Autumn in the South

Ah, fall at last! It's probably my favorite season for several reasons. Relief from the oppressive Mississippi heat and humidity, COLLEGE FOOTBALL (specifically the SEC) and the magnificent colors. Here are some recent photos from around Columbus, with the exception of the last three photos, which were taken in North Carolina, about eight years ago. Still appropriate though.

Jim Gibson- Pianist, and all around good human being!

So I have a new friend in the music industry, and his name is Jim Gibson. I had the opportunity to photograph Jim when he was here a couple of weeks ago for the Decorative Arts & Preservation Forum and Antiques Show and Sale. He played Friday evening in MUW's Carrier Chapel. Besides being an incredibly talented piano player, Jim is just one of those all around good people. A rare find, especially in the music industry. I really wish I had more time to hang out with Jim, but time did not permit on this trip. Click here to hear a sample of Jim's amazing musical abilities. Also check out his website.

Streetcar Named Desire

Last week, I had the honor of photographing a fantastic production of Streetcar Named Desire, which played in Rent Auditorium on the campus of Mississippi University for Women as part of Columbus' Tennessee Williams Tribute.

The show was directed by the incredibly talented Rus Blackwell, who's acting credits include The Curious Case Of Benjamin Buttons, Drop Dead Diva's, Monster, One Tree Hill, Law And Order, and WAY too many more to list on my tiny blog. Check out his IMDB page to see more.

Starring my dear friend and colleague Brook Hanemann as Blance DuBois, Brian Landis Folkins as Stanley Kowalski. Brian is also a photographer, who shoots a lot of music festivals in Colorado...so naturally, I found new friend for life in this cat. Sarah Claire Smith as STELLA!!!! And a host of uber talented actors of screen and stage.

Now, this is the kind of stuff I love to shoot. It is very challenging, and I am forced to use all of the technical photography skills that I have worked so hard all these years to acquire....in order to get images that are usable. I did not want to use a flash, I wanted to use house lights....that so many people spent SO many hours perfecting. So it was more about honoring their efforts than just me not wanting to get a bunch of blown out sunshine-level flash photography. Here is the result. I am pretty pleased. Who knows, maybe a career in theatre photography when my tenure at MUW ends???

Enjoy.

Chris

No this was not part of Streetcar, just Brian entertaining us between set changes;)

Long Live Baseball!

I love Baseball....and for as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a professional baseball player. I finally realized about a year and a half ago that that's probably not going to happen......oh well. Now I love photography, so it's all good.

Friday night was Lions Night at the Mississippi Braves Game, The Atlanta Braves AA affiliate team. My Dad got to throw out the first pitch. Pretty cool if you ask me. Caleb and I went down on the field with him, which was also super cool. My parents use to take me to Braves games as a kid in Atlanta, so it was very special to me to be able to take Caleb his first baseball game. In the words of John Bell, Lead Singer of Widespread Panic, "Long Live Baseball!"

A "Model" Prisoner

Meet Robert Himburg.

He is serving time in the Rayburn Correctional facility in Louisiana for burglary. You see, Robert use to use his hands to crack safes. Now he builds models with them.....unbelievably detailed models of ships, trains, etc.

My dear friend and colleague Brook Hanemann is an MUW Theatre Professor. Her father Danny works for the Rayburn Correctional Facility where Himburg is incarcerated. Last fall, he commissioned him to build a "Streetcar Named Desire" for Brook since she is a huge Tennessee Williams fan....who, by the way, was born right here in Columbus, Mississippi. Low and behold, while it was being made for her, she found out that she will be playing Blanche in an upcoming production of "Streetcar," as part of the Tennessee Williams festival here in Columbus in September. Funny how things work out.

So here is the model. He was not allowed to use any power tools, and only had photographs to look at. He didn't even have a model for reference....just a stack of photos. This is the most amazing piece of craftsmanship I have ever seen. The rivets on the outside are tiny drops of glue....there is even a folded up newspaper lying on one of the seats, and tiny hydraulic lines under the wheels, and working LED lights in the roof.

If the stars line up, Brook and I are supposed to go interview him at the prison for a short documentary on how he built it. The model will be on display in the lobby of Rent Auditorium on the Mississippi University for Women campus during production of the play, hopefully with a DVD of the interview playing beside it.

Brook's mother, Marcelle Hanemann, is a journalist, and has written a couple of stories about him and his models, which got picked up by the associated press and were printed in several papers around the country. read the stories and there are photos of an incredible ship he built as well.

We carted this masterpiece around the fair city of Columbus today and took these pix. Once again, I LOVE my job!

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday America!

I love fireworks....and I love photographing them. These are from the 2009 Fourth of July show at the Columbus Lock and Dam. I battled ant bites and mosquitos for an hour and a half to get these. I think it was worth it;)

Enjoy.

Chris

Dismals Canyon

The Dismals Canyon, located in Northwest Alabama about 30 miles South of  Muscle Shoals, is an amazingly beautiful place unlike anything I have ever seen in this area. It is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, so there are lots of beautiful rock formations, streams, caves and waterfalls. 

It was first inhabited by a tribe of Paleo Indians nearly 10,000 years ago, and later by the Pueblo, Chickasaw and Cherokee Indians. There is a lot of history there, yet it's not a state park. It's privately owned and operated. I highly recommend making a drive up there some lazy afternoon. The trail is only 1.5 miles, so it's a relatively short hike. 

Here are some photos from last weekends trip. CAleb and his cousin Laina were our guides;)

Enjoy.