BlogStrong

My New Website Drops Today!

2011-03-17T20:52:00.002-04:00

You may be interested to know that I have a brand-new website, designed by Daniel Carter, that went live this afternoon. It features landscape work that was previously found on my main page, my wedding portfolio, a selection of portraits (including maybe of you!), various assorted projects, and a portfolio of heretofore unseen theater photography. It's all at www.robstrong.com. I hope you enjoy it, and that you spread word of it if you are so moved.

This blog will continue to be updated very infrequently.

Postcards for Sale!

2010-12-03T12:11:00.003-05:00

Friends, followers, and countrymen: I am pleased to offer for public sale POST ROAD, a set of 12 color postcards depicting my cross-country travels. Contained in a hand-lettepressed (by me!) envelope, they are heavyweight, with ample space on the back for postage, message, and address.

They are for sale at my brand-new Etsy store (you can't miss them: there's only one product on offer). Their debut coincides with a new group show at the PhotoStop gallery in White River Junction, where, for the month of December, interested people of the Upper Valley can buy the cards singly or in sets, and purchase 11x14 prints of a mostly-overlapping selection of photographs.

Here are some images of the postcard set, and an installation view of the cards and prints at PhotoStop:

I went to the Dakotas

2010-10-15T22:25:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the delay. I have put six new galleries on facebook, containing images from my summertime road trip to the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. They are organized into thematic categories. Click on the words at the end of this sentence to see more of: Road, Museum, Street, Food, Fair, Camp.

Below, a sample from each category.

Bigger Pictures

2010-04-17T00:06:00.004-04:00

Monkeyed around with the layout of my website to give the pictures a little more room; this is about as big as they can get without exceeding people's MacBook display resolutions.

Thus: http://www.robstrong.com

Let me know if you have any problems, or if any of the images look funny to you.

Also, recently dug these two 4x5 frames out from hiding and had them processed. From last October's drive through Texas:

Remember Summer?

2010-03-05T19:12:00.000-05:00

Sarah Overton is living it.

Omniblog

2010-03-03T22:36:00.003-05:00

Patient readers, I'm sorry I have not had anything for you since November. Here's a megaupdate containing such things as might please you. (If you are a diligent follower of my facebooking, perhaps nothing here will be brand new to you. If it's any consolation, the photos below are displayed much larger than they are in the corresponding facebook albums.)

This past weekend, I took a snowy train ride to New York City to see friends, theater, and museums. Click to see an entire facebook album from this trip.

At the end of January, I dropped into Cambridge to see Gatz (again) with Tommy Dickie and the belowpictured Sarah Hughes. Facebook album.

Three and a half years ago I went to Turkey and Greece, and just now I got around to putting some of that stuff online. So it's a little old, but it will put you in mind of beaches during this dark time of year, and that's something. Click through to the album for a lot more action.

I had nothing to do with the production of the following video, but I was there, and I can confirm that the whole escapade was just as beautiful as this footage (especially the soundtrack) makes it seem.

A very Super 8 Wedding from Mark Mulligan on Vimeo.

If you've scrolled down this far, I have a prize for you: a legendary 2006 short film co-starring me as a Russian gangster. It has only recently come to the attention of the internet, and I could not be more pleased.

Steroid Tattoos: A Short Film by Sloan Breeden from Mike Andrick on Vimeo.

Coney Island

2009-11-24T14:59:00.002-05:00

The beach in November. Click here to see many more, including ones with people jumping, and one with a dog jumping.

Dept. of Coincidence Dept.

2009-11-14T11:41:00.003-05:00

See the groomsman escorting Jessica Talley up the aisle in Pennsylvania three weeks ago?

Turns out I had met him once before, shooting at a climbing wall for the Valley News in the spring of 2007:

Three more galleries

2009-11-08T16:36:00.003-05:00

Here are three more collections of pictures from the last month. First, the road down (including the bike race). Second, the bachelor party and rehearsal dinner. Finally, the northbound return.

Marfa, Texas:

Mark and Annie Omnibus

2009-11-07T09:38:00.002-05:00

Those of you who stalk this blog in anticipation of even more Mark and Annie content (or, for that matter, just more pictures of Joe Buglewicz getting beer poured on his head), your day has come. Go see this Facebook album for one hundred of my favorites.

