day 2 (Christmas eve)

My front door. A good place to start ;)

Happy Holidays everyone!

May your stockings be filled with peace and goodwill. (and some chocolate)

If you don't run you rust

Camera? what camera? oh one of those in my bag.

So I'm living in downtown Wilmington and I walk here at least once a day but I have never taken a camera along. The Historic district is a better homes and gardens photographers dream. I however mostly seem to be focused on detail and design for some reason. A typical scenario whilst walking is, hmm nice light, neat subject - wish I had a camera. Today I took a camera along and hopefully will continue to do that on a daily basis. I thought as long as I am shooting I would try to share some on a daily basis. Well see how long this lasts ;)

Thank you so much

The last post elicited quite a number of heart felt emails. I want to say thank you to all of the thoughtful readers who responded so warmly. Your kindness was so welcoming. So, Thank you for all your thoughts they meant the world to me.

I once again have made the 1500 mile journey to my Southern home in North Carolina. I am excited to be living downtown two blocks away from the Cape Fear river in the Historic District. I am still unpacking and organizing ( I heard some of you laugh at the thought of me being organized) and hopefully will soon regain some resemblance to normality.

I have a Epson 7800 up for sale. It is in great condition and has had very light use. Please email me for details if you are interested.

Selected works from Steve Brimm will be shown exclusively at Porters Neck Yoga Spa through the holiday Season. Go enjoy some art and get a massage or another wonderful service while you are there. They also sell gift certificates which make wonderful stocking stuffers!

Stay tuned for Blog exclusive Holiday Print Sales

Of life and photography

Prompted by my good friend and fellow photographer Jeff Richter, I finally got out and shot a little. We Hiked up, over and around Bare Bluff, a Michigan Nature association preserve near Bete Gris. We also shot on the beach at Bete Gris and on the Hunters Point preserve in Copper Harbor. My blood has evidently thinned a little since my dog sledding days - brrrrr. I have had a lot on my mind since may and especially this last week. Walking along the Lake Superior shore and through the Autumn woods certainly helps to put things into perspective and clarify thoughts. Not having shot much over the last year I am quite rusty and found myself going over all the aspects of creating good images. One thing that immediately popped out was something that I recognized as paralleling some other things in life. A common mistake photographers make is to go into the field, driven to come home with a certain image. This can be fine sometimes, but often it’s like wearing blinders and we fail to see the many other beautiful images right under our noses. Relationships are very similar. If we concentrate on small details of our friends, lovers, family and even strangers we miss their essence, their whole, all that combines to make that person. I have recently been guilty of this and my heart is heavy because of it. A lesson that I remembered too late was one I learned from my Daddy. When I was a teen I ask him “ why don’t you teach momma how to drive a clutch right, she’s going to burn that thing up” he replied “ what’s a clutch among friends”

Another lesson that I just learned is pay attention when you are reformatting a hard drive. I accidently reformatted the wrong drive, the drive with most of the Images I was going to share from those shoots. I think they can be recovered and if and when I do I will share.

Rebecca 1967-2009

Rebecca is on a new journey now. Like the light from a long burned out star that is still visible here on earth, her light will shine in the souls of those she has touched for the rest of our lives. Thank you everyone so much for your kindness over the past two years.

Biodegradable corn plastic?

When Al Gore made "Green" the word of the day, I was worried that the fad that was sure to follow would actually weaken the real movement. But I thought it would at least bring it onto more peoples radar. I believe I was right on both accounts. With the complete and thorough lack of ethics in advertising, corporate America didn't disappoint and stuck a "Green" label on everything they possibly could. Being the skeptic that I am, I question quite a few things.

Spring has sprung here in SE North Carolina and I have been out getting some dirt under my fingernails. While digging in a flower bed I found this plastic bottle made from corn that I buried back in 2007. Now I'm sure that making a plastic bottle out of corn is more than likely better than making it out of petroleum, but this bottle obviously did not return completely to the earth in 60 days as advertised. I remember leaving the bottle out in the sun for a month or two then I partially buried it, where it has remained until now. Is it actually made from corn? Was any testing done?

I don't really have a point. I just thought a bottle buried for a couple of years deserved to have it's story heard.

