Now that my daughter is going to school in Ohio, we are, naturally making numerous trips there and back. Classes end for the term next week so I’ll head back again, after just traveling there to take her back after Thanksgiving. The trip is about eight hours but I don’t mind it since it always means I get to see my kid, and there’s no better reason.



We were there for a few days for Homecoming and Parents Weekend last month. Took in the football game and a soccer game (they won both fortunately). But another plus for me, of course, is new territory for photography. I love going to new towns when I have a little time to explore and Delaware, Ohio is a funky little college town with great old architecture, lots of antiques, and a college atmosphere similar to Ithaca where we live. I am always on the lookout for images that build on my many projects like my Ornamental America series, and Delaware provided one of the best finds ever for that collection.

I’ve also found a favorite breakfast place called “Famous Jack’s Diner” on the north side of town. A classic diner with all the amenities and colorful characters.

Returning after Thanksgiving, I stayed an extra day so I could drive down to Columbus, about 20 miles to the south, and see what that city was about. I had hoped to visit the art museum, but like many, it was a Monday and closed. I did make a stop at Franklin Park where they have a beautiful conservatory and gardens that must be spectacular in the spring and summer.

But my other main interest was the Columbus Zoo. I spent a little time there in the afternoon, then returned in the evening with my daughter and two friends to see the festival of lights. Everything around the zoo was lit up and bedecked with thousands of tiny lights. Lots of fun and a place for some creative touches.

The zoo itself was closed in many areas with animals no longer on display because of the colder weather now arriving. But I did get to see the mother lion with her three ten week old cubs, and their beautiful tiger. They also have a nice aquarium space with a couple of huge manatees, though it doesn’t compare to the Georgia Aquarium I visited in Atlanta a couple of summers ago. I particularly enjoyed the reptile house with it’s lizards, turtles, and snakes. I came away with what seemed to be formal portraits that I felt lent themselves to black and white.

I cruised around Columbus a bit, always on the prowl for good urban landscape stuff. Found some marvelous neighborhoods and a huge range, as might be expected, from mansions to shacks.

It’s a town that I’m sure I can spend a great deal more time exploring as my daughter spends her next three and a half years in Ohio and we keep rolling back again and again.

All images are Copyright © George Cannon, All Rights Reserved.

Please visit my website at http://www.georgecannonphotography.com.

Last Saturday I had the great pleasure and wonderful experience of photographing the wedding of Andrea Sorensen and Stephen Graves in Canandaigua, New York. Andrea had scheduled late October because of her love for the fall season and New York did not disappoint, other than some typically sketchy weather, which, in the long run, cooperated amazingly well. I met Andrea and Kate, her Maid of Honor, at Icon Salon and Spa on Main Street in Canandaigua at 9 AM.

The girls were dragging a bit from the rehearsal dinner party festivities, but in great spirits and excited about the day ahead. Other bridal party members arrived a little later with food and drink to begin the day of celebration. After hair and makeup, I followed Andrea and Kate back to Bristol Harbour on Canadaigua Lake for the final preparation before the limo ride back to the church.

I was delighted by the love and caring that obviously exists between these two girls as Kate played the Maid of Honor role with such dedication. Both of these beautiful young ladies made me feel so welcome and appreciated, and made my job so easy. We returned to Canadaigua for the ceremony at St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Main Street, a beautiful sanctuary that hosts about two hundred weddings a year. The groomsmen were busy filling the church and making preparations while the bridal party sneaked into the basement waiting room.

A very large wedding party was made up of several bridesmaids, two best men and several groomsmen, and two junior members. Themes of red, black, and white made for a beautiful color combination. Well done, guys! The ceremony was lovely and very personal.

