Our little girl.

AM was having a very ornery afternoon, not wanting to have her photo made.

But each of these photos is the last frame from their respective rolls. And they embody what I meant to accomplish with photos that afternoon.

(Canon Rebel 2000. Lomo LC-A)

That is to say, I got to do a bit of live band photography recently when  I saw David Bazan and mewithoutYou play a gig together at the Hi-Tone on June 21.

I'd like to remind you of something.

I saw mewithoutYou in August of last year and thought "Oh, I can die happy now."

Then I saw Dave Bazan in October and thought, "But REALLY I can die happy now."

And, having said that, I'm not the type that gets all hot and bothered about musicians and thinks "OMG I gotta get near this person!" It just  happens that there are a couple of folks out there making music right now that means something to me. The aforementioned musicians are highest on that list. When I found out that mewithoutYou was playing in Memphis again and - wait for it - David Bazan would also be back because they're touring together...let's just say I became a very happy girl!

Seeing bands play during the summer in Memphis is not always the most pleasant experience - all those people, all that lack of air conditioning in most venues. The night of June 21 at the Hi-Tone was no exception. I'd like to sit here and say "oh, that didn't matter. It was just all part of the experience." But, yeah, it mattered that we were all dripping with sweat! It just didn't matter enough that I don't consider that night to be one of the top three of 2010 so far.

And here is the album where the rest of the photos from that show reside!

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

When my niece was a little younger, we did portraits of her twice a year, to send to her out of town family members. We'd do these at her birthday in October and around Easter in the spring. Because I'd been living "in the city" and working at churches the past couple of years, it had been difficult for me to get together with my niece on Easter itself to do her spring portraits. I really wanted to revive our spring photo tradition this year, and was so thankful for the beautiful weather this Easter Sunday.

I like to think of AM (my niece) as being a seasoned model. The first picture I took of her in the hospital, she was making eye contact with the camera. There are times when I can tell that AM knows the "look" she wants to portray to the camera. Quite savvy of her, I think.

But, mostly, as with any other portrait subject, I don't want AM to worry too much about posing. I just want her to be herself. And what a wonderful "self" she is. Even if the kid DID pull her out tooth out a few minutes before we were set to go out and do these photos, she's still alright by me.

Location: Memorial Park Cemetery, Memphis, TN. Equipment: Canon AE-1, Polaroid 250, Lomo LC-A, Nikon FE*

It was last year when I became sensitized to the existence of the Crystal Shrine Grotto, due to a small wedding I photographed there. Ever since since then,  I have been fascinated, I tell you! As per usual though,  I kept forgetting to go back to do more photographic exploration of the grotto. I mentioned this to my friend Ashley, who is both an adventurer at heart and a photo enthusiast. Ashley's a GREAT friend, and wanted to help me remember that the Memorial Park grotto was on my photographic "to-do" list. She did so by scheduling a photo excursion to the grotto with me.

It was almost like kismet the day we went to Memorial Park. The weather in Memphis had been what I can only describe as "blah" for most of the weeks leading up to the end of February. The day of this excursion though, it was simply gorgeous outside! Blue, clear skies. Mild temperature - not too hot, not too cool. And Ashley had a few of her friends in tow with her, all of whom happen to be avid photographers as well. It was so awesome!

You'd think all of the above elements would mean all of us photogs would be intent upon running around, snapping photos of interesting elements of the cemetery and grotto. But really, this excursion was just the most chilled out thing ever. There's this great seating area at the grotto that is meant to be like a large, hollowed out tree.  I'm pretty sure all of us would like to live in a tree if we could, so this was right up our alley! Some of the boys were climbing on top of the tree while we were inside having a cupcake picnic (comes in handy to work on Saturday nights at a bakery - you get to take home the leftovers!)

We did poke around the grotto's cave for awhile, but I actually didn't end up doing much photography inside - as you can plainly tell by the lack of indoor shots featured here today (except for this creepy photo of Aaron with a wooden Jesus.) Most of our time was spent sitting in that tree I told you about, just talking and making photographs of each other.

So, in conclusion, my sincerest of thanks to Ashley, Grant, Aaron and Alex for giving me such a refreshing and photographically fulfilling way of spending a pretty Sunday afternoon.

*(Yep. I went a bit overboard with the scope of equipment I used on this wee little photo excursion. Not to worry though; I wasn't burdened with lugging all these cameras around. Clever girl that I am, my car was parked closely enough that I could just go back and forth for what I needed. I could leave a camera in my car if I were done and pick out a different one to take back up to the grotto with me.)

]]> http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2010/03/29/photo-excursion-awesomeness-memorial-park-edition/feed/ 0 http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2010/03/13/inside-outside/ http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2010/03/13/inside-outside/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:28:21 +0000 araney http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/?p=721

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/2010/02/27/andrew-bryant-friends-at-the-hi-tone/ http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/2010/02/27/andrew-bryant-friends-at-the-hi-tone/#comments Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:06:16 +0000 araney http://www.shootwithpersonality.com/?p=686 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.)