as they are seized

003.2012

2012-01-18T22:12:00.000-05:00

Pat Jarrett for the Wall Street Journal

Late in 2011 I got a call from the Wall Street Journal to shoot an assignment about changes proposed to online sales tax laws. Luckily for me I was assigned to shoot Stacey Strawn at The Silver Gallery-a location more prone to visuals than a lawyer's office or server farm somewhere. Strawn's small business based in Waynesboro sells more silver platters and piggy banks than Amazon. The editors over at the paper wanted what I like to call portrait plus-environmental portraiture and storytelling frames. I was happy to help out. Read the story written by Angus Loten here.

002.2012

2012-01-16T00:30:00.000-05:00

A man holds his hat over his heart while a band plays "Dixie."

This weekend I had the strangest pairing of assignments. On Saturday I was in Lexington, Virginia at the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery for Lee-Jackson Day-a celebration of the births of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Many who attended waved Confederate flags in protest after Lexington banned the flying of any flag but the United States, Virginia or Lexington flags on municipal flag polls.

One day later I was covering a service for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at St. James Baptist Church in Waynesboro. The crowd was thick at that location, too, but no one carried a Confederate Flag and there was no parade.

For years in Virginia both holidays were rolled up in Lee-Jackson-King day, but were separated by two days in 2000, leaving MLK day on Monday and Lee-Jackson day on Friday. I think it's interesting how important the Civil War and the war for civil rights are still such passionate causes in my community.

001.2012

2012-01-01T14:36:00.001-05:00

Happy new year! Last night I partied with a great group of belly dancers, musicians and other miscreants, it was great. You can see more photos here on my flickr. Thanks for reading and thanks for the support in 2011.

Cheers!

45.2011

2011-12-30T18:28:00.000-05:00

End of the year photos, first off some features and news

Some portraits

And, surprisingly, some sports I was rather proud of this year

A story on Fox Hunting

National Agility Championships

Rally Appalachia-a road rally through the Shenandoah Valley

And the Augusta County Fair demolition derby

Hope 2012 is nothing like the movie 2012, because the logical next step is the movie Waterworld. I can't live with an ocean-based Kevin Costner.

44.2011

2011-12-29T23:19:00.002-05:00

So I know it's almost 2012 so I better be getting my end-of-the-year photos together, but I still got a couple of days. Until then let me share this photo from the Augusta County Courthouse's hall of records. I love the portrait of the clerk watching over the books of deeds. Seems downright biblical to me. Anyway, I call this a landscape for sure. Check back soon for my wrap-up of 2011. Also, the map in front of the courthouse shows that Akron, Ohio was in Augusta County when it was first incorporated. One of the records in the courthouse excused a citizen of West Augusta from jury duty. West Augusta was in present-day Pittsburgh, PA.

43.2011

2011-12-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ... parade ... in Waynesboro at the beginning of the month. I always find Christmas parades weird, maybe because anybody who suggests a parade in Ohio in December is either joking or seriously crazy.

Merry Christmas, amigos!

42.2011

2011-12-19T09:30:00.000-05:00

On December 8 Ross Ashley, 22, shot and killed Deriek W. Crouse before turning the gun on himself on the Virginia Tech main campus in Blacksburg. I was on the scene shooting for my paper and USA Today. By the time I got there all was quiet and VT President Charles Steger, bottom, right, was giving a press conference.

I wasn't here in 2007 when a student went on a shooting rampage killing 33, but coming from Kent State where four were shot in 1970 I can understand what impact violence has on a college campus.

41.2011

2011-12-16T15:42:00.000-05:00

If you're anything like me you are always seeing photos pop up on the social networks featuring Hipstamatic "prints" or digital photos made to look like they were shot on expired slide film.

Well, I've got a treat for you. These photos here are actually shot with expired slide film. The landscape of Germany Valley in West Virginia was shot on carefully preserved Fuji Velvia, but the portraits were shot on a roll of Fuji Sensia 200 that had been sitting in the glove box of my car for about seven years. I love the results, it makes me understand why people shoot the Hipstamatic. Check out more on my film set on Flickr.

40.2011

2011-12-02T13:27:00.001-05:00

It's that time of year again, when consumerism becomes a sport. I covered Black Friday at the Staunton Mall.

39.2011

2011-11-06T22:10:00.000-05:00

Pastoral scenes of huntsmen wearing red jackets (known as pinks) riding through pleasant undergrowth with a pack of hounds in pursuit of a thin-faced red fox have graced everything from cheap liquor labels to neckties to classic paintings. This weekend was the official start to fox hunting season in Virginia. The Middlebrook Hounds Hunt Club invited Anglican priest Fr. Tom McHenry to give a blessing to the hounds, horses, huntsmen and the fox, "one of [God's] most cunning creatures" in the words of the priest.

I'd been working on a story about the hunt and the challenges of fox hunting, and you can read that story here. Also check out the video I produced below.

38.2011

2011-10-30T00:42:00.000-04:00

Everyone I talked to in China said that Teda was a postage-stamp sized city and nobody lives there. Those people were right, if by "nobody" they meant "millions of people."

