Mike O’Malley - Merrimack Valley Magazine Cover Story

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Mike O'Malley - Merrimack Valley Magazine Cover

This month's Merrimack Valley Magazine cover story features Glee star Mike O’Malley, written by Beth Daigle and photographs by this blogger! Mike plays Burt Hummel on the hit TV series. We shot the cover photo, along with an inside spread and several others, at the Ritz Carlton in Boston, when Mike was in town working on a new film.

Seriously, buy this magazine to see this article, as well as several others on which I worked, including Chris Markuns' Coffee Talk interview with Merrimack Repertory Theatre’s Executive Director Steven Leon, a story about Christmas decorating, and a piece about the great work of the Angel Flight Northeast.

Mike O'Malley

Product review: Vagabond Mini™ Lithium from Paul C. Buff, Inc.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I don't talk much about photographic gear. Camera gear especially holds little fascination for me, although I certainly can appreciate a well made camera or lens. I generally feel that while expensive cameras and lenses do produce superior images, pro-sumer gear can create excellent results, often better than prior generations of pro gear could, albeit with more effort and less convenience.

That being said, I recently decided to buy a piece of lighting equipment about which the photographic community is buzzing, so I thought it was worth mentioning. I am referring to the new Vagabond Mini™ Lithium from Paul C. Buff, Inc.  So far, and I have only used it on a small product photography shoot in the studio to get used to it, it is an amazing new toy. It charged in a couple of hours, as advertized, and was ready to fire two AlienBees™ B1600 flashes. It is light and small.

Vagabond Mini™ Lithium (120VAC model)

It has two 120 volt outlets, but the documentation states that it will drive up to 4 flashes using a grounded power strip. The charger plugs into the front panel as well and there is a USB socket. Although I have not tried it, I have heard from other reviewers that the USB charging results are not great. I have the 120 volt version but they sell a 230 version for sales outside of the US as well.

I plan to use it on location this week and will update this post with anything significant that I learn from that shoot. So far though, I am impressed; it's light, small, charges quite quickly and just works! And it lets you take your mono lights anywhere! At $240US, it's kind of a steal.

While there seem to be no show stoppers, here are a few things that I don't care for.

I am not wild about the strap. It's there and it works, but like most straps, it's in the way most of the time. I hate camera straps as well, so maybe I am not a good source for this aspect. I think the strap should be an option, but I wish that the pack had a rigid handle on the top, which I would use in place of the strap. It also has a small battery release tab on the bottom (or is it the back?), that prevents it from standing, so it really needs to be hung from a stand or laid down which make the controls difficult to see. Again, not a show stopper!

The big complaint that I have seen, and with which I agree, concerns the stand clamp. The documentation here is brief, so you are on your own to figure out how it works, which it barely seems to do. Hopefully, Buff will work on a modification in future versions. One good thing about it is that it attaches to the body of the pack with a standard tripod threading. This gives you several options in lieu of using this supplied clamp. Here is one method that I came up with using a SuperClamp.

Vagabond Mini™ Lithium attached to a light stand with a Super ClampIf you have one of these Vagabond Mini™ Lithiums and have any thoughts or corrections, please post your comments here.

Living Independently

On September 19th of this year, I was to photograph someone at an assisted living facility in Chelsea, Massachusetts, for CE Pro Magazine. Unfortunately, the morning prior to the shoot I threw out my back. I would use the word "strained", but if you've ever experienced the same pain, it really is a feeling that resembles a jab or jolt of some kind, is really quite painful, and “strained” just doesn't describe it. This is a sensation that I have experienced several times since I was in my 20s, riding a bus on tour with a band. But that is another story for another day!

This day, I was able to engage one of my excellent assistants, Melissa Desjardins, who has her own studio in Nashua. I was so happy to have been able to get her to come along on such short notice because of the nature of this particular shoot. This was at the Leonard Florence Center for Living in Chelsea, where a number of people with MS and Lou Gehrig's disease live. My temporary physical pain was trivial by comparison and I was intent on having it remain invisible. Thanks to Melissa, that mission was accomplished.

