124/365: Sargassum fish

We found this little guy in some Sargassum weed washed up on the beach. He was very tiny, about half an inch long, and at first we thought it might be a baby lionfish, which wouldn't be good as that introduced species has no natural enemies in the Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico and is wrecking the ecosystems. After a closer look and some online checking, we figured out it was a native Sargassum fish, a small ambush predator adapted to live all its life among the floating mats of Sargassum weed in the gulf. After taking some photos, we put him back into the ocean but we didn't expect him to have a high chance of survival. The waves were washing great clumps of the weed onto the beach, and there was no way this tiny guy was going to swim against that current. In any event, we bought him a few more hours of life and gave him a fighting chance.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon 100mm 2.8 macro
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass Lost Treasures
Chicken Ranch Central

Friday Night Videos

I don't know if I can say I'm a Jackson Browne fan, because while I like a lot of his work, a great deal of it leaves me cold. That said, I love, love, love Running on Empty. Not only is this tune a masterpiece of '70s songwriting, the album overall is great. Seriously--I wore out my cassette I played it so much back in the day. I think the single hit it big just when I was starting to become aware of music in general, and it has stuck with me all these years.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... The Doors.

Now Playing: The Heads No Talking Just Head
Chicken Ranch Central

123/365: Gull

So, just as I was nearly caught up on my backlog of 365 project images, my computer goes all wonky. Repeated crashes, wild instability. I had to eventually re-install Windows 7 twice to get the problem under control, and even now my PC isn't quite the beacon of dependability. And for all those out there who're smugly saying, "Ha! He should have a Mac..." Been there, crashed that. Mac problems are distinctly different from those of PCs, no less maddening.

So,here's a seagull from the beach trip the other week. Offshore storms had churned up a lot of Sargassum weed, and the gulls were actually hunting for food as opposed to hanging out around tourists looking for dropped french fries. Wonders never cease.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon FD 500mm f/8 reflex
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Eric Clapton Unplugged
Chicken Ranch Central

Chicken Ranch report no. 35: EXPEDITION TEXAS

Have you ever wondered what the Chicken Ranch looks like today? Have you been confused by rumors that the infamous brothel burned down, or the building was moved to Dallas? Have you gone onto YouTube looking for some kind of video footage but been put off by awful, shaky cell phone video and yokels babbling on about how they think the Chicken Ranch might've hosted dog fighting (hint: it didn't)? Then you'll like this.

As I mentioned last week, I met up with Bob Mauldin of Expedition Texas and the current owner of the Chicken Ranch property to take a tour of the infamous brothel's ruins. Not many people realize it yet, but 2013 marks the 40th anniversary of the Chicken Ranch's closure by Houston television personality Marvin Zindler. Miss Edna Milton departed La Grange not long after, and the intervening years were not kind to the old farmhouse. A series of subsequent owners worried more about profiting from the property's notoriety than historical preservation, and the result is... well, you can see in the videos below.

Now Playing: Beethoven Classical Masterpieces vol. 1
Chicken Ranch Central

Friday Night Videos

Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for the Doors, died this week. This fascinating interview with him aired on NPR today, which really got me thinking about Light My Fire. It's amazing how Manzarek describes the song's evolution from a saccharine, Sonny & Cher pop ditty to one infused with a Latin beat, jazz elements and even Bach. I'd never noticed all of that before, but once Manzarek points them out, it's impossible to miss.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Chris Hadfield.

Now Playing: Eric Clapton Live at the Royal Albert Hall
Chicken Ranch Central

Chicken Ranch report no. 34: TELEVISION!

Big news to share regarding the Chicken Ranch! The television series Expedition Texas is airing an episode dedicated to the Chicken Ranch this weekend, featuring yours truly prominently. Expedition Texas is most easily viewed by folks in East Texas, since it is based in the Nacogdoches area, but they have an array of stations listed on their website that carry the series. If you don't have access to a station that carries the program, don't despair! Expedition Texas makes individual episodes available for viewing online.

Okay, maybe I should back up a little bit now that the important stuff is out of the way. See that fellow in the picture below?

That's Bob Mauldin, creator and host of Expedition Texas, a regional history-oriented television series that focuses on quirky, interesting, forgotten or otherwise intriguing stories of the Lone Star State. For those of you who grew up in Texas during the 70s and 80s like myself, it's a show not dissimilar from The Eyes of Texas and Texas Country Reporter. This past winter, I was contacted by Mauldin out of the blue. He wanted to devote an episode to the Chicken Ranch, and hoped I might lend my expertise in the area to the project. Now, it's not every day my vast knowledge of prostitution and brothels spanning 150-plus years of Texas history comes into demand, so naturally I agreed to help.

I contacted the current owner of the property, Mike, who approved of the project quite enthusiastically. With everything in place, we gathered in La Grange in early February and spent the day filming and exploring. I talked about so much Chicken Ranch history that day my head started to spin. I fear I babbled quite a bit. Even so, the stories I told and the events I related can lose impact or relevance if not given the proper context--yet there's no way to properly give that much context in a 30 minute television documentary. If there was, I wouldn't have spent three years writing and researching a 110,000-word book on the Chicken Ranch, now would I?

In the end, the whole experience was a great deal of fun. Mauldin and his crew were eager to learn and see all they could. We explored parts of La Grange then the Chicken Ranch property itself, making our way (carefully!) through the ruined, disintegrating building, and even had fun digging through the old trash heap. There's never been a place quite like the Chicken Ranch and there will never be another like it. Regardless of one's feelings regarding prostitution, this place was a very big part of Texas history for more than a century, and it's story needs to be told.

Remember, you can help make this book a reality by formally follow this blog, either via Google or Networked Blogs, both of which have links to the right, or "Liking" my Chicken Ranch Central Facebook Page. Don't forget to tell your friends and neighbors, too!

Now Playing: Blue Öyster Cult Workshop of the Telescopes
Chicken Ranch Central

Infrared camera for sale

SOLD! The time has come to sell my workhorse Canon Rebel XTi camera body. It has been infrared modified by Lifepixel, the 720nm option, so that the images it takes can either be processed as false-color or high-contrast black and white. I've found it pretty flexible in that regard. The autofocus system is calibrated to the EF 50mm 1.8 lens, and works flawlessly with that. I've also found AF works well with the EF-S 10-22mm lens if aperture is stopped down to at least f/8 when shooting.

I bought this camera--my first ever DSLR--in March of 2008, new. I'm the only owner. We had it converted to full-time infrared two years ago, for use in my wife's wedding photography business. We had a Canon 50D converted about six months back, also by Lifepixel, so the XTi has sat unused since then. The camera still functions well. I'm estimating it's got approximately 55,000 shutter actuations on it, but that's just a guess since it's darn near impossible to get an accurate number with these Digic II bodies. There is some obvious wear on the grip from use (see image). The pop-up flash no longer pops up. I'm not sure when this happened, because I never use pop-up flashes. The hot shoe works just fine. In addition to the body, I'm including the vertical battery grip, three batteries, battery charger and the Canon software that came with it new.

