New Photo Set : Savannah

These photos were taken in late March 2005 when I traveled to Savannah for my sister's wedding.  The wedding was held at Mickve Israel synagogue, which is the third oldest Jewish congregation in North America, as well as the only gothic style synagogue on the continent.  In the few days I was there, I managed to take these few pictures.  I had a wonderful time at my sister and brother-in-law's wedding, but need to return at some point to further explore this wonderful place.

New Photo Set : Marfa

These are images from early March 2005 when I drove 8 hours from my then home in Austin to meet my sister and her friends in this small, eclectic, ranching town in the west Texas desert.  We all had an amazing time exploring the area and hanging out at the revamped and retro-cool Thunderbird Motel (which is the sister property of Hotel San José in Austin).  No fleeting glimpses of the mysterious Marfa Lights on this trip, but I need to return soon to see that and much, much more in and around this amazing and beautiful place.

Updated Website Design :

Yes, you're reading this page right.  I have not updated this website with new content for about 4 years.  In that time I have moved from Los Angeles to Fort Worth to Austin to Houston, and photography slipped through the cracks.  However, I am now settled in Houston (been here for exactly one year to date) and plan to start regularly updating this website again with new material.

For now, I have tried to give the website an aesthetic facelift, utilizing a new visual scheme which I believe will be more conducive for viewing photography online.  In the near future, I plan to add some new architectural and city- / land-scape work from Savannah, Marfa and Houston.

New Photos Added : San Francisco

A place I once called home — if only for a brief time — I had not returned to visit for more than a year.  Driving up for a weekend earlier this month to spend time with friends and family was long overdue and made me remember how much I enjoyed living in the Bay Area.  These new photos are a product of several long hikes during the course of this weekend and reflect a visual rediscovery of the Mission, North Beach, SoMa, and South Beach neighborhoods.

New Photos Added : Los Angeles - Subway

Taking pictures in the L.A. Subway has been made unnecessarily and irritatingly burdensome by the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority).  It required me to make at least fifteen phone calls, send three faxes, and engage in mind-numbingly irrational arguments with both MTA officials and even several subway drivers.  Nonetheless, I eventually attained the necessary permissions to set up a brief shoot in my favorite station at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue.  The result are these photos taken in October of 2002, which I have just recently been able to organize for display.

New Photos Added : Fort Worth

I have added eleven new photos of Fort Worth, all taken between September and December of 2002.  Included are several pictures of the recently completed Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth designed by acclaimed Japanese architect, Tadao Ando.  There are also several new photos from downtown, the Northside, and an industrial neighborhood.

New Photos Added : Nature

I have posted two new images to the Nature Gallery.  One is a somewhat surreal composition of trees and shadows in Trinity Park from my recent trip to Fort Worth, and the other is a macro shot of a curious red insect crawling around on the screen door of my Los Angeles apartment.

10.12.2002

New Photos Added : Dallas

I have added three new photos of downtown buildings which were taken on Ross Avenue near the Fountain Place Tower and the Dallas Museum of Art at early dusk.

New Photos Added : Austin

 
I had the opportunity to rediscover Austin during the better part of this past July and August.  The Capital City experienced an unprecedented population boom during the late 1990s which many feared would forever alter its cultural landscape.  This city has always been known for its constant state of flux however, and seems to have weathered these changes as it has others in the past.  In this respect, the essence of what has always made this city a unique oasis of disorganized cultural spontaneity is still very much in place.  Even a wonderfully explicit "Keep Austin Weird" campaign has recently emerged reflecting the population's resolve to maintain an embrace of the anything-goes, friendly, lay-back, engaging atmosphere that has for years shaped this city into a progressive concentration of genuine "cool."  Some additional photos of Austin are also displayed in the Abstract / Manipulation gallery.

New Photos Added : New Orleans

Designed more in the European tradition, the city of New Orleans is no less than one of the most aesthetically beautiful urban centers in the United States.  This photo set is the result of a four day photographic exploration of the French Quarter, downtown, the Garden District, Tulane and Loyola Universities, city parks, cemeteries, as well as a nearby plantation.  Additional images from New Orleans can be found in the Abstract / Manipulation and Nature / Animals galleries. 

Updated Gallery Categorization :
 

Images on this site are now arranged among the following three categories:

o  Urban / Architectural

o  Abstract / Manipulation

o  Nature / Animals 

Although my focus remains on compositions of the American urban landscape (found within the first category), I thought it would be useful to separate out those photos which are sufficiently distinguished from my primary emphasis.

New Photos of Downtown Fort Worth : Fort Worth

I have added three new photographs of Burnett Plaza, Landmark Tower, and the Water Gardens.  It has been a long time since I have been able to add new work to this website, but I will hopefully have the opportunity to add many new photographs from Austin, New Orleans, and elsewhere over the next several months.

Sales Information & Headshots Sessions : Inquiries

 
I have added an overview of how to purchase prints of photos displayed on this site as well as how to schedule headshot sessions for the Los Angeles area.

New Photos of Venice Beach : Mid-Wilshire to the Westside Gallery

Venice Beach, California was originally founded in 1905 as a "West Coast" version of Venice, Italy.  By the 1960s however, it had been incorporated into the city of Los Angeles, its water canals had been filled in, and the first wave of "Hippie Invasions" altered the cultural landscape of this beach community forever.  Today it remains one of the best places in California for "people watching" — a bohemian neighborhood bursting with scenes reminiscent of its short yet colorful history.

