Communication Advisor. Photographer. Former Calvin Klein Underwear Model. Hey, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
Originally published at http://maneydigital.com on June 15, 2020.
I was recently reading an interview with photographer Nathan Landers and it got me thinking: What would my images look like if I stripped them back, if I made them less about trying to achieve visual perfection and more about the story? So I went back into my catalog to give it a shot.
This is a series Jooj and I shot on a steamy summer morning in a creek behind her house. In the original images, the background was lush with green. But there’s something about the simpleness of black and white. There’s something about the return to the basics, to the days spent in a high school yearbook darkroom learning the craft beyond the click of the shutter.
“I love that grainy, out of focus imperfect look.” — Nathan Landers
Communication Advisor. Photographer. Former Calvin Klein Underwear Model. Hey, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
Originally published at http://maneydigital.com on May 19, 2020.
There’s a line in the movie “We Bought a Zoo” where Thomas Hayden Church says to Matt Damon, “I like the animals. But I love the humans.” Me too.
It’s what got me hooked on photography way back in high school. Working on the yearbook staff gave me an excuse for always having my camera with me. It allowed me to capture moments that otherwise may have been forgotten to time. I still have some of the prints I developed in the darkroom in a box in my office. And every so often I pull out one of the yearbooks I worked on to see my early images. It’s a humbling experience to see where I started and where I’m at now.
Those early years of taking natural light senior candid portraits of my classmates has grown into photographing CEOs, emerging models, actors, and actresses. My style has changed, and sweet-ghost-of-Maisel has my skill gotten better. What hasn’t is my desire and ability to see the person on the other side of the glass.
This image is one of several portfolio quality shots I created in collaboration with actress Amanda Livezey during a recent studio session. It was one of those shoots where editing down the great from the really good was incredibly difficult. But that’s part of the process, too. It’s not just setting up lights, dialing in settings, and clicking a button. It’s all the in between — the human part of what photography is about. It’s the back and forth collaboration with your subject, the instinct of knowing when to press the shutter, the need to wrap the shoot with the appropriate level of mood and energy, and then the ability to throw away shots others might think are great because to you they just aren’t great enough.
Through it all runs a constant current: a love of other humans.
Feels like forever ago that Jooj and I started building out her modeling portfolio. We’ll get back to it post-apocalypse, but thought I’d feature one of my favorite shots from our last studio session.
After our first shoots — firsts for both of us — Jooj signed with Joy Talent Agency. You may have seen her on QVC. And while I’d love to think the photos played a small part, the honest reality is that her success is the result of hard work and the discipline to take this work seriously, to go after it. All while focusing on her first year of college.
I predict we’ll see Jooj in fashion magazines and billboards in the future.
The sea turtle munched coral 10 feet below me. I had kicked my way into the channel where the reef separated. The calm surface of the water betrayed the omnipresent current heading out to the dark blue of the Pacific.
Located on north shore of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Tunnels Beach is recognized as one of the best snorkeling spots the island. Palm trees line the shore of the crescent shaped bay, dense jungle and sharp mountain peaks paint the landscape behind them. Tunnels gets its name from the lava tubes that form the underwater caverns just offshore.
Oh yeah, it’s also the surf break where a 14-foot-long tiger shark ripped the left arm off of 13-year old Bethany Hamilton in 2003. Yes, that Bethany Hamilton. The one who’s story Hollywood made the movie “Soul Surfer” about. Two years before I flippered out to roughly the same spot.
Jenn and I were in Kauai for our ten year wedding anniversary. I cashed in airline miles earned over years of business travel to fly first class to the island. Jenn’s cousins, John and Amanda, gifted us their two bedroom condo at the edge of a bluff overlooking the ocean in Princeville.
We fully explored the island in our rented Jeep. We hiked Waimea Canyon. Took a sunset catamaran cruise along the Na Pali Coast. Took a short hike on the Kalalau Trail to Hanakāpīʻai Beach. Entered the Waikanaloa Wet Cave. Took surfing lessons with a local at Kealia Beach. Cooled off with copious amounts of shave ice. And took an epic tour of the island from above.
Jenn reserved our tour with Jack Harter Helicopters. Based on research I did before we left, I was adamant that we reserve a helicopter without doors, knowing this once in a lifetime opportunity to capture this magnificent island from above would be muddied by the plexiglass of the larger tour helicopters.
Which meant taking my first ever helicopter ride in a Hughes 500. Just me, Jenn, the pilot, and a lone backpacker along for the ride. I strapped into the five point harness. Thousands of dollars of camera equipment wrapped tightly around my wrist. Half an ass cheek hanging over the edge of the doorless aircraft out into the void.
