The Country Store

On location at the Barnard Country Store in Vermont.
Great atmosphere - Great food - Great people





For more images visit my web site here and go to "New Work"

Where The Fun Begins

I was in Savannah over the weekend and took a few moments to take some "fun" shots(not that they all aren't fun to take...) I find it relaxing to take some time off, walk the streets and see what's there. When you open yourself up to experiencing all that a town has to offer you'll be amazed at all the angles and design qualities there are.


I think we spend way too much time looking straight ahead and not enough time looking up and down - that's where the fun begins.

Sam: 7/02/98 - 8/03/09

"If dogs don't go to heaven, then when I die I want to go where they go" - Will Rogers

It has been said that life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away.

THANK YOU for all the great memories and for being there when I needed you most.
You were, and will always be, my best friend.

In the Details

Taking advantage of what you have in front of you is, I think, one of the true pleasures in life, and one that I hold dear to my heart.

I have a friend who flies planes, not for a living - just for fun. She invited me to fly with her and take some photos. This was a great opportunity to explore something that I know little about. My goal was to get into the essence of the design of a plane - the curves, angles and details. We usually view planes from a distance and therefore see the whole instead of the its parts. Here is what I saw.




For more images visit my web site under "new work" (here).

Exploring: asking lots of questions, getting answers and being inspired. That's what life is all about...

Before and After

BEFORE

Above is a recent image that I shot in Vermont. I normally don't put a lot of Photoshop techniques into an image. I might add some blurring, use levels or curves and add a vignette, but here I decided to push it a little to see what I could come up with. I like pushing the envelope when shooting but rarely on the processing end. I like the result - see the "after" image below.
This is a mixture of changing the contrast, adjusting the saturation, adding a B&W layer and changing the mode of certain layers.
This might not work for every image, but it certainly added some "pop" to this one.

Let me know what you think!

AFTER

Vermont Tourism

Spent a week in Vermont shooting people in the environment - specifically at Quechee Gorge. It rained almost every day which created some pressure to get the shots I wanted. One nice thing about an overcast sky is the great quality of light when shooting in the woods.

The project was to capture real people enjoying the beauty of Vermont. It's titled "You Could Be Here"

Here is a selection images. You can see more on my web site under "New Work" (here)

Irony

Move to New York and have spent more time out of the city than in. That's irony.
Now I'm in Vermont. Everything is on hold due to the rain. But all is good. I had a chance to stroll and take some macro shots of water droplets and other nature details.
There's always something to take photos of if you are willing to stop and look around.

A Break From NYC

Last week I was on location in Charleston, SC. I've never been there so I took some time to walk around and see the sites. What a change from NYC - quiet, no people, easy parking, yards and most surprisingly hard to find a cup of coffee at 8am (at least from what I saw). It was nice, however, to wander around without a particular goal. Just taking photos of what caught my eye. Beautiful architecture, manicured lawns, ornate iron fences and very old churches (for American standards anyway...)



As I drove to Charleston I passed many marshlands. I couldn't resist stopping a few times to take photos. The storms were amazing and the morning fog simply beautiful.

Note To Self...

When on a roof, bring your cell phone…

There were a few miracles moving up to NY. Got out of DC 1.5 hours earlier than expected, traffic was fairly light, unloading was a breeze and finally parking a 15 foot van on a Saturday in SoHo was surprisingly easy. Something had to give. It just had to...


On Sunday Kate and I decided to go for a walk. It was a beautiful day – sun shone brightly, 85 degrees, with a light breeze. Kate wanted to show me the roof top. Walking up the stairs I thought this will be a great place to sit and read, brush the dogs and get away from the hustle and bustle of the streets below. We opened the door to a bright, white tarred roof – so bright in fact we could barely keep our eyes open. First mistake – not bringing sunglasses. We roamed around, admiring the view, talking about where we wanted to go for a walk. Ten minutes later we decided to head downstairs. We went to open the door, locked. Kate looked at me, “What the hell are we gong to do? I don’t have my cell phone.” Now I NEVER carry my cell phone when on walks – it’s my time and I like getting away from technology (I’m re-thinking that strategy). But this time, for some reason, I had it with me. Talk about a look of complete and utter amazement from Kate. Now we had to and remember the phone numbers of our neighbors’ and hopefully find them home, on a Memorial Day weekend. We left two messages and the third was the charm. It took him ten minutes to get to us, by we were off the roof, a little blinded and very hot.


We’re not quite sure what we would have done if I didn’t have my cell phone with me.
Scream for help most likely. And in NYC that doesn’t get you very far.

So what did I do - Naturally I took some photos.

A New Blog

Even though the look is similar, I am starting a whole new approach to this blog.
I have just moved to the Big Apple - land of stress, smog, traffic, people, people and more people - but I love it!
So this blog is going to be about my thoughts and impressions of this land of concrete.
Titled "Notes From NY", I'm going to try to discover - through words and photographs - what makes it tick.
So stay tuned!!