one voice

While waiting to catch the Number 1 bus to take them into downtown Tampa Tuesday, Kyle Stephens, 20, rubs the belly of his girlfriend Reniqua Green, 17. The couple, both of Town ‘N Country, have been dating for about 10 months. Last week they found out that she’s pregnant. The story, in his words: I’m so happy. We met at school. And we’ve been trying to have a baby a bunch of times. When the doctor said positive, my heart stopped and my brain stopped working. I want whatever comes out as long as its healthy and has her eyes, and is bad like its daddy. In her words: I wasn’t raised in the best environment, so I feel my child should be raised in a good environment. I want to bring up a child so he doesn’t get into anything. I want him to get a good education, go to college, and be somebody in life.

swimmy emmy

Grouper

Last week I got to go hang out on the docks with some salty fisherman who told me silly jokes like:

What did the fish say when he ran into a wall?

Dam.

The light was gorgeous as dawn broke and nearly 4,500 lbs. of fish was unloaded after the Brandy came in from 15 days at sea. It was a fun little freelance assignment for the New York Times about "The Grouper Capital of the World." The gist is that local land development, increasing fishing regulations, and the rising cost of operating are changing the landscape of Madeira Beach, Fla. Which in turn is driving the cost of grouper up. And that is changing the face of local restaurants, who've started serving up other white fish and calling it grouper.

a story for jake

Upon meeting Michelle Thresher Taylor for the first time I liked her immediately. We're pretty close in age. We both went to college at the University of Florida, she was just graduating when I was starting there. We both worked for the student paper there. Both enjoyed the music scene, and the town of Gainesville, and had lots of similar interests and places our paths may have crossed.

The first thing you notice about Michelle is her eyes. They're big and beautiful, and have that sparkle that you'd easily notice from across a room. She smiles a lot, and has a great big, infectious laugh that comes easily and often. But that doesn't hide the fact that in those eyes, there is always this deep sadness.

Sometimes, I think it's really intense to look at someone as closely as I do.

Sometimes, I think it's incredible that we are allowed into peoples lives so intimately, and given a chance to form bonds with people that will change us forever.

Sometimes, I forget how personal things get.

Sometimes, I am reminded of how important my job is. And that there's a tremendous weight and responsibility that comes with that.

Michelle got a degree in journalism and went onto law school. Fell in love with this great guy named Dave. Got married. Had a beautiful baby boy named Jake. Life was perfect. Then on October 22, 2006, an IED was detonated near the vehicle Dave was traveling through Iraq in. And Michelle's world stopped. It was almost 6 months later that I met her. And the strength and courage she has in incredible.

I was out of town all weekend and just returned home. And the first thing I did was pick up the pile of newspapers off the doorstep to see how a story that was several months in the making ran.

Maybe I'm biased, but I thought it looked amazing. The story started on the front page and jumped to a 6-page special section. Half of the photos used were mine, the other half were family photos -- which normally I'd be a little unhappy with. But for this story, it worked. There were a lot of things that happened in the past, that I wasn't there for. Things that were an integral part of this story. Things that helped tell the story better, and ultimately, for this story, that's what it's all about.

I just wanted to do it justice, and to have their story told well. This story isn't about me. It's about Michelle, Dave and Jake.

Go read it and then go hug someone you care about.

homer

John White rocks the pinky out pose while enjoying a Krispy Kreme doughnut and glass of red wine.

Internet Power Hour

"I wasn't just breaking the Internet habit, I was breaking the habits I had learned on the Internet: that addiction to continual bursts of small information."

Stephen Elliot has a great essay on surviving one month without the internet. And I'm taking it as a personal challenge.

So for the next month, I'm giving myself one hour a day online, and for the other 23... I'm taking my life offline.

One Voice

"I have always felt connected to the ocean," said Tyler Bowser, 32, (center) of Dunedin who was born in Florida, but raised in Southern California. After moving home in February Bowser made the symbolic decision to baptized in the waters off of Fort De Soto Park in St. Petersburg with the help of his good friend Jeff Buffo, left, and Relevant Church's lead pastor Paul Wirth, right. "I'm a warrior for Christ. I believe in the book, the trinity and that we as Christians are good people. There's a new tide coming and the oceans are growing in this faith." The story, in his words:

My mom always used to tell me that it doesn't matter how far I was straying, I was marked as Christ's son when I was a baby and he'll never let me go. I was baptized when I was 10 months old, but the actual baptism means something different to me than what happened when I was a kid. It's something deeper and more connected, something symbolic and affirming -- which is why at 32, I wanted to be baptized again.

There never was a disconnect from God, but in high school I started straying a bit. My whole story can be summed up in two words: divine intervention. I received it and accepted it. And through the grace of God that I'm here today to revel in it. The holy spirit was already in my heart. I'm a sinner and I'll never be perfect no matter how hard I try, but this is just my way way to show the world my belief in God. Christ was a lot of things, a carpenter, a servant, but also a fisherman of men, and that's what I want to be. I just want to follow in his footsteps. It's not about washing away sins, or making right with God so I can get into heaven. It's about showing the world I know what my purpose in life is. And for that, I'm thankful.

