Alex the Photo Blog

For the last two years I have volunteered as The Nature Conservancy’s official photographer for their Hoochie fundraising event.  In case you aren’t familiar with TNC, you can learn more here.  TNC is a conservation organization that, since its founding in 1951, has protected more than 119 million acres of land, 5,000 miles of rivers, and operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.

Our dear friend, Erin Vilines, is the event coordinator for the Hoochie and has pulled off an absolutely fabulous party two years in a row in the heart of Buckhead.  Despite this year’s toretial thunderstorm, the plans still went perfectly.  In fact, the party was such a success that people didn’t even notice the rain… until they had to get to their car.

Steve Hein with the Birds of Prey show was conducting hands down the best photobombs I’ve ever seen with this live bald eagle.

…and this was the moment I considered taking fewer photos with my flash.

One of the guests of honor was Chuck Leavell.  Chuck is co-founder of  The Mother Nature Network, an environmental news and information website that launched in January 2009.  He is also most famous for playing keyboard with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and the Allman Brothers.  He wasn’t there to play, but was gracious enough to kick the night off with a blues riff and the Bradley Cole Smith Band.

To finish off, I cannot begin to tell you how amazing locally grown fresh hot pralines are.  Possibly the best thing I’ve ever eaten.

A few more photos from Friday’s Firenze post.

The hostile’s dining hall.

I’ve owned the domain since college.  Three years ago I re-upped it’s registration and I contracted my good friend Greg Vilines at Webnormous to begin work on the site.   Then a combination of producing an album, playing in a band, get married, and having his house burn down slowed Greg’s progress on the site a bit.  A combination of helping with the album, buying a house, running a photo business, general laziness, and getting engaged slowed me down too.  I know my excuses aren’t as valid as a house fire, but regardless of the timing, it is finally LIVE!

Greg built the whole thing from scratch and he did a damn good job on it.  I know I was a difficult client at times but in the end we got it all worked out.  There will be a few tweaks made in the coming months, but since it’s 99% done, we figured why not launch it?  This will be a soft opening for my six blog readers and facebook friends until I get it 100% finished.

Keep in mind the new site isn’t going to be a replacement for the blog- just think of it as a “best of Alex the Photo Guy.”  I’ll still keep you up to date with my crazy photo antics here on the blog, so don’t stop reading!

Let me know what you think!  Many thanks again to Greg who did all the hard work.  All I did was take a few photos.  If you need a website, let me know and I’ll get you in contact with Webnormous.

As expected, I didn’t live blog well enough in KY.  I tried, but just didn’t get enough sleep to warrant staying up even later to write.  We did have a really amazing time and it opened my eyes to the experience of RVing.  I always thought it would be fun, but never occurred to me that having a house on wheels means you’re always at home… even when the A/C goes out at 4am.

First on the schedule Saturday was burger king… please note that not only do they NOT serve breakfast after 10:30, they also do NOT serve breakfast at 10:29 apparently.  Who eats lunch at 10:29!!!  Idiots and Burger King employees- that’s who (really, all major fast food chains too).  After breakfast (Whopper JR and fries), we headed out to Woodford Reserve which turned out to be one of the favorites on the trip.  Good tour, good bourbon.  Here is the cooker that mixes and cooks the first step to make the “distiller’s beer.”

And here’s a fermenter where it gets pumped into, followed by a photo of the guys smelling it.  Smelled more like beer than anything else.

One of the big differences between Bourbon and other types of whiskey is that they are distilled twice in copper stills before aging (3 times at Woodford Reserve as shown here).

All Kentucky bourbon must be aged in new (not used) american oak barrels.  They are also required by law that the ingredients must have at least 51% corn.  They are all charred on the inside to help mellow the flavor.   When they are aged, they are placed in “rick houses” that are always open to the elements.  In the summer, the bourbon expands while the oak pores open up.  The bourbon soaks into the wood extracting flavors.  In the winter, the pores close and squeeze the bourbon back out.  This process goes on until the distillers decide when to bottle.  Once in bottles, the bourbon doesn’t age any further- so if today you you sip on a 10 year old whiskey bottled in 2000 versus a 10 year old whiskey bottled in 2010, the two will have very minor flavor differences.  All bourbons are whiskey, but not all whiskeys are bourbon.

One of the other interesting items found on all of these tours is something called Torula.  It is a creeping fungus commonly found at whiskey distilleries and it eventually coats all of the trees and rick houses.

To be honest, I’m not used to all these “words” on my blog, so I’m just gonna finish up with some pix for the rest of the post- these two of “whiskey creek” at Maker’s Mark.

Now that I’ve gone through the music, I figured I’d share the people, food, and city.   Though the next couple of pictures are really from a music group, I included them in “people” because they are a people.  Last year I saw the Mardis Gras Indians perform and really just thought they were a fun family band.  However, I was missing a lot of the story.  Apparently the Mardis Gras Indians are real tribes of African Americans spread throughout New Orleans.  They originiated in the mid 19th century circumventing some of the worst racial segregation laws by representing themselves as Indians.  It’s really interesting and you can read more here.

Click the link below for more photos! 

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Alright, I usually try not to use too many exclamation marks unless I’m really excited (or emailing a potential bridezilla).  However, I really do love Jazzfest in New Orleans.   It’s the perfect mix of my favorite things in life- music, food, friends, and late nights of fun in the Big Easy.   In fact, they say that the best thing about Jazzfest is that when you leave Jazzfest, you’re still in New Orleans.  Keri and I went last year and had an amazing time.  This time more of our friends were able to make it and all fit into a 2 bedroom shotgun house Uptown on Magazine street hosted by an amazing newly engaged couple (soon to be the Stedmans). 

Click the link below for more!

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If I didn’t like my family & friends as much as I do, I would have loved to become a photojournalist right out of college working for AP/Getty/NatGeo/Reuters.   These photographers travel the world and take a whole crapload of photos.   Not just photos, but photos that are truly breathtaking- sometimes because of the photo itself, but oftentimes because of a subject that people don’t see in their everyday world.  In reality, I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off due to lack of skills, low pay, constant travelling to 3rd world countries, and the possibility of losing a foot (see Part 1 below).

However, not all of the photos on these lists were taken by professionals.  In fact, one of the shots was taken by a girl who normally does party pix here in Atlanta (see the canoe photo in Part 3).  I know if I’m ever going to be on this list I really need to get out and shoot more.  I need to stop waiting on photo “gigs” and just look for photos.   I need to carry my camera with me more often.  I need to be ready to get my hands dirty and take pictures of anything interesting- or really anything that I can make interesting.  Maybe a good New Years resolution?  Who’s with me?!

Enjoy:

The Big Picture- Part 1

The Big Picture- Part 2

The Big Picture- Part 3

And a bonus- the best news photos of the decade.