GOLD MEDAL!

Earlier this month I was a recipient of the a Gold Medal from the National Art Museum of Sport for their on going exhibit Commitment to Excellence in Art and Sport. This is a huge honor and the work in the show in general is amazing, let alone the fantastic work in the permanent collection. This honor will be accompanied by a reception at the NAMOS at IUPUI on January 20th.

So since I spent all last week working on Black and White PhotoWorkshop, which I finished the 8th chapter on Christmas day, I treated myself to a half day off and took Denzel and Dajon down to the NAMOS to check out the work and so Denzel could brag a little bit more about all the awards the photos of him have garnered. He was humbled just a bit when reminded that the photo of Dajon was currently on display in a gallery in London, via the London Photographic Association.

Museum Director Ann Rein took us on our own private tour of the work and we all had a great afternoon, which was really a great way to not only see so many really "tight" pieces of art, as the boys noted, but also got to hear some great "behind the work" stories. For as much as the boys really liked the boxing art work, I think all the basketball player portraits was probably even more interesting to them.
Thanks to Ann for taking the time for us, and it was great to spend an afternoon with two pretty great kids! I can't wait for them to get to come over to Dayton for the solo exhibition of the work at the DVAC. That project is virtually done as well... I need to redo 2 pieces, but I just finished the blow torch portion of the UV coating process of the last of these images.

Whole lotta busy...

At least I don't have a lot of gifts to buy!

It has been far too long to since my last blog post here.  Although I keep saying that I am too busy to work on it, I keep finishing other things to procrastinate from the things that I must get done, that I am finally down to blogging to take a few away from the other real, big projects.

Currently, I am on Chapter 8 of my next book, Black and White Photo Workshop.  It is exactly as difficult as I thought it would be, and of course I have been pushing things off so that now I am coming up on the deadline awfully soon!  I am not sure that actual deadline, but it is soon. On top of that, I have to have 20 images printed, mounted and framed from the boxing project by January 5th, although, by the end of the year sounds pretty good! Scroll down to see more of those to get a feel for the size and scale of them!

Let's add a bit more I have had 2 editing projects, one got done yesterday and one to finish over the weekend, and 2 more to come after the first of the year.  I am excited to be doing editing work for Wiley as well as now Amphoto!

...and I have still had some actual photography projects, nothing too big, but work nonetheless.

The best part about all this is that when I am done, I will truly get to reap the rewards of my hard work in January and February with going to the galleries and getting to see the book in print.

Ok, so that is all for right now, that wasn't so bad. Back to work!

Art from the Heartland at Indy Art Center

On January 29th, 2010 the Indianapolis Art Center held the reception for their Biennial Art From the Heartland show, which will be on display until April 18th. This show was juried by Paul Klein of the Art Letter-a contemporary art curator from Chicago and was really wide open except that the Artists needed to be from Indiana and the surrounding states. It was pretty cool to see both of my images that were in the show being showcased in the newsclip.  I was fortunate to have 2 images selected for the show, both from my boxing project, and both of my good buddy Denzel. The entire show is really fantastic with some amazing works by a wide variety of artists with a broad swath of styles. You really owe it to yourself to take a few minutes and see all the work that is on display at this show, if not just to come and check out my work! The reception was a ton of fun and it was so great to have so many friends and family come out and support both me, my work, and the Indianapolis Arts community. Thanks to all of you who continue to do this. I really appreciate it.  My Godfather, Uncle Bill, made the trek down from "the region."  Scott Champagne and Matt Lynch came by to see all the great art work.  Scott, Matt and I were good friends in High School, and although Matt and I talk and see each other often, we have just recently caught back up with Scott.  Matt and I were in many Art classes together growing up and he is now part of the art collaboration group Simparch and a Professor at the University of Cincinnati.  He has been invaluable in helping me with venturing into the art world. And, of course, my dear friend Holly Jordan who really challenged me to start getting my work into a gallery show in the first place, and is always pushing me to do more.  Thanks Holly! Remember that the entire show will be up at the Indianapolis Art Center for a couple more months so try to find the time to get over there to see some great works.  The Indianapolis Art Center is North of Broad Ripple on 67th St just East of College Avenue. 820 East 67thStreet Indianapolis,IN46220  http://www.indplsartcenter.org/ ...and I can never thank Tim Streett of Jireh Sports and Coach Patrick Hutchinson from Bad Boyz Boxing Club enough for allowing me such open access to the gym and to Tevin, Dajon, Denzel, Cody, Q, Keon and Dwayne for being such great subjects and always just being themselves in front of the camera.

Balanced Rock at Night

For quite a while now I have dabbled in night time photography.  I the colors and richness in this sort of photography are quite interesting and dramatic.  Last summer though, I was asked to edit Harold Davis's newest book, Creative Night Photography, and it really opened up my eyes to some possibilities.

During our recent trip to Moab, Utah, I decided to spend some time honing my Night photo skills.  It was brutally cold, but it was a very frutiful trip and I was able to get a several different photos out of just a few nights out.  The moon was almost full, so that is great to see the rock formations, but not optimal for seeing a lot of stars.

