I found a great spot right on the Kern River and setup camp. The river was running at pretty much full flow, so it was great to listen to the water all night. I was about 8 miles North of Kernville.

A shot of the clouds… If you look closely (and maybe use your imagination), the cloud looks kinda like a bird (maybe a falcon) flying with his wings spread.

What is it about summer nights?

I wasn’t going to shoot any HDR, but I did on this, and I’m kinda glad. This is a shot to the north at sunset.

A shot of my little camp stove making my ‘world-famous black bean chili’ Mmmmm… Kern River in background

Canyon Cars – a long exposure of a car driving up the canyon

Canyon Stars – A long exposure to the north of the campsite as the night sky starts to fill with stars dusk drifts away to the west.

Polaris – I’ve always wanted to do a long exposure of the North Star. Even though this wasn’t perfectly centered, it’s still pretty cool. What’s really amazing is to look at it full-size and see how many stars are behind the stars.

A nice little random barn on the side of the road on my drive home… Probably somewhere between Porterville and Bakersfield.

Originally uploaded by michaeltucker.

This is a collection of my favorite photos of my trip to Iraq and a little description about what they are. Enjoy!

Window to Iraq – Photogragh at JSS Apache from the roof. This is the closest we got to seeing the streets of Iraq.

This is from JVB Victory, a palace built for Saddham’s daughter’s wedding… then he executed her husband after. The second pic is Jason hitting golf balls w/ the main Palace in the background

Also from JSS Apache, a reminder that it’s still an active war zone.

You can’t help but getting giddy every time you get in a blackhawk, plenty of photo ops!

So much to ponder on as you fly over the country and look at the living conditions the Iraqi people have endured.

And sometimes, you take every opportunity possible to sleep.

I assumed Iraq was one giant piece of desert, but far from it. There were a lot of lakes & rivers, and a lot of agriculture.

That’s the Tigress River in the second photo. The third is a very common view of the towns. Everything is built out of sand.

At FOB Caldwell, we were inside an Iraqi Army military base. In this photo, the IA is training… still a long ways to go, but they’re making progress.

One of my personal faves, this is an MRAP vehicle (mine-repellent, armor protected) that they are replacing the hummers with. We got a chance to take them for a spin when we were in Balad.

Alec stage-diving after the show at FOB Caldwell

Show at the Special Ops camp at Camp Speicher

At Al Taqqaddum (TQ)… this photo is a pic of one of the original ATC towers from the old regime. There’s is a cafe on the top that overlooks the airfiled at TQ and Ramadi. Soldiers, airmen, and marines go here to drink some ‘near-beer’ (Iraq is completely alcohol-free) and watch the activity.

A photo of me standing next to one of the few remaining shrines to Saddham.

On the base at TQ, there was a little hookah bar. I loved the colors of the sky, then I got busted for sneaking around the base w/o our escort taking photos.

Lastly, our sleeping quarters. They’re called CHU’s (containerized housing units). Its basically a bed or two, a cabinet, and an air conditioner. You have to walk about 100 yards to the latrines and showers.

Another fave, this is the F-16s on the ready. They can be airborne within minutes of getting a call.

Inside the C130 on the way back to Kuwait. The crew let Jason and I sit in the cockput for take-off and actually let me take the controls in the pilot seat for a few minutes as we flew over Baghdad.

This is a sunset of Salt Lake City on the way back to LA. I know it’s not a great photo, but I love it.

Originally uploaded by michaeltucker.


Read more about my trip here: Blog
You can also view these photos plus many more in my photo essay

DAY 1
We arrived in Iraq today. Wow, wow, wow!

So far, here’s what happened:

Arrived in Kuwait around 6pm on the 23rd after a 25 hour flight from Minneapolis, Amsterdam, then Kuwait. All of our luggage made it, which was a concern. Last trip it took 5 days for the guys’ luggage to show up. We slept pretty hard that night and got up at 0400. We traveled to a desolate base about 40 miles from the Iraq border and played the first show in the worst sandstorm anyone has ever seen. You could feel the sand in your teeth, shoes, and of course, our gear was covered. Got back to Camp Arifjan around 2300, back up at 0400 on the 24th to travel to Ali Al Salem Air Base

After a 4 hour wait, finally got to the C17 Globemaster for our flight to BIAP (Baghdad International Airport)… about a 45 minute flight. We did a combat landing, which means we drop from 18,000 feet to landing configuration in about 30 seconds… no warning, just straight down!

Arrived at JVB Camp Victory (one of Saddahm’s former Palaces where we will stay for the next couple of nights. We had time to drop our personal gear, load the track and head to the LZ (landing zone) to load the two Blackhawks and take our first flight to JSS Apache, a small security base in downtown Baghdad. JSS is a Joint Security Station, so 50/50 American & Iraqi forces that do sector patrols through the neighborhoods.

The band setup for the show, then we realized we forgot the bag with the microphones. We had about 4 hours to burn off, so we tried to mobilize another set of Blackhawks to take me and Chris back to pickup the bag (Blackhawks always travel in two). No luck. The base mobilized a convoy to bring some mics to us from one of the other bases. We spent some time talking to the soldiers, then they headed out. I’ll tell you the next part of the story later, but all is OK. We returned to the LZ, flew blackhawks back to JVB and got in around 2300.

Jason and I are busy as ever offloading footage and trying to keep up, but we’re really happy so far with how the show is going. Tomorrow, to more small bases.

That’s all I got for now, I’m exhausted, dirty and having an absolute blast!

Talk soon!

DAYS 4-7
I have no idea of day’s of week anymore, so I’m just going with Days. Easy to lose track of time, everything is like life in fast forward, rewind, start over…

Day 4 – Band played two shows today. JSS SUJ and JSS Tamiryah. SUJ is a Hummer redeployment base, meaning that they fix ‘em when their broke. We did a tour of the base, ate, then played. Chow (lunch) was hard bread and ham/cheese served out of military grade coolers. Horrible. Show went well, although it’s definitely hard for some of the soldiers to flip the switch and relax, understandably. After the show, we jumped on the Blackhawk and flew to Tamiryah. We had to carry our gear about 1/4 of a mile from the LZ to the ’stage’ through a winding maze of temporary shacks over a plywood walkway (about 1200 pounds of stuff in just over 30 bags). Dinner was good, they pulled out all the stops for us… brisket, mac & cheese, and Reese’s Pieces. Show was the best we had so far. Even though there was only about 70 soldiers, they really let loose and had a good time. Moshing, Crowd Surfing, Troops up on stage singing and playing along. Cool! Show was over at 8pm and our birds couldn’t come in until 11p because of ‘activity’ in the area (lots of it), so we waited and waited… The only place we could sit was on the ground of the stage, and it was pretty cold. Desert nights…. By the time we got back to JVB Hotel, a palace Saddam built for his daughter’s wedding (then killed the husband shortly thereafter), we were completely wiped. Wheels up tomorrow at 0600, so no sleep again. A reoccurring theme.

Day 5 – Travel/Rest Day to Balad, a mostly air force base about 1 hr some direction from Baghdad. We arrived, unloaded the bird, then went to check in. We have our own rooms w/ plumbing indoors! We are staying in Chu’s (I assume this means contained housing unit) basically a small mobile home. Balad is massive, probably around 15k total Soldiers and Airman. More eating, interviews w/ the band, then much needed sleep.

Day 6 – Today was cool… we toured the MRAPs (Mine Repelling Armor Proteced) Vehicles. Pretty much the new Hummer, but way cooler. The team was from Texarkana, so I heard some people that speak my language being. Then we toured the Predator UAV, including getting to see a take-off from the control room and an upclose look in the hangar. Time for lunch… lots and lots of food, and everything from Gyros to Lobster Tail. Did I mention unlimited Baskin Robbins Ice Cream at every base? Not gonna lose wait over here. After lunch, we got to take a tour of the F16s and meet the pilots and flight mechanics. Tonight, we played a show to about 60 people (small turnout) but the crowd was great. After the show back to offload footage, sleep and get up at 0540 for our flight to FOB Stryker.

Day 7 – Met up at 0630 for our flight, but as soon as I lugged all of my stuff out, we were told that we were grounded because of weather (sandstorms again), next attempt was at 1200, so I thought it would be nice to catch up on sleep, but I couldn’t. Tried to check email but the internet is so slow it’s impossible to even get to Gmail. 1200, we got the news… no birds flying in/out of Stryker today. I guess we get another day off, which sounds nice in theory, but it’s really not. Not a lot to do on base w/ limited access, plus I’m here to make a show, not to sit around. Everyone is kinda bummed we’re missing two shows today. Hope it clears up by tomorrow! We’re off to go play football right now…

Talk soon. More Later…

DAY 8
Iraq – Day 8 (depending on who you ask)

Today we’re at a small FOB near the Iranian border. The Blackhawk flight barely made it in before the next sandstorm… a bad one. We got to go out in the Striker Vehicle and shot lots of cool guns, including the 50 Caliber vehicle-mounted gun and a few automatics. I nailed a water bottle from a pretty good distance. I was told that I shot better than most people in the Army. Sweet! The show tonight was for about 200 soldiers. They had a stage built just for the band, which was pretty cool. It rained pretty hard. Kinda weird to see rain after a sandstorm in the desert. We have 9 people crammed into small room and a few of us are sleeping on cots, so should be a rough night. Tomorrow, up at 0600 for our next movement… 4 days left.

DAY 9
Slept in, 0700. Had to sleep on a cot last night, but luckily I had my sleeping bag but the beds didn’t have blankets (just a nasty mattress) so I might have been better off than the other guys. We loaded the truck and headed to the LZ for Speicher in central Iraq. We arrived, dropped the gear off at the deck of the special forces base. After that, we went to a place called Freedom Rest, that is where soldiers & airmen go for a 4 day R&R trip. It’s the closest thing you can imagine to a 5-star hotel… room service, pool, hot tubs, and just about every amenity you could want. Not at all the tents and cots I was expecting. We went to the Apache simulator, although not all of us had enough time to fly (sad) but was still cool to see. The Special Forces barbecued for us then played the show. Band sounded the best they have tonight. Tomorrow we get up at 0500 to take the V-22 Osprey’s to a Marine base. Two more shows, Kuwait, Minneapolis then home…

Here’s a few shots from trip over Thanksgiving to Big Bear.

Originally uploaded by michaeltucker.

Some of my favorite non-people shots from my trip… Apparently this should be titled ‘Shots of Trees in Texas’

Probably my favorite shot I’ve taken in a long time. No processing at all, which is huge for me. Something about simple majesty.

A sunset from the point at Glen Eden on Lake Texoma.

I like the contrast in colors… gotta love Red Mud!

A slightly more processed HDR version of the distant tree. The sky was beautiful this day.

Every July 4th for the last couple of years I’ve made my way back home (well, Lake Texoma, which is kinda home now, to celebrate the holiday with my family. This year was one of my favorite’s so far. I got to see Mom & Dad, my brother Brady, his wife Camey, and their two children Hailey and Hunter (commonly known as the H’s), my sister Kelsey and her boyfriend Zivi, as well as Kelsey’s friends, Hayley and Adam, long-time family friend Gary, my Uncle Mike, Aunt Donna, their children (my cousins) Sarah and Matt, and all the various lake peeps. We spent a lot of time eating food (as always), wakeboarding, sailing (I ‘learned’ how to sail!), shooting off fireworks, and doing some general hanging out (which may have been the best part). Here’s a few pics…

Some fireworks… I was shooting them off, so I didn’t get to take many pics.

Brady (Dew-in-hand) taking some extreme close-ups of hummingbirds. Kelsey & Zivi came to see the action.

Brady and children ‘posing’ for the camera.

Kelsey and Hailey at Glen Eden

From left to right… Hailey making her decision on Fireworks, Matt & Sarah, and Zivi, Hailey & Kelsey.

This is pretty much how Kelsey looks all the time.

I like this because of the stars in the background.

We’re Tuckers… we eat… lots.

Zivi staring off into the sunset… wonder what he’s thinking about?

Originally uploaded by michaeltucker.

For a long time I thought that things happened to me because of some strange pattern of getting put into certain situations that all had common themes. I think that now, I’m starting to realize that I create and perpetuate these events, both by my inherent personality and through my actions (or sometimes lack thereof).

I’m also starting to learn that I have to be better at vocalizing what I want. There have been a few separate instances recently where I assumed people would be able to read my mind, or think the way that I think… and ultimately, do what I wanted them to do. Alas, it doesn’t work like that.

I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might
forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying
to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even
fought. The field reveals to a man his own folly and despair, and victory
is an illusion of philosophers and fools.

~William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury

Went to the Kern River (about an hour North of Bakersfield). We camped for a few days, and Hit some class 2,3 & 4 Rapids down the Kern River in peak season. Unfortunately, no shots from the rafting.

A time-lapse shot of our campfire

A couple of shots from around my birthday.