Trick or Cheek

Earlier while I was running an errand I saw Captain Jack Sparrow pushing Donald Duck and a Giant Pumpkin down the street in a stroller. I totally forgot it was Halloween.

I’d love to go downtown to take pictures of all the ladies dressed up in rather naughty, unladylike versions of whatever they’re supposed to be, and all the guys dressed up like pirates and giant penises and shower stalls (3 most popular costumes ever in Athens I think), but I have so much to do by the end of tomorrow I think it’ll just have to wait.

Just for fun… best costume ever:

What The Duck #68 “Trick or Cheek”
by Aaron Johnson

and a HorrERR Show…

What the Duck #74 “HorrERR Show”

Here’s to another Halloween that involves me buried in photos and overdue school crap and dirty laundry, eating re-heated Mongolian beef and wondering why I have no social life.

Woo-hoo.

Help A Photo Dude Out: Sean’s Mangled Arm

This summer freelance photographer and photo assistant Sean Moser was in an unfortunate automobile collision and smashed his right arm to hell and back. Literally.

Initial prognosis was that his arm would have to be amputated. No longer the case, but there’s a long road ahead.

Given my family’s history with things like this – really, you’re not a Dugger until something is mangled or missing, or you’re diddling someone who is – I can say some good can come of this.

Chicks dig scars.

Otherwise I’m not going to philosophize on the pros and cons of a situation like this, because while sometimes unfortunate events such as this can unforseably change our futures for the better, I don’t know any mono-armed photographers.

Anyway so obviously this could be a tragedy for Moser and paying medical bills – especially big ones – is a real bitch, and this could have happened to anyone, so the lovely folks at www.photoassistant.net have built and maintained a support fund page for Moser and it’s right here:

http://www.seansmangledarm.com/

So if you can spare a dollar or three, or just want to shoot him a happy little hang-in-there-sport! email, go there and do it, because morphine pumps aren’t all they’re cracked out to be, and life can really suck when you’re hospital bound and your life and identity as you know it has just been ripped out from under you, and otherwise you’ve got no idea how to pay your bills and that fancy microfoil balloon your mom bought you finally wilted.

If you can, help a fellow photo dude out.

From Brandon Bird: A Last-Minute Christopher Walken Costume

Completely Off Topic… Just in case you’re in need of a last-minute way-awesome costume for tomorrow night, one of my favorite artists, Brandon Bird, has graciously put plans for a DIY yourself Christopher Walken mask on his website:

http://www.brandonbird.com/halloween_treat.html

.

Semi-related, Bird’s project while in school where he designed a program for children to write their yearly Christmas letter to Christopher Walken instead of Santa: Letters To Walken

And a few of my favorite Brandon Bird works:

• “No one wants to play Sega with Harrison Ford” (one of these days I’m going to get around to hanging my print)
  
• “Killing Machine” (Bea Arthur wrestling dinosaurs)
• “The Anguish” (Micheal Landon and a squid)
• “The Brave Cone Dog” (my current desktop)
• and the “Law & Order: Artistic Intent” project

My Spine Died. Then I Bought Houseplants. Vampire Cupcakes!

So, a post raving angrily about babies in flower pots, then I disappear for a week? I ain’t crazy and I’m not dead, I promise. Totally.

This weekend was supposed to be a not shoot the UGA-UF game and go work on a special project in Sarasota weekend. It turned into a brakes fail / visit parents / pinch a nerve in back / sleep a lot / Wal-Mart at 3 a.m. and buy two house plants to keep my two other almost-dead houseplants company sort of weekend. Oh well.

Cause that’s what I do when I’m having a rough week. I buy houseplants. So I can kill them.

Ye-freakin-haw.

So…. no weekend pictures for you. Cause I didn’t take any. Cause any time I moved my arm spazzed out and I’d wop some unlucky person on my left. And I couldn’t sit / stand up straight. And if I squatted I might get stuck. My neck popped on Sunday though and it’s getting better.

Pictures soon though. I’ll get some shots of my new plants or something. Until then…

1. This is just precious
2. It has come to my attention that co-pj-student Kristin Boyd has a photo blog.
3. Two words for you: VAMPIRE CUPCAKES.
4. “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party (or: Georgia On My Mind)” by Ron Wasmuth (Via R&B… A poem about the UGA-Florida game by an LSU fan) (to the R&B… c’mon guys, who the hell is Ron Wasmuth and why is his witty poem on your website? Is he a student? or what?)
5. The R&B’s photos from this weekend in Jacksonville. UGA 42, Florida 30. Woof woof woof…

I Hate Babies. Frogs O-K.

I am so damn tired of bad art. And hype.

I hate hype.

And selective coloring.

Granted, if you can pull it off, anything will work. But… selective coloring… you suck.

You suck you suck you suck.

And that 1980’s fuzzy soft focus glamour shots thing?

Good lord.

I guess if all else fails turn it upside down, it might work.

And what’s so damn great about Anne Geddes anyway?

Vision? Maybe, but I’m not sure I buy it. She takes pictures of babies.

Babies in costumes and flower pots and stuff.

She can’t have been the first person to take a picture of a baby in a flower pot.

(Almost) everyone loves pictures of their kids. But they’re not even your babies! Wrinkly, random babies, it’s what they are!

