Roberto Westbrook: New Photographs and Thoughts

Until July 23rd, I am offering large prints of my photos at a special price. Why? I need to raise $4,000 for a marketing campaign to reach new clients. By buying a print — or prints — you’ll help me build new clients. Buy one for yourself. Give one as a gift. The subject matter is heavy on South America, Europe, water and nature. If you care about these subjects, or if you know someone who does, you should check out the photos.

I normally sell these 16×24 and 24×24 prints for $199. Right now, I am offering them at $159. To sweeten the offer, and get things moving, the first 10 people to contact me will get a special price of $135.  For comparison purposes, photos in this size from the NY Times archive sell for $389.

How do you see the photos? Good question. You have three options:

1. I set up a gallery of 15 popular prints here: http://roberto.photoshelter.com

2. If those 15 are not to your liking, browse or search my other Photoshelter galleries. (If you select a photo with the old price, let me know and I will adjust.)

3. You’ll find even more photo options on my portfolio site, http://www.robertowestbrook.com.

Your entire transaction can be completed online with a credit card. I also accept personal checks.

I will fill orders after July 23rd. Prints will be delivered in early August. Prints are shipped in a tube via USPS for $5. If you are in a rush or need a customized size, contact me via phone or e-mail. Virginia residents are subject to a 5% tax.

My 10 year college reunion is this weekend. Strangely enough I will be a guest on a career panel. For any friends who may come to the site as a result of the reunion, I have posted this series of photos from the Foxfield races. Anyone who attended UVa will understand what is going on in these photos. The photos are part of an ongoing project taken over several years. Enjoy and please leave comments. Prints are available up to 24×24 inches.

I was in Palm Springs this past weekend for a meeting of Blend photographers and decided to piggyback a personal trip into Joshua Tree National Park to make a landscape photograph for my portfolio. I had only one night, but I think I made the most of it. I really wanted to capture an RV in this crazy lunar landscape.  This is a single 38 second exposure. No compositing. Click the photo to see it a little larger.

Joshua Tree National Park at night

Earth Day is April 22nd and I plan to send a promo to people I’d like to work with. As with the last time I did this, I’m looking for a funny caption or copy to go with the photo in this post. I was thinking of including some seeds in the envelope (maybe basil?) as well. The person whose caption I choose will receive a free print of their choice (10×15 or 10×10 depending on format). The last time we did this, it resulted in some pretty good laughs!

Our dog Moe stepped on something that hurt his paw. He has been gnawing and licking it non-stop for a week which is preventing the healing process. Enter this wonderful cone-of-shame the vet recommended. To be honest, I was excited to get this so I could photograph him in it, and I almost asked if they had a more colorful version. You can see this version by 3M is perfectly clear, not to obstruct his vision I guess. But a more opaque disc would be better for photos I think. Although it did allow for both eyes to be visible in this sad, head-turned portrait.

I’m going to mail a promo to Art Buyers for Valentine’s Day with this photo. Hopefully, most people will find it humorous or odd and not offensive. What do you think? Feel free to add a caption or dialog. Whoever makes me laugh the most will get a 5×5 print, and I may ask to use your text in the promo. I’m not kidding. The MOMA captions were really funny. And Cluadia Mazur truly will receive the Grand Prize (I’m re-gifting the $10 Chili’s Gift Certificate my dentist sent me for a client referral) for best MOMA photo caption. Share this with your friends. It’s time for me to add some buttons to this site for making sharing easier.

I was in New York City recently with my wife, and we visited the MOMA with a friend. We had just been joking about some of the art (see Gabriel Orozco’s shoebox on a floor) when I came upon this couple. This photo is ripe for adding one’s own caption. When I see it, I imagine the guy saying, “Yup, that’s really black!” Feel free to add your own in the comments.

I woke up this morning to a thick fog. I don’t often take my camera with me while walking our beagle, but today I decided it was a good idea. We walked about half a mile up Colley Ave to a bridge that crosses over a finger of the Lafayette River and there I found a few good photo opportunities. I tied Moe up to a tree and took a few photos. I tried both a blue and sepia tone for this image, and decided on the sepia you see here.

Here is another photo from the same coastline as the previous post.

I was in Spain recently and spent a few days along the coastline known as the Costa Brava. Salvador Dali lived a few miles from where this photo was taken. The craggy coast shows up in a lot of his work. It’s hard not to be inspired by it. I’ve always been drawn to water and rough coastlines. There is an innate tension between the fluidity of water and the solidity of stone. This photo is a composite of 3 photos I made in the same cove. I did not have a tripod (trying to travel light) with me so it was a challenge keeping the camera still on my camera bag. Click the image to see it a bit larger.