DOCK DOGS

On Saturday morning after a Chron assignment up north, Libs and I headed out to Discovery Green (Houston's new-ish park downtown) to check out the Dock Dogs event. It's a nationwide competition where local dogs compete in a series of events such as longest jump, highest, etc. I saw some other images from similar events from colleagues in different cities that were nice, but my high hopes were semi-crushed when I saw that the event was a little more low-key than I had envisioned. It was definitely entertaining to watch, but the shots were limited as there was very few clean angles. The worst factor was the Houston heat and humidity. 12 noon on a Saturday is brutal. I could feel my skin burning even with the 75spf sunscreen. We didn't stay too long, but here are a few images I dug from the event. Definitely lots of awesome dogs out, whether they were participating or just spectating.

SARAH JADE

Did a quick shoot with one of my best bud's girlfriends this week. Luckily they live right across the street so it was just a short walk and I was there. Sarah needed some simple shots for to show to a prospective modeling agency and I obliged by shooting a few of her in and around her new place. A lot of the "modeling" shots Ive seen lately have been splattered with lights and such, so I went into the situation with minimal gear, minimal space and wanted to really concentrate on Sarah and make the images feel a bit more real. I didn't make her do any high fashion-y poses or funky stuff, just simple. I just got a text from her earlier telling me they signed her on the spot! Here are a few that I dug from the take.

UPDATE: ARKANSAS VIA IPHONE

Wow! The response has been very positive in regards to my little piece "Arkansas Via Iphone" that I talked about my my previous blog. I really just snapped the few images just to have an artistic outlet on my couple few days spent in rural Arkansas. I never thought that they would get around as much as they have! I just wanted to take a moment to say that the series was featured on Tuesday over at SportsShooter.com as well as on Never Center's (the software developer who created the Camera Bag iphone app that I used to create the images) homepage and twitter feed. The creator's of the app called it "a lovely artistic project". Rad.

ARKANSAS VIA IPHONE

Last Wednesday I hopped on a plane and was whisked off to Little Rock, Arkansas. I was helping out another local photographer who shoots a lot of energy and gas industry stuff on a shoot in Blytheville, Arkansas, a little sleepy town in the Northeastern corner of the state just south of the Missouri line. I always enjoy working with other photographers, especially when it's on a project out of my realm of work. It was certainly an interesting trip, filled with layers of protective clothing, hard hats, ear plugs, and a sweltering, 120-degree steel mill. We shot most of Thursday and a few hours on Friday morning, but the sweating and lack of sleep was enough to make me appreciate the fact that once I step off that plane back in Houston I don't I can sleep in and enjoy my office A/C. I can't even imagine what it is like to labor through that type of work for decades. Phew. I brought my 5D II on the trip, because well, as a photographer you don't get on a plane without a decent camera, but I didn't even fire off a frame during the few days I was gone. I did however manage to take some photos with my Iphone's built in camera using the Camera Bag app. The app emulates several different famous "looks" such as the Lomo look, Holga, and Fisheye. For the photos I made during the trip I used the "Instant" setting which tweaks the image and makes it look like it was shot with a Polaroid camera, even dropping it into a Polaroid template as well. None of the photos have been altered, they are presented as they were taken, straight from the phone. I took a few initial shots for fun and just continued to snap away during the shoot and during the down time as well as at the airport.

At the airport in Little Rock about a handful of people from TSA agents to Southwest Airlines personnel asked us what we were photographing. (I guess the 5 huge Pelican cases gave it away)

Each time we replied that we were shooting for a client in Blytheville and each time the response was the same,

"There ain't nothing in Blytheville, I bet you guys were bored."

On the last leg of our travel day, from Dallas/Love Field to Houston/Hobby, I paired them up and put together this little series entitled, "Arkansas Via Iphone". The little series is my answer to those curious few at the airport. Blytheville isn't a metropolitan wonderland, but there is beauty everywhere, you just have to look for it...and when you find it, you don't even need an expensive camera!

(If you'd like to view the piece bigger, simply click the "expand" button in the bottom right)

UPDATES AND NEWS!

