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Fitness Portraits Tonight!

Sorry for the last minute notice on this, but I’ll be over at Eco Fitness in Mount Pleasant, SC tonight shooting portraits of club members, trainers, and staff at their club tonight, July 23rd, 2012. The event starts at 5:30PM, and there is also a Sushi tasting party courtesy of Charleston’s O-ku.

If you’re in the area, please come on by and say hi, have some free sushi, and get your photo made for their website!

Maybe Amy Hill (pictured above) will jump for you live in person if you ask nicely enough 😉

Senior Portrait in Charleston

I recently started my senior portraits campaign, and Haley, who is my 2012 model and ambassador, had her senior portrait sessions recently. To showcase a range of what I’m doing this year, I shot three different locations. Above is a shot at Folly Beach, and directly below is a shot in downtown Charleston, SC. I also did a few studio shots as well.

On location shoots, I like to capture an edgier and dramatic look. In the studio though, I tend to favor a high-key look like this:

A new product that I’m going to start including in my senior portrait packages is a Facebook banner. I used one of Haley’s shots to demonstrate this on the JWNPhoto Facebook Page.

Part of the fun of these shoots is in the experience. One moment that I’m sure will stand out for Haley and her father during this shoot was when we hijacked a Porsche!

As we were walking down Chisolm Street, I was making small talk with Haley and I said “Wouldn’t it be awesome if that lady let us take a shot using her car as a prop?” and then I proceeded to do just that. I love this shot because the car’s owner is in the background trying to get out of the way, but she really adds to the whole thing 😉

We also did some more traditional portraits just to have a little diversity.

Here’s a slideshow of all of her photos:

You can also view them on Facebook here and here, or on Flickr.

Now is the time to get your senior portraits made, so let’s book a session now. Time is running out on my current promotion, so contact me here.

Walking With The D800

21st Century Photography Group Photo Walk

Warning: Nerdy Photographer Talk Below

After Nikon announced the D800, I started watching for the D700 prices to fall enough to where I felt justified in purchasing a previous generation body. But the day after I rented a D800 from CharlestonAVGear for a wedding I found myself placing an order for Nikon’s newest (and IMO finest) camera.

Then I started reading the various photography forums and panic started to creep in because it appeared that I might not get this camera until August!

I had a delivery estimate from Amazon, and then early last week the estimate vanished and was replaced with “unknown”. Gahh! I started following this thread on NikonRumors because some posters were letting people know when various retailers had stock available. I got lucky on Tuesday morning because someone posted that NikonUSA.com had them listed in stock. I quickly ordered one and moments after I placed my order they were listed as out of stock again. Regardless, on Wednesday morning I had the new camera in hand! The funny thing was that I got a notice from another fine camera retailer, Robertscamera.com, later in the day on Wednesday that they had some in stock, so I shared that info on the Nikonrumors forum that helped me out and some other shooters were able to get D800’s from them. Paying back on the forum that helped you is a good recipe for internet karma. And as of now it seems that a lot of people are getting the camera’s they’ve had on back-order for months, so I am assuming that the supply is reaching the level of demand to some degree.

So, I was itching to go out and use my new tool, since it’s a very different animal than my previous body. The local photography group, the 21st Century Photography Group, was hosting a photo-walk at the College of Charleston on Sunday. A perfect opportunity!

I brought my son Kegan along, who was shooing with my P7000.

Unfortunately it was quite hot and he was not feeling the whole walking part of the photo-walk. He did get a box of crackers to snack on, but even that couldn’t sooth the savage Kegan 😉

I’ve been shooting with a cropped sensor for so long now that switching to a new full-frame sensor is introducing a whole new way for me to approach the things I am used to. The focal lengths are now properly represented, so my 50mm lens is a true 50mm instead of the 80mm equivalent on a cropped sensor camera. This means I’ve got to get closer! That has the effect of decreasing the available depth of field, so focusing properly is crucial. The 36 mega-pixel sensor in the D800 also brings another challenge: The resolution is so high that it is not forgiving at all if you have bad technique hand-holding the camera. You can see the effects of camera shake when you view things at the full resolution. Luckily, most people aren’t viewing your images like that, but I think it’s a valuable thing because it challenges you to improve your technique!

It’s not easy changing the class of bodies either. My D90 is laid out very differently than the D800, so I’m constantly hitting the wrong buttons because they’re not where I’m used to finding them. That’s OK, it’s only a matter of going out and shooting as much as possible that will quickly remedy it. I did have some moments of panic when shooting a wedding with it, but I’ll talk more about that in a future post.

