LOW

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've (at long last) published a book I've been working/thinking/stewing on for a while. It's a collection of a few of the images I've made over the past couple of years that WEREN'T for someone else, but just because I saw something and needed to shoot it. It's available exclusively from blurb.com, and I'd be honored if you'd take a look at it!

Tattoos are Cool!

This past Tuesday, on the seventh anniversary of eloping with my wife, I went to Josh Woods of Black 13 and got my first tattoo. I've always loved tats on other people, but I have NO desire to ever regret something like this. For that reason, I've been waiting 8 years before getting my first. THIS one, I've been stewing on for over two years with very little in the way of tweaks. That being the case, we decided to dive in, head first!

I know it LOOKS black, but it's actually a very specific shade of gray called "middle gray." Photographers have used it for years to help determine exposure and white balance. Ansel Adams was the first to quantify it officially. He called it the Zone System. The "V" is for zone five. Roman numerals are used rather than digits to differentiate what you're talking about. Feel free to read more about it on wikipedia!

If you'd like to see the entire process, click HERE!

As a side note, I tried to convince my wife that a photography tattoo could ABSOLUTELY be written off my taxes, she would not be swayed. Any CPA's wanna back me up on this?

Casey & Jesse's Wedding

A while ago, I blogged about Casey & Jesse's engagement photos. We had a GREAT time that day. Not surprisingly, their wedding was even more fun to shoot. Check out some of my favorites below, or see them all HERE!

And sorry, but I just couldn't resist posting this one :D

Michael & Katie: Engagements

I've known Michael for several years now and couldn't be happier that he found someone as special as Katie. Having done this for a while, I've seen a lot of couples and the way they interact with each other. Without a doubt, these two were made for each other. Congratulations, guys!

Kyle Lee

A few from my promo shoot with musician/producer Kyle Lee! He owns/is Clean Productions. Check him out HERE!

BABIES!

For anyone interested, I'm twittering/facebooking as my wife labors to have our third child. Updates are easy at the moment as there's plenty of time between contractions. As things speed up, you may hear less.

www.twitter.com/TylerRAndrews

Or search Tyler Andrews in facebook and I'll friend you as I get a chance...

Cheers!

Jonathan & Renee's Wedding

New Rule: All weddings must involve a pre-civil war church that has spent time as a strip club and has since been returned to it's original purpose.  It's just flat-out rock 'n roll.  

The Anchor in Nashville is just such a place, and Jonathan & Renee were the perfect couple to use it to it's full awesomeness.  

We started shooting several hours before they walked the aisle so that we would have plenty of time to wander Nashville.  We used a location that I'd scouted a week or two earlier.  It was a couple of blocks away but provided plenty of inspiration.  That said, we could have been shooting anywhere.  The happy couple was inspiration enough.

The reception was held at the Rutledge.  There were no hors de vours (sp?) or salads or anything.  No, they had Blue Coast Burrito from Cool Springs cater.  Amazing.  Pure genious.  Seriously, if you're planning a wedding right now, please consider using Blue Coast.  Your guests will appreciate it (and it goes GREAT with wedding cake).

But I digress.  We had a bunch of fun shooting and got some really fantastic stuff.  To see everything CLICK HERE!

The Decemberists: The Hazards of Love

Today was the release of The Decemberists new disk "The Hazards of Love."  If you aren't familiar with their work, I might start you with their last album "The Crane Wife" first... maybe.  It's difficult for me not to recomend jumping in head first.  If you're a fan of indie rock, progressive rock or just really well written songs, these guys are for you.  They have a fanatical attention to melody but not at the cost of raw emotion.  "Hazards" is a concept album (meaning it's one story or theme from start to finish).  That gives them plenty of room to explore all of the obvious and not so obvious (see "The Rake's Song") places the title implies.

To mark the occassion, I'm reposting some shots I did of their last tour.  At the time, I was ignorant to the joys of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.  A mistake that was quickly remedied...

LINKY!

The Decemberists

Gillian Welch

The Full Gallery!

Oh!  I just remembered!  This was the show that a drunk girl spilled her fruity beverage on my camera!  

Dear Drunk Girl, 

I hope you get to experience the pain and heartache you caused me when the life of someone(thing) I love dearly was threatened by your besotted actions.  

Get sober or die slowly!

Yours always,

Tyler  

Seraph

Seraph is a fantastic band based out of Birmingham, AL.  They were the winners of Feedback 2008 in Dallas and as such, got a free shoot with yours truly.

We started in Spring Hill shooting at a lumber yard.  It turned out to be a GOLDMINE of locations.  We stayed there for a couple of hours and shot everything we could find.  When done there, we rolled up HWY 31 all the way to Nashville.  Ultimately, we ended up at Centennial Park where we stayed until a fine officer of the law asked us to move on.  BTW: Check out their music HERE!

As an aside: This is the official first time I've personally written the html to display the images.  I got fed up with blogger not wanting to show things any bigger than a couple of hundred pixels.  Also, blogger stopped allowing me to upload properly.  If they want to play that way, so be it! *ahem*

At any rate, this SHOULD mark the official return of regular posts on this blog.  Now that I've gotten the details figured out, I should be able to do this faster and more regularly...

A Very Frustrating Conversation

I have gotten myself embroyeled in an odd and frustrating conversation on Facebook.  I was looking at another friends page when I noticed one of his friend's comments.  He was telling my friend (let's call him Ed) to be realistic and recognize that photography isn't really a PROFESSION.  It's not something you can have as a CAREER.  You certainly can't support a family with it.

I'm sure you can figure out why I bristled at that suggestion.  I encouraged Ed (through Facebook) saying that every magazine is filled with photographs, nearly all resulted in pay for photographers.  And that's just editorial and commercial!  There's also portraits, weddings, music/entertainment, photojournalism, product, industrial, paparazzi, etc.  

The friend didn't like my retort and reasserted that you could not *ACTUALLY* support yourself (let alone a family) by being a photographer.  He likened it to being a singer just waiting on your big break.  Here's one of my favorite parts:

"I will not argue this point any further but how many people do you actually know that make a full time living in photography? How many wedding photographers and portrait photographers are full time? "

Hit and run.  Cute.

The problem with his arguement is that, OTHER than me, I know (first name basis) AT LEAST a dozen full time photographers that do not have day jobs and make all of their money in photography (with a splash of graphic design thrown in to keep things interesting).  That's just the guys I *know*.  Nashville is chock-full of pros.  Pro's making a living.  Full-time. 

In the end, it doesn't matter how many photographers I know.  *I* am a professional photographer earning 100% of his family's income through his camera.  This "friend" can rain on Ed's dream all he wants.  Thankfully, it doesn't change my story or those of the people I know.  

I shall close with a favorite quote of mine from General Anthony McAuliffe during WWII, 

To the German Commander:

NUTS!

-The American Commander