The Boss

Bruce Springsteen, 1981

I always had a camera at hand during my years on the road touring with various musical artists. Made a good deal of images and filed them away until a few years ago when I started to scan them all into the digital world to prevent any further damage. It is amazing how these Ektachrome images will deteriorate over time... Not sure what I am going to do with these but it is time to finally get them out of the shoe-boxes and organized.

Came across this Springsteen last week from 1981, The River Tour - I believe this was Cincinnati, the last stop on this particular tour. 

Captured with a Nikon F3, 105mm Lens, Ektachrome Color film - Scan was done by JS Graphics, Jon Scott in Chicago - they do really great scanning and print work. It is rare that I send anything out but I can highly recommend them - and they are fast on the turnaround.

Sunset Beach

Sunset Beach, Cape May, New Jersey 

I was returning to New York along the coast and had taken the ferry from Lewes to Cape May that day. For some reason I got delayed trying to get out for sunset and was lost trying to find the Cape May Lighthouse. Here i am driving along this small road when I see a sign that says "Sunset Beach' with an arrow pointing straight ahead. Of course this seems rather appropriate so I drive on and end up, of course, on Sunset Beach.

At first I thought that was a rock formation out in the water only later to find out it was a sunken ship that had been there for quite some time.And the water, sky and clouds cooperated for a fabulous sunset.

As Yogi Berra said, "When you get to the fork in the road, TAKE IT'.....

Captured with a Mamiya 645DF, Phase One P65+, 47MM lens

Swansea, Wales

Swansea, Wales

Fun image from the Burry Inlet, Swansea, southeastern Wales. Love the horses out behind the boat. There must have been 200 wild horses out on the marsh that afternoon.....

Back to the US tomorrow - off to Dallas to catch spring light at Caddo Lake....

Halfway House

Halfway Post Office, Halfway, Wales

Halfway is a town just outside Brecons Beacon National Park. Blink and you miss the entire place.

Halfway to where I ask you....

Captured with a Canon 5DMKII, 24-105MM Lens

Back to London tomorrow - home on Tuesday.......so many images to process....

Stay tuned...

Route 17 - Gerogia

BBQ, Route 17, Georgia

Last year I took Route 17 from Virginia to Florida and back north again. I find Route 17 to be similar to Route 66 with al the old business venues that have been let go over the years. My guess is at one point this was the only way from the northeast to Florida, and we all know what one good interstate will do to the mom and pop business ventures on these older highways.

These places are dis-appearing very quickly and need to be rendered for history to see - Postcards form a Dis-appearing America.

Have to sleep now - in Wales and knackered (note the use of local slang) from driving all day. Add that to the internet being in the hotel lobby means I will not be posting very much the next few days.

Off tomorrow to tour the coast of Wales - stay tuned...

Happy weekend everyone....

This image captured with a Canon 5DMKII, 24-105MM lens, rendered to black and white using lab conversion

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye, Scotland

Landscape captured leaving Isle of Skye in Scotland January 2010.

Captured with the Phase One P65+,  Mamiya 645DF, 47MM Schneider

White Pelicans

White Pelicans, Duck Rock, Everglades

Yet another image from last year's Everglades road trip. This particular day I had rented a boat and was cruising out in the 10,000 islands when we came upon what the Captain called Duck Rock. Love the little guy down front -


Captured with a Canon 5DMKII, 70-200MM Lens

Jupiter Beach

Jupiter Beach, Florida

 Still on the subject of water.

I drove down to the everglades about 18 months ago and met up with my friend Doug Eng in Jacksonville. Together we toured the east coast of Florida ending up on Jupiter Beach one morning at sunrise.

Well, it was quite the sunrise that morning with the water pounding the shore - the waves were jumping as high as 5-6 feet. I was entranced by the continually moving water and captured maybe 200 images that morning - mostly at a shutter speed of 2-3 seconds.

Jupiter Beach, Florida

I really liked the surreal feel that the water takes on when it is allowed to circle back on itself due to the long exposure - more or less allowing the sea to make a statement on its own. So much to see inside this image.