I'm asking $350, shipped. Paypal is fine. Considering the fact that a conversion is going to cost nearly that much, I think that's a fair price. It's a nice little camera, we just don't need it anymore.

I'm posting this in multiple places, so anyone interested should email me.

Here are some images I've taken with this XTi over the years:

Now Playing: Elvis Presley 30 #1 Hits
Chicken Ranch Central

122/365: Blueberry almonds

No deep, meaningful artistic statement with this image. I saw these in the store, and being a huge blueberry fan from way back, had to give 'em a try. Ohmigoshthey'regreat!

Camera: Canon 50D, 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Various artists Tower of Song: The Songs of Leonard Cohen
Chicken Ranch Central

121/365: Twin yuccas in bloom

Twin yuccas in bloom at Presidio la Bahia, Goliad. We've visited the old mission before, but never the presidio across the river. I was impressed with both the preservation and reconstruction, and hope to return someday. Yuccas were in full bloom all over the grounds, and this pair was doing its thing at the southwest corner of the old fort. Lots of black-throated humming birds were squabbling over the flowers, wanting to keep the nectar all to themselves. I suspected the plants would contrast nicely against the stone walls in infrared, and it appears that I was correct.

Camera: Canon 50D, 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Earth, Wind and Fire The Eternal Dance
Chicken Ranch Central

What's a sex worker to do when she can't get Linked In?

File this one under the "You Knew It Was Coming" department: Online business networking site LinkedIn has banned brothels and prostitutes from using its site. Now, you may say, "This is a no-brainer! Prostitution is illegal!" which is true... except where it's not, such as Nevada, Germany, Colombia, etc. And that has legal sex workers a little ticked off.

[Dennis] Hof goes on to say that the ban is inappropriate because prostitution is largely legal in Nevada.

“LinkedIn has all of a sudden got morals and they decided that worldwide they want to take prostitution off their site. Well that’s great, but it’s legal here in Nevada in certain places.”

Christie Summers, a college graduate who works as a “Bunny” at the ranch, is equally outraged at the decision.

“I don’t think its very fair because I do this legally. I graduated from the University of Michigan recently and I do this legally. I get tested every week and I work hard,” said Summers, whose profile was also removed.

Nothing against Christie Summers, since I don't know her and have never heard of her before, but Dennis Hof is hardly a paragon of moral virtue. He's the owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Nevada, which was the location of the HBO reality series "Cathouse." And let me tell you, Hoff is so slimy the TV remote slipped from my hands whenever he was onscreen. If this were the 70s, he'd be one of those guys wearing an unbuttoned leisure suit with a big, ugly gold medallion dangling on his chest. Suffice to say, I'm not terribly bent out of shape about him getting booted from the site.

Still, had Linked In ruled the other way and allowed prostitution profiles to remain on their site if the profile was posted from areas where the practice remains legal, I can't help but chuckle at the hijinks that could ensue. Linked In has a feature called "Endorsements," where folks in your network and recommend you for proficiency in a certain skill set. For example, I have an array of endorsements for Publications, Editing, Journalism and Press Releases. Were prostitution allowed on the site, I can barely contain my laughter at the thought of recommendations for Fellatio, Around-The-World, Threesomes and goodness knows what else...

Now Playing: Earth, Wind and Fire The Eternal Dance
Chicken Ranch Central

120/365: Peanut

This is Peanut. She is a replacement hamster for Bug's dear departed Spot, a friendly fellow who passed away some months ago. Peanut is not so friendly, despite assurances from the pet store employee who sold her to us. She has no fear of humans but is unfortunately very bitey. We do not play with Peanut nearly as much as we played with Spot, for obvious reasons.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm 2.8
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Counting Crows August and Everything After
Chicken Ranch Central

Star Trek: Into Dumbness

I saw the new Star Trek movie this weekend with The Wife, and feel that I should add my 2¢ worth to the ongoing conversation about it. I will say that I didn't hate it, but I can't recall the last time a movie pissed me off so much. Probably the original Mission Impossible when they made Phelps the bad guy. This ranks up there with that. In the hierarchy of Trek films, I rank it on par with Generations, another film that should've been better but spun out of control with nonsensical plot contortions and an over-inflated sense of self-importance. That puts it ahead of the abyssmal Nemesis and Insurrection, for what it's worth.

If you don't want spoilers, then stop reading here, because everything in this film has been so thoroughly telegraphed in advance by the filmmakers that even a half-blind monkey that's never seen a single second of Star Trek in any incarnation will figure out what's coming. First and foremost, the movie fails utterly by bringing in Khan Noonien Singh as the villain. Star Trek II is still universally hailed as the gold standard for all Star Trek films, and the high-stakes, to-the-death battle between Kirk and Khan is a huge part of that. Ricardo Montalban's portrayal of Khan--both in the original "Space Seed" episode of the series and in the film--is transcendent and iconic. The fact that the "big reveal" of Khan as the bad guy halfway through Star Trek: Into Darkness depends entirely on actor Benedict Cumberbatch 1) looking nothing like Ricardo Montalban in any way, shape or form, 2) being neither Hispanic, as Montalban was, nor northern Indian Sikh, as Khan was, or 3) neither speaking nor acting like the character, you know there are some serious problems with the script. Despite taking great pains to cast actors who vaguely resemble their older counterparts for the reboot, it seems this time that director J.J. Abrams took great pains to cast an actor as ethnically unlike the older predecessor simply to preserve his "GOTCHA!" moment, which never was a gotcha moment at all. Had Abrams seriously considered casting a Latino actor or Indian or Pakistani for the role, fans would view that as defacto confirmation that Khan was the villain. As it was, most people still thought Cumberbatch was playing Khan, only they were somewhat puzzled, in a "how do they explain this?" way.

