Beauty Redefined Series - Post #4 - Brian Baldwin - Photographer Ricky Davis

Beauty Redefined Series - Post #4 - Photographer Ricky Davis

Ricky Davis October 31, 2016

Beauty Redefined Series - Post #4 - Brian

"Beauty is....complicated. It's tattoos, piercings, cracks, and scars. It's being nice to your fellow humans and treating people like you want to be treated. It's everything that makes you a better person. Beauty comes from the inside and outside.

We say we want a perfect girl but everyday we prove with our actions that, that isn't true. We want a girl who is crazy enough to be fun and interesting but not crazy enough to get us arrested. We want someone who will be better and make us better because we were together." Brian

Hope you enjoyed reading this week's post from my Beauty Redefined Series. Stay tuned for next week!

Beauty Redefined Series - Anonymous - Photographer Ricky Davis

Beauty Redefined Series - Post #3 - Photographer Ricky Davis

Ricky Davis October 21, 2016

Beauty Redefined Series - Post #3 - Anonymous

" So I'm fighting cancer. Which in and of itself isn't a big deal. It is what it is. But it takes over your body and changes it, inside and out. Things change that you never expected to change. You lose internal organs (for me, a radical hysterectomy). You pump poison into it to try and save you. You lose things that define you, like your long red curly hair. Your shape changes; sometimes you gain weight, sometimes you lose it. You bruise. A LOT. You look tired even when you're not; but lets face it.... you are. It feels violating to have your body betray you and what you felt as your femininity being taken away. I've had people yank off my hats; call me fat and ugly...and I've also had the reverse happen. I've been extremely private about my cancer; it's not public knowledge. But beauty; beauty is inside. But sometimes you need to feel it on the outside too, and our society is harsh about what it considers beautiful. I'm bruised, I'm chubby, I'm bald...but I'm still beautiful."

Anonymous

WWII Veteran - Army - Pvt Charles E. Miller - TRD Photography - Film - Kodak Tri X

WWII Veteran Photographic Series - Pvt Charles E. Miller - TRD Photography

Ricky Davis March 2, 2016

WWII Veteran Photographic Series - Army Veteran - Pvt. Charles E. Miller

It's been a little bit since my last WWII Photographic Series session. Recently I was honored to get to sit down for a little bit and interview this amazing man. His story was really powerful, from getting paralyzed in the War, to learning to walk again, and making numerous inventions to help other people with disabilities. He worked on wheelchair adaptions, sewing machine switches, an invalid lifter for a quadriplegic veteran, and even a hand control for cars. That's just part of what this great man accomplished after his own paralysis. I hope that you enjoy hearing his words as much I have.

"What's your name?"

"Charles E. Miller. Charles Eugene Miller."

"What branch of service did your serve in?"

"I was in the Army but I served all my time in the Navy. I was in heavy demolition. Other than that I can't tell you nothing else. General Whitaker took me in the office and discharged me, said I'm gonna take your rank all the way from you, and discharge you as a private. Don't ever say anything about this. If you do, there's some Japanese lawyer waiting to jump on you. So it's never been mentioned. It's a little hard to keep it to yourself, but that's the way it is."

"How were you injured?"

"It was my first mission in the South Pacific. It was island number, well I forgot the number of it. We didn't go by names, we went by numbers. We were going in on the heaviest boat, the ones where the front falls out. We hit a mine. 250lb of Japanese powder. It's much stronger than our powder, I don't know what they do to it, but it's much stronger than our stuff. I remember going up, but I don't remember coming down. Whatever hit me, hit me in mid air. They picked me up and took me back to the ship. When they got me on the ship, they thought that I was a colored man. I was a solid blood blister. I felt it hit the bottom of the boat. I thought I had better jump. It was certain suicide. I was standing right over the top of it. As far as I know, there was two others still alive"

"From your landing craft?"

"Yeah. That's the way it goes. Those things do happen."

"So you were injured on your very first mission?"

"Yeah, but I was over there for a long time before then."

"Were you drafted or did you enlist?"

