Jac suggested i need a way to sort of turn my brain off, to maybe push everything back for a bit. recently, i purchased a used PlayStation 3 for that express purpose, but, well… i feel like a shark these days, in that if i’m not working or fretting over work stuff, i feel utterly useless (though i don’t think i’ll die; at least i have that advantage over the sharks).

so my method for the time being is to blog. and then maybe i’ll go play some PS3.

wedding season thus far has been a great success. things are moving along at a pretty decent clip and i feel that each week brings new challenges that have been fun to overcome. just this past weekend, we had the incredible honor of photographing Katie & Eric’s wedding in Birmingham, and while we have a handful of weddings this year that involve good friends of ours (Katie & Chris! Katie & Brandon! Tami & Matthew! if i am leaving someone out, forgive me for my memory is awful right now!), this was a particularly special one. we’ve known this crew of folks for a long, long time, with varying degrees of closeness, but always with this sort of weird cohesion that works. we actually got to flex our movie muscles Friday night at the rehearsal dinner as we videoed the toasts and reactions. Saturday (all day) was the wedding. Sunday we left. three full days of wonderful old friends, a handful of new, putting Twitter handles to faces and people (“so, who was that?” “oh, that’s Peter, err… @CasualThursday.” “oh!!”). it isn’t often that we, as the hired help for the weekend, get to enjoy so much camaraderie with the bride, groom, wedding party, and family, so we absolutely relished in it, staying up way too late after the wedding, in the bride & groom’s room with a handful of other guests, members of the party, and the bride’s parents.

so it’s to that end that i say something i probably won’t be able to put in the official blog once the photos are ready to publish: thank you. all of you. the bridesmaids, groomsmen, Miss Cindy, Greg, the Craigs… while we knew coming in that the weekend was going to be something incredible, we didn’t quite know how brilliant & beautiful and full of love the whole thing would be. J and i are truly grateful.

ok, so!

speaking of the weddin’ (#CraigWeddin), we rented a Canon 5DMIII for the event! while i won’t know the full, final results until after J finishes editing, i can say i have never fallen so hard for a camera so fast. i am itching in the most painful way possible to purchase one, but the dang thing keeps selling out and while we (CONTINUE TO) wait on a final verdict regarding our 2011 taxes, most of our LAP finances and large equipment purchases are on hold. what i can say is that the 5DMIII isn’t so much an “i want this” machine; it’s become much more of a “we need this” piece of equipment.

–

a few weeks ago, i purchased a new iPad for myself, with the intent of replacing my MBP with it. after about a month, i can say that the transition is complete. just last week, i (finally) sold my old standby. it was a sort of bittersweet moment when we made the exchange, but ever since i wiped the hard drive three or four weeks ago, it’s been the rare occasion i’ve found myself in desperate need of a desktop or laptop. i mean… yes, of course there are tasks and things that require a “proper” computer (like editing full HD video or doing layout or actual, f’real Photoshopping), but for the most part, i wasn’t doing much of that on the MBP anyways. i know it’s gone to a good home, and again, 98% of the time, the iPad does everything i need it to do; if not, i save it for either the office Mac Pro or the iMac at home.

and that’s about it for now. there are a few other things on my mind that i’d like to share, but not sure a public blog is a proper place for it/i don’t know how to express it without it coming off as arrogant or whatever (although it’s really not that arrogant at all). anywho.

off to play some PS3. holla’.

I’ve spoken at length at times about how much I genuinely love where I live and how it’s a completely different thing from when I was a teenager or in my early 20s. but now, perhaps, it’s time to talk about a couple of different things that have been weighing on me, things I can’t really figure out or understand.

the first is about race. about a month ago, a massive thread appeared on the popular website Reddit, discussing (to my sort of twisted chagrin) how racism seems to be more prevalent in northern areas than it does in the South. it was a really interesting discussion for the obvious reason: breaking the stereotype of “THE SOUTH IS ALL RACIST ALL THE TIME Y’ALL.” but then a certain word kept popping up, a city that was singled out as more of an exception to the general consensus in the thread that, “hey, maybe the South isn’t all that bad!”

Montgomery.

over and over, people were giving examples and experiences of how deeply ingrained and just BAD Montgomery is when it comes to racism. it’s a difficult thing to ponder, this idea that Montgomery, where massive hub of civil rights activity found a starting point, is still viewed as completely non-progressive and stuck living in a stereotype we’d rather not have attached.

