Hot Rod Open House...

Bumped into this little bit of advertising out front of the hardware store the other day...

Ye haw... my first Hot Rod event in New Hampshire! Followed the signs, only to find 3 guys standing around a late model 5.0 Mustang, with the hood popped up, in a muddy driveway. Oh well... Still look'n forward to seeing what's in store...

Happy to find... I was found...

There's a blog that I love to frequent called IMAGES FOUND. It's creator, Levi Wedel, posts images he finds on the internet that, in his words, "he wished he had made." The site boasts thousands of images made by photographers of all skill levels, from all over the world, with links back to their websites. I've spent hours on end combing through the pictures and links which has proven to be an excellent source of inspiration for me.

A couple of days ago, I was flattered to find that he had posted a couple of my images that he found and liked...

From Portland with Love...

Via its owner, Joe Shea, one of my photography-on-wood pieces, made its way to Nakameguro, Tokyo recently as part of a group art show/auction titled, From Portland with Love. All proceeds from the sales were donated to the victims of the earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck Japan on March 11th.

From Portland with Love is the brain child of Matt at Hellion Gallery in Portland, OR, who has close ties to the art community in Japan as well as Portland, OR. Work from the likes of: Blaine Fontana, Joe Shea, Eyeone, Racecar13, Scott Hewson and many other greats... graced the walls. The show took place at Hatos Bar where it was displayed April 12th - 16th. I'm happy to know that my(Joe's) piece, Murphy's Bar, plus many others sold, thus contributing to a great cause. There is still artwork from the show available for purchase on the Hellion Gallery website, please visit the link above to see more...

More scans...

Still no job, so I still have spare time to do some scanning. The good news is that I have a phone interview tomorrow and one the next day. I'ts been fun scanning lately because of a new software I am using with my Nikon 9000.

When I arrived here on the East Coast, I pulled my scanner out of the box for the first time in a year. I had the pleasure of working on an Imacon Flextight 848 during that time and didn't need mine. Well... since the last time I had used my scanner, I updated to a new Imac with a new Mac OS. Nikon conveniently quit updating their Nikon Scan software for the new Mac OS and I read in an online forum that people weren't even taking the risk of loading the old onto any system running OSX 10.6. I decided to avoid it as well.

Nikon Scan always left me frustrated and was probably the most un-user friendly software I had ever used. But, I will give Nikon credit for putting a link to a third party software provider called, VueScan, as an alternative to their inability to stay in the game. A little tricky at first, VueScan, has proven to be much easier to use than Nikon Scan and I can achieve the color I am after much faster. Any color negs I had that were more than a stop over-exposed were nearly impossible to scan before, but now I can almost get what I am after in the click of a button.

Here's a few I dug out to play wtih...

Job hunt... Scan... Job hunt... Scan...

Still here in my new homeland of New Hampshire, where looking for a job has become my job. It has never been more evident to me that times are tough, than it is right now. I spent the last 15+ years refining my skills in a craft that has gone the way of the buffalo. Looking for a job in the photo-imaging industry, especially in Southern, NH, is like looking for your car keys in the refrigerator... you know they're not there... but you look anyway. 

I've started looking for jobs related to my experience before becoming obsessed with darkrooms, scanners, inkjet printers and such but... it's been years since I've driven a forklift or managed a supermarket. I don't think prospective employers are making it that far down my resume, so... the quest continues. 

I spend countless hours per day staring at my computer, weeding through online job boards until my eyes pop out. In between, to break up the madness, I sneak in scans on my Nikon 9000. I'm at least having fun using my skills to work on my own stuff and seeing images that have never been viewed in any form other than a negative.

Here's a few I did today from a VW junkyard...