Autumn in New England

The seasons keep on turning. This image was created on an orchard near Damariscotta, Maine. It was a perfect, fall day for picking apples and going on a photo safari.

So far, it has been used in a series of direct mail pieces and greeting cards as a stock image.

This is another from the Way I See It folder. It will be on display and for sale this weekend at the Jamaica Plain Open Studios.

In the mean time, I am off to create a series of product images today. It will be a nice day to play in the studio!

Way I See It...

A few years ago, I started a folder of images that I had created that didn't really fit with my other portfolios.

They were images that hit me as soon as I clicked the shutter. They appealed to me on an iconic level, rather than on a more literal one.

The images are created during client projects and personal photo safaris. They are those moments when I feel I have reached the very spirit of the photograph. They are the moments when I realize that the only audience I am creating for is myself.

Most of the images I create have a different audience in my mind. To be sure, I am creating images that I think are appealing or attractive. However, I am creating them for a client, or more specifically, a client's projected audience. I love that challenge of figuring out what they might be thinking, how they might be thinking it and anticipating how they would react to the project we are working on.

But the images in this folder, many of which were created on commercial projects, go beyond this audience.

They are my personal collection of the golden moment. And, like any perfectionist, my collection grows only very slowly.

Of course, not all of the images in the folder appeal to everyone. Perception is personal and individual. And, it is everything.

The name of the folder is "Way I See It".

This image was created at Mt Washington's Cog Railroad, in New Hampshire.

Oops! Or, how to justify a new lens.

The shoot brief was simple and dramatic: set up the product and shoot sparks over it for dramatic.

I have commented before about "simple" and photoshoot and how they generally do not exist in the same sentence. But, here is an example where things really got out of hand.

It took a little thought about how to get the sparks to fly in the right direction. Because of the direction of the spinning disk on the tool, we had to rethink the layout of the shot and actually flip it. Otherwise, the sparks shot into the background and were lost to the camera. Ah, reality vs scribbled layouts.

Once we got that part figured and adjusted the shutter to get the maximum sparks, it was just a matter of doing it over and over until the sparks looked just right.

This was one of those attempts where the machine slipped and shot a shower of sparks straight back at the lens... and photographer!

After the shot was done, we carefully cleaned the camera and lens and realized that the UV filter we put on the lens had actually melted. There were pinpoint black marks all over it where the sparks had hit the filter and melted into it.

Thank goodness we had the filter! $50 to replace it vs. $600+ for a new lens!