Shooting From the Inside Out

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Hi to All the Ships at Sea,

This photo of Arturo Gatti will be featured in my new book, “Shooting From the Inside Out”. Tentative publishing date is late September, 2013.

All the best,

Joe D

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Will a Rainbow Put a Smile on Your Face?

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Hi to All the Ships at Sea,

© Joe DiMaggio

© Joe DiMaggio

It’s a little known fact that JoAnne and I had an illegitimate son, by the name of Dylan (just joking.) Please understand across the studio just came a comment…”You’re out of your mind what are you saying?.” So let’s just be honest, I am out of my mind, I agree, it’s just the nature of the beast.  Dylan at a very young age had a babysitter, by the name of Dennis Wheeler.  Dennis’s art is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art. In my humble opinion he is one of the finest artists of our time. In those days we lived on the sea and rainbows were relatively commonplace. They usually happened after it rained…I never quite did figure that out. One day Dylan decided to paint rainbows. He painted, I don’t know, somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty different rainbows. I think JoAnne said to him one day, “Why don’t you sit outside on the stoop and maybe you can sell the rainbows to people who pass by.” (You can tell who the mercenary business person is in our small company) That’s why she is the brains and the beauty.

Dylan sat outside with the rainbows as people would come by and pick them up for 2 cents each.  The timing on this was approximately ten months after Musician Doug Stegmeyer went on to playing bass on a different plateau. There was a knock on the door and it was Peggy Stegmeyer, who lived down the street.  In her hand was one of Dylan’s rainbows. She very softly said, (I am paraphrasing) “Joe, this is the first time a smiled in almost a year.” I’ve been known to say, all the great things in the world are free and occasionally a great piece of art may only sell for 2 cents. But it made some one very happy.

All the Best,  Joe D

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Lovable Lew, a Magnificent Jew

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Hi to all the Ships at Sea,

One of my friends is a great internationally known photographer by the name of Lew Long, or Lovable Lew.  He started his career in NYC and ended up with a Rolls Royce in England. He worked for every major advertising company in the US and Europe. I remember one of his great ads of a TWA pilot inspecting an engine on a rainy day. It was brilliant. He’s now based in Miami and still generating great photographs. He’s begun to delve into videography. He has a great friend, who was a major player at McCann-Erickson, by the name of Greg Birbil. He was born in Coney Island, doesn’t get better than that, especially if you love Nathans. I’m going to reblog some of his blogs because they are just great and I would like to share them with my friends…that’s you…if you didn’t know. Follow his full blog here: An Ad Man in Greece

While in college I worked for the post office at Christmas time delivering mail. This was pre Internet and it was snail mail, especially at Christmas time, tons of it. Two to three weeks of helping the regular mailman. It was my first government job; my second was the Army a few years later. Before I go any further, I have to explain something; as a kid growing up in Coney Island, dogs were not part of my life as they are now. Through my wife and kids, all dog lovers, I have become pretty much a dog person. In an immigrant neighborhood where I was raised, nobody had pets, certainly no dogs, maybe a cat for mice if you had a store. Dogs were scary; think of the expression “junk yard dogs.”
I delivered mail in Brooklyn, but a Brooklyn different from Coney Island. I delivered mail in a neighborhood that had single and double family houses. These houses had front yards with fences around them and they had dogs; big noisy, snarling, vicious, rabid dogs, between me and the mail box, which was usually on the porch. Perhaps the regular mailman knew each dog personally…but not me, to me they were “junk yard dogs.” All dogs were supposed to be dangerous. There was only one way to deliver the mail, after all, the mail must get through, even though it was only Christmas cards and life magazines and ads. I opened the gates and the dogs ran out, free and happy I guess. I could deliver my load of mail. I have created a whole neighborhood of released happy dogs involved with each other, probably mating and making more dogs for next years Christmas help.
I am not proud of this crappy thing I did, I would like to personally apologize to my daughter Chris (she is a great dog lover, check her blog, thelifeofcaptainchip.blogspot.gr.) I remember arriving at a house, no yard, and no dog. I start to put some mail in the brass slot at the bottom of the door and I am ambushed by a dog on the inside, he grabs my fingers and I try to pull my hand out and the mail slot closes on my fingers cutting them. Freezing weather, bleeding fingers and the dog is on the inside proudly barking away. How do I get me revenge on this beast, it actually might have been a tiny poodle, but to me he was a snarling Ridgeback; I get a life magazine out of my bag, I have no idea if they even subscribed. I put the magazine in the slot until the dog gets a hold of it. I then pull him into the door and then ram the magazine in…hoping to skewer him; I must have missed because he continued barking and probably making fun of me, giving me the “paw.”
Aside from the cold and the dogs, delivering Christmas mail was OK, meeting for coffee and killing time so we could go out on a second run and drag it into heavy overtime. I now know all dogs are not “junk yard dogs’” at least the ones I have in my yard aren’t.
All the Best,
Joe D

