Best Seller

With my return to blogging, I have decided to take a different approach and talk about what I think is my best work and images that others think highly of.  I sell my work through my website, FineArtAmerica.com, (who also fulfills orders done off my website) and Redbubble.com.   This picture is by far the best seller.

Florence Sunset

This was taken near the end of our trip to Florence several years ago.  We went up to the Michelangelo Plaza across from the city main and, with several dozen other tourists, took a bunch of pictures as the sun set on this beautiful city.  I took 26 shops from this angle.  I also shot many closer shots as the city's lights were coming on and it got darker, but so far this was the best one, in my opinion. 

I didn't do much to this one; pretty much a keeper out of the camera.  A little burning on the highlights on the river and a bit brightness in Curves adjustments. That's it.

Back in the Game

Since retiring in October, 2014, my wife and I retired and moved to a brand new home in the Esplanade development of Lakewood Ranch near Sarasota, Florida.  And I decided a bit back to start up again with my blog.

Ca' d'Zan

This is a highlight of Sarasota.  Called Ca' d'Zan (which is Venetian for House of John) this is the mansion of John & Mable Ringling of Ringling Bros. Circus fame.  It sits right on the Sarasota Bay and have fantastic views of the bay and the Gulf of Mexico beyond.  There is an art museum on the grounds hold a very good collection of mostly European art.  Turns out John Ringling became a very good, knowledgeable art collector. Mable Ringling also built a wonderful garden and grounds. There is also a very interesting circus museum there, as well.

I worked on this in Photoshop (of course) using a couple of plugins: Nik HDR Efex Pro and Topaz Clarity.  I also cropped it a bit to get ride of unwanted tourists. :)

Red House Art Gallery

Sardine Lake

Lighthouse on the Point

I am very happy to announce that four of my photographs and digital art pieces are now on display and for sale at the Red House Art Gallery in Graeagle, California.  Graeagle is located in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Plumas County about 45 miles north of Truckee and Lake Tahoe, and about 50 miles due west of Reno, Nevada.  These are the four pieces currently at the gallery and I'll be adding more soon.  The owners of Red House, Brian and Toni Carl, want to exhibit 10 of my pieces, but I'm starting with four.  The owners are really great people and have a fantastic collection of paintings, photography, jewelry, sculptures and objects d'art in a charming gallery in the heart of Graeagle.  My wife and I own a condo in Graeagle and we love the area.  It's a beautiful little town surrounded by fishing (lakes, rivers and streams), hiking, and, believe it or not, 5 championship golf courses (GOLF!).  So if your ever in the area you should definitely stop by and check it out.

Evening in the Valley 


This is the first art gallery to rep me and my work, but I certainly hope it won't be the only one.  So now I'll be working on getting my works into other galleries.  Hopefully some in San Francisco.

Abandoned Cabins

Civil War Anniversary

Bloody Lane - Antietam

Cemetery Ridge - Gettysburg

2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War.    As a devout history buff, this is an important and very moving milestone.  I've been a history buff as long as I can remember.  As a kid Cowboys and Indians was more often Jeb Stuart leading the Calvary.  Only problem was that in my less than clear 8 year old brain Jeb and the boys were often charging the Nazis at Valley Forge.  I did eventually work out the details and even went so far as to receive a college degree in history.  Couldn't get enough of it.  Even today I would say 70% of my pleasure reading is in history.  Still can't get enough.  In fact, I feel somewhat lost if I don't have one or two history books waiting on my "to read" bookshelf.

Several years ago my wife and I travelled to Shepherdstown, West Virginia, to visit her brother and his family with the second intent to visit certain Civil War battlefields and sights in the area.  We spent time at Antietam, Gettysburg and Harper's Ferry.  Those side-trips were very emotional for me and I took many photographs of the battlefields and historical sites.  Two of those images are here.  There are more on my website.  And they are for sale at my Fine Art America Gallery.  They are also part of the website Civil War Album.

