Here’s a quick snapshot from a senior portrait session that I held this weekend out & about downtown Detroit with Breya Bogs.

Breya is currently a graduating senior from Detroit’s Crockett high school & she will be a freshman this fall at Eastern Michigan University.

My session with Breya ended much more smoothly than my last senior portrait session. Namely it ended well because I didn’t drop any lenses & my car was not vandalized.

I also must say that I returned to my car nervously hoping that nothing happened to it. As we all know, It’s so cold in the D!

Here’s to more drama free photo shoots downtown in the COLD COLD D.

Looking to next weekend; I’m photographing the wedding of Jonathan Edwards & Erica deBardeleben Saturday then I’m chilling for a couple days and looking for some Memorial Day BBQ.

BTW, you can see a few more outtakes from Breya’s shoot here.

Black Magic: Her Hands
Black Magic: Her Smile
Black Magic: Her Skin
Black Magic: Her Being
Black Magic: Her Promise
Black Magic: Her Love

Art Credits:
2010 Tafari Stevenson-Howard
Muse: Tamara Rasberry

Today I covered a baby shower for Tremaine & Londone Moulds. The shower was quite large, filled with a lot of love, laughs & GREAT cake! Londone is expected to deliver in June 8th but baby boy Trenton Moulds gives me the impression that he may not wait that long.

Can’t wait to meet the little fellow when Londone returns back to Detroit later this summer.

See a few more out takes from today here.

“…I came from what they call a broken home but if they ever really called it a house, they would have known how wrong they were.

We were working on our lives and our homes dealing with what we had not what we didn’t have.

My Life has been guided by women, but because of them, I am a man.

God bless you momma.” ~ 2010 Gil Scott-Heron

Right now, she’s my baby.

Tomorrow, she’s my baby.

Forever she is mine to care for, love, nurture & hold.

I value her playfulness, inquisitiveness & yes sometimes her wild child craziness.

She is my daughter.

A perfect being in my eye.

The spitting images of love between my wife and I.

What more can a man want but more.

The other night, Suite Suzy was going through boxes of her old photos when she stumbled across some of her high school photos.

This was great for me because I hadn’t seen any of these particular photos in all of the time that we have been together (13 years).

Thumbing through the images inspired many good chuckles from the early 80’s fashions, wild mulatto girl hair, interesting eye brow arches & “sexy wanna be model” poses. It was a Suite Suzy that I’d never seen. And it was almost like unlocking a mystery. Not like she was keeping secrets but it was like a time capsule of sorts.

The photo above is from her 1984 high school senior portraits. I found this image to be so beautiful. And until I saw it, I never thought that out daughter Olivia favored Suite Suzy but this image makes them appear to be twins.

I asked Suite Suzy if I could hold on to the photo for a while & she obliged. The next morning I woke up, picked up the photo again & smiled at it.

Jíbaro, mi negro lindo
De los bosques de caña
Caciques de luz
Tiempo es una cosa cómica.

Jíbaro, my pretty nigga.
Father of my yearning for the soil,
The land,
The earth of my people.

Father of the sweet smells of fruit in my mother’s womb,
the earth brown of my skin,
the thoughts of freedom that butterfly through my insides.

Jíbaro, my pretty nigga.
Sweating bullets of blood and bedbugs,
Swaying slowly to the softly strummed stains of a five string guitar
Remembering ancient empires
Of sun gods and black spirits and things that were once
So simple.

How times have changed Man.
how Man has changed time.
“Unnatural,” screams the wind.
“Unnatural.”

Jíbaro, my pretty nigga man.
Fish smells and cane smells and
Fish smells and cane smells and
Tobacco
And oppression makes even God smell foul.

As foul as the bowels of the ship
That vomited you up on the harbors of a cold metal city to die.
No sun, no sand, no palm trees

And you clung,
Yes, you clung to the slimy ribs of an animal
Called the Marine Tiger,
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost Amen.

Jíbaro, did you know you my nigga?
I love the curve of your brow,
The slant of your baby’s eyes
The calves of your woman dancing;
I dig you!

You can’t hide.
I ride with you on subways.
I touch shoulders with you in dances.
I make crazy love to your daughter.
yea, you my cold nigga man.
And I love you ’cause you’re mine.

