Living Large and Crashing Hard

Casting a Long Shadow

Darby Retreating to the House after a Late Afternoon Outdoors :: iPhone 4

Fultondale and the Tornado of January 23

Fultondale was largely spared by the EF3 tornado that swept across the Birmingham area early on the Morning of January 23, 2012...

...but it still bears the scars and open wounds of the EF5 that traversed much of the state on April 27, 2011. Many homes remain largely in the irreparable state which they have been in for nine months. Businesses bear promises of return that remain unfulfilled. The courses of lives forever altered.

In an attempt to help in some small part, I am donating to the Alabama Red Cross the proceeds from any prints from my website, ordered by the end of January. The Alabama Red Cross played a huge role in helping storm victims recover in April and the ensuing months, and has begun to do so again.

Primpin' Ain't Easy

North Birmingham, Alabama :: Canon Rebel T2i, Tokina AT-X 12-24mm f/4 @ 12mm, 1/320s @ f/4, ISO 400

Aloft

In the Spring of 2005, I moved into a small studio apartment in Birmingham's Southside. I stayed there until mid-2008, at which point it had become the residence in which I had lived the longest since I was eleven years old; and for another few months, that will remain true of that place. The apartment was only a couple hundred square feet; it was on the fifth floor, with no elevator; and the hundred-year-old building stank of a century of humanity. But it was an important time and place for me. I did a lot of writing, and growing, and becoming the person I am (for better or worse) while living there. This is that building's basement.

Canon A-1, FD 20mm f/2.8

Raising Funds for Tornado Relief in Alabama

For the second time in the last nine months, Alabama has been stricken by widespread severe weather. The destruction of the storms of January 23, 2012, is in no way comparable in scale to that suffered on April 27, 2011, but those affected are no less in need. Within the Birmingham area, the communities of Clay, Trussville, and Oak Grove were hit particularly hard. In an effort to help in some small part, I would like to do the following: the proceeds from any prints ordered using the code "Red Cross" on my website between now and the end of January will be donated to the Alabama Red Cross for their efforts in relieving those affected by the tornadoes of January 23, 2012.

Destruction  in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from the April 27, 2011 Tornado

Capturing Antiquity :: Culling Young Minds

Many moons ago I picked up a 1912 copy of Arnold and Beatrice Gesell's book The Normal Child and Primary Education. I wasn't particularly interested in the content (though it did contain this gem: "Mumps disfigures a child's behavior long before it does his face.") so much as I found the cover very striking. On it was a rendering of a work by Lucy Fitch Perkins, entitled Strengthen the Little Hands That Must Carry on the World, but it looked much creepier than the title would indicate.

Canon Rebel T2i, Tokina AT-X 35mm f/2.8 Macro