Churn Baby, Churn

The wheels are churning... Several things recently have inspired inspiration... David Alan Harvey's blog, for one, always does, but there was a specific post recently that really triggered something.

He talks about the power of community. And how that community can cause change. He says:

what i want to do is create some production money for you.....so that a selected few of you would be able to go work on a project of your choice....i would have to go find money....from corporations , from generous funders...this is not anything i have ever done.....but imagine if these donors ended up endorsing some truly creative photography that would be printed in an annual super quality magazine format where the photographers had all the control..with just a little help from me maybe!!! and an exhibit of course.....

another piece of this corporate funding i would want to go for free photo workshops in developing countries where the emerging photographers cannot possibly afford one of the current workshops ....another major piece of good press for our donors...even patch it in with some worthwhile ngo projects and build a workshop around an issue....have part of this mythical magazine use these pictures too...

And this has always been a dream of mine. To create a community that serves a community.

APhotoADay was started as a conversation and a way two friends could share pictures back and forth, and look at us now... hundreds of members spanning the majority of the states, and several continents. There was obviously a need, for some discussion and some constructive criticism, and as we say on there, "a place for pictures we shot for us, not them." And despite its headaches, it has been such a wonderful community to be a part of.

We have our 5th semi-annual gathering soon. Geekfest 2007 - Portland. It's always a great time to come together, put faces with email addresses and photographs, and enjoy each other's real company as opposed to the virtual kind. There are speakers who inspire, and little "assignments" to push. But it usually devolves into more of a party, which there's nothing wrong with. There's certainly a time and place for having a good time, and what better time in a fun new city, with fun new friends and beer.

But there's part of that weekend always leaves me longing for more.

It's a pretty amazing group of people involved in APAD... talented... smart... driven.... There's something brewing there, with me, them, us... Something more than drinking beer and talking about doing... But actually getting out there and doing... I can smell some sort of photo revolution underway.

Or at least there could be with a select few. Hand-picked because of their eye, heart and mind, that could help to create an amazing start at causing change and giving back and finding a greater fulfillment through our photography.

I like where David Alan Harvey was going with the thoughts on finding an NGO to get hooked up with though. Imagine if you can contribute to a good cause the only way we can, by offering them all we have.... documentary photography. By getting the chance to tell stories that matter and have them seen and shared with a bigger global audience.

As he says, build a workshop around an issue... or a cause...

Stay tuned.

Derrell Teat

This was THAT assignment. The one that the editor calls you excitedly about and then you quickly realize that while it's a really compelling story, it's really nonvisual. The one where it's your first time working for a client and you want to do well, even though you're resigned to shooting a portrait. The one where if something could go wrong, it would and probably did. Ideas fell through. Lights crapped out on me. Etc, etc... But this is what I ended up with, and they called me for another job about a week later, so I guess they were happy.

Meet Derrell "Dee" Teat. She has been researching genealogy for about 15 years, running as many as 12 listservs, and has become obsessed with tracking down descendants of her distant relative John B. Hodgens. She even went so far as to corner a guy in his garage in Georgia, demanding a DNA sample, and when he declined, she followed him to a McDonald's the next morning and tried to take his coffee cup out of the trash can after he threw it away.

my day

american idyll

A few weeks ago, I got to go to Rosemary Beach and Seaside -- two master-planned communities on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida's panhandle. The assignment was simple -- I had three days and two nights to make pretty travel photos. The spread ran today in our latitudes section, along with a full-page vertical photo that they used as the cover, and a double truck inside.

The best part was opening up the French doors on the balcony of the cottage I was staying in, and hearing the waves crash onto shore from the beach that was about a minute's walk away. Eating well on an expense account. And spending my downtime with a book at any one of the 4 community pools.

It's a rough life, but someone's got to do it...



These are a few of my favorite photos that didn't make the paper:



The morning sun begins to warm the air and touch the rooftops of homes in Rosemary Beach that line a boardwalk to the beach. (Note: I don't shoot a lot of verticals, so this was the real challenge on this assignment. I had to come up with something for the cover. Which means turning my camera.... I thought this would have looked good... there's a perfect spot for the headline to be dropped in at the top and everything.)



Brothers Ethan, 6, and Cody Pickren, 10, of Watercolor play in the rain-filled grassy knoll separating the shops of Seaside's Central Square from the town's amphitheater. The family moved here from New Orleans about 6 years ago, because they were drawn to the area by the beaches and the lifestyle it provided. "This is about as good as it gets," said the boy's dad, Chris Pickren.



A game of bocce at W. Long Green Park turns serious when a tape measure is pulled out by Stephanie Guffin, left, of Fairhope, Ala. to settle a dispute as to which ball is closer to the pallino (small white ball). The farmer's tanned legs of Jeff Manning, Bill Hammonds and Shawn Guffin await the results.



