Not only in Canada

I was kinda stuck on body copy for this when my good friend Laurie Shoulter Karall posted a poem within the comment section. I think I need say no more. Enjoy. I love the image and will add it to the stock offerings.

The Happy and Sad...

I hope you don't mind if I indulge myself a bit but three years ago today my Dad passed away and there's hardly a day goes by that I don't think about him. I thought maybe he was up there helping the Cubs out this year but I guess he doesn't have enough seniority yet.

Three months ago Emma was born and since then there's hardly been a moment gone by that she doesn't insist that we think about her.

It's with Mixed Emotions

It's getting to be that time of the year. I love the fall, the clean crisp air, the lower, warmer sun angle, it is however dampened by the unfortunate prospect of winter just around the corner. Don't get me wrong, I also love the first month of winter, the first snow and the fires in the fireplace that are nearly as welcome as the first sounds of the peepers in the spring. After the first of the year though, I am so done with the whole gray monochrome thing. There have been One Million Trillion (slightly less than the national debt) autumn color photographs taken, so I dare not try to compete with many of those. I'm not one to find much motivation in shooting the cliche image. If I put my camera to my eye and see the same shot that I've seen so many times before I'll back off and reconsider it or at least give some thought how to make it different. I will not dally though, because I rather just stand there and absorb the moment for future remembrances. I do however, have many many stock images taken for the season.

Did you know that the color of the leaves is there all summer only hidden by the chloralfill that dissipates in the fall? (or so I heard on NPR earlier this week)

Eyes and Hands and now Ribs

Several posts ago I ran a quick pick of Mike "Smokey" Emerson called the Godfather of Pork. Now that I've sorted through the remains, I found this image, which will probably become a PR picture for Pappy's Smokehouse. I rejected it originally because the rib didn't read very well but with a little tweaking, I think it works. I'm also helping him develop a Kosher BBQ sauce called, ...here it comes... Orthodox Juice for Pork.

http://www.pappyssmokehouse.com

Expanding the Neighborhood

Well, I've gone on about the neighborhood and my love of rural architecture, so now I range a bit out of the hood and find roughly simple architecture within a long stones throw of my studio. It has the same simplicity but with the time worn and weathered look that comes from an era of disrespect and ruin. I've been eying this location off and on for some time. By the same token, I've been dabbling in a technique called HDR. This may be the first time I've gotten close to it's full potential. As I look at the proof of this page, I can see it is another image that can only truly be appreciated at one hundred percent of the original file.

Shooozzz

Good Luck Katie

Hmmm.

When I visited my friend up north over this last week end, the first thing I noticed when I walked into his house was this GIZMO. I could see what it was but what a strange conglomeration for modern society. It struck me as almost pop art.

BTW, I hate those new bulbs. I truly believe that incandescent bulbs provide a warmth and romance that these weird looking replacements could only hope to duplicate.

King of Corn (not porn)

Over the past several years my Father In Law has asked me a number of times, 73,323 times to be exact, how many ears of corn are there on a stalk. I confessed that I didn't know but that I was pretty sure there had to be more than one. What a waste if each stalk only had one. Over the week-end I visited a friend in Ottawa Illinois and on the way back I decided to get the answer once and for all. Well, I'm here to tell you, most stalks, probably 99 per cent, only had one ear. I did find one that had two and it's the close up image. For the sake of art, the cropping kind of disguises the second ear but there it was, 2 ears on one stalk. Makes me wanna find out why there hasn't been more research done on growing more ears per stalk. The yield per acre could very easily triple. I ramble but I miss the days when I shot a lot more for an agency that specialized in AG products. I loved that work.

Godfather of Pork

Mike “Smokey” Emerson has become quite a celebrity of late. He and a small band of Apple and Cherry wood smoking aficionado's have started what may arguably be the best BBQ joint in the country and that's saying something considering the competition. Mike and his mates have traveled the pit contest circuit for a bit now and finally he's sharing his wares here in my own little neighborhood. I coaxed him into allowing me to do his portrait knowing he would never be able to show enough gratitude, and forcing me to take home beau coup amounts of ribs and brisket and pulled pork in hopes of somehow repaying me for my efforts. Seriously, the man has a great smiling face and it was my pleasure to shoot his image. If'in you're in the area, it's Pappy's Smokehouse near Saint Louis U... Pass the butt dude.http://www.pappyssmokehouse.com

Stop this ride, I wanna get off.

