It really is true. Reminds me of an Alex McMurray song by the same name – LLL (the 3-L) is even epitomized in song –

I take serious pride in location – it’s the entity that makes yours photographs sing, or it’s the elephant in the room. You feel it if its right, and it’s 4 walls closing in FAST if you are wrong…but it’s not that easy to find – you can’t just throw a good looking person in a prime location – they both have to agree. Just like “Verb/Subject Agreement” – there’s subject/foreground/background agreement…

In the last 7 days i’ve been around and shooting ALOT at some stellar spot, thanks to alot of folks that are helping make my images last.

Here’s a little scout of my last few shoots…

The Batture Houses on the banks of the Mississippi River (thanks Marci!), New Orleans Rum Distillery (thanks Jason!), Falstaff Brewery Apts rooftop! (thanks Dave), Pierre Part, LA – home of the Driftwood Man (Adam Morales!), Alma Sugar Plantation/Refinery in Lakeland, LA (thanks Olivia and Julie!) and the oldest ‘house’ in the French Quarter c.1722! (thanks Peter!)

Most done for KREWE du Optic, and Honey Island Swamp band…ok, some test shots!

http://www.kreweduoptic.com/blogs/news/8170773-krewe-in-the-batture

Check this great blog post about our recent shoot with KREWE du OPTIC at the famous, New Orleans Batture!

You could call yesterday a day off, which in my world right now means a day of editing. I thought last week was a hustle…but check out what i have in store this week:

Monday – KREWE du Optic shoot #5 which will entail New Orleans Burlesque Stars Trixie Minx and Marcia, Mandy and Stirling – heading to Pierre Part, LA to meet with “Driftwood Man” Adam Morales to shoot in his cypress laden swamp backyard.

Tuesday – photographing Alynda Lee from Hurray for the Riff Raff. The photo is a collaboration w/ one of my favorite artists, Scott Guion. He will paint the photo for the cover of HFTRR next album. – Tuesday Night – Ellis Marsalis Center of Music concert

Wednesday – Honey Island Swamp Band location shoot at Alma Sugar Plantation – one of the oldest and biggest producers of Sugar in the South….and a great band. Gonna have fun w/ this one. will bring the 4×5 film camera. One of my favorite collaborations has to be photographing musicians at unique Louisiana locations. There are so many, and no matter how much you travel there are always more to find!

Thursday – NOLA Go Radio interview, gonna talk about photography, music etc. 2pm – KREWE shoot #6 w/ New Orleans jazz singer Meschiya Lake and musician Luke Winslow King at the one of the most amazing historic homes in the French Quarter. I shot there numerous times assisting the amazing Herman Leonard back around 2004/2005.

Friday – no shoots! (sitting like a monkey at the computer) Saturday – fingers crossed on big job i bid on today…

Sunday – Photo shoot with the exciting new New Orleans supergroup Sweet Crude shoot! Yeah, it’s non stop around here. Oh, and me and Helen bought a house out in Chalmette and will start moving next week (we think). Yeah, June is going by fast, but July faster. Next thing we’ll start getting ready for is Voodoo 2013. Damn, – i am going to put together a book of 2008-2012 and offer it at the festival…a look to things to come:

You don’t have to look to far to see murder in the streets on what seems a daily basis in New Orleans in 2013. It’s on the TV, your computer, and your pad/phone/tablet, all in it’s backlit glory. We are bombarded by french quarter street corner dime store surveilance cameras depicting “unknown black youth, white shirt, black hoodie, dreads” beating, stealing, and then running away, towards the camera in slow motion for us to look long enough and a cousin to call Crimestoppers and send an ID. Why is this happening we ask? When is too much enough already?

why are we seeing this? because if you seek you shall find. We are constantly looking, peeking around corners to find it, wherever it may be. Information and updates and alarms are set around us at all corners of our homes, our pockets, our cars and even now in our glasses. Look for danger, and it will find you first…

The Technology of Now has us aware and it is changing us. I see this happening to me in making images. I felt as if in my film days i was running to a beach of knowledge and creation, and running the endless grains of sand through my finger to make art. I struggle now with making client deadlines while trying to retain the spark that led me to making images in the first place…But i have never given up, i have constantly straddled the analog and digital realms and made them work, for me. I still do not work for the process, never have never will. There are plenty of photographers who use the camera to simply make money and i applaud them…the monkey figured out the box, and the coin fell out.

I find myself double checking myself when i am hurrying up to write a blog, tweet, Google+ something in order to “enhance my google search status” – wait Zack…what is your time worth..is the time better spend reading, twisting wires on a found light set up, augmenting the Holga, or saving up for some Super 8…and THERE, there is my reality. If i did not know, or care if the Technology of Now was there, in my face, on my TV, on my computer, on my tablet/phone/pad, would i be out there in the dark of night, lit by the front light of the moon, creating?

it’s all relative. relative evolution, if your tuning in.

I was lucky enough to have some funds in the bank due to some great jobs in April that allowed me to see something that i will forever be grateful. The Stanley Kubrick exhibit at the LA County Museum…

I went to LA this weekend for that purpose only, and even got to catch a Dodgers/Braves game at Dodger Stadium – a first time MLB game for me. ( i gotta say, i can’t watch MLB on TV but i’ll hit the ballpark ANYDAY). I got to hook up w/ long time bud Callen Cotten, and meet his lovely lady Jacklyn. Good times in the parlor.

This Kubrick exhibit was off the chain: each room was dedicated to one of his films – and in each room you had tons of special Zeiss lenses he used, and his 35mm cameras, as well as original props, clothing, and typed scripts from each film. It was awe-inspiring to say the least. The notes this guy took on pre-production, location and story are something in itself. it really made me rethink my process….and after being awestruck for the first hour, i really focused on PROCESS rather than the art, or the finished product (which, his movies, i love).

The process of idea, creation, shooting, directing etc is an art itself – the process allows us to see inside the human psyche in such a different way than a finished product will – so many avenues are taken in the process to arrive at a single destination (product) that to walk these avenues w/ an open mind, you are inspired to say the least!

I will have tons of posts about process in the coming weeks, but for now, enjoy some cell phone snaps of the exhibit..up all JUNE then done!

Im usually wary about bringing cameras to the beach, but the Hasselblad is a tank. I photographed out hang at Orange Beach, and i just love that quality..when i teach i still go over elements of film…”shoot for the wall”…