California Dreamin'

Just got back from a week out in San Francisco. While I was out there, I had a bunch of appointments at some ad agencies- I met with: Debbie Mobley at Venables, Bell & Partners, Suzee Barrabee at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Jen Hall at Anderson DDB, Kelly Steblay at BBDO West, Kevin Stokes at Kane and Finkel Healthcare, as well as some folks at some top notch design firms: Robin Raj, Steve Fong, Kristin and the gang at Citizen Group and Jon Schleuning, Gloria Hiek, An Luc and Rob Duncan over at Studio Hinrichs. Thank you to everyone for sharing your time with me.

Ate some great lunches at Henry’s Hunan, referred by my buddy, super DP Andy Lilien. He recommended Marty's Special- a dish made with chicken, bamboo shoots, onions carrots, bell peppers, house made smoked ham, all mixed with a hot red peppers- smoky, salty, delicious, but not for the faint of heart. Another signature dish is Diana's Special Meat Pie, described as “Deep-fried flour cakes filled with meat sauce, Parmesan cheese, vegetables, onions and condiments (with or without hot sauce)”- like China meets Mexico in SF. Not sure why good Hunan is so hard to find here in NY, where Szechwan seems to have taken hold as the premier spicy Chinese cuisine.

I also spent some time wandering through SF’s Chinatown, taking
pictures, and had a sort of déjà vu moment when I realized I had walked the same area shooting some pictures almost 20 years earlier. What was interesting to me, upon reflection, was not just how much things had or hadn’t changed, but how much I had changed. Instead of looking at the scene, and shooting it from a distance, I now go right into the scene, and shot using a wider lens, making myself a part of the action. The other thing is back then it was a manual focus Nikon F3, shooting Kodachrome 64, and of course I couldn’t see what I had shot for days until I sent the film out to Fair Lawn NJ.

20 years later, I can take the slide pages out, hold them up to a light source and see images with no problems of outdated software, unread- able media, mismatched color profiles, improper monitor calibration, bad data... but for better or for worse, there is no going back.

Where Have All The Good Times Gone?

Who would have guessed that the best thing I saw today was a 103 year old silent film called The Alcoholic (or Drunken) Mattress by Alice Guy-Blaché, or the first adult non-business book I have read in years, would turn out to be the wonderful Here Is New York, written by E. B. White 60 years ago.

Ray, Ray, Ray

Saw The great Ray Davies, founder of the seminar rock group The Kinks, perform last night. The first set was just Ray and another guitarist, then a full band performing a dozen or so Kinks classics, as well as a few of Davies recent songs. After an intermission, Ray returned with the band, and a full 30 odd member choir to rock/sing/perform some of the Kinks Klassic Kuts, but also rework some lesser known jewels, a few cuts from Arthur, a six song suite from The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society: Village Green, Picture Book, Big Sky, Do You Remember Walter?, Johnny Thunder, and The Village Green Preservation Society, an a cappella See My Friends, closing out with some amazing renditions of Celluloid Heroes, Waterloo Sunset, Days, All Day and All Of the Night, followed by an encore of Low Budget.

It was an amazing night- it incredibly moving to hear one of the most enduring rock performers of the last 50 years perform live tearing through some of rock and roll’s most influential & brilliant songs like You Really Got Me, Celluloid Heroes, All Day and All Of the Night and Days.

As for reworking some of rock iconic songs using a choir, you may hate it, you may love it, but you have to give credit to Davies that at 66, he is still experimenting, still breaking new barriers in music- oh, and rocking like a kid a third of his age!

I have seen the future of photography…and it doesn’t include me

Saw this at the PPE trade show today- apparently SONY has come up with a camera and movable base called the “Party-shot™ Automatic Photographer” that takes its’ own pictures, scanning the room, and by using face technology, finds you and your drunken friends. And takes your picture.

I though that is what ex boyfriends/girlfriends are for?

Captain Jonathan At Your Service

I was lucky to be invited by Captain Jonathan Atkin to join him and a few friends for one of the best boat trips I ever took, onboard the Big Toot for an up close and personal look at the NYC harbor.


Jonathan knows anything and everything harbor related, and being a top notch marine and aerial photographer, he timed it so we passed lady Liberty once in full sunlight, and once right at sunset. When he leads more trips next spring, jump on the chance (and bring a water repellent jacket as the water can go flying).

Open House New York

As the name implies, we get to go inside peoples houses, that and their offices, churches, pools, skyscrapers, tunnels, barges, bridges, sewerage treatment plants, cemeteries….

I Intrepidly Explore Webster Hall, Camera In Hand

Okay, I missed Studio 54, Limelight and their ilk, but the spirit of hedonism is alive and well at Webster Hall. I was at another event when a couple of friends dragged me to see a fashion show at WH. The fashion show was a bit of a bust, but afterwards we wandered around the club.





I have never seen a more diverse group of people- ages, races, sexes, sexual preferences, hair styles, body types, body adornments…and the most interesting part was how totally unconcerned everyone was at being photographed.

Usually the subjects get suspicious or self conscious when someone is shooting them while they are in

public, perhaps doing something they are not supposed to be doing, or maybe the management hassles you, but on this night, I only got confronted once by the friend of one my subjects. And when I showed
her a few images- thank goodness for digital- she decided that since I was shooting women & men from behind, that I was an equal opportunity offender & calmed down.

All I can come up with is that I think nowadays everyone is so used to being photographed, documented, their every movement & thought shared electronically with their close friends, or total strangers, that
someone taking pictures become invisible. And people have less inhibitions about being seen in a less than flattering way, as long as they are seen.

What also amazed me was how many people were just sitting around with their friends, but they were not talking to them, no, they were on their cell phones, their electronic devices, reading, texting, surfing, who
knows what, totally oblivious to the music & mayhem going on around them. Call me old fashioned, but I always thought the idea of going out was to get away from work & other distractions, and relax & have fun. For these people, they want to stay connected all the time, but at the same time they are becoming more and more isolated.