forest woodward photography

At long last... a new Blog and Website!!

2011-08-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

www.forestwoodward.com

Head on over to the new site and have a look around!

As you guys might have gathered from my lack of posts over here on blogspot in the past few months, I've been saving up for the launch of my new blog and website! Over the next few weeks I will be adding posts over there from Nicaragua, Bonnaroo, Coachella, England, and more.

Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to keep up with this blog, share it with friends, and take time to comment and share your thoughts. It has really been an awesome outlet for me to share my work, and it's only because of you guys' encouragement and participation that I've kept it up. Looking forward to interacting with any and all of you over on the new page: http://www.forestwoodward.com

PS - if you find anything you like over there, check out the new "share" feature in the upper right corner and feel free to tweet/stumble/tumble/fumble/facebook/email/and/spam all your friends ;)

2011 PDN Photo Annual

2011-06-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

So stoked to be selected as one of the photographers featured in the 2011 PDN Photo Annual!

I took this shot of my friend Yusuke in on of the crowded subway stations of Tokyo while traveling last Oct/Nov in Japan. I entered it in the PDN photo contest on a whim, the last day that the contest was open to entries. It is the only photo I have ever entered in a contest, and you can imagine my surprise when I found out that it was selected. I must send a big thanks to Yusuke for his help in making this shot happen!

Postcards from Argentina :: Saudade Rio

2011-03-30T11:44:00.000-07:00

"Saudade" - my favorite word that I have learned in all my travels. While it has no direct translation from Portuguese to English, it has been described as "the recollection of feelings, experiences, places or events that once  brought excitement, pleasure, or well-being. And which now triggers the senses  and makes one live again." Perhaps some of my Brazilian friends for whom I have Saudade will chime in to further enlighten us...

Rio de Janeiro :: Faces on the Bus

2011-03-29T07:49:00.000-07:00

Rio de Janeiro :: Street kids

2011-03-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

We gave these kids a bit of change and some fried cheese my brother was eating.

I started to walk away to find another beer and to forget about them. Instead, I found myself standing across the street from them, watching. I wanted something from them.

They were handsome, with intelligent eyes. And gifted actors as well - their faces and actions fleeting quickly and effortlessly through a range of emotions. Some real, some contrived.

They lived on the street. Their teeth were rotting and they had swollen scars in strange places. One of them wore a glittery lace purse around his waist that he had stolen or found. But their smiles glowed. They were living proof that happiness is relative, and can be found in the most unlikely of places.

I knew what I needed from them. Pulling out the camera again I tried to distill the chaos of their actions to reveal that simple lesson. I was surprised to find I had something to give them in return, as their initial mistrust dissipated, and was replaced by proud cavorting and clowning as the presence of the camera, my willingness to sit with them, and curiosity about what they were doing gave them a sense of worth and importance that I hope had as lasting an impact on them as their actions had upon me.

Read more about the plight of street kids in Rio

Rio de Janeiro :: The kids

2011-03-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

Amidst all the hedonistic revelry of Carnival I found time to sit, converse (in a mix of Spanish, Portuguese and sing language), and pass the camera around with a few different groups of kids. Why? I don't know. Maybe because kids like to play as much as I do. Maybe because I'm still stuck somewhere between a 'kid' and a 'grownup'. Maybe because their eyes reflect a world devoid of the cynicism with which I sometimes see it (see last post). Or maybe it's their curiosity that I find most refreshing.

Photo courtesy of Marina

Portrait by the girl with the red hair

Rio de Janeiro :: The Other Side of Carnival

2011-03-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

While all the revelry of Carnival certainly didn't create a negative reaction of equal proportions, it did throw the daily lives of the homeless into stark contrast with the joyously carefree world surrounding them.

Rio de Janeiro :: A taste of Carnival

2011-03-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

Argentinian Fashion :: I

2011-03-18T02:04:00.000-07:00

Postcards from Argentina :: Iguazú Falls

2011-03-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

After a long bus ride north, we stumbled into the sleepy little town of Iguazú on the Argentinian side of the cataratas. Photos and rumors of Iguazú fall´s magesty did little to prepare us for the next three days spent exploring the maze of pathways that surround the thundering cataracts.

