Ghost In My Rearview

My name is Rob, and I'll do work for a good cause. When I shot the Brother Cane show back in August, I met this guy named Flip. He was playing bass for the band. He seemed really  happy to be playing that gig. I didn't know if it was nerves, or excitement, or if that's just how he is, but he was bouncing off the walls back stage in preparation for the show ahead of him.

He and the rest of the band put on a hell of a show. After the concert, he was still just as giddy as before. In talking to him, I found out he's in another band here in Huntsville called Rearview Ghost.

After checking them when I got home, I decided I definitely needed to see them play the next time I had the opportunity.

As it would turn out, I got just that opportunity a few weeks later when they had a charity gig at Fubar to benefit CAJA. They were playing with two other bands for the event - Whiskey Dix and Within Reason.

When I spoke to Flip about it, he was all for having me photograph another concert he was playing in. But, since it was a charity gig, he didn't have any passes he could give away.

No matter. I wanted to see them live, and I can get behind supporting the cause they were raising money for. Plus, with a DSLR strapped around my shoulder, I was bound to get a decent vantage point at the front of the stage.

Apparently I have the air of a professional. Or something. Through out the night, people were apologizing for being in the way, and scurrying this way and that whenever I'd hold the camera up to my face.

Talk about making my job easy. I think I came away with some pretty stellar shots.

Go have a look-see.

Character

My name is Rob, and I'm a car guy. I have been since I was a little kid. I went through a lot of different stages in my life. When I was little, it was all looks. There was the raw and vulgar design of Ferarris and Lamborghinis, and the absolute beauty of Aston Martins and Alfa Romeos. I had no concept of how quick 0-60 in 4 seconds was. I just knew that cars were nice to look at, and that I liked to go fast.

Once I reached driving age, I also reached the age where I liked to tinker with things. I modified most of the cars I owned in my late teens and early twenties. I discovered the joy of small displacement, large turbocharger engines. There isn't much that can compare to the throaty, nasty noise of an open-to-atmosphere wastegate at full-tilt.

During this stage, I kinda lost track of the design element of automobiles. I couldn't care less what a car looked like, what condition the paint was in, or anything else, as long as it was fast. I started to develop a penchant for ugly cars. They possessed a certain character that drew me to them.

I outgrew that phase a bit once I realized I was an adult, and had actual responsibilities. Having a car that could get where I needed to go without having to change a head gasket on the way started to show a little more importance.

Things came full circle after I got into photography. I started noticing things about design and functionality that hadn't been present before. I'm still drawn to cars with character.

This brings us to my first photo-shoot involving a car - my dad's 2000 BMW M coupe. I'd wanted to shoot his car for the longest time, but just couldn't even seem to find an opening in my schedule. For his birthday this past year I decided I was going to make it happen.

When I started scouting locations, I landed on a back drop of the Tennessee River bridge, and the parking garage downtown.

The shoot couldn't have gone any better than it did. The sunset behind the bridge was amazing. The rain came and went while I was driving to the parking garage. That little shower gave the concrete a certain sheen that added a lot to the roof top photos.

That shoot was the first time I felt like a real photographer. For a long time, I just sorta wandered around and waited on inspiration to make itself present in my head with what was surrounding me at the time. A lot of times I would see something I needed to photograph, and it would just come out all wrong - nothing like what I saw from my mind's perspective. It felt like all my good shots came out of luck. Taking 40 pictures of the same thing, and just stabbing in the dark at what settings, or viewing angle I needed to use.

With this shoot, I had a pretty clear image in my mind of what I wanted, and I was able to successfully capture exactly what I was looking for.  I'd made it. I could 'see' things before I actually saw them. It's a wonderful feeling. It just goes to show you, sometimes practice can make perfect.

Check out the gallery and tell me what you think.