After formal family groups at the church, the wedding party drove a few blocks to Sonnenberg Gardens for formal shots of the bride and groom and their accompanying entourage. I had met Andrea and Stephen and bridesmaid, Lauren there the previous weekend to pick out suitable spots for photography. Sonnenberg is a state owned historic mansion and gardens in Canandaigua where weddings and wedding photos are a regular occurance. Gorgeous backdrops of flowers all season and beautiful fall color in October make for fabulous settings. A staff member accompanied us the entire time making sure we were taken care of and keeping the brides dress off the damp ground from the early morning rain. Can’t say enough about what a great place Sonnenberg is.

We all returned to Bristol Harbour for the reception. Good friends and family members danced until the late night hours to a great selection of music supplied by their DJ from Turner Music in Rochester.

One thing that can always be counted on at wedding receptions is at least one beautiful baby, and this one was no exception. Great toasts, the shoe game, and outstanding performances on the dance floor made the party one to always remember.

Thanks very much to Andrea and Stephen, Kate, to Chuck and Martha, and everyone who made my work so enjoyable. I wish all of you joy and happiness.

Photos Copyright © George Cannon – Images

Well summer draws to a close, kids are back in school, leaves here are beginning to fall, and a large pile of wood sits ready to be stacked in my back yard. And capping off the end of the summer season is also the last production of the 2009 season for Running To Places.

If you read my blog with any regularity (not that I have been posting as regularly as I used to) you will have undoubtedly seen several posts along the way about Running To Places, the youth theatre company that I shoot pictures for.  A fabulous organization giving voice to scores of talented middle and high school students from this area and producing some of the best youth theatre productions you can imagine. After doing Footloose this summer at Ithaca’s State Theatre, they finished up at Candor High School with Little Shop of Horrors. With a small cast of only nine performers, they gave one of their best shows.

Engy Hassan, Sophie Potter, Anais Duplan, and Wynter La Torre-Osavska played the singing girl squad, Chiffon, Crystal, Ronnette, and Shirelle that laid the background vocals setting the stage for all the drama. Elias Spector-Zabusky give another fantastic performance as Seymour, the nerdish orphan and botanical whiz kid of skid row taken in by Mr. Mushnick, played by James Palmer. Elias is an amazing talent with a great stage presence, fabulous strong voice, and incredible gift for humor. And James gave a wonderful rendition of the ethnic Mushnick, whose temper and curiosity eventually lead him to his end as plant food.

My heart went to the fabulous Audrey, played so stunningly well by Kasia Sendek. Kasia is so cute as Audrey that every time she even said the name, “Mr. Mushnick” I just wanted to squeeze her. She played the ultimate clueless, misguided, city sweetheart of the terrible Orin, the dentist, abused but afraid to leave, longing for “somewhere green”, eventually freed to fall in love with Seymour. Kasia has an amazing voice and perfect delivery. Her amazing duet with Elias doing Suddenly Seymour wowed the audience, and her sweet rendition of Somewhere That’s Green tugged at the heartstrings. Bravo, girl, Bravo!

Orin the dentist and several other parts were played extremely well by Adam Beckwith. The dominating and arrogant Orin is funny but distasteful, and the crowd welcomed his demise. Adam returned numerous times to play a stream of promoters of both genders bent on turning Seymour into a star. Very well done, Adam.

The final outstanding performance was played by Jeremy Pletter inside the incredible puppet, Audrey II. Those who are familiar with Running To Places know Jeremy’s booming deep voice from previous productions, including Spring Showcase this year where he and Elias did a prequel performance to Little Shop. Jeremy captured the ominous character of the giant carnivorous plant with such virtuosity and style, you both loved him and hated him. I can still hear that chilling laughter as he taunted Seymour into bringing more and more human food. Jeremy, you were fantastic!

So to all those at Running To Places that give their time and talent for music, sets, costumes, tickets, concessions, direction, lighting, sound, management, and all other aspects of these complicated productions for the benefit of all these great kids and all of us in the audience, many, many thanks for a fabulous play and a wonderful second season.

Now let’s do it all again! On to season three!!

