My photo
I been a professional photographer since I worked for the US Government documenting Test and Evaluation of Research and Development projects for the US Army and US Navy in the later half of the 1980s. I came home to Maine to finish my Marketing Degree at USM and began to work full time in Market Research and Marketing for many years while documenting weddings and occasional photojournalist and commercial jobs on the weekends. In 2001 I again returned to photography as a full time trade and have never been a happier man. I love working with creative individuals, couples, small businesses and select Non-Profits and can’t imagine working in any other trade. In 1987 I was lucky enough to wed my high school sweetheart and we now live in a cozy little solar powered, recycled bungalow a mile deep in our woods in the Western Hills of Maine with our two brilliant home-schooled teenage daughters and our three cats.

20051129

PAW 2005 - Wk 47 - Chains



Tried out a Fuji GW670III this afternoon at lunch in Portland's Old Port.
I like the camera. Maybe even better than the Hasselblad that I just got.

(Fuji GW670III with fixed 90/3.5 and Fuji's new Pro160s film.)

20051117

PAW 2005 - Wk 46 - Fall Turkeys





Wild Maine Turkeys
pitching woo in the field at the top of our mountain in the early morning light.

Inspired a Haiku...

plumage on display
Wild Turkeys are noble birds
love is in their air


(Nikon D70 with 24-120 VR Nikkor)

20051111

Nicole's November Walk

Nicole and her dad went out for a walk while her mom and little sister went out to dance class...

It is November in the Maine woods and this means it is hunting season. Especially because it is nearing sunset and hard to see in the woods, they both make sure that they dress with articles of blaze orange so as not to look like a tasty deer to any hunters who may not be so good at following the rules of being sure of their target and beyond. Nicole is very eager to enjoy hunting herself with her dad and her Pepere in just a few seasons so this is fashion clash with her signature pink is a small imposition to enjoy the woods of Maine safely at this favourite time of year.


As they leave the house they notice that the Jack-O-Lanterns that Nicole and her sister Beth very skillfully carved with their Nanna are starting to return to the Earth already in the composte pile among the year's first fallen snow.


Down the road a bit, they stop to admire how deep the pools on the side of the road have gotten after the latest storm. Her dad apprecieates the reflections of the woods beyond.


Further down the road on their walk, the wind has come up as they stop to enjoy how the fading light is pretty on the forest on quickly melting first new snow.


Looking down as they are about to move on, Nicole spots a brightly coloured fungi on a broken branch. Her dad makes a photograph of it so that they can even better remember it and the rest of their walk together.

(Nikon D70, 24-120 VR at very slow speeds hand held)

PAW 2005 - Wk #45 - Maple Leaf Joy



The wonderous poetry that is a tree cannot be captured easily in a small fraction of a second of light reflected in time/space. I photographed this maple early in the PAW project this year leafless in the cold snow. Since then it has grown a thick covering of green leaves that nurtured it with converted solar energy all summer and has now exploaded into a riotous festival of orange just before they will drop to the floor and cover and eventually feed the roots in a rich blanket of leafmold under the snow. In the spring it will begin all over again.

This is the essence of coolness about trees for me, they are a perfect demonstrative example of the birth, life, death and renewal cycles that all of creation is starting and stopping continuously.


(Nikon D70, 12-24 Tokina)

20051103

PAW 2005 - Wk 44 - Hasselblad Portraits





Quick Portraits of Nicole and Beth to test out my new Hasselblad 503CX with 80/2.8 Planar using Fuji's new Pro160S film. (Soon to hit the shelves to replace NPS.)

I wan't much using the Leica M4P any longer in favour of my little digital Canon SD300 so I figured if I was going to get excited about film at all any more, I should get that Hasselblad that I've always wanted. I used a 500CM when stationed in Alaska as an Army Photographer and loved the camera. Many pros these days are dumping their Hasselblad gear on the used market in order to buy new expensive high MP rated Digital SLRs.

The V system cameras (such as this new 503CX) will take digital backs as well as a variety of film backs. The digital backs are prohibitively expensive for most folks to just play with and are not all that practical for the type of 'for profit' photography that I do, but they are quite capable in the studio and in a few years the used market for these first and second generation digital backs will be well within 'play equipment' range.

It made sense to me to pick up a nice condition Hasselblad now and to enjoy 120 film with it while I wait for the market to come down on the digital backs so I traded the Leica M4P that I had been ignoring for the Hasselblad. This is the first time I've ever not regretted parting with a Leica (and I still have the ancient 1949 'clockwerk' IIIc and several wonderfully clean Leitz screw mount lenses anyhow.)