I grew up in Louisiana, so I have seen gators. Then I lived in Atlanta, where the only gator you see is fashioned into a boot or a shoe.

So here I am back in Louisiana, and south Louisiana to boot. For more than two years here, I was on a gator drought. Occasionally, I’d see the baby gator at some of the festivals I covered for the American Press. However, the gator “au natural” escaped me.

Southwest Louisiana is one giant wetland with fresh and brackish waters right out your front door. There are more than a thousand shades of green occurring naturally here. It is a gator/waterfowl Mecca. Think the reality TV series “Swamp People” — not really, but almost.

Much to my disappointment after making trip after trip to Cameron Parish, the wild gator always evaded my sight and camera until I made my latest trip down to Creole.

With 60 minutes to kill before my next assignment in Cameron Parish, I cruised down a road just off of La. 27 and north of the ship channel. Rolling slowly past a small pool of water on the side of the road, I spied what could have easily been a log except for the texture of reptile skin.
Hastily slipping on my 70-200mm zoom lens on the Mark IV, I turned my car around at the end of the road. Rolling back to the point where I thought I saw what could have been something that looked like it was a gator, I parked my car. Camera in hand, I slipped out of my car leaving my car door open (just in case).

Peering over the hood of my car to the backwater pool, I saw her – all 10 or more feet of her — “au natural.” She was sunning and on her head sat a baby resting his little reptile feet on mama’s eye sockets.

I fired off a couple of shots but the 70-200mm did not get me close enough without being in “eating” range. So far, so good, mama had not moved. Seizing the opportunity, I opted for the 300mm. I changed the lens quickly and quietly while leaning inside my car with both eyes moving from camera to gator then back again.

This time I moved to the other end of the car, daring to be closer to mama. My exposure needed to be bracketed (varied) to allow for the glare on the water and the dark shades of a gator’s skin. Quickly, I fired off three shots, changed the exposure and fired three more.

On the seventh shot, mama started to move. For a brief second I debated my next camera angle, then the shear size of mama kicked in the fear factor. A picture is worth a 1,000 words but it is not worth an arm or a leg. Logic won. I got back in the car and fled with my all my extremities intact.

Safely inside the car, I checked my photos for exposure and focus. Yes! I had my gator “au natural” photo. With only 15 minutes until my next assignment, I downloaded the files onto my laptop just to be certain the shot was good.

Some things are missed in the viewfinder while shooting on the fly. Photos often look very different on a 15-inch screen than they appear on a small camera screen. Looking at my shots of mama sunning on the log with baby, I noticed another baby gator, then another, and another.

In all mama had nine babies — NINE babies.

** This notebook ran in the American Press on December 12, 2010

There is no such thing as taking too much time, because your soul is in that picture.- Ruth Bernhard

My job has a long list of perks. Covering the arts sits close to the top of that list.

Louisiana Public Radio and the Arts Council produce a series called Crossroads that airs in SW Louisiana on KRVS. The series visits other cities but the broadcast version is held at Lake Charles’ Central School Theatre almost monthly when it is “in season.”

This concert series has been on my to-do list since I first learned about it. Finding the time to cover this event has been an issue for almost every event. On January 20th that all changed and I was able to cover Chris Thomas King’s Crossroads concert.

King is the son of a famous blues musician, Tabby Thomas, but he is not walking in anyone’s shadow. He is a great blues man in his own right with multiple Grammies, 3 gold and platinum awards, and movie performances. His website is christhomasking.com if you would like the complete lowdown. It was a great performance and a photo ran on A-1 the next day.

My black and white favorites are below. I shot this event with my personal Olympus E-3. Love Love Love my camera. Cheers!

<-kew->

Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts. – Walker Evans

At some point during my long sabbatical from photography, i purchased a TLR (twin lens reflex) from a camera shop in Atlanta. The TLR appealed to me because it reminded me of high school and i love the 2.25×2.25 negative.

I took journalism in high school. Our classroom was equiped with a nice darkroom and we had several TLR’s that the school had owned since the 50’s. I love the quality and portability of the cameras. So when I saw this Rolleicord, it struck a note of nostalgia.

However, the camera sat unused and carefully stored away for years until last week.

I had 1 roll of Fuji’s Neopan film with an iso rating of 100.  The camera appeared to be in working order but you never know unless until you shoot a roll through it. So shoot I did.

There are several things about the Rolleicord that differ from the cameras I use on a daily basis in my work. The first, everything is backwards from the focusing screen to the side the focus ring is on.  So i looked like a clumsy ox at first. Second, everything is manual and there is no built in light meter. This in itself is not a huge issue because i do own a hand-held meter. However using a hand-held meter requires more thought. Lastly, there is no preview screen. Your photos are not revealed until developed.

All these differences slow down the process and allows you time to think about releasing the shutter. It was very refreshing and reminded me of why I love the art of photography.

For the first roll, i just shot a few things close to home nothing too major. There are only 12 exposures on a 120 roll so it was easy to shoot through to the end. My choice of developers was Ilford Perceptol. Working with the chemicals requires even more thought with controlling the temperature and time.

The results of my short shot were dead on and with no light leaks. My little Rolleicord worked perfectly.

Since then, my head has been spinning with several projects that only film will do justice. The whole process is exciting and relaxing at the same time.  I look forward to also recording my time in southwest Louisiana in film as well.

Now, I need to fix the enlarger I was given through a chance meeting. The cord needs repair and I need a new bulb.  The challenge is going to be space for a table in a room that can be “blacked out.” I did find a lab in Atlanta that does E-6 processing for 120 film and they scan negatives and slides as well.

