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Maryland Life, August 2010

2010-07-27T01:19:00.000-04:00

Check out the "Art" feature in this coming month's issue of Maryland Life Magazine for a piece I worked on showcasing Bob Moore, a master weaver of Nantucket baskets.

Bob was great to work with, such an interesting guy and clearly very skilled at his craft. "The iconic baskets he creates date back to the early 1800's, when sailors would return from the Orient with reeds, rattan, and other materials...." (-Mary Medland, from the article). Space was a little tight, so maneuvering lighting was a bit tricky, and above all I wanted to be sure to do justice to his work. In the end, the piece looked great and I couldn't be happier with the results.

Mad Men

2010-07-26T18:33:00.005-04:00

Last night marked the season premiere of the fourth season of Mad Men, a television series on AMC which centers around characters working at an ad agency in the 1960's. A few weeks ago some friends hosted a Mad Men theme party where everyone attending was dressed in 60's fashion and offered martini's, manhattan's, and other such potent potables of the era. I brought along a Model 180 Polaroid Land Camera and spliced a sync cord to connect a flash. Here's my favorite polaroid from the evening:


The flash didn't fire on the first attempt, so there's a faint double exposure

The party was a blast, and last nights episode of Mad Men was, of course, amazing. Definitely check out the show if you haven't, and CLICK HERE for some great 1960's cocktail recipes.

Cheers!

Nelly at the dog park

2010-07-16T12:13:00.002-04:00

Couldn't resist. What a rock star.

Best Daycare Centers in Baltimore

2010-07-09T12:05:00.003-04:00

-"The Kids Are Alright" article, featuring the best child care centers in Greater Baltimore, Baltimore Magazine, July 2010-

Had a great time shooting for this piece! The kids were great to work with and so much fun to photograph. I would start off as a sort of fly on the wall, photographing them as they went about their normal routines, but would inevitably end up running around playing games and trying to keep up, pausing only to move a light or compose a shot.

Thanks again to all the daycare employee's who were so generous with their time, and especially those who ended up being impromptu assistants- couldn't have done it without you!!

Not all of the following images were used in the article, but here are just a few of my favorites:

Mount Vernon, Baltimore

2010-06-08T13:36:00.005-04:00

When I take Nelly for walks, she frequently gets distracted by a scent here or there (usually by a tree or sign post). Here's a few things I got distracted by on a recent stroll through the 'hood:

Silo Point - Turner Developement

2009-12-16T08:27:00.011-05:00

While backing up some files I came across some stuff I've been meaning to post. Here's some shots I took for Baltimore Home, a special edition of Baltimore Magazine. They're of Silo Point luxury condo's, located close to Fort McHenry in Locust Point. The condo's are the project of developer Pat Turner, who I photographed with his wife Jeanine in what was to become a reception area (if I remember correctly):

The building is, as writer Martha Thomas describes, "...a 1923 cement structure that once shot five million bushels of corn, wheat, and soybeans up and down its cavernous shafts each day, loading them on railroad cars to be transported across the country for Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM)." I found "cement structure" to be a pretty accurate description of the building. Throughout the condo's, structural elements of the grain elevator still exist and are incorporated into the design of many of the condo's. In the shot above of the Turner's, you can still see large concrete pillars behind them, circled by fancy floor lights.

Part of the article on Silo Point also featured some of the early residents at Silo Point, such as Chris Guarda and his girlfriend Andrea Lasner (above). They had this gorgeous red wall in their condo which turned out to be a perfect backdrop for our shoot.

Also featured was Michael Cox, another resident who lives at Silo Point with his wife Cathleen. I also photographed some of the interior of their condo, which had these two walls of windows with a beautiful view of the city.

I'll have to post more of some of the interiors when I get a chance, some of these condo's were really amazing....