I have no real answer to it. but it’s bugged me immensely.

the other thing is completely unrelated.

in the past few months, I’ve become increasingly involved in a couple of Facebook groups, one dealing generally in Alabama Wedding Professionals, the other specifically with Alabama Photography and Video Professionals. both have become great spaces for discussions and debates and sharing work and leads. but there is little to no participation from anyone in Montgomery. at least in the group dealing specifically with photography, almost everyone there seems centered in the Birmingham-ish area (or elsewhere). there are a couple of River Region folks (and one other Montgomery person!), but no one that is a recognizable name (recognizable to me, that is, so if you’re reading this and have taken offense, don’t). and these are folks whose work I have come to respect and in some cases, grow professionally jealous of (ha), not some weird mishmash of barely-there hobbyists; these are mainly folks whose livelihood depends upon booking shoots and selling to clients.

so where are the people around here? why don’t they ever come out of the woodwork?

there have been a couple of attempts at gathering Montgomery/River Region folks into an online space (again, on Facebook), but both have sort of twisted in the wind. there’s no activity, no banter, no late late late night threads talking about the 5DMIII (that was a genuinely fun night in the group)… just nothing.

I just do not get it. what is it with the professional folks in our area that makes them so very insular? it’s like we all know everyone else exists, but we refuse to acknowledge it for some weird reason. I want our area to have what the B’ham area has, where there are monthly meetups at a bar or for dinner to just hang out and talk biz and air grievances and laugh about things with other people who get it because as is true with every industry, what is awesome or heartbreaking to one person in one field is a head-scratcher to another.

I desperately want to fix this. we’ve a good friend who has made efforts but it’s become a fruitless venture and I hate it. my time with the Facebook group mentioned earlier has brought me out of my professional shell more than anything else. I’m still quite defensive/sheepish about a lot of things and I’m still defensive/sheepish about sharing my work (not J’s) for fear of someone rolling their internet eyeballs. that’s just who I am. but now I’m ready to meet all these other people who are within a 20-30 minute car drive who make a living booking families and couples and selling them albums, books, and prints. the problem is, 99% of them seem to have no interest. and if they do, I don’t know how to go about convincing them to all gather at The Tipping Point or Pine Bar for a couple of hours.

hm.

we’re just a weird, insular sort of place I suppose. I do love it here, and I will continue to sing Montgomery’s praises, but I’m not blind enough to miss that there remain weirdnesses that aren’t cute quirks, from the serious (race, or at least the outside perception of race relations) to the just flat out frustrating.

i uploaded an initial version of this last night, but decided there was one small piece that needed to find a place, right at the beginning. enjoy

on occasions like this, i always feel a bit of trepidation in doing “too much,” in sharing “too much” for fear it may come off as, “HEY LOOK AT THIS AWESOME THING I HAVE.” i sorta’ felt that way yesterday when i shared a photo of Bishop Duffey on Facebook, but realized it would do better to share his wonderful smile in a nice photograph than keep it locked up in archives. and i feel the same way about this video clip i’m sharing. we interviewed Bishop Duffey for a video piece we did on the (former) Dexter Ave. UMC here in Montgomery and as he was wont to do, he began sharing stories. this in particular is a story about a family member i’ve only ever know as Grandaddy Roche. just a nice little piece i thought i’d share.

here is a new video, featuring RML and one of her favorite activities: PUZZLES.

essentially SOOC, very slight exposure bump.

this past weekend saw me on the road to Augusta. this was important for two reasons:

• i got to gather with my fantastic group of friends who i don’t see nearly enough of, and
• i was able to take a Fuji X100 out “into the wild” to put it through its paces

i have to say first off: i now have a little crush on this camera. i get it now. and presumably, the newer models are even better. how much better, i can’t say because i try to shy away from passing judgement on stuff i haven’t played with yet. but the X100 is a wonderful tool to have on hand, or just great to have as an everyday “i want a camera near me” gadget. it’s got weight, it’s got style, it has fully manual controls, it shoots in RAW, and when you have enough light, it captures things brilliantly.

now, before i get any further, here are some caveats to my experience with the X100. while many of my friends reading this likely know these, this blog may attract a number of readers who are not familiar with me or what i do or my “expertise”…

• i am not a classically trained photographer. i am a second shooter to my wife (who is exceedingly talented and educated/trained in photography).
• my subjects for the weekend were my wild and crazy and (most of the weekend) inebriated friends– lots of fun to photograph, but not pristine conditions to make “pretty” pictures.
• we also stayed inside most of the day. meh.
• this camera took me so far out of comfort zone that i more than likely made some mistakes, so “pilot error” is a good phrase to maybe keep on hand. i make no apologies for this. ha.

so, moving on.

