Allison Curry, from Tampa, celebrates during the USF Alumni NCAA Selection Sunday Watch Party at Lee Roy Selmon’s restaurant in Tampa, Florida Sunday, March 11, 2012. Curry, who graduated in 2011, was a USF Athletic Trainer for the school’s basketball team last year. She is flanked by fellow 2011 alumni and former trainer Christina Page, from Tampa, on the left, and Davian Benito, from Tampa, the USF Alumni Association Tampa Chapter Watch Party Chair, on her right. Tony Holbro, class of 1970, both from Tampa, and Andy Morris, the USF Director of Marketing, is on the far right.

Woohoo! My (work) trip to Florida might be turning fruitful after all. I got on the freelance list for the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Pete Times) last week thanks to staffers Kathleen Flynn and Melissa Lyttle. And yesterday (fellow former PPC staffer) Stefanie Boyar called me up for my first assignment, a USF NCAA watch party. It’s one of those Cheers or Tears shoots. After 20 years, the Bulls got in. So it was cheers all the way.

Rocky, the USF mascot tries riling up the crowd attending the University of Southern Florida Alumni NCAA Selection Sunday Watch Party at Lee Roy Selmon's restaurant in Tampa, Florida Sunday, March 11, 2012.

USF fan Adam Brown, from Tampa, hugs Rob Lewis, from Land O' Lakes, USF class of 1986, during The University of Southern Florida Alumni NCAA Selection Sunday Watch Party at Lee Roy Selmon's restuaruant in Tampa, Florida Sunday, March 11, 2012.

Oh! and this happened, too.

Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra walks into Lee Roy Selmon's restaurant in Tampa, Florida Sunday, March 11, 2012. Coincidentally, The University of Southern Florida Alumni NCAA Selection Sunday Watch Party was being held at the same time .

My first Tampa Bay Times clip.

A few weeks ago I licensed a photo I made of David Donaldson to the New York Review of Books — a small, niche, yet prestigious and super smart publication.

I recommend the article if you’re into education reform.

I originally shot these photos of David Donaldson for the New York Times back in 2009.

As I’m sure some of you regular readers are aware, I’m still in the blooming stages of my freelance career. I haven’t relicensed too many photos, yet. I hope this’ll become old hat one of these days. But for now, it’s still pretty cool!

…now if I can just land a syndication deal. Who wants me? Anyone Anyone?

Brooklyn Photographer Joe Buglewicz released HOTLOADING a quirky memoir/promo book chronicling nearly a year driving a bus in Alaska. The 60 page "book" is printed on full color newsprint and the images were made with a Contax film point & shoot.

My buddy Joe Buglewicz — that’s him, a cigarette, & his “taco meat” up top —  just released a rad new promo book, “Hotloading.” Well, it’s actually a newspaper. Check his tumblr here! or, maybe you prefer just the straight up images on his website?

He used Newspaper Club to print this 60 page, full color, book. I TOTALLY wanna use this company for promo books in the future.

So, what’s “Hotloading” about? It’s a photographic memoir of nearly a year driving a tourist bus in Alaska. It’s really good & it’s super quirky. All the photos in the newspaper were made with a film point & shoot (It’s either a Contax T2, or T3, for all you film gear nerds. Joe? help me out here).

The El Mateo!
Luchador mask courtesy of the limited edition “Weird Sports” book by Sol Neelman.

Check it out: I’m in good company.

Here’s my specific entry, but I truly and whole heartedly recommend seeing some of the other photographers’ work being deconstructed. (each word is a link to a different post, by the way. Isn’t that super clever!?)

BOY! Doesn’t this post’s title sound cocky!?

