Life on the Dubside

Like switching from a PC to a Mac

2009-06-30T02:21:00.002-04:00

If you have ever made the switch you understand what I mean.

Sorry Blogspot, It seems that we weren't meant to be.

http://dubsidephotography.wordpress.com/

Where it's at now.

2009-04-15T17:26:00.003-04:00

I'm not quite sure what my obsession with photographing

fires is about but I definitely have one. This is the second fire in a

year within a block of my house that I been randomly around for.

My family is convinced that if I continue to be "randomly" around

for fires that surely I'll become a suspect.

All kidding aside, between the damage the fire does along side

the damage that the fire department must do to control the

fire, I can't imagine there being much, if anything, left.

I feel for the folks that will come home from work today

to find that they have nothing left. My heart goes out to them

2009-04-11T23:48:00.002-04:00

Who doesn't love the excitement of waking up and finding that an

inordinately large rabbit has broken into your house while you were

sleeping and hidden plastic eggs full of candy, discreetly but still visibly,

all around your house.

Tomorrow, 16 teenage boys that are presently in a DYS detention facility,

will find they have been broken in on this time.

Another victim of the elusive rabbit you ask?

Not this time my friends. This time it was my kind hearted girlfriend Laura,

who spent her day off shopping for and making easter baskets for, her

residents. Even Harper jumped in to lend a paw.

I admit, I am not always the most sympathetic to their plight, but the

thought of a bunch of kids waking up and treating tomorrow as just another day,

made me a little sad. Maybe they deserve to be where they are, maybe they don't,

but as long as they are where they are, they are going to have Laura on their

side. For this I commend her (just not often enough to her).

This one is for all my Peeps locked down!!!!

Santa Fe

2009-04-03T02:01:00.002-04:00

I was blessed enough to spend last week in Santa Fe NM, with my best friend and business partner Tara, four unbelievably talented photographers giving the workshops and forty unbelievably talented photographers taking the workshops. It is hard not to change when surrounded with that much inspiration. I feel like the fog from a several hibernation, has lifted.

The resort we stayed in was nicer than anywhere I have or possibly ever will stay Gorgeous rooms that clean themselves, nice people that remember your name and are constantly opening doors for you. Apparently rich people don't know how doors work so they hire people that handle that sort of thing. Who knew.

Out in front in semicircle driveway was a fleet of Mercedes Benz cars and SUVs. These were all for shuttling guests around the property and for taking folks into town, all of these but two. These two were for me....... well, guests..... but as far as I was concerned. Free to take as you needed. This may be the norm for some folks but not I, I have never had someone throw me the keys to a 2008 Mercedes CLK350 convertible and tell me to the road is mine. Some dreams do come true.

Camera pan my Ferris Bueller moment.

Hop in, top down and I peel out down the highway with 50 cent bumpin on the radio and a shit eatin grin on my mug. :)

I had such an amazing experience with my new friends and few old ones and it will be one I remember always.

I am inspired.

2008-11-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

For as a bad a day as you may have had, Tommy's was most likely worse than yours.

Looking on in sheer disbelief, he and roommate Benny stood by watching their home

dismantled with axes and destroyed by fire. At 3:30 am on the corner of Walnut St. and Highland St. in Somerville their home caught fire after a garage adjoining their home to the unoccupied house next door, burst into flames. Ironically, it was not until after the fire department arrived about the garage fire that their home caught fire. From sitting on the couch playing video games, to standing on the sidewalk watching the fire department systematically, and simultaneously, saving and destroying your home. Running through a mental inventory o what was where and trying desperately to just be thankful that everyone got out in time and no one was hurt.

I feel for Benny and Tommy. I do not begin to think I can understand what they are feeling, because I know I surely cannot, but I feel for them. I think that Tommy & Benny truly took solace in the fact that they and the others were o.k.,.

As I left them, the reality of the situation was beginning to set in. Tommy turned to Benny and asked

"Where are going to sleep tomorrow?"

The furry fam

2008-08-04T16:45:00.000-04:00

As you can imagine,the past week, I have wanted to be nowhere other than on the floor playin

with the kids. Zoe, the trooper of a mother, turns out has pretty badly broken leg.

Now she get to rock a hot pink cast for six weeks but somehow still manages to get where ever

she wants. The littles are in full blown grow mode. They are quite possibly the cutest

things I have ever seen in my life. Tessa (the grey with white feet), Boo (all grey) and Harper

(brownish) make up the furry little posse that runs to my feet every time I come downstairs.

For a cat that has been doin her own thing for so long, Zoe is quite the affectionate one too.

Both myself and my girlfriend Laura could not be happier that Zoe landed in our laps,

bringing her kittens with her. We have truly fallen in love with this little crew.

2008-07-25T00:45:00.000-04:00

You wish these were your new friends......

Zoe chose the right tool shed to house her kittens.

She's got a doc visit in the morning and we'll go from there

as to what we can do for her and her tiny, cute and curious bunch.

For now, meet the fam.

