Baby Brady's Big Sister
This past week, Loretta photographed Baby Brady for the start of his First Year Package. During the session, Mikayla (his older sister) became Loretta’s new assistant. She loved holding one of our little white reflectors while Loretta grabbed some absolutely adorable images of Brady.
However, the moment Loretta took out our blue and purple mats, Mikayla decided that she wanted to switch jobs and become a model instead!
Using the Mark III, the image was captured at F5.6 at 1/125 with ISO 160. She had one Alien Bees 800 light with a large soft box set off to the right of our assistant/model at 1/8 power.
Pictures Of Baby Brady
My first post…how exciting!! Chris keeps me so busy that I don’t have time to blog really. So now he made me stop what I was doing to post my first blog. Today was my exciting day with Baby Brady. I took the information I learned at Jack Reznicki’s lighting and digital photography training camp yesterday in Philadelphia and applied it today. It is amazing how easy it is to compose an image just by utilizing your surroundings.Â
Baby Brady was so well behaved, I wish I have 10 kids like him. He was very mellow and only complained of the flash with small little grunts. For a 6-week old, he was very strong and able to hold his head up pretty well. I tried hard to get the traditional “First Year” session poses and succeeded! These images were taken with our Mark III and a 28-105mm lens lit with one Alien Bees 800 light and one white reflector held by Baby Brady’s big sister, Mikayla. She was such a great “assistant” and so excited to help.
Enjoy the photos!
This last picture will make anyone smile!
Garden State Irish Dance Feis
For the past couple of years, we have been attending a few of the many Irish Dance Feis events in the area. While photography of the actual dance is expressly forbidden (unless we have specific permission from the top), we attend these events to provide basic portrait photography of the dancers.
On Sunday, we attended the 2008 Garden State Feis in Scotch Plains NJ where people from all over the area, including one visitor from Virginia, came to compete. This was our second year attending this event and while last year was good … this year was great!
This time, we decided to offer on-site printing with the option to order some of our Feis specific products to be mailed out after the fact. The orders were coming in so fast that at one point, we were nearly six customers deep and trying to keep our heads on straight. Why were we so busy without action shots you ask?!
It has to do with the dresses. Each one is handcrafted, expertly detailed, brightly colored and extremely expensive. They can range in price from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars … and that is for the pre-owned ones. Because the parents of the dancers are so heavily involved in the culture, each time their child gets a new dress, they find it necessary to get new pictures. And like most sports, when the dancer places very well, the parents always want a shot with the trophy.
 Here are a couple of the dresses …
Overall, the best part of attending these events are the parents. Regardless of whether they are a new or returning customer, each and everyone of them are a pleasure to deal with. We even have a few customers who visit us at each Feis event and get new pictures each time … even if they don’t have a new dress! I guess that says a lot for the type of service that we can provide!
Here are a couple more shots of dresses we photographed …
A Look Back: Sin City Las Vegas
After my recent trip to San Francisco, I began looking back through some of the other trips I’ve made throughout the past year and the images I captured while visiting. The first trip that came to mind was one that I took back in the early part of February of last year to Las Vegas. Again, this trip was mainly business with a little free time for myself to check out the sights.
Now, they say that New York is the city that never sleeps … well … I think that title should be given to Sin City. No matter where you were staying or where you wound up for the night, there was always something to do or see. With the incredible amount of shows, clubs and other nightly entertainment … you could avoid sleep for a week and still not see and experience everything that Vegas (and the surrounding area) has to offer.
After getting out of classes early one day, I decided to head out into the beautiful 75 degree weather and take a walk around the strip. Luckily, there was a tram that stopped right at the hotel and would take you from one end of the strip to the other in just a couple minutes. For $5, I hopped on and headed for MGM. When I came out of the MGM hotel, I was greeted with a familiar sight …
Never having visited Vegas before, seeing a hotel that looked like your own home-town city was pretty cool. Every little detail that they could have packed into the design … they did … and it was incredible!
I continued up the strip, past the hotels in progress and the hookers working the streets and finally made it up to the Bellagio where I walked up one of their driveways, turned around and shot Paris in the desert …
As I continued up the strip, I also grabbed a shot of the Mirage volcano that amazed so many at night …
But overall, I have to say that the Venetian is the one hotel that I liked the most. Just walking up to the front entrance was a sight to see. Unfortunately, because I was too busy looking at everything, I didn’t even shoot a picture until I got inside and remembered I had a camera slung around my neck!
As I walked through the main entrance, they had this water fountain that was just screaming to have its picture taken …
As I continued my personal tour through the hotel, I eventually wound up in their rendition of the Grand Canal, complete with Gondolas and singing Gondoliers. As I made my way through the shops, I saw a really cool looking statue with a ton of money laying on the railing in front of it. Again, not having been to Vegas before, I was curious to find out what it was all about.
All I have to say is that this guy was good …
I stood next to him for nearly 5 minutes and not once did he move, sway or make a noise. After I took my shot, I decided to make my own contribution … and when I did, he reached out to shake my hand as a thank you, only to freak out a little girl standing near by who thought he was a statue as well!
Like San Francisco, Vegas was a cool city to check out and is definitely on my list of re-visits. Unlike most tourists to the area, I didnt get a chance to see Red Rock, the Grand Canyon or Hoover Dam … so they are a must for next time!
Now … lets see what else I can dig up …
Photos Of Extraordinary People
Being a photographer and artist, I look to many different areas for inspiration. This morning, my Google Desktop Sidebar RSS Widget popped up with a little note that someone, somewhere in the world had written a blog post related to photography. I clicked the link and it brought me over to a post about Finding Grace (not the TV Show) by David’s Digital ProTalk.
It turns out that Multi-Gazillionaire, President and Chief Executive Officer of ACS, Lynn Blodgett, has produced one of the best photography books of 2007 (according to PopPhoto.Com). Not of landscapes or children or models – but of homeless people.
Finding Grace – The Face Of America’s Homeless is a book of 140 images of homeless people and families throughout America. In David’s words …
Don’t get the wrong idea here, this isn’t rich man photographs poor people to get famous. Lynn has had a love of phtotgraphy and considers himself an amateur photographer since he was a kid. At a recent workshop in which he participated, he produced some really compelling images according to Andrew Eccles, the course instructor.
Encouraged by this experience, Lynn began his journey. He would get out of his car in areas of towns where homeless people gather for shelter and protection, set up a white seamless background and begin photographing anyone who would stand in front of the camera. The images are a peek into a part of the world most of us would shun and try to ignore. But the result is that Lynn found the humanness in these people and his portraits truly reflect it.
Lynn’s efforts have resulted in the founding of Finding Grace Homeless Initiative which is an emerging coalition of individuals and organizations aiming to increase awareness and raise money for homeless organizations.
After my recent trip to San Francisco and the encounters that I had with the homeless there, I think that the Finding Grace Homeless Initiative is something that everyone should try to take part in – whether you are a gazillionaire or not – as that could be one of us someday, down and out on our luck, looking for someone to provide a helping hand!
To check out some of the pages from the book, be sure to check out the website!