Hotlanta

My name is Rob, and I enjoy business trips. I spent most of the previous week in Atlanta training for my new adventure as a photographer. It started out as most business trips generally do - right at the brink of catastrophe. I knew I was to be in Atlanta Tuesday morning.  I wasn't sure where, exactly, nor what time I should leave my hotel. That was ok, though. I knew I could wake up early and figure it all out.

How did I prepare for this? By arriving at my hotel at 2:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, of course!

Miraculously, I woke up on time, ate breakfast, showered, and figured out where I needed to be before the time I thought I needed to leave the hotel.

The thing I didn't account for was that Atlanta's traffic is roughly 256,000 times worse than my home town. I showed up 40 minutes late to my very first photo-shoot.

Remember me and my no-parallax-point? Yeah, it's still there. Try as I might to screw things up, I just can't do it.

I didn't know if the guy training me is just as laid-back as I am, or he could tell that I was ready to pull all my hair out about my miscalculation, but my apology was met with:

"Dude, don't worry about it. Atlanta traffic is disgusting. It's gonna happen."

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. I watched him work and filed every word he said away in my brain.

That evening I had a mission. A good friend had recommended that I find The Vortex while I was there in Atlanta. Fortunately, my hotel was no more than 20 minutes away from the

place. I didn't really have any idea what I was in store for, other than, supposedly, the food was good. When I arrived, the front door was a giant skull with swirly eyes.

I knew I was in for an experience, without regard to whatever food I consumed there.

On the inside, the place is your standard watering hole and burger joint.

Now, when I'm dining by myself, I'm generally not the most approachable person in the world. You can usually find me with my face buried in my phone texting, or surfing facebook, or what-have-you.

This place was different. I was seated at the bar perusing the menu with what appeared to be a bunch of regulars.

When the bartender asked if I had any questions about the menu, the only one I had was "What would you recommend?"

To my complete surprise, the entire bar burst into chatter about what I should try.

Being the adventurous type, I listened to one guy in particular, who was not particularly sober.

The two words that caught my attention out of his mostly incoherent recommendation were "Hell's Fury".

The two guys immediately surrounding me very nearly spewed beer out of their noses, as they couldn't try and steer me away from the suggestion quickly enough.

What better time to test my intestinal fortitude than right now?

Challenge accepted.

There were a couple of 'good luck's bandied about when I placed my order. As I waited for my burger there was some idle chit-chat about what the "new guy" was in for, what I was doing in town, where I was from, etc.

Then Hell's Fury arrived.

OH MY GOD THIS WAS THE BEST BURGER I'VE EVER SHOVELED DOWN MY GULLET

It was hot. Damn hot. And damn good. I didn't care if my taste buds were burned into a perpetual state of malfunction, I was gonna finish it.

3 gigantic glasses of water later, the challenge had been defeated.

I hung around for a little while after dinner trying to stop sweating, and gathering information about where else I should visit while I'm in town.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to visit any of the places that I'd been told about. I still had family to visit, and playing with my camera to do.

The following night, trying to get lost in Atlanta I found this apartment building. The red hue of the apartment building really caught my eye. Plus, I'd never really tried to capture a long exposure with traffic entering the frame.

An hour or so later, being sufficiently lost and having a sufficient lack of inspiration, I turned my GPS back on and made my way back to the hotel knowing that tomorrow I'd get to navigate a photo-shoot all by myself, see some folks I consider family, and wander around Piedmont Park trying to capture the Atlanta skyline.

I'd heard about a lake where you can get an amazing view of the skyline from a photographer buddy in town. Much to my chagrin, I found it all but impossible to park within about a mile of the place I needed to be.

Determined not to be set back I found a parking garage on the other side of the park, and proceeded to see what I could discover. What I found was almost as impressive - another smaller pond behind a restaurant with the skyline in the background.

It was a hazy night, producing an almost aurora-like affect from the all the lights downtown.

Satisfied with what I found, I turned in for what was left of the night.

I feel I progressed a lot as a photographer this past week. The on-the-job training was a hoot for nerds like me. I learned a lot. I worked hard. I played even harder. I'm pretty sure this is how life is supposed to be.