All that means is Jen Rynda replaced me at the Patuxent Publishing Company when I quit last December. And In case you’re curious, she’s doing a great job.  She’s also putting a fresh new face on the Athletes of the Year photos — which, I suppose if I left a legacy at PPC, that would be it. …which was a legacy belonging to Fran Gardler before that. She’s pretty good at shooting sports, so, for some reason the powers that be assumed she’d be good at shooting the Athletes of the Year. I get the impression that expectation made her a bit nervous. So, she bribed me with a burrito last June to teach her how to use my old lighting kit (which was actually cannibalized by a few other staffers hahaha!). During our lesson, she made this cool, moody photo of me.

This This and This (specifically the flying lacrosse player) are some pretty cool examples of how she’s making the Athletes of the Year shoots her own.

So, earlier today (yeah! how’s that for a fast blog post turn around?) we met up for lunch and I started talking about lighting. ….y’know, one of those nerdy things photogs sometimes talk about. I mentioned using a Lastolite TriGrip Deflector silk to diffuse the harsh light  from Nikon my SB-900 in a photo I made of Melissa Golden eating pizza, and one thing led to another and BAM! — we’re talking about High Speed Sync/focal plane lighting. So, we went back to my place and I gave her a quick demo of what the new Pocket Wizard Flex system can do with a speedlight and D700 + 35mm f/1.8 at 100 ISO, 1/8000th of a second, at f/1.8 outdoors on an overcast, drizzly day.

Now, I’m not really a tech/gear blogger, so I’m not gonna go into a big technical explanation. There are a ton of blogs out there better at nerding out on gear. I learned about fp (focal plane) lighting from The Strobist, for example. So, if you have the time, do some digging.

All I’m gonna say about this shoot is that it took very little time to set up. 10 minutes, including set up, break down, and two location changes. I rarely takes me 10 minutes to set up the big lights.

I’m NOT gonna say the results are “just as good as using the big lights.” But they’re different than using the big lights. Obviously if I used two speedlights the light sculpting might be more impressive.

But, y’know… it’s my go to method for running and gunning a lit portrait. Below are a examples of how much light the SB-900 actually gave the shoot and what the set up looked like.no light (obviously).

Who needs a tripod when you have a bannister? …although, I wouldn’t mind getting one of Lastolite’s TriGrip Brackets, either.Indoors with the TriGrip. ISO 100, 1/8,000th, f/1.8 …the strobe was set to Manual at full (1/1) power and zoomed in to 24mm.

This is without the TriGrip at the same settings. …and yeah. Jen’s out of focus. That’s one of the problems you’ll run into when shooting at f/1.8. Aside from my focusing problem, I also think the lighting looks a little gross in comparison to the one above. Sure, the light is spread out, lighting the room a bit better, but the quality of light looks cheap. — in my opinion. There are just too many weird highlights and shadows. Oh. And I should say, I’m not sponsored by any of the companies I touted in the post. …but if Nikon, Pocket Wizard, and/or Lastolite wants to give me a call (gear, and money) I’m all ears (and eyes).

And just for reference, this is what the room looked like with the same exposure settings, sans flash.  dark, right?

It’s not a coincidence that the day of this post (June 3rd) is the last day for students to apply to the 24th annual Eddie Adams Workshop.

These are the photos I made as a student on The Brown Team. Anyone who gets accepted and is reading this post, heed my advice: keep your notes! I lost mine and, embarrassingly, I can’t remember the name of my subjects.

But here’s the breakdown…

Each Team thinks up a different theme. The Brown Team’s was “Farm Families.”

There’s a bunch of them out in the greater Jeffersonville, NY area, so why not do a bunch of little weekend documentaries on ‘em, right?

My subjects owned a tree farm. Most of their bread & butter was from Christmas Trees, but the weekend I was there had nothing to do with trees. …well, not with their trees.

The first day I arrived, we went to pick apples in an orchard …which was a good hour and a half away. I might’ve spent more time in their car than anywhere else. On Friday I spent about five and a half total hours with this family, 3 of which was in their car.

On Saturday, the husband ran the Steamtown Marathon, which was in Pennsylvania, AND also an hour-and-a-half away.