Teda is an acronym for the Tianjin Economic Development Area. It's a city not unlike Silver Spring, Maryland if it sprawled on a bit more. The air in Teda is hard to breathe on a good day thanks to all the economic development happening there. John Deere has a factory there and the hospital burns its medical waste outside my mother-in-law's apartment building.

The funny thing about China is all the public art. You can't walk twelve feet in any city without walking into some public art, like this crocodile in a pond in Teda.

The other photos were shot from the mag-lev bullet train going from Beijing to Teda. The government is building massive blocks of high-rise apartments in the middle of nowhere next to the train tracks. Nuclear power plants are multiplying near these residences.

See all the scans from my China trip here on my Flickr.

37.2011

2011-10-25T08:12:00.000-04:00

Early this month I was able to carve out some time and traveled with my wife to China to visit her mother. I've never traveled overseas and her mother mentioned that going to China to get a taste of international travel was like jumping in the deep end of the pool. Couldn't agree more.

Because I almost didn't get my visa due to my career in journalism I figured I'd keep a low profile in country and shoot 35mm film the entire trip. I'm glad I did so, it let me practice seeing in a different way. Shooting digital is almost too perfect and lets you have a safety net. Film-slide film specifically-is a bit less forgiving. Don't get me wrong, I love the instant feedback and quick turnaround with digital, but there's nothing quite as beautiful than Fuji Velvia.

These photos are both shot on Velvia, top is from the Lama Temple in Beijing at closing time, and the middle one is from the Tengu Fish and Flower market where they sell meat out in the open. Last is a street vendor in the hutongs-the alleys around courtyard houses/hostels near the Forbidden City. I'll be posting more in the coming days, but consider this my red post. See more photos on this Flickr set.

36.2011

2011-10-21T16:13:00.000-04:00

Before I post photos from the trip we took to China I will share this frame from a rural Virginia yard sale. The women who were running this sale said customers kept coming by and buying. For more, better yard sale photos check out my friend Greg Ruffing's yard sale project.

35.2011

2011-09-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

Minna Pensola of Finland plays the violin during rehearsal for the 2011 Gala Dinner and Concert Program at the Staunton Music Festival's Summer Sounds Concert Series held at President's House on the campus of Mary Baldwin College on Friday, August 19. Every year I get to shoot photos at the Staunton Music Festival and my love of classical music turns all frothy.

34.2011

2011-09-16T08:30:00.000-04:00

I went on my first vendor shoot for the Friendly City Food Co-op at Ryan's Orchard in Timberville. Carol Ryan, center, is the seventh-generation member of his family to operate the fruit orchard and his sons Eric, left, and Patrick work the farm with him. The farm has been operational since a year after the American revolution. Amazing stuff.

33.2011

2011-09-14T05:30:00.000-04:00

Eli Cook's, seen at right, set was rained out at the Summer Blues and Brews festival at the Frontier Culture Museum. Irene reared her ugly head and dampened some beer drinkers and musicians.

32.2011

2011-09-12T05:30:00.000-04:00

Camera and Palette in Staunton is now a camera museum. There are a ton of really interesting cameras there, including a major league baseball camera from the early 20th century, spy cameras from the FBI and KGB, Leicas out the yin yang and old cameras like this 6x8 Century No.2 glass-plate camera. I used the camera and some fancy Nikon speedlights to capture this portrait of the owners digitally.

31.2011

2011-09-10T05:30:00.000-04:00

Fishburne Military School had their first formation on the quadrangle the other day. This event can be pretty dry, but I showed up early and shot a lot of the preparation. The devil is in the details.

30.2011

2011-09-08T05:30:00.000-04:00

Carmel and I have a new favorite roadside BBQ restaurant: Paulie's Pig Out in Afton. Paulie smokes his pork and chicken over hickory for hours-without the Texas crutch-so the meat forms that delicious crunchy bark on the fatty edges and corners. Ribs fall off the bone and the sauce is a condiment, not the vehicle for the pork. Go and see him and write on his walls.

29.2011

2011-09-06T05:30:00.000-04:00

So the only way I could ever pull off a feat of art gallery kung-fuery that was Are We Not Men? at the Shenandoah Valley Art Center is the director Piper. She encouraged me to submit a portfolio, helped me refine my vision and just about frame every photo that hangs in the gallery today. I owe her my first born, a sub-basement and several temples and churches. Go and see the show and thank Piper in person.

28.2011

2011-09-04T00:48:00.000-04:00

First off, sorry for the long delay-I've got no real excuses for my absence except for my first solo gallery opening, Are We Not Men? at the Shenandoah Valley Art Center. It was way more work than I bargained for and I feel like the opening on September 1 was a success. It will be up for the next month, go and check it out if you're in or around Waynesboro.

These photos are from the demolition derby at the Augusta County Fair. It was rained out minutes after the National Anthem started.

27.2011

2011-08-04T16:49:00.002-04:00

Eze Nri Enweleana II of Nri, described to me as the Dali Lama of the Igbo nation that originates in present-day Nigeria, came to the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton to bless the West African Farm exhibit. During the ceremony he forgave the people who kidnapped his ancestors from western Africa and sold them into slavery here in Virginia.

