I Came to Get Down

“I Came to Get Down”

Nothing more, nothing less.

One picture.

A few words.

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend, folks! Be safe and watch out for the not ready for prime time players out there on the highways and the roads!

Excelsior!

Summertime!

BRING ON THE HOT!

Pool time, fun times, GOOD TIMES (and not the type you watch on TV Land).

The vibe in the air hangs low, but after this weekend (which just happens to be Memorial Day weekend), things will be in full swing.

Business is picking up considerably and I am glad to be able to share some of my greater works from the past two weeks. Outside of running like a madman through the streets, over the sides of the city’s edifices, and mingling with the many pockets of culture here, I also do gatherings/events as well. Much love and thanks to the kind permission given by both the Bakos and Duncan families for use of the following photos!

Enjoy!

AB and AD (Mothers)

Caring IS Sharing

Hungry Man

Future Artist

Say Cheese!

Two Out of Three Kids Agree That This is a Great Idea

Chalk It Up to Love

Race to the Finish

The rest of the shots from the Bakos party are here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.357195047679065.84732.227797643952140&type=3&l=73eddf39ff

My photo business page is located at this link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ebonsoul-Photos/227797643952140?ref=tn_tnmn

As always, if you enjoy the content, please LIKE the page and share! My lens is ready to work for YOU!

This weekend however is dedicated to relaxation.

Looking forward to this full three day weekend! Cannot wait! Here’s to summertime!

Space Oddity

Space Oddity

No riddle can be given, no rhyme can be designed,
To describe this item in space, with many eyes and no face,
That envelopes this moment in time.

What is it?

Ready for the Weekend (already)

Here are a few clips from this past weekend.

Above Amazing

View from Truckstock #1

View from Truckstock #2

Focus on the Future

The Sounds of Durty Laundry

Pouch Puppy

Celebrated Mother’s Day (hope you gave your Mum a call or paid her a visit!) by giving her flowers and a digital frame to house some of the pics I’ve taken over the years. Very thankful for having her in my life and helping cultivate this artistic spirit inside me.

Took photos for the second birthday party in two weeks, attended Truckstock (a food on wheels convention here in Dallas), and enjoyed the serenity of White Rock Lake before the enemy we all know as Monday became a full thought.

As we all know, the weekend always passes too soon and Monday runs up on us when we least want it to. Here’s to abolishing Mondays and making Sunday2 a future day of the WEEKEND.

The Third Time Pays for All

Lit Canopy (Original)

Lit Canopy (Version 2)

Lit Canopy (Final Form?)

The results of a late night experiment in Uptown that I just got to play with tonight from last weekend.

Another look into what I see and how my mind’s eye takes it and changes it into something close to, but not the same as the original.

Welcome to the world of the twist. The third time ALWAYS pays for all.

Until it’s something else.

Messages From The Stars

This past weekend was a buzz of energy that encompassed multiple levels. Cinco De Mayo celebrations a’plenty, a couple of art shows, the arrival of the perigee-szygy (aka “Super Moon”) up in the heavens, and the loss of a star here on earth (MCA from the Beastie Boys passed away on Friday, RIP).

Took in all of the sights and sounds of Friday night and then woke up early enough to get a margarita and then scoot over to my shoot for a six-year-old’s birthday party. You want to talk about being on your toes to get the shot? Try to picture TAKING pictures of a bunch of six-year-olds running around on even a SMALL amount of sugar. Their natural energy keeps them hyper enough, but I was able to get some prime shots and put some of my previous experience to use in getting all the angles necessary.

When that was said and done, I took in to running errands and buying some classic wax before heading to Winfrey Point near White Rock Lake to capture the “Super Moon.” Ran into a number of other avid photogs and after seeing so many people battling for prime estate to capture it from the top of the hill, I decided to go to the bottom of the hill and into the low plain to get the moon’s initial stirring in the night sky.

Got it and came out with the following:

Muted Moon

Abbey View

Moon Rise – 1st Angle

Moon Rise – 2nd Angle

Bad Moon Rising

Moon Rise – 3rd Angle

All of this occurred (exception being the kid’s birthday party) with most of the “Paul’s Boutique” by the Beastie Boys blaring in the background.

Rare events happen when we lose someone just as rare themselves. Godspeed, MCA, Junior Seau, and George Lindsey (Goober Pyle) and all the dearly departed.

The serene sky and light pre-summer zephyrs were indeed messages from the stars that all is going to be well. Even in the case of running into a heart that once beat like mine and having to wonder what to do last night, the messages were in the stars. I just had to look up and understand the bigger picture to see what to do.

Keep your heads up, folks.

