New Gallery - Landscapes

The weather has been rather dreary in Seattle lately so I've been working on a new "landscape" gallery for my stock archives. It features 100 shots from some of my favorite places. Enjoy!

Gregg

Weekend at Kells

Last week, I bumped into Patrick, my older brother's best friend from High School on my daily stroll to Pike's Place Market. His family owns Kells Irish Pub in downtown Seattle. St. Patrick's day weekend is a big event at Kells and they hire a photographer to take pictures of the people in the bar. The usual photographer was in Australia and Patrick asked me if I would be willing to come down and take shots during the weekend.

I've never been interested in taking snapshot pictures at parties and to tell the truth, I've always kinda been annoyed by the "photo guy" dropping-in and popping-off a flash strobe while I'm mid-conversation or enjoying music over a few beers. But I also need to practice as much as possible and especially need practice with my flash--this seemed like a great opportunity to do so.

On Sat. through Monday Kells was packed from noon until 2 AM. It's a HUGE party.

Maybe I'm just getting old or my spending 2.5 of the last 3 years photographing 3rd world countries has left me a bit too far out of the loop but it just seemed like a lot of women wanted to have me take pictures of their boobs while flashing. When I refused, some of them actually got angry with me. What? My guy friends think that I'm off my rocker complaining about this but come on...the days of "Spring Break Cancun" and "Girls Gone Wild" videos are over, right?

OK, that's a rant that I never thought that I would be ranting about.

The majority of the people at hangin' Kells over the weekend were just plain having a blast--thanks for letting me photograph you--I had a great time! For the bare-chesting ladies--please, use interesting conversation, dance, be fun, or do something else to get attention from the guys in the bar.

*Let me know if I am way off base here.

At some point they will post pictures at http://www.kellsirish.com/

A few shots:

Colombia Photo Gallery

*CLICK TO ENTER GALLERY*

From January through March 2008, I traveled over 4,000 kilometers by car, bicycle and boat through Colombia--from coffee to coastline, the Andes to the Amazon. My mission was simple: to photographically document the country in its current state and to determine whether it is ready for western tourism. What I discovered shattered my expectations. This is a gallery of 40 of the 4,000 photos I took. The gallery will continue grow as I sift through my shots.

On my third day in Bogota, I was robbed of all of my professional camera equipment. This rattled my sense of security for the assignment. Why was I here again? Eventually, I had to surrender my trust to my Colombian friends--and set out to photograph their country with a simple digital pocket camera (which I had no idea how to use).

While there is no denying that Colombia has its share of social problems, the real story today, in 2008, is that Colombia is an emerging country, with a growing economy, and is on the verge of an epic cultural renaissance.

During the past decade, the government has used US-backed military force to secure almost all of the country's cities, villages and road networks, pushing the FARC, ELN and other Guerrilla organizations into the jungles and up against the bordering countries of Venezuala, Brasil, and Ecuador. Colombian people are eager to change their country’s global reputation of cocaine traffickers, leftists guerrillas, poverty and violence.

In rural towns and big cities alike, discotecas pump hip-shakingly vibrant tunes. In Medellin, people walk barefoot in modern city parks that showcase Latin-theater on open-air screens. All across the country, plazas are packed with weekend strollers, sampling fresh fruits, enjoying family time, people watching, or simply making up for lost time as they enjoy their newly found security blanket. All of this is happening while waves of tourists, mostly from Europe, plop down into the Colonial Caribbean city of Cartagena and then explore further afield to see what the fuss is all about.

Public Slide Show @ REI - Ribbon Of Road - March 15

I'll be helping to kick-off the American Diabetes 2008 Tour de Cure event on March 15 at the REI flagship store in downtown Seattle. The invitation card is pasted below. This will be the first non-private public photographic slide show that I've given about my Alaska to Argentina bicycle ride. If you are interested in attending please email Klound@diabetes.org to reserve a spot.

I hope to see you there!

G