Yellow Dog Eats Statue

Yeah, I got your curiosity with that post title, didn’t I? The statue in the photo is actually located on the porch of a wonderful (and popular!) restaurant named Yellow Dog Eats outside Orlando in the small town of Gotha. Thus, while I’ll admit intentional misdirection in the hope of appealing to your curiosity, it should be noted that I delivered what the title of this post promised. I hope you like it. [By the way, what’s up with the funky fingers on this thing?]

“Yellow Dog Eats Statue”, Nikon D800, ISO 320, f/2.8 at 1/1600 sec., 28mm

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings.
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Parallel Textures

“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.”
― Susan Sontag

“Textures in Parallel”, Nikon D800, ISO 640, f/6.3 at 1/200 sec., 28mm

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Photographing people, places, pets and ponderings.
Booking family, personal, business and pet portrait sittings throughout Central Florida

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Curbed Ambition

A youthful mind is seldom totally free from ambition; to curb that is the first step to contentment, since to diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment.
         — Frances Burney

Taking advantage of the D800’s exceptional ability to handle high ISO captures, I went out to Kissimmee’s Old Town a couple of evenings ago with the goal of doing some natural light night photography. Crossing a street, I noticed an interesting contrast of light and shadow within the scene before me. I quickly dropped down on one knee and snagged this shot before the opportunity was gone. You have to take a shot when you see it; otherwise, that moment – that exact image – will be forever lost.

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You look best when you’re surrounded by what you love! Please contact me for more information.

“Curbed Ambition” [Click the image to enlarge/reduce its size.] Nikon D800, ISO 4000, f/4.0 at 1/60 sec., 85 mm

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Street Portraiture: Faces of Kissimmee, #18

When Mike first walked past me on Broadway, it was evident he had something to accomplish. I wished that hadn’t been so because he looked interesting and emanated a lot of character. He was the perfect potential subject for a “Faces of Kissimmee” street portrait. It was the lunch hour, and I had a hunch that he was probably on a lunch break errand. If so, that meant he might be coming back by again in just a few minutes on his return to wherever he’d come from. Although it felt a little like stalking, I decided to stay where I was for a few minutes just to see if my hunch was correct.

It was.

“Mike” [Click image to enlarge or reduce its size.] Nikon D300, ISO 320, f/4.0 at 1/1000 sec., 85 mm

 

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Street Portraiture: Faces of Kissimmee, #1

I am taking on a new personal street portraiture project, which I am calling “Faces of Kissimmee.” A once-small town in Central Florida, Kissimmee has tons of historic charm and character. In 1950, the population of Kissimmee was a mere 4,310 people. These residents primarily made their living either cattle ranching or growing citrus. When Walt Disney World opened its gates in 1971, Kissimmee was thrust into an unprecedented age of growth and forever changed. Its primary industries are now travel and tourism. In the wake of that change, the population has grown to more than 60,000 people.

Mark [Click image to view larger size.] Nikon D300, ISO 320, f/2.4 at 1/750 sec., 85 mm

I am going to be concentrating on random, unstaged street portraits for this series, and posting the photos here on “I Shutter at the Thought!”. It is my hope you will enjoy viewing some of the faces I encounter on the streets of Kissimmee, Florida.

Want to be featured in this project? If you’re in Kissimmee, send me an email and let’s set something up! There is no cost or obligation other than consent for me to use your photo.

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Last Stand in Stockton

“I am almost a hundred years old; waiting for the end, and thinking about the beginning.
There are things I need to tell you, but would you listen if I told you how quickly time passes?
I know you are unable to imagine this.
Nevertheless, I can tell you that you will awake someday to find that your life has rushed by at a speed at once impossible and cruel. The most intense moments will seem to have occurred only yesterday and nothing will have erased the pain and pleasure, the impossible intensity of love and its dog-leaping happiness, the bleak blackness of passions unrequited, or unexpressed, or unresolved.”

― Meg Rosoff, What I Was: A Novel

Mamiya 645 Super, Ilford 120, ISO 125, f/16 @ 2 seconds, 55 mm

Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire.
– Patti Smith

It was the 80’s. Life was Good. (#3)

I hope when you are my age, you’ll be able to say – as I have been able to say:
We lived in freedom. Our lives were a statement, not an apology.
– [I can’t believe I’m voluntarily quoting] Ronald Reagan

“Old Daytona Beach” had so much more charm than today’s version. One could say the same about the subject of today’s photo, my lifelong friend, John.

“John” Ilford film & chemistry; Nikon Photomic FTN SLR; lots of cassette-taped music; Daytona Beach boardwalk (near the old clock tower); circa 1980.

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It was the 80’s. Life was Good. (#2)

There is so much I could say about Danny, but I don’t have all day to write this post. He was an innovator, to say the very least. He was creative, daring, delightfully outrageous, and above all else, Danny was true to himself. Our friendship began in the 10th grade at Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Florida. That would have made it about 1977.

One summer afternoon in 1980, Danny put on his self-made MC Hammer pants (Note: MC Hammer didn’t design MC Hammer pants until the late 80’s) and white rubber boots and we headed downtown in my 1975 MG Midget convertible. We walked down the sidewalk enjoying people’s stares and as we passed an abandoned storefront, Danny reached out and tried the door. The photos that resulted were the first photos I ever captured that came with the feeling that I was really, truly creating something with my camera.

An illness took Danny much too soon. There was so much he and I shared that was fundamental to my view and experience of life. I miss him and still think of him often. I hope that in some way I am keeping his memory alive by sharing a few of these photos more than 30 years after we shared the fun and excitement of that afternoon.

“Danny” Ilford film and chemistry; Nikon camera; great friendship. Circa 1980.

I am now offering photos for sale as standard, canvas and metal prints and greeting cards at FineArtAmerica.com

It was the 80’s. Life was Good. (#1)

I had just graduated from high school. The Reagan era, the punk movement in the UK, new wave, amazing and bad and amazingly bad hair styles, innovative clothing and jewelry (at that time, one or twelve safety pins through the ear was extremely extreme!), general civil unrest and a seemingly universal dissatisfaction with the status quo were wonderful creative influences for this kid with an SLR and a darkroom. I was fortunate to have friends that were equally creative in other ways, and who had no qualms about being in front of my camera.

I thought it would be fun to share some of the photos over the next several blog posts that I took of my two closest friends from that era. One (John) is still my best friend; he’s in the photo featured today. Perhaps you’ll recall I wrote about him once before in my tribute to my high school biology teacher, Mrs. Fagerberg. Sadly, the other friend (Danny) was taken from us not too many years after we made his photos.

John had moved to Daytona Beach a few months earlier, just a couple of hours drive away. On one of my first weekend visits to see him after he moved away, we listened to a lot of Gary Numan’s album Telekon and went down to the boardwalk to shoot these photos. From a historical perspective, the boardwalk no longer exists as you’ll see it in the photos taken that day.

I’m still accused of having “purple hair days.” For the record, I really thought it was a good color for me. It went well with the safety pins I’d pierced my ears with.

“John” Ilford film and chemistry. That’s pretty much all I can tell you. Thanks to my dad for scanning the stack of negatives I handed him upon arrival for my recent trip to Florida.

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Do you remember the 80’s? Go on… please post a comment below and share a moment, favorite 80’s band or song.

Mama Mamiya!

Today, I thought I would share one of the first images I captured with my new Mamiya 645 Super medium format film camera (circa 1987). I found this camera, along with 55 mm and 80 mm lenses and a Metz flash, at a pawn shop recently for $100. In three potentially trademarked words, “I’m lovin’ it!”

The downside of this photo and this camera is that it further reminds me how very much I love (and prefer) shooting film!

Mamiya 645 Super, Ilford 120 ISO 100, 4 seconds at f/16, 55 mm

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