Hey, I Know You!

I was looking at the photographs on the website of Atlanta's Fay Gold Gallery, and came across this picture by Bob Kolbrener. I immediately said, "Hey, I know that tree!"

I ran to my bookshelf, pulled down Paula Chamlee's first monograph, Natural Connections, and turned to the last picture. It is hard to be certain from the small, poor-quality scan from the Fay Gold website, but it looks to be exactly the same tree that Chamlee photographed in 1990— exactly ten years after Kolbrener's photograph was made.

Even though it has been nearly 20 years since this tree was photographed by Paula Chamlee, I want to go to this place, Hurricane Ridge, Washington, to see if this tree still exists, and try to discover why two very different photographers would pick this one tree and make two very different and incredible photographs of it.

I can't say which of these photographs I enjoy more (and I have to question whether or not I would have responded to Kolbrener's picture if I did not already know Chamlee's). It makes me wonder what other pictures of this tree exist.

Back from Louisville

Back from the trip to Louisville-- with to much to report, and much to catch up on. I had planned on blogging from the road, but the power cord for my laptop pooped out of the first day. And even if that weren't the case, we photographed everyday until after 9PM and after eating dinner, finding a hotel and changing film there was very little time or energy left to make blog posts. So, in brief: I had a great time, I met some great new friends, traded for some great photographs by Bruce Cook, made some new pictures in Louisville, Steubenville (and various other stops) and better realized what I am trying to do with my work¬ all in all, not a bad trip.

Sometime soon, I will be posting some polaroids I made in Gettysburg on the last day, along with some of the other pictures when I get them developed and printed. I'll expand on some of more exciting points of the trip when I get a chance.

My Blog Imigrated to Wordpress

So I am new to the whole blogosphere, and in my haste to get started I set up my blog at Blogspot. Luckily it was a misstep that was easily corrected, and now my blog is at home here at Wordpress.  Please forgive any formatting funkyness while I settle in. Thanks.

Portfolio Reviews

The registration for the portfolio reviews at Magnum, Atlanta Celebrates Photography and Houston FotoFest is now occurring. I have been debating the importance of going to these events at this point in my career. People I speak with about it say it is too expensive compared to the possible benefits of my attendance this year. For the most part, I agree, but there is another part of me that is hungry to have my work noticed. That is my impatient self. My practical self knows that for what I would spend on FotoFest, I could make two separate trips to California to continue photographing for the Lower Owens River Project. I will, however, continue going to the SPE portfolio reviews

Thinking about these reviews has brought up the question, "Where does my work fit in with the photographs that are currently being shown and published?"

I think that is a subject that requires a full night's rest and a pot of strong coffee before I can even think about tackling it.

Welcome to my Blog

Until this point I have held out creating a blog, and I kept my thoughts safely confined to my Moleskin. While I have no intention of laying down my pen and forever locking away the scribbles contained in my growing collection black books into my sock drawer, I think certain thoughts I have compiled there could be expanding upon-- even if only for my own benefit. The pressures of making those ideas public cause me to be sure I substantiate those thoughts as best I can.

In addition to these varying essays and diatribes, I will post updates on my work, my travels, show and book reviews and general items I might find of interest.