Tuesday, March 27, 2007

week one

Week one at the Bay City Times. I am slowly learning what they want and more importantly relearning Nikon ways. Damn! Have I been underexposing!

Here are some shots that did not run, mostly from self-assigned stand alones.



I self assigned a weather feature. the guy on the right is from Troy, Alabama.



Fagin from 'Oliver!'



Backstage, waiting.


The mechanical bull in Crump, Mich. The reporter decided to rework the story and come back another day after we left around 11:00 PM.



Cardboard dove at a protest markign the anniversary of the war in Iraq.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

'looking out my back door'



The weather is coming around. It snowed some this weekend and on Tuesday, but its in the 60s and promises to be in the 70s tomorrow. I am slowly getting into this town. It was even warm enough to open the back door and air out the onions while I cooked. This is the view 'looking out my backdoor."

Last weekend I went down to visit my brother in Ann Arbor, visit friends in Monroe and shop at Ikea for home furnishing.




That's Rob typing as I try to rouse my hung-over self off his couch.

I will say that the Ann Arbor Borders, the flagship store to you purists, does have my favorite photo book collection outside the ICP.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

of landlords, good and bad




I was quite proud of driving my Uhaul, complete with car-carrying trailer, across the country longitudinally without incident. I learned early on that reverse is not an option and that wide-angle mirrors are fantastic. The 45MPH speed limit thing written on the trailer must be for an empty trailer ( I hope).

I did feel like a trucker, drafting in line leaving Seymour, Ind., leapfrogging between the long loads, and using the other side of rest stops. They saw me as an amateur and left me plenty of space, no doubt, but it was fun while it lasted. I am happy not to be paying $70 a pop at the pump now.

The sun was shining, the ice melting in the 72 degree warmth and I pulled alongside my apartment to-be at 5:15. I step out, say hello to my landlord, whose wife I had only met. he shakes my hand, comments on the weather, then produces the check I mailed him. "You can have this back. Its an out of state check (from the largest bank in the country)and I can't use it. You need an in-state account for us to cash the check, so until we receive payment the lease is not yet valid." And here I thought a check from Bank of America was good anywhere in America.

Flummoxed and a bit dismayed I hung my tail and drove across town to another apartment I had been looking at. It was still available and after a phone call and a fresh BoA check, it was mine. More expensive by $50/mo. + util.s, but much more space, a yard and a porch. A much friendlier apartment with much more agreeable landlords.

Need a place to party on July 4, c'mon over. Mario, my landlord and neighbor, puts on the biggest Independence Day party of the year. (Photos of his deck that's taller than his house TK, you can sorta see it on the left.) I will take the geeky photo crowd any day, especially if you bring a photo book for perusal.

Monday, March 12, 2007

no beer for you, Indiana

Cold beer may not be sold in convenience stores in the state of Indiana. MD 20/20 and Boone's Farm are fine, but no cold beer, no singles and no singles of cider. So a dry evening for me in Seymour, IN. En route to Bay City with my Uhaul truck poulling the Volvo. No moves i reverse for me.

Alex

Friday, March 09, 2007

"Unseen" wins POY

POY awarded Best Special Section of the year to The Birmingham News for "Unseen...Unforgotten." They can't keep up with the Midland Daily News, but the News hasn't entered POY in at least twenty years, so it's a good thing. La Palma, Seattle Times and Commerical Appeal also placed.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Memphis, Pt. 2



Morning at the Lorraine Motel. You know that famous shot of the guys pointing to where the shots came from? The irony is that while I was there, Jesse Jackson was in Alabama, hanging with the candidates in Selma. I'm glad Bridge Day is transforming into something that looks forward as well as back. I would have liked to have been there, but its my last chance for vacation in the south, so next time around.



Susan Stone at the Arcade Diner, around the corner from the Lorraine, and one of Elvis' hang-outs.



Elvis, Johnny Cash, BB King, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, U2, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins all recorded here. The studio is really untouched from fifty years ago. X marks where Elvis stood recording his fifteen months at Sun (before the contract was sold to RCA for $35,000). The $10 tour is pretty coll, especially since it goes through two rooms and still takes almost an hour. Lots of sound incorporated into it.





tupelo and memphis

Weekend trip to Memphis. My last gasp in the south before the great white north?


First stop, Vanelli's in Tupelo. The all you can eat pasta bar is deadly, but the decor all its own.


Rendezvous barbeque




Handy Bar and Wet Willie's on Beale Street, great music with no cover



Saturday, March 03, 2007

enterprise






Lots of destruction, lots of people pulling together, and lots of newsfolks all in one block and nowhere else in town. I went down to Enterprise, Ala. to document the storm damage and show where eight students died. People seemed to be in shock more than anything.

The fact that the usual suspects for freelance work seem to have been jumping hoops to avoid using me just means I found a new outlet to send some work. We'll see if that pays for gas.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Sun wins POY HM




Congrats to the Gainesville Sun for placing in POY's best photo column category. I am surprised the fall foliage package that I shot in two hours, on the way to a portrait, was their lead. It is also ironic that the entry included no picture pages by staff photographers. Congratulations all the same.