What can I say about Kacie that I haven't said in my many many updates involving her before? I don't really know to be honest, but for those of you that are new here Kacie and I have been shooting for over a decade now. She is my longest running collaborator, one of my very good friends, and a person that always pushes my work in new and exciting ways.
As with all of our shoots we wanted to d...
I don't really feel the need to escape winter in the North West the same way I did Pennsylvania, or Chicago. Even though it does get cold out here it is not the crushing kind. For four years I had the same daily routine when home. Wake up, walk down to the basement to thaw our pipes with a hair dryer, make coffee, bundle up in a snow suit, slide into the World War II sleeping bag on my computer chair, edit until I couldn't feel my hands, run up stairs and try to thaw myself in ...
2017-06-11 16:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post
We decided September of last year that Alice X was going to come out to Seattle this Spring so we could explore the nature around our new home. The Redwoods is one of those places I always want to spend more time, and a location that I have thought could be good for a workshop. So in April we loaded up the van and headed down to California.
The first time I saw tree's this massive I was really focusing on shooting landscapes, and to be honest I found Redwoods to be a pretty fr...
Hey everybody! June marks something like my 2.5 year milestone here on Patreon, and basically my first time revisiting my pledge tiers. Going forward I'm going to be making a few small changes. As things have taken off here I've realized that I'm putting out much more content, and this will enable me to create even more.
$5 Tier: is retired. If you are on this tier nothing will change for you, but there will be no new sign ups. You'll st...
On our way back up from the Redwoods we stopped to hit the beach for a day with two incredible models I have been following for a long time, Trina and Julie.
After a couple weeks of traveling and pretty much amazing weather in the notoriously dreary and rainy North West it was fitting that the temperature dropped and we wer...
Coming from the North East I'm used to a very colorful, but short autumn. The leaves change and for a few days we are gifted with an amazing forest to run through, then inevitably a storm comes, the leaves, fall, and more often than not I'm away or busy the few days I could have spent capturing some amazing images. I've still managed to get out a couple of times, but I like to travel away from home as soon as summer ends, so I poor planning on my part I guess.
That said 2017-05-22 01:26:10 +0000 UTC View Post
We drove from the coast inland for a few hours. The weather north through Oregon along the pacific looked like a mess, so in an attempt to do something different, fun, and less rain soaked we decided to drive to a place I'd been thinking about shooting for years, Umpqua Hot Springs.
As far as Hot Springs go, Umpqua is one of the least traveled hot springs you can find. Its not a luxury pool/spa fed from springs you can't see somewhere up the mountain. You have to drive deep i...
2017-05-09 16:51:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Its been a long and particularly harsh winter for the North West. Its funny because when I first started talking to Nicole about moving out here I may have promised that it almost never snows, and that we won't have to dig our car out ever again...that was partly true. Despite the surprising amount of snow Portland and Seattle both got this year we had to do no digging.
But with an unprecedented amount of rain and snow has come an unprecedented amount of difficulty to get out ...
I got into photography because I had managed to get my hands on a digital point and shoot that my mom won at a raffle for a conference her work sent her too. I didn't grow up in a very artistically inclined family. Really I didn't grow up in a very artistically or culturally inclined part of the country.
But I was a kid in a punk rock band how had managed to get his hands on a camera in a town where most kids didn't have one. So when my band played shows I would bring it...
I'm considering offering a pre-sale of Temperance the book to try and help raise funds for the design and initial printing, so I'm trying to figure out, what people are most interested in.
Let me know what you think. Help determine the future of Temperance!
Late summer I made my way to my favorite hidden place outside of Philadelphia for what I knew would be the last time. Raquel and I had been planning this shoot for a while, and I knew exactly where I wanted to go...the Pine Barrens.
Finding amazing places to shoot out east was a lot harder than here. I had to learn to love the forests I grew up in because I'd always been around them, but I knew the light there. I knew where to go what time of day because I've spent so ...