I converted top black and white above. 

Captured with a phase one P65+ on a Mamiya 645DF using a 75-150MM lens.

The Ocean

Laguna Beach, California

 I love the water. I grew up one block from the beach on the Jersey shore. The sound of moving water is hypnotic for me - I love waterfalls, oceans, reflective lakes and swampland. What I like even more is water with clouds or fog hanging around. Seems to have a calming effect for me - rain has that effect also.

As a kid I can remember always being around the water, riding my bike to school or spending weekends on or around the beach and ocean. Today's image truly mirrors my feeling about water.

This image is from Laguna Beach, California. I was out there a few years back tooling about at sunrise looking for images when I came upon this scene. Luckily enough it was so early that most of the parking spaces by the shore were open (not the case later on a summer day) therefore I was able to simply pull over, grab a camera and tripod and capture the image.

Captured with a Canon 5DMKII, 24-105MM Lens, converted via lab mode to black and white

PS: I found it necessary to start another blog on my  iPhone work only. For some reason that I have yet to figure out if you are subscribed to this blog you will also receive my iPhone-Antics blog. I am in the process of figuring out how to separate them. Thanks for your understanding.

Shelter Island

Shelter Island

Today's image has been around for quite some time. First captured n 1994, worked and re-worked numerous times in black and white, sepia and even grunge. I have used borders, rough painted borders, uneven borders and probably a few other that I can not remember. It just seems to stick around waiting for me to figure out what it was and where to use it.

Don't get me wrong - I do not see a a final print when capturing an image - I am just attracted to some form and light that gets me excited to push the release. There are images that have been around for 20 or more years that I am just starting to relate to. 

At any rate this image has become a mainstay of a series I have been working on for quite some time - the 'Childhood and other Neighborhoods' series which may finally get done this year for a show in October.

Captured with a Pentax 67, Tri-X 400 speed film and brought into the digital world using an Imacon/Hasselblad Scanner...

Fonthill Color

Fonthill, Pennsylvania Color

Reworked image from a visit to Fonthill last January. Captured and processed in the iPhone4 using the following applications:

Hipstamatic
Photoforge
perfect photo
perfectly clear

Route 66

Route 66, Seligman, Arizona

'If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six'......Bobby Troup

Yes, the song was written by Bobby Troup. Troup graduated University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and was married to Julie London.... He also played the part of Dr. Joe Early on the 70's TV show, Emergency....Just a bit of trivia...

This image is from 1992 and was captured on film using a Wista 4x5 view camera.  Not sure if I like the black and white or the color.....Maybe the muted vintage color is the one...I do miss the 'D' before the 'EAD CHICKEN' sign.

Route 66, Seligman, Arizona

Focus Bracket

Lone Tree, Zion National Park, Utah

 This image was captured with a 150MM lens at F11 and the Phase One P65+ on a Mamiya 645DF.

Using a focal length of 150MM presents a few hurdles if one wants a sharp image from near to far. To counteract this one makes several exposures moving the focus so all parts of the image were in focus, albeit on different exposures. I then blend all of these images in a third party application, Helicon Focus.  Helicon will create one focused image from however many partially focused images you capture.

Well worth looking into. Helicon will also control focus on many DSLR cameras particularly when doing macro photography. Check out the link above.

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron, Caddo Lake

 I am starting to get a bit excited about going back to Caddo Lake in early April. Not much gets better then cruising on a pontoon boat through the swamps looking for images. When you see something the motor gets shut down and you drift about waiting for the boat to settle down enough to get a decent shutter speed to counteract the movement of the water - no tripods out here.

I learned a good deal last time at Caddo Lake that I hope to put to use this next visit...Also need to mention the really good down-home BBQ just down the road.

PS: Sometimes a simple image will speak a great deal about a place -  Caddo Lake has an eerie calm about it........

