Here's a look of working with large format cameras in North Carolina's Outer Banks.
I choose to work in this manner, as the large size of the negatives yields incredible detail and richness for my mural-sized enlargements.
Mesquite Flat IV
Death Valley Reflections
Exactly five years ago today, two close friends of mine from college and I met in the Las Vegas airport, rented a car, and pointed it to Death Valley. What followed was three days of loooooong, amazing days of photographing the barren landscape of Death Valley, which, after six trips to in the last five years, remains my favorite place in the world to photograph.
Here are a handful of photographs from that trip (my second time ever there) for you to enjoy...
Mesquite Flat I
Mesquite Flat II
Valley IV
Valley I
Valley II
Special thanks to Christina Holmes and Rob Larson for making the trip extra awesome.
Isle of Palms
I don't mind shooting in the rain, but putting a big box camera up in the wind is always a challenge. There's a delicate dance of making sure you have enough depth of field in your photograph, and getting a shot off between gusts of wind. Otherwise...guaranteed blurry photograph. Every time. To top it off, you have to wait until your film is processed to find out whether you dodged the dreaded wind shake bullet.
It is rare that I will make two exposures of the same scene. I will usually pick a lens and place the camera in a specific location, and stick to it, making the slight moves necessary, based on location. What drew me to this location in the first place was the gradation in the sand in the foreground. It is so pale and lifeless, and played off of the overcast sky so well, and the silver ribbon of a tide pool cutting across the frame...with its dark edges just added so much subtle depth to the scene.
However, just out of the frame of the first composition, where the pool drained to the ocean, there were these subtle fingers and rippled sand foreground. I wanted to capture this scene, as well, and chose a wide angle lens, and a location to balance the immediate foreground with the sand's tone and texture. The aim was to show the water's course, without losing the feeling of the entire scene, which was being overpowered with this ominous, heavy sky. Composing it so it felt balanced, and included enough of all of the elements took several minutes, and required a few slight moves with the tripod to get the camera in the exact position where I had the composition I was looking for.
Then, I made one exposure.
A Study: The America
The schooner that started the age of modern sail racing: The America. Her replica was docked in Beaufort, NC early this fall, and I had the chance to make a few photographs of her. Here are a few favorites from eleven exposures made of her rigging.
Charleston-Bound
Excited to be heading down to Charleston this week to drop off a few pieces for an installation, and visit with the lovely Rebekah Jacob.
Here's a photo of the Morris Island light from a trip through Charleston this past March. Stay tuned for some photographs from the journey...
And now...a moment of zen...
Shooting at dusk under the moon in an area that's quickly becoming one of my favorites to photograph. Nothing beats the furthest reaches of the Outer Banks.
Front page news...
As seen on the homepage of Rebekah Jacob Gallery.
New Press!
Just got some new press with artGuide Magazine! Check it out, and you can get a little more insight about what I do, and how I do it.
Shackleford I, 30x40, framed 38x48. Silver gelatin photograph.
Ain't we a pair?
Shackleford II, 30x40, framed 38x48. Silver gelatin photograph.
A mile off the coast of the tiny port town of Beaufort, NC, lies Shackleford Banks; a nine-mile long barrier island. Cut off from civilization, and accessible only by boat, Shackleford is a rare gem. It is battered by storms, and the ever-flowing tides are constantly changing its shores. Wild horses, shipwrecked there in the late 1600's, are its only inhabitants.
It is my home away from home, and its splendor is ever evolving.
Research Vessel...
Where you can't fly, you drive. Where you can't drive, you walk. Where you can't walk, you...you...well, you paddle.
Say hello to the new research vessel...for those hard to reach spots.
We've got plans to go places...
NEW SITE
We've totally got a new site!
This award thing...
I recently entered a few images in the artavita art contest, and was awarded a certificate of excellence.
Lovely. Very lovely.
Goin' walkabout...
Making the trek out to the middle of nowhere in Cedar Island, NC.
The resulting photograph (shown at the end) is Cedar Island VII.
News type news...
Hey! We're in the paper!!!
The local paper did a little heads up on the show this month. Stoked!!!
Stone Mountain I
Road Trip
I had a shoot in Charlotte two weeks ago, which I drove to, expecting to take the scenic route on the way home. Stone Mountain State Park is an hour and a half north of Charlotte, and I've wanted to check it out for a while now.
Living out at the coast, I've sort of started to miss rocks and hills.
Here are a few from a quick drive by of the area...
Stone Mountain VII
Stone Mountain V
Stone Mountain III
As they hang: Pound Net I, Pound Net VI and Pound Net III
POUND NET SERIES
THE BACK STORY:
This is one of my favorite serendipitous stories I like to tell of my travels. I left home early one morning to make a 6-hour drive up to Ocean City, Maryland for a shoot for Johns Hopkins, and passed this spot on the drive up. I don't usually carry my large format gear with me, but will take it along if I've got a long haul ahead of me.
Anyway...this particular day happened to be outrageously windy, a condition in which hoisting a bulky camera atop a tripod will guarantee blurry photos from the camera shuddering in the wind.
The shoot for Johns Hopkins went incredibly smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that we shot for about 45 minutes, and I was on my way toward home again. I had intended on sleeping in the car (or ground) near the place I had seen these pound nets on the drive up, but made good time on the way back, and, when I got there, somehow the 30+ mph winds had stopped...completely.
I jumped out of the car, built the camera, and dashed to the shore. The scene before me couldn't have been more ideal. The summer heat had created a beautiful hazy backdrop behind the nets, and the water was reflecting the evening's twilight.
In just under an hour (about as long as my commissioned shoot that day), I made seven exposures, recording these delicate nets on a sheet of silver film. The pairing couldn't have been better...
If you're interested in seeing these pieces in person (they're breathtaking in person), you can view (and purchase) them in 20x24 inch silver gelatin prints at my gallery in Beaufort, NC, or at Rebekah Jacob Gallery in Charleston. I can also ship pieces, and guarantee satisfaction upon delivery.
Schoodic Point IX. Acadia National Park, ME. 2015
ELEMENTS | Beaufort
Fresh off the walls of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, the show ELEMENTS is making its way home to Beaufort for the month of May.
The all black and white exhibit features beautiful coastal scenes from North Carolina to Maine, in silver prints ranging from 16x20 up to 40x50 mural.
A reception is being held Saturday, May 7th from 5-7PM at Mike Basher Gallery, 410 Front Street. Beaufort, NC
ELEMENTS will be on exhibit through the month of May.
Morris Island Light and jetty
South of the border...
Ok...so it's been a bit since I've had time to get to my film from my trip to Charleston a few weeks back. Yesterday, I processed it. Today, I bring you two of the three photographs I made on Folly Island, early one morning. What happened to the third one? Well...let's just say that I made a slight error in its exposure, and the image will just have to live on in my memory.
The joys of film...
Bulkhead and jetty
Secret, behind the scenes shot
That view!
Just wanted to chirp out a photo of the view out of the gallery windows. Even a rainy day looks good. Come on down!!!
410 Front St. Beaufort, NC 28516
artGuide feature...
My feature in the March 2016 artGuide is now online, if you'd like to take an in-depth read through it. Click the image above, or this handy little link.