Langhorne on a Tuesday afternoon.

FOTO FRIDAY: A Beautiful Day in Cooperstown

Today was beautiful. And in the spirit of beautiful days, I thought this edition of Foto Friday could be an image from another beautiful day. It was Cooperstown, NY in the summer. I was a photography intern at Glimmerglass Opera for a few months. The summer was an unforgettable one, filled with highs and lows. My girlfriend of over a year and I split up at the beginning of the summer, and I was pretty much a wreck. I was far from home. Hell, I was far from everything. Cooperstown has one stoplight. And we stayed fifteen minutes away from that. The nearest Wal-Mart was an hour drive. And while the isolation killed me at first, I slowly started to embrace it. I went outside and enjoyed the quiet. I ran. And on those 3 and 4 and 5 mile jogs, I was wide-eyed at the beauty that surrounded me. My favorite time to run was sunset, when the heat wasn’t overbearing, nor was the lovely perfume of cow shit. I remember one particular day when life was just right. I had earlier learned that one of my photos had been selected to run in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. I felt successful beyond words. I felt confident. I strapped shoes on my feet and went running. It was a three-and-a-half mile sunset. After the run I quickly grabbed my camera and took this image. But the reason I love this photo is because I enjoyed it with my eyes first. And then I captured it with a lens. So many people get that order wrong. Enjoy things before you take a picture of them. Or tweet about them. Or whatever. Eat the food, experience the sunset, kiss the girl. Do those things first, and then if you have time, capture the moment.

FOTO FRIDAY: Barcelona Girl

Sorry I’ve missed a couple Foto Fridays. I hope you haven’t been holding your breath.

This week’s Foto Friday photo comes from Barcelona. It’s a wonderful place. And it’s where I really fell in love with taking pictures. I worked out the technical stuff in Ireland, but worked out conveying a message in Barcelona. Seriously, it’s a great city.

Barcelona girl sits with the city before her. Waiting? Maybe. She’s got two bags. Maybe she travels heavy. Or maybe her love is experiencing the view from somewhere else. Above the city that the brilliant Antoni Gaudi brought to life, rests a mountain. Upon which maybe another Barcelona girl sits, looking over the sun-kissed city. Maybe another photographer captured that moment, too. Or maybe this moment belongs solely to my Barcelona girl. The infinite possibilites of stories I love. And I hope you find it interesting.

Joey and Jessica – Video

Here’s a video I did for the talented photographers Joey and Jessica.

If someone could buy me this, that’d be great.

The brand new Nikon D800. Full frame + 1080p video.

My upcoming feature film project: In A Day (working title)

Click for the IN A DAY website!

Please check out this kickstarter site to promote and help raise money for my upcoming film project: “In a Day” (working title).  And if you’re in a giving mood, please feel free to contribute to the project and get stuff in return! Thanks.

Foto Friday!

Though I do plan on mixing it up with Foto Fridays, I am going to add another Iceland photo.  So many people have come up to me and asked why I wanted to go to Iceland of all places.  Before I went, I didn’t have much to say besides, “I’ve heard it’s beautiful.”  Now that I’ve been I get to say, “It’s beautiful.”  Major difference.  Anyway so in an effort to convince folks that they should go to that wonderful country at some point in their lives, I’m going with another Iceland shot for the January 20 version of Foto Friday.  I hope you enjoy!

This is Skógafoss, a waterfall in southern Iceland.  The photo is also meant to capture the joy it brings those who stand at its base and get hit in the chest with the powerful sound.  In this case a couple takes each other’s pictures near the base of the fall.  This also helps give the scene some scale (it was HUGE!)

A Sign of Things to Come..

Foto Fridays!

I’m instituting a new blog feature. Every Friday I’m going to post a photo of mine, with a little text about it. Some old school photos, some new school, some that didn’t go to any school. According to the stats provided by wordpress, no one really looks at this blog anyway, so I might as well use it to entertain myself.

Foto Fridays. Boom.

And the First Foto Friday foto is………….

Vatnajokull Glacier in Iceland! My buddy Rosser and I took an 11-day trip around Iceland this summer and while driving our tiny Yaris rental, stopped for a moment to see this beautiful landscape. The fog rolled in right when we got there to create a nice dramatic mountain/glacier shot. Enjoy!

Late night musings

I suppose I could point out the irony of me watching a video of a song called “Narcolepsy” at 3am as I am basically being an insomniac, but maybe I’ll just share the video. North Carolina’s very own, Ben Folds.