Just spent a fun weekend with master light painter Harold Ross.  He’s been making this magic for twenty some years and his techniques, tools and teaching methods are brilliant.  Using little flashlights with diffusing tubes, we painted each tool and surface in a darkened studio and then composited the 20+ exposures in Photoshop.  I’ve never made friends with Photoshop so learning the language of layers and masks was challenging.  But I can see so many applications to landscape work..

The tools are heirlooms passed down from my Grandfather, Harry Logiodice.  By trade a carpenter, plumber and mechanic, his multicolored approach was more than a way to identify his tools at a job site — it was his art.  And combined with the patina of use from his large, callused hands, they’ve become wonderful keepsakes.

Late afternoon light, busy street, conversations stopped.

Oh, Acer palmatum and japonicum!  Can any tree show more fall beauty? And Oh, OG!  What a bold and brilliant cover design!  No wonder you took the Gold GWA Media Award this year…

This outtake from the container book was surprisingly easy to put together.  Ray Rogers rustled up the myrtle topiaries from Ken Selody’s sizable collection at Atlock Farm and we staged the group against a weathered nursery door.  We’ve shot a lot of strong images here and I’m always surprised by the depth of plant material Ken has on hand as well as the photogenic corners of his nursery.  The composition did lend itself to a cover – simple shapes, quiet background, lots of head room – qualities the designer of Green Scene, Laurie Baxendell, picked up right away.

A letter arrived today notifying me that this eight page spread in the spring 2010 issue of  Country Gardens took a Silver Award of Achievement for Magazine Photography in the Garden Writers Association Media Awards program.

A second  letter announced that  The Encyclopedia of Container Plants also took a Silver Award for Technical Book Photography.

And a third letter let me know that my website, Rob Cardillo Photography took a Silver for Electronic Media Photography.

All three are eligible for a Gold Award which will be announced on August 29th at GWA’s Annual Symposium in Indianapolis, IN.

Pop Photo May 2011 on newsstands now

I like this image but didn’t love it enough to include in my recent gallery show but  someone at PopPhoto did.  And they weren’t the only ones — both Sue and Ray and were taken with it but I didn’t give much heed to their opinions.  Shows you what I know!  It’s in the new Chanticleer book  which is now available through the publisher, Amazon and even ebay (??) .

Beet sprouts at the gym

There’s a earthy smell in my basement and it isn’t from the cat.  I’m starting nearly forty kinds of seeds for a new book project and the warm, moist  fragrance arises from trays of  seedlings perched on rubber heat mats.   Feeling the pull of this forced summer, the vegetables, herbs and annual seeds are swelling and stirring into green sprouts that reach up toward the false fluorescent sun.  I haven’t done this in years and it’s lots more fun than I expected.

Cabbage seeds up close

Before planting, the seeds were subjected to a closeup lens to reveal their rich patterns, colors and geometry.  These images require long exposures and a solid camera mount to avoid camera shake  — greatly magnified at this level.  The rig is secure but perched on wooden floors which vibrate madly when the dogs as much as  scratch themselves.  So I wait for their nap time to slowly push the tiny gems into interesting pools and piles.  But then the mailman arrives and all hell breaks loose in both the macro and the micro world.

Untitled, Robert Bergman 1990

My reward for finishing the taxes was a day trip to NYC to see the AIPAD show.  The Association of International Photography Art Dealers annual show brings together dealers, collectors and just plain lovers of fine photography at the romantic (and slightly dilapidated) Armory at 67th and Park.  Seventy galleries display hundreds of gorgeous prints from all the masters — Kertesz, Adams, Cartier Bresson, Weston,  Avedon, Mapplethorpe –  I came to pay homage and to be stimulated.  I was especially taken by the Robert Bergman series from his trips out west in the late 80′s.  Armed only with a 35mm film camera, a fast lens and an enviable ability to get very close to his subjects,  he created these emotionally charged portraits of some of life’s less fortunate travelers.

Roseville Cottages, Truro, Joel Meterowitz 1976

I studied with Joel Meyerowitz last spring and admire both his street and landscape work (two very opposite disciplines that I also embrace) but I’ve never seen one of his prints at this scale.  I think it’s from his seminal Cape Light book which I remember pouring over in a store unable to buy it as a college student.  Working with a view camera and available light, his landscapes from this period are  brilliantly profound and artfully nuanced — masterpieces that still yield a salty air of serenity even 35 years later.

Kafue National Park, Zambia, (Elephant), Sebastiao Salgado 2010

Salgado is mostly known for his haunting social documentaries of  third world workers and displaced populations. His powerful images pull back the veneer of  a world economy that often depends on exploited peoples in hard surroundings.  His more recent work  focuses on endangered wildlife and ecosystems.  This timeless elephant portrait (only $14,000!) leaves me breathless.

Several works from Broken Manual, Alec Soth

Finally, Alec Soth, an artist who finds rich narratives in the everyday.  Every picture asks  a dozen questions and his style is fluid and unpretentious.  His Sleeping by the Mississippi portraits from a decade ago were so powerful and unnerving that I never thought he could go much further or deeper.  But he has.   The show runs through this Sunday and is the best $25 ticket you’ll ever spend.