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Photos by Thomas McMahon

Welcome to my blog!

Hello, I am Tom McMahon and I have been a commercial photographer off and on since the 1970's. Over the years using film cameras I have had problems with getting my photos to come out the exactly as I "saw" them when shooting the image. Now that digital photography has come about, I am now able make adjustments to the photo and get the look and feel to the image that I really like. I am involved with the whole process from shooting the photo to developing it myself. It has taken time and patience to get the work flow down and the color correction correct, but it has come together. Over the past several years I have attended four intensive workshops to make sure I am up to date with Photoshop and now Lightroom. The classes I have taken with Seth Resnick and Jamie Spritzer from D-65 have taken me where I need to be in this digital world of photography.

Since then, I have taken my photography to the next level by participating in a workshop with Jay Maisel. I thought I had my bar set high until I went to Jay’s workshop; it needed to go much higher. Jay’s passion for his work challenged me not only as a photographer but as a person. Jay provided just the right amount of “encouragement” to go out and really look at the world from a whole new perspective. The workshop was an intense yet supportive dialogue on all things creative through a camera’s aperture. Jay’s experience and talent provided the focus for each participant in the group. In Jay’s critiques, he would bring up at looking at what is going on in the background of your photo. This forced me to look at my subject and how I put it in the frame in a different way. To put it simply, it was a great deal of fun while at the same time rewarding.

The next workshop I attended was the Maine Media Workshop with Arthur Meyerson. The class was titled “Color Of Light”. My experience during Arthur's “Color Of Light,” workshop was spectacular! The workshop challenged us to ease out of our comfort zones and abandon our familiar habits in order to introduce new ways of shooting our photos. Once we started to realize Arthur’s method of encouraging creativity through fresh ways of thinking, it became more and more enjoyable. We had group critiques that took place everyday after shooting and they reinforced this, as well as brought fresh perspective to our work. The highlight for me was when I had a one-on-one session with Arthur the third day of class. That hour really helped me to see the good, the bad and the ugly of my work. Arthur’s influence has shown me how to elevate the way I see, think about and shoot my photos. Arthur recognizes the personal style and vision of every photographer while he pushes you to try a different approach. Overall, the collective nature of this particular workshop energized me and helped me to visualize my photos in innovative ways. It was the best workshop I have attended and why I am joining him in Cuba this year.

I have taken my photography and video up another step again by adding DJI copters. With the copters I can give my clients a bird-eye view of their landscaping project, property or golf course. This is new, unique and impressive. I believe anyone that is in business today could benefit from the use of this media. Go to Aerial video and photography to see some examples.

Come and see my gallery of stock photography National Geographic

We also are a ISP (Internet Service Provider) at McGraphics.

Sunset Country Club updating golf photos at fall

Sunset Country Club wanted to have their photos of the course updated and asked me to help in the project. This may take some time, because of weather, light and time of the year. It takes time to get a quality photograph. Here is the story of the heritage of Sunset Country Club.

In 1910 Adolphus Busch decided Saint Louis needed a social and dining club in south St. Louis County. He wanted a hilly, undeveloped, wooded site that would permit privacy and an opportunity to share in nature’s beauty, and one that would serve Anheuser-Busch products exclusively.

Adolphus completed the acquisition of the initial 26 acres, upon which he constructed the Sunset Inn, which opened in November 1910. From 1910 to 1916, the Sunset Inn served its 1,800 members with some of the finest dining available in the area; accompanied by his Anheuser-Busch products.

August A Busch Sr. took the lead on the purchase of additional land, and in May 1911, he formed the Sunset Hill Country Club in a small building adjacent to the Sunset Inn. With the death of Adolphus Busch in 1913, it fell to August Sr. to continue the legacy of Sunset.

Carleton was familiar with the Foulis brothers – Robert, Jim and David – from work they had done at other area courses. He convinced August and Eberhard that the Foulis’ were the right choice to design the new Sunset Hill course.

