Darbe Images: Best Photos of 2016

Two Thousand and seventeen can't get here soon enough. Just a few more hours and we can say goodbye to the uniquely bad, 2016. A lot of celebrity deaths this past year. So many of them were 80's stars or icons we grew up with. 😔 My 2015 nightmare prediction that big city liberals would help make Donald Trump the next American president? That came true. Ooof. Terrorism affected my travel plans for the first time this year. I canceled plans for South Africa, shortly after the Istanbul airport bombing. And that city is still having terrorism issues as of earlier tonight. 😞 The Obamas - our generation's greatest POTUS and FLOTUS, are saying farewell to the White House but, word is, they'll still be very active on the social front in the years to come. Can't wait! 

As for my photography? If you hadn't noticed already, my new website is live. Please check it out. I licensed a few of my photos for print projects this year. Most notably was my double page inclusion in the book, "Hip Hop Raised me", which was released worldwide by publishers Thames and Hudson. I shot the WebMD Health Hero Awards with Seth Rogan, Robyn Roberts, Maureen McCormick and a host of other notable celebs, musicians and world renowned medical experts. That was this past November. All in all, it was a good year for me, on the photography front. 

In case you missed them on Facebook or Instagram, here's a few of my favorite shots from 2016.  

 

 

Over The Hills and Through The Fields

California Sunsets

The Domes at Casa Grande

Here's a shoot I produced off the beaten path at an abandoned factory known as "The Domes." These future apocalyptic looking set of buildings were built over 30 years ago. They were intended to be an assembly plant on Thornton Road near Interstate 8, just an hour south of Phoenix, AZ. 

In July of 1982, about 75 people attended an event that included a preview of a Thermoshell dome, champagne and a buffet lunch. "I am happy but I am scared," Patricia Zebb, owner of InnerConn Technology Inc., told the gathering in the heat of the hot summer desert. "There is still a lot of work to do. I'll be glad when I see the first board come off the plating line." That circuit board never made it to production.

At the time, Zebb planned to move her company from Mountain View, Calif., to the Casa Grande site. Back then each dome cost about $150,000 and construction took about six weeks for each. The domes were constructed for insulation efficiency and lower costs and construction time. InnerConn Technologies defaulted on a loan from Union Bank of California in 1983. The bank became owner of the InnerConn company in California as well as the Domes property in Arizona. Later the harmful chemical trichloroethylene was discovered in groundwater beneath the site. A cleanup started in 1989. Over the years tales of Mexican drug runners, satanic rituals, space aliens and even ghosts have scared off the locals, but attracted others from across the US to the Casa Grande site.

The Domes are mentioned on many web sites and featured in various YouTube videos. Although because of the myths, fear of drug runners and/or local police patrols, I see that only a handful of photographers have shot here. I couldn't resist using it as my backdrop to showcase a local model named, Jyordana. She's a beauty with brains as well. At just 19 years old, she's getting a full ride at ASU, while majoring in computer programming. She's a lifeguard at a local pool and models on the side. I had the pleasure of producing a sunset shoot with her and makeup artist Amanda Kolasinski. Here's a few photos we collaborated on.

Summer in the Finger Lakes

Cornfield at 7AM in Savannah, N.Y.

Cornfield and farm on Hogback Road, Savannah, N.Y.

Amber waves of grain in South Butler, N.Y.

Ray's Dairy farm in Clyde, N.Y.

Photo taken from the Armitage bridge in Savannah, N.Y.

The old Erie Canal locks(#25) in Montezuma, N.Y.

Vistors from Ithaca, N.Y. check a local map near the Erie Canal locks in Montezuma, N.Y.

The lighthouse at the end of the Sodus Point pier in Sodus, N.Y.

The local kids from Ilion, N.Y., hiking the Chimney Bluffs in Huron, N.Y.

The Chimney Bluffs overlooking lake Ontario in Huron, N.Y.

The Chimney Bluffs overlooking lake Ontario in Huron, N.Y.

The woods behind my aunts house in Red Creek, N.Y.

The woods and old airplane hangar behind my aunts house in Red Creek, N.Y.

Fireworks check in the backyard of my aunts house in Red Creek.

Jon & Jamie's 8th annual fireworks festival at my aunts house.

Mom, Devenne, and aunt Deb.