John Boal Photography

I went to the DC Hip-Hop Soulfest.  The first annual, I was told.  I hung around, listened to some tunes, some poetry, and met some nice people.  I took pictures, most of them not so great, but here are a couple of a band in which the female singer was particularly energetic on stage.  With her makeup, outfit, and the sky behind her, I ended up with a couple pics I liked.  I tried tracking her down after the set, but I couldn't find her.  I wanted to do a couple portraits with my 4x5.  Instead I shot a couple of other things with it.  I'll have to post those next week, after I take them to Chrome.

I recently shot some film of a Reverend who leads a congregation kicked out of their church and are now forced to worship in an elementary school cafeteria. As I understand it, an Episcopal Bishop "came out" and there was quite a bit of ballyhoo that ensued. The dust settled and part of the congregation was forced to worship elsewhere--the part that was in support of the gay Bishop. I shot this assignment in a standard way, grabbing stills of the service, and such. At the end I decided to grab the Reverend David Kendrick, who was very patient with me, and we did a couple 4x5 portraits by the window. But it did call to mind some question on the idea of religion, at least the organized type. I'm not a very religious person. I didn't grow up going to church on Sunday's, just Easter and Christmas Eve, maybe. The older I became, the less I went. Lest I launch into a full defense on why I don't go to church, let me just briefly mention that I think it...

So I finally got a chance to scan those 4x5s that have been sitting in a box since the end of May. Here are a few that turned out ok.  Still trying to figure out the best way to shoot 4x5, but it certainly looks just a bit different than the standard digital shots.  Also helps when you're in New Mexico.  The BW were shot with a red filter, also.   So the next time I'll be out in NM will be for fiesta!  If you've ever heard of  Burning Man , this is the original... Zozobra .  I hadn't heard of this, of course, until I met my girlfriend, who is a Santa Fe native.  So that will be in a couple months, and will be sweeet. Anyway, these pics below are of some typical New Mexico landscapes... Unfortunately, this is very typical these days:  a dead piñon tree , courtesy of the bark beetle. These last three came on a day when we decided to go hiking.  We went out on the Chamisa Trail in the Santa Fe National Forest , just outside Santa Fe.  Nice.  Elevation gets to you, though....

I had the opportunity to visit my friend, Keith Barraclough's studio the other day while he was shooting the latest installment of "Making It", a small piece that runs in the Wash Post Magazine. Studio shoots and the tons of lighting has never been anything I ever saw myself being good at, much less enjoying. I am a documentary photographer, dammit! But I started to see the potential of it, and the enjoyment of taking what could be a mundane picture and zazzing it up. Did I just say "zazzing"? Yeah, I did. Anyway, He lit the portrait with five lights, and since I've been educating myself on strobist.com , I felt like I had a small clue about why he did it the way he did. And the best part of the day is when he let me mess around with his nice camera and his 5 lights. I didn't move things around too much, I was just enamored with this new look. I don't shoot much with strobes. If I do, it's mostly fill, and if that. Maybe I'll have an off-cam...

Over the past few weeks, some things have changed in my life. I moved into a condo, and I generally have become less comfortable about my career as a photojournalist. The stories keep sweeping in about the state of the industry. Now that's not to say there isn't any room for good photography. I think there is and always will be. The issue here is that I feel like I jumped onto a sinking ship. And everyone who was on that ship, has begun to adapt to life elsewhere. On land, if the metaphor must be continued, but enough. Before I had a chance to really get into the industry and become polished, the industry standards changed. It used to be, as far as I understood it: get an internship, get a staff job, be happy. If freelancing is your thing, then maybe do that after some years in the business. Now the standard is: everyone for themselves! I once read that the wave of popularity of celebrity chefs like Emeril and Paul Prudhomme lead to a surge in attendance at culinary ...