He also said the American Yam Festival should be held in Staunton in 2012. It took everything I had not to stand up and cheer. I love yams.

26.2011

2011-07-29T14:20:00.002-04:00

My memory card from yesterday was one of the most varied of my career. I started off processing chickens at Serenity Farm south of Staunton. These are free-range, grass- and milk-fed chickens that taste amazing. I've been working for them one day a week and they trade me in milk, butter and delicious meat.

After coming home and cleaning the chicken blood off of me Carmel, Stina and I went to The Camel in Richmond to see The Accidental Circus to celebrate her birthday. The circus scene isn't quite my bag, but the bar was lovely and the company was great.

We were invited to an after-party at a mansion in Richmond recently occupied by a hoarder. Their home was beautiful behind the layers of mess and the party was completely surreal. Where else do you hear a mini-banjo and accordion version of Kenny Rogers' "Just Dropped In?"

The surreality was compounded when walking to the house we heard live music from the park across the street. We followed the music and found a local theater group performing a full dress rehearsal of "Hairspray" at an amphitheater. I would have had photos of that, but I was transfixed by the swarm of bugs and bats around one of the flood lamps.

The moral of this story: always carry your camera.

25.2011

2011-07-17T14:15:00.003-04:00

I just got back Friday from a solo motorcycle road trip from Virginia up to Ohio and back. I traveled on US 250 from Staunton to southeast Ohio and took some back routes up to Lake Erie.

The photo above is from just east of Monterey where I stopped for a buckwheat pancake breakfast.

I traveled 120 miles of West Virginia in a soaking rain. Because of all the twists and elevation changes I averaged about 30 mph for a couple of hours, but at least I kept the wheels on the road. The hours of rain on a secondary road left my bike filthy.

Once the rain stopped and I saw a shadow I literally cheered. I think that was the first time I was ever moved to cheer uncontrollably.

I made it to Mentor by sunset and made a couple of frames. The odd think about a solo trip is that I really don't have anybody except myself and my bike to take photos of. There are more photos on my Flickr page here.

24.2011

2011-07-05T02:06:00.002-04:00

R.M. Stone, an Uncle Sam impersonator, said that his clients don't want him to smile as much. He said they wanted a more serious Uncle Sam. Why is the idea of a smiling symbol of the United States less attractive than a stone-faced and scrappy symbol of a nation slogging through a recession?

23.2011

2011-07-02T15:30:00.000-04:00

I can't believe these photos haven't seen the light of day for one entire year. It was a project I started shooting and reporting about an outreach program for troubled youth and adults with non-violent criminal histories. The Rev. Elaine Rose started the program after her son was unable to find work after a non-violent offense. These boys were on work release making mud bricks at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton for the African Farm exhibit.

22.2011

2011-06-30T17:45:00.001-04:00

I feel like I've been shooting a lot of sports, luckily most of those sports are baseball. There is something perfect about baseball. Ninety feet is almost a divine number when it comes to space between safe and out. The space in the outfield gives each player enough room to feel isolated, even if hundreds are watching the sport. The game is just slow enough to have conversation with your friends and not miss a single play.

I get worn down shooting the constant action and warfare that is basketball, soccer and football-but baseball runs like clockwork. And then there's the Americana. These kids could be nowhere but the United States. They are watching as their team-the Staunton Braves- is retired in the first inning against the Waynesboro Generals.

21.2011

2011-06-28T22:10:00.002-04:00

Got the call to shoot the Commonwealth Games in Waynesboro the other day. Normally this means getting a bunch of photos of kids' faces as they pop out of the water for air, but this year I asked nicely and made some photos from the high dive. This frame made my day. It reminds me of Pisces, usually depicted as two fish swimming through stars. In this case they were in a heavily-chlorinated public pool.

20.2011

2011-06-12T14:23:00.002-04:00

The most interesting part about Look3 Festival of the Photograph was watching people take photos, and watching people taking photos of people taking photos. I left my camera at home every day and made photos using my mobile phone. It's not about the gear, it's about seeing.

On that note, it was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones. It was like a Phish concert without the music or patchouli.

19.2011

2011-05-19T11:42:00.003-04:00

The guitar solo is back. After years of chugga-chugga hardcore and bands with three or nine drummers the art of harmonizing guitar solos has reared its ugly head again. Valkyrie, above, blew the doors off the Blue Nile last night, with Chicago-land openers High Spirits and Bible of the Devil and Virginia's Earthling.

The epic sludge of Earthling always plays well with Valkyrie-I mean how hard could it be meshing up songs about wizards and songs about epic battles. It's like playing D&D with a tape of Iron Maiden in the boombox-it's perfect. Guitar-playing brothers Jake and Peter Adams (of Baroness fame) have been described to me as "f--cking telepathic" when they harmonize their solos. The mind-melding guitar wankery in "Apocalypse Unsealed" last night was perhaps the best guitar solo(s) I've ever heard in my life.

