Jewels

I bought my first Hasselblad 25 years ago and my third about 5 years ago when I added the digital back. They’ve served me well and are a marvel of engineering and design but it’s time to move on, I have a new love now, yes Canon, it’s you. So I sold them all for a tiny fraction of what I paid but I suddenly feel freer and lighter. I’m free of cords and external hard drives hanging off me, free from the ever present tripod and now have the lovely autofocus working for me. It was a huge decision to give up medium format and my beloved square but now that it’s done I’m excited about creating new lighter pictures, and working within a rectangle. So thank you Hasselblad, I will not forget you!

My new Canon makes it so much easier to document daily life, this is my son playing his bass

Met my “distant cousin” Julie Bidwell and her family yesterday in West Hartford. Turns out we’ve both known about each other for years, having the same name and me being a photographer and Julie being an anchor on Fox News in NY (Julie Banderas on TV) we both show up on google on a regular basis. I contacted her on Facebook last week and we met at Cosi this afternoon, Julie with her Mom Fabiola, husband Andy & newborn daughter Addison. I was a reluctant convert to FB but without it we would likely never have met. We had a great time talking for a couple hours and discovered that we are related and both included in the Bidwell genealogy Book. It’s great to connect with “new” family members!

This was part of a story on Jamestown, RI I shot for Yankee Magazine. Love the warm, end of summer light and the iconic Dels truck. I submitted it to the Teacher/Student show at the West Hartford Art League where I’ve been teaching photography workshops for a few years now. The show is at the Clubhouse Gallery and up until the end of June.

after the storm

This show of Chuck Close photographs is up at Univ of Hartford’s Joselof Gallery until the end of June.
The tonality of the photos is so rich and beautiful, they almost look 3 dimensional.
Daguerreotypes, photogravures, digital prints and tapestries are all used to show the same image in different ways.
The photogravures looked flat to me compared to the digital prints and the tapestries invite you to get really close (NPI)
and see the individual threads making up the whole.
Aperture produced this show that you should see if it travels your way.

This week I headed north to the new studio of photographer Lynne Graves… Lynne was a photo assistant of mine a few years ago and is now shooting on her own…she was a frequent “model/body in the scene” on shoots with me and always game for anything… here are a few more from this week…

The most interesting looking people come to art openings.. these were at the Ellen Carey show at West Hartford Art League that opened last night…shot with my Canon G11… the first is art dealer and collector Marion Harris..

and here is a video I shot of Ellen Carey talking about her show

WHAL_TheBlackSwansOfEllenCarey

I shot a variety of scenarios outside the home of subject Carolyn Klemm last year…starting with her grand Georgian Colonial in the background and on the slate steps. In the end I liked this simple portrait in front of the Birch trees the best.. and CT Magazine art director Joan Barrow agreed with me… and ran it full frame which I love.

One of the perks of shooting restaurants is tasting lots of different types of food and working with chefs who are as passionate about their food as I am about photographing it. Here is a spread I shot for the January 2010 issue of Connecticut Magazine featuring Ibiza Tapas beautiful Spanish food in Hamden and Ferme in Avon that has a seasonal Farm to Table menu…

Last January I photographed Mr Whitlock in New Haven for Parade Magazine… the story never ran and the embargo is up so I thought I would post a few shots here. At the time he was 92 years old and somewhat suspicious of getting his photo taken but he allowed me to do my thing while he did his…repairing typewriters as he has done for most of his life. He hasn’t raised prices in 30 years and has a backlog of a couple years worth of repairs.