i like to tell stories

i got mentioned in the results and articles on the tournaments at M&M this past spring for my 84/100 E Class win (still, WOW!) and my 138/200 D Class 3rd.

the cover of TIME and now this, good year so far…

the little p&s camera i had on sunday let me shoot burst modes, so somewhere on I-78 when i was having a personal mental moment, (or maybe it was that i just realized that we were still in nj) i made 43 images in 6 seconds. (the above image should be moving, give it a moment)

A course = 85/100 + B course = 93/100

fun with custard…. altho, i didn’t have any.

watch – 072907 – movie

i got to go to PA twice this weekend, each day was different while still being the same. shotgun, pictures, girls, friends, food, music and a little bit of beautiful everywhere i looked. i spent most of the hours in the car looking out the window, dreaming of this home or that, wondering what i would do out here and who’d i be.

i got a sunburn, so since i cannot have the truck, home, land or lifestyle, i’ll take the redneck happily like a badge of PA honor.

one bag, one case, much joy, keep it plain. altho i have to admit, to me, seeing someone carry these from a building to a trunk, trunk to building, or any other errand like activity with these two things….. could only = trouble. but then again, i am bias.

1 shotgun. paperwork. 20g/28g/410g chambermates. 3 pairs glasses. assorted earplugs. allen wrenches. gloves. vest. gun sleeve. 2 towels. 1 shirt. 1 sweatshirt. grease. bore snake. shell bag. shell pouch. 2 bottles sunscreen. 2 hats. bug spray. band aids. walkie talkies. gps. ipod. chargers. cables. 2 bandanas. gum. moist towlettes. 1 rag. sharpies. petzel emergency headlamp kit. 300 shells.

ROCK Mountain – Meshoppen, PA

C class
85/100 – 12g prelim 1st place
44/50 – 20g 1st place – (tie for first overall 20g)
40/50 – 28g 1st place
27/50 – 410g 1st place

(it should be noted, there was only one other C class shooter in prelim & 20g)
(it should be noted, i was the only C class shooter in 28g & 410g)

my dream of a rock mountain trophy has yet to be realized.

watch – 072807-ROCK – movie

i turned the corner to catch the train and she just appeared in front of me. it’s nyc, so beautiful people are everywhere and often little is left to the imagination, but every so often, there’s something remarkable about the moment you see someone you’ve never seen before. i took a picture the moment i realized this was happening and then put my camera away and forgot i even really took it. she was walking as fast as i was and went to same train i did. 7th ave and 18th st. i tried to get around her on the stairs as her shoes slowed her descent into the subway, but i had large prints and couldn’t fit around her. after the turnstiles, i saw her sit down on the bench in the middle of the platform and that was that, i kept walking to the end of the train towards the last car, where i always go. the train came, i got in and sat down. a couple moments later i saw her sit down in the crowded car directly accross from me. she sat calmly looking around at everything but me. 23rd, 28th, 34th. then at 42nd she stood up. her skirt was so short that as she stood there was a flash of white panty. then she disappeared into the city.

red shoes, red bag, black hair, white panties, lots of freckles.

i woke up monday around 10:30am. tuesday i had a job to fly to raleigh, nc and back, all in one day. so i got everything together slowly all day and tried to relax and go to bed early. nothing worked. i never fell alseep. so when it turned 4am tuesday, i got in a cab and went to the airport. i breezed through security and waited for the flight. then the panic started, i really am scared to fly these days even though i love to travel, ceretainly for work. maybe its my age, maybe its my fear of dying or pain, maybe its because i was lonely, maybe its because i have no control, i pay a large corporation a lot of money to treat me like shit and that company has no real consequences or concern for my death, injury or basic discomfort. maybe its extra time to just think too much. i got home around 9:15pm and didn’t even try to climb into bed till around 1:45am wednesday. so that’s 39h with no sleep and 711 images.
watch – 072407 – video

went to LVSC sunday. there was actually suppose to be a tournament this day, but one of the owners got called to duty in iraq, so no competition. pretty odd it’s taken this long to be directly effected in anyway at all by the war. sure, when i go to TX or FL near the bases it’s easier to see, but here in nyc, you really aren’t effected at all.

nate posted his flicks and a movie of us from two different angles, watch HERE.

he bragged of his 66 of 100, which for his 3rd time ever shooting is damn good, but he neglected to mention i got a 91 of 100, my first time ever in the 90’s.

true love = pennsylvania.

in 1996 when i lived in san francicso, i got all excited to see lee friedlander in person. i bought my books early so i could skip the huge lines i envisioned. i got there right on time later that night, no one was there. i never thought i’d be able to actually talk to the guy, but there he was, sitting at a folding card table by himself waiting to sign books. grabbed the books they were holding for me and marched over. lee signed one book for my friend wishing him a good marriage and one for me. he saw my leica and made a comment, i handed it over, he played with the lens and all the settings, said something about how they feel, and handed it back to me. (i had brought it to take a snap of myself with him, i even preset the focus, shutter, flash, everything was ready to, but after he handed it back, i neglected to set it all back to the proper settings). just before i walked away after giving him a box of prints even, i got the courage to just do the dumb deed and took a quick snap of myself next to him. upon seeing this, lee said, ‘you got all winogrand with your horizon on that one.’ so i said, ok, i’ll do one straight all freidlander. this is it.

yes, its out of focus. yes, the shutter was too fast for the flash. perfect.

when i get excited, i assume everyone thinks like me. i was hyped to see a movie tonight, got there mad early, all my usual neuroses in full swing, the theater may as well have been empty. but it reminded me of the day i first met lee.

texas, january, 2006.

main – 19 of 53
pre-lim – 22 of 35
5 stand – 6 of 16

all in C class.

not the results i hoped for all these months, i did all i could.

one guy on my squad was 2nd overall pre-lim.
another guy from my squad was 2nd overall 5-stand.

john and cindy let me crash at their new home for the tournament this weekend. it was wonderful to see a family starting.

purple shell is 12g, the yellow is 20g, the red is 28g, and the red is 410.
smaller the gauge, the less powder and pellets = harder to hit targets.

my first sub-gauge. 20g – 28g – 410g. 50 targets each.

