Home for the Holiday

Not having a pet of my own, I don't get to partake in the guilty pleasure and phenomenon that is "pet photography", made popular in recent years by camera phones and affordable point and shoot digital cameras. But spending the holiday with the family gives me time to photograph their two overgrown golden retrievers, Abbey and Libby, and see what all the fuss is about.



Although Libby (the one in the front) was thrilled to be in front of the lens and did what she could to keep it that way, Abbey was a little more camera shy. Luckily, Libby left momentarily to investigate a sound she thought she heard and gave me a second to get this shot of Abbey:

More Reflections

Just added one of my favorite images to the "Reflections" gallery on the website...



The flimsy quality of the mylar bends, blurs, and reflects back upon itself, creating multiple reflections and visual chaos. They can be so chaotic that it would be impossible to replicate a particular distortion. They can also be so transient that it only lasts for a fraction of a second, making it extremely difficult to really see the reflection and everything that's happening in it. Photographing them becomes very intuitive- I have to respond to something in front of me without even completely seeing it. Often times looking at the images after a shoot is the first time I actually get to see them.

Baltimore Magazine, December 2007

If you pick up a copy of this month's Baltimore Magazine, feel free to skip to the good parts. There's a photograph I did for the "Upfront" feature of Mt. Vernon on page 73, and a portrait of local ambitious business owner Larian Finney on page 114. And if you don't live in Baltimore, just scroll down:

I'm thrilled with this shot of Mt. Vernon. The sun had just gone down and there was this weird purple tint on the horizon that the long exposure really emphasized.



For the shot of Finney, I used strobes to light him on the street outside of his office building. I love how he stands out so much from his surroundings and the available light around him.



And be sure to check out next month's issue to see photos I did of Bill Stevenson, local tattoo hero, and several images I shot for an article they're running on the various arts districts here in B-more!

Reflections in Mylar

For the past couple years, I've been experimenting with photographing reflections of figures and faces in mylar. I love the misty, translucent quality of the mylar, and how it dulls the the color and makes the reflections even more surreal. This is from a press release from a recent show of some of the images:

“It is important for me to find these distorted forms, to experience
the discovery of them and their amorphous, dreamlike nature. I
could never create them using digital or darkroom manipulation.
The peculiarity of the distortion through the mylar is far more
bizarre than anything I could consciously conjure”.

To download the full press release, CLICK HERE

To see more images from this series, CLICK HERE

Notes on notes

Can't get enough of these internet radio sites. Click 'em to check 'em out:



Pandora is AMAZING. You can tell it what you want to hear (an artist or song) and it creates a station that plays songs that are similar to what you picked. And if you don't like something, you can give it a thumbs down and it's out.



WOXY.com is a little more like traditional radio, except on the internet. You download a streaming file that you can tune in to through iTunes, Winamp, or Windows Media Player. They've got d.j.'s, a blog, and the works. And they regularly take requests via e-mail, which is great fun.

They're both great for taking a break from the usual playlists and finding new music....

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a great time for carving pumpkins, eating candy 'till your teeth rot, and photographing your roommate as he and his girlfriend get ready to go out dancing in elaborate and horrifying costumes. This year, my roommate went as Dr. Frank-N-Furter from the film "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".

Most of the shots of him will have to serve as potential black mail (let's just say they're very "Nan Goldin-esque"), but here's a little preview that pretty much sums it all up...

I'm the pretty one...

...in this month's (November) issue of Baltimore Magazine!

Check out page 46, where you'll find my head shot and a brief bio/ statement in the "Contributors" section. I'm featured here for regular contributions to the magazine (such as the image on page 122 for the article "Dance Dance Evolution", about dancer/ choreographer Stephanie Powell), but I like to think it's because I'm just so darn handsome...

(click on any of the images to see a larger version)

Tribute

My grandfather spent his adult life working in the chemical department at Ansco, an old photographic company predating Kodak (click here for more info on Ansco). I was very close to my grandfather, and he used to always share stories with me about working at Ansco. He didn't live long enough to see me become a photographer, and just barely long enough to see me become passionate about the medium. But I like to think he had some influence, some impact upon it, even if only in a subtle or obscure way.

In addition to some of his random photo equipment, I've inherited boxes of negatives and prints stashed away in his basement.

The first two images are pictures of my grandfather at work, while the rest are images scanned from negatives I can only assume he shot.