Kellee and I went out to Merriweather Post Pavilion on Friday to see Spoon and Arcade Fire. My friend Rob, pictured here, was able to get me a photo pass to shoot up front. I’m so used to working from the side of the stage that I don’t know what to do with myself when I have ideal angles. Read More

Back in 1995 or 1996 I took a photograph on the corner of Euclid and Pine in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, MO. I used to get my film processed at a lab near there when I still lived in town. I probably took it to finish a roll of film before dropping it off. That picture, or actually a bastardized version of it, was used on the cover of a compilation record called “Don’t Forget to Breathe” put out by Crank Records in 1997. I kind of remember getting an email from their mailing list asking if anyone had pictures of buildings that they could see to possibly be used on a new record they were putting out. I sent several prints and they ended up using this one. I of course was never paid, but did receive free records from them for a couple of years and credit in the liner notes. When I saw the final cover, I was kind of irritated as they added that terrible fake sky and kind of stretched out the photo. The letter pressed 12″ version looked better though. I never got my print back and I have no idea where the negative is.

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Today was the first day that I was able to catch up on some sleep. The beginning of the week set me back a few hours. I was reminded that I can’t stay out late with my professional rock and roll performer friends three days in a row and work a day job with out consequence. I used to, but I can’t now. It was worth it though as I got to hang out with an old friend and see Spoon, Deerhunter and the Strange Boys twice each. Read More

I went down to the Mall and Capitol this afternoon to check out the people and situation going on with them impending Health Care Reform bill vote. It was pretty much what I expected. About 500 or so anti-HCR protestors by the steps of the Capitol and several thousand other people doing way more fun and positive things taking up the rest of the Mall. I’m sure there will be figures soon about the numbers of people and I bet the Tea Baggers or whoever the people up by the Capitol were, will exaggerate them. I took a bunch more than what I have posted here with my M6 so I’ll get them up once I process and scan the negatives.

I went to see “Framing the West: The Survey Photographs of Timothy H. O’Sullivan” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum today. He has always been one of my favorite landscape photographers for many of the reasons as most that have been influenced by him. The main one being that for someone making work in the 1860’s and 1870’s his work looks remarkably modern. Most landscape work from that time seems to be straight document and not really have much more to them. O’Sullivan manages to pull off the document and still convey some kind of emotional sense as well. His photographs to me have this great feeling of solitude and vastness. They also seem very bleak, but still beautiful. It was really nice to see that big a group of his work in one place. Inspiring for sure. There is a Flickr stream of a bunch of his photographs that the Library of Congress has here.

It’s time to say goodbye to a good friend. I am selling my beloved Contax G2 kit. I have toiled over this decision for awhile and I finally decided to do it. I’m just not using it that much and it needs a new home where it will be loved and appreciated. This dude stepped in and took over for my Nikon F3 when it was stolen during the last semester of grad school and has served me well for the past 9 years. If you are interested or know someone who may be, check out my eBay auction and help this camera find a good home.

I’ve been trying to shoot more film again lately. My DSLR has made me a bit lazy. I usually use the Program setting an don’t think about things much. On one hand this frees me to just look at things and shoot, but on the other hand it’s caused me to get worse at making good exposures. I shoot in RAW format exclusively so I’ve been spoiled in that I can fix about 90% of all exposure and color issues. I also don’t have to deal with the tedium of scanning, which I hate. Not to mention getting film processed. I’ve made a New Years resolution go back to film more. Not only that, but I’m going to shoot film with my Leica M3 only. It’s back to basics completely…totally manual, no autofocus, no meter. It’s been a little scary, but that camera is such fun to use that it’s getting less so.

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Vic Chesnutt died Christmas day. It’s been all over the indie music blogs and a lot of the mainstream press as well actually. He was one of those musicians that I’ve always been aware of, but hadn’t really gotten around to exploring. I saw him once when I was working at the Black Cat. It was pretty amazing. I had never heard most of the songs, but I remember being totally captivated. The last week or so I’ve been listening to his last two records a lot and it really bums me out that I didn’t motivate myself to go see him when he was in town a couple months ago. There are some more really beautiful photographs of Vic by Jem Cohen in the photo section of his site as well.