OK so no ground breaking images in this post, but I have a few updates and news(ish) items to talk about. First off my recent article, "Riding A Wave" was published this earlier this week in the SportsShooter.com newsletter. The article which talks about my recent experience producing our documentary, The Messenger: 360 Days of Bolivar, was featured on the front page for a day as well. There is a link to the article at the bottom of this post.

I have also used some much needed downtime this week to update my website http://ToddSpoth.com I changed up the look and went with a new sleek white look, added a "recent work" section, added some video and multimedia projects under the new "multimedia" tab as well as added some new images here and there. Give it a look see and let me know what you think.

One of the multimedia pieces is a project that I worked on with two of my favorite local photographers and good friends, Robert Seale and Dave Einsel for Do1Thing.org. We volunteered our time back in February to tackle this multimedia project to help bring awareness to the homeless youth community. I was in charge of interviewing the youth and assembling the audio to accompany the images, however the person that was supposed to assemble the piece was busy so I decided to take on the task and throw something together. It wasn't my greatest multimedia feat, but it works I think. It was for a great cause and we were happy to volunteer our time. The piece is also up on Do1Thing.org as well.

In other charity news, I am donating several prints to a charity art fundraiser party thingy that is this Saturday. Apparently our band (read: group of friends that got together to play my friends wedding) got roped into playing the event so when I found out about that, I decided I wanted to donate some prints. Wolf Camera has graciously agreed to donate their printing services to the cause so thanks to them for that. My good friend Thomas and I are going to be doing an 8-song acoustic set at the event as well in an effort to raise even more money for the cause. Hopefully we raise money and don't drive people away. Libby, although in LA for business has agreed to donate a few of her early (limited edition and amazing!) silk screen works.

If you are in the Houston-area and are interested in coming to this event please let me know!

"Riding A Wave" by: Todd Spoth for SportsShooter.com : http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/2223
Updated website : http://toddspoth.com

BOOMTOWN

Today was a rather eventful day. I woke up early and knocked out a quick assignment for the Chronicle in Memorial Park then rushed back home to change and meet the crew at Shawn's. Our documentary, "The Messenger: 360 Days of Bolivar" was selected as an official selection in the 2009 Boomtown Film & Music Festival and we honored to screen the movie today in the festival's home base of Beaumont, Texas. We made the hour or so trek out from Houston and as soon as we arrived we participated in a director's panel. After the panel, we quickly headed off to the wonderful Jefferson Theatre which is where the festival's films were screened. Our AMC digs for the premiere were awesome, but this theatre had some amazing character. It was built in 1927 and completely restored recently. We didn't spend a lot of time in Beaumont, but with the little time we did have, I walked around a bit and captured some images on the studio's Nikon D700. I shoot Canon, however, sometimes I pick up the studio's Nikons for a change. The D700 has one thing my cameras don't and that is the ability to shoot and multiple exposures in-camera. I absolutely love the feature so I had a little fun with it. I tried to meld the multiple exposure idea with the feel of Beaumont and the activities surrounding the festival. During the awards ceremony, we were presented with an award for Best Docu-Drama. Success!

FAVS...so far

As a regular freelancer for The Houston Chronicle, a major metro daily, nearly half a million people see my pictures from day to day, but the next day many of the photos are either used as kindling, pooped on by pets or recycled. Of course they are archived by me, but are rarely shown. It is now May, and 2009 has flown by thus far. I have covered everything from courtroom drama to baby rodeos. Below are 22 of my favorite images that I have taken on assignment from The Chron in 2009. These were taken from my SENT folder which means they were selected from images that I have sent to the paper. There are a handful of images I can think of that are not in this "favorites" post because they were not sent to the paper for whatever reason. I oftentimes shoot photos during an assignment that don't bare any relevance to the story, but that doesn't mean they aren't good. For the sake of time and effort I simply chose from my SENT folder. Some of the images made it into print or online, others did not. Either way, enjoy!

A SHOW AND A WIN!

What a great night! My second proper Houston live show of 2009 crept up on my quick. I had no idea there was a show I had planned on attending tonite, but thankfully the Rockets were playing in LA, which meant the game didn't start until 9:30pm CST. That gave Chris and I enough time to go to the show and get home with enough time to watch the entire (incredible) game. As for the show, there will be a proper review on HMR soon, but it was pretty fair. I was expecting to see a nice full set out of Ace Enders with a full backing band as well as seeing Vedera for the first time. We got to Verizon with enough time to catch the majority of the opening band, The Upwelling, who was actually really good. They sounded like a less-cool version of Koufax. Definitely looking forward to their debut LP coming in July. Ace with his backing band played next and although the full band is infinitely better than his acoustic performance, they only played 5 songs, none of which were Early November songs. I understand breaking away from playing TEN songs, especially opening on a larger tour like this, but 5 songs? Really? We stuck around long enough for me to photograph my 3 songs of Shiny Toy Guns and I'm glad I did. They aren't as terrible live as I remembered, but what really made it worth it was their intense stage lighting. Verizon Wireless Theater is always pretty decent as far as live music lighting goes, but there was custom lighting brought in for the tour which made things a little more interesting. A few of the images I dug are below. After the show we had a watch-party and watched our Houston Rockets shut down Kobe and the Lakers in LA for a crucial game one win. GO ROCKETS!

SXSW!

Well, this year I actually applied for media credentials in time for SXSW which meant it was justified to spend more than a day or two in Austin during the annual South by Southwest festival. SXSW has a film and interactive aspect that I really wanted to make it out to especially since I am trying to pursue more adventures in film and motion graphics, but my schedule and badge only allowed me to take in the music portion, but that's OK since the music portion is what SXSW is known for. Its an insane, week-long, festival of all things music and is unlike any other music festival anywhere. SXSW is its own, self-absorbed, being, and as much of a hipster as he's become in recent years, its always a good time. I told myself I was going to knock out a really in depth photo essay or multimedia piece, but the week turned into more of a hangout as friend and fellow photojournalist Ariel Zambelich from San Francisco was in town covering the festival as well as former co-worker, Drew Anthony Smith via Baltimore. Spending time with these guys as well as the other people I was introduced to and met up with during the week quickly took precedent over hitting the streets solo and producing a full body of work. I wouldn't have had it any other way. I got to see a lot of great music; some acts I hadn't seen in forever and some new acts that I was exposed to for the first time. I actually captured a lot of video footage rather than stills, but a handful of the stills that stood out to me are below. You can read my full review on http://HoustonMusicReview.com, and maybe one of these days I will actually finish and post a link to a video compilation of the footage I captured.

IS THIS THING ON?

Let's let bygones be bygones shall we? I know, I know, I know, its been entirely too long since I have updated and I know, I know, I know that I've made this post before, but I've been really busy since my last entry after Valentine's Day. Take solace in the fact that I've been busy in the best way possible. Thanks to the simple few who read my blog and urged me to update, I am back and ready to fill you in on all the goings on of late. Instead of trying to shove everything I have done over the past 2 months into one singular entry, I will try, over the next few days, to make separate entries with photo accompaniments for each major event. An amazing week in Austin for SXSW, the move into my new place in downtown Houston, the world premiere of our new film and subsequent award, as well as many other exciting things will be detailed. It is of pure coincidence that "update blog" appeared on my Monday "To Do" list on the very day that I would receive an email from a prospective client that found me via a blog entry. I need to update more it seems.

THE TRADITIONAL AND NOT SO TRADITIONAL

Ahhh Valentine's Day. I usually don't look forward to this day even though I should since I am in a wonderful relationship and not sad and alone, however it just means I have to find something to get my lovely lady, usually at the last minute. In the end, they usually turn out OK, this year's was grand. 

I had another early Chron assignment in the AM downtown, covering Eleanor Tinsley's memorial service. The media access was restrictive and it forced me to dress up, but the church was gorgeous and it was a low maintenance gig. On the way home I stopped and got Libs some awesome looking pink roses to satisfy the traditional, and when I got home she gave me the more traditional of her gifts, a black Versace wallet. Awesome!

Libs was in Chicago all week on business so I had ample time to think about what to get her, however the idea didn't come to me until midday Thursday. 

I had been wanting to play with some stop motion video for some time so I decided it was time. The idea I had was to create a stop motion movie based on a regular day for us at our current apartment. Sure we go out, travel and do a lot, but we also work from home a great deal so this would illustrate that. Since we are moving to a new place soon I also wanted to emphasize our space, here, and create something that would hold captive those small memories of home that we have shared in this apartment.