I can’t wait to shoot some studio stuff with this camera. The resolution is so amazing. I’ll be sure to write another post soon about that experience. For now, I’m buried with post-processing from previous shoots. The good news is that my computer seems to be dealing with the giant NEF RAW files from the D800 quite well, so one of my biggest fears has been put to bed. It does take a tremendous amount of time uploading the full resolution jpegs to Flickr though, but that’s something I can happily deal with 😉

On a side note, I checked out one of Apple’s new Retina Display MacBook Pro’s this afternoon. Holy Balls. My D800 photos look even better on that thing than I could have imagined. It looks like I’m going to need to book a bunch of these real soon!

Summer 2012 Senior Portrait Package

Announcing my Senior Portrait Package & Facebook Friends Special!

Here’s the deal, if you book this package for the extremely reasonable price of $399, I will knock it down to $379 if you share the ad shown above on your Facebook wall with your friends! You’ll need to make sure you “Like” my page here. Then you can easily click the “share” button on this image here.

Also, if you book this package and then successfully refer a friend who also books any type of session with me, I’ll give you a 2nd 11×14 print!

Here’s the package details:

On Location Shoot With At Least 4 Different Looks
Digital Copies of Final Edits
High Quality Prints:
1x 11×14
2x 8×10
4x 5×7
6x 4×6

Contact me today and book this package and let’s make a special portrait for your senior.

Generations

Janice called me up to ask if I could document her husband Bill’s four living generations, as well as some other family pictures while we were at it. Challenge accepted!

This photo above is of Bill’s mother and this is the first time in her 90+ years of life that she’s ever worn blue jeans! Below is the women of Bill’s family all together. The man’s got his hands full.

Here’s a shot of the newest generation, Aurora, with a baby blanket made by Janice:

The full set of photos is right here. We had a fun afternoon getting everyone together for this shoot. Thanks to Janice for pulling it together. Here’s a portrait I did of her while we were at it:

Art For Charity Photos

If you have one of these, you may be wondering if you’re in the right place, and you are! If you don’t know what this is about, read this first.

Friday night’s Art For Charity Event was a blast. I had a lot of fun shooting attendees, staff, & volunteers at the Michael Mitchel in Charleston, SC.

First things first, I want you to get to the photos.

To see and download all of the photos, please go here. You can also order prints from that website, and part of the proceeds will be sent directly to the Ryan White Program and Wellness Center!

You can also see all of the photos on my Facebook page. Please share the album and tag yourself and your friends!

At the top of this post is Katie Kern, who’s the PR of Art For Charity. Below is Michael Mitchel, who is the founder and is kind enough to host the events. These folks don’t do this for their own recognition (in fact they’ll probably hate that I’m focusing on them right here), but considering the fact that I deal in imagery, I thought it best to show them.

And here’s a shot of the volunteers for the event with staff members from the Ryan White Program and Wellness Center. All of these people certainly deserve a bunch of recognition for all of their dedication!

Most of the portraits were shot using paintings by Susan Colwell and Karen Keene Day as the backdrop! These paintings were in the front of the studio and made for the best location to do the photos. I thought it made for a very cool design element given the environment we were in.

Art For Charity Event

Click the poster for the full size version

I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be shooting portraits of the guests at the Art For Charity event at the Michael Mitchel Studio in Charleston, SC on Friday, June 1st, 2012.

First, the details:

-Michael Mitchell Gallery is located at 438 King Street, Charleston, SC 29403
-The events are held from 6 pm to 9 pm.
-A $10 donation would be greatly appreciated
-The event I’ll be shooting will be benefiting the Ryan White Program and Wellness Center

What is Art For Charity?

Art For Charity is a unique gallery event where a portion of profits from sold artwork benefit local, non-profit organizations. This year’s charities include Friends of MUSC Children’s Hospital, Crisis Ministries, Komen Lowcountry, Roper St. Francis Ryan White Program, Charleston Waterkeeper and MUSC Hollings Cancer Center.

The event I’ll be shooting will be benefiting the Ryan White Program and Wellness Center.

Who is Ryan White and what is the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program?

Ryan White and his mom courageously fought AIDS-related discrimination and helped educate the Nation about his disease.
Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS at age 13. He and his mother Jeanne White Ginder fought for his right to attend school, gaining international attention as a voice of reason about HIV/AIDS. At the age of 18, Ryan White died on April 8, 1990, just months before Congress passed the AIDS bill that bears his name – the Ryan White CARE (Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency) Act. The legislation has been reauthorized four times since – in 1996, 2000, 2006, and 2009 – and is now called the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.

I’m pretty stoked to be a part of this, and I hope to see you there. Heck, just bring $10 to donate at the door, get your photo taken, & check out some art (and possibly buy some since part of the proceeds benefit the charity). I’ll be posting the photos for you to download just like I did for the recent Change For Change Art Show.

