End of October
Posted by jOe
A few shots from Metairie Baptist Church's 2009 Fall Fest & Trunk-or-Treat.
[Photo Credit: Michelle and I by Carrie Fuller]
Pictures of Life in the World.
Posted by jOe
Dad and I met Kenny in the French Quarter for a Bridal Shoot for Jenna who's getting married in a couple weeks. Shooting in places like the French Quarter is always interesting because it inevitable attracts two distinct groups of people: those who are completely oblivious to your production, and those who have formed a small, hungry mob over your left shoulder determined to absorb every detail. They were both there, on time.
Earlier in the afternoon Sam and I went to the Gun Show. I learned a couple things. One: Guns just don't do it for me. I couldn't even impulse-buy myself into getting fake grenades for my coffee table candy bowl. And that would have been funny. Two: there are many conspiracy theorists alive and well who will readily recommend a gun based solely on the predicted availability of its ammo "after it all hits the fan (in about a year or so)." I felt kind of like one of those little kids listening to Grandpa's old up-the-hill-both-ways stories. Almost beside myself, I was tempted to plant myself down, right there on the floor, legs folded Indian style, and not move until he conceded to tell me more!
Instead Sam and I simultaneously gave up a little nod/grunt as if to say, "I know what you mean, brother."
After walking around making fun of all the tacti-cool accessories, we left the Gun Show. Oh, and Sam bought a Sig. If you don't know what that is, Google it. I don't have the time to explain trivial gun things. After all, I go to Gun Shows. I know stuff.
Once Kenny's French Quarter shoot ended we navigated our way back to the car via a delightful little shop on Decatur Robby has affectionately named "Lagarens." None of us are sure what it's real name is, but it is, nevertheless, an awesome place to visit. The entire front is a large, pull down door; the music seems to always be from the thirties and forties; and they specialize in obscure vintage military inspired apparel. A while back Sam showed up with some Snoopy-the-Red-Barron tented goggles, and it was then I knew mine and Lagerens paths must cross. And they did. Today at 6:11 pm.
I bought an original 1955 Swiss military-issue wool jacket. And when I say wool, I'm not talking about Super-100s. No, this is the kind of unlined, scratchy-wool jacket that you ran from as a child. But it was way cool, and I couldn't pass it up.
I have a feeling I'll be going back again very soon. After all, I have a wardrobe to buy.
P.S. Check out Kenny's blog in the coming week or so to see his awesome shots from the shoot.
Josh+Noelle
Posted by jOe
I'm getting ready to do head out of town for a few days, but before I do here are a few of my favorites from Josh and Noelle's wedding Saturday. Enjoy!
Anacortes in October
Posted by jOe
Last Tuesday our plane landed in Seattle. We rented a Suburban and VW minivan and begin driving North to Anacortes.
Located on an island in the Puget Sound, Anacortes, a small harbour town, comes complete with a Main-Street-like historic section, drop-down neon signs, and a Shell refinery. The Shell refinery, being why I'm here, hired us to climb one their vessels to do repairs and scale a flare tower for an inspection. Mornings start early and have been frigid but pleasantly dry. (PSA: There is this thing in cold weather called "layers." It's really a cool idea that uses many different 'layers' of clothing worn all at the same time to trap the heat near your body. Facinating. Who would have ever have thought one would want to keep heat near themself.)
For a region that gets rain somewhere around 300 days out of the year, they've been in the middle of a ten-day drought. But God was merciful, and this afternoon it began raining again.
That’s not a Monet behind me.
Posted by jOe
it's a Kerry Hanem. At least, that's what it says. That's probably not even a real person. Who could possibly know.
I'm sitting in a hotel in Anacortes, Washington, about 60 miles east of Victoria, B.C. My original plan went something like this: Sweet! My boss is paying me to travel to the top of beautiful Washington state, take lots of pictures, catch up on my writing, and yadda, yadda, yadda. What really happened is we left the office at 5am on Tuesday, arrived 14 hours later, went straight to the site, and have been working more than the Sun ever since. On a happy note, overtime kicked in today. That needs a smiley.
Our schedule is a bit unpredictable, but we're hoping for a sight-seeing day before we go home. This state is absolutely amazing! A little heavy on the hippies, but otherwise Anacortes is a pleasant little town.