It is estimated that approx. 620,000 Americans lost their lives in that war; more than the total number of American casualties in all other wars we have fought throughout our history.  The Battle of Antietam (known as the Battle of Sharpsburg in the South), which occurred on September 17, 1862,  was the single deadliest day in American history with more than 26,000 casualties.  I believe it is very important that we recognize and honor the sacrifices made by Americans on both sides during those bloody 4 years.  So much lost, and so much gained.



More Black & White



Angel & Cross

Dante at the Church



I've been off the blog train for some time, but now I'm back with some more black and white work.  On the left is Angel & Cross taken at a very small and somewhat remote cemetery in the tiny town of Vinton, California.  Vinton is about 30 mile due west of Reno along Highway 70 in California.  I've been through Vinton and visited this cemetery many times and on this day found the light and sky very compelling for the camera.  Cemeteries are an interest subject to photograph for me and I visit these final resting places on my travels.


On the right is Dante at the Church.  This statue of Dante Alighieri, the famous poet and writer of "The Divine Comedy", among other things, sits outside the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy.  Interesting to note that Dante was exiled from Florence due to his siding with the wrong side in a struggle for power in the city/state of Florence.  So naturally they put up a statue of him to honor his contribution to art and literature.  Funny thing politics. I've made several versions of this image, color, black and white, sepia, etc., and ended up liking this black and white version the best.  

Black and White Project

Johnsville

Trinity Church







  









 





I am starting a new project of Black and White images and here are two of them.  The first one, Johnsville, is a new image shot recently in Johnsville, California.  Johnsville is a tiny little town up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, about 45 miles north of Truckee, CA and about 50 miles due west of Reno, Nevada.  Besides being a somewhat abandonded lumber town it has one of the best restaurants in the area; a favorite of ours called The Iron Door.  The town has some very photographic old buildings, if you're into that sort of photography.  In this photograph, the small building on the left is the old firestation and houses a horse-drawn fire truck from the early 1900's.

The second photograph, Trinity Church,  was taken several years ago while my wife and I were visiting her brother and his family in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.  Shepherdstown is a fairly small community located right across the Potomac River from Sharpsburg, Maryland.  It is also home of Shepherd University, a small liberal arts college. We really enjoyed the town and the area, and since I am a big history buff we visited nearby sites, including Harper's Ferry, Antietam battlefield right outside Sharpsburg and even travelled into Pennsylvania to visit Gettysburg.  The Trinity Episcopal Church sits right in the middle of downtown Shepherdstown.

Moon over Mill Pond

It's amazing how lazy I can be sometimes.  In mid-October, my wife, Michele, and I spent 10 days up in the Sierra Nevada mountains in a little town called Graeagle.  We own a condo up there and spend a couple of weeks a year in this beautiful mountain community - lots of golf, hiking around and plenty of photo ops. I specifically wanted to get some fog shots since there was a good amount of morning fog, at least the first few days.  I dutifully rose with the dawn, looked out our 2nd story bedroom window and there it was: Fog! Cool.  But hey, I'm on vacation and want to sleep in a bit.  And of course an hour later it was gone.  Did the same thing the next day, but added it will probably be foggy tomorrow as well ...so ... snore.  But no more fog all week.  What a dope!

But I didn't miss this shot.  The old Graeagle Mill Pond is not far from our condo and we often stop by after crusing around the area, just to see what's up.  And this time the moon was up.  How great is that!  I had my camera and tripod in the car, so I set it up and took several 5-7 image bracketed shots to make an HDR image.  The lighting wasn't anything to get excited about, it being the middle of the day.  But I had no idea where the moon might be as it got closer to sunset, so I thought I'd better get what I can.  However, the processed HDR image was a bit dull, really.  So I made some image layer adjustments with layer mode and added some contrast to get this final result.  Which I'm happy with.  But, jeez, Mick, get out of bed and go get the shots!  Lazy bum.