Change For Change Portraits

The 2nd installment of the Change for Change Art Show has come and gone, and organizer Darryl LaPlante did a fantastic job of putting this whole thing together. Don’t let this bad ass look fool you, the man is a giant softie:

I had originally planned on attending and checking out the festivities like a citizen, but after a photo shoot got rescheduled at the last minute I decided to lug out my gear to the Mixon Barn and setup a portrait studio to work the show like a soldier instead. I had about 3 hours to plan the whole thing out, including designing & printing up these fliers to hand out:

Setup under a canopy strategically located between the bar and the porta-potties, this is where I made all of these photographs:

Show Me The Pictures

Sooooo, if you are one of my ~~victims~~ subjects, you’re wondering what I’m doing with all of those portraits we made. Well, on Facebook, you can check out the whole set here. Please go ahead and like my page and tag yourself or your friends in the photos. Share the whole album with your friends!

Also, If you really dig the photos, you can purchase prints of them here. Profits from the sale of these portraits will go to Change For Change to benefit Water Missions International. If your significant other got his/her portrait made, you pretty much will get the best Karma points in the world for buying him/her one of these, so get on that!

Here’s a slideshow of them all:

I definitely had a blast interacting with everybody. Some familiar faces, some new ones, and some I didn’t even know that I knew. Some of the Charleston art scenes’ best were on hand and I had a blast talking shop with them all.

Since there were also some talented local photographers in attendance, I was able to hand my Nikon over to one of them. Ryan Belk took over shutterbug duties and snapped this shot of me:

It’s nice being on the other side of the lens every once in a while. A beard like mine demands to be seen!

Thanks again to the organizers – I hope we made some loot for the cause 😉

Change For Change Benefit Art Show Is Back

Just wanted to invite you all to the Change For Change Benefit Art Show, which will be taking place at Mixon Barn in Park Circle this year on Saturday, May 12th, 2012 at 7:00PM.

What is the Change For Change Benefit Art Show you ask? Well, from their event page:

The Change for Change Art Show is back again for a second year to raise money for Water Missions International! It’s a FREE event where local artists have donated some awesome artwork and photographs to be sold for $50 or less. Artists will also be displaying/selling tons of other pieces as well.

Last year’s event was a blast, you can read my recap of that here.

Go ahead, visit their Facebook event page and get all the gory details. Did I mention that the art show itself is free? Come see some stuff and possibly buy some art for a heck of a lot cheaper than usual to support a great cause.

Connections

Sitting in the backyard of my friend Greg’s home in the mid 90’s in Manhassett, NY on a mild summer night drinking beer in green bottles and chain smoking cigarettes (and possibly some other flammable plant life – but not Greg ’cause he was straight-edge without the corny title). We were all underage yet old enough to serve, but Clinton was in office so we had no worries of that nature yet. Greg’s family pet pig snorted under our feet while people dropped in and out throughout the course of the evening. Simpsons references were cited, and there were recaps of who was on Howard Stern that morning. After we plotted about how to take over the NY music scene, the night would always deteriorate into a white man’s rap battle.

Houlihan, MCA, & Hair Du – Not sure who snapped this, but it rules

Houlihan and Hair Du would dominate, but Gallagher, Pat, Tommy, Owen, Greg, Brendan, Johnny, or countless others would jump in where they could. The shit really heated up as soon as Paul’s Boutique was popped in the CD player. We were New York kids and this was our soundtrack. Sure we had Pavement and Superchunk and the Archers of Loaf, but the Beasties were all about participation and everyone we knew loved them. It represented everything I love about music in it’s rawest form – it connected us.

I’ll be dammed if listening to “Egg Man” one night didn’t lead to us breaking into Christopher Morley Park and jumping off the high diving board at 1:00 AM. Tommy chickened out and couldn’t jump, so we had to coax him back down. That was some stupid shit in hindsight! I hope my kids don’t read that part…

Tommy, Me, & Gallagher stopping at the Grand Canyon while on tour

A couple of years later, my band was on tour when Hello Nasty came out. Nothing raised our spirits more than pulling away from a record store in Arizona and blasting the sounds of Mix Master Mike’s debut with the Boys. It was a slice of NY that we knew all of our friends back home were experiencing along with us even though we were a thousand miles away from them. This was before Facebook and Twitter. Most people didn’t own a cell phone. The dot com bubble was growing but no one knew what to do with it yet. Music was the connection. Music kept us together. We couldn’t wait to see our friends again and drop our favorite lines or talk about some rare sample that we figured out.

Last summer when I went back to New York for a high school reunion, the first night I was there we went to a Karaoke bar in Astoria. You know we had to close the night down with “Get It Together”. We sucked at it too, but it didn’t matter ’cause we were having fun.

It’s really awful to let the fact that there won’t be any more Beastie Boys records sink in, so I’m just gonna leave with this thought: We have a short shot at life on this wet marble we call home, and doing something that facilitates the love that’s possible between friends, strangers, and anyone who’s willing to be cool is the greatest gift you can give. Thanks for the gifts you gave us Adam Yauch.

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