Samantha James

I have always had eclectic music tastes. I listen to a lot of jazz, 70s, 80s, a little bit of 90s. I'm not a fan of country, and yet I love bluegrass. I think it has something to do with the purity of the music.

Lately I find that mostly I listen to "chill." If you're unfamiliar, chill is basically adult contemporary for the 21st century.

I was listening to a little internet radio this morning, which is how I usually listen these days—I can't deal with the commercials on regular radio. I had never heard of Samantha James before, but trust me, I'm paying attention now. Her voice is so unbelievable and pure. Listen to a little of it here:



The album, Rise, is an ambient-trance-chill mixture of incredible tracks. My favorite at the moment is Send It Out To The Universe, but I may change my mind, there are so many good tracks. Sometimes you hear a song that is so good, you wonder how you ever got along without it. This whole album is like that. Do yourself a favor and go buy it at iTunes right now.

KB Photo Around Memphis

I do a bunch of work during the year for the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. They're my charity of choice, and I never charge them for it. A real bummer is that I was checking with my tax guy and he says that I can't even deduct the work as a charitable deduction on my taxes. That sorta stinks, but whatever, I like the people there.

So the other day I was dropping by a disc of the latest images I had shot for them and take a look at what I saw on the front of the museum.

Look a little closer at the picture in the bottom right hand corner.

Oh, yeah, baby!

Published Again

Some more of my images have been published in an international magazine.

A few months ago I shot some images for a friend, who happens to own EgglestonWorks. Their newest speaker line, the Nine, received a glowing review in the April/May 2008 issue of The Absolute Sound. These things are freakin' beautiful (and they sound even better)! Too bad I can't afford them, 'cause they sure would look and sound good in my TV room. (Are you listening, Jim?)

The only bad part: they didn't give me a photo credit. Losers.

To the MOON!

I believe I have mentioned here before that I'm a bit of a nut about the American Space Program. Everything about it fascinates me, and whenever the chance to see any real space memorabilia up close has presented itself, I have always taken the opportunity. My kids are also fascinated by the stuff, so for Spring Break this year, Jordan and I took Sarah and Jack to the rocket center in Hunstville, Alabama.

When you get to Huntsville, it's pretty hard to miss the full scale mockup of the Saturn V rocket on display at the entrance to the center. Standing as tall as a 36 story building, you can see it from virtually anywhere in the area.

They have a new building at the center that was just dedicated in January of 2008. It houses the original test version of the Saturn V. It never actually flew, but instead was the source vehicle for all of the engine, transport, and assembly tests.

While we were there, we took in a 3D movie about Mars. Here's Sarah sporting her 3D glasses.

There's also a Zero Gravity ride outside by the rockets. You strap in and are hurled upward, feeling zero-g for a couple of seconds on the way back down. Unfortunately Jack didn't quite make the height requirement, so he hung out while the rest of us took off.

There were a number of flown items from each of the Apollo moon missions, including this flight suit worn by John Young while inside the Lunar Module on the surface of the moon. John Young is my personal hero. Here are a few of the things he did in his lengthy NASA career.

• He flew on the first manned flight of the Gemini spacecraft with Gus Grissom aboard Gemini 3.
  
• Flying again as Commander of Gemini 10, the mission was the first dual rendezvous with two Agena Target Vehicles.
  
• He first went to the Moon aboard Apollo 10, flying the Command Module solo - the first person to do so in lunar orbit.
  
• He flew to the Moon again as Commander of Apollo 16 and was the ninth man to set foot on the Moon.
  
• He is listed in the Guiness Book of World records as setting a speed record for travel on the surface of the Moon with the lunar rover (11.2 mph!)
  
• He was again Commander on the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle.
  
• He flew the Space Shuttle again on the very first Spacelab mission, also making him the first man to fly in space six times, and is the only man to have commanded Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle missions.
  
• He worked for NASA for 42 years and retired on December 31, 2004 at the age of 74.
  

This is one of the modified Hasselblad cameras used during the Apollo 11 mission, the first time man set foot on the Moon.

These are plaster casts of Neil Armstrong's hands, taken to make custom gloves to be worn on the surface of the Moon.

This is the Command Module "Snoopy" in which John Young, Ken Mattingly, and Charlie Duke rode to the Moon.

Here's Sarah trying her hand in the original Apollo command module simulator.

