The Sun and the Water.

Have a good weekend.

The Beach Phone.

Shot with an iPhone.
At the beach.

More to come.

Summertime.

We decided to open the pool.

Waterproofing.

Some friends of mine are getting me to shoot their wedding at the end of the month. It’s cool ’cause a couple of other photographers are invited as guests and I think they’ll probably bring their cameras along so there will be a slew of points of view to explore.

So anyway, we went out to the space and wandered around. I brought my point-n-shoot and had to work pretty hard to shield it from the rain. It was cool ’cause there was this mist floating across the water behind them and there were lots of cool places for portraits. I’m definitely gonna try to go back for a different project or two.

The other thing that’s interesting is that I used this software to make this collage. It was recommended to me by the woman who publishes this cool food blog. While I’m not sure that the software’s exactly what I need, I can be certain that I’ll be checking out the blog on a regular basis.

Scouting.

I’d been told about this amazing location to shoot by a friend and when I went to see it, I took photog buddy Richard Upshur along. The space lived up to expectations but the scheduling nightmare that would ensue to be able to use it sent me thinking in different directions.

To that end, Richard and I swung down to James River Park, an old haunt of mine, to see about alternatives. I’d really only brought my camera along to look through it now and again and hadn’t really planned on shooting, but I saw this grouping of rocks and played around with some long exposures. This was the clearest of the group.

I may head back with a tripod and a neutral density filter sometime soon, just to see.

Strange Goings On.

I was working with Chris again. He’s so very pleasant and willing. I mean, how many people do you know who’d wade out into the river (the bottom of which neither of us could see) and wait patiently?

I’d tentatively titled this “Regarding the Recent Occurrence at Spaulding Creek,” thinking I’d write a short piece to go with it that was (longer than, but) in the spirit of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, by Chris Van Alllsburg. Alas, I never wrote anything. Go figure.

I’ve got a couple of other shots like this planned and Chris has agreed to help me. Moreover, I’ve got some cool new models lined up to work on more images in this kind of spirit.

Keep watching!

Back in the Old Days.

My folks have a house out on the Mobjack Bay and we took the kids out to visit over the Memorial Day weekend. The house is great for forgetting there’s a world where you have to work and there’s no end to the opportunities to shoot pictures like these.

With a little post-process trickery, I tried to make these look a little old ’cause I thought it’d give them some character.

Swans.

It was snowing at my folks’ river house when we saw them.
All I had with me was my Holga, loaded with cross-process film. It took me forever to get a decent print out of these negs and when I did, I got it framed for my folks. Now that I’ve scanned them, I like them even more.

If you can see dust in the images, it’s because there was a lot there. It took forever to clean out in Photoshop. I kinda wished at the time that I’d brought a different camera (and different film) because I felt that I wasn’t gonna get much detail with the low-fi camera. Now that I’ve scanned them, I find that I’m pleased.

Footprints.

There’s an old Tribe Called Quest song called “Footprints” that I honestly was thinking of when I shot this. It’s sort of fitting for the end of the beach photos. A woman and her Scottish Terrier had just come by and stopped to talk to Zoe. She was having none of the little dog, was happier to see him from a distance.

As the Scottie and his lady wandered on down the beach, I snapped a couple with the Holga. I like the effect here but wish I’d been a little higher so that the prints would stand out some more.

The Big Wide Open.

Ran into a friend who needed a reason to get out of a prior engagement so we galumphed around near the river and did a little bit of sightseeing.

I’d been looking at this blog today and got a wild hair. I’d been lamenting to Joe that I wished I could pull off stuff like his so I figured there was no better way to get better at it than to try when the opportunity arose. This was the opportunity.

Landscapes are hard when you’re used to looking at people. I’m not sure I’m in love with this ’cause it’s kind of a grab, but as practice, it’s worth the click.