In case y’all haven’t heard of The Image Deconstructed blog, it’s an amazing resource! It deals with photographers’ mental processes & as a whole, gives insite into how photographers think — and sometimes feel — when they’re making pictures. It’s the brain child of Ross Taylor, who — and it should go without saying — is Rossome!

Here’s my specific entry, but I truly and whole heartedly recommend seeing some of the other photographers’ work being deconstructed. (each word is a link to a different post, by the way. Isn’t that super clever!?)

Dr. Logan King, Equine Veterinarian, and I are long time college friends. — which is surprising considering I forgot his name the first three, maybe four, times we met. Luckily I redeemed myself by remembering every other fact about him. He’s valedictorian of his high school, pre-vet, loves grindcore. …I even remembered the layout of his dorm, and that you pronounce his hometown, Lafeyette, GA, like a Southerner: “Luh’FAY-ut.” And if you pronounced it like a European, you’re bound to be corrected.

Logan will forever be one of the loudest people wherever he goes — and possibly one of the most hospitable. He’s one of those progressive, loud-mouthed, Southerners. There are more out there than some of you Yanks might believe.

But when I say Southern, I really mean COUNTRY! He’s got this magnetic, low, boomy, southern droll, …with a swagger to match.

I love listening to him talk — and he talks a lot! British people and Logan. But not just because of how he says words, it’s the way he tells his stories!

–And oh the stories he’d tell us! When he first started vet school it was “I was elbow deep in this cow’s ass” this, and “you shoulda seen this bloody, puss-filled infection!” that.

Logan’s a naturally smiley kinda guy, but when he talked about doing vet stuff, his smile got even wider, his eyes twinkled, and, despite the subject matter, he radiated super-positive energy. Of all my friends in college, Logan was the most passionate about school.

These days, Dr. Logan King and I are heralded by our friends as the two guys who are doing what we love. We “made it.”

So, of course, I was super-stoked to photograph him in action during his morning rounds, Wednesday, July 27, 2011. He works in the greater McDonogh area of Georgia, which is in between Atlanta and Macon. Y’know, where the stereotypes live.

Our first stop was to see a bull who had a big, gross, bloody infection on his jaw.

***FAIR WARNING*** The next portion is a bit gruesome. …but kinda awesome, too!

While we were there, both Logan and the bull’s owner, Stephen — a super-nice guy — got stung by wasps!

Logan was lucky — he only got hit on the back. Poor Stephen got stung right above the bridge of his nose. This is Stephen swatting and killing the remaining wasp.

Good news. The Bull’s wound was just an infection — “lumpy jaw” — not cancer.Stephen didn’t want to have to sell his breeding bull for beef. Our next stop was to The Powder Forest, horse boarding farm where Logan x-rayed one horse, Spider, with his portable x-ray machine — which he boastfully paid for in cash!

Needless to say, the good doctor’s business is doing pretty well — a testament to his skills, but I think more than that, his gregarious personality.

He followed up with another horse (with cool hair) who was having problems sweating.

…and looked at a super-old horse, who’s recent aggression might be an indication he’s going through something like horsey dementia. sad.

When I made this brush picture, everyone in the barn was like, “what in the world is he doing?” The Logan said something to the effect of “Matt’s a weird dude, haha! but trust me, he’s super talented.” That meant a lot. And the last stop of the day — at least for me — was to see a miniature donkey!  how friggin’ cute! A week or so previous, his owner called a farrier to trim his hooves.

Afterwards, the little guy was walking a bit too tenderly for a bit too long. Dr. King’s prognosis? The cut might’ve been a bit too short, but nothing to worry about. The donkey was just not used to the new feeling just yet. 

exhibitionists.

bullies

Those with secrets

the stupid.

sadists.

the shamed.

I mean… just look at these guys!

…and don’t get me started on Chimps! they’re the shadiest of em’ all!

They dig in their butts only to smell their own poop. Yick!

And they pee everywhere!

The world is funny, isn’t it?

Or at lest that how it seems to me. …but then again, I’m the guy who laughs too much during movies.

This is the second installment of my Best Runts of 2010. The first is here.

