Wyoming Grasslands

I survived another leg of the Gay America project and now clock in at 37 states complete. I flew home from Atlanta, where I return Sept 4th to continue shooting. I still have GA, FL and AL to do before bringing the car back to NY. The six shoots I did since Santa Fe were in Carlsbad NM, San Angelo, Pflugerville and Conroe TX, Loranger LA and Jackson MS. Amazing men, stories and photos. Can't wait to share. In the meantime, here is a shot of the grasslands in the eastern part of the scenic wonder we call Wyoming.

Northern Plains Summer Colors

On the latest road trip for my project, I had shoots in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, Wyoming and Colorado. Spent some time up in a Buddhist retreat, a college town, a rural farmhouse, and lots of cool places in between. Some things that caught my eye were the farmland in western Wisconsin, a stand-alone gas pump south of Fargo (no store or attendant in sight) and a sunflower field in SD. I arrived in Santa Fe a few days ago to recharge my batteries, so to speak, and am heading off tomorrow morning for the final leg of this road trip back to NY through TX and then east.

Flint Hills, Kansas

As I prepare for the next trip for my project, I wanted to post a little something about the last journey, which started and ended in Milwaukee, but brought me to Des Moines IA, Omaha NE, Kansas City MO, Wichita KS, Tulsa OK, Little Rock AR, Jackson TN and finally Farmersville IL. One spot that really left me breathless was along a drive in Eastern Kansas through these amazingly large rounded grass covered hills known as the Flint Hills or Bluestem Pastures. As the sun was setting and the views from the highway amazing, I stopped quickly to try and capture the American heartland at its best, cows grazing and all. The resulting image is just OK, but you get the idea. I also turned around and took a shot of a truck whizzing by me on the highway, with the moon in the distance. Sweet. Interesting side note, Elton John apparently has purchased a lot of land in this area, at least according to the woman at the Kansas Welcome Center.

Happy Birthday Dom Deluise!

I have had this on my site for a while and saw that Dom is turning 75 today and wanted to send him birthday wishes. Happy birthday Dom! He was so funny on the Dinner for Five set in Los Angeles where I shot this before they started taping the show. He really wanted for me to try and get a shot of him with lots of smoke surrounding him and he tried his hardest, but it just didn't work out very well with my small lighting set up. So I asked him be all serious with his cigarette and ended up loving those shots best. He then sat down to dinner with host Jon Favreau, Richard Lewis, John Herzfeld, a director, and Peter Falk and they taped for a few hours, telling great stories from the industry, me lurking behind the cameras with my sound-proofed blimp taking stills for promotions. Memorable experiences to say the least.