The First Bloom of Spring

Walking my kids to the bus stop I pass by these flowers. So naturally I had to photograph them. And then play a little bit. I felt like Andy Warhol today.



It's easy to wish that we could travel to an exotic location and that the world would be prettier, more vibrant, more interesting than the walk to the bus stop. But all we have to do is look as if we'd never seen these things before. Look with new eyes.

Blue Pete's - One of My Favorite Places

Blue Pete's has been a Hampton Roads tradition for as long as I can remember. I can't tell you how many times I've been doing family portraits on the beach and had them ask me, "How do you get to Blue Pete's?" To be able to shoot a wedding ceremony and reception there was a wonderful opportunity. This was from an October wedding and the colors are gorgeous. A lot of people asked me if I did this in Photoshop because they just assume that anything this good had to be the result of hours of manipulation. Sorry, just talent and an good eye, a pretty bride and handsome groom and a wonderful location for a fall wedding.

If you'd like to see a sample book ask to see the one I left with Paul the owner. Or visit me!

Carpe Diem

Recently one of my clients asked me if I could scan, rework and make digital files of some old photographs. When I saw them I realized that it would be permissible as the copyright would have expired and / or the original artist had probably passed away.

As I worked with these images I couldn’t help but think of the Robin Williams movie “Dead Poets Society”. There’s a scene in the movie where the Williams character, an English Professor named John Keating, asks his students to look, really look at some old photographs of former students. While they’re looking he whispers, “carpe diem” or “seize the day”. And the camera pans the old photographs closely as we find ourselves actually looking into the eyes of people that we know have passed on from this life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppqb0t_B0KY

Let me ask you to stop reading and to look at this image.

Do you see the bride on her wedding day? Do you wonder what she’s thinking of while the photographer is exposing the negative? Do you think that she and her husband could even imagine that the stock market crash would plunge America into a Great Depression that would last for 12 years? Had they even heard of an ex Austrian corporal named Adolf Hitler? They probably thought there would never be another world war. They most likely didn’t know where the cities of Dachau or Hiroshima were on a map. Think of all that lay ahead of them and yet on this day, because of this photographer, the joy and innocence of their wedding day has been frozen, captured. Time and space have been made to stand still.

At this time in photography the artist is still possibly working with glass plates or maybe he’s using the new medium – film. It’s possibly a studio with “northern light” – a window or skylight that faces north so it always lets in soft subdued light, so perfect for portraits. But it’s a long exposure, several seconds easily. Glass plates, even film, are very slow to receive light, to let it sink in and interact with the silver halide crystals.

This photograph was created in 1928. In 1928 a pound of bacon was $.47, a loaf of bread was $.10, chicken sold for $.42 a pound, gas was $.29 cents a gallon and Plymouth Roadster sold for $670.

I wonder what they paid for this photograph? Let’s say that they spent $10 on it. That would have been a very large sum back then. They could have had a friend shot them with their Brownie Box Camera but they chose to use a professional. Of all the things – food, drink, music – that they spent money on this day only the photograph and the gold rings remain. Because of the care, pride and attention to detail a professional photographer took in his profession their great grand children are enjoying this original print. And now I have “translated” his work into a new medium – digital – and now their great, great grand children will be able to look into the faces of these people. Forever young, forever captured in time and space.

I know two things. Photographs are an excellent investment and I’ve never been paid what I should have no matter how much I’ve charged. Nor has any other professional photographer. We have written people’s stories in silver with light. We have made them immortal.