Venoco

Many times photography can lead to unexpected adventures. I've shot politicians, sports stars, and musicians from the front row of concerts. These are some images of my biggest adventure to date. They are of an off-shore oil rig I shot this past summer. I was working for a magazine at the time and they were doing a story on a company that operates oil rigs just off the Santa Barbara coast. I gave them a call to see if I could come down and take some pictures. It just so happened that later that week they were giving a tour of one of their rigs as well as doing some aerial photography, so I asked if I could come along. They said yes. So, a few days later I found myself riding in a boat at 5 am and then hanging out of a helicopter taking photographs. This was both my first time taking a boat out on the ocean and riding in a helicopter. I thought there was a possibility that everything could go terribly and I might just wind up being sick the whole time. Luckily, that was not the case. I wound up getting the cover shot and the images were featured on the magazine's web site.

Hawaii in B&W

Some images from my recent trip to Oahu. More images at Osmosis Online.

Osmosis Art

As well as hunting down fascinating artist for Osmosis, which is a joy in its own right, I also have the honor of supplying artwork for stories. This gives me a great opportunity to stretch my photo ability and creativity. Plus, since I am essentially the "art editor" I get to do what I want! Here are some of the images I've done recently. And, as always, you can follow along at Osmosis Online and read all the great posts as well as soak in some of the fine artwork and Featured Artists.

Osmosis has Osmosed?

It has actually permeated its way into reality...well virtual reality at least. The website I am helping my friend out with has finally launched! It is called Osmosis and can be found at http://osmosis-online.com/. I am helping with the art for stories and finding artists to be featured. I was also honored with the inaugural submission to the "Featured Artist" section! So please check it out and lend a comment or two. Btw if you'd like to submit any artwork or stories please post a link to your work!

The Way it Goes...

There's an old adage that goes something like, "there's now such thing as luck, only being prepared when opportunity arises" and that's kind of how this image came about. I went out a couple of weeks ago to shoot a completely different shot, but when the sun started going down the sunset was completely amazing. So, immediately all the gear was picked up and we ran to the middle of the nearby field, set up again, and started shooting. The sunset was so surreal that it reminded me of a Dali painting and I decided that a "floating" subject with this particular pose would be fitting. And so I preceded to jump and re-jump (if that could be a word) as the sun set, hoping that one of the shots would make it all worthwhile. I think it worked out pretty well. It all happened so fast there wasn't much time to think only react and what was strange on looking at the images later was that I realized they were strangely familiar. They reminded me of many dreams I've had where I was able to fly. I think I was in my early 20's the first time I was able to fly in my dreams. And...there was also time for outtakes!

Nights at the Lab

In these times, meaning these economic times of recession and, personally, these early years post-graduation, one must do whatever one can to stay afloat. Some people work at airports , some people wait tables, some people shrivel up. By day I work at a magazine and by night I work at a pathology lab. This makes for some long days, but sometimes hidden in the long hours there are images that emerge. This series of images are taken from three different phases-

1. before I worked at the lab

2. entrenched in working at the lab

3. beyond exhaustion from working at the lab.

I will let you guess which is which.

Nights at the Lab cont'd