And Other Birds

2009-10-26T22:01:00.001-04:00

Nature Photography from the Driver's Seat

T-Bird

2009-10-22T23:50:00.004-04:00

Championship trophy to Jessica for driving all 370 of today's miles and the last 100 of yesterday's. She's one day ahead of me on the hamfluenza agenda, so I hope to look and feel this good tomorrow:

She stood valiantly by with a flashlight (albeit pointed the wrong way) during Monday's blowout: (a million thanks to James for invaluable assistance)

The forests and farms of Pennsylvania stood no chance against her advances:

The Porcine Complaint

2009-10-21T08:46:00.002-04:00

Lack of updates due to lack of pictures and lack of energy. Those two lacks due to condition of Swine flu in both Passenger and Driver. Satiate your content-lust at Dave Wanczyk's Dr. True's Soup and Read.

Joe Buglewicz

2009-10-19T01:08:00.004-04:00

Many know him as one of America's top-10 photographers. Fewer know that he is also a top-25 photographic subject.

No Bugs were harmed during the making of this blog post.

UPDATE: I just looked at timestamps and realized that Sloan Breeden took the first picture with my camera while I was getting something from my car and told him to shoot for a while. Way to steal my thunder, buddy. I was pretty proud of myself for a while there.

The Mulligans

2009-10-18T10:58:00.001-04:00

The wedding of a thousand photographers. And it was worth every one.

Rehearsal

2009-10-17T15:06:00.001-04:00

Happy Bachelorday

2009-10-16T12:11:00.000-04:00

Marfa

2009-10-14T20:39:00.001-04:00

Even better in the sunshine.

Somehow even longstanding businesses in this town feel like they were designed by Donald Judd.

Pepsirise over White's City

2009-10-13T21:20:00.003-04:00

Bunking down for the night in a near-deserted campground at the mouth of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Deer are just all over the place.

Beeves

2009-10-13T21:13:00.002-04:00

I drove this dirt road through central New Mexico for an hour today, and the only traffic I encountered in any direction were these two.

Four Corners

2009-10-13T01:26:00.001-04:00

one rube

24 hour bike race

2009-10-11T18:23:00.001-04:00

Moab, Utah

A meeting of the minds

2009-10-09T23:42:00.002-04:00

David Wanczyk (left) and a Chicken discuss the pros and cons of street-crossing in South Park, Colorado. Right after this picture was taken they ran at each other, full speed, and then at the last second Wanczyk veered left.

Heart of Darkness

2009-10-09T08:47:00.003-04:00

This is the abandoned motel at the Center of America

Kansas, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado

2009-10-09T01:23:00.003-04:00

Sorry for sparse posting. Driving 12+ hours a day.

It snowed in Kansas and Colorado today!

To Kansas

2009-10-08T08:30:00.003-04:00

Long day on the road Yesterday.

The most satisfying restaurant in America is attached to a Marathon gas station, convenience store, and tanning salon in May's Lick, Kentucky. I've now been there three times. Behold our lunch yesterday: $14.07 worth of Chicken, Sweet Tea, Mashed, Bicuits, Gravy, and most of all, Fried:

Layover day #2

2009-10-07T01:14:00.002-04:00

Again, no pictures; still in Athens. Booked some future lodging today, including here and here. Tried to book a night here, but no room at the cabin. Tomorrow: to Kansas.

Layover day #1

2009-10-06T00:52:00.004-04:00

No new pictures today. Stayed in Athens and worked on updating my wedding website, here.

Here's one that didn't make the final cut, mainly because it implicates me.

West Virginia, Country Roads

2009-10-04T23:43:00.010-04:00

Drove from Harrisburg PA to Athens OH, none of it on the interstates.

watchoutwatchoutwatchoutWATCHOUT:

Although I am a noted lover of the arts, it was 11:00 AM on a Sunday, so I couldn't get a first-hand sense of the Artistry offered here:

A couple of good sun-cloud situations:

I exited Pennsylvania's southwestern corner near the tiny hamlet of Deep Valley, and drove "straight" across West Virginia's northern panhandle, less than 30 miles from border to border. The best hour of the day's drive:

From the tops of the ridges:

Via innumerable switchbacks:

Down past the farms:

Into the hollows below:

And back up to the next ridge; repeat.

Every picture today brought to you from the driver's seat (edit: except the strip club).

And it begins

2009-10-03T23:27:00.010-04:00

Great start to the trip today. It was pouring rain in Massachusetts when I left at 8:00, but I still made near-record time to New York, which enabled me to drop in on Lily King.

