My Single Reflex

This was taken through the window of the plane taking us from Chicago to Panama City. I think half the reason I'd like to have my pilot's license is to take pictures of these amazing clouds from the topside, where we rarely view them. A mildly funny story goes with this trip. I booked the flights for our trip to the Dominican Republic and the least expensive had us laying over in Panama City for a day. I messaged friends in Tallahassee to see if they wanted to come have dinner with us as it was only a couple of hours away. It wasn't until a week before our trip that I realized our night was in Panama, not Florida. On the bright side, Brooke and I got to bop around a city we'd likely never have seen were it not for that layover.

The iconic New York City taxi...times four...divided by four? Or divided by four...times four.

Swing a camera in any direction while walking the Highline and you can find infinitely interesting subject material. Street photography? Check. Macro? Check. Landscape? Check. Portrait? Sure, if you can keep a thousand people from walking between you and your subject. Architecture? Ever so much. Often the design of two or three clustered buildings are so different that it's hard to put them together. These, different, yet the same, yet different. I did photograph the entire building, too, but this closer shot was more interesting. A bit of color. A lot of shade. Some reflection. and just a hint of not rectangular. It's hanging in my living room in black and white, but I've slowly come back to this version.

While viewing NYC from the Highline, I looked down to catch a few guys grabbing a minute or two long break. I especially dig the Montreal Expos hat on the one guy.

One of my favorite photos to this point. I imagine it being 70 years ago when people still read most of what they learned. Or when people still read...period

The inanimate (until the key is turned) objects of my affection. A Ferrari Enzo (foreground) and the 288 GTO. There are models I like better, but that's $4,000,000 worth of inanimate objects right there. Not long after this shot, the Enzo owner fired it up to leave. Uhhhhhh...I don't have words to describe the sound. The old muscle cars have a beautiful, warm grumble to them. Sport bikes have a particular mechanical, wasp-esque harmony to them that sounds great as they wind into the top of their rpm range. Even the F430 I drove on a racetrack had this high-pitched scream that beckoned me like a siren to go faster, push harder, and ignore any signs of danger...all happily done. But this Enzo? It was terrifying! I was not looking its direction when he started and revved the engine, but I spun around immediately to see my doom face to face. If an engine note were a wraith, with drivetrain sounds of gears enmeshed with stone giants and rocket launchers, it still would be less

Chicago didn't have Spanish Moss...this parasitic plant that hangs from most oak trees here in Florida. When you look straight up at it, it looks like you've approached the speed of light. Or...if you're a fan of Spaceballs...Ludicrous Speed! The early, golden light makes the moss look like cheese stretched of off Pizza the Hut himself.

Old Jaguars...I think they're the classiest cars out there. My dad loved, and so I loved, the low-slung, hood that went on for days like Bridget Bardot's legs, V-12 powered XKE's. And...that hood ornament. Best ever? Maybe rivaled by Roll-Royce/Packard/Bentley, but the jaguar..the Jaguar...it looked like it was willing the car forward rather than being some overdone "prow of the ship" announcement of arrival. Still king of the hood ornaments to me...at least until the Lion brand comes along.

I think that I shall never see A Porsche that ever looked as pretty As the Speedster they once made Before their cars all looked the same I love these old Speedsters and their moon hubcaps. I didn't plan on capturing the world behind me in the reflection of the perfectly polished hubcap, but I got it. It was in my first day ever shooting cars at a show, and when I got home and looked through my various photos, I saw quickly how the whole of the car is lovely, but part of a car can capture extraordinary beauty.

Ferrari makes the cars I know I'll never own, but I passionately desire. Sort of like the movie star crushes we had when we were back in school (Farrah Fawcett Majors, anyone?). Corvettes are the little sister that you discover is much more your style, doesn't need 5 star restaurants, and likes long drives in the country...or across it. I wish I could remember my first Corvette sighting. I don't remember noticing them until around '78, well after '65 when this one was built (and I was born). If you were to ask what my favorite Corvette is, I'd likely respond with "Whichever one I'm viewing at the moment." All of them draw me in...even the slow, bloated late '70's/early '80's models. But if I could have one right now, just dropped in my driveway, it would be the 2017 Grand Sport. Ahhhh...one of these days.

The Chicago skyline is one of the world's most beautiful, but it's rarely seen from the west side, facing east. This was taken near the United Center as dusk closed in.

