Here’s a link to their website , check it out.

Oh, since this is a photo blog, there needs to be a photo or two … so here’s a couple of photos I did of Eliza – lit only from the light off the screen of her iTouch ( a birthday present – she got one before me!)  and one starring  the alpha cat of the family – Boo, all 18 pounds of him.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Helena. She and Eliza have a playdate weeekly after school. Last week Helena was dressed in anything but typical teenage fashion – she looked like a refugee from a movie set about colonial days – and I wasn’t far off. She had dressed in period garb to be the visual presentation for another classmate who was presenting a project set in colonial times.

Helena didn’t care that she wasn’t in modern-day dress down mode, she was quite comfortable in her costume. When it was time for Eliza to go to a meeting, helena opted to wait for her Mom at the house and settled into a chair with a book. As the daylight decreased she turned to make use of the window light to read by and I quietly ran to grab a camera – the combination of the light and costume made a visual treat.

Here’s Helena, reading after school.

Look out the window, watching the branches sway, rock and roll actually – big limbs still even in the wind gusts, smaller ones doing the dance though. The sky that intense shade of blue that happens at the false dawn, more intense than can be named or if there’s a name I don’t know it..reminds me of being out on the water duck hunting years ago, hearing the birds but not quite seeing them, remembering just how cold cold could be.

WOW its so incredibly beautiful….quick, camera, tripod, memory card…not going out, set it up on kitchen table…shoot few frames…long exposures which I’ve been meaning to play with lately…not even concerned about shooting through the glass…just the need to make some frames, can I capture the mood, the cold, the intensity?

Coffee’s ready – good to be alive!

I was going to post a look back at the last decade, but its pretty overwhelming when I think about the fact that at the beginning of the new millennium – remember the big scare with Y2K – well on New Year’s Eve I was in El Paso, Texas, having just covered the Sun Bowl and people were afraid to fly because they thought all the onboard computers might crash. So I spent New Year’s Eve alone in a hotel room waiting for the next day to fly back to Oregon. Spending New Year’s alone was no big thing – its never been my favorite night, but the digital camera I was using was an issue. Quite simply, it was a piece of junk! Worse, I really had no idea how to massage it to do what I needed – I knew nothing about white balance, using image editing software or the like.

A year and a half later digital cameras had taken a quantum leap forward, I had a clue what I was doing…and I found myself driving through the Columbia Gorge enroute to a new job in Minnesota.

There was no lack of news the next few years: the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, Paul Wellstone dying in a plane crash. Exciting times in the news business, wonderful times with amazing photographers in the Twin Cities, awesome friends and neighbors. But it was, when all was said and done, Minnesota.

In the middle of the decade digital cameras took more quantum leaps…and I returned to New England, this time following my wife. Her father was in poor health and it fell to her to be the caregiver. Not a bad decision – New England’s a great place to live, I had serious quality time with my father-in-law before he passed away, had a great run teaching college until the school closed ( hopefully not because of me!), became my own boss with the start of Jay Reiter Photography, found a summer home at Charles River Creative Arts Program.

Yea, the first decade of the new millennium was pretty amazing…makes me wonder what’s next. Digital cameras are taking yet another leap, the newspaper world as I knew it is virtually no longer, I’m still in New England being thoroughly modern with a facebook account and everything… Oh, and my daughter has blue hair…and I love it!

A couple of night’s ago I had the opportunity to photograph a performance of Clara’s Dream, a jazz and tap rendition of The Nutcracker produced by Maine dancer and artistic director Drika Overton. The costumes were stunning, the stage lighting and set design phenomenal, the band tremendous…but all paled in comparison to the dancers. They could have put this show on on your local street corner and it still would have been mind-blowing.
From a photographer’s perspective, it was like being a kid in a candy store – almost impossible to choose what to shoot – there were visual delights stage left, stage right, and center stage. If you took the time to look away fro the spotlit dance, all sorts of subtle dances were happening in the background. I’ve never seen anything like it.

My suggestion – send Drika an email (http://www.jazzandtap.com/ ) and beg her to bring the show back in 2010. The show was first performed in 2000, and its been on vacation since 2006.  Don’t let it go back into mothballs again – the 6 musicians and 20 dancersw are a must see-must hear. After insuring its return, Mark it on your calendar, and make sure not to miss this show – it could – and should – be the start of a new holiday tradition!

And support it. Without money, the arts are just a footnote in a textbook. Don’t let that happen to this one-of-a-kind show. It’s too great to slip away.

Here’s a slideshow of some of the highlights of Clara’s Dream.

After almost three years, Angela was ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister. It was so cool to hear speaker after speaker note the qualities that we had known about Angela since becoming friends almost 13 years ago. I sat in the balcony and felt like I had known a celebrity back when she was just a new Mom, part of a Mom’s group that I used to call the crunchy granola Moms. And now here she was – the focus of the beginning of her dreams. People came from Harvard, from Concord and Salem, ( both Mass and  Oregon )to witness and share the moment.Carlos was almost floating with pride that his wife had accomplished this milestone.

The most powerful part for me came when the entire community – friends, family, congregation, professors and mentors all put their hands on Angela in a show of community support that put chills down my spine.

And now Angela is Reverend Angela…and to think, I knew her when!

“You bet!”,  I emailed back. It all seemed so easy. In my spare time ( whatever and whenever that is!) I do landscape photography – in much the same non-traditional way I do the rest of my photography. Here’s a chance to put it out in the public eye and get some feedback, sell  a print or two…who knows, maybe the gallery scene next!

Yea, it all seemed so easy. I thougt about what I’d submit. It all seemed so easy, ideas were streaming through my head like a runaway freight train. I got busy, shelved the train and suddenly the deadline was approaching…Suddenly I really didn’t like my choices, second-guessed myself to death over and over again.

The bottom line – a few things I learned on my way – IT’S NOT EASY! It’s not easy being an artist, baring your soul and spirit. It’s not easy allowing yourself to be vulnerable. I think ego, one of the essential components of an artist, is way more fragile than I ever let on…

Bottom line, it may not be easy but “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

I’ll have some work hanging in the show – here’s the particulars:
A juried show, art work from 40 regional artists will be on display and for sale.  Works from many genres are represented: pottery, sculpture, photography, wood carving, watercolor, oils, pastels, acrylics, jewelry and more.

Artist wine & refreshments reception,
Friday November 20, 6-9pm
Gallery open weekends,
Sat. November 21 & 28, 11am-6pm
Sun. November 22 & 29, noon-4pm

Exeter town hall gallery, across from the bandstand, right in the heart of downtown Exeter, NH.

Funds Raised

Percent of proceeds go to support ECCA’s scholarship fund, so that all area children have the opportunity to discover the creativity within them.

So if you’re able, please come – especially Friday, have a glass or few of wine, and check out the art – and I promise not to be fragile!

Here’s a couple of my photos you may see.

My nephew was married recently in Pittsburgh, PA. I went – carrying only 1 camera and 1 lens. In a total test of my willpower, I also only brought 2 flash cards – a 4gig and a 2gig. Since I always shoot raw, that wasn’t a lot of images I could retain.

Pittsburgh was unseasonably cold and rainy, but the morning of the wedding I walked down a typical Pittsburgh hill ( they’re reminiscent of San Francisco if you’ve never been to Pittsburgh) to a church I’d passed a gazillion times but had never stopped to shoot. I found an open door but the interior of the church was as dark as a dungeon, so I played around with the incredible architecture. The church was built around 1901 – the ivy covering the walls seemed that old as well. I’ll admit to wishing I had a tripod and/or some strobes along. I was shooting at a 15th of a second at F 2.8. For those who aren’t photographers, that gobbledygook simply means there was no light and it was tough to hold the camera steady – especially since it was raw damp and freezing!

That afternoon when I went to the wedding ( at a historic downtown hotel), I noticed the rest of downtown in the gloom from a room where I was going to change into a full-blown tux…this was a black tie affair – including 1 poor soul still working at 6pm on a Saturday. Made a few photos using the window as a steadying agent for the camera.

Shot a few wedding photos also, haven’t had a chance to even look to see what I got, so here’s a few photos from a busman’s holiday.

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.