Hose Head
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since I lasted posted to my blog. Sometimes, life just has a way of taking over. But have no fear, I've been tirelessly capturing images. Most of my images have been the product of iphones. I've always been a promoter of alternative cameras, starting with plastic Diana cameras in the '70's. In a way, iphones are kind of like old school toy cameras; certainly a lot of the photo apps ape toy camera photography with countless filters, some even named Diana. Go figure. So, as I distill down a year's body of iphoneography, I'll you give one of the early ones; interestingly I was at this location last week, and the nozzle is no longer there, but the hose is, lying almost in the same place.
Spanish Diptych
Photographing in Spain always brings out the BOLD in me. My first trip there was in 1974, and I ended up staying for a while with my girlfriend's mother on Ibiza during the late winter. I was just starting to make photographs; I didn't have a clue what to do with a camera other than push the shutter release. One image I made was of small hilly, mountainous island jutting out of the Mediterranean with the weak winter sun behind it. Later, back home someone saw the photograph and told me what an artist I was. I had never even considered the possibility of being an artist. Bottom line, that photograph plus a couple of others from around New England got me hooked on photography. A year later I quit my day job, I hopped on a Polish freighter, and I moved to Europe with all the accoutrements for a B&W darkroom (Those were the days). Once in France, I started to teach myself photography. That didn't mean I was a photographer yet, even by a long stretch of the imagination. But I had the bug, and I started to learn. During the year-and-a-half that I lived in Europe I spent a lot of time in Spain. And after I came back to the United States, I periodically returned to Spain to visit friends and to photograph. My most recent Spanish sojourn was for my wife's 50th birthday several years ago. It was one of my last trips using film as my primary photographic medium (although I was beginning to dabble with a digital point-and-shoot camera). From that last Spanish visit, here are a pair of Spanish images, bright in color, abstract in composition, intentionally painterly, and without manipulation.
What Every Back Yard Needs
Here are several more personal architectural images from my pool shoot last week. They're from a small house in East Hampton. The owner bought the property for a quick fix and flip. It is a small, one story 80s vintage bungalow with a great, sloping back yard. Her architect designed a huge wooden wall in front of the house which is what you see to the left in my first image. My pool guy, Mikie, designed an incredible negative edge pool which took advantage of the back yard's steep grade. His mason used the same stone for the veneer of the pool's wall, the patio, and the house foundation's veneer. I like how Mikie picked up the wood theme from the house's front wall, and incorporated it in the back yard's retaining walls. This little Hampton's weekend getaway can be yours for a mere $1.75M.
Not My Big Phat Swimming Pool
It's August, so it must be pool shooting season...no,no,no...not in some smokey bar room hustling 8 ball. For me, shooting pool is an outdoor event (although this year I shot some indoors, one even in a Manhattan private residence). What I'm talking about is shooting swimming pools, and I've been photographing them for Pools by Jack Anthony for fourteen years. I work directly with Mikie. He's one of four brothers, all involved in the family business. Besides marketing and selling the company's pools, Mikie designs the pools. In the past five or six years, he's gotten really, really good at it. Aided by computer technology, he's able to construct one of a kind, free form vinyl pools; something in the swimming pool parlance that was unimaginable ten years ago. In addition, he designs and constructs high end, gunite pools. My part in all of this is to photograph completed projects, not only for Mike's portfolio, but for his swimming pools' submission in an international awards program as well as a local awards program.
Over fourteen years I've photographed a lot of swimming pools. Up until last year I always used a 4x5 Sinar view camera, usually with a Schneider 58mm XL and a center filter. I'd then scan the transparencies on a Creo scanner, and output digital files and prints. The past two years I have gone over to digital. Now, instead of going out the door with a large camera case, tripod and film bag with dozens of film holders and Polaroid, I hop into Mikie's truck with a small camera bag and a Macbook Pro. My, my how times have changed. I still miss large format film.
This is a gunite, negative edge pool and spa on Shinnecock Bay. The white masonry is imported Italian glass 4 foot by 4 foot tile: the day I photographed this pool, it was nearly a hundred degrees, and the white tiles were cool to the touch. Nice job Mikie.
