If it aint broke...

I shot the first high school football scrimmage of the year this afternoon... and got soaked. But my camera stayed dry. It never fails, if I get totally decked out in all my rain gear, nothing happens. But when I go half-assed, it pours. I got the camera and lens protected with a new "camera rain coat" I got a few months ago, and I put my rain coat on. But I decided against the rain pants. And you guessed it, my pants got soaked.

No big deal, I always tell people that I'll dry off, but it's harder for 10 grand worth of camera equipment to dry off. So in the rain, camera gear comes first.

I guess the rain was what's leftover from Tropical Storm Erin.

Today also makes three days in a row I've been running. I went out and got one of those arm band things that holds an iPod. Now I can listen to music instead of myself breathing hard. It really helps me run because it takes my mind off how tired and out of shape I am. I listen to quite the mix too... everything from The Cranberries to 50-Cent to Guns-n-Roses to Insane Clown Posse to the KSU Fight Song.

anyway, here's a shot I took today at the scrimmage. Hey, it worked, and when you're nine, you don't really care that your umbrella looks like this.

The Tiny Cheeseburgers were a big hit

Well, over a month of work all came together Friday night during the opening reception for my Faces of Katrina Gallery. It was pretty neat to see everything displayed in one place.

I'd guess that about 30 people showed up, but I'm the worst at guessing the amount of people in an area.

About an hour before the start of the show, I ran to the store and picked up some treats to eat. Including: Cheese cubes, Squeeze Cheese, Tiny Cheeseburgers, crackers, soft batch chocolate chip cookies, a veggie tray and Three Blind Moose red wine. (the label looked really cool).

People started to show up around 6.

After about an hour of hanging out and chatting with everybody, I played the DVD I made. A few people told me after the video that they were fighting back tears. I took that as a good thing.

Here are a few shots taken by Valerie Parkhill (friend of Misty's). I gave her my point and shoot camera for the night and let her document everything. Misty also took some shots and they can be seen here. So thanks to Val and Misty for taking photos of the evening.

Here's a shot of the outside of the Museum. It's also a museum about Terrebonne Parish. They have stuff about everything that goes on in Terrebonne Parish. Alligators, Oil, Shrimping, Crabbing, Oysters, Hurricanes... etc. But they have a section of the building open to Art Galleries. That's where my stuff was.


Left to Right: Chris Forrest, Keith Magill, Me, Miles Forest.

Miles is the Publisher of the Courier and Comet. (My bosses bosses boss) and that's his wife talking with Keith, the Executive Editor of The Courier and Comet. (My bosses boss).

A highlight of the evening is when Miles said to me "Wow Matt, I really liked how they set everything up. The frames look good, they're hung very nicely. The video looked good and the food... The Museum did a good job."

"I did all that Miles. I did everything. They just gave me the space to do it"

Then a few minutes later Keith asked "Hey Matt, who did your writing for the video? Because what you said was very well written."

"I did all that Keith, I just talked into the camera about what I did during the storm."

"Did you have a giant poster behind the camera and you read what was on the poster?"

"Nope, I just talked."

I can do more than just take pictures.


Here's the setup of the Gallery. The table of food was right in the middle. The TV that shows the DVD is in the back and the prints are on the walls. There were 21 prints of the Faces, and 18 prints of other photos from Katrina. (I have 21 prints of other stuff... but I bought Hobby Lobby out of 8x10 frames)


I couldn't have hoped for anything better. It was a great night. Misty's dad took some video, and maybe someday I'll get around to posting that.

The ladies who gave me the opportunity to display my work asked if my video could become a permanent piece in the museum. And they want to help this show travel to other museums in the Region.

It's always been a dream of mine to have my own show where people show up, drink wine, eat cheese and talk about whatever. And that's exactly what happened. Soon after shooting these photos in 2005, I was told "these photos are gallery quality." I guess Susan Kille in New York was right.

Crazy Three Days

Pretty wild three days... even for a photojournalist at a daily newspaper... in South Louisiana.

Quick Rundown.

Tuesday:

• -First Day of School (got to school at 6:30 a.m.)
• -House Fire (claimed the lives of two poodles.)
• -Car Wreck (I had a REALLY interesting journalism ethics situations rise from this... but that will be it's own post in the future.)
• Night Out Against Crime (Neighbors marched through the streets... I soaked an entire shirt with sweat)

Wednesday:

• Went down the Bayou to photograph oak trees cracking tombs in a cemetery
• Fatal Wreck... Truck vs Cop Car (Had another interesting journalism ethics situation come from this)
• Murder in Bayou Blue (Get eaten up by mosquitoes while photographing a trailer where the woman lived and talking with neighbors)

Thursday: (My day off because it was my three year anniversary of my first day at The Courier)

• Huge house fire in Dularge. (I think it's safe to say that it's the largest fire I've seen)

And of course Friday is the opening of my Faces of Katrina Gallery. When I wasn't at the house fire on Thursday, I was at the Museum hanging photos. Big thanks to Misty for helping out with that. She has a better eye for seeing if the frames are in line.

Anyway, here are a couple photos from the Cop Car crash and the Dularge House Fire. I've also put photo galleries on The Couriers website. One from the First Day of School, the Cop Car crash and the Dularge House Fire.

First the Cop Car crash. The passenger in the truck died... wasn't wearing a seat belt. The drivers in both vehicles were wearing seat belts. They both had mild injuries. I'll let you make the connection there.


Now the huge house fire. Nobody was injured. A few firemen were treated for heat, but are just fine. Oh, the heat index at the time of the fire was about 110. Nasty.

I know what you won't be doing Aug. 10....

.... And that's watching the Saints play the Bills in the Superdome.

Why?

Because you're going to be at the opening reception for my Faces of Katrina photo gallery at the Terrebonne Waterlife Museum from 6 p.m to 8 p.m. Duh.

But if football is more your thing, that's cool. The show will be up all month.

It's crunch time for me right now to get everything finished. But it's coming along smoothly. And by smoothly I mean spending any second of free time to work on this gallery. I've only taken breaks for work, eat, sleep and watching Bonds whenever he's up to bat.

The museum is supposed to be mailing out post cards to help spread the word. But I haven't seen anything yet.

I've got 42 images I need to get framed... and right now I'm nine frames short. But the Manager at Hobby Lobby said the frames I need will be re-stocked Friday evening. (I purchased all they had in stock last week.... they were on sale)

And I'm working on a DVD that will be played in the back of the gallery. It's a quick video type thing of me talking about how I covered the storm and all that good stuff.

But the reception should be pretty cool. I get to serve food and drinks. Any suggestions on what to serve at something like this are welcome.

There really isn't much else to report. No cool photos really. So this post will be photo-less.

Hope to see everybody on Aug. 10th.