We Are Nashville

Faces of the Flood

On Saturday, May 1 and Sunday May 2, Nashville got 13.53 inches of rain. Our average for the months of May, June, and July are 12.92 inches. In the first two days of May we got more than our average for 3 months, or 28% of out yearly average. The Cumberland River, which runs through downtown Nashville, crested at 52 feet on May 3, 12 feet above flood stage.

I had never seen so much water fall in my life on Saturday. That is until Sunday. I awoke Sunday to find my basement flooded with 8 inches of water. Fortunately my air conditioner was the only fatality. I called in to work (like many photographers, I have [had] another job to help me support my photography habit) and was told that they had closed the mall and not to bother coming in. By now I knew this was not your normal spring shower so I set out with my camera to start documenting the event. I went out and shot some local scenes at Shelby Park and downtown. The river was incredibly swollen but I hadn't seen anything yet.

The creeks and tributaries seemed to crest first. I live on a hill and the flooding I had in my basement was from a creek in my backyard. As the tributaries flooded on Saturday and Sunday, they flowed downhill into the bigger rivers like the Duck, the Harpeth, and of course, the Cumberland. By Sunday evening, low areas by the Cumberland started to flood. Slowly at first and then, without warning, several feet in an hour. The Army Corps of Engineers which maintains the dams on the river was forced to open the floodgates on several dams. They did this to prevent loosing the control rooms to flood waters and thus saving the dams. Unfortunately no on in Nashville knew this was happening. Water that was was at ankle level on minute was at people's knees within minutes, over their heads within a couple of hours. Being on high ground as I was, I didn't even realize this was happening. Two of my friends on lower ground spent 5 hours evacuating people by kayak that evening.

On Monday, roads all over town were closed and reports were starting to come in about how bad the flood actually was. I went downtown again and shot some of the same scenes I had shot on Sunday, minus the rain. The waters of the Cumberland were still rising and didn't crest until later that evening. I drove to Opry Mills because I had heard that the Opryland hotel and the mall where I worked were flooded. Opryland had evacuated 1500 guests the night before. I arrived to find that I couldn't get within a half mile of the hotel or mall. Coast Guard crews were unloading flat bottom boats to initiate rescues. I saw wooden statue of Elvis floating on Macgavick Pike. I heard a report that they needed volunteers to fill sandbags at Metro Center. I got in my car and headed over there to help. I spent about an hour and a half looking for a route there but every road I tried was flooded. On Tuesday I was still in shock but didn't really know how to help. I went back to the Opryland area to see if the waters had receded and to see if I could find out anything about my retail job. No luck. I went home and tried to clean some of the stuff in my basement.

By Wednesday I had found a group called Hands On Nashville. They helped thousands of volunteers get to areas that needed help. Wednesday afternoon I spent several hours in the Pennington Bend area of Nashville helping people pull ruined items out of their houses, emptying refrigerators of items that had been warming since Saturday, trying to save family photos, and ripping up flooded carpet and carpet padding. Nasty work to be sure. It felt good to help these people but I thought I could do more. I had my camera with me and I went back into the area I had just worked to take pictures of the flood victims. There were so many areas of town that were not affected that did not know how bad the situation was. I thought that I could help by putting a face to all of this tragedy. I went back and photographed some of the victims in their gutted houses or among the things they had lost. I spent Thursday taking care of some of my own things, but went back out on Friday to Bellvue and East Nashville to shoot some more portraits of people that have lost so much more than me (I did lose my job at Opry Mills and my beloved mountain bike).

I have received a lot of good feedback on this project and hope to continue this week in other areas of town. Here are some of the portraits that I have shot. We Are Nashville, Faces of the Flood:

Nashville Bicycle Lounge

Wow, this blog thing really requires some, what would you say, sticktoitivness. It's been just over a month since my last post. I think that part of that is that I haven't been shooting much and most of my posts have been about past shoots. Recapping old shoots might be cool for the reader but it just makes me frustrated that I am not shooting more now.Well I did do a shoot recently for a new bike shop in town. The Nashville Bicycle Lounge will be opening this Saturday, April 10 and Dan, the owner and certified curmudgeon mechanic, asked me to do a shoot to show off his t-shirts. He got the models and the booze and left the rest of the shoot entirely in my hands. No Make-up artist, stylist, photog's assistant, or hors d'œuvre tray, I did the lighting and art direction and everything else. Here is the story of one of the photos:

That is the final, edited version of the photo showing both front and back of the masterfully designed logo created by Sharp Emmons. This is how we got there. I wasn't really sure yet what the final photo would look like. I wanted to show off the lounge area which is located in the back of the shop in between two work stations. I also wanted it to feel a little uninhibited, a place where you could really relax and have fun. First, a shot of the area from a ladder to see if the composition would work (handheld with available light). Notice that the models are prepping themselves with plenty of wine.
Then I decided a red gel on the background light would create a little of the red-light district look and add to the party atmosphere.

