exposures

Damon Winter from the NY Times has been making a pretty incredible series of images that are unlike anything I've seen in a newspaper. You should check them out.

Hopefully I'll have some cool shots of Isle Royale to post on the 7th or 8th.

I want it to work

if only I could focus in the right spot


at least this one works better

Interns

sometimes they live in pairs




then their personalities start to mesh.

The Bruce

Have you ever heard of the Bruce Peninsula? Me neither, until last week. It's kinda pretty there, and the same driving time as Lake Superior from mid-Michigan, just across the lake into Canada.

Chris Shores on Maneline (5.10a), Lions Head
Scott High on a 5.10c at TV Tower
Brittany Schram at Lions Head

Chris lowered me about 100 feet down the side of Lions Head cliff on a climb called Kiss of the Spiderwoman (5.9). There was still about 100 feet below the belay anchors and delicate moves most of the way back up. It pushed the edge of my current abilities. Chris offered to photograph me coming up and I said no way--keep your hands on the belay device. Later I realized he has a better belay device than I do and could have shot and belayed quite safely. Next time I'll send it with style and it will be worth shooting.

More shots are on flickr

silly string

I was having a tough day and then I had to photograph a parade with a giant margarita and bikini-clad bead-throwers.

Michigan is a different place in the summer. Wanna see more?

Cheeseburger

Cheeseburger in Caseville

Monrovians

After missing my flight, like a dumbass stuck in gridlock, I got to hang out with some old friends from Monroe as they drank beer and used power tools somewhere in Toledo.



Rob was proud of his latest Fin Du Monde-like creation

sunny at 30,000 ft.

over the midwest

Indiana Girls and them ...Concord Nights

Two peas in a pod would be the best way to describe them. I would even want to work for Lori, on the right, if she were so inclined.



I think Mandy might have a sadistic streak, though.

K2 reminds us that she is in charge

China Daily


When I was thirteen and just beginning to dream of climbing walls far from Alabama sandstone I saw a documentary about the summer of '86 on K2. 13 people died climbing the mountain very quickly that summer. That did not deter me from digging up the May 1979 issue of National Geographic. That issue, with an article on the first American ascent, features a cover shot of a guy in a silver face mask walking along a snow-clad knife edge miles above the glacier in Pakistan or China, whichever side he was on.

A few months after, while studying for a geography test, I got in a heated discussion with a classmate over the name of the second highest mountain in the world. Being as stubborn about mountain lore then as I am now I tried to make my point by grabbing his pencil and spelling the name. he took it back and stabbed me in the wrist.

This week K2 reminded the world that even if Everest is higher, there are few mountains more dangerous.

It is still a dream of mine to lay eyes on her and I will not rule out summitting.

DANCE!

Traverse City, 3:00 AM

The Harvest Begins

Ethics?

Scott and I had been talking ethics on the way to the beer tent, cameras shouldered, and the distinction between newspaper and documentary ethics, between portraiture and street shooting.

After a few beers I decided to drop my newspaper ethics and make some pretty pictures. When Mom said "keep blowing bubbles for the man" I didn't excuse myself. When Scott took off his glasses I asked him to keep 'em there for a second. So these shots are not ethical for newspaper usage, unless I call them portraits, but with that disclosure, here they are. Channeling Larry Towell or something.

Rip 'em apart.

I was just talking to this guy, and it's the most portraity of them all.

their favorite spot is at the bar