BODIES OF WORK ~ PICTURE GALLERIES
BODIES OF WORK ~ BOOK LINKS
In Situ ~ la, la, how the life goes on • Life without the APA • Doors • Kitchen Sink • Rain • 2014 • Year in Review • Place To Sit • ART ~ conveys / transports / reflects • Decay & Disgust • Single Women • Picture Windows • Tangles ~ fields of visual energy (10 picture preview) • The Light + BW mini-gallery • Kitchen Life (gallery) • The Forks ~ there's no place like home (gallery)
Friday, July 24, 2015 at 11:46AM 
Summer is the time for camping, pools and flower baskets hanging on porches.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 09:45AM 
Instead of making a picture which represented a gang member I decided to make a picture of an actual gang member. In a fine example of ask and ye shall receive, my teenage son (pre-Cinemascapist), made a couple inquiries and, voilà, a picture making date was set.
The resultant picture was delivered to the magazine's Art Director who was quite ecstatic about it. He proceeded to layout the cover and, after getting approval from the editor (et al), it was sent off to the printer and I was eagerly anticipating yet another Golden Quill Award. However ....
.... as the cover was going on press, a call from on high - the organization which owned / published the magazine - to the editor which, in a nutshell, decreed "kill it". The picture was deemed too controversial to be published and they (the on-high people) were worried about public relations and even political repercussions. The editor and art director tried to save it but to no avail.
As you can imagine, I was bummed in a major way. Not only was I denied the satisfaction of seeing the picture published, but I was also disappointed in seeing visions of another Golden Quill Award vanishing over the horizon - FYI, I was by far the leading Golden Quill Awardee, Photography Division, at that time with Golden Quills in advertising, corporate communications and editorial categories.
*at that time, a really good magazine with excellent editorial content. Now, a "hip" life-style magazine.Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 04:23PM 
bartender + patrons ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenLast evening I attended the Beer, Bourbon, Barbeque and Stogies event at Freestyle Cuisine in Lake Placid. The gathering featured an 8 course meal (small plate) with a bourbon and beer pairing for each course followed by a good cigar. The food was excellent, the bourbons and beers were much above average and 80% of the attendees were women - a good time was had by all.
Friday, November 29, 2013 at 12:15PM 
The wife + the daughter ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggenThe wife's a lawyer and the daughter's a wannabe. The daughter is in lawyer school studying to be one.
It's the present and the future all in one picture.
gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comment: Peter Nilsson wrote: "I suddenly noticed - no black border, very subtle vignette...? Personally I prefer the cleaner look, but find it interesting that the reduced vignette still focuses my attention on the image.
my response: when I post pictures while I am away from home, the pictures are processed on my iPad which does not allow me to do my "normal" thing. The border and vignette thing are so ingrained into my processing procedure and, I might add, how I see my finished work, I might not be able to change it even if I tried.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013 at 07:06PM 
St Mary of the Snows ~ Otter Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Curling Club ~ Rochester, NY - not in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen;)
Lunch with Luke and Peter ~ Rochester, NY • click to embiggen
# 87, the best hockey player in the world ~ Uniondale, Long Island / NY • click to embiggen
The Penguins beat the Islanders ~ Nassau Coliseum - Uniondale / Long Island, NY • click to embiggen
Socrates - the dick sucker ~ Queens, NY • click to embiggen
Harvest Spirits Distillery ~ Valatie, NY • click to embiggenJust in case you're wondering why I haven't posted an entry in the past 7 days, the main reason is a road trip of 1,700 miles in 5 days.
I left Au Sable Forks last Wednesday AM on my way to Rochester. I passed through Otter Lake where I pictured, just after a fresh snowfall, St. Mary of the Snow, a church I attended as kid on summer Sundays when vacationing in the Adirondacks.
After arriving in Rochester, I hooked up with my brother Peter who had flown in from Tennessee for 5 day visit with old friends. We had a quick bite to eat and then went to our brother Luke's curling match, after which we sat around the club's pub and yakked.
Thursday morning Peter and I met for donuts, coffee and more yakity yak. Then we both went on to lunch with Luke, after which I bugged out for the return trip to Au Sable Forks. I arrived in time to put my head on my own pillow.
