Kobe Bryant

Today Kobe Bryant would have turned 42. What an incredible loss he was, not just to the basketball community, but the world at large. An icon that raised the bar for everything he did. Kobe was one of those people that expect to live forever. People like him don’t die??!! I feel very fortunate to have shot with him twice in my life, during a time that I was shooting a lot of professional athletes. This one was back in 2013. It’s impossible to every put your finger on your “favorite” shoot, but this one certainly will never be forgotten.

Click here to see more of athlete images.

American Backcourts

This most recent road trip was very productive. More so in America and fly fishing departments, but nonetheless, I was still able to sniff out a hoop or two that I’m happy with. If there is anything difficult about this project, it’s that the bar continues to rise. Making it harder and harder to find unique scenarios that I’ve not seen before. This shot below has a “feel” to it. Without seeing any of the surroundings, you’re able to get an idea of where it was made. Nevada, as it were. A state I’m becoming quite fond of. Although, this time of year it’s hell on earth. I’ve been quietly putting in a lot of time on the Hoops Project. If COVID has produced anything positive, it’s the free time to look more closely at what’s important. And for me, personal projects are right at the top of the list. This one has been going on for 8+ years now. So a book is well overdue….

Click here to purchase a fine art print from this series.

American Motels

American Motels - Road Trip Photography

Apparently my fascination with small town motels continues? Not sure what that is. Perhaps it’s because I’ve stayed in so many during all my time on the road, but they fit nicely into my America series either way.

Click here to see more from the America series.

Street Photography - San Francisco

San Francisco Photo Gallery

After college my mother lived in San Francisco for a few years and she still talks about her time there with a lot of fondness. Maybe that’s where my original fascination for the city came from? Don’t know. Although it’s really not a hard sell. Consider myself lucky to have spent some time there with my mother as well as numerous other trips over the years. And with each subsequent visit, my opinion strengthens that it’s one of the great cities of the world. Not just in the USA, but the world. These images certainly aren’t meant to sum up San Francisco as a city. Was more just stating my feelings. A few weeks ago I was up there for a commercial shoot, which was really great, but I always try to make time for personal shooting as well. It’s a fun and relaxing way to learn more about the place you’re in.

Click here to see more of my street photography.

Road Trip

Another one in the books, and what a trip it was. This was the time that I planned to be heading east for our annual family trip to Cape Cod, but that was canceled due to COVID. That was a real bummer. Still though, I wasn’t going to let it stop me from being on the road. As you can see from the route, this trip was quite different from the rest. Then again, every trip is quite different from the last. Was very happy to see parts of the country not previously seen, most notably in Nevada. Overall this trip was filled with fly fishing, backpacking, camping, commercial shooting, personal shooting, old friends, new friends, good times, and as always lots of food.

After leaving Southern California, I headed out toward Nevada and went up the western border of almost the whole state. It was 117 degrees out there, so not a lot of productive shooting got done. Loved what I saw though. And northern Nevada is almost an entirely different state altogether. Very mountainous. From there I clipped a portion of Oregon, then into Idaho where I met up with a couple old friends and met up with a photographer that I greatly admire. Next it was on to Wyoming for some fly fishing and back packing with friends in the Wind River Range. More on that later. When that was done I made my way back to San Fransisco for a 3 day commercial shoot, which was also a hell of a lot of fun. Then Emily and Mojo met me there and we started a week+ long drive up the coast. Completing the 101 was never an intention, but it worked out that way. And I have to say, it was really special. That route has a great reputation for a reason. Almost sounds dumb saying it out loud, but the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington are world class places. We ended the meat of the trip up on the Olympic Peninsula, which could be a whole trip in itself. The amount of shellfish we harvested alone was worth the drive. Every day we were eating fresh oysters, clams, mussels, and crabs. Once we started heading south, my truck decided to act up, causing a detour and semi brief stay at the RAM dealership. Not a huge deal though. After that happened, it seemed like the universe was telling me it was time to head home. So, with some fresh clams in the YETI, I did just that.

