Graduate Student's Desktop Image on His Laptop
Princeton Theological Seminary, 9/21/09
Who knew they snapped together? It would have helped Mel Brooks here:
Entries categorized "Life"
September 22, 2009
July 14, 2009
May 31, 2009
March 26, 2009
98 in the Shade of L.A.
Julius Shulman at work in 1960.
Image © Julius Shulman & Juergen Nogai
Last week I was speaking with a friend, another photographer, and he asked me, "What's your plan" "Plan?" I replied. "Yeah, plan," he said. "You know, what about when you're sixty-five? These cameras are heavy, clients want long days. You always carry two, right?" That is right, I always have two - a combination of always having a backup with me and often shooting with two at a time. It's a model I follow whether I am with assistants or on my own. Two pro bodies, three to five lenses. The last time I weighed my basic camera bag I think it was at least thirty-five pounds.
Well, I've got twenty years yet to figure out what I'll do at sixty-five but lest I jump to conclusions in comes the story of Julius Shulman, architectural photographer. Julius is ninety-eight and even if you have never heard of him you know his work. It's embedded in the culture and it still exerts a strong influence in the collective vision of Los Angeles and in fictional worlds such as Tony Stark's house in the movie, Iron Man.
Susan Stamberg of National Public Radio has a great story on Julius which ran this morning and NPR also has a gallery of Julius' work. Be sure to expand the gallery to full-screen.
In case you are wondering what to do at ninety-eight, you can photograph houses at $6k a pop.
March 08, 2009
To Dream, Perchance to Sleep
Dream New York, NY, NY
iPhone Photo, March 5, 2008
I found myself at Dream New York on Thursday night. It's a funky hotel with backlit glass topped desks and blue accent lighting in every room. I had a portrait to shoot Thursday evening and then a very early morning call to be on location for a secret assignment. Here I am in my flannel shirt, the King of Anti-Funk.
The secret gig will follow in another blog post. I'm still catching up on sleep, editing, and processing. It's been a good start to the year in a down economy with an annual report, some portraits, and the job I just mentioned.
I've been meaning to post but fell behind. A few links I wanted to pass along. I thought the Paolo Pellegrin series in the NYT Magazine, Great Performers, was just stunning, and Nadav Kander's portrait of Oscar de la Renta, the week before, was a knock-out as well. More in line with what you think of as one of his than the Obama's People series.
So, back to Dream. I stay at Dream. I'm a good boy, I'm in bed by 10pm. I have to be up at 3:30am to meet the client at 4am. I don't sleep a wink, probably just a little anxious about getting up and the next morning's assignment. Somewhere in there is a Steven Wright joke waiting to break free.
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Updated 3/13/09: Added links to post about the secret assignment.
January 04, 2009
New Year's Walk
Updike Farmstead, Princeton, NJ
January 04, 2009
We took a New Year's weekend walk today. Three of us and the dog. The weather's been gorgeous, upper thirties and clear.
This is an area toward the edge of town, the Updike Farmstead. Its always been farmland, as far back as I can remember. Wedged between the Delaware & Raritan Canal and a sharp turn in the Stony Brook (which flows south and then northeast), the land rolls a bit but is part of a larger swath of floodplain. For me this was old and new. We started at the Friends Meeting House, where I went to pre-school, walked through a bit of woods, and then followed along the edge of the fields. The dog was in heaven.
I had never walked into the fields before but today was an Andrew Wyeth kind of day. The fields beckoned and in we went. Mud, cornstalks, dried corncobs, the occasional patch of ice, a deer's carcass picked clean. Off in the distance crows were busy making small talk and avoiding us.
We planned to make it over to the canal, follow the towpath, come back through the Institute Woods to the Battlefield, and around to the meeting house. Best laid plains. We headed southwest when we should have gone northeast, Stony Brook corralling us in. It was too high to ford and the shoulderless bridge too unsafe to pass over. No mind. We headed back, away from the shelter of the trees on the field's edge, picked a straight and true row in the mowed down corn and let it lead us home.
A nice way to begin the year.
December 23, 2008
December 21, 2008
Officehenge
Princeton, NJ
December 21, 2008
There's only one time of year when the sun, at sunset, can shoot straight down the hallway that leads to and from my office.
December 04, 2008
Picking a Tree
Greenwich, CT, November 28, 2008
Canon G10 Photos
I know nothing about Christmas trees - I was raised Jewish. My childhood memory is of seeing them sold by boy scouts around town or later, post-college, by folks from Vermont and Canada who travelled south every year to sell them by the truckload on the streets of New York. In all cases, the trees were left to lean on simple A-frames. In my mind they are always slightly askew.
Grace's family's tradition is to pick a tree the day after Thanksgiving when everyone is still around to share the event. They always go to the same nursery, at the same time of day. Over the years it has grown from a one car outing to a four car caravan.
At the nursery we visit the trees are displayed hanging from rafters, forming many rows of floating, moving greenery. A slight touch somewhere can cause trees many rows over to move and sway. I can see how a child would love it. Running through the aisles, disappearing and reappearing, playing hide and seek. The smell of pine.
This year's tree was chosen for its color, shape, and because it had the remnants of a bird's nest in it - a good luck sign, I learned. It's a nice tradition. The afternoon light, the chill in the air. The flower beds are bare and the sense of hibernation is everywhere. It's getting dark, winter is coming, the nursery will lay dormant until the light and the warmth return in the spring.
Greenwich, CT, November 28, 2008
November 26, 2008
Driveway Moment
Princeton, NJ, November 26, 2008
Canon G10
