I took a trip last week through the Eagle Ford Shale drilling area of south Texas. I wanted to see the oil and gas boom in action and first hand. I met a few interesting folks along the way, including the two men I met in a Carrizo Springs, Texas barbecue joint – Wes Baucom, left, and Terry Vaughn. Both are from other towns in Texas and have been working in the oil fields for many years. 
I’ve recently been shooting more and more of the neighborhood I live in, essentially bordered inside the 77006 zip code. This will be one of those long, ongoing projects that probably won’t ever end until I move somewhere else. Anyone know what kind of fruit is on the tree in the background?
I’m not sure if you’re a Lady Antebellum fan. If you are, you’ll be happy to know I was assigned to photograph them last night at Rodeo Houston for the Houston Chronicle. Below is my favorite photo from the take.
From a fun portrait shoot I did a couple of days ago…
The adventures of photographing typewriter repairmen continues with Ross Herdejurgen, 83, who has been repairing typewriters since 1947. He has been in his current shop since 1973. He poses next to a pre-1948 Royal manual typewriter. This image was shot on chrome, which I can only get processed locally. The C-41 batch should arrive next week. Stay tuned..
During a massive cleaning of my office, I rediscovered some negatives from a self-assigned shoot to photograph a Tea Party rally in the summer of 2009 (I think) at a race track in Bay Town, Texas. Wanting to try something different, I rented a Hasselblad medium format camera and made the trek out to the rally. I seem to be attracted to the overt patriotism: flags and people dressed up as figures from American history, as well as a sense of the paranoia of a dystopian, socialist future that seems to drive much of the conversation at these events. Also to note: I shot a couple of different film stocks. One is chrome and the other was an expired batch of porta left over from grad school.
Most excellent designer Caroline Roberts won tonight’s Grammy awards for her design of the recording package for Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs” deluxe package released in 2011. Kudos to Caroline and I thank her for her kind acknowledgment. Thanks also to the band and their associates for the opportunity to work with them. I look forward to the next time!
After a portfolio review in Austin last week and hearing great feedback all around, but especially from Will Chau regarding a quirky-ness in my work I hadn’t really defined before, I’ve decided to post some recent work I made with my Hasselblad. I’ve also been on a cleaning jag as of late and in the process discovered a bunch of uncut, unscanned negs that I’m going to give a second look. I also have one more roll of black and white film I shot on the way home from Austin that I still need to develop.
As for the review itself, I must say that I really need to step it up and attend these gatherings more often. It’s hard to get honest feedback as a freelancer. We’re kind of out here on our own and the opportunity to hear reactions to our work from professionals in the visual communication industry is priceless.
On a whim, I also went out to photograph a typewriter repair man after reading about him in the local paper. There is something anachronistic about someone who still makes a living repairing old technology. The experience has sparked some ideas about what I might focus on next. We’ll see!
I’m very happy with the photo play of a portrait I made for the Houston Chronicle’s Sunday Star section front. A great story about how brass doors from a Houston movie theatre that had segregated seating now adorn the front entrance of a Baptist church that serves the African-American community.
Here are a couple of recent images I like. The first is from my project on the Karen refugee community in Houston. I brought along my Hasselblad and some Tri-X film and shot a couple of rolls. The camera takes some getting used to and is unforgivable with fine focus at wide open apertures. It’ll definitely force me to shoot differently. I’ve also found that taking the time to process the film at home pays off in two ways. The first is that processing film is very meditative. It’s not something you can drift off from. You have to pay attention to agitation, development times, and temperatures. Because this all takes time, it’ll force me to become more selective and careful when I’m making images because I know that every shot will have to count.
The second images is a favorite from a shoot I did for Purina last week of two champion bird dogs in Cypress, Texas. The dogs were great because once they found a scent of a quail, they stood like statues.
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All content © 2012 by Houston Freelance Editorial and Portrait Photography - Eric Kayne