Stay tuned for images.

Street Photography - San Diego

Just heard that Gov. Newsom is shutting down the majority of indoor operations for California again, so the strange times continue! Can’t say it’s a surprise. Walking around here feels just like a normal summer with tourists anywhere and everywhere. Just when things felt like they were getting better. I have (as of now) quite a few commercial shoots on the horizon, but who knows how far this will push them back? One thing that hasn’t changed is my street photography. If nothing else, the shutdowns have given me the opportunity to explore neighboring towns with the camera to continue this series. All of the images below were made in Cardiff by the Sea.

Click here to see more from this series.

San Diego Photography

San Carlos, California - Photography

A friend of mine recently bought a house in San Carlos. I went down there a couple weeks ago to help him with some grunt work and planned on a little extra time to do some shooting around the neighborhood - one I had never previously been to. Sure am glad to have found it though. The neighborhoods have a lot of character and color palette that was fun to play with.

Click here to see more of my street photography

Road Trip Photography

California Highway 395

Goes without saying that road trips are one of my favorite things to do on the planet. It’s not often though, that I’m in the passenger seat and able to make images during the ride. Such was the case a few weeks ago on a trip to Bishop/Mammoth for some fly fishing (also a favorite).

There’s a stupid but true thing that people love to say in the mountains - “if you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes”. Wish they had to dish out a dollar every time they said it. We encountered some typical mountain weather during out couple days there. Really hot during the day, then cold and stormy as hell at night. Not ideal when camping, but great for images. Love the tones in a lot of these shots.

Click here to see some of my ADVENTURE images.

American Motels

Americana Photographs

The last couple months have been weird. Everybody knows. Weird probably isn’t the right word, but I’d like to stay away from the negative. And now that things (knock on wood) feel like they are loosening up a little bit, it’s caused me to look back on what has occupied my time during quarantine. Aside from the dishes, I’ve spent on lots of energy going through my absurdly large Lightroom catalogue that contains images from 2012 on. Specifically focusing on personal work that hasn’t been developed, I’m starting to see themes in the work that was never noticed before. This is very encouraging because I know it’s from all the time that’s also been spent on Zoom workshops about editing your work, creating photo books, how images work together, etc. etc. Didn’t realize it until now, but an education took place in the last 90 days that I’m extremely grateful for. All my time on the road over the past 8+ years has produced a handful of different bodies of work that I never knew how edit. Certainly not saying it’s figured out or will be, but things are adding up. It sounds simple, but one key that that was learned is that a common theme is necessary. “America” which has been a main focus for me, is not a theme. Just because I drive around this country taking pictures of it doesn’t mean all the images work together. Quite the opposite. It’s also quite a gem of power to learn and accept that you’ll frequently have to discard your favorite images from an edit because they simply don’t work for the bigger picture. Can’t stress that enough. Setting the ego aside can be a hard thing, especially for photographers who are so emotionally connected to their work. Has to be done though. And if the image is really that good, it will find it’s way into another body of work somewhere down the line. One theme I noticed popping up again and again over the past couple months is hotels. Apparently I enjoy hotels, and have photographed quite a few over the past 8 years. So expect to see more of them in the future.

Click here to see more from my “America” gallery.



Street Photography

Interesting to see this project start to take shape. Not sure what year it was when I started it, but finally, things are starting to add up. Going through the body of images, pairings are starting to jump out that would sit nicely together in a book. That’s exciting.

Click here to see more from this project.