"I was drafted. That's why I say that Mr. Roosevelt sent me an invitation. I came out of the service with a 50% disability. I stayed out for 8 or 9 weeks and then I went back to work as a crane operator. I started having convulsions. Epileptic convulsions. I went and had one in the hospital and they grabbed on it. But I think it came out pretty good.

"Where did you go to basic?"

"I took my basic in Camp Blanding in Florida. They transferred us to, I forgot the name of it. But me and some other boys were on a truck to Fort Riley, Kansas. A couple MP's picked us up. They asked if he were discharged, or AWOL or I forgot the name of it. About one o'clock in the morning they came and woke me up, asked me for my name and serial number. Then put me in a 41 Chevrolet and took me to demoltion school. They taught me a lot. *looking around his kitchen* You know, there's a lot of explosives in here if you know how to mix it. Oats is one of them. I had oats for breakfast. I'm liable to blow up. There's certain things I can remember, and certain things I don't. "

"Being in demolition, and with the Navy, were you part of underwater demoiltion?"

"No, we were surface demolition."

"How long were you in the South Pacific before your injury?"

"I was there a couple of months. I was just a young kid."

"What years were you over there?"

"Forty-Four."

"Do you remember very much about when Pearl Harbor happened?"

"Oh, I remember it happening. But nothing I could do about it."

"Oh no, I know you weren't in the service then, I was just curious as to if you remembered your thoughts on it when you heard it over the news that the Japanese had attacked."

"Oh yeah, everybody wanted to go fight then. But if you get too many people over there at once, it's trouble. The Japanese were fighting a religious thing. They thought that if they got killed in battle, they'd go to a better land. They was hard to kill. He wouldn't surrender. You had to kill him. But we went in with heavy explosives and blew up their barracks and all that stuff. But I definitely wouldn't want to live it again. I'm 93 now and I'm hanging on. "

"How old were you when you were in the Pacific?"

"19. I was just a kid. I was already married though. I got married when I was 16 and she was six to eight years older than I was. I was working for a construction company. I think she married my time book more than anything else. But she was good to me. I couldn't have made it without her."

"So Lacy told me that you were paralyzed. Was that in the explosion?"

"Yeah."

"But they only gave you 50% disability despite being paralyzed from the waist down?"

"Yeah, they didn't give me much. When I got out of the service, and after I got home, I started having convulsions more often. And Bill King of the Newsfree Press, he was a church member of mine. He got a Tennessee Senator, I forgot his name. There's a lot of things I should remember but I don't. "

"So you were able to teach yourself to walk again?

"Yeah, on braces. I was with Wheeland Factory for thirty years and I walked on braces every day. They were 22lbs that I had to drag around. So I worked on developing something that would be a little lighter. "

Mr. Miller's granddaughter, Lacy mentioned " He actually won the Veteran Handicapped Achievement award for his work on different inventions for disabled veterans."

"That's when we started Disabled Enterprises, for handicapped people. We didn't hire nothing but the handicapped. We had one bus driver. He wasn't all there, but he was there just enough to get by. He drove the bus for us. We made pallets for several different companies here in Chattanooga. We done all right.
I ended up getting into the antique car field. I had thirteen at one time. They were everywhere. I still have a Model A and a '55 Thunderbird. I gave them to my son. He's the only one that's interested in them. You gotta be interested in something to be that close to it. The oldest car that I ever had was a 1907 Sears. It was sold by Sears Roebuck. The mail carriers used it in the South. It had wheels small enough to where they could get through ruts and not get too much mud. "

"Which antique car was your favorite that you've owned?"

"I guess the Sears. I fixed it up and got it to running good. I'd go in parades and it would run just as fast the parade. I'd get up in the front, just behind the horses. When I got done there was green sidewalks from the horses. "

"We don't have parades like we used too. I remember when I was a kid going downtown the the Armed Forces/Veteran parades and they were such a big deal. People were everywhere. I remember seeing Desmond T. Doss being honored a couple of times and we just don't have that anymore."