Ate lunch in the car on the way from Astoria to midtown to see Elevator Repair Service's work-in-progress showing of The Sun Also Rises. Amazing. Take any opportunity to see anything they do. I'm not a theater critic, but I can state pretty confidently that everything they do is perfect, and is my favorite thing. Sarah Hughes assistant directs!

Now we're having pictures:

The crappy little man who manages this crappy little gas station in Blue Ball (not a typo), Pennsylvania came out to give me crap after I took this picture. I tried being nice and explaining that I just enjoyed the light. He said he didn't care about light. He asked me what company I was with. I explained that I am a free man and that this is America. He took a picture of me with his telephone. I smiled like a jackass and waited while he took too long, and then I just drove away. He told me not to come back.

But then, a scant 2 miles later, faith in America restored, as the town of New Holland (definitely in Amish country) was throwing a carnival literally in the middle of downtown, right smack in the street.

This deer was talking and nodding, doing the whole "Step Right Up, Folks" routine for the airgun game.

I ate these. They're five Oreo cookies, batter-dipped and deep-fried, dusting of powdered sugar. A little soggy, but still.

Gas stations and I were really hitting it off tonight. Probably because I just saw this on Wednesday, here.

New method of posting pictures. Too big? Not working? Let me know!

Tomorrow: I bear gifts to Athens.

New Camera + New Year = New Video

2009-01-06T18:54:00.001-05:00

New Year's Week, 2008-2009 from Rob Strong on Vimeo.

One Thousand Hundred

2008-11-21T23:11:00.016-05:00

Anyone who knows me well enough to frequent this blog (all six of you), will know that I have a great fondness for driving, towns with interesting names, round numbers, representative democracy, and the Mountain State. Therefore you can imagine how pleased I was to arrive in the town of Barrackville, WV, just two days after our recent election, with my odometer ticking over to 100,000 miles. Dig:

(You might have to click and enlarge in order to see the mileage.)

Of course, West Virginia was a red state this cycle, but Barrackville's Marion County went blue by 117 votes out of a total 23,119 cast.

Next goal: catch up with Mark Mulligan, who recently hit 150,000. Might be a challenge, since he says he's put 75,000 on it in just 3 years.

As a little anniversary present for "Rose Marie", I've compiled some shots of good times along the road (special thanks to guest photographers Annie Snodgrass and Hannah Chodos).

With her toes in the pacific:
Coming down Lombard St., America's crookedest road:
Vegas!
Driving through a redwood:
Golden Gate Bridge:
Sloan in Big Bend:
Tommy and Andrew, hijinks at a rest stop:
Here's to the next 528 million feet.

Eight is Enough

2008-09-09T22:36:00.003-04:00

Lately I had the pleasure of taking a drive out to Chicago and back, via such places as Bliss, New York and Delightful, Ohio. Digital pics from the trip are on Facebook, so go see 'em there.

Herewith I present the newest litter from my 4x5, eight shots in all (very pleased with myself for not screwing the process up -- no light leaks). Click to enlarge; please tell me if/what you like.

Hanover, NH:

Framingham, MA:

Skaneateles, NY:

Western New York State (I think):

Also Western NY:

Fredonia, NY:

Living Waters Church, somewhere in Michigan:

Cazenovia, NY:

Wedding, pt. 2

2008-07-09T12:46:00.003-04:00

So, as you may have gathered, I was at a wedding last weekend and I ruined my kit. Good thing the pictures on the card survived, and good thing that Best Buy in Bangor opened at 9 AM the next morning!

There were fireworks...

There was dancing...

And then these twin brothers from Cleveland just beat each other unmercifully in the shrubs.

The Dos and Don'ts of Digital Wedding Photography

2008-07-06T11:04:00.003-04:00

1) DON'T fall in the ocean with all of your camera equipment the night before the wedding.

Eight x 4 by 5

2008-05-16T16:08:00.004-04:00

Swan and Cows:

Maine:

England:
Right Next To The One Above:

Boston:

Newcastle:

Maine, again:
England once more:

Atop Cannon Mountain

2008-05-16T16:04:00.002-04:00

My Franco-English Adventure

2008-05-12T14:58:00.005-04:00

Went to Paris with Rachael:

Then shot my cousin Jenny's wedding:

Then walked across England with my Dad:

Two Pictures, Two Links

2008-02-12T23:57:00.002-05:00

in Maine:

"People, people... seriously. These things need to not be here. Do I have to make a third sign?":

Artlog.com, a new art community website started by a friend of mine. It's very well built, and there are tons of great events and galleries listed, primarily in New York City. Certainly worth registering if you dig art or live in that big apple.