THE NATURE BOY

The Nature Boy - Ric Flair

WWE - Wrestling Photography

WWE has been a client of mine for a number of years now and the shoots are always entertaining. It’s been quite a while since I actually watched wrestling, but the antics these two guys put on back in the day were always some of my favorite. Loved Stone Cold because he was a beer drinking lone wolf. And Ric Flair was, and still is, the ultimate entertainer. His charisma and energy was practically unmatched, and the crossover he has achieved in recent years is quite remarkable. There doesn’t seem to be a demographic of people that doesn’t appreciate his suits, jewelry, over the top robes. and his trademark WOOOOOOOOO. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the “Ric Flair Drip” music video. Being on set with these two was a lot of fun. Ric gave a great interview. Very honest and candid. Filled with everything from laughing to crying. Hit the WWE network to check it out. Even if you’re not a wrestling fan, it’s still interesting to hear them talk about their careers.



Street Photography - San Diego

San Diego Photography - Cars

Cars are a very obvious thing to photograph. It’s a subject photographers at large have turned their cameras on for as long as cars have been rolling down the street. I have no interest in cars, really. I appreciate them for what they are, but that’s it. I love my truck, only because it allows me to do what I do in a very comfortable way. As far as a vehicle as a status symbol or anything of that matter, I could care less. Still though, over the past X amount of years, cars are something I’ve been inadvertently photographing. And that realization is only somewhat recent. The cars themselves aren’t necessarily the focus though. What’s interesting is their relationship to the surroundings and how they either fit in or stand out. As with all my street photography, there are things like color, line, and texture at play. It’s fun to see cars in “nature” in a place like Southern California because the array of makes/models found here is so vast, as are the environments.

Click HERE to see more of my street photography.

Photographing Color

Color Photography

Photographing the streets in Southern California has been an interest for a number of years, but now during quarantine, it’s taken a step forward. Normally it’s what I do when I can/ in-between commercial shooting as a form of relaxation. Neither is better than the other. They are both enjoyable, but serve different purposes. These days, there aren’t a lot of alternatives so I’ve seen a lot of the streets. And after taking a couple cruises through this body of work, it seems as though I’ve been unknowingly drawn to green vehicles. That made me think a bit, and I realized that green vehicles like you see below are very reminiscent of a certain time period. This color just isn’t one you see anymore. Automobile manufacturers seem to have wiped it from their palette’s. Wonder if it will come back around again in coming years?

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE OF MY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Barbershops of America - Then and Now

It’s safe to say that any plans you previously made in the last 6-ish months have all gone to shit. Such is the case with my new book “Barbershops of America - Then and Now”. The two other versions of this were self published in the past, but I’m proud to say you are looking at my first “published” book, with Schiffer Publishing out of Pennsylvania. I had some grand plans for a release party, but obviously none of that will be happening. Such is the world we now live in. At first this was really upsetting, but after thinking about it for a while, I decided there was no point in fighting the facts and the best course of action was to embrace the times we are in. Maybe it’s not ideal, but so what? You can only plan so much. My man Mike Tyson said it best - “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face”. Well, the whole world is getting punched in the face right now. So we must adapt. Now I choose to think that the book will be a boost of positivity and happiness to anyone who decided to pick up a copy. The timing doesn’t really matter.

Over the past couple months I’ve been watching a lot of webinars about photo books. And it never fails that the host presents a question to everyone watching - “why do you want to make a photo book?” For some that might be easy to answer and others probably haven’t given it enough serious thought. While I could go on for days about this topic, two things eventually stuck in my mind as answers to that question: 1) I believe in the power of photo books to bring people joy and knowledge 2) I despise what the iPhone and social media have done to photography and feel a need/responsibility to constantly create something that people can own and hold in their hand forever.

Barbershops of America is a series I’m emotionally connected to after working on it for 8+ years and traveling 200,000+ through all 50 states of the USA. For a project like this I don’t see any other place for it to live than a book. One of the main goals is to preserve the history and culture of barbering in our country, and what better place than a book? Otherwise the images just sit on a hard drive or website never to be seen.

Click HERE to purchase a copy of the book.

If you live outside the USA then your cheapest option for delivery is Amazon.