Thunderstorms alternated pleasantly with the hot jungle sun, and our down time in the town spent playing futbol pickup matches, putting the hostel kitchen to good use, and swapping stories with other travelers was a nice change of pace from the bustle of the city.

Postcards from Argentina :: Recoleta Cemetery

2011-03-04T04:18:00.000-08:00

Recoleta Cemetary in Buenos Aires gets its own blog post, not because it was the most beautiful place we saw (though it was up there) but because it was one of the few places where I wasn't distracted by food, drink or other merrymaking activities for long enough to take out the camera and engage.

This is the look I got right before he tried to eat me.

Postcards from Argentina :: Buenos Aires

2011-03-03T06:57:00.000-08:00

This old antique dealer agreed to allow me to snap a single image. Smart on his part, as I could have lingered a good while longer here...

A week spent wandering the streets of Buenos Aires left me with an appetite for more. A deliciously European city in terms of its love of fine food, wine, fashion and history, yet with none of old Europe's pretensions and all of the casual and vivacious Latin flare of South America.

San Telmo

My friend from Caracas + melted spoon musician

Watching, not waiting.

Headless

My new gourd

Curious

Buenos Aires skyline on a blustery day

San Isidro

Street Asado

New friends from the partido Radical who introduced me to Tucumán "choripan"

Jorge

Postcards from Argentina :: The Road North

2011-03-02T05:44:00.000-08:00

On the road with my little (big) bro!

Long straight roads, seemingly endless expanses of desert, roadside scatterings of shacks, and momentary glimpses into the world slipping past the window of the bus. 24 hours on the road invokes excitement and a feeling of anticipation in some, and boredom in others. Personally I relished this trip north to Buenos Aires and the chance to sit back and soak up the Argentinian countryside as we moved through it. Curious also about the other motorists who headed doggedly into the setting sun behind us, I watched and snapped, gratified by the occasional 1/1000 of a second that momentarily froze that fleeting river of determined faces.

Postcards from Argentina :: Summer in Patagonia

2011-02-28T07:50:00.000-08:00

Lago Moreno - post climb, pre asado.

Climbing, swimming, slack lining, asado, maté rituals, and late lingering sunsets...whether child, adult, or stuck somewhere in between, summer here is an invitation to forget responsibilities and relax into the playful meanderings of Patagonian summer.

maté

Scarlet

Learning the maté ritual

Island adventures

Cheese

Waiting

El Maestro

The Unseen Photographer :: Poker Faces

2011-02-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

I've been intending to write this post for awhile now. To delay any  longer would be negligence on my part, since I think the subject is  somewhat time sensitive. It goes without saying that I am not the first to postulate on the topic of cell phone photography, but it is something that comes to mind often, and that I was reminded of recently while visiting the SFMOMA where they have an excellent exhibition called "Exposed: voyeurism, surveillance, and the camera since 1870".

The following is a breakdown of my musings inspired by the aforementioned exhibit, and my recent forays into cell phone photography:
 

Thesis: Phone cameras could be to contemporary street photography,  what the 35mm in the hands of Walker Evans was to the street photography  of the 30's.

Relevance: In a time when phone cameras have become relatively  powerful, yet are still not recognized as cameras by a majority of the  world's population, there is a brief window into a new  realm of photographic possibilities. In a sense it is a voyeuristic window, but  not in the perverted sense that we associate with "voyeurism". Rather  it is a chance to take photos that we would not normally take with an  SLR - whether because SLR's are prohibited, or because pulling out a large camera would in some way disturb the subject and alter the scene, or simply  because the most readily available camera is our cell phone. 

