Tennessee

I just got back from a shoot in Tennessee with Michael the photographer that I went to Chicago with. As a state I have to say I didn't get a very good impression with the exception of the Eastern side that is close to where I live. We shot in Jackson for a few days. We passed through Nashville and were close to Memphis, but we didn't have time for a trip out to really see either city, so I can't comment on them. The part of the state that I saw was just kinda blah. The air wasn't clean and the landscape wasn't pretty. I don’t know that I could recommend Tennessee as a visiting place, but they do have cool looking storms with incredible lighting. I managed to get a good shot in on our last night there. And the shot of Michael taking a picture of the mountains on the side of the road, that was back toward Asheville. So yea, don’t go to Tennessee for a vacation, come to Asheville and visit me instead, it's much prettier here.

Katie

More Chicago

Day two in Chicago was the day of the cancelled shoot, we still had another shoot to do, but it wasn't until later in the afternoon. So Michael dropped me downtown to go touring while he took care of some business. I walked around and saw some more of the awesome architecture. I spent most of my day at the Chicago Art Institute. They had some fabulous works, including an extensive collection of Rembrandt and Monet. All in all it was a great trip. Chicago is a big city with lots to do. It was a fun place visit, but it might not be so fun to live in.

Katie

Chicago

I just got back from a four day trip to Chicago. I was working as a photography assistant to Michael Mauney, a local commercial photographer and the same one that I worked with on the trip to New Mexico. This trip went pretty well, we got all the photos we were set up to shoot except one where the subject cancelled at the last minute, but because of the cancellation I had more time to explore the city.

I've had to divide this trip into two chronicles. This first one is from the first day we were there. The weather was great. The blistering heat wave that everyone had been suffering through just the week before was over and we had comfortable if not cool weather.

Michael and I did the tourist thing and walked around the city. We went to a park and saw a giant bean. I'm not kidding there is a large metal sculpture in the middle of the park that's shaped like a kidney bean. I took a picture of my reflection in it with the city in the background then I found it was even more interesting underneath and I got a really cool shot of all the weird reflections there. Being a photographer, Michael prefers being behind the camera, but I managed to get a quick shot of him working. More to come, with day two.

Katie

Sunflower

Dad picked me a beautiful sunflower from the garden the other day, so of course I had to sit down and photograph it. This email goes out in particular to my good friend Jacob. Here I have attached not only the shots I got, but also the set up. A rocking chair, a peice of black velvet, and some sunlight, that's all you need. Well maybe a chair that doesn't rock would have been a better choice, this one was just convienient.

Katie