All images are Copyright © George Cannon.

Pictures from this play and all of the 2009 Season are available for purchase at http://imageguy.zenfolio.com. 20% goes back to support Running To Places.

I can hardly believe that it’s been almost three months since I posted to this blog. My goal when I began was to post every week, but life just gets the better of us. So much has happened in the last three months and time is at such a premium that the blog has unfortunately been the neglected stepchild. June , of course sees the beginning of summer, my daughter is out of school and busy with so much. There are projects to do. I’m building new kitchen cabinets. I got a grant from Cornell Council on the Arts to help mount a show of new work and so that has to be brought to reality. Prints, canvases, frames, postcards, mailing lists. But the show stopper was losing my job. I was forced to take early retirement at the museum (that or just be laid off). Fortunately I had enough time in and was over the minimum age to take the retirement incentive that the university offered. Over 400 people took it. A fair package, but it precludes me from taking another job there other than casual part time, for three years. And in today’s climate, Ithaca doesn’t have much else to offer. Oddly enough, I seem to have been busy all the same. Some photography work. An article in Life in the Finger Lakes. Postcard sales. I wedding lined up for October. And still shooting for Running To Places.

Their June production was HONK. A sweet little show done entirely with middle school students that retells the story of the Ugly Duckling. Very well done as they always are and a showcase of upcoming talent for the Running To Places ranks.

June also brought the inclusion of another slideshow piece in Digital Graffiti at Alys Beach for the second successive year. Then at the end of June was my daughter’s graduation from high school. A milestone and the beginning of the chain of events leading to college.

I’m so incredibly proud of her. National Honor Society, academic achievement awards, a Trustee Scholarship to Ohio Weslyan University. She’s been the best kid a parent could ever hope for. And it’s time to give her wings.

July was off to Florida again. Love that place. So look forward to the 4th of July on the beach and time away. Great fireworks as usual and time to wander and photograph this area so rich with visual food. It’s a banquet for the eyes.

We got back home just in time for the Grassroots Music Festival in Trumansburg. A fantastic four day annual event to benefit AIDS research and assistance and a time for all of the area to celebrate great music, and dance, and let your hair down. This was the first year (thanks to being retired) that I was able to attend all four days.

There are four stages so it’s really hard to catch every band that performs, but the variety and quality is fantastic from groups like reggae favorite Toots and the Maytals to the soulful gospel rock of the Campbell Brothers and the Flying Clouds.

Great local talent like Donna The Buffalo and the Horseflies with Richie Stearns. African rhythms of Samite and fabulous Cajun bands like Preston Frank and his Family Band and The Pine Leaf Boys.

The big surprise for me was a fabulous band called Scythian. I’ve never seen such high energy crowd pleasing performances.

I have taken a little time to photograph some local scenes. A short trip up to Seneca Falls. But have been trying to rebuild my website and spending a lot of time at the computer.

Running To Places closed out the summer with Footloose. This was their first time at Ithaca’s fabulous old State Theatre, a much more prestigious venue than the usual high school auditorium they are used to playing. And an incredible success. A fantastic show with a near sell out every night.

We also squeezed in a presentation of RENT at the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca which was wonderful, right before leaving to drive my daughter to Ohio to start college. I can’t believe she’s actually out of the house now. It’s so quiet without her here, except for the dog barking.

So now I must concentrate on finishing up framing my show. It opens the day before Labor Day. Titled “Evolution”, it’s all new abstract work. Images that began as photographs and have been transformed in Photoshop. Much of it has been posted at my other blog, Artcards.

So summer comes to a close all too fast. The website is still not rebuilt, the kitchen cabinets are still not finished, I am still unemployed (or retired or self-employed I suppose) and we have the veritable empty nest. The show opens soon. I have the cover of Life in the Finger Lakes on the next issue. There’s the wedding to shoot in October and Running to Places is doing Little Shop of Horrors in about two weeks. Can’t see things slowing down at all. Gotta get cracking on that resume. And I’ll try not to be so late in getting back here. Good bye Summer! It’s been interesting.  Whew!