Experiment: The experience that got me thinking about this took place in an old cafe  in Missoula, MT that runs a poker table into the wee hours of the  morning. Cameras are strictly forbidden there - a rule which is  enforced. However I soon found that my iPhone was seen as just a phone.  No negative camera associations. Over the course of a couple weeks, I alternately lost and won large stacks of chips, ate too many plates of gravy  smothered hash browns, and earned the nick name the "cell phone kid" at  the poker table. I was addicted though, and not just to the gambling and gravy, but to the thrill of capturing something that I had  a feeling no one had captured before (at least not here, not with these old characters). While everyone thought I  was busy texting or playing games on my phone, I was able to snap the following set  of images. Shots that could never have been taken with a 35mm camera. 

Conclusion: While you can debate the artistic or journalistic merit of these  photographs, I am sharing them in the hopes that they will spark your  curiosity (as they have mine) to explore what seems to be a unique window of time in  the life of photography, in which many of us carry a "camera" that is not in the eyes of others a "camera" and thus has given us a new outlet through which to free our vision and bring to light scenes which would otherwise be very difficult if not impossible to capture... 

The images above were taken using an iPhone4, and the Hipstamatic app.

Note: The inspiration for the title of this post comes from the following excerpt pertaining to the SFMOMA exhibit, "Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the camera since 1870".

"The Unseen Photographer"

"Photography has been central to voyeuristic looking since 1871, the year in which the gelatin dry plate was invented and cameras became small enough to be secreted in books, clothing, shoes, pistols, or canes. Although most "detective cameras" were advertised as harmless amusements for amateurs, the public found them troubling from the start, raising concerns about privacy that remain valid to this day. This section of the exhibition traces the use of the hidden camera in public spaces, from the turn-of-the-century amateur picture makers Paul Martin and Horace Engle, to modernist photographers Walker Evans and Weegee and contemporary artists such as Philip-Lorca diCorcia, whose series Heads, featured here, famously inspired a privacy lawsuit in 2006."

Source: http://www.sfmoma.org/press/releases/exhibitions/830#ixzz1E7yc3SRS 

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

San Francisco Fashion :: Palm Tree Detective

2011-02-10T05:36:00.000-08:00

Patagonia Climbing Adventures :: Día VI & VII

2011-02-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

Scott sending the roof on Imaginate, El Campanile.

 January 29

9:00 I awake with a carefully crafted plan to spend today relaxing around el Refugio shooting Sean and Nico slack-lining - and thereby avoodomg the 2+ hour bushwhack/scramble to the adjacent valley to climb el Campanile with Blake and Scott. It's not that I don't like climbing, but having surpassed my expectations yesterday by climbing a 5.10 pitch on M2 (broken hand in tow) as well getting a number of solid shots of the guys climbing, I feel validated in a rest day. 

10:00 Over a breakfast of fried sausage and polenta cakes topped with leftover pasta sauce, Blake and Scott proceed to convince me that, contrary to my suppositions, today is not a valid rest day. Breakfast finished, I begrudgingly shoulder camera gear and straggle out of camp in their all too chipper wake. 

16:00 "Validated rest days" be damned! The climbing on el Campanile is incredible. I have invented what may become a new technique in crack climbing. It is called the "cast jam". As the name implies, it consists in me jamming my broken hand into appropriately sized cracks and then using it to lock myself in while I go for the next hold. The only downside is that it requires a fairly specific crack size, and sometimes the "cast" (actually a heavily taped 6'' metal reinforced brace) gets kinda stuck. Also you actually have break your hand so you can get a cast, otherwise it is cheating. In any case, through utilizing this, and other unorthodox techniques I manage to "flash" (climb without falling - top roped) my hardest route to date (4 pitches of 5.10-5.10c), and end up on top of the highest spire in Frey with a view of Argentina surrounding, Chile to the west, and a pair of condors circling in the valley below. 

17:00 Fixing a rope and lowering off the anchor at the top, I agree to a final stint "jugging" on what I have by now determined to be a very suspect 3 year old 8mm rope. Hanging in space some 30 stories above the ground, I attempt to perform some Cirque du Soleil moves to keep myself from spinning in the wrong direction as Scott sends the roof on Imaginate. The resulting photos (above/below) leave me whooping and laughing triumphantly!