I am mentioning this because it made our visit so much more real to me. When you feel lousy, even though everything aside from some single annoyance may be going well, it's enlightening to visit with individuals who struggle with far more difficult issues and yet have the most positive of attitudes.

That brings me to my subject. I was asked to photograph Steve Saling at the Leonard Florence Center. Steve is a landscape architect and was a Project Manager at Copley Wolff Design Group, among other firms before his diagnosis. Incredibly positive and friendly, Steve welcomed us into his residence at the center to pose for photos and to give us a crash course on living independently using a computer that he controls only with head movement. Selecting from a cascade of letters and words on a laptop mounted to his chair, Steve speaks in full sentences using digital voice software. He controls doors, lights, electronic devices and even the elevator using special software, again with head movement.

CE Pro Magazine

Please read the article for details on the technology that makes all of this possible. An online version is here. (Only one of my photos appears in the online article and is credited to me. It is the same shot as seen in the spread above.)

I think both Melissa and I walked away from the center that day with a memorable experience to appreciate on that beautiful September morning.

Not Just Academic Marketing

I spent most of this summer working with the excellent web team at the University of Massachusetts Lowell on their web site redesign project. As a location portrait photographer I was thrilled to have been given the opportunity to create environmental portraits of a wide spectrum of administration, faculty members and students for the web site's many profiles. Here is one of several : http://www.uml.edu/Profile/Donna-Lannan.aspx

Academic marketing has changed quite a bit since the days when you would request a catalogue in the mail that would contain five or ten year old generic photos of happy students. The landscape today is very competitive and the UML team members take their jobs very seriously.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from this summer.

UMass Lowell

I spent most of this summer working with the excellent web team at the University of Massachusetts Lowell on their web site redesign project. As a location portrait photographer I was thrilled to have been given the opportunity to create environmental portraits of a wide spectrum of administration, faculty members and students for the web site's many profiles. Here are a few of my favorites.

Don't Throw That Away!

In July, I visited an interesting non-profit in Boxford for a magazine shoot. I was told, when I arrived later than I had planned, that people in Boxford are either from Boxford, or are lost. I was definitely the latter. But that is not unusual.

My destination was the Community Giving Tree in Boxford, Massachusetts, which "recycles gently used children’s clothing and baby equipment and provides other necessities such as school supplies and toiletries to low income families in Essex County, Massachusetts."  I think the key word here is "gently", because in just looking around, if the items had not been in their unpackaged state, most  would have passed for new. All of which makes this a tremendous resource for those in need of a little assistance.

  

  

Community Giving Tree

If you'd like to learn more, and even see a PDF of the Merrimack Valley Magazine article for which i shot these images on their web site, take a look:  http://communitygivingtree.org/

Harvest Time

It saddens me to say that the end of summer is upon us. I would love Fall if it were followed immediately by Spring. Ok, enough complaining!

Local farmers are bringing in their Fall harvests. I met up with two of them in Dracut last weekend, JoAnn and Kamal, as they collected their potato crop. Bigger farms will harvest potatoes with a fork, as I used to do when helping my father. I imagine that factory farms use something far more high-powered to dig them up. JoAnn and Kamal like to get down into the dirt and find them by hand. As JoAnn told me, using a fork results in a number of potato stabbings. This way, they find them all and they don't destroy them in the process.

People Doing Good ... Without Fanfare

This week I was asked by Rachel Chandler of Community Teamwork Inc, to accompany her and Spindle City Teens for a day of activities. The Spindle City Teens are partnered with park rangers, and the Audubon Society, and have been guiding elementary school children through local National Parks and teaching them about the history and culture of Lowell. You can see more about their work here: http://www.comteam.org/spindle_city.htm

We met at the National Parks Visitor Center on Dutton Street in Lowell where the kids took the trolleys to Boarding House Park.

