Through my work as a graphic designer, I use varied grid structures to organize content for print projects, to create better user experiences and interface interaction on the web, and as an aesthetic tool to make projects more attractive. These processes and preferences as a designer also influence how I think, see and what I respond to through the lens as a photographer.
Some of the grid-organized images in this section are part of a series titled Human Elements, which documents our intervention and impact from a birds-eye view with shots of agricultural production, transportation infrastructures, and the production of varied commodities.
I am attracted to the unique viewpoint that aerial photography provides, and the capture of unintentionally created painterly abstractions that I call agri-strations or aqua-stractions. But more than that, these structures represent the “natural” result of human innovation, fueled by the necessity to organize, control, create efficiencies and sustain our lives. They also speak to our relationship with the planet — to consider, regard and conserve.
Rice fields, agri-straction — half flooded, from 400' above
.
Salt ponds, aqua-straction — Oklahoma panhandle salt ponds from 400' above
Rice fields, agri-straction — half flooded, from 200' above
Agriplastic mulch, agri-straction — Louisiana, wrapped plants in a crop field, from 200 feet above.
Aerial viewing — The drone images for this exhibit were printed and installed on the floor for “aerial viewing”.
Baitfish ponds, agri-straction — Arkansas
Agriplastic mulch, agri-straction — Louisiana, wrapped plants in a crop field, from 200 feet above.
Train Mosiac, train-straction — Kansas City
Rice Fields
Agriplastic mulch, agri-straction — Louisiana, wrapped plants in a crop field, from 200 feet above.
Burned out multi-unit condominium complex — Louisiana
.
Largest cattle yard in the U.S. — with an occupancy of up to 15,000 cattle, Oklahoma
Abandoned steel mill roof – Buffalo, NY
Salt Ponds – Oklahoma Panhandle
Lake Erie groomed beach
Steel Mill yard – Zug Island, Detroit
"lay flat" photography fun with granddaughters.
Client work – Deshler, Ohio
Stacked logs – Hundred’s of thousands of full-sized trees from a Texas paper mill look like stacked toothpicks from the air as they wait to be transformed into paper products.
The Bruce Peninsula – Lake Huron
Tahquamenon falls
These minimalistic images speak viscerally and document transitory moments that share a sense of place and meaning with just two elements: hue and texture (also see Water Abstractions).
Less is more — more or less anyway.
Lake Michigan, Frankfort, MI
Tim – The Sidewalk Saint
Tim is a New Orleans street performer known best by his alias “the Sidewalk Saint”, where he has been a local fixture and gold-painted human statue since 2002. I met him a few years ago and spent New Year’s Eve, 2020 and a couple extra days on the streets with him.
Tim was originally a steel hanger by occupation (contractor that hangs i-beams when high-rise buildings are constructed) but says that became disillusioned with his compensation, left work and has been living/sleeping on the streets of NOLA since that time. He lives a simplified life with few belongings and some props that include his golden football and a can of Krylon spray paint. But living on the streets of the Big Easy isn’t so easy, especially during the pandemic, and making money as a non-moving statue has some significant downsides when vehicles don’t see you. He’s been run over multiple times and was once dragged by a garbage truck for 3 blocks after it shattered his hip and created multiple leg fractures.
“I don’t dance, sing or play an instrument. I just lay there motionless. I’m a statue – they don’t do anything. But I ain’t never failed at anything either, including this – doing nothing. Plus, I get to sleep in a gallery courtyard in the shrub-burbs with the best view in town.”
Tim enjoying a break from being a human stature while watching the fireworks on New Years Eve, 2020.
Chicago, below the “L”
Empathy — self, as a chicken
Milo Yellowhair – Oglala Lakota Tribal Elder, Pine Ridge reservation
Milo is an Oglala Lakota Sioux and activist, historian, filmmaker and former tribal vice-president. I have worked with and known Milo for three decades now, and love his sense of humor, quick mind, large heart and perceptive insights. He has endless energy that has helped fuel a life in pursuit of political justice, social change and environmental preservation, while traveling the world informing and educating other cultures about Native American history and customs.
“...You have to start acting like you believe in this land … somebody who sees America as home, not a commodity”. – Milo Yellowhair
New Mexico – A Puebloan youth walks through an alley to his home in the pueblo that his ancestor’s have inhabited for nearly one thousand years.
