endless

or so it seems while laying on my back on the sandy concrete. fish splash in the cooling lake as autumn takes its first bite out of our summer. i see one shooting star fly by, so close, no need for another.

decompression

sitting around the house last night, relaxing a bit.. i've been on such an edge the past week having down time is strange

find of the day: Hello McFly

Okay so I was a bad kid today and snuck into the St. James thrift store... I couldn't resist. I scored this orange vest and a badass brown, pinstriped blazer for a grand total of $2. Today was a slow day, I swear. It wasn't like I was supposed to be shooting. At least now I have something remotely presentable to wear tomorrow for the gallery show.

Now I'm going to take a few minutes to nap under a tree before jumping into about 12 hours of editing.

Getting out there

I had some down time today as my subjects were out of town for the morning and I'm trying to give them a little space. Danny saw that I wasn't shooting and sent me back out to make features for Saturday's gallery. Now I'm headed back out to the vineyard to continue working on my story... hopefully will get into Angie and Eugene's house in the morning for a final few hours of shooting before the noon deadline on Friday. The nerves are starting to rise yet again as I don't have the level of intimacy in my pictures I want to have and believe that this married couple shares.

Sun...rise?

It's a very strange phenomenon but I've witnessed actual sunrises while working here too, like, everyday.

Sleep is a daydream I have between making photographs.

Intensely

chaotic. Stressful. Tired. Whatever.

That past few days have been so intense. I arrived Sunday afternoon in St. James, Missouri for the 60th Missouri Photo Workshop. The workshop premise is that participants converge on one small town in Missouri, this year it's St. James, to rake through the town, find a photo story to pursue, and then make it happen. All in about four days, if you're lucky.

I was lucky and my editors Rita Reed and Danny Wilcox Frazier accepted my proposal and my first couple days of shooting went well. But last night I ran into some problems when my subject got spooked by having me around so much. But after hours of talking and thinking, being consulted by my mentors, I met back up with my subject, Angie, and her husband, Eugene, spoke with them honestly about why I want to be in their lives and why it's important. I also brought them a couple prints to help show what I'm actually doing.

Final day of shooting is Friday morning and cards are due by noon. Then the workshop is capped off by a gallery of all 40 photographers stories on display at a school in town, and I'm guessing there might be a party afterwards... just maybe.

I'll post the story when it's finished. But until then here are some singles from the first morning of beating around town looking for something intriguing.

Jack

I had the pleasure today of meeting a hero. This is Jack. He's 88 and navigated B-17 bombers in World War II. After sitting and listening to him tell stories about WWII, Korea and Vietnam, he showed me pictures of damaged bombers. Planes that were hit by shrapnel, showing gaping holes and missing wings that somehow made it back to the Allied base. He told me how his crew would watch out their windows during bombing raids to count parachutes of neighboring planes that were crashing to record how many soldiers survived the initial attack. It sent chills down my spine. I can't imagine being on either side of the fight in World War II. On Friday Jack will be the keynote speaker at the VFW recognition of POWs - MIAs.

tornado damage

a little football fo ya

Some KU action and a prep hit, the third is Memorial Stadium on a record-breaking attendance night.

some changes

-- words haven't been coming lately. I'm not sure why they come when they do, or if it matters but I feel like I should be making an effort to write... something. Again, not sure why but yesterday I canceled my membership to APhotoADay... or put it on hold rather. For the past two years APAD has been my lifeline to feedback and inspiration.. never more so than when I was in Craig... But, I want to make some changes in my day to day life about what images I'm looking at for inspiration and how many. And why even. Why am I looking at the images I'm looking at? Maybe looking at fewer but a varied flavor... I plan to branch out to study different types of contemporary photography, mixed media.. any facet of photography that can be molded or blended into a reportage or documentary-type manner.

please, if you have any know of any fresh media websites, blogs or publications do post them. and likewise, I'll probably be passing along whatever i'm looking at for inspiration.

a partially sunny hallway

with a slight chance of nudity, a plume of cigarette smoke and lazy tunes on the stereo as body parts cram into a hallway, tight with anticipation of fall and frowning falling leaves, broken hearts and high ambitions... daydreaming about the present as we ceiling gaze