… a terrific weekend … mostly indoors and reviewing many photos taken during cooler times than we are currently experiencing.

The shot above was taken looking to the NNW from over the Village of Oak Creek … Courthouse Rock is in the lower left , Cathedral Rock above that and Airport Mesa Above that and Thunder Mountain above it … Wilson Mountain is on the right side partially in the clouds and Oak Creek Canyon behind it … it was a beautiful day and cool.

Below is a photo of the rim and wilderness area between Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek looking ENE … the snow looks so good now … on that day the warm days of summer were looking pretty good!

Been listening to some neat music and a few that are very cool are Forever Young by Rod Stewart singing with his daughter at a festival in Chili and it has a fabulous drum solo in the middle of it. I’ve also been listening to more music from India and have become hooked on the sounds and melody … do not understand the words, but with good music that is not essential … just swept along with the music, like this one Ranjha and who can resist Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong ?

We’re into a new week and the build of my new computer is going well … looking for a finish and having it ready to go by next weekend. Thankful for a nice dining room table to do the work on 🙂

Have a beautiful day, keep breathing and smile!

Ted

You are not poor if you
love something, someone,
humanity maybe, and have faith
that you will somewhere,
sometime be satisfied, though you
know not how.

excerpt from Love and Faith by Max Ehrmann

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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com

In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.

Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses.  By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.

More about Ted Grussing …

A photography dealer from Michigan has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud related to a scheme involving more than 10 clients and about $1.5 million in art, including Ansel Adams photographs.

Former Birmingham, Michigan art dealer Wendy Halstead Beard was arrested by the FBI in October 2022 for what prosecutors alleged was a scheme to defraud her customers and embezzle the proceeds over the course of the previous two years.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan says that Beard, 58, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud that arose from that multi-year FBI investigation in which Beard received fine art photography prints on consignment, sold the artwork without the knowledge of the owners, kept the profits for herself, and regularly deceived the owners about the status of the photos including claiming she was in two prolongs comas, one for multiple months, and received a lung transplant. Beard also tried to pass off cheap copies of Ansel Adams prints she bought from the photographer’s gift shop as original, signed photographs.

“Throughout the scheme, Beard attempted to lull her victims into a false sense of security by offering excuses for her unwillingness or inability to promptly return the victims’ photographs after the expiration of the operative consignment agreements,” the Attorney’s Office says.

“These excuses consisted of, among other things, exaggerating the severity of her own health problems, including claiming (1) to have recently been in a coma and (2) to have received a double-lung transplant. In other instances, Beard told her victims that there was a lack of interest among potential purchasers—despite having already sold the photographs in question. Beard also created fake ’employee’ identities which she used to correspond with her victims in a further effort to deceive them.”

Beard has acknowledged defrauding more than 10 victims over the course of her two-year scheme and further admitted that at least one was selected due to their vulnerability: they were at an “advanced age,” the plea agreement says.

“This defendant swindled numerous families out of valuable artwork and lied to them repeatedly in order to keep her fraud scheme afloat,” United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison says. “She did this for no reason other than to line her own pockets at the expense of her victims. There is no place for this kind of criminal deceit in our community, and today’s conviction holds this defendant accountable for her conduct.”

“With today’s plea, Ms. Beard has taken a first step towards accepting responsibility for her criminal behavior,” Devin J. Kowalski, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office, says. “The FBI remains committed to investigating art fraud and to seeking justice for those affected by this type of scheme.”

Beard’s sentencing is expected to take place on December 20, Art News reports.

Image credits: Photo by Ansel Adams/Public Domain.

A photographer who has visited the same barbershop for over 50 years has been taking selfies with his barber since 1973.

Sam Farr, 78, first took a photo of himself and his barber Joe in the early 1970s with a Rolleiflex camera. The most recent photo was taken with an iPhone and he’s also shot a photo of them with a Fujifilm X100F.

But sadly the former newspaper photographer is not well and the most recent photo could be his last as his daughter says he is in poor health because of Parkinson’s disease.