All images are Copyright © George Cannon, All Rights Reserved.

On Saturday and Sunday this past weekend, Armstrong School of Dance gave their annual performances at Ithaca College’s Ford Hall Auditorium.  This one was a special one for more than one reason. It was Armstrong’s 15th anniversary, but it was also my daughter, Tessa’s final recital since she is one of the six graduating seniors on the dance team. They still have their competition at Tremain yet to attend this summer, but classes are done, the last recital is finished, and Armstrong will be an extended family that, like her mom and I, must let her go to grow and study as she heads off to Ohio Wesleyan in the fall. Since photography is not allowed during the actual performances, all of these photos are from dress rehearsals, with the exception of the goodbye images at the end.

As usual the performances are broken up into two groups. The wee kids (ages 3 – 9) and the older kids (ages 10 – 18). Otherwise it would simply go way too long and the girls who teach as well as dance would be thoroughly exhausted. The team dancers perform at both events so need a break in between. My daughter pointed out to me that she was on stage performing 14 times during each day, so it takes a lot of stamina. She taught little kids this year again so was on stage with the smallest peanuts. These kids are so cute and so entertaining to watch.

I can remember when Tessa began at about age 9. She was primarily interested in taking Hip-Hop classes but eventually got the bug for the whole package. She was resistant to taking ballet, but once in the classes, I believe she realized how essential all the styles were to developing as a well rounded dancer and the idea of being a team dancer became a strong desire and goal. Since being on the team, they’ve gone on to win a national championship, scads of trophies and awards, have performed in so many venues and taken classes with major choreographers. She was in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade last year and her dance has added so much to her performances with school and theater outside of Armstrong. It’s been worth all the driving, the shoes and costumes, the traveling and expense. Watching her grow and dance and perform has touched me so deeply and made me so proud. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

The six graduating senior girls were all given the opportunity to choreograph their own duets. It’s a great time to give the spotlight to these girls who have worked so hard and now are leaving the team to make way for younger girls to move up.

Every year we have attended these performances, I am drawn to the dancing of a few young girls who just seem to stand out from the crowd and it has been so remarkable to see them grow, as our daughter has, and know that they will become soon, the next generation of team girls. You can just see it in their expression, concentration, and grace.

I thought that this year, the choreography was exceptional. A few of the numbers were my favorites and were so very impressive. A great jazz number done to “All That Jazz”.  The huge performance that combined two different classes to create an amazing version of “Riverdance”. The incredible high energy of “Rock This Party”.  The absolutely gorgeous and touching lyrical piece to “Orphans of God” brought tears to my eyes. The fabulous tap piece to “Din Da Da”. And of course, the always impressive precision number with the huge line of girls dancing to “Please Don’t Stop The Music”.

I want to say thanks to all of the wonderful people at Armstrong School of Dance. They have given my daughter so much to enhance her life. Poise, grace, strength, confidence, friendship, caring, community and family. Thanks to Karen Gorsky, Ann Armstrong, all the teachers this year and in the past, and to all the wonderful dancers who have been such great friends and have entertained us so magnificently. We have loved it all so much. And thank you Tessa, for your dedication, your beautiful, graceful performances, your love of the music and the people and the stage. You have given your mother and me a wonderful gift by letting us watch you dance. But on to new and more wonderful things. You’re the best.

“Dancer Girl”

Images are Copyright © George Cannon, All Rights Reserved.

I feel so deflated when I realize how I’ve been neglecting my blog.  My time has been so short for just going out and shooting. Spring has been slow to arrive, but finally the world in the Northeast is green and smelling of lilacs. I have been trying to make myself take my camera, even if just for an hour or so, and go shoot. Anywhere works. There’s always something worth making subject matter. So it’s been a couple of my favorite haunts lately.