There's never been a better time to start reading plays about Betsy Ross, if for no other reason than that my friend Cliff Campbell seems to be writing one per day; he just started, so you only have three to catch up on. http://thebetsyrossplays.blogspot.com/

Two links

2008-01-06T23:15:00.000-05:00

1: My new website. If you have a blog yourself, could you do a favor and link to it? It would do wonders for my google results. Thanks a million.
2: My first publication in an art magazine.

out to Chicago and back

2007-10-30T17:16:00.000-04:00

some more

2007-10-22T22:52:00.000-04:00

Coney Island Redux

2007-10-09T16:29:00.000-04:00

This time on film.

You can't quite make it out here, but the billboards read "The Future Of Coney Island".

This is what you get if you ask about my wooden camera: you get your picture taken. Thank you for inquiring/posing.

It turns out that Jessica is the freak!

debate/circus

2007-10-09T16:27:00.001-04:00

There's no people like TV people.

Tunbridge World's Fair

2007-09-19T19:19:00.000-04:00

First of all, those who like photos and blogs: check out Blogger's newest feature, Play, which consists of a continuous slide show of whatever images are being uploaded to Blogger at the moment.

Now a couple of 4x5 portraits from the Fair:

This would have been 4x5, but I had a light leak problem. So much for the error-free streak:

The 4x5 negative for this one came back completely unexposed:

Not at the fair; tennis courts near my house:

Also not at the fair; this is actually the loading dock of Color Services Inc., in Needham, MA, where I get my negatives processed. Maybe if I keep linking to their page they'll give me a discount?

seven for seven?

2007-09-10T23:36:00.000-04:00

Very pleased with this batch from the view camera; no glaring technical errors on my part, no equipment malfunctions, and the pictures basically look like I hoped they'd look. (I implore you: click, make bigger)

(Note the wacky depth of field in this next one: that's what you get with a front-swing camera movement):

And lest you forget the kind of crazy detail you get with 4x5 inch film, here's a moderately hi-res scan of the warning sign in the last image:

September

2007-09-03T19:31:00.002-04:00

I can't figure out a way to satisfactorily make these show up both big and sharp on the main blog page, so I will repeat my invitation: click to make 'em bigger.

catskills: the good, and the bad & ugly

2007-08-23T00:02:00.001-04:00

Kettleskill Falls. The two white specks, lower middle of the frame, are Liz and Eric. Dahl.

Dahl's response: "Now listen closely children and let me tell you a cautionary tale. When you graduate college there are a wonderful plethora of choices you can make! You can choose to be the ambitious banker, working long hours into the night so that you can pay for lovely-wonderful delicacies like health insurance and a house! You could also choose to be the diligent grad-student, industriously advancing your education/delaying your immersion into the terrifying real world. Or you can be the studious paralegal, making money and logging the necessary hours to pad your resume, so as to have a shot at Yale, the glorious Xanadu of college graduates. Or, you can choose the lazy artist's life, making money by teaching rich children what they should already know and then frittering that money away on flaccid personal "artistic" projects and cheap beer to keep the demons at bay. IS THAT WHAT YOU FUCKING WANT?! DO NOT AVERT YOUR EYES FROM THIS UNSHAVEN MONSTROSITY!! THIS WILL BE YOU!! REPENT!! REPENT OR DIE!!!"

Busy weekend

2007-08-08T17:11:00.000-04:00

The Savannah Theater Project was up here to do a workshop and a couple of performances at Dartmouth, and I let them crash at my place, in return for which they let me take pictures of them. Those of you who are live in or near New York City (readership survey indicates that this number is between 0 and 6, give or take half a dozen) should go see their play, "Freedom! and the Sticky End of Make-Believe", which is happening three times at the Fringe Festival, this weekend, August 10-11-12. Click here for details.

This is what their training looks like:

This is what their show looks like:
This is Hannah sitting in a fortunate shaft of sunlight:

This is Sarah Hughes in the audience:

And this is from a series of headshots and portraits of Sarah:

well, there are a couple ways you could go...

2007-07-28T20:46:00.001-04:00

Let's say you live on Loire Ave in Poway, California, outside of San Diego (above). You're trying to get to a house on Charlotte Terrace in Ridgefield, New Jersey (below). When you look at the map to try to figure out how to get there, you wouldn't think it should matter which house on Charlotte Terrace you're trying to get to, but you'd be wrong.

