Influential People

Tiki Barber, record-setting running back for the NY Giants and current broadcaster and author.

John Dean, White House Council to Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate (current 2012 front-runner!)

Champs

Some photos from two State Championship games at War Memorial stadium in Little Rock. The only two football games I covered this year!

Kalua Pig

Starting on Friday night me and a few friends began our first attempt at roasting a whole pig under ground with coals and hot rocks. We dug a hole in my backyard, built a bonfire in it and then buried the pig wrapped in banana leaves. The next day we dug it up and had a party.

Good times!


Taking up the burlap before removing the pig.


Shredding the pork by hand.


Fred seemed a bit worried before we stuffed his belly with pineapple, oranges, bananas and apples. Doesn't he have beautiful brown eyes?

Hunting Trees

I tried my hand at a different kind of shooting this past weekend.

The Roast

Cooking up a whole hog Luau style. It's going to be delicious!

Click here for direction.

Hope to see you there.

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

A couple of weeks ago, the infamous Jerry Springer came to Little Rock to speak at the Clinton Library. Instead of dredging the bottoms of society for mindless entertainment, he delivered a populist speech on the current affairs of American politics. It was a reminder of Springer's roots as a politician as opposed to his current role as entertainer.

...Springer 2012?

Men's Health

The current issue of Men's Health (Nov. 2008) has a portrait I shot in Frontenac, Kansas awhile back. It was part of their Belly Off! program which features reader weight loss stories. Fairly straight-forward shoot. Everything was outside and in multiple locations, so I went with a simple, one light set-up.

Sam's Throne

Spent this past weekend climbing and enjoying the beautiful weather out at Sam's Throne in Northwest Arkansas. Below, Dianna getting ready to climb the fist-crack Boston Rag on the Throne Proper.

Public Enemy

September was a busy month, hence the zero blog posts. Hopefully I'll reverse that habit now. Above is a shot of Chuck D of Public Enemy for the Clinton School of Public Service. He gave an interesting (but sometimes rambling) talk about black America and the current presidential race. It would have been a lot better if he would have been able to connect all of his ideas into a greater theme, instead he just diverged into rants.

Below is James Polshek, the architect of the Clinton Presidential Library. I didn't realize what a bad-ass Polshek was in the architecture world, but that's probably because I don't know anything about the architecture world. But he's the guy that designed the newly opened Newseum in Washington and he's working on the current update to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (as well as around 200 other buildings you've probably seen around the world).

Crusing the Rock

A friend of mine started a laid-back bike ride through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock. It's a lot of fun and usually ends at Vino's or some other bar. All are welcome to come. All you need is two wheels and now that it's starting to get dark early, maybe a light. Meet at the parking lot next to the ASN on Thursdays around 7:00ish.

U T P

My friends Ryan, Adam & Amanda (aka UTP) had their first gig at the Boom Boom Room in Fayetteville this past Saturday.

The Pacific

Some photos along the Oregon and California coasts. The above shot is from a beach near the mouth of the Klamath River in Northern California. The rest of the beach pics are in Oregon.



Aspen in the Unita Mountains in Utah.


Old growth in Washington covered in Spanish Moss.

Gray Seattle

So I took the above photo and then realized Getty already has a copyright of the Seattle skyline. This message was painted on a wall:



What the hell is that all about? How can a company own the image copyright of someone else's property (i.e. the private individuals who own the downtown buildings) viewed from public property?

Anyway here's another image. I didn't really take many photos while in the city. Hopefully the pier isn't copyrighted too.

Colchuck Peak

While in Seattle, Dianna and I headed out to the Cascades with Josh to attempt Colchuck Peak. It was a crazy climbing experience to say the least. I got my first look at a glacier and then quickly saw how unforgiving they can be. The photo above shows the peak in the center and glacier approach to the saddle. The picture below is of a snow band while approaching the Colchuck glacier.



Here's Josh "battling" the elements before the snow became a thin layer above the ice and he did what you could describe as an "apline style glacier exit of no return". You can see the ice section right behind him. This is the spot where Dianna and I stopped because the ice became too steep and we didn't have a rope or ice screws for protection. Shortly after this I was standing in what I thought was a secure rest position, but the snow slid out from under me and I began a fast retreat down the mountain. I was able to self-arrest after only about a 30 foot slide, but it was a hair-raising experience.



All of this coupled with a lack of experience in glacier travel led to a retreat. The image below shows Dianna down-climbing some scree below the glacier.



A little sketchy ice didn't deter Josh and he managed a summit. But he did pay a price and I'll let him tell you the story if he wants. I'll just say that what took about an hour or so to climb took only 10 seconds to descend. And Josh may have managed to use the rest of his 9 lives.

Below is an overall shot of Colchuck Peak (right) and Dragontail (left) with a mystical shroud of cloud cover from Apline Lake. You can also see Alpine Lake in the photo above.