Farr has been seeing Joe for a haircut at his shop, Giuseppe’s of Bath, in the U.K. for 50 years. He has a collection of five photos with Joe, each time with a new camera.

“The first time I took the photo I had just bought a Rolleiflex camera for about £100 ($130), a lot of money back then, and I wanted to see what I looked like,” says Farr.

“I used to take photos for so many people back then but never took pictures of myself, so I decided to snap one and started a tradition.

“He’s been cutting my hair for so long that he’s changed locations three times. When we hit 50 years, we thought it would be special to celebrate it. He even gave me a free haircut.”

Farr has been getting the same haircut from Joe for half a century which he describes as the “aging Beatle” haircut.

The most recent photo was taken on an iPhone attached to a stand and that’s because Farr now has a difficult time keeping the camera steady.

“Unfortunately due to dad’s health issues I think this picture will probably be his final one,” says his daughter Nicky Higby.

“Due to his battle with Parkinson’s and other conditions, it’s hard for him to hold a camera anymore. Last time in 2015 we just about managed to do it, but this time we went for an iPhone instead.”

Higby says the tradition is much cherished in her family and Joe has always been a close friend.

“I recently saw a post about dad’s selfies on Reddit which had thousands of comments,” she adds. “The lovely thing is they always comment on how happy he looks.”

Image credits: Photos courtesy of SWNS.

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THOMASVILLE- The Wiregrass Gallery: Artist Co-Op welcomed Marci Oldenburg and her nature-inspired photography to the fold, exhibiting her art until July 31.

Oldenburg said that she has been drawn to art since she was young and doodling, but it was when she was going to high school in Germany at 17 that she found her first camera.

“This is something I’ve been doing since I was 17,” she said. “Before, I used to doodle a lot and then I found camera. There, things took off.”

Oldenburg said that she began with film, noting how expensive it was for a single roll of film, when it usually would only take an average of 10 good pictures out of the 35. She later began taking classes at the University of Maine after returning to the U.S, where she was able to use a dark room to develop film.

“I started with a film camera and then it was just taking pictures,” Oldenburg said. “As I went along, I found a photography class for developing, so I started working in the dark room to develop my own film.”

Learning about development, both the technical facets of photography alongside composition, she said that those classes taught her a lot about her craft.

“I learned a lot about the craft of photography during that time,” Oldenburg said.

Picking up a digital camera in 2001 changed everything.

“I went, ‘oh my goodness, this is amazing,’” she said. “So, from there it was digital. Since that time, I’ve maybe shot three rolls of film.”

Easily able to look back at pictures and see how they turned out while out in the field, Oldenburg said that programs like photoshop became her new dark room, although she said she tended to let her photography speak for itself without much editing.

“I want the original picture to speak so I don’t do a lot,” she said. “I do enough to enhance and make it visually appealing to myself and then from there, hopefully, someone else will find it appealing.”

Nature, she said, was her muse throughout her journey, from the woods and flowers to the slow retaking of the world by nature.

“I am inspired by a lot of different things,” Oldenburg said. “Nature is my muse; the woods, the flower popping up through concrete, it’s a lot of different things. Just what captivates me that day.”

A lot of her day-to-day hobbies and routines, she added, also make it into her photography and are reflections of her interests.

“I enjoy florals,” she said. “I grow orchids, I meditate, there’s a lot of different things I do besides that and I think it is reflected in my work.”

Having moved to Tallahassee recently from central Florida, she said that now that she has retired it was time for her flex her creative muscles.

“We moved here in December,” Oldenburg said. “I kind’ve retired and really work at my passion, which is photography, art, I’ve done beading in the past, I’ve always stayed busy creatively.”

Getting back into her old creative passions and new ones, Oldenburg said, has been wonderful.

“It’s wonderful,” she said. “I have a very supportive partner so that makes everything so much, much better. I’m delving into some water color and beading again, which is something I did years ago, but the photography is my main focus.”

Getting involved with the Wiregrass Gallery through a call for photographers was an honor for Oldenburg, and she hopes everyone will see the time and effort put into the works on display.

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