Shiny and New
New site, new look, new domain. I trust BOTH of my regular readers will find their way here.
View ArticleMaking Peace
I’d kept flakjacketphoto.com as my url for a while after I got out of the Marines. I didn’t see any reason to change it at first. Even though I was out and didn’t plan on reenlisting, it still seemed...
View ArticleColin and Kate B.
I seem to take a lot of pictures of my siblings. I think eventually I’ll probably just have a section devoted to them. It works out nicely because I enjoy taking pictures of them and they enjoy having...
View ArticleO Captain, My Captain.
For the past five years or so, I’ve participated in the Relay For Life. The Relay is a community fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. It’s a 24 hour event usually held on the track of a local...
View ArticleiPhonotypes pt.2
The moon setting over LA, 80mph. Rainbow over Orange, stopped at a green light.
View ArticleCan you hear the Jack Whales singing?
Jeff Delgado and I went to high school together. He was a talented artist even then, and seems to have only gotten better over the last decade. I remember senior year, one of his illustrations won...
View ArticleKeep the Fire 3: Fair Winds, Even Keel
He takes his drinks tall and cool, and likes his women warm and willing. He dances like a boxer, and boxes like a dancer. He can’t help you move this weekend… He’s growing his beard. He is: The Most...
View ArticleHappy Birthday Smuts
Mark Smuts and I have been friends since we were 15. We went to high school together, we worked in a restaurant together, he took me to a bar at midnight on my 21st birthday. When I was in Infantry...
View ArticleThe Life and Death of Frank the Fish
I got the call today. Frank the Fish is dead. At nearly five years old he was the final survivor of the Fishbowl Gang, a motley crew of feeder fish I’d bought in the fall of 2004. It was the first...
View ArticleRevisiting the Summer of ’03
I have a desk drawer where I keep Iraq. All the negatives, all the test prints, my ragged journal stuffed with wallet pictures and dinars. When I first got home I’d pored over the images, disappointed...
View ArticleStories From My War Journal, pt.1
We’d just pulled into Babylon after a long trip from the Iranian border. Our platoon would be occupying some empty buildings near a small man-made lake for a few weeks. Everyone was backing their...
View ArticleHeaded to Australia, back August 17th
I’m sitting in the plane enjoying the last few moments of iPhone functionality. Updates to follow.
View ArticleAustralia was just what the Doctor ordered.
Dr. Anthony Morfa to be specific, but more on him later. Our vacation Down Under was all we had hoped for and more. Vacations have a tendency to be exhausting. While I’d admit to suffering the effects...
View ArticleYoung Chemists, Bio21 Institute
Anthony Morfa and I went to High School together. We were bass trombone players in the school’s marching band together. As alumni, we were two of the 2000 piece band in the opening ceremonies of the...
View ArticleJerry Burchfield, Artist, Photographer, Teacher.
Last night I attended the opening of A Tribute to the Life & Art of Jerry Burchfield at Biola University. Jerry was a teacher of mine from the very beginning of my interest in photography. He gave...
View ArticleOuttakes, Suits, and a Star Wars Reference
An outtake from a corporate shoot. I prefer pictures of men in suits to be a little dark, a little moody. I think the implied formality of a suit, like a military dress uniform or a suit of armor,...
View ArticleAs Dear To Me As My Own Blood
Blacksheep Platoon, 2004 I got the call from one of my Marines. My old unit is going to Afghanistan, sooner rather than later. They’ll be there before Christmas, possibly before Thanksgiving. My first...
View ArticleDon’t Fall In The Drink!
I was in Laguna early yesterday morning to shoot engagement photos for my cousin Dave and soon-to-be-cousin-in-law, Jenny. Being a family affair, I brought Tara and Kate along as Assistants/Wave...
View ArticleFeatured Today
You can find me on Wanderlustagraphy today. Curated by Clayton Cotterell and Amy Elkins, Wanderlustagraphy is a photo collective. A rotating gallery of single images from a wide range of...
View ArticleGodspeed To You My Fine Marines
Sunday was Family Day for Alpha Company. I rode down to Camp Pendleton with the man who was once my Platoon Commander. Neither of us are in the unit anymore, but we still have strong ties to the...
View ArticleNovember 11th, Veteran’s Day.
I received this letter from my sister a little over a month before my first Veteran’s Day. I found it while thumbing through my journal this afternoon. Shared here with her permission. Kate and the...