Friday morning it was time for a re-pack and back in the car to head to Long Island for an evening hockey game. Despite our best intentions to arrive in the NYC area before the rush hour madness, due to an unscheduled stop for a surprise visit with Hugo's brother, we arrived on the New Jersey side of the George Washington bridge at the peak of the rush hour commute. That made for what seemed like an interminable drive out to Long Island. Fortunately, the Penguins beat the Islanders making it all worth while.
Then it on into Queens for an overnight stay.
Saturday was spent in and around Queens and a lunch with assorted family members (the wife's family) who live in the general area. After a short post-lunch visit to a playground so Hugo and his cousins could work off some energy (and where I learnt that Socrates is a dick sucker- see picture), it was off to North Jersey for a dinner and overnight stay with the wife's sister and family.
On Sunday, much to my chagrin (hey, does it look like I'm driving a f**king taxi?), it was back to Queens and then, finally, back on the road to home. Along the way we took a break to visit a distillery near Albany, NY. The distillery makes a really fine applejack as well as an interesting American variation on grappa. I left with a bottle of each and Hugo left with cinnamon donuts from the distillery's apple orchard store.
We arrived home just in time to watch the Penguins defeat the evil Philadelphia Flyers, after which I collapsed into bed to sleep the sleep of the well and truly tired.
What about Monday - Wednesday of this week? I'm working on a picture making assignment which has me driving around to various locations. Thank goodness they are all within a 20 mile radius of home because I am getting rather tired of sitting at the steering wheel of a car.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 09:36AM ;)
Details - • click to embiggenOn Monday, after having retouched the business portrait posted in this entry, I decided to have a little fun. Something of a follow up to The Great Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 20 year old Straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey Affair, in which the pictured person was an integral player - it was his official recognition as an associate attorney in the wife's firm which was being celebrated and led directly to the Great Affair.
In any event, before I sent the retouched picture to the firm for final approval, I placed my picture of the bottle of bourbon in the upper left corner of the picture. I figured that it would get a humorous rise out of the wife and provide a brief respite from the heavy load she bears every day while working to keep me in the lifestyle to which I am accustomed (and so richly deserve).
Well, eventually, she did have a good laugh but not when I expected it to happen.
As it played out, the email response to my request, from both the wife and the subject, for approval to publish the picture on the firm website was a simple and straight forward ... "Looks good. Do it." A response which had a reverse spin effect in that it caused a laugh to escape my lips, along with a sense of amazement - neither the wife or the subject noticed the bottle of bourbon.
So, I called the wife and told her I had noticed an additional "flaw" in the picture which probably should be fixed. In order for her to see it, I asked her to open the picture on her computer screen. She looked at it for a moment and then asked, "What is it?" I told her to look in the upper left corner of the picture and, after a moment's hesitation, she broke out in fit of laughter, a fit made laughier by the fact that she not only thought it humorous but also that she realized that she had now set herself up for an endless and merciless dose of kidding about not seeing it.
All of which just goes to demonstrate that, no matter the best intentions of a picture maker to imbue his/her pictures with visual clues which might make his/her intended / implied meaning more apparent, a good segment of the viewing public ain't gonna see it, much less "get it". No doubt this viewing "deficiency" is responsible for the picture making adage of "Keep It Simple" ... a bit of picturing "wisdom" which I steadfastly ignore.
FYI, I avoid "keeping it simple", not because I have a subversive attitude toward picture making, but simply because my eye and sensibilities are drawn to visual complexity - dense relationships of color, shapes, form, texture, and the like. In short, it's how I see the world.
Another ancillary adage - IMO, a very informed one - which is very applicable to the seeing it or not seeing / getting it or not getting it conundrums is the one which suggests that "the more one brings to the viewing of a picture, the more one can see (actual and implied) in that picture". In other words, the more one is versed in the visual / photographic vernacular, the more can understand and appreciate a picture maker's actual and implied intention(s).
But, enough on complexity and simplicity for today. More on it tomorrow when I introduce my new picture making project, tentatively entitled "information overload".