Kenneth, aka “Montana Bones” — Talented New Orleans street musician, kind human being. RIP my friend. 1956-2024. Photographed in New Orleans, LA.
Chief Joe American Horse – Oglala Lakota Tribal Elder, Pine Ridge, SD
This image of Chief “Joe” was taken at his home after participating in a sweat lodge ceremony that I had been invited to. Chief Joe is the grandchild of the Oglala Lakota warrior chief American Horse, notable in American history as one of the principal war chiefs allied with Crazy Horse in Red Cloud's War (1866–1868) and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Toronto Twins
Noah – Street Performer, New Orleans
Street performers – New Orleans
Bowling Mindfulness — Self, Deshler, Ohio
Working class Flatiron – Buffalo, NY
At the Amargosa – self
Homeless
Kate and Rachael – Pine Ridge Reservation.
Ethiopian immigrants in Buffalo, NY
Johnson Holy Rock — Tribal Elder, Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe
Johnson Holy Rock was a respected tribal elder, historical storyteller and former President of the Oglala Lakota Tribe on the Pine Ridge reservation. I had the privilege of spending time with him of several occasions and recording the story of his father and grandfather's first-hand accounts at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
This photograph was part of a series done during the creation of the website A Pine Ridge Story where I designed, shot all of the photography and wrote the copy for the site. You can learn more about the project by visiting our business site, designdirection.com
Top of Mount Katahdin (self) — the highest point of the state of Maine and the beginning (or end) of the Appalachian Trail. This image is near the summit and #knifesedge.
These Lake Michigan abstractions share ephemeral moments, memories, and a sense of place with the limited elements of hue, texture, and some in-camera movement.
Some of these captures are available for extra-large format printing with high-resolution pixel-counts that allow for scaling up to 9-10 feet in width (or more per request) while retaining smooth zero-noise blends and linear details that can be appreciated under close inspection – for installations on large walls for home or business-corporate applications.
The Niagra River – Lazy shutter, above the Falls
The Niagra River – Lazy shutter, above the Falls
From the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, these images capture fleeting moments as light, wind and currents change the environment by the minute. I am thankful to call this place my second home.
If you don’t see what you need here, I have hundreds of quality Lake Michigan photographs, so feel free to contact me by using the form on this website.
Pancake Ice – Lake Michigan at Point Betsie
Lake Michigan – Frankfort-Elberta
Shooting in cold weather with 50 MPH winds requires some commitment, like walking backward to the beach to avoid being sandblasted and working the camera controls when you can no longer feel your fingers. But sometimes it’s worth it.
Photo from the Elberta pier with waders, trying to keep myself and the camera dry. Photo by photographer friend Peggy Sue Zinn.
Lake Michigan, Frankfort, MI
Breakwater Lighthouse, Frankfort, MI
Lake Michigan, Frankfort, MI
Lake Michigan, Frankfort, MI
The images on this page were shot at the incredible Caddo Lake Cypress Swamp along the Louisiana-Texas border. This unique ecosystem boasts the largest cypress wetlands in the world at over 30 thousand acres and is the only natural lake in the state of Texas. My wife Lynne was born about forty minutes from here and we frequent the area when visiting family.
I photographed this Limpkin eating snails and minnows at Caddo Lake, where the species is a relative newcomer. Although they are plentiful in the Caribbean and Central and South Americas, they were not seen in the Louisiana area until 2017. With long windpipes, they can make piercing high pitched screeches and wails when alarmed or in courtship.
This Great Blue Heron at Caddo Lake is perfectly adapted for a life of fishing and flight. Their long necks extend to the water for fishing but also curl up inside the body when resting, or flying for better flight aerodynamics. Great Blue Herons also make excellent “watchmen”. Their eyes have antiglare and precise depth perception features that capture detail at about three times the fidelity of our human eyes, and can zoom nearly instantaneously between telescopic and close-up modes. They typically are on alert to any movement in the area unless they are resting, so I was fortunate that this bird allowed my kayak to get so close.
The late Billy Carter – Legendary guide of the world’s largest cypress wetlands at Caddo Lake and Big Cypress Bijou in Uncertain Texas.
