Diptych....what's that you say?

Love the Lensbaby

I'm always searching for a unique way to shoot portraits and I have to say I love the Lensbaby.  My belief is that you always use what is available, light source, technique, location and lens choice to get the job done.  Here's a couple of portraits made at Spring Training in Goodyear, AZ at the Cincinnati Reds camp.

Jonny Gomes 2011

Scott Rolen 2011

Outside the Comfort Zone

                                                                  
 I recently hung out with New York photographer Christopher Kolk on a photo shoot.  He shared a few tips and techniques.  I come from a photojournalism background but am open to new ideas. A recent portrait session for female honorees who excel in philanthropy, volunteerism and fund raising offered an opportunity to step outside my comfort zone.

Highway Vista

Heading down I-275 in southern Indiana I couldn't pass on this scene.  This is a straight from the camera image, with a touch of saturation added.

A Hospital is His Home

These are a few photographs made during the last year as I worked on a story about Manny Evans.  His home is a hospital. Click on the photos to enlarge.

 Hundreds of cars, trucks and ambulances pull up the circular drive in front of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center every day.

But each morning at about 8:30, a yellow school bus rolls to a stop in the front of the massive hospital until the sliding doors open and Manny Evans, 7, glides out, heading off to another day at school.

Holga 135 camera is great fun

Armed with press credentials, digital cameras, lenses from 16 to 400mm and three video cameras I soldiered off to Spring Training in Goodyear, Az.. Yes, overweight baggage charges were part of the equation.  A great assignment , great potential and great fun.

Up close with the players and coaches, access not available during the regular season and kibitzing with old and new friends in the photo world was great.  But the best treat came with the purchase of a Holga camera at a Phoenix Urban Outfitters store.

A plastic camera, invented in China in 1982, to “provide an inexpensive camera to China’s working class” is my new favorite toy in my photo arsenal.

I chose the Holga 135 that uses 35mm film, but other models are available in a wide variety of formats and an array of colors.

The camera has light leaks, a plastic lens that vignettes and sometimes distorts images, a fixed f8 aperture and one shutter speed, 1ooth of a second.  It rattles when you shake it and has a “best guess” zone focusing system. It rocks.

I chose black and white film that can be processed at any one-hour photo kiosk (C-41 color negative processing) and the good folks at the pharmacy where I had the film processed put the images on a disc.

I attended the Reds first game of the Cactus League season as a fan.  I walked around the Goodyear Ballpark and snapped some images that I thought would compliment others in a diptych (two-panel photograph) presentation. Nothing complicated and for the most part, images the public could see and access with a little enterprise.

Behind the scenes with ESPN and Aroldis Chapman

Aroldis Chapman, the Cuban Missle, as fans of the Cincinnati Reds pitcher call him, was the subject of a photo shoot for ESPN The Magazine.  Here's an exclusive look at one of the behind the scenes photographs I had access to during the shoot.

2012...it's almost time to hit the road

Campaigning in Ohio in 2008, I spent a a couple of days tooling around Southern Ohio with the Obama troupe.  It was hectic and fun.  On the bus, off the bus, shake some hands, give the stump speech, shake some hands and back on the bus.

 Now the contenders and pretenders are swarming.  It won't be long and the show will start again.