Been cranking on new things as of late: portraits and portfolios. I’ll get to the latter, but just tackled another set of portraits for the Bemis Art Community blog. This time around it was John Gascon of Occhio Cafe and Ouch My Eye gallery.
Image above is the one that ran, but I had the time to do a couple versions on account of John’s relaxed nature and willingness to help a fellow artist experiment. That said, I was quite fond of the two images below.
Either way, do yourself a favor and head on over to the full post to read more about John and his longtime efforts helping artists and the SODO community.
In other exciting news, I now have prototype/1st round versions of my new portfolios that will be hitting photo editor/creative desks very soon.
How can I show you and not allow a peek inside?
The scan above is from inside the editorial book. Then here’s a grab from the portrait book.
These first round looks comes courtesy of none other than photo consultant extraordinaire Amanda Sosa-Stone. She did an amazing job pairing and juxtaposing themes/subjects/events that had been unobserved to my own eyes.
**A word of advice: get someone to lay your book out for you. If anything, it’s just another set of eyes on the ground suggesting what stays and what goes. I’m not speaking to every photographer, but I know I can oftentimes be a little too close to the work I love creating. It was certainly helpful to get someone else’s take.
More always,
Mike
Portrait of Ron Miller
With today being America’s Independence Day weekend, figured it appropriate to hit everyone with an armed services-related post.
Couple months back, I had a lull in work travels and made some time to photograph Ron Miller, the former Naval Commanding Officer at Magnuson/Sand Point here in Seattle.
Before getting in studio, I was lucky enough to hear stories and tour his old offices in what is now ‘Building 30,’ a multi-use complex that hosts a number of community events here in Seattle.
The ballroom floor above no doubt saw quite a bit of traffic, and as he reminisced about the good ole’ days, Ron revealed a number of old cassettes buried deep in his bomber jacket. Apparently, they contained the daily motivational speeches he was often known to give to his newer recruits.
One title, “Prescription for Relief from Stress” was a favorite. **(As an aside: some days later, I received a compendium of these speeches in printed form. . .)
While it’s sad to admit that Building 30 now lays in a state of semi-disrepair, there’s quite a bit of community effort to preserve it by transforming it to artists’ studios and small naval museum. The image above shows an installation undertaken by a number of Magnuson Park artists as a means to draw attention to the building’s state.
Either way, it’d be great to breathe new life into 30 and get someone else in there besides the ducks.
As we made our way out, I couldn’t help but notice Ron’s sweet bomber jacket.
Asked him about picking one up in a large, but was informed that it only came in two sizes, 1) no and 2) just Ron’s.
Much appreciation to Ron for taking the time to sit for me. Happy Fourth to everyone!
More always,
Mike