If you're heading for house #1, you'll take a right at the end of your street, and drive through Las Vegas, Denver, and Iowa. To get to house #2, take a left, drive through Phoenix, Albuquerque, and St. Louis.

Both trips will take the same amount of time (1 day and 18 hours), but route #1 is 29 miles longer (2,839 vs 2,810 for route #2).

Next time you get directions from Google Maps, try dragging the blue route line or the start/finish icons; the map will dynamically adjust your route and tell you how long and how far as you drag.

IV x V : color

2007-07-24T23:03:00.000-04:00

These two updates are from the roadtrip, with the tachihara wooden camera. I'm not convinced yet that I'm very good at scanning color neg film. You are encouraged to click on the small pictures you see now in order to see bigger of the same.

Morro Bay, California. This picture, of all I've shot on the 4x5 so far, comes closest both to how I imagined the photo when I saw the scene & framed the shot, and to the kind of photos I'd like to keep making. Kind of landscapey, but definitely not a nature shot, a little mysterious, but tack sharp and full of detail. Imagine it about five feet high and mounted to an aluminum sheet.

Weird color cast and falloff, right? Not sure, but I think there might be a light leak somewhere in my operation. This the side of a train in Newport, Washington, on the Idaho border. Actually, you can see the same car in the background of this shot.

In or around Roy, New Mexico.

IV x V : black and white

2007-07-24T22:56:00.000-04:00

Aspens in the Grand Canyon National Park.

Mark and Jackie, or, "Return of the Prodigal Son, Warrenton, VA, 1866". I figure if you're going to add hats, jackets, and canes, you might as well go all the way and digitally sepia-tone the damn thing. Funny story about this one: the neg (in its paper sleeve) sat in a ziplock full of melted icewater for the better part of a day, getting all wrinkled, and then dried out, and then processed a month later, not much worse for the wear.

Meg and Devin, my hosts in Houston.

just when I thought that I was out

2007-07-16T13:53:00.000-04:00

they pull me back in

Miss Sarah Hughes, noted playwright

Warmups for The Savannah Theater Project's gala

tiny, happy pictures

2007-07-13T23:08:00.002-04:00

I learned how to get pictures off of (and on to) my phone! It's really easy, especially if you have a mac and Bluetooth on both devices. You can download every cellphone pic you've taken, and you can even upload whatever jpg you want and make it your phone's wallpaper. Here's a sampling of phonepix:

Don't do meth, or your sense of billboard design will gown down the tubes. Townsend, Montana.
Cellphone macro:
There are two basic ways to get from New Hampshire to Massachusetts, and I usually pick the way that goes by this overpass:
This is what mid-April looks like in New Hampshire:
No relation :-(
Also no relation.... yet?
Thrift store in Las Vegas....
...and some of the clothes I tried on there:

that dang ol' Joe Bug

2007-07-05T01:37:00.001-04:00

on the ball in Central Park, Manhattan, New York.
Shortly after Bug took this picture of me, I haggled with an itinerant Bengali beverage merchant for two frosty, newspaper-wrapped cans of Milwaukee's Best Light, which were a steal at $5 for the pair. Cheers to the free market!

Oh, and there are some honest blog updates in the offing, including some 4x5 from the road trip as well as a photographic ode to my truelove, the one who made the journey so special.

New York City

2007-06-22T17:28:00.000-04:00

Coat check room, International Center of Photography:
Leica party

Hip shot

Smoking Man

Ever wonder why contemporary art is so expensive? This is why: free booze at gallery shows.

Washington, Montana, South Dakota

2007-06-22T17:19:00.000-04:00

Willkommen im Leavenworth, Washington, a weird little Bavarian village in the Cascade mountains.

Eastern Washington State

Newport, WA

Trout Creek, MT

Murdo, SD

Pacific Northwet

2007-06-10T02:00:00.000-04:00

So, if we show up in Seattle on Friday afternoon and it's sunny, does that mean it will be sunny all weekend?

Polarid host portrait #3

2007-06-10T01:58:00.000-04:00

The Lunds in Vashon Island, Washington.

getting away from it all

2007-06-10T01:53:00.001-04:00

This is Point Arena, California, and it is the furthest point in the continental US from where I live in New Hampshire: 2648 miles as the crow flies.

Ornamentation

2007-06-10T01:48:00.000-04:00

Who ever decided to stop making these? Engel's Repair & Towing, Vashon Island, WA.

San Francisco

2007-06-06T03:53:00.001-04:00

In Golden Gate Park, kids will do anything to get high, including climbing to the top of a little tree and sitting there.

UT's own Jen King at the de Young museum (Architect: Herzog & de Meuron).

area

Morro Bay

2007-06-04T22:32:00.000-04:00

Annie Descending Stairs

This morning

2007-06-04T18:49:00.000-04:00

Self-Portrait with Pacific Ocean

High Above the Pacific Coast Highway

2007-06-04T18:48:00.000-04:00

FleaMkt

2007-06-04T18:47:00.000-04:00

Getty Museum

2007-06-04T18:44:00.000-04:00

85% of props go to the architect, Mr. Richard Meier.

Hannah

2007-06-04T18:40:00.000-04:00

B-day food prep:

From the Rejected Headshot Dept.: "You're a panda bear! Be a panda! Yes! YES! Work the foliage."

For your Information

2007-05-31T14:39:00.000-04:00

Annie Snodgrass is reporting about this trip more often, more completely, and (most importantly), with more pictures of yrs truly. Click on her name at the beginning of the previous sentence, or on the right hand side of the page under "Other Sites". Now enjoy these pictures of her and the moon.

Vegas:

Grand Canyon:

What happens in Vegas

2007-05-31T14:34:00.001-04:00

is sometimes relayed to the rest of the country via blog.

"You cannot take that picture sir, it is policy."
Woman descending escalator.

Outside CVS

Annie descending escalator.

make believe

2007-05-31T14:27:00.000-04:00

Pretend I posted these like 5 days ago.

Space camp! Huntsville Alabama, the pointy ends of the External Fuel Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters of the space shuttle.

My gracious hosts in Houston, Meg and Devin

Jessica Talley looks like a million bucks, while the pile of cash on the floor only looks like $6,000.00 in pennies. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin.

Snowball fight atop Angel Fire Mountain, New Mexico.

Memorial Day Vietnam ceremony, Eagle Nest, NM.

Volume One

2007-05-22T10:16:00.000-04:00

Got the 4x5 out for a shot of Mark and his landlady in hats and jackets. This is just the polaroid, it will be interesting to compare with the black and white when I get it developed.
One of my gracious hosts in Washington DC, Marina McClure, at the National Gallery:

I swear I didn't buy mirrored sunglasses with the intent of taking pictures of myself in them, it just happened that way: [Professional photographer, closed course, do not attempt. ]
Spotted in the town of Odd, West Virginia: (other good town names I drove through or by yesterday in WVa or Kentucky: Stab, Rowdy, Dwarf. The latter two were on the same sign.[CORRECTION: Having looked at the map, the town next to Dwarf is Fisty, which I misread as Feisty and then misremembered as Rowdy. Still, though... Fisty? That's pretty good.])

I lost about 45 minutes to a car crash in West Virginia that blocked traffic. I had just enough time to buy this old furniture store, open a photography studio, and go out of business.:

Call this a cliche picture if you wish, but a man's options are limited when he drives 727 miles in a day. The first 720 took 14 hours, and the last 7 took an hour, thanks to Nashville's decision to take I-65 from four lanes down to one lane, and then once I was funneled into the one lane, to just stop traffic entirely for 10 minutes.

and I'm off

2007-05-20T00:59:00.000-04:00

a little inspiration

bang!bang!bang!bang!

2007-05-17T20:00:00.000-04:00

Did I ever tell you kids about the time the Jordanian Special Forces taught me and my friends how to shoot assault rifles? This picture of Davis Rossborough wielding an H&K G36 should do the trick. Said Davis: "I am drunk with power!" (Photographer's Corner: You will find that, when photographing a backlit portrait, fill flash often helps to illuminate the subject. You can use your camera's built in strobe very easily, or as here, the muzzle flash of a NATO standard 5.56 × 45 mm round fired at a fully automatic 750 rounds per minute will work too.)

round two

2007-05-14T22:51:00.000-04:00

second batch from the Tachihara:
(As always, I invite you to click on the picture you see in order to see a larger version.)

the extremely down low

2007-05-10T17:11:00.000-04:00

when I took this picture, I was the lowest photographer on earth (non-metaphorically speaking)

Also, I think I have discovered a new Repetitive Stress Injury; I have called it "Photographer's Clavicle", and it results from carrying around a bunch of lenses in a messenger-style bag and a heavy camera all slung across your body over one shoulder. It makes your collarbone wicked sore. If the legal dept of my employer is reading this, and I assume they are, I'll expect to see my worker's comp check in my mailbox any day now.

