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Photo: www.thesnapclap.com <– the worlds smartest man

(Enough of the ranting and raving, for now, let me get back to the love: photography and music)

This is perhaps my favorite picture that I’ve ever taken. I was in Nigeria this past January with a law school buddy/business partner, (if you want dope designer sunglasses go here) his family is from there. I was in Imo state in a village named Awaka which is in Owerri.  My man was honoring his father and sponsoring a soccer tournament in his name. his father had been a tireless contributor to the community there and constantly traveled back home to spearhead various programs and projects for Awaka. He built the first compound there and the first borehole for water. He led the way for paved roads and electricity. Needless to say, his home going ceremony would draw many; from those in surrounding villages that had benefited from his many triumphs, to me, who traveled all the way from Washington, DC.

At 5am there was to be a one hundred gun salute in honor of him. Awakened, I found myself in a familiar setting outside of our compound in complete darkness. What I didn’t know is that the salute would actually use half sticks of dynamite and not guns. As the explosives were prepared a crowd began to gather. As we waited, I noticed a light source that seemed to be emanating from under the undulating roadway, beyond a hill several hundred feet away. It looked like a movie. Like some alien abduction scene or something. Imagine a huge white light, and I mean HUGE, coming from beyond a hill, interrupting utter darkness and reflecting off all the misty dew in the thick morning air. Meanwhile, I knew it was a car and not an alien spaceship, but I was eagerly anticipating the 100 half sticks of dynamite going off. ALSO, keep in mind, this was like my second night in Nigeria and the first night was New Years! So, It was an amazing scene, at least it was to me. I figured the least I could do, is try to take a picture and capture some of this energy and excitement that I was feeling.

I reached down, grabbed my camera and tried to manually focus amid the light of on coming traffic. I was hoping I could get lucky enough to grab a silhouette, and that’s just what I did. In my mind I saw this picture before I took it, and the resulting pic was exactly how I had envisioned it. Perhaps in my mind it was a tad bit sharper (ok, ok, ok, a lot sharper) but give me some credit, it was 5am in Nigeria and half sticks of dynamite where going off!

So this is my favorite picture, not necessarily because it was the true manifestation of my mind, but also because I’m able to share this moment with people who no where near there and in turn remind myself of this moment a well as the rest of my trip to the Motherland.

I was looking through some photos I had taken a few weeks ago and I reacquainted myself with this one. It might not be the best composed or sharpest or best lit picture; and to quite honest it might not even be that compelling or dramatic. BUT, I just had to take a picture of this dude. WHY, . .you ask? C’mon dog, he’s out there at the Caribbean day festival shooting with a damn old school TLR camera! YOU KNOW!! He’s got the ground glass waist level view finder. . .C’MON! He’s even got the old school leather pouch and neck strap, and the old school spotmeter.

SO, while I was shooting with my dinosaur first generation digital Rebel, he’s shooting with a darn fossil of a camera. It made me feel good about my camera set up. Not because mine was so much better than his, but because it reminded me that a picture is the product of the photographers mind. Of course it can be ‘influenced’ by your equipment, but at the end of the day, . . if you’re a good photographer you can take dope photos on a camera phone, a Polaroid, lomo, . . WHATEVER.

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Originally uploaded by Craig BattleI love Ben’s Chili Bowl. The chili half smoke is DC’s indigenous street food and Ben’s does it right. I messed up the first time I went to Ben’s I ordered a bowl of chili. You CANNOT do this, I REPEAT, DO NOT order a bowl of chili at ben’s Chili bowl. The Chili must be on something, . . like a chili half smoke or a burger or even fries or soemthing.

I’ll tell you what I partly have to thank my future wife and her family for my appreciation of Ben’s. You see they have this unique way of making hot dogs. They put them in the oven and kind of like broil them till they’re black and charred. You don’t realize it, but boiling dogs over stove top flame is really wack. You crave that crunchy, slightly-burnt (read: very charred) outer shell and that pliable, slightly, chewy gelatinous inside; that you get at a barbecue. (and Ben’s does it like that all day!)

So, next time you’re in DC and you’re on U street at like 2 am after bar hopping, stop by Ben’s; it’s always crowded but well worth the late night drunken shove match that you’ll endure before you order. (believe it or not, I shot the above photo at about 3am, and it was packed)

purple

I’ve been working on a tribute to Jay Dilla for a while now. I can’t seem to get the wording right though so I keep putting it aside. My main focus is Dilla’s motivation for what he did. Dilla was prolific at making music not because of money or any external gratification; but an inner satisfaction.