Influenced by all of the awesome stop motion I used to watch on Sesame Street as a kid (Teeny Little Super Guy), I started to capture the frames. I wanted to use the song "Diagnosis" by the amazing dudes in The Weakerthans as the soundtrack so based on rough calculations I knew I needed between 500-600 still frames.

I took a photo of the two of us in Brooklyn over last Thanksgiving and cut it in half. I used her side to illustrate a few of her daily activities; waking up, showering, eating breakfast, watching family feud (lol) and working. I used my side to illustrate a few other things like getting dressed, playing with my awesome cat TT, and of course...working.

It was pretty tough, especially by yourself and being pressed for time. I winged most of the scenes and shot most of it in about 6 hours or so. 

Today, after exchanging traditional gifts, Libs went to visit her mom as it was her birthday. It gave her a chance to do the finishing touches on her non-traditional gift to me and more importantly gave me a chance to throw my stills into final cut and see what I could come up with.

After some cutting, mixing, adding, subtracting and rendering I came out with a short little piece that I am OK with. The color is off, sometimes the focus was off, etc, but I love it even more for those little idiosyncrasies. 

The folder that held the stills was hastily named STOP LOVE, so for the title, I went with that. I kinda dig it now that I think about it.

Libby finally got back home and with her came my gift. I was in awe! She never ceases to amaze with with her ridiculous craftiness. She bought a sleek lame and replaced the lampshade with a custom sewn one made from slides of images of us together and other random images from our past. She used old slides, make custom slides from digital files and even planned ahead and shot slides with our old AE-1p while exploring the East Coast last fall. When it lights up it looks awesome! There are images below, but they don't do it justice. It rules.

One of the images she used in the lamp was the same one I used in mine. See images below. 

Afterwards I showed Libby my video. She cried. I think she liked it. Images of the traditional and non-traditional gifts are below. The embedded video of STOP:LOVE follows.

New Promos!

Last week I was made aware of a sweet deal at the printer I use for 100 free 4x6 promo cards and I couldn't pass it up. Since my current promo card caters to the editorial/pj crowd, I decided to design this one to cater towards a different market and show that I can shoot portraits as well. I used a similar design as my current card, but instead of matte I had them UV/gloss coated to give it that extra bit of jazz. The shot I decided to use was from my shoot with Lacey Grantz a few weeks ago. On the back of the card I included a series of out-takes from the same shoot. The photos of the cards themselves doesn't do them justice. I dig em! 

ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS?

Yeah, I know what you are thinking...Todd...doing engagements? Yup. I'm dipping my toes into all kinds of stuff in this new year, 2009. I really don't like the idea of engagements, but this was for a friend and her fiance who happens to work for the greatest baseball team of all time, The Houston Astros, so for that, I will. It also didn't hurt that we would have free reign of the Astros home field and my summer home, Minute Maid Park in Houston. I was really excited about the shoot the whole week. The weather forecast looked good and I was confident that I could really knock my very first engagement session out of the park (haha! you see what i did there!) but come Saturday morning, the weather was cold, windy and overcast.

All was not lost when we noticed that the roof of the stadium was open as we approached downtown. Having the roof closed would have made things even worse. When we got there we scouted locations and met the couple, Dave and Sondra in the press box. They weren't really dressed for the cold so the shoot went a little quicker than planned, each shot was sporadic some using a small light I had brought, others just natural light. I tried as much as I could to play on the composition of the stadium, shooting some obvious shots that revealed the locale and other, more abstract images that played more on the composition. We were able to get their names on the outfield screen for a few shots too. Some of my favourites were taken in the manual scoreboard. They spelled out the date of their wedding on the scoreboard for a few. The damn manual scoreboard is not straight which killed me in post as I am a stickler for straight horizons, et al. We shot some images on the diamond and in the dugout as well. 

After the couple had enough of the cold stadium, they changed and we did a few impromptu shots on a nearby street in the warehouse district. 

