Gallery Show

Just a reminder to everyone that I will be opening my first ever gallery show on Sunday in Winchester.

It is open to all and will be held at the Aberjona River Gallery at the Aberjona Nursing Center at 184 Swanton Street in Winchester.

The opening is Sunday Nov 18th from 3 - 5 pm and light refreshments will be served.

Hope to see you there!

20 Questions.....

I was recently contacted by a college student, and asked aout my career. I thought I might share the exchange with you all. Feel free to comment or ask any questions....

Joe,
I am currently enrolled in a News Photography class.
One of the requirements for the course is to complete
a report on a contemporary photojournalist. Would you
be interested in being interviewed for my report?
Thanks,
Adam

I agreed to help him, and he sent me the following questions. Each is followed by my answer...


1) What is your background and education?

I don not have any extensive photography training. I picked up a camera in the 6th grade and basically never put it down. I have in my lifetime only taken a couple of organized courses. But I have attended many seminars and the like and photography comes somewhat naturally to me.

2) What types of work do you produce?

I am a general photographer - I produce what the newspaper needs everyday, and then for my commercial work it is whatever the client needs - that is one of the biggest joys of this job - I NEVER EVER have the same day twice.

3) If you have won any significant awards, what are they?

OK I have to admit that I am not big into competitions and awards. I have won a couple of awards from the New England Press Association and several blue ribbons and a best of show from the Woburn Guild of Artists, but really they are not the driving force in my work. I do not go out everyday and look for art to win awards. I look for art to fill the newspaper and tell the story of what life in Woburn and the surrounding area is like.

4) Why did you choose photography?

Well, this is a long story, but here is the nickel version of it ... as stated I got my first camera in 6th grade. I was in a class for "gifted" students when the teacher tossed me a camera, told me to dissect it, and write a report. Well, I was hooked - but not enough to make a career out of it. My true love was (is) the ocean, and all through school I worked on getting my commission to the Naval Academy or the Coast Guard Academy. Well, and this is somewhat ironic, I failed the physical exam for both of those schools due to my EYESIGHT. Yup, my uncorrected vision prevented me from pursuing my dream, so I just picked up my other dream, and ran with it. After a couple of years out of High School and finding regular college was not for me, I began selling cameras at Hunt Drug in Melrose, and through some of the customers there, I landed the gig at the Woburn Times newspaper, which then through a number of events, became a full-time gig for me (and happily so!)

5) What are your sources of inspiration?

Wow, this is a hard question, but here goes - in the early days of my photo career, I was chasing ambulances a lot, and spending ungodly amounts of time out on the road. This prompted a friend to introduce me to the work of an old NYC photographer called WeeGee. He was the ultimate spot news photographer and I still to this day love looking at his work. More recently, meaning 20 years ago, I was taught the craft and art of photography and darkroom skills by George Rizer of the Boston Globe, Jon Hill of the Boston Herald, and double Pulitzer prize winning photographer Stanley Forman. All of whom I am now proud to call friends. I also learned a lot from nature and landscape photographer Arthur Griffin. Arthur's books have been an inspiration to me for years and I am most grateful that I got to know him before he passed away. More recently I am also inspired by Lou Jones' work - he is just fantastic, and by some of the work of William Thorpe, Adam Seligman, and many of the photographers at the SOPHA Studio in Manchester NH. You know, IMHO, it is hard to limit this list to a handful of people, as I really believe we are inspired by every image that we see. Even when we make the I like it / I don't like it judgement of a photo or piece of art we are inspired by that piece.

6) Do you have any special techniques or tips?

I don't really have any special techniques that I use, as for tips well, there I am loaded! First off - I think every serious photographer should learn how to develop and print their own B&W FILM. Yes I said FILM. Find a camera, shoot a roll or two and find a darkroom to process it. Learn about the magic of the dark. I really mean that. My darkroom experience has been able to help me with Photoshop. I know that may sound strange, but it is absolutely true. Secondly - pay attention to light. The direction, the color, the intensity - even when you are NOT photographing. Learn to see where the light is coming from and where it is going. Look at reflections and glare and try to learn from it. Light is a fascinating subject and since it is a close as a flashlight in your hand, or as far away as a distant galaxy, it will NEVER be the same twice. Look at it and learn it. It will make you a stronger photographer. Finally, get down and get dirty with your photography. I learned that as a child from that old TV show the Magic School Bus. Get down and get dirty. I do not believe that the "rules" of photography are written in stone. The rule of thirds, or triangular composition, or even that the sun needs to be behind your back for the best photos. NO NO NO!! Break the rules, find your own rules and then break them. Shoot, learn, shoot learn. And always remember to have fun.

