Ben McKeown

Greetings again from the land of Blogstoolittle!  I hesitate to even say it (because I seem to inevitably prove myself wrong), but I will make a genuine effort to change the name of this town from Blogstoolittle to Blogsalot.  Or at least Blogsenough.

At any rate, I simply wanted to share with you some thoughts and images from my most recent shoot for Vype Magazine, one of my favorite and consistently awesome clients.

The concept this time was simple: dynamic duos.  Involved were three pairs of footballing duos from the area.  We took shots of the individual pairs as well as some group shots.  Every single one of the guys was a pleasure to work with and meet.  I am constantly impressed by the charisma that emanates from the athletes I meet; these six footballers proved as impressive as any.

The challenges for the shoot were few, but tough nonetheless.  First, it was hot as hell outside, which was attributable to the fact that we were shooting outdoors at noon on a July afternoon in North Carolina.. which, of course leads me to the next challenge: god-awful light.  So solutions included copious consumption of H2O, utilizing shade as much as possible, and just sucking it the heck up and dealing with the fact that the light just really wasn’t going to improve.  All in all, it was a pretty successful afternoon.

Such, I guess, is the nature of life… Always assessing your surroundings, understanding your limitations and moving forward with the equipment you have, trying all the while to make something beautiful happen.

Peace y’all.

The last month or so has been slow. At least as far as “work” goes - that is, official, solicited jobs that add some money to my meager bank account. And much of that has to do with my own preparation, I’m well aware. I embedded so much of my mental energy into last basketball season that I neglected, to my own detriment, to adequately prepare for the coming summer.

That said, I’m not terribly worried. In fact, this open summer is a grand opportunity.

I’m continuously honing a plan for 2010, one which includes a studio, a revamped and reenergized Organic Exposure Photo, and a more focused approach to storytelling, meaningful photography, and freelance work. So keep your dial tuned right here for updates as they happen.

As I’ve grown as a photographer, one thing I’ve come to find is that I have a hard time being satisfied with a photo unless it’s supported by concrete meaning. Really, this goes for anything I create. A photo, a song, a poem, a paragraph.. if it’s only fluff, if it’s there just for the sake of being there, I generally hate it. For this reason, I’ve grown increasingly bored by flickr-style photography. That’s not to say, know you, that I disapprove or necessarily dislike this pretty-photo-pursuit. For the record, flickr was undeniably instrumental in inspiring and crafting me as a photographer. The people, the photos, the community, it was all invaluable. (Of course, that was back in the day before Yahoo, before Getty, before video and all that community-killing BS. Ah, the good ol’ days.) Ultimately, however, I am no longer completely satisfied with a photo unless it is a tool in the pursuit of a larger goal.

Years ago, a good friend of mine, Lamar, gave me some of the best photography advice I’ve ever received. “When I am about to take a photo of something, I think to myself, ‘what do I want to say about this thing’? If I’m shooting a flower, I try to figure out what makes this flower important to me.”

More and more, I’ve tried to implement this philosophy in my own work. Now, if I’m walking with my camera through town, my goal is to minimize the frivolous photos. I try to continuously ask myself why I care about a particular shot or series. If I can’t come up with a good answer to that question, I don’t shoot. And all in all, it feels much better. The work I do produce is less clouded by superfluousness. And really, this philosophy works well in the rest of my life also. By working to eliminate the superfluous and non-essential, I create for myself an environment that is much richer, much purer, much more satisfying.

As a result, I’ve been working on a few projects that attempt to use my skills - photography and other - as tools in the pursuit of a larger goal. At this time, I’m working particularly intensely on an ever-evolving project with my good friend, Phil Bailey. This project is a part of a larger undertaking that’s been floating around my mind for a while, involving persons who I greatly admire. “Heroes” is the working title. In lieu of a verbose description of the project (as I said, it’s ever-evolving), I’ll share with you a short audio clip that will become part of the final product.

Phil is an incredibly engaging, sincere, and interesting individual. I am enamored by his stories and I cannot wait to continue to work with him on this project. The audio will be accompanied by photos, eventually. I’ve contemplated making this sort of piece a product available to customers, and in time I think that will come. In the meantime, my time involves work, saving money, enjoying the hell out of the summer, and continuing to search for meaning in all that I do. I recommend all the preceding to each of you. Enrich your life. And drink lots of coffee.

Peace.

I didn’t sleep last night.  It was simply one of those nights which for me have become all too familiar, a night where this awfully electric, kenitically anxious vibe fills my mind, a night where I have to do something.  So in an effort to make that something a productive something, I spent my hours writing, thinking, and quite deliberately reading.  (I’ve been reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman.  Just finished part one and I am absolutely riveted.)