It’s my honest opinion that if no one ever listened, Dilla would’ve still been in the basement making beats. He might not have had the same equipment or he may not have been surrounded by the same people, but it just seems like making music was this man’s purpose in life, regardless of the external rewards.

With that said, I try to do the things that I feel compelled to do as a result of my purpose here on earth, i.e. expressing myself through whichever media is handy, whether it’s photography, writing; whatever it may be. I do these things for my own inner satisfaction. I totally appreciate when someone likes one of my pics or one of poems or whatever, but to me that’s just bonus, I’ve already enjoyed creating it, and if someone else can enjoy it as well, that’s great too.

I think that’s why I don’t charge people to take pictures, you know? I feel like I’m cheating or something. Its like, wrong or something. I think I’ll have to get over this feeling at some point but until then, let me know if you want some free headshots, but thats a whole ‘nother story.

Anyway, while I was in photoshop today I was just messing around with some images I had taken I decided to listen to some Dilla and I found mysef inspired by this remix he did for the group called Coruscation for their song Purple. I’ve heard the song about 50 times now and its definitely one of my favorite Dilla remixes. So, in honor of dilla I decided to make a composite of some purpleish photos I took and post his remix to Purple. Please enjoy, but know that if no one reads this, know that I had fun posting it.

Originally uploaded by Craig Battle

I was out at the DC Caribbean Carnival on Saturday. Although, I‘ve been to countless Labor Day Parades on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The DC parade goes down Georgia Avenue from like Missouri down to Howard University. While, Georgia Avenue is a main thoroughfare; a parkway it is not. It was really, really difficult to shoot because for the most part I was in the Parade. I didn’t have much wiggle room on either side of the floats, revelers and masqueraders. I mean, it was tight. Also, I was enjoying being in the moment of the parade and it was hard to separate myself from that and taking pictures.

I also feel like I was at a disadvantage not having a high powered flash and diffuser. The sun was up high, straight up and most of the participants had on masks, headdresses and embellishments. SO, I was getting these nasty shadows under their eyes, noses and all over their faces. Oh well.

Not to mention, (most likely as a result of me not having a flash) I like shooting great images out of the camera, you know? I mean some of the most famous pictures of all time where shot with available light and had little to no post processing. So with that said, I sometimes like to go ‘guerilla’ as I call it. I just go out armed with my Digital Rebel, the vertical grip with two fully charged cells and my Tamron 17 – 28mm 2.8. No bag, no tripod, no nothing; just me and the camera (not even a filter; the Tamron has a 67mm diameter; . . . polarizing filters are like $100!?!?)

This technique works for me sometimes; ‘cause I get to focus on taking pictures, with what I have rather than focus on the gadgets in my bag. Also, I find sometimes that if I focus on my gadgets; the moment is lost. So, I just try to use what’s around me to my benefit; no tripod: lean against a pole; no flash: try to get your subject to look up towards the sun etc. At the end of the day I had fun and I even took a few ‘okay’ pictures, but I do think I’m due for a new camera and a new tripod though. Hopefully I’ll still enjoy the challenge of taking pics and working with what I have, even when I get my 1Ds mark III.

Yahoo
Originally uploaded by Ahmed Zahid
Above is an image from Flickr photographer Ahmed Zahid. His images are perhaps the best I’ve seen on Flickr so far. Not because he has some great shots, but because EVERY SINGLE SHOT is INCREDIBLE. I mean, this guy makes everything look like Heaven. EVERYTHING. I guess if I lived in the Maldives, I’d benefit from a great backdrop as well, but it’s so much more than that. His eye is perfect. His execution is flawless. I really, really really like the photos he takes, for real. Do yourself a favor and click the link above which will take you to the rest of Zahid’s photos. You’ll thank me later, after you get off the phone with your travel agent and book a flight to the Maldives.

Dumbo, Brooklyn NY
Originally uploaded by Ddrive75

I love DUMBO. For the uninitiated, DUMBO is a Brooklyn, New York neighborhood. Its actually an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. DUMBO’s got more lofts than a little bit and moreover, its where all the artists live; at least before the yuppies moved in. My cousin took this shot. Its actually the same shot that my finace and I used for our wedding’s ‘Save the Date’ refrigerator magnet. Its a pretty famous shot, especially seing as how the Empire state building falls right between the arches of the Manhattan Bridge. Great shot. I love Brooklyn. I’ll miss Coney Island.