7) What type of equipment do you use?

I am a Nikon Digital Shooter, but I learned with a Pentax K1000 film camera and had several other Pentax cameras before switching. I have the normal compliment of lenses and flashes. But please remember that the equipment DOES NOT MATTER. It is the person behind the shutter button that makes the tool work.

8) Is there anything else you would like to mention?

Well, now that you have me writing, I could go on forever. But I think I could leave you with this. As stated above, I believe you must be open minded about photography. I have been doing photography for more than 20 years now and I strive to learn something new about the craft and art everyday. Do I succeed in that? Not always. But I try. One of the joys of digital, beyond the instant gratification of seeing the photo on the screen, is the ability to shoot and shoot and shoot. The ability to learn and experiment. I remember the film days - would I hit the shutter and burn through a roll of film with out thinking about it? No way. I am afraid to hit it now? No Way! With the digital revolution you are only limited by the amount of batteries and the memory cards you have.

Thanks for the opportunity to help you with this - any chance you can send me a copy of your report when you are finished with it ? I would be intrigued to see it.

Joe B

Rant Mode : ON

Many of you who know me, know that my atitude about my website is pretty laissez-faire. I am not shooting on spec, I have a guaranteed sale on all the assignments I shoot.

So maybe I shouldn't be so pissed off at this, but this really got my dander up earlier today at the soccer games.

The were two games this morning, Girls at 10, and boys at 12. The early game was for the Middlesex League Championship, and it was Woburn -vs- Winchester (archrivals for years!). So as I am standing photographing the girls game, a photographer I have never seen before shows up, sporting a PRESS pass around his neck, and starts talking to me.

What are you shootin' at?? He asks, and I casually answer him with "200 ISO at whatever the camera says is OK".

He moves off and we shoot the rest of the first half.

So here is the incredulous part: I asked him who he represented, as he was sporting a press pass, and he told me this: "Oh I am a FULL TIME STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER for _______________ ( a large daily paper in an area of Massachusetts that is a 40 or so minute drive away) and I don't work on the weekends, so I just find out the top games in the area and I go shoot them, and then I pass out lots of business cards to the crowd. I do really well with the parents from _________________ and _______________ and _________________ etc.

Is it just me?? I just cannot beleive that this guy has the unmitigated gall to come to my house and try to sell photos to my customers. Ya ya I know, it is a free country etc...

So now I am competing against the parents, the big corporate website shooters, and some GWCAWS.

It is enough to make me just want to fold my tents and go back to refusing the reprint business.

No, not really! The website for me is a time saver and an income generator, though not a ton - I will never get rich on the web income, but it is enough to take the family out to dinner or buy some small camera gear.

I suppose I should be happy though... many of those on the sidelines threw away the small sheet of paper he passed out, and his website is so long, I doubt anyone will remember it (www.xxxxxxx.exposuremanager.com sheesh!)

So I hope you will tell all your friends about MY WEBSITE and I truly thank you for any and referrals!

Digital Images Over the Years

Labor Day - In my world, it is the last chance to prepare for the big show. If you know me, you know what I mean - Fall, aka Autumn, aka the Most wonderful time of the year! Why do I call it that - one word, well OK three words - HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS.

So I did what I do every year about this time - I made sure that my computer and workflow are up to speed for the season ahead. Like winterizing your car, I call it fallerizing my computer. First I make sure all the summer files are backed up on DVD and transferred to the archive hard drive. I then make sure that the Hard Drives in my system can handle the gigabytes (GB) that are about to be thrown their way. Yes I shoot sports and yes I shoot heavy and yes I shoot lots of games. Usually 2 a day, and up to 5 on a weekend. So, yes, I churn out the GB.

So today, realizing I was running out of drive space, I was swopping over files to the new 500GB drive, and I thought I would make a chart as to what I have shot for the newspapers, since 1999 when I acquired my first digital camera. (A Nikon Cool Pix 990!)

A side note here: my workflow involves a very basic filing system: Ingest the card to a "todays date" folder on a small drive, then separate each assignment into individual folders, then under each assignment a folder labelled by destination of photos (I work for several newspapers with different deadlines and mechanical requirements.) If the photo is going to be posted on my website, then the folder is copied to the web drive for posting.

OK, so here it is for your humour, is my chart of newspaper shooting for the past 8 years or so:

• 1999 15.7 mb 4 files 1 folder
• 2000 548.0 mb 633 files 50 folders
• 2001 11.1 GB 10098 files 239 folders
• 2002 20.7 GB 18519 files 410 folders
• 2003 44.2 GB 39823 files 1489 folders
• 2004 55.6 GB 49957 files 1738 folders
• 2005 100.0 GB 56430 files 1290 folders
• 2006 177.0 GB 80647 files 1747 folders
• 2007 86.5 GB 42907 files 809 folders

Wow, maybe Rick Friedman's assistant Marlene was right - we digital photographers DO have diarrhea of the shutter finger! LOL LOL LOL

As always, I'd love to hear your comments!

Chimping ??? At This Altitude ????

My Nextel went crazy this afternoon, as the helicopter passed over, low enough to shake the windows in most homes.

What was this crazy copter doing? Well apparently taking photos - not just regular photos - DIGITAL PHOTOS.

How do I know that ??? Well, check out the photo - the photographer was strapped to the outside of the helo AND HE WAS CHIMPING !!!

Who'da thunk we'd get to this point!

Actually I think the bigger question is - What was he shooting - NIKON or CANON???

Time to Play - Guess the White Balance !!!!

It had to be about 10:00am yesterday morning. The mayor's assistant called - "How soon can you be at the (Woburn) High School construction project?" I told him I had the morning free and would meet him and the mayor there.

Why were they calling me up here? I wasn't sure, but it became crystal clear the moment I arrived - LIGHTS. Indeed, the track has not yet been laid, the field turf has been ordered, but not installed, but there some 90 feet in the sky, the first light pole had been installed. The mayor thought it would be a nice photo feature. And you know what? He was right.

But then it happened again. For maybe the third or fourth time in my 20 year career. I got to meet the guys who install stadium lighting.

And it inevitably is a disaster - It goes some thing like this:

JB: "So, we got some nice new lights here huh?"

Lighting Guy "Yup - so bright you'll be able to see this place from Burlington"

JB: " Really? That bright? Are you sure??"

LG: - "Of course they are! I do the lighting for _________ (insert professional stadium name here)."

IT IS A FAIRY TALE FOLKS!!! Take it from me. I have shot at many fields. The best local field is Burlington, and we can squeek by at 800 iso for that - but the lights are uneven, so it is FLASHED football. The worst is, well, there is a tie for that - so again - flashed football - YUCK!

With any luck, the lights at the new Woburn High School will be OK. Now comes the fun part! Guess the WHITE BALANCE!

When the first light stanchion was hooked up and turned on here is what the lights looked like:

Seventeen individual light fixtures - half cool and half war.

Hmm,now multiply this by 4 stanchions, and it looks like I will need the one thing my friend Bud swears by:

A CUSTOM WB GREY CARD.

Hmmmm, guess I will have to order one.

What A Spoiled Bunch We Are....

There I said it OK?



It seems to me that we, specifically we photographers, have become quite the spoiled bunch. Even worse, in some cases, are the people we deliver our photos to. In my case, my editors.

The switch to digital, though fantastic on many, many fronts, can SOMETIMES be a real PIA.

We all have our crosses to bear....

Julain Olansky - My Memoriam

Truthfully, I cannot remember when it happened, I just remember bumping into Damian Drella and BAM!, MRS Car 52 was on board. It certainly wasn't long after that, that I met Julie.


I remember thinking about who this guy was, and after talking to people I found out who he was.

So, that began many days of on air banter between the units, remember the drawl??? (said in that raspy voice of his) "arrrrrrhhhhhhhh car 52 are you telling me that you have a working fire in Woburn????" or "Arrrrrhhhh 52 we cant read you, try moving to a different area and try it again...." Man, those were the days. Back when we had fires! LOL.

As MRS changed and evolved in those years, Julie introduced me to many of the other old MRS names - Gad, Ansin, Mullowney, Brigham, and Jay Bourgious (Newton Jake founder of MRS - what a character he was! lol) just to name a few. And dare I say we all hit off pretty well. We should have, we were all seeking that goal - to catch the big one, and in some cases, either put it out, or at least put it on film.

Every now and again, Julie would call (wow we didn't have email back then!) and ask for a photo or if I would do a story for the newsletter - MetroRadioWaves - remember that? I actually looked forward to getting my copy of that in the mail. I still have many of those here in a box in my garage. I may break them out one of these days.


I also attended some of the MRS Board Meetings held in the "bunker" in Brookline. What an intense place that was! Those were interesting meetings, and much was done to further MRS in those days.

Fast forward a few years, and Julie and I lost touch... not really, it's just that I had retired from MRS and was extremely busy trying to get my photography off the ground. I would always see him at all the required buff events - Lynnfield, the MRS Flea Market, the Holiday Dinner to name but a few. I would see him at fires and I remember one night at 174. Not a wheel turned, but the coffee and the stories flowed like water, and he had several of us enraptured with his fire buffing story's.

