The last week or so, after 70 days exploring other creative outlets, I’ve found that my focus has been drawn back to photography. I revived davidmonnerat.com, and will be posting my more of my photography-related posts on the blog over there. I’ve been reading some of the photography blogs that I used to frequent last year, finding inspiration.
As I found myself drifting deeper back in to photography, Chase Jarvis, one of the photographers from the “popular” clique that I still kept tabs on as I let most of those connections go, announced that he was doing another Chase Jarvis Live session, in which he  was going to do a photo shot for a band called We Are Augustines. I knew nothing of the band, but I know that when Chase does a photo shoot live, it’s always classy, informative, and generally mind-blowing. Chase was kind enough to link to the promo video for the band and their new album, Rise Ye Sunken Ships.
I was intrigued. And I tuned in.
The first hour or so was Chase interviewing the band, mixed with them playing some of their songs. It was a wonderful combination, and hearing some of the stories that were the inspiration for the songs on the album were, well, inspirational. It must be such a wonderful curse to be able to turn the negative, profound things that happen in one’s life in to a poem, a story, or lyrics. It’s something that I’ve not been able to do, even as the last few years have, in addition to the great joy, included much sadness for me.
Bill McCarthy, the lead singer, came across as a simple guy, sensitive, and sometimes profound. He talked about his brother, who suffered from mental illness and wound up taking his own life, and when he went in to a song, you could hear the emotion in his voice. I though on a few occasions it was as if when his mind pulled up the lyrics for him to sing, he was reliving different moments, and how painful it must still be.
I was impressed with how grateful they were of Chase’s time, and always the class act, I was equally impressed with how respectfully Chase treated them. Halfway through the live shoot, in between any of the photographic action, the cameras and the microphones captured Bill walking up to Chase and thanking him, it was…genuine. I don’t know, it’s not something you often see. In a world of egos, and celebrity, it was refreshing and inspirational to see how really, really grateful folks can be when they share a piece of themselves.
I started the day not knowing what an Augustine was, and ended the day impressed with who they were as people.
My wife is wonderful for a lot of reasons. Of course, she’s beautiful, smart, talented, a wonderful mother, and she did produce the most amazing son a father could ask for. But she also has a thing for holidays that I never developed, and she makes each holiday special for her boys.
Tonight’s post is a cross post from davidmonnerat.com. I had another friend ask me for advice on which camera to buy, so I decided to create an online guide.
I’ve been thinking about it for awhile (pronounced: a-hwile in honor of Family Guy), and tonight I’ve unofficially revived the blog over at davidmonnerat.com.
The main reason for doing so is to create a home for my photography related ideas. Of all of my interests, photography is my most established in terms of skill set and knowlege, and I would like to continue the work I did last year with establishing myself as a photographer, and doing that in a place focused entirely on my photography.
I don’t anticipate doing a lot of cross-posting between kettlepot and the davidmonnerat site, although I will, on occasion, reference one from the other. I really want that site to be more about my photography, the tools of the trade, and photography ideas in general, while kettlepot will be about my journey as a generalist.
So tonight’s post might be a little light in generalist substance, but I spent a lot of time earlier on a post for the other site. I haven’t figured out, long term, if posts on davidmonnerat.com will “count” for the 365, but tonight, it does. well, that, and this post. and i included a picture. so i’m covered.
after basketball, mom, dad, and hockey (probably in that order), apples are one of junior’s favorite things. he’s got the first part of the word down (English, anyway), and if the saying is true, he’ll be keeping the doctor away for quite some time since he eats them in bulk.
about the picture… i’m going to redo some of the head shots for the school since the wall i used initially was a weird texture and left some unfortunate shadows, and i wanted to play around a bit with blowing out the background. junior let me use him as a model for a few shots, apple in hand (and in mouth). i’m not sure if we’ll use the technique for the head shots, but never hurts to practice.