Baltimore Magazine: November 2009

2009-12-11T00:15:00.014-05:00

The January issue of Baltimore Magazine hits shelves in about 2 weeks, so there's still time to pick up the November '09 issue. But in case you miss it anyway, here's a few tear sheets:

This was the "UpFront" opener, which is always a full page and in my experience has always been a blast to shoot. This month, B-mag featured Jeff Hinton, a tailgating Ravens fan so passionate that he opened a Ravens tailgating supply store in Westminster, MD. We got permission to shoot just outside the Ravens M&T Bank Stadium, and Jeff brought a bunch of merch from his store. (Oddly, the address isn't in the piece, so if you're interested in checking it out, here you go):

Home Gamers
400 North Center Street
Westminster, MD 211457

When we arrived, the light outside was ideal- slightly overcast, perfect for the small light set up I packed. But by the time we finished setting up, the sun was out full bore and we were pretty much shooting into it (towards the stadium). One of the things Jeff brought was a giant tent, which under the glaring sun made anything under it go totally dark and obscured. Fortunately, it had a silver lining on the underside, pretty much making it a giant reflector so long as I could sneak a light in underneath. It took a few more to overpower the sun and have a little control, but it worked PERFECTLY. Here's an outtake where you can sort of see what I mean:

And here's the Dep't. Arts piece, featuring Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell, a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts, and her daughter Adia (who is currently enrolled):

The article was about four Baltimore School for the Arts alums, but only Linda and her daughter were available to photograph. The auditorium at the school is gorgeous, and we thought it would be a great place to shoot. For this shot, I played with some filters on the lights and the white balance to make it a little more dramatic, here's a better look at the shot they used:

And here's a shot balanced for the light available in the auditorium. Instead of using filters to make it more dramatic, I used them to match the available light in the auditorium. So in this shot, the background is actually closer to how it appears to the naked eye, in real life, etc:

I think this second shot is nice and all, but I'm glad they went with the more dramatic option. I thought it was much cooler, and somehow more appropriate for the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Last but not least, here's a few from the "Home" special edition section:

This was a piece on a "green kitchen", owned by the Plisko family in Catonsville. The kitchen was designed by Polly Bart, who owns Greenbuilders. The kitchen is energy efficient and environmentally friendly, and th Plisko's enjoy much of their family time together and were warm and welcoming in letting me into their space and their lives to photographs. It's too bad they could only use a handful of images in the article, there were plenty more!

Coming soon...

2009-12-08T22:07:00.004-05:00

I'm getting to that point again where I feel guilty for not updating the blog more frequently. So to stop feeling like I've been slacking....

Just finished working on the Top Salons feature for the January 2010 issue of Baltimore Magazine, which went great! Got a lot of great shots, many more than what will be featured in the piece. When the issue hits stands, I'll post tear sheets along with some of the out takes and shots that weren't used (there are many - I shot a TON). Anyway, in addition to Top Salons they're featuring me as a contributor again. I wanted to use a different head shot this time, so here's what I went with:

This was shot while testing a lighting set up before a head shot shoot. Then I played with some of the post production techniques that have been so popular lately...

Anyway, that's all I have time for now, more posts to follow soon!

Hasselblad Polaroid Self Portrait

2009-05-21T12:43:00.005-04:00

Shot with my 503cx Hasselblad and Polaroid 100 back. I love these polaroids- the lens is so sharp and renders the tones so nicely, but there's still that instant film quality. The film is daylight balanced and there's a combination of tungsten lights and sunlight in this shot, so there's kind of a cool mix of colors.

I also just got some expired Polaroid film that I can't wait to toy around with....

Connie Imboden

2009-05-05T08:09:00.005-04:00

Connie is a very good friend and mentor of mine, and it was a huge honor when she asked me to photograph her for the Biography page of her new book, "Reflections: 25 Years of Photography by Connie Imboden". I've modeled for Connie countless times throughout the last several years, so it was interesting to be on the other side of the camera!

We shot this with her standing in front of a mural print in her studio. Connie works intuitively, exploring the body and allowing for discovery, rather than preconceiving or planning images. In the portrait it almost looks as though the figure in the background and over her shoulder (her work) is informing her, almost whispering to her. I also love how it's essentially both B&W and color, which seems so appropriate for the new book as it features some of Connie's never before published B&W images, as well as some of her latest color work. But most of all, I think it's just a great shot of my friend.