For a film series so desperately trying to strike out in a new direction and establish its own identity, Into Darkness went out of its way to trade heavily on emotional payoffs based on earlier Trek films. It shamelessly apes or invokes Star Trek II, III and VI, but not as homage. Rather, it's ham-fisted manipulation, basically telling the audience, "See, this was really poignant and emotional 20 years ago, so you have to react the way we want you to. Not only are we reminding you how Spock died saving everyone and getting you all weepy at the memory, Captain Kirk is doing THE EXACT SAME THING THIS TIME! How awesome is that? And in case you are so stupid as to not pick up on the parallels, we're going to quote the exact same lines from Star Trek II and beat you over the head with them." From the opening volcano sequence in which Mr. Spock says "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" (in a rather forced delivery, I thought) I had a sinking feeling. Subtlety was not part of this film's bag of tricks. But when the U.S.S. Enterprise is hurtling to its doom unless Kirk can brave lethal amounts of radiation to restore power to the ship's systems, the film becomes a parody of itself. As Kirk dies (yes, he dies) I grew more and more uncomfortable. When Spock cries (cries!?) I grew offended at the blatant manipulation on display. But when Spock unleashes an embarrassing echo of Krik's much-referenced scream of "KHAAAAAN!", I threw up my arms in disgust and damn near walked out. This is not good writing. It's cheap and lazy. The original movie earned its brutal emotional payoff the hard way, building on the history of the original TV series episode and an intense character arc running throughout The Wrath of Khan. That movie brought a lot of new material to the table as well: Kirk's old love, Carol Marcus, their son, David, the Genesis Device, fear of aging, emotional isolation... I mean, nothing like that movie had ever come to Star Trek before, and it was a heady experience. Into Darkness manages none of that. It introduces Carol Marcus (inexplicably British in this altered timeline) but gives her absolutely nothing to do other than look good in her underwear. Cumberbatch's Khan is particularly uninteresting as a villain. He's bent on revenge, mostly because Starfleet won't defrost his cryogenically frozen followers. There's no sympathetic villain here--in II, Khan had a very good point, in that Kirk never bothered to check up on the supermen he'd marooned on Ceti Alpha V, so that when that garden world turned into a hell hole, Khan was very much justified in nursing a homicidal grudge. Here, he's just kind of pissy for a homicical maniac. To make matters worse, Khan doesn't really give a shit about Kirk one way or another, although the film tries desperately to make this a Kirk-Khan grudge match, and failing that, a Spock-Khan grudge match. At which point the film copies the flying-car-chase scene from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, which in turn was copied from the flying-car-chase scene from The Fifth Element--neither of which particularly impressed me to begin with. The film can't draw on the historical baggage from "The Space Seed" because this film preempts those events. When Cumberbatch first hisses his name, "I am Khan!" it's supposed to be an "Oh shit!" moment, but I didn't see anyone in the audience give a shit. Kirk and Spock certainly didn't. Had he said, in a haughty, regal manner "I am Khan Noonien Singh, master of all I survey" or somesuch, that would've come close to being in character. Alas, they couldn't even get that right.

Oh, and Kirk comes back to life at the end. Yeah. See, he dies of radiation poisoning, but early in the film they establish that Khan's blood cures cancer. And later, Dr. McCoy draws some of Khan's blood and instead of running tests or putting it in storage, decides to inject it into a dead tribble he just happens to have lying around. To see what happens, I guess, because doctors are always injecting tissue cultures into dead things they find. And the tribble comes back to life (at which point I was hoping for a brain-eating zombie tribble, because that would at least be interesting and follow existing tropes) so naturally, injecting Khan's blood into Kirk will miraculously save the captain. But it creates a nonsensical need to keep Khan alive, because Kirk will die without a hot-blooded Khan injection (nevermind that they have 72 other genetic supermen in suspended animation they could pull a blood sample from. Duh). I still want killer, zombie tribbles though.

There's a lot they didn't get right in this film. There's a throwaway battle on the Klingon homeworld, random elements of false jeopardy and a conspiracy to start a war that's straight out of The Undiscovered Country. In short, it's a mess. Abrams tipped his hand when people online complained about the Enterprise hiding underwater in the trailers. The Enterprise, being a whopping huge aerodynamically unsound space ship, can't land on a planet. Yet Abrams responded "It's a cool visual. If you're going to get upset about that, then my movie's not for you." Truer words, etc. This is a director who has never overly concerned himself with logic or continuity in his projects. Abrams famously planned to turn Lex Luthor into a king-fu-fighting Kryptonian sleeper agent in his proposed Superman relaunch. To quote from the Turkey City Lexicon the man isn't interested in telling stories, he's interested in eyeball kicks. String enough dazzling eyeball kicks together and you've got a movie and/or TV show. Dazzle the audience enough and they won't notice you've presented them with a house of cards that has no foundation or substance. But sooner or later it all comes crashing down. This happened with Alias and it happened with LOST. Super 8 and Cloverfield? Ditto. Strong, glossy opening acts that begin to crumble and fall apart when anything resembling resolution is called for. Hell, in one of Abrams' very first projects, the pseudo time travel movie Forever Young, the entire finale was one excruciatingly idiotic crash and burn. This is what he does.

And can someone explain to me why Damon Lindelof is still getting these high-profile writing jobs in Hollywood? Damon, listen, a word of advice. I heard your interview on NPR where you talk about how your father tore out the back pages of your Encyclopedia Brown books, freeing you from the tyranny of established endings. Look, man, that wasn't your father teaching you about the nature of creative insight. What he did is called asshole parenting. Your father pulled a dick move on you, Damon, and judging from your unwillingness to write scripts that reach coherent and logical conclusions, he really messed with your head. I strongly recommend counseling, because seriously, the general movie going public would dearly love for you to stop inflicting your childhood psychological trauma on us. Thanks.

So, was there anything good about this film? Well, yes, believe it or not. The opening sequence with the primitive alien tribe and the erupting volcano was a great deal of fun and echoed episodes of the classic series, despite the stupidity of the Enterprise being underwater and a pointless chase scene. I really, really liked those aliens, and felt more thought went into them than almost any other element of the film. The action sequences are slick and well-done. There are a lot of them, and they'll generally dazzle you enough so that you don't have to think too much about what's going on with the plot. Zoë Saldaña was fantastic as Lt. Uhura, getting a lot more or consequence to do than Nichelle Nichols ever did. Does she a better Uhura? No, but her Uhura is better, if that makes sense. Likewise, Karl Urban does such a good job of channeling DeForest Kelly that it borders on scary. It's a shame that even though he has a bit more to do in this film than the previous one, he's still underutilized. Trek works best when Kirk, Spock and McCoy interact to make a id-ego-superego analog, and thus far the revamped Star Trek doesn't care about that, only the Kirk-Spock dynamic matters, to the exclusion of McCoy.

I think that's the biggest problem with the revamped series as a whole. Abrams is not shy about telling interviewers he was never a Star Trek fan, and I think that very much remains true. He is not a fan. He is a fan of his version but remains indifferent to everything else. This is why it so often descends into self-parody or strikes tone-deaf notes with disturbing frequency: Neither Abrams nor his writers really care about Star Trek or the characters. I suspect there's a degree of contempt at work as well, and that's problematic.

I viewed the 2009 relaunch film as a decent popcorn movie that wasn't great (what were those people smoking who clamored for it to get an Oscar nomination?) but a decent reset to the franchise that acknowledged what had come before without dismissing it or being terribly condescending. But I didn't want Abrams associated with the next film. After Into Darkness bore my concerns out, I have to say I'm very happy he's leaving Star Trek to take over Star Wars (not that I think he'll do a good job there, but at least his sloppy storytelling and love of eyeball kicks will fit in with the precedent Lucas set with the prequels. It'll be a seamless transition, I'm sure). Who will replace Abrams at the helm of Star Trek then? The franchise is pulling in huge amounts at the box office, so there's no doubt Paramount will want to have another film out around 2016-17 or so, and want to keep the action-oriented approach Abrams established. That's fine, but I'd like my Trek to be a little smarter. Brad Bird's a great director who excels at character work, so he'd be a top choice for me. While I've started seeing flaws in his work, Christopher Nolan has shown the ability to weave mind-twisting plot challenges into big action pieces. And then there's Peter Weir, whose Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is, in my opinion, one of the very best Star Trek movies of the past 25 years, even though it obviously has no direct connection with Star Trek. Any of those directors would instill me with a great deal of confidence in the direction of the franchise going forward. Someone like Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich... well, we'll always have reruns.

