"I just don’t know how long I can take it down here anymore. Too much traffic nowadays, too many tourists. They have overbuilt the beach. When I came down here, things were different.The place is goin’ to hell"
the look on Michael Halminski’s face when he says this, reflects both pain and confusion…..the old days were better….i guess maybe they always are….or, so we "remember"….
i have known Mike and his wife Denise for about 20 years…we met on a fall day when i was down here in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (OBX) shooting fishermen pulling in their seine nets…we were both jockeying for position…we were the only two photographers shooting this classic fishermans reward…a full net, right up on the beach and the light early and warm….long shadows of the fisherman and Mike and of me…
local photographers often give me a "look" when they first see me in "their territory"….i mean this was Mike’s beach , not mine…he could tell i was from "out of town" and the local folks down here suffer no fools….meeting the "local photographers" is something i always do right away…make friends and they will help, make enemies and they will..well, i do not know, because i have always enjoyed the companionship of photographers who reside in the places where i am just passing through…
Mike keeps up with what is going on in the "biz"…he shows up in New York every now and then for a trade show or in D.C. for the Natgeo seminar, but mostly Mike sticks around OBX and photographs whatever the hell he wants…Mike sells prints….to tourists and passersby and folks who just know his work..Mike’s work is of old boats, seagrass, summer storms and nesting birds…he has worked with 4×5 (made his own prints in his darkroom) , but now chooses digi and makes his own inkjets and frames them and hangs them with his own two hands in the gallery that he built with his own two hands…
you must note that Mike started out doing what so many of us strive for…he left a cosmopolitan upbringing , and at age 22 picked a place to live that he loved…surfs up….he took pictures of things that interested him and hoped that somebody would buy them….they did……end of lifestyle and commercial business strategy story….
now on this forum and in "real life" too, i have introduced you to mostly to my photoworld friends from New York, Paris or wherever…Mike chooses another life….he does not seek for one single second any aspect of my world….he appreciates it, but he does not covet it….
when my whole family shows up down here for two weeks in August, Mike
and Denise will be sitting on the back deck for the "required" sunset
happy hour chatting with my whole family…they have become , in fact,
part of our family…of course, Mike and Denise "get in" by showing up
with a bushel of crabs and a steamer!!
so, i introduce you to Mike…a man who lives his own "photographic life"…so so valid and surely to be treasured …if you are ever down OBX way, stop in and say howdy to my friends Mike and Denise…
i guess "grumbling" is what people do who live "out there"…away from the crowds….things could be better…summertime traffic is pretty bad….but, what do you think?
is everything "goin’ to hell" down here, or is Mike living in paradise????
DAVID/ALL slightly off-topic….
maybe an easy way of unobtrusively organising all great discussions that are gong on here: what about a RSS feed for the comments? there is one for posts, but not for the comments…
that way, you don’t need to refresh all the time, look for the last page all the time, everything comes neatly organised into your own newsreader (or firefox or safari)
what do you think? it should be easy to add to the typepad-thingy (i think), i’m thinking it’s just a setting for david to switch on or off…
(of course this all stems from my inablility to keep up with everything when i come back from finally having managed to pull myself away from here for a couple of days :-)
but i’m sure i’m not the only one :))))
peace
anton
AUDREY,
I’m actually represented by Millenium Images. Feel free to contact if you have any questions. To me they seem very serious about what they do and are very friendly. But I’ll rather discuss them outside this blog.
Cheers
audrey bardou
i have known a couple of people who worked with millenium in the past..
i am no longer in touch with the people, although i can say that at the time they worked with the company they were happy with the service and the general dealings.. so on..
a young-ish company with a good list of advertizine and editorial clients..
sounds good to be..
MIKE
“zoom out, get physically closer, and try thinking of the frame as a field that needs to be energized from the edges… do important, unexpected things there, … think about edges for a while, then go back to the box if you like. ”
Thanks for looking and commenting, and I didn’t take any of your message as being pedantic….I know I’m at a remedial level compared to everyone here…but I also know I can grow, and having suggestions such as this are really helpful for me. Thanks much…
I will focus on energizing the frame, getting closer…something interesting!