what it is not is something i ever want to take into a low-light situation. i must admit, i’m a bit spoiled. shooting with a Canon 5DMII or a 7D will tend to do that. higher ISO images are still great and entirely useable . so when i took the X100 with me to Augusta, i intended on using it much as i would with one of those bodies and a 35mm L attached. was that a mistake? probably. most anything ISO 2000 and above just came out like garbage in my eyes. so much noise. out of the nearly 300 photos i took over the course of the weekend, a few over 50 made the cut to show up online. of course, this is where pilot error can come into play. the X100 has a built-in flash. but i hate not being able to control my flash, particularly the direction. a small handful of shots with flash were just so… “flashy,” that they kinda’ made my stomach turn. i’m also certain there’s a wonderfully beautiful way to process these higher ISO images to give them more of a grain feel (and not just noisy), but i’m not a processing expert. J does the processing in our business. my knowledge is essentially limited to editing photographs of our daughter… and working with photos from cameras that handle higher ISO much better.

so much noise.

the other thing that really became a buzzkill was the autofocus. good lord. this was probably the single most frustrating element of using the camera. i had way too many missed moments because the camera, instead of focusing on the subject (like it said it was), was focused on something else entirely. and again, in less-than-optimal lighting, focus was just all over the place.

and again, i reiterate my point: much of this could be attributed to pilot error. i just don’t know. i had intended to use the week prior to the trip to really practice with it and learn the ins & outs, but J and RML were out of town all week and let’s face it– a two-year old is a pretty good subject to practice on. she’s quick, moves around a lot, and is fun to photograph. the dog & cat? that gets old, real quick.

all that aside, i would love to have this camera. i know, after the negatives i just wrote, that seems nonsensical. but there’s a large part of me that feels like had i enough time to really attune myself to the limits of the X100 and learn to work within those limits, it would be an excellent tool to have on hand (or just to have around the house or when we’re out). i would love to have something like the X100 to just bang around with. i’m not a massive fan of bringing along a 5DMII and the good glass (and sometimes the flash) “just for fun;” it’s kinda’ ridiculous to lug all that around for snapshots.

i do imagine that we’ll have a handful of occasions this year to re-rent something in this class of camera, and i’ll probably bump up to trying the Fuji X-Pro 1. but i really do get it now. i can absolutely see why the X100 and the new Leicas are all the rage for pros these days. when shots came out well, i could absolutely see the potential in this tiny little powerhouse. knowing and working within the limits of what they can do can open up a whole different avenue of shooting where a bulky DSLR may be difficult to work with. i hate that i’ll be boxing it up today to ship back, so who wants to buy me one for my birthday?

now: if anyone reading this has tips on proper processing or tips, i would love to hear them. just leave me a comment below. you can find my full set over on Flickr.

but this latest campaign is quite clever. whoever is sending spam stuff our way is now directly targeting photography and photography-related subjects. well played, guys; well played.

there’s trouble abrewin’ in the world of Pinterest, and in my little world, it works up into a Photographers v. Pinterest battle. there’s been a lot of talk over the last few days (for some reason) about how nonchalantly Pinterest treats copyright and those who hold the copyright to original works. personally, i’m a bit torn. here’s why.

on the purely personal side of things, i’ve struggled with how to best make use of the service. i’m not a bride-to-be, or a mom/dad-to-be. i’m not especially handy or inventive in the kitchen. i don’t do much in the way of crafts. what i do enjoy are fonts, style, terribly unhealthy foods, and photography. so i began some boards to pin things to, revolving around those things. fonts are difficult things to pin because, well… there’s just so many, it can get overwhelming. style was easy enough; i had a board set up entitled “Things Other Dudes Look Good In” (or something like that). i appreciate good styling and fashion, but i also know 90% of it is not for me. i’m just not built to carry great-looking fashion looks. terribly unhealthy foods- pst, i’m a pro at that. but i also know my family has a history of not-so-great heart health. so far, that’s two out of three boards that were completely empty ventures, or if you’d like, empty pinning. things i have no business thinking about or desiring, but MAN, the emails and notifications i would get when people would re-pin and like stuff! a great feeling!

photography was a whole different beast, though. i always felt a bit… dirty… pinning other photographers’ work, and i could never pin (haha) down why. i think part of it is that as much as i enjoy looking at great photography and great work, i don’t like to dwell on it. look at it once, maybe share with J later on, and that’s it (note: this is different, in my opinion, from studying THE MASTERS and gleaning some amount of wisdom- that’s worth sticking with at length). but apart from not wanting to dwell to much on others works, i also know how strongly i feel about protecting our copyrighted material. i’m exceedingly protective of it, and the manners in which i protect are ever-changing to keep up with changing technology.

