A short while ago I attended a presentation by Bill Epperidge at the Fairfield Museum in Fairfield, CT. Mr. Epperidge is a world-renowned photojournalist who worked for both National Geographic and Life Magazine and was a contributing photographer for Sports Illustrated. He’s been photographing for more than 50 years and has documented several iconic images of American history such as Woodstock, Robert Kennedy, the drug culture, and civil rights personalities. He also had a showing of his more memorable prints called Images 2011. Mr. Epperidge as well as Stephen Wilkes, Thomas Mezzanotte and Adrienne Aurichio juried an annual exhibition at the Fairfield Museum and History Center to which I was one of those selected. At the reception for the opening of the exhibition Bill Epperidge was the keynote speaker.
Selected by the jury for showing at the Fairfield Historical Society: Images 2011
His photos were magnificent and presentation moving. It’s worth checking in on his gallery. Especially emotional was his soft-spoken narrative of the events that led up to RFK’s death with all of the details that none have heard or read and only a few like him witnessed. His affection for the man was obvious.
After the show Mr. Epperidge opened it to the audience for questions. One was to what did he attribute his genius in capturing just the right moment. His answer was simple. A singular concentration on doing what was needed to be done and not to become distracted. He is fond of saying, “a good photographer has the attention span of 1/125th of a second,” that is, never pauses to contemplate the shot he/she just took and always continues onto the next shot. He never felt he had time to admire what he had done because the next best shot might be just a nanosecond after the “great one” he thought had taken. With a coy smile he said that he was so filled with purpose that in order to avoid any regrets, as he changed film he would turn his back to his subjects so he wouldn’t see what it was he might have missed.
Continue reading »
Looking out from a hollowed cedar
This past summer I spent four days in a workshop with Bryan Peterson, a well known photographer, author, and educator in photography. Bryan is the founder of The Perfect Picture School of Photography and author of Understanding Exposure as well as many other other fine instructional books. Bryan is one of those “heroes” I mentioned in an earlier blog.
We were in Glacier National Park, Montana and one morning as several of his students were clamoring to photograph the same waterfall, some of us who find no reward in photographing a cliche took up Bryan’s invitation to go down the trail a bit to learn outdoor off-camera lighting techniques. We passed by a hollowed out cedar that had been struck by lightening and Bryan used it’s textured bark to launch his instructions. As he was talking I noticed an emptied knot hole that allowed light through the tree. I had an idea.
“Hey Bryan,” I blurted out, “wouldn’t it be great to put someone inside the tree looking out as you photographed the bark?” He seized on the idea to show the offsetting qualities of separate flash settings on two Pocket Wizard triggered flashes and the rest you can see in his You Tube. Oh, yeah; since it was my idea he put ME in the tree 
One of the things I love about Bryan is that there aren’t any limits to his creativity and despite more than 30 years as a professional he still approaches photography with boyish abandon.
Early Morning Rising Fish to a Stone Fly 
Good shots are rarely convenient. They require a modicum of effort oftentimes increasing the mileage on your body. But when they come the sheer pleasure of bringing it together is our reward. A short while ago I returned from two weeks in The Rockies. The first half of the trip was spent with eleven other photographers learning from the master, Bryan Peterson, who was conducting a workshop in the Glacier National Park.
Continue reading »
Recently my photo, “Late for Dinner,” was published in the June 2010 issue of Shutterbug Magazine’s “Picture This” column. The assigned subject was “Night Moves: Time and Motion.” Shutterbug renamed my photo to “Country Road,” but I still like my own title better. Whatever you prefer to call it, I’m flattered that they chose to place it front and center.
The First Winter's Storm by the Long Island Sound
After more than a 35-year absence I reunited with a friend from my youth. She had done well and was in the process of sending her daughter off to a new marriage replete with all of the distractions of a wedding ceremony, celebration, and out-of-town relatives; however, she still found the time to hook-up with me and three more of our old buddies.
It turns out that she has always been interested in the visual arts and has a cousin that’s a professional photographer. Who knew? Anyway I took the opportunity to forward a few of my recent photos. A comment she made helped crystallize thoughts I’ve had about my own photography. She said, “How amazing that the camera sees what the eye can’t.”
This simple statement brought a lot into focus. So typical of her to be able to pass the clutter and go to the core. A camera can only hope at it’s very best to approach the abilities of the human eye but never fully achieve it, so why spend countless hours trying to simulate what we can’t. Instead look for what isn’t there and use the camera to portray the world in a way the eye can’t see but the viewer of a photo enjoys. That’s the power of the camera and all of the digital post processing that’s available to us today. Anyone can take a snapshot of a face, a mountain, a road, and a flower in hopes that capturing it will preserve the subject for posterity, but we fool ourselves if we think it was exactly as we saw it when we tripped the shutter. There’s always a “translation” when we attempt to convert reality into a two-dimensional plane, the camera being one of several mediums that can achieve that artistic end.
