Brian E. Rodriguez

Maumelle tops Nashville

2011-10-12T01:41:00.000-07:00

Maumelle's Jaylyn Smith hits Justin Kennedy to cause an incompletion in the end zone in Maumelle's 29-26 win over Nashville. Maumelle improved to 3-3 while Nashville dropped to 1-5 overall. See more photos at my Facebook page!

Bailey - THS

2011-08-09T12:42:00.001-07:00

Here's a preview of Bailey from Trumann High School. We met in Jonesboro for photos this weekend. Check my Facebook fan page for more!

Narowetz-Todd wedding

2011-07-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

This is my fun shot from Chris and Laura's wedding. We were working on a fun pose and it happily got a bit out of hand. See my Facebook fan page for more photos.

Gullixson-Green Wedding

2011-04-12T05:59:00.001-07:00

I like to get at least one fun photo in each wedding. Here, I enlisted the groom's twin brother. Calvin (right) was a good sport about it. See more in my Facebook club!

One year old

2011-03-17T01:06:00.001-07:00

Eleven months old

2011-02-18T18:30:00.001-08:00

Ten months old

2011-01-17T10:52:00.001-08:00

Nine months old

2010-12-19T23:44:00.001-08:00

Eight months old

2010-11-21T23:18:00.001-08:00

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

Seven months old

2010-10-23T09:20:00.001-07:00

Six months old

2010-09-19T20:34:00.001-07:00

Five months old

2010-08-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

Ashley - JHS

2010-08-09T22:55:00.001-07:00

Ashley came to Little Rock this weekend for her senior photos. I made sure to take her to the capitol for a few photos. This is one of my favorites, but I'm going to recommend she not use it for a senior photo. I think the scenery takes too much attention away from her, and she is the reason for the photo. I'll post my recommendations on my facebook fan page.

50th Anniversary

2010-07-30T00:44:00.000-07:00

I got to meet the Wyatt family last weekend when I photographed a 50th wedding anniversary party for Hershel and Dorcas. They were married without the big celebration, and to make up for it, they finally had a reception with a wedding cake. Watch my FaceBook fan page for more photos!

Four months old

2010-07-18T02:09:00.001-07:00

Happy 4th!

2010-07-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

This year I went to Jonesboro again for the firework show. We ended up watching Fireworks at the Fairgrounds. It's usually held the same day as 4th in the Forest, but they were held on separate days this year. It was nice, but the crowds were a lot larger. We had to park further away than usual, then walk around to find a spot away from the street lights so the photos would come out right. Because of that, I missed hearing the music the fireworks were synced to.

It was still nice to get out of the house and watch the show with my family. I got a little help from my Facebook friends in picking the photos to put up this time. I hope you like the photos.

Three months old

2010-06-19T16:17:00.000-07:00

Two months old

2010-05-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

One of our friends bought this dress last year for her daughter to wear to church on Easter Sunday. The dress was too small by the time Easter came, and she never got to use it. We planned on letting Alexis wear it to church on Easter Sunday this year, but it was too big!

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

This is Alexis again. When my wife's mother first learned she was going to be a grandmother, she went out to buy baby clothes. She was proud that she limited herself to buying only one dress, this one. It hung behind her in her home office for months.

Alexis

2010-04-20T00:45:00.000-07:00

This is Alexis, my baby girl, at one month old. She's wearing the dress that her mother wore home from the hospital.

A Christmas present

2010-01-14T22:53:00.000-08:00

I took this photo on Nov. 26, but I had to delay posting it because the shoot was to make Christmas presents for their parents and grandparents. Then I was delayed even more when I forgot and got busy with other things...

Staff Sgt. Brian Crider (right) already completed his service, including a tour of duty in "the sand" as a Ranger. Private First Class Joey Crider, his brother, graduated from boot camp last fall and is starting a career in the National Guard with the infantry.

The flag belongs to Brian. It flew over Kandahar, Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2003.

Tallulah

2009-10-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

I've been quiet for awhile, but I got to shoot with Tally again yesterday. We started with a simple outfit, but we didn't really know where to shoot with it. There's an overpass nearby that seems very used on top, but not so much underneath. We decided to start there. The bottom was alright, but a bottle at the top of the slope caught my attention. We went up and found a few books, a bottle of G2 Gatorade, a couple bottles of sauce, some old clothes, and a beat up umbrella.

We played around a little with what we brought, but the umbrella really caught my attention. We did a little Charlie Chapman play, but I liked the horrible weather and the light contrast it gave. I thought it may be better for a more depressing scene, and I'm glad we tried it. More photos are available on my FaceBook fan page.

Samantha Hart

2009-05-27T10:50:00.001-07:00

Samantha Hart found me on Net-Model and asked when we could shoot. I told her my odd work schedule, and I was surprised to have a shoot set up with very short notice - less than a week. We shot at seven different locations with off camera flash only. While there was a lot of driving, it wasn't too bad with the simple setup.

Ra'Shele's wedding

2009-04-10T23:45:00.001-07:00

Ra'Shelle, my wife's cousin, just married Ryan in her dad's church, Unity Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Ark. Weddings are always fun to shoot, but especially when the bride allows a little extra access.

Ra'Shelle was great about it. She let me drop in on the hairdressing and the makeup session, along with hanging out in the bride's room at the church. This is my favorite photo from the day. We were sitting in the bride's room, which happened to be the church nursery. There were stuffed animals all around, and I told her to grab one and look scared. She wasn't, but it's always fun to play around.

Memphis Zoo

2009-03-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

Erika and I went the Memphis Zoo. It's the first time I had been since college, when I was one of several Arkansas State University interns for the National Press Photographers Association's annual convention. It seems they have changed a lot about the zoo, but maybe it's just been too long since I've been.

They did not have a polar bear, seal, or panda exhibit when I was there though. The polar bear wasn't even talked about, but there was a very, very bad panda bear announcement. I remember there was a large cage with a life-size animatronic panda inside, but the electrical substitute wasn't even turned on. This time I got to see two of them in a large, glassed in cage. One was trying to get some rest, while the other was munching on bamboo reeds. I was disappointed that I could not get a good photo of the polar bears or the seals though.

