Special Guest Appearance

It's great to know talented photographers from all over the country. This is going to be a very special week indeed. Photographers from various parts of the country are converging on NH for a special week of education, exchange, and conviviality. As a special treat, Jackie Haggerty from Studio J Photography in Normal, Illinois visited MarksPixels for a special hands on tutorial with your humble scribe along with the lovely young ladies Nik and Kaitlyn. Jackie does a great job with natural light whereas I tend to rely on off-camera flash to provide on location lighting.

It was great working with Jackie, as I could see how she'd find light and locations where I would have been inclined to walk on by. Additionally, watching her pose the subjects was really helpful. She also demonstrated that when you don't have the right light where the furniture is, you can actually move the furniture into the light! Who'd have thought? I look forward to employing the new techniques in my own work. Here are some of my favorites from the session, straight out of the camera.







Tomorrow night we travel to see Jackie's '40s glamour mini-monday, which will be conducted at Dachowski Photography's studio in Manchester, NH. It promises to be a terrific program, and she is presenting it to the Maine PPA affiliate today.

Artsy Girl, take 2

I'd looked forward to Sam's location session since the consult. The idea was to create some images that were original, if not idiosyncratic. Sam has a great look, one that's all her own, and it was a blast photographing her this afternoon/evening. We started at the Barrett House grounds, until we were chased from there, and ended at an old cemetary on Main St in New Ipswich. Here's a sampling of what we came up with. Enjoy! We sure did.

A fun session

I believe in recruiting models when they're young. Get 'em before they become big stars and have pushy agents insisting on a name photographer. The girls wanted a fun model session, so that's what we did. Here's a sampling:

As summer winds down

it's a little easier to have a successful beach session. The key to a successful beach session is getting good light, and that pretty much means sunrise. Sunsets have great light, too, but there are usually many more people to clutter backgrounds. So sunrise it is, and with the sun rising later, it's a little easier to get everyone together and out to the coast. This is what I saw yesterday morning before the shoot got underway. At this time of year, you can do a beach session at 6:30am- a whole lot better than in June!

Artsy Girl

The phone conversation was intriguing; an "artsy and individualistic" senior, according to her mother, needed senior portraits. The consultation showed mom wasn't kidding. Hey, works for me. I was anticipating the opportunity to unleash some creativity. The studio session came tonight. After a slow start, we really picked up steam and by the end we were collaborating beautifully. I am so looking forward to our location session.

Continuing Education

Being a photographer, at least being a good one, is an active process, not a state of being. This means you are constantly needing to learn new things, get out of your comfort zone, stretch yourself as an artist, or otherwise seek to improve. Else you stagnate.

Sometimes learning comes easier than others. It helps to have a great teacher. Today's seminar was conducted on the grounds of the statehouse here in New Hampshire. Jeff Dachowski demonstrated his particular style of wedding/bridal photography with the lovely model Erica. It was a blast, and informative. It ended up being a tutorial on harnessing natural light.