Slash has signed it...

I had hoped the day would come where I could come into contact with Slash and have him sign the photo - but not so much to get his autograph - but to just have him see the photograph. I'm sure he's seen enough photos of himself the past 25 years and could care less, but since I am 100% satisfied with this photo I shot of him, as far as live concert photos goes, it's pretty bad ass and I know I'm biased, but when I Google concert images of Slash, there's a few that are as good as this one, but none better. That's how I feel about this anyway. So the chance for him to signing had nothing to do with my running into him or meeting him, but from a high school friend who works at CNN and currently works on the Pierce Morgan show and when Slash was coming on the show that week, my friend messaged and asked if I could get a print back to New Jersey, he'd see if he could have it signed (with no guarantees) telling Slash that his friend does photography and has a great shot of him. This was on a Sunday, and Slash was coming in on Wednesday ...and I live in Arizona, so my only option was to print one locally in NJ at a Costco as I didn't have any from the professional lab I use here in Tempe. So I sent one to Costco, my dad picked it up on Monday, and my friend came by my dads house and picked it up and brought it in to work on Wednesday. He waited a few weeks to send it to me so I could be surprised, and I never asked him if he got it signed or not because I knew I'd be disappointed if he said Sorry it didn't happen, and I thought maybe I'd be surprised by mail. Well, a few weeks later, sure enough, I found this large envelope in my mailbox and I knew exactly what it was when I saw it in there since it had my friends name on the senders name. I was so excited opening it as I knew this was a signed photo, as I told my friend, no need to send the photos back if he doesn't sign it as you can keep one and give the others to friends or co-workers. The fact that he thought enough to to try and get one signed was kind enough, so I wanted him to keep the photos as I printed up 4 total. Anyway, I think I'm more excited that Slash himself actually saw this rather than the autograph itself. Hopefully someday I get to come in contact with him and maybe he'll recall this photo. Thanks to Bob Wenk at CNN for making this happen.

Reflecting

5 Years to the Day of my mother['s passing. I did these self ports in the attic of the house I grew up in in New Jersey. I was closing on the house on November 14th (Finally) after a 3 years of trying to sell it and 2 years of renting it. Long story short, it's been a stressful run throughout this entire period, mainly due to the financial responsibilities that came along with this and ending up with a property that should have netted me a nice chunk of money but the economy had other plans (for most of us) and I inherited a property when things started slowing down and in a time where things would continue to get worse as we all know.

I ended up with this idea when I was back early in the Summer and finished clearing out some belongings in the house but I had this picture frame of my mom back in Arizona. I did some self ports back then after I had did some photos of a long time friend who wanted some photos of herself done (before she 'gets too old' as she put it!) So after she left, I was still at the house and I took a crack at some self ports but had my flip flops on and a Yankees t-shirt ...I just felt it was lacking something and I wish I had my everyday boots on a plain t-shirt. It was when I got back to Arizona a week or so later I had the idea of using the picture frame with my mom and "Reflecting" on things with it. I was initially suppose to close on the house back in June 2011, but my Buyers had some issues with their bank, so they went with another bank for their lending, and the entire process of resubmitting the offer to the bank had to go through from step one again. Finally all things were approved once again and closing was supposed to be sometime by the end of October, But, with all this extra time I still had ownership of the house, I was able to fit in another trip back, something I didn't think I would be doing since I figured the house would close with these Buyers at some point in July or August, and I couldn't see going out of my way to head back to NJ from AZ, just to take this photo. All things worked out and I fit in another trip since I had no intention of going back for either Thanksgiving or Christmas, so, here's the vision I had put to imagery.

It really wasn't meant to be a sad thing :( It's just a Reflection of the last 5 years and everything associated with it - besides losing her - ending up with this house, couldn't unload it when it had equity and when I finally did sell it I had lost so much, invested so much energy and stress, along with reflecting on my life in that house since my parents bought it in 1978, our life as a family, and also my moms life in the more recent years. It's like the whole 34 years of that, but also the last 5 of it being the bigger impact in my life as most know. It was kind of important for me to take something out of the house before I closed on it 2+ weeks ago, and all I had left were the intangibles ...so I had this idea back in the Summer to photograph something like this. So I put my vision to something tangible - what you see here. So it's not supposed to be some ark depressed and sad thing, but it is all of the emotions that go into 34 years ...happy, sad, fun, angry, silly, pool parties when mom and dad went away, all the times and things I can recall. And what was I gonna so, smile? Most people know I rarely smile in photos because I believe I'm not photogenic ...let alone smile shooting self ports and running back and forth from the ottoman I'm sitting on to the camera to hit the button. So here's where one book ends ...and another begins...