On the other hand, I was quite lucky with the orangutan. The ones at the Little Rock Zoo have never really done anything. They pull a blanket over their body and lay there like a giant trash heap, sometimes reaching out for nearby lettuce. The one at the Memphis Zoo didn't do a whole lot more, but I was quick enough to grab a photo before he stopped. He had been perched up high on the zoo's "fort," and he put his blanket in his mouth to hold onto while he climbed down the ropes to sit on the ground.

Tallulah

2009-02-19T21:40:00.000-08:00

This is Tallulah, who I also met on Model Mayhem. We have been working on getting together for some time now, and it was nice to finally get to work with her. We went to the formerly abandoned building I've used before, only to find someone had erected a little shanty inside with leftover construction materials. Whoever resides there now was not there, but we had to be careful walking around. There was no toilet or outhouse hole in the ground, but it smelled like the new resident had created a new bathroom in one spot...

first car shoot

2009-02-10T23:40:00.000-08:00

I had my first car shoot Jan. 30 with Lauren from Model Mayhem. Her buddy was selling his RX-8 and they wanted a quick shoot to commemorate the occasion.

Jessi

2009-01-21T20:47:00.000-08:00

I've wanted to shoot a take on Tom Cruise' role in Risky Business for some time now. Then the Guitar Hero World Tour commercials came out, making me want to shoot it even more. It took awhile searching for a volunteer on Model Mayhem, and then I found Jessi.

I liked Tom in Risky Business, but the commercials gave us an idea for more props to play with. Here's one of my favorites.

Lauren - continued...

2008-12-23T23:00:00.000-08:00

The fashion photos were great, but we still wanted to get some more goth-like photos. We needed a darker setting, but we weren't sure where to go. The first place I thought of was a run down building near the post office on Main St. I had seen it a few times in passing before, but I never thought to shoot there until the last time I shot with Ernie. I showed up just as he wrapped up shooting an outfit with Alli. She changed outfits and we changed location before I could explore it. The one regret he had, he said, was that he couldn't go inside for lack of trust for the critters and so forth that may be inside the growth.

I took Lauren for a look and found the cold had driven out any pests that may have been there before; spiders, bugs, bums... There was a lot of trash inside from people who had either wasted a little time or spent a few nights there. It's not my type of thing, so it won't be in my portfolios, but here's one of the images we set up the shoot to get. For good measure though, I had to insert one that's more my style as well.

Lauren

2008-12-20T22:15:00.000-08:00

As with Fuzer L'Via and Whitney Cherrell, I met Lauren on Model Mayhem. We've been trying to set up a shoot for a bit, and it finally happened this month. I'm starting to like Model Mayhem.

The idea was to set up a goth shoot. I originally thought of using a basketball court for the grafitti. We could shoot to where the grafitti wouldn't show, but she thought better of it. We went to some railroad tracks at Rebsamen Park to start it off. I shot there my first time with Alli, and it was fun to go back.

The place didn't quite fit the goth style we were looking for, so we ended up with more fashion-like photographs.

Michael and Carryssa

2008-12-06T01:00:00.000-08:00

I got to see my family this Thanksgiving. I even got to see Carryssa, my future in-law. According to the Weddingbook application on Facebook, there are only 168 days to go!

Tennis, anyone?

2008-12-04T01:19:00.000-08:00

This is Whitney again. After shooting in the Devil outfit, she mentioned she had seen an outfit similar to this online. The hard part was, we had no props for it, which means no theme.

Since my first couple attempts to shoot, I found that having no props can be quite boring. There are only so many standard poses you can do in any outfit, and doing the same poses, no matter in how many different outfits, gets old.

This looked like a cute, fun outfit, and I remembered I had my tennis racket in the trunk of my car. I bought it early this year, but I never could find anyone to play with. Even playing a bit against the backboard, the grip was still new enough to fit in with the outfit, instead of needing a more athletic outfit to go with a worn racket.

We drove about a mile down the road to University Park to find tennis courts. Now that I think about it though, University Park, named for the proximity to the street, isn't really on S. University Ave. It's a few blocks over.

The Devil went down to Arkansas?

2008-11-24T09:09:00.000-08:00

I'm really late posting this, but shooting with Alli and Malissa made me really want to do some Halloween shoots this year. I was only got one extra model for the project, but I think it turned out well. This is Whitney from Model Mayhem.

We were both looking for something fun to do when she ran across a Halloween casting call I made. She said she had a Desirable Devil costume from a couple years ago that we could play with, so we did. We started out at some stairs about a mile away from my place, then moved on to Broyle Park for our second setting.

Costumes are great, but I don't like shooting anything with nothing for the model to play with. It gets boring. So when I was thinking of the devil shoot, the first thing I though of was the old country song, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." Before we left to shoot, I grabbed my guitar. I told her to pretend she was a rock star. I guess it's teasing to tell you about the guitar without showing a photo with it, but they didn't come out as well as I had hoped. Sorry. On the plus side though, you get to see my new image stamp with this set. What do you think?

The Old Mill

2008-10-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

I took Erika to The Old Mill in North Little Rock for some bridal photos. She wanted some for her wedding, as most brides do, but somehow, we never got around to it. So here we are, three years later, giving it a try. The old dress didn't fit anymore, but we found a similar dress at a shop in Little Rock.

The mill is a historic recreation of an 1880s water-powered grist mill, and it was used in the opening scenes of the classic movie, Gone with the Wind. The mill was contracted in 1933 by Justin Matthews and was built in 1933, and was to be a dedication to the memory of Arkansas' pioneers. The mill was recognized nationally in 1986 when it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

I shot a lot of photos that I really liked, but there isn't room to put them all up here. It was hard choosing my two favorites to post. These were shot with fill light from off camera flash.