Imaginate

View from the cave

Strategizing

Imaginate

Obligatory Condor shot

Scott on M2

Blake on M2

Evening boulder session

January 30

13:00 We make a mad dash decent from Frey, fueled by fresh oatmeal cookies from el Refugio, and the prospect of showers, chapstick, and a fresh pair of pants that does not have the crotch ripped out of them. To clarify, I have been wearing the same pair of pants for 8 days - the last 4 of which they have been crotchless due too abusive climbing and hiking on my part. Also, having forgotten chapstick I have been using peanut butter as a delicious but less than stylish substitute to sooth my cracking lips. We make the decent in less than 2 hours, running groups of trekkers off the trail as we scramble across ravines and huck streams in a dirtbag climber rendition of the final scenes of the Last of the Mohicans.

18:00 I part ways (as planned) with Blake and Scott, as they head south in search of more mountains, and I prepare to hole up editing photos for the next week in El Bolson.

Scott - night solos the spire next to camp in this 30 sec exposure.

Patagonia Climbing Adventures :: Día IV & V

2011-02-03T08:20:00.000-08:00

Lucia on Aguja Frey

Lucia leading "La Fisura de Jim"

Juan, Fernan and Lucia take shelter from the wind as Nico rests below the crux of "Lost Fingers"

Lost Fingers - 5.11

Blake soloing on La Fisura de Jim

Nico Favresse and Sean Villanueva free an aid roof on Aguja Frey

Hanging out in my cave on el Campinile enjoying the view while waiting to photograph Blake and Scott on Imaginate

Patagonia Climbing Adventures :: Día II & III

2011-02-02T09:57:00.000-08:00


Blake Herrington on El Piramidal

January 25

We climbed.

Gear prep

Blake enjoying another route en El Piramidal

Tuna + mayo sandwiches. Emphasis on the mayo.

Scott Bennett on El Piramidal

Scott sending one of the tougher pitches we found on El Piramidal


Bloody wrists - vale la pena

January 26

8:00 Sunrise in Frey, and I can't sleep. Sunburn on my shoulders and my general stench, combine with the whipping wind outside to bring me crawling out of the tent. Yesterday was good. I tested out the hand on a couple of pitches and we topped out on El Piramidal tower. Hand held up OK. Spent the rest of the day jugging pitches (ascending a fixed rope via mechanical means) and shooting Scott and Blake. Challenging lighting conditions, but hopefully salvageable. I should have made more time to prepare for the trip, but Japan and holidays back in NC made it difficult.

12:00 Today Blake and Scott will climb two of the tougher routes on Torre Principal (No Te Olvidarmos and Sinestro Total). Ambitious to say the least. I have opted spend the day shooting lifestyle shots - or in other words, hanging around the Refugio drinking matte, swimming in the lake, napping and stuffing my face. In no particular order.

17:00 Folks sit in a scattered circle around tables with route maps, while a guitar, harmonica and drum are passed around - occasionally accompanied by voices singing in French, Spanish, Portuguese, German or English. Every once in awhile a particularly interesting show will come on the "Frey TV" (the tower some hundred yards from camp) eliciting yells of encouragement (or cat calls) as a climber wrestles with a crux on one of the half dozen routes that spackle the tower's face.

sleeping in

the band

Lucia studying the route guide

rope modifications


El Refugio

Looking back down the valley from El Piramidal

22:00 I was thinking to myself just this morning that I wished I was more experienced with climbing in general, and the gear I'm using in particular. I've only just started shooting and climbing seriously a couple months ago. Well, tomorrow's the test. In the morning I will get up early to meet my new friend Julian, Lucia and their crew of Argentine climbers to try and nail a couple shots on the Aguja Frey...