This is Jamie. She's an actress...and a chef...and a singer/songwriter...and a jokester...and a dear friend. I had the great pleasure of marrying her in Hawaii this past March. "Wait!" you say. "Were you not just waxing poetic about your wife, Brooke?" Indeed. I am married to Brooke, and I married Jamie...to Quang, her husband. You probably figured that out already...blerg. Still pretty cool to officiate a wedding in Hawaii, though!

I get to spend my life with this woman. She's fun, funny, pretty, and people love her just as much as she loves people. I don't spend too much time doing shooting people (unlike Bruce Willis in Last Man Standing), but she definitely makes it easy!

The fox (for alliteration's sake) in the foreground...my beautiful wife, Brooke. The babe in the background...my dear friend, Jamie. You may note the Studio Gang Pavilion as the setting. Yes, it's a great place for portrait sessions. Any time you visit, you'll probably see an engagement photo shoot or two going on...maybe even a wedding session. In any case, it's easy to make beautiful pictures when one has those three elements with which to work.

This is North Lake in Michigan, just east of South Haven. It's its own haven to me. I love city life...truly do...but sometimes this is the sort of place I need. And not like a few days each year or so, but a few days each month...or week. If heaven was this when I looked one direction, and a beautiful city of all sorts of folks living in harmony in the other, that'd be about perfect for me.

If you ever want to take the Chicago Architectural Tour all day, for about 10 bucks, buy an all day pass for the Water Taxi. Sure, there's no guide telling you the names of the buildings (which would be helpful for this photo), or sharing stories about the architects and builders (also unknowns on the Water Taxi version), but you can travel from 18th Street near Chinatown all the way up through downtown and back as many times as you like. You'll get to know the pilots and crew, and probably a few folks who wonder why they're seeing you at 5:30 pm when they rode with you at 8:00 am on their way to work. All that time gives you some excellent opportunities to shoot buildings in myriad ways. Go early and stay late enough and you'll get some great color reflecting in the buildings, as well.

These photos give away the total Studio Gang Pavilion. It really seems so simple when viewed as a whole, like a kid with Legos could have come up with it, and yet the layers of wood bent in multiple directions, the resin pods, the open ends with the John Hancock building like a target viewed through a scope...it took a remarkable creative to conceive and complete it.

This reminds me of that old sci-fi horror flick about people being replaced by alien duplicates grown in pods...probably called Pod People or something like that. This photo will be the 4th for the silver frame. I've got several more, but these four seem to have a bit of symmetry.

I have this silver frame at the house that's never had anything place in the four image slots. We like the frame but I've never come up with the right four photos to place in it. This little run of Studio Gang Pavilion pictures finally helped me realize that they need to be in the frame.

This is the first photo of the Studio Gang Pavilion at Lincoln Park Zoo that I ever edited. I was still very new to a camera, and really didn't know what I was doing shooting or editing. I think this image had as much to do with me continuing to learn as any I ever took, and it's still one of my favorites.

One of many shots I've taken of the Studio Gang Pavilion at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. The pavilion is extraordinary in its ability to be interesting as a whole, and as a seemingly infinite numbers of steps down to its smallest detail.

Ophelia is the daughter of Jessica and Jeremy Martin-Weber, dear friends of ours. She's a ballet dance with some excellent credits to her name, and I've had the opportunity to make pictures with her in Chicago, Orlando, Tampa, and on a trip to India where Jess, Jeremy, Ophelia, and I went with several other artists. This particular photo was taken when Brooke and I picked up Ophelia on her day off during a two week dance intensive training she was doing in Tampa. It's one of the photos I edited from that day shooting, but I don't think I've ever published anywhere before now. As I scrolled through the images, it caught my eye because Ophelia looks so powerful in it. Her face conveys the strength she has within, and her pose shows the physical strength which has given her a leg up (pun intended) as she's progressed through her young career.

I can listen to the same song for hours at a time. I can eat the same food for lunch for weeks at a time (carrots and Jalepeno & Cilantro hummus from Publix). I spent three years with a group of guys playing the same map on Halo (Hang 'Em High) every Monday night from about 6:30 pm until 1 or 2 am. Repetition doesn't bother me. I hate taking the same way to the same place every time and want to always drive down roads I've never seen before. I want to try new things at old restaurants...to see what my next favorite thing might be. I never drink two of the same beers when I'm out...it's an opportunity to find something I might miss by just sticking with what I know I love. Doing the same thing over and over drives me crazy. Maybe sunrises and sunsets are the best thing for my soul. Every morning, every night comes the next iteration in a not-quite-timeless string of sunrises and sunsets. Repetition. But... Never the same, each offering a wildly or imperce