Drummer Warren Hawkins and bassist Will Barry-Rec were at times rolling their eyes at the extended solos, but provided the best bedrock for the brothers' solos.

Bible of the Devil

High Spirits

Bible of the Devil and High Spirits (complete in matching white jeans) channeled equal parts Motorhead and Thin Lizzy. Both bands sounded like arena rock from about twenty-five years ago-lots of solos, lots of flying-V guitars-but were contained in a basement venue. The sound was so huge I worried about the structural integrity of the lighting and monitor system.

I welcome the return of the guitar solo, it's not mashed-up or auto-tuned-it's calloused fingers manipulating metal and wood and making them scream for mercy. It's skill, practice and obsession to make the most epic sounds.

See more photos from the show here.

18.2011

2011-05-13T20:26:00.002-04:00

Baseball is poetry. The mechanics of the game is like clockwork. Watching a shortstop field an infield hit, pass it to the second baseman so he can complete the double-play at first is the same as listening to a symphony-it's classic beauty. I'm no sports fan, but I love baseball.

17.2010

2011-05-06T22:47:00.002-04:00

As promised, there at the top is a photo of the 2011 Virginia Beef Queen Lacey Koontz at the Staunton Union Stock Yards between awarding ribbons at the steer show. She was at the 4-H and FFA Market Animal Show. The show-the largest of its kind this side of the Mississippi River-awards children for their ability to raise livestock before the animals are auctioned off. I guarantee it's the most fun you'll have while getting poop all over your boots.

16.2011

2011-05-02T16:35:00.002-04:00

Twelve tornadoes touched down in Virginia last week, one touched down in Swoope. These photos are from Ruger Lane near Churchville where I saw the most destruction. Nobody was hurt, but a trailer was lifted off its foundation and swaths of trees were twisted off about four feet off the ground.

There was much more damage south of Staunton near Roanoke. My good friend Ryan Loew produced this fantastic video piece about the storm.

15.2011

2011-04-22T11:14:00.002-04:00

In honor of Good Friday here's a photo of the Verona United Methodist Church rehearsing a staged performance of the last supper. Pastor the Rev. Matthew D. Bates, center, said it was odd to be portraying Jesus Christ, but his congregation chose him to play the part.

14.2011

2011-04-10T00:00:00.002-04:00

I've been away from my computer lately shooting a number of assignments and personal projects in addition to my duties at the paper. I will have more photos and more complete projects to post here soon, including an assignment for USA Today and some other exciting work that's out of my comfort zone-but until then I'll share this shot. I found this the other day while out near Swoope. Though it's officially spring there's been only a few days of window-down, wish-I-were-on-my-motorcycle weather. It's been wet and gray, like on the day this photograph was made.

13.2011

2011-03-23T23:02:00.002-04:00

I never thought I'd see Godspeed You! Black Emperor live. On Sunday, after a ten-year hiatus, the eight-piece band played at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. and I was there to see it. The set started with fifteen minutes of a low bass tone that shook my bones and internal organs. At one point the bass was so loud I could feel my beard hairs vibrating. It was a religious experience. You still have a chance to see them in the United States. They will be in Detroit on the 28th, see all the dates here. See more photos on my Flickr.

12.2011

2011-03-17T01:37:00.002-04:00

While I was shooting all the state basketball in the universe (see previous post) I got down to the beach and visited my brother-in-law and had some genuine time off. I've always been drawn to this apartment building in Norfolk. I wonder what apartment complexes in Akron would look like if they painted tropical murals on the walls.

011.2011

2011-03-14T09:49:00.002-04:00

I spent the better part of last week traveling back and forth from Richmond to cover the Virginia state basketball tournament. Waynesboro boys and Robert E. Lee girls made it to the final rounds, but both ended up falling to Brunswick and Millbrook respectively. Bad news is I shot little but basketball last week. Good news, I shot enough basketball that I started shooting it differently.

010.2011

2011-02-27T14:38:00.002-05:00

An update on the Showalter family in Stuarts Draft: their new home is nearly complete. The family home burned down while they were out of town for the holidays and they came home to ashes. Eldest son Titus Showalter said he was able to salvage about one wheelbarrow full of salvaged belongings. Trent Showalter, an electrician and plumber by trade, started planning a new home with the ashes from his old home still under his finger nails, and it was built yesterday with help from about 90 neighbors, friends and family members from as far away as North Carolina and Maryland. This is one of those "good news" stories that people complain about not seeing in the paper when we do stories about death, destruction and despair.

009.2011

2011-02-22T21:47:00.004-05:00

Monday Carmel and I celebrated two years of marriage. Like last year we traveled in the region and found our lodging via Air BnB, but unlike last year we stayed in a much more remote area of the state. We stayed in a yurt in on Pocosan Mountain near Standardsville. The yurt-a round, tent-like structure-was built on a platform yards from a working, organic and sustainable farm. Carmel made friends with a goat named Eglantine and I shot photos of the turkeys that were posing in the rafters of the barn.