And I’ll never let you go.
And I’ll never let you go.
(You mine, nigga!)
And I’ll never let you go.
Forget about self.
We’re together now.
And I’ll never let you go!
Uh’uh
Never, Nigga.

Art Credits:
Poem: “Jibaro My Pretty Nigger” by Felipe Luciano
Image: “Obama” by Andrew Bannecker

Back in November 09, I was finally able to see the movie “Precious” (Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire). I had not read the book prior to seeing the film, but friends who had “warned” me about what to expect.

To put things mildly, what I was told really didn’t prepare me for what I saw. I mean I left the theater without being able to close my mouth from shock.

There were several scenes that had me about to break down in major tears but somehow I was able to keep from going there. The emotional/sexual/physical abuse, overt colorism, etc were almost too much. But… the story of a young woman fighting to survive for her sake & the sake of her children helped me make it through the movie. I was hoping that this girl who had everything against her finally won.

Once I got home, I sat down to figure out how I was going to talk about the movie & was stuck. I guess I was stuck because I felt like I was missing something. What did the movie not cover from the book. And I also wanted to know more about Precious’ friends from the “alternative.” So, at this point, I logged onto Amazon & purchased “Push.”

Flash forward>>>>>>>>>>>>

I’ve read the book & it filled in all of the holes that I knew were missing and I was satisfied knowing the complicated back-stories of Precious’ friends.

One thing that stuck with me through the book was this passage from chapter 1:

“I big, I talk, I eats, I cooks, I laugh, watch TV, do what my muver say. But I can see when the picture come back I don’t exist. Don’t nobody want me. Don’t nobody need me. I know who I am. I know who they say I am-vampire sucking the system’s blood. Ugly black grease to be wipe away, punish, kilt, changed, finded a job for.”
~ Precious

Is the book hard to read? Yes! The vernacular is written phonetically & some may struggle with that as I’ve heard.

Is the book graphic? Hell yes! The book makes the movie look like a PG rated after school special.

My favorite laughable take aways from the book not fully played out in the movie? “Cunt Bucket.” & “Hasta la vista, baby.”

“She look at me like I said I wanna suck a dog’s dick or some shit. What’s with this cunt bucket? (That’s what my muver call women she don’t like, cunt buckets. I kinda get it and I kinda don’t get it, but I like the way it sounds so I say it too.)” ~ Precious

——–

“My muver say, “Eighty –six that bitch.” I says into the intercom. “Hasta la vista, baby.” That’s Spanish for good-bye but when niggers say it, it’s like, kiss my ass.” ~ Precious

Without a doubt, “Push” is a MUST read, if you’ve seen or want to see the movie “Precious! The short novel fills in the missing links & believe me there are many. This is surprising because the book is a quick 192 pages compared to the 110 minute movie.

Flash forward one mo’ gin’ (Negro Dialect)>>>>>>>>>>>>

This past Monday I attended a MLK symposium talk sponsored by the University of Michigan titled “Push, Literacy, Women, and African American Literature” given by poet & novelist Sapphire.

Sapphire coming to town was too much like right! While at the talk, I planned on getting my book autographed & asking some of the pressing questions on my mind regarding the movie & book.

After the very exciting session was said & done, I wasn’t able to get my book signed but I did get the chance to ask two of my three questions which are addressed in the audio link here.

I wish I could have asked my 3rd question regarding the content on 111 para 4. I just wanted to be sure that what I read was what I read & not what I was thinking it was.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

A few of my Tweets from the Talk:

• I’m at the Sapphire lecture & the hall is almost at standing room only. Wow! http://twitpic.com/yoj1t http://twitpic.com/yoj1h
• Sapphire is reading from “Push.” I’m loving this!
• White people are leaving the Sapphire’s talk. I guess they cannot handle her reading from “Push.” Interesting!
• Standing in line to ask Sapphire a question. http://twitpic.com/yow8y
• I actually talked with Sapphire. Posting audio later. I’m excited!!!!
• Sapphire just read this woman who tried to read her. Shit!!!
• Male rape victim now at the mic talking to Sapphire. Wow!
• The line was way too long to get my book signed by Sapphire but I was able to get a photo. Yes! http://twitpic.com/yp4kx

Did you see the movie, read the book or both? What are your thoughts?

