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Afternoon reading – NH portrait photography

February 11, 2010 – 1:59 pm

There’s a million reasons why having a teenaged daughter is simply ( OK, not simple at all) the greatest experience, but one of the overlooked ones is getting to know her friends. It stands to reason that an amazing person will hang out with other amazing people and my daughter is no exception to the rule.

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.

By Jay | Posted in Cornerstone School, Personal Project, portraits | Also tagged portrait, portraits | Comments (0)

A new decade – NH portrait photography

January 7, 2010 – 7:29 pm

Wow…2010. A whole new decade, starting off with people undecided how to say it. Is is twenty ten or two thousand ten…or does it really matter?

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!

By Jay | Posted in inspiration, Personal Project, portraits | Also tagged Eliza, family photos, portrait, portraits | Comments (4)

Claire – Senior Pictures New Hampshire

September 6, 2009 – 10:32 am

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. clairblog7289 9-3-09 CLAIRE PIZZANI EXETER HEALTHCARE

By Jay | Posted in portraits, senior pictures | Also tagged portrait, portraits, senior pictures | Comments (0)

New faces – NH portrait photography

May 27, 2009 – 1:01 am

Over the past couple of days I’ve been doing some really tight portraits – all available light because the light has been really nice – and experimenting with hard look versus soft look.

Two models – one new, that’s my friend Ron in Franklin. NH and one young…but an old model. I’m so lucky to have Eliza always ( OK, almost always) ready and willing to let me photograph her.

So here’s a small collection of portraits that I’ve been doing.

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By Jay | Posted in portraits | Also tagged portrait | Comments (0)

Surprises

April 22, 2009 – 2:48 pm

One of the things I like best ( and there’s plenty to like) about being a photographer is the fact that when you set out to photograph one thing you often end up with an unexpected treat if you’re not so locked into your preconceived notion of the outcome. Maybe that’s why so many photographers are accused of being cases of arrested development!

That’s what happened yesterday when I went to Cory and Julie’s to shoot more of their baby daughter Nola. My sense was that I would still concentrate on just the baby, leaving the photos of the family for later. Babies change so dramatically in the first few months that I wanted to make sure that those changes were documented. Julie was in a bit of a panic – where should we shoot, what should she wear… – which is so unlike the lady who is so cool during the mad dinner rush at Zampa. I guess it’s about being a seasoned chef as opposed to a first-time Mom. But I was certain that this would be a baby session, not family photos.

So, to try to get her to slow down and breathe, I just suggested she sit in the chair in the dormer and relax. The light was incredible – and I supplemented it just a touch with a snooted strobe off to the side.

The rest of the shoot was anti-climactic for me. I was so excited about this photo – and its really unusual for me to get “the picture” at the beginning.

Goal – photos of Nola. Result – uneventful.

Surprise – this photo of Mom and daughter in a world of their very own. Result – one very happy photographer!

[caption id="attachment_355" align="aligncenter" width="545" caption="Julie and Nola 4.22.09"]

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By Jay | Posted in babies, infant photography, portraits | Also tagged NH portrait photography, Nola, Zampa | Comments (1)

Herrera family photos

December 17, 2008 – 12:01 am

When we moved to New Hampshire from Oregon – with a four year rest stop in Minnesota – we left some very close friends. One of them was the Herrera family. Angela and my wife were members of the “Cruncy Granola Moms” ( not their real name!) a group of young mothers who wanted to get together and talk about alternative ways to raise happy and healthy children.

They and an ever-growing number of other Moms would meet – the Dads were in charge of childcare those nights – monthly or more often.

We became very close friends of Angela and Carlos, our daughter and their’s were friends and it was one of the big losses when we left.

A year after we landed in New Hampshire, the Herrera’s came to Boston – a friendship renewed! When Angela called to see if I would do a family portrait this year, I was honored beyond belief. We had a great time wandering through the woods in Cambridge – and happened upon a set of abandoned railroad tracks which was the high point of the shoot. Here’s a few photos from the shoot.