Trying again.

   Even if you think you have the image, if time and deadline permit, it doesn't hurt to see if you can improve an image you feel strongly about.
   Such was the case the other day as I was working to make a few simple images to illustrate the use of the Recovery Act money at Sky Harbor in Phoenix for my photo agency, Corbis.
   The airport is completing an $11.7 million concrete taxiway so that jets will be able to move more efficiently to terminals from the north runway.

   With the project in its last couple weeks, I had no idea whether there was even a photograph, as I made arrangements with the airport media relations person for access. She also made proper notifications to security so they wouldn't send SWAT to ask me what I was doing. It was possible that there wouldn't be much to see, especially since I could only shoot from a distance, either through the fence or from a small nearby hill, over the fence.

That day, constantly-changing clouds blanketed parts of metro-Phoenix. I couldn't be sure whether I would have anything resembling a blue sky to work with, but I figured I should at least scout it out and maybe do a dry run to see if there was an image worth making. I was already thinking I might have to try again on a clear day to get the warmer more directional early-day light.

As I began looking over the site I couldn't see much activity. Steamrollers sat unmanned and a number of belly-dump asphalt haulers were coming and going. Whatever was happening was hidden from view.

I made an image with the Stimulus Act road sign, picking up a roller in the background and, finally a landing plane above. Not that great, but something. It appeared that would be the end of it.

I began to leave, but as I drove over the nearby overpass, I discovered that the paving crew had just moved into view of the only elevated viewpoint of the site. It was a sort of window bounded by trees to the left, a building to the right and heavy-duty fence at the bottom. I had to stop and try again.
Conveniently, as I worked this opportunity, jets began arriving at tighter intervals. Finally, I had something that showed work and a sense of location with a bit of action all in one.

I still wondered what it would look like with better light.  Also wondered if photographing between the fence slats at ground level so that the jets would be even closer to the paving crew would be a better image. This was also contingent upon the crew again working in an area that not only allowed planes into the frame but that would fall in line with Piestewa Peak or Camelback Mountain in the background.

Well they were, sort of. Let's just say it had to be pretty entertaining for anyone watching as I ran back and forth along the fence trying to predict where I needed to be each time a jet approached so that, the moving steamroller and the approaching jet would cross in front of one of the aforementioned mountains.

   It's funny, in the grand scheme, not an earth shatterring image by any means, but maybe because the a combination planning, experimentation, execution, a little luck and willingness to try again, I made an image far better than I thought would be possible from outside the fence.

   ...And my creative muse was pretty happy with the result.

Feverish event for Refugees in Phoenix

A night for dancin' fools, refugees from the late 70's and those who just love how the Welcome to America Project and its scores of volunteers makes a difference for newly-arrived refugees from all over the world, is approaching faster than disco fell out of style at the end of the 70's.

Every Saturday, WTAP welcomes another three families to our country, providing them with some decent furniture and much needed household goods and making them feel welcome in their new country.

Imagine giving up everything and making sometimes harrowing treks across inhospitable deserts in west Africa or swamp and jungle in southeast Asia only to find yourself spending years in limbo in crowded squalid camps, not knowing what's next. I can't imagine it and I have seen some of these places with my own eyes.

Finally you have the opportunity to immigrate to America, a place so different from your own that you have to learn not only how to get around and how to prepare meals with modern technology (a stove), but how to communicate so that you can find a job to pay the rent and feed your family. Imagine having to figure out how to function in a culture so far and away different that up is down and down is up. You don't even know where to begin.

WTAP partners with the resettlement agency International Rescue Committee, to soften the blow of such life-altering changes and make people feel welcome. They help with some of the basic needs so that the refugees can focus their energies on other important things like finding a job and learning English.

On Feb 20, you can relive your youth, dress silly (although it wasn't silly back then), act silly if you like, an have a great time while helping WTAP continue to fulfill their important mission by attending the annual WTAP Prom fundraiser. The Saturday Night Fever-themed event runs 6:30-10 p.m. at the banquet hall at St. Patrick Church 10815 N. 84th Street in Scottsdale.

As usual I'll be stepping out of my usual role as a documentary photojournalist to set up the traditional Prom portrait studio. For more information on this cool fundraiser please go to WTAP's site. 

                          Hope to see you there!

Haiti: a brief view from 2007.