Jack shows us the shuttle Pathfinder, which was the first Space Shuttle mockup used for construction and transportation testing. It never actually flew, and is in fact hollow. The fuel tank, however, is the very first shuttle fuel tank constructed, used for all of the static launch tests of the shuttle system. The lower two engines on the back end of Pathfinder are the actual engines that flew on the maiden voyage of Columbia, the very first Space Shuttle flight. The booster rockets are inert mockups.

Sir Edmund Hillary: RIP

Just a quick note this morning to mark the passing of Sir Edmund Hillary, who along with sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first men to summit Mt. Everest in 1953. This was a guy with a pretty big pair. He died yesterday morning of heart failure, at age 88.


I'm not sure what it is about Everest that calls to me, but those close to me know that I would like to someday climb it myself. Maybe I feel the need to somehow test my own mettle. I don't really think I want to go there "because it's there" or just to be able to say I did it. Adventure has always interested me. When I read for entertainment, I prefer to read adventure non-fiction. I find that my favorite books have been about Everest. It's just my thing. I'd also like to go to the moon, but that's a story for another day.

River Arts Fest

Here are a few of the images I shot at the River Arts Fest last weekend in downtown Memphis.

A Boy and his Bat

If you keep up with this blog you know how much I love my children, Sarah and Jack. They are just phenomenal kids. I'm very lucky.

This is Jack. He's 8 and he loves baseball. The day these images were taken was on the weekend after he was smacked in the mouth by a line-drive during practice. There's even a pic below of the sore in his mouth, EWW! (I waited until a few days after the blood went away. Trust me, it was not pretty.) Not only did he not miss his game, but he batted like a champ, cracking a two-run single and a two-run double to help his team win a 12-10 game.

I was not so sure his heart was in it back when he was playing T-ball, but I think he really likes it now in his second year of coach-pitch.

I love you, Jack-Jack.

More Flowers

I'm having fun with these flowers. I shot these magnolias at Rhodes last night. Then, when I got up this morning and took Emma out for her walk, the light mist on the green leaves was calling me.

A Big Girl Haircut

As promised, here are the images from Sarah’s first “big girl” haircut. My favorites are the ones with the lolly-pop. No matter how hard she tries to be big, I think she secretly wants to remain small.

I love you, Bear.

Easter Babies

Jack and Sarah spent the weekend with us for Easter. They are getting so big. On friday I took Sarah to have her hair cut for the first time in a nice salon. I'll have pics to share of that event later this week, but you can already tell from these images that she looks fantastic. Special thanks to Jordan for helping the kids with their Easter outfits. She's fast becoming their own stylist.

God, I love these babies!

More from Mexico

No, I'm not in Mexico, but this weather has been making me want to go to the beach. It's getting warm and everything is blooming, so here are a couple of images to get you in the mood.

Happy Birthday, Jordan

The love of my life turns 25 today.

She is my best friend. She makes sure I don't leave the house wearing clothes that don't match. She loves me when no one else does. She's so smart and so witty and so good at her job. She really has become quite a success. At 25 she has graduated from college, become the greatest step-mom in the entire world, purchased TWO homes, had a couple of jobs where she blew everyone away with her grace, style, and organizational ability, and now she has become the president of Kevin Barre Photography. Not many people can claim as many accomplishments before turning 25. The best part is that she makes it all look so easy.

I love you, J.

Happy birthday.

Dueling Powerbooks

Who, besides me, finds this image funny? This is my father-in-law, Tom Badgett, along with my daughter, Sarah, from this past weekend.

St. Louis, Part 1

We made a quick trip to St. Louis this past weekend to shoot some pics. It was snowing when we got there.

I really like St. Louis. I think I like its grittiness. I like the old industrial look from the 20s and 30s. Anyway, here's the first part of what I got...

Snow! IN MEMPHIS! (for real this time)

You did, in fact, read that correctly. We did have snow in Memphis last friday. Enough in fact that the college was closed and I had a snow day at home. So, of course, I pulled out the camera. Too bad it didn't last much longer than it took for me to take these pictures.

Lust

Oh, will somebody please buy me one of each of these.

The first one is the new G7 from Canon. This is a 10 (!) megapixel point-and-shoot.

Dig the styling on that thing! I can't wait to get my hands on one of these. I just love things that are beautiful just for beauty’s sake.



