the photography:
moving vehicles provide some of the more invigorating subjects for me as a photographer. capturing movement, power, chaos, and motion within a frame, then bottling and selling it as emotion is something i strive for. i love wheels, grilles, motion blur, screaming motors, rumbling exhaust pipes, road noise, whipping wind, and most of all, the constant hum of the highway below your car. i just can’t think of a more comfortable place to be than moving on a highway, griping a wheel, scanning the horizon, becoming one with the car, glancing at the stereo, grinning. there is something very american, very wild west, very cowboy about driving on the open highway. something intrinsically human about moving at speed with all the weight and power behind you, throttle in your control, brakes within reach, and just a large chunk of metal, rubber, plastic and glass between you and the wind.

i’m scared shitless to ride a motorcycle and to be honest, the safety of an automobile suits me just fine. i don’t need to feel the wind through my receding hairline, i just need to know it’s there if i open the window or let the top down.

here are 15 photos taken in succession while riding shotgun. incessant rain and the big rigs of the midwest were my primary focus for the day. i spent a good ten minutes with my body pressed against the inside of the door so as not to create camera shake at 200mm. one 18 wheeler plowing through the rain become my obsession. so i took as many photos as i could. these are the ones that came out.

they also look great animated.

the music:
bats and mice are a fantastic little band from nc. they rock and they roll. and i like them for it.

led by the charismatic Ben Davis, bats and mice are a traditional three piece that play post rock. there’s not much more i can say about them other than they may or may not be a band right now as it is the ultimate side project. they also may or may not be one of the best live acts around. playing off the dynamics of soft – loud, fast – slow, and complicated – less complicated, these boys bring it. they also can sing. and that goes a long way. virtuosic playing while singing in key helps a ton with selling cd’s when you’re a band that someone may have seen at end of a long night out or just ran into the show with only half a song left. these dudes would make it worth your while. for sure.

perfect rainy day music.

the photography:
men and their toys. as a full fledged automotive journalist (i’ve adopted the title these days. it was only a matter of time) every time i go to work i see lots of fan boys, dreamers, droolers, wrenchers, car dorks, motor nerds, and gearheads. i even work with a couple of them. it’s awesome. certain automobiles create such a response from just about everyone who sees them. these cars are powerful enough as design pieces, engineering feats, and just plain aesthetic awesomeness, to evoke giddiness from even the most chill of people.

case in point: this series of photos depicting men in cars. at the core, both nathan and joe are car enthusiasts (although joe is a professional automotive journalist – i think i added that title to my name so that i could be in the same profession as joe). both men enjoy the roar of a V8, the centripetal pull of a tight corner at high speeds (with quality tires), and the joy of lighting up a rear wheel drive beast on a slick surface.

nathan is sitting in what amounts to a couple of million dollars worth of steel, rubber, glass, and leather that he subsequently does not own (nor will he ever i suspect). these cars are museum quality and there are very few examples in the world like them. nathan is as happy as a pig in shit.

joe, on the other hand, is hanging out with his infamous Fiat 2000 Spyder (infamous for once being owned by a famous brother from a famous car radio show). it’s in decent shape for a 30 year old car but it won’t be taking home any blue ribbons at the Concours D’Elegance at Pebble Beach next year. joe is as happy as a pig in shit.

how can this be? how can they both be happy when they are obviously in completely different situations with vastly different cars? well… pictured above are two men who like cars. nay… two men who love cars. if their roles were reversed, each man would still be smiling, still gripping the steering wheel with pleasure, and they would each be happy to be smelling a carburetor. cars capture our attention via all of our senses, feeling the rumble of the idle, seeing the sleek metal lines, hearing the engine, smelling the combustion of gasoline, tasting the exhaust, and smelling the leather. cars are powerful forces of happiness as much as they are sources of severe unhappiness (especially when they do not work).

that is why… in about a month or two i will be launching a new automotive photojournalism site for car enthusiasts who like pictures of cars. the site is titled Shinyside.net and it’s a labor of love of mine that hopefully will grow and prosper with every visitor. i’ll still be posting here (albeit more often) and my love affair with automobiles will be on display at that URL.

the site will be dedicated to vintage, rare, old daily drivers, and fun cars that pique my interest as a photographer. i’ll keep you posted as it’s gonna take a lot of work to get it off the ground.

SIDE NOTE: i love the second photo. it’s probably my favorite photo that has not only a person but also a car (since i take lots of photos of each individually, not so many together). thanks to nathan for helping out in documenting all those pretty sweet rides… and thanks to joe for letting me live my ferris bueller dream of rolling down lakeshore drive in a vintage italian whip sans top.

the music:
oh my, Paris, Texas is one poppy fun band to bounce along to. these wisconsinites land somewhere directly between Minus the Bear, and Hey Mercedes. their mix of pop punk, musicianship, and sing-songy chorus’ make for an enjoyable mash-up of fun.

i also love that on their label’s website that their sound is ‘non-emo’. it must have taken more than a few craptastic reviews pointing to their ‘emo-ness’ for them to go so far as to call their music, ‘non-emo’.

love it. enjoy.

the photography:

Portrait #36 is brad

well well well. post-child 50 portraits project post? don’t mind if i do… brad is the brains/brawn/style behind one of chicago’s best local websites, Windy Citizen. Windy Citizen is a news site that asks for readers to link to their favorite or most interesting stories and post them for other readers to rate. the higher the stories rate, the closer they are to the top of the page with the highest rated story on top. sometime late last year, i was lucky enough to have this very blog (blog.idmphotography.com) be chosen by a reader to be posted on Windy. it was an honor and a privilege to have readers fight for my words and photos to be at the top of the page. power to the readers!

earlier in the week, brad had contacted me about taking some head shots for him to use professionally. the silly thing is my interactions with brad started back with theresa who had mentioned that brad would be perfect for the 50 Portraits Project. i can’t remember if we emailed and things fell through or what but alas, he is here, finally, and he is standing and being counted. so to brad’s name (not this brad), i attach the #36. and i also set him up with some sweet hi-res pics that he can distribute when needed.

since brad and i were already in the photographing mood and had spent a few minutes smiling and clicking off head shots respectively, i decided to fuss around with my own method of shooting portraits. for if anything, this project exists for me to broaden my horizons and to explore new ideas, methods, and styles. so here’s my take on the photos:

a. i injected my own framing into the shots i took (as i have trained myself to do, ie. my own style) but instead of publishing just one image from a set of 5 or 6 example photos of said framing, i published almost all of the images in order. the biggest example of this being the last 6 photographs, shot in succession within a couple of seconds as a garbage truck rolled by.

b. it was about time someone took some black and whites around here. since it was such a blindingly bright day, i figured what the hell, let’s lose the color and crank the contrast. i think it worked quite well considering the subject, the color of outfit, the shadows and highlights, and most of all, the urban terrain with it’s bricks and concrete and metal.

c. i didn’t edit myself as strongly as i have in the past. there are two (count them… 2!!!!) out of focus images in this set. this is coming from a guy who is so infuriatingly anal and technical about how he uses his gear that it’s unfathomable to use such a wasted piece(s) on such a pristine set of images. but hey, i took a chill pill and look where it got me. these blurred images work artistically with what i was trying to accomplish, which was to create a coherent and expressive set of images of brad. maybe someday i’ll turn the camera around and take a vertical image… but don’t cross your fingers.

the first two images were taken with the 24-70mm f2.8L as we were working on professional head shots for brad. the rest were taken with the 28mm f1.8. all images were shot with the Canon 5DMKII

the music:

modest mouse is one of those indie rock bands that has been around forever. they started small and ended up getting huge. but you know what? their small records with all of the blips and scrapes and out of tune guitars are what i love about modest mouse. the high-gloss mega records they make now? they’re pretty decent. but they lack the authenticity of their early work. when i first saw issac brock in person he was skinny, drunk, and worn out from being on the road for eight months straight with the same three guys in their cramped econoline van. five years later? he was still drunk, but now he was well fed (read a bit pudgy), he was smiling, and you could tell that he was happy to be traveling across the country on his pair of tour buses with his numerous roadies and his six band mates.

i’m not putting issac down for making a living at his art. in no way am i doing that. i applaud him for all that he has rightfully earned. but as even issac knows, the sense of urgency in his playing the guitar, the gut-wrenching heartache that drove his lyrics, and the bombastic personality that led to public band implosions have all but been replaced by personal happiness and leisure. brock is not the first to stumble upon feeling good about themselves after spending so much of their artistic careers feeling shitty. it is why, when artists like the shins, modest mouse, the promise ring, when these bands wear their hearts on their sleeves as twenty-somethings, people can relate to them. fans were there man… they felt that pain in person, in the front row, in the pit. but ten years later, when you try to write happy music about happy times with happy sounding instruments, your early fan base is gonna cry foul. not because you sold out, but because the very thing that hit home with so many of your contemporaries has suddenly been erased for you as an artist. but your fans? they still burn for your misfortunes. they still cry for your breakups. and they still want to get in fights with you at the bar. because when you’re unhappy issac brock, we all can relate to you.

even though i have a mortgage, a child, a wife, a dog, a car, and a 2.5 car garage, i still relate to the traveling musician who stuffs their entire life into a beat up mini-van. don’t get me wrong, modest mouse has payed their dues. i just like the music they made while doing so, much better than their new stuff.

this song is a great ode to Ohio. ohi-o-o-o-o-o-so.

the photography:
so polaroid is making a come back huh? awesome. as some of you may know, i collect antique cameras and i own a 4×5 portrait camera. maybe it’s time to spend some more money and make some new memories for my 30′s so teddy can see what kind of household he was born into. my guess is that he’s gonna be pretty non-plussed about how chill we have become. let’s replace the keg tossing contests and bad shiny green short sleeved shirt for a hoodie and a glass of bourbon on the back porch all while sporting a baby bjorn cuddling mister you-know-who. life moves pretty quick sometimes…

more polaroids, more memories. as i look through these it’s hard to not be overcome with my own emotions. jon gilmour, my old roommate, is pictured in many of these. jon (or J-Boy as his father called him or Gilly Gally as some of us were known to utter) passed away 4 years ago. you should check out jongilmour.org if you get a chance. jon was one of those one-in-a-million personalities. and i don’t use that phrase lightly. it still stings to know that i will never run into him at my college reunion or see him at some random zoo with Teddy. i will never be able to say, “hey Tedkins, you see that man over there? the one with the gibbon wrapped around his body? that’s my friend john. we’ve been friends for ages. he’s in a video game, how cool is that”. that sorta shit hits hard.

but that’s the thing about memories and (what i will now mis-name) historical images; you will always have you positive and negative. holy crap, is that some cat’s ass? how did that get in here?

again, the images above are full of people i know, people i knew, and silly things. including one cat’s ass. sorry about that. i hope i burned that green lamé shirt… enjoy.

the music:
death from above 1979 came and went. like a ship in the night, if you blinked, you missed them. if you ever saw them live, you never forgot. is that drummer not wearing a shirt? is it only two of them? is that dude gonna play bass AND keyboards? that drummer is singing? there’s only TWO OF THEM? where is all that sound coming from?

one of my favorite live music photographs happened when i was watching DFA 1979, it is on my website located here. click on the third thumbnail from the left, second one down. that’s right, i’m gonna make you work for it.

drums and bass and amplifiers. dirty distortion. love it.