Well, it’s pretty much all done. Computers are on desks, books are on shelves, clothes are in closets … just a few little things left to sort out and put away.

*Whew!* Moving SUCKS! Unless, of course, you’ve got somebody like A Perfect Move on your side! When they say “A perfect move”, they mean it! Their friendly, professional crew got me from Somersworth to Seabrook in two-and-a-half hours - load, drive and unload!

Best of all, nothing really changes! I still do all my photography on location, and I’m currently accepting commissions in the Seacoast area - from Newburyport MA to York ME, from Hampton Beach to Manchester. (As before, if it’s more than about an hour drive, we’ll need to chat about travel expenses.)

To celebrate the new digs, the first three (3) Seacoast area families to commission portraits of their kids between now and 15 July, get an 8-inch finished photograph, ready for framing (a $125- value!) at no additional charge.

We all like to be liked. It’s part of the human condition. It makes us feel good when we know somebody else likes us.

But being liked isn’t everything.

I attend a number of networking groups every week, where we get to know other businesspeople and the goods and services they have to offer. On the principle that “people do business with people they know, like and trust”, these groups encourage us to meet with each other one-to-one, outside of the formal group setting, over lunch or a cup of coffee, and get to know each other better. A good idea, if you ask me.

Recently, in meeting with some of these people over a cup of joe and an apple danish, it was made known to me that some people in the meetings are … disturbed … by the photographs that I bring and share, particularly by the fact that a number of them are of boys without shirts on.

Now that clearly doesn’t bother me, and I understand that, whatever their reasons, some people object to my photographs. Which is fine, to each his own, as the old saying goes.

Which brings me back to the idea of being liked.

Life should not be a popularity contest, and neither should art.

It’s been asserted that being an artist is one of the most profoundly selfish things a person can do. I’m inclined to agree, at least in this case. I make the photographs that I make, because they’re the kind of photographs that I want to look at, that I want to hang on my walls, and that I want to make more of. The only person that I’m aiming to please when I pick up the camera is myself.

That may seem, on it’s surface, to contravene one of the fundamental principles of running a business, which states that it’s the client that needs to be pleased, but I think you’ll find, on deeper inspection, that this is, in fact, not the case.

Every good businessperson knows that their product or service is not always the right one, at the right time, for every person they come in contact with. Trying to be everything to everyone is among the surest ways of putting yourself out of business. You can never please everyone, no matter how hard you try.

Every good businessperson also knows that in order to succeed, you have to have a “Unique Selling Proposition” - something that sets you apart from every other business that’s out there.

For the artist, that “Unique Selling Proposition” is built right in - it’s your selfish desire to make things that please you. Your target market is the other people that are out there who share your aesthetic enough to want to pay you for the enjoyment that your work brings into their lives.

My selfish desire to make photographs that I like, is what makes my photographs different from those of all the other photographers out there. The desire of some other photographers to make only those photographs that will “satisfy” the most people, and won’t offend anyone, is why their work is basically indistinguishable from the work of all the other photographers out there that hold the same attitude. By “selfishly” pleasing myself, I ensure that I have something unique to offer others.

A wise man once told me that if my art isn’t offending someone, I’m not doing it right. In fact, there are certain people I don’t ever want as fans, including the likes of Pat Robertson, James Dobson, people who want to ban Jock Sturges’ and Sally Mann’s books, or indeed anybody who wants to ban anybody’s books. I don’t really care what those people think about my work, because I have no respect for them whatsoever.

Which brings me, once again, back around to being liked.

When it comes right down to it, the most important person I need to be liked by is … me. What does it matter if anybody else likes my photographs, if I don’t like them? What does it matter if anybody else likes me, if I don’t like me?

Buckminster Fuller is one of those people who is high on my list of people I find inspiring. Not only did he have one of the most awesome names EVAH!!!, he was also a gifted scientist, engineer and teacher. He gave us, among other things, the geodesic dome and the basis of “Buckminsterfullerenes” or “Bucky Balls” that have heavily influenced the development of nanotechnology.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is one where he discusses the role of beauty:

When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” - Buckminster Fuller

It’s always interesting to find out what people who aren’t emotionally invested in my images think of them. I’m my own worst critic, and it’s hard for parents not to love any image of their children.

Day one of the workshop consisted of Jock reviewing everybody’s portfolio. What an eye opener!

I’m actually quite flattered that Jock thinks I’m good at what I do, and I also got some very helpful pointers on what I can do to bump things up to the next level.

After reviewing my portfolio, these are the images that Jock considers my strongest.

I can hardly wait for tomorrow … we’re going on location to work with some models.