One of the Greatest Bass Guitar Players of All Time

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Hi to all the Ships at Sea,

Sometimes we do not appreciate a particular photograph on a particular day. I would like to think that every photograph taken by everybody (not just me) is extremely important in that particular moment in history. Unfortunately, sometimes that moment becomes blurred or it’s forgotten…for whatever reason.  My day started out as an “off” day, until a close friend and neighbor knocked on my door and said he needed to set up a shoot. His name was Doug Stegmeyer. Doug’s mom lived four houses down and still does. A great pianist and a great piano teacher. That’s probably where Doug got the beginning of his chops. His brother Al, also a good friend of mine, was a music engineer. Doug wanted some head shots done and I said OK, how about about  in a week or two? He said, he needed them done today.

So I reset the lights in the studio, broke out some Kodachrome and told him to get a couple changes of clothes and come back in two hours, which he did. In my opinion Doug was a multi-layered person. On stage he was an absolute dynamo. He could play with the best of them, and he did. He was Billy Joel’s bass guitar player for a long time with world-renowned drummer, Liberty Devitto, they grew up together. It’s amazing how music and photography go together. Way before MTV, Hullabaloo, Soul Train and the Dick Clark Show, music and images were always married together. Think of Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer. At the end of the shoot, I broke open a bottle of white wine and he handed me a list of people he wanted the photographs to go to. Which, to be honest, seemed a little odd at the time. But in reality, none of that’s important. Off stage, he was an extremely warm, gentle, loving person. Put him in the studio and his eyes lit up. One day he gave me a lecture on microphones. Yes, it was a little above my head.

To get to Doug’s studio we passed what seemed like an infinite number of gold records. To be honest, there may have been a lot more sides of Doug than I ever knew. He spent a lot of time on the road. And the road for both photographers and musicians can be kind, exciting and sometimes very cruel. Doug’s brother Al called me the other day and asked me if I had any photos of his brother. I said, yes but they’re buried in the archives of over a million still images between JoAnne and myself. He asked me if I’d take a look and I said…OK…but it’s going to take a month. What never ceases to amaze me is JoAnne’s grasp of not only her photography but her editing and skills in organization. She managed to find them in less than 2 hours. I’d like to share a few with you. Just three different sides of a very complicated, brilliant and amazing individual; who unfortunately moved on to another level of consciousness too early.

Tech Info: NikonF, 105mm lens, Kodachrome 64, 1/90th of a second at 5.6, mixed light (daylight and dynalight), Black and White converted in NIKs software

I’ll follow this up in a couple of months when I get through the artwork.

WALK IN PEACE

All the best,

Joe D

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Walk in Peace

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Hi to all the Ships at Sea,

I just received a phone call from my cousin Gerard and he described the military ceremony for my cousin Denis. We talked for an hour trying to play catch up. A dear friend of mine in Scottsdale is going to go and photograph the stone, in which Denis requested it to say “Walk in Peace”. It doesn’t get better than that, no clichés for my cousin.

Denis J. Dermody: loving husband, father, brother, uncle and great friend to many passed away March 2, 2013 at the age of 68. He was born in Queens, New York to Gerard and Francesca Dermody. Denis is survived by his wife Ann, daughter Maureen, his brother Gerard (Ann), Kevin (Barbara) and numerous nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents, sister Maureen and brother in law Frank Testagrossa. Denis spent his childhood in Port Washington, New York where he developed his passion for fishing and being on the water. Denis, a highly decorated Marine served in Vietnam 1967-1968. Among his many awards he earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart. He embraced a career as a firefighter. He was a founding member of Port Washington Fire Medic Company Number 1, after which he was honored with a plaque on an ambulance. He later worked in the printing industry. He was a bon vivant who loved cooking and sharing meals with family and friends. An avid sports fan, Denis also enjoyed golfing. He had an infectious laugh and a gift for storytelling. He will be missed greatly by the many whose lives he’s touched. Memorial services will be held at the National Memorial Cemetery, 23029 N. Cave Creek Rd., Phoenix, on Monday March 11th at 10:30 am. A reception will follow at Rude Family Northwest Mortuary, 4033 N. 19th Ave., Phoenix. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to .http://www.hov.org/. 

