The landscape crew at the doctor’s office – Part of The American Scene Project
Man with feather in his cap portrait
March 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Man with feather in his cap
I don’t visit Hoover Dam often during the winter. It’s too stark and void of people.
As the weather begins to change in early spring there is a hint of color along the eastern shoreline as flower buds and leaves appear in the treeline. The grey monotone of winter begins its slow evolution to the bright colored tones of spring. And, people arrive.
One of the earliest arrivals stood for me at the center of the dam for several minutes. I’d told him that I wanted a photo of him with his hat, the red shirt, his beard, and cigarette.
40 Days of Lent – Day 7
February 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The first week of Lent was challenging. For all the right reasons.
There are a few common themes that run through my work and they are all central to this project.
The view
First is the small sphere, confined space, narrow view perspective where location becomes what most photographers would consider a prohibitively confining rule. Just as I did in the Rock at Inniswood series, I’ve confined myself to a specific location.
Photos for 40 Days of Lent must be taken at St. Paul Catholic Church. It is possible to shoot this project in a larger space such as all churches in the city or how people use lent for introspective explorations of their lives, or how chocolate retailers have lower revenue, or how crazy parties it gets on feast days during Lent. Any one of these are great projects and certainly worthy of considering.
My preference is to revisit a familiar space to see how it changes. In this case the variables of change are few.
Read more about the light, tools, people, and sketchbook of this project
Stations of the Cross
There’s not a lot to say about this photo from the 40 Days of Lent series. It could be sharper but this corner is not as bright as it looks.
Hipstamatic tintype explorations
February 2, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I was able to combine a “good thing that happened to me today” photo with the continuing exploration of how best to shoot with the Hipstamatic Tintype Film Pak.
Saturday night is music night at Java Central where a variety of artists perform for what is usually a relatively small crowd. Tonight was no different with a duo playing to less then 20 people cradling coffee in their hands on a cold night.
Before the set began i pulled away the singer for a few moments where I promised to spend little time and with a few distractions to shoot a tintype photo on my iPhone. With some reluctance she agreed with the above results.
There was little light coming through the windows aggravating the setup and making it difficult to get a crisp image. well, as crisp as an iPhone 3Gs shooting with an app the is designed to soften parts of the resulting photo.
High school sophomore’s street portrait
February 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment
A high school sophomore, walking home with a classmate, stopped long enough for me to shoot a series of photos of her and her vibrantly colored clothes. It’s unlikely I would have stopped either student if she hadn’t been covered in such a variety of colors, shapes, and styles. From a school leather letter jacket to the fuzzy-topped boots, she was an obvious street portrait subject. I moved her into the open shadow space near a doorway so the plain background didn’t interfere with the collection of colors and shapes covering her.
Also shot her with the Hipstamatic Tintype Film Pak for a different view. They are after the jump.
Added some of the photos to The American Scene Project.
IPTC, EXIF and your photo archive
January 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment
You’d like John. He’s an actor, handsome, articulate, and makes a fine photo subject.
You might like him so much you’d want to use this photo I have on Flickr to illustrate a story in your magazine about the struggles of actors searching for meaningful work.
What’s the best way to know exactly who owns the photo and its copyright? Using the photo’s flickr page isn’t necessarily the most accurate or efficient way to know who owns a photo. Although all of my images say Rights Reserved, many photos on Flickr don’t belong to the people who’ve posted them. Sometimes the photos show on other sites using Flickr’s API to pull photos from its feed. [Read more...]
Natural light portrait
December 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
This is Mark standing at the bed of his truck parked in the open doorway of the barn where he stores hay and farm equipment.
I usually don’t get to see him this time of year. The harvest is complete. Most of the hay was moved into other barns and farm equipment moved inside to hide it from winter’s harsh treatment. It’s rare when he visits the barn on the suburban plat of land he leases miles from his home. Today he spent about 20 minutes cleaning his truck of debris, detritus, and remains deposited from the summer crops.
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