Little Red Riding Hod

2008-10-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

I met up with my friend, Ernie, late last month for a themed shoot in Little Rock. We shot with Alli as Little Red Riding Hood and Fuser as the wolf. Through most of the shoot, I had the old song going through my head. Li'l Red Riding Hood was recorded by Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs in 1966, and the song name was also the title of the album. Here's one of my favorite photos from the shoot:

Branson - no photos, please

2008-09-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

We went to Branson, Mo., this year for a late anniversary trip. It was quite enjoyable vacation, but it was hard on a photographer. Almost everywhere we went, they had posted "No Cameras." I've been at places before where they have restricted professional cameras, like WWF events, but most of the city seemed to have a problem with cameras.

We went to a couple shows and the camera clause is not unexpected, so people have to come pay to see what the big deal is. We ended up going to the Branson Landing, a very large strip mall. Somewhere in there, there was a multimillion dollar light and water display that plays each hour, and then every thirty minutes at the end of the night. We saw the very end during the day, and decided to return that night, but the there was something wrong with it. We tried again the next night and saw a fire/water/light show synced to music shown in the photos you see here.

Even this was a problematic place for photos though. Between shows, I tried get an interesting shot of the mall at night. It was closed, so I tried to get a decent "street scene" shooting through the middle of the shopping center. As I was shooting, a guy on a golf cart rolled up and told me I could take all the photos I wanted, but I could not reproduce any because everything is copyrighted. For everyone's information though, anything that can be seen from a public place can be photographed and reproduced. The courts had a little sense with cases like this - If anyone can freely walk around and see something, why must you hide photos of that something?

Hornet's Nest

2008-09-17T00:03:00.000-07:00

I was going to post a photo or two from my vacation to Branson, Mo., but I got home and found a big problem outside. I wanted to get in pretty close for a great photo, but you can only get so close to these dangerous little beasties. I'm not sure how we managed to miss them building it up this big.

I mounted my 105mm macro lens and got as close as I dared. A couple flew toward me to check me out, then flew back to the nest. I had leftover bug spray fluid in a jar from something else. I don't know that it was made for, but I decided to try it. I filled a cup with it and thew it on the nest, then ran inside. We'll have to see if it works or not.

Arkansas Twisters vs. Texas Copperheads

2008-08-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

I got to go to my first arena football game last month. It was the last game of the regular season for the Arkansas Twisters, who played the Texas Copperheads at Alltel Arena in Little Rock. Arena ball seems kind of like the original NFL Blitz game. They don't field a full 11 men like in regular football, they play on half a field, and there is a lot of show. There were two mascots, two cheerleading squads, fan games in each timeout, T-Shirts shot into the stands, free mohawk haircuts... It was a really interesting atmosphere, and the half field made for a really high-scoring game.

The Twisters ended up winning 78-26. This is my favorite shot on the night. Copperhead Tim Riley makes a touchdown catch with Twisters Tracy Belton and Nick Allison trying to break up the pass.

Pulaski County spray day

2008-08-05T00:33:00.000-07:00

I always love spray day. Why? Because I'm not getting sprayed.

It was even better that this time, because a few of the rookies asked me if I would be at spray day as well. It's always fun to watch, but having an invitation from the ones being sprayed makes it even better.

The best part of the show this time, surprisingly, was a helper. Sgt. Yates was holding the final bag, which was used for baton strikes. He played with the rookies, taunted them, and made it fun for everyone. I noticed in a lot of the photos I went over, that there are a lot of smiles at his station, even with the burning of the spray. I can't help but think though, that the sarge reminds me of Eustace from "Courage the Cowardly Dog."

PCRDF defense tactics

2008-07-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

My friends, Sergeants Bennett and Bangs, were selected to attend a defense tactics class so they could be certified to teach defense tactics. The current class ended up being the first they were allowed to teach, and I got to drop by to take a few photos. I've been taking prints of the best photos to the training sergeant and he's been putting them on the wall to give an idea of what they'll be going though later one in training and as deputies. This is Bangs teaching. He looks kind of mean here, but he's barely touching the rookie.

Freedom Fest 2008

2008-07-05T23:33:00.000-07:00

I went to Jonesboro this year for the Fourth of July. It was nice, since I was stuck at work last year and was not able to see the Little Rock firework show, even from the windows. Of Jonesboro's two shows, Freedom Fest and Fourth in the Forest, we ended up going to Freedom Fest. Along with seeing Fourth in the Forest the last time I was in Jonesboro, we were hoping Freedom Fest would give us a better route to exit the show.

We got to the Northeast Arkansas District Fairgrounds about two hours early and pretty much listened to everyone else's music and watched their fireworks go off while we waited for the 9:30 showing. The fireworks were set to music that was synced between the three stations at 9:30. It started with the National Anthem, and the show continued with almost 30 minutes of music.

Freedom Fest was put on by the Triple FM Radio Group, which includes 104.9 The Fox, 100.5 The Eagle, and Mix 106.7. The radio group's goal was to put together the biggest free fireworks display in Jonesboro history. I never heard any stats on having the most fireworks, having spent the most money on them, or having the longest-running display in town, so I can't say if it was, indeed, the largest in Jonesboro history. The show was pretty good though.

For the curious, here's how I shot it: I set up my Nikon D200 with Sigma 28-70mm lens. To have less digital noise ("film grain"), I dropped down to ISO 800, which let me make exposures of one to five seconds to capture plenty of motion as the fireworks streaked through the sky. I started at five seconds, but the quick successive bursts proved too much, making a large cluster of white "hair," so I tried to drop the shutter speed as the shots picked up.

The Art Scene

2008-06-18T00:56:00.000-07:00

There's a group of artists in Little Rock calling themselves The Art Scene, and they meet the second Friday of each month at the Market Street Cinema in Little Rock. If you've only been around high school artists, I can't really help give a visual. But if you've been around serious college artists, you can picture these people together.

Each month they get together after hours at the cinema for some kind of art work in the main lobby of the cinema with extras in the individual movie theaters. This time there were bands playing in one theater, glow body painting near the dance area in the lobby, and a painting and sketching area. The Art Scene planned for a burlesque theme with few models and a photo shoot, which is where I came in.

