The Shire

I Pown Canada

Just because  I may have difficulty finding Ottawa on a map does not mean it is unimportant. In that little hamlet to our north lives a genius named Tony Fouhse with excellent taste and class. He has chosen to feature yours truly in a post on Heather Morton's Blog.  

The Shire at Dawn

Took another whack at the shire this AM. I think we had all the elements to make an image now just need to wait for the film. 

Outtakes from Sunset Magazine shoot

Scout 2: Bad Light Good Location

We went to the shire today to shoot the final image and found crappy light. I think it will look a lot better in flat light. Good news is I think there is indeed an photograph here to be made. We will try again this weekend.

Hoping to break my own personal world record tomorrow. 15 miles. 

Scout

I found this location while hiking last week and plan to shoot it with a model on Monday. It is a little valley in the Presidio in San Francisco where a drain pipe feeds into the bay. It does not rain here for months the lushness is out of place this time of year. It looks like it could be a shire in Scotland. 

Hiking, Greenberg and the steel cage grudge match

Photo James Balog

For some reason I have taken up hiking in my old age. I am up to 13 miles and hope to be up to 30 by spring. 

Today was like most hikes. For the first mile everything hurt and I wonder why I am wasting my time doing this. I am in preproduction on a job and have a bunch of bids out that need tending to. There has to be something more important for me to do. 

Lately I have been following the Greenberg situation too closely. Not since the APE entered the steel cage with Mrs. Broening has the photo blog world been all ahoo. 

I saw Greenberg speak and thought she came across better in her images than in front of a bunch of people. At her talk she seemed bored and disengaged.  I loved her images of crying babies and monkeys (which I thought looked like  a more polished version of what James Balog shot back in the day).

Back on the trail today.  No cell phone or blackberry.  Making my way through Puccini's operas. Around the third mile I start feeling better and at mile six I head up hill just as Madam Butterfly learns her husband has married an American.  It feels like a hit off a crack pipe and I don't want to be anywhere else and I don't want the hike to end.  At mile 1o I run out of water and  limp to the finish. 

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Tearsheet

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40

Turned 40 today. Got all the kids off to school. Breakfast with Archibald at Cafe Fanny and then a solo 10 mile hike in Point Reyes. I bumped Verdi on the way out to the point and Control Machete for the return.  I have no idea what they are rapping about but they seem really angry. 

I ran into a herd of elk and all the males tried to mad dog me but I wouldn't back down. All species cockrock. 

Location test

We shot this location yesterday as a test for a possible upcoming shoot. Every couple months I need to come up with an ad  for Archive magazine  and thought this might be a cool place to make an image.
To my eye it looked great but through the camera it was all kind of a mess. I thought we should shoot a few sheets of film to see if maybe I was wrong. Maybe the camera knew there was a photograph here and I just could not see it. 

Maybe it was just the wrong time of day or maybe it needed  a different kind of person.

I am not ready to give up on it