Whitt, the innkeeper, was an executive chef in his former professional life, so he cooked us the most amazing anniversary dinner using meat raised and processed by neighbors and grilled simply with vegetables and herbs. If that wasn't mouth-watering enough the meal was topped off by the most amazing home-made strawberry ice cream with a hint of caramelized balsamic vinegar.

Today we went to the tourist trap that is the Luray Caverns. Yes, the caverns were lit fantastically lit and the stalacpipe organ (a pipe organ that uses stactites and stalagmites to generate sound) was outstanding- if it weren't populated by hoards of screaming and crying children. This is why we vacation on weekdays, people!

The photo above is from the strange and crappy Car and Transportation museum that was somehow related to the Luray Caverns experience. It was completely sad and inexplicable. See more photos from the trip over on my Flickr.

008.2011

2011-02-15T10:18:00.004-05:00

I made some photographs at the Virginia Institute of Blacksmithing for the newspaper the other day, but I plan on going back for a personal project I'm working on about labor in the United States.

007.2011

2011-02-03T10:46:00.002-05:00

This is a pile of garbage. Solid waste from Waynesboro, Staunton and Augusta County all ends up here at the Augusta Regional Landfill. I went here for this story for the paper about the future of the facility and was amazed by the scale of the thing. This is a landscape of garbage, almost to capacity. Below a foot of earth is a protective layer and then solid waste. It may look like a sturdy mountain, but once we were standing on it the ground shook and moved under our feet with the movement of heavy equipment. Amazingly surreal.

006.2011

2011-02-01T21:07:00.002-05:00

Photos from the Virginia Club Calf Producers Winter Classic show held at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds on Sunday. The steers in these competitions are primped and preened before being paraded around a ring and a judge. The steer in the bottom photo is named Meatball.

005.2011

2011-01-27T13:09:00.002-05:00

Staunton native and former Virginia Supreme Court Justice George Cochran died two years shy of a century on Saturday. This week I was at Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton for his memorial service.

004.2011

2011-01-22T15:59:00.002-05:00

I went to Gone Studios in Staunton last night for the opening A show of Instance here in town. Our 'roids were still on the walls as Big Drum in the Sky Religion, Vomiting Dinosaurs and Earthling rocked everyone's collective faces off. To see more photos from the first Polaroid show or the concert last night check my Flickr.

003.2011

2011-01-11T12:23:00.002-05:00

Trent Showalter of Stuarts Draft started drafting blueprints for a new home to replace the set of double-wide trailers that burned down the day after Christmas. His fingernails were black from digging wires out of the ash earlier in the night.

002.2011

2011-01-07T10:28:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas to all my Russian Orthodox Christian readers! Yesterday I went to All Saints Of North America Russian Orthodox Church in Middlebrook yesterday and experienced an amazingly gorgeous service led by Father Gabriel Weller.

I think my vision meshes well with the artwork in the Russian Orthodox church because every icon is center-heavy and flat. The power doesn't come from the perspective in the art itself, but rather from layering multiple planes of art to create depth and impact.

The visual art mimicked the aural art-there was no ornate organ or 35-member choir, but two women in head coverings singing in harmony. With Father Weller singing the low bass it was hard not to see the echoing of the flat, center-heavy icons hanging all around.

Listen to the voices below.

001.2011

2011-01-01T01:13:00.001-05:00

Happy 2011, friends! From me and this dude who's not quite Snake Plissken.

72.2010

2010-12-27T20:09:00.002-05:00

Another year gone by, here are some of my favorite year-end photos. Time to edit for competitions and whatnot-which photos do you, my precious readers, think are the best I've shot in 2010? Leave your comments below.

71.2010

2010-12-21T17:09:00.002-05:00

Every year, Hebron Baptist Church in Afton creates a model town of Bethlehem where on the half hour Mary and Joseph are refused lodging at the inn and go to a stable in front of a giant spotlight to give birth to a Cabbage patch doll who represents Jesus Christ. A chorus of angels sings to them at the stable and parades through the village after the virgin birth. It was quite the experience.

70.2010

2010-12-12T23:16:00.002-05:00

So I had the opportunity to hang out with Jamie Beitia and her friends and family after she shot and killed a 430-pound black bear last week. In the top photo one of the men skinning the bear hands Jamie the .30-30 bullet that killed the bear. Check out the small feature story that ran in the paper here.

69.2010

2010-12-05T10:00:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again, time for the Waynesboro Christmas parade! Does anybody north of the Mason-Dixon celebrate Christmas with a parade? I never heard of such a thing until I moved down to Virginia. Perhaps because if it's anywhere near Christmas in the north there are usually several inches of snow/slush/crap on the road preventing any kind of positive reaction. Celebrations would be perceived as people just standing around in slush.

68.2010

2010-12-03T08:37:00.002-05:00

It's official-I have arrived in the world of serious and professional photography. One of my photos has been turned into a poster in my mother-in-law's sixth-grade classroom in China. She tells me that her students all live in high-rises and have never seen stars, so this photo is being used to show them what they look like.

67.2010

2010-11-26T09:46:00.002-05:00

Reporter Becky Martinez and I went to Charis Eco-Farm in Staunton to do a story about where Thanksgiving turkeys come from. Turns out turkeys don't have to live in drawers indoors or eat antibiotics all day. We produced this video.