"Reflections: 25 Years of Photography by Connie Imboden" is an amazing book and collection of Connie's work. It's available to order now from both Connie's website as well as her blog. It's also the first book containing several images that I modeled for, so you KNOW it's good!

Violet Glaze

2009-03-08T17:54:00.022-04:00

I met Violet Glaze in back in October when my good friend Henry Hong was helping her out with a piece she was writing for Baltimore City Paper about eating bugs. Specifically crickets and meal worms, which, I gotta say, really aren't too bad after all! Here's my favorite part of the article:

"But the final test would be in the eating. I met up with fellow City Paper foodie Henry Hong and his equally adventurous buddy Cory Donovan in the kitchen of Henry's restaurant..."

But that is another story, click here to read it.

Anyway, Violet eventually contacted me to shoot a head shot for her. She was interested in doing something fun and dramatic, something more like an environmental portrait rather than a just a head shot. The original idea was to shoot it outside, at night, near some sort of a neon light that would actually highlight part of her. Here's a sketch Violet sent me early on to give a sense of what she was looking for:

The original location we had in mind fell through (the neon lights weren't on), so instead we decided to shoot at The Charles Theater. The Charles Theater is a small but popular art house theater here in B-more known for it's hard-to-find documentaries, independent films, and foreign flicks, and Violet is well known for her movie reviews. We were given access to the second floor, which was a GREAT space with all kinds of awesome crap laying around- cool movie posters, old projection equipment, prints and negatives pinned to the walls, etc..

One thing I wanted to do was keep our original idea for the lighting - where part of Violet would be lit by the light glowing from a neon sign. Fortunately, the space we shot in at The Charles was funky and mysterious enough that it didn't look awkward. I used color gels on the strobes and loved the effect! Here's a few more of my favorite shots:

The same color gels are on for these as well, but with a little more subtlety...

Consider this a preview...

2009-02-20T15:13:00.000-05:00

This is jumping forward a bit in the context of recapping 2008, but since I shot it in 2008 I figure it makes some sort of sense:

In April, Baltimore Magazine will be running it's annual feature on "Best Places to Live", highlighting some of the best neighborhoods in and around Baltimore. Since the issue goes into production in February, the magazine needed it shot back in July of '08, when the weather was still appropriate for an April issue.

I can't post any of the images they'll be using here yet, nor can I reveal which neighborhoods made it to the best of list. But now, damn cold February day, I figured I'd share a couple of my favorite shots that absolutely scream summer and warm weather:

I loved shooting for this assignment because it was the first time in a long while that I had the opportunity to just grab my camera and go. I hadn't done such street, documentary style type shooting in years, and it was really fun to get into again. There's a good story to these shots, but I'm afraid it will have to wait until April....

October 2008, Urbanite Magazine

2009-02-18T10:55:00.008-05:00

Had this assignment for Urbanite Magazine back in October 2008. The theme of the issue was health care in Baltimore...

The Penn North Neighborhood Center is a facility in west B-more that offers alternative medicine and procedures to recovering addicts, one of which being acupuncture.

The description in the article of a typical treatment takes place in the large conference room, with some 40-odd recovering addicts getting their "ears pierced" by a handful of needle workers. The scene sounds quiet, calm, meditative. Delicate needles still fanning out from everyone's ears, the lights are dimmed and everyone just chills for about an hour - reading, thinking, some even sleeping. The experience sounds much more communal than you'd expect.

The color image is the shot they used, but I really liked the feel of the B&W one. Although the color image certainly grabs you, I think the B&W image feels more real, more authentic to the experience, even though we had to shoot it in the waiting area...