So 5:45 am rolled around and I decided that I’d had enough laying in the bed not sleeping.  I showered, stopped by Chick-Fil-A for a spot of breakfast, and started driving (with no destination) and listening to Morning Edition on NPR.

I ended up at my favorite coffee shop on Ninth Street in Durham.  Not sure how, but I’m here now.

So I thought that with this stolen time I’d take a moment to throw down an official update on what’s been happening with Ben McKeown.  (That is the theme of this website, for goodness’ sake.)

A few notable items have been on the plate lately.  I’ll get to the juicy stuff in a second…

First, I’ve been working for a few weeks now with an indescribably talented group of people at New Raleigh, an online magazine devoted to covering the culture and happenings of my hometown.  Being that Raleigh is an incredibly dynamic and exciting place to live at this juncture, the opportunity to focus some creative and professional energy here is invigorating.  In the works for New Raleigh - an assortment of multimedia projects (see some teasers), a podcast, and plenty of original writing and photography.

Also, on the editorial front, the February issue of Vype Magazine has been released, and I am incredibly psyched about how it turned out.  The cover photo is one of my favorites I’ve shot for Vype so far and I was additionaly thrilled by the shots that were chosen for the inside.

Finally (and the crux of the title of this post), I’ve been spending quite a bit of time shooting Duke basketball for WRAL.com.  See galleries here and here and here…

As a result, I was asked to travel to Winston-Salem last Wednesday for a Duke vs Wake Forest game (by now it’s old news) that turned out to be an absolute heart-pounder.  Those who know me would confirm that it is no small secret that I am an enormously devout Wake Forest fan.  I’ve been a true-black and old-gold fanatic from the earliest moments I can remember.  In my elementary school days, I attended Dave Odom Basketball Camp, where (in addition to learning to ball quite well, I must say) my affinity for the Deacs became immovably entrenched in the depths of my sports heart.  As such, I attended last week’s game with a dual-personality: photojournalist/fan.

Lawerence Joel Coliseum was veritably explosive.  I have attended high-profile games now at all of the Big Four’s (Duke, UNC, NCSU, & Wake) home stadiums and I am absolutely not remiss in telling you that Joel is second only to Cameron Indoor Stadium for the most intense venue in college basketball these days.

If you didn’t see the game, watch the highlights of the finish.  Briefly, first half is tight, Wake erupts to start the 2nd, Duke goes on one of their signature runs and ties it with 2.8 seconds left, Wake wins at the buzzer.

It…. was…… awesome.  (Shut up, Richard!)

And with that I want to publicly throw out a few ACC Basketball predictions that I’ve been privately propagating since the beginning of the season:

1. UNC will beat Duke twice.

2. The ACC standings will shake out to be 1) UNC 2) Wake 3) Duke 4) Clemson 5-12) who cares.  (In fairness, I originally predicted Duke would be 4th, but I have since revised this.)

3. UNC will finish the season as the number-one team in the country.

4. There will be two ACC teams in the final four.

5. An ACC team will win the national championship.

With that, I’m going to stop typing.  It’s 8:44 am now, The Killers are on the speakers at Bean Traders Coffee, and I have a lot of work to do if I’m going to take this all to the next level.  Happy February.

Stopped by Schoolkids Records on Hillsborough St. in Downtown Raleigh to grab these shots for this article, written by my talented friend and colleague, Acree Graham, for www.newraleigh.com.  More on New Raleigh in the near future.

Just a few days after spending a night at Hillside, I had the privilege of meeting eight area high school girls basketball players.  We met at the local YMCA for a cover shoot for Vype Magazine

As I’ve indicated before, I’m a huge fan of high school basketball.  It was a pleasure to meet each of these girls, all of whom have demonstrated an admirable level of skill and leadership for their respective teams.  If you’ve watched the aforementioned multimedia, you may recognize one of the girls from this shoot, Kelsey Evans of my high school alma mater, Wakefield.

As always, lighting these shots was an interesting challenge in a gym.  With only about 30 minutes to unload/set up/prepare, a lot of the procedure was improv.  For the group shot shown here, I lied on the floor (looking quite foolish) with a softbox just to the right of my head pointing upward towards the girls.  The basket is lit by one light pointed in its general direction.  Unfortunately, without time to adjust significantly, much of the wall behind the basket is also lit; I would’ve liked to have toned this down a bit.  However, with time restraints also come creative restraints - in addition to the group shots, we had to finish 8 individual portraits (a few displayed here).

I expect the shots to yield another intriguing Vype cover.  This issue is due out in January.