Tallulah

I've been quiet for awhile, but I got to shoot with Tally again yesterday. We started with a simple outfit, but we didn't really know where to shoot with it. There's an overpass nearby that seems very used on top, but not so much underneath. We decided to start there. The bottom was alright, but a bottle at the top of the slope caught my attention. We went up and found a few books, a bottle of G2 Gatorade, a couple bottles of sauce, some old clothes, and a beat up umbrella.

We played around a little with what we brought, but the umbrella really caught my attention. We did a little Charlie Chapman play, but I liked the horrible weather and the light contrast it gave. I thought it may be better for a more depressing scene, and I'm glad we tried it. More photos are available on my FaceBook fan page.

Samantha Hart

Samantha Hart found me on Net-Model and asked when we could shoot. I told her my odd work schedule, and I was surprised to have a shoot set up with very short notice - less than a week. We shot at seven different locations with off camera flash only. While there was a lot of driving, it wasn't too bad with the simple setup.

Ra'Shele's wedding

Ra'Shelle, my wife's cousin, just married Ryan in her dad's church, Unity Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Ark. Weddings are always fun to shoot, but especially when the bride allows a little extra access.

Ra'Shelle was great about it. She let me drop in on the hairdressing and the makeup session, along with hanging out in the bride's room at the church. This is my favorite photo from the day. We were sitting in the bride's room, which happened to be the church nursery. There were stuffed animals all around, and I told her to grab one and look scared. She wasn't, but it's always fun to play around.

Memphis Zoo

Erika and I went the Memphis Zoo. It's the first time I had been since college, when I was one of several Arkansas State University interns for the National Press Photographers Association's annual convention. It seems they have changed a lot about the zoo, but maybe it's just been too long since I've been.

They did not have a polar bear, seal, or panda exhibit when I was there though. The polar bear wasn't even talked about, but there was a very, very bad panda bear announcement. I remember there was a large cage with a life-size animatronic panda inside, but the electrical substitute wasn't even turned on. This time I got to see two of them in a large, glassed in cage. One was trying to get some rest, while the other was munching on bamboo reeds. I was disappointed that I could not get a good photo of the polar bears or the seals though.

On the other hand, I was quite lucky with the orangutan. The ones at the Little Rock Zoo have never really done anything. They pull a blanket over their body and lay there like a giant trash heap, sometimes reaching out for nearby lettuce. The one at the Memphis Zoo didn't do a whole lot more, but I was quick enough to grab a photo before he stopped. He had been perched up high on the zoo's "fort," and he put his blanket in his mouth to hold onto while he climbed down the ropes to sit on the ground.

Tallulah

This is Tallulah, who I also met on Model Mayhem. We have been working on getting together for some time now, and it was nice to finally get to work with her. We went to the formerly abandoned building I've used before, only to find someone had erected a little shanty inside with leftover construction materials. Whoever resides there now was not there, but we had to be careful walking around. There was no toilet or outhouse hole in the ground, but it smelled like the new resident had created a new bathroom in one spot...