The Self-Portrait (or How to Deal With a Problem Subject)

I was speaking with the amazing Anya Downing of Engage Marketing Design (http://engagemarketingdesign.com/) last week and we were looking over my website. Among other things, she wondered about my portrait on my Info page, commenting that it was not my usual style. Well, I told her, my son took it. Considering the subject with whom he had to work, it's a great photo, as are others from the shoot. But she was right, the photo is his style, and although he is not (yet) a studio shooter, he creates exceptional photos in his own style.

I began thinking about whether I wanted to address this self-portrait issue. I do tend to internalize most anything that is said to me and about me from someone whose opinion I value, so off I went.

Self-portraits, as most anyone will tell you, can be difficult. I find my self-portrait subject to be generally uncooperative, and I have some difficulty having him not "pose". I've tried different things...

Western Avenue Studios, Lowell, Massachusetts - 2007

Westford, Massachusetts - 2007

After using this shot (above) for a while, I did a semi-environmental portrait, in my living room (right). But after a while, my son informed me that this was not up to my usual standards. I am paraphrasing ;-)

Then there was the shot below that I created for a group art show in Lowell. I think I would call this a self-portraits [sic].

Western Avenue Studios, Lowell, Massachusetts - 2009

Or there is always the action shot...

Western Avenue Studios, Lowell, Massachusetts - 2010

So yesterday, I needed to do a shot of my studio for another purpose, and I decided to put myself into the scene...

Western Avenue Studios, Lowell, Massachusetts - 2010
Whatever.

Ok. So what would I do for some other middle-aged guy who wears jeans and has no delusions about looking anything like George Clooney... Simple. I'd go with dramatic lighting, black background, no props, no chair, little to no retouch.

Generosity

As I have mentioned, I am doing some portraits for the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project here in the Merrimack Valley. Meeting up with the farmers in their fields in Dracut can be a little touch and go, so I tend to drop by at different times of the day on different days of the week. A week and half ago, very early in the morning, my wife and I stopped by the fields and found Justine tending her crops. My wife Amy has become very interested in local, sustainable farming, and has become a very enthusiastic and happy CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share holder in Lowell. So she was very interested to see where the veggies are grown and to hopefully meet some of the farmers who grow them. This is where Justine comes in.

I had met Justine the day that I was escorted around the farms when this all started, but this time, at first anyway, she didn't recognize me until I mentioned McKenzie's name, the Technical Assistance Coordinator of NESFP, at which point her face lit up with recognition. She then allowed me to photographer her, guiding me to her crop of corn, of which she was justifiably proud. But what really struck Amy was how generous and appreciative Justine was of our taking an interest. Justine insisted that Amy take some veggies and gave us a short tour of the greenhouse. Amy has recounted our visit much better than I ever could in her blog, here.

More Hot Air... Not from me this time

I'm not naturally a morning person. I really don't like to hear the alarm go off when it is still dark. Sometimes though, when you get going, and arrive at your destination, you realize how worthwhile it was to have done such an unnatural thing.

Amy has this alarm clock that has proven to only be useful in that it does sound an alarm. Amy actually has a history with bad alarm clock choices, but that's a blog for another day. This clock glows blue to an extent that Amy props a Post-it pad in front of the clock face. Fortunately, it has a kind of cool projector that shows the time on the ceiling, which turns out to be not nearly as annoying as is the blue glow that illuminates the entire room. The clock gains a minute or so per month. But the worst part is that its alarm is loud, obnoxious, and requires turning on a light and pushing a series of random buttons to stop. That's difficult when you are asleep.

This morning it went off for the first time since the last day of school and Amy stood up and announced: I don't know how to turn this thing off. Oh good. Eventually she put it out of its misery, although in a more gentle way than the way in which I would have. So after getting ready, in the car we climbed. In the dark. Amy was so nervous about getting to the balloon launch on time that I knew that my best demeanor was in order. Didn't help much.

We arrived in Hudson (Massachusetts) for the balloon launch just as the first group began filling their balloon with air. Within a half hour, balloons were launching and on their way. There were almost as many cameras as people there, but I persevered none the less :-)

The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project

There is a lot to like about the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. Their web site states that "The mission of the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (New Entry) is to assist people with limited resources who have an interest in small-scale commercial agriculture, to begin farming in Massachusetts". I would encourage you to visit their site and find out more about what they do for the farmers and the community, including the local World PEAS Community Supported Agriculture(CSA).

