Diana Price Photography

2008 IPA Photography Awards

I would be a liar if I didn't admit to being terribly disappointed to be shut out of the top three awards in the Music category for non-professionals, but the quality of the winners was pretty damn high, and helped alleviate my disappointment (there was a kick ASS shot of Eugene from Gogol Bordello standing on a drum held by fans). I wish I could have entered a lot more photos, but the entry fees made that cost-prohibitive as I was trying to pay for them all at once, but I will be entering throughout the year this year, and I can go back to enter some older stuff too as there is no time limit. Nearly everything I entered placed honorable mention, except two photos, and one set inexplicably got a nod in one category, but not the other - SxHxSxLx was recognized in People - Lifestyle, but NOT Music. Go figure.

Also of note: in the Deeper Perspective category, my boys the Koffin Kats were competing against major photo essay topics on a global scale...you know, like serious documentary photography stuff. So I think it's pretty cool a band set got in there. Anyway, as prestigious as this competition is, placing an honorable mention is pretty damn good, and I did that in several categories:

ADVERTISING -- BEAUTY:
DIANA PRICE entry 53265 - Title: Retro Glamour - PHOENIX, US

THE DEEPER PERSPECTIVE CATEGORY (Where you write a short essay with the photos to explain the story)
DIANA PRICE entry 53650 - Title: Koffin Kats Live - PHOENIX, US

The Koffin Kats have toured almost nonstop for two years. And when I say, "toured," I'm not talking about five star hotels, luxury buses and roadies doing all the work. I'm talking about three guys living in a van, setting up their own equipment, sleeping on fans' floors, then getting up and doing it all again the next day, often for barely enough money to make it to the next gig. They sacrifice homes, family and friends for the love of their music. This is the real spirit of rock and roll -- the thing you won't find on MTV or American Idol. So get off the couch and see it up close. Get sweat on, spit on and knocked around the pit. Because rock and roll is NOT dead. It's in some seedy dive bar down the street. Where's it's always been. And where it always will be.

PHOTO ESSAY
DIANA PRICE entry 53650 - Title: Koffin Kats Live - PHOENIX, US

PEOPLE -- LIFESTYLE
DIANA PRICE entry 48936 - Title: Stitch Hopeless and the Sea Legs CD shoot - PHOENIX, US

DIANA PRICE entry 49798 - Title: The Circle Jerks - PHOENIX, US

PEOPLE -- PORTRAIT
DIANA PRICE entry 53265 - Title: Retro Glamour - PHOENIX, US
DIANA PRICE entry 53784 - Title: Band of Brothers - PHOENIX, US

DIANA PRICE entry 53746 - Title: Sarah - PHOENIX, US

ADVERTISING -- MUSIC
DIANA PRICE entry 48924 - Title: The Dollyrots - PHOENIX, US

DIANA PRICE entry 49798 - Title: The Circle Jerks - PHOENIX, US

DIANA PRICE entry 53274 - Title: Koffin Kats - promo - PHOENIX, US

DIANA PRICE entry 53650 - Title: Koffin Kats Live - PHOENIX, US
DIANA PRICE entry 53784 - Title: Band of Brothers - PHOENIX, US

Diggin' the bones in Charleston, SC

Here's something a bit different from Charleston...some graveyard shots.

It's only rock and roll but I like it

Okay, I know I have another blog for my band work, but to not mention it on this one would be leaving out the very thing I love most and am most known for. Now, lest you think I'm some young, tattooed hipster, I'm a chubby 42 year old woman. I look so not rock and roll. Nor do I dress like a teenager -- I've already told people if I ever become one of those women who try to dress and act half her age, to shoot me. Please.

So imagine how odd I look at these shows. And how odd I often feel. Or used to...I''ve gotten pretty comfortable with being the old fart in the crowd.

So, anyway, part of what I do involves getting in the pit. I get my ass kicked. A lot.

And one thing I've learned out in Arizona, is those kids from the Rez are crazy in the pit. For reals. So I knew when I went up to Window Rock, NM with my boys The Koffin Kats, it was going to be rough. An audience entirely of Rez kids, on their own turf (at Day's Customs, an auto body shop.)

This is what the boys had to work with -- a flatbed trailer for a "stage."

 

I love behind the scenes shots and catching candids of guys offstage. Especially the Kats. They're great guys and have three very different -- and QUITE interesting -- personalities.