Rainmakers (May, 2005)

2007-05-06T15:38:00.000-04:00

I had about three months to make this video, and they ended up not actually making any flights until about 3 days before the thing was due.

[Now that I have a blog, and am on YouTube, I think it's only a matter of time before I have a myspace account. When that happens, send someone to kill me, and make it look like an accident.]

I took mine first

2007-05-03T15:22:00.000-04:00

but Mark's is better

How I exist in my head

2007-04-14T12:40:00.000-04:00

I think we all have an idealized mental image of ourselves that we refer to. This picture, by Hannah Chodos, comes very close to mine: with a few good friends in an all-you-can-eat southern cooking diner somewhere in Alabama, mid-road-trip, sunglasses in teeth, map out.

with magnets

2007-04-10T11:25:00.000-04:00

If you've seen War Photographer, you've no doubt been jealous of James Nachtwey's magnetic bulletin board:

Well, now you can be jealous of my magnetic bulletin board:

I had the boys down at McNeil Sheetmetal in Claremont whip this up last week. It's made of a single piece of 22-gauge galvanized sheet steel, a little over four feet high and nine feet long, and shaped like a sideways Nevada to accomodate the cathedral ceiling. Throw in a few dozen rare-earth permanent neodymium magnets from K&J Magnetics, dig up a few prints out of the archives, and it's ready to go.
I've got everything from silver gelatin prints from sophomore year to my old Texas license plate (recently replaced with NH tags reading "RCS") to my passport up there to a shot Jessica Talley took in Cameroon, and room for a few more things.

Finally, this wouldn't be complete without a tribute to Principal Seymour Skinner, whose fondest wish was for

"...a state-of-the-art detention hall where children are held in place with magnets."

Wedding photos

2007-04-04T11:06:00.000-04:00

My friend Rachel gets hitched in the sweet home, Alabama

from the deep archive

2007-04-01T16:41:00.000-04:00

flipped through a couple rolls of ancient (i.e. August/September 2004) slide film.

a couple more from the big gun

2007-03-26T12:22:00.000-04:00

These few aren't the best photos ever, but they are in color.
The white and yellow washed out areas at the top of this frame were supposed to be balloons, but they blew around too much during the 80-second exposure to really register coherently on film.

The washed out area at the left is a light leak, I guess. My bad.

Here's a blowup from the above photo. You can even read the clock off in the distance.

At a climbing gym.

early returns

2007-03-26T11:37:00.000-04:00

Here it is, the first batch of legit pix from my 4x5. Let me tell you something about the detail available to you when you're weilding 20 square inches of T-Max 100: there is a lot of it. For example:
Rauner Library, Dartmouth College (click on the pic to see it bigger):

See the lady at the desk at the bottom of the frame?

She's reading my newspaper (headline "What a Winter"). The picture on our left (her right) is mine.

See the book titled "The Fear of God?" Fourth shelf from the top of this blowup, near the left.

Let me zoom in a little more for you.

The detail scans were made at 9600 dpi, which would come in real handy if I wanted to blow these photos up to about 10 by 15 feet at 300 dpi.
The amazing part: this whole 4x5 kit (including film) cost about as much a Canon 30D with a cheap kit lens, and yet it captures something like 40 times more detail.
Just for fun, here is a crop from a 4-megapixel digital SLR of the same area, shot with the equivalent lens from the same position at the same time.

big time

2007-03-20T11:42:00.000-04:00

It's here: my new Tachihara 4x5 folding field camera. Hand crafted from cherry wood and brass with all the legendary precision of Chinese engineering. Mounted on the front is a Nikkor-W 135mm f/5.6 lens in a Copal #0 shutter. That's right, I'm shooting Nikon now.

Here's a picture of a camera taking a picture of a camera. Did I just blow your mind?

The first official photo taken by the beast is visible on Channing Johnson's blog, and here's the second, a shot of the beer store next door to the paper. The colors are a little janky on account of I shot it on polaroid film that expired six years ago. (Thrown in for free by Jim at Midwest Photo Exchange, where I got the whole kit. Thanks Jim!) Don't hold your breath for the first shot on actual film (currently working with Velvia 100 and T-Max 100); the closest place I've found that can process it is in Boston.

new pictures

2007-03-20T11:31:00.000-04:00

[Quick note: in accordance with company policy, I have removed photos from the blog which belong to the newspaper but were not published in print.]