Thank you, too, Erica for your emailed suggestions that pretty much to the same effect…all very right on as one would expect…
“I know I’m at a remedial level compared to everyone here…”
then you’re one up on me, guy. I still wonder if I’m loading the film correctly
ALL…
David and I were talking about who has been around this blog since the beginning and for those interested in trivia I just looked thru the archives and discovered that….
In the beginning of the blog there were only a few comments and those were from longtime students such as Lance and Lee along with a couple others who don’t seem to be around anymore.
From what I can tell the first comments from people “new” to the blog (now oldtimers) was on March 19, 2007. It was a post entitled “A Question” where David asked the first question of us.
There were three of us who answered that question and are still around. In adition to Lance, Lee and the other original students.
1) Michael Kircher
2) Cathy Scholl
3) Akaky
I’m sure Michael and Akaky will be thrilled to know this. :)
should be…first comments WERE
“then you’re one up on me, guy. I still wonder if I’m loading the film correctly”
Akaky, I wouldn’t even dare to move to film yet, based on the number of images I throw away, Lexington would quickly be awash in a sea of film negatives…..and I hate it when my feet get tangled up in negatives….
CATHY
That’s an amusing “archive” observation. It made me curious about when I first posted on this blog (April 13, 2007)
The very first post on the Road Trips blog was Glenn Campbell. Interestingly, David started the post on January 11, 2007, and Glenn’s first post was not until February 9, 2007. Maybe some other posts were removed, but almost an entire month until the first post! Now it’s more like seconds!
Use Kodachrome instead. that way you’ll be up to your feet in positives; everyone loves a positive attitude; and if all else fails, you can skip the slides across the surface of a pond and see how far they go. The last time I checked Kodachrome went further then Velvia or Ektachrome, but that may have something to do with its archival properties.
You bet I’m thrilled, Cathy. I’m tickeled positively pink. I’m coming up on birthday #50 and being reminded that I am an old timer at anything is just what I want to hear these days.
“…If you talk to Game ask him why he got the butterfly changed (it was so cute)….”
((( cute ))) ???
i definitely can’t use that word around “the Game”
tomorrow in Long Beach…
laughing…
but i will try to ask him why he changed that tattoo…
thank you Michael McG…
We definitely have some fundamental differences , theories and philosophies… my friend but its all good !!!
peace , love and hugs
panos
CATHY:
Cathy, i first read DAH blog on February 28th, 2007….when told by Bruno Stevens at Ls..
http://www.lightstalkers.org/this_one_is_great__david_alan_harvey_blog
but, cant remember when i first wrote a comment (later), as i was a lurker for the first few months ;)))…maybe around late march/april?….
HEY, I’VE BEEN HERE from virtually the beginning…but at that time i was writing so much at LS, and shooting alot, didnt comment her until March/april…but, i was here!
:))
hugs
running
bob
BOB…
No doubt you were here! It would not have been a blog without you! :) I’m sure there are several others who this is also true for.
I also was around from the beginning and did not post for a while…I was certain that the blog was not meant for “outsiders” such as myself, only for friends and longtime students. Only when David asked a question of us did I have the nerve to respond.
Maybe Michael and Akaky felt the same way?
The other night David told me that some new people reading the blog now have the same feeling…that they sometimes contact “regulars” to ask if it’s okay to participate. :)
Didn’t mean to exclude anyone…just looking to see who was posting in the early days, which by the way seem a lot longer ago than a year and a half.
hugs back.
Cathy :)))
no worries, i was just joking with you :))))…it’s funny now for me, ’cause i was a “ghost” for first couple months, even though david’s blog was like 1st thing i read…cause i used to think it was only for his students….
funny, now how much of a motor-mouth i became ;)))))….
but believe me, i didnt feel left out by your triumvirate :))))…i aint that kinda of guy…
i think lance and Rafal (aka Jinju) were like the real OLD TIMERS :))))
ok, running away for a few ays…
hugs
bob
I have no clue when I even posted the first time……
Thanks to you all….
pleasure audrey.
thanks for the emails and good luck.
my first post is easy for me to remember.
i showed a group of strangers my arse.
i’ve yet to put the self portrait in my website ‘news’ section..