joey needs to shoot more

2008-05-30T05:07:00.000-07:00

Please go to my new blog; I'm no longer updating this one.

new photo blog link

2008-02-05T00:51:00.000-08:00

I scanned some other images, but they're not in this post. Blogger has been sucking lately. Sucking hard. I can't get it to post my four images. It just hangs there. I've also had other issues with getting locked out of y'all's blogs... basically, Blogger is, for me anyway, a kind of a bitchy platform when it comes to photoblogs.

So I'm moving off Blogger and onto Tumblr.

the new link is joeycastillo.tumblr.com

Tumblr is easier for me, and better. It's more conducive to my style. It allows me to upload audio and throw in words in prettier ways. The overall design is nicer. And so far it seems to do a better job with the colors in my photos.

Find me there from here on out. And if you're following me in the Mac Mail reader or some other kind of feed reader, here's the RSS link.

love,
Joey

the cousin called Nene

2008-01-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

the steps by the school

2008-01-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

una semana zacatecana

2008-01-14T13:58:00.000-08:00

or, and I hope I'm not screwing up the use of an adjective, "a zacatecan week."

That's from a roll of color slides, but I shot 9 of my 11 rolls on black and white film. Which I still need to process. So I'll be posting images throughout this week as I develop and scan. I'll also be processing my pages of notes and posting words about Zacatecas. But for right now, a few words that I wrote a couple of years ago come to mind; reflecting on Mexico and the time I spent there, they feel appropriate right now:

The world is too big, too round, too blue and too beautiful for us to harbor anything but deep love for one another.

See ya on the feeds.

-j

nick mery, musician

2007-12-13T17:24:00.000-08:00

Found out today that Nick reads my photo blog. Hi Nick! Also, shot him today:

hands

2007-12-09T17:49:00.000-08:00

Again with the stuff I never put up: this is the audio piece I put together from my and Drew's trip to the border. Drew shot; I carried the microphone.

direct link for anyone who'd prefer to listen on an MP3 player or something.

الإسلام في اوستن

2007-12-05T22:42:00.000-08:00

I was gonna try and upload all 20 images I printed for Donna, but that would take forever.

Here's a link instead.

Forgive the crappy captions; I wrote better ones after I uploaded that.

انا تعبان، لاكن انا جدً سعيد في اعمالي

-j

de la boca

2007-12-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

After the border trip, my film was scratched up. I turned it in for my grade but never put it on the blog. The film is a bit gnarly, but since I don't have time to spot it, here are my snaps from la boca — such as they are.

open mic, part two

2007-11-27T20:34:00.000-08:00

open mic

2007-11-26T22:06:00.000-08:00

somebody else's wedding

2007-11-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

the kraba family

2007-11-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

I told the family I wouldn't exhibit these images without permission, and since I've suddenly realized that this blog shows up in Google, I figured I should hide them away. Sorry.

hex rally

2007-11-20T20:18:00.000-08:00

Dennis Stock

2007-11-16T16:25:00.001-08:00

spoke last night. It was inspiring. If you missed it, here it is.

Pardon the crappy audio. Next time I'll bring a proper recorder instead of a cellphone.

PS: There's an interesting, maybe five-minute exchange that starts at about 19:30.

two and three.

2007-11-12T23:09:00.000-08:00

Today's lack, I think, the drama of the first one. When I told one set of subjects that they didn't have to smile, the mom asked if I was trying to make them seem somber.

I said no. And it's true. I'm not aiming for somber. I'm just trying to get to something deeper than simply smiling for the camera. And, I thought to myself, in the quest to get there I needed to remember not to make my subjects into something else just because that's the picture I want. It's not about me. It's about the subjects. And on this day, the subjects smiled.

Some people's faces can't help but express pride in their work, in their family, in the things that they have accomplished and the life that they have lived.

And some people are just happy to be having their picture taken.

first in a series

2007-11-11T12:05:00.001-08:00

angels and demons

2007-11-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

I shot haloween night and put together this soundslide. (link to large version)

In hindsight, it's hard to record and shoot at the same time. I ended up missing a lot of shots that happened while I was recording, so the pics and the audio don't always jive. Nevertheless, for an experiment, I'm really happy with it.

squares from chicago

2007-10-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

Eid leftovers

2007-10-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

when you have reject prints, you have to tear them up so the Creatives don't steal them from the trash. Tearing up one of mine, I noticed this.

what's a guy gotta do to save a soul around here?

2007-10-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

"If a blind man was about to walk off of a cliff," he asked, "wouldn't you warn him?"

Nobody answered the question; they just walked off.

Eid ul-Fitr

2007-10-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

beacon

2007-10-20T23:47:00.000-07:00

I'm working on Arabic all night, and photographing at the mosque in the morning, but I decided I had to take a break a bit ago to shoot... something. And since I've had HDR on the brain ever since this guy talked about it Thursday, i grabbed a tripod and this is what i got:

I doubt I'm gonna get into the HDR thing, but it's kind of cool. that beacon effect, you can see it with your naked eye, but it takes a 30-second exposure to get it (which, incidentally, blows out the tower by six stops). This is one of those images that would be impossible to capture any other way.

2007-10-09T05:35:00.001-07:00

On the way out of the lab last night I was kvetching about how I was too busy to be shooting my project just then. "I'd much rather shoot tomorrow," I complained, "but life's happening now so I have to be there." Laylat al-Qadr is kind of the holiest night of the year. So holy, in fact, that some Muslims decide to stay in the mosque all night. Others stay all week. So basically, I had to be there.

The sun is up. I haven't slept. And I'm glad I went.

10:08 PM:

10:45 PM:

3:11 AM:

3:37 AM:

6:06 AM:

6:40 AM:

7:02 AM:

If I'd stayed home and slept, all this would have happened anyway. It's funny all the things that happen in the world that we sleep through.

one week in photos

2007-10-07T14:13:00.000-07:00

Sunday night, Sayid at the 51st Street Mosque.

Tuesday evening: assembly at Johnston High School.

Tuesday night: "Yasmin," middle eastern dancer, at the Umlauf sculpture garden.

Saturday evening: Maghrib prayer.

Saturday night: Kids at Iftar, 51st Street Mosque. as an aside, the dad of the kid on the right was helping with the food, but the servers forgot to give him a plate.

the mosque

2007-10-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a story about Islam. I shot these last week; I imagine I'll be back tomorrow.

Lots still to shoot. At least I'm shooting something.

bells of joy

2007-10-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

Hallelujah, I'm shooting things again.

I know the 4x5 shot isn't too amazing or anything... I could have scooted the whole top row over by a foot... but here it is anyway.

snaps from la boca

2007-09-10T17:16:00.000-07:00

something more substantive en la mañana

from Marfa

2007-08-27T20:55:00.001-07:00

more stuff on film, but for now:

from el paso

2007-08-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

at Dominican Joe coffeeshop

2007-08-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

granny's birthday, last weekend

2007-08-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

goodwill

2007-07-30T15:35:00.001-07:00

Shoppers at Goodwill on North Lamar.

ribbons

2007-07-29T21:25:00.000-07:00

I fixed the color on some of my previous posts... some kind of sRGB problem or something...

just two people

2007-07-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Matthew Eric Henry

Ashley

Just two people.

from a couple months ago

2007-07-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

Today I ran across an old photo, one I really like. It's from the end of May, shot at Photo Camp Houston:

Hawa Khomah, standing on the stairs to her family's apartment.

rodeo in Taylor

2007-07-22T23:12:00.000-07:00

Dripping Springs

2007-07-15T22:49:00.000-07:00

Sandy Wallace, from Wimberley, and Wade and Jackie King, from Dripping Springs, waiting along 290 for the funeral procession.

Twin sisters Leslie Stearns and Barbara Graham, who woke up at 6:30 AM to make cardboard cutout flowers to hold as the procession made its way through Dripping Springs.

lady bird died

2007-07-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

Pallbearers.

Gary and Johnette Hunnicut, signing the book.

A visitor as Lady Bird lay in state.

A family descending the steps.

lady bird

2007-07-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Neal Spelce, family spokesman, speaking to reporters about the passing of Lady Bird Johnson.

the sweetwater project

2007-07-09T00:16:00.000-07:00

Greg Wortham, mayor of Sweetwater and executive director of the West Texas Wind Consortium, stands among dozens of wind turbines on a ranch near Nolan, Texas. In 2004, Wortham left his career as an energy lawyer and spent his retirement savings to found the West Texas Wind Consortium.

Rebecca Gunn stands at the base of turbine WTG-G69-F8, one of 28 such structures that now occupy the Ussery Ranch. Gunn's great grandparents, the Usserys, purchased the land in the late 1800s.

I spent the weekend in Sweetwater working on a photo package on wind energy, a force that has transformed a ranching town of 11,000 into a renewable energy powerhouse. Wind has brought 200 new jobs a day and millions of dollars of investment into the small West Texas hamlet. There's even talk of getting a Starbucks.

Anyway, because I'm a photo editor, I don't feel comfortable taking the cool assignments and leaving everyone else with crap, so I brought along two photographers from the staff. That made for a good mix, by my count: three photographers and one reporter piled into a beat-to-hell 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan for the 500-mile weekend.

This is the group package.

also need to learn to update this thing faster

2007-07-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

Last week, Wednesday, at Mansfield Dam

FAFSA illustration

2007-06-25T17:13:00.001-07:00

testing the new polaroid back

2007-06-25T16:44:00.001-07:00

I need to figure out a better way to scan these than photographing the negative on a light table.