And if you really think about it, they probably pooped in that flower pot.

Stupid babies.

In my next life, I’m going to be an art photographer and just put frogs on shit and takes black and whites pictures of frogs on top of shit, and sometimes wearing little hats, and maybe on occasion two frogs in the same frame!

Maybe even a frog …. ON A BABY.

And make a bazillion dollars selling coffee table books and miniature calendars filled with pictures of frogs on shit to idiots like me who’d actually buy them (at least on the Clearance Rack).

Whoopee!

This world does not need any more photographers.

We need more… more… cowbell.

*sigh*

EDIT: Iggy has made a contribution. See here: http://fukung.net/v/3017/Altered%20Pool%20Baby.jpg This is acceptable.

Packway Handle in The Red

After those other posts totally complaining about red, William reminded me of this:

ISO 800 @ 185mm f2.8 1/60 sec

Our friends, The Packway Handle Band, playing at the Georgia Theatre. Specifically, Andrew and Josh, with some good ol’ banjo apocalypse bluegrass.

I’d forgotten all about this. It was one of those shots that just sort of happened. At the last minute they asked me to come out and shoot, and I didn’t have anything better to do on a Wednesday night so I obliged. Only problem is everyone thought somebody else told security I was there so I had some access issues. No biggy though. I shot everything from fan-areas. Works for me.

…

Shameless Plug: Packway is playing at the Georgia Theatre on Oct. 31 with the Effie’s Club Follies and Bling The Children Back Home. Jug blowin’ is permitted and if I understand correctly, there might be some facially decorative adult novelty toys involved in the costumes somehow. Direct link to the event isn’t working, but you can find it pretty easily on the Georgia Theatre website. Show is 18+, tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door.

More Ballroom Dancing (and Red)

A few more photos from the UGA Ballroom Dancing Club’s dress rehearsal last March:

Note: Lately in order to keep life together, I’ve drastically cut back on how much work I’m doing for the paper. So to keep some (enough) fresh original photo content streaming in here, I’ve found myself digging around for old stuff (which is nicely coinciding with getting portfolios together and backing up hard drives). Ain’t great but it’ll have to do for now.

I Hate My Printer

Ladies and Gentlemens, the story of me and my printer:

[warning: language your mother wouldn't like]

You have no idea how long it took to find that stupid video. (Thanks, Iggy.)

…and I just noticed Friday’s Dilbert seemed strangely appropriate, considering my the progress of my workflow lately:

(great for this… Celebrity Jeopardy... I recommend the ones with Sean Connery)

Finally Seeing Red – UGA Ballroom Dancing

I hate red stage lighting. It makes me crazy. Why would anyone ever want to use red lighting? It’s not like it makes things oh, more dramatic, or intense, or anything. It just sucks. That’s all it does – suck. Arg. BOO RED.

I fully realize though if I’m going to properly hone my Photojournalist Superpowers before I reach the other side of The Great Deadline, I need to make The Red my plaything. In my digging for portfolio stuff, I found this one, probably the first time I ever felt like I really made The Red work for me.

I get mixed reactions about it from editors, but whatever, I really like this image:

70mm ISO 1600 1/60 sec. @ f2.8

UGA Ballroom Dancing Club rehearsing for their upcoming show back in March. Shot for a stand alone for the Red&Black. We didn’t run this one. I forget which one we did.

This hasn’t been cropped or edited. Straight from the camera. I love the color, and the tones, and the composition, and the moment. One of those happy surprises in constantly changing stage lighting conditions. I think at this point I was sitting on the floor trying not to get stepped on.

I wish I could remember what song they were dancing to. It was a tango.

 

Some People I Like Right Now (Reviews In Miniature)

Francisco at DRee&Co. for massage therapy. I recommend the brown sugar scrub and deep tissue massage. Right now I feel like I’ve never toted a camera bag around in my life. Amazing.

Roberts Imaging for stuff. After my Abes of Maine mess, Roberts not only had the lens in stock, but they hooked me up and it got there a day earlier than they said they would. (recommended by Dave and SportsShooter)

Office Depot for business cards. Back when we were first required to get business cards in intro class, Mark recommended VistaPrint. I got VistaPrint cards. Eh… don’t. For some people they’re probably a good deal, in one way, but they look cheap, and really they’re not that good a deal.

I decided recently to get some more professional looking cards printed, and at Office Depot I got 1,000 custom printed cards on thick white vellum stock with raised black print for $19.99. They looks worlds better. And it took only 4 days. And I see now you can order online too.

Think Tank Photo for stuff. Dear ThinkTank, thank you for existing. You go out of your way to make my life easier. Let me bear your children.

GoDaddy.com for domain registration and hosting. So, I’m just now getting the website going and I don’t know my particular needs just yet, but GoDaddy was recommended to me, and so far it’s been great. Not long after I became a customer, they even called me on a Saturday evening just to make sure everything was ok, and actually I did have a bit of a problem, and the girl forwarded the problem to the proper department and it was fixed by Monday morning. (recommended by Josh)

Kelly Wegel, my sort-of boss, for making my weekend interesting.

(And Waites and Josh for helping out)(and my phone for allowing me to take this picture)

Kelly and some bread ->