Jonbob’s Blah Blah Blah Blog

November and December was a really busy time for the studio.  With a heavy travel and session load I decided to scale way back and focus inward on the business for the second half of December.  One of my goals for this year was to be recognized on PDN’s Photoserve for Portfolio of the Month. Well, nothing like getting ahead of schedule, because while I was out shopping one day close to Christmas, I received a text from a friend and photographer Rick Lohre saying CONGRATUATIONS! I shot back ON WHAT. He say POM. I had no idea what he was talking about. I decided to give him call to clarify. As it turns out my portfolio is from on the Portfolio of the Month loop on the home page of Photoserve from DEC 20-JAN20. So thank you Editors at PDN, your site has been an incredible resource for my work and I have grown because of it.

There is also a great article on the home page Maggie Soladay whom I have worked with in the past and is an extremely active photo producer with a amazing sense and a global view of the way photography has and can change the world for the better. You can see more about her non profit efforts at http://salaamgarage.com/.

Late last summer I was shooting in Indianapolis for Bicycling Magazine. The story which is now on the racks was a bunch of fun. Two day’s in the Midwest heat and sun shooting Marian College student and Cycling team member Adam Lebovitz.  The first day of the assignment we were at the veledrome shooting, (which was a beautiful piece of Americana), I decided to climb on top of the judging tower to shoot the team as they rode a few warm up laps. In the distance I could hear the school band practicing and joined by pounding out the beat of the drummer on the hollow railing.  As I am leaning into the corner tapping away my assistant yells up “Hey, your not afraid of Hornet?”.  I stepped back, looking at the inside of the rail seeing two or three hornet’s crawling on the rail, thinking to myself no big deal.  This is one of the instanance’s were a comment would be much more approapriate than a question…something to effect “Get your ass down you are about to get attacted by about 50 hornets”  I decide well better not risk it so I am gonna head down. As I hit the ladder I looked over at the back of the rail where i was leaning to see it covered with hornet’s less than an inch from where I had been standing. (hair’s on the back of my neck are standing as I type this).  It took the rest of the shoot shake off the disaster that I barely dodged.  I just looked at it through the eyes of the cycling team Photographer standing quietly about 15 feet above the track, starts flailing and screaming, probably following off the platform like and idiot in a huge amount of pain. It would eventully have been funny.

Regardless, the shoot was a huge success. Check it out….

Last friday I headed out to Devou  Park to photograph the cyclocross race for a friend of my who designed the course.  I rarely shoot these types of events but it was good to just get out and photograph with no real major expectations.  As I was working, (which in this particular case barely looked like work), I began thinking of how a culture  is so defined by a language.  I am not speaking of english or spanish more about slang, traditions, and customs.  And how so often I am not a product of a particular scene that I am photographing. In this case I rely solely on my curiosity and find that I operate in a heightened level of sensitivity to everything that is going on around me and try to break the code or at least tap into the flow of events.  I am also found that being honesty and a naive buys the freedom to ask dumb questions without criticism.  It always makes for a learning experience. I love that my work takes me into other peoples worlds and passions. I love constantly operating just outside of my comfort zone.

You also view these a bit easier at www.jonbob.com/client/cyclo

Check out the new site for the Simple Portrait Project.  Very excited about it have a look and sign up your crew at www.thesimpleportraitproject.com

Well maybe not quite yet.  But for the last 3 years I have done my sisters christmas card.  The first card wasn’t much to speak of. Year two was really fun. Eccentric Alcoholic wife and her ultra conservative husband with their three boys in mustard colored shirts and ties.  Our main prop (Happy Holidays Cake) was dropped along with the only classic martini glass that we had just minutes before we were ready to shoot.  But we made work anyway.  

Last year the card took a different approach.   We knew it was gonna be difficult to out do the year before  so we went a completely different direction.  We shot on a grey November evening. It was dark when we started and rapidly turned to nighttime. We were able to shoot 3 rolls of 120mm on the holga and crossed our frozen finger’s. 

Since WOXY (the future of Rock n’ Roll) has pulled up there roots and headed to Austin, TX.  She and her family are going too. So this year we are plugging away ahead of schedule.  Not sure where it will end up but I do see Chap’s and a Lasso in my future.

This summer I was invited to participate in a project with Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park.  The project was to include 14 artist each to give a visual intereratation of the Play house.  I apporached the idea with with a similar mindset that I do my Notebooks. So i took a walk through and around every  inch of the grounds and this is what I saw:

Notebook: Playhouse in the Park

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Went looking through the archives for an image and found some old dusty images that used to be in the portfolio.

After living for months in an abandoned house she was found by my good friend, dog lover, and photographer Michael Wilson.  We gladly took her in. She was seriously under weight and we could see all of her ribs. After a few weeks of steady food she is back on track and doing really well with the kids.  

At the studio her primary responsibilities are: Licking Stamps, staying off the couch, collecting payment, and wagging her entire backside when you walk in the studio. So far she is performing well beyond expectation with her given  responsibilities… except the couch one, she is still working on that. 

DAISY and Maryrose in the Studio

Recently I traveled to Houston on assignment with Walmart to shoot a parade. The assignment was a perfect blend of americana and curiosity full of beauty queens, accordian’s, costume’s and local politicians. The police lead the way on horse back follow by a street sweeper and had it not rained this would have been a perfect plan.  Instead, the street sweeper smeared horse crap down the entire parade route and the float I was sent to document was following close behind the street sweep, that’s a mile and a half of AWESOME.

Also, came home with a Houston Notebook check it out here.

Houton, Texas