     If you are like me, you are watching daily the incredible images happy and disheartening of all that is happening in the aftermath of the 7.0 earthquake in Haiti over the course of the last week. Most of us can't even begin to comprehend the scale of the death and destruction.

     Catholic Relief Services, one of my clients, sent me to Haiti in December of 2007 in a whirlwind tour of points north of Port Au Prince and the locations where the NGO's AIDSRelief programs were saving lives. We moved hospital to clinic to hospital documenting the programs with little time in between to document daily life. We, nevertheless could see a country struggling with poverty and struggling from the beating dished out by conflict and hurricanes just in the previous three years.

     We rolled into Port Au Prince on the last day as the sun was fading and the traffic was thick. As we made our way toward the center of town, I caught a glimpse of a shanty that clung to a riverbank, and was impressed by its size, and not surprised by the makeshift nature that was obvious even in the quick glimpse. Of all of the shanties and poorly constructed slums I've seen all over the world, I'm not sure why I noticed it, I didn't even have an opportunity to get a frame off. The next morning,after checking in at CRS's main office in PAP, we headed to the airport.

Again, no real time to stop and explore a neighborhood, and so I did what I could, trying to make images from a moving vehicle. When I do this, every once in a while I get something good. And then I was homeward bound.

     In the first news of the earthquake, it was that image that first popped into my mind. It was only one example of how poorly-constructed are even the more officially-built structures in Port Au Prince. My heart sank. I knew just how horrible this was going to be before the first pictures emerged. If you can imagine the entirety of your city collapsing. I mean ALL of it, with people trapped in every single structure, you begin to see. I just can't get me head around it. I wonder how many of the people in my few PAP photographs how many for the people I met are alive.

    So, I wanted to share just a few of my more favorite images from that brief time in 2007 when I first met Haiti, perhaps just as a short break from all of the much more difficult images we're seeing from the disaster.

Mike the Bike Elf II: A Day of Giving

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!
This is my Christmas card to all of you who follow.

     For some of us this time of year is about family and faith, for others it's about giving and maybe being a little nicer to people around you. For some its about all of those things and more.
      For Mike McIlroy, his family, friends and supporters, it is also about bikes for kids who probably have never owned one before and who certainly could not afford one right now.

     I have had the privilege this season of sweetening the spirit by being a witness to the Pedal Power Foundation in Tempe this year, documenting their work in photographs. Saturday the 19th they gave away about 75 bikes to kids in central Phoenix. Some kids were so excited they were stunned, while others just couldn't stand still.

     One by one, they received their shiny new wheels and a helmet, got a helmet fitting from Phoenix PD officer Arnie, got a few tips on the rules of the road and headed home with their new-found freedom.

Enjoy.

Love is...

....sharing your talents with your family...

     I shoot maybe one wedding a year, not really pursuing it as a part of my business model, but open to the idea under the right circumstances, depending mostly upon schedule. In this tough economy, it's something that bears revisiting as a part of the big picture of what my business as a photojournalist in commercial photographer, is about.

   As with the wedding I photographed in April, I was very pleased with the results as I photographed some of the highlights of my neice Ryan's wedding and unofficially providing some back-up to the very talented Debbie Moon of Photography by Moonlight.

   Especially when you have a dynamic wedding before you, what a great way to record the day by using the photojournalism/documentary style!

The Pour

Bronze Sculptor John Tuomisto-Bell's hosted this month's Creative Connect gathering at his Phoenix art studio and turned his sculpting into performance art. I decided to use as much ambient lighting as possible only filling in with a bit off-camera lighting to subtly fill in the blanks.

Creative Connect is a monthly gathering of creatives in Phoenix (and now in several other cities too).

Habitat three, Paint-a House

"Paint'a house" in the immortal voice of Pat Morita's Mr. Miyagi...

It is AMAZING how quickly a house can be built. And with quality. Inspectors say this all th time that the Habitat houses are solid. They build them to specs and often the volunteers build them a little better than spec.
A couple weeks ago I was out at the site in Phoenix where a crew from my church, St Maria Goretti, took their turn in the four week rotation with crews from three other churches to move the Habitat home toward completion. Last time I had seen the house, it was a frame with some plywood, on the outside.
Now with electrical, plumbing, drywall and stucco installed, it was ready for sanding and painting already. Couple of news posts lately so, please read on below...