Time Marches On

I did a photo project on shotgun houses which ran in The Times in September 2007. A tenent in one of them on Travis Street in Shreveport's Ledbetter Heights neighborhood was 87-year-old Magdaline Hills. The outside of her home wasn't in good shape, but she surrounded it with flowers and other potted plants and tended a garden in the side lot filled with okra and giant tomatoes. She said it kept her from going crazy. The inside was clean and neat and filled with a lifetime of possessions.

I was riding my bike around downtown with some friends a few days ago, and we stopped by the house to see if we could say hi. As we rolled up in front of the place, I could clearly see that nobody lived there anymore. Most of the pots were gone or broken and everything was overgrown with weeds and neglect. The front door was missing. I walked inside and all her belongings were there, trashed. Stuff still hung on the walls - paintings, photos, even her telephone. I was taken aback. What happened to Ms. Hills? Why did she leave without taking anything with her? Did she die? Usually while working, I push emotion out. Nothing gets to me. Shootings, fires, funerals, nothing. But this bothered me.

I went back the next day and took some photos. While driving away, I saw a neighbor in his yard, and a friend who was with me asked him if he knew anything. To my relief, he told us that she had moved, though he didn't know where she'd gone. The movie studio folks had got to her and forced her out, he said. That they were trying to get them all.

Land directly across the street from their homes was cleared many months ago so a movie studio could be built. But construction has yet to begin and the dirt sits flooded. The neighborhood has been in decline for years, and the studio was to help rid the area of blight. Though on the cusp of downtown, it is more lonely and empty than ever.

I still plan to track down that old lady. In the meantime, here are some photos from then and now.

The Aseana Foundation's Asian Spring Fest last Saturday was great for this photographer! I love to photograph things that have vivid colors and boy were there colors!! I got to hear beautiful music, see an ice sculpture made within minutes, and watch faboulous dances. I have lived in Shreveport for just about a year now, and my favorite thing about the city so far has been the many festivals here.

To Each His Own

I shot this year's all-city and all area players and coaches. It's a style not everyone likes, but one I've come to admire. I like the surreal, smooth look to them. I combined High Dynamic Range backgrounds with subjects shot in the studio using three lights for each--one above the subject and two back camera left and camera right. Then with a little PhotoShop ingenuity, I put the two images together. For those curious, the backgrounds are the downtown YMCA and an old decrepit gym in Rocky Mount, La. (thanks to Henrietta and Val for that find!)

As I said, it's a style some really like and others not so much. But, as it were, I was the one holding the camera that day...to each his own!

Jeremiah Williams, Bossier high School, 2009 All-City Coach of the Year

Kendrick Washington, Huntington High School, 2009 All-City Player of the Year

Kermit Walker, Springhill High School, 2009 All-Area Coach of the Year

Antonious Markray, Springhill High School, 2009 All-Area Player of the Year

YES! One more game...

Working the nights and weekend shifts I get to cover A LOT of sporting events. Through my career I have shot a lot of football, baseball, basketball volleyball, lets just say if it has the word "ball" in the name I've seen it and photographed it. But growing up in Florida I was not exposed to a lot of hockey. I know what your thinking, they have the Lightning in Tampa Bay where your from. My answer is I moved away from home not long after hockey started up there so I had never made a game. In fact I had never been to or photographed a hockey game until I moved to Shreveport and started photographing the Mudbugs. I have to say I really enjoy it. As a photographer I like the fact that it is non-stop action. Except for some rather long breaks between periods. But working as I am I rarely get to stay past the 1st period anyway so its no big deal. Anyway the point of this is that I'm glad the Mudbugs pulled it out last night so I get to shoot, at least, one more game.

[ri-flek-shuhn]

Sometimes things just work out.

Today I went to LSUHSC-Shreveport to make some images of grad student Mike Nealy working on research funded by an American Heart Association grant.

Nealy was working in a laboratory ventilation hood that was pulled down leaving just enough room for him to work under the glass. Not exactly a great shooting situation since I couldn't put my camera under the hood for fear of contaminating it or his research.

I went with the old standby.......a reflection.

Double Windsor

Photographing an assignment earlier today, I came to two sudden realizations...

1. Having your father (a.k.a. "Pops" in my case) around to look after you is a wonderful thing and something to never be taken for granted.

2. It's probably harder to explain to someone how to tie a tie than it is to actually try it for your first time!
I visited the Oak Terrace/J.B. Harville Alternative School in Shreveport for the "Project Save a Kid" program directed toward at risk males. They started the day off learning about the game of golf and then turned their attention to the finer points of tying different styles of knots for ties. I dont think I knew how to tie a tie at that age either, but my Pops was always around if I needed to ask. Some of these kids dont have that at home.

So that brings me to my list of "Top Things I Learned from My Pops"
1. How to tie a Windsor knot
2. The proper way to punt a football. I still remember standing in the street in front of our house as he showed me where the laces go.
3. A devastating fade-away jumper, a behind-the-back-no-look-pass and a mean crossover...even if my six-foot-four "little" brother is still better at it than me...I was a much better baseball player.
4. Laying out for a diving catch down the third base line. Many a night was spent knocking down his ground balls.
5. Patience. Well except when fishing and bowling. Neither of us seemed to have much patience for the other in those!
6. A second language...Pops, my brother and I developed a special language when describing, well, pleasing attributes of the opposite sex.
7. The beauty of a good Western. My wife regularly and sarcastically thanks my dad for my love of Westerns because she has to suffer through me watching them on Encore Westerns.
8. How to be an objective sports fan. I hate homers...you know, the guy who refuses to see the play as it actually happened, even though they showed the replay ten times from five different angles?
9. How to blame it on the dog. Well, we didnt have a dog, so it usually ended up on little bro, aptly nicknamed "Stinky Doo" by none other than Pops himself...a clever ploy.
10. The greatness of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. We watched with pops dozens of times and I still have the nickname of "Chief" from dad's favorite flick.