The other thing I can't wait to get my hands on is the HV10, also from Canon. I'm usually a Nikon guy, but these new Canons have really got my attention.


What really rules about this little device is that it is the first consumer camcorder to record in FULL HD RESOLUTION. We're talking 1960x1080 pixels for the other tech nerds out there (like me).

Think about that for a second. This thing records at a resolution somewhere on the order of 20x than that of my first video camera (a Minolta Hi8 I bought in 1992).

Christmas, Part II: Emma and the Bunny

Our lab, Emma, received a Christmas gift this year from Jordan's aunt Libby and uncle Warren. They got her a bunny from the American Kennel Club.

I didn't figure she would react to it the way she has. At first she looked at it strangely like she was waiting for it to move. When it didn't, she gave it a good sniff. Finally, she picked it up and trotted all over the house with it like she was going to hide it like a bone. In the process, she bit down on it a little too hard and it squeeked at her. I guess the squeek made her think it was somehow still "alive," so she commenced to shaking it furiously until it was "dead."

Over the next couple of days she carried it with her everywhere. Occasionally she would bring it to me and drop it in my lap or at my feet. She didn't do this to get me to play fetch, I think she did it as an offering.

Emma carries that bunny around like it is an egg, always very gently. I'm not sure what she thinks about that bunny, but I am sure she loves it.

Christmas, Part 1

Christmas has been huge this year. It always is, particularly for my kids. They usually get to celebrate by opening presents about six different times. At their mom's house, at my house, at multiple sets of grandparents' houses (they have four sets). It always seems like they open presents for about a week.

This year we started the celebration early with Jordan's sister, Rosie and her significant other, Don. They came from St. Louis on Saturday, the 23rd. They were tons of fun to have around. It turns out that Don and I are amazingly like-minded (keep the faith, brother). Oh, yeah, and they brought a case of wine with them.

On Christmas Eve, the four of us went to Chris and Autumn’s for dinner. Like me, Chris loves to cook and apparently has a tradition where he invites a select number of couples over for a fancy Christmas Eve dinner. More power to you, man. I always end up doing all of my wrapping and such on Christmas Eve, so I was more than happy for him to do the cooking. It was a great spread, and the company was fantastic. Hopefully they will include us in their tradition for years to come.

My lovely wife, Jordan with Chris.

Here I am with Chris’ lovely wife, Autumn.

Petrea with her Papi...

Petrea had a great time putting her finger in Jordan’s key lime pie and then sticking it in my mouth.

My Wife is In Love...

Too bad it isn't with me. No, Jordan is truly, madly, deeply in love with David Duchovney.

Last year we discovered NetFlix in a big fat way. Since then, we have practically stopped watching TV altogether. Seriously, about the only thing we watch is James Woods’ new show, Shark, thursday nights on CBS. We try not to miss that one. Here's the scoop...

With the kids, and jobs, and the new house, and dogs, and photography, and everything else that goes along with modern life, we find it really hard to sit down on a regular basis and watch TV. Almost every night there is something way more pressing that needs to be done during “prime time.” Enter NetFlix.

With Netflix, we can order an entire season of a show and watch every episode, from the beginning, on OUR schedule. AND there are no commercials. AND the shows are in widescreen. AND the shows have great digital sound. But my most favorite thing about watching the shows on DVD is that if by some chance the planets align and we have the time to pull an all-nighter and watch six episodes of something back-to-back, we can. I'm tellin’ you, television nirvana.

So we started out with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. You know, the one in Las Vegas. We worked our way through all of the seasons of it. Then it was on to CSI: Miami. Bada-bing! We tried watching Northern Exposure (I loved it, she didn't). Next up, Numb3rs; another crime show on CBS. Devoured it.

And then something happened. I sheepishly asked Jordan if she would like to watch a few episodes of the X-Files. These were DVDs I actually owned. I figured there was no way in hell she was gonna watch some quasi-UFO-crime-something-or-another show with me. Boy was I wrong. Turns out, J has a serious thing for David Duchovney. I mean like she's ready to bump off his wife kinda serious.

I'm pretty sure Jordan would throw me to the curb in a heartbeat to run her hands through DD’s hair just once.

You’re welcome dear.

Random Image Wednesday

Today I'm posting a few images just because I like them.

You're thinking, “How is this different from every other day?”

Well, it isn't.