Alli invited a few models and photographers from Model Mayhem to come along to enjoy a type of "open shoot" with The Art Scene's monthly event. I was one of three photographers there, and we set up in one of the theaters. After a bit of exploring, I decided to leave the theater and use a mural on one of the walls. I thought the busy wall with bright colors would be a great contrast to her outfit. This is my favorite from the night.

SBTS Graduation

2008-05-23T00:07:00.000-07:00

My brother, Michael, graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., last week. He earned a Master's degree in Divinity in Education, and will start as a youth minister at First Baptist Church in Andalusia, Alabama, next month.

He graduated from Kennett High School in 2001 and went to college at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Speech Communication with a minor in Music.

He founded a Christian club in junior high, and became the president of that one and the high school's Christian club, the Alpha and Omega Club. He started a project called The Journey, and interned as a youth minister every summer in college. I was proud to see him graduate.

The bottom photo is SBTS President R. Albert Mohler, Jr., presenting Michael his degree. His speech was about as long as his very distinguished name and title.

Patience at the Zoo

2008-05-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

We went to the Little Rock Zoo again last weekend. I love to see the animals, but taking pictures of most is just a snapshot of a sleeping animal or a sitting animal. Moving quickly from one to another, you can only see the same thing, but sticking around can get some sort of action to view.

The first is some small monkey that I cannot recall the name of. When we first came around, it was boring. You could barely see it. Then it was just grooming another, perhaps picking fleas. I walked away and came back to see it was a little more active. I got my camera ready and waited, and waited... Then it grew curious, and came up to the window for a better view. It left and came back, and left and came back, tilting its head this way and that. I guess we kind of entertained each other for a bit.

Next is the tiger. The cat family is my favorite. There were two. One came out of the water and plopped down, and the other was already laying down. The people I was with took off to look for something more exciting than cats laying down, trying to sleep. The cats yawned a few times and I saw its massive teeth. Then it groomed itself like a cat, licking its paws and rubbing its head. It's not often you get to see a killing machine act like a common house cat.

4A State Soccer Post Season

2008-04-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

I took time on my only day off this week to enjoy photographing Jonesboro's Westside High School beat the pants off of DeQueen at Burns Park in North Little Rock.

Westside junior Kelsey Elrod led the Warriors with solid play against a lackluster DeQeen team. Dequeen passed into Westside territory less and less, especially in the second half, and seemed content to play defense to keep the score down.

Westside started with an early lead and Dequeen tied it up 1-1 just before halftime. Elrod scored about 30 minutes into the second half with a high kick over the Dequeen goalie's head to take the lead. Westside scored one more finish the game 3-1. Erin Wisdom and Heaven Howard each scored for Westside, and Elrod and Genie Jackson each tallied an assist.

With the win, Westside moves on to meet two-time defending champion Central Arkansas Christian of North Little Rock. The semi-final game will be held Monday at at 3 p.m. Burns Park.

The Warriors will need their players to step up against Central Arkansas Christian. Christian played on the field next to Westside on Saturday and took an impressive 7-0 victory over Green Forest.

Sticks and Strings in Batesville

2008-03-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

I got to see the band again the next day. It's just taken forever to get to uploading something. The band seems to play mostly classic rock and country. This is a photo of Deral Duncan belting it out, I think, on Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird. Sticks and Strings plays most weekends. You can see their schedule on their myspace page.

Sticks and Strings in Waldenberg

2008-03-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

I got to see Sticks and Strings at a bar in Waldenberg on the 14th. The band includes Deral Duncan on lead guitar and vocals, Terry Crider sharing lead guitar, keyboard and vocals, Willard Workman on bass and vocals, and Tim Beard on drums.

This is Terry. He's the best guitar player I've heard in person. I bug him to show off during the songs, but he's somehow modest about his talent.

Honor Guard at the State Capitol Building

2008-03-17T08:47:00.001-07:00

The Pulaski County Sheriff's Office Honor Guard had a full dress rehearsal at the Arkansas State Capitol Building last Wednesday.

I got to go, but was more or less a second photographer. The county's Public Information Officer, John Rehrauer, was there taking pictures. It was fine though, because I had to be in most of the photos to update the county's web site, which is in desperate need up updating. Beside the old graphics and design, it still features Sheriff Randy Johnson, though we're coming to the end of Sheriff Doc Holliday's first term and his first shot at reelection.

We started outside at the Arkansas Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, but the start time was noon. The sun was high and gave too much contrast, and wearing our hats did not help any. We either got faces or uniforms exposed just right, so I was not happy with most of these. Then we moved inside and found a set of seemingly white marble steps with a skylight above it. There was just enough light to get some grainy photos with the light bouncing back up from the staircase as a large reflector. At the end of the shoot, we did an improvised portrait session of each member with our United States flag lowered behind each person for a better background. Unfortunately, the flag was hand held, not posted up somewhere, so not all the portraits came out as well as Dep. Lavigne's did.

The original plan for the day was just to take photos on the outside steps. Had I known we were going inside, I would have brought my lights to improve the outcome. I'll take them with me next time, just in case. The bottom photo is the lieutenant with the rifle team, about a third of the Honor Guard.

Snow!

2008-03-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

It snowed twice this week. I was lucky enough to get to take pictures before going to work on Tuesday and a few more today since I have the day off from work. Even if there isn't a good reason to take photos, you have to take photos of the snow. I didn't really have a good reason, so I drafted my dogs to help again. Here's Leia romping through the snow on Tuesday morning.

Women's Tennis - UALR vs. UTM

2008-02-22T14:34:00.001-08:00

I went to a University of Arkansas at Little Rock tennis match today and saw them play the University of Tennessee at Martin. They played at the indoor facility at Burns park where the Lady Trojans topped the Skyhawks 5-2.

My favorite match featured UALR's Laetitia Bourgean, a five-foot-ten-inch senior of Poittiers, France. Bourgean really got into the match and had a Tiger Woods-like fist pump after winning each point. As she started to fall behind in points, she became louder and louder, yelling, "Come on Trojans!" Her efforts to pump herself up proved ineffective as she got down on herself and grew tired late into the match.