The New Girl in Town

If you don’t know Deborah K. Diskquo, you ABSOLUTELY should meet her. Drop her a line here:

http://www.facebook.com/Debbiedoesdisco

Went to a party with her last weekend and heard some of the most amazing music that Dallas has NOT heard in some time. Here are pictures to prove it:

Instrumentation

La Dama

Dallas on a Diskquo Night

Ladies to the Dancefloor!

In Motion

Dancefloor Respite

Party People in the Place to Be

Paul T / Sarcastic Disco deliverer

The night was dedicated to Sarcastic Disco and it did not disappoint. The event was held at Sandaga 813 (formerly known as MINC and SOA for you long standing Dallasites). Their info and FB page are located here (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sandaga-813/243390669079992). Lots of new music and some old acts will be rolling through town thanks to this new partnership and along with a few other parties (Assembled Soul, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Assembled-Soul/106012562815881).

The summer is looking up with Deborah and her friends at the fore for change in what so many have considered a stagnant club scene for the past half year, so be ready to roll out and heed the call when the next event comes up!

There are more pictures from the event located here also:

http://s1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc473/ebonsoul2k11/Random%20in%20Dallas%202012/Debbie%20goes%20into%20SARCASTIC%20Disco/

Also you can get updates as to when new photoblog entries go up here (http://www.facebook.com/ebonsoulphoto) and you can check the albums and tag yourself accordingly at my business page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ebonsoul-Photos/227797643952140?ref=tn_tnmn).

Thinking about closing out the spring series sometimes soon, but promise to give a heads up before I do (as more than a few people are enjoying the Park Party People pics). Watch this space and for the new girl in town!

Back Together Again

The weather for the weekends has held to a pleasant enough temperature to match the mood of the season. People are getting out of their tall, grey people bowls we calls offices and out into the lush, verdant sprawl that we call “the great outdoors.” Families, fun, and a great amount of cheer are the core of Park Party People‘s tenets and we are proud to provide installment NUMBER 3 THIS SUNDAY at Trammell Crow Lake at Trinity Park.

We have surged forward in growth this year and as always, feel free to let your friends and family know how we get down! We can’t grow without YOU!

Here is the Facebook link for those needing it and info:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/131685604095/

Speaking of growing, my body of work is doing so as well! While the park parties have been ongoing, I have captured some of what I feel has been some of my best photography in some time. To be able to capture the synergy between man and nature and with the least amount of harm in either direction has been a blessing in disguise. The event helps to sooth the soul and the camera is my own personal release.

Most people think that me lugging the camera around and taking pictures is hard work. It’s not, in all honesty. Learning how and WHEN to capture something is the only true challenge. With all the love shown for the event and the people enjoying each one, it becomes easier and easier to enjoy. WHY? People having a good time don’t need to be prompted to smile or to act different because they are already HAPPY. Happiness is the choice part of this equation that I cannot control, BUT that I can easily capture.

Here are some from last week’s bunch:

Schwa

Twilight Unfurled

What’s the Name?

All Smiles

“We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!

Mother/Daughter

If you like all of the content you see here, PLEASE feel free to spread word about my talent AND to LIKE my Facebook page I’ve created for my small business. I’ve worked with a variety of things from product shots, modeling (head/profile shots), assisting with press packs/content, landscape and event photography.

Here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ebonsoul-Photos/227797643952140

You can always leave a comment on here as well. All feedback is appreciated!

Things in life don’t always go round full circle. When they do, however, everything goes back together again!

A Song of the South

I normally shy away from harder fare for my photoblog, but for once have to meet nastiness head on. The hurt in question is over the place of reality as it relates to history and to young minds.

First off, let me ask, “How do you do?”

The topic in question: The Song of the South (an old Walt Disney film).

Here is a link for the tales if you have NEVER heard that title before:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_the_South

And here is a wonderful resource for all things Song of the South:

http://www.songofthesouth.net/index.php

You may ask yourself, have I heard of this? If you haven’t, I assure you you’ve heard a song from it.

If you grew up during the 80s or 90s (or were a kid that grew up watching/listening to Disney Sing-A-Longs), then you’ve heard the following tune:

Now notice that at the end of the clip that there are a group of children singing the song as well. A young white boy and girl and their black friend (a young boy as well). They are doing nothing more than enjoying each others company and basking in the innocence of their youth before the world tells them that they cannot hang out with one another. The background for the movie is set in Post Reconstruction Era American Deep South (say that five times fast, LOL), so the clothes and the ideals are a little different than today. When the movie was first released in the 40s it was an eye opener as well. Controversy has LONG followed this film.

BUT WHY?

In the early days of film and since the abhorred slant of life in America given by “Birth of a Nation”, cinema took to trying to TRULY tell the stories of American perspective in the most simple and honest format. In fact so much so that when “Gone With The Wind” came out and told it’s epic tale of life in the South and the bitterness that existed (set in almost the same period as “Song of the South”, it won TEN Academy Awards (with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress going to Hattie McDaniel, the FIRST African American to win an Academy Award).

