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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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!

Two days ago, Jordan and I – accompanied by an entourage of people, headed out to a local climbing area where he spends much of his free time bouldering and climbing. The day was intensely beautiful – warm but without humidity. Deep in the woods there was little light but I looked like a pack mule carrying bags of strobes. We set up at the place that appealed, I put one light on a  stand and had a voice actuated light stand ( in this case his brother Brandon) holding a second light. Shooting away, oblivious to the world when suddenly a sharp pain…I looked down to see an army of yellow jackets in no mood to negotiate. we were clearly too close to their ground nest and they were as protective as junkyard dogs!

Ouch…off we took through the woods, looking back to see hundreds ( thousands seems a bit exaggerated ) of the hornets swarming all over the light and stand as well as the two bags of photo equipment.

Still had a camera, lens and 1 light so undaunted we resumed shooting – I think it made the stings less noticeable – and a while later the three women with us ( that would include the angel who is Jordan’s mom) went back and braved the equipment rescue operation. Gutsy girls those!!!

When all was said and done, we had a pile of cool images – The girls drove me out to my car while Jordan and Brandon went climbing.

The last image, by the way is Brandon – he was sitting under this really neat boulder, the light was too wonderful to waste and I ended up doing a portrait of him as well.

But I had the opportunity to do a little personal shooting because I spent the night before Ben and Meridith’s wedding at the site on the lake. After the rehearsal and barbeque, after the karaoke and drinking, I set up a couple of lights and photographed Tammy and Gabby, a cousin and friend of the family. Working in the tight confins of the cabin was a bit challanging, but the two girls have potential modeling careers in front of them – they were as comfortable as any I’ve ever worked with.

Sunday, Dave and I headed out into the woods in Newmarket to shoot – a beautiful day, only downside being that the black flies felt the same way about it having been a long winter…they hatched and were very very hungry. So Dave and I meandered, moving on when either the photos were working, weren’t working or when we needed relief from the bugs.

We ended up by a swamp that had as residents a couple of nesting ospreys and to the tune of their wonderful calls shot some pretty cool photos. Dave was an excellent subject – putting up with my crazy ideas, throwing in a few of his own and not making fun of me using an off camera strobe to supplement the light.

Here’s a few of the photos from out hike.