September 2008: Baltimore Magazine

2009-02-16T15:11:00.010-05:00

Only a few assignments for the Sept. issue of '08, but I was thrilled with the shots. Here's the first:

(top right image)

which is a "Cameo" Dep't. piece featuring Jim Lucio, a.k.a. "Defekto", a.k.a. The Polaroid Guy". Jim is known around Baltimore for being the guy always toting around one of several Polaroid Spectra camera's, taking shots and shooting portraits of anyone open and interesting enough to be photographed. In fact, over the past 6 years, Jim estimates he's taken over 2,500 portraits in B-more. There's a lot more to be said about him and his work, it's a shame the piece had to fit one page. To check out some of Jim's work, check out his website at lastdaysofpolaroid.com and his Flickr page at http://flickr.com/photos/defekto/

I was really thrilled with the shoot with Jim. We did two sets, B-mag used one in the Table of Contents (sitting at his desk) and another for the article (in front of a wall of polaroids). The one they used for the article was great, here's another one of my favorites from that set:

The next assignment was for an Upfront Metro piece showcasing the famous "Big Boyz Bail Bonds" pens:

If you live in, or even remotely near Baltimore, you've seen these yellow and pink pens. From the article:

"From Owings Mills to Canton, they're everywhere. The owner of a Hampden sub shop takes your order with one. The clerk at a Fell's Point home decor store hands you one to sign your credit slip. Check your pockets: You might have a couple."

And it's true. If you live here and haven't noticed them, then you either haven't lived here for very long or (I'm sorry) you're not a very observant person. Big Boyz orders 400,000 of them a year and distributes them to businesses throughout Baltimore City and surrounding counties. Even during our shoot (which was just out front of a Big Boyz office), the guys were handing them out to passerby bold enough to ask, and whole cup fulls to those bolder few who promised to help give them out.

The last assignment was the opener for the "Local Flavor" section, and is on my list of most favorite shots for the year:

Bert Basignani, of "Basignani Winery". Located just about an hour north of B-more, Basignani Winery is one of 33 wineries in Maryland. It is known for it's free wine tastings where visitors can actually go into the fields, pick grapes, and learn about the process of making wine.

We had scheduled the shoot for sundown to get the best light outside, but unfortunately that means dinner time for most normal folks. The Basignani's were no exception. They were just getting ready for their meal when I pulled in to the winery; I knew this because Mrs. Basignani came out and informed me, in no uncertain terms. At which point I rolled down the window, turned off the car, and explained myself.

Haha, I couldn't blame her- I don't think Bert remembered to tell her I was coming, and by all accounts I would have seemed to her like a late coming tourist looking for a free taste of wine, just as they're preparing for a hard earned dinner.

Anyway, after shooting some quick views and details of the fields, Bert came out with a slew of border collies. I found the best spot for us to shoot - beautiful, thick vines and the sun just going down in the background. Fortunately I had brought my small wireless light kit, which is great in kind of quick and dirty situations where I don't have a lot of time to set up. I knew this would be the case because once the sun starts going down, your time with it is pretty short, but in this case there was also the pressing issue of a good dinner getting cold. I was a little nervous about the dogs running around my light stands, but they were good- just hung around Bert. And the lights proved to be necessary, otherwise he would have just been silhouetted by the direct sunlight behind him. It was also hard making Bert look natural at first; he was very aware of the camera, and a little stiff. When this shot happened, I don't even remember if I had asked him to look off camera - he just did and I was fortunate enough to click the shutter. Overall, the shoot didn't last very long at all, I wouldn't be surprised if Bert's dinner was still warm...

I think one of the reasons I like this shot so much is the layout on the page. Sometimes full page shots are just the shot alone, but this required text and the "Local Flavor" title, etc. It kind of fit perfectly together, and I couldn't be happier with the result.

August 2008: Baltimore Magazine

2009-02-11T08:12:00.010-05:00

August was the Best of Baltimore edition of Baltimore Magazine. Whenever it comes to "Best of's", it can be pretty hit or miss, but I thought 2008 was a particularly good one!

First up is Tammie Monaco, owner of Beck 'n Call Services:

Beck 'n Call Services provides servers, bartenders, and other services for parties or events. Tammie is the former director of catering at The Brass Elephant, here in Bmore. We shot it in my kitchen, which was great - while we were setting up, she took it upon herself to unclog the food disposal in my sink! Haha, I didn't even know she was doing it, I looked up and she was like "oh, this was stuck in your food disposal, it should work ok now", holding up a mangled fork. Thanks again, Tammie!!

