Wasn't That a Mighty Storm

 

This morning the July 2012 edition of National Geographic officially hit newsstands, and I promptly headed to Meijer to pick up a copy for myself.  "Why the rush," you ask?  Featured inside is a ten page spread highlighting the awe-inspiring storm photographs of Mitch Dobrowner.  (You may remember some such images from a previous post).

Apparently the stock team at Meijer had yet to update the magazine section, and I had to search out an employee to ask where the newest issue was.

Me: Hi, could you help me find the new National Geographic that came out today?

Sassy Lady: Um, those are still packed up in the back.

Me: So… … … then I'll just wait here while you go get one or would you prefer I come with?

Sassy Lady: *sigh + eye roll* One moment, sir.

 

 

I'm like a kid in a really windy candy store!

 

The full "Epic Storms" article may be found on NG's website here and I've taken a couple of quotes from Jeremy Berlin's article for your convenience.  Do yourself a favor, though, and splurge the four dollars and get your own copy! 

Rope Out, Regan, North Dakota

To document these awe-inspiring tempests, Mitch Dobrowner, a landscape photographer inspired by Ansel Adams and Minor White, teamed with renowned storm chaser Roger Hill, a witness to more than 600 tornadoes. Over the past three years, aided by mobile satellite data, radar imaging, and more, the pair have stalked some 45 weather systems over 16 states and 40,000 miles, sometimes driving 900 miles in a day to capture a moment. “With storms,” says Dobrowner, “it’s like shooting a sporting event. Things happen so quickly, I really have to adapt.”

 

Vapor Cloud, Near Clayton, New Mexico

Indeed, both Dobrowner and Hill see supercells as living things: born under the right conditions, gaining strength as they grow, changing shape and form, fighting for their life, eventually dying. Not that personifying them removes the danger. In the still wild West, says Hill, storms demand admiration and respect. “I feel honored to be shooting them,” says Dobrowner. “If I’m going to go, let me go like this.”

 

As always, we at the John Cleary Gallery would just LOVE to facilitate purchasing one of you very own Mitch Dobrowner prints… just tell 'em Joseph sent ya!

 

Artist: James Taylor / Album: Other Covers

Loveliest of Trees

 

The last Friday of April is set aside annually in celebration of National Arbor Day, a holiday which encourages the planting and caring for of trees and other foliage.  According to our good friend, Wikipedia, it originated in Nebraska during the early 1870's and has since spread to a global level.

What better way to celebrate the greenest of holidays with a vertically integrated product: trees make paper, photographs are printed on paper, photographs on paper look FABULOUS on your walls!  See the logic there?

So in honor of the 140th Arbor Day here is a small forests' worth of the photography world's best trees!

Mitch Dobrowner: Wind Swept Tree

 

 

Maggie Taylor: Oh, Happy Day      |      Jerry Uelsmann: Untitled, 1969

 

 

Josef Hoflehner: Elephant Hill Pathway      |    Jeffrey Conley: Snow Covered Branches

 

Takeshi Shikama: Central Park #21

 

Jeri Eisenberg: Magnolia, No. 9

 

 

Susan Burnstine: Forever    |    Michael Crouser: Girl and Tree

 

Brett Weston: Holland Canal

 

   

Charles Grogg: Juniper Bonsai  |  Jefferson Hayman: Tree in Central Park  |  Keliy Anderson-Staley: Plum Tree

 

David Fokos: Haybales, Ripsa, Sweden

 

Henry Gilpin: Trees, Reflections    |    Dan Burkholder: Tree in April Snow, Catskills

 

Niniane Kelley: Palm

Brad Moore: Roosevelt, Huntington Beach, California

 

Pine-ing for any of these images?  Don't have a collection and looking for one to take root?  Already have one but looking to branch out?  Want me to stop with these ridiculous tree jokes? Don't be such a crabapple! Come into the John Cleary Gallery or give us a call and we'd love to help find that perfect photograph for you.

 

Artist: Bryn Terfel / Album: The Vagabond and Other English Songs

Hello, Goodbye

 

The beginning of June is bringing about lots of changes here at the John Cleary Gallery.  Henry Horenstein’s Show photos have come down to make way for Mitch Dobrowner’s Storm Series.  (Even though the opening has passed you can still catch the exhibit until the end of August!

You don’t have to go but you can’t stay here! (No seriously, we don’t have the storage)

 

At the close of tonight’s opening my tenure as assistant director of the gallery will officially come to a close.  I have enjoyed coming into this building every single day and being surrounded by such a fascinating range of photography for three months has been more than an amazing experience. 

Let’s take a quick look back at the fun times, shall we?

My FIIIIRST gallery opening… look how young we all were back then! Keliy Anderson-Staley, Catherine and I.

 

Picnic day with Betsy from the gallery two doors over!

 

 

With the help of Andre we celebrated both Easter and Mother’s Day

 

   

Getting a little silly with Henry Horenstein’s SHOW pictures

 

Celebrating the anniversary of Catherine owning the gallery (with margaritas OF COURSE!)

 

My last opening :(

 

Most of all, though, I am beyond appreciative to Catherine for the opportunity and the highlight of my experience was making such a fantastic friend in the process.  Now DO IT!!!!!!

 

Artist: The Beatles/ Album: Magical Mystery Tour

Stormy Weather

*btw, this was supposed to go up yesterday but Blogger was being llllame

 

WELL! Houston has finally gotten some rain to quench our Texas sized thirst… and I’m pretty sure it’s been months since any kind of sizeable amount of H20 has graced our fare city.

The moment the sky turned gray I knew it would be the perfect time to do a bit of a preview of the Mitch Dobrowner show opening on June 4th!!

Trees-Clouds, Texline, Texas 2009

 

Ever since I was a kid I have always been fascinated with thunderstorms.  I lived in Michigan for a couple of years and the natives would always get in such a tizzy whenever one came through—except for them, a thunderstorm was basically your run-of-the-mill Texas shower.  Can you even call it a thunderstorm if there’s no thunder?

Road, Near Guymon, Oklahoma 2009

 

No… the kind I longed for in the Great Lakes State were the ones that I grew up with in East Texas (or behind the “pine curtain” as my friend Mallory so aptly puts it).  You know, the ones where the sky turns ominously green and you can qualify it not by the inches of rain measured but by the number of large limbs that have fallen into your yard.

Mesocyclone, Valentine, Nebraska 2009

 

Artist: Joni Mitchell/ Album: Both Sides Now