I have been working on a personal project for the last two years and I am now at the editing and selection stage. This is a project of square format images made as double exposures. Lots of fun and something different. I’ll show a major selection of these at my gallery at the end of April. I’ll share more over the coming weeks.
I hope you had a safe and happy New Years eve. I had a nice dinner out then a quiet celebration at home with Debra and my son Scott who is visiting for the holidays. Today will be a day and as matter of fact the next few days of testing a number of new cameras that have come my way. I’ll be finishing up a review of the DP Quatrro O, RX100iv, Sony A7s II. I’m starting reviews on the Leica SL, Sony RX100rII and two top secret cameras. Never a dull moment.
Today image is an architectural abstract. This was made in Chicago and done on an iPhone. I challenged myself on one of my morning walks to shoot only with the iPhone and this is one of the many nice images I captured that morning.
I wrote an article on the Luminous-Landscape site and I though I would also share it here.
Today is the anniversary of a day I will never forget. For many reasons 9/11 is a day that will be permanently etched in my mind. I’ll never forget where I was when the first news came in of a plane hitting the World Trade Center buildings. I thought it must have been a small plane that lost control. I as well as the rest of the world learned very quickly that was not the case. As the day unfolded I remember it was hard to comprehend what was happening and more so of what it meant for our country and our future.
What was hard for me was as it began to sink in I worried about my boys. My oldest son was scheduled to report to the San Diego Marine Corp boot camp that Saturday. He obviously enlisted well before this terrible day. But it was quite obvious as the hours passed that he was most likely going to be seeing action as our country prepared to retaliate for this terrible tragedy.
It was only two months before that I enjoyed a dinner at Windows On The World restaurant on top of the North Tower. What a great place and evening filled with good memories. I lived on Long Island at the time as I was working for Phase One. I am not going to go into details but let’s say before the end of the day I was very involved in being part of rescue efforts at Ground Zero as were hundreds of other people. I was a member of a Fire Dept. where I lived. Volunteers from all over the country came to Ground Zero over the coming weeks and months to help in the search and recovery. Our country came together and became strong and united.
I could go on about all the things that happened. The things I saw and such but what I remember is how great it was to see New York City as well as the rest of the country unite and focus on not only rebuilding but recovering. I saw people doing the kindest things and everyone was helping each other. Man, I was proud to be an American.
A lot of things have changed since then. I am not going to elaborate or opinionize on the years since 9/11. I just want to remember that day, reflect on the day and remember all those that died that day. And, more so, those that have served our country and our cities and communities since then.
A few weeks ago I was in New York for an Epson event. After a morning of meetings I found myself with a free afternoon. I called my wife Debra and told her I had decided to visit the 9/11 Memorial. This is something I have avoided for years. For myself and others we have had to deal with what we saw that day. For me I put it all in a mental box, put a string around it to secure it and put it on a high shelf in my mind. I couldn’t bear to take the box down or even open it. I attended numerous funerals after that day. I lost friends. I become an emotional mess when I hear bagpipes play Amazing Grace as it immediately draws out the memories I so conveniently tucked away. The tears come out of my eyes and there is nothing I can do to control it. So, I deal with it, For a short time at least I remember the day and standing at the graves of friends and some very brave firefighters in the days and weeks that followed.
Today is a day I will take some special time. I’ll go somewhere quiet. I’ll sit and I will take that box off the shelf and hold it in my mental lap. I may not open it but I will remind myself what is in the box and I will remember and I will never forget.
I will also say a prayer for my family. My oldest son who began his military career a few days after 9/11 still serves our country but now is in the Army. My youngest son is in the Navy. My daughter in law serves in the Army as a doctor and my wife’s son is in the the Navy. To say we are proud of our children is an understatement. They serve our country because they want to. We have seen all our kids go through numerous deployments and have worried each day for their safety. We celebrate when they return to us safe. Today we will say a prayer for them but more than anything We will say thank you for doing what they do. We are proud parents.
Please take a moment today, remember where you were on 9/11 and make a promise to Never Forget
Thanks for allowing me to Rant.
The images with this Rant were made through very misty eyes on my visit to the 9/11 Memorial. If you have never visited this amazing place, make sure you do. There is something about the memorial that will move you.
My iPhone is always with me and so is the great iPhone camera. I visited a salvage store not too long ago and had a field day taking photos there. Using the Hipstamatic app I created this one of a bunch of old radiators. I love the colors and abstract feel.
As you saw in a previous entry I visited the 9/11 memorial recently. For me it was very moving and I have my reasons. As we prepare to remember 9/11 tomorrow I will share my latest image made at the Memorial. Please take a moment on 9/11 and remember where you were when that awful day began. Let’s not ever forget.
September is here and on the 11th of each September I am reminded of a day that changed all our lives. I have my own reasons to be emotional about 9/11. let’s just say I was little too close that day. So, for years I avoided returning to Ground Zero. However, on a recent trip to NYC I took a deep breath and visited the location on a sunny warm day. All I can say is it was very emotional for me. I did a number of photographs during the visit. I’ll publish a selection here this month. This is the first one which is a double exposure and I feel says something. Hope you like it.
As you know as a follower of my blog I am a photographer that loves to photograph rusty and abandoned places. Recently I visited Gary, IN where there hundreds on abandoned buildings. One of the building I spent a lot of time join was the Gary Post Office. This si an image through an office window onto the main floor. What I like it that nature is reclaiming the location as you can see by a tree growing in the middle of the floor.
The Palouse offers up a lot of things. While photographing there last week we came across this barn. As we were shooting the owners of the barn came out and were real interested in what we were doing. They went to great lengths to get this old car out of the barn and place it where we could take a picture of it with the barn as a background. I did this image with my iPhone.
My route for my downtown Chicago walks covers many miles. It is one of my favorite thing to do in any city but Chicago offers up so much. I took a walk down the river towards Michigan Ave. and saw this bridge. I was underneath it and used the double exposure function of Hipstamatic to achieve a color BW look for the bridge and make it somewhat abstract. I kind of like it.
Wandering around Chicago I usually visit Grant Park. The morning there are always special. There is a big open air theater where they have musicals and it is an architectural masterpiece. I usually use my long lenses and have fund finding the abstract but having only the iPhone on this walk made me see different and work to find the shot. This is one of them I found.