Next is Susannah Siger, owner of Ma Petite Shoe:

This was the full page opener for the "Indulge" section of the Best of's. Ma Petite Shoe won the Best of Award for "Estrogen Heaven". The store, located on 36th street in Hampden, sells designer shoes and high quality, hard to find European chocolates. They were later featured in American Airlines Magazine and used a different shot from our shoot for B-mag.

The winner for Best Restaurant for First Dates:

was Tapas Teatro. Which was a tricky shoot. To say the least. I had contacted the manager to set a schedule and discuss what we needed, and thought we were pretty clear on the details, specifically that I would need two young staffers who could be available to pose as "first-daters". Don't get me wrong, I could have found two people I could have brought to pose, but I thought it would be fun to have a couple people who worked there be part of it. Long story short, when I showed up for the shoot, the place was pretty swamped and the manager had either forgotten about our discussion or was too busy to care (I assume both). Fortunately, two friends of mine happened to show up just as I was about to leave and plan a re-shoot and were nice enough to let me photograph them throughout their entire dinner. The restaurant was too crowded to set up any lights, even though I had brought my small light kit, so I had to shoot at a relatively higher ISO than I'm comfortable with, but I wasn't too disappointed with the results. If things worked out the way we had planned, I think we could have had a better shot, but with this kind of work they rarely do and you've got to be able to improvise.

And outside of the Best of features:

An Upfront Metro piece that showcases Mike Rudden, who is a partner in the California based company "MotoArt" that makes furniture and art with components from old fighter jets and commercial planes. Him and his wife Lilly also own a salon in Ellicott City called "Lilly MaRitza Salon and Gallery", which is furnished and designed using pieces from MotoArt. One of my favorite pieces in the salon is in the shot to the right - it's a fish tank made from an MK-84 aqua bomb. MotoArt caters to some pretty heavyweight clients including Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Red Bull, and Boeing Company, and even made the desk that the judges sit at on the show "American Idol".

For the Arts Dept. piece:

featuring the performance group Fluid Movement, a community based volunteer dance and performance group. They put on different shows and events throughout the year, and in August they put on "Mother Goosed: The Nurseryland Campaign Tales". The show was actually a water ballet being put on at Patterson and Riverside parks, and as you can see featured the performers decked out in all kinds of crazy outfits. The shoot was pretty easy - they were just finishing up with a rehearsal, and being performers they were natural at posing for the camera. It was pretty broad daylight, but a couple of small lights with umbrella's helped make them pop just a bit from the background, which is the pool at Riverside Park.

New Puppy!

2009-01-21T10:38:00.004-05:00

Just had to take a break from updating here with shoots and tear sheets from '08 to post a couple pictures of my beautiful new puppy, Nelly! Obviously there will be lots of pictures - most of which will be saved for the Facebook - but, just this once ;) I couldn't resist....

July 2008, DC Magazine

2009-01-08T09:47:00.007-05:00

Had a couple of good assignments from DC Magazine for the July issue. It was kind of a hectic month for DC- they were transitioning from one photo editor (Forrest Stillin) to another (Jeff Millies), and as a result seemed like there were some last minute changes to the issue before printing. In any case, here's the first assignment:

This is Krista Johnson (left), with Judy Mayka and Thalia Attinger. They own and run a boutique on Wisconsin Ave in DC called "We One You Two". The focus was on Krista as she was the one interviewed for the piece. I was really happy with a lot of the shots, it's a shame it ended up running somewhat small. (They also cropped the hell out of it to make room for copy, which is always disappointing). Here's another shot of Krista that I really liked:

The boutique had lots of white walls and a really open sort of structure, so there was a lot of flexibility and control for lighting.

