landscapes.

I'm only a few months late on this. Last summer I ventured far into the midwest for a couple of weeks and was able to photograph some of the beautiful rural landscape. The colors are magical. 

Coney Island

Last spring I had the pleasure of seeing my good friends Adie and Megan in New York city. Took these photos at Coney Island, a very whimsical place. 

Louisiana part one, landscapes.

Heritage is an interesting thing, it follows you around wherever you go. From very young age a deep sense of heritage was instilled in me; I've always felt linked in some way to my family history. Last spring I felt particularly burdened to return to Louisiana with my father to begin exploring our heritage down there (begin for me, he has been doing this kind of thing for years). There is a generation in that area that still speaks french, but the language is quickly, and very sadly, dying among the cajun people; I developed the desire to meet some of these people, beginning with our family, and to photograph them and the area. 

At the time I shared my thoughts with my dad, hoping that in the next year or so we'd be able to make the first trip together. A few days later my mom called telling me that she had a plan, and in typical Hardee fashion, a last-minute trip formed; few weeks later, my father, my younger sister, and I were on the road heading for Mississippi and Louisiana. 

We only had a couple days, and I feel like it was barely a beginning, but it is amazing the connections that can be made over 2 days. I met some of my 1st, 3rd and 4th cousins, and 2 great great aunts one of whom's mother tongue is french. We learned details of our family history, and heard so many stories. What a soulful trip it was, learning about a once rejected, almost forgotten people, who's culture is still quietly alive, just below the surface. I look forward to returning, I expect this will be an ongoing project for quite some time. 

So, here are a few of the landscape images from the small city of Lake Charles and from the bayous that run beside the highway... 

Joy McWilliams, in black and white.

I was able to spend a day with Joy, one of my favorite people, while traveling through Mississippi last month. 35mm hp5

faces.

Some of you know that I recently had my photo equipment stolen.. Well last week I finally was able to get some of it replaced! So here are a few portraits of some friends that I took while on a walk. 

AND, since you are still reading, you should check out this great article from Hope Magazine in Europe on the hope of the gospel for this generation. 

St James photo workshop

A couple of friends and I have started teaching a photo workshop at St James. Yesterday was the second class and it went so well! The guys were so engaged in what we were doing, and they took some great photos. This week we talked about natural light at different times of day, and some techniques to use in different lighting situations. We went to a run-down alley that had a combination of overcast natural light and an eery orange light coming from a bulb on the wall; it proved to be a tough lighting situation, but it gave an interesting effect nonetheless. These are some of the photos I took of them...

Taking responsibility

One of my first influences in photography used to always say, "You have to take responsibility for every part of your frame," which was in essence was his nice way of encouraging us to quit making excuses for poorly composed images. I think over time, though, advice like this has helped me to simplify my photos compositionally. I went shooting the other day in Verdun and Laurier park with his advice in my mind. So, here is an attempt at taking responsibility... 

old and new

 I waited quite a while to have some negatives mailed to me so that I could have them scanned; so, after weeks of anticipation (on my part at least), here are a few fun pictures I took before leaving the Carolinas. 

              

While meeting Beefany for coffee, this guy pulls out an old school handset, plugs it into his iphone
and makes a call. I'm pretty sure only he can pull that off. 

             

There are a number of reasons why I don't shoot weddings very often, but couples like Ashley and Eddy make it such a joy.

I just found a few rolls of film and I wasn't sure what was on them and when I had them processed I found these photos of some of my favorite people. I believe these were taken 1 1/2 ish years ago.

you're invited.

Camryn Anne

The people I'm closest to are usually the hardest for me to take honest portraits of.. I guess there are some people of whom I know so many sides it is harder for me to do them justice in a photograph. This was the case with my baby sister Cammi; it took three attempts (bless her heart, she is patient with me) over a span of one month and two countries to finally get portraits of her that I was satisfied with. Here are a few of them.. she is a cutie.