Bourgean had already completed a doubles match with Rebecca VanDen Houte against Belisa De Brito and Sara Leavy to win 8-2. Bourgean took the first set, but ended up losing the next two to drop the match to Elizma Schoonees 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Rhonda

2008-02-20T10:56:00.000-08:00

I met Rhonda through One Model Place and got to do a shoot with her last month. I prefer to get my ideas from getting to know a person I'm photographing. She said she played a few instruments, and we went from there.

Rhonda plays the piano, violin and cello. For a strange juxtaposition, I suggested playing the violin on a rooftop. The simplest way to do that was to find the top of a parking garage, and she was nice enough to try my strange idea.

We had been trying to hammer out the details for at least a month. We finally got to shoot, but it was pretty darn cold. When I walked out of the house, I saw my first breath in front of me. When I got home a few hours later, The Weather Channel's web site said it was finally up to 48 degrees and felt like 45. She was great about it though.

I asked if she would bring something dressy to help the odd mixture of using a classy, indoor instrument outside. She brought dresses, so we had to take a few breaks to warm up.

She surprised me and brought her cello as well. I didn't want to shoot the cello on the roof top, so we went to a church parking lot because I wanted the large concrete expanse behind her. We played around a bit, but I think I liked how sitting on this wall turned out much better than my first idea.

playing with my dog

2008-01-22T11:14:00.000-08:00

I was playing with my dogs today and saw my camera nearby. Here's a photo of one. The other seems to be camera shy. I can hold it, but when I lift it up, she runs away.

my dog likes pretzels

2008-01-14T06:50:00.000-08:00

I don't have a lot to say here. I just thought it was cute.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T21:28:00.000-08:00

Christmas is great for seeing family. The only hard part is making the long drives to see them. This year I had about a three and a half hour trip to make. Toward the end of the trip, I was beginning to have trouble with the long drive. About six miles south of Corning, we found this field loaded with migrating geese. I pulled over and grabbed my camera for a quick break. The birds were quite boring on the ground, so I honked my horn. That didn't work. So I started walking down the side of the field and more and more took off until they filled the sky. Perhaps it was mean to harass the birds a bit, but it woke me up for the rest of the trip home.

Little Rock Zoo

2007-12-03T23:47:00.000-08:00

It had been awhile since I made a trip to the zoo, so I was happy to be invited for a little fun. I left my camera at home the last couple of times and really missed it, so I brought it with me this time. The last time I took my camera to a zoo was around 2002 when I still had a film camera. It was the Memphis Zoo. This is my first digital trip, and it was to the Little Rock Zoo. There isn't much more to say, so here are my favorites:

"10-Year" Reunion

2007-11-24T22:25:00.000-08:00

I went to my "10-year" high school reunion last month. I say 10-year a bit sarcastically because we were in the Class of 1997, which is the 1996-1997 school year. So, with it being held in the fall of the 2007-2008 school year, it seems to technically be an 11-year reunion. At least, to the very, very picky, which my school produced several.

Just to rub it in a bit more, we pulled out old issues of The Tatler, our high school newspaper, and we found an article that read, "It's the year 2009. The class of 1997 is meeting for an unusual twelve-year reunion. Are we surprised? The reunion has been organized by senior class president Nida Luangjamicorn, who is still late after all these years."

The article tried to mention every Senior with what may have happened in the next 10 (or twelve) years. As for myself, it read, "There is another tie between Brian Rodriguez and Michael Leaker for the award of "Biggest Turnaround." Michael is a counselor at a Christian school and Brian is the host of "Headbanger's Ball" on MTV."

Neither of those happened, but it was great to see everyone and catch up. I think just over half of the class returned, though not all to the same event during the weekend. There was the homecoming game, an ice cream social, a dinner and dance, then a breakfast before returning to the present.

September vacation

2007-11-11T20:57:00.000-08:00

This is very, very late. I wasn't going to post it because it wasn't in my original intent for the blog, but I want to post a few others that fall outside my original intent. So here goes...

A couple months ago I took my first vacation from work in a year. My wife and I went to Panama City Beach in Florida as a late second anniversary trip for our July 2005 wedding. Our check-in time at the hotel was listed as any time past three p.m., and it was a long trip, I think 10 hours. My wife thought it would be longer, but I thought 10 hours was long enough. I got off work at 11 p.m. and went home to shower, then we packed up and left a little after midnight.

It was a very long trip, so we were glad when the hotel let us check in early. We had several days at a great spring break beach without the overcrowding that comes with students celebrating spring break there. I tried to get a neat shell or two to bring home like we did from our last vacation, but every shell that was intact seemed to have a little critter in it - I think hermit crabs. So instead, we had to buy our souveniers.

We also went to Gulf World Marine Park. It was a small zoo with a lot of exotic birds and aquatic animals. We stuck around and saw several of the shows. There was the shark feeding, the reptile show, the coral show, a sea lion show and a dolphin show. The dolphins were awesome, but the sea lion did a couple tricks and got boring. He didn’t care about the fish treats. He went over to the corner by the door to his pen and wouldn’t look at the trainer.

The coral show was kind of funny. A diver swam in a huge tank with and picked up several pieces of coral for another worker to tell about. While the diver was busy, the other guy kept telling us about the the fish that were swimming with the diver, but there was a sea turtle that wouldn’t leave the diver alone during the performance. It kept coming up to the diver like an annoying little puppy that won’t go away.

Pulaski County fallen officers memorial

2007-08-29T00:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a rare opportunity. I joined the Pulaski County Honor Guard a while back. I don't have my full honor guard uniform yet, so I got to sit this one out. Since I was on the sidelines anyway, I thought I'd bring my camera.

The Pulaski County Sheriff's Office got its own fallen officer's memorial on July 26. Speakers included Sheriff Charles "Doc" Holloday, Judge E.G. "Buddy" Villines, and Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel. There was a 21-gun salute, but it was a bit different. The Sheriff's Office qualifies with handguns and shotguns, so the "rifle squad" used shotguns. We also had Investigator Serena Thearl "play" taps on the bugle. I was told we have a nice, fancy-pants bugle that plays taps on its own when you push a hidden button. Chaplains Charles Winters and James Reynolds did the opening and closing prayers.

