To post or not to post that is the question these days...

I've been having more fun and taking this photography thing slightly more seriously than before, now that has led to the problem of me having pictures that I'm not sure what to do with.  I do enjoy going out as many of you know and most of these places serve alcohol, and seeing that I almost always have a camera around I do manage to get some interesting photos.  Which leads me to the conundrum that the title of this posts asks, do I publish these photos or do I sit here laughing at them?

Ahh pre-social networking days you just showed these photos to your friends, or at parties and go look how stupid so and so was or how drunk he/she was, now within 5 minutes everyone can find out about your idiotic dance moves, or what new and inventive way you've come up to hurt yourself.  Speaking with other photogs I've learned that almost everyone likes the camera guy and yes it does make it easier to approach certain ladies, albeit these ladies are usually attention whores who you would never bother to call back.  But seriously what is one to do with such photos, do you go up to the people and go look hahaha we were so funny and stupid, now can I post these for the world to see? I shall sit here lamenting with my choices and at the same time be thankful that I am the one behind the camera and not in front of it.

I need to refocus my attention

I now see why so many people don't do exhibits, or at least people with my attention span don't do them.  I love taking pictures and I love seeing how they come out, and am beginning to like the post production parts of it too.  My main problem is I want to keep going out to take more pictures of different things and not work on actually getting my photos ready for an exhibit.  I've actually agreed to an exhibit at a library, but I haven't actually taken the time to sit down and go through my photos and decide what I want shown.  I keep going out and taking more photos of new things, and this is complicating the process.  I love taking photos of urban decay and of Detroit in general, but then there's my nature shots that are pretty good too and seem to go over real well. 

Hmmm what to do, what to do? Do I keep postponing my exhibit, like I've been doing for months? Do I actually sit down and decide what the hell I have to do, or do I cop out and do a contrast of urban living in Detroit, and the serene peaceful nature of northern Michigan.  The beauty of destruction vs. the beauty of nature.  Well I'll figure something out and let everyone know, but most likely I'll cop out and do a split exhibit of my work, it's my show and I can do what I want!

Urban exploration is interesting

I found out this weekend that from now on I should not do it alone.  Walking around the abandoned Packard plant in Detroit, I got a nice little surprise turning the corner into a vacated office space and I that nice little surprise is a big homeless guy in a hoodie.  And when I say surprise I mean I was scared shitless, said I'm sorry and got the f*ck out of that building, the only good thing was the guy was as scared as I was when he saw me.  I really don't want to be another story on the local news so I just might find someone who will go exploring with me, hell a few people even offered to go and now I'll give them a call.

In other news a damn facebook note has gotten way too much recognition and been shared about 1000 times too many.  I cannot take credit for writing the note but that still hasn't stopped me from getting friend requests and messages in my inbox.  To the right wing nut jobs thanks for asking me if I have no balls because I follow government laws.  Also because I went to a catholic school it does not mean that you and I should be friends or that I share the same values as you do, and if I support the health care reform legislation it does not mean that I believe in a lawless government as you suggested.  Now to the left wingers, seriously stop telling me you are like me, stop telling me because we are in the same profession we should be friends, and stop sharing that damn note!

My banter about myself again

St. Patty's Day weekend in Detroit is always fun, first it starts on Sunday for the St. Patty's Day Parade and absolute insanity in Corktown; and yes I do mean absolute insanity.  It was a fun time with some fun people and I took a few good photos.  The place was packed with people, maybe not so much along the parade route but definitely in the bars, at Nemo's you could not move unless of course you just pushed your way through and everyone else just started to follow you.

But here are some of the highlights of the parade:



















and the one I call "Help me Obi-wan Kenobi you're our only...holy hell what happened to you?"


After the parade I ended up at a friends bar and late night we decided to go venturing out and see the abandoned beauty of Detroit, first to an old mechanic shop and then up the 14 stories of Michigan Central Station.  That was an interesting trip I was told to do it without a flashlight at night, then to only use the flashlight when absolutely necessary.  This might explain why someone needed stitches but never got them.  I slipped on the roof over the grand hall and that explains the bruised knee in the morning and scraped elbow, it took a second to figure out where the blood on my jeans and coat came from but I was ok, so it was my friend's blood.

