More Bikes in RiNo

Another one from a morning walking around in the RiNo district of Denver.  I took a lot of shots of this building but I think these two images work the best for a diptych.  Lately I have really enjoyed putting together different images to see how they connect when side by side.  

Sharing Knowledge

Photo of D. Starks and T. Wilkerson by C. Hinkel

Photo of D. Starks and T. Wilkerson by C. Hinkel

A couple weekends ago I had the pleasure of going out to shoot with David Starks.  David is from Denver but is currently attending school in Atlanta.  Recently, he bought a DSLR and since has become interested in photography and cinema.  Of course, I know nothing about cinema but spent the early evening giving him some pointers about composition and portraiture.  

Photo by D. Starks

Photo by D. Starks

Showing him different tips and tricks really made me appreciate the photographers who have taken time throughout the years to help me.  Mentorship can be crucial when learning a craft and I am happy for every second others spent working with me to make me a better photographer.  David seems extremely passionate about the art and I'm sure if he sticks with it he'll be great.  I wish my first portraits had turned out half as good as his did here.

Photo by D. Starks

Bikes in Denver's RiNo District

A shot I got while walking through Denver's RiNo district.  It's a great place to street shoot with a mix of old buildings and vibrant evening life.  I like the silhouettes I captured here and the placement of the arrow's head but there is something I don't like about it too.  I'll keep that to myself. 

Rough Weather

This is a shot I got in Minneapolis while waiting for a friend to arrive.  This is another photo where I am torn between black and white, or color.  Overall, I think I like the black and white better, but if you look closely at the man in orange in the color photo you can see his jacket in triplicate from the reflection in the streaks of rain on the window.  Maybe I'll just print them side by side on the same print.

Fillmore Auditorium

Here's a quick shot I got while shooting on assignment for Nebraska Beer Blog this weekend at Fillmore Auditorium.  We were at an event (Funktion) sponsored by Left Hand Brewing Company and Lagunitas Brewing Company when I captured this image of an artist spray painting a portrait.

The one thing that can make street photography tough in Belgium in the dead of Winter is that the sun is never up.  I found myself constantly shooting in the dark.  I took this as a challenge and started shooting a lot of scenes underexposed.  Creatively, this not only made me look at the process of capturing the photo differently, but also how we view the end results.  I was quite pleased with quite a few of them.  The photo below is of a man in Brussels out for an evening walk.  

  

Street Mimes

This weekend I did some photography for the Nebraska Beer Blog during the Great American Beer Festival.  Although photography at the festival is more documentation than artistic, it does cause me to get my camera out for the weekend and presents a few opportunities for shooting outside the poorly lit convention center.  When I was walking back to my car (no, I was not driving) on the 16^th Street Mall, I came across some street mimes.  I believe their message was religious but it didn’t come across.  Not much does after GABF. 

 

 

NYC

Just a shot I took last week while in Manhattan that I thought I'd share. 

Five Points Jazz Festival Workshop

My good friend Ido Ziv called me up Friday night asking what my plans were for Saturday.  I hadn't seen him in a while and he mentioned Greg Harris (Gili (yes, that is the instrument made of squash)), John Grigsby (bass)  and himself (percussion) were putting on a music workshop at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library on Welton for the Five Points Jazz Festival.  I thought not only would it be a good chance to catch up with Ido, but also a great opportunity to snap off some images.

While they were playing, one of Greg's students got up and performed "500 Miles High" with them.  The kid was pretty bad ass.  You could see as he played he had a real passion for what he was doing.  I wouldn't be surprised if he has a name for himself in the jazz community in the future.  I believe his name was Rocco and he is the one on the xylophone. 

If you'd like to hear these guys play, they'll be performing at the Walnut Room on August 6th.  You can also find some of their music through a simple search of their names in Google.

Clicks From Downtown Denver

The following are just a few shots I took while bumming around downtown Denver this weekend before Doors Open Denver.  I just thought I'd share.

Sundays

This is a shot I snapped of Khammany today lounging on the sofa.  I like the back lighting that really just illuminates her silhouette.  When asked what she thought about it she didn't like the fact that you can't see the cat.  No surprise there. 

More Environmental Portraiture

One thing I have always found interesting is artists working in their environment.  When I stop and think about the artists I have known, their workspace is usually merged with their living space.  This is a shot I did of my friend Christian, an artist living here in Denver, while we were photographing his work for his website.  If you want to check out his work, you can see it here:  http://www.christianespino.com/

Seattle Again

Last November I got the chance to head up to Seattle for work.  Typically I bring my camera along on business trips, but sadly enough I usually don't take it out.  On this particular trip I took some candids of my friend's daughters while in Portland but apon arrival in Seattle I only shot about three frames.  This is one of them.

Mad Scientist (photo by Zach Whitman)

Last weekend my friend, Zach Whitman, came to town on a mission (for a wedding actually).  The company he works for in the SF Bay area was hosting a photography contest amongst the employees and he asked if he could borrow my camera and get some hints on shooting. Of course I love the idea of anyone new to the craft picking up a camera so I happily obliged. He told me the photos had to be of restaurants the company services.

