Photo Gallery - The Art and Humor of Alan Shapiro

Choosing photos of Alan Shapiro to post on this blog is like being a kid let loose in a candy store. His site on Google+ is a veritable smorgasboard of goodies! 

I had an extremely difficult time choosing photos to share here so I decided to reserve most of his other photos for another future photo gallery.

Check out his photos and enjoy the humor in the titles.  His photography is both art and joy.

 Staring contest with a Dahlia

All dressed up and ready to play

Coming in for a landing

Almost as beautiful as you

Flower doing time

The tiny things can be the most beautiful

Some poppies are such showoffs

 Spent and drained


 

 Something beautiful to start the day

 An Iris preparing for an epic photo-walk

Lily showing off

Lavender having a vanilla-coconut dream



 

Sunset over brussel sprouts in Santa Cruz


 
 

A moment in the prairie

Clouds and Canola

The view from here

Today

Alan Shapiro in his own words: I grew up on the creative side of the advertising world and had the pleasure of working with hundreds of clients around the world; telling their unique stories in very unique ways. Along the way, I've had the pleasure of working with an incredible number of talented photographers, directors, cinematographers and imagemakers. I became envious of their art and craft. At first, I saw it as a means of reducing my stress-filled life. As a Chief Creative Officer at the world's largest Advertising Agency Network, I needed a distraction. So I bought a camera. And then another. And another. My new hobby and daily "creative exercise regimen" quickly turned into a joy-filled and all consuming passion.

I love talking to all sorts of people and seem to have a knack for getting them to open up and share themselves despite the intrusion and intimidation that a serious-looking camera often represents.
 

I like seeking out and sharing things I find interesting. Beautiful things. Powerful things. Poignant things.

I am incredibly patient and am often rewarded with moments of magic.

I also enjoy taking something ordinary and making it something well beyond that. (To paraphrase Ansel Adams: "…making pictures, not just taking them.") Illustration and painting are other passions and I love creating unique photocompositions.

One thing led to another and now I'm published, in private collections and winning awards.

I live in Briarcliff Manor, NY (just north of Manhattan) with my family, a huge menagerie of animals and what is quite possibly the largest collection of carved coconut heads in the world.
 

- Ariel Murphy