Ode to William Cullen

Cincinnati

Affirmation and Confidence

365

Three hundred and sixty five days ago, everything in my life completely changed and I will never forget a single moment of it for as long as I live.

Perception

Sometimes, knowing both sides of a situation is not as beneficial as it sounds. It usually means you have to keep your mouth shut about one of the sides to keep from hurting the other. And when this kind of things happens, you get a chance to see how wrong people (including myself) are on a regular basis. Not necessarily because they are judgmental, or stupid, or anything like that, but because we all like to try to make sense of situations, rationalize them, wrap them up in a neat package with a logical ending, and the ending typically ends up being the one we want from our point of view. And it seems that the more traumatic the situation, the faster we usually do this, as a way to keep ourselves from going crazy because of it I guess. Thats just natural. But its rarely correct. I dont like to keep my mouth shut. If someone is wrong about something, I like to let them know. Only because I would want that person to do the same for me. But sometimes, I guess, its just better to sit quietly and let people figure out things on their own. Working through things provides all of the minute details that help you to better understand. Its not fun, and usually not fast, but sometimes its necessary. I guess its just important to ask questions objectively, and trust the answers provided.

Sorry, just a little "rainy reflection".

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Everything Works

Chicago Again

My third trip to Illinois this month, and my second to Chicago. I came back up to see Marshall again and its been great, of course. Getting to walk around the city I love, my old home, with her is amazing.

Mitch

Sophie Plays The Drums

She was actually trying to knock a bottle over with the sonic boom of her drumming.

Southern Girls Rock And Roll Camp

I got to spend the day at the Southern Girls Rock And Roll Camp in Murfreesboro today. It was a great time, everyone rocked out, and I got to just poke around taking pictures of it all. Im working on a multimedia piece with video that I'll post later once its finished. I'll be going back tomorrow. Trying my best to keep the nepotism to a minimum.

Wire Stuff on The Run

Washington Post

MSNBC

The USA Today

Sacramento Bee

Boston Globe

Googling yourself. How vain. I know.

Gigantic

93' Lyrics

"I sneak the uzi on the island in my army jacket lining." - NAS

"when I flex my verbal text, exit, mental anorexic
I don't cater to the imbecile so you can bet this
is a brain buster
pain thruster
strain twister
overwhelming pressure between the temples when I touch the microphone
I might condone
the usage of abuse if it is convenient
I slant and lean it
like a lever when I leave ya mutilated
by my enunciated cleaver
I survived the ither and the either
now let me take a breather."
-DEL

"Formulating rhymes like a child forms Play-Doh
Calm and serene like the study was tao
Poetry machine with correct mechanisms
Immune to disease I defeat organisms
that are waitin in my path, I overstep the critters
Give your ass the willies and your moms'll get the jitters
Quitters turn to losers, losers are forgotten
Tangle in my fore with, hopes that I stop rockin
Never will that happen only if it is permitted
Wait... I think somebody shitted
I guess that will be me cause I'm the only one MCin
I go for what I know doin a show for human beings
Always try to lead yo never will I follow
Blowin up the spot like Fred did to Rollo
And when it comes to days like this, I got lyrics to go."
-Q-Tip

Obama's Bus for The AP.

"Yeah, I guess we just need a photo of the bus. Sorry."



Pictures on the wire HERE

Not Everything Beautiful Is Pretty

I have a zit on the bridge of my nose where the camera constantly touches it, and more on my shoulder where the strap always is.

Holiday Inn

Road Trip To Urbana

I had some photos in a gallery show in Urbana, IL so Maddie and I drove up for the opening today. We are currently watching olympic trials, eating doughnuts and sourpatch kids in our hotel room, and singing "Unstoppable" by Santogold over and over and over and over.

Luke

Noshville

Excuse me, Ms. Kidman?

After leaving my full time job as a photographer for The Nashville City Paper a little over four months ago, I have had a fair amount of freelance assignments that I expected and hoped for. Shooting stories for The New York Times, a story about Ft. Campbell for The AP, Obama campaign events for Reuters, etc. Also the assignments that simply pay the bills but are none the less fun to shoot; bands, PR stuff, campaign materials, even a couple of weddings coming up. But one thing I never really anticipated, but does makes sense living in Nashville, is paparazzi work. Yep. Paparazzi. The evil P.

I was finishing up a job for a local campaign on monday when i got a call from an Australian newspaper wanting to hire me for the day to stake out the hospital where Nicole Kidman was supposedly having her baby. Normally, I am completely anti-paparazzi, their typical lack of ethics, and blood thirsty style of shooting. After talking with the writer and getting the feeling that she wasn't wanting me to sneak in a window or disguise myself as a nurse for the shot, I felt like it was an ok job to take, not to mention, it paid very well. We were just going to hang outside of the hospital with a long lens, and if we saw anything, I was going to shoot it. No ambushing or confrontation. Still, I felt pretty bad about doing the job, but really needed the money.

I met up with the writer at the hospital and we walked a few laps around the place to see if we could figure out the most likely exits and entrances. Once we decided on the front entrance after seeing the local AP photog there too, we set up camp. And by set up camp, I mean, I put my camera in a backpack to conceal it, and we sat down on a bus bench..........for 6 hours.


I just sat on the bench and waited.

We sat on the bus bench for 6 hours watching the front door of the hospital. Luckily it was mostly a nice day, except for about 45 minutes when it rained. During the time sitting there, more photographers started to show up; British Paparazzi from an agency called Splash, some local guy who we never met, a HUGE satellite truck, a tv station from LA, and ultimately the guy who took over my "shift", Jeff from LA. The Australian paper, with the NY corespondent who they flew to Nashville, had called in their regular stringer and flew him in from LA. Crazy. There just seemed to be so much disposable income for this type of thing. I was offered more money on the spot to stick around for a couple of extra hours. Which, all that meant, was sit on the bench for an additional 2 hours. I am pretty used to large, very reputable newspapers and news agencies asking me to work for cheap and keep costs down as much as I can, and ultimately paying me very little. Here, I felt like I could have bought a BMW if I could have explained that it would have provided better cover than the bus bench.

After a total of 8 hours of stake out, nothing happened. Nothing. I got paid all the same.

Now I just have to wash the feeling of being a paparazzi off.

Campaign Shoot in the Heat

Chicago

I came up to Chicago to visit Marshall at Columbia. She's up here for a little over a month. We went to the beach and the fourth was full of fireworks.

Falafel