I don't really like the whole "OK now kiss her!" deal, but I think it came out decent, given the fact that my dreams of blue skies and golden light were crushed, but hey, that's life. Gotta deal with what you're given. I did enjoy playing around with the images and experimenting with different editing techniques. I had to remind myself that these weren't for the newspaper, thus they did not have to abide by the same ethical guidelines and that pushing that slider a littler more was A-OK.

Here are some that I dug from the shoot. 

INAUGURATION DAY!

Unlike several of my colleagues, I am not in Washington DC today, I am at home, in Houston. I envy all of my Balt-Wash photog friends that are in DC on this awesome day. I am finally caught up from a busy weekend. I had an early morning covering a few high profile court cases for the Chron, but made it home with enough time to watch Obama take the oath. I drove around for awhile on the way home as well as later on, but really couldn't find any good local scenes with an Obama twist. 

So instead of posting a bunch of awesome snaps from the inauguration, I have a series of snaps from the hot body contest I referenced in my last post. After the midgets' Sunday performance at the car show, there was an impromptu "hot body" competition. I really didn't have a choice (no really I didn't) since I was already pushed against the edge of the ring, so I observed and photographed. It was interesting to see how many adult males (and females) as well as teens and pre-teens all screaming at the girls, furiously snapping photos with their cell phones, cameras, anything they had with them. A curious case of mob mentality and the breakdown of societal norms when put in certain situations. Congrats to the lady who took home the $200 first prize, and oh yeah...Obama!

Go America!

WRESTLING WITH MIDGETS!

What a weekend! I've been pretty busy shooting the past week, thankfully. After shooting several assignments this week for the Chronicle, I decided to take Friday night and shooting something for myself. I had seen that the Half Pint Brawlers were coming into town for a midget wrestling show and I knew that I had to check it out. I saw Puppet and his crew go at it a few years ago and walked away with some interesting images so it was a no-brainer. Steven/Puppet, the owner, of the group was gracious enough to grant me access to the show and everything else I wanted. Much to our surprise, the crowd at the Meridian was heavy and ready for a show. The show was pretty amazing to say the least. Puppet, his trainee Tattoo, and Kato gave a heck of a performance that left everyone's jaw on the floor. The show started off with Kato, who was celebrating his 46th birthday, giving 2 girls (who paid $120) a collective lap dance, continued with one girl paying $1020 cash money to staple a twenty-dollar bill to Puppet's scrotum, and finished up with a few rounds of actual midget wrestling. An otherwise dark Meridian was furnished by a nice wrestling ring and lit by some powerful spots so the images were pretty neat, especially given the look of ISO4000 out of the 5D mark II. Good stuff. 

Coincidentally the same event I saw the guys perform at a few years back was happening again on Sunday. Sometime between sets I asked Puppet if they were performing at the event again and he said "yes". I had to go. 

I knew the event owner and managed my way in on Sunday. It was an import car show that I hadn't attended since the one year. The actual car show was pretty tame (the import car scene in Houston has died out as of recent years) but Puppet and the crew put on another great performance. Where Friday's show was rated R, Sunday's show was rated PG, given the "family" atmosphere. It was definitely nothing compared to Friday, but the outdoor light was nice and the clouds added to the mood and feel of the images. I arrived early, positioned myself in a spot where my backgrounds would be at least semi-clean and got some neat stuff.

I also stayed around for the sad excuse for the hot body contest right afterwards, but that post will come later.

As for today, happy inauguration day. Good day indeed.

EVEN MORE PORTRAITS!

I've had a rather busy week catching up on pretty much everything, toiling over contest entries and shooting. This week is the first week I think Ive shot more stills than video with the new 5D. First it was Sunday with Lacey (see last post) and today it was Shawn. I had a noon assignment for the Chronicle and afterwards I met up with Shawn, a friend and owner of Welling Films, an independent film company for which I work as well. He lives in the same area as Lacey so we shot in a similar location. Shawn is also a dancer and owner of a hip-hop dance studio in town, so when I ask him to do some fun jumping photos he understands and complies without a second thought. Check em out. It's back to contest editing for me.

NEW PORTRAITS!

