I thought tonight might be a good night to share some of my personal projects and images with everyone. These were shot throughout this year and are a good idea of the kinds of things I like and the kinds of events I enjoy covering.
So, clockwise from left to right, these are some of my favorite shots.
Top Left: This creepy doll was a resident of my yard for about a week because no one dared pick it up. It looked like the kind of thing that might inspire a quality B horror flick and one day it was gone as suddenly as it arrived. This was photographed at a friend's request, after I text the lover of all things freak, a camera shot of it. He loved it.
Top Middle: We don't trust people who don't like garlic. Our family is crazy for it. We usually have plenty on hand and lately have been using plenty of it in our new favorite dish of broiled mussels. Our recipe is loosely based on my favorite food blogger's own. It gets thrown on restaurant style mushrooms, potatoes, homemade pizza, pasta... it's our favorite spice.
Top Right: This guy was hanging out at the farm I was so graciously granted permission to shoot at recently. He was a rescue, as were his two mates, and the gentlest horse I've ever been around. His owner told me I was welcome to take the horses out to join the shoot and even though I've been around horses much of my life I was a bit nervous about possibly spooking the three. I approached with marginal caution and convinced them to join us. They were wonderful with the two young girls I was shooting and I can't wait to shoot some more with them.
Middle Left: I used to have a really beautiful tree growing next to my balcony and this spring I decided to document the change of seasons as it grew buds that eventually gave way to leaves. I've since traded in that gorgeous tree for a beautiful river but this is one of my absolute favorite shots from that series of images. The rich brown toning make the shot for me, as does the full composition. There's actually quite a bit of negative space in this image but to share with you, my friends, I wanted to show more of the detail of the promise of what was to come.
Middle Right: Lightpainting of Tianna. One of the greatest friends a girl could ask for and one of my favorite styles of shooting. I love the energy and emotion I not only get from these kinds of images but also that the subject and I each have to put in. I'm currently working on funding for a series of these images to be shown. If you appreciate them, please check out the 50 Ft. Woman and consider a contribution! WNY is hemorrhaging money and not enough is going to support the visual arts.
Bottom Left: I recently made the acquaintance of Mary Lou, the local Luna Bar spokesperson, and she invited me to come shoot an event and say hello to nutritionist Mary Jo (pictured). It was a very informative event and amusing since cookies are what brought Mary Lou and I together. I enjoy shooting events with public speaking or live music.
Bottom Middle: I'm not sure about organized religion anymore. I do know what I believe to be sure and I do know there's even more I'm not so sure about. I do believe in Peace. It's especially important to me to spread the word of Peace with everyone after reading the absolutely horrifying death threats and comments made on the Facebook page of Fox News by some Christians towards Atheists. To me that is bigotry the same as homophobia, racism, class ism, etc. and there is no room for it in my life. I don't think those are lessons Jesus taught. So, peace dude.
Bottom Right: Sometimes I like excitement and danger! And firemen! Last month, on the way to the zoo with my family and friends we saw the sky filling with black smoke. It was incredible, and awful and curiosity got the best of me. We drove around for a half hour looking for a way to get close to the smoke so I could shoot the fire. It turned out that the Niagara Lubricant plant was exploding. Actually, at the point when I slipped through a broken fence and got so close I was sweating and talking with a fireman it was only still on fire. It exploded about 5 minutes into my shooting. And about 10 minutes later I realized Hey, this building is on fire, exploding and I'm only 30 feet away... where's the car again? and we continued on our merry way to the zoo. The full frame image is one of my favorites I've ever taken. My middle name is Danger.
