Who was Meinhardt Raabe?

"As coroner, I must aver
I thoroughly examined her.
And she’s not only merely dead,
She’s really most sincerely dead."

More here: NYT Obituary

Another favorite image....

 

This very touching image by a Chinese photographer named Jianbin Huo, has been hanging on my wall for the last two years

From Audubon Magazine:

"As the tale is told, the 12-week-old monkey was separated from its mother and close to death when it was rescued by a refuge worker. But the little guy simply wouldn’t perk up until the bird became its inseparable friend. This sweet photograph of the orphan and its companion was snapped by chance by Jianbin Huo, a young Chinese photojournalist visiting the island".

You can read more here:  http://tinyurl.com/yhz3rgl

PS. By the way, Jianbin Huo's birthday is on April 6th.

A beautiful series of images from Jamey Stillings

Last year at a Leadership Conference in Detroit for ASMP, I met a photographer from New Mexico, Jamey Stillings. Check out his images from his personal project to document the "Bridge at Hoover Dam". 

The images are very beautiful and sometimes surreal.

More images here: http://bridgeathooverdam.com/ 

PDN's "Cramped but Cool Studio" Contest

Please vote for my "Cramped but Cool Studio".

Here is the link:
"Cramped but Cool Studio Contest"

New Homepage Image

I try to change the homepage image on my website often. This is the current image, which is getting some nice feedback.

 Christchurch, New Zealand

My visit with Michael Melford, NGS Photographer & friend

Yesterday was my friend Michael Melford's birthday, and I got to spend a few hours with him at his home about 40 miles from where I live. Michael was the first photographer that I traveled with as an assistant, when I moved to NYC in the early eighties. And, he was the last photographer that I traveled with after I decided to stop assisting a few years, and many photographers later.

Michael mostly shoots beautiful landscapes for National Geographic, and one of my favorite projects which appeared in the magazine was his piece on Acadia National Park in autumn. It's spectacular!

Before I left, we agreed to swap prints, and I was happy to take home a beautiful print of the first image in the gallery here: "Acadia National Park in Autumn".
(Be patient, it might take a bit of time to load)


He's getting a print of my image of the Jade Screen Hotel, perched in the Huangshan Mt's of China:

(click to see a larger version)

Thanks Michael & Happy Birthday!

The true inventor of the "Pluto Platter" (Frisbee) has died....

From the NPR story:

According to Kennedy, Morrison and his future wife, Lu, used to toss a tin cake pan on the beach in California. The idea grew as Morrison considered ways to make the cake pans fly better and after serving as a pilot in World War II, Morrison began manufacturing his flying discs in 1948.

To read more:

Frisbee Inventor Dies At 90

A little snow in Guilford

I have some friends who are members of the First Congregational Church, which sits on the Green here in Guilford. Last year I asked for and received permission to climb the scaffolding which was erected to repair the top of the steeple, and after going to the top and photographing with Barbara & Larry, two friendly and helpful Board Members from the church, we climbed down and parted ways.
After they were out of sight, and I was packing up my equipment, a Guilford police officer showed up and demanded to know who I was and what was I doing on the steeple. And, a few minutes later another police car arrived.  Eventually it was cleared up when they contacted "church people", and I was allowed to leave. Whew!

This morning, while walking across the Green after a meeting with a colleague, I thought that perhaps there might be an image or two from the same steeple, during the snowstorm. I walked over to Barbara's house, to see if it was possible. She made some calls, got permission and we arranged to rendezvous around noon.

Here are few of the resulting images:

Guilford Green, from the steeple

The frosted bell in the steeple 

The steeple from the Guilford Green

Check back, as I may and try to get back up there tomorrow, after the storm has cleared.

Our Little Lucy

I love animals. All animals.

Losing a pet which you love, and who loves you back-every day of its life, can be devastating.

Last night, our little girl Lucy was hit by a car and lived long enough for me to get her into the kitchen, where she died.

We adopted Lucy from Forgotten Felines, a no-kill Shelter in Westbrook CT, in November of 2008. She was a very nervous and distrusting young cat, and we knew that she'd be a "project"  that would take much love and affection to earn her trust.

Added on 2.5.2010:

Lucy was a very special little cat that took a lot of time and love, and to to earn her trust. She was wary of most people, and we'll never know why. But she came to trust & return my love, and I will be forever grateful that she did. I remember when we first brought Lucy home. We couldn't even touch her for months, and I told Ingrid that someday she would let me hold her. It took time, but after some months of gaining her trust, she let me pick her up for 2 or 3 seconds and then she would panic. Eventually I could pick her up and hold her, and she would purr loudly, and rub her neck and head against my face.

Lucy loved being outside, hunting and exploring. Most of the time she stayed inside, but we couldn't keep her inside all of the time. As Ingrid has said, that would be like locking me in the house all day & night.

Here is a small gallery of images of Lucy which were made with my iPhone:
"Lucy"

She came to trust and love us, and we loved her.

We miss you, Lucy
Please say hello to Felix?

Jake Wyman Photographer, LLC Facebook page

Please consider becoming a fan on my new Jake Wyman Photographer, LLC Facebook page.