Now Playing: Buffalo Springfield Retrospective: The Best of Buffalo Springfield
Chicken Ranch Central

119/365: Raingutter regatta

Clearing out some more of my backlog. Here's Bug participating in his Cub Scout Pack's raingutter regatta a few weeks back. I'm so far behind--I have about a hundred images from this thing I still need to process and make available for the kids' families!

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm 2.8
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Brian Wilson Brian Wilson
Chicken Ranch Central

Friday Night Videos

Can't imagine anyone hasn't seen this already, but how can I not feature astronaut Chris Hadfield singing his unique interpretation of Bowie's "Space Oddity" (otherwise referred to as "Major Tom") on board the International Space Station? I, being a long-time science fiction geek and space buff, find that profoundly sublime. He changes the lyrics some, which is to be expected, because what astronaut wants to sing about being lost in space? Still, he's got a solid voice and rocks that Magnum, P.I., mustache in a way that makes me want to hear him channel Freddie Mercury next.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Shorty Rogers.

Now Playing: Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band Nine Tonight
Chicken Ranch Central

Chicken Ranch report no. 33

Wow. Not to jinx things, but the response from the agents I've queried this past week has been overwhelmingly positive. No, I still don't have representation, but several have gone beyond asking to see my proposal and sample chapters by engaging me in back-and-forth conversations via email, getting pretty specific and detailed with their questions. This leads me to conclude that either A) they're really, really bored with nothing better to do, or 2) they have genuine interest in my book. Contrast this with the response to my agent hunt back in 2011, which was overwhelming indifference.

And I don't know if this can be attributed to my agent hunt or not, but web traffic to my blog and site have ticked up in recent days. This is good. I've had visitors from all over Texas (which is to be expected) as well as New York, Louisiana, California, etc. But it's not just folks from the U.S.--I've had visitors from Ireland, Iran, Australia, Sweden, England, all looking for more information about the infamous Chicken Ranch of La Grange, Texas. One visitor caught my attention today, so much so that I have to share:

I don't have the heart to tell them they're about 40 years too late in following up on this particular criminal investigation. Or maybe they were just looking for a date. Six of one...

ADDENDUM: Okay, this is just getting curiouser and curiouser. Because now the FBI's visiting my Chicken Ranch blog. I hope you guys show as much enthusiasm for the material when my books actually available for purchase:

Remember, you can help make this book a reality by formally follow this blog, either via Google or Networked Blogs, both of which have links to the right, or "Liking" my Chicken Ranch Central Facebook Page. Don't forget to tell your friends and neighbors, too!

Now Playing: Don Henley The End of the Innocence
Chicken Ranch Central

Prostitution: A sad state of affairs

You know, the array of bizarre prostitution stories in the news these days is really running the gamut. Grabbing headlines today is the story of the sex abuse educator at Fort Hood who turns out to be running a prostitution ring on the side. Essentially, he's doing what he's paid to prevent others from doing:

The Army is investigating Sgt. 1st Class Gregory McQueen, a sexual abuse educator at Fort Hood in Texas, for allegedly running a small-time prostitution ring and for the sexual assault of another soldier, senior military officials have confirmed.

....

Investigators believe that McQueen, 37, persuaded a female private first class to become a prostitute who sold sex to other servicemembers, according to a senior defense official and Capitol Hill staffer who have been briefed on the investigation.

I lived and worked in Temple for close to a decade, and visited Fort Hood many times, so this hits a little close to home. If the allegations are proven true, then this guy is the worst kind of predator, preying on those vulnerable victims he's supposed to be protecting. I have no sympathy for people like that.

The other story making the rounds takes the cake for oddness. A prostitution ring was broken up at a New Jersey retirement home, with police arresting the ringleader--a 75-year-old man.

The suspects, 75-year-old James Parham and his neighbor and assumed accomplice, 66-year-old Cheryl Chaney, have been accused of allowing others to use crack in their apartments and have been charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and maintaining a nuisance. Chaney had an additional penalty for possessing crack cocaine.

....

Parham’s nuisance charge stems from encouraging and permitting prostitution on the premises. Authorities state Parham admitted to running a prostitution ring out of the complex, employing some of the elderly residents along with a few younger women with addiction problems from the neighborhood as sex workers, according to NBC 4 New York News.

It's almost laughable, the very idea of geriatric prostitution, until you look further and realize many of the residents were low income and disabled, essentially prisoners in their homes because of the rampant illegal activity and dangerous characters haunting their building because of this vice ring. Crack and prostitution does not equal a safe environment for anyone. It's certainly not anything like the Chicken Ranch, which offered a measure of safety for the women who ended up working there.

It will be interesting to see if the investigations in these cases result in charges against any of the men who actually paid for sex. Dollars to donuts says they don't, because that's how these cases usually go.

Now Playing: Dick Dale and the Del-Tones King of the Surf Guitar: The Best of Dick Dale
Chicken Ranch Central

118/365: Moss flowers

Working my way through some of my backlog from my posting lapses earlier. Here's one of my color macro shots of the flowering moss outside of work. I find these things fascinating--the number of people who walk past the inconspicuous mosses each day, taking no notice, is astounding. Of course, I got quite a few odd looks as I sprawled out to get the shot...

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon 100mm 2.8 macro with Vivitar 2x teleconverter
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Derek & the Dominoes The Layla Sessions: 20th Anniversary Edition
Chicken Ranch Central

End of term

So, another semester has come to a close. I cannot recall ever being so happy to see a school year wrap up, with the singular exception of my graduation from A&M back in 1992. Those of you keeping score at home will remember that I enrolled in 9 hours of coursework at Texas State back in January, primarily photography related. Those who've kept tabs on me for a long time will recall I did this same thing four years back, and learned a great deal. This time around, however, my courses weren't so agreeable. By mid-March, I was experiencing serious issues. The prerequisite "Basics of Drawing" class, which all fine arts majors had to take, kicked my ass in a serious way simply because of the overwhelming timesink it became. I went in at 8 a.m. and came out at 11 a.m. completely exhausted and sore from the intense work. And classroom assignments could never be completed during class time, so they had to be taken home and worked on into the wee hours of the night--along with the actual homework assignments, which were every bit as time consuming. Missing class resulted in terrible make-up assignments, so when I had to miss a day for a court date dealing with my grandmother's guardianship, I was about ready to cry. The prof was sympathetic, but he'd designed the grading structure and make-up assignments to discourage students from skipping his class. There wasn't any leeway for him to cut me a break (too complicated to explain). By March I was pretty certain I'd struggle to finish with a high C. So I consider it quite an accomplishment that I finished with an A. But it left marks.