This is one of my favorite images of Jack. I think it captures his personality just about perfectly. It isn't new, but I love it anyway.

Halo 3

I'm not a huge gamer dude, but this looks like a compelling reason to upgrade to an Xbox 360. Click the images for links to the trailers.

Random Images

It's Thursday. Not much is going on. I'm trying to get another magazine out at the office before the holidays. I figured I would post a few random images.

The first one I shot while in Mexico on my honeymoon in 2004. There was a storm coming in from the East coast of Cozumel.

The next one I grabbed with a point-and-shoot while we were in Florida on vacation a couple of years ago.

I took the next one while I was in San Diego on business. I highly recommend visiting San Diego if you get the chance.

This one was shot through the windshield of my car while tooling around Memphis.

This last one is of Ya Ya, one of the pandas here at the Memphis Zoo. It became the cover image for an issue of the Rhodes College alumni magazine.

Thanksgiving, Part 2

As promised, here are a few more images from Thanksgiving.

Angels Among Us

Jordan's mother, Lynn, is a saint. I'll tell you a little bit about why I think so.

I have already talked about how our dog, Cooper was killed over Thanksgiving. Jordan, the kids, and I were not there when it happened. I was pretty upset about that initially. I felt like we had always been there to take care of him, since he was a pup, and somehow, in his most dire moment of need, we were not able to be there for him. I hope that those of you who are not dog lovers can try to understand that those of us who are really love these animals like they are people. Cooper was as much a member of our family as either of my children. Lynn Hutton is a dog lover. When none of the rest of us could be there, Lynn was. She was the one who found Cooper on the road and had the horrible task of bringing his lifeless body back up to the house. As I already said, I regret that I couldn't be there to help, but in our absence, I feel certain that Lynn was the best person for the job.

Something cool about Lynn is that she also writes a regular column—Cross Currents— for one of her local town newspapers. It's a religion column, which makes sense, since she is a minister with the United Methodist church. Occasionally she will weave little bits of the goings-on of her family into her column. I felt sure that this event would make its way to print somehow. As she is a much better writer than I am, I will let her speak for herself. From the latest edition of the Halls Shopper News...

Angel in a Pickup Truck

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13: 2 NRSV)

There really are angels. I met one the other night. The truth is, I didn’t recognize him as such. It was only much later, when Jordan asked, “Did you get his name?” and I admitted that I had not, that her stepson Jack said, “Maybe he was an angel.”

Jack is eight years old, all boy, and not given to flights of fancy. (Well, he is a Star Wars fan of the first order, but he understands the difference between movies and everyday reality.)

Startled, I turned and looked at him, considering that possibility. “It is true that he was driving a white pickup truck,” I admitted, which in my part of the world might be considered an appropriate angelmobile.

The reason this angel appeared in our lives is a sad one. Once again, in eerily similar circumstances to the last time, we lost another dog at our house. Cooper, Jordan’s border collie-Australian blue heeler mix, left the back yard and went across the road. He didn’t make it back.

I was dog-sitting when Cooper and Emma asked out, and following the usual protocols, I put Emma on a chain attached to the run. Cooper, being the more trustworthy of the two, was released on his own recognizance. Emma asked back in quickly, but no Cooper. I started calling and whistling, going from door to door, growing more and more uneasy, and finally started out the front door to see if he had gone next door. That is when I saw the white pickup truck stopped across the road with its lights shining onto something in the road. There were other cars stopped, trying to pass safely, I suppose. I was off at a dead run, hoping against hope.

When I got there, a man came toward me from the pickup. “Is he yours?” he asked softly.

“My daughter’s,” I managed. Then, “No, it’s not!” In the darkness, the fur didn’t look right; the texture was all wrong. (It would be much later before I figured out why.) I knelt and checked the tag. It was Cooper, after all. I half-lifted, half-dragged him out of the road, and ran for the house again, to get something to carry him home in.

When I went back, the man was still waiting. “Can I help?” he asked, and the two of us carried our sad burden and placed it gently in the garage. He turned to leave, and it was the first time I had really seen his face. Brown hair, brown eyes, maybe a beard. I was in shock, and already dreading having to tell Jordan. But his heart was in those brown eyes, and I saw compassion and understanding there. I wanted to ask his name, but introductions seemed bizarrely out of place. I wanted to shake his hand, but I realized my own hands were covered with blood, and so refrained. I thanked him again, and he was gone.

