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Campus Photography: Campbellsville University
This past spring I had the privilege of shooting in yet another state. DC brought me up to Kentucky to shoot Campellsville University. A friend of mine/wedding client/former co-worker at the newspaper is the sports information director there. I’ve been trying to get him to hook me up for 2 years! Funny how things work out. I loved looking back through this shoot. Lifestyles & photojournalism are my passion. Getting to spend multiple days on a great campus with this type shooting is exhausting but also about as good as it gets.
Lifestyles: rural running/almost killed by a cowboy
If you recall, a couple months ago I had kind of a nightmare shoot where I was stopped by an irate landowner and later the local police while on a shoot. Here’s the story…
First, let’s start with the moral of the story which is “never trust a couple of teenagers on a rural dirt road, in a jeep, smoking cigarettes….ever!” Now it should be noted that I did not know the model I was working with at all nor was I familiar with the town I was shooting Demopolis, AL. I was there for another shoot that evening and was trying to work in a shoot for the agency while I was in a rural environment. Ordinarily I would scout a location and ask permission if needed well in advance. I hate shooting when I feel like someone could come and shut me down.
I did get there early and drove around for about an hour or two looking for a good dirt road to shoot on. Just outside of town there was this perfect road lined with some kind of pine trees that looked really cool. I settled on it. As I drove down the end of that road though I saw (just beyond a gate & fence) an awesome field blooming with yellow wildflowers with that same dirt road running through it. It really looked perfect but it was clearly someone’s property and I wasn’t going to trespass.
Feeling like I had a good starting location I met the model and came back to that dirt road. To my surprise (cue idiot teenagers) there was a jeep parked at the end of the road leading onto the property that I loved so much. So I drove up and asked what they knew about it. They said something to the effect of “Oh yeah we know those guys. They’re never there and I know they wouldn’t care if you went on their property to shoot.” I thought well cool that’s enough for me. (btw I’ve since changed my policy on how quickly I think that). So we walked through the gate and onto the dirt road towards the field. I was explaining what I was looking for from the model when from the other direction a truck is rumbling towards us. Thinking I had the golden ticket with my compadres in the jeep I started walking toward the truck. I said “Hey how’s it going?”, to which he quickly replied, “WHAT THE F#!* ARE YOU DOING ON MY PROPERTY!”. Okay so I’m not sure but I think he had a gun in his hand too… probably my imagination but couldn’t be a long shot considering. I began trying to explain my extremely weird situation and as I turned to tell him about the guys who gave me permission all I saw was dust and taillights. AHH!
He settled down, I put on a dry pair of pants and calmer heads prevailed. He informed me that those kids had been tearing up his fence and trespassing etc. I told him what we were doing and though I’m sure he thought it was really ridiculous he allowed me to keep shooting. He apologized a few times as did I and then he said that his dad would be coming down that way in a bit with their cattle and I might have to go through all that again with him. No thank you. We wrapped it up pretty quickly and hit a couple other spots. I really was not surprised when at our next location the police stopped us. I was WAY less scared of the police so it went pretty smoothly. He was just making sure we weren’t dumping trash in the field. Huh?
Really in the end I think everyone was so dumbfounded by what I do that they were like, “Sure, whatever.” My Volvo & Chaco’s kind of put me in the “out of town” category so I’m sure they all had a good laugh later that day. I still have yet to laugh about it.
Oh yeah and to make it all even worse I laid down in an ant bed while shooting. I had to take my shirt off which is about as embarrassing as all the other stuff combined. And these were not suburban ants. They were country ants and they freakin hurt!
Campus Photography: Southern Wesleyan University
I was fortunate to have a good number of campus shoots this winter and spring thanks in part to my new relationship with DC. Here are some shots from Southern Wesleyan in Central, South Carolina. It’s kind of embarrassing to say but the first trip for this shoot actually happened back in January! and the second trip back in early April. One day maybe I’ll learn how to be relevant. Until then….
William Bradley
Here’s a quick post as I try and play a little catchup on the blog. Back in April I was asked by a model I had worked with on one of my lifestyles shoots if I would be interested in doing a runway shoot. For some reason I get a kick out of shooting something for the first time… not always the 2nd and 3rd but I pretty much always get a excited about something I’ve never shot before. Now outside of my unnatural appreciation for mens footwear I generally have no sense of style. I was actually a little insecure in my ability to dress myself fashionable. BTW that is the only way I get dressed…. myself. Thankfully I just hung out in the back away from those whose fashion trends might draw comparisons/judgement on mine. I was glad to see though that the majority of the people at the event were at least like me in the regard that they too listen to someone else tell them what to wear. Anyway I had about 20 minutes to shoot everything after the show in order for the designer William Bradley to get shots of his designs. He was competing in the Birmingham Fashion Week that following week and needed a quick turnaround for his portfolio (actually that next morning!). Turns out he won which really was not surprising at all after I attended his event. Hopefully we’ll see more of these designs down the road.
