Bonita Joe and the hot dog man

These are some shots from Bonita Joe's barber shot down the street from me. We had to shoot a feature photo that was off campus and I had been in here once before but nothing happened so I decided to give it another shot. She was nice and her and the lady that owns the shoe shine parlor next door always hang out when it gets slow so hopefully there will be more from her shop too.







This is Rapid Rick Malek. He had the brilliant idea to set up a hot dog cart outside two bars downtown and sell hot dogs to hungry drunk people as they stagger out of the bars at 2:30 in the morning. He was pretty cool, he has been doing this for two years now and says that he makes a killing doing it.

Love and Guns

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE!!! The big 18, like I said, You will always be my LITTLE sister.

These are from the crazy last weekend that was spent mostly with Tim. A lot happened so I didn't even look at them till Tuesdayish. I think the story is going along well. There is just so much that I could focus on that I need to narrow it down and pick one thing or else its just going to be a big mess.

This is at the end of the last show on Saturday night. It really has nothing to do with Drag queens or the story but I kinda liked it.


Tim babysits for his church a lot and tonight the kids decided to make a fort to shoot at each other from behind. Tim was trying to get them to clean up and it wasn't going so well.

Obama Rally multimedia

I found Obama's speech that he gave in Chicago on his website so under the suggestion of my teacher, Brian Mask, I put it together with some of the photos I took that night. Here is what I came out with.




You can see a bigger version on my website HERE

Ah...free time

I finally had a chance to sit down and catch up on all the stuff that I have been shooting. This post is today and yesterday but I have a backlog if stuff I still have to go through from this week. This Volleyball game was against Troy and we won 25-13, 25-9, 25-20. I had to leave early to go shoot Tim but managed to come away with some decent action. Ive never felt I am a really strong sports shooter so it is something that I really need to work on.


This is kinda how it is going to a school that has a great PJ program. and this wasn't the half of them there.
This just made me chuckle. As this girl walked by the cops all whirled around and just gawked at her. O I love photography.

And Ms. Inus Nash. I went over there again today to hang out and shot a bit more. Shes good company and reminds me a lot of Nana.

Scott the Painter

This is for a story that the yearbook is doing on construction on campus, but the paint crew that we were supposed to shoot didn't have any work on campus for a year so I went over to an old gas station that they are making into bathrooms for the nearby park to shoot Scott painting there.
It was really fun to shoot because it was lit by one huge window and then a smaller one up high but the walls were still light gray from the unpainted drywall so the light was really nice. Im not sure if I used it as best as possible but it was a nice surprise anyway.

Wings, walls and fishnet

Here is just an update with some photos from the story I am doing on Tim. The last few days have been really crazy with school and shooting but there will be some cool stuff coming soon so keep an eye out. I have gotten some good feedback about my images from the Obama rally in chicago and figured I would try to do something different with them so as soon as its done (hopefully) I can get it up here so you guys can see it.


Tim was trying on on possible outfit for his Christmas show. It includes angel wings and a wedding dress cut in half.
These were from the last show I was at. This one isn't Tim, it is another queen from Nashville. Those walls were just so cool I couldn't resist.

This is a photo I am actually really proud of because it is not something I normally see. I would never have even taken this photo a couple of months ago but I really like it.

Wow. I need to shoot more faces.

Wine and Exercise

This morning I went back over to Ms. Inus Nash's apartment down the street from me. She told me the other day that every morning she wakes up and drinks her a glass of wine and does her exercises in her kitchen. They consist of holding onto the counter top and kicking her legs back, swinging her arms, etc. Richard Simmons kinda stuff. The doctors told her that she needed to start doing this stuff after she had her 19th surgery. She is really nice and has some really cool stories to tell and is more than happy to share them with anyone to will lend an ear.

The people you meet...

This is Inus Nash. She is from Russellville, Ky but now lives in an assisted living home down the street from me. I stopped by today to take some photos but ended up just talking with her for three hours, yet it seemed like only 10 minutes. It is amazing sometimes how much someone will open up to you if you just give them some time and honest attention. At first I was antsy because I was worrying about a bunch of other things that I had to do for school but got so interested in her story that I just kinda forgot about all that and just listened.

I learned early on the value of viewing the world from some elses's perspective, maybe it was those fishing trips when I was forced to curb my enthusiasm as Pop trudged up the path behind me, but just slowing down, watching and listening to someone else, especially from another generation... I just learn so much.

Here is Tim again. He is rehearsing for a show on Saturday night. I think the story is going well, he seems to be more comfortable with the camera and his family seemed to open up a bit too so hopefully things keep going well.

Today was another one of the those days that while I was shooting Tim I thought about how cool photography is, how people just will open their lives up to tell thier story to you, how I can cross paths with so many people just because I am carrying around a hunk of metal and glass. On the same day, within an hour I was shooting an 86 year old woman wondering when her time would be up and a 19 year old drag queen who cant wait for his time to come.

I was talking to Ben about the rally on Tuesday and he said that would be the last place he would want to be. I thought about it and realized that if I wasn't shooting that I wouldn't have gone near downtown that night, but because I was going to document history, that is the only place I really wanted to be.

Obama Rally part deux

I was really debating staying in Chicago for this. I had missed a lot of class already with the New York trip and then that monday so I could come home in the first place and going to this would cause me to miss Wednesday classes comin back. After I wrestled my self into the truck I was driving back to Bowling Green going over all the reasons that I should stay and my stomach was just turning. I got as far as 75th st on 355 and turned around and boy am I glad I did.


This will give you an idea of how busy it was down there. They said there were going to be a million people there, but I would say about 250,000 showed up. This is shot looking west on Randolph st. at Michigan ave. right after Obama gave his speech.
There were like 20 photographers around this sign... I had to do it.



"Your soul will burn in hell for taking this picture." (My interpretion of his look)




Overall it was really cool just to be down there when this happened. I am not a very political person, I don't really care to much for it but it was fun to be down there when something this big was happening and so many people were so passionate about it.

And Julie...

Obama rally

Here is some stuff from the Obama rally. I have lots to say about this but Im dead tired. Soooo... To be continued...