A Paige of Senior Photos

Paige's mom called Katie before I returned from Maine to set up an appointment to do some Senior pictures. After looking through my portfolios and seeing some other work she really liked the Avedon-inspired shots done on white. We were originally only going to do one outfit in that style but we ended up spending over half the session just playing with different outfits and poses against it!

They're will be more pictures to come but it was so fun to just let loose and play, the four of us were about 5% serious the whole time!

28th Anniversary Pictures

We had a great time taking some 28th wedding anniversary photos with Eileen and Roger this past Labor day. They found us through our booth at Denver's community band festival this past August, a very fun event with performers from all over the city!

We went to the park in Aurora they were married in (it was the only one at the time with any big-ish trees)and had a blast. In chatting I found out they never had engagement photos done so they figured it was about time!

It was great to see how much they loved each other after so many years and I'd like to thank them for such a great time!

Photo courtesy of Katie ;-)

Just a Quick Self Portrait

Hello all, I'm heading back to Colorado this week and will update with me round up from Jay Maisel and Craig Stevens classes when I return home!

Capturing Summer Light With Brenda Tharp

This week I had chance to assist Brenda Tharp (a photography teacher for over 20 years both in workshops/tours and through Betterphoto.com) in her Capturing the Summer Light workshop.

Brenda has some great insights and holds nothing back from her students, she a pleasure to learn from

Despite having the least amount of summer light since I've been up here in Maine the big class (14 students) created some awesome pictures of not only the type you see on postcards but also some great graphic pieces and even photoJ style images.

It was great fun!

Photographs that Make and Impact with Stan Grossfeld

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of assisting Stan Grossfeld in his Photographs that make an Impact class at the maine Media Workshops. A two time Pulitzer winner, he say's he's probably known more now as a sports writer/photographer for the Boston Globe.

The Students created 7 picture photo essays that were super awesome an diverse considering that they found their stories on Monday (not an easy feat in sleepy mid-coast Maine) then developed them over the week. We had a story on the Homeless in Rockland, Somalians in Lewiston and Water buffalo in Appleton to name a few.

I learned a ton about not only creating a photo story for publication to effect social change but also about photojournalism past and present.

I'd just like to say thanks to Stan and the class!

The Digital Fine Print with George DeWolfe

(This image come from the corridors below Fort Knox in mid coast Maine)

We just finished up a Fine Art Printing class this previous week where we not only tryed various Hahnemulle and Mueseo paper but we also utilized the history brush to edge and burn/dodge files before ging to print to give them a more 3d appearance.

George DeWolfe also talked allot on the idea of a photographers individual authenticity and mindfulness of the scenes we have before us. After studying extensivly with the likes of Ansel Adams and Minor White, it's no wonder that a great deal of thought goes into everything he does. He is a kind of philosopher photographer.

Check him out for more of his philosophy

MMW Architecture Workshop with Norman Mcgrath

We just finished up a great architecture workshop with Norman McGrath. We ran all over the state of Maine from nicly appointed interiors to the penobscot narrows bridge we shot it all.

We even compared various lenes at a given focal length (Canon 24mm t/s v 1 and 2 vs. 24-70, and 24-105, etc)

We also compared photos of a room lit via strobes to one of the same room created in HDR from multiple exposures.

It was a great class that I was happy to TA for. We had allot of fun as a group and exchanged allot of great information between us.

I can only hope that the rest of my classes this summer will be as much fun!

Blind Appriciation

A special thanks to Eric and Adrian for being the (at the time)
unknowing subjects of this piece.

Week Two at the maine Media Workshops

We just wrapped up Creativity for Media Teachers here at the Maine Media Workshops. I had a great time assisting Jim Stone this week as a group of educators ranging from grizzeled veterens near retirment to young gun getting ready to have a full class for the first time.
Our class:

Jim Stone is a very funny guy and I highly recommend hearing him lecture if you get the chance!

Here's a quick Bio on Jim:

Jim Stone turned to photography while studying engineering at MIT. His photographs have been exhibited and published internationally, and collected by the Museum of Modern Art, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among many others. Six of his books, A User’s Guide to the View Camera, Darkroom Dynamics, A Short Course in Photography and A Short Course in Digital Photography (both with Barbara London), Photography 10th Edition, and Photography: The Essential Way (both books with Barbara London and John Upton), are in wide and continued use for university-level courses, and there have been three artist’s books published of his photographs, Stranger Than Fiction (Light Work, 1993), Historiostomy (Piltdown Press, 2001), and Why My Pictures are Good (Nazraeli Press, 2005).

Stone has received awards from the Massachusetts Arts Council, The New England Foundation for the Arts, the San Francisco Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was the editor of Polaroid’s Newsletter for Photographic Education, and taught formerly at the Rhode Island School of Design. Currently he is Associate Professor of Photography at the University of New Mexico.

Bread

I had the option of a food shot for my final Hallmark portfolio so I hunkered down and created this one today.

EOD Bomb Suit

So I had the good fortune to photograph a bomb squad officer in his EOD suit yesterday. It was an awesome shoot and I'd like to thank everyone involved in making it happen from Dave at Quabbin inc (inventing geniuses, everything from paper products to bomb diffusion equipment),  www.quabbininc.com for setting the whole thing up to my assistant for the day Adam Caron (a multiple award winning  portrait photographer based in Holland) www.thislifephotography.com for making it all run smooth.

I'd also like to especially thank the state police officer who put on the 75+ pound suit and stood like a statue in any position I asked him to be in.  

He was great to work with and he really gave me an appreciation for what these guys and gals do.

I'm proud to have guys like him protecting our backsides 

More images to come!

Visit to the Cape

So my buddy Adam invited me to come up to cape cod this weekend to do some shooting. I asked him why they called it "the cape" rather than "The Cod" and he just stared at me a shook his head.

Sunrise color lasted about as long as it takes for my dog to get excited when someone comes over (he's a boxer after all)

but the resulting clouds about 30 minutes later were spectacular...

This place is looking a bit hard edged....

I figured I should soften up all the metal with a gratuitous baby shot ;-)

Coast Mini-Tac

The Coast Mini Tac's are pretty awesome. I'm thinking of using this as the basis of an add for my final portfolio over here at Hallmark...

Hello all!

hello all! Welcome to my new blog. A sample of what you'll be in for ;-)