So many details, so little time

View 2011 Abbott GCR in a larger mapIndian visa (ready to be picked up), China visa in process, update photo gear (check), get a haircut (check), updating maps on GPS, relax (check, well half check) the list goes on...Starting to plan some travel for a project that is fast approaching, way too fast. The map shows general locations because many things have not been nailed down yet, also there will be different cities and towns in each area as I speed travel around the world. I think this years travel will be back to back in some parts so no stop overs in NYC to do laundry, replace broken gear, download drives, drop off film to develop (yes film, B+W), see my wife and kids, deal with business stuff, or take a break. I will be on the road from the end of January till mid March. So I have to be extra prepared for anything this time around. I will be in places where anything would be impossible to replace.

I have been thinking a lot on trying some new things, and change my approach to keep things fresh. It's really easy to follow a formula, and sometimes things can get stale. We can't let that happen, can we. Trying to stay true to what you do, and evolve is tough.

I can't wait to get started, and experience the unexpected.

"My favorite thing is to go where I've never been." Diane Arbus

Diane had it right in my book. One of my most favorite things is going places that I haven't been to both figuratively and literally. Doing new things like meeting people, eating different foods (except for duck's feet, well the feet of anything for that matter), experiencing other cultures, trying new things, speaking in another language (attempting at least), and just plain going out my comfort zone in my work. I will be hitting the road in January starting with China. There will be lots of other places in the following months. Trying to figure out an interesting way to blog about my travels. Stay tuned.

Oh and the best part.....I get to dress up in disposable clothing sometimes.

Blog Biennial: There's no crying in photography!

2 years ago this month I started this blog. Like any photographer I spent a lot of time torturing myself as to why I should start a blog, and trying to convince myself not to. Ugh! more work in front of a computer! What will it look like? What will I say?  Is my work interesting? Do I have anything to say? Is what I have to say interesting? Will I be able to keep adding content? Will anyone be listening or will it be more screaming into an empty room trying to reach people? Will anyone care? All these things rattled in my brain, which added to the procrastination, and delayed in getting off the ground. So I had to stop crying, plow ahead, and found my voice as well as the look along the way. It has been hard work staying focused, and resisting the temptation to post anything just to keep it current. I am proud of being able to keep up with it. It is definitely a long term project with slow returns, but I feel it has been successful in many ways. So those who are listening.....Many thanks!

I will be trying my best to keep it interesting for you.

2009-2010 travel, well so far for 2010

View 2009-2010 travel in a larger mapFrom Novemeber 2009 to mid March 2010 I traveled on a project for a corporate citizenship report.  Here are some stats from that trip. I really wanted to keep track of these details this time around, but I lost count somewhere in December so to tell you the truth I think these number are low except for the air miles which are correct.

55,523 air miles, 22 flights. 12 airports, 12 hotel stays, 15 cities, 8 car rentals, 2 train rides, taxis galore, countless road miles, 5 languages (Chinese, Malay, Creole, German, Danish, Portuguese), 3 weather delays, 2 missed flights, 2 visas, every weather imaginable from flooding, crazy thunderstorms, snow storms to 100 plus temps, a near fender bender, 1 getting the car stuck in a snow bank, lots of waiting and lots of rushing, tons of pointing and sign language, many great meals and many not so great meals, mass quantities of cliff bars consumed, 1 worn out suitcase, 1 worn out camera roller case, thousands of frames shot, a lot of great people met. Considering the amount of moving around. No real problems.

When do I get to do that again?

I love my job.

This is an image from a previous project, but is a good example of what a lot of the travel is. Lots and lots of not so great waiting around. it's 1:10am about 90 degrees and humid outside the closed Ho Chi Minh City Airport (something my travel agent neglected to mention) waiting for my connection to HUE at 8am. Just me and the rats. Too bad I couldn't get one in the shot.

10th stop...Rio de Janiero....finally, but only for 6 hours!

This image truly represents how I see things when I am traveling....Some blur with some sharp areas. Finally, I was able to make it to Rio and shoot at a production plant. I spent a total of 6 hours in Rio. I know its crazy...I had to get back to Sao Paulo the same day to shoot early the next morning. Its a shame Rio really is all that you imagine it to be. I did get to see Ipanema, Copapcabana beach, had a beer, and Cod fish cakes (which are super tasty) on Copacabana beach. Not to mention soak in a bit of sun to get rid of the NY winter grey tone of my skin and it was 100 degrees which felt nice. As usual though I had to rush off to the next location.

Observations: Hot, actually very hot, great looking beaches and people. That's all I got I was there for only 6 hours.