Keweenaw's 4th Annual International Migratory Bird Day in Copper Harbor

If your into birds or Copper Harbor or Brockway mountain or all three you should make it a point to get there for the birding festival. If you've never seen two thousand Hawks, Eagles, Osprey and Accipiters in one day, not to mention loons and every passerine in the book, then you need to go. Besides, there will be music, food and a bonfire in the Community park. It's a jolly good time. So polish up whatever $1100 or $30 pair of field glasses you own and head on out. Oh, I almost forgot about you Photogs. Eye level shots! Merlins bouncing on the thermals right in front of you. You can't miss!

May 15th & 16th

Go to the website for more details.

or call Karen @ 906.289.4588

Welcome to 2009

Hola! Well another year has past and hopefully it has left you with some really great memories. My year has had its share of wonderful memories with the last one being a family vacation to Costa Rica in December.

I have put together a slide show from that trip to share with you. Even though I managed to grab a few shots along the way, a lot of  those images were from a moving vehicle of some sort - planes, boats, cars and horses(if you can call a horse a vehicle) I was only going to carry a point and shoot this trip, but ended up not being able to at least bring one dslr and two lenses. Both lens were images stabilization lens which really made it possible to shoot from moving platforms. The one critical piece of equipment that somehow did not make the move out of my main camara bag was a polarizer. With all the rain that we had, the plants and everything else really had a sheen on it, which a polarizer would have been a huge asset in removing those bright reflections. Speaking of rain, it did rain - a lot. At one point I was sure that I had pretty much ruined a camera body and lens.  A lesson to carry better weather proofing. 

Here is a toast to 2009 and all it has in store for us.

Cheers

Steve

click here for Costa Rica slide show.

Happy Holidays

Well fall color is just passed peak and leaves are coming down fast. I love walking in the woods after all the leaves are off the trees. The sound of crunchy leaves under foot, the muted browns and greys, the bite of the fall air. For any of you still venturing up, stop in even if the sign says closed. I will be here for another couple of weeks working on a commission.

Apostle Island National Lakeshore

I have been to the Apostles a few times before but it has been a while. Unfortunately our trip only lasted two days because of high wind forecast which would have pinned us down on Stockton Island past when we needed to get the 12 miles back to the mainland. Stockton Island has the largest concentration of black bears

in the country. It seems quite inadvertently that there were three themes to our fall shoots this year. One is that we stayed and shot on an Island in Lake Superior. Two: Rock, rock more rock. Three: Both Islands had the most incredible Tombolo's I have ever been on. I guess all of the cold clear green water could count as four.

A photographer friend commented on how many hours I had in front of me in Photoshop after seeing images from the last shoot. Although I generally only crop, color correct and work with contrast mostly, the process of converting RAW files is sometimes tedious. All of the images that I have shown in the last two post are just the jpgs as they were shot - no post processing. With digital, I shoot differently than with film. Film you shoot to be as close as possible to what you want the end image to look like. With Digital I shoot fairly unsaturated and with as little contrast as the camera will shoot. I also shoot on the light side or the right side of the histogram so as to get as much information as possible. All this translates into fairly bland looking images that usually need something post shoot. Keep this in mind as you look at some of these images. Also there are simple point and shoot shots just to show the area. Can't always have good light for that perfect shot, so we shoot "record" shots as long as we are there.

This is a short slide show of waves crashing on the rocks (and on me) in sequence to hopefully give the feel of actually being on those slippery rocks with waves crashing all around you.

http://www.brimmages.com/splash/index.htm

Here are a few images from the Apostles - Mostly Stockton Island.

http://www.brimmages.com/apostles/index.htm

Enjoy

Steve

Grand Island and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore shoot

Well I'm back from trip #1 and I'm off to trip #2 tomorrow, the Apostle Island National Lakeshore. I put up a quick edit slide show from Grand Island and Pictured Rocks. It takes a minute or two to load depending on your connection as there are about 150 images. To many, but...

We had some awesome light, howling winds, pretty days, starry nights and a sauna. Thanks to the generosity of Marty in Munising, who gave us a boat and cabin to work from, we were very

comfortable. Jeff and I shot a lot from the boat which was pretty tough going. Shooting digital and using image stabilized lens really increased the odds of getting sharp images. I stretched hard drive and camera batteries past their limits as I shot more than 20 gigs this trip. That's about 1700 images. I knew you were dying to know that. The Light House in some of the shots is the Grand Island East Channel Light . One of the Great Lakes most photogenic lighthouses has been in danger of collapse. But thanks to a small, but dedicated group of local volunteers, including Marty, the Grand Island East Channel Light has been saved for future generations to see.

Ok, gotta go pack.