66.2010

2010-11-22T21:31:00.002-05:00

Man, horses freak me out. I'm just lucky I came away from this assignment without having my throat kicked out by some wild horse.

65.2010

2010-11-17T22:26:00.002-05:00

I went back to Cleveland this weekend to visit friends and photogs Greg Ruffing and Lisa Burroughs. It's great to see some old friends and talk about new work, but I was surprised by both of their new collections. Lisa, above, showed a traditional still-life black-and-white medium format series and Greg (second photo down) had some photos from his recent show Votive Offerings. I found it interesting, refreshing and intimidating that both Lisa and Greg showed such process-heavy photos that spoke more as fine art than a photograph. After showing them the working edit for Are We Not Men? I really felt the need to step up and take my work to the next level.

I am thankful for their inspiration, friendship and Pho-eating tendencies. All my love, Cleveland.

64.2010

2010-11-09T21:38:00.002-05:00

Here's a shot from competitive cheerleading. I don't really enjoy shooting these day-long events, so I was happy to come away with a frame I liked.

63.2010

2010-11-02T21:26:00.002-04:00

Election day in Virginia. The Old Dominion is back to a red state.

62.2010

2010-10-28T00:08:00.003-04:00

My buddy Joas asked me to shoot some photos for his new Americana duo, Scratch and Stew. Given the chance to shoot some old-time musicians, I thought I'd make them sit like old-time subjects-completely still for 30 seconds at a time. I'd rather have shot this on glass plates with some chemical flash explosions, but I think the National Parks Service may have issues with that, so I just used normal lights.

61.2010

2010-10-25T18:13:00.002-04:00

More photos from South Carolina-from the Center for Birds of Prey near Charleston.

60.2010

2010-10-13T23:24:00.001-04:00

The Daraja Children's Choir, comprised of 23 Kenyan orphans, performed in Waynesboro tonight at the First Baptist Church.

59.2010

2010-10-10T02:11:00.002-04:00

One of the best things about vacation is shooting photos of other tourists. It's like looking into a mirror while holding it in front of a mirror. These shots were made on a ferry ride to Fort Sumter and Charleston Tea Plantation, the only tea grower in the United States. More photos to come later.

58.2010

2010-10-04T23:10:00.002-04:00

A 15-year old albino alligator floats in the black swamp at the South Carolina Aquarium. This guy is allergic to sunlight, so he floats in low light as to not kill him. Completely spooky and wonderful.

57.2010

2010-09-27T08:14:00.002-04:00

The Two Man Gentlemen Band braved hanging skeletons and not-so-convenient street parking to rock The Baja Bean Co. in Staunton a couple of weeks back promoting their new release Dos Amigos, Una Fiesta. If you've been seeking some hot jazz to go with that new tweed jacket, look no more. Insightful lyrics abound on this album, like the instant classic Chocolate Milk, "Who'll fetch my amphetamines / I will, I will / I might want to stay up all night, drinking chocolate milk."
Go visit the Gents here and more photos here on my Flickr.

56.2010

2010-09-21T22:31:00.001-04:00

Bats swarm over Fort Defiance High School. I estimated hundreds or thousands of bats circling above me for 10-15 minutes. The sound was amazing.

55.2010

2010-09-18T18:52:00.002-04:00

I made it my goal this week to make a photograph that I enjoyed, something that was definitively a Pat Jarrett photograph. Unfortunately for me, the photograph was made at a massive tire fire out in Augusta County that smelled terrible and made me a bit sick to my stomach. Here Cecil Byrd checks on the day-old fire as it burns itself out from his Dodge pickup truck.

54.2010

2010-09-05T00:25:00.002-04:00

Tonight I went back to Reddish Knob and took some photos of the Milky Way. This photo was shot around 10:00 p.m. and the 30 second exposure picked up the last rays of sunlight. The only sound was the squeaky shock absorbers of a run-down pickup truck full of fornicators.

53.2010

2010-08-31T23:21:00.002-04:00

Scott Ballin hosted "Jefferson's Wine Travels: Historic Maps, Silver and Glass Exhibit" featuring hand-drawn maps of the wine regions of France and antique glass and silver. I wasn't able to make it to the show, but I was in awe of this man's collection. His house was like a museum-the maps alone had me drooling. His collection included this map, a 1601 map of the Loire Valley, and maps by Gerald Mercator (!!!) and antique silver and glass all over the place. Completely fantastic shoot and a wonderful gentleman. I love when I can nerd out about maps with my subject.

52.2010

2010-08-23T21:08:00.002-04:00

I had the opportunity to shopot photos at the Virginia Safari Park Drive-Thru Adventure at the beginning of this month. I went expecting some odd and cheesy manufactured fun, but I had a wonderful time shooting photos from the back of a pickup truck. I recommend the trip to any and all photographers who want a good wildlife portfolio.

51.2010

2010-08-17T16:10:00.002-04:00

I had the opportunity to cover the wedding of John and Tiffany this weekend in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. Carmel assisted me on this intimate and charming wedding and reception. Bonus-the food was some of the tastiest wedding food I've eaten in recent memory. Check out more photos over at Digital Love on Facebook.