New Photo Set : Fort Worth Synagogue

 
The recently completed Temple Beth-El represents one the most outstanding architectural achievements in recent Fort Worth history.  A contemporary design reminiscent of the "Old Temple" of ancient Jerusalem, this structure embodies an impressive array of themes emphasizing light, space, color, comfort, spirituality, and functionality.  Rather than competing with one another, these numerous thematic elements blend together harmoniously to create a tasteful and unique congregational center.

New Photo Set : Fort Worth Office Building

 
This building caught my eye while I was taking exterior photos of the nearby Temple Beth-El.  Although I grew up less than a mile from the area, I never took much notice of this building before.  Perhaps its glimmer in the distance at sunrise made salient for the first time its interesting shape and remarkable reflective qualities.  For the most part, its design consists of a pie shaped circular cut-out with reverse stair-stepping elevations along a cylindrical axis.   However, its strict compliance with simple geometric shapes does not detract from its unique and interesting style.

New Photo Set : Dallas

 
The downtown Dallas area has developed into a remarkable urban center with an outstanding concentration of architectural excellence.  Although it remains my least favorite city in Texas, "Big-D" nonetheless houses some of the most phenomenally designed commercial structures in the southern United States.  Because I had very limited time in the area, the majority of this photo set focused on my all-time favorite skyscraper: I.M. Pei's Fountain Place.  However, I will hopefully have an opportunity to photograph more of Dallas in the near future.

New Photo Set : East Texas

 
In my opinion, the East Texas Piney Woods is tied with the Central Texas Hill Country for the most beautiful region in the state.  These pictures were taken around towns known to few outside the region: Athens, Seagoville, and Frankston.  Although this set captures outdoor scenes during a mild Texas winter, I hope to return to the area around early autumn when the landscape's colors really come alive.

12.23.2001

New Photos of the Los Angeles Skyline : Downtown L.A.

These skyline photos were taken from atop a Hollywood high-rise on the same morning that I shot the Rooftop Reflections set.  The clearing of the skies after a rain storm created a beautiful sunrise behind the downtown buildings.

12.23.2001

New Photo Set : Rooftop Reflections

 
These images were taken on a rooftop of a Hollywood building the morning after a heavy rain.  The storm had cleared the all too often smoggy skies while leaving the roof covered with shallow puddles of water.  These two elements came together to create a temporary reflective effect which I attempted to capture in these photos. 

12.23.2001

New Photos of the Pacific Design Center : Mid-Wilshire / Westside

 
The Pacific Design Center is an enormous compellation of bulky glass structures which conspicuously flaunt their size and color in a manner that creates a harsh contrast with the Melrose Avenue neighborhood in which it sits.  Nonetheless, as I was leaving the "What's Shakin' - New Architecture in LA" exhibit at the MOCA next door, I couldn't help but appreciate the interesting visual possibilities created by this structural oddity.  Although their security personnel are not amicable to random persons taking photographs of the building, I managed to sneak in these few shots before being asked to leave.

12.22.2001

New Photos Added : Hollywood

 
I have rearranged and added many new photos to this set, mostly the product of several very long strolls through the Hollywood and Hollywood Hills neighborhood.  Although there are several images of famous landmarks such as the Graumans Chinese Theatre, most of this set is intended to focus on life in Hollywood, not just the tourism it attracts.  In this regard, I tried to create a breadth of imagery ranging from densely populated stucco apartment buildings to a sidewalk nook where a homeless man sleeps.

11.18.2001

Thematically Organized Photo Display : Photo Tour

 
It seems a challenge to discover an ideal categorization for organizing photographs.  Because many of my photos are geographically specific, most of this site is organized by location.  However, I wanted to experiment with at least one alternate format of display.  As such, I created this 10 page, thematically organized compellation. It remains a work in progress but hopefully provides a coherent way to explore the images in a manner that highlights key visual concepts which are common across a variety of locations.

11.12.2001

New Photo Set : San Francisco Financial District

 
San Francisco is a city of such stunning visual diversity and aesthetic qualities that it almost overwhelms the senses.  On one hand, it's hard to take a bad shot in so beautiful a city . . . on the other hand, no matter how well a picture comes out, it can never do justice to experiencing the sights first-hand.  I choose the commercial center as a fitting environment to focus my first photographic exploration of this great city.  I tried to discover new ways to capture such overexposed landmarks as the Transamerica Pyramid as well as to seek out a variety of interesting street scenes and other lesser known structures of architectural interest.  But with so many neighborhoods crammed into this tiny 49-square-mile peninsula, each with their own unique characteristics, I hope to have many more photographic adventures throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

10.28.2001

New Photos of LA Convention & Staples Centers : Downtown L.A.

 
These enormous structures allow for a tremendous degree of play with geometric patterns, reflective surfaces, and proportionality.  One of my favorite images, Strolling By the Staples Center, saliently highlights these three elements by showing how a pedestrian is literally dwarfed by the tall, curving, reflective glass corner at the north end of the building.

10.22.2001

Website Launched with the Following Photo Sets :

 
o Fort Worth (Downtown, Botanic Gardens)
o Los Angeles (Downtown, Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire, USC / Exposition Park, Subway)
o Chicago (Downtown, Hyde Park)
o Long Beach (Long Beach)