Saturday was also the little boy’s birthday. They did a little bit of shopping for him at Wal Mart and we ate at Wendy’s for lunch. And in typical little boy birthday he was a bit more volatile when things didn’t go his way on his birthday. I could totally relate.

They didn’t really do too much birthday stuff while I was there. His party was later on that night. I couldn’t attend because, of course, I needed to get back to the barn so I could dump my cards. After all, the teams were presenting their photos later that night.

Admittedly, it was kinda tough to flesh out a solid, interesting story. There was no real story ark to be told, and both days had two totally different themes. But I made some pretty nice images and I found some pretty nice moments.

…unfortunately, they were all made with a “brand new” D2h and most of them were shot through a crazy wide 12-24mm f/4 lens. Nikon is the main sponsor of the workshop, so we get to test out their newest gear. So, the files are tiny, somewhat noisy, and there are too many “conehead” photos for my taste. But for me, this weekend was all about playing. …and playing hard!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Jeffersonville is a magic place for me. And every time I’ve gone back as a Black Team member it’s been rejuvenating. I hope I get to go again this year. It’s been a while.

So, if you’re an eligible student get your stuff in!

And if you want to know what a good Eddie Adams Portfolio consists of? Here’s the easiest answer: It’s filled with images that most genuinely reflect YOU as a photographer.

If your best body of work is of your family… that should be your portfolio. Don’t think you have to put together a traditional photojournalism portfolio for entry — even though, that’s what I entered. At the time, my mindset was geared towards community newspaper photojournalism! The best stories are the ones in your backyard! My portfolio was all naturally lit moments. That’s how i was then. But that doesn’t mean you have to be. If you take amazing photos of bugs, make that your portfolio. If you’re a portraitist, why show them that cruddy spot news photo you shot for your PJ class?

Do you see what I’m getting at? It’s all about your vision!

And, of course, it’s a great place to network, too. The “heavies” as their called, are there to meet young talent. So, don’t be shy. They’re away from the city. introduce yourself. I’ve gotten work from the workshop. What’s to say you won’t?

Good luck to all those applying!

Click here to see more photos on my photoshelter page from the 2004 Eddie Adams Workshop.

Ducks swim through early morning fog in Jeffersonville, NY, October 9th, 2004.

I gotta be honest, 2004 was a pretty amazing year for me. I toured the US playing drums in a DIY thrash band. I landed some choice regular freelance clients (The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and The Associated Press) considering my lack of experience. The Patuxent Publishing Co. took me on as their second Fall intern — which, as some of you know, later turned into a staff job.

AND I was accepted to The Eddie Adams Workshop!!!

…and after looking at some of my fellow students’ portfolios I’m not too sure how.

Some had, for example, a substantial body of documentary work from Afghanistan, others were already in the celebrity portraiture world, while some on Bill Frake’s team seemed to be cut from the same Sports Illustrated cloth as their team leader.

Me? I had a funny picture of a redneck golfer and, aside from 3 photojournalism classes, an almost complete lack of “journalism school” education. I made a point in my letter to explain that at this point in my career I needed to educate myself in the real world, with internships, newspaper freelancing opportunities and workshops. After every year it always seems like a complete mystery as to why some people were accepted and why some weren’t. I’m assuming my “uncarved block” bend appealed to whoever had my portfolio.

No sense in looking a gift horse in his mouth, right?

That October weekend was magical.

I met new friends, became inspired and, got to try out the “new” Nikon D2h, abuse a 12-24mm lens (as you’ll see in my EAW student story post), of course, learned stuff. I also won an award — an assignment with the Associated Press. It wasn’t the $10,000 Nikon Student award, but I got to stand on the stage with all the other award recipients. I couldn’t stop smiling. Literally. I tried calming my smile down but it stayed up. I probably bounced a little bit, too. …I’m such a nerd. ha!

