Battleguard is going to be my next photo-challenge. It's actually a lot more difficult than club photography because there are only fast bursts of action, constantly unpredictable swinging objects, and it is extremely difficult to light. I went down to just feel it out and the pictures show promise--but I got a lot of work to do. It always comes down to lighting lighting lighting. I need more flashes :(

I have a few nice selections from a shoot yesterday. We have
Ashley: and Heather: (images go to myspace pages).

Click on the image below to view more!

Labels: Modeling, Photos

I hate when I read about those disabled drug addicts who have sworn to resuscitate their souls by going on the school circuit to preach the virtues of staying on the straight and narrow. We have cancer survivors, burn victims, drug dealers, and destitutes from all walks of life addressing students all over the country. (There’s a cause, save our youth from administrative boredom). They say that they can overcome any obstacle and be productive, happy people. Often they reach ultimate pretention with phrases like, "Maybe talking to these kids is the reason God left me here." But what if, instead of teaching obedience, a disabled person wants to teach kids to be unproductive citizens just like them?

We have disabled people who use their disabilities to do what they normally would have and subvert the system. We have paraplegic dumpster divers and train hoppers. We have “disabled” anarchists, porn stars, prostitutes and shop-lifters. To get a peek, I went on a dumpster diving run with a friend to get a real glimpse into the excess of western culture; what we throw away tells far more than what we publicly display.


The study of disabled rebellion leads to an interesting conclusion: it's a lot easier to break the law and go against the system when you are not disabled. For example, the ADA (American Disabilities Act) fights to give people with disabilities equal access to education, jobs, and entertaintment. However, I went boxcar jumping with a paraplegic yesterday and NONE of the boxcars had wheelchair ramps. He complained about it, and is going to write a letter to the ADA, but we both don't expect much. How can disabled people expect to be treated equally when they can't break the law as easily as others?

In search of the subversive, and failing to find followers to urinate on police cars, I proceeded to help add another layer of oil pastels to Molly's wall. For some reason I felt combative and defiant all yesterday. I wanted to get hassled by the police. It's depressing that they don't even make eye contact anymore; I stare down every cop car I pass, but they always are busy staring at their computer screens, probably myspacing it up. (Has myspace really gotten verb status so soon?)

I am in search of a paraplegic paralegal; if not that... one that dumpster dives. Do you know any? Aggressive graffiti needs to be the next big movement. Banksy seems to be the only one that’s pulled it off, at least that I’ve seen. If they are going to call it vandalism, you might as well dump buckets of paint onto their statues, lawns, cars, and lawnmowers instead of the benign expressions on the empty canvasses of trains and concrete walls. Take to the billboards with your oil pastels! How is it possible to purchase my view of the mountains, the lakes, and the trees?

Labels: Modeling, Photos

I just got back from a very relaxing weekend near (and on) the Green River in southern Utah. It's definitely hard to think the experience could be surpassed. I only wish my photographs could give it any justice. A big thank you to SLC's AMO tribe.

Labels: Burn, Camping, Photos

I've recently seen many myspace bulletins which declare:

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On May 15th all myspace members are to not go to the gas station in protest high gas prices. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most places. There are 72,110,073 members currently on the network, and the average car takes about 20 to 30 dollars to fill up. If all myspace members did not go to the pump on the 15th it would take $2,163,302,190.00 out of the oil companys pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on May 15th and lets try to put a dent in the oil industry for at least one day.

If you agree (which i cant see why you wouldnt) repost this bulletin repost it with 'Don't pump gas on May 15th!!!!

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Those numbers make so many assumptions! First of all, they assume that the 72 million members are all active users and therefore are able to be influenced by the bulletin. However, despite the impressive amount of total members, it seems that there are only around 25 million unique users who hit the site each month. Still sizable, but it's only about 1/3rd of the number quoted.

Next, how many of those 25 million have a vehicle? About 1/3rd of households in the US have one vehicle, and another 1/3rd have two or more(offset by the 10% without a vehicle at all). The average household size is five, so that means that there are about three vehicles for every ten people. This knocks the 25 million down to about 8 million. Next, how many of those users were going to fill up their car on the 15th anyway? The average car owner fills up their car every 8-9 days. This means that only about 1/8th of the eligible people would be filling it up on the 15th anyway. So we have one million people that could make an impact.

Lastly, if we apply Pareto's law, which states that 20% of a given population will do 80% of the work in any given movement, we see that around 200,000 people may be affected by this myspace bulletin. Multiply that by a $20 dollar average fill amount (not the $30 that they used in their calculation, and we get about 4 million dollars that will not be spent. This is a much more realistic number.

It's a sizable amount, but won't all those people just buy their gas on the 16th?