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Krista – NH senior pictures

November 25, 2011 – 9:37 pm

One of the very first people I met when I arrived at Great Bay eLearning Charter School three years ago was Krista. She drove me crazy – always writing, drawing or doodling on her hands, arms, jeans. We would go round and round – her telling me all she wanted to do was draw, that she hoped to be a tattoo artist some day. I would counter with the age-old argument that ink from pens wasn’t a healthy combination with the porous skin of a human – but I’d have to admit that her designs and drawings were really really good.

Fast forward to this morning. I kept thinking about locations for her senior picture shoot. My mind’s eye kept coming back to graffiti and bricks, two elements that came to mind when I’d think of her. Off we went; I figured we’d do the graffiti first and then see how it went. Incredible, that’s how it went. So good I had to force myself to wander to other locations.

We had a ball – even shot some photos her Mother could use as a Christmas card.

The photo shoot will be the high point of Black friday for me – the shoot and the fact that I slept in instead of going out into the madness of the shopping extravaganza.

Here’s a few of the day’s photos.

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

Rachel – NH senior pictures

November 22, 2011 – 10:40 pm

Shooting senior pictures is one of my favorite things to do – teenagers are just the best age group to work with. OK, they’re stubborn, filled with attitude, have the wisdom of youth and on and on. But they bring such energy to a shoot – energy and a willingness to risk pictures, to try new things. Totally refreshing!

Today I did a photo session with Rachel, who, by her own admission, isn’t exactly keen on being photographed. I think it took about 3 minutes before Rachel forgot she didn’t like having a camera staring her down. It was late afternoon – cold and windy, just a  typical end of a fall  day at the beach. We could feel the impending rain/snow storm heading in. Didn’t faze her a bit – she never even got cold ( wish I couyld say that for me!).

Heading home after the shoot, I was whistling – knew we’d gotten some pretty special photos. Here’s a sample of the day’s work.

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

Tyler and Rachel – NH wedding photography

July 7, 2011 – 11:06 am

Met Tyler and Rachel a few years ago at Ben and Angie’s wedding I was shooting. Last year Tyler called about having me shoot his wedding. I was psyched – I remembered him from the wedding as a very carefree, easy going guy.

After meeting with he and Rachel, I knew this was a great match.

Tyler, by the way, is a brew master for a local micro brewery. I think he and talked as much about beer as we did about the wedding. Fortunately Rachel was there to keep us on track!

We met up again recently to shoot some engagement photos. Wandered around Dover poked around the old mill buildings – and were joined by a couple of guys walking down the street for a photo.

Great couple, tons of fun…the wedding is going to be great!!!

By Jay | Posted in esession, photojournalism, wedding photography | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

Anvi and Augustine – Mass. engagement photography

May 21, 2011 – 9:06 pm

Boston Public Garden – a beautiful spot but tough for an engagement shoot. Why? Well, the list is long, but the big two are parking ( or lack of) and crowds.

Originally when Anvi, Augustine and I had talked about an engagement shoot we were looking at a few parks outside of Boston. Later Anvi asked if we could go to the public gardens.  I mentioned the problems but she clearly wanted to go to the gardens…and after all its her wedding. OK, we’ll do the gardens.

I drove down to find that there was an accident tying up traffic on Storrow Drive – the backup was all the way to beyond the bridge leading into the city. Chose an alternate route ( even though I knew I’d lose my GPS signal in the O’Neill tunnel) – came through the tunnel, driving blind with no satellite signal, made a few guesses and about the time I acquired a signal I was in front of the public gardens…still not sure how I did that.

Most of the meters were bagged – a film crew was working in the area – and the car was overheating. Not feeling good about this at all! Circled the gardens a couple of times, finally snagged a parking place, grabbed my gear and sprinted to the meeting spot. Anvi and Augustine were late…they had to deal with the same lack of parking, but we connected and off we went.

Its funny how I can be a little down about things – but that all goes away when the shooting starts. Ok, for all you “hate-to-get-out-of-bed and go to work people, all the can’t wait till the week’s over folks…I really can’t relate. The fact is I love what I do. Yeah, I know – I’m really lucky! But I digress.

Dealt with the crowds – they really weren’t as bad as they could have been, think the possible rain kept some away. Anvi and Augustine were a joy to work with – we knew we were running just ahead of thunderstorms and shot a bunch till they hit. Spent 30 minutes or so under a bridge by the swan boats, talking, looking at photos in the back of the camera, then at it again as the storm passed. Having so much we even pushed the limit on the parking meters. Finally wrapped it up and parted excited to do the wedding. Can’t wait, what a neat couple!

Here’s a few photos from the shoot.

 

 

By Jay | Posted in esession, portraits, wedding photography | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Anisha and William – Mass engagement photography

May 1, 2011 – 10:08 am

Got a call from good friend and colleague Mark Morelli – a friend of his was getting married, was I interested. ” Sure, Mark, what’s the contact information?”  Ok, the fact is I’m not a big phone lover. I’ve never been good at small talk or schmoozing on the airways, much better at both in person. However,  two minutes into this call and I was hooked!

It quickly became apparent that Anisha was simply amazing. We talked like we had known each other all our lives – and I was ready to shoot her wedding before I had even met her!

Two weeks later and I met her and fiance William. Wow! We sat in their house, talked then went strolling around Chelsea – the waterfront along the river, the Tobin Bridge in the background, apple blossoms bloomed that day – it was all perfect. The more we talked, walked and shot, the more I came to feel like family to these two – their wedding is in a month – it will be hard to wait.

Here’s a few photos from our session.

By Jay | Posted in esession, portraits, wedding photography | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Hannah and Miles – NH engagement photography

April 25, 2011 – 1:00 am

Got together with Hannah and Miles to do an engagement shoot the other evening, so good to be back doing what I love doing the best. A really nice evening – mid 50′s, only trouble was the wind – real feel temperature was closer to 40, hair blowing, dust flying wind. The three of us donned jackets between locations…OK, for the most part I left mine on the whole time, but the location was spectacular – Searles Castle in Windham.

The castle itself was closed, but the grounds are amazing. Stone turrets, stone walls, beautiful woods, simply a great place to shoot photos.

We weren’t without our moments – at one poiint I heard a car alarm going off, didn’t think much of it until a short while later when the Windham police showed up. Turned out we had set off motion alarms while walking around – the car alarm was actually a breakin alarm. The police officer was great – it became clear we weren’t there to steal the castle and he was most gracious about having to respond to a sort-of false alarm.

Hannah and Miles were great too! We tried all kinds of photos, the more we shot the more they got into it. And when we were done ( it was starting to get dark) I had way more photos than I will ever be able to work with. Here’s a few from the shoot.

By Jay | Posted in esession, portraits, wedding photography | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Two girls revisted – Maine portrait photography

April 21, 2011 – 11:35 am

Hanging out the other night with my two favorite girls, my daughter and her best friend, who is almost my second daughter. I have photographed these two young ladies so often, never get tired of shooting them either. In Maine, an old farmhouse, needing a coat of paint, but what a wonderful environment for some photos. Light going fast, cloudy overcast end of the day light. First processed them in color until I realized these photos were made for black and white.

Remembered when I never shot color, saw only in black and white…sometimes still do, but thinking don’t see that way enough. Love that the content and composition become what the photo is all about, no getting diverted by pretty colors. Texture becomes color, what a wonderful way to see.

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

Fast photos – senior pictures NH

February 21, 2011 – 11:01 am

I’ve started this blog post about a gazillion times – usually I’m pretty focused about what I want to say – but I’m thinking this time I’m trying to say too much and it keeps coming out as jumbled mush.

So I’ll just cut to the chase – here’s a selection of senior pictures I did at Great Bay Charter School. Unlike the ordinary senior picture shoot that involves going to the woods, beach or some other exotic location for a few hours, these were kids that needed senior pictures done, were at or near ( or past!) the yearbook’s deadline, and had to be done in 5-6 minutes each.

Oh, and one student who I just wanted to photograph so I convinced her to sit for a couple of minutes – she just made me promise not to ask her to smile. No problem there – I never ask subjects to smile.

I keep getting trapped in verbiage – it seems as hard to stop this post as it was to start it – enough already! Here’s the photos.

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

Zhen and John – Mass. engagement photos

January 25, 2011 – 9:38 pm

My usual deal is to include an engagement shoot as part of the wedding contract. Its a win-win situation. I get a chance to start a working relationship with a couple so I’m not trying to figure out what makes them tick at their wedding.

The couple gets used to being photographed and dealing with my personality. Additionally they get a start on a “family” album. So often couples have individual photographs but few of them together.

One of my wedding couples from this past year passed along my contact information to  Zhen and John. A few emails later and we agreed to meet in Gloucester to do an engagement shoot.
It was cold and windy – not cool, not chilly, but downright bone-crunching cold!
I had on my heavy winter jacket but Zhen and John were a couple of real troopers. They wore light sweaters, Zhen was wearing heels and scampering along the rocks better than I was! We shot at a few locations along the ocean, occasionally getting away from the water to hide from the relentless wind.
These are two people who are absolutely nuts about each other – heck, they did all the work – I just documented their total love for each other. At the end there were three pretty frozen but satisfied people ~ we all had had a great time on the shoot. The light was pretty flat and overcast but some post processing work added snap to the photos. I have to say that of everything we shot, my personal favorite was when Zhen jumped up on a stone, suddenly being taller that John and gave him a great big kiss in front of this beautiful stone wall of a building.
I processed it two ways – as a straight black and white and as a sepia tone.
Jump in here – what way do you like it better? Comments welcome!

By Jay | Posted in esession, wedding photography | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Annie – NH senior pictures

December 15, 2010 – 7:04 pm

Time can really get away from me – just realized it has been 6 months since a blog post. Hate to make that admission, but its true!

Had a good senior picture season, I’ll start off with Annie. Whoever said teenagers can’t get up in the morning haven’t met Annie – we met at hampton Beach early one fall morning. She and her Mom brought one of their horses. While Mom was tacking up the horse, Annie and I wandered off along the beach and dunes. It was one of those cold fall mornings, the sun fighting a battle with the clouds – not really providing much warmth but creating beautiful light.

Once the horse was ready we switched gears and shot Annie with the love of her life. The horse was a bit freaked out by the sand – and Annie decided riding him probably wasn’t the best idea ( although her mother jumped on and galloped through the water, great sight!).

The icing on the cake was a flock of geese flying through the photos as we sat on a jetty – couldn’t have asked for a more inspiring sight.

A bit of post processing work to emphasize the colors of the light and here’s some of the shoot to share.

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