One of the brothers, Jim Foulis, was the first golf professional in the western United States, serving as professional at the Chicago GC. When he won the second U.S. Open in 1896 at Shinnecock CC, his services as a designer, as well as a player, were in high demand. His brother Robert was considered as one of the finest professional-greenkeepers in the country, and his knowledge of grasses was unsurpassed. The third brother – David – was an excellent clubmaker. Natives of Saint Andrews, Scotland, “birthplace of golf,” the brothers, who learned their golf from Old Tom Morris, became known as the Founding Fathers of Midwest Golf!

In addition to designing Sunset’s original course, the Foulis’ also helped lay out other prestigious courses in our area—the original Bellerive, Glen Echo, Algonquin, and the Bogey Club and Log Cabin Club courses, as well as performing the construction on the courses at Forest Park, Normandie GC, Ruth Park and the original course for Westwood CC (today Westborough CC).

When the course was completed in the spring of 1917, it was hailed as one of the most beautiful and best designs in the country.

However, like most private clubs, Sunset Hill suffered through the years of The Great Depression and temporarily closed its doors in 1937. A few months later, a group of former Sunset Hill members approached Anheuser-Busch to reorganize the club, which they did in 1938, renaming the club Sunset CC. In 1944, Anheuser-Busch was approached by the club with an offer to sell the club to the membership. After consulting with Alice Busch, the widow of August A. Busch Sr., who held deed to 95-acres, the sale was completed in 1945.

Sunset Country Club Golf Course | Stock Photo

Sunset Country Club Golf Course hole 7 | Stock Photo

Sunset Country Club Golf Course | Stock Photo

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Bob Knight in St Louis

Bob Knight was in St Louis for the St. Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer last night to a sold out crowd at the Ritz Carlton. Among the other celebrates there Mike Matheny the new St Louis Cardinal skipper, Matt Holiday Cardinals left fielder and Chris Long with St Louis Rams. The St Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer is a nonprofit,charitable organization which has annual dinner held with a sports theme to it and to help raise money to fight cancer. The money that is collect from the events is given to local cancer charities for research, prevention and care. Funds are channeled through various organizations and earmarked for specific programs in our community. This year Bob Knight drew the biggest audience in the 40 plus years of the origination. As part of the group my job was to photograph the event. And what a great job it was because I able to be around Bob Knight and listen to is wonderful stores.

St Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer with Bob Knight

St Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer with Bob Knight with Mike Matheny

St Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer with Bob Knight – St Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny

St Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer with Bob Knight – Rams Chris Long

St Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer with Bob Knight – St Louis Cardinals Matt Holiday

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Cemetery Architecture at Bellefontaine Cemetery

Bellefontaine Cemetery (established in 1849) and the Roman Catholic Calvary Cemetery (established in 1857) in St. Louis, Missouri are adjacent burial grounds, which have numerous historic and extravagant tombstones and mausoleums. They are the necropolis for a number of prominent local and state politicians, as well as soldiers of the American Civil War.

Founders planned Bellefontaine Cemetery to make room for development in the business area before the cholera epidemic of 1849. That event made it more critical for the city to have room for burials. It was not until later that doctors understood the relation between the epidemics and water supplies, but the residents benefited by moving burials away from the river, which might have become infected by water leaching past the remains of infected people. The original St. Louis cemetery was by the Old Cathedral in Downtown St. Louis near the Mississippi River. Bodies from that cemetery (including that of city co-founder Auguste Chouteau) were moved to Bellefontaine.

Bellefontaine Cemetery at 4947 W Florissant, St. Louis, is the burial ground for prominent pioneers to the West. It was founded in 1849 by a group of prominent men in the city, led by banker and former mayorWilliam McPherson. He realized the cemeteries on Jefferson Street would have to be abandoned to allow for the city’s westward growth. They purchased 138 acres of the Hempstead Farm on the former military road to Fort Bellefontaine; the cemetery was named after it. The founders hired Almerin Hotchkiss as landscape architect from Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York to design and maintain the grounds. He designed most of the roadways and landscaping, and directed cemetery operation as Superintendent for decades. Before 1900, additional purchases of land were made, to total 314 acres, so the cemetery would have room for growth.

In June 1849 the city was hit by a cholera epidemic, and by August about 10 percent of the population had perished – 4500 people. Many were buried at Bellefontaine in its early state.