The other assignment was David Fogel of "Space 88":

Space 88 is a small business incubator space located in Silver Spring, Maryland. Small companies or individuals with small businesses can rent the space and it's amenities (including work stations, a conference room, a multimedia studio, and a lounge) for a relatively small monthly fee. They ended up going with something else instead, using a shot that was less about David and more about the space, but I still really like this shot of him.

July 2008, Baltimore Magazine

2009-01-08T08:52:00.007-05:00

If you live in B-more or have visited here recently, you may have seen what people have been calling the "billboard trucks". With glass walls enabling you to see inside, these small box trucks roam the streets as cruising advertisements. The trucks get decked out with their clients company's logos and showcase some pretty attention grabbing eye candy, like the Victory Motorcycle we used for the shoot:

We had a blast shooting this! The location is the point up in Federal Hill park, which has a gorgeous view of downtown and Inner Harbor, Baltimore. Needless to say, you're really not supposed to drive a truck through the park, much less park it where we did for the shots, so we had very little time to get what we needed. We were only a little concerned about getting caught, convinced that the worst anyone would do is tell us to go away, but no one ever did. And it didn't seem to bother anyone at the park, in fact most seemed at least intrigued, some taking pictures of us photographing the truck.

Also in this issue I photographed Michael Osborne, executive director of Baltimore's Harbour Pointe, a treatment facility dedicated to helping compulsive gamblers. A former gambling addict himself, he's become an expert on illegal gambling and even gives workshops on the subject to the FBI and IRS. At the time of the shoot, he was working on a pilot episode for a reality tv type show being bid on by HBO and A&E.

When we met, I was hoping the sun would be down a little more than it was. It looks somewhat dark in the image, but it was actually quite bright out. I used tungsten filters on my lights to make the ambient sunlight blueish, and a fast shutter speed to darken it. I also put a small light on the ground behind him to help with the spotlight effect.

Holidays, Family, etc.

2008-12-27T15:45:00.004-05:00

It can be tricky keeping busy this time of year, especially with so many familial obligations like getting presents and drinking heavily (a time honored Donovan family tradition). (Sorry, Mom). This year though, amidst so many holiday commitments, I brought some small lights and my camera to do some quick portraits of the family. Here's my dad:

Most of my memories of my dad at the house take place with him behind that counter in the kitchen. He's a great cook, and I love how the shot came out. The lighting is almost entirely artificial, but I set it up to look like the natural light usually does in the kitchen. There's a big window to the left where a lot of sunlight comes in, and this looks almost like what it does on bright, sunny days (only better, of course ;)

And here's my brother Kyle:

When we moved into the house, my brother got the biggest room. Although it's the second largest bedroom and somewhat conveniently tucked away in the house, my sister and I (13 and 14 years old, respectively) didn't want it as it was connected to my parents room. But that made it perfect for Kyle, 6 at the time. Over the years the room has taken on a life of it's own, one which no one seems to be able to control. The floor is littered with various toys from Kyle's childhood, but a few of my own, long thought to be exiled to the attic and/or lost over time, have somehow become hostages of the room. There are water bottles, clothes, easter baskets, video game controllers, a few board games, and a large gently used foosball table. You can see it here on the left, protected by layers of forgotten toys and junk that only the bedroom still cherishes. The television, still greedy for attention (typical), got smart and climbed the wall a few years ago, but it's only a matter of time before it too is devoured by the ravenous room.

DC Magazine, June 2008

2008-12-17T09:17:00.014-05:00

Even though I had such a big assignment from Baltimore Magazine (Top Salons, see below), I was still able to squeeze in some assignments for DC Magazine. This month, I covered the Radar Art, Radar Culture, and Look Who's Talking features. Here's a couple of pages that included images in the table of contents:

Oh, almost forgot- here's the contributor page. See if you recognize anyone hahaha:

And here's the good stuff:

That's Mike Weber, a sort of art dealer/ art consultant, who is an artist himself. Here's a quote from an e-mail I got from Mike the week of our shoot:

"Two weeks ago, I broke my wrist and forearm while skateboarding. Had reconstructive surgery and now proudly sport 15 pins and two metal plates around my peanut brittle bones. Airport security will be more fun now. I have a removable splint so it won't be a problem for shooting."