"Every now and then you see a platoon march, but that's about it. They don't put any money into it. The people have lost all of their pride. "

I want to thank you for taking the time to read just a glimmer of Pvt. Miller's story. I want to give a really big thank you to his granddaughter, Lacy Stoglin, who set up this session. If anyone has any WWII, Korean, or Vietnam Veterans in their family, please reach out to me. Sadly, I can't travel all over the country, but anyone that I can meet locally or on trips, I would love to sit down and do a portrait session and listen to their story. This entire set was shot using Kodak Tri X film.

Ricky

First Minolta XG 1 Experience - Street Photography in Chattanooga - Photographer Ricky Davis

Ricky Davis September 5, 2015

Test Run with Minolta XG 1 - Chattanooga, TN - Photographer Ricky Davis

Recently I shared some film that I shot in Nashville. I've still been shooting some film as I can, and I recently scored an old Minolta XG 1 camera cheap! I decided to put a battery in it and see what I could do. I popped in some expired Neopan SS film.

Rat Rod - Worlds Longest Yard Sale - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

Originally my idea to test the camera out was to take it on the worlds longest yard sale with me. I got it out to shoot a couple rat rods that I saw, but having never shot this camera before, the shutter sounded like it was sticking. That frustrated me and I put the camera up thinking all my shots were going to be overexposed.

I put the Minolta up, but a few days later my Canon 6D made a similar delayed sound on the shutter, and I saw that the photos were still coming out normal, so luckily I decided to take the Minolta back out and finish up the role of film to see what it would do.

Street Art - Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

So I commenced to round two of taking the test run and I wasn't disappointed. Because of the shutter sounding delayed, I just decided to walk around Chattanooga one morning for an hour or so and just capture what caught my eye. One of the things that really catches my eye though is street art. I love graffiti, sculptures, anything. And anyone that knows me, knows anytime I come across Zero's work, I gotta get a shot of it. I'm just a huge fan.

Anti-Social - Street Art - Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

Here are a few more of Zero's work that I came across that morning....

Zero - Street Art - Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

Doorway - Street Art - Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

Another thing that I really love is seeing sculptures and statues, and looking for different angles. By looking for different angles and such, how the light plays off of them and such, it's really fun to see what moods and emotions they project. Here are a few street sculptures that I found.

Sculpture in Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

Street Sculpture in Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

"Sometimes you have to look up, just to see hell." Street Sculpture in Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

"Sometimes you have to look up, just to see hell" From a different angle.. Sculpture in Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

And here are a few more random photos that I took in Chattanooga that day. I was really surprised by the Minolta photos. They were by far my favorite shots that I got back in that batch of negatives, which included some work that I did while I was still on vacation. I'm really stoked to use the Minolta more, and I recently did another set using Portra 400 film with the Minolta and I'm awaiting those negatives to come back in from processing. Hope you guys enjoyed. Next time I plan on definitely doing some more street portraiture as well with it to see how it handles.

"Nope" Lightpole in Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

Store Window - Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

Peeling Street Art - Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

It's all about the eye. Street Art - Chattanooga, TN - Film - Expired Neopan SS - Camera - Minolta XG 1 - Photographer Ricky Davis

WWII Artilleryman - Pvt Ralph Davis - Photographer Ricky Davis of TRD Photography - Expired Kodak T-Max100 Film -

WWII Veteran Photographic Series - Pvt. Ralph Davis - Photographer Ricky Davis

Ricky Davis August 12, 2015

WWII Veteran Photographic Series - Private Ralph Davis

Before I begin to share my experience with Mr. Davis, I’d like to share my inspiration for doing this portrait series. I have long been interested in military history, particularly Vietnam and World War II. As I’ve watched current events unfolding before our eyes, I feel that it is imperative that we chronicle and preserve the history of those in “The Greatest Generation” because we are losing a lot as a country and forgetting what has made us great. If we let these heroes that fought for our freedom pass on without learning the lessons that they can teach us, who knows if we will ever find our way back as a country. That is my ultimate goal with this series.

WWII Artilleryman - Pvt Ralph Davis - Photographer Ricky Davis - Photo taken with Canon 6D.

