Occupy Wall Street, October 2011

The first time I stopped by OWS the tourists, photographers and police outnumbered the protesters. My second visit a few weeks later showed me a very different scene. It looks like they are settled in for the long haul. Let’s just hope that the city and NYPD can keep their cool.

See the series on Flickr or Google+

Lunar New Year Parade, February 2010

I had a gay old time photographing the Chinese / Lunar New Year Parade in Chinatown, NYC. Unlike Tiger (2010), Ox (2009) and Rat (2008) the Year of the Rabbit brought quite a bit of whimsy to the event.

Not everyone was all fuzzy ears and smiles, however:

Stade Olympique, October 2010

Last fall I spent a whole afternoon wandering around the spookily desolate olympic stadium grounds in Montreal. Aside from a few athletes, a handful of Japanese tourists going to the tower, and a kid practicing parkour, the place was deserted. (wikipedia)

Snowy Prospect Park, 2011

I was out of town over Christmas, so missed the big snowmageddon. But mother nature gave us another 6 inches or so for me to play with.

Bronx Zoo, Winter Visit 2011

Although some of the less hardy animals are on vacation (do they go to Miami?) a winter day makes for a nice crowd-free visit to the zoo.

Opening reception photos (on facebook)

TOM GIEBEL’s solo exhibition of photographs, XYLEM AND PHLOEM, was on display at the SOAPBOX GALLERY in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn from Friday, November 12th through November 25th, 2010

Halloween 2010

I’m not normally a Halloween person, but this year I photographed the festivities in Fort Greene, Jackson Heights and SoHo while participating in a weekend workshop given by Mary Ellen Mark.

Alaska 2010

Highlights from my awesome trip to Alaska with Muchmore include the Anchorage to Seward ride on the Alaska Railroad, the Kenai Fjords boat trip, the Mount McKinley / Denali park visit, flying lessons over the Knik Tundra with Greg, hiking the Winner Creek Trail with Nancy, and a lot more!

Hanami, 4/23/10

After a hectic work week I managed to get to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and get some photos of the cherry blossoms before they drop and before the crowds descend on the esplanade for Sakuri Matsuri, the BBG’s annual Hanami festival.

Winter Reconnaissance

Somewhere in the title there’s an anagram with Wisconsin in it, which is fitting because these photos were taken on the short flight from Appleton to Milwaukee. The window in my favorite seat (2A) was a little scuffed, so these are not the clear shots I would have got if Midwest Airlines still had it’s new Boeing 717s. Nonetheless, the shortness of the flight (20 minutes) means we never get too high, so it’s easy to make out all lots of detail on the ground. The snow helps too, adding lots of contrast and making it easier to pick out the larger features.

Excitement, euphoria (Stage 1)

Disenchantment (Stage 2)

Search for the guilty (Stage 3)

Punishment of the innocent (Stage 4)

Distinction for the uninvolved (Stage 5)

Go Humans Go, 3/11/09

On average, my Atomische photoblog gets about 600 page views per day, reflecting about 200 unique visitors, who look at an average of 3 photos each. That doesn’t include robots, like Google, Yahoo and others, who visit the site every day looking for new posts.

Yesterday around 10am I noticed a huge spike in traffic and peeked under the hood to see what was up. Following through the chain of referrer links I discovered that the lovely Mrs. Mudskipper posted a link to my photo over on the social bookmarking site reddit. A handful of visitors there voted the image “up” which kept it on the list.

So, by the end of the day my site had 4759 page views, made by 4066 unique visitors. That photo “Go Humans Go” received a total of 3833 views. (Take note that without the reddit bump, my site would have had traffic far below normal.)

To Mrs. Mudskipper, whoever you are, I say thank you for helping bring my art to the people!

Trevor Brown: Stripping the Familiarity from the Everyday, New York Times, 3/7/09

The opening for Trevor’s exhibit “Ordinary Wonderful” was a huge success. He wowed them with his presentation–and presence–and got a nice write up in the new New York Times blog “The Local.”

I’m thinking of selling my macro lens and ring light flash, and perhaps even the 30D and 10-22mm wide angle zoom lens. I have only used the macro lens twice, and while the photos are impressive the technique itself doesn’t really interest me very much. I think part of the problem is that the focus needs to be excruciatingly precise for the images to work, and I just don’t have the patience.

Many more macro photos here

Saw some bulbous bollards yesterday in the Meat Packing District. Don’t know why I find these things so compelling. The people eating brunch in all the surrounding cafes thought I was a little odd.

Next in the series of photographers I admire is Shen Wei. I first noticed him when coming across photos from a recent project of his called Almost Naked, a series of amazing intimate portraits, with a few interesting environmental/still life photos mixed in. As with the Jesse Burke, the emotional frankness of Shen’s photos really speaks to me.

Today while checking out the shows at Humble Arts Foundation I came across the photographer Jesse Burke.

I don’t often do portrait photography, mainly because I’m not naturally comfortable with people in general. The process of getting to know someone takes me a long time. Even with people I know very well, the photo shoot itself becomes awkward and unproductive. But see a lot of potential there, and really hope that with a lot of practice I can eventually get good at it.

Jesse Burke’s photos really speak to me. Partly because it’s familiar: the faces and scenery remind me a lot of my time in Wisconsin. But also because the emotions he brings out in his subjects are those that often stay hidden.

I have three photos hanging in the group show “As We See It” currently on display at The Center. The show runs all summer, but the opening reception is Thursday, June 12th at 6pm and you are invited!

Visit my profile on the NYCPhotoClub web site to see my artist statement and other information.

As We See It
Fourth Annual Photography Exhibition
June 9 – August 21, 2008
Opening reception: Thursday, June 12, 2008, 6-8 pm
The Center, 208 West 13th St, 2nd Floor, NYC

My friend Henry is having a solo exhibition of photos from Friday, May 9, 2008 to Saturday, May 31, 2008, called “Reslience”. Check it out!