So Rob Haggart, former photo editor at Outside Magazine and Men’s Journal, and one who has mostly ignored my work, has one of the best blogs in the photoshpere. Or is it best photo blog in the blogsphere. Either way his blog ‘A Photo Editor‘ has become a must read for just about every photographer in the world and I would bet almost every photo editor. His insight and ideas are very spot on. If you have not heard of this blog, I suggest you crawl out from under the rock and go check it out.

One of his newest ideas is a flicker slide show that will serve as a virtual promo or source book. He is putting it all together from submissions from photographers and will be doing the editing and posting it. APE is a fan, or at least a user of flicker and sees many uses for the professional photographer and editor. I’m not so sure yet. I did decide to submit two images for consideration. I did this for two reasons 1 - why not? it is free promotion if I make the cut. Given APE’s talent as a photo editor, I expect the bar to be set very high. I hope I make it. Given his level of professionalism I hope he can bring some other photo editors to check out the work.
2 - after looking over some of the profiles of the photographers who submitted, I saw a LOT of awful work. I mean really bad. and no real food photographers.

Some of the work was really just, well, not even worth commenting on. I guess that is the price you pay when doing something in this arena. One of the things I have always loved/hated about photography is the way it touched every level of everything. it is accessible to anyone with a camera. It creates an understanding of the craft but also can give false confidence to some who want to be professionals. I don’t envy APE on his upcoming task of editing the promo.

Here are the two images I submitted. Do you think I will make the cut?

Last night I ventured out to catch a band that I like, the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, BSOJC. They played at a bar called Pucketts Farm Equipment in Charlotte. Pucketts is exactly what a dive bar should be. Not too clean, 2 pool tables, a slightly raised band area, a bar that sold beer and beer only, 2 open doors for ventilation. The decor is strictly southern and even more so Charlotte race theme. I counted at least 10 race car tires, some stacked together with a wooden top to serve as a table, there were 4-6 race car hoods mounted on the wall, 2-3 complete sides of race cars, complete with dents and tire marks! Pucketts has live music a few nights a week, it is a great place. Oh, did I mention the $2 Miller Lites?
So BSOJC plays honkey tonk music, some rocking and upbeat songs mixed with some slower ballads. good stuff. There were some sound issues last night, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed and was. The show was good, the band played tightly. The only disappointment to the night was the lack of crowd. Less than 40 people came out to support the show. If it bothered the band, they didn’t let it show and played as if there were 150 there. I guess it has to do with it being a Thursday nite and that the Sweet 16 tournament was in town.
I took some pix. surprise. I made a very rookie mistake. I switched camera bags to carry a much smaller bag and forgot to bring extra batteries. of course 4 songs into the show the battery goes dead. I took it out and warmed it up and put it back in and was able to shoot until the last song when it went dead for good. what a lucky break. Never switch bags without using a checklist. The light was decent for such a small venue.
Here are a few pix of the show.

So today I shot my first press conference in a very long time. George Clooney and Renee Zellweger were in twon to promote their new movie ‘Leatherheads’. It is a period piece about early football. Quite a bit of the movie was filmed in NC and some of it right here in Salisbury. Salisbury is an old city has done a pretty good job of protecting its historical assets.
So they show up, an hour late, of course. It was a well run affair. When the stars took off down an unexpected line of fans, they quickly took the photographers to a location where we could get some shot of them interacting with the fans. Average shots. But they were upbeat and happy. We all moved inside and they took some questions. George was actually pretty funny and poked good natured fun at the reporters who asked for parts in the next movie. Ethical lapse? Renee didn’t say much, just kinda sat their looking hot.
I was shooting for Getty Images and the pictures were online by 3pm. I saw a few uses online already. Including at least one that I’m sure is an infringement.
It felt good to be back shooting again.

pt

Well, here it is. My first official post on my blog. I will be posting on many subjects, mostly about photography, but also about my life, my dog, fishing, and any other random idea that pops into my head.

The first one is about fishing. I am going to try to keep a running total of all the fish I catch this year. I have to guess for the period up until this week, but I think it will be pretty close.

On Monday the BIL, his friend C, and I went on up to fish the Mitchell River near Elkin, NC. The Mitchell is a nice piece of Delayed Harvest water that is managed and maintained by the local Trout Unlimited chapter. It is stocked and it is catch and release most of the year. There is a 3 month period where you can keep the dumb hatchery fish that will bite on the locals Powerbiat and corn. But after a stocking the poachers show up and try to clean it out. They have done a pretty good job so far this winter, but after the last stocking it seems there are more fish in the river than before. We got there early and the bite was not on. I managed to sneak one brown trout while the other two guys got none. After that we drove on over to look at the mountain lot where the cabin is to be built. The grader still has not bothered to do his job. We popped into Stone Mountain to fish the creek there, at the first overlook, you could see the trout just stacked in feeding lanes 2-3 deep. Now, just because you can see them does not mean you can catch them. I got out to try that hole while they drove up about 100 yards. I threw some midges at em, dropped under an elk hair caddis. then a caddis pupae. I swear I think the fly bounced off their heads or they just moved to the side when came at em. they were good drifts, just the wrong fly. I tried a fly that had worked for me before, a BWO pupae. I then got 3 in a row. I got a trifecta! A brooke trout, a rainbow trout, and a brown trout!
The other guys each managed to pick up one trout a piece, so no one left skunked for the day.

The Crappie I got in the Dr.’s farm pond across the street. It took a black wooly bugger that I tied. It is the biggest crappie I have ever caught.

Brown Trout

Species and totals for 2008

Brook Trout - 2
Rainbow Trout - 5
Brown Trout - 7
Largemouth Bass - 8
Bluegill - 10
Sunfish - 6
Black Crappie - 2

Brown trout

Rainbow trout

brown trout

brook trout

black crappie