Conveying the news to Jordan was even more painful than I had imagined. It was not until the next morning when she started asking questions about who had helped me. She went to the subdivision across the street and set about tracking down the white pickup. It took two false leads to finally find the angel.

His name is David Owen. He and his wife Angie have a dog, a Boxer. A friend driving down our road saw Cooper, and called David to make sure his pet was safe. David decided to come down to the scene and do whatever he could to help.

He was not a passerby. He left the comfort of his home, got in his truck and drove to the scene, not because he had any stake in it at all. He just knew that an animal was hurt, possibly dead, and that somewhere a pet owner cared about that animal. He parked out of the road and shone his headlights onto the scene to warn approaching drivers. And he waited.

It was a kindness that in some small way began the healing process in Jordan’s broken heart. Someone who didn’t know and love Cooper had gone out of his way to be caring. A stranger (read, angel) understood how devastating such a loss can be.

Jordan said later, “He did the right thing. He did what was not expected, not required, not easy, but right.”

There are angels among us. One of them is named David.

Thank you, Lynn. Thanks for raising a wonderful daughter, for being a great mom, and being one of the many angels among us.

If you would like to read Lynn's column in its original form, you can do that here.

December

It's December already. Where the heck did this year go? 2006 has been pretty good to us (with a few notable exceptions), but I think 2007 is going to be even better. Look for some great new stuff from KB Photography in the coming year. I want to share some of the new developments, but for now they have to stay a little hush-hush.

The image above is from a tree right outside my office window. This is what it looked like just a few weeks ago. Most of its leaves are gone now.

Only 24 more shopping days left.

LUNA

October 6, 2006 was a perfect night for shooting the moon. Not only did we have absolutely perfect weather—clear skies, cool temps, virtually no humidity—but as it turned out, the October full moon happened to be closer to the Earth than most full moons. The moon’s orbit around Earth isn’t a perfect circle, and so there’s always a time each month when the moon is closer to Earth than at any other time—called its “perigee.” Only on rare occasions does a full moon occur at perigee. The beauty of this, for a photographer, is that the moon was actually about 20% larger in the sky than normal. So, like I said, with perfect weather—and a perfect moon—I couldn't resist.

I had actually wanted to do this for some time, but I'm glad I waited. I feel like the results, had I done it earlier, wouldn't have been as breathtaking. I shot this with a tripod-steadied Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 lens, using its dedicated 2x teleconverter. When you take into account the 1.5x multiplying factor that my Nikon D200 imparts, I had the equivalent of a 900mm lens! You can see for yourself, the result was amazing.

I designed the poster you see above for my son, Jack's 8th birthday. He's a space nut and needed a cool new image to be the focal point of his newly decorated space-themed room. When I went to have it framed, the guys at the frame shop went nuts and begged me for copies of their own. I figured, why not make them available as limited edition, signed-and-numbered prints. I decided to only make 10 signed edition prints available, and naturally Jack got number 1.

So here goes, get them while they last. I have only 6 prints remaining available at $99 each (not including shipping). Each one is 16"x20", color, with a white border. The prints are made on 100-year archival satin photo paper, at 2880dpi, using an Epson 9600 printer with Ultrachrome inks. Trust me, these are fine prints. If you know someone who is a space nut, think about giving them one of these as a Christmas gift.

Daddy/Daughter Ball

The little angel standing next to me is not so little anymore. That's my daughter, Sarah. She's 10, but from these pictures you would never know it.

We went to a Daddy/Daughter Ball a few weeks ago. It was a complete blast. All of the little girls had on their fancy gowns, and all of the daddies were doing their best not to look awkward (with mixed results).

Sarah and I had the most incredible time. When the ball ended, I took her out for a steak dinner. She is such a great kid. She even shared my anchovies with me on my salad.

I love you, Bear!

Check out all of the pics here.

Cooper

This is the very last picture I ever took of Cooper. I shot it Saturday morning while he and my son, Jack were out playing in the yard behind my wife's mother's house in Knoxville. We were visiting for Thanksgiving.

Cooper was hit by a car and killed later that night. It has been one of the worst experiences of my life. He may very well have been the greatest dog that ever lived. My wife, Jordan and I agree that he was really a human who just happened to have four legs and a tail.

Rest in peace, brother.