Patagonia Climbing Adventures :: Día I

2011-02-01T09:32:00.000-08:00

El Refugio Frey

January 24

11:00 We arrived yesterday in Buenos Aires. From there we caught another flight to Bariloche (located in northern Patagonia) and spent the night sleeping on a pebble beach on the outskirts of town. We woke to the sound of weed whackers and a beautiful view of the lake and mountains that bookend it to the west and east.

Morning

Today we hop a bus to the trail head, and from there hike on to Frey - where we will set up base camp for the next week's climbing adventures.

Blake and Scott

17:00 Hiking. Sort of. A ravenous covey of flies, spurred into action by my irresistible stench is hot on my trail. We are doing battle. Four hours into a three hour hike and I now find myself face to face with the harsh realization that I am both the lame duck as well as the fat kid on this expedition. Not only am I out of shape, but with a broken hand and a mind and body still befuddled and in the grips of the flu, my current predicament - abandoned by my companions and veritably crawling up the mountain - should come as no surprise.

Mired in self pity and petty thoughts of murder directed at the flies and the occasional "in shape" passerby, I hit a new low as, sloughing off my pack, I proceed to guiltily stash half a chocolate bar in a convenient nook a few hundred yards up the trail. This inspires me to put the pack back on and even serves to lighten my mood for all of the thirty seconds it takes to devour the loot.

With the weight of a weeks supply of provisions, climbing, camping and photo gear (and a disproportionate amount of coffee and chocolate) begging me to set my pack down again, my mind strays back in time (aprox. three hours) to when a younger, stronger, more optomistic me had commented blithely to Blake (one of the "in shape" people) that "I would rather pack heavy and have plenty of food, than go hungry!". Ahh the foolishness of youth. At this point I would throw the rest of the food into the ravine below and canabalize another hiker when I get to the top. If only I could devise some sort of trap to snare them - "Hola!" my dark wanderings are cut short by a cheerful greeting. A group of middle aged Argentines have pressed themselves as afar away from my staggering path as they can; motivated laess by politness than by fear that my drunken sailor's walk and ponderous bear of a pack could easily knock them overboard.

As the trees thin into subalpine terrain, it would be nice to stop and appreciate the view (read: throw up in the bushes) but I am spurred on by the fear of being overtaken again by the not too distant Snookie of a creature with whom I have already exchanged the lead several times.

Cresting a final ridge my sullen mood is shattered by the sound of a guitar, cheerful laughter, and the bustling jingle of camp life. Desperately trying to hide my fatigue in the presence of my future friends, I up my pace to double shuffel and nearly bowl over the dark haired angle rushing to great me with a cold glass of nectar of the gods (which in retrospect I think was actually apple juice). Unsure of whether I have died and gone to heaven, or arrived in Frey, I shrug off my pack and collapse in welcome relief on the edge of the lake.

This place is to be my photographic playground for the next week, and what a playground it is...

Kicking it in the evening and watching other climbers on the Aguja Frey - aka "the Frey TV"

Dentro El Refugio

Dinner en el Refugio

Colorado Climbing:: Thunder Ridge and El Dorado

2011-01-22T12:07:00.000-08:00

I'm currently sitting in the airport in Miami waiting to meet up with climbing cohorts Blake Herrington and Scott Bennet. From here we will continue on to Buenos Aires, and from there down into the northern part of Patagonia where we will spend a week shooting and climbing for an article for "Climbing Magazine".

I'll be checked out of the internet world for a bit, but in the interim here are a few shots from the past couple months of climbing in the CO area!

Appalachia:: Winter on the Farm

2011-01-20T18:26:00.000-08:00

Ghosts of Bannek - a music video

2011-01-09T10:50:00.000-08:00

"It's time to move on beyond the shadows of the meadow and forever-more live onward, etc..."

I filmed this video on a whim, inspired by the song and the old farmhouse that I was staying at with my friends Tails and Sarah. While I'm far from being a videographer, we had a blast shooting it, and I wanted to share it with you all. 

Ghosts of Bannek is an orginal track by Rosco Wuestewald and his band Onward Etc.