Headsets on, the pilot gave the thumbs up and took off, the nose of the helicopter pointed to the ground as we left the solid confines of earth. Up we went. My fear subsided, despite the thousands of feet of empty air between my right ass cheek and terra firma. We banked sharply and flew into collapsed cone of an ancient volcano, the helicopter’s blades slicing frighteningly close to the Jurassic-looking walls. The pilot pointed the nose down, we picked up some speed, he banked again, and we shot out over the Na Pali coastline.
As we came around the island, I noticed the reef. It was where we snorkeled days before. I trained my camera on the blues and greens and shot away. No sharks to be seen from above.
Doylestown has been home to famous musicians for over a century. Legends like Oscar Hammerstein, Pink, Broadway stars like Jenny Lee Stern and Justin Guarini, Blues hall of fame band Little Red Rooster, and White House, Kennedy Center and late night television regular Eric Mintel. One Direction’s Zane Malik recorded cuts from his debut album here. The Weeknd has been sighted around town. And Doylestown’s favorite son, Tim Stack, crooned a Hammerstein ditty from “Oklahoma!” in an Emmy-worthy episode of “Son of the Beach.”
It’s a small town in Pennsylvania dotted with small stages. Places like Puck, Maxwell’s on Main, Chamber’s, and Villa Capri. And Siren Records, a vinyl respite in a digital world.
Joe Montone is a long time employee at the record store. He calls himself a community advocate who transforms audiences through live music, but those of us in town and the surrounding area know him as the person who makes the music happen.
Pre-vinyl, he reached deep into a decade of working with artists, labels and agents across a jukebox of genres, to create the popular Craft Culture series for Maxwell’s on Main, producing more than 500 live music and special events for the venue. He was also the brainchild of the venue’s Double Take Thursday series, where local musical acts performed whole sides of famous albums in competition.
Creating the scene in a town like this would be enough for just about anyone. But Joe is also an artist and performer. We shot this image during an evening shoot in my makeshift home office studio. The photographs served as the backdrop for a poster promoting his “Holy Heat Thunder” classic country show at his old haunt. And then it was back to his advocate roots, organizing and hosting a new evening event at the Michener Art Museum complete with interactive gallery tours and musical performances he curated.
You can read more about Joe in this terrific profile in JumpPhilly.
One of my favorite lenses is my 16-35mm. It was my primary lens when our family spent a few weeks in Europe a few years back. It’s a fantastic lens for street photography.
I had it on my Canon 5D Mark III as we walked past Horse Guards in Westminster on our way to Buckingham Palace. As we got near, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment was getting into formation for the daily changing of the guard ceremony. On camera left was a Squadron of The Life Guards. On the right, a Squadron of The Blues and Royals. These Life Guards have stood guard at Horse Guards, the official entrance to St James and Buckingham Palace, since 1660.
Unlike the more popular changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, Horse Guards is incredibly accessible. I maneuvered my way center and got down low. As the two squadron leaders approached each other for the handoff, I clicked the shutter, my loyal lens racked as wide as it could go to capture the majesty of the scene.
I caught a glimpse of the B&M Baked Bean factory as the bus rolled north toward Augusta. Dormant memories awoke. Memories of a summer family trip to Maine when my dad’s job as a forman at Thatcher Glass — which made the jars B&M’s beans went inside — required him to spend a week on site. The bean factory didn’t leave an impression on me, or so I thought. What did was the putrid smell of paper recycling and outbound tide.
Growing up in New Jersey, the closest we ever got to a rocky shoreline was a Belmar jetty.
It was decades before I visited Maine again. For the past nine years, I’ve traveled to Portland for an annual gathering of craft beer loving technologists. Most years I fly up the Atlantic coast from Philadelphia, taking off from Philly in the late afternoon and watching the most glorious sunsets out of the left side of the small plane’s window as we descend into the Portland jetport.
One year I decided to drive up the coast. I timed the drive so I had time to stop along the way and capture the landscape on camera. My ultimate destination was Portland Head Light. And I timed it to arrive at sunset. I’m proud to say that my calculations were correct, though with very few precious minutes of light to spare.
But that’s not this image.
This photograph is from the next morning. When you have a subject as amazing and iconic as this, and when Mother Nature decides to play nice, you capture all the frames and angles you can.
I arrived just before sunrise and claimed my spot on the cliff just south of the point. Tripod set, I dialed in my exposure and waited. Mother Nature did not dissapoint. The air was frigid, but the rising sun brought with it a welcome kiss of warmth.
I smiled as the good light faded into bright morning sun. Packing up my equipment, I hiked back to my car. Maybe next year I’ll bring my family in the hope of instilling memories to awaken when they get older.
UPDATED: Added Mark Cuban, Audible.com
Fred Rogers — Mister Rogers to many of us — provided an important reminder years ago that when things go bad, always look for the helpers. It’s advice I believe we all would do well to follow as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the lives of our families, friends and communities.
