With Amber Rose McConnell

Amber was right there at the top of my “People to Visit in Austin” list. She and I have known each other online and by reputation for quite awhile now, and I was excited to meet her. The lady is a talented model and a great photographer in her own right, but it was just plain good to finally get together. I still hold that the best part of being a photographer is the opportunity to always be meeting awesome folk. Ms. McConnell is awesome folk.

Essentially though, for our shoot, we walked the neighborhood in which I was staying, trespassing through various people’s front yards. Quintessential run-and-gun type-stuff. As is almost always the case with things like this, I wish we had had more time to sit down and plan something out properly. For what it was, though, I think the shots came out quite nicely. I am especially fond of the Polaroids (although that is almost always the case). In any case, here’s to round two! I, for one, can’t wait.

 

 

With Rockie Nolan in Austin

While I was down in Texas, I was finally able to meet up with Rockie Nolan. I say finally because in the last two months, we’ve come a hair’s breadth from making contact on three separate occasions. It finally took something like SXSW to do the trick.

Rockie is one of my favorite lady photographers, but is also a legitimately rad person. My only regret is that we had so little time together. As it happens, Ms. Nolan is graduating from SCAD in only a few weeks, before she moves up north to Brooklyn. I suppose this just means I have yet another reason to haul myself back out to New York. Hard life.

On a side note, is there a law in Austin requiring homeowners to plant cacti in their front yards? Cause I’d gladly comply with said law. One of the most striking things to me in Austin were all of the giant agave plants, so please forgive me if I went a bit overboard here. I’m kinda jealous just cause I can’t have a massive ball of spikes growing in my front yard here in Portland. Flippin rain. Flippin lack of sunlight. Again, hard life.

With Kimbra Johnson – SXSW

Normally, I’m not really one for performance photography, but I dig Kimbra (if you haven’t seen this or this (lordy, those shoulder shrugs), you’ve probably been doing something else the last few months). So I made a point of making sure catching one of her shows was on my “things to do while in Austin” list. And considering that SXSW was her first time playing in the US, the timing was right for exceptions.

Kimbra played three or four shows during her stay in Austin, and I only made it to the first two — sadly, neither of them were during daylight hours. But in any case, here are a few shots from her first set during the Nikon party at La Zona Rosa. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect as Kimbra followed acts by a beat boxer (who’s name I may have purposefully forgotten) and a blue grass set via the Punch Brothers. It definitely felt like someone had left things on shuffle. Let’s just say, though, that ‘expressive’ is a pertinent adjective with regards to Ms. Johnson. Either way, it was a real fine thing to be able to see her live. She has the goods. Yes ma’am.

While we’re all talking about Kimbra for a minute, it happens that her Portland show is kinda sold out. So, with that in mind, if you are a person who’s going and have an extra ticket, it’d win you infinite hugs if I could tag along.

Oh, and also, yes, she is as charming in person.