2017-04-16 04:38:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Moving and starting a new body of work is a pretty intimidating process. It is hard to know where I am going, what I am going to be saying, or if I even have anything left to say. I know I have something left to say, but is this the way I want to say it?
I start a project the same way I have written. I start writing, and I figure out what it means to me along the way. Its impossible for me to know what its going to mean to you all, but this is the first time on Patreon ...
2017-04-11 03:22:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey there!
Yeah its the 8th and I haven't updated Patreon yet! But I swear it is for a good reason. The end of March I left Seattle for a two week road trip down to San Fransisco and back. I shot photos all the way down and all the way back up in Portland, Mt Shasta, Oakland, The Redwoods, Umpqua Hot Springs, and Cannon Beach, so this month should be a real treat as far as a varied amount of shooting.
And in 3 days I'll be taking you all with me on my wet plate ad...
I've been working a lot lately on getting everything together to start a new project here in Seattle. When we moved out here I thought that we would be moving into a small apartment, and I'd need to find a studio to do this project in, so I left all of my large format equipment back in Philly figuring I wouldn't have the space or money for a while to do Wet Plates like I have been wanting to for years.
Then we found a a little house to rent with a big enough yard, light, and a garage for...
2017-03-19 22:07:39 +0000 UTC View Post
We struggle to figure out what it is we are trying to do or say with our work. Until we figure out. Its a weird place to be back to. I was very comfortable in Philadelphia. I knew what I wanted to do with Temperance. I knew my home and that room, and almost every angle that I could shoot, where to put the light I knew what I wanted to say, and how to make photos that said it.
But with comfort comes a reluctance or at least a struggle against repetition. I ne...
2017-03-17 21:06:09 +0000 UTC View Post
So over the summer right around the time we were getting ready to move out to Seattle I got an inquiry from the producers at Showtime about whether or not they could license some images of mine for the TV Show The Affair.
Specifically they wanted close ups of labia. I immedaitely said yes, and then realized that this isn't something I have actually shot much of. Mostly because it is done to death, and mostly poorly. As I would learn it is also super awkward to shoot. Lu...
2017-03-14 20:17:22 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm heading back to Portland this weekend to work with Robin Mae again, and I'm pretty damn excited about it. The nature in the north west a stones throw away from Portland and Seattle is one of the big reasons we finally settled on moving out here. I can't set foot in these forests without seeing a million spots I want to shoot in.
I learned to appreciate the little things living on the east coast. I am constantly blown away by the huge things on the west coast. ...
The last months I spent in Philadelphia I fell back in love with the forest near our house. Probably every summer I lived in Philly I would start to fall back in love with the forest as the spring mud dried out, and the plants came back to life. I found this perfect pool where the green trees gave us a beautiful soft light to work in, and the light playing off the surface of the water through the canopy bounced perfectly in the ripples the models created just with their movement.
I...
2017-03-05 23:00:49 +0000 UTC View Post
I've never been a big black and white shooter. Even when I was shooting all Black and White film for school I was always shooting color digital on the side for myself, but more and more I find myself drawn to grayscale tones. It started when I first discovered wet plate. It just seemed to trap so much more dimension than neopan, plus my love of large format camera's has been one I fostered since the first time I played with swings and tilts on my calumet cadet.
Compared to we...
2017-03-05 00:46:12 +0000 UTC View Post
I got my first glimpse at what will eventually be Temperance the book a couple days ago, and I have to say I am very excited about how this will look as a final product. I'm also terrified at how large a book this could easily become.
When I published 50 Models 50 States I ran into pretty much the same problem, and it doesn't seem like the publishing industry has any interest in remedying this. Unless I can find a publisher this book will cost at least $60 for a small v...
I am learning these new forests. The woods of Philadelphia with their calm streams, silver maple lined banks, and poison ivy covered everything are where I learned how to take photos. The North Wests forests are an all together different beast. The woods that I have gone through here are intensely dense, and intensely green. It is one of the reasons I fell in love with Washington my first trip out here in 2009. Every tree is covered in mouse, the ground is covered i...
