There’s lots of fun to be had in Vancouver. Walk Stanley park. Visit Granville Island. Watch the Canucks lose to the Kings. Yes, these are cool. But nothing compares to the skill and endurance required to land a penny in the narrow opening of a frozen swill pot. For this memory, and the many attempts at ultimate success, I will be forever grateful.
More Vancouver after the break. Continue reading
What did we do? That was the name given to the Sunday BBQ after Lauren and I made it official. While the question was rhetorical, it didn’t really matter as the younger generation wasn’t ready to answer morning after, about the night before. Luckily, there’s no better remedy than pulled pork and shenanigans.
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I tend to agree with the photographic philosophy of letting your photos “sit.” I don’t lean them back the La-Z-Boy, peel open a TV dinner and work on their inner spudliness. But i like to let time pass between shooting my images and editing them. In theory the practice removes the excitement of “the moment” and allows for a more objective assessment of the “goodies.” You become lean, mean, and focused on nixing everything in between. Rationale aside, my family would say it’s just an excuse to be lazy. Case in point, Cuba, a killer trip that’s now surfacing after a year of “sitting.” Blame it on the embargo.
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I’d seen these two around the park before and always surrounded by a crowd (deservedly so, that’s a freaking cockatoo riding a bicycle). But I’m more of a one-on-one guy, so when I saw Ronny in a rare moment of peace, I decided to change that.
More Ronny (and if you stick around, my new favorite portrait) after the break. Continue reading
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve passed Dusty. You can hear his music before you see him. A soulful riff floating along the outer edges of Washington Square Park. Sometimes it greets you in the morning, lifting you out of a sleepwalking stumble. Other times it meets you after a long day on the clock, a gentle reminder to enjoy what little day you have left. I can’t help but smile when I hear Dusty jamming, and I’ve been carrying around his portrait waiting for the perfect opportunity to pay him back.
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Andre was one of those portraits that happen by chance. I was at the end of a long day shooting and had decided to take the subway home and rest my dogs. Thinking about anything but photography, I arrived at my station and there was this guy, just posted up looking like a badass. I walked up and told him so, then politely asked for his portrait. He agreed, but mentioned he was waiting for his girl so please make it quick. Needless to say, dude knows how to make an impression.
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Somewhere in my infinite Tumblr browsing I stumbled (or tumbld) across a beautiful set of long exposure images. They were black and white shots of carnival rides, with exposures just long enough to blur the lights (but not too long where everything goes psychedelic.) Those images stuck with me, and I decided to see what I could pull off at New York’s finest amusement park…Coney Island. With Winter looming and my window shrinking, I set out late one Sunday night to see what I could find.
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Richard was one of the first subjects that I photographed and contacted, after the fact, to share the result of a street portrait. Being my first foray into that whole experience, I was a bit weird while taking the photo, he was a bit weird for taking up half the sidewalk, but his response to my email was the weirdest of all
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When I take someone’s photograph, I make a point to stop and chat with them. This wasn’t always the case. I started very much in the “run and gun” mindset, steal the photo with as little interaction as possible. But I realized that if I took the time to ask permission and introduce myself , I could get the exact photo I wanted while learning a little about the person in it. Whenever possible, I take down the subjects’ contact information so that I can share the results with them. Though it may take days, weeks or even months, I love sending out images and waiting for a response. Most times it’s radio silence, I’m not sure if people don’t know how to respond or if they simply hate the photo, but every once and a while somebody writes back. CONTACT is a new segment on the blog dedicated to those rare responses…
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It started with a email from Sarah asking if I wanted to partake in a “mini photo expedition,” with the goal of photographing the 9/11 Tribute in Lights. Of course I was in, who did she take me for? Getting excited, I reminded her about my attempt last year, and cautioned against trying to photograph the lights with the Brooklyn Bridge in the foreground by crossing ON the Brooklyn Bridge…that wasn’t my smartest gameplan ever.
Her response was perfect “I don’t want the shot everyone gets. I want something different.”
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[gwu] Graham Whitaker Unterberger 