Last summer I got an assignment from Arizona Highways photo editor, Jeff Kida to photograph Grand Canyon Explorer, Eric Gueissaz. The opening photograph of the resulting story titled "Out Of The Ordinary" was chosen by Communication Arts Judges for this years Photography Annual 2017.
Thanks Jeff for the opportunity to photograph Eric.
This June I spent 2 weeks helping Captain Edwardo Moses move his 53ft Jeanneau "S.V. Sempre Avanti" from Miami to NYC. It was close to 1200 miles of round the clock sailing in variety of sailing conditions with ripped sails, rain squalls, sudden 25 knot winds, snapped halyards etc. Fortunately Captain Edwardo has a PHD in sailing. He was great professor and "S.V. Sempre Avanti" was an amazing classroom. Graduation was held at Great Kills Harbor....my hometown. Post graduation party was held at Lily Red's Bar in Prince's Bay formally "Sheila's Sandbar" the bar my father owned in the late 70s when I was in high school. It's a small world.
This summer I spent 32 days in the Grand Canyon. Thank you Matt Herrman, Amity Collins, Betsy Harter, Lynn Myers, Howie Usher and Larry Vermeeren for allowing me to hang on and photograph you. I appreciate the opportunity.
In September 2016 veteran Grand Canyon boatman and photographer, Lynn Myers, made these photographs of me photographing Matt Herrman as we were runnin' through Lava Falls. Thanks Lynn for the memories.
I took this with my IPHONE 6.
In the summer of 2015 I spent 32 days in the Grand Canyon cooking and swamping for guests of Arizona Rafting Adventures(AZRA). In between the french toast and salmon planks I found the time to photograph AZRA's boatman at the oars in the biggest rapids. This year Arizona Highways published my endeavors in their special PHOTO ISSUE.
Thanks Somer ! I appreciate the opportunity to photograph you. That sure was fun.
This past spring I had the good fortune to get a call from Jeff Kida at Arizona Highways. He asked me if I'd like to go and photograph Eric Gueissaz, a Swiss immigrate chef who has spent the last 40 years exploring every trail in the Grand Canyon. He also lives off the grid in a rock house that is a remnant from an old mining claim. Sure I said. Eric and I share a passion for cooking and he shared his quiche recipe with me along with a number of stories about his adventures in the canyon as we ate quiche and drank red wine. We should all be so fortunate to live our lives as he has.
This summer I spent 31 days in Grand Canyon on the Colorado River running with some of the most exceptional boatmen in the world. It was wet & wild so I thought I'd share the experience with you.
Pamela Hamilton, the editor of Editor of Edible Phoenix called asked if she could use my photograph of Binkley's lamb chop for the upcoming spring cover. Of course. Thanks Pamela!
Chef Kelly Fletcher of Revival, Tempe, AZ
How I spent my 52nd Birthday. Thanks Laura and Yael for planning the festivities and of course than thanks to Jason for bringing his ever present Party Rocker !!
On June 30th, 2013 while while I was nearing the end of a 4 month sailing adventure in the North Pacific, a wildfire broke out southwest of Prescott near the Arizona town of Yarnell and soon 19 veteran Hot Shot Firefighters would lose their lives. I heard about their story when we touch land in Adak, Alaska.
A year later I was fortunate enough to be asked by Arizona Highways to go back to Yarnell and photograph the people who continue to rebuild in the fire’s aftermath.
Derek Schloss became a Hot Shot Firefighter at age 19. It’s the only job he’s ever known.
He and his crew walk the Arizona wilderness carrying 50 plus pounds of gear which includes food, water,tarps, rope, radios, chain saws, saw fuel etc.
James Beard Award winner Chris Bianco with his father Leo, his mother Francesca and his brother Mark for the Italian food issue of Phoenix Magazine. One of the best editorial photographs I’ve ever made. Thanks Chris for sharing your family with me.
A few years ago I had the good fortune to meet and photograph southwestern author J.P.S. Brown for Cowboys & Indians magazine.
I spent an entire day with him and made a half dozen photographs of him. Some of which were to give the magazine enough material for a few editorial pages and some of which we to try and improve on the scenarios I’d already shot. Though 80 years old J.P. was friendly, spry and agreeable and seemed to be fine with whatever I came up with and so the day went. I photographed him by his barn with giant pile of logs he had chopped the the day before, I photographed him in a corral, I photographed him with his horse in field, I photographed him with his historic spurs and finally I photographed him in his office bedroom where he writes surrounded by all of his and other author’s books.
That image was my absolute favorite from that day and to me it seemed to be the quintessential portrait of the man. I felt I had walked away from the the shoot having taken one of the better photographs of the noted author.
Last month I got a call from Kerry Prugh, an art director at Notre Dame Magazine asking me if I could go a make some portraits of J.P. It seems he’s an alumni of Notre Dame, class of 1952 and they were doing a feature article on him.
I explained to Kerry that I had a number of very fine photographs of J.P. and since I was familiar with his home and ranch and its photographic opportunities I was pretty sure I’d run out of ideas but I was happy to go back and give it a try.
Well the moment I stepped out of the car J.P. recognized me and said you got 20 minutes and I’m not leaving the house. I guess I had worn him out during our previous photography session on behalf of Cowboys & Indians and he wasn’t inclined to spent another whole day being photographed by me or anyone else for that matter. I was able to charmed him into 30 minutes and I quickly set up a white seamless background in carport adjacent to his ranch house.
One of those images was used on the table of contents but I knew that none of the images I made that morning on the white background summed up J.P. better then this one I had made in his office a few years ago and I was happy that Kerry agreed.
Numero Uno! Way to go Kevin and Justin!
In mid July the morning after returning home exhausted from my 4 month sailing sojourn on the S.V. Rogue's Scholarship, I was woken by a phone call from Brian Goddard the art director at Phoenix Magazine. He was wondering if I was available to photograph my friend Chef Kevin Binkley for the magazine’s icon issue. Sure I can do that. See below.
It’s July 12th and Jen and I spent the day hiking up to the top of Mt. Alice having just completed our epic passage with Captain Mark Haley from Singapore to Seward, Alaska on S.V. Rogue’s Scholarship.
96 travel days, 68 days at sea…..5 of those days in a storm in the North Pacific which I think we would all agree was not the most fun we’ve ever had on sailboat but Mark(Cappy) is an amazing and confident captain and Scholarship was up for the task as were her crew.