The other morning I was hanging off the side of the Shell refinery we're working on when I looked over my shoulder and saw below me a thick wave of morning fog wisping through a forest of Christmas trees; only their tops were sticking out. The Sun was just beginning to color the snow-capped mountains with all shades of purple and yellow and orange. That's when I decided it was necessary to figure out how to get my camera into the plant without becoming a terrorist or Green Peace activist.
I'm normally not for all that nature stuff, but to quote Dr. Evil, it was friggin' awesome.
What you might not know…
Posted by jOe
About My Blog:
1) You can register. Why would one register, you might ask? That's a great question! And to be completely transparent, I have no idea. But Caroline did it and you can, too! It's very simple, just scroll this page until you see the "Meta" heading on the left side and click Register.
2) If you like what you read, you can send it to your friends on facebook or twitter, or post it on digg or reddit by clicking the respective icons at the bottom of each post. I just found a plug-in for this and am very pleased with myself. I'm resisting the urge to put a smiley emocon here. Watch out, I might not be so strong later 
Oops 
3) I'm getting ready to start two new series on my blog. The first is similar to my September 24th post, and it will be called, "It's a New Orleans Life." The thrust behind it is to bring back some of the romanticism of New Orleans that's often lost in the real news. Is it safe to assume we don't want "Hurricane Katrina" to still be the country's first thought they associate with New Orleans? Maybe you're still milking that, and I'm all for you (go free enterprise!), but I could stand to think of New Orleans in a rosier light. Remember the names and places and sweat-drenched undershirts from A Streetcar Named Desire? That's what I'm talkin' about. I'm not so interested in the sweat, but you get the idea. That's New Orleans. In this series, I'll be interviewing and photographing local people who can quaintly capture the essence of our city.
My second series will be a community-driven expose of individuals you should know. Regardless of your field, demographic, or political standing, there are people in New Orleans (and beyond) that you can stand to benefit from knowing. And that's my only criteria. If you know someone that you think I should include in this series, send me their contact info and a quick why you think they qualify.
I'd love to hear from you!
Shot on RED
Posted by jOe
Know the RED cameras? They're dSLRs that do video...or the video cameras that do still frame...or, I don't really know because they're that far out of my reach. As a matter of fact, they don't even sell them on Amazon. I'm not making this up. I know, the Apocalypse, right?
So naturally I was perusing their website in the same way I'll sometimes find myself on Bently's site building my own Azure or weighing the options because I might really like the Continental better. You never know.
Back-to-the-camera.
Interesting to note, it was used to shoot some recent movies like The Informant, District 9, Gamer, and My Bloody Valentine 3D. Not that you can tell by watching the movies themselves (RED's website spilled the beans).
It's always cool to me to see the converging of these kinds of technologies. In fact, Alexx Henry, whom I greatly admire as a money-making artist, in his latest blog post talks about the nearness of a video-print-fused format. Like a video on the cover of a magazine, etc. It's paper thin and flexible. I guess the last hurtle is making it affordable enough to be disposable. But it shouldn't be too much longer until you'll see it around.
More on RED; click here to see some of their outlandish prices! You can order your own straight from their site. Isn't it fun?
Here's a picture of one. It would cause some problems if I took this on vacation.
My Video from Cozumel + Some Out-takes
Posted by jOe
I took my new 5D mk II on the trip, and it has astoundingly good low-light performance which really comes in handy since I can rarely justify using on-camera flash. However, more significantly, it was the first dSLR to include high-def video capability. What really makes this cool is being able to use lenses with razor-thin depth of field to get that cinema-quality feel. Aaaand it's manual focus (notice about half of everything is out of focus. Cool, huh? Riiight.) It's actually not bad once you get used to it. ...which happened after I made this movie.
What did I learn? Movies are fun to make but a whole lot more work than still photography. Seriously. It's crazy. I don't know what they're thinking.
Without further adieu (or digression), here it is!
Whenever I do a shoot or go on a trip, I inevitably have out-takes--pictures that are funny or noteworthy but otherwise not a part of the top-5 percent that makes the post. Here are a few out-takes that still make me smile.
From Cozumel
Posted by jOe
I had a lot of fun on our cruise to Cozumel, and I think everybody found a certain pleasure in ordering way too much food. Diego, bring me my third entree!! You know, the usual.
There were a few things about the trip that stood out. Namely, the pizza buffet that kept way longer hours than I could ever keep up with. The always-on ice cream machine. The 5000 lobsters (I only had one). And, of course, Beau's birthday and all the staff-dancing that went along with that...and that went along with every other event for that matter. More on that in the video coming soon!
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