The speeches were said, and then the sheriff and Lt. Potter put a giant wreath near the memorial. Then the lieutenant read a short piece on what happened to the officers while their family members were escorted up to place a rose at the base of the memorial. The fallen officers are:

James Brooks Jackson 12/28/41

James Addison Avant 7/24/86

Wayne, Martin Bryant, Jr. 3/18/88

Along with the names, the memorial features a Bible verse: "Blessed are the peacemakers: For they shall be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9

Aaron-Hill - the reception

2007-08-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

The reception was held at Lindsey's Hospitality House in North Little Rock. The most entertaining part of it was the boquet toss. We started with a fake toss and then went on to the actual toss. One of the ladies jumped in front of a bridesmaid to snatch it from an easy catch.

Lindsey's catered the reception and made some very good southern food. The cake was made by TaRonda Anderson. I'm not sure what his name was, but the DJ played good music the girls enjoyed line dancing to.

Aaron-Hill - the wedding

2007-08-02T09:53:00.001-07:00

Charles and Toya were wed by Apostle Lawrence Braggs with help from Pastor Adron Poole. Braggs leads the Awareness Center International, where the ceremony was held, and Poole leads the Faith and Glory Christian Fellowship in Blytheville, Ark.

In true journalism style, I shot what happened without really knowing how things would go. Even the wedding planner did not seem to know where everything would happen. I did my best by looking over the bulletin and guessing where things would be, and then I tried to help the videographer - an uncle who happened to bring his camera.

I usually try to shoot some of the posed photos before the wedding to speed up the trip to the reception, but I didn't get to in this wedding. In the meantime, I explored the wedding hall as thoroughly as I could while I waited for something to happen. I found a couple ways up to the balcony, a couple ways into the choir loft where I arranged some chairs to gain a little extra height, and moved the church's main camera over so I could stand in the center of the podium.

Once the ceremony started, things just fell into place. I started in the choir loft and was pretty much able to rotate counter clockwise around the wedding hall to get everything from close-ups to wide angles. Moving around so much also gave me views and ideas I did not consider before the wedding. The unity candle is one of those, where I played with depth of field to show off one of the most important parts of a wedding that is seldom played up in wedding photography.

Aaron-Hill - before the wedding

2007-07-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

I got to photograph another wedding on June 30, this time, for Adriadne LaToya Aaron and Charles Dewayne Hill. The bride said she got tired of everyone mispronouncing her name, she she goes by Toya, a shortened version of her middle name.

The plans were a bit difficult to solidify, but they worked out alright. She called about three months beforehand to book the date, and I asked for the day off at work to get ready. I didn't hear from her for more than a month, so I got worried. I started to make plans on how to else I could waste my rare day off from my "real" job, but she called again about a month out. The date was set.

The wedding was to be held at Awareness Center International at 900 S. Pine in Little Rock. If anyone wants to check it out, it's about a block south of I-630 at the Pine and Cedar exit.

As with most wedding locations though, it was dark. I was lucky enough to have the coordinator point out that there were TV lights available. They didn't brighten the main room as much as I wanted them to, but they did help.

Ra'shele and Erika

2007-07-14T00:44:00.000-07:00

I spent last Sunday with a couple of beautiful girls, Ra'shele and Erika. I may be a bit biased because we're related, but it was fun.

We started off at Boyle Park, the park Bailey introduced me to a couple months ago. I wanted to start off using the same spot actually, because it was very bright outside when the weekend was supposed to be fairly cloudy. Bailey's spot would have been perfect because it has a great view with plenty of trees to provide shade. Shade, if you get coverage between the sun and your subject, gives great light to work with instead of the hard shadows that come with direct sunlight.

The spot I wanted to use though, was just on the other side of a damn after several days of good rainfall. It had high water and too much debris built up to brave Bailey's side of the creek, so we went to the other side to start things off. The light was a bit rough, but I think their outfits worked well with the light.

We also went to the playground equipment there. There was an episode with a wasp, so we tried another playground, one that belonged to a local elementary school, before returning home to set up shop for portraits.

Little Rock Academy flag raising

2007-06-28T23:51:00.000-07:00

Today was the third day of weapons qualification training for ten Pulaski County Sheriff's Office jail deputies. I was one of them. The first day was done in the classroom: learning the laws and policies. Day two was a complete day of practice shots, and today had a hint of practice capped off with pistol and shotgun testing. Since I needed it for work, I concentrated on testing instead of photographing my coworkers testing. Before we started though, we got to watch a little action at the Little Rock Training Academy.

The academy is where the Little Rock police officers are trained, and they go through more of a military-style academy than officers who train at Camden. Camden, as far as I know, is where the rest of the state trains. About ten minutes before we were to start our range time, the Little Rock cadets came out in formation to start the early morning flag raising ceremony.

Alli

2007-06-01T00:41:00.000-07:00

I'd been hearing about Alli from Ernie, reading about her on his blog, and running across her every once in a while on One Model Place. I finally got to meet her and shoot with her the last time Ernie came to town for a shoot.

Ernie and I met at the Arkansas Arts Center and waited for her. He reminded me that the fun part of shooting with her is that he never knows where he's going to end up. When she arrived, she had an outfit, and idea, and a location idea.

We went with it.

There was a short drive north to find a couple benches connected by an arch made of concrete and glass. It looked alright, but we were still wary of the glass, especially Alli, since she was near it the most.

Alli said she has been modeling for a couple years now. She seems to prefer wild ideas and is currently exploring the look of Japanese pop culture that has garnered American attention with the help of Shoichi Aoki and his book, Fruits. Alli is also available as a makeup artist.

Bailey Newcomb

2007-05-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

I met Bailey at Arkansas State University, sometime after I'd taken a photo of her during a Student Government Association meeting and published it in The Herald. She said, on top of not liking it in general, she saw a doctored copy that wasn't very flattering that was taped to the wall of an elevator on campus. For that, I didn't mind at all that she was the first to take me up on my free photos offer.

