This one is for those living within the wonderful state of Maine (or close by in NH). Tonight, at 8pm on MPBN-TV, watch our premiere TV show "Stone Mountain LIVE!"  Music, fun, antics... all around great entertainment. If you like it, let MPBN know by emailing them off of their website... MPBN.NET. Enjoy...   kevin

This one is for those living within the wonderful state of Maine (or close by in NH). Tonight, at 8pm on MPBN-TV, watch our premiere TV show "Stone Mountain LIVE!"  Music, fun, antics... all around great entertainment. If you like it, let MPBN know by emailing them off of their website... MPBN.NET. Enjoy...   kevin

I took this photo yesterday morning, on an assignment for an advertising / design firm who represents the folks that do the engineering & maintenance on this bridge... or something like that. When my contact at the agency, somewhere in Pennsylvania, saw the shoot, his comment was "Love the shots! Pretty cool bridge!". Well, as I am always appreciative of positive feedback, and even...

I took this photo yesterday morning, on an assignment for an advertising / design firm who represents the folks that do the engineering & maintenance on this bridge... or something like that. When my contact at the agency, somewhere in Pennsylvania, saw the shoot, his comment was "Love the shots! Pretty cool bridge!". Well, as I am always appreciative of positive feedback, and even (reluctantly) appreciative of negative feedback... I have to say that anyone who has ever traveled from SoPo (our local way cool trendier than thou acronym for South Portland) to Portland over this bridge, the Casco Bay Bridge, will have to admit: it is NOT a pretty cool bridge. It is in fact, a pleasantly designed extremely utilitarian means of conveyance from one side of the river/bay to the other. And, barring the occasional "whoops, we can't get the draw bridge part to go down", it functions quite well... quietly, unobtrusively, in a very late 20th century nondescript way. In other words: it's boring. So why did my intelligent, art savvy client say "Pretty cool bridge!"? Because he was viewing pretty cool images of the bridge.  Now I am not bringing this up to pat myself on the back or toot my own horn... but to illustrate a point that has been on my radar scope, in excess I might add, recently. That point is the recent prediction that commercial art as we know it is going the way of the buggy whip and the all too frequently referenced, but never seen, dinosaur. I am on many professional photo forums... where all the pros of the world submit their thoughts via binary sequences for all to see, and comment on, and comment on again... etc...In the past three weeks the demise of print media (magazine & newspapers... does anyone remember them?), the demise of specific magazines regarding our profession, the demise of our profession itself, have all been predicted like an impending tsunami. And then there is this in the LA Times that does a fairly good job of telling the story of what we all fear... There is no doubt that my profession, as well as other creative professions, is under siege right now from the democratization of art. Anyone armed with a reasonable camera, or not, and some basic photoshop skills can turn out much better imagery than was possible ten years ago. An ad agency I know is having their art director shoot food still life set ups as the end client knows what stock photos cost and wants to use them (no concern for quality or appropriateness) but the art director knows they suck, weaken the message, so has turned to shooting them herself to save the process. How long will that process last? The problem is that now the price:expectations ratio has been lowered so that when the next client or project comes along... the ever diligent account executive will ask "How come we did such nice work for XYZ Corp and we had such a small production budget? Why do you want so much $ for photography or illustration on this one?" i learned this in my banking days way back when... Incremental Budgeting is often the standard for corporations... So if less money is being spent on commercial art this year... then guess what? When your work starts to look like crap because of poorly produced or generic art... and suddenly you want to hire a real photographer or illustrator or musician... there will be no money!!! Budget not used in year one? We base year two's budget on what you needed last year! Anyway... enough of this rant... for now... meanwhile I continue to seek out the clients that maintain a high production standard and work for them. It is a bit harder to find them... but they ARE out there, and I AM enjoying making "pretty cool images".

I created this image with the following lyrics from Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" in mind... "Man came in said, "All rise." We all stood up, and Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour...