This image captured with a Canon 5DMKII using a 70-200MM Lens

New Blog Header Image: Death Valley: Autostitch Panoramic captured in the iPhone4 - processed in the iPhone4

Caddo Lake

Caddo Lake, Uncertain, Texas

A few years back myself and my good friend Al Hernandez paid a visit to Caddo Lake in Uncertain, Texas - located in East Texas on the Louisiana border. The lake is approximately 27,000 acres of swampland - Cypress Swampland. They say there are 240 species of bird that live on the lake as well as alligators, turtles, snakes, frogs and turtles to mention a few others.

Today's image has been posted before (about a year ago). Since then I have learned a it more about processing digital images and decided to re-process and post again. I am hoping to get down to Caddo Lake again in early April for a two day spring visit.

Childhood

Fire Island, New York

There are days when I feel like a photographic chameleon. One second I am working on or teaching iPhone imagery and the next I am into landscape with a high res digital camera. But the images that always touch me the most are personal and have historical value on several levels. Not due to the fact that I know or am related to the participants, but because they relate to periods in my life - whatever the underlying reason may be.

Today's image is from the series  'Childhood and other Neighborhoods' which I have been working on for several years. I am starting to feel the series is close to coming out of the darkness.

The image was captured using a Pentax 67 and Tri-X 400 film - scanned into the digital world using a Hasselblad/Imacon scanner, circa 1994.

Neon Boneyard

Neon Boneyard, Las Vegas

'God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephantand the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things'......Pablo Picasso


Image captured with the Canon 5DMKII, 85MM Lens

Boneyard Re-Visit

Neon Boneyard - Las Vegas - iPhone4

Yesterday was long day in Indianapolis. Taught an iPhone class (12 participants) at the Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery in Carmel, Indiana. Already have started planning a two day event where we can go out and capture some images so the class can take their creativity to the next level.

Seems reasonable to post an iPhone image today that I worked on in the class....

Death Valley

Death Valley Sunrise

'Let the subject generate its own photographs. Become a camera'........Minor White



We all have our favorite spots to capture images, our own personal secret garden. Today's image was captured at my 'secret garden' in Death Valley.

Boneyard 3

Neon Boneyard_3

Yes, still working on the 'neon boneyard' images today. Really liking the abstraction of it all. So glad that someone took the time and saved these relics of Vegas past. They speak so much in their various states of decay - reminds me of places like Artists Palette in Death Valley - always some new combination of color and luminosity to play with.

Off to Indianapolis today - teaching an iPhone class at the Renaissance Fine At and Design Gallery.

Boneyard 2

Homage to Picasso

Sorting through some images from the Neon Boneyard this morning and came across today's post. I am always in awe of what one can find in urban decay.

This image was captured as a horizontal but upon further review ended up as a vertical...

Neon Boneyard

Neon Boneyard,  Las Vegas

Drove back to Vegas today and went to the Neon Boneyard aka Neon Museum. The Boneyard restores and maintains old neonsigns and from the older casinos and various establishments around Las Vegas.

There are over 150 of these old signs at the Boneyard including places such as  The Golden Nugget, Desert Inn and Caesar's Palace.

Quite the experience being able to photograph these classic old signs - the color is fabulous.

Racetrack Playa

Sailing Stone, Racetrack Playa, Death Valley

Yesterday we went to Racetrack Playa to see the 'sailing stones'. Racetrack is situated above Death Valley in Inyo County, California. Rented two four wheel drive Jeeps and headed out mid-day on the 72 mile trek - the last 28 miles being on rocky roads.....

The 'sailing stones' seem to move across the surface of Racetrack leaving a track behind, apparently not caused by human hand. They move across the Playa surface approximately once every two years leaving a track that they say lasts for two or three years.

The general consensus, although no one has ever seen them moving, is that strong winds with speeds up to 90 miles per hour move the stones across Racetrack. Another theory is that rain accumulates, which at lower temperatures turn to ice, and coupled with the strong wind, causes the larger rocks to slide across Racetrack.

If you can get out to Death Valley this is a day well spent.....

