Diversity a.k.a. Uniformity INORONO

This is my friend Abbas.  I met Abbas in 2004 INORONO.  It probably seems strange to some when I say that I have never had what could be considered a conventional conversation with my friend.

I don't speak Farsi and Abbas doesn't speak English.

Abbas was here INORONO in 2004 visiting his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren who lived in the house next door, from his native country of Iran.  In the summer of 2004 I built a garage and Abbas watched my progress day by day and week by week.  Our friendship began with demolition.  He would stand on the sidewalk or in my driveway and watch.  Sometimes he would sit and watch.  Periodically he would help me if it was obvious I was struggling to move or carry something.  Mostly he just watched.  

When construction began his interest increased.  He watchful eyes gleamed with curiosity.  He would pick up tools and ask me what they were for.  At least that's what I think he was asking.  He stood on the newly poured concrete slab and pointed and waved his arms, again, his eyes full of life, light and knowledge desperately trying to impart some of his life experience to me.  At times I think he thought that if he could just speak slowly and loudly enough, I would understand his language.

Our friendship grew following the completion of my garage as I turned my attention to my garden.  Oh how Abbas loved my garden.  Again, he offered his advice and I did my best to take it, despite only assuming I'd properly translated his hand gestures.  And oh how his eyes would light up when I delivered vegetables to him, knowing I just had to share the bounty of the harvest with him.

In April of this year I came home from work and saw a car parked in the driveway next door.  You see the house Abbas stayed in when I first met him is now vacant and For Sale.  Abbas' family moved into a house better suited for their family and has been renting until recently.  As I backed into my driveway I saw that Abbas was here INORONO again.  I saw the glimmer of recognition as he realized it was me and I think he saw the same in me.  I parked and as smiles emerged on both of our faces, we walked towards each other, hands extended, and embraced.  I still didn't understand the Farsi that flew off of his tongue but with his grandson's help with translation, we managed a conversation.  

He looked exactly as I remembered him.  Despite living more than eight decades in what I think we can all agreed is a turbulent part of our world, his eyes were alive with the light of his accumulation of experience and life lessons.  I knew at that moment I just HAD to photograph him while he was here.

I went next door one evening to speak to Ali, Abbas' son and asked about my wishes to photograph him.  Later in the week I was told he agreed and we arranged a time and a place.  

I agonized over how to set up.  My goal was simple.  I wanted capture the light and life in his eyes and the stories embedded in his face.  Isn't that what we're all after when we photograph people?

I set up in my garage, the one that forged our friendship.  I thought it appropriate.

Utilizing a homemade flat-black backdrop (and old closet door painted black on one side and white on the other) and a homemade white reflector (the other painted door), I placed a Nikon SB-800 into my EZBox softbox on a stand in the Rembrandt position at camera-left.  I closed down two stops from ambient and utilizing TTL at +2 compensation, dialed in an exposure.  The white reflector at camera-right brought out the detail on his shadow side while still allowing the depth and the texture to show.  In the last few frames I wanted just a touch more fill so I added a second bare-bulb SB800 in Group B at  -3 compensation in a Justin Clamp about ten feet from him.  All were shot with my Nikon D700, 24-70 f/2.8 lens in RAW at ISO 200.  I believe this final shot was 1/200th at f.3.2.

INORONO there is a lot of talk about diversity because of that big entity on the other side of the bridge on Marsh Island.  Diversity is important to them up there and is important to a lot of the people I know but I find that diversity, by it's very nature, needs labels in order to define itself.  I grew up in a world of labels.  Where and when I grew up lot's of folks were labelled.  There were "Catholics," "Protestants," "working families," "white trash," "colored folks," "rich," and "poor."  Even today, living INORONO I see this same "diversity" in my neighborhood.  There's us, the "white, middle-class family," the "Catholics" across the street, the "Jewish family" next door, the "Chinese," the "Japanese" and the "Muslim" families all in our quaint little cul-de-sac.   But they're all just labels.