40/50 – 20g – 3rd place.
41/50 – 28g – 3rd place.
31/50 – 410g – 3rd place.

it paid/punched out to 2nd place.

watch a little:
ZONE 1 video

On July 11, 2006, I forget at exactly what moment, I think it was late at night, close to midnight, I promised myself that on July 11, 2007, one year from that day, I would try to make something beautiful.

Today was that day. go here : DIES MERCURII XI JULIUS MMVII

Didn’t matter what, didn’t matter where or how. Just make something, something beautiful and make it on July 11th. For the past week or two I tried to get out of town, go somewhere new, do something out of the routine of everyday life as everything is easier to look at that way. Nothing worked. It couldn’t have been a more routine day. I did nothing out of the ordinary except walk by and take a picture of the building I spent last July 11th and take my camera wherever I went. As you can see, I didn’t go far or do much.

I haven’t shot in black and white in over 10 years. I never just walk out the door and shoot in nyc. both of these things, b+w and nyc, infuriate me, so I figure put them together, and go look.

go look yourself : DIES MERCURII XI JULIUS MMVII

(fyi – images of pornography are included)

I made 494 images, 82 are in the portfolio.

1998 or 1999, my father took that one of me after picking me up from the airport. sometimes i miss who i was then, even tho i still basically make the same types of images sometimes.

my family watched the fireworks from lawn chairs in the parking lot in between the crackabarrel and best buy.

i was scared to take this, i think i only even ended up taking it to see if i could over come that fear, the picture idea was no longer even the point. i knew from the scene all around it someone would have to speak to me, i had no idea what way it would go.

so right after i took it the woman who i assume owned it asked me for $5. i think she was joking. i laughed and kept walking as they laughed. it seems just because i take a picture, someone wants something from me more and more often, the right to not allow pictures in an obvious public space, money, a permit, to agitatedly see what i took just cause they were nearby, even tho i never pointed my camera their way, always seem to have to answer to someone, just because i use my camera in a way almost no one it seems can relate to…

so sometime a few years ago, i used to make pictures of LM in hotel rooms in wigs. one of these times, the white wig, was in a random econolodge upstate somewhere, i didn’t have anything to do with the planning of this trip, so i was along for the ride, i brought my camera and turned my brain off to the best of my ability. the econolodge turned out to be next door to strip club, ironic for many reasons i cannot bother to explain here. long story short, i happen upon this site again, long story short, it’s practically across the street from mid hudson clays, one of my new shooting places….. figures. everything is a circle.

2nd floor, far left corner of the hotel image, 2nd window from left is where i made this:

250 shells of practice, zone 1 is here, just 4 days away. i had been here once before, but now i do think it is closer to NYC then the others, and the targets are more competition style….. if only i had a car, i would be here every thursday… the cheap day.

MID HUDSON CLAYS

everytime i see a cross that isn’t really there, i think of LM.

nyc.

all the sudden, i am scared to fly.

something new happen today.

lens fog, never seems to last once i decide i like it, but when you go from AC to outside in FL, it is just unavoidable.

my niece and my aunt.

chili’s

my brother’s daughter, the closest thing to my own daughter i will likely ever have.

seeing another image i made of her and my brother in my brother’s wife’s wallet made me feel good, this feeling is why i mostly make images anyway, it just isn’t as obvious as an example like this.

shoal river clays – july 4. free sausage and hamburgers and a borrowed golf cart, i love america.

shooting clays in florida in april-october, or even being here and going outside, has got to be one of the most inhospitable environments i have ever experienced. it is simply intolerable.

it feels like another planet on the course, a good course, but damn is florida an odd/beautiful place to look around.

poolside

pool

gulf of mexico

fireworks

today, monday, july 2, 2007.

queens, new york.

new york city – atlanta – destin

27th st. – nyc.

i remember long before i ever worked for a major magazine, how cool the notion was to be a photographer, intimately involved in and a major part of the publication of a piece of cultural history…. the reality is really different then i ever imagined of course, but i have these, and these are still cool to see, even tho i have had them for years and to many in this world i bet they mean little, but i have them still, hidden in stacks of this important that or that important this. time & people magazine envelopes…. digital seems to have killed my interaction of any actual object exchanging hands, no paperwork or magazine or film.

#1RN

i always shoot all ten polaroids as fast as i can, don’t look, don’t edit, just pop them off, $1 at a time and hope hope hope you never run out. i broke it into two rounds of 5 this time, i cheated on my own rule, 5 getting ready, 5 when ready, here are three when the painting was done… and then the film ran out.

i tried really hard to not take a picture of the rainbow, i managed to ignore it for 30 minutes driving north on the turnpike, but the damn thing kept showing up thru the trees and then doubled, fine, ok, i’ll take a fucking picture.
rainbows can be a bitch like that.

i have eaten at rialto 4 times, each time was a night to remember, each time for a totally different reason.