Haha, sorry Mike, I couldn't resist. Anyway, as it turns out, he's good friends with Jason Wright, who I photographed for DC back in April (see the April postings below), and it was Jason who actually brought him to the hospital. In any case, he was great to photograph, had an amazing studio, and we were able to hide his wrist and forearm injury quite well. I like the one that the magazine chose to print, but this was my favorite shot:

Next, the Radar Culture piece:

which features the Echo Park Dance Company. I love photographing dancers! We had shot a bunch indoors, but there was this cool alley behind us that they had mentioned wanting to get a few shots in. They stepped outside to get ready, and by the time I made it out there, they had literally scaled and positioned themselves between these two buildings! They were only able to hold it for a short period of time, but there was all we needed to pull off this shot.

And here's the Look Who's Talking piece, the sort of signature feature of DC Mag:

featuring Grant Ginder. From the article:

"Simon & Schuster recently signed on to publish Ginder’s first novel,
This is How it Starts, which takes readers behind DC’s velvet ropes as it
tracks a new generation of trustafarian 20-somethings navigating
Washington’s elite nightlife scene."

We wanted to shoot in a popular nightlife location, and as it turns out, the place we managed to get is actually a crucial nightlife spot in his novel. Of course, when we shot it was 10am, but I think we did a great job of making it look later in the evening. Once again, I liked the shot the magazine printed, but here's another that has grown on me:

June 2008: Baltimore Magazine

2008-12-16T14:33:00.013-05:00

This was a great month for me editorially! I was given the feature piece for Baltimore Magazine, "2008 Top Salons". The article featured 30 salons, of which 12 were to be photographed (Alpha Studio, Balance the Salon, Brian Bunce Barbers, Elizabeth Jacob Spa & Salon, K. Co Design Salon and Day Spa, Lluminaire Salon, Mt. Washington Spa, Quintessential Gentleman, ReNew Organic Day Spa, Scene 217, Sprout, and Uno Salon). The feature was also followed by a small "behind the scenes" type piece about Empire Beauty Schools, which I also was assigned to photographed.

Here's what it looks like in the magazine:

I love how the whole piece came out! All the salons were great fun to shoot, I'm thrilled with how the images came out, and I loved the layout!

Since a couple of these are too small to see in the tear sheets above, a few of my favorite shots were....

- the shot for Alpha Studio. The girl getting her hair done is Mary Alice Fallon Yeskey, from the T.V. show "Ace of Cakes" (which is shot here in B-more). She was a lot of fun to photograph, the shoot was a blast:

- the shot for Scene 217. My art director was looking for a shot of the front window, but that also somehow tied it in with Little Italy (where it is located). Debbie Ingrao, the owner, mentioned that her husband had a Vespa, and she had no problem dresssing up and modeling with it in front of the salon. She also had no problem with onlookers from the restaurant across the street, whose windows were being flooded by the flashes of my strobes outside...

- the shots for Brian Bunce Barbers and The Quintessential Gentleman. Normally only featuring specifically spa's and salons, it was cool to see these guys included. Brian Bunce is fairly new to the scene and was thrilled to be a part of it,

and the guy getting the shave from The Quintessential Gentleman is actually getting a real shave. So we're talking documentary style with the shot, and the guy giving him the shave was good, too - it was hard to keep up! :

Also in this issue was Rachel Rappaport, blogger of Coconut & Lime (coconutlime.blogspot.com). Her blog, with over 700 original recipes, gets 100,00 unique visitors every month. She was featured in the Lifestyle dept. of this issue, and they included one of the shots of her in the table of contents. Check it out:

May 2008: DC Magazine

2008-12-12T09:08:00.021-05:00

Had a LOT of work in the May issue of DC Magazine. Here's just a selection of some of the best...

Rosana and Dinah, owners of the Circle Boutique on 14th street in DC. Very cool little shop. We had a blast shooting here, the girls were a lot of fun to work with and there were a ton of great shots. The curtains they're posing in front of are for the dressing rooms, which were very cool and prominent in the store.

