I finally got a chance to see the prison rodeo at Angola, Louisiana’s State Penitentiary this October. Not only was it my first time in a prison, but it was also my first rodeo. Luckily, I was on assignment for a Dutch newspaper’s weekend magazine because otherwise photography is prohibited. It was quite an experience and I plan to write a more detailed post with more images later. So for now, check out the tearsheets! They called the story, “Prisoners as Gladiators”.

While living in New York for the last 3.5 years, Ryan and I missed many of the culinary delights New Orleans has to offer. Some dishes can be replicated fairly well outside of the city, others not at all. Jacques-Imo’s NY had the best po’boy bread and boiled crawfish up there. After it closed, we discovered Mara’s Homemade and loved the crawfish there. But we never found any real beignets. Not even at the New Jersey Crawfish Festival last May, as we had hoped. They looked pretty, like little pillows, but were just not right. The real ones are misshapen and come with chunky powered sugar and are just another one of the reasons we are happy to be back home!

Cafe Du Monde, New Orleans

New Jersey

Home at last in New Orleans. My new phone number is 504-400-5819.

A client of mine, Anne Doubilet, is featured in Vogue this month. Annie Leibovitz photographed her. Very cool.

In the wake of the newest photo manipulation scandal, I wonder if I should just go ahead and start perfecting my images too? You know, level the playing field. What makes me mad is that Edgar Martins pretended not to do it, but did it anyway. And poorly. He cheated, and got caught.

As an editorial photographer, I have always played by the rules with regard to image enhancement. I photograph in a beautifully imperfect world. It is a challenge I refuse to ignore by “fixing it in Photoshop” or staging.

I often wonder if people just assume that my images are enhanced a lot because I shoot digital. Am I now expected to do as much Photoshop work as possible just because I can? Is it wrong of me to only do basic work on my images when I could do so much more? If my intention is to represent something that is real (as was with Martins assignment) I must try to be as accurate as possible.

If I ever decide my intention is to no longer represent the original scene, I will be sure to let the viewers know.

Bangor Metro magazine published some images I shot last summer at the Maine Media Workshops. The full article is here.  I went to the workshops the last 3 summers to assist my former boss, National Geographic photographer Ira Block, with his week long class. Wish I could go this summer, it was always such a great week. There were always interesting students, beautiful landscapes, famous photographers and that awesome lobster dinner on the last night. I think in many ways it was like paradise. Go take a class in Maine if you can. You won’t regret it.

Does you desktop look like this? Not only is it not pretty, but it is slowing your computer down because each item is treated as a separate window by the OS. While I am working on a project, like building this website for example, my screenshots and downloads tend to clog the desktop no matter how hard I try.

Now it is time to tidy up.

It is difficult to see by the file and folder names exactly what is what so I can decide whether to move it or trash it. There are several ways to deal with this. Finder works, but it is not the quickest route. Adobe Bridge is an application every photographer should have because it is bundled with Photoshop. Bridge makes this annoying task more palatable. More »

In today’s am New York, a piece Ryan and I worked on about the bar scene in our ‘hood. Seriously, we had a blast at a rap showcase at the Production Lounge. And met some cool neighbors and had fun with friends. Click image for a larger view.

I never would have guess it, but there is a crawfish festival in New Jersey. Really. It was started by a Louisiana native, Michael Arnone, 20 years ago. I had a great time, in particular witnessing and shooting Guitar Shorty’s walk through the crowd. More images in the slideshow:

Crawfish Festival Slideshow

“Where’s My Park?!?” participants where a park should be. There is only one soccer field for 500 children.

I live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and much of my recent work is related to the changes in the neighborhood over the last few years.? The Williamsburg/Greenpoint rezoning 4 years ago this month started things off.? Read the progress report here. There was a “Where’s My Park?!?” march organized by NAG, Neighbors Allied for Good Growth this past weekend. I tagged along and toured the locations along the waterfront where promised parks should be.? There is a video about the situation in Williamsburg, The Crash of Condo-Burg: A Walk in Brooklyn with N.A.G., and a discussion about Franklin Street.