Deer tracks on Eagle Lake in Acadia N.P.

Just to prove....

......that I'm not inclined to just shoot in cold weather, here are a few images that I made last Fall.

your comments are welcomed...

 

  

  

Try to forget what it is that you are looking at..........

Winter in Acadia

Cadillac Mt. & part of Mt. Dorr (r)

My website has some new images from last week's trip to Acadia, and while I'm pretty happy with the results, I continue to be stymied in my attempts to find someone with a snowmobile who can take me to the top of Cadillac Mt.
I'm not ready to pitch the story to a magazine (Yankee is interested already) until I get some images which I feel are missing.
First, I want images from, and of the summit of Cadillac Mountain, and I also want images from Isle au Haut.

Believe me. I like to hike uphill. In fact I think I'm a pretty strong uphill hiker, and I'd be happy to hike up the Auto Road with snowshoes, but the thought of trying to hike through new snow with a 25-30pound pack of equipment to shoot sunrise or sunset, doesn't sound like a good idea to me.
So, if anyone knows of a snow machine owner around Bar Harbor who is for hire, please let me know?

Thanks for looking.

"Cramped but Cool Studio" on PDN

Our humble abode is one of the "Cramped but Cool" studios in PDN. Voting for reader's favorites during the week of February 15th.

Cramped But Cool Studio: Converted Church in Connecticut

J.D. Salinger, dead at 91

There has always been something very appealing to me, about moving to a remote house, somewhere in New England......probably Maine....that has always appealed to me.

J.D. Salinger did it.

"In 1953, Mr. Salinger, who had been living on East 57th Street in Manhattan, fled the literary world altogether and moved to a 90-acre compound on a wooded hillside in Cornish, N.H. He seemed to be fulfilling Holden’s desire to build himself “a little cabin somewhere with the dough I made and live there for the rest of my life,” away from “any goddam stupid conversation with anybody.”'

Other J.D. Salinger obituaries from around the World:

The Independent 
New York Times
Here is a story written in 1999 when Mr. Salinger was still alive, which appeared in the Concord (NH) Monitor:
Concord Monitor
 

Back from Acadia National Park...

I spent the better part of last week shooting in Maine for my "Winter in Acadia" project. Here are a few images, until the rest are processed and uploaded to my website.

More to come.....

Best Books, Part 2

Of the 175 books which are on the Photo-eye "Best Books" List, fortunately I was able to purchase the following:

• Looking In.
  ROBERT FRANK
  

• Greater Atlanta.
  MARK STEINMETZ

• From Back Home.
  ANDERS PETERSEN & JH ENGSTRÖM

• Protest Photographs.
  CHAUNCEY HARE

• American Power.
  MITCH EPSTEIN
  

• Lisboa.
  VICTOR & COSTA MARTINS PALLA 

• In This Dark Wood
  Elisabeth Tonnard 

• Witness No. 7.
  TODD HIDO

• Native.
  MONA KUHN 

• New Mexico.  
  LEE FRIEDLANDER
  

• Wald.
  GERHARD RICHTER

• A Shimmer of Possibility.
  PAUL GRAHAM
  
  

Photo-eye Magazine's "Best Photobooks of 2009"

Every year, photo-eye magazine asks a group of prominent photographers, bookmakers, editors, publishers and critics to select their favorite 10 photobooks of the year.

Luckily I've been paying attention throughout the past year, and I own a few, but it's time to spend a little money!

The list is here:
Photo-eye's Best Books of 2009

The Great Joe Rollino, killed crossing the street at 104.

From today's New York Times:

"New York is a city of extraordinary lives and events, and here, indisputably, was one of them — one of the city’s strongest and oldest, struck down on a Monday morning by a minivan in Brooklyn."


NYT Obituary

The "father" of Gumby has died.

Full obituary here:
Art Clokey

Aborted Acadia plans.....for now!

For the last couple of years, I have been working on a couple of long-term projects which I hope will result in books.

The first is the "Dairy Farm Signs" Project which is a photographic documentation of as many cow illustrations on Dairy Farm signs which I can find, and which are disappearing around New England. (Both the signs and the Dairy Farm signs are disappearing!)

Rusty-John Farm, Addison VT

A web Gallery of a select number of images can be seen here:  Dairy Farm Signs Project

The second photographic project that I have been working on is "Winter in Acadia National Park".

Here are two images from my trip to Acadia last January.

Last Saturday night, in anticipation of a Blizzard which was forecast for Coastal Downeast Maine, I started packing warm clothes, cameras, laptop, boots, etc.

When I got up at 6 am to leave, I checked the weather and discovered that the "Blizzard" had been downgraded to just a Winter Storm. Beside the fact that I still had/have a nasty cold and it was snowing pretty well here, I decided to abort the 8-9 hour drive, and try to get a better head start on the next Winter Storm in Acadia.

Stay Tuned

Bill Powell, Golf Pioneer dies at 93

Bill Powell was a brave and determined man, who was not to be denied when he was kept off of the golf course because of the color of his skin.

He built his own golf course!

The full obituary is here:

http://tinyurl.com/yfb3r8p