New (old) project

I have been working too much, just barely paying my bills. That means I haven't been shooting anything new, so what am I to I do? Edit old projects. Actually, I re-edit old shots in preparation for editing a major project. I am going to in the near future begin putting my project "Unknown" into its book form. Something I have been meaning to do for a year or so now. Unfortunately  dealing with 50,000 + images from a period spanning 4 years and 75+ underground punk rock shows is somewhat daunting. As a warm up, I am editing all the shows I photographed at the Showcase Theater in Corona into a small book for myself. Of course, if anyone wants a copy of it, it will be made public. Gotta love self publishing.

These shots are from the Millions of Dead Cops show at Showcase in February 2008.

I should mention that none of the bands above is actually M.D.C., they are the Resistance Culture, Subhumans, and the Voids.

My love of black and white photography continues to grow. I convert almost everything to BW now just for kicks. BW is gorgous (I plan on shooting a BW/transparency film project starting this winter). One more step removed from reality, it becomes completely about tones and the image. The photographs become simpler and focused. Somehow emotion comes through so clearly, color versions of these almost get in the way of themselves. Completely contemporary yet vintage (Yes, BW is actually vintage!) inspired. I really love the way digital black and white looks out of the 5D.

Sorry about the watermarks, I compeltely agree that they are incredibly distracting, but whatcha gonna do? If someone steals my shit (and yes people steal my shit) at least I'll get some credit.

Tennessee

As the title of this blog hints, I will be showing the remainder of my trip cross country in this blog, but first some news.

I just updated my site www.JamesAndrewPhotography.com. I removed my weddings album and added the album "Main St Orange County. It is short  for the full title of "Santa Ana: Main street Orange County". Unfortunately, too many letters for my site. Owell. It looks good!

I also have separated my consumer work from my personal work. You can find my consumer work now at www.JamesARidley.wix.com/JamesAndrewPortraits. Yes, that is a little long of a URL and it does host some advertising on it, but hey, its separate, and it works great with my budget. I still have the portfolio "fashionable Portraits" on my personal work site, as this body of work is a mixture of both ... so it will occupy the slot that it is currently in for the time being. That may or may not change.

I am not finished updating JamesAndrewPhotography nor am I finished building JamesAndrewPortraits just yet. They are both work in progresses, as it tends to be. So stay tuned, and check back in and see what I have done.

From Louisiana we drove North along highway 61. We made a point to take a smaller highway. Hell, we made a point of taking smaller highways for as much of the trip as we could afford to! I would have loved to take side streets the whole trip, but that would have taken a bit too long. You just see so much more when you get off the interstate!

One of two plantations we visited. We wanted to take a historical tour of a plantation while we were in Mississippi, it didn't work. We got a tour alright, but it wasn't very historical. Built by rich white people 200 years ago, and still used by rich white people today. The slaves quarters are a bed and breakfast! The tunnels used by the slaves to get to the main house are used as storage! Jeez, talk abut pretending like nothing bad ever happened.

The view from the soil in a corn field.

This was the other plantation we visited. These are the Windsor ruins near Port Gibson. Accidentaly burned down by a servant. I am sure it was on accident.

 

 

Memphis Tennessee. It was one of our favorite places.

Where MLK was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. The Civil Rights Museum was great! If you visit Memphis you need to add this to your to do list.

Walking around downtown Memphis.

Where ever you go, things are always the same.

This is another must do activity in Memphis. The Sun tour was great.

Everywhere we go cross country you run into different types of memorials, the stuffed animals memorial was unique to Memphis. Dozens of stuffed animals nailed to the pole.



Elvis's grave in Memphis. The tour of Grace land is way too expensive for people on a budget, so we went to the early morning grave visit. They let you in to the graves site for free between 7 and 9am!

Memphis was a very interesting city, its a mixture of post industrial city still dealing with white flight and economic down turn. At the same time there is a bit of a resurgence in the downtown area, not just in the touristy section on Beale St, but all over. It feels like a city that nearly hit bottom but has managed to pull its self up a bit and is slowly rebuilding itself.

Following Memphis we drove East to Nashville, explored Nashville for an evening. Another city we may want to visit again, and after that, it was pretty much straight through to NYC. We had met our budget, and it was now down pouring on us. It proceeded to down pour from Memphis all the way to NYC. No fun. No fun at all. The rest of the trip was super fun though. I would do it again in a heart beat.

Thanks for reading!

Louisiana.

Welcome to Louisiana. No joke.

From Austin we drove East on the 10, went arouuuund Houston and kept on going. Louisiana was only a few short hours east. Louisiana is absolutely gorgeous. The bayou was something new all together. A place unique as the redwoods are in California. The city of New Orleans was one of the most interesting cities I have ever visited. It is tops on my list to go back to and explore. An afternoon is not enough time. A week may be enough time to get the basics down, a month would be more like it. The unique mix of history, architecture, and mash ups of people and cultures make this city someplace to want to get to know, for better or for worse.

I really wish we could have spent more time in New Orleans. What a fascinating city. Unfortunately all we had time for was a drive through the city streets and then an afternoon and evening in the French Quarter.

The juju is strong here. Everyplace on Earth has an essence to it, and if you are tuned into it, you can feel it. New Orleans felt like no place else. If you visit the quarter, I absolutely recommend the voodoo museum. We also took a haunted history tour which was really neat too.

I walked to the shore of a swamp near Baton Rouge, and I was greeted by this lil guy. He wasn't so little either. Probably more like eight feet little.

This lil guy was more like 12 footer.