I created this image with the following lyrics from Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" in mind... "Man came in said, "All rise." We all stood up, and Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog. And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry, 'cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American blind justice, and there wasn't nothing he could do about it..." Which reminds me: you can't always believe what you see. This court room looked nothing like that. The dog & 'judge' were shot in my studio. But we all know that about art & advertising photography. News photos, the domain of the disappearing photojournalist, should have none of this. The battle over the truth of what we see is as old as photography itself. For a great discussion on the subject, grab a 'cup o' sumthin' and read this from my favorite little hometown paper... NYTimes Blog It is a great look into the world of a 21st century war photographer. Be sure to get part 2 also...

While on assignment today for a national magazine, I returned to my lighting case to find this... I also left the case cover open and found her inside. The last time she was trying to get into my camera case. Entertaining, for sure. And probably one of the more good natured and amiable felines I have ever met too. The second photo... I brought in a black Flexfill to deepen the shadows on my...

While on assignment today for a national magazine, I returned to my lighting case to find this... I also left the case cover open and found her inside. The last time she was trying to get into my camera case. Entertaining, for sure. And probably one of the more good natured and amiable felines I have ever met too. The second photo... I brought in a black Flexfill to deepen the shadows on my subject and guess who volunteered to hold it... Exciting Cat Tales to ring in the new year... As many have noticed it has been quiet for the last 45 days or so on the Brusie Blog. Life has been busy. A couple of trips to NYC, one to PA (college kid retrieval) and a relocation of the office. A spacious, comfortable room, with great views and even better company, has become my new office. And the commute is great. 23 seconds, at a slow walk. A number of factors played into my decision to take a 'home office': the increased collaboration with my wife Sharyn on her film projects & she also has her editing suite home; my decreasing usage of the studio, as more & more I am on location; I LOVE what I do, the 'work' part and the personal projects, so being cooped up alone in a small office 12 miles away from home made it very impractical to 'work' or play late with things photographic. When I was a banker, back in the age before time, I always had a darkroom, I would work insanely silly NYC banking hours then disappear on weekends and evenings into the darkroom or go out shooting. I loved it. By making it my vocation did I have to lose my avocation? That is what was happening. Now I can, even on crazy snowy days, be at work as early as I want, work as late as I want, and still have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with my favorite lady - and the pup too. Who knows... maybe I'll even post to my blog more often!!! Have a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2010 and beyond... Believe in you. It has to start somewhere. All the best, kevin  

Yeah, I am back. So according to the CNN/Money website, I have a stressful job that pays badly . Shit. Wow. After 20 years, NOW they tell me!?! I thought when I bailed out of the International Banking gig [a job so important, "they" make you capitalize it... or else!!] I had left the stress behind. Well it could pay better. And who among you would ever say "I get paid enough, thanks. No its...

Yeah, I am back. So according to the CNN/Money website, I have a stressful job that pays badly . Shit. Wow. After 20 years, NOW they tell me!?! I thought when I bailed out of the International Banking gig [a job so important, "they" make you capitalize it... or else!!] I had left the stress behind. Well it could pay better. And who among you would ever say "I get paid enough, thanks. No its ok, really, I don't need a raise..." Or maybe the the fact that I  "have to contend with long days, picky personalities and demanding deadlines -- sometimes withstanding precarious positions just to get that perfect shot" just doesn't really bother me. In fact, that's the fun part... So this photo was taken while wandering Bowery late one night between NoodleTown [feeding my Chow Fun addiction] on Bowery and The National Underground on E. Houston... after just running into, literally, "Ugly George" . As I rounded a corner, he was doing the same... and we almost had a head on. I remember this guy from the late '70's in NYC. He had a Public Access TV show that I still can't figure out how it got on the air... He was there, looking pretty worn out, with his same video rig, just with a camera that was smaller than the tape he used for his earlier rigs. And back then he may actually chat abit... this night, he was rude and offensive right off. It's nice to be back home. So I just liked this night party scene... a gallery opening I believe... or free BLT's for the masses? Ok... I just googled it, and damn... I should have gone up... nice exhibit.   Next trip.