Emily and Shimby are two-out-of-four members of the Chicago-based indie pop band Bird Talk. They will be pairing off for good in June, with yours-truly shooting the nuptials in Atlanta. 

End of a busy week and month. Here is some recent news:

In early winter I shot some stills and animation sequences in Mobile, Alabama for The Discovery Channel. The images were used for a Koppel on Discovery show called The Last Lynching. The one-hour special about three Americans profoundly affected by incidents of racism premiered on October 13. Here is a trailer. Note the big tree at the end. That's my jam! The effect was created by the wizards at Imaginary Forces, by cutting out stills and applying parallax effects over video and so on. Pretty cool stuff, and I've seen more if it around lately. Anyway, nice to have a hand in some cool effects and a great documentary series.


In the last several months I'd shot a lot of editorial portraits, and they have made to press recently, for (clockwise from upper left) Atlanta Magazine, AARP Bulletin, The Wall Street Journal, The Magazine Group, BusinessWeek, and Modern Painters. Check out this link to the WSJ article and slideshow, which came out just this week. It's an interesting story.

I made a cover and innards for a feature on Southern bouldering legend James Litz for Urban Climber Magazine. I shot with James, one of the strongest boulderers in the world, a couple times in between working on Heart of Stone this winter. Super cool, humble, and stupid strong. Glad he is moving back to the South. Obed ranger Rob Turan (a climbing legend in his own right) ended up spinning a tale for UC on James, so the shots were timely.

I just finished a third advertising campaign for WileyX Eyewear, which we shot over a week in Southern Arizona. It was fun as hell. I'll blog on it soon, after the ads are out.

The Cliffs sent out their beautiful quarterly magazine, published by Redwood Communications. It's around here somewhere and I'll scan some pages in when I get the chance. I've been shooting for the Cliffs for about a year now, mostly on their properties in South and North Carolina. If you know golf, you know the Cliffs. Tiger is building his first signature course there.

They had seen my work in (the now sadly endangered) magazine Garden & Gun last year, and have since hired me to shoot several advertorial stories, on Homes, golf, landscapes, lifestyle, etc.. They have some great properties in BC and Chile as well. better hit the driving range...

On January 20, 2009 President Barack Obama was sworn into office in Washington DC. All around the country, Aurora photographers were engaged in a collective effort to capture the state and spirit of America on this historic day.

For my part, I visited the "Images of Us" barber shop in East Atlanta Village. The shop, moved from its original downtown location during the recent economic downturn, is known, as most neighborhood barber shops are, as a place not only to get a cut, but to hang out, connect with friends, and sometimes, talk politics. The owner was giving cut discounts, viewing the Inauguration on a screen in the shop, along with with home-cooked chili, donuts and coffee.

My assistants Sharif Hassan and John Kelso and I were immediately welcomed into the shop when we described our plans to take portraits in the shop during the day. "When you come in here, you're like family," told us one stylist. Drawing inspiration from the color and posing of the viral "Hope" Obama image by graphic artist Shepard Fairey, we set up a barber chair in the corner of the shop and invited freshly-cut patrons to sit for a portrait and short interview about their thoughts on the Inauguration. 

There was a lot of emotion in the shop as the president was sworn in. The chili and cornbread was awesome. Sharif will be going back for a razor cut, and maybe a bald fade if he doesn't chicken out.