Of course there's plenty more I learned from the Pearson patriarch.

Hobnobbing with the Powers that be

Here we find Jane Smith, State Representative for District 8, Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Times reporter Bobbie Clark kickin' it at a recent press conference from Jindal.

To the writer Bobbie's credit, he headed out of frame when he realized where I was shooting from, and actually snapped this shot FOR him.

When your too busy to stop and smell the flowers,

You should stop and smell the flowers...
Yesterday was one of those days when I had a full plate. I started the day with a change of command ceremony that I wanted to shoot stills and video. from there I had to roll to get stand alone art. After returning to the office I was thrown a curve ball. Needed art of the Azaleas in bloom at the Norton Art Gallery. That's fine any other time, but I needed to start editing my video footage. It was 4pm and getting cloudy but it had to be done because the rains later this week may ruin the blooms. Anyway, I went and got some, I think, nice shots and I felt better after spending an hour or so wandering the Azalea bushes and not getting stung by a bee. Funny how pretty flowers can mellow you out. So the moral is stop when you think your too busy because you may not get a chance to stop later.

Anyway here are some shots from the gardens.

Buddhist Monks

Today my photo story on Buddhist monks who live in a double-wide in Bossier Parish ran on the front of the Living section. I also did an audio slide show, which you can see here. When the paper was doing a story on property standards violations a few months ago, somebody who lives near the monks complained about some statues that were in the yard. I headed out to track them down -- not for that story, but in an attempt to find them for a project. I did, but communication was a problem from the start. They are from Thailand and speak only broken English, and when they don't understand something they respond with "yes" and a smile. It was very difficult to figure out if they wanted me to take pictures at all and when would be the best time to do so. I finally determined that Sunday mornings were my best bet, and that's when I met Buddy Landry. He is an American who was able to tell me what sort of ceremonies and chanting I was photographing and without him, my story probably would've failed.

Festival Season Begins

Today I made my first of what will likely be many trips this year to Festival Plaza in downtown Shreveport. It was for the Louisiana State HOG Rally. Though the weather seemed perfect, the crowd was pretty light. Hopefully things will pick up tomorrow.

Happy Belated Birthday!

After shooting several of the chimpanzee's lounging around at Chimp Haven I saw Emma. She was very friendly and showed off her skills on command. "Teeth" was said and she pointed and opened her mouth to show them off. "Eyes" and she pointed to her eyes, "ears" and she pointed at her ears, then suddenly ran away when other more rambunctious chimps began to chase each other around the playground.

I also got to see Tracy, 2, with her mother, Teresa while they were fed oranges and bananas. Tracy is the young chimpanzee who drew national attention after her surprise birth. She turned 2 year-old in January.

The park will be open to the public Saturday March 21, 2009 for the first Chimpanzee Discovery Day of 2009.

Where have all the people gone?

Went out today to get art for a story we are doing on Shreveport turning 170 years old. Got some shots of Texas Street downtown showing what it looked like back in the day and today. I was struck at how many people were walking the streets back then. There were even more cars on the street than today. I shot mine at 2pm Thursday. I wonder what time of day the others were done at. 8 AM? 5PM? In the two years I've lived here in Shreveport I have never seen that many people on Texas at one time.

Got your green on?

Yesterday I shot a little of the baseball game between Loyola and Haughton. Beautiful day for a game. Nice little crowd and for the inning I could stay for Loyola looked to be on fire! I thought it must be the uniforms. Brand new and bright green. I guess they got them just for St. Patrick's day. I remember playing baseball when I was a kid. The uniforms were, to say the least, worn. These guys had brand new, Emrald green uniforms with little shamrocks on the back of the hats. All I can say is Fabulous!

Col. Robert Wheeler

This is the start of my fourth year in Shreveport, but one thing that never gets old to me is going onto Barksdale Air Force Base for an assignment. I had to do so today to photograph departing 2BW Commander Col. Robert Wheeler. He is a busy man and only had a few minutes to talk to military reporter John Andrew Prime, and I snapped pictures during that conversation.

Bobby J back for more!

A few days ago I blogged about Gov. Bobby Jindal's constant trips to NWLa. Today he was back again for another press conference addressing work rtelease programs and redivism rates for La. inmates. No commentary on what he said...just notcing once again that he isnt shy about showing his mug all over the state.

Spring

Recently I went on another assignment to the Municipal Plaza Asian Gardens in downtown Shreveport. I find that shooting the same subject or even over again can sometimes be challenging.

I was very happy to see tulips everywhere, quite a change from a few years ago when I shot the assignment during the fall. There were also quite a few changes and updates in most all of the gardens in the area that for years was filled with overgrown and unkempt weeds.

Keep it growing.

The Shadow Knows

While shooting rehearsal shots for the upcoming performance of "Cosi fan tutte" at the Riverview Theatre I noticed a shadow from Cory Battey that was being cast over sheet music. It looked really cool, but of course it was just for moment and then the shadow was gone. I kept an eye on the sheet music throughout the rest of the rehearsal and ended up getting an interesting frame but not like the one I missed.