Not Dead Yet...

I was notified about a large spike in traffic to this website over the course of a few days a couple weeks back. I’m not talking server crashing volume, but significant, to say the least. I’ve been busy, not posting much of anything, sidetracked by summer and children and other obligations. Seemed strange that I should be seeing any traction online. After a bit of digging it wasn’t immediately apparent where the traffic was coming from; it wasn’t a link or some social media post or anything direct. With a little more research, I quickly determined that a fine art photographer based in Washington D.C., with a name very similar to mine, was killed in cold blood, and a bunch of the search traffic of his name ended up at my website.

C'est la vie. I suppose there is no such thing as bad publicity. My condolences to the family of Joe Shymanski.

Here is a photograph from Slovakia last summer, that does not necessarily prove that I am alive.

Still behind, as always, suffering from a perpetual backlog of unrealized photographs. Sitting on twelve roles of film from Paris in June. One day soon they’ll end up here….

I'm A Lousy Tourist...

I care little for churches or monuments, I think walking tours are silly. I like to wander around and sit in cafes and eat and drink and watch other, more serious tourists fumble about. Though I’m always with a camera, always looking for pictures.

View from Prague Castle, Czechia.

Prague, Czechia.

I thoroughly enjoy and embrace the pleasure of being idle. It makes me a lousy tourist and it drives my wife crazy, but it works for me…

A few snaps from Prague. Prints upon request.

There Is Something To Be Said For Trains...

It’s silly when you think about it, trains being so ubiquitus in Europe, and somehow still such a past novelty in the States, but there is something to be said for trains in general, a subtle romanticism, some small sense of adventure, even if it’s just a really big bus with a bar car.

Somewhere in Slovakia…

We arrived at the train station in Budapest at 9am for a 10am train, quickly realizing that the 10am was canceled and the only train to Prague that day left in 4 minutes. Running ensued, we literally stopped the doors from closing as we piled into the last car. We met a nice kid from Ukraine fleeing the war. It was an interesting morning.

Through Hungary, Slovakia, into Czechia and Prague, it was a long ride in the same car as a bachelor party that was traveling with a cooler full of what looked like high-proof cough syrup. Anyway, there is something to be said for trains…

I've Never Actually Been To Frankfurt...

Technically speaking, I’ve passed through Frankfurt twice, en-route to Budapest and back home again by way of Prague. I can say, in no uncertain terms, that I do not recommend Frankfurt International Airport. It felt like one of those older small airports that wants to be a big airport but just ends up being a poorly run bus station with no logical layout and everyone was completely, utterly rude. Avoid at all costs…

Running for a connecting flight, Frankfurt International Airport.

Budapest on the other hand was a riot… “took the waters” as they say, at the Gellert Thermal Baths, and a cruise down the Danube, wandered around the Great Market Hall, got a box at the National Opera House to see a Tchaikovsky ballet, and eventually found our way to some random collection of divey bars built up in an old factory while surrounded by chain smoking 23 year olds that made us feel just a little bit ancient…

Taxi ride into Budapest.

Szabadság híd Bridge, Budapest.

It was the first leg of a decidedly random but ultimately pretty epic little trip. In a few days we’d hop a train to Prague (an adventure in itself) for a wedding of all things. Never ceases to amaze me, the way things turn out sometimes.

Great Market Hall, Budapest.

More work to come… As always, prints available, upon request…

February...

Neglect is really the only word that comes to mind when I think about my work the last few years. Granted I’ve continued to shoot periodically, but the decision to stay home with our son, the catastrophe of COVID and lock downs and the general rule that life tends to get in the way has made it difficult, to say the least, for me to keep up with the rest of what’s involved in making photographs. Namely, developing, scanning, editing, organizing, printing etc., etc…

Thomas, age 3, Cathay’s Valley, California.

I’m not here to complain, I made choices and I stand by them, priorities shift and I don’t regret any of it, but it’s difficult when things get put in a drawer. So I’m slowly sifting through the work at the moment, trying to make sense of what I’ve seen the last 4 or so years. I’m unclear what if anything will come to light, but I’m hoping that in going back through the negatives something worth while may emerge.

Mission Street, lock down. April of 2020.

Things have slowed a bit, and I’ve managed to comb through some work that I haven’t shared previously. I’ve updated the gallery of street photographs to reflect more recent work, but still have lots to sort through. Additionally I’ve uploaded an entirely new take of portraits, figure work and the like, consisting of images from 2018 to 2022.

With a little time, I’m hoping to share more. For the moment, this is what I’ve got…