It's a great program and the kids from both age groups seemed to have had a great time, learning while they went.

Spindle City Teens

Business Headshots vs. Business Fun Shots

Kim Saltmarsh


Often, when professional people come to me to have me create their portrait, they have a vision in mind of what they want me to do that can be somewhat rigid and I think, stifling to both parties. Obviously, some organizations and the roles that some people play in their professional lives dictate a certain style of portrait. That's not always true however, even though the individual may feel that it is.

I certainly do create traditional "head shots" for corporate executives and other professional people, but given the opportunity, I am more than happy to try to break the mold and create something more interesting. I blogged a while back ("Got Style") about several people who were more than willing to be interesting, and it showed in their photos.

Over the last year or so, I have been working on magazine articles with Kim Saltmarsh who, along with her writing jobs, is a morning radio voice at WCAP in Lowell, as well as a TV Pledge Anchor at WGBH-TV in Boston. So I suggested to her that, rather than do something expected, we do something more that would show her personality. I have done this with people from many professions too, not just media professionals, but I thought that exploring a dignified but fun approach would be worth doing in Kim's case. I think it works!

A New Crop of Photographs

Last weekend Amy and I went out to Dracut to visit with some farmers again. This time we had the pleasure of meeting, speaking with and learning from Beth and Takashi. We always learn things about the challenges and rewards of small-scale farming when we go out to the fields. I'm sure that Amy would love to have the time and resources to bring some of her students out to the farm from the city. (This is where I avoid the temptation to comment upon how much more worthwhile such a trip might be than it would be to take yet another standardized regurgitation test.)

It has been, and continues to be very hot this summer here in Massachusetts. I love the warm weather, especially given how endless the brutal winters can be here, but it has to be tough farming in such weather, both in terms of working out in the sun and for the survival of the crops. And as much as I love my brown lawn, the lack of rain takes its toll on the farmers and their farms.

Thanks so much for New Entry Sustainable Farming Project for helping me connect with their farmers, and thanks so much to Beth and Takashi for allowing us to interrupt their day.

Got Style

I have just finished a couple of very intense weeks of shooting and am trying to collect my thoughts and analyze what parts of that work really 'worked' for me. What was it on a particular assignment that felt right, or didn't?

It's really about style. Do I have one? What is it like? I know that there are things that I want to show and say, and when I shoot, if I have those things in my mind and am successful in making photographs that bring those things to life, I am happy. I know that I have done something. I know that that's my style. It may not be my style a few years from now, nor was it my style a few years ago, but it is today. I need to have a connection to the idea and to the subject and the rest is making art.

That's why I love to work with subjects and clients who want me to create photographs for them that are in my style. It's simply a matter of creating the environment and working with the subject to make my ideas into reality. I'm happy, and when they see the results, they are happy. That's what it's about.

If you're being hired because you are a photographer, but the client is simply looking for a commodity shot, and not what floats your boat, take your life jacket! (sorry ;-) You may be a capable, competent professional, but if it's not the kind of work that you feel is your style, think twice. It will probably work out perfectly well! But will you be happy?

This is why we specialize. Right? You want your visibility to reflect where you want to go, not wherever you might have been, unless of course you've been on the right track for a while. I don't think Coca-Cola is inclined to show images of their famous mistake, "New Coke", in their marketing materials. Like most/all photographers, we have have several of those efforts somewhere on our hard drives, but they probably should stay there. Your style is you and you want people to want you to create for them what you do best. I like to create interesting, informal studio portraits in my small space in Lowell, but I also really enjoy location portraits, which anyone who does this kind of shooting knows, come with a whole bunch of logistical fun, but the results can be worth it many times over. But it's important that I show that kind of work because it is my style, what I love to shoot, and what I want people to want me to create for them.