Alice Cooper

[Aric C. Hoek]

I’m in a bit of a funk tonight as I have had a few very hard days back to back. Very hard days. The wine is flowing and I want to write. And write I will with a very heavy buzz.

Please continue if you want a story of photography and you do not care about misspellings and the ramblings of a drunk artist. Here are some random thoughts of a photographer.

It was 1994, an April morning in Arizona around 6:45 am. I was born in 1969. The sun was rising. Silence. Soft light. No dew on the grass as I was in Phoenix. The desert. I was on a golf course photographing for Bill Flowers. Bill is dead now from a massive heart attack. He had a family run studio with his daughter and wife and about 14 employees, of which I was one. He was a photographer all of his life.

Bill’s studio handled a huge percentage of the school and little league sports in Phoenix, so it was kind of nice to be standing on the tee box of the first hole of this golf course. The early morning didn’t bother me at all. It was peaceful.

The first few people came up to the tee box and started their game. I have no idea if it was a charity event or not. I didn’t care. I was assigned to get a photograph of each person just before hitting their first drive of the day.

It was about the 20th person to the tee, and Alice Cooper came to the tee box. I was kind of taken aback. Here was Alice Cooper, in the range finder of my camera, getting ready to tee off. His shot was fantastic. A perfect drive. A very very long drive. I could tell that he was a very experienced golfer. No doubt. This was a man that played golf every day. He hit and moved on. No expressions of glory. It was just another drive in a long line of golf swings.

The reason all this came to thoughts tonight is because of this. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=10231271

That being said, I want to talk about Bill Flowers. I hope that you like this story, as it is true, and you may be living it right now.

In 1993 I graduated from NAU with a BFA and a minor in Business. I moved to phoenix with a few of my fraternity brothers. Safety in numbers kind of thing. My bedroom was about the size of my present closet.

I went through the yellow pages and came across Bill Flowers Photography. I applied for a position and got the job. I had no idea what it entailed, but I was very happy to have it. I didn’t know it, but I was about to start paying my dues in the photographic industry.

It turns out that Bill was the largest school./ little league sports photographer in Phoenix. He was the man. I’m not kidding. The education I received in the first week alone made me feel that my years of higher education had been wasted. I still have the notes I took during this time. Always take paper notes.

All of his photographers would show up to the studio at about 5 am. From there we would collect equipment and pile into one of three vans. They were touring vans with the back bed torn out to make space for the equipment. Each van would travel to a different school.

Once at the school, the three photographers in each van would pile out and unload equipment into the school’s library. We had a background, four lights, a camera, and a roll of tape.

We had a main light, fill, hair, and background light all set up iin front of a canvas backdrop. The backdrop did not contain a scene, but more of a Rembrandt sky scene. The tape would mark where the subjects feet would be placed. “Sit down, place your feet on the tape, look right here, smile…. Next.”

As soon as we were set up, a line of young children would appear, and each had a check. Bill required the pre purchase of a package before the image was even created. Bill was a business man. His was a cash business and it was huge.

At about 11 am each day each crew had photographed about 1000 children. We would then meet up for lunch. We meet where ever Bill felt like. Once lunch was over, we would all get back into out vans and go out to photograph another school in the afternoon. Often he would pull out a big wad of cash, give us each a large tip and pay for our lunch. You could tell he took great pleasure in this.

The second school would finish about 5pm and we would head back to the studio to turn in our equipment and more important all of the orders with the money. This would happen tree days out of every week.

I left Bill after I learned he had been making passes at the woman I was dating, who was also an employee of his studio.

From there I went to work for Jim Duke. It is very important to not ethat many of the people I worked with while I was there are till there today…. But that is another strory.

I think this is a good place to stop for the evening…. I need to go to bed. I am taking my kids to the zoo for the first time tomorrow. No work.

I am sure that I may revisit this post early tomorrow only to edit it in a fruitless effort to save face from drining to much wine....... again.

[Dobick]

Doesn't seem to be too much need to try to save face. I think it is somewhat healthy to dig into the past and commit some of that history to written word.

I look forward to reading the rest of this story.

[CaptainTom]

We at TPF are proud of the "family friendly" atmosphere that pervades our forum. What better way to get to know the other family members, than to sit down and talk about life, pasts, futures, etc. Since we are geographically challenged, this media is our outlet.

Keep 'em coming, and don't worry about being embarrased, etc.

[Tawny]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

dido... but what happened? Is there more? Am I that dingy or did you leave it half finished?

[MarcoFromHouston]

Hmmmm....... Methinks the Almighty Digital Prophet has some competition!

There's a new sheriff in town, and his name is Aric!

[TXhummer2]

Aric, the Historian

[bodynmotion]

Need more story !!!!!! It is like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I am still waiting.

[MarcoFromHouston]

Originally Posted by bodynmotion

It is like the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

with less walking!

[Allen]

Alice Cooper was the first concert I ever saw as a teen in the 70's. I really didn't care much about him then or now...it was just a concert at the Kentucky State Fair and we didn't have anything better to do so it was kind of cool. My hearing hasn't been the same since.