The key light was a 4 foot half dome with some warming elements above and to the left. You can see part of the light in the top left corner of this photo:

Some blue highlites on the Surly in the work stand just because:


We then added some props. Dan has been keeping all of the empty beer bottles and cans that have been consumed by he and others while working on the shop. Check out the coffee table and the shop bar in the background:

Still I don't have the finished shot in my head. This is a creative process and it is coming together one step at a time, each idea feeding off the previous. Dan likes a good party and is usually the last man standing. I thought that it would be funny to have a party going on around him that he has already checked out from so we experimented with a couple of versions:
And the winning frame:



A little Photoshop magic and there you have it.

The Art Building Project

There is this building in La Grande, Oregon that was once used by the railroad to work on trains. I called it The Art Building but now it is formally known as Waypoint Studio. This space is occupied by many interesting artists, most of whom have come through the art program at Eastern Oregon University. Some of the activities that go on there include painting, photography, woodworking, welding, metal fabrication and casting. In addition there is a practice and recording room that is home to the band Test Audiences. They occasionally perform shows there as well.


















The first time that I visited the space I was inspired to shoot it. There was so much going on in there visually that I knew the photos would be magical. I had a portrait studio in La Grande for about two and a half years and used the building as a personal project. I shot the building itself, the artists that use the building, and a couple of models with the building as the set.

Since I was friends with several of the people there, I hung out there quite a bit. Since they were artists, they were eager to let me shoot and help in any way they could.

The night I was shooting Tara in the ballet tutus and cowboy boots was a particularly memorable one. Tara is a dancer and her husband, Chris, is a web designer who built my site at the time. I had her outside the building and I lit her with various colored gels as she posed. We finished shooting around midnight. As I was packing up my lights Bill came down from the band practice room and asked if we wanted to do some welding. Well I had a willing model in a tutu and all my lights with me so I said of course we do. Tara had never welded anything in her life but jumped right in there with Bill as her tutor. Bill and Tara got the only good masks which left me with a pair of goggles that were not rated for the type of welding that she was doing. I set the lights up and shot at 1/30th of a second to get the sparks at just the right length. Although my eyes were a little sore the next day, I was thrilled with how the shots came out.

Video by Zach Arias

This is a video by Atlanta photographer Zach Arias. It is both depressing and inspiring if that makes sense at all. I like to watch it from time to time. It's short and I recommend that you watch it. That's why I'm posting it. That and it it keeps me from having to come up with an original blog post. Remember, the only job that cures cancer is the one that cures cancer.

I do wish I had a Richard Avedon button on my camera though.

Lensbaby

I have an original $99 Lensbaby. They have been around 6 years and have gone through a lot of changes. The first model has a single element plastic lens with 3 aperture rings that must be changed manually. The lens has a small in focus area and the rest is blurred. It is mounted on a bellows so that you can move the focus area around. It's a very fun lens but not accurate and not easy to use on a long exposure. Here are a few shots I took at my parents house on a very foggy night. The backlighting is provided by sodium vapor lights and is very orange. I converted them to gray scale in Photoshop. There are nine in this series that I call, quite cleverly, "The Foggy Night Series." I would like to have all nine printed on stretched canvas for a gallery show. Sponsors?

Oscar Meyer

Here are a couple of photos that fall into the right time at the right place category. I was driving by LP Field looking for something to shoot along the riverfront. The weather wasn't that great so I just shot a few frames of downtown to use for practice with the panoramic stitch tool. As I was waiting at a red light to turn on to Shelby, I spotted two Oscar Meyer Wienermobiles getting gas at the Daily's. They pulled out and got on the interstate. I was still waiting on the light. I thought they were going to get away. Finally the light turned green and I chased them up I-65 North. I got a few shots as I was driving. (Operating a camera while driving is not recommended)