First snow of the season

The almanac predicts a cold, snowy winter, but this storm was just perfect for the first December New York City snow storm, although kids may be disappointed....

Or, maybe this is just a precursor of things to come…?

Leaking boat?

My 11 year old asked me today where’s his bailout? I said with a $5 a week allowance, I am the one who needs a bailout.

Then I see Nikon has a new, 24.39 MP full frame chip camera, the D3X, which lists for only $7,999.95. Where’s my bailout?

I need a new laptop, as my iBook is a candidate for the museum of old technology. Where’s my bailout? And while I am there, I can also use a new Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor Mac Pro, crammed with ram. A 120 GB iPod would be nice as well. I will even drive to DC to pick up my bailout check.

I also heard on the news that utility rates are going up, subway fares will probably go up, food has definitely gone up, unemployment is up, everything seems to be going up except for gasoline, which means my 10 year old car can now be driven in circles for less money. Whoopee!!!

National Turkey Day

Just don’t try this at home- especially my home. Did I mention how good the deep fried turkey was? And only 40 minutes from salmonella to carving board!

Red, white and male

I don’t like to go on about politics, so I will just say no matter whom you voted for, America has taken a huge step forward in electing a black man as it’s President.

Can a woman be far behind?

And can we even look forward to the day when we can stop prefacing the term President with an adjective?

Shake 'n' break

Just got a copy of the December 2008 Consumer Reports, which features two images from a shoot I did there earlier this year. CR is a truly great place to shoot- a cross between Dr. Emmett Brown’s laboratory and the back room at Costco. A wild place to see and be able to hang out & create fun images.











Photos by Andrea Patton









I can’t wait to get back in there and see more things get baked, watered, bent, crushed, stained, scraped, pulled, pushed, burned, smashed, tortured and destroyed.

And they have a good cafeteria as well ;).

In memoriam

It is not often I post sad news, but I must mention the passing of my friend, photographer, fellow APA|NY board and longtime Success Team member Susan San Giovanni, on October 9, 2008 after a long illness.

Her sometimes sardonic wit, calm demeanor and ability to cut to the quick of things will be missed by all of us here in NY, and especially those of us who worked with her. She was never afraid to tell you what she thought of things, and her can do spirit & courage made her a valued member of the NY photo community.

I would post a link to her site to celebrate her work, but unfortunately, her domain lapsed while she was ill, her site is no longer accessible. She did beautiful environmental portraits for corporate, not for profit and music clients- hopefully, someone will be able to post a gallery of some of her best pictures at some point.

Be at peace, Susan. We miss you.

New at Workbook

Just a quick mention to take a peek at the new Workbook online portal. I have reworked my galleries, arranging them loosely by category, and added a whole new gallery just of images from SHE"S OUT THERE!

Amazon amazing

The truth can now be told- my book project, “SHE’S OUT THERE! The Next Generation of Presidential Candidates” not only has a publisher- LifeTime Media, but a pub date of April 2009. So you will only have to wait six more months to get your hands on it.







You can go to Amazon and preorder it to avoid the April 15 rush (and don’t worry, the real book will actually have a cover with my photo on ;).

If you can’t wait to see some more shots, you can look here.

Son of

I finally managed to score a reservation at Ko, albeit on a federal holiday, but hey, I still got to eat, right?

So what was it like? Was it worth the time & effort to gain admittance to the temple? Of course it was…although with this big a buildup, even a Bacchanalian feast would be a let down. Okay, cut to the chase, what did I have?

Among other more pedestrian ingredients, ther was bacon dashi, duck breast, pickled strawberries, pepperonchini broth, corn raviolis with chorizo, Riesling glacis, buttermilk & white miso sauce with poppies, and if I understood correctly, an English muffin toped with whipped pork fat.

It was such a swirl of ingredients, tastes, textures, presentations, not to mention a paired wine, beer and sake, that without taking notes, it is hard to know what was real, and what was an illusion (cue the Moody Blues). I guess I should have taken notes, taken pictures, stayed sober…but I didn’t, so you will just have to take my word, use you imagination, or just get clicking at 10:00:00 AM every morning for a few months to see for yourself.

And I am thinking maybe I should start again & get a jump on that holiday rush…..

Get real

I was watching my 6 year old play on the computer, while his friends stood next to him looking on.

Why don’t you guys play a real game like Life, or Connect Four,” I said.

“Dad,” said Oliver, “they have Connect Four online.

“Sure,” I said, “but sometimes it is good to touch real plastic.”