Nothing is ever the same twice because everything is always gone forever, and yet each moment has infinite photographic possibilities. – Michael Kenna

Football season is approaching fast so the Lake Charles sports drought will end. This alone will raise my level of happiness by leaps and bounds. This summer has been s-l-o-w and h-o-t-T. My only saving grace in July was the smashing Swashbucklers and the sarcastic Gridiron show.

The LC Ad and Press club puts on a community roast every year to raise money for area colleges. They call it gridiron (not sure why). One of the three original founder and script writers is the “American Press’” retired editor and columnist, Jim Beam. He agreed to be interviewed so a slideshow soon followed. It can be found here.

The Swashbucklers are Lake Charles’ amazing arena football team in the new Southern Indoor Football League. The Buc’s won their third championship in this new league and it appears that they are going strong even though the “big boys” of arena football are not. Personally, arena football is fun to shoot. It’s fast and the players are up close and personal. The slideshow of the semi’s can be found here and the championship slideshow is here.

Prep jamborees start the end of August and McNeese starts September 5th. Hip Hip Hooray! Let’s hear for some football.

[All photographers has to do, is] find and catch the story-telling moment. – Alfred Eisenstaedt Lately I have spent a considerable amount of time on audio slide shows. Good fortune has landed a few good assignments in my lap that screamed for multi-media. First was one on the first all-girl drill team in Louisiana called the Kilties. The high school, Lake Charles HS, was closed 1984ish which in turn shut down the group. However their spirit never died and they meet every year to march. I wish I had more time to work on it but I did have to mash it down to 3 minutes.  The audio slide show can be found here.

The other two (buddy ball & granny ball), I did last weekend. Gathering audio while shooting photos can be a challenege when time is a factor. I only had about 90 minutes for photos and interviews on each of these two.  I used my “shotgun mick in my back pocket” technique for ambient sound. I am surprized by how little unwanted noise is picked up in my back pocket. Mostly I do try to set up my recorder and walk away from it so you don’t hear my camera or me but time was limited. Of course, most of the work is in the editing of audio and photos. I could easily do one a day but two is a strech with other assignements. Saturday i was worked from 9am until midnight. Good thing I love my job!!

cheers

Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography. – George Eastman

I own 4 external hard drives. All are full of photos. In the process of updating my website, I have been filing through all of them. This is no easy task, since some weeks I can shoot over 2000 photos. Needless to say updating is going to take many of my “weekends” to finish. No rush since I’ll be in LC for a while. I am rushing to make prints of my favorites along the way.

Prints are one of the things I miss about film. With film, you had to makes prints or at least a contact sheet. A photo needs to be touched and seen without the flicking of a monitor. I also have a fear that a photo not printed could eventually disappear despite all the efforts made to back up of digital files.

Kodak has a new “silk” paper that I am trying out this order with some of my black & whites. Also have several cold toned photos that I can’t wait to see on Kodak’s Metallic paper. I’m giddy with anticipation!

Well, I really did not slack on anything except my personal blog posts.

The holiday season was long and a little boring to be quite frank. I worked Christmas and trying to find feature photos on a rainy Christmas is almost impossible. My attitude was admittedly bad but it was my first time to ever work on Christmas and my first time to be alone on the holiday.  I manage to get over that quickly once I walk into Abraham’s Tent (LC’s soup kitchen). My spoiled pride just left me. I gave thanks for how blessed I am. I have a job that I love. I have people that love me. I have a roof over my head. I have many cameras. I was happy to see several local families spend their Christmas serving and handing out necessities to the needy at Abraham’s tent before they celebrate together. Really, the season is and should always be about sharing joy and love.

Christmas day also yielded another photo package in the Metro Section of the American Press. I had the pleasure of interviewing 2 members of the Lake Charles Model Railroad Club. These folks are detailed oriented craftsman with a love for modeling and railroads. I gather almost 2 hours of audio and was thankful I had a week to widdle it into a descent story. My writing is improving but I still have not found my voice in the words. Guess that will come will time.

Click to the image on the right to view the audio slide-show. Click here to see a larger tear sheet.

 
Marcy Tweed emits a perimeter of joy around herself and her vehicle. It is not just Christmas joy but she does use Christmas as an excuse to spread some of her joy around the town of Lake Charles. 

Tweed first started decorating her vehicle for the City of Lake Charles Christmas Parade  six years ago. She started small but continued collecting toys and other Christmas decorations from second-hand stores. This year she had so many toys that she convinced her husband to build a top deck for her SUV.

Tweed has won best decorated vehicle in the LC Christmas Parade for 4 years running. She loves seeing the joy her adorned SUV brings to children and the elderly. Her goal is to win a trophy for each of her 7 grandchildren.

View the audio slide-show here.

Last Friday, I covered my last prep football game of the season, Westlake versus Cecilia. Our region had only two teams in the semifinals, Westlake and Barbe. Westlake was undefeated until Friday but they lost knocking them out of the playoffs and knocked me out of covering any more football in 2008.

During the regular season, I would cover 2 games on Friday and one on Thursday. This was the first time to have the “luxury” of covering just one prep game. It gave me the opportunity to stay until the end and witness my favorite thing about prep sports, the emotions of competition.

The logistics of sending from location in a prep football situation can be unusual. I arrived early to Cecilia, LA (google it) to test my connection speed with my wireless modem. I had one bar at that time (but I was in the middle of small town coonass-ville). I shot until halftime then huffed it back to my car to send photos. Bingo, the nightfall gave me 2 more bars. Thank goodness! I was able to send our sports guys 5 photos and get back on the field before the end of the third quarter.

View the slide show here.