North Shore for sure

Man, I love being home. There is something about being near the water up there that chills me out so much. I made a super quick trip to take some pictures for Kate's uncle, Mark Williams. He was a commercial diver for a while and then a lobsterman for 17 years. He's just published a book in the last year or so of stories about growing up in Gloucester, MA and his years catching lobster called, Fishing Vessel Black Sheep. He's now got a new publisher and needed a new cover. Thats where my talents came in. I'll definitely post a link for the book as well as the cover once all is done. Another plan is for Kate and I to do a multimedia piece on him. We basically just drove around for the day, stopping at different spots that related to the book or just favorite's places of Mark's.

So inspiring to be up there, its weird how drawn I am to photographing that area. Can't wait to get the project started in Hampton. I think early June is the reality.





Salt Marsh Grass, Gloucester, MA 2008









Old Pier Stilts, Gloucester, MA 2008







This is where Mark had his first job working for his dad who was a forman there. Great stories from that place which are in his book.

Mark Williams, former Empire Fish Company factory building, Gloucester, MA 2008







Mark took me to several places that he goes to write. This is one of them.

North Shore Salt Marsh, MA 2008





Also got to see my brother Derek. It was great to catch up with him. His new pictures are looking great. I was really impressed.

Derek, Newbury, MA 2008




Shot several sheets of film with my 4x5 camera on this trip. These will be the first sheets since I've got the camera back. I'll post those when I get them back from the lab.
In other tech news I dropped my 85mm lens pretty hard, bounced like a handball down several rocks. Amazingly the glass stayed intact and there was no (heavy) visual damage. The auto focus still works but something is up with the closing of the aperture blades, they won't close down. Lens shoots fine at f1.8 but completely freezes up anywhere beyond there. I'm making a trip to Nippon camera tomorrow for the lens to see the doctor. Hopefully it won't be that much.