Our weekly Zoom discussion about photography and other stuff.
Recorded 5/3/20
Check out all of Don’s other great videos on his Youtube page.
friends
Our weekly Zoom discussion about photography and other stuff.
Recorded 5/3/20
Check out all of Don’s other great videos on his Youtube page.
Todd is one of my oldest friends. I’ve photographed him a few times in the past, but this most recent time was a little more special.
Todd’s a very outdoors kinda guy; mountain biking, snowmobiling, paddle boarding, kayaking … he does it all and he does it intensely. He gets out there and really enjoys himself and gives it his all.
One particular day a few years back, Todd was giving it his all while mountain biking, and he gave it his all right off a cliff with his bike and fell a considerable distance. Luckily he was with someone and they were able to rush him off to the emergency room.
While there, the doctors discovered he had two Aneurysms in his brain. One was fairly teeny tiny but the other one was pretty large and the doctors said they needed to keep an eye on it.
Cut to 2019: the larger aneurysm that doctors had been worried about was indeed growing and they knew they had to get it out of there. So Todd went under the knife. They removed a piece of his skull and they were able to successfully remove both the aneurysm’s he had in his brain.
Three days later (!!!) they let Todd go home, and on the fourth day of him being released I dragged him over to the studio so I could make a few portraits of him.
He was totally up for it.
I wanted to shoot something simple that really focused on the scar and sutures he had on his head. I blew my background totally white and I took a single studio strobe with a grid to control the light spread so that it focused right on his wound. The rest of him went dark because he wasn’t lit from the front. I photographed most of him in a dark profile while the gridded light caught the top of his head.
Since making these photographs with Todd he’s had some complications from surgery; the piece of his skull that had been removed and then put back in became infected, and he had to go back a few times for them to reopen his wound and take the skull piece out. As of this blog post, he’s been without a piece of his skull while everything inside his head heals and chases out the infection, and once everything is good he’ll be getting a new, synthetic piece of skull that they will put back into his head (scheduled for April of 2020). He’s been doing awesome through this whole process, although I know he’s frustrated because he can’t go out and mountain bike or snowmobile as much as he wants.
It’s scary when you see dear friends going through such physical trauma.
I’m glad you are still with us, Todd.
Dave and I chat with Manchester NH based portrait photographer Jane Button while she visited me at the studio a few weeks ago. It gave us a chance to test out a "field kit" version of Dave's podcast equipment. Success!
http://nonazon.com/podcast/2018/02/22/082-meet-photographer-jane-button/
I love helping my friends spend money. Especially if it's helping them buy cameras.
The X100 Club continues to grow, as we are now up to 4 members. Friends.
An interlude for friends who help on gigs who are great to work with.
I've known Kim for a long time. She used to be a member of a pottery studio that used to be next door to my studio. I took portraits of her and her husband and their pet parrot, Meenu.
Kim was looking for something she can use on her website and social media. I love shooting black & white head shots. They are so clean. Elegant. Plus it gave me a chance to catch up with her since it had been some time since we had chatted.