Happy Leap Year

Just got back from a shoot in Wisconsin. Yes, I know it's February. The shoot was a corporate gig, on location headshots of execs. Good job, great people, but unfortunately didn't have an opportunity to shoot anything creative on my own that I would share here.

I will however share something I bookmarked long ago and just this morning re-read. It's a bit long but definitely worth skimming through. I think it's brilliant and can relate to many points outlined. GapingVoid: How to be Creative

For me personally, February is the toughest month to keep the creative fire burning. I am ready for Spring, everything is fresh and reborn, anything is possible. I am the caterpillar, transmorphing in the chrysalis ready to emerge as a thing of wonder and beauty.

Happy Leap Year!

Postcard from this week . . .

Taking the Lensbaby for a stroll

Yesterday Val decided we should do something. It was afterall in the mid 50's so we loaded up the truck and headed to Baltimore for a nice family walk around the Inner Harbor. Ordinarily I would bring a Leica for such excursions but for me nowadays film is a hassle. I have a box accross the room with unprocessed rolls of 35mm and 120 crying out to be processed and scanned. My middle son Jay is in a wheelchair so it's a little tough pushing that, lugging a bag full of heavy Canon L Lenses, and enjoying myself.

S0, I just brought a Canon 5D with a Lensbaby . If you don't know what a Lensbaby is check the link, you might like it. Yes, I know the effect is overdone and all that but I never claimed to be above cheap gimmickery to force my art upon the masses. And besides, I like the effect. Sometimes it's good to change your perspective a bit and view the world through a different lens. Here are a few images from yesterday. BTW- other than passing through Lightroom, a sepia effect on a few, these are basically straight from the camera, no additional trickery.

We had such good times together

Polaroid quits the instant film business.

Even though I haven't actually used Polaroid film in years it's sad to hear this news. Some of my earliest memories are of pulling Polaroids apart and seeing instant photos. It was like magic, my first real exposure to photography. Up until just a few years ago I would go through boxes of 645 (? I forget the film type now) on shoots. I went through a phase in the 80's of doing image transfer onto watercolor paper and loved it. Anyone remember that trend? I also went through another phase of taking the sx-70 type film, squishing and moving the emulsion around with a little spoon or something while the image processed. I did that alot, it was great fun, But, like most things I do, I over did it, then tired of it.

Here are a few old images with the sx-70 type film I fooled around with while on a shoot in the Greek Islands in 93 (?). I have stacks of these somewhere, these are just a few I could find and scan quickly.

An old photographers joke: What do Eskimos get from sitting on the ice to long?
- Polaroids.

Off the Grid

I am surrounded by huge towering massive trees. Sometimes one comes down. Like a killer extinction event asteroid, it's inevitable, you know it's going to happen, you just never know when or where.

Sunday with all the high winds a super massive tree came down in our backyard. Actually two, the super massive tree brought down another tree, but just a really big one. Along with the second tree came our power, internet, and phone lines.

Being without power or communication for two days eliminated about 94% of the things I do on a daily basis. It makes you appreciate how good we have it. Also it reminds you that people actually Lived and Walked the Earth long before there were things like phones, internet, furnaces, refrigerators, stoves, coffee makers, TV's, lights, electric guitars, hot water, microwaves, margarita makers, ect.

Postcard from this Week . . .

Change

Everyone is talking about Change. Change is good. I like change. In fact every few years I get the urge to change my work and direction. This is a good thing, for me at least.

I'm in one of those transmorphic phases now. I'm creating a new LiveBooks Website and am having a little trouble deciding on images to include. I put images up and take most of them down, seeing them as the past. I'm still deciding what I want to be when I grow up. I always used to say, "If you don't know where you're going you'll sure as hell get there". Well, I know where I want to go it's just sometimes I change paths. I'm kind of travelling along the winding country road through life. I have the destination, I'm just taking the scenic route.

It can be hard to reinvent yourself and market your work in a new direction. Also to let go of previous work and the income it provides. But change is good and is what makes you wake up with a smile. I see the future as bright and shiny.

I haven't shot anything this week because I've been obsessing over this LiveBooks site and what images to include. I've really only just now finished the Things section. The other two sections I'm not thrilled with and will change, and come to think of will probably change some of the Things gallery I just completed. In going through various groups of past images I have actually found several forgotten about images I like. Here's a few:

Recent Feature

Digital Railroad included a recent feature on some of my work.
Here's the Link

Details: Part Deux

With regards to the project mentioned on the previous post. The client's feedback on image selection was that some images provided would be suitable. But, more images were needed specific to to Leesburg, VA in order to complete this project. When I get these projects I want the entire project to consist of my images. Considering the size of this project, and that I knew any additional new images created would have future value, I decided on Friday to drive out to Leesburg and see what I could come up with just for fun.

I basically shot from 11am-2pm. It was a beautiful day but incredibly fridgely cold, like 12 degrees. A little tough for me to get the old creative juices flowing when my brain is frozen solid but I tried. Here's a few I like. If interested you can view a gallery of many more images here: Leesburg Gallery. It was worth the effort, many of these images will generate imcome in the future.

Postcard

My Postcard from this week

Don't forget the Details

Prepared some images over the weekend to include in a gallery for a new project. Another hotel guestroom/public space decor project. For part of this project the client is requesting architectural detail images of something that might be considered "Main Street USA".