i remember the first time the blog got a hit from Pinterest and i went from initial confusion to “this doesn’t make me very happy” to “well, someone appreciates it outside of our client!” and to an extent, i still feel that way! there’s one particular photograph from a wedding we did in Auburn that’s made the rounds a couple of dozen times- it’s not the singular most extraordinary photograph we’ve ever taken, but it’s very pretty and features Samford Hall in the background. and since that photograph is watermarked, it’s clear where it came from and who took it.

but… still. there’s something that just feels a bit weird about it. to this point, that photograph hasn’t pulled in any new work for us. no one’s called or written and said, “i saw your work on Pinterest and just had to call to find out your availability!” so again, it winds up being empty, more of a fruitless venture. and i don’t know how deep Pinterest goes, but i do wonder if at some point, does the originating point of a photograph get lost in the mix? will that photograph go so far down the rabbit hole that eventually no one will know where it came from or who took it?

i’m happy at this point to continue allowing folks to pin from our blog. part of it is just for the neat factor; when i see a ping come through to the blog from Pinterest, i can see exactly where it came from and any potential commentary. and we’re not exactly to the point where shutting down a potential new pipeline of clients is safe; who knows, maybe requests and bookings will start rolling in because someone saw something great we did on someone’s board? but i’ve taken the hypocritical monkey off my back and deleted my Pinterest account, for a couple of reasons…

• if i’m gonna whine & moan about it and share links, i can’t continue being “part of the problem,” so to speak
• i just got nothing out of it. i’ve my fingers in a lot of different social media/networking pies, and while some of them i sort of fade in & out of (like Path), all of them have provided at least some semblance of social-ness, a sense of connection to others. for me, Pinterest just wasn’t doing anything for me. maybe it’s because i’m a guy and Pinterest just doesn’t work for me (and you cannot tell me Pinterest isn’t heavily slanted for use by women; i don’t think there’s anything wrong with that at all, but it feels to be true)

and i don’t begrudge those who will continue to use Pinterest. it can absolutely be useful. i know plenty of friends who’ve made great use of it. it’s a great way to amalgamate thoughts and ideas you may stumble across. but i also feel if you continue to use it, you should be fully aware of all the downsides as well, particularly when it comes to finding original copyrighted works by someone you don’t know. i suggest taking the time to read this great entry here; it’s a long read, and full of legalese (which gets translated), but very insightful and eye-opening about how Pinterest and the issue of copyright don’t co-habitate all that well.

from the photo’s description…

Shot by my hubster! He was underneath as her safety while I was shooting and then shot a few while he was down there She was really not enjoying this!

huh. couldn’t tell!

all this brought up a discussion around our home, between responsible talks with the photographer and what was deemed a sort of witch-hunt. J’s argument was that there could have been more productive ways to confront the photographer rather than “yelling” at her on the internet. perhaps sending her a PM about why what she did was (for all intents & purposes) bad. and that’s completely fair and i get that to a degree. i’m guilty of it (haha); many times we hop on the witch-hunt train before exploring the facts. but… you can probably figure where i land on this. and why we make such a fun dichotomy at times

in my mind, the photographer deserved every last bit of venom and anger sent her way. who does that?? who thinks it’s a brilliant idea to hang a newborn baby from a tree on a piece of cloth? the child was clearly under duress and not positioned in any fashion that was comfortable. yes, newborns are flexible, moreso than a 3-month old; that doesn’t mean you take it to the nth degree and begin emulating Anne Geddes* however you think is necessary. if the photographer got her feelings hurt or riled up r whatever, what does that matter when put it in the perspective of “you are endangering the safety of a human being who cannot defend itself?” i’d rather the photographer cry for a couple of hours and maybe learn a lesson than read in the paper, “Newborn Child Dropped From Tree During Photography Shoot; Doctors Suspect Massive Brain Injuries Resulted.” i mean, come on: the photographer admitted as much (and you can see in the photo itself) that the baby was not happy. there are ways and methods to accomplish the whole “baby in a [whatever]” look without actually hanging one from a tree or pole or whatever. you just have to learn.

are all witch-hunts justified? no. i’m a reactionary person, and sometimes i’ll feel bad a few hours later. but this is one of those times i am glad someone, somewhere stumbled across it and brought down the wrath of the internet. so what say you? in this instance, did the photographer deserve to be yelled at by the internets? or would a calm sit-down have been useful?

*i blame all of this on Anne Geddes. she makes it all look so easy, thereby encouraging those with a fingernail’s worth of her talent to try and emulate her style and method- babies hanging from wraps, babies in mason jars, babies flying, babies inside flowers, and so on & so on.

hm.

editor’s note: i realized after re-reading this, i made it seem like i had no free time to just hang out with RML & Jac and go swing or do whatever. what i meant to say was- i wish i had more free time to do those little video projects. my life’s not quite that insane.