Continue reading »
I was honored with coverage in a newspaper article that was syndicated throughout Connecticut. The most prominent issue was the Connecticut Post, although it appeared in several other local town papers as well. Here is the hyperlink to the article. (Connecticut Post, Friday April 2, 2010)
Since the website didn’t post the photos that appeared in the printed article I include hyperlinks to their images in this notice.
I was flattered that “Late for Dinner” covered 3/4th of the front page of their “Diversions” section, with “Burying Hill Beach” in the remaining 1/4th.
Several years ago there was a delightful commercial that featured a young boy about 5 years old eating his favorite cereal. The announcer was trying to entice the little boy to give him a taste by promising all sorts of presents. The boy continued to chow down on the bowl of breakfast each time mumbling between bites “no” and shaking his head in disapproval to each of the offerings. Then the announcer said, “I’ll make your sister disappear.” The boy paused, cleared his mouth swallowing his morsel, reflected on the tempting offer and said, “I have twoooo sista’s.” I have only one and now that I’m well beyond my child cereal days find she is invaluable.
I promised my sister that when I was over to her house I would photograph her work so that she could start a portfolio book of her art. Since retiring as a designer from a prestigious furniture company, she has once more taken up her painting and is ready to sell her work again. I’m not trained in photography with artificial lighting, nor do I have a studio that would allow me to do this with the precision of those who have specialized in the craft.
Continue reading »
I just finished Danilo Piccioni’s course on “Evolution of a Masterpiece” at Perfect Picture School of Photography. It was intriguing requiring two things, a decent understanding of layers in Photoshop, and a modicum of creativity. For those without Photoshop skills but interested in learning, PPSOP offers basic courses on this subject.
Photoshop is an application that I’ve learned over time and once you grasp the basics, it’s easy to build on them with a fair amount of experimenting and online tutorials. On the other hand, the subject of creativity is a more intriguing because some say it’s an inborn talent and others that it can be learned. Through the years I’ve come to believe both.
Here’s the polemic according to Chairman Ron based in the old Nature/Nurture debate. Everyone is born with creativity. It’s the essence of our existence both as individuals and a species. Imagine how far civilization has come from its earliest stirrings on the savannahs of Africa. Our progress would have been impossible without human creativity. But then you say that’s the collective creativity of evolving cultures and not necessarily representative of each person’s abilities. Using an extreme case to illustrate individual creativity; most everyone if stranded on a deserted island would figure out a way to survive with whatever resources were available. The movie “Cast Away” starring Tom Hanks is a wonderful illustration. Creativity makes our lives viable and often exciting. It’s a life force that keeps pushing us on. For some it comes naturally yet others have to work for it.
Continue reading »
Exhilaration feeds the passion of our photography; all else are mere steps in between. Some say they do it to create art, others to capture an expressive moment, and many others to earn an income, but I maintain those are all mere passages.
Royal Coachman
Many years ago, too many to mention, my mother bought me a fly rod to take on a summer trip to the Adirondacks. I tried, really tried to catch fish with it, but quickly turned back to my spinning rod whenever frustration set in. As time went on I increased the number of times I’d use it, but never with any success. Being the persistent person I am, I’d beg, borrow, and steal advice from experienced fly fisherman, not very easy in those days since the esoteric art was a carefully guarded secret. Then one day, wading thigh deep in the Beaverkill a hatch of aquatic flies appeared on the water, a phenomenon I’d read so much about but never witnessed. Being inexperienced I had no idea what species of Mayfly was emerging, but according to all of the books it was my challenge to match the insect to an artificial fly as closely as I could. Thinking back to that time of year it must have been the Ephemerella subvaria, commonly known as the Hendrickson. I had no notion of the insect’s taxonomy then so matched it with the closest fraud I had in my vest, the classical Catskill style Quill Gordon.
Continue reading »
The next best thing to doing nothing is doing something.
Remember, a fish-eye lens distorts those Brad Pitt looks
This week I finally had an operation on the torn meniscus in my knee. This summer, after a brisk workout earlier that day, I was walking down a small platform on my deck when I felt an acute pain and sudden weakness in my knee. Thinking it was simply a tendon twisting the wrong way I gave it a brief rest and then tried to resume the activity I had originally set out to do which was to barbeque a steak, but the pain and loss of motion wouldn’t subside. When there was no appreciable improvement after three days I sought the council of my orthopedist.
After prodding and poking the knee, twisting my leg clockwise and then counter-clockwise, and sending me off for a MRI, the verdict came back that
Continue reading »