Can I first start by saying I can’t stand lifestyle images. You know what I’m talking about — Beautiful people laughing for no reason. …maybe holding a glass of wine, or frolicking through a field of wheat. It’s cheap high-gloss stock. Sure, there’s a semblance of a story being told, but it’s trying too hard to be perfect and beautiful. …but it lacks substance. What ends up happening is none of that joy those beautiful people in the photo translates to the end user — the audience.

Me? I roll my eyes.

…well, I sometimes chuckle. but it’s usually because a miscreant blacked out one of the boring hot chick’s teeth. …you know the one. She’s about to eat some spaghetti.

Now that’s funny. …at least to me. Like I said in Runts part 1, I like to celebrate the imperfect in life.

And I’m starting to realize (and I’m kinda cringing while I write this) that Happy is Boring.

…at least in photography.

Sure, if some kid is opening a birthday present and he’s making the craziest face in the world — like OUT OF HIS MIND HAPPY — because he got the most bad-ass toy robot ever, then that’s good stuff. That’s an emotion we can enjoy through someone else’s experience. But laughing on the beach FOR NO REASON isn’t entertaining. Those are passive photo. It’s like the white bread of photography. no nutrition.

To be clear, there’s a difference between BEING happy and trying to make a picture of happy. People smiling for no reason is void of content, void of purpose, and void of personality. It’s the quirks and our imperfections we, as individuals, are loved for. And so, I look for those when I’m out making pictures. Ultimately, I want the audience to relate to the subjects and stories in my images. …and rather than show them pictures of people laughing, I’d rather them enjoy a chuckle or two. Enjoy!

My mom got married to a wonderful man, Rick, this summer. They have so much in common, such as not liking bubbly. You gotta give em’ props for trying, right? So, lets raise a glass and wish them well! She finally found a good fit for her.

Learning how to groom a lamb is part of the curriculum of the 2005 Baltimore County 4-H Lamb Grant Project. Lisa Wheeler, project leader from Whitehall, right, supervises Juliana Buckman while she trims a lamb’s hoof Wednesday June 22, 2005 at Green’s Lamb farm in Whitehall.

The 10am Update is a (somewhat) regular blog feature showcasing some of the better photos from my archives.

A super costume wins the costume contest for Como, 3, during the Columbia Association’s first Welcome Event of the year, Dog Day Afternoon held at Hopewell Park in Columbia Saturday, April 17, 2010. Como, a rescue boxer, was shown by his owner Jody Stacoffe, from Elkridge.

I was not excited about the high noon sun and the busy busy background of bright white shirts and subsequent raccoon eyes. So, I decided to use some on camera flash. I zoomed my sb-800 out to 105mm, stuck with the high shutter sync and underexposed the sky. Honestly, I’m a little surprised at how cool the photos came out. But I think the lighting lends to only half of why these photos work. They’re quirky. That is, the subjects are quirky. I like these photos because they show off the subjects personalities in really interesting, imperfect ways. They’re like pop songs. …you know, catchy, memorable. well, at least I think they’re memorable.

Phoenix, five, a Jack-Russell/Chihuaua mix is a “fashionable lady,” or so says her owner Ronda Lennon.

Windsor, a rescue dog, owned by Amanda Williams, of Dorsey Hall.

Samantha McHale, 7, brings Racall, 4, a Daschund to the “Best Kisser” contest.

Deneen Craves, from Elkridge, pulls her fingers away after giving a ball to her dog Ace Windu. His name is an homage to the Star Wars character Mace Windu.

Windsor rolls for a treat.

This is during the “Best Kisser” contest. They rolled out before I could get their names.

Eight months-olds, and Lilly, left, and Caesar, right, are already flirting. Lilly is owned by Ken and Katrina Knudsen, of Kings Contrivance..Caesar is owned by Alex and Luisa Bishop, from Harpers Choice.

Barbi, an eight-month-old toy poodle, backs away from the bowl (well, really, its me) during the biscuit eating contest. Her owner Jean Jungblut holds Barbi’s leash in the background.

