Horseshoe Crab

I have had a love affair with this sea creature as far back as I can remember.  Sitting in my bedroom in Tulsa with some Time Life or National G book stating it as a living fossil, I knew one day I would get to see this creature first hand.  Finally, thirty-some odd years later, I see one... At Cape Henlopen State Park just north of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

LIghting Test and Local Curiosity

So I'm definitely funneling my inner "Dan Winters" on this lighting set up.  He is a major influence on my current evolution and philosophies of lighting, so it was inevitable.  I think I could stand to ease up my fill to allow a little more contrast in my lighting ratio.  None the less, I'm pleased with the outcome but I hope to have better subject matter and a set next time round...

A couple of weekends ago this vehicle was sitting out in a nearby park where I live.  I drove by it a number of times and just could not stop staring at it.  Its some kind of post drilling vehicle.  But its utilitarian design is fascinating.  I can't stop looking at those tires on the back axle and wondering why they have to be so big? 

LINKS Magazine - Keith Foster - Email Blasts Work!

While I will admit that the stars probably lined up for this to happen, but back in October, with the help of Agency Access,I was on my third series of email blasts since moving to DC and it just happened to land in the inbox of the Art Director of Links Magazine and it just so happens he was in need of a photographer in the DC area.  So upon receiving my email, he gave me a call and the rest is history.  We shot this back in October but the issue is out now.

Kieth Foster is a Golf Course designer half of the year and the other half he sells antiques in at his store the Outpost in Middleburg, VA.  I was given fairly loose instructions - Horizontals and Verticals of Mr. Foster in the store.  So I pretty much showed up and scoped the place and shot what I wanted.  This particular room was last and required pretty high ISO due to the black walls.  There is a small strip soft box camera right high in the corner aimed at the table in the background.  Its feathering the side of Keith's face and I'm filling with a ring flash.  Both with 1/4 CTOs.  What makes this setup significant is I tried it for the first time a few days earlier only to have a malfunction (Operator Error) with the ring flash so I was dying to give it a go.  Here are a couple of other outtakes from the shoot.

Delicious!

Rio Grande Community Farm - NRCS - Part 2

A long over due look at some of the images documenting the Winter and Spring work at the farm.

Editing is surely an art form.  I always have issues with portrait shoots because inevitably you are fighting with nuance and perception rather than the easy stuff like contrast, exposure, focus, etc.  This is my first long form story and to edit the images down from thousands to the 60ish I currently have took a lot more effort.  Some images tell the story and assist with the overall arc and others are more intimate details of character, whether it be the farm work, the plant life and animals, or the people.  I love to tell people I'm a story teller and photography is surely an end to a means in that regard but it is tough to let the images tell their story without preamble, guidance, and inflection...