This photo is of Balanced Rock, at Arches National Park, just North of Moab.  This photo was taken from rough 8:30-10pm.   The slight uplight around the rim of the top, balanced rock is from someone driving by with one of those great big spotlights that people plug into their lighter socket.  It only hit the rock for 20 seconds or so, but really made a big difference.

Brown County Breakdown

For the last few years the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association has put on a big show called the Brown County Breakdown, which is an Epic Ride with 500 or so of your best friends.  The route is through some of the most beautiful and breathtaking parts of Indiana, and even though most people think that Indiana is pretty flat, there is a a ton of climbing.  It is an out an back ride, so you can kind of create your own distance.  Whenever you are ready to go back, you can turn around and go back, but for the most part people are heading out to particular points and then turning around.  The most common routes were the 20 miles out to Hesitation Point, 40 Miles to the Cabin Sag near Nebo Ridge, 60 and 70 mile routes out the Maumee trail and for the most hard core riders--you can ride a whole 100 miles if you do the Hickory Hills loop.  For as muddy as it was around the cabin... I doubt many folks got much further than the 70 mile route.

Most of the ride through the beautiful Brown County State park was really fantastic. The trails were in very nice condition, just slightly damp, but the creek crossings were pretty dang chilly--as the air temp at the beginning of the ride was around 35 degrees and underneath the tree canopy, I doubt it creeped above 50 all day.  The rocks and log crossings were slick, but most were manageable.  I saw several close calls, caught Gary as went down on end of his handlebars, and definitely decided to walk a few dicey sections that were just slightly above my confidence level for the day.
It rained a good bit a couple days before the ride, and although the weather was pretty great on Saturday, So once we got out of the park, the 5 miles or so to get to the Hidden Cabin sag stop was pretty brutal.  Slick, thick mud, riders going both directions, and some steep climbs. Ben lost his derailler.  He was still faster than Gary and I at times!

As with most of my Indiana mountain bike adventures, I went with Steve, Gary and Mike and this year we also had Steve's son's Carl and Ben along with us.

I have to give a big thanks to Tim Casady of Nebo Ridge Bikes, Jonathon and Tania Jullierat and all the folks at the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association for really doing so much to make it such a great day.

So what does this all have to do with Chris Bucher Photos, nothing really, just something that was a lot of fun and something that I have been looking forward to all year.  I did take some camera gear, and it was heavy on some of those climbs, and as I look at the photos, I realize... I probably could have just as easily left it.


232 Inches...

...and one more thing, for the bike geeks, All 4 of us ride 29ers... mountain bikes with extra large, 700c wheels.  A few years ago, when we started riding them, 29er's were kind of a niche, maybe they were even called odd.  Yesterday at the Breakdown, it seemed like half the folks riding had some sort of 29er.  It was cool to see so many big wheels!  So hanging on the rack is a GF Supercal, a GF SuperFly, a Surley Karate Monkey and a Ventana El Rey--some nice rides for sure!

Communication Arts Magazine

As a college student and then a freelance photo assistant, I loved to go through the big photo and design source books.  It was just amazing what all these photographers and artists could do.  My favorite was always the Communication Arts Photo Annual, which showcases some of the best photographic art of the year.  The work in there is always, ALWAYS, inspiring!  With the birth of the internet, really not that many years ago, I remember finding the websites of the photographers that I saw in these books to see even more of their work online.  Awesome work from a lot of amazing photographers. Additionally this magazine is focused not not just other photographers, but moreso at creative directors, art directors, graphic designers and other people in the print and visual communication arts world.

I vividly remember when I was an assistant, I was working for Tim Lanterman and I was sitting at the bar at the studio flipping through a Communication Arts while Tim was prepping the props for a still life product shoot.  I made some comment to him about someday wanting to be in CA.  At the time, one of Tim's regular clients was grocery store chain and he often had to shoot very straight forward images of food on a white background and it all had to be the same every time.  To make a long story short, we "shot a lot of meat"and it was kinda boring photographically but it paid the bills.  So as Tim came out of the kitchen with a huge flank steak he said, "Here it is-- my next Communication Arts cover shot!!"

So 15 years or so later, some of my work is showcased in the Communication Arts Photo Annual.  It is one of my portraits from the boxing project that I have been working on for a while and an image that is also showcased on my new updated and refreshed website as well as being shown in several galleries recently.   The photograph itself is on page 224 of September/October issue an is in the "Self Promotion" section.  I trust that this sort of promotion will work out great and will add traffic to my website and get the phone ringing off the hook.

New Images on Display in Colorado

Starting next September 4th, 2009 the Center for Fine Art Photography will be having their newest show of images.  These images will all be Black & White.  One of my images from the boxing project will be on display and is featured on the press release for the show!  

If you are anywhere near the Ft Collins on August 28th, or all through September, stop by and see the show.  I am certain that you will be amazed and impressed by the display of black & white photography that will be there.  Plus the whole Ft. Collins gallery walk is great fun!!

As always, a big thanks to Robin Damm  for making sure these huge images arrive in pristine shape, as well Patrick and Loni Hutchinson of Jireh and Badd Boyz Boxing for all their help and support, Keon Johnson, Dane Sauer for helping to enable my vision for the frames to be fulfilled.