17 July
On
In Madison County, Madison County Fair
With

I’ll update each evening….or the next morning…with photos from each day. You can click on any of the photos to go to the galleries. Galleries will be divided by day.

Day 4, Saturday. Bucket Babies.
Day 4, Saturday. Fair Pageant.
Day 4, Saturday. Demolition Derby.
Day 4, Saturday. Smooth the Steer.
Day 3, Friday. Beef Show.
Day 3, Friday. Livestock auction.
Day 3, Friday. True Grit Rodeo.
Day 2, Thursday. Junior Novice Showmanship, Dairy Beef Show.
Day 2, Thursday. Kenya Safari Acrobats.
Day 2, Thursday. Power Wheel Derby.
Day 1, Wednesday. Prettiest Animal Contest.
Day 1, Wednesday. Swine Show.
Day 1, Wednesday. Donkey Races.
06 June
On
In Art
With

Thank you to everyone who came to the show! We had over 600 attendees for the day. That’s pretty darn good for a 4 hour show!!! Below is a video I put together as a recap for the show. Toni Clare played at the show for us once again (on her graduation weekend!) and we are truly grateful for her beautiful music (and allowing us to use her original song “Another Love Song” as the background music for the video. (Be sure to subscribe to her YouTube channel and website to get updates to her music.)

26 March
On
In 4x5, Film, Large Format
With

I found a Speed Graphic recently with a Rollei Heidosmat 18cm f/2.8 lens and have been playing around with that lately. This isn’t really a departure from shooting wet plate, I just don’t have a lot of time now, and the whole wet plate process takes a bit of time to set up and tear down, so 4×5 film has been a little easier to manage….and I really like shooting with the bigger cameras. Film slows you down a bit over digital, and 4×5 is REALLY slow! One sheet/photo at a time!

All of the black and white photos here are Kodak Tmax 400 film, developed in Tmax developer, and shot and developed at box speed. The color photos are Fuji FP-100c, which is a discontinued instant film. I only have a couple of boxes left, so I’m shooting it sparingly.

15 March
On
In Music, Video
With

And for something a little different from me, a music video 🙂

Clare had been in touch about shooting some “b roll” for an upcoming video to launch her new EP. The main footage of the video was shot in Nashville, with the video I shot filling in here and there as b roll. Long story, but the video ending up being primarily my b roll, with few other additions to fill it out. You can watch below. The YouTube tags at the beginning and end are mine, the still is mine, and all of the black and white footage is what I shot. Be sure to click through and Subscribe to her YouTube channel. Not only will you get updates on new music, but more subscribers give her higher ranking on YouTube and that’s a huge help. To find out more, and see upcoming show dates, check out her website, ToniClareMusic.com

31 December
On
In Family Portraits, Tintype, Uncategorized
With

This process has me hooked! Each image is a lot of work, and I never really know how it will turn out, but that’s also what makes the process so much fun. If I wanted reliable and perfect, I can just shoot digital 😉 With this process, you learn to accept, and love, the imperfections. Each image is handmade, and unique.

We shot 9 images in a little over two hours. Eight are shared here, we had one “blinker” and I won’t share that one.

From a quote I just read recently in Sally Mann’s “a thousand crossings”: “When I was shooting with collodion, I wasn’t just snapping picture, I was fashioning, with fetishistic ceremony, and object whose ragged black edges gave it the appearance of having been torn from time itself.” WHOA!

5×7 Tintype, our first image. I was worried if I had enough strobe power to cover 5 people. Quite happy to see it worked out.

5×7 Ambrotype. An ambrotype is the exact same process as a tintype, but is shot on glass. Mine are shot on glass that was given to me by a friend. This glass used to be a greenhouse, so I’m doing some recycling 🙂
Just the kids on 5×7 tintype.
4×5 tintype
4×5 tintype. Switched to a black background, and I think I prefer it to white. Feels a little 3D.
4×5 tintype. That’s bad developer pour on the right side of the image. I’d be slightly happier if it wasn’t there, but with this process, you embrace the imperfections. If you don’t like the imperfections, this process isn’t for you.
4×5 tintype
4×5 tintype (another bad developer pour on the top right)

If you’ve made it this far, and are interested in a portrait session with the wet plate process, send me a message. You’ll need to allow at least an hour for the session, but you’ll get to see the whole process from start to finish….and, it’s pretty cool! And, I’m just shooting these indoors right now with A LOT of strobe power, you can actually feel a little heat from the blast of flash. So, be aware. Not sure how small children would react to that. It won’t hurt you, but is a bit surprising the first few times.

Technical details….if you’re interested: Collodion is from Bostich and Sullivan, the “Old Workhorse” formula, and is about 3 months old. It’s a bit slow but the contrast is really nice. Cameras used: the 5×7’s were shot on a Burke and James 5×7 camera with an 18cm Heliar f/4.5 lens. The 4×5 plates were shot on a Crown Graphic with the stock Graflex Optar f/4.7 lens. Strobes are two Paul C Buff X3200’s, one in a silver beauty dish, the other in Buff’s 11″ long throw reflector, with couple of Buff Einstein’s as separation/kicker lights.

25 August
On
In Art
With

There was a Facebook post shared around a year or so ago of this being done at another school.  I’m SO happy to see it at MCHS!!  Imagine ALL of those spaces painted with unique art!!!  Feel free to grab these images if you or your art is in them.  I don’t know how else to share with everyone.  I’ll post them on my Facebook page as well.

 

18 July
On
In Madison County Fair
With

I’ll update this post each evening as I add pictures from that day.  To see the schedule for each day, click this link to go to the Fair website.

Day 1, Wednesday  (click the photo below to see Wednesday’s photos)

Day 2, Thursday (click the photo below to see Thursday’s photos)

Day 3, Friday (click the photo below to see Friday’s photos)

Day 4, Saturday (since Saturday had a couple of big events…..a zillion cute kid photos….I’ll divide up the day.  First up, is everything EXCEPT Cloverbuds and the Pageant.  Click the photo below to see Saturday’s photos.)

Day 4, Saturday, Cloverbuds!! (click the photo below to see their gallery)

Day 4, Saturday, Madison County Fair Pageant (click the photo below to see the pageant photos)

22 June
On
In Aerial Photos, Drone, Madison County, Quadcopter, Video
With

A few photos and a video.  These were all taken around 3:45pm.  The Robinson River was MUCH higher earlier in the day, over the bridge on Beahm Town Road, which is VERY VERY rare.  This is the only time I’ve actually seen it over that bridge.

Click on an image to see it larger.

Looking ‘down river’ towards Rt 15 and Orange.

Four stitched photos looking ‘down river’.

Intersection of Fords Shop Road (left side of photo) and Beahm Town Road. Earlier in the day, the intersection was under water.

16 June
On
In Tintype
With

On June 2nd and 3rd I took a tintype workshop at the Visual Arts Center in Richmond.  This was my first time trying the wet plate process.  I’ve shot just about everything else, so I guess it was time :-).  It was taught by Michael Bartolotta.  He teaches several tintype workshops each year.  So, if you’re interested in the process, I’d highly recommend his workshop.  He gave a brief history, gave a demo of the process, and we were off shooting.  I have a 4×5 view camera that I’d bought back in the 80’s, so I brought that along.  But he has several cameras for class members to use, so you need not bring anything other than yourself.

Here are a few of the images I made in the two day workshop.  (the color of the scans varies somewhat, and that’s due to my scanning.  The plates have a slight sepia tint after they are dried and varnished)

First plate 🙂 Exposure was pretty good for my first guess. 8 seconds at f/8

Second plate. I used a gold reflector to push a bit of light into the dark part of the flower arrangement.

We were fighting rain all weekend, so we started inside. The rain stopped for a bit, so I found this view off the balcony on the back of the building.

Mannequins in the fabric studio downstairs. It had started raining again, so I’d gone looking for indoor subjects.

First plate on day 2. I was planning a self portrait and shot this first plate as a light test.

Self portrait, using an air bulb release.

I tried a reflection photo in the door…with somewhat sucky results.

There was a glass blowing class going on at Visarts the same weekend. I turned the camera around from the self portrait and shot a plate of the class in action.

Mike was shooting a portrait of one of the other class members, so I set the camera up for this somewhat “behind the scenes” photo.

Mike took a portrait of each of us.

Class photo. There were three of us in the class, but one member couldn’t attend on Sunday due to flooding in her area.

24 March
On
In Personal
With

A few of my favorites from today.  And the line that stuck with me from the speeches, “vote like your children’s lives depend on it”.


March For Our Lives at the Sprint Pavillion, Charlottesville, VA
#MarchForOurLivesCharlottesville
#MarchForOurLives
@AMarch4OurLives
@Everytown
@MomsDemand
@AMarch4OurLives
#CharlottesvilleVA
#NeverAgain

22 March
On
In Black and White, Film, Goats, Portraits
With

Up until a month or so ago, I’d never shot this film.  A friend threw in a few rolls when he sold me his Hasselblad.  I’d mostly shot Tri-X or HP5.  But now TMax400 is a new favorite.  REALLY nice grain and contrast.  And I can barely tell the difference between shooting it at box speed (400) and pushing it two stops to 1600.  The grain is still really nice even when pushed.  All processed in TMax developer.  All but the one’s of Clare were shot on my Rolleiflex 2.8F.  Clare’s were on the Hasselblad 503cx and 100mm f3.5.

This one is TMax rated at ISO 1600 and pushed two stops in development.

12 July
On
In Madison County Fair
With

ALL photos are now online.

If you’re viewing on a smartphone, or want to order a collage,or proofbook (multiple images in a spiral bound book),  USE THIS LINK.  These galleries contain the same photos as below, but work better on phones.

The galleries below are best viewed on a computer.  If you’re using a smart phone, use the link above.

Note that because there are so many photos, the galleries from each day are divided into several pages, be sure to click through to see all the photos.

Day 4:  Saturday, July 15  CLOVERBUDS (click the photo below to go to the Cloverbud’s gallery)

Day 4:  Saturday, July 15 (click the photo below to go to Saturday’s gallery) This DOES NOT INCLUDE CLOVERBUDS, there are LOTS of those, they’ll be online this evening…I hope…

Day 3:  Friday, July 14 (click the photo below to go to Friday’s gallery)

Day 2:  Thursday, July 13 (click the photo below to go to Thursday’s gallery)  Sorry for the delay….LOTS of shows yesterday…goat show, sheep show, beef show….whew!

Day 1:  Wednesday, July 12 (click the photo below to go to Wednesday’s gallery)