Coming in for a landing at the airport in Rio you see the green patch in the upper middle that's the runway, and yes it ends in the water on both ends!

Cool futuristic airport in Rio

Copacabana beach. Sort of reminds me of Coney Island.....a tiny bit if you squint your eyes.

Copacabana beach, from my perch at the restaurant before rushing off to the airport.

9th stop Rio, Brazil....never made it, but stayed in Sao Paulo

The weather has played a huge part in my recent travels unfortunately not for the better. I was stuck in Shengyang, China (a small city near North Korea, although they did have a Prada, Gucci, and Burberry boutiques just to name a few) when on my way to Singapore because of snow, getting around Chicago was a nightmare with all the snow and the cold. I almost slid my rental car into another car in Odense, Denmark. Luckily whatever I did kept me from hitting the car, but got myself stuck in a snow bank instead. A woman who was jogging passed by me, volunteered to help push my car out of the snow bank as a result of the slide. Did I mention Danes are amazing?

So why should flying from Copenhagen via Frankfurt be any different? I was supposed to fly to Sao Paulo and make a connection to Rio de Janiero.  That was not to be....My flight from Frankfurt was late by an hour then the connecting airlines computers were having issues so they couldn't get me on another flight.  I traveled by taxi to the domestic airport to try to get another flight no luck. Ugh...a rare defeat for me. I usually mange to overcome those issues somehow.  Anyway Rio was rescheduled and I stayed in Sao Paulo to work on other parts of the project. I photographed doctors, patients, battery recycling, regular people, kids, babies, and triplets...the triplets were a challenge.

I was last in Sao Paulo 10 years ago, and it was really great to be there again. Its a busy metropolis of 10,886,517 in the city and 19,616,060 in the greater metropolitan area of people with things to do.

Thanks to everyone in Sao Paulo who made my short time there interesting and special.

Observations in Sao Paulo in February: Hot!, beautiful people, clean for such a large city, bad traffic, crazy afternoon rains, great food, Brazilian Portuguese sounds beautiful, great music, friendly people, great vibe, Bohemia beer, and those Capirinas that somehow taste better there.

Flying into Sao Paulo. This is the edge of the city. Look how it ends so abruptly an>

The clouds are rolling in right on time 4pm.

Thunder storm out my window at the Sheraton Sao Paulo Brooklin. During the storm the power went out in the hotel for about an hour.

8th stop København, Denmark

The drive to Copenhagen should take about 2 hours from Odense. My drive took almost double that due to snow, and because of the totally wrong tires on my fab Volvo rental car. So after a nerve wracking drive I slip and slide into Copenhagen. I went to Copenhagen to catch my flight to my next stop Brazil, see a friend, and some speed touristing (something I am getting very good at.) Too bad the weather was not too hospitable. It was cold, wet, snowy, and 8 inches of snow on the ground. It was beautiful with the snow and all, but wet feet are not conducive to walking around for too long. I bet its beautiful in the summer time though.

Observations: cold, snow, wet, (it is winter time after all), great architecture, pedestrian friendly, canals, great people, great hotel Royal SAS hotel.

7th stop Farsøe, Denmark.

This is what was expecting me as I approached Aarlborg airport.

Farsøe is a small town in the Jutland region of Denmark. It was cold, snowy, and small. As a matter fact there was no hotel in town. I had to stay at a nearby town called Aars for that.  I was photographing a woman named Bente for the report I am working on. I photographed her at home as well as working at her job as a bartender. The bar was a local place with a working class clientele. I got to meet some interesting people. That's the best part of projects like this I get to meet and interact with people from all walks of life. People like Thomas and Anders in the last photo. Thomas works in a lumber yard, and Anders is a fish farmer. He raises trout I believe.  We were immediate friends. Most of the poeple at the bar were regular customers, and Bente told them that a NY photographer was coming to photograph her. They were excited by that I hope I didn't disappoint. I did keep the NY'er attitude dialed down a bit. Thomas and Anders kept offering to by me a drink. They found it incomprehensible that I would be in a bar and not drinking. I took them up on their offer once I was done. SKOL! That's cheers in Danish.

Observations: cold, snow, ice, lonely, really nice people, good food as a matter of fact great food even in the middle or no where, great landscapes.

6th stop Geneva, Switzerland

I am a little behind on the blog. Lots of moving around these days.

I was in Geneva, Switzerland to photograph Shing Chen who is leading a team of researchers who are looking for cures to neglected diseases such as sleeping sickness.  He is very cool guy, and I had a great time spending a few hours with him. He was most entertaining, and gracious to have given me the time to photograph him. Particularly because the weather outside was not very hospitable.

observations: multi lingual people, super clean (of course), people wait for the light to change, organized, great architecture, great public transportation.