My other two classes were both photography related: Traditional Photography II (film and darkroom) and Intro to Digital Photography. Now, I've been assisting The Wife as a second shooter at weddings, not to mention so commercial and portrait assignments I've done for her over the years. And I've always enjoyed macro and landscapes and astrophotography on my own. But she wanted me to earn the Certified Professional Photographer designation from Professional Photographers of America, the testing for which is highly technical and exhaustive (I know--I watched The Wife study for her exam for six month and turn into a nervous wreck as she awaited her scores). I figured going though a semester of more advanced photography courses at Texas State would put me halfway there as far as CPP testing went. After all, I'd learned so much four years earlier, my knowledge base would increase exponentially after the latest courses, right?

Wrong. I have seldom been so disappointed. My film class instruction amounted to "Photograph what you photographed before, but do it better." We watched slide shows and videos exposing us to an array of photographers and their different styles, and had free reign to use any focal length or specialized lenses (in Traditional Photography I, we were restricted to 50mm primes), but that's about it. Oh, and we printed on 11x14 fiber paper instead of resin-coated. That's it. My prof, an old-school film guy who'd done commercial work in the past, did not instill me with confidence when he expressed ignorance of PPA. "I don't know what that is," were his exact words. He actually refused to "teach" any new techniques, instead telling students to figure it out on their own. Essentially, if we wanted to learn, we'd have to teach ourselves, or more bluntly, re-invent the wheel. There's a big difference between learning a technique and mastering or refining it. Instruction is not the same as spoon-feeding. A few of us wasted untold hours in the lab puzzling over technical hurdles--the rest simply gave up and turned in whatever crap they happened to shoot before coming into class. My first assignment I tried to experiment and use light in ways I'd never done so before. My experiment failed miserably, I got a crummy grade and came away thoroughly discouraged. I thought for sure the best I could hope for in that class was a low B. By the time it came for my final project, I'd hit upon a fairly straightforward process for shooting macro still life images. I didn't really want to continue that style--I was actually interested in exploring pinhole photography, another area I didn't know much about--but I'd worked too hard to risk losing a possible A, which was within striking distance. So I photographed like a madman, commandeering the dining room table from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. most nights and shooting huge piles of thorny, brittle and otherwise odd plant and insect matter. And I produced 18 solid prints for my final project, a number that could've been much higher had I enough time to make better prints in the darkroom from additional negatives I never got around to. Yes, my prints were very good, but the test shots I took with my digital 7D were much better, and convinced me that for all the nostalgia tied up with film, digital is the superior medium in countless ways. My macro project earned an A. I finished with an A in that course, too.

Intro to Digital Photography was probably the most frustrating course in a semester that boasted an overabundance of frustration. The prof is what I'd term a film snob, in that film is now and always shall be superior to digital in his mind. He even went so far to suggest that digital shouldn't even be called photography at all. Yet here he was, teaching into to digital and making us waste the entire first month of class "photographing" objects with a flatbed scanner then combining them in Photoshop with images of the same object taken with a camera. A. Entire. Month. This is an assignment that could've been completed in a single class period, but it wasn't, because he never actually explained the project fully, just giving us little hints and pieces until the class before it was due. Most of our reactions amounted to, "That's it? For real?" He seldom seemed prepared for class, and often had us watch videos about photographers, during which he retreated into his office to log onto Facebook the entire period (I sat across from his office, so I watched him do so). The breaking point came when he assigned us a project to "shoot like William Eggleston," that is, take one image and move on, with no attempt at recomposition or exposure allowed per subject. Now, of all the "great" art photographers out there, Eggleston is perhaps the one I loathe the most. He's a great example of someone with minimal talent but tremendous obsessive-compulsive tendencies striking it rich by knowing the right people at the right time, and having a trendy gimmick in the dye process he used to print his images. That's it. And our prof wanted each and every one of us to aspire to create photographs like Eggleston, despite lip service to pursuing our own unique vision. So if I had to shoot in that craptacular style, I'd do it right. I photographed the Landa Park Railroad, taking close-up shots of the wheels, rails, cow catcher, depot, spikes... lot of details. I fretted over composition and angles, took care to control depth of field, the whole nine yards. At this time, I might add, we were restricted to shooting at the "equivalent of 50mm" with our lenses on crop body DSLRs, which meant I had to shoot everything at roughly 31mm with my Tamron zoom lens. That preserves the purity of 50mm and the dignity of film, or somesuch. That shit gets annoying real quick, I can tell you. Instead of teaching the class to use the right tool (in this instance, lens) for the job, he simply repeated the narrow parameters of the Intro to Traditional Photography course every single one of the students had taken the previous semester (except for me, who'd taken it four years prior). Okay, fine. I played the game. I shot the shots as I was expected, then spent close to six hours in Photoshop, carefully matching the white balance, working to draw out detail and texture, making sure the color matched across the series (as the sun was setting, colors did tend to drift a bit). The whole nine yards. Those prints looked damn good. They earned strong remarks in critique from the class. Then I got my grade: 85. I was stunned. Seriously. I'd turned in exactly what was requested and required of the assignment, and spent a hell of a lot of time processing them to get them perfect (he harped on white balance and such in class). The grade, of course, came with no feedback, so I sent an email requesting clarification. This is the response I received:

your images were a decent B which is what the 85 is but didn't reflect much work

Oh, it's on. Just because something looks easy doesn't mean it was easy. That, coupled with the fact that some students turned in random images with bad white balance and camera shake got better grades really, really pissed me off. Don't throw arbitrary parameters at me to justify an unfair grade. Now, some of you may think an 85 is nothing to get worked up about. In most cases, that's true. But I wasn't taking these classes as a lark. I wanted to become a better photographer, but by this point I'd realized I wasn't going to be "taught" anything I didn't already know. In the absence of actual learning, I wanted to earn an A, come hell or high water. So I'd tried to play the game his way, and gotten smacked down for it. Fine. If he insisted on giving me a B or C, then he'd do it on my terms. So that inspired my Missing Persona project, a narrative photographic series that amounted to me double-dog-daring him to say it didn't look like I put much effort into it. He gave me a 91--which is fine, on the surface. But several people I sit near went into fits of laughter, as other assignments scored higher than mine, despite lack of white balance control, compositional coherence or even a discernible narrative element, despite that being the prime element in the assignment. To make matters worse, my grade remained a B, and even if I scored a 91 on the final and another 91 on the nebulous "class participation" element of our grade, I'd still end up with a B. Clearly, it was time for the dreaded triple-dog-dare: Infrared levitation. The stakes were higher. With this series, I challenged him for the entire course grade, daring him to give me anything less than an A. I knew good and well that this series was beyond his ability, that although he could learn, this was my turf and game, set and match were on my terms. During our mandatory class consultation, I showed him one, simple preliminary print, and he immediately tried to dissuade me from this project. Oh, he wasn't so blatant as to tell me no after I'd asked repeatedly if there were any technical or subject restrictions for this project ("No LOL cats" was his only answer). But he did try to convince me that the series would be more striking and more surreal if I didn't use infrared. Laughable. That's like telling Napoleon he'd be more successful if he'd give up the high ground and find a nice swamp to fight in. For our final critique, most of the class was pretty much stunned by my work, except for the few who knew of my private little war, who thought it both amusing and insane for me to invest so much effort on a relatively meaningless class. Not only was Infrared Levitation the most technically and artistically realized final project presented, I'll go so far as to say it lapped the field. Is it arrogant for me to say that? A show of hubris? Maybe, but it's also the truth. I can go through each image and cite a laundry list of shortcomings and mistake and flaws, so I'm not claiming they're perfect or even contest worthy. But they were by far the best images produced in that class this semester. And my prof agreed (although reluctantly, if you'll look at the grade he gave me for participation lab, which is joining discussions in class. Some days, I was the only one discussing anything):

Does this post make me sound bitter? Well, good, because I am. This was a semester lost that I will never get back. I was stressed and irritable around my family, with a terribly short temper because of the tension of taking 9 hours while maintaining a 40 hour work week. I felt intense pressure to set a good example for my children, how good grades had to be earned, and personally it was important to earn a 4.0 for the semester. But did I learn anything? Not anything that I didn't teach myself. In all honesty, I learned more new things over the long weekend I spent in Atlanta for Imaging USA, and that's even considering the fact I considered the conference's programming track repetitive and superficial. For photographers, spending a week at Texas School would be an intense but beneficial learning experience, because the attendees there are working professionals--they're not paying to teach themselves, they're there to learn new techniques and skills and master them in a very short amount of time so that they can improve their business.

This semester damn near killed the joy of learning for me. The joy of drawing took a beating. The joy of photography came perilously close to loathing. Time and again, talented photographers in both of my classes were discouraged and turned away from photographing what inspired them--and that they excelled at--because the prof arbitrarily deemed it "not fine art." One guy excelled at street photography, and created some great work, but was rejected as "not fine art" nevermind that Henri Cartier-Bresson was lauded in both classes and held up as a great artist. Likewise, another talented student received a string of disappointing grades that had him considering dropping out of college all together because his project looked "too commercial." By that, I'm assuming the prof meant that everything was in focus with proper white balance and thought given to composition, because their greatest praise was always reserved for out-of-focus images plagued by camera shake because the photographer was too ignorant to understand the focal length/shutter speed ratio. But that shouldn't be surprising, since that basic photography concept has never been taught. It makes me want to cry. I heard repeated derisive comments about commercial photography from the faculty, and as many about film vs. digital. The degree is undergoing a serious revamp, and that's good, because the bias toward film in the program is pervasive and overwhelming. Film needs to remain a component of photography programs, because I do believe darkroom work makes you a better photographer--to a point. As it stand now, however, these students are akin to aspiring NASCAR drivers learning the intricacies of proper buggy whip handling. Coming from a journalism background (and a smattering of photojournalism, which is practical and pragmatic almost to a fault) and assisting with The Wife's photography business, the pure "art for art's sake" mentality pervading the program is disheartening and a disservice to students. Pragmatic skills and knowledge are ignored. Business instruction is non-existent. There is an optional studio management course, but it's not always offered and is somewhat limited in scope, from what I understand. PPA and WPPI run annual "state of the industry" surveys, and year-in and year-out, photography, along with restaurants, are the most likely businesses to fail in their first 12 months. And having taken a good number of fine art photography courses, I understand why--these graduates are being sent out into the world to fend for themselves, with no survival skills. It's like a school of journalism teaching their graduates how to write a beautiful story, yet failing to instruct them at all on media law, how to research, how to interview, etc. It's unworkable. After one contemptuous comment from a prof against commercial photography, a girl sitting next to me whispered, despairingly, "But that's what I want to do. I want to eat."

So that's why I'm done. I'm tired of the petty agendas and the arbitrary definitions of what constitutes art and what doesn't. There's too much navel-gazing and not enough practical knowledge being imparted. For any future photographic learning, I'll either teach myself of invest a week into Texas School. Either way will save me time, money and headaches, and I'll come out a better photographer in the end.

Now Playing: David Byrne Uh-Oh
Chicken Ranch Central

117/365: IR/Lev XIII - Swept away

My final entry in my Intro to Digital Photography class final project. I saw this willow tree, and knew it would look fantastic in infrared. But I didn't want to simply repeat my previous "model floating" illusions. Then I thought, what if she wasn't defying gravity, but instead, gravity was defying her? The result is a little silly, a little scary and a little self-referential. I thought it a fitting conclusion to the series.

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Billy Joel 52nd Street
Chicken Ranch Central

116/365: IR/Lev XII - Ascension

So, spirituality and symbolism. Yeah. Pretty heavy handed here. It's an interesting image, but I'm not entirely happy with the final product. I'll likely revisit it in the future and work on it some more.

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: The Beach Boys Endless Summer
Chicken Ranch Central

Chicken Ranch report no. 32

I know it's been quite a while since I gave a formal update to the Chicken Ranch project, but there's not been a whole lot of developments to share. That doesn't mean I don't have some interesting and (dare I say it?) exciting projects in the works. Two, in particular, I should be able to unveil sometime in June if all goes well. They don't involve The Book directly, but I suspect all you patient folks who've waited for word on The Book will be pleased.

As for The Book itself... well, things are starting to happen there as well. I'm in the middle of third draft (or is it fourth?) rewrites, taking into account the feedback from my first readers. The good news is that most trouble spots are relatively minor and easily fixed. It's just a time-consuming process, as I'm doing a line-by-line reading to catch any typos and goofs my first readers may have missed (and despite everyone's best efforts, some of those do get missed). More importantly, though, is the fact that I'm back in agent-hunting mode, which is a huge time-sink in and of itself. Since last week, I've sent out 25 queries to agencies that 1) accept simultaneous submissions, 2) rep non-fiction/history/women's issues and 3) have a good track record selling successful books to major publishers. Thus far, I've received four requests for my proposal and/or sample chapters against only two rejections (and one of those rejections recommended that I submit to a specific agent at a different agency who my book might be well-suited for). Granted, none of those amount to a contract or a publishing deal yet, but that response is overwhelmingly positive compared to the profound indifference I ran into back in 2011 when I played this game before. I am, as they say, cautiously optimistic.

