# Beards of the Catskills



## angelina (Oct 15, 2013)

A few selects from an ongoing beard-collection project I have been doing. 

These guys are all from the Catskill mountains in upstate NY. 

CnC very welcome!


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## limr (Oct 15, 2013)

Great portraits. Love the look on the last one's face. It's about the reaction I'd expect from a bearded dude in the Catskills  Good capture!


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## angelina (Oct 16, 2013)

Thanks! It's funny you mention that last guy. In reality, he was the goofiest, nicest person. A sound guy named Jim. When I asked to take his picture he asked me "I need a role! how should I look?" I said "look like an assshole!". That was his ******* face. This was his normal face.


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## limr (Oct 16, 2013)

Great story! I don't think he pulled off "*******" exactly, but I've seen that sort of "Can I joke with these folks, or are they antique hunters from the city up for the weekend?" look on people's faces before


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## marlenne63 (Oct 16, 2013)

Great project. I couldn't decide which one is the best


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## dsiglin (Oct 16, 2013)

Agreed, very nice set, probably would have to go with #1 because of the lighting and embroidery on that guys shirt. Unexpected.


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## annamaria (Oct 16, 2013)

Very nice set. Fav is first and last.


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## gsgary (Oct 16, 2013)

Great project very nice series, i go for No1 because i like contrasty shots, but if you shot them with some nice grainy film i think they would look even better


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## Woodsman (Oct 16, 2013)

OH I like these.  My favorites are 1 and 2.  What I like most about the series is I find myself looking at each one and seeing a lifetime of stories in each face. Wonderful


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## angelina (Oct 16, 2013)

Glad their stories/personalities came through in these  Great guys who were a lot of fun to work with and get to know, who all had huge personalities. 

The 1st guy against the black background with the embroidered tunic was named Thunder. when I asked if I could take his picture he said "only if you make me look hard." Thunder had me re-take it twice because he thought they were not hard enough. Thanks, Thunder.


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## pgriz (Oct 16, 2013)

Love the pics and the story.  Stick around, Angelina, we can use your eye and skill.  Hope to see much more from you.


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## GDHLEWIS (Oct 16, 2013)

Love the last one all because of that exspesion and the story just makes it so much better. 
Keep it up, would love to see the collection when your done


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## angelina (Oct 17, 2013)

GDHLEWIS said:


> Love the last one all because of that exspesion and the story just makes it so much better.
> Keep it up, would love to see the collection when your done


Hey thanks! I don't know if you mean that though. I am currently at around 230 beards, about 150 of which are "keepers" and maybe 40 selects. Lotsa beard all over the USA. 



pgriz said:


> Love the pics and the story. Stick around, Angelina, we can use your eye and skill. Hope to see much more from you.


Maybe I will, lois. Maybe I will.


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## The_Traveler (Oct 17, 2013)

This is a great collection of beards and very well shot but, to me, the pictures are all almost the same.
Shot from the front at beard level or below, except for the clothes and some relatively small details of face and beard, there's not much information about the people.
Sorry to go upstream but.....

Lew


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## angelina (Oct 17, 2013)

Yeah, I feel like when I am working with BnW especially (and portraits even more especially) there's a challenging middle ground to reach in having a series be not-too-homogenous, but also cohesive and nice as a "set". 

It's supposed to be fairly simple doco-style portraits, and the focus is meant to be mostly/all in the face, but they *do* look a little too uniform esp with all those middle grays. Was noticing that when I placed them next to one another for this thread.


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## Newtricks (Jan 8, 2014)

Great set.


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## Warhorse (Jan 8, 2014)

Wonderful pictures!


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## minicoop1985 (Jan 8, 2014)

Fantastic work! Probably one of the manliest threads on here.


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## RichieT (Jan 8, 2014)

I like this set a lot. I think that even though the pictures might be seen as being similar, enough of their individuality comes thru where you can imagine part of their stories (right or wrong), farmer, linesman etc. It looks like Thunder has oxygen tubes. There's a lot to think about here. Good job.


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