good photography | Joe DiMaggio

“I was a young lad when I met Joe and JoAnne, I was a junior (maybe) in high school, showed up at their waterfront house to interview. Thought JoAnne was his daughter, good thing I kept my mouth shut and didn’t say that. They’ve become more of my second family rather than a job, and that’s why I never truly got fired. I processed black and white film and printed,(my 14-year-old asked “whats a darkroom?”) stamped color slides for days on end, drove cool cars, traveled and sat ringside at the Cooney Holmes championship fight. Fished, moved them to the sticks and idealized all they did (almost All). Love you guys dearly, I don’t blog but that’s all”

Andrew started with both JoAnne and myself when he was 15 years old. He loaded my cameras at heavyweight champion fights. Over the years, we all became very close friends and now the relationship has grown into absolute family. He has an extraordinary family, beautiful wife, children and is extremely successful in his business. He has taken photography, his original passion, to a whole new level. He has a brutal schedule. His passion is so strong, that he will drive two hours in one direction, shoot for half an hour and drive three hours back in traffic. Not only to make a great photo, but it becomes a zen like experience.

Of course I told him he was out of his mind to do that. Thank God he doesn’t listen to me all the time. To this day, if I called Andrew and said, I have a 6 figure assignment and I need your help, he would come out of retirement, (there’s no doubt in my mind) he would drop what he was doing and join me anywhere in the world. If I told you once, I told you a thousand times, I’m the luckiest guy in the world. The following two photographs, well they need not be explained. Photo tip for today: take what you really like, turn it into a passion. You’ll make great art, and maybe take a little stress out of your life. His black and white photos motivated me to go out and shoot some serious black and white.

This image is shot in raw, processed w. silver efex pro and Lightroom. Nova Scotia, Peggys Cove, Lighthouse.