And then on Wed. St. Patrick's Day, had breakfast and then spent too much money at the Old Shillelagh in Detroit, then had lunch at the Detroit Beer Co.  Some friends went to take a nap and I headed back to Donovan's Pub for  a few more and to hang out with some interesting people.  I learned that Howard's nickname is Mandingo...I will end the story there.  Then up to meet up with some more friends for a night cap and TOTS!!!!

In other news I got published in the Metro Times for my photo "Before the North wall Fell." Here is a link to the article: Metro Times
and here's a link to the photo:


Well that's all I'm going to say for now, I do have other stories but some just aren't meant to be told on here.

Blowout was awesome

I somehow survived this year's onslaught known as the blowout. Yes I did close out the bars every night, even though I worked 2 out of the 3 mornings of the blowout. It was an interesting series of events. The music was actually pretty good, hey I will blame the sound at the Gates for that one band, and then there was the unexpected, odd, holy hell am I doing drugs band known as Spaceband, imagine some 50-60 year olds who more than likely still live in their parents' basements wearing painters jumpsuits, beehive suits, a 1960s McDonald's uniform with werewolf mask, some sort of horned creature drummer and a wizard robe wearing triceratops mask lead singer, who also plays a mean fisher price saxophone. Best part of that band was that they actually sounded decent.

Then came work on Saturday morning, and holy hell I felt fine, to the annoyance of some and a surprise to others to see as they put it my "chipper mood." Story time had one of the funniest moments I've experienced in quite some time when the seven year old was asked what he wanted to wish for for his birthday and he said "I want to win the lottery," priceless!

Saturday after work I said I would take a nap, nope didn't happen and this was the last night of the blowout time to go full speed party mode on. Note to everyone if you challenge me in almost anything I will take the challenge no matter how stupid it may sound. If you challenge me to a beer drinking race I will finish my PBR in under 10 seconds (also this is a new challenge for the Olympics Bar Crawl, beer chugging) yes it will make my eyes water but I shall not lose a challenge. One problem I've noticed about knowing people at a bar before your friends show up is you can be 7-9 beers in before your group actually shows up, no more stopping by early for one drink for me. This also was the case on Monday when I stopped by for one drink at a Mexicantown bar and within 20 minutes had 2 people buy me another beer, it would have been three but this time I actually had the time to say no. Back to Blowout, apparently I also like to carry around and try to move signs.

But this is leading up to one of the best and most interesting parts of the Blowout, the unknown Detroit Marching band, which were awesome.

And yes she did play with the beer can on the drum.

Their next appearance is supposedly crashing the St. Patty's Day parade, I will be bringing my real camera to that one.

The night ended with some craziness at the Whiskey but not before some chair moving hi jinks to park at the Gates, thank you for driving Kasia.  So who's up for next year?

The last post needs some explanation

So the search warrant was at work not for me, some sheriff's deputies came to get some information on a patron and I said we can't and won't give anything without a search warrant. I told them they can make a request for information but it won't necessarily be honored, so two days later they came back with a court ordered search warrant. Lovely. I get to deal with two deputies about technology who have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, so I have to dumb everything down and explain how things on computers work. The other tech was trying to do the same thing to them but alas if a person does not understand technology you cannot really explain it to them in a few minutes.

In other news I'm hopefully going to get published in the Metro Times. I sent some photos in and the Arts & Culture editor wants to use mine along with some other photographers photos in an upcoming issue. HELL YEAH! Now if only I could figure out a way of making some steady income from this photography thing it would be even better. I have a friend who's helping me meet and talk with different photographers so recently I have met a Free Press photographer, a really cool combat photographer who got back to the states not too long ago, and a bunch of local photographers. By the way Detroit has many interesting/weird things to photograph with our art crowd here, and once you get to know them you keep getting invited to weirder and weirder things. I love this city.

Also so much to look forward to the Blowout, the Muse Concert, St. Patty's Parade in Corktown, St. Patty's day all over metro Detroit and after all that hopefully some sleep, rest and relaxation...but who am I kidding, I won't get any of the latter.

This week has kinda sucked...

Car accident, search warrant, almost broke my finger, ipod dies, phone dies, today I f*cked up my knee. Bring it on, I'm still here and kicking. Hopefully it can only get better.