Wow! New blog posts back to back! Today I got to sleep in (not like that's unusual or anything) and meet up with Lacey. I have done portraits of Lacey in the past and had a blast then...this time was no different. She is a doll and so easy to work with. We shot a variety of stuff all at Lacey's apartment, varying more on the feel of the image rather than the look of the clothes, etc. We did some shooting against a nice blue Houston sky, some window lit stuff, a few lit sunset images as well as some fun ones against an orange background. I've added a few that I liked below. Let me know what you think! Visit http://clients.toddspoth.com/soundslides/011109laceygrantz to see the images a bit larger. Click the expand button on the bottom right of the player to go into full screen mode for maximum viewing.

THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

It has been a long time I know! I apologize to the 2 people who actually read this thing. I have been doing a lot of video work, self-teaching and archiving lately, but today I actually did some still shooting so I felt it facilitated a blog posting. I was planning on heading out to check out some extreme ice sculpture when I found out that a few friends of mine were headed out to Pelican Island to do some target shooting. Now I know I live in the great state of Texas, but I am not a fan of guns. In my younger years my dad used to take me hunting so I am familiar with firearms, but I don't have any, don't like to shoot them and don't care to really be around them, but when they start talking about blowing things up my photo gears began turning and I decided to ride along. 

It has been a nice week, but today was cold, windy and rainy and being on the Island amplified the elements. It was the first time I had been back on the Island since my only post-Ike visit back in September. Things are still pretty hairy, but the recovery process is moving along in most areas. The guys stocked up on ammo and supplies on the Island before we piled into the car and headed out. Before the guys began shooting they spent a while setting up various targets...pieces of tile flooring, cans of spray paint, tanks of propane and other debris on the land as well as an old Southwestern Bell pay phone full of change.

After about 40 minutes of shooting we hear a pretty loud siren behind us. It startled us since we were in a pretty remote area. We see what looks like a cop get out of a truck and with an AR-15 pointed at us, he tells us to put our weapons down and get our hands up. We obliged and continued down the hill per his demands. The officer, which turned out to be a game warden, was really nice and really only wanted to make sure we were not up to any mischief. The land is private land, but given its remote and desolate nature, it is known to be used for various public use. In fact there were a group of ATV's being ridden nearby as well. Although we had a slew of weaponry...3 AR-15's, 3 shotguns, 5 or so pistols, and an assortment of other guns and ammo as well as my large Canon's (<---lame camera reference) we were in full compliance as all weapons were clean and registered as well as the owners of the handguns all having CHL's. 

We had to cut our trip short, but it was definitely an interesting journey down. I really wish I could have seen a full propane canister being lit up by an armor piercing tracer round, but there's always tomorrow. As for tonight though, I just found out my cross country package won 1st place in the feature/multiple NPPA monthly clip contest. Awesome!

I was struggling with the whole shooting video shooting stills deal, but I did manage some stills. What I dug is below.

MAJOR UPDATES: v.HOME, SWEET HOME

Wow. One thousand apologies for the lack of updates. Its very rare that I go a whole month without blogging. I hate these entries because so much has happened that it's hard to remember everything to add into just one blog, but since updating my blog is on my to-do list, ill try.

I moved back home to Houston this past Monday. It was a tough 24 hour drive with a quick nap at a hotel in Roanoke, VA. The last month or so at Patuxent were busy busy. Not only was I busy with assignments for the paper, other things were keeping me busy as well. Knowingly moving back to Houston, I put a lot on my plate as far as getting things in order to jump back into the freelance market in Houston, such as self-promotion and contacting editors and such. I got some neat new business cards made as well as a batch of 4x6 promo cards. A few of my coworkers and I drove down to Atlanta and attended the Atlanta Photojournalism Conference. I met a lot of awesome people and had a grand time. I look forward to making it back out next year.

Right before leaving for Atlanta I received my new Canon 5D mark II body. I absolutely love it so far. Ive done a ton of short mess around clips, shot a few assignments with it and shot a short little mockumentary project with The Firm in Baltimore. I'm still in the editing process of that piece so stay tuned. I'm going to miss all my peoples in Baltimore. I hope to get back out there soon.

Back home I am loving it so far. It's something about moving back home during the holiday season that makes it extra special. Tuesday was my birthday and about 12 friends and I went to the Rockets game and out for late night food. I am visiting all of my favorite local food joints and even doing a few assignments already for the Chronicle. In fact a shot from an assignment yesterday ran A-1 main art today. Awesome. 

Good things. 

Stay tuned for photos soon.

CROSS COUNTRY!

Ill admit here that I know of the sport of cross country, but really have not shot it until coming up here to PPC. I shot one quick race for the first time a few weeks ago that was a little hairy as I did not know how everything was set up. Its also pretty tough for PPC in that we publish 20 different papers in a HUGE coverage area so you have to know every school and all of the all-stars to really get what the editors are looking for. Cross Country meets are always huge deals with several different high schools so apparently its always a challenge. At the same time, Ill recognize that its almost a lot of eye-candy. I have a cousin out in California who is all about it, but running to a point where you're almost near-death at the end is pretty ridiculous to me, but props to these kids because id get about 200 yards out and quit. Moving on. I had an assignment to cover the Maryland State Cross Country Championships on Saturday and it was a challenge, but I think I came out pretty good. I pushed myself, shot a lot of variety, and even tried out some odd remotes that I would usually not have to time to set up. I was getting pretty close to some of the racers after they ran and a few high school kids pleaded for me to "give them privacy" etc, but I knew I was doing my job and that was confirmed when I felt a pat on my back and a "don't worry about those kids, you're just doing your job" from another, older, wiser shooter. Below is a small gallery of images that I dug from the event. Besides having to park on a sketchy flattened corn field, it was a good day. Now we wait and see what the paper publishes...dun dun dun!

SLOTS OR NOT!

Its been a while since ive posted on this (primary) blog. My music reviews/photos have respawned into a new blog called http://whatdoyoumeanimnotonthelist.blogspot.com and given the frequency of live music ive witnessed in the past few weeks, that blog has seen more action. Check it out if you miss my cynical musical musings and/or my boring show photos/videos. Its mostly a me thing, but hey if I can touch peoples lives with it (ariel!) im flattered. In all honesty, things have been hectic here. I was offered a staff photo position with PPC and in the end I respectfully declined the offer. I dont think Im crazy and I really hope I dont end up regretting the decision, but I think it was for the best. While I do think a staff photo position would be great at this point in my career/life and while I do think PPC is a great place to start out, the industry and economy is in a tough spot and the offer would mean a significant pay cut with a significant increase in the cost of living, since Houston is an extremely inexpensive place to live with the Baltimore/DC area on the other end of the spectrum. PPC has its ups and downs as does any newspaper or employer really, but as I head into my last month here I am coming to the realization that the feeling of coming (or going) home is going to be somewhat eclipsed by this sadness of leaving the incredible friends ive made up here. Math Roth, Drew Smith, Monica Lopposay, Patrick Smith, Nicole, et al. They are all excellent people and even better friends and I am going to miss the hell out of all of them. There are some amazing shooters in Houston that I work with and get advice from, but my Houston life is void of any photographers my age to really socialize and talk to on a level that I do with this group. Enough of the bittersweet symphony here. Last week I shot an assignment at Laurel Park which is the second largest horse racing track behind Pimlico (of Preakness fame) It was to be a multimedia piece to suppliment a story on the Maryland slots debate, which is a huge issue for the state of Maryland and everyone involved. They put me on the story because they wanted multimedia, but it presented itself as a challenege because it really was not an ideal multimedia story...there are no slots yet, and the story is on opinions and opinions are hard to make into pictures. I did what I could and put a short piece together using a few of my stills I captured during the day and my quick and dirty audio interviews I did with the players. I limited my editing time on this to force myself into getting better with the workflow of producing a piece in a matter of hours. I think it came out decent. The piece is below and the cheesy headline was what ran in the paper...inside joke. My goal is to keep learning new tricks and to be able to pop these suckers out quickly. Ive also been spending a lot of time teaching myself more about Final Cut and learning the new CS4 suite, more specifically Flash. Go me! Election day is Tuesday, and while most of the staff has early morning polling-place assignments, we've decided to either head to DC and try and find something going on or have an Election Party over at my place. Choices!