Fifth stop...Milwaukee, and Chicago

Whirlwind tour of some of the Midwest photographing people, places, and things for a corporate citizenship report. January is not the best time for great weather, unless you like it cold, and wet.  First Chicago, Milwaukee, Sturgis Michigan, then back to Chicago. As usual I spend more time running than anything else. That's where the challenge is getting there on time, getting the shot, leaving people with a positive experience, and of course staying on budget.

Next stop....(stop 6 and 7) Geneva, Farsoe and Copenhagen Denmark, Sao Paulo and Rio Brazil.  All this in about 2 weeks. By the way the photo was the only sunny day while I was there, of course the day I was leaving.

Experiences....cold, wet, snow, freezing fog, eighties music radio station, nice people, great museums, lots of driving.

Fouth stop.....Casa Grande, Arizona

It's been a while since I have been to this part of the U.S. it is certainly beautiful. Everywhere you look its like a Spaghetti Western movie set. Here is a view of the landscape I saw on my way driving down from Pheonix. I am Photographing a "Project Wet program" in Casa Grande, and a formula production line for a Corporate Citizenship report.

Third stop......Haiti

Doing it all in Haiti, photographing at a peanut farm, children's clinic, woman's health clinic, children's nutrition food production, with great people, lots of sun, and good food. I can't show the images that my client might use, but I can show a bit of what I saw getting to those places.

Second stop.....Singapore

Land of outdoor 24 hour Starbucks, tropical weather, the Las Vegas of shopping any and every brand you can imagine is available, multicultural, religious tolerance, cleanliness like Disneyland, land of government campaigns promoting politeness to others. Very much a utopia, maybe a bit of big brother is watching though. It is a very interesting, and fun place to go.  A little something to be aware of though when traveling there......next stop Haiti!

24 hour Starbucks, I have never seen one in the US even in NYC

view from my breakfast table...cool

Something to keep in mind if visiting Singapore...what not to do.

3rd stop coming up Haiti!

First stop....Shanghai

This shot is from the roof of a 1930's era building on the Bund in Shanghai.  Actually from a place called the "Glamour Bar". Don't let the cheesy name fool you. This is a classy place, with great Art Deco interior. I shot this a week ago, but I could not update my blog from China...certain kinds of sites are blocked in the great firewall of China. In Singapore now so I can do a small update. Starting a project that involves a lot of travel for the next few months. This is the first stop of many trips.  I will post some China images in the next update.

Vietnam: 80,000,000 people, 40,000,000 motorbikes.

Ho Chi Minh City is an awesome place. Lots of activity all around particularly at night. Reminds me quite a bit of NYC in the summer. Everyone is out doing something, eating, shopping, walking, and lots of people driving. Although in HCMC that last part is taken to an extreme. Just standing on the corner, and observing the traffic go by was cool.

42,952 miles.......37 days....

I have been photographing everything from kids at school, factories, labs, hospitals, peoples homes, and everything in-between in all sorts of environments ala fly on the wall style. The locations were Chicago, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Baltimore, Columbus Ohio, Rome, Hannover and Manheim Germany, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guangzhou and Shanghai China, Hue and Hoshi Ming City Vietnam. The travel was not back to back so there was travel back to NYC for a few days or a week and then head out again. It was a tight schedule....really tight!

Some stats from my recent project 42,952 air miles, 12,912 frames shot, 945 road miles, 95 hours in the air, 37 total days, 37 pound carry-on, 24 flights, 20 cities visited, 16 airports, 10 hotel rooms, 8 countries, 8 kinds of money, 7 languages, 7 layovers, 3 canceled flights, 2 travel visas, 2 snow storms, 2 boxes of cliff bars,  as for casualties 1 broken lens, 2 burned out battery chargers (my fault, it was not 220) duh, 1 very expensive mobile phone bill, 0 lost luggage.

Up, up, and away!

Just got back from a world wide project. With lots and lots of moving around! The best kind of projects! I think thats Miami down there.

More to follow soon.

More Cocks

Here is another shot from my recent trip to the Dominican Republic....It is definitely something on the vicious side, but there certainly is beauty in the movements.

Cocks

Here is a little glimpse of a project  I am working on in the Dominican Republic. I got to visit the Traba Mavnaloa in Santo Domingo....very interesting place, very interesting.

Blue sky+blue water

There are not too many places in the world where you get this combination. Luckily I am off to one of them. I am going to the Dominican Republic for a few days. Doing a quick job and even better starting a personal project. More on that as the photographs happen.