What’s amazing is that you don’t have to look very far or long to see the good that Mister Rogers asked us to seek. Overnight, I have seen my Twitter stream fill with examples of helpers.
Companies like GG Hospitality, which closed its hotels to make them available for the NHS.
Companies like Bigleaf Networks, which accelerated the development of a new product to help essential services organizations communicate more reliably in our new work-from-home reality (and made it free to them, too).
Companies like Untappd, which quickly used its platform to help food workers, bartenders, and retail establishments that are taking an economic hit because of the virus.
Companies like Linode, which dedicated cloud infrastructure to Folding@Home to help scientists find antibodies to combat viruses like COVID-19, and its Kubernetes engine to Penn Medicine’s Hospital Impact Model for Epidemics to help hospitals with COVID-19 capacity planning.
Companies like BrewDog and Leith Gin, which have converted their distilleries to make hand sanitizer.
Even The Boss is helping out.
Adding other examples here to the original post:
This is just what I’ve seen in my own network. Surely, there are more examples of Mister Rogers’ helpers. If you see them in your networks, reach out or drop them into the comments and I’ll update the post.
I didn’t plan it, but the past year ended up being one of rediscovery.
I celebrated my 50th lap around the sun rekindling my love of skiing. I closed the year out getting back on my mountain bike. In between I took advantage of opportunities to re-explore some of things that have made me successful in my career and passionate in the hobbies I pursue.
2019 was a good start to the next 100 laps.
As people get older, they have a tendency to reflect on things not done, places not visited, dreams unfulfilled. Because, let’s face it, life gets in the way of best intentions. It’s far too easy to let what was missed overshadow what was experienced.
Such is the perch I choose to look at my life this past year. Were there things I wanted to do that I didn’t? You bet. Were there awesome things I ended up doing that I didn’t see coming? Yes. Yes there were.
My journey as a photographer continued. I created a bunch of memorable images and found my zone in portrait and street photography. Finding that zone was something that’s been eluding me for years. It shouldn’t have, though. It’s at the core of what I do for a living and where I get the most joy in my life: observing and telling the stories of other humans. This year I also began to get a better feel for my individual shooting style, something I often hear other people say they see in my images, but have never been able to see myself.
I continued to put a focus on shooting more portraits. What I didn’t expect was seeing that focus give me the opportunity to collaborate with professional models like Courtney and Jooj (who was signed by Joy Talent Agency and you can see on QVC).
I also saw a number of organizations approach me to shoot commercial images based not only on my photography background, but also because of my background in public relations. Organizations like Linode, The Black Bass Inn and Lumberville General Store, and The Quaker School at Horsham. It’s a potent combination I will continue to explore and one I think every company should be thinking about as they look for new, creative and powerful ways to tell their own stories.
Speaking of which, 2019 saw me get back into the corporate communications game, taking on a very cool contracting role leading corporate communications for Linode — a 16 year old, $100 million company based in Philadelphia that is making cloud computing simpler, more affordable, and more accessible to all. It’s an exciting opportunity to help build a communications function and do it for an organization with a mission and people that align to my philosophy of thinking bigger than the products a company sells. I continue to advise and consult exciting startups like RackN, which builds software to do the heavy lifting required to make IT infrastructure work; and Bigleaf, which has used a contrarian view of cloud connectivity to make the Internet more reliable.
2019 also saw words and phrases I wrote grace corporate web sites and a global magazine. As part of my work with Linode, I had the pleasure of digging into the company’s and the industry’s history to build their corporate narrative. You can check it out here. My trip report from our visit to Thailand in 2018 was published in Photo Plus, the top magazine for Canon users around the world. Yeah, that one felt all kinds of good for the ego, I’m not going to lie.
Community remained an important part of my life. I donated my photography skills to local organizations doing good work for organizations like CB Cares, Heritage Conservancy, the Thompson Bucks County Classic, and the Central Bucks School District’s music department. I also wore my photojournalist hat to capture student led rallies and demonstrations in Doylestown. I encourage each of you to take what you do best and find a way to use it to help organizations in your own communities.
I got involved in politics, refusing to sit on the sidelines while our democracy is dismantled. I used my messaging, communications and photography toolset to help get a good human — Jordan Yeager — elected to judge in my county. It was my first campaign and won’t be my last.
Throughout it all, I still found time to get out on my bike. It was a mix of shorter rides this year, but there were many, allowing me to add a decent year of mileage to my Strava profile. I even rolled up to the starting line for my first criterium…and rightly got blown off the back after making a dumb rookie move early in the race. I’ll be back to race again in 2020. I closed out the year doing something I haven’t done in 15 years: mountain biking. And, as it should be, I took my re-maiden pedal not on an easy canal trail, but in the rocky woods of Wissahickon on a cold December night.
But what I treasure most from 2019 was watching my daughters grow into amazing, talented, adventurous, caring and passionate, young adults.
Mike Maney 