50.2010

2010-08-09T22:22:00.002-04:00

I have been shooting the Augusta Health/News Leader Tennis Tournament for the last week, getting my annual fill of the fuzzy-green-ball sport. I really don't consider myself a sports photog, but if I can grab a photo like this every week or so I'd be happy. This is Jeff Tang, he won the men's open singles.

49.2010

2010-08-06T12:37:00.003-04:00

Carmel and I went to Richmond the other day after taking her mother to the airport on her way back to China. We stopped by World of Mirth, a fantastic toy store in Carytown.

48.2010

2010-08-04T10:34:00.001-04:00

Children cover their faces as a rescue helicopter kicks up loose asphalt and debris while landing in the Staunton Mall parking lot.

47.2010

2010-07-31T21:26:00.002-04:00

I danced with the Mother Road, to borrow several expressions at once. In other words, I drove the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway through Virginia this week. My father and I took two days to get down to Mount Airy, North Carolina (birthplace of Andy Griffith-famous for their porkchop sandwiches according to Wikipedia) and back to Staunton-our tribute to the road in its 75th year.

My father rode his 1996 Moto Guzzi California and I rode my 1982 Honda CM250 down to Fancy Gap and the Lakeside Motel. We took our time-stopping at overlooks and scenic gaps whenever the clouds looked right or the seat started to dig into my butt a tad too much. Check out more photos here on my Flickr.

When I was in my mid-teens my father invited me on a trip riding from Ohio down the parkway on the back of his bike. I declined for several reasons, and I've been meaning to make it up to him since then. This ride definitely accomplished that mission, we're planning to ride the entire length of the road next year.

46.2010

2010-07-24T14:17:00.002-04:00

I shot some swimming the other day, and thank god there was a window with some natural light (not to be confused with Natty Light) shining down on the last two lanes.

45.2010

2010-07-22T09:45:00.001-04:00

The view from the press box at Moxie Stadium, first is Staunton Braves' manager Lance Mauck saying a quick hello to the announcer and reporters before taking the field after a rain delay. The other night at the game we had a rain delay, skunk delay and a delay for batter Todd Brazeal after he was hit in the face by a pitch. Weird night for baseball, indeed.

44.2010

2010-07-21T10:20:00.000-04:00

I shot photos of the Queen City Fire Circus the other day here in Staunton, and they put on a great show. Check them out at the Wharf parking lot at 9 and 10 o'clock on Friday nights.

43.2010

2010-07-20T10:45:00.001-04:00

Last night I went to Reddish Knob with my wife, her mother and her aunt. I'm always inspired by the scale of the place, if you want to feel like a completely insignificant crumb clinging to existence on the face of a rock spinning around a fiery life-giving series of explosions, go to Reddish Knob at sunset.

Here, Carmel looks like she's part of a landscape oil painting, and in the second shot I started a fly once I laid back on the grass. See more on my Flickr-the new stuff is at the end of the set.

42.2010

2010-07-19T15:07:00.002-04:00

Shot this at the Friendly City Food Co-op in Harrisonburg the other day, it was Suzi Carter's birthday and she was painting the front windows at the new location. This photo was the highlight of last week for me.

I've also started work on my Great Rides series at the News Leader. Here's the latest installment.

41.2010

2010-07-15T14:47:00.002-04:00

Kavon Robertson and Chance Church are amazing boxers. I've featured them on my blog before, about two years ago when they started entering amateur tournaments at the ripe age of 8. They're both winning state and national tournaments now. Check out the video below, produced for the News Leader.

40.2010

2010-07-12T00:08:00.002-04:00

More Independence Day photos. Fireworks in Staunton and hot air ballooning in Lexington.

39.2010

2010-07-07T17:14:00.002-04:00

Check out the most recent issue of Flavor Magazine, you'll see a feature shot by yours truly in the story about Blacksnake Meadery in Floyd. Steve Villers showed me around the bees and we had a nice talk about colony collapse. Also, their meade is fantastic. The poison ivy I received while getting a low angle on the bees cleared up after three weeks.

38.2010

2010-07-04T15:52:00.002-04:00

Happy Independence Day. Yesterday I shot photos of Boy Scout troop 30 of Staunton, Virginia retiring six American flags. The flag was dismantled into red and white stripes and blue fields before being lowered into the fire, one color at a time.

37.2010

2010-06-29T22:02:00.002-04:00

Davey Rogner of Silver Spring, Maryland is picking up trash across the country, on foot. I met him the other day.

It's summer. My sunburns are peeling and the days are spent planning on how to stay cool and hydrated. Valley League Baseball is losing its sheen and the news staff is trying to cover stories while trading weeks of summer vacation. Festivals fill my schedule and I look ahead to the days when I can escape on two wheels into the cool mountains and cook meat on fire outside. Our garden is soaking up the sun and sprouting new blossoms every day now.

I am officially looking forward to autumn.