Here's the deal.  My friend Abbas and I are different in many ways.  We've grown up and lived in very different worlds with different circumstances and situations.  Our friendship, however, is based on our human experience; our desire to learn from others, to take care of our families and to enjoy what life has to offer.  My friend Abbas and I are much more alike than we are different and I'm so very grateful to have made his acquaintance and become his friend INORONO.

Prom Time INORONO

That peculiar tradition and teen rite of passage known simply as "Prom" took place in Wells Commons at the University of Maine last night.   

While it's true that my daughter, a Senior at Orono High School was in attendance, my involvement this year, like last, was more than just a protective dad meeting the daughter's date at the door with his trusty Sig Sauer 9mm pistol holstered in plain view spouting friendly reminders about just how much she means to him.  I was the event photographer.  Events such as this frequently challenge us photographers because no matter how well you plan, there is always something to make you wonder why you agreed to take this assignment.  I am pleased to report that I was not faced with that last night to any large degree.  

I got a good spot to set up, there was power, the ceiling was high and white and I had room to maneuver.  Now the reflective DOTS the organizer gave me to hang up on the backdrop as part of the "CANDYLAND" theme gave me a moment of, "oh no," but in the end they added nicely to the photos - photos that as I compose this sit unprocessed. (be patient, I'll get them done and posted by the end of the week)

Here's the set up.  White muslin backdrop (I know, I know......WHITE!  Don't they know black is a much better choice and really makes the colors of the dresses POP?)  Alien Bees AB800 in an Octa in Rembrant position.  Key light here and everything else works off of it.  Another Alien Bees AB800 into a shoot through umbrella for fill on camera left.  Good Right?  

No.

Keeping the notion in mind that white backdrops almost never look white because of the quick fall off of the light in the foreground (thank you David Hobby and Joe McNally), I placed two Nikon SB-800 flashes on stands with Honl flags to light the backdrop and make it appear white.

There it is, as simple four-light set up.  Fire the Alien Bees (1/8th power into the Octa and 1/16th power into the umbrella) with Pocket Wizards and the SB800s in SU-4 mode on 1/32nd power and we're good to go.  Looks something like this:

Okay, let's face it, only the photographers reading care about this stuff.  What about the kids?

Below is the photographic evidence of the good time had by all.

I even managed a Softball Dad moment when I was able to pose all of the Class of 2012 Varsity Softball players - a photo sure to re-appear in the slideshow at the end of season Banquet.

And finally, the highlight of the night came when my beautiful and smart and awesome daughter Andi was voted the PROM QUEEN by her classmates!  It was a terrific gesture that is one more piece of evidence of how special it is to live INORONO.  The support we have received from our community ahead of Andi's surgery on Tuesday has been overwhelmingly touching and something for which we are extremely grateful.

Thank you - I'm so glad and proud to live INORONO.

P.I.E. Challenge

One of the really cool things about being a photographer is that I get to meet, know and occasionally hang out and collaborate with other photographers.  I love seeing how others work, how they approach an assignment or a topic and how they then choose to present their work for us, and the rest of the world, to see.

In addition to being a member of the Eastern Maine Camera Club, I hang out with a dynamic, ever-evolving, growing and changing group of photogs and we meet periodically for P.I.E.  (We actually do eat pie, made from scratch by the lovely wife of one of our photographers - Phil Flagg.)  But P.I.E. stands for Photographers Information Exchange.  It is a friendly, collaborative, open and non-competitive get-together where we simply chat, share, ask and compare notes on anything and everything photographic.  It's awesome actually.

One element of our recent P.I.E. get togethers has been to issue challenges to each other.  The purpose of the challenge is to recognize that we all get in photography ruts from time to time and need a good, swift kick in the pants to push us out of our respective comfort zones.  I'm sure that not everyone in the group looks at it that way completely but it is fun to all contribute a topic on a little piece of paper and then put those topics into a hat out of which each of us then draws a topic.  We now have an "assignment" and are now responsible to make a photograph (or more) of the topic and share it with the others in the group on our closed Facebook page.