The photos started off at my place with my living room serving as a makeshift studio. We used the walls I painted with my wife's color choice for the background, though the background was a bit darker than I'd like for it to be.

Next we went to Boyle Park. The great part about offering free photos in Little Rock was the option to let my subjects choose where they'd like to be photographed. Bailey, being from Little Rock, took me to Boyle Park, which I hadn't heard of before. The park is full of good locations and we only used one of them.

We only used one though, because of an unfortunate incident.

We were using a small creek, Rock Creek, that was almost empty to shoot in. We started with large rock groups and played with a few trees. I was scouting ahead for another location in the creek when it happened. There was a spot I really wanted to use, but there were a lot of small rocks to get through to get there, but she had near spike heels that would fall through them, and the rocks were too small to feel comfortable under her feet. As I was trying to find a way for her to get to the spot, I somehow sliped and fell into the creek along with my camera.

I hadn't been ready to quit yet, but since electronics are nearly alergic to water, we agreed it may be a good idea to postpone the rest of the shoot. I the batteries and memory card out, then seperated the camera, lens and flash to dry for several days. It works, but it was quite a scare for a while.

Louden-Dutasaca - the reception

2007-05-04T10:02:00.001-07:00

The reception possibly doubled the amount of photos I took. Doubling took me to almost 800 photos in one day. It took quite a while to sift through them all and filter out the ones that weren't good enough, and then it took even longer to edit the leftovers. To get to the reception though...

As with this subject, it took a while to get the reception going. We shot some posed photos before the wedding, but we shot ones with the men and women seperately. After the wedding, we shot the rest of the posed photos with the entire wedding party together. Then there was lull in the action. Valerie Linker, the wedding coordinator, then ushered the bride and groom upstairs Cloak and Dagger style to await their grand entrance. And they waited, and they waited... So they pulled out their departing shirts to show me for a little fun.

The reception was held at the Nixon Flower Farm. The happy couple came downstairs to their song, but the DJ didn't play it loud enough for anyone to hear it, so it was played again. They began with a round of toasts and the cake cutting, then came the fun.

There was eating and drinking and dancing. Michi and Leo started with their own dance and a wonderful moment followed as Michelle danced with her father to Bob Carlisle's "Butterfly Kisses."

Louden-Dutasaca - the wedding

2007-04-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

The wedding was a traditional outdoor wedding with a slight addition, the San-San-Kudo. Michelle's grandmother, Toyo Ebehara Eng performed the sacred ritual used in Japanese weddings that translates as "three times three." I'm not sure where the multiplication came in, but the ritual requires silence for beauty. They share sake as the equivalent of promising lifelong devotion.

Michelle and Leo had written their own vows for the wedding ceremony. Leo was especially worried before the wedding that he would forget his vows. He was finally talked into taking his written copy down the isle just in case. Somehow though, the vows were overlooked in the ceremony. They both commented on the oversight afterward, but it was too late.

The music was provided by Pamela Gibson and the harp and Gwenn Higginbotham on the flute. This provided a fun challenge on the day. Harps are never good outdoors, and Gwenn said the humidity and the temperature difference between the inside and outside would not be good for the pads on the flute. I'm not sure what preparations had been made, but by the way everyone acted, it did not seem that anyone had really planned on how to get the music outside for the ceremony. They ended up using a little electronic help, and everything worked out.

Louden-Dutasaca - before the wedding

2007-04-21T10:09:00.000-07:00

Michelle Louden and Leonel (Leo) Dutasaca chose me last fall to shoot their engagement and wedding photos. The engagement photos predate the blog's purpose (my photography since getting the D200 camera), so they won't appear on the blog. There will, however, be plenty of photos from the wedding that will take a few entries to cover.

One of my favorite things on the wedding day was being invited to approximate 30 minutes of girl time upstairs. The bride arrived with her hair done already and disappeared in a walk-in closet for perhaps five minutes with a little help to get her dress on. After that, there was time for me and the videographer to capture any natural moment or create any moment we wanted while the girls talked.

The guys were kind of boring. I took photos of them hanging out, but as with most weddings, the guys were hard to find together and they didn't really do anything while they waited. The girls all clustered together for pictures, held their own toasts, and did, well, girl things. I got the most fun pre-wedding shots from this wedding than from any other I've done so far.

taking a break

2007-04-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

We recently discovered an ant problem in our kitchen and had to try a few things to get rid of them. While trying our assorted methods, I noticed an odd little fellow. He had leaned back on his hind legs to clean his antlers much like a bunny cleans its ears. I hurried to grab my camera and macro lens to get a few shots of this oddity - I'd never seen an ant take a break from working to do anything else.

...then I squished him and all his buddies...

For shooting insects and other small things in detail though, I do not recommend shooting at ISO 800 or above. Along with already having more noise to interfere with details, the Nikon D200 automatically uses high ISO noise reducation. It helps larger images, but only adds more interferance with small details.

Erika

2007-04-08T22:56:00.000-07:00

The next set came with another problem, albeit, a much simpler problem. The goal of this shoot was to test shooting the new flash and play with it during daylight hours. I drafted Erika for a shoot and took her to War Memorial Park.

I wanted to start with the sun at her back to give a glow around her hair. Shooting with the sun at her back would give an extremely large difference in the either the background exposure against her face, meaning either her face would be too dark to get the background right or the background would be too bright to get her face right. The flash was meant to add light to her face to get the foreground and background light more even.

We got off to a late start though, so there was almost no light left to balance. That turned out to be a good thing though, because the flash was low on batteries. There was enough power left to test it, but the recyling time to fire the flash again took forever.

The flash worked, but I have always preferred natural light images. Here are my favorites from the day. The left was posed and the right was just one of my favorite random moments. Like in journalism, you shoot what's happening, and sometimes you get something really great without trying.

Pulaski County graduation

2007-04-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

The next day was the Pulaski County jail deputy graduation... and my first real challenge in figuring out the new camera.

The room was barely lit with diffused florescent lights. I was shooting at ISO1600 F4 at 1/125 sec., so my camera could handle it, but the light was uneven. I needed flash to even it out. I put my flash on, but it didn't work.

