Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thankful


I am thankful to get to shoot pictures in community centers. These two just got engaged and were so very happy. I am also thankful for Ross Taylor, the other new hire at the Pilot. He helped me edit my take, and he's always looking for pictures that surprise him, or make him feel something. Thinking about that more will make me a better photographer. I'm thankful to be here, with all these other great shooters.


Did some quick portraits for my friend Mara --check out her story-- of a woman who was a victim of identity theft and mortgage fraud in New Jersey. Is there some magic light there that makes even window-lit portrait look lovely?

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Website Update


and finally, I updated my website, for those of you that might want to take a look. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

.Multimedia.


Indeed, multimedia is a part of my job at the Virginian-Pilot, and I must say that I had a blast doing this piece, with the help of Final Cut savant Hyunsoo Leo Kim. And yes, one of these days my Dallas multimedia will get published, and I am excited to share that one too.

Hop the Fence


On Sunday night Matt & Melissa Eich and I had a group of local photographers over for a Hop-the-Fence Photo Night between our houses, ending with a show in my garage, projected onto an ancient screen salvaged from a back closet at the paper. By fortunate accident, the house I'm renting in Norfolk is right behind the Eichs', and when the water get too high, as it sometimes does, I just park my car in front of their house and hop the fence to get to my house. Norfolk has an unusually high concentration of talented photographers right now, and it was wonderful to get some of them in the same room to talk about their current projects, their challenges, and whatever else it is we talked about throughout that long night. Tim Gruber and Jenn Ackerman came up from their retreat on the Outer Banks, Ross Taylor showed work from a recent trip to Bangledesh, local photographer Jesse Hutcheson showed work from his senior project, and two students from ODU, Shane and Caroline, showed their recent projects. It was a kind of relief, to spend an evening just looking and listening, watching work that is being created for myriad reasons. Matt (who showed work on gator hunting) and I are hoping to make this a bi-monthly occurrence, so if you live nearby or are passing through, let me know if you'd like to join in.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Ambiguity


Matt Eich and I had a great conversation on Thursday about our increasing interest in ambiguity in images. For me, it must have something to do with the traditional assignments I get as a newspaper photographer. Sometimes I just take the most boring, predictable pictures, and for my own heart I want to be making pictures that aren't that obvious. This is from a trip with FEMA around after our flood last week. And perhaps this one too.

Mom & Dad



Thinking of Mom and Dad, and I get to see them next weekend.