I have embarked on a project to profile some of the participating farmers, who are working this year on three plots of land in Dracut, Massachusetts. The weather has been unseasonably warm this summer, especially lately, so it's been challenging to shoot around schedules dictated by the intense heat. I initially was given a tour of the three farms by McKenzie Boekholder of NESFP, and took a few grab shots of some of the people that I met.

My first real shoot though, was with Heidi and Bruce, who work on a plot at the Ogonowski Memorial Site in Dracut. It struck me that the two of them take a lot of pleasure in working their plot, and that they were both extremely gracious to me, as I invited myself into their world.

There will be more portraits of the NESFP farmers to come!

Take Another Look

I recently met up with Duey, a park ranger for the National Park Service, at the Lowell National Historical Park visitor center for our photo shoot. Duey has a lot of responsibility for the organization and smooth operation of the Lowell Folk Festival, which is one of the city's big events, and is going on as I write this.

I am constantly saying this to people who have not visited Lowell in a while, so at the risk of repeating myself (which almost never occurs!), Lowell is rapidly becoming a destination. Great food, art, music, festivals, businesses and community, as well as the national park. Duey and I were discussing where we should go for our photo shoot when she suggested the Riverwalk, behind the Lawrence Mills. The mill buildings there, like many in the rest of Lowell and some surrounding communities, have been converted to beautiful living spaces, and the grounds, including the previously mentioned River Walk, are a real asset to the city. Like many people though, I had never been there. It's an incredible space which I discovered thanks to my guide for the afternoon!

In spite of the day's intense sunlight, the Lawrence Mills building afforded us lots of shade which, in cooperation with the beautiful landscaping, made for perfect portrait lighting conditions.

Networking and the Photographer

For a while now I have been working on a self-assigned project to photograph people in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. One of several goals of the project is to show the work in an exhibit that I will be doing with painter and pastel artist Bill Tyers. That goal, along with the always-present desire and requirement  to expand my portfolio, has allowed me to meet and be introduced to many people whom I may not have otherwise met. For this I have utilized several of my networks. A few of my subjects were either part of, or were introduced to me by members of some of the business networking groups that I belong to in Lowell, Chelmsford and Westford, Massachusetts. Other meetings came about as a result of simply asking clients and Twitter contacts if they would pose, and if they could think of other people who might make interesting subjects and might pose as well.

One such person, referred to me in the latter category, was Fru Nkimbeng, originally of Cameroon, and now President of the African Cultural Association of Lowell. The association puts on the Lowell African Festival along the river each year, and which took place just last weekend. Fru works in Information Technology, so between our common experiences in that and our short conversation in French upon first meeting, I think the trepidations that Fru had in my photographing him were lessened. But being very active in the local African community, we both thought that he should be shown in traditional dress of Cameroon. For a photographer, the oranges, reds and blues in his garments were a gift.


If you are a photographer, and you like to photograph people, but don't know whom to ask, my advice is to just start somewhere. Ask that first person if they will pose and then ask if they might know other interesting people who would also be interested in posing. Keep doing that and after a while you will have a very long list. Networks work for more than just getting referrals for business in the traditional way.

Environmental Portraits in New England

A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune to photograph the Director of the Cultural Organization of Lowell, LZ Nunn at her home. We had originally planned to do the shoot in a beautiful courtyard in the back of her house. As the hour approached for the shoot, I watched the clouds gather, but we decided to go ahead with the shoot anyway, as we had been planning it for months. The metadata on my first frame reads 6:02:19 PM, and the last one that I shot in the courtyard, before it began to rain reads 6:06:20. Never a dull moment... Anyone who does environmental portraits and other location shoots in New England can relate. But the quality of light just before the rain was amazing!

We decided to move inside. The walls of the room to which I was led are a great yellow. I really do like warm and lively colored walls in general, and they are a gift to photographers. I mean what is more difficult to deal with than white walls? But while the light had been really amazing when we were outside, before the rain began, inside the house was another story. It was dark. So even though it was raining, I decided to put a speedlight with a warming gel and a bounce umbrella outside the window that faced the sofa to simulate late afternoon. I really like the reds, yellows and the richness of the wood floor turned out.

