Happy Mother's Day!

Yeah I know it's not Mother's Day and this is actually the week of Father's Day but I forgot to post this picture when I took it. Mother's Day 2015 was kind of exciting for my family because two of the women in it became mothers in March (one not pictured). These images are both pictures of my mother, her daughter and her daughter aka my mom, sister and niece. Glad to hang out with them the first time they could all celebrate Mother's Day as mothers. 

Color Me Rad - Houston

On the vast pavement that is the Sam Houston Race Park parking lot, an event emerged. 3.1 miles of a guided path snaked through a parking lot, over a bridge through an adjacent lot, back over the bridge and all over the original lot. Participants ran, jogged, walked and strolled through the course all while being pelted with colored powder and squirted with colored gel. This is called Color Me Rad and there was an abundance of color.

 

Palm Springs Photo Festival - Portraits

Back in late April, early May (around the same time I stopped making blog posts, coincidentally) I went out to the desert of Palm Springs for the third consecutive year. What's in Palm Springs you ask?  Ok, I'll tell you. Palm Springs hosts the Palm Springs Photo Festival and has done so for the past ten years. My jaunts to this wonderfully sweltering place usually involve very little sleep, a healthy consumption of photography and an infinite pool of inspiration and motivation from my peers and legendary photographers.

This year, I worked with festival favorite Frank Ockenfels 3. If you take a look at his work, he has probably shot a lot of stuff that you've seen but had no idea who shot it. Over the course of three days, Ockenfels' pupils made portraits of their classmates and models using wacky sources of lights. The final day, we trekked out to Indio, California to a place called Tropics Motor Hotel where another festival favorite named Frank welcomed you at the front desk. The other Frank is an incredibly nice guy who has lived long on this earth and takes smoke breaks that you could set your watch to. He also has no problem sitting or standing in front of the camera if you ask, as many of us did. 

Here are a few portraits I shot of Frank and two of the models (Melat and Spencer). Shout out to the desert city a couple of hours east of Los Angeles. I kind of love that place.

  

Fat Tony II

And for the second Fat Tony post of this week...

I linked up again with Fat Tony in late January of this year to shoot more portraits and less DJ action. This time, we met at a music studio on the southwest side of town. Sometimes he records there but more importantly, there was enough space to get a few different portrait options. I think he was only in town for the day before he had to fly somewhere else to do some more rap stuff. After the shoot, we rolled to the thrift shop where he copped an ill Dale Earnhardt tee. RIP Intimidator.

Real Estate 2015 Issue for Houstonia Magazine

Last month I got to know Houston a little bit better as I drove around to photograph a bunch of different neighborhoods for Houstonia's 2015 Real Estate issue. Although there were 25 neighborhoods highlighted in the issue, I was only tasked with visiting five and finding something interesting in those places. I went to places I haven't yet explored and saw communities that I didn't even know existed. My list consisted of Montrose, Bay Oaks, the Energy Corridor, Cross Creek Ranch and Westview Terrace but you should probably pick up the magazine if you want to see the rest! Big shout to Chris Skiles for the assignment that gave me a reason to further explore the city.

Fat Tony

The night was December 4th and I had been trying to link with Fat Tony, a Houston hip hop artist, to work on a photo project that would eventually be shelved. I got in touch via email and, long story short, he was down to be followed by me and my camera.

This particular night he was going to DJ at two different venues in the city after he finished his shift at Cactus Music. The first gig was at a super chill spot called MKT BAR connected to Phoenicia Specialty Foods in downtown Houston. It was just around happy hour so people were sipping beer, tasting appetizers and chatting with friends. The turn-up here was not real. But the relaxed environment did allow me to get in a few quick portraits.

The next gig was on the quiet, unassuming campus of Rice University where an underground dive called Willy's was scarcely populated with a few studious students. I thought to myself, "Self, is Fat Tony really gonna do a rowdy DJ set at this place?" The answer was yes. First of all, beers were like $2 or less and you could get a whole bottle of champagne (which Tony got a few) for $9. This was probably the cheapest place to get a beer in Houston outside of your own living room. The studious students stuck around a lot longer than I expected but soon, the books disappeared into bags and the turn-up became real. Fat Tony partied with all of his homeys, old and new, and kept it going until the very end when an undergrad/manager of Willy's told him he had to shut it down. Shut it down he did. Shout out to the homey Tony for bringing me along for the ride. More to come...