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NOTE: As of early September 2006, I've switched my attentions from PhotoFriday to WeeklyShot.

Each week, Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Photo Friday is about challenging participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

Assignment: Bright
This image was part of a series of fashion photographs I created in which a woman emerges from a bright light. In this case, the model is standing at the top of a rise in a local skateboard park at sunrise. Behind her is a 4' x 4' panel covered in tin foil to reflect the rising sun. I put a dot of vaseline on the lens filter to blur the edges of the reflector. A red filter completed the effect.


Assignment: Boy
These two boys were in a group of children who gathered around the bus in which I, various VIPs and dancers of the Boston Ballet were on our way to a reception and demonstration at the Beijing Dance Academy. I had taken a Polaroid photo of them and handed it to them through the window—hence their expressions of interest and delight. Six photos of the demonstration can be viewed beginning here.
This is a photograph of my son, Ryan. I like this portrait very much. In this image, he's in that transition between boyhood and manhood.

Ryan has been through a lot in his life. He was badly burned in a house fire shortly before his 10th birthday. He received extraordinary care, survived and was later provided with special opportunities that are sometimes granted to sick and injured children. As a young adult, he has dedicated his life to the task of helping special children. Now, he is an Assistant Director of Camp John Marc in Texas. He's a remarkable person. I'm very proud of him.

Assignment: Silver
Perhaps I should swap this image with the image from last week's assignment (Circle)...they may be a better fit. This view of Moscow, Russia, was taken from the balcony of my room at the Rossiya Hotel, adjacent to St. Basil's Cathedral and across from the Kremlin. This photo features a large, rotating (silver) Mercedes Benz sign on the right, with Moscow State University in the background on the left. The Mercedes sign is attached to the top of the house built by Stalin for the Soviet elite. Here's a description from http://www.flickr.com/photos/akabelog/232722/

"...the famous House on the Embankment in the foreground. The Communist elite liven there in 30's. Most of them were executed in Gulags. Nowadays, Mercedes rules. "

Assignment: Circle
This is a spiral bevel gear, manufactured and chrome plated by the Amarillo Gear Company. The large circular ring is about 30" in diameter. This was used as a cover shot for a promotional brochure. The original was shot on 8"x10" color transparency film and has not been retouched, nor have any special effects been added in Photoshop--the image predates Photoshop. Everything you see was done in-camera using a multiple exposure technique.

Assignment: Friend
These two horses had been standing beneath the tree in the background when I called to them from the barbed wire fence that ran along the highway near Bastrop, Texas, one foggy morning. They approached me, out of curiosity, it seemed, then posed for this photo.

Assignment: Four
Dancers of The Boston Ballet Company
(clockwise from top center) Jerilyn Dana, Bonnie Wyckoff, Ellen O'Reilly, Elaine Bauer
Performing Pas de Quatre by Anton Dolin

Assignment: Private
This is the latch inside one of the stalls in the faculty men's room at The University of Texas School of Architecture in Austin, around 1969. I always had a camera with me in those days, documenting what I saw and trying to figure out what photography was all about. This is what I saw.

I'm still trying to figure out what it's about, and now there is the World Wide Web, and digital images everywhere: no silver halides, no latent images, no gelatin silver prints, no sense of anticipation while waiting for the film to be developed. It goes on, I know: instant gratification, no expense, etc.

Assignment: Portrait
I've lost track of so many friends over the years. Krystal was the exceptional Wardrobe Mistress for the Boston Ballet in the 1970's.

This photo was taken one morning at my home studio. I wanted a breezy, laughing, festive kind of photo, but she wasn't a morning person and just wasn't in the mood. So, going with the flow, we created this low-key portrait that I like very much. I used only one light from behind which was reflected off a screen set very close to her face.

Assignment: Common
Taken on a summer day near my home in Dallas, Texas, 2006.

Assignment: Remarkable
I grew up spending lots of time on the beach in Southern California. When I was a little kid, my dad would point to the horizon and say, "There is nothing between us and China but that ocean."

I had long had the desire to visit China when the opportunity arose to accompany the Boston Ballet as their photographer for their tour of China in 1980. This shot was taken early in the morning, about 50 miles outside of Beijing.