2008 Fat Tire Festival

It seems an unlikely fact that I co founded this race 15 years ago. Sam Raymond at Keweenaw Adventure (which I also co founded) and his crew have done an awesome job turning this into the event which I imagined. We started out with less than 50 riders and this year we had 330. We were lucky enough to have Steppin' in it play an outdoor gig in our new band shell. By the end of the night we had quite a dust storm kicked up by all the twirling and bouncing. If you weren't here this year better put it on your schedule for next year. Always Sunday on Labor day weekend. http://www.keweenawadventure.com/fat_tire.htm

Check out the full slideshow. The music scenes were shot at the end of a long day and with a beer in one hand while dancing so be kind with your reviews. http://www.brimmages.com/fattire2008/index.htm
It might take a minute to load.

Steppin in it was awesome. Check them out. http://www.steppininit.com/

September already!?

Just a quick note to say thanks to everyone for a great show in Eagle Harbor & Copper Harbor. The Weather was absolutely perfect. The Pasi cats http://www.pasicats.com/ played at the Copper Harbor show, check 'em out. Really cool tunes!

Harbor Fest was a blast. The setting on the lake, the grilling out, the huge bonfire and of course great music. Make sure you put it on your to do list for next year. This is a shot of Mojo, a rockin' blues master who was on the venue for the evening. Mojo also plays at the fat tire festival every year. Check his music out. http://www.mojoperry.net/

Lastly, the Gallery here in Copper Harbor will possibly be closed for about 2 weeks starting around the weekend of the 13th. If the Gallery is open the hours will probably be limited. You can call to check 910.289.4749. Jeff and Steve are going camping so if you see someone driving around with a tent on top of their car looking for just the right spot to toss said tent on, it would most likely be us. Steer clear. Actually we are lucky enough to have access to a cabin and boat on Grand Island next to Pictured Rocks National Lake shore. Then... someone else was stupid enough to loan us a boat to use in the Apostle Island National Lake shore so we have to go there as well. Bummer. Hope to come back with some good shots and memories. Ha, no radios so Jeff won't have a reason to whistle off key.

Art shows and Harbor Fest

I will only be attending the two local shows in Copper Harbor August 16-17 and Eagle Harbor August 9-10. Harbor fest is also on the 9th

Beauty and light to you

Steve

Late July ramblings from Steve Brimm

Howdy everyone, the Gallery is up and running in full swing. Actually it seems to be running faster than me, which is great. Have met a lot of new folks who subscribe to my newsletter that have stopped in to say hello. It has been great to meet and talk with all of you.

It is super good to be up here breathing the "cleanest air in the world" at least that's what the sign on the Harbour Haus say's. Actually, I'm happy to be breathing any air as the brakes went out on my truck towing a big trailer while on the freeway heading up to Copper Harbor - twice! Scary.

I have not gotten out on the water or in the woods a lot, but will soon. The cherries are coming off as well as Service Berries and some early low bush Blue berries. The Thimbleberries are looking good to produce a bunch of fruit. Yum. Fresh wild blueberries on buckwheat pancakes smothered in maple syruple - that is the only word that rhymes with purple, at least according to Roger Miller. The water level in Lake Superior is back up to normal. It has been really low for the last two years.

We are building a mobile band shell and are having a big blowout with over ten bands donating their time as a fundraiser, so come on out and listen to some great tunes, drink some beer and help us pay for Copper Harbor's newest addition.

Well, just thought I'd touch base as some were wondering if I got lost in Ohio or somewhere. Hope you can stop in and say hello this summer.

Happy trails!

Steve

PS. In case you weren't aware of the meaning of tenacity, this is it. Rebecca paddling with Megan on the big pond. I bought the kayak for her birthday almost two years ago and this is the first time she has physically been able to get it on the water. At this very moment she is getting her herniated disk operated on and hopefully be free from the awful pain she has been in for more than a year. She is currently off Chemo and has that tumor running scared. TENACITY

On the move

The truck and trailer are almost loaded, 3600 prints are close to all being signed, and my co-pilot, Bisquit is getting anxious. Me as well. All that to say Earth Works Gallery will be fully open by July 4th if all goes as planned. Feel free to swing by and say hello if you are in the neighborhood sooner as I will certainly be around.



Sprinked here, are a few floral pics from the yard and a couple from recent trips. More of those to come.



This Copper bowl is the fruits of a Metal smithing workshop I took. I will share more on that later as well.


Look foward to seeing you soon. 

Capt. Steve