One World, Five Photographers

FYI for anyone who is interested. The Mystic Art Center will present an exhibiton titled "One World, Five Photographers" featuring National Geographic photographers Ralph Lee Hopkins, Bob Krist, Jim Richardson, Eddie Soloway and Michael Melford. More than 50 matted pieces will be on exhibit.

Hopkins, Krist and Melford will be in attendance at the opeing reception on Friday Oct. 3 from 6-8p. The reception is free and open to the public.

An informal Q&A with the photographers is scheduled to begin at 5pm.

For more info visit Mystic Art Association or call 860-536-7601.

The The 30th Annual Photo Show is also taking place in the gallery at the same time, so there will be more than just the 50 prints on exhibit.

My wife and I are planning on going Friday evening, so if anyone is interested in linking up..let me know!

Urban Image Session w/Brittany!

Here are a few little diddies from Brittany's Urban Image session. We did some other stuff at the beach as well, but these are some of Brittany's faves. We had a blast. Thanks to her mom Heidi for being my assistant!!

Another Best in Show!

Surprisingly, I managed to place Best in Show again at the CT Professional Photographers Association's (CTPPA)quarterly print competition with my print titled "Anchored" on Monday night. I guess it does pay to bribe the judges! ;-P All kidding aside though, out of the 3 competitions held so far in the state this year, I placed "Best in Show" at all 3! There is 1 more in January, so hopefully I can do well in that one as well. A special "Thank you" to the judges (Jeff Dyer,Joan Genest,Marty Seifert, Ann Curtis) for their always insightful critique on my prints. The input really helps us all to become better photographers.

Next stop on the competition tour is the regional PPA sanctionaed competition at the Professional Photographers of New England (PPANE) Convention this weekend in Nashua, NH where the competition is pretty fierce. I actually won the prestigious Fuji Masterpiece Award there last year, but I am not getting my hopes up. To win it once is quite an accomplishment. Wish me luck..

Broad Brook Dairy..the end of an era..

If you are from my neck of the woods, then you have probably know of the old Broad Brook Dairy in Preston. I remember going there many times in my youth for good ole fashioned hand made ice cream. Stepping into the dairy bar was like stepping back in time. Nothing was ever updated. In it's late years, the dairy was only open a few short months, and it seemed that there was no ryhme or reason to the season. One day you'd drive by and the place looked like it had been abandoned for years. Then, a couple of days later the grass got cut and they were open for business! It was truly a cherished landmark by those of us from the area and has since been replaced by Buttonwood Farms, which many of you from outside the area may know of, from the attention it receives for it's sunflower fields and campaign for the Make-a wish Foundation.

I drove by Broad Brook a couple of weeks ago on my way back from a photographic seminar and much to my dismay, they were tearing it down. The back was ripped of the building and the place cleared out. I had always wanted to get inside and photograph it, but it looks like I waited a little too long. In all honesty, I figured that there had to have been plenty of snakes, rats, etc. living in there, so I wasn't stroming the doors to get in there. ;-P

Anyways, I happened to have a few spaces left on my card and managed to take a few images of what was left when I was passing. There were 3 rusted out milk trucks left in back that hadn't yet been hauled away. Last registered in 1968. Back when then milk man still delivered. I hope these images can give you a glimpe of days gone by.