Detail of the architecture in Rosemary Beach -- A marble fountain is the focal point in the entrance to Rosemary Beach's Barbados Pool. It serves as a washbasin, and a reminder to bathers to wash the sand off themselves before entering the pool.



Architectural details of doors and windows.



Randy and Melinda Merijanian of Montgomery, Ala. take in a sunset from the second-floor open-air bar at Bud & Alley's in Seaside, while celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary with a long weekend in nearby Seagrove Beach.



After the last glimmer of sunlight drops below the horizon line, clouds turn midnight blue as twilight approaches over one of the areas coastal dune lakes.

Inspiration

I see what I think.
I see what I feel because I am what I see.
If there is nothing to see and I still see it,
That’s poetry.
If there is something to see and everybody sees it,
That’s photography.
– photo & words by Ernst Haas

One Voice

With the dance floor all to themselves, Roberta and Roy Messer of Tampa -- who have been married for 48 years -- do the twist during a 1950 Sock Hop at the Barksdale Senior Center's Senior Day in the Park. The story, in his words: I've known her all my life. Our families used to spend summers together up in the Berkshires. I remember her chasing me around there when she was 3 and I was 7, but we didn't date until later, when I got back from duty in the service. She's 68 now, and I'm 72. She still chases me, but I've slowed down a little, so I let her catch me now. April 27, 1957 was the 50th anniversary of our very first date. We went to Mountain Park, an amusement center in Holyoke, Mass., that had a huge ballroom dance floor. So our first date was a dance, and we haven't stopped since.

email = rabbit

E-mail is a daunting task for me. And lately, I seem to be getting an abnormal amount of it. If left unattended, it just seems to compound exponentially. Like rabbits... So, tonight after some sushi, Sapporo, and a spurt of inspiration I was feeling rather productive. I just answered 31 emails. And knocked my inbox down from over 100 messages to a mere 9. Now, some of those emails answered may have been from last year, but rest assured, eventually I'll write you back. I swear. It just may take a while. As for the other 9... I'm shooting for before Thanksgiving.

Supernova Luminous Penguinography

Josh Ritchie is trying to come up with a name for the wedding business he's starting with another photographer, in order to make a little extra cash. They're currently calling it Luminous Group, Inc. But the font they're using for things makes it look like Luminous Grouping. And all of it sounds too close to another friend and Florida-based photographer John Loomis' name. So, John White and I tried to help, but after the downward spiral, laughing fits, and downright silliness, we began to digress from the mission. For what it's worth, here's the name train of thought:

bliss images
bliss inc
no name images
names are for losers, llc
wedded wonders
first moments
light group
into the west
your wedding
happy trails
vanritchie photography
belle jour
bella vie
supernova weddings llc
RSVP (using initials as an acronym) - ritchie S vanover photography?
ritchie supernova vanover photos
luminous grouper (kinda fishy if you ask me!)
looney tunes
illuminati
two photogs and a tux
illuminosity grout
eternal flame
beautiful bride
tux inc
penguin photography
penguinography
luminous penguins
luminous penguin grouper
luminous illuminati penguinographical grouper

Lost in Translation

According to the referrer logs, I got a bunch of hits from this one website today, curious what they had to say I went to check it out.

Unfortunately, for me, it was in Italian, but never fear... babelfish translated it for me.

In English, they were saying:

emme. like to half between wonder and monitor. photographies and point.

Cool, now it all makes sense.

track tag

Hillsborough High School sophomore Lindsey Lamar, 16, finds a place on the dock at Rivercrest Park to hide and catch his breath, while keeping his eye on his teammate whose "it", during a game of tag. Lamar runs the 100-meter dash and the 4x100 relay on the school's track team, which occasionally starts their practices off with a game of tag to warm up and stretch their muscles while still having fun.

One (Happy) Voice

As I was half way through my first cup of coffee, and about a quarter of the way into the newspaper, I was surprised to see One Voice, our new photo column, actually started running today. So I immediately picked up my cell phone and called Anthony, the subject of the photograph, to let him know it was in the paper.

Ring, Ring

A: Hullo.

M: Hi Anthony, this is Melissa from the Times.

A: Dude...

M: Hey just calling to let you know the picture of you finally ran. If you get a chance to look at the paper today, check it out.

A: Dude.... I know. My friend called me early this morning and woke me up to tell me. It's so freakin' cool. I went up to the gas station and bought a whole bunch of them. I thought it was going to be a lot of them all at once, like more people, like the drag king you told me about and the guy getting baptized, but I opened it up and it's just me. -- all by myself. Awesome article. I was going to call you and thank you but I couldn't find your number.

M: I hope you liked it.

A: Dude... It's so cool.

YAY for photo columns! YAY for cool subjects! YAY for the paper taking a chance on something different. What a great way to start the day.