Wooohooo! I arrived in Mexico in one piece. San Miguel de Allende is a beautiful colonial town, which conjures in my mind an image of old-town Berlin dropped into the middle of the Wyoming desert.

The landscape is very high-steppes — mountains, arroyos, prickly pears, junipers, and the town itself is reminiscent of many European towns — cobblestone streets, narrow alleys, simple yet elegant architecture, and a magnificent chapel.

Day one of the workshop will be a portfolio review, which shouldn’t take all too long because there are only seven of us in the group. It looks like we’ll have some time to explore the town this afternoon, and make ourselves a bit more acquainted with the lay of the land.

I feel like a six year old on the first day of school, I’m so giddy with excitement!

I’ve been watching the news about the stock market lately like most people … with a much different reaction, however.

Those of you who have known me for a while know that I’m an adherent of the philosophies of Ayn Rand and Ludwig von Mises, so it should come as no surprise to you that I’m not surprised that the markets haven’t recovered after the humongous infusion of fiat currency that the government recently pumped into a number of failing banks.

People who understand what money is and how it works instinctively know that such a “bail-out” is not a viable solution. Expecting the government to solve a problem by interfering in the marketplace in the same ways it did to create the problem in the first place, is simply counter productive.

An artistic colleague of mine put it very well in his own blog recently, he calls his article I’m MAD as ….

I think he’s right.

I know I’ve been neglecting my blog posting lately … shame on me. With all the upheaval lately — the town condemning the apartment building I was living in, having to move to a temporary place on the beach, then having to search for and move into a new place, the death of my mother in January, and several trips back and forth to Salt Lake, and gearing up for the summer season — it just seems to have fallen through the cracks.

Now that things are settling down a bit again, I can catch up.

Here’s a selection of photos from recent sessions:

This young lady loves the movie Happy Feet

And her sister loves her

This fun bunch chose to have their session at one of my favorite places in Salt Lake, Sugarhouse Park

This young man is one of my favorite subjects ever … so energetic, expressive, dynamic, and full of life

“High Definition” seems to be the buzzword of the new century. Everybody and everything seems to be going “high definition”. High Definition Television. High Definition Radio. High Definition Aspirin. OK, I’m exaggerating a little … but you get my point.

It occurred to me the other day that, even with the digital revolution and the new crop of 10, 12, 14 and even 20 megapixel cameras, photography has been “High Definition” for a very, very long time already.

Film photography is an analog process, so comparing it directly to the new digital media is an apples-and-oranges thing. Suppose, however, that we take a frame of film and digitize it with a readily available film scanner at a resolution of 4,000 dpi, which is pretty much the standard for film scanners that nearly anyone can afford to buy. (Industrial strength drum scanners have resolutions of upwards of 40,000 dpi, and tend to cost tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars.)

A standard-issue 35mm film frame is 24mm high x 36mm wide. That’s 0.944882 inches x 1.417323 inches (since we’re calculating in dots/pixels per inch). Multiply that out and you get a scan of 3,779 pixels high by 5,669 pixels wide, for a total image of 21,423,151 pixels — that’s about 21.4 MegaPixels. Even the best digital cameras on the market today are barely catching up with that — and we’re not even factoring in the vast advantage film still holds in dynamic range. (On a 40,000 dpi drum scanner, that same frame of analog film yields a scan of 37,795 pixels by 45,892 pixels, for a finished size of 1,734,535,761 pixels — that’s 1.7 GIGApixels! And yes, a properly exposed and developed frame of 35mm film really does contain that kind of data — a scan of this resolution will show every detail, right down to the individual grains of silver in the film.)

Take a medium format frame at 2.25×2.25 inches (6×6 cm): At 4,000 dpi, that’s 9,000 pixels on a side, for a total of 81 Megapixels. At 40,000 dpi, that’s 90,000 x 90,000 = 8,100,000,000, or 8.1 Gigapixels.

How about a small “large format” view-camera photograph, at 4×5 inches: At 4,000 dpi, that’s 16,000 x 20,000 pixels = 320 Megapixels. At 40,000 dpi it’s 160,000 x 200,000 pixels = 32 Gigapixels.

Figuring the gigapixelage of Ansel Adams’ favored 8×10 inch view camera is left as an exercise to the reader.

I would submit that, in this fresh new millennium of all things High Definition, good old-fashioned film photography is the original high-definition medium.

It struck me recently how risk-averse a society we have become. An atmosphere of paranoia grips our culture, suffocating us into passivity.