Another lil guy, sunning himself on the shore. Seriously there were freakin everywhere. Like sea gulls at the Pier.

Mississippi River view in Baton Rouge.

The old state capitol in Baton Rouge.

Sunset on the Mississippi.

What a state! Like I've already emphasized I really loved New Orleans. I really liked Louisiana. Next time we will have to spend more time in New Orleans as well as exploring the northern part of the state.

LinkedIN

I made a LinkedIn. Felt sort of awkard, but I think its going to be ok.

www.linkedin.com/pub/james-andrew-ridley/19/31b/a29

What's next? Twitter?! Oh hell no. You don't want to follow me, and I don't want you to follow me either.

Texas.

Where did I leave off last? Oh right ... cross country ... last time I got us all the way through New Mexico. Where does that leave us for this post? Oh right, TEXAS. Texas is its own country, half our trip was driving through Texas. Ok, that is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it certainly felt like that. We finished New Mexico with Roswell and drove directly East on some highway who's particular number I forget. Our first destination was the Fort Worth / Dallas area where we had some friends to stay with. We only spent an afternoon in Fort Worth, but it was definitely TEXAS. Belt buckles, steak, cowboy boots and  ... and well ... cows. We decided our sole destination within Fort Worth would be the Old Stockades. Did not disappoint. It provided for some fantastic photo opportunities and some new sites. We did not try the steak. I sort of regret that.

 

 I don't normally post pictures of my significant other in my blog, but this one came out so well. How could I not?

Those are serious cows. Totally the Triceratops of modern mammals.

 



I don't think it gets much more Texas than this shot.

After Fort Worth we were off to the Peoples Republic of Austin. I really have to take a moment to mention that this was really a miserable drive. Texans drive a lot like Californians, except their highways are only 2 lanes, and they have a tendency to drive over sized diesel trucks that are lifted as if they are mud trucks. They also like to do what I coined "The Texas Ass Ride". Not so fun at 75mph, and yes, that name was meant to be ironic.

Anyways. Austin is awesome, ok, Austin was overrated, but I still found it awesome. I don't know. I guess my expectations of Austin were just too high. I doubt its really the live music capital of the world, but it might just be the bar capital of the world. Holy crap they have a lot of bars, and each one has live music! I have a feeling we missed Austin's awesome peak by a decade or two. However. I really did dig a lot of the people that we met there. I also really loved the outdoors activities in Austin. Barton Spring is amazing. Red Bud Island along the Colorado is great. Loved swimming there hanging out with the locals. We had great food in Austin, and definitely had some good beer.

Alright, let us follow this up with some touristy pictures taken by a tourist, aka me.

In front of the Daniel Johnston mural.

This is but one of Austin's phallic signs.

Barton Springs. A must visit. Beware the lettuce.

At some show we stumbled into awkwardly on a rainy 90 degree night. No, that is not Barney.

The Texas state capitol. How did Austin get so liberal while being the Texas state capitol?! I will never know. Rick Perry must live beyond the city limits.

Anyways, that is it for tonight. I have at least two more parts to this cross country extravaganza. Is this all filler to fill in until I start shooting a brand new project here in NYC?! Kinda!!

Cross Country Part 1

I have been living in NYC now for a little over two months. We left California May 1st, and arrived in Long Island on the 15th. We found jobs, and found an apartment we could actually afford in Manhattan. Not that we are in a hip and cool part of the city, but its the same size as our old apartment in Long Beach! We sold the car, so we are stuck here.

Driving cross country was an amazing experience. It is something that I feel everyone should do at some point in their lives. It is part of growing up in the United States. It is a must do.

We drove through the southern part of the states, and we visted a lot of cities and towns along the way. Tuscon, Tombstone, Las Cruces, Roswell, Fort Worth, Austin, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Memphis, and Nashville were all major stops for us. I took well over two thousand photos, and so did she. We have had a lot to go through!

I am getting a little angsty, so I am going to skip the writing and go straight to some photos. Actually, I think I am just hungry. Pizza time. Brb. Alright, three pieces later, I am a happier camper. I think its time to post some pics and go wander around town.

Leaving California we had to make a stopover at Slab City and Salvation Mountain. The rumors are true, Lenard Knight is now in a home. There is a co-op of people from Slab City that are maintaining his mountain. I wish Lenard the best, he is a truly special man with a lot of love in his heart.

Sunset in Arizona just outside of Tuscon.

A cemetery outside of Tuscon.

Tombstone Arizona. Tombstone was pretty awesome. I am big on cheesy road side attractions. I can't get enough of em.

Roswell New Mexico. Odd little town. I highly recommend eating at the Cowboy Cafe, and partaking in every single cheesy alien thing you can find. When else in your life will you do that again? Never. Unless you go back to Roswell ...

updated website

I updated my website this afternoon: http://www.jamesandrewphotography.com/ . I simply added the "Fashionable Portraits" portfolio onto it. Really, most of these photos have been on my site in some form or another. They occupy an awkward middle ground. All of these shots were created for the purpose of being something or another, whether that something or another was for use in a models portfolio as head shots, or the hair stylist portfolio for their use or maybe just a school project. Often times they were created simply for my portfolio for an opportunity to play with light and a new model. I don't feel comfortable calling them fashion photography or portrait work. They are not quite personal work, nor are they strictly commercial work. The middle ground that they occupy is both less than more than their sums. Awkward.

Anyways. I have been going through the thousand or so photos I took while traveling cross country. Wow. It was a really amazing trip. Hopefully soon I will have the time to really look at them. Right now I am incredibly busy finding an apartment as well as a new job. Jobs are important, so are homes. I would like both please.