This year Scott Kelby’s third annual worldwide photo walk came to downtown Stuart today…

..courtesy of leader Christopher Arnold. 

The event is an international, 33,000 participants in 1113 locations. There were about 50 this morning on the streets of our humble town.  It’s nice to actually go out and shoot without restrictions of an assignment.

The City Dock….

I was photographing this corner where Mulligans now sits…

…when this guy thought he could do it better and jumped into the frame…

..he refused to move until the light came up and my opportunity would be gone…

..so I waited …

..the obstructionist turns out to be the one and only Steve Martine.  So I cut him some slack, and offered to buy him breakfast if he would move. I think he actually got a better shot then mine, btw…

Lady Abundance @ Haney Circle…

We saw a few familar faces on the street, chatted it up, then headed for the Oceola Street Cafe…

To see all of my favorite image from this morning, hit the jump:

http://www.thomaswinter.com/events/photowalk/

To learn more about the photowalk event:

http://worldwidephotowalk.com/

- tw

Had the opportunity to do some portfolio work over at the Rio Jensen Skate Park on Wednesday…

My friend and fellow photog Steve Martine joined me on the shoot. Steve always adds an extra dimension of fun and creativity to the set. It’s always good to work with him…

It was amazing how good some of the skaters are, especially for their age.  Josh Forsberg, 9 years old…

Some of the others really put a show on for us. Here is CJ catching some air…

CJ and Mason..

Tyler catching the light!

Pat Mark is one of the founders of the skate park in Rio, here she is with some of her skaters…

The rest of the images from the shoot can be found at the following link:

http://www.thomaswinter.com/jobs/skate

..tw

…was something intriguing to me. I recently discovered this little tradition while working at the Lyric Theatre in downtown Stuart. I was there to create images for their annual magazine.

That morning I walked inside to discover a single bare bulb glowing in the center of the stage….

I inquired… “It’s the ghost lamp”, replied Bert, as he pulled back one of the large curtains. Well I love ghost stories, so I inquired further. According the executive director of the Lyric, John Loesser, it is old “theatre lore”.  A lamp burns through the night inside all old theatres and is standard practice on Broadway.

According to a Playbill Magazine story published 2005, many of Broadway’s busiest theatres continue to be busily haunted by spirits, some with well-known names and histories.

“Each night after the applause dies, the curtain falls, the audience vanishes, the cleaners dust and the lights are killed, great theatres become dark and silent places. This is when the theatre ghosts make their entrance and strut and fret their hour upon the shadowed stage, illuminated only by the ghost light, the solitary lamp that is required to burn through the night on every Broadway stage.”

Well, ghosts or no ghosts, the light, and the lore are so cool to me I was determined to use it in a photograph.

The opportunity came Thursday in the form of the Lyric staff portrait…. 

I hauled in a bunch of my gear to light 15 people on the dark stage. After a bunch of light adjustments, tweaks and tests, here we go, a nice portrait of some nice people…

…but I needed something more interesting…

“The Ghost Lamp!!” I thought, or perhaps it was whispered to me while I was atop the ladder.

I pushed all the gear aside, and moved the lamp to center stage. It was going to come together, with only this simple light I thought.

I gathered everyone around the light, climbed back up the ladder, held it steady, and….

there it was..the shot, courtesy of the ghost lamp.

-tw

Link to the full playbill.com story:

http://www.playbill.com/features/article/93486-The-Ghosts-of-Broadway

Please join me on Friday June 25th is the opening reception for an exhibit featuring the work of myself and Robert Holland…

The exhibit will be at the Court House Cultural Center Gallerys (Arts Council 80 E Ocean, Stuart)  June 25 – September 24th 2010.

Robert Holland is a commercial and portrait photographer based in Stuart FL. He has a very clean and distinctive style.  There is a link to his website below.

I will have a diverse collection of favorites and images not widely seen before.

Please mark your calendars and join us for this exciting exhibition. I hope to see you on the 25th.

-tw

http://robertholland.com

http://thomaswinter.com

http://www.martinarts.org/

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to work with a wonderful group of volunteers that visit the sick and elderly with their pets.

We visited patients at Martin Memorial Hospital.

They call themselves “Sunshine on a Leash”, because everytime they make a visit, it’s like a ray of sunshine comes shining down…

..and that’s exactly what I saw happen.

They visit hospitals, cancer centers, adult day care centers, at various locations throughout Palm Beach and Martin Counties.

It was very moving to see the interactions and the joy the dogs brought with them.

To view all the images from the series:

 http://www.thomaswinter.com/clients/sunshine/

To view the audio slideshow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xth03XGutk8

To find out more information on the organization,  please visit their website at:

http://www.sunshineonaleash.org/

They really need additional volunteers.

-tw

The awards where presented this past Friday, May 14 on the steps of the court house cultural center gallery. 

Represented were approximately 200 area high school students, teachers, parents, and school officials.

This exhibition recognizes the talents of students from Martin County, South Fork and Jensen Beach HIgh Schools, the Pine School and Clark Advanced Learning Center.

Artist Stephen Stone kept a watchful eye on the crowd….

The complete list of awards can be found here: http://www.martinarts.org/includes/downloads/prhsjasawardslist2010.pdf

More pictures: http://www.thomaswinter.com/events/hsartshow/

The exhibit runs through June 9th.

Come by the Arts Council and see the wonderful work of these students.

-tw

Betsy Damon is the Project’s mentor artist.  She is the founder and director of Keepers of the Waters .

The group just celebrated Earth Day with their first EcoArt project at the Florida Oceanographic Society on Hutchinson Island. This was a pilot project to see if their ideas and techniques would work, and they did.

They created a series of floating islands with plants and materials that help to clean the water, and provide food and shelter for the marine life and birds.

Through a microbal process, these islands help remove destructive pollutants and excess nutrients caused by human activity.

The project is funded by the Community Foundations of Palm Beach & Martin Counties, as well as the State of Florida.

EcoArtists: Brenda Leigh, Gail Kosowski, Jim Moir, Jesse Etelson, Jamie Powell (Lead), Jennifer Sylvia, Elizabeth Upton

This project is the first ever community EcoArt education and apprenticeship in the state of Florida.

More information on the project can be found at http://ecoarttreasurecoast.org/

A short video I produced : http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=t6a4VQznh8U

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ecoart-Treasure-Coast/76969952761?v=wall

-tw