Saturday, November 17, 2012 at 09:50AM ;)
People + food + civilized ku + ku • click to embiggenIt's finally here, the amazing picture making thing you've all been waiting for ...
Have you ever wanted to take a beautiful photograph EVERY time? Well with the _____, you can! The _____ is designed to make every photo beautiful because of it’s artistic and amazing effects. It’s created to take what you see and make it into something even more beautiful than it already is. It makes photos have real meaning, and it makes photos tell real stories.*
Picture making meaning, beauty, artistry, and EVERY-click-of-the-shutter success made easy. Haven't we all been yearning - in fact, secretly lusting - for a picture making thing which can " take what you see and make it into something even more beautiful than it already is." Who would have dreamed that a picture perfect world is just a picture making thing purchase away?
I mean, it's like getting your money for nothin' and your chicks for free. And, you don't even have go all bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee.
*taken from a marketing email for a picture making device which shall remain nameless.
Monday, September 10, 2012 at 11:08AM ;)
The ticket ~ Syracuse, NY • click to embiggen;)
Rev. Hobson punching their tickets ~ Syracuse, NY • click to embiggenReverend Hobson's first wedding ceremony went off without a hitch. Well, except for the fact that everyone, to include the best man / maid of honor / Reverend Hobson and most notably the wedding couple, forgot all about the wedding rings until after I had pronounced them husband and wife (by the power vested in me). But at least they got their rickets punched.
In any event, I kept it short and sweet (the temperature inside the railroad car was over 100˚F) and everyone had a great time.
FYI, here is the script / text from my service (written by me - with an assist from the wife - and dictated to the wife during our morning car ride to the NYS Fair on the day of the event):
Welcome all of you to Luke and Linda's wedding. It means a lot to them that you are all aboard to see them off as they begin their journey. And, I'd like to thank Luke and Linda, for affording me the opportunity to be the conductor for this wedding ceremony...
When I first was informed that Luke and Linda were going to be married on railroad car at the NYS Fair, I thought it to be a bit weird. However, after thinking about it and now actually being here, I think it's really weird.
Nevertheless, I guess it is rather appropriate to begin one of life's most important journeys on this antique railroad car. After all, the naked truth is, if Linda didn't have a fondness for old things (indicate my brother), we wouldn't be here today.
In any event, like all train trips, there might be whistle stops at strange locations, derailments, or even train wrecks along the way. But I would remind Luke and Linda that the journey, with all its rewards and hazards, is at least as important as the destination. Therefore, enjoy this trip, that begins in new York state and arrives at the state of connubial bliss.
In that spirit, I now present Luke and Linda with their one way tickets, to their ultimate! destination.
Now, as You have all journeyed here to share the day as Luke and Linda become husband and wife, I invite you to witness their vows. Without actually knowing who's the engineer and who's riding the caboose on this train, I will begin with Luke.
Do you Luke, take Linda to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?
Ticket please (punch the ticket)
Do you Linda, take Luke to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for Rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?
Ticket please (punch the ticket)
By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife.
BTW, that last sentence is one that I never imagined ever uttering in my lifetime.
PS thanks to my son, The Cinemascapist, for designing the ticket on very short notice. While I had planned to do it, I nevertheless left home 2 weeks before the ceremony (taking Hugo to Rochester for hockey camp) without tickets in hand and never thinking that I wouldn't be back home before the ceremony. So, on the afternoon before the wedding date, I called Aaron from our cottage on Blue Mountain Lake and asked him to design the ticket. He send me a proof via email and I arranged for him to email the finished ticket to a Kinko printing center in Syracuse and was able to pick up the tickets the next morning on our way to the Fair. My thanks to Aaron the modern wonder of the internet and email.
gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comment(s): John Linn wrote: "Do you Linda, take Luke to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for Rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?" .... Can we assume a typo or is there more to the story?"
And Sven W (no link provided) wrote: "A railroad car certainly presents limited opportunities for the wedding photog!"
my response(s): John, I guess the wife isn't as good at taking dictation as I thought. And Sven, that's no wedding photog, that's my wife (who made the picture) - the guy in the orange shirt is a tv videographer).
