For nearly a year now a friend (and bicycle engineer) and I had this idea to mount a tripod post onto a tricycle. The plan was try all sorts of experimental photography from the bike. This first set is a series of 20-30 second exposures of some of the streets in Trenton at night. Some of the light patterns remind me of what you might see on an EKG monitor. The wiggly light patterns make me think we are seeing the streets’ energy – captured on camera.

It’s early days yet, we have a lot more experimental photography to try. Riding the bike in a circle or figure eight pattern seemed to yield my favorite results, the plaza where we recorded these was the smoothest to ride on as well. We have a lot of video ideas to try – can’t wait to really explore this.

The tricycle and a few prints were on display in the art exhibition titled ‘Unchained – the Art of the Bicycle‘ at Artworks in Trenton, NJ. Special thanks to Wills Kinsley, the bike engineer and guest curator for this exhibition. Wills also run Social Bike Rides around the city – tours of public art, history and gardens. Look up Trenton Social, the restaurant and bar where the rides start and finish – sign up, ride on.

Author James Scott asked me to take his portrait for his newest book and lecture tour. He had been resistant to have his photo taken because he didn’t want the image to reinforce any stereotypes as a Financial Consultant. He came to the table with an awesome character portrait concept – to be seated at a messy desk, decanter (from Scotland) and puffing on a cigar. He said so much of his job was about thinking, sorting out – a financial detective of sorts, before he gets down to writing. He brought several perfect props for the shoot and we had built the set prior to the photo day – just to make sure we both liked everything.

We chatted a lot – about all sort of subjects, and had just finished talking about spirit, and how some cultures have a heightened sense of intuition and knew when someone was coming home – since their spirit would arrive before them. The next shot we took there appeared to be wolf in the puff of cigar smoke next to James’ face – yikes.

He paid me one of the highest compliments about my photography work, that it was honest. He had looked at several photographers’ web site and settled on me – primarily because of the series of Artists’ portraits. Photo shoots like this make me love my job even more.

James Scott is the CEO of Princeton Corporate Solutions, “5 Time Best Selling Author” and lecturer on the topics of IPO facilitation, corporate structuring, Private Placement Memorandum authoring and Mergers and Acquisitions strategies. Here is a link to his books on Amazon.

Dr. Sketchy is group that provides models for art organizations and invites artists to draw and photograph. Artworks in Trenton hosted one of these events and the theme was Tarantino Movies – how great is that? There was even all the great music from the films playing while artists were drawing and photographers were taking pictures. I couldn’t help but think of Cindy Sherman’s series ‘Untitled Film Stills‘ (one of my favorite series’), where the artist put herself in front of the camera as a character from a film – a truly amazing series. In our scenario, we could work with models already in a character from Quentin Tarantino films. The extremely patient models allowed us to pose them and fuss with our lights and camera settings until we were getting the images we wanted.

I decided to try the bright back lighting technique by putting the flash behind the subject on full power and create a hazy glow. The flash is positioned close to the back wall and the subject so the light bounces off the wall and subject producing the glow effect to the image. Some of these effects can be achieved with filters – I just prefer to do it in the camera.

I worked with Panoply Books in Lambertville, NJ to expand their image library for advertising. We had several different tapestries for backgrounds and Roland, the owner, picked out the books with covers that had a face on it. I love it when business owners have creative ideas and need a set of images out of the ordinary. This works perfectly for a book shop – humanizing the product. The idea of series really works well – to have the option to publish a different image from time to time.

Here is a compilation of a few photo sessions from the last few months. I can’t help myself but to shoot in black and white. Why are we drawn to black and white portraits ? Is it the graphic quality that helps us concentrate on form, or an evenness of tone, without the distraction of color. From a technical stand point I’m learning to really see tone – I can set my digital camera to capture in black and white, but the color info is retained. Staying within the black and white tone range affords me the opportunity to work with subtle alterations of light – and really work with the effects of lighting.The right lighting is the key, and to be able to control the light as much as possible creates satisfying results.

All the images in the slide show were taken in studio with a variety of lighting types. Lately, I’ve been rather fond of this ring flash and bouncing the light into a big reflector – or positioning the subject with the available light and adding a soft light on one side. Thanks again to Dwayne and Molly for styling during several of these sessions.

Photo shoot for artist and designer Joseph Bottari. He has been working on series of paintings, stencils and the jewelry pendant – all based on the famous Robert Indiana ‘LOVE’ sculpture. It’s a cool idea to hijack a recognizable piece of art, modify it just enough to make it your own. It’s one of those things that base itself off something already recognizable.