A good case in point was illustrated to me last evening, in a report on the new Wired Science program on PBS. They brought a segment on the good old-fashioned chemistry set, which these days comes — believe it or not! — without any chemicals! It seems that the manufacturers are so afraid of being sued, that they won’t even provide truly educational toys anymore.

Oddly enough, the lack of chemicals in kids’ chemistry playsets correllates directly with a 2/3 decline in the number of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering majors in our colleges.

We’re protecting our children right back into the stone age!

If you want kids to get interested in chemistry, how about letting them (GASP!) do chemistry?!?!?!?!? Will some kids get hurt by doing things they shouldn’t with chemistry sets? Sure, they will. Interestingly enough, though, I’ve never seen or heard of an injury inflicted by mis-use of a chemistry playset that was any more severe than what we see on High School football fields on a regular basis.

Yes, as parents we want to protect our children from the dangers of the world — but are we really doing them a favor? Wouldn’t we be doing better by our young people if we let them experience life, including it’s dangers, while they’re still under our care and supervision, rather than shielding them from everything and then turning them loose on the wild world when they’re eighteen, completely unprepared for what awaits them out there?

I’m reminded also, of an email I got some time ago, about the same general subject:

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930’s 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

-They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.

-Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

-We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

-As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

-Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

-We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

-We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

-We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

-We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

-No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

-We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

-We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms……….WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

-We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

-We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

-We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

-We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

-Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

-The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

-This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

-The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

-We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have been blessed to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!

Life is risk, reward, and taking ownership and responsibility for our own choices and actions.

Making art, doing business, pushing the boundaries of technology, all of these things are risky.

The artists risk ridicule, and the derision of peers and the public, by sharing their ideas and creations with the world. So do businessmen and inventors. Remember when the cell phone first came out, and people were talking about “Who would ever want to take their phone with them everywhere? That’s stupid!”?  Henry Ford’s family tried to have him committed to a mental institution, for wanting do make a “horseless carriage” affordably available to anyone who wants one.

It’s the artists, entrepreneurs, craftsmen and inventors that move our society forwards.

What if we went back to being a culture that, rather than fearing risk and responsibility, embraces and revels in them?

has become some kind of a crime.

I was out on the beach yesterday, while waiting for my laundry to dry, being fascinated by the intricate shapes carved in the exposed rocks by the action of the tides.

Quite naturally, as will be the case on a populated beach, some of the other beachgoers, including some kids, who by their nature are curious about everything, took an interest in what I was doing with my camera.

Being a personable sort, I struck up conversations with such passersby.

I neither touched nor photographed any of them. That would be both rude, and unprofessional. I don’t photograph people without their consent.

There are only two exceptions I ever make to this rule:

1. I’m making a wide-angle or panoramic view, impossible to get without any people in it, and they are then rendered so small in the frame, and/or from such an angle that they are completley unrecognizable.
2. I’m documenting a public event.

Even then, I make every effort humanly possible to gain peoples’ permission before including them in a photograph. I’m an artist, not a papparazzo.

To those who seemed interested in my work, or in seeing the photographs I was making, I handed my card. (That, in and of itself, is apparently a crime on the beach. It’s considered “solicitation”, even though I didn’t say to anyone “I have something to sell you, come and buy it from me”.)

After about an hour making photographs on the beach, the battery in my nifty little digital camera died (it didn’t have a full charge on it, I just grabbed it on a whim for something to do while my laundry dried).

At that moment, I was engaged in a friendly conversation with a very nice gentleman who was on the beach with his son that day, collecting little crabs and snails at low tide. Being a relative newcomer to the coast, I was fascinated by his tales of having grown up here, and coming to the beach nearly every day. At the close of this conversation, I was about to leave to go fold my laundry, because it’s time in the drier would have been nearly up.

It was at this point that I was accosted by a very unfriendly young man from the Beach Patrol, who accused me of taking pictures of people’s kids on the beach, demanded to see my camera, and then demanded that I leave the beach. His demeanor and tone of voice carried the implication that I was being some kind of pervert.

I informed him that, as an agent of the state, if he wanted to search my property, he would have to show me a warrant. Even had I been inclined to show him the photographs I’d made that day (which I would have been, had he not been such a jerk from the get-go), I couldn’t have, because the battery was dead.

To the young man of the Beach Patrol (you never even gave me your name), as you grow older, and hopefully wiser, please remember that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

To whomever I offended with my presence on the beach with my camera, next time please tell me that what I’m doing is disturbing you, so that I can stop doing it in your presence. There’s very rarely any need to sic any third party gestapo bulldogs on other people, if you simply take a moment to communicate with them.

If I offended you by offering you my card, I apologize. It was not my intent to offend, I was simply trying to be friendly.