How odd is it that some seven years later that McDaniel would star in ANOTHER film about life in the South playing a “mammy” type role and that it’s content about racial relations between blacks and whites as being almost near to par (Uncle Remus, one of the main characters of the story, is free to travel as he will) was panned as being a “travesty on the antebellum South.” In a total turn of events, EVEN THE NAACP is on record as saying that the movie “…unfortunately gives the impression of an idyllic master-slave relationship which is a distortion of the facts.”

The facts are that A) slavery occurred, B) the word “Nigger” was used back then and still is today (to MUCH different degree, though I regret that it is said at all honestly), and that C) the story PROMOTES harmony between the races. Much like the critically acclaimed musical “Ragtime”, “Song of the South” displays a rare found courage in trying to show the times in part for what they were.

These are the images from between the printed matter and the poster I was able to collect over the years. None of this is offensive in the very least.

“The Moon and the Mill”

Fond Childhood Memory

Uncle Remus Stories

1972 Theatre Card from Song of the South

Now do you find a way to incorporate whips and mutilation into a children’s cartoon in order to strike home injustice or do you let the story on its own merit invite questions into a child’s eye about difference in culture?

I believe the latter to be the case. Walt Disney wasn’t trying to create a mockery of the South or instill a comical view of the American Negro, either. Present day America has done that quite fine on it’s own.

“Soul Plane?”

“Madea (fill in the blank here) adjective adjective noun.”

And most anything that doesn’t pass as Intelligent Rap/Hip Hop these days.

The tales and mutters of Old Negro dialect read better than most lyrics to what is passing as Rap these days anyway, truth be told. Disney stands with the following statement about release of the film here in the States (although you can get the film abroad with no issue): “…there’s been a lot of internal discussion about Song of the South. And at some point we’re going to do something about it. I don’t know when, but we will. We know we want people to see Song of the South because we realize it’s a big piece of company history, and we want to do it the right way.”

What would Uncle Remus say about it all?

“Youk’n hide de fier, but w’at you gwine do wid de smoke?” (You can hide the fire, but what are you going to do with the smoke?)

You can hide the truth that you made a beautiful production all you want Disney, but one day the film will HAVE to come to light and I will petition long and hard to have it happen sooner rather than later. For a film that takes African Trickster stories and then shows how they became part of the American Negro culture and how it influenced ALL people of the South (not just the Blacks) and hide it is just not good form.

It’s like saying “Nigger” without saying it because of how they’ve pushed the film off to the slave quarters of its vault. The money is still made through it’s work although it never gets its time to shine fully. The work of many held down by a select few (even at the expense of making money off the one song that unites the masses). Even the movie itself NEVER has the N word used in it.

The “Magical Negro” Archetype envisioned for so long STARTED with Uncle Remus. Before you had Morgan Freeman as God, before you had Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, before you had Sam L. Jackson as Mr. Glass, and well before you had empowered individuals such as Kunta Kinte or Fiddler from “Roots”, you had UNCLE REMUS.

I’m off to find my laughing place, but this scenario is none too funny.

Thank you for bearing with my first rant in a while, but the topic stands close to my heart. Don’t punish the many for the sins of a few (and generations long gone). Let art live and let it’s story ring aloud for all to see AND hear!

Pictures on a String

Spring is quickly fading into summer and before the season of pleasantness disappeared, Park Party People decided to take up the challenge and throw its inaugural event for 2012. The party was held at Trammel Crow Park by the Trinity River which looked back into the city from one of the best angles I have seen in some time. A harmonious mix of man, music, and nature occurred and I am glad to be able to recount the day with some photos.

The real justice is done if YOU come out! We welcome any and all and the events are family (and pet friendly). As part of the team that helps to push the unity within the community, I invite you to join us at the next one. You can find us on Facebook as Park Party People or at this link: http://www.facebook.com/groups/131685604095/

Here are some of Sunday Fun Day’s finest!

Hell on Wheels

Flora and Distant Facades

The Music Man

Sunset Send Off

Urban Contemplation

Along the Riverside

There are to be a few more gatherings before THE HOT devours the mild weather and starts to scorch the earth, so stay tuned to the page (or read here) and I’ll work to keep people abreast of when the next party is.

The pictures are held both on that FB page (for tagging purposes) and also on my small business page for Ebon Soul Photos (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ebonsoul-Photos/227797643952140).

If you enjoy the work you see, I would LOVE feedback here OR on my Facebook page, but greatly appreciate you “liking” the page so as to spread word of mouth about my ability and my body of work in a broader audience. I also offer prints of some of my work for sale so as to keep this hobby funded on the side. Any and all feedback is appreciated, however!

I’ll be hanging the rest of these pictures on a string while I get things sorted for Thursday. See you then, folks!