Scottsdale Six Drive-In Theater ...Now Closed.

An image I shot back on July 5th, 2011 after a huge dust storm we had here over the Phoenix area. I was driving to the gym a couple hours after the storm came thru and about an hour or so after it had passed, and the route I mostly drive to the gym is past the Scottsdale SIx Drive-In Theater. I noticed the projection light piercing thru the air, and thought that has to be the dust in the air filtering the light as I've never noticed it like this before 1,000 other times I've driven by this at night. So I said screw the gym, I went back home and got my camera and tripod, and here's what I came up with. This was shot about 11:30pm. I was pretty satisfied with the result so blowing off the gym to go back home and get the camera was well worth it.

Super Moon - March 19th 2011

So this was the once every 18 years "Super Moon". I really didn't think it was that "Super". I got out a good 20-30 minutes later than I should have (I would have got to shoot it a little lower in the sky had I got out a little earlier), but overall, nothing is Super about this moon. I've seen the moon around Halloween and at other points throughout the year and it's low and big early in the evening - no bigger than I can tell during these other times of the year where the moon is big and bold, but I'm sure NASA knows better than me and when they say it's the largest appearance the moon will have in 18 years, it's probly slightly bigger than other times during the year, but nontheless still bigger even if minimally so. But I'm glad I shot it so I'm not fixating on what I might have missed!

My Latest Photo

I've wanted to do this photo of my grandmothers hands for about two years and hadn't done so on previous trips to NJ ...so while I was there earlier this month I finally shot some photos of her 94 year old hands.  It was the day I was leaving and went over to say bye to her, and not knowing how they would come out before I started, I was getting some ok shots with the natural light coming thru the doors from what I could see on my cameras LCD screen. You don't always know until you load the images on the computer and start working with them, but sometimes you can get an idea if you got something to work with. My main concern was light and would it come out good enough to work with in Aperture.  (I don't do a lot with my images as far as post production and I only have Aperture on my Apple Laptop.  If I need something done more than I'm capable of and Photoshopped, then I send them to this really good Graphic Designer I use from time to time.)  So this photo came out well when I converted it to black and white and I'm pretty happy with the result.  It came out just as good as I envisioned it so I might be able to leave this shot alone and not revisit it.  If you know me, if I shoot a photo I really want, and it doesn't come out how I wanted or is lacking something, I'll shoot it again, and again, until I get it right.  I don't think I can do anything more with this shot other than be happy with the result.  Anyway, I hope you like it.  

Here's some photos from Ashley's and Kenny's Wedding at the Gainey Gold Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.  I was an assistant to a local photographer (Anne McCarthy - http://www.onefinedayphotography.blogspot.com) and made a great contact with her 2nd camera man James Baker (http://www.2LifePhotography.com) who's already taught me a thing or two.  Since I pretty much never make use of this Blog space I have here, I thought I might as well start using it and so I've posted up some of the images I was able to get this past Saturday, April 25th.

Anne...

Jim realizing I'm too old to learn new tricks so he found someone younger and more trainable...

More "About Me"

I've been shooting Photography for over 20 years since high school and have gone from the early days of it being a hobby, to the present where I do a fair amount of paid work. I thought I'd try and use this Blogspot to post some of my photography and be able to talk about it, as well as fill in some info about myself since my website doesn't have any info about me. I'd like to link it with my website and be able to talk about some of the new things I work on and post on my website. I've got plenty of updating to do on both my website and blog ...I know I'm getting around to it. I've got lots of new stuff to add to my site and I'm trying to figure out how to make this blog useful to myself and to the few friends who visit it ...along with hopefully making some new online friends who share similar interests, as well as become interested some new things that have interested me for a while, like health, wellness, eating right, and doing it yourself home improvement. I'm also very passionate about animals and animal welfare. I despise people who abuse, abandon, or treat animals in any way as a lower form of life. What else ...I am from Roselle Park, NJ (a little over 15 miles from Lower Manhattan to give you a reference point), and after getting my Associates Degree from Union County College (Cranford, NJ) in 1992, I transferred to Arizona State in Tempe. I've been here since August '92 when I was 21 and it's safe to say I've done my adult growing up out here. I still visit NJ regularly as just about all my family is there, so even though I've been in AZ all these years, I'm not distant or displaced from having NJ in my life. It's where I'm from, I loved growing up there, but have enjoyed living out west all these years. I still see myself being out west for many years but eventually would like to be a seasonal resident and go back and forth. Realistically that will most liked be once I'm in retirement. Drop me a line, ask me anything you'd like to know.