I LOVE seeing how people attack their topics and frequently say aloud to my computer screen while looking at their work, "I would not have thought of that in a million years!"  I love this!  Thank you Jodi Renshaw.

Last week I drew "A Stranger."

I set out this morning to photograph a stranger here INORONO.

One of the very cool things about Orono is our people.  I literally walked up to three young men in The Store/Ampersand INORONO (see previous Blog entry), told them what I was doing and each agreed with virtually no hesitation.

The really cool part is that one of them was also a photographer and was out exploring this morning INORONO and shooting analog.  Yes, that means he was shooting film.  You remember film......right?

I chose a totally minimalist approach.  Nikon D700 with 50mm f1.4 lens and available light.  Period.

I wanted to shoot wide open (f1.4) and I wanted an old-school, grainy black and white film, newspaper quality so I cranked up the ISO and pretended I was shooting Kodak Tri-X 400 push-processed to 800 with developer and fixer that really should have been replaced.  (Yes I remember The Darkroom)

Pretty happy with the results and want to thank Devon, Scott and Justin - you are part of what makes living INORONO special.

Shop Local Day - Every Day At Parks Hardware

What makes living INORONO special?  Two Words.....Parks Hardware!

Although the world we live in and the retail world Parks Hardware is thriving in have changed dramatically over time, the fact that you can walk into a Hardware store INORONO, hear the hardwood underfoot creak as the elevation changes, admire the patina on the tin ceilings AND be greeted by people capable of answering your question or providing that special widget you need makes me smile!

Linwood White, Jr. is the proprieter of Parks Hardware on Mill Street INORONO.  Lin has been working here in one capacity or another since the mid-70s and although back then he couldn’t then imagine the twists and turns of life that would see him return to his hometown to own and operate the store his dad took over from Mr. Parks in the early 70‘s, there is a contentment on his face and a relaxed, proud glimmer in his eye as he talks at length about what he thinks makes Parks Hardware special.

Did you know, for example, that in 1991 there were 25 Hardware or Paint stores within a 7 mile radius of Parks?

Did you know that Parks carries 35,000 individual items in their 4,000 square foot store?

   -Compared to the “big box stores” carry about 40,000 individual items in their 100,000 square foot warehouses?

Lin is very proud of the fact that while he simply cannot compete with the big boxes soley on price on many items, he can provide value on virtually everything in his store.  The staff at Parks has over 100 years experience in the Trades or in Hardware Retail.  Customers do, in fact, have different expectations when they walk in here and those expectations are what Lin and the crew strive to exceed as they provide answers (the most valuable commodity they have to offer frankly) as well as competitive pricing on good quality, often American-made, products.  

At Parks you will find many seasonal items inhabiting the shelves or hanging from the ceiling but what they’re really known for is that which people of my generation would expect from any good hardware store:  a comprehensive plumbing department, very good paint and electrical departments and a very complete tool accessory department.  There are new items all the time from Fly Rods, locally made Byer Hammocks, US made bean pots, decorative pottery, bird feeders and hats.  There are toys and sleds and carving tools along with Case knives, specialty hand tools and cast iron cookware.  You can get your screens repaired, have keys made in front of you, buy an incubator for hatching eggs and between catalogues and the internet, Lin has access to over one million SKUs, or individual items. 

Parks Hardware proves every day that you don’t have to go to the Mall, you don’t have to go to the big box and, in fact, you don’t have to leave Orono to get a good deal.  

Having a store like Park’s Hardware INORONO helps to anchor our own tax base, to give residents a reason to go and linger downtown and if you do you’ll see that it is more than a store, more than a source of income for the employees and for the town and more than just a place to get nails, or paint or wire.  Parks Hardware is a place where you connect with your community.  It is a place where you feel part of something special and bigger than us all; it is a very special place indeed, INORONO.