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Monthly Archives: September 2009

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Kiara – Mass. portrait photography

I know this guy, Seth Bodie – he’s an amazing talent, a performing artist,actor, producer, writer – and with all that stuffprobably the biggest thing about him is his heart. Seth just finds ways to help people, especially those he believes in.

So, Seth approaches me this summer and tells me about two kids he’s working with – he really believes they can go places in theater, on stage, in front of camera. They need head shots and how much would I charge, they don’t have a lot of money but Seth will pay. . .

You have to understand, only a rock could remain unaffected by Seth’s enthusiasm and beliefs. I’m no rock, I say let’s do it, the money be damned.

I’ll introduce you to Kiara today, Casey at a later date. Keep your eyes on this young lady – you’ll see her name on a marquee or in the magazines in the future – sassy, irreverent, personality plus and uncontrollably beautiful. we found some interesting backgrounds, some cool light and shot tons of photographs. Everything was done available light – not my standard approach – but I thing the light worked. Here’s a few photos from the shoot.

7-30-09 KIARA and CASEY

7-30-09 KIARA and CASEY

7-30-09 KIARA and CASEY

7-30-09 KIARA and CASEY

7-30-09 KIARA and CASEY

7-30-09 KIARA and CASEY

Christine – NH senior pictures

I was going through the senior pictures I’ve shot this year to choose a few representative ones for a booth at Newmarket’s Heritage Festival – and if you need a senior picture, come see me at the booth I’m sharing with the Lonely Little Thrift, and mention this blog post – I’ll give you a 15% discount off the normal print prices – OK I’ll get back to the point…its a great excercise looking back at what you’ve done, you get to see what’s working and what habits you’re slipping into … and I realized that I hadn’t posted any photos of the shoot with Christine.

A serious oversight since it may be the shoot of the season, at least for me! We caught an evening with simply splendid light, a gentle breeze and a young lady that could sideline as a model until she finishes high school! The entire shoot was a great time – it was probably fortunate the sun finally set or the shooting session might have lasted hours more!

Here’s a few photos of Christine to enjoy.

ChristineChristineChristineChristineChristine

Portraits under hot lights

Generally I disdain working under continuous lights – often called hot lights because the temperatures get so uncomfortable even the hardest-shelled ice maid would melt – but while at summer camp we did a lighting workshop with the photo students and opted for the two hot lights in softboxes as the easiest way for the folks to really see how light changed the subjects with manipulation.

We used Rachael, one of the clothing/fashion designers as a model and had a great shoot – at the end I asked four of the students to stand in. After smiles and a few giggles, when I asked for a bit of “teenage attitude” they came through with a stunning display of why teenagers are so awesome – between their facial expressions and body language…well, don’t mess with these four girls!

And they didn’t complain about the heat from the lights, not even for a second!_JAY2863_JAY2909

Jenn – Mass. portraits

I wrote a post earlier about teaching photography at CRCAP ( Charles River Creative Arts Program) in Dover, Mass. Talk about fertile grounds for people pictures! World class campers combined with world class counselors and counselors-in-training, there was no end to the amazing people to photograph.

I left the camp two months later totally exhausted and enervated … and with some wonderful portraits of amazing people – many of which I’ll post over the next few months. First, let me introduce you to Jenn.

The first day of camp I saw this young woman walking across the campus. Actually it would have been impossible to miss her – skipping through the rain puddles, wearing the most colorful babushka, dressed so outlandishly that her comfort with herself  was obvious. We became friends and I told her I would really like to photograph her.

“Cool” was her reply. Almost two months later I finally had the opportunity – beautiful light coming through a skylight, Jenn just sparkling.

So here’s Jenn – world traveler, singer, clothing maker, makeup artist…and a host of talents I don’t even know about!

crcap jay0106grungderecrcap jay0137crcap jay0128tdwcrcap jay0126 copy

Claire – Senior Pictures New Hampshire

Another senior picture – they are so much fun – but the story of Claire’s shoot is really different. Claire wanted to shoot at the beach. We picked a beautiful day, of course so did a ton of other people! It was one of those “fleeting days of summer quick let’s get in one more beach day” scenes along the New Hampshire coast.  Oh yea, it was pretty breezy – not hurricane-force winds or anything like that but Claire has really fine hair that a whisper of air moves…I was wishing I packed hairspray as part of my kit since the blowing hair was totally distracting to her. We finally found a piece of beach with few people and some protection from the breeze. We were shooting and getting OK pictures but nothing that was really singing.

So, here’s part 2 of the story. We are guilty of being judgmental, I think its part of being human. But the stereotypes and judgments really get heavy when it comes to money. I spied a really neat home above the beach, great steps leading to it, and a woman enjoying the day from a lawnchair next to the porch. The porch had these great rockers, nice light…so I asked her if we might use her porch for a senior picture shoot, thinking maybe she’ll let us at least use the stairs.

Guess whose stereotypes were thrown out in a hurry – she said “Of course”. Then said  why didn’t we move a rocker off the porch onto the patio for a better view of the ocean! Her generosity made a struggling shoot come alive and helped produce a photograph that is just so Claire!

You know who you are…Thanks so much for both your largess and for reminding me that I am guilty of my own brand of stereotyping.

Here’s the photo and a couple others.clairblog72899-3-09 CLAIRE PIZZANI EXETER HEALTHCARE9-3-09 CLAIRE PIZZANI EXETER HEALTHCARE

Senior Pictures – New Hampshire and Maine

Ok, here’s a winning formula – two beautiful young women who are comfortable in front of a camera, one fort dating to the mid 1800′s, a breeze that takes care of any lingering mosquitoes, and a night with stunning light. That’s the ingredients for a very fun and fruitful senior picture shoot.

Beecher and Barona are old friends – I’ve had the opportunity to watch them grow into stunning young ladies who are just real people – not taken by themselves at all. What a treat when they asked me to do their senior pictures. Lots of clothing changes, a few  ” hmmmm, guess that’s not going to work” moments and we ended up with some cool photos of the girls. Mom – who’s also a close friend – came along and was put to work as my assistant. Holding a strobe and moving right, left, closer, back as directed. Having an assistant makes life so much simpler and kicks up the results a few notches as well. There’s just no thought of thinking the light is good enough – you can afford to be really picky and get it just the way you want it.

Shot till the sun was no longer in the sky then headed off for ice cream.

Life is indeed good!

8-26-09 BARONA DINAPOLI8-26-09 BEECHER DINAPOLI8-26-09 BARONA DINAPOLI8-26-09 BEECHER DINAPOLI8-26-09 BARONA DINAPOLI8-26-09 BEECHER DINAPOLI8-26-09 BARONA DINAPOLI8-26-09 BEECHER DINAPOLI