Check out more of their stuff at:

myspace.com/​onwardetc

Tools:

Canon 5d MkII

Canon 7d

Canon 24mm TS 3.5

Canon 50mm 1.4

Canon 70-200mm 2.8IS

Canon 16-35mm 2.8

The Adventures of Larry "ninja" Poppins and the Upside Down Baby Elephant

2010-12-24T12:44:00.000-08:00

After spending a month traveling, lypesing, goofing, befriending, drinking, and sushiing our way through Japan, it was with bewildered surprise that I found myself in Tokyo on my last full day with only a couple of real photo shoots to show for the trip.

In a panicked frenzy I grabbed all things good in the house and accompanied by my partners in crime (turned models) we headed for the rooftops and subways for a final day of shooting.

Neighbors stared, necks craned, a helicopter circled, suits were ruffled, and feathers huffed, but our shared laughs and the resulting photos made for an epic last day in Japan...

Bathroom Ninjas

2010-12-17T12:04:00.000-08:00

Sometimes pissing a couple people off is unavoidable. Especially when the light is this good. Pun intended, of course.

Holes in Walls, Forgotten Faces

2010-12-10T09:10:00.000-08:00

Based on what I observed in my first two weeks in Tokyo, everyone wore a black suit, walked with their eyes lowered, and worked in an office building.

Venturing out of the business district I found hole in the wall bars and sidewalk luncheons where faces were well worn but still laughing. Eyes that were wary, but still twinkled with mischief.

Faces that were alive.

Roadtrip to the birthplace of the Ninjas

2010-12-06T18:02:00.000-08:00

After three weeks spent terrorizing the streets of Tokyo, Ivar and I made a break for the countryside accompanied by our long lost brothers Yusuke and Reo.

The ensuing road trip was epic in nature, and would find us huddled in a tent in a high mountainsnow storm, relaxing in steaming mountainside onsens, chasing and being chased by monkeys, and trekking to the birth place of the Ninja.

Tokyo Fashion :: III

2010-11-29T06:18:00.000-08:00

Tokyo Fashion :: II

2010-11-24T13:05:00.000-08:00

Tokyo Fashion :: I

2010-11-21T21:19:00.000-08:00

Postcards from Japan

2010-11-11T06:52:00.000-08:00

I can't help it, sometimes I take the obvious shots. 

The following are a few happy snaps from the last couple weeks wandering the streets with friends, old and new, exploring a city whose bounds I have yet to find...

Japan I :: On the run in Tokyo

2010-11-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

The Man on the Train

Shelter and Style

Beauty Face booth

Kiss

Shibuya

Corona Light

Waiting

Sleeping.

"Eye Make Like Doll"

Pimps

Punks

Shinjuku

________ moment

Eye of the Tiger

Watching you Watching me

On the Run

Accessorize

Ramen

the Rush

Hemingway?

Hello Kitty

Outback

Coffee and Cigarettes

Cat Woman

Sissified Artist vs - Wild Man

2010-10-27T22:38:00.000-07:00

"Hey Forest, not to freak you out...but don't fall here." Scott calls as to me, as I gingerly balance on a spine of rock that moments before he had pranced across.

Earlier that morning, Scott, Blake and I loaded up our packs with climbing gear and left over pizza and headed out from Denver into the Lost Creek Wilderness. Two days mucking around out in the wilds with a couple of serious climbers was enough to expose rather blatantly what a sissified artist I've become. I never thought I'd use those words to describe myself. Yet as I panted up the trail to the approach, doding imaginary rattle snakes under every rock, inwardly weeping as shimmering mirages of cold beers dissipated, and eventually clawed my way up craggy faces that Blake and Scott very nearly walked up, I realized I was a lot less tough than I had thought. Oh and I also realized I have a slight fear of heights. That said, by the end of our time together I found myself "jumaring" up ropes to shoot from what I fondly refer to as "killing heights"; as well as laybacking, finger jamming, and blood smearing my way up a couple of pitches I would have scoffed at the idea of climbing a couple days earlier.

