Beirut Street Shots

Scenes from Beirut, Lebanon.  April 8-11, 2010. I had initially envisioned a much broader trip around the Middle East, a region I have long been very interested in learning more about, but had to scale plans way back due to time and money constraints. My two weeks split between Istanbul and Beirut was a nice little dip of my toes into the sands of the Middle East, so to speak. I had a great time and a very interesting introduction to cultures not often familiar within the confines of Chicago and the rest of America. Lebanon is a tiny country set immediately North of Israel along the Mediterranean Sea. It is in many ways a Westernized nation full of shiny new skyscrapers and lax laws on alcohol and other things shied upon in many Islamic nations. Beirut is a nightlife capitol of the region. It’s also in many ways a nation deeply engulfed in the modern struggles of the Arab region. With a direct boarder to Syria to the West and a strong governmental presence of Hezbollah–a group viewed by many nations as a terrorist organization and one that was directly responsible for sparking a recent war with Israel–Lebanon also finds itself in rough waters. While I won’t claim to be an expert on the country or Arab relations, I will say that the transitions between cultures is very apparent just walking down the streets. There are Muslim neighborhoods and Christian neighborhoods, churches and mosques. People speak Arab, English and French, and in many places, the remnants from a 15-year civil war is still very noticeable. The war weakened the country, destroyed its economy, and brought upon occupations from both the Syria and Israel. I get the feeling that Lebanon remains a country struggling with numerous influences and one looking for a distinct identity of its own. Increasing hostilities with Israel could eventually lead to more troubles (they checked my passport for signs of Israel no less than three times) but for the time being, Beirut is enjoying a relaxing period of stability and if you have the chance I would recommend a trip to see for yourself.

Politics aside, Lebanon reminds me a lot of Mexico in almost every single way (climate, terrain, great food, the people, the cars…). And I love Mexico! I’d also like to thank my friend Charlotte for her hospitality while in Beirut!

Click here to see all the photos from Beriut, Lebanon...

Istanbul Street Shots Part 1

Here is my first set of street shots from Istanbul, all shot with my Canon 5D. There are three pages of photos in the gallery. Check em out and let me know what you think! Istanbul was a great city and I'd definitely reccomend a visit at some point in your life.

Click here for part one of street photos from Istanbul, Turkey...

Istanbul Snapshots #1

I'm way sleepy, as it's past 2am here and I got up at 8am, but I wanted to post a few sloppy shots from Istanbul. Check out the dog on the back of the scooter, a bunch of local street cats and some skyline at sunset. Romantic stuff. More to come, I'm off to sleep... Need to rest up, I'm DJing tomorrow night (Wednesday) at Dunia Bar over on the Asia side! Much more to come from the land of two continents.

Click here to see the first few photos from Istanbul, Turkey...

A few shots from New York..

I was recently in New York City for like three days. It rained pretty much the whole time and hardly any photos were taken. I did have a girl sitting next to me on the plane en route to be a guest on the Jerry Springer show not-so-subtley attempt to seduce me into the mile high club. Good times.

Click here to see a few photos I did take in New York...

Wicker Park Street Photos

I shot a few hours worth of photos for a photography show earlier this month sponsored by Old Style (I'll get around to posting photos from that show eventually). The sun was perfect and I think I got a few decent shots out of the bunch.

Click here to see all the photos I printed for the Chicago Birthday Party show and a few more...

new orleans, louisiana

Scenes from New Orleans, Louisiana. September, 2009. I spent a few days in New Orleans and loved that city. I didn't take a ton of photos so I guess I will have to go back again soon! (via)

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san antonio, texas

Some photos I took in San Antonio. See the rest here.

waco, texas

Scenes from Waco, Texas. August 31, 2009. Admittedly, I knew nothing about the city of Waco prior to driving thru it en route to Austin. I was rather surprised to discover the presence of several tall(ish) buildings in a downtown portion of the city which has probably seen much better days. After wandering around in the hot Texas sun for a half hour or so, I got back into my car and drove thru the rest of the sprawled out city, stopping to get an oil change and a new tire before heading down the road to Crawford, which will be seen in the next post.. (via)

Street Photography

I wanted to post this video series for a few reasons. Street photography is where I began my journey in photography and to this day remains my favorite place to take photos. This video was put together by a dude named Chris Weeks, who is based in LA and takes great photos of celebrities & dogs & everything else in between. Also featured is a guy named Severin Koller, who lives out in Austria and also takes amazing photos. I've known these two guys thru the internet basically ever since I started taking photos.

White at times the videos sound like a flat out advertisement for Leica and their new M9 model (which looks really awesome btw), there is plenty of other great content that makes this video a fun watch for anyone interested in street shooting or photography in general. On top of that, I've been really excited about all the new cameras being released with video capabilities. The entire video was shot with a Canon 5DM2. As soon as I can scrape together another few thousand dollars, one of these guys will be mine!

(part 1 vimeo link)

(part 2 vimeo link)

(part 3 vimeo link)

And here is another video that was shot with the new Canon 7D. It's really, really well done!

(vimeo link)

dallas, texas - light & shadows

 Scenes from downtown Dallas, Texas. Sunday, August 30, 2009. I arrived in downtown Dallas on a late Sunday afternoon with the sun blazing in typical Texas fashion. The interesting thing about downtown Dallas is that much like many other major cities across the United States, there are few people and not much going on during off-work hours (nights and weekends). White Flight & other issues relocated many urban dwellers to the surrounding areas, leaving behind an eerie landscape with nobody around. This trend has been reversing more recently, with many large cities re-energizing their downtown areas and more people moving back into them.

The other interesting thing about downtown Dallas is that many of the buildings were designed with lots of exposed glass. When you combine this with sunlight, it creates some cool reflections and textures all over the city. I basically spent a few hours wandering around trying to capture just that. (via)

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