Self Portrait: At the Supermarket

Shopping for supplies for chicken gumbo, sometimes I think the problem with America is too many choices.

Self Portrait: At the Bookstore

I recently upgraded to Photoshop CS4 and thought it best to have a reference guide to help me with the new program, so off to the WU Bookstore I went. The Photoshop CS4 Bible is a daunting book, close to 988 pages!

Self Portrait: On the road

Another long trip back to STL on I-55, no matter how you cut it, its a long, boring trip. This trip back was a little faster, Aimee took the wheel from Jackson to the Missouri bootheel and in good time. We made it back in 10 hours 15 min.

Self Portrait: On Bourbon Street, FAT Tuesday

Tuesday is my favorite day during Mardi Gras, start off with the Bourbon Street Awards, Pete Fontain's Half Fast Walking Club march down Bourbon Street, and catching the end of the Zulu Parade. Before 1 pm, I've already shot 10 gigs worth of RAW images. The evening was also productive, the crowds on Royal larger than usual, and all in costume, the crowds on Bourbon Street, smaller, but still busy. Most of the drunken frat boys were gone, and the crowd not so mean. I was a little disapointed by the smaller than usual number of body painters, I'd hoped to photograph more of them. 

Self Portrait: with Aimee and Ernie K Doe

Aimee and I attended the big Lundi Gras event at the Mother In Law Lounge Monday, and took this photo of the Ernie likeness. Sadly, his wife Antionette died last night.

Somehow, uploading the image late at night from my friends house in the French Quarter, I missed loading the image with the correct day, so todays self portrait is the next one up. I blame the gin.

This image of Aimee, Rosemary and I on Napoleon during a night parade is a bonus self portrait.

Self Portrait: Bacchus Sunday

As part of the tradition of Bacchus Sunday, my students usually bring Popeyes chicken to my friends open house, they have been doing this for as long as I've been bringing students to Mardi Gras. This years student group did not seem to feel that was required of them and took for granted the hospitality of my friends, so I stepped in and got some for the open house.

I've been photographing Rubin, a street preacher for over ten years. You may not agree with his politics, but there is something about his commitment that I find interesting, and every year, there is a new scene around him where ever he is in the French Quarter.

Self Portrait: At the Mother In Law Lounge

We made a visit to the Mother In Law Lounge Saturday night and had a few rounds of beer and spent some time with Anionette K Doe. She was in her usual fine form, eating Red Beans and serving up drinks. not a lot of people in the lounge, actually more of a shrine and living room than a saloon, but for sure, an interesting place. Little did we know she would have a heart attack and die literally 36 hours later. I thought to do a portrait of her, but decided to pass that night. It only reaffirms that you need to make those photos when you can, sometimes you can't go back.

Self Portrait: Lunch with Aimee in the French Quarter

My students were off to some vegan place to eat so Aimee and I decided to get some seafood, on a lark, we stopped in at the French Market Restaurant and Bar on Decatur. We had a fine lunch, although not cheap, but the oysters were sweet and fresh and the char grills done well. The boiled shrimp some of the best I'd ever had. Jimmy tells me I might be the only person he has ever met that has eaten there.

Self Portrait: Muses Parade

Self Portrait: at the graduate critique

Self Portrait: On the laptop

Self Portrait: Printing in the digital den

Self Portrait: in the living room with framed work

I got 14 framed works back from a client who had them on loan for the past year. Suddenly I have a large inventory of work ready for exhibition even with 30 works in New Orleans.

Self Portrait: At the camera store

Getting prepared for the big Mardi Gras trip to New Orleans, so a stop at W. Schillers was in order today, after all, can you have too many memory cards?

Self Portrait: with nude model

Studio lighting demo and 4x5 with the figure in todays class. It was quite chaotic for a while in the studio with 9 students jockeying for position. The model took it all in stride and was a real professional.

Self Portrait: With Morgan in her studio

Self Portrait: with Walker

Self Portrait: In the Digital Den

Shot a freelance job today, portraits of young artists in their studios. It took me two hours to shoot the three portraits and nearly three hours in the Digital Den to download, clean up, generate and print contacts and burn onto DVDs. Afterward, I started working with some recent shoots with some nudes I shot last week.

Self Portrait: Along I-55

The trip back from New Orleans was long and boring. For some reason, it was exhausting and I look it, we got back to Saint Louis and I had the cranky pants on.

Self Portrait: At the Krewe Den

This trip I got the chance to photograph the floats inside the Krewe D'Eta den before Mardi Gras. The light is pretty special and the combination of the tight packed floats and the wild colors, always make for interesting photographs.

Self Portrait: At my exhibition in New Orleans

My opening at Le Mieux Gallery was a big hit, I even sold two works opening night, for me, a good start. Its always fun to see how someone else edits from a body of 18 years worth of work and then decides what way to hang it. The show was from the last 18 years worth of Mardi Gras images and had 30 works in the show. This is my first exhibition at a commercial gallery in New Orleans and its a long goal of mine to show this work in the city where I made it. Denise runs a great gallery here and I know she's going to work hard at getting additional sales during the run of the show, unlike my my gallery that didn't work very hard at selling or promoting my work.

Self Portrait: Oysters at Drago's

Tonight we made it to Metairie for raw and chargrilled oysters. Rosemary pronounced it her new favorite place to eat in New Orleans.

Self Portrait: Waiting for my subject

I've been working on a big freelance project the last two weeks, 27 portraits of young artists in their studios. Today, it was haul the gear and wait for the subject to arrive.

Self Portrait: Open Studio Crit with majors

Self Portrait: Blueberry Hill for burgers

Self Portrait: Replacing failed hard drive.

I've been reading for a month now about the high failure rate of Seagate 1TB hard drives. There seems to be a firmware issue with them, and even then, I have no idea how to update the firmware in a RAID hard drive, Yikes! So I took the route of denial and hoped it would all turn out just fine. The drive failed this morning in the DROBO. I had ordered a 1TB Hitachi drive last week that arrived today and installed it in the DROBO tonight. I have been a long time user of Seagate drives, I always thought they were the best of the offerings, but I'm going to spread my future drive purchases around, having all the same drive brands seems now to expose my data to risk. Seagate by the way is sending me a replacement drive, now my question is where do you install it if you don't fully trust it?

Self Portrait: Superbowl Sunday