Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals

I will never forget it. I was on my way home from working for the previous 6 months as a photographer on assignment in the San Juan Islands of Washington State and British Columbia and I had two tickets to go see Jack Johnson open for Ben Harper and Innocent Criminals at The Gorge in Washington. The reason I had the extra ticket is a sad story that I am not going to get into here.
Well, I did not know much about Ben Harper except for what I had heard my brothers car. I was prepared for a lot of cheesy, tear jerkin' love songs. No sir. Not a chance mam. Ben Harper threw down one of the most hard rocking performances I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. It was borderline heavy metal and I loved it. Every note of it. Jack Johnson was much less impressive. Sounded exactly like he does on his studio albums. But Harper, whew! AMAZING. I have a little clip below from You Tube that gives you an idea of what I am saying. Check it out!

Iron and Wine. Simply said. A kick-ass band.

I bought my girlfriends sister Iron and Wines CD, "The Shepherd's Dog" for Christmas and she was kind enough to burn me a copy before I left Ohio. Well, the entire CD is amazing. It is one of those CD's that was just really well thought out. The first tune to the last note is just smooth as butter. It is one of those CD's that you can listen to again and again and it does not get old. Very rare. Just think about the amount of bands that have albums where the first three tracks are good and the rest is crap. It is almost like they just needed some music to fill up the minutes. This is a sign of a band that does not have the depth needed to continue down a lengthy, healthy, far reaching rock n roll legacy.

I believe that Iron and Wine will do just this and more. This is a tight rock band with all the ingredients to truly span the years with creativity, soul and brand new sounds.
Check them out on Letterman. This might be my favorite song on "The Shepherd's Dog" I love the line about "nothin on the radio" because I bitch about this all the time. Their website is here

Rock Band Photographer

In addition to being a Hilton Head Island Wedding Photographer and Hilton Head Island Portrait Photographer, I am also really into photographing musicians and rock bands. I have done this for a number of years and I love it. I am getting involved in some really cool projects this spring and summer that I am really looking foreword to. Here are some images from The Northeast Kingdom Music Festival in Vermont where I have been the House Photographer for a two years now.

Some great tracks from a great recording label.

My hip and cool nephews Hugh and Duncan sitting next to my Dad on the boat back to Daufuskie Island, SC.

My Mom and Dad live on Daufuskie Island, SC. You have to take a boat to get there. One really cool thing is that if you are a resident you can take a private boat over to Harbour Town. My brother Kev and his wife Erin were visiting and on the way back from dinner over in Harbour Town I shot this image, practically in the dark, of two of my nephews Hugh and Duncan sitting next to my Dad. I just ran across it and thought it was pretty cool.
My hip and cool nephews Hugh and Duncan sitting next to my Dad on the boat back to Daufuskie Island, SC.

To bee or not to bee. I love bees.

"In order to be healthy and active you need to eat healthy foods and in order to get healthy foods you need more than just the produce delivery driver to do his job," I wrote this and wanted it to stand out as a cool header, so I put quotation marks around it so it would seem more official. It's my blog homeslice; I do what I want.

Life is quite hectic and if you are like most people, your hands are full.
In the morning you catch a few headlines of the newspaper, hear some news blurbs on the radio throughout the day, and catch the highlights of the worlds events on the nightly news, but how much of this all really sinks in?

Occasionally you hear something that really, truly speaks to your heart and you plan on looking more into the issue. This recently happened to me when I heard about Colony Collapse Disorder.

Honey bees are mysteriously vanishing across the country, putting $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and vegetables at risk. Do you like carrots? What about cucumbers, broccoli, onions, pumpkins, squash, apples, blueberries, avocados, almonds or cherries? These crops will all be severely affected if honey bees were to disappear. In fact, they would not grow at all. You can forget about flowers.

In 2006, Beekeepers across the globe began to notice that seemingly healthy bees were simply abandoning their hives en masse, never to return. Researchers are calling this strange phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder and the issue does not seem to be getting any better.

Why are the bees leaving? At this point there is no clear evidence or a solution to the problem. What are your thoughts on this growing problem?

Poi Dog Pondering

So, sometimes I wonder how I ended up living in the southeast and then I remind myself of how it is because I was offered an amazing job here that I could not refuse. That was actually sort of a strange delivery on a blog post that has nothing to do with the subject of the blog which is, as far as I am concerned, probably one of the greatest bands to ever live. Then again, perhaps it is right on. You see, Poi Dog Pondering probably never dreamed they would end up in Chicago when they left their native Hawaii years ago, but yet they are now a huge part of the Chicago music scene.
Occasionally, I get into conversations with people about music and of course the old question of who is your favorite band comes up and almost always for me, it is between Phish, the Pixies and Poi Dog Pondering.
Poi Dog Pondering is an amazing band. Every album they have ever put out is different than the last. They are progressive. They are creative and they more than perhaps anything else they possess a passion for what they do that is grounded in soul and raw talent. Check them out at their website and also check out the YouTube Video I have posted here.
Cool. That is it. Check out Poi Dog Pondering. You will be glad you did. If you are looking for a good album to get started with make sure to check out "Wishing Like a Mountain and Dreaming Like the Sea."

Hunting Island State Park, SC

Saturday afternoon Erin and I arrived at Hunting Island State Park to go biking and camping. Our spot was literally right on the ocean. The only sound you could hear was the crashing surf. It was beautiful. The weather was off and on rain and rather cool for the average South Carolina day but it was still amazing. We brought our bikes and off we rode through the woods, down a curvy Low Country Road, out along expansive piers stretching far out into the bays and along the shoreline on the hard packed sand that you only find on the stretches beach along the Continental Shelf of the southeast. We ended our bike trek at the Hunting Island Lighthouse where we took a moment to take in the history.
We then made our way back to the site where we built a warm fire and cooked a large meal of Jumbo Shrimp with Tofu and vegetables. It was delicious. Afterwards, we sat back and sipped hot chocolate by the warm fire listening the sound of the crashing surf.
Some expertly prepared smores, thanks to Erin, were then prepared. With all that chocolate in our system we played a heated game of scrabble whose victor is still in question.
Sleep came soon after. The photo I have included in this post is one of my favorite surfing related images I have. I had my surfboard with me, but the waves in the morning were not that good, so I did not paddle out. Next time...

Remember. If you are looking for a Hilton Head Island Wedding Photographer you should get in touch with me. I have an extensive portfolio of weddings I have photographed on my website. My prices are extremely affordable. I also have a long list of references I can provide you. I will look foreword to hearing from you and I hope to be your Hilton Head Island photographer.

Belle and Sebastian can make a damn fine movie

Here is a cool music video by the Scottish band Belle and Sebastian. They are not only extremely talented musicians but they know how to throw together a nice, interesting film. Their movies are never over the top with lots of special effects but they rather let the characters and scenery do the work. I have a small music video I shot of them at a small theatre in Montreal a couple years ago. It is made up of over 400 still shots. It was a very good show. If you ever get the opportunity to see them you ought to go. The next show I am going to at this point is to go see Wilco in Charleston on February 29th. That should be a sick show!