If you have never been to Uncertain on the NE border of East Texas and Louisiana, watch the award-winning documentary that included Billy, called “Uncertain”.
Billy Carter’s lure collection
Giant Salvinia vegetation – Giant Salvinia creates an attractive floating island but is actually an invasive species from South America that has strangled many of the native plants at Caddo Lake and other wetlands throughout the southern United States.
Washington State — Canola Fields
Washington State — I spent the formative years of my childhood just 30 minutes from this location. I am sure that the people who live in these pastoral scenes are imperfect, but I still prefer to believe that their lives are somehow as ideal as their ranches are beautiful.
Southeastern Washington State
Client project – This area of rural Ohio has some of the most fertile farmland in the country and as a result, a significant number of freight trains pass through the area with agricultural cargo. This was shot while working on a commercial video project for an agricultural, natural supplement company.
Drone view of rye grass pollen being harvested for natural supplement use.
Rye grass field before sunrise
Rye grass pollen sacks ready for harvest
Location – Detroit and Buffalo, NY.
Flour mill, Silo City — Buffalo, NY
Silo City — Buffalo, NY
Silo City Flour Mill, Rustbelt Penthouse — Raised a couple hundred feet in the air, this penthouse-workroom in Buffalo was part of the largest grain port on the planet.
Cadillac Stamping Plant boiler room — Detroit
Western High School – In 2016 after Detroit’s bankruptcy, nearly 400 public and private schools in Detroit sat vacant. This image from Western High School was shot two years after the school had made some significant remodeling upgrades.
Cadillac Stamping Plant – Detroit
Rust Belt Mother Ship – steel mill, Buffalo, NY.
Father’s trees – I planted these trees with my father when I was a boy scout.
At the time I couldn’t appreciate the value of our efforts, and it seemed excessive that my father insisted on hand-planting about 1,500 red/white pines and spruce trees in the open field — especially during the mid-summer heat. Of course, he knew he was planting in me the value and reward of labor, stewardship, an appreciation for the planet's resources and the obligation to project, protect and help create a better and more beautiful future.
Thanks dad.
Lon — My friend and colleague, Lon Ferguson, was buried a quarter-mile from this live oak in rural eastern Texas. He had shared with me that when he passed away, he hoped that his remains would be placed at the foot of a large live oak. When I went looking for his grave in the summer of 2010, I figured that it would be obvious where to find where his body was placed — next to the biggest live oak in the cemetery. But it wasn’t that easy. I eventually found his plot however, with a token live oak seedling planted a few feet away. I was a bit disappointed at first, but decided that the small tree was probably a better metaphor for the rebirth of Lon’s new life.
Zorro
Lake Superior — Keweenaw Peninsula
Crystal Lake – near Frankfort
Frankfort, MI — Betsie Bay
Porcupine Mountains — Presque Isle River
Porcupine Mountains — Presque Isle River
Michigan’s Porcupine Mountains — Before the sunrise
Michigan’s Porcupine Mountains — Sunrise
Debrinski Point facing West – Death Valley
New Mexico — Part of the Taos Pueblo complex which has been inhabited by Native Americans continuously for nearly 1,000 years.
New Mexico – A Puebloan youth walks through an alley to his home in the pueblo that his ancestor’s have inhabited for nearly one thousand years.
Cheyenne Sundance Teepee — This lone Teepee was left after a Oglala Lakota sun dance that I attended in the southern Black Hills. From high bluffs above the Cheyenne river, the site overlooks a unique bend where the water winds to the north, south, east and west. A set of ancient petroglyphs in sandstone walls commemorate the significance of the location.
Debrinski Point facing East – Death Valley
Utah backcountry – First light.
Chip Thomas installation — This is a documentation of a rural installation by artist Chip Thomas. Chip is a physician and artist who lives and works in Arizona’s Navajo reservation and has installed projects like this across the reservation and the Painted Desert area. To learn more about his work and the Painted Desert Project, copy this link: https://jetsonorama.net.
Death Valley: Daybreak and already 110 degrees.
Arizona route 66
Death Valley
Southwest Utah backcountry
Slot Canyon – Arizona
Horseshoe Bend, Arizona – Sticking my lens over the edge of the cliff at the much photographed Horseshoe Bend — about two hours northeast of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River.
Sage Creek, South Dakota