The Ithaca boat yard is always ripe for images. I put together a new action using the High Pass filter and have been experimenting with it. It works great on some images and not so well on others. But the boat yard seems to present images that take to the action extremely well. Anything that can use a sharp edge, sharp contrast and colors that pop is a good candidate.

I stopped briefly he other day after driving one of my daughter’s friends to the bus station in Binghamton and realized that I’d love to go back down there and shoot for a couple of days. This one was on Rte. 11 where I want to do a whole documentary series some day.

The building where my daughter has her dance studio has always been one of my favorite buildings to photograph. It’s front facade with morning sun is a wealth of line and shadow and light. And the rear of the building with its gas meters, utility service, and rusting siding has always been a fabulous place to find great color.

I also made myself take a little time in downtown Ithaca again recently too. The neighborhoods there, as with any city setting, particularly on an early Sunday morning, can provide any number of great images with alleyways, parking areas, old architecture and apartments, gardens, and the debris of city life. I love the urban landscape.

Recent events included an evening at The 9’s in Collegetown to see Blindspot with lead singer Maddy Walsh. She’s the neice of my wife’s best friend. Maddy is a fabulous singer with amazing range and repertoire. She can cover everything from soft ballads and folk to hard rock and blues. She’s terrific.

The Spring weather this time of year often brings great foggy mornings. The trees of Cornell’s campus were gorgeous in the morning light with the morning fog this week.

And at the museum, we just hosted Art In Bloom, a semi annual event that brings in a group of floral designers from the Ithaca Garden Club who create stunning floral arrangements that coordinate themes with various art works throughout the museum. A beautiful Spring event.

My last bit of news has to do with an on going project I’ve been preparing for. My experimental work with digital abstracts has been aimed at a solo show and I finally got word that one of the grants I need to make the show happen has come through from Cornell Council for the Arts. I have also put together a book of 64 of the abstract images , many of which are to be in the show, that’s now available on Blurb. Evolution, Photographic Digital Abstracts is 80 pages with 64 color images created from original photographs. The show goes up in September and many of the works have already appeared on my other blog at Artcards.

So, nice to be back and sorry to have been so absent. My daughter’s dance performances are coming soon, graduation, vacation, then she’s off to college. Time flies when you’re having fun!

All images are Copyright © George Cannon, All Rghts Reserved.

In their third presentation of the 2009 Season, Running To Places, with their Spring Showcase, gave us three wonderful shows at the Kulp Auditorium at Ithaca High School on April 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th. The Showcase is a fabulous offering since it allows the company to perform numbers from several shows and, in taking them out of the context of a full production, they have some freedom in how they present each one.

Galen Gibian started the show out with “She Cries” from Songs for a New World. A fabulous voice and a moving performance. He was followed by a group, led by Katarina Andersson, doing “Holding Out for a Hero” from Footloose (scheduled for a full production later in the season). A really cute number featuring great dancing from many cast members. A large group of the cast came next for a really fun version of Mama Mia.

Engy Hassan’s beautiful voice came to us in a solo from the Little Mermaid, followed by another gorgeous voice, Sari Koppel, doing “The Joy of Motherhood” from Honk, the company’s next scheduled full performance in June, featuring all middle-schoolers.

I was totally knocked out by the performance of James Potter who, with Anthony Nigro, did “Play With Your Food”, also from Honk. This young man is an amazing talent at his age with a great stage career ahead. Can’t wait to watch this kid grow.

The first act closed with a solo of “Adelaide’s Lament” from Guys and Dolls from the very expressive Erika Harrington, “Suddenly Seymour” done by Sophie Potter and the always wonderful Elias Spector-Zabusky from Little Shop of Horrors (scheduled for September performances), a fabulous routine from Rocky Horror Picture Show, “Time Warp”, and the full cast out for “Masquerade” from Phantom of the Opera.