I get a lot of requests for architectural detail images for these types of projects. Requests that include details of many cities, whether it's DC, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, or Dulles or Leesburg, VA. But as importantly, images that could be perceived as the architectural style of those cities. I did a project a little while ago providing all the images for a hotel in Portsmouth, NH. All the images selected by the agency were images I shot in an afternoon in Baltimore. But, they were detail shots from aboard the US Constitution of ropes and pulleys and nautical type thingys. In fact the images from that same group went on to furnish all guestrooms and public space for the Marriott Baltimore Harbor. You can see pages of some of those images starting here in this Maryland Gallery.

So don't forget to shoot the details. I love doing it and it is fun. Having groups of architectural detail images is like having money in the bank. Isn't it a wonderful world we live in that you can create images and instantly market them worldwide!

Here are a few of the images from one group I shared with my client for their presentation regarding this project.
I have something like a million of these:

Wherever You are Be There

Just licensed this top image of Georgetown for use in a commercial real estate brochure.

I structure my entire life around not being involved in rush hour traffic. So, it would take an incredible force of nature to have me drive to the corner of Wisconsin and M on a Friday at 5pm. But, as it happens, I was down there on a shoot and afterwards decided to take advantage of the beautiful evening and where I was.

It was a perfect evening and I was able to get lots of great images in a short period of time. You can see more spread out through my Misc DC gallery if interested. The second shot is from the opposite side up Wisconsin. That's how I have produced so many of the images in my Washington DC Stock collection, just being there. Wherever You Are Be There.

Got Passion?

Just read what I thought was a great post by Ed McCulloch over at The Business of Photography regarding passion.

Can you imagine how different the world would be if everyone pursued their passion in life?

Would your experiences from day to day change?

Would the cashier at your local grocery store give you attitude? What about your auto repairman, would he be running an honest company based on integrity and morals? And what about your accountant, are they doing it for the money or because they love working with numbers?

When you run across people who really love what they do it’s extremely evident. They have enthusiasm and they’re full of life, they offer valuable opinions and help steer you down the right path. There’s a whole lot to be learned from people who pursue their passion in life.

More of Everything

I am constantly creating images. Either making new ones or working on existing material. I shoot so much for myself that I am literally overwhelmed with the amount of material I generate. I realize quanitity does not equal quality and don't fool myself into thinking everything I produce is so wonderfully fantastic. That's not the point for me. For me it's the drive to be creative and productive. My mind is always whirling, for me this is a good thing.

I just this morning was cleaning off my desktop of misc folders and came accross a folder of images I had forgotten about. A few weeks back I woke up to a beautiful foggy morning. Decided to take a walk and see what I could see. I ended up with a whole bunch of wonderful images. Many that I am really happy with and would have otherwise never seen had I not decided to go for a walk. I'll include one here, this is the first image I took, basically the view from my office window. The other image is the post card I sent out that day.
Another example of how I fall behind in getting images out. I just this week got around to preparing and uploading to my stock site a group of images I shot one weekend in late October. I made a mini gallery of this new group to share with a client regarding a potential new project. All of these shot over a long weekend at Deep Creek Lake before 9am.

The gallery includes some images from the previous post.
Click past those, 170 or so images in this gallery.

See gallery here:
New Deep Creek Lake Images

Working a New Project

I'm providing images to a client for a big juicy hotel decor project. When typically providing images for a project the client will select images from my stock site and present to client. For this project the client needed something "different", "abstract", and "regional" of this rural area. These were my only instructions, beyond that the client (my client's client) didn't know what they wanted until they saw it. This is a good client for me, they have provided me with many good projects. The size of this project is such that I don't mind some extra effort. For an initial round of images I took some recent images I like, added some textures using various blending modes in Photoshop. Tried to take some "regional" images and do something "different" and maybe even get "abstract". I provided the client with 20 or so comps to see what direction this takes. We'll see where it goes but I like the results so far, whether anyone else does is a different matter. But, I'm glad fiddled around with these. It filled my head with some new ideas. I like the effect of adding the textures and shall continue to experiment. The only problem is that I tend to take a good idea then beat it to death. I must show restraint but restraint was never one of my strong suits. Here are a few of the comps I like.

Time of Day

Our family has a house at Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland. Whenever I am there I get up everyday before sunrise and head out aimlessly in different directions to take photos. It is so easy up there to make good images, there's another beautiful scene around every corner. But, it's all about Time of Day. To illustrate here are two images I recently shot of basically the same scene but literally 25 minutes apart. 10 minutes after the second image the ground fog was gone. I have lots of little favourite spots up there and this is one. These were taken just off Sand Flat Road right near the Shawnee Trading Post. You can see many more similar images in my Scenic Maryland Gallery .

First Post

For about four years now I have been sending out e-mail "Postcards" once a week or so to just about everyone I know. This list consists of friends, family, clients, and others that I have met around the world. Basically my little postcards are small images of where I've been that week or from a project I am working on. Many are just my observations of the world around me as I Walk the Earth. I truly enjoy sharing my work with others and sharing my work further motivates me to constantly create.

This Blog is just an extension of my desire to share my work and to constantly remain creative and productive.

Just to get this going and fill some space I'll go back and pull a few past Postcards and post here. I have hundreds so it's hard to just choose a few but I'll pick a few I like: