The Flickr Soulpatrol Image Generatr

Emcee queen MIRRAH with SOUL PATROL dancers at SOUL OF SYDNEY 12th BIRTHDAY JAM | Nov 2023

These women have been the HEART & SOUL of our jams for 10+ years, it has been amazing working with them & seeing them do their thing.

Uplifting spirits and connecting people through music, words & dance.

Little guy's keepin' the beat at Chiditarod.

I had to put my camera on my shoe to get the up angle on him.

Today I think I'm gonna go shoot the polar plunge.

Christian Motorcycle club


Shot in the Pacific NW

We had a hard time finding a professional that would pierce her nose because she was only fourteen.

I didn't like the idea too much...

but I could sense that the alternative was a dirty bathroom with some not so sterile hardware and another fourteen year old doing the work.

The kid was a champ.

Being a dad of teenage girls...

terrifying.

Dude told me no pictures during the procedure...

but how in the world can you not take a shot of someone with a big needle right through their nose?

That's not something that you see every day!

A dot of india ink is placed on the nose to mark the spot that will be pierced.

Before piercing the nose the piercing dude's gotta have a look to see of everything's good up there.

I took my daughter to get her nose pierced today.

It's been like the third time I've taken her and none of the piercing shops will do her nose because she's only 14.

So Mike pierced this hottie I've been making the moves on.

I wasn't supposed to take any pictures in there but you know how that goes.

Yeow!

The work week is just about behind us.

I'm lookin' forward to a good three days of livin' life like it's supposed to be lived.

Feedin' my soul and havin' a good time with the ones I love.

I don't know what exactly I'm gonna do yet...

but it's gonna be an adventure.

I know that.

I hope you got some awesome plans or just a killer adventurous attitude for the weekend.

And remember...

I know from experience that if you get thrown in jail on a three day weekend you ain't gettin' out 'til Tuesday!

At the earliest.

So try and be cool this weekend and avoid the old 'iron bracelets' if you can.

It's too nice out there to be hangin' out 'on the inside.'

I hope you're feelin' the love big time!

Friday-Love!

Gahd I've been busy.

Making things happen...

putting fires out...

blowing things up...

makin' it...

breakin' it...

and takin' it from the man.

It's Friday,

I really wanna feel the Friday-Love!

But I got too much stuff to do.

People are makin' me crazy.

I'm gonna be workin' late tonight...

early tomorrow...

but Sunday...

Sunday's gonna be the day.

I'm going out on a tall masted sailboat called 'Red Witch.'

Where I will kick it and watch the airshow for a couple three hours.

I really hope you're feelin' the Friday-Love today...

Hopefully I'll catch up to you on Sunday.

A guy who put together the website for a guitarist named Neal Alger found this photo I'd taken on Flickr and he asked to use it for Neal's website.

The image above is a screenshot he sent me.

I like this shot too.

Highlight of my week right there!

Friday-Love!

I was walking down the street after a couple of beers at the Logan Bar and Grill when this chicken walked up to me.

I don't know what he wanted but I took his picture.

I've never encountered a chicken on the streets of Chicago until now.

That was a badass chicken.

If I ever write some best selling novel I think this'll be the picture that I use inside the dust jacket.

I think it makes me look kinda badass.

And smart.

Not like the idiot I usually am.

It's got that 'pensive' feel to it.

Like I'm thinking about some magnificent piece of abstract thought.

Or as my daughter says I 'look like some philosopher who will whip you if you don't have the right answer.'

Really I just wanted to take a shower.

Because I hadn't had one of them in about three days.

But I was at the Bristol Renaissance Festival and I think that kinda added some 'authenticity' to the whole thing.

I'm a 'lover not a fighter' and I never gotta yell at my kids...

they know what that 'eyebrow' thing means.

It means 'business.'

And business is good.

It's Alright

Every year the bike messenger's of Chicago get together to remember one of their own named Andre Gordon.

That's where I shot this dude.

Dre seemed to touch everyone whose path he came across and two more than two and a half years after he's passed people still gather to remember the guy that he was.

The party at Pilsen set off the weekend to a kick ass start and I toasted a guy named Dre in a way that I think he'd appreciate.

I hope you're feelin' good after a sweet weekend of fun and love and kick ass weather.

Pretty much four more days until we get to do it all over again!

What an exciting weekend!

Summer's off to a great start.

I know a lot of you guys got on me for my terrible treatment of that Nikkor 35mm 1.4 lens and how I'd never cleaned it.

Well the inevitable happened Saturday Night at the Cobra Lounge.

And it was not the chance meeting with the Swedish twins I'd been hoping for.

My Nikon D700 took a beer bath.

A really big beer bath.

A full 16 ounces!

Poured over it like a waterfall.

The 'Niagra Falls of Beer' really.

Washed all that other shit off allright...

and the bartendress felt bad for me and set me up with another beer on the house.

I tried to keep it off the camera.

It was a little sticky...

so I dunked it in Lake Michigan on Sunday in New Buffalo Harbor.

Then I swung it around in circles on the camera strap for a little 'spin cycle' action.

The Indians have always talked about the 'healing powers' of Lake Michi Gami and how a bath in those waters could purify and cleanse any camera.

They were right.

After a little bath in the lake my Nikon is all good.

No problems.

But just to be sure I left it out in the rain until it had a proper shower.

I dried it off with my shirt and it was like new.

I hope your weekend was as fantastic as mine...

your freak got some 'free time'...

and your soul feels reinvigorated and refreshed today.

Damn that lake was cold!