In Act II I get to watch my wonderful kid do her thing at the opening of “Rich Man’s Frug” from Sweet Charity, a really fun performance. Another large cast group followed with “We Open in Venice”, then Ali Diemecke and Gera Goff with a dark and moving “The Dark I Know Well” from Spring Awakening.

A large cast group came back highly energized led by Adam Beckwith for “Footloose” with amazing dancing and choreography. Next young Michelle Peterson gave us a beautiful performance of “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas.

One of the highlight performances of each night came from Jeremy Pletter, with his deep rich voice, and again, Elias Spector-Zabusky in “Feed Me” from Litte Shop of Horrors. These two guys are fantastic performers and so amazingly entertaining.

“Elephant Love Medley” from Moulin Rouge featured several couples from the cast in wonderful vignettes. This was followed by “If I Told You” from The Wedding Singer. A very special performance for me since it featured my beautiful daughter, Tessa Cannon, dancing with her fabulous partner, Travis Jones in a piece Tessa choreographed for the Trumansburg Talent Show. They were accompanied this time by a splendid vocal duet from Geoff Peterson and Eliza Vann.

The full company came back on stage at the end for “If I Can Dream” from All Shook Up.

This wasn’t all, however. Inserted in between was a great performance from Anya Gibian, Assistant Director, Todd Peterson, Choreographer, and Joey Steinhagen, Artistic Director, doing “Die Vampire Die”, a delightful and comical number that let a few of the adult members of the company that work so hard to teach and train these young performers show off a bit of the talent they bring to the company. It’s one of the perks of the Showcase that you don’t get in the other productions of the season.

I can never say enough in praise of all these fabulous kids, both on stage, and behind the scenes, for the marvelous and entertaining job they do. It enriches our community and gives so many great kids a fabulous chance to learn, perform, and build incredible friendships. Also great praise to the staff who give so freely to these kids and to all the parents and community supporters that do their parts to help these kids be a part of Running To Places. We are all better for it.

Thanks R2P for another great performance!

Photos are Copyright George Cannon, All Rights Reserved.

Photos from this performance are available for purchase at http://www.printroom/georgecannon.com and 20% goes back to Running To Places.

I’m finally catching up a bit with my blog posts. April has been a terribly hectic month. I have so much to put up with this post and the next. These teenage drama kids are wearing me out. The beginning of the month was Trumansburg High School’s Drama Club presentation of “The Boyfriend”. These kids went through weeks of rehearsals, not to mention all the work behind the scenes by so many to create great sets and costumes. I know Sally Priester and Anne Bialke put in a lot of over time. So to everyone, I say a fabulous job well done. The show was amazing! I am always blown away by the talent in our little town. Bravo! Bravo!  So here are the pictures!

Thanks T’burg for another fabulous show!

All Images are Copyright © George Cannon, All Rights Reserved.

I just wanted to put up a short post to say that 175 Photographers, A Collection of Contemporary Photography from JPGmag.com is finally complete and available at my Blurb page. This is a book I’ve been working on for three months, pulling together images from my favorites pages on the JPGmag.com website. 175 photographers from all over the world have graciously agreed to allow me to collect and print their photographs in a beautiful book. They have all contributed this work so that I might make it available to the public and hopefully find the support to turn this collection into a fantastic show of contemporary photography.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with JPG, it’s another of the internet’s photography sites where photographers upload images to their pages, often based on specific themes, to share them and to compete for a spot in the print version of JPG Magazine. Members vote on the images that best fit the themes, and can also comment, contact the photographer, or tag images as favorites and build their own collection of other photographers’ works. I have been placing images there for almost three years and have collected over 300 favorites. I always felt they would make a great book or show, and when it looked as though JPG might shut down at the beginning of this year, I decided, in a bit of a panic, to try and make this happen. And so success. The book is published and available to all. You can purchase a copy directly from my Blurb page at cost.  So we all make it available to you now. There are over 200 images in color and black and white punctuated by quotes from famous photographers. Over 240 pages in all and a listing of every photographer and with URLs for most where you can see more of their work or contact them directly if you are interested in purchasing images. I would post some of those photographs, but have only a license to use them in the book and will respect that.