Real plastic. I started thinking about the absurdity of that, and how “real plastic” seems like some fancy substance in this digital, virtual world we seem to be living in more and more. Just this morning, I “borrowed” money from a loan account online, and transferred it to my checking account, where it instantly appeared. Wow, I thought, I can create $4,000, and move it through the air from one account to another…but of course I realized that I actually didn’t move anything physical at all, just a credit in one account, and a debit in another. Probably there is no actual money in any of my accounts really- just a big plus in one, and a bigger minus in another on a hard drive somewhere in the world.

So what does this have to do with photography? That there is something missing in this digital photography world, where images only exist as ones or zeros on a hard drive, or plastic disk, and can only be seen with the aid of a electronic liquid crystal display, or printed on an ink jet printer.

Yes, you could argue, previously photography consisted of invisible grains of silver nitrates on a clear plastic substrate, that first needed to be transformed by chemical reactions before anything was visible, but at least when it was developed, you could take the image out of its sleeve, hold it up and see, maybe in a negative form, but a pretty recognizable representation of the image without any mechanical or electronic device.

It was somehow more real than a digital image- more tangible, and also at the same time, more fragile and more unique as this was the actual film that went through your camera at the moment the image was recorded, the film that traveled 10,000 miles with you, the film that was exposed to the light of another hemisphere, perhaps at great personal risk, or expense.

Not a copy of a copy of a transfer from a flash card copy of data copied from a digital sensor manipulated by a bunch of transistors on a circuit board in a camera/computer. This (the film image) was it- take good care of it or there is nothing left.

And I do miss the smell of freshly processed Kodachrome slide film that you used to get when you first opened the little yellow boxes….

SLPS XII aka pool party

Last night was Slideluck Potshow XII- if you don't know what that is, you are missing a great event.

What was really fun about this one was it was outside, in McCarren Park pool, an abandoned 6 acre, 72 year old swimming pool in Brooklyn. You can read even more about it here.


It's hard to tell if it was really crowded, as when you are standing in a swimming pool- sans water- the size of a city block- well, my block at least- it is hard to feel crowded. The threatening weather held out, even with a few not too distant rumbles of thunder, and just literally 45 seconds of water drops at one point near the beginning of the show.

Due to time constraints, the intermission was virtually non-existent, so it was about two hours straight of images- phew!

As usual, there was a great assortment of things to eat from freshly grilled items, to yours truely's roast vegetable pesto pasta salad to a Polish cheesecake.

And, Calumet was there giving an equipment demo that mainly consisted of shooting attendees in a wading pool full of water, the most appropriate (or inappropriate, depending of your viewpoint) of which was a tall tattooed mermaid wearing practicality nothing. And no, I don't have any pictures of her.

I do, however have a few more of the pool- look a real pool in the pool:














And this "pool" of sorts....


















The night is still young.....

Day 59...and counting

Possibilities...

Disappointment....











An unhappy milestone was reached today as for the 59th straight day, I have failed to land a reservation at Ko.

And yes, eagle eyes, these screen grabs are from earlier in the month. Screen grabs ©2008 momofuku

Third Wednesday

I just saw some really great photos at the monthly NY PhotoGroup Salon, from photographers Brian Finke, Eric O'Connell, Eva Mueller, Hugh Kretschmer, Elinor Carucci and the prolific Jay Maisel.

If you don't already know about this group, they meet at 6:30 PM on the third Wednesday of every month (except August) at Soho Photo Gallery, 15 White Street and admission is only $10 to cover the venue.

That's less than the price of a movie, and it's always great just to hang out and see what your contemporaries are doing, especially when it is mostly personal work. Presenters change each month, so there is a wide variety of work shown.

If you want to get a monthly email reminder which also lists the upcoming presenters, just drop a note to Bill Westheimer.

The first issue of WIP is launched

The first issue of the electronic magazine for creative photography, WIP, which stands for Work In Progress, has been published by Greek photographer/designer Simos Saltiel.

A pair of personal images of mine are featured on page 39, among
many images from a large group of contemporary Greek photographers.

It is very interesting to see the aesthetics & viewpoints of photographers from different countries, although I would be hard pressed to say there is any one dominant style or trend. As soon as I figure out a way to do it, I will enclose a link so you can download it and take a look.

What I did this summer, Part I

I finally got the website updated- both the Current Work and Personal Projects sections, as well as the main portfolio, and even managed to send out an email blast before the long Fourth of July weekend. Phew! I hope someone is around to even look. I really earned my grilled corn on the cob this Fourth.