle that every traveller has between home and an endless curiosity for what's over the horizon.
-----------------------------
The Double Life
by Don Blanding

How very simple life would be
If only there were two of me
A Restless Me to drift and roam
A Quiet Me to stay at home.
A Searching One to find his fill
Of varied skies and newfound thrill
While sane and homely things are done
By the domestic Other One.

And that's just where the trouble lies;
There is a Restless Me that cries
For chancy risks and changing scene,
For arctic blue and tropic green,
For deserts with their mystic spell,
For lusty fun and raising Hell,

But shackled to that Restless Me
My Other Self rebelliously
Resists the frantic urge to move.
It seeks the old familiar groove
That habits make. It finds content
With hearth and home -- dear prisonment,
With candlelight and well-loved books
And treasured loot in dusty nooks,

With puttering and garden things
And dreaming while a cricket sings
And all the while the Restless One
Insists on more exciting fun,
It wants to go with every tide,
No matter where...just for the ride.
Like yowling cats the two selves brawl
Until I have no peace at all.

One eye turns to the forward track,
The other eye looks sadly back.
I'm getting wall-eyed from the strain,
(It's tough to have an idle brain)
But One says "Stay" and One says "Go"
And One says "Yes," and One says "No,"
And One Self wants a home and wife
And One Self craves the drifter's life.

The Restless Fellow always wins
I wish my folks had made me twins.

What do YOU see?

I had a nice conversation with my good friend Susan who is wandering around on Duval Street in Key West, while the rest of us are knocking ice sickles off of our cars. She's down there writing a book and we were talking about how there are places in the world that trigger your consciousness differently. The whole idea of going to Key West to write a book made perfect sense to me. It has a long history of art and culture and puts you into a creative mood. You know, the whole quit your job and run away to Margaritaville thing really appeals to me.

I've travelled to a lot of places that sound good when you're doing the research and then don't live up to your expectations when your standing there. I lot of people have told me that they don't understand my fascination with places like New Orleans' French Quarter and Key West was on the list of confusion as well. They say that it's a nasty, dirty place. It's old and mildewed and there's too many bums in the streets and it isn't safe. I guess they're looking for a 5-Star hotel and a T-shirt that says they've been somewhere.

So that got me to thinking, well, ok, what they said is technically true. These places are a little dingy and sometimes scary, so why am I fascinated with them? I've traveled enough to know that a lot of places are going to be disappointing. It's hard for a place to live up to some storybook image you have in your head. And the bigger your wish list is, the more of a let down it is going to be.

As a traveler, I see the same things that most people see. When i'm standing on Bourbon Street and it smells like yesterday's garbage, i'm not immune to it. On the other hand, as a photographer, I also see it for what it "could" be, and maybe that is the difference. I go to a place that has some nice raw materials and try to create alchemy from the little movies going on inside my head. Clients hire me for my attention to detail and ability to see what others pass by. Sometimes it's backwards, and i'm forced to leave out the details in order to see a place the way I wish it was.


I watched an interview with famed Harper's Bazaar photographer Richard Avedon recently. He said that what it meant to be an artist, was to pay attention to what everyone else wants to discard and get rid of as quickly as possible. An artist has to study, scrutinize and find the garbage essential and relevant in an effort to close the gap between what happened and what we understand.

That is a great analogy of photography. To find extraordinary in the ordinary. To isolate and choose what you "want" to see, rather than merely photographing what is in front of you.

Lost Treasure of our Ancestors: Part II

If you've been keeping up with my blog, you may remember a photo story i've been working on this past year about a man who is carrying on his family's river legacy by using his unique skills to reclaim ancient sunken logs and turn them into one of a kind pieces of art.

William Joiner shares a family heritage that has over five generations operating the waterways of Kentucky. He is the sole proprietor of the company he created, Antique River Logs.

Our story began on the river. Here is a parting shot from the last trip of Autumn, before the arrival of Winter took us into the next phase.

At the sawmill, this 12,000 pound behemoth almost toppled a front end loader. The back wheels came off the ground when it was picked up




Sometimes when you're dealing with a bygone era, the tools of the trade must be hand crafted.

Stoking the fire for a long night of sanding.
Taking raw wood to a finished product takes several days of sanding, oiling, and fine tuning.


It's a labor of love
Final inspection.


Each piece of reclaimed furniture is a unique work of art. This piece when finished will end up in a collectors home in Nashville.

'Tis the Season

I received a really nice Christmas card in the mail from Julie Denton, the Director of Marketing and Membership at Olde Stone. She wrote a nice note to me and said "recognize the photo"? It's one that I made during a recent "Breakfast with Santa" event they held for the children and grandchildren of the members. So this was the card that went out to all of the Olde Stone members. Very nice, I like the shot.

In addition to the weddings that i've photographed at Olde Stone, I also have had an opportunity to photograph some of the events they have there. Earlier in the year I was invited to photograph the "Concert on the Green" performance by the Chamber Orchestra with a special guest appearance from one of the former American Idol finalists, Will Makar. One of those shots ended up making the cover of the magazine and several shots are printed inside.

As 2008 comes to a close, i'm looking forward to another exciting year in 2009! I know this past year has been a tough one for everyone economically. I feel like something is starting to turn though, i'm starting to book projects way out in advance, wedding clients booking far into 2010. Everyone keep your chin up, we'll get through this economic downturn.