Fire Island, 2009
click image for larger view

I spent a lot of time on this beach over the winter. It wasn’t until June that I discovered that it was clothing optional!

There’s something about walking along the highway that has always appealed to me. In this case, the Shore Parkway actually has a very nice bike path that goes through some beautiful scenery. Every once in a while, I’ll come across a path that leads deep into the undergrowth. Sometimes it leads into a field of poison ivy and briars, and sometimes it’s just a dead end. Every once in a while, though, one will open up into one of these secret places and it feels like a wonderland.

I’ve photographed in this park several times over the last couple of years, but this is the first time I’ve used color film. I paid for these photos with a lot of bruises and a slightly battered camera, but I’m happy with the results.

The rest of this series can be found here.

Cold.

I had a productive day in Long Island this Saturday. This area is in a park near Oyster Bay, on the North Shore of the island. The geography and flroa are very different from the South Shore, where I have been spending most of my time lately. Based on this set, I think I may be inspired to try large format again. I’ve been using a Hasselblad for the last year or so, and have been very happy with the usability of the camera and quality of the images. But with photos like these, the more depth of field, and the more detail, the better.

The last few times I took out a large format camera were not very productive. It might be the more complicated set up, or maybe I just don’t see images as well on the ground glass (upside down, no less!), but there were problems with each and every photo I took the last time I used it. But I am never one to give up easily, and I know this series of photos will benefit greatly from the enhanced resolution, depth of field, and the overall clarity of the images I know large format is capable of providing.

So much for not posting new work for a little while! These photos make me happy and I wanted to get them out into the world. Maybe I’ve been over-thinking it, and in the end, that’s all there is to it?

This weekend I am planning another trip to Fire Island, which will include about 15 miles of walking. My hopes for the day are to see some deer and not to freeze to death. If I happen to take any pictures that I’m happy about, all the better.

Brooklyn, New York

Queens, New York

Fire Island, New York

Queens, New York

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, New York

It’s a topic that has been discussed a million times, but just for my own sake I’ll say it again: editing is hard. It might be the most difficult thing we, as photographers, have to do. It’s a long process that starts before we even take our first picture and continues right up until we finally decide that the work is complete. And then, more than likely, you shuffle things around one more time for good measure.

I am constantly editing and re-editing my own work. If you’ve ever taken a look at my current work page, you might notice that it changes on a regular basis. That is something that I want to do less of, and so I’ve been holding back a bit on posting new work. My feelings about a particular image change over time—some images get stronger and some get weaker. Behind the scenes I am constantly shuffling things around, adding this one, dropping that one, checking to see what works together and what doesn’t.

There are usually at least a couple of photos from every shoot that are an obvious fit for the series I am working on. Most of the rest don’t work, for some reason or another. But then there are those images that occupy the middle ground—the not-so-obvious-ones—and this is where it gets tricky. Some of them might be good, but they don’t fit the storyline I have been working on. Do I change the story to fit the images? Do I put them away for another day? Some images might not grab me right away, but I know there is something in there that keeps me coming back. There are the photos that I love even though I know most people will hate them. And there are the images that I’m not crazy about, but I know other people will like them (my least favorite kind!).

The common knowledge is that you should only include your strongest photos in a portfolio. Strength is a relative term, though. How do I strike a balance between pleasing myself and pleasing others? How do I build a series that is accessible enough to get people interested, but deep enough to be worth a second look?

The photo above was taken at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel. It is one of the most beautiful and well kept secrets in New York City. I’ve been there before, but this time around everything feels fresh and new, and I have some new photos that I am very excited about.

Mill Basin, Brooklyn, from the series Outer Lands

Today is the winter solstice—the longest night of the year. Many cultures treat the solstice as a holiday, a tradition which dates back to ancient times. It is no coincidence that many contemporary holidays also take place in late December, and that many of those holidays involve lights and candles. While it is dark outside, I hope you are keeping warm and sharing time with loved ones.

I promised myself that I would embark on a new project this winter, which I have begun. This is actually something that has been kicking around the back of my mind for at least a year now, but has finally begun to solidify in the last couple of weeks. The project, loosely, is a survey of the “Outer Lands”—the archipelago off of the southern coast of New England, comprised of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Block Island and Long Island. Brooklyn makes up the western-most part of this archipelago, so I decided to start here and make my way east.

Embarking on a new project is always an interesting process. The scope of Outer Lands could easily grow to fill a lifetime of work. There are still so many decisions to be made, but so far, I know a few things: the series will be in color (I might still make the jump to large format, I’m not sure yet), I will be focusing mostly on the coastal areas, and the series will be limited to images from winter and early spring.

I hope to post a short series of images from my first few excursions in the next couple of weeks, and then it’s onto the real work!

Hanson Place

I have been using the SX-70 quite a bit lately. Here are a few more Polaroids from the last week or so. It is interesting to me how the seasons creep in, just last week felt like summer and now there are dead leaves on the ground and the sun is hiding by 5:30. So it goes.

Douglass Street

Bond Street