I photographed the two main subjects of my most recent Times piece on the Legotron. Here is Todd Kiscaden, the guy in charge of the construction crew building the monument. See the story for more context.

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William in Florida, July of 2012.

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Branden on the Legotron, shot on Kodak Portra 160

In an attempt to stay positive about Kodak, I thought maybe today was a decent day to post one of the images I’ve shot in color on the Legotron. Kodak sent over a few sheets for me to test out a while back and I’m just now getting around to really do anything with the stuff I’ve shot so far.

This first shot is Branden. I took some sheets on my normal field camera also to be able to compare color and all that stuff, but I’m still working on getting super clean scans for color 4x5. Black & white and color film stocks are different and despite being able to get great scans now out of BW, color is still eluding me—damn Newton rings.

I’ve got to say though, I absolutely ADORE the weird color shifts that come from light leaks and colored blocks. A bunch of people who have seen the camera have told me that I should rather have black blocks inside the camera, or spray it flat black. But perfection is the absolute last thing I’m after with this camera! All these weird lines and blotches. Love it!

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Winslow, New Year’s Eve.

Last weekend in Monroe, Louisiana, Stephanie’s father, William, graduated from college. We were all quite proud and attempted to show him this by gathering friends at the family home and gorging ourselves on food and drink. Lots of drink. Lots of food.

His graduation was exciting and inspiring but pales in comparison* to his now-over-two-year-old beast of a beard. He started it in November of 2009 at the outset of what would become the last Whiskerino and he’s been growing it ever since, despite occasional protestation from his wife. I’ve done my best to chronicle this, his first ever beard, on my blog and you can see his journey if you search for beard (and you’ll get bonus beard-related shots in the mix too).

I took some 4x5s of him in the robe and hat and what not, but in terms of raw beard-power, I couldn’t help but post this one now.

*At least to me, it does. But I’m beard-biased.

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Stephanie’s dad has been growing his beard since November 2009 at the same time I started growing mine for Whiskerino 2009. I try to take every opportunity I can to photograph it / him. Here he is at the beach over Labor Day weekend.

He graduates from college (yep!) in December and I don’t know the beard’s fate after that. I can only hope it lives on, whereas I image his wife probably has a different plan.

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morning @81churchstreet’n it with @alanbarton. jealous of his beard. his mustache just gets more manly. @whiskerino

Tonight the Jefferson County Beekeepers Association had a screening of Queen of the Sun. The turnout was way better than I’d have expected, which is super encouraging. 

It was a pleasure to watch the film again (really, please see it when you get a chance!) but better was to see all the characters that turned up!

This guy with a beard is one of the reasons I want to photograph the people in our state who keep bees. He’s fantastic.

Yet another old, being old. Looking old. Being awesome.

Immediately feel in love with this old man and old, bright red, shiny lady.

We are, without a doubt, overwhelmingly in the tiny-sliver percentile in terms of age. 

We also saw Paul, from whom we purchased our first hive.

And Dr Cobbs, our mentor (as assigned by the class we took)

But the coup de grace for the evening was this delightful collection of honey from all the counties in the state of Alabama. Each county was listed by its number (we have a weird system in our state) and #47—Madison County—was represented by my late grandfather’s jar of honey. I didn’t expect it and was a bit overwhelmed. Happy and sad, immediately and simultaneously existing within me. 

All in all, a lovely evening.