I'm one of those people who loves to photograph the random objects that sometimes end up in some place they're not supposed to be. Like this book on the sidewalk across the street from my house. You know how it is. You see some "fish out of water" and wonder how it came to be there, who left it, will they come back to look for it? The sorts of questions you'll rarely find answers to, but which open up the opportunity for you to give your imagination a little excerise.

03/03/2010  • Polaroid 250

Well hooray!

I went to see Andrew Bryant's band play Wednesday night at The Hi-Tone. I had such a great time watching them and am quite pleased with the photographic results of the night.

Andrew Bryant & Friends. Febuary 24, 2010 @ The Hi-Tone. Mem[phis, TN.

(a few shots of the band Giant Bear that played at the beginning of the night are also in the mix.)

On the heels or writing this blog, I got to do some more informal band photos again last week (the aforementioned band photography blog, incidentally, landed me another spot for Picture of the Day on the Main Street Journal's site last week.)

Today's edition of Informal Band Photography is with a band called Animal Sounds.

There's this great little U of M area house where I'd done photography for Richard last year. A new band that Richard is in, called Animal Sounds, practices in this house.  I was asked back to this house last week to do more photos.

I barely did any shots of the band as a whole. I decided I wanted to focus much more on individual elements. I knew the shots would be gritty and grainy, due to the way I had to shoot in the low available light. I made the decision to just go with it.

There are some people (including myself) who would like to plug their ears and say "lalalalala I can't hear you" during my next statement:

This is the ten year anniversary of my first time taking photos at a show.

February 19, 2000. Bethel Presbytarian Church. Olive Branch, MS.

I was there to photograph my friends in a band called Via Crucis. The band that played before Via Crucis was The Quick and the Dead, a band with a couple of guys who are now our good friends Joel G. and one Mr. Andrew Bryant.

I have to laugh, because these pictures aren't great at all. I had a $50 film SLR I'd acquired a few months earlier, a TERRIBLE flash which I barely knew how to operate, and ringing eardrums because I hadn't thought to bring along earplugs that first time (yes, I definitely learned from that particular mistake.)

What a wild ride it's been. I had no idea that by attending that first show, the course of the next several years of my life would be altered in many ways, from the friendships I wouldn't have formed otherwise, to  the way I, as a new photographer, was being introduced to a a genre of photography that would define me for years to come. Those of you who only know Shoot With Personality since the site's format change last year that, prior to that change, Shoot With Personality was devoted almost exclusively to live band photography. Hundreds of bands. So many years.

What most people don't know is, I was already starting to think like a documentary photographer back then. I wasn't there because I thought taking pictures of bands would be the cool thing to do. I was there because I thought, "You know, it might not feel significant now, but maybe in twenty years, these guys will want t0 look back and say 'That's what I was doing with my life during that era.'"

Twenty years. We're halfway there.

Almost everyone I know is in a band. I love doing live band photography. But guess what? Guess what kind of photos I have most disliked doing? Band promo photos. I always felt like posing dudes wearing hoodies up against brick walls was just not my "thing." I really seemed to struggle with this as a photographer, because I didn't think I came out with the sorts of shots the bands wanted and which I was proud of. For the most part, I stopped agreeing to band promo photos a few years back. Things have changed this past year though.

I discovered I did have it in me to take photos that bands might use for promotional purposes, if the band/musicians were open to  "Amanda Style" band photos. Those are the sorts of photos you'll find in the new gallery devoted to photos of musicians. And are the types of photos I've been wanting to do of Andrew Bryant and his band for quite some time now. Which leads me to the reason for this post.

Andrew was a one man show for years. Him, his guitar, and a microphone. In the past year or so, he's enlisted the talents of our mutual friends to begin playing live shows with him. I'm pleased as punch. Not only does this mean Andrew's records are translating to live performance better than ever, I can take a wider variety of shots during those live performances, and it also means that I'm privy to hanging out while the band practices from time to time. Such was the case last week, before the boys in the band had a gig in St. Louis.

When I worked at a photo lab, I used to find it funny that some people took photos so infrequently that they'd have both Easter and Christmas photos on the same roll of film when they brought it in for development.

Guess what? I found one of my cameras, loaded with film, that contained photos from *cough* THREE years ago.

During my trip to England in 2006, I went to a camera fair. Essentially, I picked my traveling dates based on the dates of the camera fair in a town called Wolverhampton. I don't reeeeeeally know why I did that - I definitely didn't have extra money to spend on cameras! I loved it though, because I got to see a lot of cameras in person which I'd only seen online. I finally did buy a camera, the Agfa Isola I. The dealer knocked of a few quid because it was near the end of the day and he was looking to unload some of his goods.

Before purchasing this Agfa, I had another camera that was quite similar (a knock-off?) called a Dacora Digna (see some photos I took years ago with it here.) Maybe I didn't need the Agfa, but I'm just a sucker for inexpensive little medium format cameras!

Real quick, here are some cool features of the Agfa Isola I:

•"Telescoping lens"
• The lens folds somewhat flat when not in use, and with a simple twist, pops out so you can take photos.

(I made a cheesy animated GIF to illustrate this action)

And the photos? Drumroll please...

Any time I happened to remember about this camera and the photos I'd taken on it, I had a definite memory of photographing my friend Kelsey at Food Not Bombs, wearing a striped sweater. Beyond that, I had no idea what might be on that film. So, three years after the fact, I guess I was right about the details of the photo I'd taken of Kelsey! And I apparently also photographed the Cannon Center.

I think it'll be a decent little camera medium format camera to tote around with me some times, as well of a reminder of a really lovely day I had when I visited England that one time.

View from my Window • 1/30/2010  • Polaroid 250

It snowed in Memphis yesterday.

Crazy. I know.

I had a "snow day" from my job. Not wanting to be completely unproductive, I used my time stuck indoors to do some Shoot With Personality upkeep! It's occurred to  me that there's a huge gap in the work I've produced, and the amount of work that can be seen on this site. There are photos that I meant to blog about at the time they were taken, but never got round to thus never showcased here. Or photos of bands from my hardcore/punk photography days that haven't been around since the old version of Shoot With Personality. So some things from recent times and from times past are now going to be shown in SWP galleries.

• 13 or so new banners in rotation for the "randomized" photo banner at the top of the SWP homepage! (I forgot how fun these are to make, so I'll be doing more ASAP!)

• Galleries updated: food photography, people, [live] band photography, art photography [and everything else], Polaroids (and other instant film photography)

• New gallery added: photos of musicians

How pleased am I that a snapshot I took of my boss was made Picture of the Day at the Main Street Journal?!

(very pleased.)