Mesquite Dunes

Mesquite Dunes, Stovepiple Wells, Death Valley

Spent yesterday afternoon hiking through the Mesquite Dunes near Stovepipe Wells. Being Sunday there were footprints everywhere - had to walk a minimum on=f oien mile into the dunes to find some pristine sand.

For the past few days the light has been rather boring with virtually no color and Sunday was pretty much the same - a complete turn-a-round from my last time in Death Valley. This is all part of it - sometimes it all works and others times there is nothing happening at all. It is days like this that you try and work a bit harder to find something worth capturing.

At any rate as I was walking back to the car at sunset I noticed the image above - kind of summed up my Sunday.

Today we, Michael, Tom, David, Teri Lou and myself,  started the day ion Mesquite Canyon near Stovepipe. After lunch we trekked the 72 miles up to Racetrack Playa and shot until Sunset. Did I mention the 28 miles of bad road to get there......good thing we rented 4 wheel drive Jeeps....More on the racetrack adventure tomorrow.

Rhyolite 2

Rhyolite Merchantile, Rhyolite, Nevada

Seems like I did not give enough info on yesterday's image of the ghostly bike rider. It is a sculpture that sits as you enter the ghost town, Rhyolite, on the Nevada-California border near the town of Beatty Junction, California.

According to Wikipedia Rhyolite was started in 1905 as a mining camp. They had electric lights, water, newspapers, a hospital, school and opera house. They even had a stock exchange.

There are a few sculptures at Rhyolite similar to the one posted yesterday. THey are the work of artist Albert  Szukalski. The most famous is called "the Last Supper on Golden Street' and stands at the Golden Open Air Museum which one passes as they enter Rhyolite.  Hoping to get back to Rhyolite one more time before leaving on Wednesday.

Today's post is what is left of the Rhyolite Mercantile Building at first glance appears to have been moved from a different location.

Rhyolite

Rhyolite, Nevada

                          

West End

Death Valley, West End

Captured with Alpa SWA12, Phase One P65, 120MM Schneider

Artist Palette

Artist Palette, Sunset, iPhone4 Autostitch

 What a day - 81 and sunny in Death Valley. Unfortunately, no morning clouds at Zabriske Point so the sunrise was not the most colorful I have witnessed. Still in all this was not a bad sunrise, just normal in that everyday is different in Death Valley.

Spent the afternoon down on the West Side of the Valley around Devil's Golf course before moving on to Artist Palette to catch the sunset.

Although much too tired from the 4AM start of the day, I did manage to get an iPhone4 stitched image ready for the blog. This image was the last capture of the day. The setting sun brought out the pastel colors of the Palette and, I, of course, helped them pop just a bit more.

Tomorrow morning another 4AM start to catch sunrise at Badwater Basin. Not much water in the basin but one still has to show up to see what nature will deliver. 

Zabriske Point

Up and out for a sunrise this morning at Zabriske Point. Nothing to post yet so here is one from my last trip to Death Valley.  Stay tuned for more today.

Iceland Industrial 3

Iceland Industrial 3

Off to Death Valley this morning. Heard this was a wet winter so hoping to catch some early wildflowers - and always like it when there is water in the Badwater Basin.

Image above captured with Phase One P65, 45mm Lens - converted to black and white using LAB mode

Artist Palette

Artist Palette, Death Valley

'Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better'.....Albert Einstein

I am off to Death Valley on Thursday for 7 days -  truly an amazing place to spend time....

Iceland Industrial

Iceland Industrial

One of the best things about shooting in Iceland is the freedom one has to get close to industrial subjects - meaning for the most part is there is not much security or fencing involved.

This image was captured rather close to Reykjavik last August - one of the first captures I made on that trip. We basically had the freedom to roam about this industrial site without ever seeing a person that was not traveling with us.

If you are considering a great Icelandic experience take a look at  'Focus on Nature'. Einar and company run several workshops every summer with some rather interesting instructors.

This image captured with a Phase One P65 - 45MM lens - hand held - also converted to Black and white using Lab mode conversion, below.

Iceland Industrial