Street Photography

2012-ish in Amsterdam was the first time I recall embracing the simple joys of street photography. After years of lugging around a lot of lighting equipment, it was very refreshing to just have a camera bag on my back. That was also the first time that I remember having a focus on one subject. The first time I grasped the notion of a “series” of images. Maybe it was too much time spent in the cafe’s, but either way, the singular focus wasn’t intentional. After miles and miles of walking around Amsterdam, it just struck me that I had photographed a lot of bicycles. And all of a sudden, Emily would be saying “look at that one over there” or “that’s a good one”. The theme had caught on. She recognized what I was doing too. Probably because she always had to wait while I made 35 different images of one bike from 35 different angles. Regardless, it stuck and was most likely the beginning of the way I think about long term personal projects like Barbershops of America and The Hoops Project. Both of which are focused on one subject and have been going on now for 8+ years. They are a great balance to the commercial work, which I love, but it very involved with planning, time, and gear. Over the past couple years, my kit for personal trips has been cut down even further. In fact, on this last trip to Europe, all that came along was one camera body and one lens. The feeling of not having options is quite freeing. There is no need to think about switching lenses every 5 minuets to accommodate the situation. You just have to make do with what you have. ultimately, it makes you a better photographer. And it cuts down on weight. Nothing better than traveling light. Here is another batch of images from Europe in December/January. They were all made with very little thought as to why or a care of where they would end up.

Click HERE to see more street photography.



Street Photography

Couple more that have been sitting in Lightroom. Trying to give better thought to how I group images together. A result of plentiful book submissions over the past 5 months or so that foster positive and negative feedback. The positive is always nice to hear but you don’t learn much from it. These 4 work together in my opinion just based on shapes. After working on this project for a number of years, I came to the conclusion that there really is no meaning to this series, and that’s ok. They are images I make for fun, as a way of documenting the place I live, and are mainly based around line, color, and texture.

Click here to see more from this series.



Photos

Have been rummaging through some old hard drive folders recently which led me to stumble upon a few forgotten images. Another thing I should put more time into as there are certainly countless images that have yet to even be looked at. Going back to what I said on the previous post though, it’s all about seeing how images fit in. Not one to really make “One Off’s”, my focus has mostly been on long term series/projects. The two you see here go into the "One Off category, at least for now. Who knows, maybe a series will grow over time and they will fit perfectly within it? Almost exactly a year ago I made these while walking around Encinitas. On that particular day the focus was people living some sort of the “van life”. No idea why. This woman and her husband are technically homeless, although they do own the RV pictured here. So I’m not sure how you classify that. Both very nice and were happy to let me inside to make a few pictures. She was quick to pull some old photos out of herself and said as I raised the camera “this was back when I was beautiful”.