I had ultimately planned to begin this project when I returned home from Oregon but upon arriving I found out that my mother-in-law knew two local World War II Veterans living here in the area. I got to meet Mr. Davis, no relation to me, on Wednesday evening. When I was first told about Ralph, I was told that he doesn’t remember very much about the war because he is suffering from dementia a little bit. Upon getting to sit down and visit with him I was honored to talk about life, and a little more about the war than he had spoken about in the last thirty years.

Ralph enlisted in the Army soon after Pearl Harbor. He was assigned to infantry and was an artilleryman in Germany. I asked him when he arrived in Germany but he didn’t remember. He mentioned that he was in a few battles but not that many. He said ” I was scared. You didn’t know what was going to happen. But times are worse now than they were before. There’s no telling what’s going to happen.”

WWII Artilleryman - Pvt Ralph Davis - Photographer Ricky Davis of TRD Photography - Shot taken with Canon 6D.

One thing that was really important to Ralph, was that even in the height of the war, with the Army giving out cigarettes to all the soldiers, he never smoked or drank. He said ” I didn’t even drink coffee. It was way too bitter.”

When I asked Ralph about where he was at when the war ended, he said he was in Otterberg, Germany. He told me that memories of the war were hard, that there was so many things that happened that he just wanted to forget. From talking to family members, they said he never really talked about the war that much.

In conclusion with this this first blog in my World War II series, I really think I learned a lot with this first session and interview. In a lot of the books that I’ve read, and the documentaries that I’ve seen, and even letters I have received, most of the servicemen have wanted their stories known. But there are different faces, different stories, and different viewpoints, even among those that lived through those times. Some came home and dealt with their experiences by sharing, and some dealt with their experiences by trying to forget. Everybody is different and there’s no telling how we would react in those circumstances. One thing that is absolutely certain, when freedom was on the line, and our Country called, these men answered the bell. Thank you for reading, and thank you to the veterans that have helped to make our country what it was, what it is, and what it will become.

P.S.

I wanted to say a couple of more words. Originally I posted this blog on Wordpress site while I was still on vacation in Oregon. I photographed Ralph using both my Canon 6D and also I shot some expired Kodak T-Max film. Since I posted the original blog while on vacation, my film wasn't back yet, so I added some film shots of Ralph here, mixed in with the digital photos. Each one is marked. I really hope you enjoy his story, and the photos. Stay tuned for more in this series to come.

Model Krysten Barnes - Photographer Ricky Davis of TRD Photography - Fuji Acros 100 Film

Film in the Studio? Finally got to try it!

Ricky Davis August 10, 2015

Film in the Studio...Finally got to try it!

My apologies in the repost of this blog. I was cleaning out some older posts that were no longer applicable and somehow today's post got deleted as well.

Recently I have started working to learn more about film photography. When I first played around with photography it was all film. I had no idea what I was doing. When I got serious about photography, I learned by shooting digital. Now I'm increasingly interested in working to learning film. It's been an interesting journey so far!

A few weeks ago I was preparing to head off to Portland, OR for a couple of weeks, but I really wanted to try shooting film in studio before I left. That way when I got back, my negatives would be here and I could see how it worked. I was happy when an old friend of mine was able to work her schedule around and shoot with me a couple days before I was set to leave. Krysten and I have collaborated on some of my favorite photographs over the years.

Our shoot consisted of shooting two different films, expired Fuji Acros 100 and expired Kodak Tmax400. As I had no idea how film would work with studio lighting, we tried several different looks, just to make sure we tried different things to see how it would work.

The Fuji Acros 100 was my favorite film to work with that day I think. I liked the exposures on the Tmax too, but we had lighting issues where most of those ended up being scrapped. I started off shooting with high wattage constant light, and those were great! When I used my studio strobes, my shutter speed was too fast for the film to light up the whole frame.I really look forward to working on that next time.

These images haven't been edited, other than removing a few large scratches from processing. I'm really looking forward to working more with film in the studio and soon beginning to work on actual darkroom techniques and processing my own film. So stay tuned...