Life is Work. Work is a Blast.

This weekend I made my semi annual trip to Jasper, AR to ride motorcycles with a few friends. Actually it has grown to a bit more than that. It's really a full blown rally these days, but it still has a close knit group of folks who enjoy riding some beautiful roads, tossing back a few by the campfire at night and tell stories old and new.

In years past I have blogged about the bacon and french toast at the Ozark Cafe or the scenic views or the amazing roads. But this go round I have a little different perspective: I have an amazing life.

As I sat on the side of the road an old Pontiac came by carrying a canoe on a few old rolls of carpet. I laughed as it meandered around the blind corner. It reminded me of a buffalo rambling through a forest filled with nimble deer. Not belonging at all but not bothered by it at all either. As the car came nearer the sound of the 455 filled my ears and I saw behind the steering wheel a man late in years, grey of hair, long of beard with a grin that warmed my heart. I imagined him arriving at the river and plunging into the river head first the cold water soaking his worn white v-neck shirt and cut off Levis before even unloading the canoe and floating away alone. Windows down on the Bonneville, keys under the seat, a brown wrinkled paper sack with lunch stowed in the boat.

I have always admired people who give off that feeling of freedom. Those who live life on their terms. Those who can do as they choose. But the more I live this life of a freelancer, the more I realize I am closer to that dream than I know.

No doubt there will be times when I am scared about money or security or buying new gear or fixing old gear or whatever. But the fact is I can now really be who I have always been; a photographer, an adventurer, a motorbike rider and yes... even a bit of a writer.

So here's to the road in front of us all. Enjoy it while you can. We can only hope that the pavement is smooth, the curves plenty, the sky blue and at the end of it all.... the river cool and clear.

Ten years....

Lately I have been sending out a lot of emails touting my experience as a photojournalist, the time I have put into my craft, the things I have seen, the variety of assignments I have taken. 

In almost every one, I round out my experience in the field to "nearly a decade." Up until this morning I didn't spend much time thinking about what that past decade meant. I have certainly covered some pretty amazing stories in my relatively short career, and I expect to cover just as many in the future. 

But today, as I walked into a gas station along the turnpike, a grainy, dark image of a massive tornado caught my eye on the front cover of one of the state's daily papers. It took me a minute to really catch the drift of the headline and then it hit me. 

One decade ago today I was a student at the University of North Texas and I was scrambling around campus trying to find someone to skip class and go with me to Moore, Okla. to cover the massive damage inflicted by a series of tornadoes that sprung up across the state. 

I couldn't find anyone to go with me, so I fueled up my truck (a 1979 Ford F100) and headed north on Interstate 35. When I got there I hit the streets, found ways to sneak into the damaged areas and went to work covering what was the biggest story of my then very short career as a college journalist. I spent three days in Moore, camping in my truck alongside the giant broadcast rigs and rented camper buses of the major papers. I slept in the front seat of that old Ford and, as with all the other major disasters I have covered since, lived on water, peanut butter and granola bars. 

I wasn't nearly the journalist then as I am now, and the photos show that. But the things I saw, the stories I heard and the journalists I watched set in stone for me my path for the next ten years of my life. It was a great ten years.

So many things have changed. I am looking across my dining room now and marveling at the camera that I used to make the images. Yes, I still have it, it's on the "antique" shelf, along with the rest of my film cameras. Which is why the first photo has text on it. The only digital copy I have was used as a cover image for my portfolio for years afterwards. I still have the negatives somewhere with the rest of my college stuff. It makes me wonder what I would find if I dusted off an old loupe and looked through them. Who knows what I have already forgotten. 

A Beautiful Wedding

Last weekend I shot a wedding as a second shooter for a friend of mine. Here are a few of my favorites. It was a lot of fun and the couple was great. Congrats to Allison and Adam. The wedding was here in Tulsa with a reception at the Tulsa Country Club. Beautiful old club that over looks downtown from the northwest side. 

New Work

It has been way to long since I posted some work, so I thought I would throw some new stuff up here. These are a few of my favorites from a recent shoot at the Cushing Oil Terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma. 

The terminal moves most of the oil that passes through the US in a series of pipelines. It's a pretty amazing place. Very difficult to give a sense of scale. I shot the assignment for Bloomberg and I know the Washington Post picked it up the next day. Not sure who else. 

As I have said on this blog before I really like shooting heavy industry. It's a strange thing to appreciate, but the scale and look of things like this lend themselves to photographs... and strangely at the same time really challenge me to see the larger picture. 