You know I'm not the fastest, smartest and most pleasant guy before I get my coffee.

I'd run out of those little 'cups' of coffee for my coffee machine at home and I was all rushed to get the littlest Viewminderette out the door for her first day of camp.

Plus I wanted to get her some cookies for lunch.

She's going on a field trip to the Adler Planetarium today.

The girl was excited.

I was pretty groggy when I walked into the 7-11 this morning.

I wasn't expectin' to see a dead body sprawled on the floor when I did.

Plus I had my kid with me.

And I'd rather not have my kid seein' that shit you know?

Besides bein' a little shocking it was not the way I'd really wanted to wake up.

'Taniqua... are you alright girl' I asked... 'and what's up with the dead dude?'

I know Taniqua's a tough chick and she don't take no shit but still...

I surveyed the surreal scene and tried to make some sense of it.

Which was darn near impossible without havin' the coffee that I needed.

'He come in during the morning coffee rush and try to rob me' she replied nonchalantly.

'Ain't nobody got time for that... people's all cranky before they get their mornin' coffee amiright?'

I let out an uncomfortable laugh and nodded my head supportively as I tried to shield my kid's eyes from the gory scene.

'So I shot him' she added 'twice in the chest... pop... pop like that and he goes down!'

Then she made like a gun with her fingers and she even held it 'gangster style!'

'I hadda big line youknowwhatI'msayin' she professed exasperatedly... 'dude was RUDE... capital R-U-D-E motherfucker!'

I couldn't cover my kids ears fast enough.

You could tell poor Taniqua was having a bad day.

I really felt bad for her.

'I don't get paid enough to put up with this crap' she complained... 'I got a good nerve to quit this job I'm telling you.'

'Taniqua... did you call the cops' I asked.

'No... I just finished with the rush... and all these people were bitchin' about me turning the gas pumps on... I just about haddit with this' she said numbly.

'Taniqua... you can't just leave the dead dude there... you really should call the cops.'

'I know I know' she replied 'I put the magazine racks up there to block the view and I put the caution tape up so no one would trip over him... but I just need a minute to take a break and finish this coffee... it's that saweet new Mocha Java blend that we got goin'.'

I knew how she was feelin'.

I really needed some of the 'wake up juice' too.

And I didn't just shoot and kill someone tryin' to rob me.

I paid for my coffee and the cookies...

'good luck with the cops' I told Taniqua...

and I stepped over the dead dude while shielding my daughter's eyes and took this picture as I did.

Gahd I needed that coffee.

Friday-Love!

Shootin' the shit with blues saxaphonist Eddie Shaw before he hit the stage at Blues Fest in Chicago.

What a guy.

Is MOTION

Sure I break all the rules.

I pretty much lie, cheat and steal to get in there and get these pictures.

I don't hesitate to do what it takes to capture the 'Soul-Portrait' I'm looking for.

You don't know how close I've come to goin' to jail with the games I play to do this.

It doesn't phase me.

Maybe it's a barrier that weeds out those with lesser motivations.

I don't know.

What I do know is that underneath all of the skin and bones of each of us lays a soul.

And that's what it is that I'm trying to photograph.

I don't do it for money.

I can't accept a 'press pass.'

I give every picture away to anyone who asks.

I do it for the love.

The love of the 'human soul.'

It's a relentless pursuit that sometimes I think is more pursuing me.

Nothing can come between me and my camera and my subject in that moment.

There's a real rhythm at play when I'm shooting.

I've first got to become 'invisible' and make that five pound screamin' Nikon disappear.

Then I gotta 'feel the moment' and get myself all in tune with it.

Scope out my subject... what's going on around him... who he's relating to and how...

I gotta 'become' that moment...

it's like I'm building up a sculpture layer by layer and you can only see all of those layers superimposed on one image.

A long time ago I learned the term 'The Strike of Descabello.'

It sounded so cool and I made a promise with myself to understand what it meant and retain it's meaning for my entire life.

A 'descabello' is a small sword used in bullfighting.

In Spain I think.

Matadors were judged and revered by the masses for the beauty and elegance of their 'Strike of Descabello.'

It was their coup de grace... the moment when the suffering would end...

Within that moment I'm certain that to do what he did a matador must have engaged all of his senses and slowed time down.

Was it an act of artistry or mercy or was it simply showmanship?

It doesn't really matter because the truth is that long after I'd learned about 'The Strike of Descabello' I remembered the term.

For the record I am firmly against bullfighting.

But looking back on history one must remove the filters of the present and suspend judgement appropriately.

'The Strike of Descabello' was a loved and adored act for the artistry of that one singular moment.

I think about that when my finger begins to contract on the shutter release of my Nikon.

I think about what 'The Strike of Descabello' means and why I even know anything about it.

I think about the moment and within that moment I press that shutter release when everything lines up just right.

It's a fluid situation and I know it will never ever repeat itself.

It is the one sixtieth of a second I like to think of as 'The Strike of Viewminder.'

Little Howlin' Wolf was living within that moment and as I am often known to do I provided the spark for the dry tinder of my subject's soul...

We caught each other's eyes and I asked him...

'Howlin'... what do the Blues 'mean'?'

In the chaos of the moment I never got an answer...

in words at least.

Instead I got this picture.

And then the moment was gone.

Little Howlin' Wolf is feelin' some love at Chicago's Blues Fest 2013.

I'm so grateful for the access I manage to pull off to shoot these old cats.

They're such a part of history.

I'll do whatever it takes to capture these moments for all of us.

The Blues is 'America's Music' and the Blues is gettin' old.

Feel the love!