COOL, The Cultural Organization of Lowell, is a 501(3)(c) tax-exempt corporation affiliated with the Office of Cultural Affairs & Special Events in Lowell, Massachusetts. Do checkout their web site to see all of the things they do for the cultural ecosystem in Lowell. See you at the Lowell Folk Festival July 23rd, 24th and 25th!

Another COOL Lowellian

Julia and I had been talking about a photo shoot since January. She is often incredibly busy with events that the Cultural Organization of Lowell organizes, but we finally were able to set up the shoot last week. We had discussed a number of locations over that time, but what was clear to me was that the location should say, Lowell. Then there is always the exciting machinations of Massachusetts weather to contend with. In the end, where we ended up, was a location that everyone who visits Lowell has probably seen or walked by many times, and the shoot took just over 8 minutes. Julia is moving on soon to a new career and I, for one, have really appreciated her assistance in her roll as one of the important facilitators at COOL events in Lowell.

I'm Back!

It's been a very busy few weeks, and unfortunately, my blog is one of the things that has to take a back seat to the many other things to which a one-man-band, like myself, must attend. So I have some catching up to do!

In the middle of May, my long awaited, and intricately planned shoot with COOL person (the Cultural Organization of Lowell) and Lowell Film Collaborative co-founder, Suzzanne Cromwell, finally came to fruition. According to their web site, Suzz and her husband Brett founded the LFC as "a grassroots organization dedicated to growing the burgeoning artistic community of Lowell, Massachusetts, by celebrating the art of moving pictures".

So it was natural that Suzz' would want to be portrayed enjoying a film. The question was where? We ultimately found a secret, downtown Lowell location that, while not really a theatre, had the potential to play one on film...well, on jpeg in this case. Her idea, and it was all Suzz' inspiration, was to be shown sitting in theatre seats, eating popcorn from a vintage popcorn bucket, wrapped in IMAX film. Suzz would not be denied!

So here are the results. Enjoy! And thanks Suzz and Brett (chief popcorn popper and reflector holder)! I think the session was definitely a success.

 

An Artistic Voice

Color, light, shadow and texture. The elusive harmony of form and composition. A look, a laugh, or a moment that draws you in. These are the things that compel me. This is why I create images.

I wrote this recently in an attempt to describe how I feel about what I do. What made me think of this was that I had recently photographed a young actor and college student and was trying to come up with a reason to show them off. She and I will be doing some conventional  actor headshots for her portfolio, but I also asked her to be a subject for my ongoing Merrimack Valley People portrait project, and those are the shots shown here. In mulling  over today's blog I encountered another blog, entitled "Your Artistic Voice - Do You Have One?", which you can read here.

I hope I have a vision and a distinctive style, or as the blog describes, "that work [that] couldn’t possibly have been done by anyone else". I also hope that my short statement at the opening of this post accurately describes it. The other article also says that a style comes from "life experience and mastery of material". In my life, both of these things are works-in-progress. I think if one ever considers either of those things complete, the game is over. If there's no learning going on, things get old pretty quickly, both in terms of the work product and the activity of creating it. One of the things that I like the most about doing a project like this is the ability to experiment, both artistically and in terms of that "mastery of material". I've seen web videos of photographers who tell their audiences that one light goes here, the other one here, and a hair light goes over there, and how they use a length of string to check the distance of each light from their subject so that their setup is identical each time. All together now: yawnnnnnnnnnnnn ..... Even in the studio, where I can control everything, I normally breakdown the equipment after each shoot so that no such boring thing will occur.

Color, light, shadow and texture. The elusive harmony of form and composition. A look, a laugh, or a moment that draws you in.

Whatever I am seeking when I shoot, even if it is something that I've done many times,  if I am not stretching, at least in some dimension, I am not growing and am not giving everything I have to my artistic voice. In a commercial photographic setting, the client may think, and verbalize, that they "just want" <fill-in-the-blank>, but giving them something more than that is what differentiates and what results in an artistic vision.