The last time I saw Julie, was about 18 months ago - Al Fay from Burlington called and told me that Julie was going to put on his film show for the Middlesex County Fire Wardens, and would I come by to take some photos for the newspaper.

I am so glad I went to the station that night, for what I saw was just amazing - Julie's films were sharp, and full of action, and when it came to Our Lady of Angels, I do not think there was a dry eye in the house. Honestly, you all know what a noisy place a firehouse can be - any firehouse in the world, but not that night - you could have heard a pin drop as Julie told about filming that, and the tragedy that it was.

Well, the rumours swirled that night about his health, and someone even went so far as to say that he might not be able to give another show - ever again. And I left there that night glad to have seen him, glad to have known him, an happy to be able to say I was at least his acquaintance, if not a friend.

Goodbye my friend and may God Bless you, and your family, keep them safe, and keep you at his right hand.

These photos are from the night in Burlington - Julie doing his presentation, and accepting a model rescue from retired Burlington firefighter Al Fay.

Memorial Day 2007

The kids are in the pool, and the bbq will be fired up soon. Another Memorial Day and the start of the summer right? Not for me, nope, this year seemd different somehow. And I think I know how.

Having covered two different town's ceremonies and then having covered other ceremonies earlier in the weekend, I am tired. Not so much physically tired, but mentally.

This Memorial Day here in Woburn is different. I have covered these services for the past 19 years, but this year it is different. You see, we (the collective City of Woburn) had a native son killed in Iraq just a few short months ago. And when George Poole read the role of honour, and got to SFC Keith Callahan's name, it got me. Indeed it did. I put the camera down for a minute and just looked around. Looking at all the faces of the free and the innocent and the young and the old. I just looked around. I looked at my foster Grandfather - Woody Ford, who, now in his late 70's, came to Woburn Center to see and be part of a ceremony that means so much to him. It was so great to see him.

That's Woody right there offering a hand salute as the flag was going by.

But as great as it was to see him, it is hard not tho think about the family of Sgt Callahan, who lost a dad, a father, a son, and a friend, who was doing what he knew best - defending the freedom of the United States of America - yup - of you and me, and him and her and us an d them. All of us. Thank you Sgt Callahan, for giving your life, so that I may still enjoy mine.

I truly think my friend Bud said it most appropriately on his blog:

Seriously folks, you should take a brief moment away from your weekly trip to
Home Despot or Wally World, and reflect on what the day should be about -
remembering our fallen Soldiers.
And that is Soldiers with a capital "S".
I won't grandstand anymore than to say I honor our Veterans, and I hope
you do too.

I must agree with him, in every way possible.

So here are a few other photos from Woburn and Burlington's ceremonies. I hope you enjoy them, and I would, as always, enjoy hearing your thoughts and comments.

One of many of the flag bearers on the Woburn Common this morning.

This man was a POW in Korea for nearly two years.

The Burlington American Legion Rifle Squad fires a volley after Taps.

Woburn Police officer John Lally - ever the proud grandfather - showing off his new (3 weeks) grandson.

Bio Schwag...

If you have ever been to a trade show, or convention that has a bunch of booths or vendors, then you know about the schwag - you know the gimmes that everyone gives out.

Pens, and pads of papers are commonplace, but there is always some really cool stuff that is passed out, and if you are lucky enough to be walking around when the booths are active, you can pick up a few cutesy items.

But there are some serious items too.

At the Bio 2007 Convention that I just attended in Boston, there were 22,000 plus attendees and every state in the country and every country in the world was represented. Think of what they all brought with them - tons (literally!) of items.

But of all the pens, candy, shirts and stuff I got, nothing, and I do mean nothing, compared with the items that our own FBI was giving out. Yup, the US FBI had a booth at the show, and it was manned, I think as a recruiting method more than anything.

So what could the FBI be giving out that piqued my interest?? Well check it out:

Yup, you see it! A POCKET GUIDE TO Weapons of Mass Destruction! Indeed a POCKET guide!

I WILL NEVER LEAVE HOME WITH OUT THIS!

WOW What a Week!

Well it is hard to believe that a month has passed since I last posted, but after this week, I felt I should share.

Many of you know that I am the photographer for the Woburn Daily Times
chain of papers, but I also do a lot of freelance work, and one of my bigger
freelance gigs is for a Cambridge based company - the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.

So when they hired me to come into Boston for the three day Bio 2007 Convention I was pretty happy. I know I am weird, I actually enjoy these things! Heck getting paid to be there is a bonus!

