[Model Shoot] Barbie Corbett (6.22.09)

so, while i continue to work on the Jubilee!Jam photos, i figured i would show that i don’t only shoot events and/or music shows

i was contacted by Barbie Corbett through my profile on model mayhem.  (heh, i’d almost forgotten i’d made a profile on model mayhem)

she needed some new shots for a website and wanted to know if i would be free to shoot.

i took a few hours to respond because, it occured to me for the first time, i had never had a photoshoot with a stranger before.

most of my photoshoots had been with friends but this was the first time i’d ever been contacted out the blue like that to photograph someone.

(i’m not counting the folks i shot on assignment for the JFP or the shows i’ve shot. )

LoL, it actually caught me a little off guard.  what followed was a couple of hours trying to talk myself out of it (fear of the unknown!) until i finally slapped some sense into myself and wrote her back saying i’d do it

anywho, here are the photos.

oh, little backstory.  this was a themed shoot.  and the theme was gothic dead doll.

Chick Jam! @ Hal and Mal’s (6.12.09)

time for the Chick Jam in the Redroom at Hal and Mal’s!

little backstory.

every year, the Jackson Free Press sponsors and hosts the Chick Ball.  a fundraising night, with an all female line up, with the goal of raising money for the Mississippi Center for Violence Prevention and to raise awareness of domestic abuse.  last year we raised enough to buy the center a new van!

this year (its 5th!) will be even bigger. (and better!)

so, if that’s the Chick Ball, what’s the Chick Jam?

the Chick Jam is the pre-party, so to speak, for the Chick Ball.  kinda like a mini-chick ball.

this year was the first time we had a Chick Jam, but i doubt it’ll be the last.

all proceeds went to the Chick Ball which, in turn, will help the Chick Ball raise money to go towards the Center for Violence Prevention. (see how that works?)

the “chicks” that performed for the jam were: Lizzie Wright, Anna Kline, and the headline act; The Bachelorettes!

(to read more about the Chick Ball and why it’s important, check out my friend, Deirdra’s blog post about it.  it’s very good.)

((and be sure to follow @jfpchickball on twitter!))

(((and i wasn’t the only photographer at the Chick Jam.  so be sure to check out Kenya Hudson‘s excellent photos from the event in the JFP photo galleries.  really, great photos.)))

ok!

time for pretty pictures!

first chick; Lizzie Wright Super Spaceship!

*cues up some of Lizzie’s music while i work*

Storage 24 Music Video Shoot (part 2 of 2) (6.7.09)

picking up right where we left off with part one, the Storage 24 music video shoot for their single “No Surrender” continues!

we pick back up as the crew gets ready to film Courtney’s scene.

Storage 24 Music Video Shoot (part 1 of 2) (6.7.09)

so, last sunday, my friend Daniel Guaqueta (who’s also the drummer for Storage 24) invited me out to shoot some behind the scenes photos as the band prepared to shoot their first music video for their single “No Surrender”

i said sure.  i love behind the scenes stuff.  i’m that guy who’ll buy a DVD, not for the movie, but to listen to the “director’s commentary”.  i love it.

so, the shoot was scheduled to start at 9:30am till 9:00pm.

i shot over 400+ photos.

after my initial edit, i cut that down to 263.  far too many to post.

so i went back for the brutal final edit and cut that down to 153 photos.

still too many to post in on entry but if i cut anymore then the “story flow” just wouldn’t be the same.

so, after posting my dilemma to facebook and twitter everyone said “make it two posts stupid” LoL

so, here’s post one of two.  even with 75 photos, it’s still a mega post so let’s get started.

game on.

this is where the majority of the magic happened.

Rooftop Salsa Dance Party @ Fondren Corner (5.29.09)

like the title says, there was a rooftop salsa dance party on the roof of Fondren Corner (located right in the heart of the Fondren Arts District of Jackson)

photographing dance is always a challenge.  there’s an energy to dance that is…well, it’s hard.

one of my favortie photographers, Annie Leibovitz, wrote in her recent book Annie Leibovitz: At Work , how, after staying for three weeks with Mark Morris and Mikhail Baryshnikov and photographing them and their dancers as they worked to constuct a new show she came to a conclusion that ended up being one of my favorite quotes of that book.

“I begin to understand that dance can’t be photographed, or even filmed for that matter, it’s an art that lives in the air”

Dance.

that movement.

that energy.

the laughing and the sweat and the flow of the music.

but just because something’s hard/impossible doesn’t mean it should stop you from trying to do it anyway.

“Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire”

— George Bernard Shaw

“Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire”
- George Bernard Shaw