All the Best,

Joe D

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Ann, Don’t Forget to Call

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on


Hi to all the Ships at Sea,

For anyone who didn’t know, Ann Raine was a great photographer, an absolute lovely human being, and a brilliant business women. She had the unique ability to adapt to any and all situations. Last Saturday she made an executive decision to take a long trip. There’s no doubt in my mind that everyone she touches on that trip will fall in love with her. We’ll still be able to talk to her – it’ll just be a slightly different conversation. It’s a little known fact that she was the first member of our Board of Directors – she of course, will continue to be on the Board. When we have our meetings, she will have a vote.

She paid me a compliment once and thanked me for everything that I taught her. In reality, she taught me more. Many of you including Dennis Wheeler, Hugh Brodie, Bobby Kyle, Brian Struble, Larry Malang, David Kenny, Linda Pederson, Dan Horton, Jeff Thomas, John Dryzga, Ralph Mocciola, Monica Cipnic, Dylan, JoAnne Kalish, Lourdes Merson and to be quite honest with you a few hundred others would like to wish you an amazing journey.

Keep that smile on your face and your camera close to your heart. Remember to open up 2 stops for back light.

Joe D & Ann Raine© Linda Pederson

All the Best,

Joe D

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There’s Nothing to Shoot

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Hi to all the Ships at Sea,

The last few weeks have been HELL to the tenth degree. And I’m just not going to go there. I decided to take one day off and do nothing but split wood. Due to Hurricane Sandy I had two, hundred year old oaks come down. I decided to cut it up and split it for firewood for next year. I used a chainsaw to cut the wood but an old-fashioned maul to split it. The reality is, I genuinely enjoy it. It’s great exercise and it can stop you from going postal. And  the real thing about splitting wood, at the end of the day you can actually SEE finished product completed, done, that you did yourself. Not some stuff floating around cyber space-never really knowing if it has any meaning at all sometimes. Towards the end of my day I split a piece of oak and I looked inside and I just freaked out. I went into the studio and picked up a brand spanking new Canon G15, power shot. Never took a photograph with it. Robert Luckett sent it to me for test and evaluation for Adorama TV.  I had used its predecessor before and loved it.  As photographers we need to constantly be looking up, down, left, right, in front of us and behind us looking for an image. This may be one step above a snapshot but I like it. I did it for myself.

So the lesson for today is simply this: pick up your camera give yourself a little bit of time and make a photograph. Heck, it’s not a snapshot, it’s a photograph. If you ever have an opportunity to split some wood make sure of 2 things-you wear gloves and take a lesson that if you make a mistake, you could be in a lot of trouble.

All the best,

Joe D

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Dedicated to Annie

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Hi to All the Ships at Sea,

I never put a name on a photograph nor do I put titles, and for the most part, I don’t dedicate photographs to anyone. Last night JoAnne and I had the opportunity to go visit an old friend, Ann Raine. Ann is one of the most beautiful, lovely, wonderful people I have ever met. In a world before multi-tasking, she was an international horse woman, potter, smart banker, business woman and more recently a great photographer. We went to say hello and we did. She is as beautiful today as when I met her 10 years ago. So I dedicate this photo to Ann, she inspired me to take it. It’s not my usual style. Thanks for the inspiration.

Dedicated to Ann

Dedicated to Ann

All the Best,

Joe D

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A War Without Heros?

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Hi to All the Ships at Sea,

A WAR WITHOUT HEROS?

Silver Star
Awarded for actions during the Vietnam War

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Corporal Denis James Dermody (MCSN: 2242960), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as a Fork Lift Operator with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron ONE HUNDRED FIFTY TWO, FIRST Marine Aircraft Wing, in connection with military operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. On the afternoon of 17 March 1968, the Khe Sanh Combat Base came under intense North Vietnamese artillery fire, and an ammunition storage area received a direct hit which ignited a fire. Reacting instantly, Corporal Dermody unhesitatingly maneuvered across the fire-swept terrain toward the site. As he approached the storage area, a large secondary explosion occurred. Undaunted by the explosion, Corporal Dermody continued to the location and, upon arriving at the site, fearlessly approached the flaming ammunition and commenced spraying an extinguishing agent on the blaze. Despite the enemy rounds impacting near him, he ignored several additional secondary explosions and continued his resolute efforts until the fire was extinguished. His heroic and timely actions prevented numerous nearby personnel from being seriously injured and detonation of large quantities of ammunition. By his courage, calm presence of mind under fire and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of great personal danger, Corporal Dermody inspired all who observed him and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.

All the Best,

Joe D

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