When Doves Cry

Thought I’d heard some random hoo-hoo-hootin’ out on my front porch lately. Found this skittish girl had set up home in the one porch window that doesn’t have a screen. Not the greatest nest-builders, doves. Some birds’ nests can withstand gales. If nature is a teensy bit flatulent, the average dove nest doesn’t stand much of a chance.

Have had about a half-dozen chances to watch these guys up-close—from egg to leaving the nest—over the years. They’re funny. Not very bold...maybe not too bright? Anthropomorphism is not an exact science.

She won’t let me get very close yet, but we’ll see.

Dale Chihuly and the Victorian Tittie-kitties.

I know this is old-ish news, but I had promised my mom I would post some of the pictures from this exhibit, because we talked about her and my sister visiting Nashville while it was up and weren’t able to synchronize it.

I was house/poodle-sitting for the Claytons in Nashville, while they were in Japan, and Lexie had come for a visit from Denver. It was a pretty swelter-y afternoon and evening at Cheekwood, but I wasn’t going to miss this show. Have always had a lot of time for Dale, even though he’s widely slagged as a P.T. Barnum sort of character. Ego aside—although I’m not sure you can really separate the two—he’s single-handedly done more for the world of glass than anybody before him. What the hell, this isn’t a forum...it’s my opinion.

Nice fit for Cheekwood.

Always have loved the pair of sphinx-like sculptures at the entrance to the gardens, which I have taken to calling the Victorian Tittie-kitties.

Two of my best girlfriends.

My mom, Miss Anne, and my sister Natalie. Dinner at my mom’s in Auburn earlier this month.

Alabama: A Brief History

Have stopped at the Alabama welcome center (the one with the old decommissioned NASA rocket) on I-65 countless times. Just noticed this the last time through. Click to enlarge the photo, it doesn’t read very well at this size.

McKenna (Again-a)

Some pictures from a shoot with my young friend McKenna from back in December. Thanks McK, you are a “super” model! : )

These were partly to build a little infant portfolio of images for her (and for me, natch), and partly to test my shaky skills with the backdrop and strobe, which I’ve recently picked up after too many years. Always loved the available-light-world more. Fun inside on a snowy winter day in Nashville. Kind of a surprise snow, one that I wondered if I was going to make it home through afterward.

I know the following will probably embarrass her, but...it’s MY blog:

I love shooting with her, because she’s at that funny/frightening place roundabout halfway between being a girl and being a woman. A little unsure into which camp to fall. Still retaining that funny, fearless, edgy thing that girls have before they start predictably asking if what they’re wearing makes their ass look fat, or if you can Photoshop the wrinkles under their eyes, etc. A small movement of the hip, a flip of the hair, an application of a tiny bit of make-up, and all of a sudden you see the woman emerging and the girl vanishing.

I try not to direct. She has good instincts. The last time we shot, nearly a year prior, she was running around Dragon Park in a leather jacket, a pink tutu, and no shoes in sub-freezing weather.

My Pops. 1940–2011. R.I.P.

We all lost one of my oldest buddies and biggest-ever supporters on Tuesday night, after he spent most of the 21st Century fighting a cancer called Multiple Myeloma (If you feel so moved, please find out more and/or donate to research here).

My sweet old Pops, Allen Ephraim Norman. It was a terrible, hard day that finally took Allen after eleven years of up and down, but he had lots of loving family around him as he passed, and I’m glad he’s finally at peace. God bless my sweet cousin Joanne, a hospice nurse, who came in on her day off to take charge for us and take amazing care of Allen. The other nurses were great, but I was so grateful to have that watched over by someone who was not only not a stranger, but somebody who loved Allen so much.

Shot some nice pictures of him on a good day a while back. He sat patiently, even though he was tired. He was a handsome devil, even with his chemo hair-style.

I miss you, old buddy.

Alan LeQuire, Nashville, September 30, 2010

Went to Fisk University back in September to document a show of Alan’s colossal heads, which resulted in one nice 360º stitched together panorama of the gallery, and not much else. But afterwards we went over to his studio and I shot some nice stuff, some of which is below.

Have been enjoying shooting people’s personal happenstance (or not) tableaux for some years now, usually in their homes. I love the things with which people surround themselves. Alan has quite a delightful cornucopia of things in his studio space. Also, if you haven’t visited, the LeQuire Gallery is chock full of work by a nice variety of artists, including Alan, Greg Decker, Somers Randolph, and others.