Food run (Tommy's hair before he fixed.)

Tommy's hair after he fixed it.

One of the most important things in rock and roll photography is making friends with fans, so they at least try not to knock you down. I knew these girls were going to be live ones, as they started stirring up a wrecking pit even with the first bands, and were taunting the crowd into getting crazy. And I figured me being Anglo wasn't going to exactly endear me to them. So I knew I had to make a peace offering, and when I got this shot, showed it to them.

Instant bonding.

For the record, that IS concrete they are crashing into on the ground. Crazy kids.

I still got my ass kicked, but at least they didn't hate the white girl in the front. And even tried to get me to join in with them for a bit. I would have never survived without a little diplomacy.

Aspiring rock photographers take heed...be nice to the fans.

Trial and Error -- new Photoshop experiments

I'm trying to brush up on my Photoshop skills and add new techniques. One of the skills I have been wanting to refine is my vintage, distressed photo effects. These are a few of my first efforts.

 

 

Now and Zen

Okay, not really Zen, but Tibetan Buddhism. I had met H.E. Garchen Rinpoche at his center in Dayton, Ohio a good...3 or 4 years ago? I was very involved for awhile in Tibetan Buddhism, but had kind of drifted away. I came out of a diner in Flagstaff, Arizona, during my desert roadtripping, trying to decide where to go next. I had been traveling a couple of weeks, and was starting to get concerned I would run out of money before the next travel nurse assignment came in, and was debating on whether to try to head east to visit my sister in New Jersey, or hang around the southwest and keep working on landscapes.

It's a weird thing to sit in a parking lot with no real home (my belongings are in storage) and no real plans or destination. I decided to head west and maybe check out LA, so I started along 40W, when I realized I would be going by Hwy 89S, which leads to Chino Valley, which is where Rinpoche has his main center. I had visited once before on a winter Sunday, hoping to drop in on White Tara practice, and found no one there. So in a weird move of spontanteity, I headed south and drove along the dirt roads and up the mountain to the Garchen Buddhist Institute. I knew they had cheap housing and a few days peace and quiet off the road were in order.

Turns out one of my main teachers from Ohio was there and giving a teaching that upcoming weekend. Coincidence? Karma? You decide.

  

Charleston, South Carolina

A little break from desert landscapes and roadtrips...

My last travel nurse assignment was in South Carolina, and a trip or two to Charleston was mandatory.

Roadtrippin'...the roadside cafe

Along with the dive motels, I love me some dive cafes and restaurants. This one has a big open concrete floor in the bar area. I guarantee if you go there on a weekend, there is some serious hell raising going on. What else can you do in these blink-and-you-miss-it towns in the middle of nowhere?

Classic road food...mmm...

A couple of more conventional landscapes

Stormy weather moving in on blue skies makes the best lighting conditions, and even after the storm clouds take over, the muted light can create a soft portrait or landscape. Here's a couple of shots on Hwy 8.

Get your kicks on old Route 66

I'm kind of a strange girl. The prospect of seedy "historic" motels on Route 66 actually appeals to me. Imagine my delight at finding a really divey motel in Flagstaff, Arizona, complete with Indian family management and the smell of Indian food in the check in lobby. And real keys, not those damn plastic cards I loathe.

I'm the kind of weirdo that actually thinks this is cool.

Desert Landscapes

I spent about 2 weeks driving around the Arizona and California desert between nursing assignments, staying in seedy motels and shooting black and white landscapes. I must warn you, I don't take the pretty, Ansel Adams approach to landscapes. I approach them as documentary work and freely admit I seek out the lonely, desolate scenes. I've always felt a strong affinity for the desert, because it is so beautiful and yet so brutal.

I started on the sparsely populated stretch of Hwy 8 between Phoenix and San Diego and this was the first photo I shot, which set the tone of the whole project.

The more I look at this image, the more it breaks my heart. I think of that coyote, hit by a car and probably still alive, lying by the side of the road slowly dying...looking out over that beautiful vast desert and brilliant blue sky.

The soundtrack for my roadtrip includes the bleaskest, most beautiful song I have ever heard -- "Mother of Earth" by The Gun Club. It is something I am considering using for a coffee table book, reprinting the lyrics (if I get permission) with the images.  This image is defintely the last line:

"And my eyes fade from me, in this open country..."