My assistant Dave and I just dropped my latest mailer into the USPS’s hands. The 17 x 22 inch poster, printed on newsprint, features some of the beefcakes that I photographed for Philadelphia Magazine back in 2010. The images ran in the 2011 Best of the Shore issue in a photo essay about New Jersey Shore lifeguards. And, hey, who doesn’t mind looking at 22-inches of ab-tastic men and imagining you were on the beach.

Credit where credit is due: printing on newsprint was really Dave’s idea. Awhile back, Dave was telling me about experimenting with sending different media through his inkjet, including newsprint, and I immediately thought it would be the perfect timeless medium for the timeless image of a shore lifeguard. Nevermind that sending it through the inkjet might ruin my $1200 printer. Sometimes you just have to say “Fuck it.”

Because each of these is a hand fed print, we only sent out about 50 posters. If you’d like to see a copy, feel free to touch base and we’ll try to get you a copy and maybe put you on the list for next time.

Walking the labyrinthine back hallways in order to scout was a way cool endeavor in of itself. We even stumbled into the room where they preserve specimens (see right). They had monkeys in jars! We saw books dating back to the 1500s and stuffed Andean condors that are the size of a man. BTW, stuffed animals that have been sitting around since the 1800s have a pretty…interesting, yes, interesting smell.

Anyway, the scientists and curators couldn’t have been cooler. I recommend you read the article  because it really is a fascinating place filled with fascinating people.  Below, you’ll find some more images of the printed magazine and some of my favorite outtakes.

Thanks again for the great assignment, Tim!

Last November my assistant John and I traveled to Boston to photograph Whoopie Pies, oh, and a couple people, for Money Magazine. Julie and Alan run Chococoa Baking and specialize in some great little pies. (I was always under the impression that these things were endemic to Lancaster County, Pa., but I’ve since learned they’re also claimed by Mainers.)

Thanks to Julie & Alan for being patient and accommodating subjects and to the rest of the team: John, Lynne Avallone on make-up/hair and Callista Wilson on wardrobe. And, as always, Shayla Hunter for all the support back at the Money Mag home office.

Check out a few other outtakes below:

I hope everyone had a great holiday and New Year. Rest was had around these parts and I’m looking forward to 2012.

We ended 2011 with a great project with recently anointed Philadelphia Magazine Design Director Jesse Southerland and company. It’s our first cover together and I couldn’t have been more excited that to be photographing a giant piece of meat. It’s a beautiful cover concept and a novel way to approach a “Best Of” restaurant list, i.e., covering the best Philadelphia neighborhoods for dining instead of individual restaurants.

Below are some shots of the images in print, with outtakes to follow. And keep an eye out for a new Food portfolio coming to Ryan Donnell dot Com sometime in the near future.

Check out a preview below and then (did I mention this?) you can go vote for it at Blurb.

As a photographer, it’s a dream job: soda jerks in crisp linens, penny-tile and marble everywhere, a lot of awesome mustaches and the most beautifully colored soda syrups one could ask for. Thanks to Art Director Maggie Gardner for the great design.

And please enjoy the outtakes below.

McCormick & Company did it again this month: another great cover (and issue) of Philadelphia Magazine. Creative Director Michael McCormick and I collaborated to create a super simple and elegant cover photo of a slice of pepperoni pizza.  It’s from the great Philly pizzeria Rustica in Northern Liberties and is almost actual size!

My assistant and I hit something like 16 different pizzerias in less then a week and tried to try at least a bite from each place, and I’m gonna get for real with you dedicated readers…it IS possible to get sick of pizza. I had 6 pizzas in my fridge on any given night of the shoot. That said, we’re now experts in all things crust and sauce.

Thanks to Photo Director Zoey Sless-Kitain for her superb organizational aid.

Enjoy a few clips below and a little slideshow of outtakes.

In the coming weeks I’ll be documenting items from the farm share that my wife and I subscribe to during the spring, summer and fall. I’ll be photographing the raw ingredients and then turning them into a finished dish, hopefully, a simple and quick preparation. This project will be as much a way to stretch my creative photographic muscles as it will be a way to motivate me to use the ingredients we’ve bought. Nothing worse then 10 wilted bags of greens in your fridge.

To start we have the funny-looking garlic scape, which I turned into a Garlic Scape Pesto (scapes, almonds, asiago cheese, and olive oil) to be served with pasta.

Stay tuned for more…

The shoot was a week full of non-stop photography, good food, friends and not-a-small-amount of adult relaxation aids (you know what I mean). We had a great time shooting the Polaroids (even though they’re now Fuji instant images) for the nostalgic opening spread of the feature. And, as much as I’d like to take credit for all those images, the whole crew (creative director Michael McCormick, photo director Zoey Sless-Kitain and assistant and Bro-seph-in-chief, Ryan Collerd) shared in that creative endeavor.

Michael had a rough go of it during the shoot of the toll booth, which turned out to be one of my favorite images. Poor guy was a little afraid of the heights (see video below), though, truth-be-told, the traffic was way scary. (Michael, I’ve been waiting a year to tease you with that one.)

We also had a great time hanging with the waitresses at Uncle Bill’s pancake house, coming away with mad respect for their steady hands and seemingly unlimited patience.

And we met tons of great lifeguards, including the crazy times at Wildwood beach where off-shore hurricanes kept the guards busy the entire time we were there. I’ve attached a special slideshow of my favorite lifeguard images, below. Use the fullscreen button on the bottom right of the slideshow in order to see them larger.

Thanks to everyone at Philly Mag and ‘down the shore’ for their help in making this a successful Shore issue.