“Sammy thinks she’s going to win this one because they practice kissing all the time,” says seven-year-old Samantha McHale’s dad,”John McHale, of Long Reach. The crowd and loud music seemed to give Rascall, 4, a Daschund performance anxiety during the “Best Kisser” contest.

A few more from the “Best Kisser” contest.

Deneen Craves, from Elkridge, looks on while her neighbor Jalen Stewart, who she used to baby sit, coaxes Craves’ dog Ace Windu to jump.

If you want to share this gallery feel free to embed the gallery below. Thanks for stopping by!

Dog Day Afternoon – Images by Matt Roth

A fox family member sits by the Owings Mills 7-Eleven it frequents on a regular basis

I made these images back in 2004, when I was an intern at the Patuxent Publishing Co. I was filling up my car with gas after an assignment, and I looked over and saw a fox. I looked around to see if anyone else pumping gas was phased by this. Come to find out, they’re regulars. These guys like people — well, at least they’re not too scared of us. I got really close to the one in these two images, only using a 50mm lens.

There was another one who preferred to stay in the shadows by the wooded area. The dumpster seems to be their main source of food. I wonder, if after more than five years, they’re still hanging out at the 7-Eleven in Owings Mills. Maybe I should investigate?

“This house is like Jerassic Park North,” kids Gordon Hyssong, a 65 year old self-proclaimed herpetologist who shares his Parkville home with almost 40 reptiles, a fish tank full of hissing cockroaches and an ornery parrot names Caesar.

This guy was intense! I met him back in November, 2004, while I was an intern at the Patuxent Publishing Co. Legally blind when I met him, half the stuff we talked about was how he was in this horrible health care infinity loop. Retired from a security job at Johns Hopkins Hosptital, he was living off Social Security and he needed eye surgery. How frustrating must that be? He’s has all these cool looking animals, yet can

barely see them. But, he sounded hopeful. The medical stuff looked like it was panning out. He told me he would have his surgery in the next few weeks. What a great feeling it must be to regain his eye sight so he can see all his creepy crawly friends again. I never followed up with him, though. That’s one of the spikes of this job, our encounters are so brief and almost always limited to no more than an hour. He’s one of those subjects I’d love to revisit. Here‘s the story we did for the Northeast Reporter.

“I tell people and they think I must be lying that I have all these animals in my house,” claims Gordon Hyssong, a 65 year old self proclaimed herpetologist who shares his Parkville home with almost 40 reptiles. His bedroom houses a few large spiders, one scorpion, and some boa-constrictors, one of which is a rubber boa, seen above, native to North American Pine Forests.

The 10am Update is a regular feature on my blog (I try to make it a daily thing) where I showcase some of the best work from my archives.

This is from December, 2008. Jess drew the heart, and our upstairs neighbor’s dog, Josh, was looking to make some yellow snow.

I just got my new full-frame D700 and I was making as many night photos as possible. The drawback — which doesn’t really bother me in this image — is that all my wide angle lenses were made for DX camera bodies. I shot this with a 17-55mm and that’s why there’s that huge black vignette. I could crop it out — and I played around with that idea — but it felt wrong getting that tight.

I try to bring my camera with me when I’m not shooting. You never know when quirky little things like this will present themselves.

Branches protrude form the frozen waters of Lake Kittamaqundi during the preliminary snowfall Friday, February 5, 2010.

Lake Kittylitter is what my old boss Tenney Mason would call Columbia, MD’s Lake Kittamaqundi. …because, lets be honest, it’s a tough word to pronounce. On my way home Friday, I made an quick photo essay for the Columbia Flier of the frozen man made lake (the deepest area is a little over 7 feet).

As beautiful as the snow is, it’s expensive! This season’s unusual amount of snow, including a storm that dumped 21 inches in less than 24 hours, has left the county’s snow removal budget $1.3 million in the hole…

Read the Columbia Flier article, here.

Two ducks take a stroll on the frozen water.

Duck tracks leave a trail in the freshly fallen snow-layered-ice.

Snow falls around ivy on a tree trunk, the only visibly green plant in the flora surrounding Lake Kittamaqundi.

A dusting of frost covers a fallen sweetgum tree fruit.