36.2010

2010-06-18T11:53:00.002-04:00

I've been on vacation, so I haven't been posting regularly. These are photos from a rally in Harrisonburg in support of the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would provide a path to citizenship for illegal alien minors who complete high school in the United States if they attend an institute for higher education or serve in the military.

35.2010

2010-06-03T12:13:00.003-04:00

It's graduation season, and I photographed Ridgeview Christian School's graduation last week. The school is in the basement of Ridgeview Baptist Church in Stuarts Draft, and graduated ten students this year. Here is a photo of the valedictorian, preparing for the ceremony in the school hallway.

34.2010

2010-05-28T10:15:00.002-04:00

Peter Denbigh, left, and Daniel Drumheller are reflected in a pool where they are demonstrating their invention, a centrifugal separator that can be scaled up and used to separate surface oil from water. They also started GulfClean.org, a web site for open-source inventions and solutions to help clean the mess in the gulf. My photo ended up on the Washington Post's web site (#15 in the gallery.)

33.2010

2010-05-24T11:10:00.002-04:00

Allan Kline of Norfolk checks the straightness of his arrows near the giant, foam giraffe archery target during the R100 archery contest in Staunton on Sunday.

2010-05-18T12:01:00.002-04:00

I shot a photo of a man wearing a suit, sitting at a table with pieces of paper hanging on the wall behind him.

31.2010

2010-05-10T14:47:00.002-04:00

There's nothing that says Boy Scouts of America more than fancy knots and 11-year-old boys playing army. I know this from experience.

Also this weekend I produced this video for a story about Amtrak's Cardinal Line that runs from New York to Chicago right through Staunton and Charlottesville.

30.2010

2010-05-05T10:25:00.002-04:00

Michael won, Jennifer lost. I'm not sure what this means, but I do know that election night means emotion, civic duty and nine times out of ten buffet-style food for poll workers and journalists that refuse (for ethical reasons and) because there is already free food back at the office. I'm going to start documenting election night food-I started last night, and track the project here on my Flickr.

29.2010

2010-05-03T21:21:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you see a photo cliche and keep walking. Sometimes you grab your camera and make a frame. This evening, after shooting a memorial service for yet another young person in Staunton who died needlessly, I shot a photo of something beautiful for the sake of art.

28.2010

2010-04-27T13:26:00.002-04:00

Yesterday Carmel and I went to Goshen Pass to explore the Maury River. I've never been much of a wildlife photographer, but I found some fresh-water snails and watched a small water snake swim downstream. Life is teeming on the river, and I plan on working on a larger body of nature/environmental photos this summer. I plan on wearing thick boots thought, Carmel almost got bit by a water moccasin.

27.2010

2010-04-25T12:40:00.002-04:00

The Augusta Military Academy held their Founder's Day celebration at the old school in Fort Defiance yesterday. The school closed in 1984 and every year the alumni come back to tour the museum and read the names of alumni who have died since the previous reunion. Above is Mike Kidd, class of 1972, of Mentor, Ohio, in the all-alumni color guard. Below is Mel Myers who said he was representing his friend Bill Parkinson, an alumni who was unable to attend for health reasons.

26.2010

2010-04-20T20:45:00.002-04:00

Wow, I can't believe I never uploaded photos from my trip to Wintergreen Resort earlier this year. I've never been to a ski slope before, mainly because I hear they frown on sledding-the only winter sport I'm qualified for-and they seem pricey.

25.2010

2010-04-18T15:26:00.002-04:00

I went to Reddish Knob with my friends Joe and Shelby and the wife yesterday. It was a lot colder and windier than the last time I was at the Knob with Joe and Andy. One more reason why I love living in the Shenandoah Valley.

24.2010

2010-04-15T11:22:00.003-04:00

Shot this for the News Leader yesterday, these Thomas W. Dixon Elementary School students raised $2,000 for the American Heart Association through the Jump Rope for Heart campaign.

23.2010

2010-04-13T21:06:00.002-04:00

Banner Robson flips on his mother's bed while Karson Wright watches. I shot some photos of these ten-year-olds after they won state titles in gymnastics. Since we couldn't shoot at the gym, I asked if the boys practiced anywhere. "On the bed," was the response, so that's where we did the shoot. Of course, the paper made a cut-out.

22.2010

2010-04-12T12:46:00.002-04:00

This weekend was a veritable time machine for me. I covered the 145th Battle of Waynesboro reenactment, above, and was able to get some great access (even though they gave me some sass about my "Yankee heritage") and on Friday I hung out with some cowboys in Buena Vista. Fun time had by all, which was a nice change of pace from the week of car crashes and a random act of violence that claimed a life on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Here's a video from Cowboy Action Shooting by me.

21.2010

2010-04-07T11:48:00.002-04:00

David Moubray, aka The Palo Alto Kid, of Mount Sidney draws an unloaded revolver demonstrating his shooting technique he will use at the Single Action Shooting Society round-up this weekend. Should be a fun time-I plan on shooting a bunch of photos this weekend.

Also, the video Rebecca and I produced about the Rocktown Rollers was published on newsleader.com, and hburgnews.com. Read the story at the links, and check out the derby 101 video below.