Friends and Art…

Photograph © Jeremy Wade Shockley 2013.

I recently pulled a number of images for the Open Shutter Gallery’s themed exhibition, Shadow. Ultimately using a set of images taken with high contrast Black & white film during my years in Africa. Never-the-less this image was set aside for its complexity, strong shadows, and the intimacy that I personally fell this photograph evokes.

The picture was taken a few days prior to my wedding in Guatemala, while traveling with close friends in the colonial tourist town of Antigua. We ordered cafes at a new “western” style bistro off the main plaza, just to escape the heat more than anything I suppose. Looking back at the La Ruta Maya essay, I feel this picture is representative of another culture, the culture of tourism which is alive and well throughout Central America and Guatemala.

To me this is very personal image of close friends, a memory of a moment that was, ultimately a frame from many frames – bringing me back to one of the best trips of my younger life.

Limitless: iPhone 5 Field Tested.

Photographs © Jeremy Wade Shockley 2013. All Rights Reserved.

As a street photographer, journalist and an adventurer at heart: Size does matter.

The rapid emergence of cell phone cameras in the world of digital storytelling, and the recent release of Apple’s iPhone 5 certainly begs the attention of any serious image maker.

The file quality is beautiful and accurate. Each picture holds the richness that I would expect in a professional level camera.

Having only upgraded my own phone over the recent holiday, I have taken numerous oppertunities to push this camera to its limits with surprising success.

To protect my new sidekick, I purchased a high quality screen protector – applied front and back – which is then complimented by the Moshi iGlaze Armour case.

The Moshi case maintains the phones intended slim, stylish look while still protecting the camera lens from surface contact.

The shutter buttons are also easily accessible for those who might prefer to trip each exposure with gloved hands – a great tip for cold weather photography.

Stay tuned for more iPhone Travelogue postings…Best, Jeremy

Back to the Basics: Chronicling my life by way of iPhone photography.

The open expanse of Colorado’s San Luis Valley stretches out before us, dusk moves in.

Our rooster – Slick – keeps an eye on his flock, another on me.

The season’s first snow clings to a burnt snag in a wilderness that has been twice burned by wildfires within a decade.

Excited for the season, our Rhodesian takes to the snow with playful ferocity.

Free range cattle are rounded up at summer’s end, crossing the Vallecito before the first snow blankets the high country.

Fresh apples are picked throughout the community, washed and pulped during the autumn ritual of cider pressing.

Drought leaves  stumps exposed on a dry lakebed as summer nears it’s end, the full moon casting a glow over the arid landscape. All Photographs © Jeremy Wade Shockley 2013. All Rights Reserved.

In my line of work, I come full circle more often then one would think. I picked up a camera ten years ago to document my immediate surroundings, from there I honed my craft.

Working full time as a professional photojournalist, I have had to “train” myself at times to put the camera away, enjoy the moment.

Be present.

Then comes the rationalization that these are the moments that I most desperately want to record, these are my immediate surroundings, though I am no longer living or working abroad the need for a visual record has never been stronger.

Each day is my own. No impending travels, adventures or assignments lie on the horizon before me. Life lies before me with each sunrise, and each sunset.

While I often lie my Nikon aside, with it’s assortment of prime lenses, and even heavier flash units, and all the batteries & memory cards that keep the system viable, I pick up the iPhone.

Full circle.

I am once again free to chronicle my comings and goings as simply and with the same straight forward intentions as I once set out to create with a fistful of film and the world ahead of me.