A couple of years ago we had to make a call on the Exchange and they weren't particularly thrilled about letting photographs be taken, so I shot a few frames without actually putting the camera up to my eye. It's something I've been doing for a while now and hopefully a source for another essay or even a book called "From the hip". I wanted to blur the image so that it might convey the frantic activity you could normally see on any given day at the Exchange. I think it works well and no one in the shot was single out, nor could you see the tears streaming down their faces. (smile) Yesterday's market caused me to dig into the archives for this very appropriate image.

Lest not we forget

The General and his Missus. I wish my memory of famous people were greater, for this wonderful woman reminds me of someone significant in world history. I'll keep them coming. Stay tuned.

Today in the Studio

"The General". Actually Lieutenant General Gill, who, at one time, was the second highest ranking officer in the Indian Army. The General is responsible in part for the procreation of my friend and landlord, Amrit Gill. When Amrit told me of his father a year or so ago, I was very impressed and anxious to meet him but I had no idea just how fascinated I would be. This is a face that photographers dream of shooting. There are many more images worthy of posting and I'll do that a bit later. Thank you General, for the opportunity to try and capture that spirit.

Goes without saying

The good news is, "Anyone can be elected President of the United Sates." The bad news is "Anyone can be elected President of the United States." Lewis Black

You're on

I'll bet Pete Rose gets inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, posthumously.

So take this

I must tell you that from time to time I'm chided by some that I seem to shoot only people who have reached an age where life's tolls have begun show in their faces. For the most part, that's true but it is that character that my camera craves. It's just ripe for the picking as they say. Now here for those skeptics out there, this is beauty and character without age. My young architect friend, Erin O'Brien, was on my list of people I wanted to photograph from the moment I was first introduced to her. Yet another project on my long list is to do an essay or book on freckles and this certainly would or will be a great start for that.

There it is again

It keeps surfacing... simplistic symmetry that's both clean and interesting. It's that rural theme pulling me back in. This image was captured on the way back from Indianapolis a couple years ago. There is not much I can say other than I'm drawn to it and I'm glad.

No roll in the hay

This is one of those rural images that I shot on the same day as the earlier post,"A roll in the hay". I am very found of this shot because it's how I pictured it in my mind as I was traveling out to shoot it. When I got back to the studio and started editing I found myself disappointed in the base image. I was briefly discouraged and set it aside for the time. Some months later I just had to take a second look at it, because I really loved the original concept and refused to let it die. I must tell you that while I use Photoshop everyday in my commercial work, I have this nagging ache inside me that won't let me totally rely on it's smoke and mirrors to make something out of a nothing capture. I would rather that my images come from my mind and heart and translate nicely through the camera and computer on their own. Maybe that's idealistic but today, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. As it turns out, I'm not the only one found of this image as it has become highly requested. Thank you for that.

I am pretty sure this was the cornerstone image to my Black and White Masters Portrait series.
I was working for Kodak then and I suspected that they were missing a huge corner of the market by not promoting the greyscale imaging opportunities that came with digital photography. I would guess that it never occurred to the marketing geniuses there, since they were so focused on color, color management and skin tones, all Kodak strong points. I saw the enormous potential and shot this demo featuring my good friend and world class shooter himself, Kevin O. Mooney. The process as to how I arrive at the final rendition has changed so dramatically since this was first shot. Nevertheless I think you'll find more and more shooters and artist realizing how dramatic black and white images from digital capture can truly be.

The Pulitzer

For those of you following this blog, you'll know that have several themes going. Portraits, the neighborhood, Black and White, rural landscape, architecture, etc. Well, this images covers several bases. Shot in the neighbor hood in infrared digital and converted to black and white, it may be as close to art as I can get. The building is, ironically, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, one of several significant museums slash galleries located within a couple of blocks of my studio. There are a lot of techniques mingled into this image and I find the merge works very well. Enough so that I may pursue a series from this.