So, you're asking yourself at this point, "How can I help Jayme sell his book?" I'm glad you asked. You can formally follow this blog, either via Google or Networked Blogs, both of which have links to the right. Also, "Liking" my Chicken Ranch Central Facebook Page is a good thing as well. Seriously. So many publishing decisions these days hinge on how large an online following a writer has, which agents and publishers view as the sales potential of any particular book. So the more people following me, the more attractive my book becomes in their eyes. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors. Like, Like, Like. I'll be quite grateful, I promise.

Now Playing: Cinderella The Best of Cinderella
Chicken Ranch Central

115/365: IR/Lev XI - Moment of Zen

Confession time: I have trouble with backlighting. The Wife is a whiz at it, and during Imaging USA this year, I briefly got to speak with Hanson Fong about his use of infrared and he started gushing about backlighting. But I normally struggle with it. Haven't developed my lighting skills enough, it would seem. But the Austin skyline beckoned, and the only way I could possibly get this shot would be to deal with serious backlighting from the sun. I took a flyer, and it worked. Not without a whole lot of post-processing, mind you, but it worked.

The problem is, I learned this on my own (not that I have backlighting down, but I'm slightly more competent now than before with it). I took two photography courses this semester, and worked my butt off in them, but they taught me zero new technical skills. I learned more photography technique and technical skills in the one photojournalism course I took four years ago than in the three fine art photography courses I've completed, combined. There's something seriously out of whack with that. One fine art photography major quietly complained toward the end of the semester how he wanted to know how to stop fast action, like with sports, but that hadn't been covered in the 4-5 courses he'd taken. Without thinking, I said "Set your shutter speed to 1/800 or faster, with a wide open aperture to blur the background and adjust your ISO accordingly." He looked at me for a moment with a mixture of shock, elation and frustration, then said, "See? That's what I wanted to know! Why can't they teach us anything like that?" The professors in the photography department may say, "See? You learned." The trouble is, everything we learned, we learned on our own. Several times students went up to the prof in both my classes with questions on how to accomplish something technical, and were dissuaded from pursuing that line of inquiry because, "That's covered in X class you'll take next semester/year/whenever." That's not a good way to teach photographers, and one of many complaints I have about the program overall. No thanks, I won't be taking those courses. If I have to teach myself, I'll do so on my own and save myself the stress and expense.

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: The Beach Boys That's Why God Made the Radio
Chicken Ranch Central

114/365: IR/Lev X - The old fishing hole

Remember how I mentioned morning sunlight was much better for false-color infrared than late afternoon sunlight? Here is exhibit A. I thought the light was perfect--and it was, for visual photography at least. There's a reason why photographers call the 90 minutes or so before sunset the "golden hour." Colors are rich and saturated, shadows are long and soft. Perfect lighting for photography. But not infrared. Everything I shot came out nearly monochrome, and no matter how much processing I did, I couldn't draw any more color out of the images. This is still a cute picture, just not what I was striving for. I'm particularly pleased with her reflection in the water.

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Various artists Travelin' Texas
Chicken Ranch Central

113/365: IR/Lev IX - Photo shoot

Sometimes on a photo shoot you try silly things, just to see what happens. This was a chance for the models to goof around and get a little meta on the absurdity of what we were doing. Sometimes silly is good.

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location Now Playing: Gipsy Kings Volare! The Very Best of The Gipsy Kings
Chicken Ranch Central

112/365: IR/Lev VIII - Bus stop

Just to show inspiration can strike anywhere, I had no concept for this shot until we walked past these benches, and it popped into my head, fully formed. Parthenogenesis, as it were. I wasn't sure if we could execute the concept, but I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Clannad Rogha: The Best of Clannad
Chicken Ranch Central

111/365: IR/Lev VII - Contagion

This image gave me tons of problems. I took an array of shots with my models in different poses, but ran into the problem where one would strike a great pose, but the other two were somewhat uninspired. And so on. Then I moved the camera a split second before remembering to take the necessary background shot, and getting the various scenes properly aligned for the composite was nightmarish (parallax is a harsh mistress). But I knew I absolutely had to have one image of multiple people floating in my series, because really, that's just not done.

What if levitation were involuntary, and catching?

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Clandestine To Anybody At All
Chicken Ranch Central

110/365: IR/Lev VI - Kensho

I like the joy, the implicit bliss and oneness with nature implicit in this image. During the class critique of the final projects, the subject of spirituality in my images came up. To my thinking, spirituality cannot be avoided in most infrared photography, regardless of whether it is false-color or monochrome. The Wood Effect characteristic of infrared turns foliage white, and white is a powerfully symbolic color for rebirth, the afterlife, supernatural, etc. It can be very subtle or very overt, but I believe it's always present. Couple that with subjects floating in the air, seemingly defying gravity, such connotations are inescapable.

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Ali Farka Touré and Ry Cooder Talking Timbuktu
Chicken Ranch Central

109/365: IR/Lev V - Light reading

One of the problems with getting your children to pose for your photo projects is that the roll their eyes and complain and generally don't want to be associated with something as dorky as a parental project. After the fact, though, they ask for a copy to use on Facebook. Such is life.

This is actually the third version of this image, and I'm still not happy with it. I've come close to hitting the mark, but none of my various processing approaches have quite hit the sweet spot I'm striving for. That's one of the perils of false-color infrared: There's no straightforward, linear action that will guarantee uniform results every time. It takes a lot of finesses and guesswork to craft these images.

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Glasnots Mayfly Matinee
Chicken Ranch Central

Friday Night Videos

Today's Friday Night Videos installment features an amazing archival find: Shorty Rogers and His Giants performing "Martian Bossa Nova on Frankly Jazz, a Los Angeles jazz program from the early 1960s. Just watching the intro, style and formality of the era is fascinating, in a swinging cool kinda way. This was before lip-synching became common, so the piece was performed live. Even more impressive was the fact that Rogers and his band composed it piece on the car ride over to the studio! And if I may confess, I was actually looking for another Rogers piece, "Here's That Old Martian Again," which I quite like, but there doesn't seem to be any footage of him performing it online. Still, discovering this gem makes it worthwhile.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... The Traveling Wilburys.

Now Playing: Andean Fusion Magical Music of the Andes
Chicken Ranch Central

108/365: RI/Lev IV - Umbrella

This was the first image from this series that told me I was really on to something. This was also the image that drove home the point to me that morning sunlight is much, much, much better for false color infrared than evening sun. I'd tried several evening shoots, and while the results were interesting with nice contrast, they were quite devoid of useable color and only suitable for black and white conversion. This image, on the other hand, made me say "Wow!" even before I got it out of the camera.

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Joanne Shenandoah and Lawrence Laughing Orenda
Chicken Ranch Central

107/365: IR/Lev III - Spawning run

While I take my art seriously, whether it be writing, photography or anything else, I never want to come across as a Serious Artist. That level of self-importance just isn't me. So I like to include some level of humor in my projects, whether its apparent in the final results or not. In this case, it's not particularly subtle. I don't think the model knew what he was getting into when he started trying random, spontaneous poses, but I instantly knew this was a winner. Anything that makes me smile is a winner.

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing:
Chicken Ranch Central

106/365: IR/Lev II - The opposite of falling

My infrared levitation series continues. This is, without a doubt, the most ambitious photography project I've ever undertaken. I've never used infrared in this exclusively, or so aggressively. And I'd never attempted levitation before. All while breaking in a new camera. And the locations! Apart from selling the illusion, two things were important to me in this project: 1) it couldn't look like I shot everything at the same place and B) it couldn't be the same person in every shot. So that meant multiple models and multiple locations. Multiple shoots over multiple days, in Austin, New Braunfels, San Marcos and San Antonio. Some people stood me up. Some shoots fell through. And some concepts just didn't work no matter how hard everyone tried. But that's part of what makes art, art.

What is the opposite of falling?

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Various artists Native American Currents
Chicken Ranch Central

105/365: IR/Lev I - Up a tree

The second conceptual element of my digital photography final is "infrared." The recently-converted Canon 50D that has supplanted my old converted Canon Rebel XTi? Yeah, I put it through its paces in a big way. And I love it--except for my oft-repeated complaints about the lack of a good remote trigger. Images are cleaner, less noisy with the 50D. And I took a lot of images with it for this series.

Infrared levitation. That's my series concept. A quick Google search tells me that's one of the very few photographic combinations that hasn't been exploited to the Nth degree via Flickr, Deviant Art, etc. So I think I've got a winner. The otherworldly, ethereal tones coupled with the illusion of defying gravity makes for a whimsically surreal visual, no? Stay tuned, as they say. More to come.

Camera: Canon 50D 720nm infrared modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: The Kinks Village Green Preservation Society
Chicken Ranch Central

104/365: Up a tree

This... this is the project that took up most of my month of April. Those of you keeping score at home may remember I've had some issues in my Intro to Digital Photography course, namely, the fact that my prof has rigid views of what constitutes "good photography" and what doesn't. Consequently, he's low-balled my grades, saying "It didn't look like you put much effort into them." This led directly to my "Missing Persona" series, which was a shot across the bow. I got an A for that one, but a grudging one at 91, not nearly enough to pull my overall average up from the B he'd stuck me at. So this series is my response, double-dog daring him to not give me a strong A for this project, and an A for the course overall. I hold grudges. When I'm old and grey, I'll telling my grandkids about this epic battle of wills. Win or lose, I'll have fought it on my terms.

Ironically, this first image is only here because this is the direction my prof tried to steer me. He wanted to rein me in whereas I wanted to push farther beyond the envelope. So I allowed this one concession. My project consisted of two, core concepts that I felt would feed off each other to create a profoundly surreal visual experience. The first of these elements is "levitation," a form of photo composite trickery that's A) quite popular online and 2) something I'd never attempted before. So that's what's on display in this image, Bug climbing a mesquite tree in defiance of gravity. This serves as my "control" group, giving visual context to what is yet to come when I add the second element, one that is--photographically speaking--close to my heart.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Dave Davies Fractured Mindz
Chicken Ranch Central

103/365: New kid in town

Yesterday I said farewell to my Canon Rebel XTi, a dependable little workhorse camera we had converted to infrared almost two years back. Today, I introduce the XTi's replacement: A Canon 50D, converted to 720nm infrared by LifePixel, the same folks who converted the XTi. The upgrade is, well, nice. Better noise control and higher ISOs. Larger file sizes (photographers often gripe about the megapixel wars--for good reason--but in some cases bigger is indeed better). A more robust build. Better (and faster) autofocus. Live View (which I normally don't like, but it really helps nail focus with quirky lenses such as the EF-S 10-22mm). I have created some stellar infrared images with this camera, which I'll be sharing here shortly. Just about the only downside to it is the baffling fact that Canon chose to make the 50D incompatible with their simple remote that works with pretty much every other camera body in their lineup. In fact, as far as I can tell, Canon makes no remote for the 50D, which explains the odd, aftermarket Phottix remote attached to the hotshoe in this image. Still, despite that one shortcoming, I expect the 50D will acquit itself very well in the coming years... at least until we get the 5D mark II converted.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm 2.8
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: The Kinks Word of Mouth
Chicken Ranch Central

102/365: A second retirement

This is my Canon Rebel XTi/400D. The XTi was introduced by Canon in mid-2006 and produced through early 2008. I bought mine in March 2008--the first SLR style camera I ever purchased. What's more, I purchased it with the intent to learn how to use it and take competent photographs. This was during a period in our lives when finances were incredibly strapped (a brief phase that lasted roughly from 1996-2011) so I financed this massive purchase by selling off my Doctor Demento Show CD collection via Ebay. True story.

The real significance of this little entry-level camera, though, is that it finally convinced The Wife that the quality of digital imaging sensors had matured enough to be a viable alternative to film. Realize that she learned photography in the journalism program at Texas A&M circa 1992, and the years before we met as a working photojournalist. She was a dyed-in-the-wool film snob, and scoffed at the pixellation visible in photos taken by digital point-and-shoot cameras. One day, after a derisive comment too many, I pushed the XTi on her and insisted she just go out and shoot with it for the weekend. She came back impressed. Within a month, The Wife had a Canon 50D of her own. Her love of photography rekindled, she started taking the wild idea of starting her own photography business seriously, and today a thriving Lisa On Location is the result. Success didn't come overnight, and she used my XTi as her backup body on many early jobs. I used it to assist her as a second shooter just as often. Eventually, she added a full-frame Canon 5D mark II to her arsenal, then a Mark III. Then she surprised me with a 7D.

Obsolete for all of our regular uses, nearly two years ago The Wife sent the XTi off to LifePixel for conversion to infrared. I love infrared, and experimented much by using thread-in filters over the lenses. Conversion proved a revelation, as I could now compose and shoot hand-held rather than being restricted to a tripod and 10-20 second exposure times. Infrared photography became a unique part of her wedding packages. I learned to take amazing landscapes with it. But... there's always a but. It's an old camera. It's been banged up over the years and I estimate it's got more than 60,000 shutter actuations on it. The 10.1 megapixel sensor is terrible noisy above 400 ISO, and file sizes are on the small side for the large, impressive prints we like to make of the best showcase images. It's captured many, many images for us over the years, and opened up the amazing world of infrared photography for me. But all good things come to an end. We've replace the XTi, and unlike the Elan 7ne, the little Rebel is redundant and outclassed in every way. In the coming weeks I expect to put it up for sale, a bargain for anyone who wants to experiment with infrared photography. It's got a lot of shots left in it, but those won't be taken by me. Sentimentality only takes you so far, and it'd be a waste of a good camera to put it on the shelf, unused. I will always have a soft spot for it, though. A whole lot of good things started with this little XTi.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm 2.8
Lisa On Location

Now Playing: Dave Davies Unfinished Business
Chicken Ranch Central