I got home and looked up the new camera online for troubleshooting and found out that my old flash is not compatible with the new camera, so I had to make due with the uneven, low light, knowing I'd have to correct almost every photo later on with computer work.

These are two of the better photos with a bit of favoritism. The first is my wife shaking hands with the newly elected Sheriff Doc Holladay as he hands her the best in class award with Detention Chief Randy Morgan in the background. The second is Erika with her mom and step-dad after the graduation.

I think I worried the training sergeant a little bit when i was getting ready for the photo with her parents though. I grabbed the flags to move them in closer to surround them a bit for better content, and he quickly came up and, with a slight tinge of concern, asked if there was something he could help me with. He left me alone when he realized I what I was doing though.

Pulaski County pepper spray day

2007-03-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility in Little Rock has classes to trian new deputies every six weeks to find replacements for the 30-plus turnover rate. On the day before graduation, the trainees have the option - one that is really, really pushed - to go through pepper spray training. The training, unfortunately, focuses only on how a deputy is to handle getting sprayed in case an inmate were to inadvertently get his or her hands on a deputy's weapon and use it against the deputy.

"There's a fundamental amount of retardation here," said Housing Captain Mike Martens during training. "We teach everybody how to take an OC hit, but we don't teach anybody how to use it."

The spray training began with Lt. Aldridge spraying a "one second burst" across the eyes of each trainee, one at a time, to begin the course. The deputies must then walk to four stations where they complete knee strikes, elbow thrusts, palm heel strikes and baton strikes against padded bags. After this, they are allowed to go to a water hose to rinse the spray off. The problem with water is that it spreads the pepper spray along with cooling off the burning effect, but it never totally gets rid of the minute spray particles. After getting most of it rinsed off, deputies have to peel their eyes open facing the wind to force tears to get rid of the last of the spray.

The trainees are hit with Sabre Red pepper spray that is rated at two million Scovial Heat Units. To give a reference point, a jalepeno is rated between 2,500 to 10,000 SHUs and a habenero is rated between 80,000 and 300,000 SHUs.

"When you get sprayed with one, you immediately go into a compromised state of stupidity," Jacksonville Police Chieft Robert Baker told me during a 2005 interview.

Matt and Falon

2007-03-26T23:29:00.000-07:00

Falon liked the photos enough to come back for more. She not only came back, but she brought her boyfriend along with her. Matt also attends the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where he studies biology and health sciences.

It was a horribly muggy day - overcast with the threat of rain looming. The sky isn't as blue as I would like it to be, so I tried not to use it much if possible. The overcast sky makes for very even lighting with almost no visible shadows though. That makes it my favorite kind of weather.

We shot at War Memorial Park which is next to War Memorial stadium in central Little Rock. There's a nice variety of backgrounds and items to interact with, including the shaded eating area in the photo on the left and an assortment of posts erected together for no apparent reason that were used in the photo on the right. There's also a pond, a couple bridges and a lot of color that comes in the warmer months from the trees and flowers.

Falon

2007-03-25T20:57:00.000-07:00

It's difficult to become a professional anything without having a focus. It's fine to be a photographer who does everything, but like any other profession, you need a niche to get started. The broadest focuses would have to be something like people, architecture and landscapes. I chose people back in college, but my I have now changed my focus within the people category to portraits and weddings.

My first subject was Falon, a pre-med student my wife shared a bio chemistry class with at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. We met after I told my wife I needed to take some pictures and she gave me Falon's phone number.

She seemed excited when I called, but I thought it was funny that she was concerned she wouldn't have enough time to look at magazine poses to prepare for the shoot. Falon was a good kid, but overall, something like an ADHD kid on crack. The girl absolutely could not hold still, but you can't help liking her.

It was already getting late when we set up the shoot on a cloudy day, and she arrived a little later than I had expected. All of these were shot in my back yard with two lights. There was a large softbox on her and a "beauty dish" on the tree in the back to provide a little background color.

new camera

2007-03-23T23:02:00.000-07:00

I got my Fuji S2 in 2003 when I was just a few months out of college. It took me forever to switch to digital because the cameras just weren't meeting the standards that film had established. The closest I got to digital before was using the high end film scanners at Arkansas State University. Just as an example, a Kodak digital camera that a friend got used from a newspaper cost about $25,000 brand new. Now cell phone cameras meet the quality of that camera, and many beat the quality.

When I saw the Fuji S2 though, I had to get it. After using it for four years though, it was about time for an upgrade. It's still a fantastic camera that I'll be selling soon, but I need less digital noise (like film grain) on higher speed ISO (film) settings. It makes for better photos when money is on the line, like shooting weddings in churches that never seem to have any light. It gets even worse at times, like one wedding when a bride decided at the last minute that she wanted a candle light only wedding.

The new camera is a Nikon D200. Not to get super duper detailed for those who don't care, it has all the bells and whistles and just plain looks neat.

The greatest thing with getting a new camera, like anything else, is getting to use it. Just like when I got the S2, I was too impatient to call around and get a friend to pose for me. So I went outside after the rain to see if I could get any interesting shots from my back yard. That's where all of these come from. What do you think?

starting out

2007-03-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

I'm told that I'm an aspiring professional photographer because I use another job (Pulaski County Deputy) to support myself while I start my own photography business. Things have been very slow lately because the county takes all of my time while I work on second shift with odd off days - Sundays and Mondays.

Things are so slow, in fact, that I am beginning to feel like I'm not a photographer at all. So here's my plan: I've dropped off wedding brochures at the local wedding shops, and while I wait for responses, I'm going to offer free photos. For now, I'm offering free photos to update the "People" section of my web site: Maxx Photography.

The free shoots come with with web sized copies of the best photos to show off for your friends. You can get a disk of the original full resolution images with edited versions for $20. Prints will be available from the store section of my web site. Let me know if you're interested and if you have any idea of what you want to shoot or where to shoot at.

This blog will chronicle my shooting on the way to becoming a full professional photographer... or at least, my ongoing attempt at becoming one. At the very least, I'd like my photography to fund my photo equipment wish list. Wish me luck!