Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind.–Mary Ellen Chase

KAREN WINK
AMERICAN PRESS
December 13, 2010

On the sidewalk in front of Southgate Shopping Center, Leroy Williams prepares his stage for his sixth holiday season of performances.

After stretching his cheeks and fingers, Williams starts to pipe out a Christmas soundtrack for the shoppers hurrying between stores.

Shoppers pass by Williams as he plays a medley of popular Christmas songs on his saxophone. Some just walk by, while others stop to drop money in Williams’’ Gratitude Bucket.

Williams first started playing on sidewalks as a way to raise tuition for his culinary and dietary education at Sowela Technical and Community College. He continues now during the holiday season mostly because he loves Christmas and loves creating a festive ambiance for passers-by.

“It’s the weather. It’s fall time. It’s Christmas. As a kid, everyone hears ‘Santa Claus (is Coming to Town),’ ‘Frosty (the Snowman)’ and ‘Rudolph (the Red-nosed Reindeer).’ It just brings back memories to hear those songs. We need something more in this city. We need more sidewalk musicians,” said Williams.

Williams said his love for Christmas comes from his mother. He is sentimental about Christmas music, with “Please Come Home for Christmas” being his favorite holiday tune.

“You can’t mess up ‘Silent Night’ and simple Christmas songs. I’m always trying to improve,” said Williams.

Quick to smile, Williams often breaks up his performances to talk with shoppers. He recounts several instances of encouraging words that motivate him to keep playing.

“Little kind words just make your day,” said Williams.

Williams’ personal finances get an assist by his sidewalk concerts. He works as a cook at a casino, but he lost one of his two jobs. Williams says playing his saxophone helps pay the rent and provide money for Christmas presents.

“I’m going to continue this because I love being on center stage. I get to talk to lots of people. I’m a talkative person,” he said.

…

Whew! November was a busy month. Not only do we have the holidays and high school football, many of the charity walks are in the fall.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from this month. I hope to make this a regular feature on my blog for many reasons. Mainly since being busy means hundreds and thousands of photos to go through. It is better to do that monthly than to wait to the end of the year. Wish I would have thought of this in January.

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

Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long. – Walker Evans

The period between Christmas and Mardi Gras in South Louisiana is a slow news period. Add rain to the mix and it becomes an even slower news day. This means that I hunt for “wild art.” Yesterday that translated to a barge floating into the void of fog and rain on the Calcasieu River. The photo ran in color. I prefer it toned in a black and white version.

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.

…words and pictures can work together to communicate more powerfully than either alone. - William Albert Allard

Here’s the latest. I love having every angle on a story covered in print and web. Donna Price, the LCAP’s art guru, put the page today for this past Sunday’s paper.

I opted to not have the audio correspond directly with the timing of the photos in the soundslide presentaion. It seems to work better that way. Have a look here. Let me know what you think.

One thing I choose not to put in the story was Patrick’s quote about the heat. He said: “It can be a little crazy. You take the heat in Louisiana and then you start a fire.”

This was a very hot story to produce for sure. Southwest Louisiana has hit over 100 degrees every day for about month.

I AM SO READY FOR FALL & FOOTBALL!

Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures. - Don McCullin

.If you get an opportunity in photography you have to grab it – they don’t come along that often. When you get the chance of a great picture, you have to identify that quickly and make the most of the situation. Whatever age you are you can do that. Even with luck, you will still have to press the shutter at the right time. You need good reflexes and you need to be fit. – John Giles

Today (06-18-09) is my one year anniversary at the “American Press” and that year has been…

Well, for starters, I had to adjust to being an employee again in a system that was totally new to me and it came without any blueprints or instruction manuals. This was made especially difficult by the fact I was used to being the boss. Thankfully, photojournalism does come with a good deal of autonomy. Honestly, I thought of packing it up several times. Still, photojournalism is my first love, so I sucked it up, walked it off, and here I am.

The work keeps me going. I’ve covered hurricanes, football, tennis, boxing, fires, escaped prisoners and lots of features. Perseverance has paid off and I have felt validated by a couple of fairly recent events.

The first is having two 1st places in the Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press 2008 contest (I also got a 3rd place). One was for the multi-photo feature I did on a 4-H horse champion. I did one of my first audio slide shows on this story plus I wrote the narrative to go with my photo essay. The second 1st place was for a rodeo photo (see above).

The second is having “Sports Illustrated” pick up my Foreman photo for their magazine. I know that luck played a big part in Foreman fighting here (1) and having the opportunity to shoot it (2). Still, it is very cool that they chose my photo to run in their June magazine (see below).

What’s next? Revamping my website has been on my top agenda for a year now. Sure, I’ve been busy but procrastination on the layout and selection of photos has drug out for months now. Maybe I spent too much time pondering the look and feel of the website. I should just shut the hell up and do it. As for ‘The Press,’ I can’t wait to see what this 2nd year will hold. I’m learning video editing and teaching myself Joomla! Also, I’m considering a class in Flash and Dreamweaver. Wait & see…

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.