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Tag Archives: portrait

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 , | 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 , , , | Comments (4)

Cayla ~ NH theater headshots

January 5, 2010 – 8:29 pm

Just before Christmas I was commissioned to do some photographs of Cayla for a theater production she’s in. Seems like the East Coast has finally caught up with the west. The requirement used to be straight-on black and white photos – mug shots really. Now its either color or black and white, the personality of the subject is expected to come across in the photograph, and the deer-in-the-headlight stare directly into the camera is out.

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.

By Jay | Posted in portraits, theater headshots | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Karen – NH theatrical headshots

December 1, 2009 – 10:35 am

Yesterday I had the opportunity to photograph Karen. She needed new headshots for a theater resume and approached me about shooting them. We ended up working in a really tight space, the back of the Lonely Little Thrift shop in Newmarket since the store was closed Monday. The setup was simple – a black background to accentuate her hair, two small lights, one shooting through a white umbrella and the other just bounced with a dome to diffuse the light.

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.

11-30-09 KAREN 11-30-09 KAREN 11-30-09 KAREN 11-30-09 KAREN 11-30-09 KAREN

By Jay | Posted in portraits, theater headshots | Also tagged , , | Comments (2)

Caitlin and Andrew – NH engagement photography

October 5, 2009 – 10:43 am

Last week I had my nose buried in the computer trying to catch up on a pile of pushed-to-the bottom-of-the-pile processing when the email alert sounded. Understand that I’ve made this sort of commitment to ignore the email for a while to get the work done, but my eyes are going buggy and – so much for the commitment – I open the email.

“Jay, I know its last second but could we do our engagement photos tomorrow or Saturday?”
I’m shooting a wedding Saturday but I’m dying to get behind the camera instead of the computer…and Friday promises to be just  more editing and processing.

Salvation!!!
You never really know until you start shooting, but Caitlin, a nuclear engineer, and Andrew, a police officer are about as comfortable in front of a camera as is possible. We met at the Great Bay Discovery Center late in the day and walked and shot until it was too dark to focus. We shot all over including going out into the marsh grass for some stunning photos – just keeping moving enough  to (almost) keep the mosquitoes at bay.
Fortunately for Andrew and I, Caitlin is a mosquito magnet – we had precious few bites to show for the adventure.10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE

By Jay | Posted in esession, portraits, wedding photography | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

Christine slideshow – NH senior pictures

October 2, 2009 – 2:50 pm

Wow…this was a real test of my technical in-expertise!!!
Almost a year ago I attended a conference in Boston with noted photographer David Jay. I came away recharged, psyched and with a piece of software I purchased called Showit Web.
The application’s been sitting and yesterday I decided to dust it off and see what I could do with it – uploading a slideshow to my facebook account was easy – so I decided to put a slideshow on the blog.
Too many hours later I think I finally got it! No, I just have to hope I remember what I did so i can use this way of presenting photographs.
For now, grab some popcorn and watch a show of Christine’s senior picture shoot.

By Jay | Posted in Personal Project, portraits, senior pictures | Also tagged , , | Comments (1)

Kiara – Mass. portrait photography

September 25, 2009 – 2:27 pm

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

By Jay | Posted in Personal Project, portraits, senior pictures, Uncategorized | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Christine – NH senior pictures

September 15, 2009 – 2:44 pm

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

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

Portraits under hot lights

September 11, 2009 – 3:46 pm

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

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

Jenn – Mass. portraits

September 8, 2009 – 8:38 pm

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

By Jay | Posted in Personal Project, portraits, senior pictures | Also tagged , | Comments (1)