And not a moment to soon!

I have not been able to access my blog in a couple of months. It's been a very frustrating journey that seemed to bring road block after road block. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, Gabe made some suggestions, those worked,  we got SO CLOSE, but no cigar! It was maddening.

But Shoot With Personality's back, baby! There's a wedding to talk about (not mine, guys, calm down!) and so much more.

YAAAAAAAAAY! x 1 million

As a photographer, one of my favorite things to do is drive around and come to a halt whenever something catches my eye. One day recently, I had my Canon AE-1 sitting on my passenger's front seat, pondering what I might like to photograph with it. I got no further than my very own street, when I spotted this car sitting outside one of the houses. Of course, I stopped my car, jumped out, and snapped a few shots.

I have a great love for classic cars. I think this comes from my childhood, when our  family car was a 1954 Pontiac Star chief which my father had named "Kawliga." Dad even had the car's name painted on the side of the car. We attended classic car shows often, and sometimes put our car in the shows. This was a big part of the culture of my family when I was a child. So when I began doing photography, old cars were among my favorite subjects. To be cliche, I'd say "they just don't make 'em like that anymore."

When you see a photo I have taken of one of these beautifully-crafted automobiles, you'll know that I've photographed it for far deeper reasons than because I wanted to make an interesting photograph; I've photographed it because cars like that are a piece of who I am.

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.

]]> http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2010/03/04/the-one-with-the-bashful-eyes/feed/ 0 http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2010/02/19/the-big-one-o/ http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2010/02/19/the-big-one-o/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:00:04 +0000 araney http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/?p=662 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.

(very pleased.)

A preview of things to come. I've got new Polaroids to scan and write about. New food photography. Hopefully new projects to conquer and write about here in the coming new year.

Christmas Time at Muddy's Bake Shop

And another of my favorite SNL clips...