Troy, New York Photography

Basketball - Troy, New York

At some point I have to wonder if I’m at all capable of working on short term projects? That’s not a complaint. I really love long term projects. Everything about them really, but with the recent amount of time that’s fallen in my lap (the whole COVID-19 thing), it’s given way for a lot of thought. Also something I spend quite a bit of time doing, which has me thinking that maybe I draw things out a bit too long. Started reading Rick Rubin’s book a few days ago, and one thing he talks about is that his work gets done when it gets done. He’s not concerned about deadlines or any other outside influences because he doesn’t want them to affect the final product. If he were to rush a record, it wouldn’t allow the project enough time to breath. He feels like the space and time are necessary to properly pull things together in the way they are naturally supposed to. Reading all that I felt myself understanding and agreeing with everything he was saying. Still though, my natural tendency is to string things along a bit too far. Or maybe it’s just because I don’t devote enough time to certain aspects of each project. There are hard drives of images from 5 years ago that still haven’t been touched much because I’m not sure how they fit in. The process of understanding a group of images is very complex if you really want it to work. And sometimes that means letting go of your favorites because they just don’t work well with the series. Creating a cohesive body of work is quite hard to do when you’re so attached to the images. And it’s not been till recently that I’m starting to get even the slightest bit of handle on it. There are so many factors that dictate why an image works on it’s own, let alone with a group of 30-100 other images for say a gallery show or a book. Anyway, the down time that’s been created by the “Stay home” order has allowed me to focus more on certain projects and helped me to feel like I’m pulling them together in a way that finally make sense. And trimming the fat is starting to become easier too. The Hoops Project was started 8+ years ago, which in itself blows my mind. Hoops have been a major focus on every road trip since 2012. Some of those trips have been shockingly productive. And others don’t yield the most satisfying results. As time goes on I continue to raise the bar, which makes it harder and harder to find a hoop that works. One that fits. One that’s unique. The web gallery for this series hasn’t been updates in quite some time. That’s not out of negligence, but rather from purpose. My efforts over the past couple months have been focused specifically on a few “products” (for the lack of a better word) pertaining to this series, and I want to keep some fresh content for the time when that is finally released. The ones you see below are from an 8,000+/- mile road trip in December/January. Most of that trip did not present me with hoops that turned me on, and it wasn’t until a day of shooting around home that much happened. All 3 of these were made in Troy, NY, which is a few miles from my mothers house. Funny to think that sometimes you drive all the way to the other side of the country before finding something that works.


Click here to purchase a fine art print from this series.



FLY FISHING PHOTOGRAPHER

Winter Fly Fishing - Photography

The only thing greater than fly fishing is fly fishing with two feet of fresh powder. This was a hell of day that was originally supposed to start with backcountry snowboarding. That is until a slide shutdown I70. It happens. What are you gonna do. We tried taking every backroad available, but they were all shutdown. This is why, no matter the season, you keep your fly fishing gear in the truck too.

To see more from this series click HERE.

Click here to purchase one of my fly fishing prints.

Street Photography - Southern California

Street Photography - San Diego

Crazy times we’re living in right now. Shortly after the Coronavirus first hit the news I was in our local Trader Joe’s. What a scene. Majority of the shelves were empty and people were walking around like they just woke up on the moon. It hit me shortly after that American’s in general, but more so those living in places like southern California, are quite privileged. And the notion of not having 1,000 food options at their finger tips is quite mind blowing to them. I’m certainly not downplaying the severity of this pandemic, but the whole scenario in Trader Joe’s was quite sad. And that same thing was happening all over the country. It just seemed like people had no idea what they would do if they couldn’t buy food from a store 8 days a week. I’ve been very fortunate to travel quite a bit. A lot of the destinations have been beautiful and some have been the very definition of 3rd World. Places like India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Haiti where having food everyday is a bonus. They understand it isn’t a reality to have 3 heaping meals on the kitchen table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That is, if they have a kitchen table at all. Still though, despite having a high level of desperation amongst those people, they still seems to live with a certain positive and friendliness. Most American’s can’t go ten minutes without their cellphones. I’m guilty of it too, but it’s important in these situations to think out side the box. People here are nervous about the virus for good reason, but it doesn’t help to completely lose all rational thought. There is always another way. And buying out the supermarket of every toilet paper roll is not it. We all need to calm down and adapt to the changes. We’re all in this shitty situation together. What does this have to do with street photography? Nothing really. Except that the streets are what I have to photography right now. Since the quarantine hit, business came to a very abrupt halt. Any shoot that was about to happen, is on hold at best. I refuse to let this whole thing take away photography from me though. The streets aren’t my first choice, nor do they make me money. But they keep me sane and keep me sharp. Just like everything else, you need to practice. I want to practice. Going more than a few days without picking up a camera for me is torture. I turn into a grouchy asshole. So the streets it is. They have always been something I turn to for relaxation. It’s almost meditative being out there with no agenda or expectations. Even if it’s just for an hour or two, it makes me a better person.

Click HERE to see more from this series.