From 1970 to 2000 I was photographing and printing in the darkroom constantly. Around 2000 two things happened: 1. I began a business with my brother and 2. The digital revolution hit photography. The business relationship with my brother did not work out (I am still running the internet based business). The digital revolution forced me to reconsider photography and I stopped using my darkroom and started exploring the computer.
To me Ibis are the Jimmy Durante of birds with their long beak. They are grazers, often moving across our lawn in groups of 6 or more. I hope you enjoy this brief video. My homage to Ibis or is it Ibii.
One morning I was having my second cup of coffee when a pod of Manatees showed up. I had heard that they like fresh water, so I had Mari hold the hose while I took some photographs. This Manatee was no more than ten feet from us.
Two days ago Mari and I celebrated two years plus one month in Sarasota and one year in our wonderful home on Phillippi Creek. For my photography profession the move from Boston has been a bit of a shock. In Boston I had a 35 year reputation and a wonderful studio. In Sarasota I am just another “guy” with a camera.
To kick start my portrait work here in Sarasota, I place an ad in a newsletter offering free portraits at my home on Phillippi Creek. A number of people responded and I have posted some samples of the portraits we made together here in my scaled down studio in my home. (I made a couple of portraits before the ad) Click to View Portraits.
June 6. 2010
It has been a long time since my last entry. A lot has been going on. Nothing on photography, but much on lifestyle changes.
First, Mari and I decided we were staying in Sarasota. We needed to find someone to take over our studio in Waltham, MA and pay a key fee so we would be able to make the move work. We found someone who was actually already in the artist community.
Here is another video slide show of photographs I made from a few trips to the Siesta Drum Circle at Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota (also included are a couple of photographs from Nokomis Drum Circle in Nokomis). Mari and I met sixteen years ago at a weekly event called Dance Freedom in Cambridge, MA and the drum circles down here have a similar flavor to them where anything goes dance wise. Although in the case of the drum circles here there are more watchers than participants. This drum circle according to their web page (www.siestadrumcircle.com) began twelve years ago.
I have seen a number of videos on the web (mostly through YouTube) of the drum circle. My hope is that the photos I made give people a different persecutive of the event and capture some of the energy. The sound was captured with my Canon G10 and edited and enhanced with Apple’s GarageBand.
I never thought I would be photographing birds. In my thirty plus years of photography, I never had photographed birds before. Just now I went outside for a break and there was an Egret fishing in the canal behind the house not more than ten yards away. So the birds are hard to avoid here in Sarasota. I have put together another video slideshow of birds I have met.
This is the second slideshow/video I have created and any feedback would be appreciated. Enjoy!
Well….it has been some time since I have made an entry in this blog. A few weeks ago I got a great deal on a used Mac G5 computer which has opened up many more possibilities for editing and presenting my photographs. I had an old G4 computer that was 10 years old and whenever I tried to work with video, the computer would groan and than go into major slow down mode. So I have been spending the last few weeks learning programs that enabled me to create what I am showing you here.
I go out to Debbie’s backyard to have a smoke and late in the day play my xaphoon. Here is a list of all the animals I have seen in Debbie’s backyard since being here for three months: squirrels, rabbits, soft shell turtles, always lizards, bats, vultures flying overhead, osprey, all kinds of herons, egrets, red-shouldered hawk, sandhill cranes, and yesterday (July 9) a Bobcat sitting in a tree. No alligators yet, but I am still looking.
In response to my friend Bob Ballou’s comment of asking me to provide more information on my process of discovery, here goes: Mari and I have been in Sarasota for 3 moons now. We left Waltham Massachusetts during the full moon and last night (July 7th), we were atop the canopy walkway at Myakka State Park (with Mari’s sister Debbie) to watch the sunset and the moon rise. On the canopy we met a very interesting man, Michael, who was there for the same reasons as us, to view the full moon and too charge his magical stones.