In all this I found myself frequently chewing on my own advice that I so love to sling around..."photograph what you know".

I do not "know" climbing, and it showed in my struggles to position myself, anticipate the "crux" moves, and execute the shots I had in mind.

Of course, the best way to overcome this is to learn to climb. And so that is what I set out to do.

Yet in doing so I found myself in the catch-22 that exists at the confluence of "doing" and "photographing".I cannot climb to the limit of my abilities with a camera slung over my shoulder, and I cannot photograph the way I need to without the ability to climb and position myself.

Enter the struggle between the "sissified artist" in me (who drinks orange-mocha-frappes and wears Sperry's and linen) and the ever-present "wild man" (who kicks cameras into the Aegean sea and kayaks off waterfalls). Did I mention I'm a Gemini?

While the symbiotic growth of artist and adventurer is is not always easily achieved, it is certainly something to aspire to, and I relish the trips such as this one that push the two to a head...

Inked

2010-10-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

Photographing my neighbor Trevor has served as a reminder to me of why I love what I do.

Hearing the buzzing of the needle one day, I wandered next door and, curious about what I found, asked Trevor if I could photograph him working. Prior to this we had only exchanged greetings in passing, but he invited me in, and over the course of the past couple of weeks I got to know a new friend.

Trevor's story is fascinating. Too long to recount here, and not mine to tell. But getting to sit and watch his mind at work, witnessing his vision transferred onto skin, gave me a new appreciation for an art which I had little understanding of before.

Time and again  the camera has afforded me these sorts of opportunities to immerse myself, however  briefly, into the lives of folks I wouldn't otherwise have known. For that I am grateful. 

Thank you Trevor.

Huckleberry Finness

2010-10-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

draft beer, not soldiers

2010-10-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

Granny Panties, Gloves and Galoshes

2010-10-04T21:47:00.000-07:00

Renegade Roadtrip

2010-10-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

Wet jeans and out of focus landscapes in the OBX

2010-09-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Somewhere between trying to remember how to calculate my hyperfocal focus and getting drenched in by a rouge wave courtesy of Hurricane Igor, I remembered why I love landscape photography.

After a jam packed week in trash town USA - see earlier post - Doug and I made a break from the city and headed South into my old stomping grounds of NC. Quiet evening shoot on Pea Island (Outer Banks) + some good North Carolina BBQ and sweat tea proved to be the perfect combo to wrap the week up...

D-Johnson gettin his ankles wet

your truly - courtesy of D-Johnson

Evidence of your existence...

2010-09-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

chairs

Virginia Beach is a fascinatingly strange place. While my reason for being there was to assist my good friend Doug Johnson on a basic photo workshop, I was also able to cut out time to spend a couple evenings exploring the back alleys behind 'the strip'. What went on behind the gaudy bustle of the shops and restaurants on the strip fascinated me. Drawn by glimpses of tired cooks catching a break, and the dichotomy of the seldom seen exteriors juxtaposed against the skyline of Atlantic Avenue I followed a trail of evidence that spoke of a different sort of existence...

bored

the early birds


strange awakenings


hidden doorbell


the Poo Poo Inn


edgewater


waiting


almost


the fun house


just married

What goes in your camera bag when you travel?

2010-09-18T22:47:00.000-07:00

Room with a view - Sacred Valley of Peru. 125mm f8

One of the coolest things about being a photographer nowadays is that given a bit of initiative, a laptop, a camera and internet you can work from anywhere in the world. Your office can fit in a daypack.
Per your recent requests, the following is a list of what goes in my camera bag when I travel:

Camera Gear:
- Canon 5D MarkII body

- Canon L-Series 70-200mm (f2.8 IS)
- Canon L-Series 24mm Tilt- Shift (f3.5)
- Canon L-Series 16-35 (f2.8)
- Canon 50mm (f1.4)

The Blue Mosque from the Galata tower - Istanbul, Turkey. 200mm f2.8

Backpack: Kata Bumblebee UL-222 (holds 2 bodies, 3 lenses, tripod and 17 inch laptop + misc storage). UL stands for "Ultra Light". This pack rocks. Light, comfortable, durable, and stylish.
Computer: 17 in Macbook Pro.