Since designers design several seasons in advance these clothes were very wintery. This post in fact made me sweat just looking at it.
Tornadoes suck
I’ve said from the beginning of this drama that I wish we named tornadoes like we do hurricanes. That way we could at least have a name to address all of our disgust and dismay.
We had 3 different family units hit by the tornado 2 weeks ago. Most of my extended family lives on the west side of Birmingham. Thankfully no one was even hurt. Most of you have at least seen images/video of the destruction. If however you have actually been out there in person you really understand what a miracle it is that there were lot’s of people that didn’t get hurt. The devastation is intense to the point your mind cannot process it. Even after multiple trips out there my mind still cannot comprehend the chaos this storm has left. If you get the opportunity to volunteer please go. For others and for yourself. You will not be the same.
There were a few things I noticed in the past couple weeks. One is the irony that in the midst of such a hellish environment there were so many elements of heaven. For example, in the US we tend to be mostly independent. We care for ourselves. We are set up to trust larger entities to provide securities for us (insurance, government, etc.) We usually feed ourselves and on our dime. What I saw and still am seeing are people showing up to give their time in various ways. Some are doing actual physical work, some emotional, and some providing water & food. The combination of these elements being offered sacrificially is such a picture of heaven on earth. The Bible talks about God providing for us daily to the point that we shouldn’t worry about it. We would literally show up to work with no water or food some days yet we always were turning away offers to feed us. Through the destruction and devastation there have been elements of goodness that would be near impossible to be discovered in normal life. To me it has been such an affirmation to see that we are provided for in ways we don’t see because we have leaned on institutions and not on our brothers and sisters.
Another thing I had to deal with through all this is my role with photography. I was asked a few times if I was going to go take pictures. In fact I could have been showing some of the first images of the destruction if I had wanted to. I don’t know what it was but I just couldn’t do it. Frankly I found myself being angry at the photographers walking up and down the street. Not just the portrait photographer going for the blog post but also AP and Birmingham News. As a former staffed photojournalist I understand the need to tell a story and the good there is in bringing the publics attention to a harsh reality. I know it’s a job just like clearing off the roads or putting up new telephone lines. For whatever reason though it just didn’t seem like the right thing for me to be doing. Again my livelihood depends on me documenting significant moments in time and I get that. There are just times that the right thing to do seems to leave the camera behind and walk up to that person you would be hiding from behind your camera and ask them what they need.
Earlier in the week we were told that we had 30 days to basically get my grandparents house in Pleasant Grove to the road so that FEMA would come and pick it up. It is such a strange thing. Here we have a totaled house. No way to rebuild or salvage much of anything. Yet still we are going to have to finish it off ourselves. I feel really sad for my dad. It seems like it would have been easier if the whole thing had just blown down but rather he will have to stand there and watch it be done by his orders.
Death, destruction, illness, etc. beg a lot of bigger questions. I feel like our immediate family has been surrounded by these questions lately on a lot of different fronts. I have no real answers for why but I have been finding rest in this… If there is a God, which I believe there is, and if He is sovereign, which I believe He is, and if He is good ,which I really do believe He is, then He MUST bring more to the table and outweigh the despair, destruction, and brokenness that we feel in times like this. We are all painfully aware of the brokenness of this world. If the bad is really that bad then think about how good the good must be.
I realized about a week in that I really did need to document my grandparents house before it’s total destruction. Here are some photos that will not come close to showing you how awful this whole thing was.
Campus Photography: Golden Gate Theological Seminary pt. 2
I have been trying to post to this blog for almost 2 months now! And by trying I mean occasionally thinking about it but choosing other things I’d rather be doing instead. Actually it’s been a very busy winter & spring and I’m really excited to show a bunch of different shoots in the coming weeks.
I figured I’d finish what I started in March by posting some other non portrait images from my trip to San Fran. This entire shoot was a challenge. It was done in 3 days including travel. There was little room for error and little time to take a breath. However, as I mentioned before, if I have to work like a dog and be under a lot of pressure to pull of shots, I want it to be in Murin County, California. The approach to this shoot was more like an advertising campaign. I know this because I was told this, not because I’ve actually done one. The design & copy was going to be based around the portrait and story of 9 individuals. In addition to getting those images we were also shooting what we kept calling (probably incorrectly) B-roll images or images that support the portraits. Basically we would get the portraits and then have the student/faculty engage in some type activity that showed a little bit of their experience on campus. Then in the gaps of all these shoots we were meeting up with other students in different places around town to show more candid campus life. If you’re counting at home, that’s a lot of images in a very short time. It was nuts but it was a lot of fun.
