Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Gratitude is the emotional state of abundance.


Editing work for the new web site, I ran across this old image of cloistered nuns in West Springfield, MA, shot for Yankee Magazine back in, I dunno, 2000? On it's way to the cutting room floor, it will be my Thanksgiving offering.

Signifying Punctum: That big orange flame on the match. It's shape is a mirror image of Sister Mary's smile. She was a favorite. Even though they were a centuries-old conservative community and I probably disagreed with most of their stands, we shared some good laughs. When Sr. Mary and I walked around the grounds together, me photographing her, she told me of her relationship with her Lord. "People don't talk about it much, but let me tell you, it's full of passion." You go, Sista.

I'm grateful for the work I do. For the people I meet. For each click of the shutter. And for F+F, Family and Friends. Happy Thanksgiving, 'cause giving thanks makes you happy. Bye for now, and thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Beauty, Brains and Brawn


A couple years ago, I photographed Stanford Women's Rowing head coach, Yaz Farooq for the Boston Globe. Last week, Yaz asked me to come back down and shoot her crew to celebrate the fact that this year, the ladies won the Division One NCAA Championship.

They had beauty, brains + brawn... a wicked combo. That's me on the ladder, doing the group shot and not getting electrocuted in the mist, with survival documentation by my assistant, Garry Belinsky. Then we laid down some sepia-toned fun at the end of the boat dock. And lemme tell ya, these girls had no trouble holding the pose. No trouble at all.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Homage to a Platte River Outtake


Today, I'm editing images from the "Farm Together Now" book for my web site. Sometimes you just gotta edit old ones out. Glad they invented blogs so this one from 2002 can live on in the world.

I was driving over a bridge in Central Nebraska when I saw a man on horseback in the dry riverbed. Stopped (illegally), yelled down and asked my new friend Bill to pause while I dug in the trunk, got out the 4x5 camera and sheets of C-41 film. After snapping six or so sheets of ready load, Bill yelled up his address, I hollered "Thank you!", jumped back in the car and kept driving north on Highway 14.

I love this work.

OK, back to the digital light table.