We had two excellent models for the session, Matt and Molly. Both were incredibly creative and great to work with. For this shoot I was mostly using a ring flash – and shooting from the side more than through it. We were going for this stark contrasty look. In this edit, I’m really keen on the poses and lighting – some showcase the pendant better than others – that’s when we decided to get up close have the model hold it high or put it close to their face – so we could get everything in.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with this crew again – we kept going and going, and it kept getting better and better, and later and later into the night – and truly was a collaborative effort.

I was invited to create an installation in the ArtLab at Artworks in Trenton. The room was rather large and I wasn’t so sure about building something on-site. So I decided to paint all the walls with chalk board paint and invite the community to write something on the walls with chalk. I called the installation BEFORE I DIE…I WANT TO… which would prompt the visitor to think about what they would like to leave for others to read.

Much to my surprise the room was filled by the time the installation had to be replaced. There were some very funny, sweet, poignant messages left behind for others to see.

Graphology is study and analysis of handwriting, especially in relation to human psychology – and you can’t help thinking about character analysis with some of these messages. Hand writing is a self portrait in type.

Thank you to all those who participated.

Here’s the project blurb:
Before I Die is a community art project where people can share what is important to them by writing a message on the gallery walls. This installation is based on the New Orleans artist Candy Chang. “The wall creates a public space for contemplation and reminds us why we want to be alive in the world today”. Hopefully, participants leave behind declarations, wishes and dreams all to share and remember what is important to them.

Despite what you think you know, there’s always room for more. Who said ‘The more I learn the less I know’ – [Socrates, perhaps]. I took a portrait lighting workshop and it was fun as heck studying light. We practiced some ideas in lighting that I’d have never considered. Thanks to Frank V., the instructor for the Lighting Workshop, and the Princeton Digital Photo Workshop.

A few shots in this series were lighting experiments with this hazing effect. We put a strobe behind the models head (on quite high power) and she faced the windows for additional ambient soft fill light. Then, using a slow shutter setting on the camera, the model flipped her hair back and forth and up and down. We think the hazy glow came from the strobe bouncing off the wall (it was very close to the wall), and back into the camera. Quite a romantic effect – without the use of any digital filters. I don’t know that I’d have thought to experiment this way if it wasn’t for the workshop. So this old dog has new trick.

As for the image that is both in black and white and color, I still can’t decide which one I like more – I should probably take a photo editing class next.

I thought about calling this series ‘EXEC_CUTE_TIVE LEVEL’, but then DOG YEARS felt better.

We’ll Make Great Pets, the song by the band Porno For Pyros (Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction) was playing in my head the whole time. And continues when I look at these images. Understanding relationships transcend the test of time and institutional struggles. A thought that was also playing in my head after this photo session.

My friend, a Creative Director who offered me the shoot was challenged after the fact (by upper level execs) about decisions that were on the table months ahead. Things that were previously approved, became politically unapproved. And like  ‘man’s best friend’ – we stuck it out, and made everything work to the best of our ability. There’s more to ponder about the parallel of pet and owner, and two friends that have worked with each other for over 15 years – that’s 105 in dog years.

On this shoot, we were lucky to have the budget to accommodate a very talented stylist – Dwayne, who did the hair, make-up, pet wrangling and set-up.

After Burn was a project I was asked to participate in the Fall of 2011. The concept was borrowed from a group that once a year would have a back yard fire and invite artists to bring one piece of their own to chuck on the fire and be rid of it – love it. Although the attendance of our Burn was a bit light, the collaborative minds were engaged – initially – with seemingly hidden agendas unraveling. Which begs the question, can artists’ be curators? Or, is it best for that not to happen. The mix at this burn was primarily artists, save for a few with fairly decent community organizing skills.

My interest was to take portraits of the artists’ with their art in the woods – before burning it. That was the only way I would be apart of the project – and believe me, I had plenty of art I could burn at a moments notice. This was a fun challenge, since I very much enjoy night photography, and the subject matter was truly great.

The thought was, that with the photos, the amazingly cool slow motion video that was made, and a potential project made out of the ashes – all this content would be ready made for a gallery – some or all. Believe me, the video footage was by far was the coolest thing you ever did see – and probably never will. The majority of the burners work jobs as well as making art, nobody really has authorship of the project – shame.

I am glad to have this little set of portraits of the folks involved at least. Art collaborations can have the best of intentions.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I changed the text on my glitter painting – too embarrassed to publish the original – it was a really bad idea – glad it burned.