2008-06-05T16:22:00.000-04:00

For those of you who know me, you know I like to photograph fire. Seeing as I can't start them, I never know when or where they are going to be. Luck has more to do with it than anything, that and being ready. I may have gotten to this one a few minutes too late, but I still got some great photos. I won't be surprised if I start getting questioned, hanging around all these suspicious fires. I stick to my story, I wasn't even in aisle 7.

Goodbye NY

2008-05-24T23:42:00.000-04:00

It seems appropriate that in my last visit with a free place to stay and time to kill that I find how much I like hanging out in New York City. With no real plan I spent several hours wandering. No ideas or destinations, just walking with my Ipod on and some Sigur Ros bringing me to another place in my mind. It is such a different world down there, and or the first time I found I really like it. My previous reaction has always been that it is too fast paced for me, but I find that if you don't let the city set your pace than this is a mute point. The culture, the style, the people, it all becomes this strange world that begs to be wandered through. After spending a week with Jesh De Rox, I have found myself experimenting a lot with textures. What better place to harvest samples to work with but the streets and buildings of the city. The anonymity of the city allows a certain freedom to be who ever you want and no one will question it, if they even notice it at all.

Although it may be less convenient I think I will be spending more time, getting to know my new friend.... New York City.

(the second picture is Will Smith's house in I Am Legend, so if the world ever gets taken over by night dwelling cannibalistic zombies, this is a good place to stay....... for awhile ; )

2008-05-09T02:02:00.000-04:00

Here goes try two at getting this blog off the ground. I spent last week with some of

the most amazing people I've ever met. I attended a workshop led by Jesh De Rox http://jeshderoxweddings.blogspot.com/ and Tamara Lackey http://www.tamaralackeyblog.com/. They are both amazing people and we were all blessed to have been a part of their sharing their knowledge with us. Thank you both, and to everyone else that made that experience what it was. I went to learn about textures and photoshop and photography, and all be it I did learn about those things, but mostly I learned about life. I learned about Love and interaction, about fear and listening to that little voice that can so often talk you out of the best of ideas, because they may not fit into a definition. I learned that it is not in the action that the greatness lies but in the courage to do it. I learned to be free.

I hope that I can be the planter of seeds in all those around me, the way those around me have been for me. I don't often take the time to stop and look at where I have come from and how lucky I am to be where I am, where ever that may be........ but I'm starting to.

To all my new BFFLs thank you again, and to all the BFFLs I've yet to meet, I look forward to it. See you soon.

Last of the epics......

2007-10-01T00:12:00.000-04:00

I decided that George"s Island was going to be where I would watch the epic orange moonrise that was slated
to happen the other night. I was determined to end my summer kayaking adventures on a high note and the "Boston Haabah" was always a good place to do that. George's Island is a Civil War military training fort turned Confederate prison gone recreational state park. It lies in the Boston Harbor and is used as a hub to all the other harbor islands. A usually bustling tourist area, off season and after the last water taxi leaves for the night, you have the island all to yourself. I did stumble across the exception, an amazingly cute park ranger couple laying under a blanket awaiting the moonrise themselves, living life how I often wish I could.
The envigorating surrealness of wandering this island never ceases to amaze me. Boston is so close it feels as though I could hit it with a well thrown rock, but at the same time you may as well be a million miles away. The only sound is the gentle off shore breeze and the rhythmic lapping of the waves. The occasional plane flies over head, leaving me standing on the beach staring off at it and wondering where it's going. Breaking through the horizon, just beyong Little Brewster's lighthouse, was a giant orange glow, soon giving way to the flawlessly round orange moon. The harvest was over, or beginnig, I can't remember, regarless. This was the Harvest Moon in all it's glory. A little anticlimactic I will admit but it got me out there so it was worth it. The real fun came as I slid back into my often times uncomfortably narrow kayak and shoved of from shore into the mostly black night. After being lost on the island for slightly longer than I was comfortable with I was glad to be back at the kayak but now I had to paddle back.
With some niave and unscientific logic I had convinced myself that the ocean was calmer at night and my paddle home would be easier, not so. It was colder, chopier, darker, and a lot more unnerving than my journey there. The ocean seeemed to have lost it's rhythym. Waves came from all sides as though it were a giant bowl of soup being carried up stairs by a five year old.
Cold water began to soak me and I began to feel less and less in control, like I ever really was. This is about the time I start to second guess my thinking this was a good idea. There are no other boats around, it pitch black and I am now halfway between where I cam from and where I'm going, and I'll tell you it's hard to think of the glass half full when your boat is too. When the front of that boat hits the shore there is such a rush of "I can't believe I just did that and made it back OK" that despite the exausted feeling in my shoulders and arms I feel like I could go out and do it again right then and there. Realizing how bad an idea that really is I channel that energy into shouldering my boat up the beachand throwing it on the roof of my Jeep. Another sucessful adventure and another story to tell.
A random passerby in my life once told me to "Live for the Stories"....... I have adopted this as my mantra and finally hoping to share some of those stories. I do not make any claims to being anything other than a photographer. I love life and the adventures you can find within it. Whether it be wandering along manicured and paved faux jungles of the zoo with a brightly colored map that even your 3 year old can decifer or heading off underequipt to live in Fairbanks Transit Bus 142, adventures are what you make of them.