More Than Kids

Wedding - Berkeley Hillside Club

Earlier this month I photographed a wedding in Berkeley, California at the Hillside Club. It was a circus wedding. The ones I am including in this post have not been edited much.

Circus weddings are not common, so I am glad that I shot this one.

Circus weddings are a little more colorful than most weddings.

I shot about 1500 frames. I liked about 100 (some were really amazing, mostly because of the bride and groom's creativity). The final gallery is on my photo website and the link in this paragraph. 

 

I have known the father of the bride since I was in high school. Besides being a father of two daughters, he is an incredible artist.

 

 

His younger daughter was a bearded woman at the circus wedding.

Sometimes I look back at my old pictures and wonder how I missed a good photo. 

Even now I don't know why some of these photos didn't make the final gallery. Maybe they were nearly identical.

Anyway, if there were more circus weddings, I would probably photograph more weddings.

Rock and Roller Heart - wftda tucson

These are notes to my post at Bryan Farley photography.  I photographed the WFTDA Tucson roller derby tournament.

It is my first post since I have admitted having prosopagnosia. I do not often recognize faces, including my own. When I first began noticing this, I thought something was seriously wrong (like perhaps I was in a coma). Now I question the reliability of almost everything. I still act, even if I doubt, but I doubt more than usual.

I recognize people. I know both people in the photograph above. I am the guy on the left. I know the person on the right. I took the photograph. One person is taller and has tattoos on his arms. He has a different voice. I can hear it when I look at the photo. That is how I distinguish us. I thought everyone did the same thing.

 

At half-time of the first night, there was a youth mariachi band. The students attend a Spanish dual immersion school in Tucson. .My kids have attended a dual immersion school in Oakland. (My daughter started a middle school in a different district this year.)

I thought that mariachi meant marriage, but Wikipedia tells me otherwise. Supposedly, the root word is Maria. Regardless, mariachi bands play at weddings and somehow I was going to connect mariachi bands to wedding gifts to Life Magazine to Claire Booth Luce. She is a former Congress person, Ambassador and probably the first woman mentioned as a serious candidate for Vice President. I don't recognize faces, but I see life and pictures. Luce invented Life. (Her husband received credit for it... from me too.)

On the second day, there was a youth jump rope squad. The young person above, photographed me. I did not ask her name, but I want her to receive some credit for working with my camera, so I have included her image above. You can also view her team perform in the Day 2 pictures.

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A few thoughts. First, the young photographer took some good photographs, especially considering that she was preparing for her performance. She listened and focused.  Secondly, while I know those images are of me, they don't look like me (and not just because I am smiling.) Well, maybe the first one looks like me. It's my shirt and my hair.  I remember jumping. I just don't know that I look like that.

I am glad that I went, but I was exhausted by the third night... recognizing people requires effort (when you can't recognize people.)

 

Son of a Roller Derby Photographer

On my WordPress blog or my Facebook sites, you may have noticed that I have become a derby photographer with my real own derby photographer name.  That's right, I am P Giddy. I "sampled" P Giddy from P Diddy (or Puff Daddy) who was really Sean Combs. P Diddy became famous early with a few songs featuring Mase who was really Mason. 

 

Bryan Farley and Mason (P Giddy and Mace), Derby Photographer and son.

 

My son is also Mason. When we traveled to Santa Cruz on Saturday so that I could photographed the Boardwalk Bombshells, we became P Giddy and Mace. I loved having my family at the bout, but let's be serious, they cramped my persona's style. It's tough to be a dad AND a giddy derby photographer. Still, I am glad they attended.

 

Please visit my growing derby photography collection at A Flat Track Mind dot com/

or type  www.aflattrackmind.com

bf

 

 

 

 

 

The Mothers have entered the building

When I first started exploring the world of tattoos, I had a suspicious mind. I questioned people's motives for marking their body. I wondered if tattoo artists impersonated real artists, much like the Elvis impersonator outside of Jay's shop filming a commercial.

The more time I spend with Jay Esparza at Resistance Tattoo Gallery, the more I realize that most people receive tattoos for significant reasons. On Saturday, members of the Mothers of an Angel Friendship Network visited Jay's shop. These women mark their bodies to remember their children who have died. 

Mothers at Resistance Gallery - Images by bryan farley

At the end of the session, Jay's daughter visited. Jay returned to Fresno to be near his daughter; Jay had been a successful art director in the video game industry... not the typical image of tattoo life.

In God's Hands - Logan at Resistance

Before I know it, 2010 will have become 2011... and I will still be writing about November. 

During Thanksgiving week, I visited Resistance Tattoo Gallery while Matt tattooed Logan. Logan is the son of Simone Ruiz who is from the Mothers of an Angel group. My friend Jay Esparza owns Resistance.

Below is a gallery of Matt, Logan, Jay, Simone and a few other people.

In Gods Hands - Images by bryan farley   (See Share Button!)

By the way, besides being an excellent artist, Matt can identify almost any type of designer eye glasses. He knew I wore Persol's before I did.