View ArticleMy Little Mermaid
My three year old Goddaughter, Katarina, had her first visit to the ocean yesterday. She insisted on wearing her Little Mermaid dress for the occasion.
View ArticleMadison Nease This Way Comes
Madison Nease is kid sister to my buddy/housemate, Wes Nease. She recently flew out from exotic Virginia for two weeks’ visit, here in the land of Damn Good Mexican Food and Legal Heroin. She is a...
View ArticleMom’s Christmas Card Outtake
"Then all the reindeer loved him..." This was towards the end of the shoot for Mom’s Christmas card. We were just hitting the fourth verse of our own a cappella version of The California Raisins’...
View ArticleA Shameless Plug
Last month my father, singer/song writer Bob Bennett, released his 9th album Christmastide. Check it out on iTunes here. Yours Truly did all the photography on this one. (It’s about time, right?) My...
View ArticleMy Heart is Across the Ocean
If you’ve watched my video message to the boys you know it’s been an emotional holiday season at my house. My old Marine unit is in Afghanistan on their first deployment without me. Now I’ve gotten a...
View ArticleRandy Leaves for Boot Camp
My cousin Randy left home for Marine Corps Boot Camp early this morning. These next three months will be long and rough on him. But I’m confident he’ll find his way through. It won’t be easy, and not...
View ArticleFollow Along on Facebook
The My Heart is Across the Ocean project now has a Facebook page, making it even easier to follow. I’ll be posting project updates here on the blog, but the Facebook page offers a bit more...
View ArticleMy Heart is Across the Ocean, I’m still here
My ‘Marine Families‘ project has been going well. I’ve been logging a lot of miles recently, traveling all over California to photograph the families of my Marines in Afghanistan. It’s been a labor...
View ArticleMax S. Gerber and Potty Chairs
So, I’ve fallen a little behind on the blog this past month. However, I’ve been shooting like crazy so I don’t feel too guilty. This is my Yoda, Max S. Gerber, and his niece Willamina. A fun test...
View ArticleSara and Aaron Escape from LA
Earlier this month, friends of the show/photography super-couple Sara Cross and Aaron Bickford packed up their cameras, surfboards, and a small menagerie of pets to head east towards NY. Fresh out of...
View ArticleUpdate on My Marines
It’s been over two months now since the last update on My Heart is Across the Ocean. I’m sorry to report that in that time, my old Marine unit has taken casualties in Afghanistan. I’d be lying if I...
View ArticleRandy Graduates Boot Camp a Marine
Last Friday, I went down to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego to attend my cousin Randy‘s Boot Camp graduation. It was a little surreal for me, I hadn’t been back since my own graduation almost...
View ArticleGoin’ Mobile
So, I’m trying out a mobile version of the blog and I’d like your thoughts on it. Most of my site traffic is on desktops and laptops, but lately I’ve had up to 20% readership coming from iPhones and...
View ArticleLevi Tenenbaum, Not Smiling
I met Levi in a photo class years ago and we became fast friends. We come from very different worlds, but find common ground in photography and our mutual love of beards. These quick snaps were...
View ArticleMy Marines Are Coming Home
It has been a rough deployment for my old unit. Hard on my boys, and hard on their families at home. Both sides have held up their ends, and now it’s almost over. Right now houses are being...
View ArticleiPhonotypes: Geek Out
I found this Batman mask in my brother’s closet. I then wore it. For an hour.
View ArticleMixin’ it up.
I’ve been mixing things up over on the main site. I’ve updated my portfolio with new work. Some of it you may have seen here, some of it you ain’t. For best results clear your browser’s cache and...
View ArticleGoodfeathers
Leghorn chickens are a new addition here at the hacienda. The first graders at the school where my girlfriend teaches had hatched these birds in the classroom, and at just two weeks old they were...
View ArticleA Face Any TSA Agent Could Love.
An outtake from yesterday when my brother asked me to take his passport photo. I’d think twice before letting this guy into my country.
View ArticleI’m Back, Baby!
I took a little two month hiatus from the ol’ blog. I was working and traveling quite a bit, so at least I can promise some interesting posts to come. It’s really amazing how fast this summer flew by....
View ArticleThe New Limb
A couple of outtakes from mid-July when I shot the band The New Limb for Locale Magazine. I photographed them at their house in Costa Mesa, CA, where they all live together and record. They were...
View ArticleLucky Me
Earlier this month my father sent me a link to a song called “Lucky Me”, by Helene Cronin. Now, I get sent a lot of patriotic videos and chain letters. I am a veteran. I think that may have put me on...
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