Two Words: Bling Bling

And yes, I’m still on the grind to meet my wedding job quota for 2010.

Over the Labor Day weekend, my best friend, road dog, & ace boom cool Cousin Dee got married to her long time boo Mato Allen (you know him as the “Yellow African”).

The wedding was months in the making & of course, I was slated to be the photographer to capture their special day in only a way that I can.

I would be lying if I said this was an easy wedding to work because it wasn’t! 1st of all there were 325 guests, we had 3 stops for post wedding/pre reception on location photos & African traditions that I was not accustomed to but had to capture. There was almost too any things going on for me to keep my mind right, so I’m very happy that I hired an assistant to help me keep it all together.

I tell you, it was a long 12 hour day but it was all worth it for my cousin.

Earlier this week, I joked that I had to watch “Coming to America” to get me prepared for this wedding & that was quite funny but it was so true. Mato’s family hails from Sierra Leone & they were thick up in that piece. My family & Verlisa’s friends probably made up 15-20% of the quests with everyone else from Mato’s side.

And let me tell you, they were sharb! Sharb as hell! Afro sharb! Yes I did say Sharbbbbbb. Very colorful dashikis, agbadas, head wraps, dresses & everything in between.

Knowing what to expect in terms of dress, I made it a point to find the sharbest agbada that I could & I got lucky at the last minute with a piece straight from Nigeria. Later in the evening, Cousin Dee joked that it was the 1st time that my African clothes actually fit in anywhere. I couldn’t do anything but laugh because she was so right.

Anyway, there are some other things I want to discuss about the wedding & the interaction of the cultures but now is not the time. I think I’m going to do a vlog about it after discussing it with a few of my friends about the stark cultural differences that I noticed.

Oh wait, here’s a link to a few preview photos from the big day.

Last weekend, I embarked on my 1st destination wedding in Cancun, MX at Dreams Resort.

My expectations were somewhat mixed because I did not know how things were going to finally work out, so I over packed everything.

Fortunately, Suite Suzy & I got to chill on the beach for 3 days before the jump off. And when I say jump off, I mean jump off.

The wedding was really something to beautiful to behold & watching it all come together was quite amazing.

I’ll tell you, anyone who thinks the work of a wedding photographer is a breeze is a fucking liar! I worked non-stop from 3pm-11pm in the heat, rain & sand.

After all was aid & done, I laid in the bed listening to the ocean crash against the rocks outside my window & thought about what I learned.

The next time around, which is in 2 weeks, I’ll be ready, with more comfortable shoes & pants. A photographer should not try to be sexy while working. It just doesn’t help the process.

Speaking of weddings, I’ve set a goal to try for 5 weddings for 2010. When I posted my goal on Facebook, many of my supporters & friends rallied & told me that my goal was too low. The encouraging words really helped to boost my confidence! With that said, I have my 1st consultation for 2010 next Tuesday. Wish me luck!!!!

Before I bounce, check out a quick snippet from Mr. & Mrs. Reginald Butler’s wedding here.

Oh BTW; check out the newest page on my website devoted to wedding photography & tell a friend! I have a passport so the world has no limit on distance I will travel. Shit, Tafari needs some new stuff boo!

Meet Reggie Butler & Adrienne Holmes, soon to be knows as Mr. & Mrs. Butler.

Today we met up for an engagement photo session downtown Detroit. This was a very interesting session because the locations were very random & not necessarily in the best nor safest locations.

I would love to tell you about the homeless man, the crack head, & the piles of goose mess we encountered while shooting, but I’ll spare you those undesirable details. Nonetheless, we had great time working together as we made our way around town.

Reggie & Adrienne will be officially hitched 3 weeks from now in Cancun, Mexico. And yes, I’ll be there too, capturing this wonderful union of two great people.

Oh did I mention how excited I am to be doing my 1st destination wedding?!?! Hopefully, there will be more to come! I’ve been very lucky to link with great clients.

To see more shots, click here. Hope you enjoy them.