So if you are looking for one of the most interesting, stimulating, complete and diverse collections of contemporary photography today, go to this page and order a copy of 175 Photographers, A Collection of Contemporary Photography from JPGmag.com edited by me. You won’t be disappointed.

Cover design Copyright © 2009, George Cannon and Imageguy Artbooks, All Rights Reserved.

I have been away from my blog for a while. Not by conscious choice, I just haven’t had an extra minute to sit and gather my thoughts. I have posted a couple of posts from Running To Places performances. That’s a must after I shoot those. But I have been so occupied with other things this first part of 2009 that I have hardly been able to do much of anything that I usually do when I’m not at work.

My daughter is applying for colleges right now. That is she’s already applied, we’re just waiting to hear from everyone. She applied to ten schools. We’ve heard from seven. Accepted at six and wait-listed at number seven. The other replies are due any time. She’s a smart girl and has received good offers already. So she will have a tough choice to make soon. She’s applied for a major in Zoology at all but one, DeSales University in Pennsylvania, where she’s applied as a dance major. I had the wonderful opportunity to take her down to visit and audition for the program.

I can say that I’ve never been around so many positive attitude students ever. These kids had nothing negative to say about the school, except perhaps that there’s not much around the campus for entertainment, so the school brings the entertainment in to them on a regular basis. My daughter had a friend nearby, so spent the night with her while I stayed in our cheesy little motel.

At work, we installed a major exhibit of Australian Aboriginal art and the George Eastman House’s show Picturing Eden. Both very big shows and amazing work. The Aboriginal show include the construction of a ten foot square sand box which we filled with two tons of sand that we dyed red. Three artists flew in from Australia to create a design on top of the sand in the traditional ways they do it at home using dyed plant fiber.

I’ve tried to grab a few shots on the highway the few times I’ve been out with my cameras. The weather here has been so cold until late that I just had no desire to be out shooting. But the buzzards are back (my robin of spring) and the cat is leaving the entrails of small rodents on our floor two or three times a day now, so I know Spring is really here.

Last weekend my daughter’s dance school celebrated another 5 year milestone with a big dance party for all. I wish I had the energy of these kids. They danced for about 5 hours straight and I was thankful that I got to simply be a bystander with camera. I love being around them all though because they are so full of life.

The main reason that I have been so unable to keep up with blogging, however, is that January 1st I began a project that has been all consuming. I am a contributor to JPGmag.com on a regular basis and at the beginning of the year it looked as though JPG was going to close. I had always wanted to put together a book or show of the photographs that I have tagged there as my favorites, so when thinking that might be impossible if the site closed down, in a bit of a panic, I decided to do the book. It took almost three months to pull it all together working almost every night, but two days ago I sent it off to Blurb for publication.

175 PHOTOGRAPHERS, A Collection of Contemporary Photography from JPGmag.com will be available to the public soon. It has the work of 175 photographers from every continent around the world (except Antarctica of course). Over 200 color and black & white photographs. It’s an amazing collection and a tribute to the fabulous photography at JPG. It appears now that JPG will not shut down after all, but I am so glad I took the time to make contact with all these people all around the world and pull this together. I have another blog that has been keeping the contributors up to date and I will post there about any other books I produce as well. If you’d be interested in buying a copy, it will be available at cost (no profit markup) from Blurb soon. Watch this blog for the announcement.

Oh! and the reason for the title of this post. On Tuesday I was notified that my job at the museum is being eliminated because of the economy. Retirement when I least expected it.

A very eventful month! Nice to be back. Looks as though I may have a little more time to keep up now.

All photographs are Copyright © George Cannon, All Rights Reserved.