You see, Zach had never picked up an SLR before so I thought the best way to teach him would to be to shoot the buildings at night on a tripod. We were scheduled to go out on Friday night and the day before he arrived he emailed me the "official" rules, one of which was the photos had to be taken inside the restaurant.

Rookie photographer, inside a busy restaurant on a Friday night? No way I thought. So, Zach and I sat down over some vintage barley wines while I explained the basics. Aperture, shutter speed, ISO, rule of thirds, camera shake.........the basics.  Still, in my mind, all I could think was no fucking way.

We get to The Squeaky Bean and get a seat at the bar. As we get some drinks and start talking I start pointing out opportunities being missed. Then, Zach grabbed the camera. He would take some shots and we'd review on the screen. I'd coach him on best practices (move the white plate out of the shot, it's distracting) and he'd get back to it, all the while I never touched the camera.

I've got to say, they turned out pretty good. The picture shown here is my favorite. It is of Johnny, the proprietor of The Bean, making some crazy concoction that tasted very complex. I love the shot and it is ten times better than anything I shot the first time I grabbed a camera.

When I text Zach to ask if I could put the picture on my blog he replied:
"Of course. Use my full name. Give yourself 3% credit."

If you'd like to check out The Squeaky Bean, book a reservation here:
The Squeaky Bean

If you'd like to see more photos by Mr. Whitman.....you'll have to encourage him to buy a camera.

France 2012 / Post II

While in Toulouse earlier this summer we had the opportunity to visit the Museum des Augustins in Toulouse. When we arrived it happened to be at the exact same time a group of kids out on a field trip arrived. Of course I am very thankful that my parents exposed me to museums as a kid and I think it is something that every kid should experience, but not while I am there....or so I thought. I think I was just as fascinated at the kids' reactions to the art and their involvement as I was with the art itself. Here are a few shots from inside the museum.

France 2012 / Post I

In June I had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in France. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to edit any photos until now. Part of me wants to be able to finish them right away but another part of me likes to have the emotional detachment of time before seeing the end result. I still take film in to be developed from years ago and sometimes don't even remember where it was taken. Hell, sometimes I'm convinced it is not even my film. Of course one month is not the equivalant of seven years, but it does give you some time to detach.

When Garry Winogrand died, they found more than 2,000 rolls of unprocessed film in his residents. Unfortunately, time comes between me and the shutter and me and my review due to work and other things going on in life. For Mr. Winogrand, it was because he was spending more time with the shutter and less with the processing.

Just something to think about.

That said, this is a shot I took of Khammany walking through the entrance of the Louvre. As we were walking in one cold morning, I fell back and grabbed a few shots.

Enjoy.

Old Men In Brugge

T

These are two shots I took while in Belgium recently. It wasn't until I was in the processing phase did I realize that both of these guys are walking in a similar manner. I find Brugge to be a great city for shooting early in the morning, although the one to the left was shot in the late afternoon. The light shines through beautifully and lights up the detail in the cobblestone streets perfectly. I really think when it comes to urban shots; Brugge has some of the nicest lighting.

Time for the Summer Sun

As the days get longer I think the one thing photographers love is how much slower the sun rises and falls. Lately I have spent way too much time in the office and not enough time on the streets. A friend contacted me to take some shots of her son who brought his skateboard. By far and away, the skateboard shots were the ones I enjoyed the most. I love the lighting in this photograph. The more I shoot, the more I like to have my subjects back to the sun rather than my back to the sun. It makes for some amazingly lit pictures.

Bikes & Panhandling....Two Denver Staples

Anyone who has spent time in Denver knows there are a lot of panhandlers. Personally, I think it has to do with the fact that Denver is really a crossroads from East to West which a lot of people pass through. Of course, if you spend any amount of time here you'd know this is a bull shit theory because the same people are on the same corners day in and day out. Clearly they are not traveling.

I typically wouldn't photograph a panhandler but I couldn't resist this one. Maybe because he was on the move or maybe because it doesn't show him as a "person". By that, I mean it doesn't capture his face.

So Denver has panhandlers and Denver has bikes. At least I love having one of them around.

Wonderful Colfax

About a mile from the house has to be the most colorful street in Denver. Otto Schulze and I headed out yesterday to get some shots and the trip definitely had some interesting moments. From sipping a Guiness on the patio of The Snug while some kid who was still up from the night before was trying to convince me to shoot an underground fashion show to the liquor store owner who demanded I let him see my camera after I snapped a shot inside his store, there was never a dull moment. Ok, I'll admit photographing the inside of a liquor store on Colfax is probably against someone's rules but in my defense there were no signs stating I couldn't do it.

The above photo makes me laugh. One of the things that really pisses me off is when people cross Colfax in the middle of the street. Unfortunately, I had no choice but to run out into the middle of the road to capture this image.

Here is a link if you'd like to see a shot Otto got: http://twitpic.com/7rj6x1