Weekend Snapshots

Saturday Recording

Spent the afternoon recording with my good friend (and one of my favorite musicians) Curtis Heath. His music room gets the most beautiful mid-day sunlight...

Terry Tumbling

I have mixed feelings about Terry Richardson. On one hand, I bitch about how most of his work is one dimensional: on camera flash portraits against a white wall (see pic above) of people exhibiting wacky, usually hard-partying behavior. On the other hand, I can't deny that he has a unique gift for getting people to do... well, any and everything in front of his lens. And it does make for some very interesting photography.

He has a fairly new photo-a-day 'diary.' Pretty entertaining stuff, I must admit.

Account Deactivated

Well, after less than a year of Facebook, I decided to deactivate my account. I started out thinking it would be good for business. I would keep only the contacts that I'd met through work and link to my site and blog from time to time. But that's not really how it works. Mostly, I ended up typing messages to real friends who I'd rather be talking to in real life. In person. And I should mention that I was terrible at keeping up with the thing. Looked at it maybe twice a week? So - If people want to read my thoughts on a computer (and most don't) this is the only place to do so.

This may well be my most truly awkward blathering of all posts yet. But at least I'm doing it on my own site...

Gert Kopera - Chef Hunter

Gert Kopera has a cool job, but he wouldn't call it 'chef hunting.' He is the vice president of food and beverage for Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, which consists of (at least in part) traveling the world, eating at the finest restaurants and meeting the best chefs the world has to offer. He keeps numerous little black books filled with interesting dishes, names of chefs, fine dining establishments spanning the planet, and concepts that come to him that might prove useful in the future. He is also a badge-weilding member of Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, an exclusive international gastronomic society founded in Paris in 1950, devoted to 'promoting fine dining and preserving the camaraderie and pleasures of the table.'

From a photographer's standpoint, Gert is a fantastic subject: gregarious, patient, worldly, full of interesting anecdotes and, it must be noted - a penchant for designer suits. I shot his portrait above at Rosewood's luxury hotel The Mansion in Dallas, TX for D Magazine.

It's Mailer Time.

Just ordered a fresh batch of postcards for the new year's first mailer campaign. The shot should look familiar to anyone who reads this blog, but my fervent hope is that this'll reach the photo editors, creative directors and art directors who've yet to have heard my name. A good friend in the business keeps telling me to stay realistic: most of these things will end up in the trash.

I'll stay optimistic: maybe they'll at least end up in the recycling bin.

Passport Stamps

I'm finally getting my passport updated, and in doing so, I had to turn in my old one. It's a strange feeling - more bittersweet than I expected - to lose those old stamps. They're proof of where your life has taken you, and it sure seems like you ought to be able to keep them forever.

These stamps, for instance, are proof of the year my family moved to Japan. I was in high school, and it was a scary proposition leaving behind the small band of art and music dorks I had been part of for the previous two or three years. We were moving to a foreign country, where not only did I have to find the new friends and places that would create my new community, but I would have to do so without knowing how to read or speak the language. I had done it before, but (considering how socially awkward I was) this seemed an especially unkind test of my assets in the charm department.

Bittersweet memories aside, I must say that I am happy to see this portrait gone forever...

I had better (and admittedly more) hair then, but I'm happy to have finally grown into that nose...

Back To Work

- minutes after landing back in the Lone Star State -

Well - It was lovely taking a couple of weeks to slow things down, take a trip to see the folks and spend some time letting loved ones know how much they're truly appreciated. Now it's finally time to get back into the swing of things, with renewed concentration and a strengthened work ethic. I'm equipped with a couple new 'productivity aids': the aforementioned laptop and a brand new Canon G11 point-and-shoot (thanks to the missus). Now my only excuses for not updating this journal are actual busyness and lied-about laziness.

I'll try to stay honest...