It was a sad year, too. The “sweet 16″ as it was so ironically called, was the first Barnstorm without Eddie. Our year was also the only year Peter Jennings spoke at the workshop. He said Eddie was always trying to get him to come up to the barn so he could inspire the students. And he told this amazing story about a portrait shoot he had with Richard Avedon. — an experience which I think left Peter Jennings a little star struck. After all, it is THE RICHARD AVEDON! I can’t remember the specifics, but the image Peter Jennings got (maybe it was the polaroid? maybe it was legit print? Either way, Avedon ended up signing it. Aside from being a SIGNED AVEDON, it was a photo he really liked of himself. So, At this time in his life, things were happening for Peter Jennings. He was climbing the ranks in the news world and he was recently married. If I remember correctly, he his wife moved into a new home and he left the home decorating to his wife while he was over seas (Vietnam I think) on assignment. Well, when he came back to their newly decorated home, he noticed the photo Avedon made, positioned somewhere prominent — probably the mantle — encased in an elegant frame. His wife, expecting Peter to be overjoyed with the decorating and her choice of frame was taken by surprise by Peter’s state of shock. The photo was a bit smaller than it was before he left. When he asked what happened to the photo, his wife said,”well, it wouldn’t fit in the frame, so I just cut off the writing at the bottom.”

Needless to say, the entire audience recoiled. Peter Jennings, knew how to work a crowd. He was the only speaker who chose to sit when he spoke. It felt cozy, comfortable, deliberate. He had no photos to show. He just told stories. Little did any of us know that he, too was sick. I think he sat because of all those reason and because his body was riddled with cancer. And as we all know, he died the following August.

Since 2004, I’ve gone back to the Eddie Adams Workshop a member of the Black Team a few times. During those October weekends the energy in Jeffersonville is something I’ve never felt anywhere else. Sure, the leaves are changing colors, and the light is always gorgeous outside — except for the torrential downpours.

But my first weekend at Barnstorm felt like an induction ceremony …the photo culture’s rite of passage. It was as if the photo industry was welcoming me.

Click here to see more photos on my photoshelter page from the 2004 Eddie Adams Workshop. And click here to go see my blog post detailing my student story.

Marriotts Ridge center midfielder Alex Price led the Mustangs to a 13-3-3 record and the girls soccer team’s first county championship.

Here’s the corresponding Howard County Time Article.

I couldn’t have asked for a better sky that day. …the temperature could’ve been better, though. If I remember correctly, it was hovering around 20-ish degrees, plus wind.

The Marriotts Ridge baseball field was going under some renovation, so rather than take Alex to the stadium (where all those gross white banners live in the background) I put her on top of the mound closest to the backstop.

…that way when she kicked the ball it didn’t go too far.

For all you gear heads out there, I used two Alien Bee 1600′s, both unmodified, at max power, powered by the vagabond II (love that thing) flanking her at the 9 o’clock and 4 o’clock position. I also used an sb-800, on the right, to light the ball.

Same Set up, sans the sb-800.

There are all sorts of stories — most funny, some embarrassing — from my trip to NYC in January.

And I had every intention of writing them here! (well, maybe not the Bolt Bus bathroom story. that’s an “in person” story.)

…but the task became a bit too daunting. And the longer I waited to post them, the bigger the deal the post became.

Sometimes I just need to cut my losses. So, here are the photo. No rambling stories.

Just quick comments.

I know some of you will appreciate my restraint.

So click below the jump to see the rest. 

biggest dumbest nose bleed ever. at like 1am

…for no reason.

…well, okay, I picked my nose. But really, who doesn’t?

don’t judge me.

Ha! “III”

no no no. no symbolism here. (well, I guess you’re free to make your own if you like).

You know the whole “you break it, you buy it” slogan. …yeah.

this is where I broke it. Tiny tiny place.

Making this picture made me miss my train. The door literally closed inches from of my nose.

With TWENTY MINUTES between trains (middle of the day, too) I made  this photo. what else was I to do? no cell phone reception.

For the 1st half of our trip, there was no internet or power on the Bolt Bus, either. So I toned my photos from the trip. (and finally posted them two months later!)