Though I want the majority of this blog to be devoted to more stories than “photo jobs,” I can’t neglect the people who allow me to carry on with this hobby – primarily, high school seniors and their families. Jacob happens to actually be a part of my family. Not to embarrass him, but I still struggle with his height, as only a few years ago he was a shorty just like me. I’m amazed at how boys transform into young men, not only in stature but in mind, talent and personality. I’ve been extremely impressed with Jacob over the past year and I know that good things are on the horizon for him as he sets off for my old alma mater, Harding University. God speed, Jake!

Photo-wise, this is just a small mixed sample of delivered and “non-delivered” photos. I chose a more moody selection than I give to seniors and their parents. The “smile for mom” photos are a given, but the great ones have personality.

I believe this was my first all Fuji shoot. The little cameras performed flawlessly and believe I’ll be doing the rest of my senior shoots with them solely!

Today marks a milestone in the lives of six individuals. No, it’s not an April Fools joke…Workhorse Creative Productions is officially open for business.

Moving into a new space takes a ton of setup, cleaning, organizing and just plain figuring out how everything is going to work. Today, everyone chipped in and began the process of cleaning and setting up workstations. It was labor intensive, but as always, the reward for work is incredibly sweet. Amazing progress toward turning our space on the corner of Main and Monroe in Jonesboro, AR was made and more will be conquered tomorrow. This post is more image heavy than most…but expect many more to come as this incredible group changes the face of creative production in this region and state!

More TK

Yes, even swapping the direction of the refrigerator doors was a pertinent task.

Who let these guys start a company? Oh yeah…they did!

Pay no attention to that man behind the camera! On a day like this, even I have to join the visual record.

And of course, one of the great things about working downtown is the food! @ Vino’s 305

When I promised to post more regularly, I had every intention of doing so. But, as it is, life gets in the way.

One thing I love about my job as a photographer and advertising producer, is the traveling. Most of the time it’s nothing glamorous, but it is a chance to go somewhere I’ve never been. Recently, I’ve been on location in Chicago, St. Louis and Suffolk, Virginia. Two of those trips were by air – and not just any air – Hytrol Air. We have a great client with Hytrol and we occasionally get the opportunity to document their systems in action. The pictures in this post are focused on the flight back from Suffolk.

 Derek – a constant traveling companion

This was also Drew’s first time to fly (above). To paraphrase Drew, “Taking off for the first time was a unique experience…I wanted to hurl. I thought that seeing the ground would help. Nope.”

After the first takeoff, Drew was pro, and it was fun to see flight from his fresh point of view.

It’s different up in the clouds.

A game of cards to pass the time.

Yo, hold still! I’m gettin’ the reflection in your glasses!

It’s a cold, damp February day. I’ve driven down a small side road and turned onto a gravel road, winding through field and forest. I finally stop the car at an old, one-room church and school house, Old Union. My dad has led the way out here – he’s my assistant for the day. To the right of the building lay a cemetery, and my dad starts examining the tombstones. We’re waiting for three friends – Gevan, Aaron, and Peyton Murphy. These three men comprise the Murphy Bluegrass Boys and play music just for the sake of making melody.

Aaron and Peyton first started playing in 2006. At that time, Aaron was playing mandolin and Peyton guitar. In October of the same year, Peyton bought a couple mandolins through eBay, and the two swapped roles. They became a trio when Gevan, their father, was given a restored 100-year-old upright bass in 2008 by the boys and their mother.

“There are two kinds of bass players,” Gevan remarks, “There are some who just get by and some that are good. I just get by.”

Humility runs in the veins of this family – unassuming and kind-hearted. But when they pick up their instruments and begin playing, they show that they’ve got more than good manners up their sleeves.

The Murphy Bluegrass Boys don’t have a regular schedule of “touring,” but one event they make sure to attend is the annual United Cerebral Palsy Bluegrass Benefit at The Forum in Jonesboro, AR.

Gevan jokes, “It’s the closest I’ve come to the Grand Ole Opry…dressing rooms and everything.”

When not picking and singing together, Gevan is a pharmacist in Imboden, AR and became a part of the Imboden community in 1978. Aaron, the second of three brothers is a dentist in the same town, and Peyton, the youngest, branched off to work for the Social Security office in Benton, AR. He also held the 2011 runner-up spot in the state-wide Mandolin Picking contest. True to form, Peyton won’t bring that up, but it’s obvious the boy has some talent.

Gevan Murphy

Aaron Murphy

Peyton Murphy

The Murphy family grew up singing in church, namely the Imboden church of Christ. They attribute their ability to harmonize to their A Capella upbringing.

“My favorite [songs are] when we all get to sing three-part harmony,” says Aaron, “We’ll sing it one way through and one of us might have trouble breaking into the three parts. We just stop and say, ‘Well, when we get to that point, you just sing the lead and I’ll drop down and sing the other part.’ Sometimes it’s just a matter of finding the right mix.”

“It takes a real man to sing tenor!” Peyton says while we all have a good laugh.

In fact, all of us in that room sing tenor quite often, so there were no disagreements there.

“We have considered making a CD recently,” remarks Peyton. “We have a banjo player that plays with us some, who is really good.”

“For the fun of it,” Aaron breaks in, “not to make a buck on it.”

They ultimately just want a record of what they’ve done and be able to pass that along in their family. In fact, they would love to involve more family into the mix.

“We’re trying to expand it a little,” says Aaron, “Ava (his daughter) sings with us some, Luke (one of his sons) would love to sing with us. We just haven’t found him the right song. I’m thinking about getting him a banjo…It would be neat to keep it going a bit.”

However long they keep it going, the Murphy Bluegrass Boys will continue to share their love of music with their family and anyone who’ll listen.

For further information and performance dates, follow the Murphy Bluegrass Boys on Facebook.

“Hey Fox!” he says while answering an incoming call to the radio station. We’ve had the same caller pocket-dialing us for 20 minutes.

“Hey Bo!” an actual voice over the phone replies, “Can you put something on the radio for me?”

The caller proceeds to give instruction on what he wants the afternoon personality to repeat on live radio. But Bo Dalton does it a bit differently.

“Can you put that on the radio?” the caller asks.

“You just did!” Bo says as he records the caller, edits the soundbite and makes it ready to playback during the next break.

Bo Dalton, the afternoon personality for The Fox 104.9 FM, a station of the Jonesboro Radio Group, likes to let his listeners take center stage on the air. And his ability to become the listener has given him an arsenal of stories and experiences that he freely shares. I’ve met Bo during the middle of his broadcast on a Friday evening. He’s getting wrapped up in the stories he’s telling me, but suddenly spins around in the chair, hits an assortment of buttons on the mixer board and effortlessly controls the faders while beginning to speak across the airwaves. After the break we have a good laugh, listening to another caller he previously recorded describing her road rage, and I ask him how he got started in the industry.

I was in drama…and I ended up doing the [PSA] for our high school senior drama play. I did it all over the phone. I still remember it.

He rambles off the quick spiel.

After they said my name, after it started running, people were like, ‘Hey man! I heard you on the radio!’ and I said, ‘I like this radio thing!’

Bo has a passion for working in radio. Right out of high school, he was in search of any job that would get him in the station. But he was quickly told, much to his dismay, that he needed to have a college degree to enter the field. So, off to school he went, in search of his dream job. It wasn’t easy though. He finally begged and pleaded enough to get a one-day-a-week gig at Real Country 104.9 in Fayetteville, 45 minutes away from his hometown of Siloam Springs. It wasn’t much, but it paved the way to moving up the ranks, transitioning into a full time job.

My first official full-time gig was a morning show sidekick that paid $400 a month. I was only supposed to be there during the morning show, and it would be four in the afternoon, and I’d be doing commercials.

One day my boss says, ‘What are you doing here?’

And I said, ‘Doing commercials.’

‘You’re not supposed to be getting commercials! I’m only paying you 100 dollars a week!’

I didn’t care. I was happy to be doing it. I was happy to be relied on and have my name requested. You can just tell if somebody has a passion for it or if they don’t. The people who have the passion for it don’t ask about the pay or about the hours, they just say, ‘Yeah! I’ll do it!’

That dedication has stayed with Bo since he started work in 1995. Over these 18 years, he’s embodied multiple personalities. If you knew Bo in his earlier years, you might have heard the name Craig Michaels, Wally or even Joe Nasty. Eventually, the name Bo Dalton stuck and has been his on-air pseudonym for 13 years.

Beyond his name, the music has changed a bit as well.

Music is a lot more crossover now. It’s no surprise for any song with the exception of George Strait or someone to cross over to The Mix (a pop station). At one time every station in the building except for one, we have 5 stations, was playing Kid Rock ‘All Summer Long’. The Eagle played it, The Mix played it, Hot 107.5 played it and The Fox played it…You’re not going to hear Nicki Minaj on the Fox, so it doesn’t cross over both ways, but Taylor Swift – she’s everywhere! You can’t hold her down. She’s going to be on every station practically.

I was in Texas a couple weeks ago, they’re big on Texas country, red dirt country – all of the stations play these songs. Even if you’re a country fan, you’re flipping through and you’re saying, ‘What is this? I don’t know this song…or this song…’ It’s all local Texas country artists. I think [with the Internet] you’ve got a lot more people who were not being discovered before, getting discovered. You have those YouTube artists that are starting to make a splash. It’s nothing for someone that has never been played on the radio to have sold albums. Radio doesn’t necessarily make and break every artist, but still, most of them that are charting are usually played on the radio. Even if you’re able to sell downloads without radio, you can ask any artist, you never have that feeling of respect or acceptance.

I was actually on a CMT special when I was in Greenville [SC]. It was called Kenny Chesney: Total Release. He was on the afternoon show with me and it was right when he got big and was selling out every show. I said, ‘You’re one of the only A artists that comes to radio stations.’ Alan Jackson, George Strait, they don’t really go to radio stations even in big markets. They just call in to do interviews. [Kenny] said he asked Randy Owen of Alabama one time, ‘Man, when can I stop doin’ all this radio stuff?’ And Randy said, ‘Well, that’s easy…when you want to stop selling records.’ That’s the reason he still comes in. He gets a bad rap, but he’s actually a pretty nice guy.

Even with the technology of music changing with satellite radio, iPods, Spotify, etc., radio still plays a large part of our aural culture. 

[Radio] is a good gig. People talk about how XM and satellite are going to kill us…well, it hasn’t killed us yet! Listenership is still where it needs to be. People still like local radio.

I have to admit, I don’t listen to local radio much. But I still see the magic of calling into a radio station and requesting songs, delivering local news and being connected to the community through music. The on-air personalities are the hub of that connection through stories and on-location remotes where the fans meet the voices behind the airwaves. They respond to total strangers that treat them as celebrities, friends and even family. When Bo moved from his morning show on The Mix to an afternoon slot on The Fox, my wife’s hour-long commute changed. To her it’s just not the same. She felt a connection with Bo as he delved into Hollywood gossip and moderated games of trivia. It’s like suddenly having a different passenger in the car. The same 30 songs may play on rotation for a week, but it’s the job of people like Bo to inject that element of surprise and novelty that keeps people tuning in day after day.

When not in the radio booth looking over Union street in Jonesboro, Bo continues to push himself personally.

I love doing stuff with the Foundation of the Arts, whether it’s on stage acting or behind the scenes helping with sound. I try to keep in shape, I like to run and I’m obsessed with pull-ups. I’ve got a 178 pound dog that keeps me pretty busy. His name is Big Ric, he is a Fila Brasileiro, the official dog of Brazil. He is affectionately known as ‘The Beast’.

Seriously…his dog is straight out of the movie “The Sandlot”…but I digress. 

Hopefully, I’m still cranking it out in radio in 5 years. I’ve been branching out a little more in to some acting stuff. Who knows, in 5 years, maybe I’m man #2 in a convenience store in Mark Wahlberg’s next film. (Call me buddy). Radio is still just as exciting to me as it was when I stood outside the door of that country station in Fayetteville, begging for a job 18 years ago.

You can catch Bo Dalton living his dream every afternoon from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on The Fox 104.9 FM.

An hour with my grandfather gathering wood for the furnace. Even with the rattling of the chainsaw, it was a peaceful moment.

Two thousand twelve was a good year. I finished a year-long photo project, bought a new camera, shared many laughs and worked worked worked. I was able to have a handful of senior sessions, a couple engagement shoots and documented my sister’s wedding. On the personal side of my passion for photography, I felt a gnawing sense of being unfulfilled. Yes, I was shooting a 365+1 series (a photo every day), but the images didn’t tell a story.

I love stories.

Stories are what get me up in the morning – fictional and true to life events that mold the essence of people, the world, my imagination. I’ve always been interested in what makes people tick. Why do they do what they do? That’s what drew me to advertising in the first place. But I want to reach beyond the commercial and the dollar bill. I’ll still be doing plenty of that for sure, but I want to take a look into people in different occupations, lifestyles and periods of their lives. I want to tell stories rather than just ingesting them. One of the series I will be pursuing is a look at faith. I hope to be inspired by these accounts as I delve into what fuels their belief in God and Jesus the Christ. I hope to be emboldened by their stories of redemption and struggle to overcome sin and its former hold on their life.

I also want to try my hand at fiction, setting up scenes for a character and creating a world and personality for them.

All of this in an exercise to fuel my love and hone my craft in photography as well as writing.

So for now, I’m paying less attention to what makes me money in photography and more attention to what strengthens me as a whole. I hope you’ll come along with me in this journey – and I will post more than I have in the past.

To start things off, I have put together just a small look into a shoot I had last summer with Tom & Hebron, two brothers that are starting a life of music – and the album cover they asked me to create.

More TK.

“Hey Matt…this is Tom Chester…we’ve recorded an album…we’re going to put it on
iTunes and get CDs made…we need an album cover…one that looks good…we trust you…”

When Tom told me that he and his brother Hebron were finalizing an album, I was intrigued.

When they asked me to do the album cover, I was interested.

When Tom brought the rough, unmastered songs and let me hear them, I was blown away – and all in.

It’s been two months since Tom and Hebron’s album Ridge Runner debuted on iTunes. I reached out to Tom with a quick interview on how he and Hebron got started and where they feel they are headed next:

M Walton: How did you and Hebron get started in recording an album?

T Chester: Hebron and I knew that if we were really going to pursue any opportunities in music, we would need to have an album to point to when someone showed interest.  An album, for a musician, is really the thing that validates them as a working artist.

MW: The first time you ever do anything, it’s a learning process and it takes time. How long did Ridge Runner take to produce?

TC: How should it have taken or how long did it end up taking?  Ha!  This was our learning album, and we made SO many mistakes in reaching the final product.  From start to finish, it took us a bit over a year to launch the thing.

MW: A year? Wow. So, I guess you had to support yourselves through this. What are you guys doing professionally besides the music bit?

TC: Other than music – which should be a full-time job – I teach at Bentonville High School, and Hebron is finishing up his senior year at the University of Arkansas.

MW: How do you feel about the launch?

TC: People who know us have been super supportive, and we’ve been very impressed and encouraged by that. The unique look (that you helped build for us) really caught people’s attention. That, plus the sound of the music, allowed us to build a fair amount of hype around it. BUT the album launch itself didn’t go without its glitches.  Because our distributor is on the east coast and iTunes is on the west coast, the time zones clashed and caused all of the pre-orders (which we had been pushing for in the month before the release) to be cancelled!  They tried to make it up to us, but it was frustrating, and added more obstacles in reaching the Billboard charts (which was our big goal).  The album ended up releasing two hours before it was supposed to, the pre-orders didn’t work, and some people were being charged twice.  It was something out of our control that didn’t fall into place for us.  In the end, as two unknowns with their first album, we did great.  That day, we made the Top Rock Album charts in the U.S. on iTunes and peaked around 122.

MW: So what kind of reactions have you seen because of the album?

TC: Everyone that has listened to the album has either loved it or acknowledged that there is potential in a musical future.  That’s really what we needed.  The oddest reactions?  People having us autograph albums and posters, seeing a couple of t-shirts (not made –or even known- by us) with our logo on it, and having pictures made “for when we’re famous”.  Haha!  I hope it pays off for them!

MW: That’s great! So, now that you’re finished with this body of work, what’s next?

TC: Tour – play everywhere we can and spread the news, get a firmer grip on media/music programs and equipment, build a larger online presence, and we are recording a second album!  And now we know what we’re doing!

Tom and Hebron definitely have the passion to drive them and they seem to learn quickly as well. Personally, I’m looking forward to hearing their next sonic endeavor and wish them the best of luck as they assemble their touring band and take their rock/funk/jazz/blues influence across the region, country and maybe one day, the world.

If you like music, you’ll find something to love about this album, and it’s hard to put them in one category. So, I’ll let you form your own opinion.

Check out their album here on iTunes!

###