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!

Me? I got to walk the terrain park, lie down and let boarders sail over my head, dodge tubes coming down the hill at nearly 40 miles per hour, and convince a couple of tubers to hold my feet so I could shoot as we hurtled down the slope.

The park, which is open Thursday through Sunday is an amazingly good time…flying down hills and you don’t have to hoof it back up! They are minutes off I-495 in Amesbury, Massachusetts, and well worth the drive, though if you can slip away during the week there will be less waiting in line to go down again. You ask me, it’s a must-do this winter, no matter what your age.

And if you see me there ( I’ll be the tall guy in the red coat with a camera and no gloves), wave…I just might take your picture!

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!

Cool!

Cayla has one of the leads – she’s Rapunzel in the Stephen Sondheim- James Lapine production of Into The Woods. The musical features a conglomeration of fairy tale characters – Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, The Baker and his wife, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel…and of course, an ugly and wicked witch.It’s playing at Seacoast Repertory Theater in Portsmouth, NH Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from January 8-24.

I’ll be there – and according to Cayla’s Mom, it shouldn’t be missed. Never argue with the mother of an actress – get tickets and go! More information can be had at Seacoast Rep’s website, www.seacoastrep.org.

Here’s Cayla.

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.

A few weeks ago I was doing a bit of volunteer work at the New Outlook Teen Center in Exeter, helping out with the beginning of a photo class since the person teaching it had a conflict and couldn’t be there for the beginning. When the teacher got there we had the opportunity to talk and she said she’d liike to do some classes with me…how cool is that, since the person – her name is Jaye Carr – is a pretty darn good photographer already.

Our first session was mainly focused on goals, expectations…and having a love affair with light. I am always struck by how few photographers really take the time to study and either appreciate or figure out how to modify or supplement the light that’s there. While we were talking I grabbed a few frames of Jaye…I was liking the light and the interest that was so evident in her eyes.

I imagine there will be more photos from the classs as we go along – as well as a guest post from Jaye!

Realizing how much I miss this part of my life has me cooking up some ideas for a few pretty awesome workshops I’m planning on putting together for late summer and early fall. Stay tuned for details – and until then, here’s a few photos of Jaye.

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!

Karen has one of the most arresting looks I’ve worked with – she’s comfortable in front of the camera and doesn’t try to be anybody but who she is. What a treat!

We got some pretty intense photos – here’s a few stills and another showit slideshow.  I’m thinking I truly owe David Jay a Christmas present for helping me add this dimension to the presentation of my work! Thanks David.

OK, we allowed for the weather but here’s what we didn’t count on.

Parking in Harvard Square doesn’t exist. Out of desperation I finally threw the car in a garage near the hair salon. And then after the salon I walked to the church because there was no parking anywhere near the church either. Missing the ceremony you’re supposed to shoot isn’t high on the cool list – even with brides as cool as Elizabeth.

The ceremony was over at 3:15, not 3:00, then a receiving line, then a few photos at the church, then a few more…and a few more. Then I had to walk back to the garage for my car, then stuck in traffic because some sort of police activity…got back to the church after 4. Sunset, by the way, was at 4:30. I’m sweating bullets now!

We drive to Memorial Drive ( and actually managed to find places for both the limo and me to park) and there’s now about 10 minutes of shooting time – great light but the Public Garden clearly isn’t going to happen.

Balancing late afternoon/sunset light and a little fill flash is an imperfect science – its just not set-it and forget-it time, so the shooting was slowed down a bit.

End result – way cool photos! Sometimes you can fall in a cesspool and come out smelling like a rose – this was one of those days. And we even managed a couple of photos in the exhibit halls of the museum – the folks there were kind enough to let me park very illeagily to shoot quickly then move my car into the garage.

Couple of photos from the salon, especially the cutest junior bridesmaid I’ve seen in a long time and a photo of this amazing church where the ceremony was held.

Great way to wrap up the season…and now I should have a little more time to return to a regular schedule of posts. Enjoy the photos.