Favorites of 2015

I already posted a couple of more specific highlight entries, but here is a more general overview of my past year. 2015 started off rather slow, but once it got going i had a rather busy schedule filled with new and diverse opportunities and some brand new regular clients.
My year really took off in April with a chance to work as a unit stills photographer for an indie film called The Funhouse Massacre, a horror/comedy staring Robert Englund. Working on a film set was a fantastic experience which i would certainly like to pursue more in the coming year. While i would love to present the whole collection for the full impact (the edit of my 3 weeks on set numbers over 200 images) here are just a few of my favorite shots from the film to give you the idea.

(Please click on any image for an enlarged gallery view)

Robert Englund

Sebastian Siegel gets make-up attention. 

Sebastian Siegel

Mars Crain

Ben Begley and Scottie Thompson

Candice De Visser

Ben Begley

Mars Crain

Clint Howard

Director Andy Palmer gets the Hitchcock treatment. 

There was, of course, another year of trips to my favorite landscape spot, Nova Scotia. I had a chance to be in this wonderland place three times in the calendar year. Here are a few that i particularly like. 

I found a few more entries into my Future Fossils project. I have great hopes for finding a gallery space this year to mount a show of this body of work. 

I finally got back to the Concours d'Elegance in Ault Park this year. I just love these classic cars. Here are a few detail shots. 

Earlier in the year i also got my car fix on at the Cavalcade of Customs at the Duke Energy Convention Center. 

I still don't get out to shoot enough sports and hope to rectify that in the coming year, but i do enjoy our Cincinnati Rollergirls whenever i can. I especially liked this feature shot i made during the team intros. 

I also shot the Red Bull Soapbox Race this summer for the first time. The event is a real blast. My favorite team by far was these "War Boys" working the Road Warrior theme.

The Gay Pride Parade took on special significance this year falling just after the legalization of Gay marriage nation wide. 

Of course, not everyone agreed. 

This drag Joan Crawford performance was perhaps my favorite photo from the parade. 

I did just post a gallery of images from these Black Lives Matter rallies and marches that took place this past summer over the separate killings of Samuel Dubose and QuanDavier Hicks here in Cincinnati, but these were powerful and important events so i don't mind repeating myself just a little bit here.  

DaShonda Reid, Samuel Dubose's fiancée with one of their children.

Protesters march in the rain towards the spot where Sam Dubose was killed.

A momento is placed on a shrine at the site of Sam Dubose's death. 

Friends and family gather outside the home where QuanDavier Hicks was killed.

Right place, right time had me pulling off the highway to capture this moonrise over an Indiana power plant on my way home from shooting a concert in Lawrenceburg. 

Killing time on a crisp autumn morning waiting for the Urban Trials to begin i took this shot of Cincinnati's Purple People Bridge. 

Every year i shoot the Northside Fourth of July Parade. This is usually not an assignment, just my personal desire to document what i believe is the coolest parade anywhere. Northside is certainly the place to be at this time of year. 

I always enjoy any opportunity to shoot children as i love their generally direct and uninhibited nature. These next two shots of Giovanni, 10, and Phillip, 5, were shot at the Safety Dog Bus Tour at the Academy of World Languages. 

My nephews mugging for the camera this summer worked my way into may favorites, but maybe i'm a bit partial there. 

I have always liked doing environmental portraits and really enjoy the challenge working with the previously unknown elements of location, subject and light to come up with the best possible portrait on the spot. 

Chef Carl Chambers at Bru Burger

DJ Sab at Energy Night Club

Marc Payton at P&G

And yes, i guess i will slip in a few more from The Funhouse Massacre. Besides focussing on the actual scenes of the film i made many on-set portraits of my fellow crew. These tended to be more casual portraits shot in more candid moments while the crew was at work or taking a quick break. 

Lucas Ankney (Gaffer)

Filip Vandewal (Director of Photography)

David Greathouse (Special Makeup Effects)

Andy Palmer (Director)

Bas Tiele (First Camera Assist.)

Megan "Bug" Cafferty (Second Camera Assist.)

Every now and then you get a chance be in the same space with truly special people and try your best to somehow capture that essence of greatness in a photograph. Such was the case with 95 year old Marian Spencer, Civil Rights activist, first African American member of the Cincinnati City Council and a former Vice Mayor. 

Marian Spencer

So i hope you enjoyed these images from 2015. I wish you all a very Happy New Year and trust that 2016 will be a safe, exciting and prosperous year for all of us.