Anyway here are a handful of images from the B-roll (or whatever you’d like to call it) images. Oh yeah, this first image is of the president of the seminary. Whenever I’m told we’re going to photograph the president I usually have some nerves set in. This time the president is also the Chaplain of the Giants. Shouldn’t matter but it does. The Giants. They won the World Series last year. I mean he probably knows someone who knows someone who helped juice Barry Bonds (rim shot!) Kidding. What can I say I’m a Cubs fan. Anyway still pretty cool I thought.
Campus Photography: Golden Gate Theological Seminary
I didn’t travel much growing up. I mean like everybody in AL we went to the beach and a few places in the southeast but never any big trips out west or up north. When Erin and I got married we decided (despite our fear of flying) to go big (and cheap!) for our honeymoon and fly out to San Francisco then take a train back through Colorado. Since then we’ve done a number of other big trips but still that first trip to California stands out in my mind. If you’ve been you know what I’m talking about. One of my favorite places I’ve ever been is the stretch coming out of San Francisco heading north up 101. Just as you cross over the Golden Gate Bridge with the city over you shoulder you begin to climb and tunnel into the mountains. Right there. That’s one of my favorite places ever. It’s right there that you are minutes away from one of the coolest cities in America while at the same time minutes away from some of the most beautiful and protected beaches you could imagine. Right there is where I got to work for 2 days.
Last fall while sitting at a Thanksgiving lunch after my son’s MDO program (which he basically just ran around for 15 minutes for) I sat next to another dad who had a kid in the program. Honestly I was really just thinking about what I needed to be getting done when I got home rather than trying to make friends. So in a very typical yet providential way our conversation turned to what we do for a living. Turns out he is VP of a marketing firm who specializes in higher ed marketing. As I heard this I laughed. I mean come on. What are the chances? I then told him what I do and we exchanged email. The next thing I knew I was being sent an itinerary for a trip to California. If you know me you know that you can trust me with a big job. If you really really know me you know that secretly I question whether you can trust me with a big job. Frankly I couldn’t believe I was about to fly all my gear cross country in a whirlwind trip based around what? You guessed it, portraits!
Details Communications does such an awesome job and I was really excited to be a part of a bigger picture. GGTS has several satellite campuses so the idea was to base their materials on specific people’s stories. There are lots more non-portrait pics to show but for now here are some of the featured portraits.
Campus Photography: Rhodes College
Last Fall when I was updating my portfolio and narrowing down the kind of pictures I want to show, I made a big decision. After shooting for the newspaper, a couple magazines, campuses and then lots of random freelance gigs I had a bunch of different images to choose from. Sounds good right? When I first started photography I thought that would be the case but now I see it a lot differently. Too much variety is too much for a prospective client. I’m learning that clients want to see what you do well and really don’t care about variety. What is difficult for the egotistical yet insecure photographer like myself is deciding which of those images to never let anyone see.
Here’s an example. A little over a year ago I shot a couple portraits of some regional celebrities one of which was Bill “Bubba” Bussey (sp?, sorry don’t listen or care to take the time to google it). I remember being told and even thinking myself that this shot would be great for my portfolio. Still in hindsight it should have been. It was a fun concept & atmosphere. Lighting was great. He was great. Everything worked out and I was happy with the image. The problem is that environmental portraits were just not the direction my career was taking. Though it was a decent image it wasn’t going to stand out in the supermajority of photographers who specialize in environmental portraits. So I basically removed all my portraits from my portfolio and focused on photojournalism & action based photography.
In a bit of an ironic twist (maybe not. again I struggle with what irony is thanks to Alanis Morissette) 3 of the last 4 campus shoots have been portrait shoots. I actually had to pull out my old portrait portfolio page to show a prospective client. So where does that leave me? I hereby claim to never again think I know or understand where my career is headed. Thankfully I do love portrait work especially when it is mixed with action portraits like these. Here’s a few from a series I’ve been doing with Rhodes College called “Faces of Rhodes”. 
With a little help from my friends
This is an ode to my friends. Back in the summer when I started getting into these lifestyle shoots I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to keep getting new people doing new activities. About half of the models came from casting calls and then the other half came from people I already knew. I’m so thankful for good friends who were willing to help me out even though I’m pretty sure they didn’t fully know what they were getting in to. As I line up more shoots and rely even more heavily on the people I know I gotta give some love to the good friends who are helping me make it happen.
by nolenphotography
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