2017-02-21 03:38:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Some days I miss this room. Mostly the mirrors, and the fabric. I always wish'd that I could have used natural light in that space, but the way the houses in Philly are layed out in most of the neighborhoods only one or two rooms really get much light, and Temperance was shot in a very dark room.
But it's been a crazy few months going through all of these photos over and over again. Picking out which ones I want to use for both of the books, how I want to tell the story ...
Something new is abrewing now that we are all moved into our new place, and I'm on an adventure shooting something new! I decided I wanted to play around and do a short term project in our new house, while I finish laying out Temperance as a book, and get everything together to start my next big project, which will be shot on a mixture of digital and wet plate! So out of that was born Pulp.
I love the colors of our new place, and all the sunlight we get when we get sun. It is...
2017-02-15 00:37:15 +0000 UTC View Post
I started keeping a journal while I was in South America...I've always written mostly for myself, and more for my amusement than memories sake. I am very lucky in that I have a very good long term memory, so while people's names often escape me Nicole and my travels do not.
We weren't actually supposed to go to Argentina. Our orginal plan was to catch our 3 flights, rent a car, drive that car 10 hours, get on a boat for 4 days, arrive in Torres del ...
2017-02-14 05:09:12 +0000 UTC View Post
There is a magical spot north of Phoenix called Fossil Creek that I've fallen in love with. 22 miles down a dirt road and you find yourself at a beautiful trailhead above a creek that snakes through the dry Arizona desert. The water is perfectly clear, and creates an oasis perfect for photography.
Flowers line the banks, and the cool water is the perfect spot to cool off from the hot south west sun. During the summer you need a permit just to find a place to park your car and...
2017-02-11 22:55:56 +0000 UTC View Post
One of the downsides of traveling is it feels nearly impossible to get on a plane and not get sick. Our trip down to South America it felt like we were surrounded by people with the flu on the plane, on the ferry, and on the buses we took, but we managed to get all the way down there and back without getting sick...then I got home, and the wheels came off.
So now I'm laying in bed sick, and I have been for a couple of days, but that is all well and good because in between naps I'm catchi...
2017-02-11 02:41:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Well so far 2017 has been a roller coaster ride, and it seems like we are all getting tossed around by this thing whether we want to or not. I finally feel like I'm starting to get situated here in Seattle, and despite it having been two years I'm still learning how to do this Patreon thing.
When I started Patreon in 2014 my goal was to make $400 a month, and I thought with that I'd be set for good, as this has grown though I've been constantly blown away, but what all of your continued ...
2017-02-04 03:29:30 +0000 UTC View Post
In the final days of Temperance during the intensely hot summer Luna Lynch (aka Slutspice) made the treck from Georgia up to Philly to shoot for Temperance. Even though we were planning on stripping the room and remodeling it for a new tennant I knew we had to leave the wallpaper up long enough to fit this shoot in, and she was incredible to work with.
I'm still working on figuring out where to go now that Temperance is over. I have a few ideas, and I'm working hard on finishing tw...
2017-01-30 18:36:11 +0000 UTC View Post
How do you describe the longest you have traveled for a shoot?
Almost two weeks ago Nicole and I got a plane to Washington DC, then we got on a plane to Panama City, then we got on a plane to Santiago, then we rented a car and drove down the Pan American Highway through Chile to Puerto Montt, then we got on a ferry for 5 days, which took us through fjordland's to the pacific ocean, and then to Puerto Natales, then we got back in the car and drove 3 hours to Torres del Paine ...
2017-01-22 16:11:05 +0000 UTC View Post
For New Years Eve we decided it would be a good idea to start the day early, and head up into the mountains to shoot before we did dinner and drinks with friends. Nicole, Amber, Porcelain, Henry Vance and I loaded up and head out to what we thought would be a fun easy hike down to Franklin Falls near Snoquamie, but when we arrived we were met with an impossible traffic jam.
Nat Geo had published that Franklin Falls when completely frozen is one of the most beautiful places in the North W...
2017-01-19 22:05:46 +0000 UTC View Post