2011

I've never put together a best-of-the-year edit before but since I'm working on a portfolio and website update anyway, I thought I'd give it a shot. I decided to try to boil it all down to ten images - a fairly standard portfolio size for the industry. The edit has changed many, many times over the last couple of days and I'm still not sure I've picked the right ones. Editing is always tricky because you have to try to remove yourself from the memory and circumstance of when the picture was made and look at it objectively. Any photographer will tell you that they have certain photos they are attached to because they recall what it took to make the image and are frequently frustrated when others don't respond as expected. Likewise, there are always pictures that seemed easy and almost superficial in the making but get great response and support from others. While day-to-day editing can largely rely on the needs of the story to dictate final choices, this kind of portfolio editing ultimately aims to reduce everything to a fine balance between pandering to an audience or just serving your own desires. Right now, I'm reasonably happy with it - tell me what you think.

Bikéyah

Today is Thanksgiving so, having the day off of work, I've spent the day intermediately cooking, cleaning and watching a six-hour documentary about America by British TV personality Stephen Fry. Like looking at Robert Frank's "The Americans", I found it fascinating to see my own country and culture from a foreign perspective, especially on such a uniquely American day as today. A rather ambitious undertaking, Mr. Fry visited all 50 states in six hours of screen time so, clearly, time was at a premium. He covered Manhattan in two minutes, all of Ohio in less than 30 seconds but spent more than 14 minutes on the Navajo Nation; eating frybread in Monument Valley, listening to creation stories underneath the Rainbow Bridge at Lake Powell etc.

I find it hard to describe how I feel about this while I am alternately fascinated by the landscape and culture that surrounds me and frustrated by the remoteness and destitution of this place. After more than three years living and photographing here the only thing I can say definitively about the area is that there is no pretense here. No facade of opulence or posturing of personality; whether out of necessity or tradition, nearly everyone and everything here is honest, genuine and exposed. What Mr. Fry said at the end of his 14 minutes was, "If ever there was a place where humans can feel connected to some sense of the spirit world; this is it." I suppose that's as good a description as any but it did make me proud to call this corner of America my home. Na'Nizhoozhidî nashaa doo adî shîghan - I was born here and here too is where I live. Happy Thanksgiving.

Churros

Have you ever googled yourself? I bet you found your own linkedin and facebook pages right? I used to google my name frequently just to see where and when my pictures were being used but I haven't done it in a while. I usually got the usual facebook stuff plus a link to this site and my portfolio site and links to other publications that had picked my work up off the AP wire - plus, a random selection of sites offering cable replacements for Hoover vacuums and stuff like that. I searched my name again today and for the first time ever google tried that autofill thing with "cable hoover photography,""cable hoover gallup nm,""cable hoover gallup independent" and of course "cable hoover blog." I suppose that means that other people out there somewhere have been typing my name enough times for google to decide that it's worth saving them the trouble. I'll admit that the thought was a nice little ego boost but it also made me feel bad about not updating my blog in seven or eight months. So, this is what I did today.

After spending all week in Albuquerque for the preps volleyball state tournament I got a tip this morning that there was a sheep and goat sale in Naschitti, NM. I drove 3+ hours from ABQ through Gallup and halfway to Farmington assuming it'd be a big livestock auction with lots of activity and people. Instead, it turned out to be one rancher from Colorado with a few dozen sheep and a 'For Sale' sign. There really was nothing at all to photograph so I set about trying to shoot the sheep in some interesting way - like a kind of sheep landscape or sheep portrait. I guess it turned out ok, nice light and the wind looked cool on these churro sheep - if you're into livestock, google 'navajo churro sheep.' Certainly nothing that'll go into my portfolio but like I said, this is what I did today. If you're still out there and reading this, thanks.

Tag Team

We had a fairly slow afternoon at the paper today so when a call came in about a large fire just north of town myself and another staff photographer decided we'd both go check it out. It turned out to be a rather harmless trash fire so we just had a good time playing with the nice sunset light and the smoke, shooting photos of each other and joking around with firefighters.

While we all frequently work side by side with photographers from other publications, it's really rare that any two us from the same staff will be at the same scene. It was pretty interesting to look over everything we shot back at the office - it reminded me of the classes and critiques from college. I wish we had more opportunities to do these sort of things in a professional setting, I think it'd be good for us all.

See more of Adron's work here.

Stool Pidgeon

I was digging through some photos for a website/portfolio update when I came across this one that I meant to post here when I shot it a couple months ago.

This was from an otherwise very boring business page assignment about a local restaurant that's having renovations done. I got the whole tour and photographed the new paint and new counters etc. and as I was leaving I walked past the employee restroom in the back of the kitchen and saw this. The bird had apparently come in through a vent in ceiling while the place was closed for renovations. He seemed healthy so we took him outside and he flew away but I had to shoot it first. Just one of those quirky things that happens when you carry a camera around all the time.

By the way, the big website update is finished today - check it out at www.cablehooverphoto.com - new stuff in every gallery.