According to my editor, I'm now the official fake news specialist, having shot two police training drills.

The parents of a local soldier killed in Iraq say goodbye.

Anyone recognize these horses? Yes you do!

sad realization

2007-03-12T11:25:00.000-04:00

here's a fact for you: my car is better paid than I am

Based on 1) the fuel economy of the Ford Focus, 2) the rate at which my employer reimburses mileage incurred on the job, and 3) the rate at which my employer reimburses photography interns: My car, driving at 65 mph, actually makes more than twice my hourly wage (even after I pay for the gas). One consequence of this is that when I drove down to UNH to photograph basketball the other day, I made just as much money for the drive there and back (about 4 hours on the road) as I did for the 8 hours I spent on the clock. Now, pictures:

Dear Voting Lady: Thanks for wearing your patriotic hat to go voting today, and also thank you for choosing the sunny voting booth.

To illustrate an column about cellphones, I thought I'd shoot drivers talking on the phone. We didn't end up using any of my stakeout shots, but I was extremely pleased by this one of a guy with not one but two hands on the phone, and smoking a cigarette. If it weren't for the underexposure and the windshield wiper, it would have been perfect.
[photo removed at the request of my employer]
Math prof. If only he had had his hand on the whiteboard, this would have made it into the paper.
[photo removed at the request of my employer]
Lady cop at the basketball game
[photo removed at the request of my employer]

recent non-work

2007-03-05T16:24:00.000-05:00

Greenfield, MA

Feb 15, after the blizzard

2 from the gas station

recent work

2007-03-05T16:22:00.000-05:00

[photo removed at the request of my employer]

new this week

2007-02-27T14:51:00.000-05:00

Local cops train for a columbine style event:

Architect
[photo removed at the request of my employer]
got bored, took a picture of the sun
[photo removed at the request of my employer]
hoops championship game
[photo removed at the request of my employer]

fully involved

2007-02-18T16:19:00.000-05:00

That's what they call it when a structure is unequivocally on fire, which this house was.

Being the first house fire I've covered, and being that it was particularly photogenic, I am struck by how bizarre it is that this house fire, which was almost certainly the worst day in at least three people's lives, can be at the same time so undeniably aesthetic and dramatic. I think there's a book to be written about this dilemma.

[photo removed at the request of my employer]
[photo removed at the request of my employer]
[photo removed at the request of my employer]

Note to sticklers: these photos are basically how they came out of the camera. That's how it looked, no saturation or crazy retouching involved.

community news

2007-02-18T16:15:00.000-05:00

fatalities

ice, fish, kids

Puppies. Lest anyone doubt the power of the press, this puppy (which, when the paper went to press, was the last unadopted puppy from a batch brought up from Mississippi), was adopted shortly after he appeared on the cover of my paper.

snowmakers

2007-02-18T16:12:00.000-05:00

[photo removed at the request of my employer]
[photo removed at the request of my employer]

[photo removed at the request of my employer]

here and there

2007-02-18T16:08:00.000-05:00

Radio Controlled Car Racing

Museum exhibit: old bones
[photo removed at the request of my employer]
hoops coach
[photo removed at the request of my employer]
Somehow #53 managed to be 3 feet off the ground in every picture

Not your average high school sports assignment

of late

2007-02-09T13:32:00.000-05:00

The ICA in Boston

Snow yesterday

The Hood Museum in Hanover

Hanover

More from the train

2007-01-23T16:47:00.000-05:00

Let me know what you think. Umlaut worthy?

Pictures from an Inertial Reference Frame

2007-01-23T16:40:00.000-05:00

I had WAY too much fun doing this on the train to and from New York, as I'm sure the other passengers will attest. Even my cousin and her fiancé were looking at me a little strangely by the hundredth of these I snappped out the window.

By the way, these files are just as they came out of my 20D and Canon 24mm lens, with a little judicious toning in the Adobe RAW converter.

Road/Rail Trip to NYC

2007-01-23T16:37:00.000-05:00

Setting gates

2007-01-23T14:49:00.000-05:00

[photo removed at the request of my employer]

You know what they say about parking spots

2007-01-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

All the good ones are either taken, handicapped, or explode in a cloud of debris.

I have very few rules by which I try to live my life, but one of them is this: any time a big metal and concrete parking garage is strapped with dynamite, I bring my camera. New Haven, yesterday morning: