Jess and I just got back from a weekend in Staatsburg, New York (where? Yeah, that was me last week - but it's basically south of Albany, 90 min. or so from NYC), where we got to see some of my family and shoot some photos.
Despite the fact that it rained Saturday, getting a chance to spend some real time with cousins I see once a year or so is always a good thing.
That's Zachary above, and we definitely took advantage of being stuck inside to make a few pictures.
For the next photo I just told him to sit and look at the light (I wish it was always this easy.)
A few minutes later he made the connection between the button on my Pocketwizards and the "big flash into the umbrella."
Sunday, being the ever-trusting photographer that I am, I let Zachary play with my camera a bit.
Now, this not might have been the brightest idea I've ever had...but the good news is when you're 2.5' tall, the camera doesn't exactly have far to fall (but he didn't drop it).
OK, less talking, more photos.
Zachary and James:
James' sister's two-year-old Khylor:
Sunday we even saw the sun, so we got outside for a bit before heading back to Boston.
Zachary and big sister Elizabeth:
Andrea and James:
1...2...3!
The whole family:
For a full gallery from our New York weekend, click here.
Well now that I'm back to snowy Massachusetts (yeah, snow. October, I don't get it either), I wanted to share the last of my LA photos. As I sort of touched on last week, the reason for the trip was to see some family, and well, I can't just hang out with people, I clearly need to make photographs.
That's Adam above. And here's his big brother Matthew.
Within, oh, we'll call it 30-seconds of my walking into their house last Monday we were in the midst of perhaps the greatest Nerf war the Western seaboard has ever encountered. When I say that these two have the entire Nerf arsenal I'm not kidding. We're talking auto-loading, rapid fire mayhem. (I also proceeded to set new high scores in Wii Archery while I was there - they don't call me Robin Hood Levy for nothin').
In keeping with the ridiculously awesome younger cousins theme, meet Fletcher and Jocelyn.
We also had some fun with my new Honl grids. (Short review, they're awesome).
This is Jocelyn, who looks exactly like her mom, who, for some reason, I didn't get a photo of (Lindsay how did we let that happen?!)
This post is already getting a bit long, so I'll leave you with a few final shots.
My aunt Carol and cousin Jessica (Fletcher's mom).
Uncle Earl.
That's all for now, tomorrow - my new sample album awesomeness.
So I'm LA for the week, visiting family that I haven't seen in, oh, 23 years (which means what I "remember" is from photos, not actual memories), because my cousin Jenny was kind enough to fly me out here for a few days.
I took the opportunity today to take advantage of my body still being on Eastern time to get up with the sun and head to the beach with my camera. Now I've kinda been thinking for a while that I'd like to try my hand at shooting some portraits of strangers on the street. Sounds scary right? Well, a little bit, but significantly easier then when I worked at the Boston Herald and used to get sent to South Station at rush hour to do man on the street interviews.
My attitude back then used to be, "What's the worst that can happen? They can say no? So what." (Also how I got dates in college btw.)
Anyway, enough blabber, on to the photos. (That's Santa Monica beach at sunrise above, by the way.)
Met a lot of characters today, let's start with Wyndon. He was hanging out by the skate park on Venice Beach when I asked him if I could make a portrait. Peace.
This is Farah Fawcett. Her owner made sure to point out that she didn't name her - she came with that name.
This next guy didn't tell me his name, he just asked that I write, "Please Pray for Vicki." Done.
Some preferred to remain anonymous.
Caspa and Shortie.
Dr. John, a Vietnam vet who's been living on the beach since 1961.
Next is Jamie, who, when I told him my goal was to take 10 portraits of strangers said, "I can be strange."
This is Joe, who only asked that I send him a print so he could give it to his mother. Joe your print is on the way.
Who said I couldn't count a portrait of a bike?
I snagged a quick shot of this next guy as he was on his way home.
Douglas, who was probably in the middle of the next great American novel before I interrupted him.
And apparently this final fellow - who was rocking out on rollerblades - is famous. I have no idea who he is...anyone? Bueller...?
I just got back from a great wedding with Scott and Cecelia and wanted to share two quick portraits from today. While I love everything about shooting weddings, it's when I get a chance to spend a few minutes with the bride and groom for some more formal portraits that I get the most excited. Many, many more to come from today, but I was just itching to share these two before I headed out for the night.
And extra thanks to Tony for tagging along and shooting with me. The father of the bride said to us at one point, "It's amazing how well you guys work together - you seem just to know when to get out of the way." (He said that right after he saw Tony ducking behind Scott and Cecelia as I was lining up a shot.)
Once in a while, like last year's Artist series, everything just comes together on a shoot. For reasons both tangible and beyond me, there are those days when everything clicking and then I get back to the computer and my first thought is, "But I like them ALL." Yesterday was one of those days.
Meet Hollie and Lance. They got in touch with Mark sometime last week who in turn basically called me and said, "You're coming to this shoot. Trust me." Well he's never led me astray before.
We started out shooting in the shadows of an old building (near the playground and fountain in the Navy Yard) where I shot some available light and strobed portraits of each of them.
As the sun began to dive, we got them together behind some bars before heading down to the end of the pier.
As sunset down to doing its thing, we walked out along the pier to shoot for a bit with the Boston skyline in the background. Hollie was a total trooper, rocking the little black dress, wind be damned.
Like I said, some days, everything just clicks. Full gallery from our shoot in the Charlestown Navy yard here.
A few weeks back I was cruisin' around Facebook (I know, I know, I need to find better ways to spend my time), when I hit up my friend Rich's page and noticed a distinct lack of photos of him and his girlfriend Katie. Well they just moved into a new place in Brookline, so it seemed appropriate to check out the new apartment and shoot some photos at the same time.
I think I can speak for Jess when I said that as soon as I walked in my first thought was, "Can we live here? Please?" It's a ridiculously sweet apartment, two bedrooms, window light, huge kitchen...I could go on, but you'd be jealous too.
A few of my favorites:
After we were done shooting, we hit Whole Foods and did the homemade pizza thing.
And this post wouldn't be complete without a few of these...(sorry Rich).
For the all the mayhem from Friday's shoot in Brookline, check out the full gallery.
I know, I know, it's been farrrrr too long since I've blogged, but I'm back in town now and shooting like crazy these next few weeks, so the updates (should be) frequent.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to head down to Lake Massapoag (gotta love shoots less than a mile from your house) to shoot the beautiful Maria. I used to work with Maria's dad back in my Gold's Gym days and he called a few weeks back to ask if I'd shoot some senior portraits of his daughter.
So with a helpful assist from my buddy Mark who was in town for the day (thanks dude), we spent about a half an hour just hanging out and making some cool photos.
A few weeks back I shot Carolyn, Mike and Dancia's family session, so a few days after that when Carolyn e-mailed asking if I'd do their engagement photos as well, of course I said yes.
Now this first photo is clearly not Carolyn, or Mike, but Danica. On the way back from our shoot we stopped at DQ for some ice cream and Carolyn picked up this cone for DT, as they call her. As soon as she put the cone in DT's hands, it didn't stand a chance.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming, errr engagement photos.
We headed over to Brockton's DW Field Park for the shoot. I live in nearby in Sharon, but had only been to the park once, it turned out to be a great location.
For the full gallery from their shoot (and more of DT), click here.
Sunday morning I headed over for a rain delayed (seems like everything is rain delayed around here lately) photo shoot with Carolyn, Mike and Danica (that's her gliding across the table).
They have a HUGE yard so we started shooting outside, praying the rain would hold off (it did).
They even have a way cool bridge out back.
Then we wrapped up with some indoor shots, hula-baby style.
Just got done spending the afternoon with Elena and Carolyn down in Kingston. We did a little shooting, a little Photoshopping and well, here are a few photos.
Carolyn:
Elena:
This is Elena & Carolyn - WE LOVE DOUG!!!!!
(Thanks guys, now back to your reguarly scheduled programming).
A few months ago, while hanging out at castle MKD, I met David & Jo. David and Jo just recently moved here from the left coast, and when David e-mailed me about shooting them a few weeks back, I jumped at the chance.
Last time I shot with Dreena we did the outdoor athlete thing, so this time we hit up the studio, courtesy of Paul over at LensProToGo. Paul's a good friend who just opened up a studio rental space in Concord, and if you are in the area, you absolutely have to stop by. They're rocking some sweet Profoto lighting gear in a converted warehouse (let's just say it's big enough to hit golf balls in).
While we were waitingn for Dreena, Tony's daughter Kristina and Jess helped us test some lights.
When Dreena arrived, we were all set, and she totally rocked the shoot.
I had the chance yesterday to catch up with my cousin Jessica who was in town for a few days. They live in LA so we don't get to see them too often, and this was my first chance to meet her 9-month old Fletcher. They were kinda running all over the place catching up with east coast friends and family, but I can't wait to shoot/hang with Jessica, Fletcher and Jason again when I head out to LA for a week this fall.
These are just a few of my favorites, but for a full gallery of yesterday's shots of little-man Fletch, you can click here.
I know, I know, I've been slacking on ye ole' blog, but it's been gray out and I haven't shot that much. The above photo is a byproduct of my hotel boredom here in Norwich.
Hopefully next week I'll have some landscapes to show off, as we're heading back to Erie (and Presque Isle State Park) for a few days.
Had a quick idea pop into my head tonight, so I corralled Jess for a brief shoot. We shot this with available light in the hotel room (and black and white was a must as nasty green lamp-light dominated, and I left my flashes at home).
This was a fairly simple shoot, especially as far as my portraits usually go. We shot for less than five minutes and I made only 57 frames. It's not often where the photo in my brain and the file on my camera match exactly, but it totally happened for this image.
It's back to Florida landscapes soon, but for now I'm off to bed.
Just a quick post, as I'm busy wrapping up packing for spring training today. This is Jess, who was kind enough to sit for a quick portrait yesterday (I can neither confirm nor deny that there were pet photos taken in order to make this portrait happen). That's it for now, but check back later this week for some shots from sunny Fla.
Well it's been too long since I shot something for me. Not "of" me, it just sorta worked out that way. I spent a lot of time looking at images of Tiger this week (page 93, this month's Esquire, photo=WOW), and I guess it got me thinking about golf images.
First off, let me say that my swing looks a lot prettier than it is. I am fairly certain that had I been hitting an actual ball, it would have flown about 50-yards straight then taken a hard nose dive to the right.
The execution here was fairly simple. I set the camera on my tripod and composed, attached my Pocketwizard with the remote cable and placed the camera in self-timer mode. I then grabbed my 6-iron (bad decision, will explain shortly), and ran down to the beach.
I'd shoot 10 images or so then jog back up and warm up and check the camera to see what I'd gotten. I shot around 50 images total before my fingers froze (estimated temp. 35 degrees).
Post-production here was a bit interesting. The sunrise is almost as I saw it, with some minor contrast tweaks and dust-spot removal. The interesting part takes us back to my poor club selection. Had I taken a driver instead of a 6-iron, the club head and shaft would have probably been more visible. As it was, I had to enlarge the head and triple the width of the shaft in post so that they'd be visible.
On tap for this week - hopefully some images from spring training (Tues., Palm Beach), and from my final portrait session of the offseason tomorrow.
The day started with some half-pipe action before we set up shop for some portraits during the awards ceremony. After that, it was back up the hill for some high flying shots off the big ramp (photo below from our remote camera).
I will also add this - those foot warmer things? Yeah, total bs, don't work, don't waste your money. That and I need much better boots for next year.
Also, I'd be remiss not to thank Loon's Jordan Yanni for totally hooking us up - dude you made our day sooooo much easier - thanks again. For a full gallery from Saturday's Main Event you can click here.
What do you get when you have five awesome photographers and their families over for brunch? Apparently 1,400 photos in 3-hours! And yes, it's as ridiculous as it sounds.
Let me start at the beginning. I just picked up a cable that allows my camera to be fired remotely, so that got me thinking. Brunch? One-button wireless camera triggering? Photographers plus kids? This has mayhem potential written all over it. In other words - this has to happen.
So yesterday morning when Shyla, British Rob, those MKD kids, 4/5 of the Feds clan and Team Yu rolled into my house, I set up my camera in the TV room and let rip. And I mean, really let rip - Emmie and Layla couldn't push the trigger button fast enough!
Also, because I couldn't resist, but am just getting into the photos now, here's one of my favorites from Saturday's Main Event Series season finale at Loon.
What do you do when one great shoot with a subject isn't enough? My man Artist is the definition of just can't get enough. So after a nearly 6-hour roundtrip ride to Sugarloaf, Mark and I headed back to Portland to hit the studio with Artist
We went for a little different vibe this time, with some more soft light and a few different outfits (and he totally rocked grandpa's Stetson). The shoot lasted until almost 2 in the morning, and after 6-hours on the slopes, we were totally wiped out, but it was completely worth it. I think these images speak for themselves.