Software: Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5

External Hard Drives: 2x500GB portable Hitachia rugged drives (type varies - but preferably someting that can survive being dropped and having beer spilt on it)

Greek Fisherman - South of Thessaloniki, Greece. 20mm f5

La Routa de Los Pueblos Blancos - Andalucia, Spain. 24mm f11

Tripod:

Gitzo 5 piece carbon fiber 6X series I Traveler

Really Right Stuff BH-25 Ultralight with quick release

Miscellaneous:

- Memory Cards: Gepe waterproof CF card case with 50GB of assorted 8GB and 16GB SanDisk Extreme CF cards
- 2 stop soft edge split ND (Galen Rowell - Singray)

- Cable Release

- Sensor cleaning blower bulb

- Memory Card reader

- Model releases in English and native language of country I'm traveling to

- B+W circular polarizer

- Headlamp

- Copies of ID's and important documents

- Backup debit card
- iPod/headphones
- Outlet adapters

Fishing the Aegean - Istanbul, Turkey. 160mm f2.8

My dirty little secret...

2010-09-12T18:40:00.000-07:00

for the birds

...I sold my 5D mark II and got an iPhone 4! The days of the DSLR are numbered. Who wants to carry around one of those clunky things anyway? Not me!

Ok fine I didn't really sell my 'for reals' camera, but I've been having a blast Chase Jarvis wannabeing around with the iPhone over the past couple of months and thought it was worth a post!

glacier's remains


derby girls

friends

pride

dusky

paper airplanes

big and small

wet

derby scene

tough


back for more

Keep an eye peeled for the next post (I promise it won't take me two months to get this one up!) with images from this summer's photographic adventures - think Radio Flyer tri-cycles, super hero capes, 4 garbage bags of stuffed animals, a homemade raft, buffalo, granny panties, mayhem in the National Parks and more...

*These images were taken using the "Hipstamatic" app for the iPhone4*

Bonnaroo: Phoenix on fire

2010-07-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite bands this year, Phoenix sung the sun to sleep at Which tent, closing the stage out in style in front of a packed crowd.

If you haven't checked them out yet you should...http://www.myspace.com/wearephoenix

Bonnaroo 2010: The Music Makers

2010-07-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

Bonnaroo = 8 stages. 4 days of music. 75,000 fans. 178 acts.

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros:

Tokyo Police Club:

Dave Mathews Band:

Trombone Shorty:

Gwar:

Dead Mou5e:

John Butler Trio:

B.O.B:

Kid Cudi:

Michael Franti & Spearhead:

The XX:

Damian Marley and Nas:

Rise Against:

The Nationals:

OK Go:

The Dan Deacon Ensemble:

The Temper Trap:

Lotus:

If you're not bored yet swing by the good book fan page and peruse a heap more photos from the festival:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=456832&id=290426025401&l=f4bdf7cc4d

Bonnaroo 2010: A Fan's View

2010-07-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

Buckle up...

Which Stage Crowd

The Other Tent

After the rains

sportsin it up between shows

The dressing gown crew

Afternoon nap

Hamocks + shade = sweet

In it

The Oasis

Magician or Dunce?

Phoenix at sunset

Phoenix crowd

Ferris's Wheel

Kings of Leon

Campground walk

yum

Garbage can with a view

The Fountain

Flaming Lips fan

A tent full of beer. good idea

Easily entertained

Gumby and Darco danceoff

B.O.B. crowd

Silent Disco

Gwar victim

...and more

Sunrise at the Lunar Stage

Darco breaking it down...

Lot's more photos over on the good book fan page...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=456274&id=290426025401&l=63e48adc19