So into South Boston I went each of the past three days (side note - I don't envy the people who drive in there daily - that was some of the worst traffic I have ever seen! UGH!) to go see what more than 22,000 conference attendees had to say, and show about the world of Bio Technology.

WOW, was I blown away!

I have gone to or photographed or even was a salesman at many trade shows,
but this had to be the mother of all trade shows. There were booths from every
corner of the world there, I heard so many languages spoken, millions of
business cards were exchanged, and I am sure many deals were brokered.

I spent most of my time in the Massachusetts Pavillion, (shown here in a view from the skybridge) which was the largest of all the state pavillions, occupying about 5% of the total show floor
area. It was my homebase for the three days and was a hot spot of activity. One of the bigger events of the show was Governor Deval Patrick making a big Stem Cell announcement:

This was big doings for Massachusetts and I am happy to have been there to photograph the historic event. A funny thing happened near the end of the governor's speech - an old Asian man climbed up onto the press photo platform, and pushed past me with his little point and shoot camera. After taking a photo or two, he turned to me and said in a thick accent: "Oh so good to see Barack Obama here in Boston." I couldn't help but laugh out loud!

There were a couple of chances for me to observe the rest of the show, and I think, that since I was not there to make a deal, or buy equipment, I looked at this show with a different eye.

Here are a couple of photos that I liked:

This photo is the membership desk area of Bio and it changed colors every 3 or 4 minutes - it was totally cool and could be easily seen from many areas of the show.

This photo shows the new Biogen Idec "Hyposurface" it is a surface that responds to TOUCH and to SOUND. In this photo, the man in the middle had blown into the microphone, and caused a wave effect on the surface. This was also totally cool!

The rest of the photos are really just talking heads and not as cool as those, but overall it was an awesome experience!

They Come in Threes

it has always been said that fires come in threes, and if so, I am at two for just this week. This time, however, I did NOT screw up the exposures! LOL
The fire occured just doors away from where my intern lives. And let me tell you I kinda had an MI when I heard the address, I thought it was her house!

But upon my arrival, I found it was not and I was relieved.

Posted with this is one of the photos from the aftermath of the fire, Woburn Firefighter Ken Robishaw fixing his SCBA, before returning it to the rack. I don't think this is agreat photo, just a common sight on the firescene. I know I should have taken a knee, so we could see more of his face, but both he and I like it, so it is fine.

Slow D o w n . . . . . .

Or maybe I should retitle this - "Don't Be a Joe Brown". Let me explain.

Early this afternoon, I was at the Woburn Boys and Girls Club shooting an event. I was there for about an hour, happily shooting away at 1250 ISO, manual settings, and 1/250th f 2.8. I shot about 100 frames, thanked the event organziers, and departed.
I put the camera in the car, and I went for coffee. After hanging at Dunks with a friend for a while (he is a D2X shooter and we always talk photography), I went home.
As I pulled in the driveway, the Town of Arlington Massachusetts strikes a second alarm for a structure fire on Thorndike St. So, since I had nothing to do, and I now have cool GPS unit which allows me to go anywhere, I figured I would spark this fire. Now I also know that if the fire goes to 3 alarms, Winchester goes from covering the station - directly to the fire.
So here is the "Dont Be A Joe Brown" part: I get to the fire, find a great parking spot, and there are 2 buildings on fire, HEAVY FIRE, HEAVY SMOKE, NOW A THIRD ALARM. Yes, I am in photographic heaven.
I get there, and there is fire leaping from the roof. And a jake on a ladder trying to control it. GREAT PHOTOS! Wanna see one? OK Here ya go:

Pretty easy to see the problem huh? Yup you guessed it - I never changed the settings on the camera. So this photo was taken at 1/250th at F2.8 at ISO 1250.
Now I know what you are all thinking right now (besides the "what an F'in idiot comments I can hear), why didn't I chimp the photos and realize immediately that I had screwed up? Well, I don't have an answer for that. Nothing, nada, zip. I took someting like 25 frames of the jakes putting out the fire, nice over all stuff, a couple of closeups of the guy on the stick and what do I have for my efforts? Nothing, nada, zip. Indeed, "Dont be a Joe Brown".
For the record, after realizing my erroneous ways, I changed all of the settings and came out with some nice photos, including this one of my old friend Arlington MA fire deputy chief Robert Jefferson:

So all was not completely lost, but remember my mantra for today

Chimping is GOOD !

Welcome to my first Photo Blog!

I will be posting new topics on a "as often as I can" basis. This is due to the fact that I am extremely busy as a photographer, so time is always a premium.