The cemetery was the resting place for several victims of the 1855 railway accident known as the Gasconade Bridge train disaster. Also buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery are a number of the famous Busch and Lemp family of brewers.

The cemetery contains over 14 miles of paved roads, a section with several dozen mausolea (“mausoleum city”), and a row of very tall obelisk monuments, most with elaborate bases.

Photos of the mausoleums are Wainwright, Lemp, William Nolker, Adolphus Busch, A D Brown, James Louis Westlake

Cemetery Architecture at Bellefontaine Cemetery

Bellefontaine Cemetery (gravewords.wordpress.com)

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Halloween at the Bus Stop

The other day I woke up to a foggy morning and I looked out the window and saw this scary looking bus stop. Our neighborhood had a bus stop that was decorated for halloween with Jack’O Lanterns. I stopped and started thinking if ghost were riding the bus that foggy night.

Foggy Bus Stop with Jack O Lanterns at Halloween

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Jay Maisel’s Workshop New York City

Jay Maisel (born January 18, 1931, Brooklyn, New York) is an American color photographer. His awards include the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Media Photographers, and the Infinity Award of the International Center of Photography. Maisel primarily shoots with a Nikon D3.

Maisel studied painting and graphic design at Manhattan’s Cooper Union and at Yale University, and became a photographer in 1954.

Works by Jay Maisel are in the American Society of Media Photographers Collection at George Eastman House.

One of Maisel’s most famous images is his photograph of Miles Davis that appeared on the cover of Davis’s album Kind of Blue. In 2009, an image based on the original Kind of Blue album cover was created for the cover of a chiptune tribute album titled “Kind of Bloop”.

Maisel lives with his family in the historic Germania Bank Building in lower Manhattan. Built in 1898, the 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m²) single-family mansion contains 72 rooms over six floors. Maisel purchased the building in 1966 for $102,000 when the neighborhood was in severe decline. The building’s value estimated at $30 to $50 million in 2008. New York Magazine called it “the greatest real-estate coup of all time.”

Jay Maisel‘s workshop was invigorating and fun. Ten students had five days with Jay Maisel. A thirteen hour day we had lectures, time to go out and shoot, then come back to process them. After that Jay and class would critique our photos that we shot. The critiques where eye opening. The images I thought where good, I am now taking another look at and looking through the camera different. This workshop was a new useful approach to shooting with no or little cropping after. The workshop took me out of my comfort zone but, by the end of the week I had a new way of shooting and more confidence in my work.

You could’t ask for a better workshop from Jay’s and his assistances Jamie and John all where so helpful. The whole workshop was an amazing experience.

What a town to go out and photograph with people, places and what ever you wanted to shot you can find it in New York City.

Many districts and landmarks in New York City have become well known to its nearly 50 million annual visitors. Times Square, iconified as “The Crossroads of the World“, is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway theater district, one of the world’s busiest pedestrian intersections, and a major center of the world’s entertainment industry. The city hosts many world renowned bridges, skyscrapers, and parks. New York City’s financial district, anchored by Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, functions as the financial capital of the world and is home to the New York Stock Exchange, the world’s largest stock exchange by total market capitalization of its listed companies. Manhattan’s real estate market is among the most prized and expensive in the world. Manhattan’s Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. Unlike most global rapid transit systems, the New York City Subway is designed to provide 24/7 service. Numerous colleges and universities are located in New York, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, which are ranked among the top 100 in the world.

Here are a handful of shots of New York City of people, places and things. Included in the gallery are photos from the Wall Street protest.

Jay Maisel’s Workshop New York City

Jay Maisel’s workshop photo New York City – Wall Street Protestor

Jay Maisel’s Workshop New York City

Jay Maisel’s Workshop New York City – Wall Street Protestor

Jay Maisel’s workshop photo New York City – Protesting at Wall Street

Jay Maisel’s workshop photo New York City – Jesse Jackson at Wall Street Protest

Jay Maisel’s workshop photo New York City – Wall Street Protestor

Jay Maisel’s workshop photo New York City China Town