Starting next week I am going to try and shoot some stock images of some of Oklahoma's wind farms, ports, biofuel plants and other heavy industry and energy locations. Should be fun. 

Light Testin'

Sometimes your model isn't around when you need her. So you have to have a stand in... sometimes your stand in isnt around when you need her. So sometimes... you need a tripod. 

I like this look. I really hope I can replicate it 5 more times over the next week.

BTW, the stand in finally showed up... she had a new hair cut. 

Crazy Kids

Wow.... it has been a bit of a whirlwind the last couple weeks. My apologies for not updating here. I've shot as varied a group of assignments as I would have in the newspaper industries. Everything from portraits to sports to fashion to architecture. One this that has popped up a good bit is kids. 

Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to be the next strip mall kiddie portrait guy... but I do enjoy shooting the occasional custom in house or on site portrait of the occasional kid. The past couple weeks I shot a few, and man, it was fun. 

It also helps to have cool parents who understand and appreciate the difference between what you get at Sears and what you can get when you hire someone who will come to your home and take their time. 

Also, as always there were a few cool kids at a wedding I shot in Houston. 

The Sweet Roar of Fandom

Well kids, it is that time of year again. Time for basketball tournaments and screaming fans and pep bands and full body paint. I am not the world's biggest basketball fan, but I do enjoy the tournaments at all levels. 

Last night I shot a fantastic game at ORU. They just lost to NDSU in the final moments but the fan's excitement and the near full Mabee Center reminded me of the things I like about this time of year and the work I have done for the last ten years. Next week I will be covering some Div. II games at the Lone Star Conference and after that? Who knows. A lot depends on where ORU ends up after the Summit league tournament in Sioux Falls, SD this week. 

Let's hope for them (and me!) that it is some place great! 

A Camera To Call My Own

Well last week was a little crazy, but in a good way. Staff photojournalists are issued gear to use from their companies, so when I was laid off, I was in a bad spot. This week I bought some gear and shot a couple of ORU games. It's amazing the feeling of owning your own gear. For those who don't know, it's not cheap. Pros don't use the $800 cameras that you see in Circuit City or Best Buy. The cameras we shoot with cost about $4000 new and the lenses can be even more expensive. 

For now I have what I need and the future is wide open for us here. All we need now are some clients. if you know anyone, please... send them this way. 

New Stuff... And A New Day

I have been holding off on this post now for a while. Wasn't sure exactly what to say. It has been a shocker of a week. I was laid off from my full time newspaper gig on Jan. 6th. So here I am a week or so later and I feel like I am headed for a better place. I have some freelance leads and more importantly at this point, I have a plan. 

I'd love for you all to take a look at the portfolio site and let me know what you think. I have expanded the galleries and added galleries for Food, Portraits, Places, Outdoors and Fashion. There are of course still galleries for my hurricane work, sports and editorial singles. 

www.shanebevel.com

Soon we will have an entirely separate page for weddings and I have already had some interest in booking weddings this summer. If you know anyone getting married in Dallas/Fort Worth, OKC or Tulsa, please pass my information on to them. 

On a last note, please just keep us in your prayers. Its going to be a little crazy for a while and Fran and I need all the help we can get. 

Iglesia El Rosario

I meant to post this last week and things have gotten away from me, but on Saturday in El Salvador we went on a little sight seeing tour and one of the places we went was the Iglesia El Rosario. The church from the outside (seen above) pales in comparison to the cathedral across the Central Park in downtown San Salvador. In fact, barring the post-modern bell tower, you would never know it was a church. It looks much more like an aircraft hangar from the outside. But I cannot image that the traditional cathedral can hold a candle to the interior of the all concrete, glass and steel decor of the El Rosario.The architect designed everything from the exterior to the interior and even the stations of the cross and the stained glass that tells the stories of the Bible (you can see these in the Pano, they are very stylistic panels of steel over clear glass across the top of the doors and back wall) from the three simple materials. 

The walls are fully ventilated in a way that is really too hard to describe, but let me just say that the outside air literally blows straight through the building. I counted only  about a dozen small light sources that were not provided by God himself. Everything else was natural light.

The Stations of the Cross didn't actually show the entire body of Christ. For the most part they were just his arms, or hands. The entire space was truly a work of art. Although I didn't take my panoramic head and tripod on the day long trip, I did manage to hack together a panoramic that will give you a good idea of the space and its beauty. 

HERE IS THE PANORAMIC

If you make it to El Salvador, please make a trip to see this amazing building. But please... take a tour guide or fixer. It's in a rather rough part of the downtown market area but is well worth the trip.