LIVE MUSIC FUN (Baltimore Style)

OK, so I'm totally on a blogging spree today. Go me. Tonite my boy Stef aka P.O.S. came to town with Saosin and Underoath and another hokey new metal band that all the kids like. Stef is a hip-hop artist and its always lovely to see him open for punk/metal acts. All of the 15-18 year old kids smashed against the barrier ready to "mosh" (don't get me started on moshing in the 21st century) are completely perplexed when they hear rap. Either way it was a great show. Ram's Head Live! was a very nice venue. Nice in the sense that I got in free and parked close, but something tells me it would have been a different story had I shelled out the $26 for a ticket. (sheesh) Ill spare myself the trouble to going into a formal review here and just share some of my favorite images from the night. I met a few new photographers and even got a chance to hand out my new card! (see last post) Enjoy.

FRESH DESIGNS!

I always enjoyed my old (current until today) business card. It was nice and clean and matched my older web portfolio nicely. It was glossy on both sides and displayed a nice mix of color images in a neat little design on the front with one image and my info on the back. Earlier this year I upgraded my web portfolio and since it was completely redesigned I wanted, then, to create a new business card to accompany the change. I had a partial design that I had created at the inception of the new web design, but never followed through. Recently a few of my co-workers and I were out to dinner and while showing me a few of their new cards they inspired me to finish my new card. So I did! I wanted a new, more simple design with one bold image on the front and the info on the back. I just picked up the new cards today and I love them. Below is an image that shows the new design.

In other news, my mom called me earlier to tell me she was filming a movie all day. My parents live in Rio de Janiero, Brasil. She occasionally tells me about some ridiculous event going on there, and when she mentioned to me yesterday that she was asked to be an extra in a movie, I figured she would gather in a crowd of thousands and be an ant on the screen, but when she updated me just now, I found out that the situation was a bit different. Apparently the film is a mockumentary about documentaries made in Rio that show the favelas (shanty towns run by drug lords) in a harsh light. The producers and director wanted to show that the people of the favelas are for the most part a friendly and happy people. The film features actor Bill Pullman and Fisher Stevens (of Short Circuit and LOST fame) While I am unclear on a lot of the details, she did tell me she was riding in a jeep and sitting across from both actors for a better part of the day filming in Rio's largest favela, Rochina, which I had a chance to visit during my trip earlier this year. So basically, in a nutshell, my mom's a movie star now. Hopefully when I make it big, making movies, I can afford to hire her.

THE GOOD LOSER (preview)

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending some time with 82-year-old Mickey Stubblefield at his home in his hometown of Mayfield, Kentucky. Mickey is a former Navy veteran, Shriner, Mason, Kentucky Colonel, and was also the first African-American baseball player ever to play in the Kitty Leagues. He receives on average, 10 letters of correspondence a week, and while he may possess fame, he is not rich. He has been everything to everyone, but his most important role is being a father and a mother to 2 young girls (10,12). 

The real story of Mickey is his relationship with the two girls under his care. This is a story of love and compassion. 

Although I am actively pursuing the multimedia option the story will most likely manifest itself into the photo story. I did however capture some good a-roll interview clips and since they may not ever see the light of day, I have included an un-cut, raw clip of a portion of one of the interviews below. It is an emotional recollection from Mickey's past.

PUMPKINS!

Since the lady leaves tomorrow for Houston, we decided to pick up a few pumpkins at the Fells Point Safeway. I feel guilty buying them from Safeway given the fact that Ive covered countless events at local farms that feature fresh pumpkin patches, etc, but I like to think I just bought them from the retailer instead of the wholesaler. They are certainly local, farm-fresh pumpkins! (hopefully) Either way we drug them up here to my temporary 3rd-floor room and carved away. We had visions of elaborate designs, but in the end decided on a simpler theme. She usually beats me as far as speed and overall design goes, but I may have her this year (don't tell her that) We had a grand old time. I slapped the trusty G9 on the 1 second time-lapse setting and let it fly during the process. The following video is the result. Nothing too crazy, just a little view into the event, complete with a cameo by my old Persian cat, TT, who awoke from his perpetual slumber and dawned his curiosity cap. He survived. (overly dramatic music by my boy Cecil Otter)