Larry Incognito of Commonwealth and The Greater Good, sort of hip-hop, urban type fashion boutiques. I think they were on Florida Ave. Turns out Larry Incognito is in fact his real name, so I wanted to do something different and funky that could go well with his name. It was pretty bright outside, so there was a lot of reflection in the window. I toyed around with some wireless strobes on the inside while he was getting ready and found that I could light just enough of the inside to be visible, but still be able to see some of the outside reflected on the surface of the window. I loved the effect! He sort of blends into both inside the store and the street, which was all the more appropriate since the store, again, features hip, "street" type fashion. My editors loved it, especially with the caption they were able to use, which read: "Window Shopping: Larry Incognito reflects".

This is Barton Seaver, head chef of popular DC restaurant "Hook". This year, he started "Tackle Box", which "bundles and delivers ready-to-go lobster pots (loaded with mussels, clams, corn and Old Bay), spicy sausage and big shellfish dinners." If you order within Georgetown, the delivery is made with Seaver's white Vespa (pictured). They used the shot above, but I also really liked this shot:

Here are two other shots included in the same feature:

Grace Teng of "Grace's", "Grace's Fortune" (both in Bowie, MD) and "Grace's Mandarin" (National Harbor just outside of DC). This was a tough shoot because I had actually gotten lost on the way to "Grace's" and by the time I got there they were about to re-open the restaurant, so we only had about 15 mins to shoot. I hadn't expected to have to rush through it and was coming from another big shoot, so all I had was big, heavy, time consuming power packs and strobes. Somehow I managed to throw the lights up, get some exposures, and be packing up by the time they were sitting incoming customers. But the best part of this shoot? Grace sent me home with a HUGE box of food!

Chef Howsoon of Cafe Trope. He whipped up some mussels for the shoot - they're in the pan to his right - which I got to eat afterward. Which was awesome, not only because I LOVE mussels and these were extra good, but because it was only 10am hahaha!

This is Mark T. Smith, who was one of the official artists of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Even with such a prestigious title and honor, he was very friendly and very easy to photograph. Here's his dragon poster design/ painting for the Beijing Olympics:

and here's an ad he did for Absolut Vodka:

AND, last but certainly not least, here's Anne Iyer:

Anne hosts exclusive "Hush Dinners" out of her Eastern Market home, complete with intricate, six course meals and guest chefs. Although I initially really liked the shot of her dog jumping through the hoop, I've since grown to really like this shot the best:

Something like an apology, or more like an excuse

2008-12-08T13:56:00.006-05:00

Okay okay, so it's been awhile since the last update, but I have a really good excuse....

2008 has been an incredibly busy, exciting, and productive year! I would've loved to share more as things were happening, but we all know how it is - you skip an update because you've got a full day of shoots scheduled, and before you know it there's snow on the ground and the last image posted to your blog is a shot of Patterson Park on a spring morning that you just happened to catch because you were toying around with your cell phone camera and "mobile blogging". Sigh.

It's time to make up for lost time. Or perhaps, lost blog posts. So, to everyone who has accepted my response of "oh, I've just been so busy lately" at one time or another during the last, oh, 6 - 8 months, this one's for you.

I'm going to start posting the work I've done throughout 2008, starting with where I left off....

Patterson Park

2008-05-15T07:55:00.001-04:00

At about 7 30am.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

More from DC Source

2008-05-08T19:43:00.009-04:00

The shoot with DC Source for the April issue was another great one. Out of all the shots from the shoot, there were two in particular that I really loved. One was the one that ran in the magazine, and this was the other:

This is Tom Pipkin and Mark Gundersen of the soon to be launched "DC Source" (check them out at www.dcsource.com) Their website will offer "DC influenced street gear" by local artists and designers. One of the artists they support was on location with us at the shoot and spray painted the tag you can see on the pillar next to Tom.

One of their artists, Mike Benson, saw the image and used it as a source for an illustration, check it out: