All posts in Arizona

First update in some time. I haven’t had any concerts to shoot lately due to the fact that… well, we won’t get into that, but I assure you I will try my best to claw my way back to doing them, even if I have to offer a sacrificial medium-sized, porcelain Baby Jesus. 

Speaking of Baby Jesus, Grandma Lapadula (keeper of all-sized Baby Jesuses), The Matriarch, Da Original, is coming to the the United States of America, and she has a scheduled visit to Phoenix (scheduled meaning, Stand-by tickets with my dad’s airline). What to do with a 70-year-old lady who doesn’t even want to be taken from her house, let alone sent to another country? Who, when asked if she wanted to come to Phoenix while she was visiting my dad in North Carolina, asked “can we drive there?”. No ma’am. My point being that she doesn’t even know what or where is Phoenix. So if you have any ideas, do pass them along. Are there any Church Tours, with an optional Salvation package? 

Salvation or not, I think it’ll be interesting for her to see the Phoenix area. It being such a different landscape than anything she’s ever seen before (did you know that the ONLY place in the world with Saguaro Cacti is the Sonoran Desert?), particularly Sedona. It’s just breathtaking for anyone, let alone someone who has lived in the jungle all their lives. 

“Abuela in the Desert: Why am I here?”. That should be an interesting photo story. 

I finally got some of the Matt and Talat wedding photos printed out. Yes, it’s a slow process. I have to let them simmer in their own Photoshop juices for some time for maximum impact. I reluctantly took them to the local Ritz Camera. Reluctantly because I used to work for Ritz in NC for years, and let’s just say we weren’t the most conscientious when it came to printing. Come on, would you really want to go editing one by one, 500+ BAD digital photos from someone’s trip to Mexico? At least with film there usually was a limit to how many BAD photos a person could take. With digital cameras and inexpensive giant memory cards, people feel the need to take a photo of EVERYTHING… TWICE for good measure, that oughta show ‘em. 

As an aside, during my days as a lab technician, I color corrected some of the most ridiculous photos. Yes, we see them. Keep that in mind next time you decide to drunkenly take photos of things best left unrecorded for posterity.

I really have to give props to the guys and gals at the Phoenix location (the only one that survived after they declared bankruptcy). Since my monitors at home or work are not calibrated to their printer, the photos were coming out somewhat dark. They went through each photo and even printed some three, four times, to make sure they came out looking great. I will definitely be returning there soon. 

On a graphics note, here’s a Double Truck project I worked on for a special Good News section at work:

I’m particularly proud of the railroad tracks! Combination mad Illustrator and Photoshop skills! Although I sometimes feel like I overuse drop shadows. Thoughts?

I think this drought in concerts will give me a chance to catch up with re-editing and posting the photos from my photojournalism days. I’m excited to show you some of those and relive the good ol’ days. Like the photo of me hanging out with the long-bearded, one-toothed bikers at a redneck bar. God, I hope I can find that one. Good times!!