Wednesday. A day unlike any other day, which makes it like every other day.

Today I had a BALL photographing these children.
They asked me if I could sleep over at the end of the shoot. That's awesome!
They were a lot of fun. I took 9 gigs of photos. And many of them were pretty good (if I can say that about my own photos?)

Being child-like is...the way to be.



35mm, ISO 160
1/180, f2.5




35mm, ISO 160
1/180, f2.5



35mm, ISO 200
1/500, f2.0
Slides make your hair static: fact.



I got my hairs cut today.
It was CONSTANTLY in my face, which made it a safety hazard. Especially since I drive with the windows down...it whipped all over, blinding me, which was fun!...but, not something I can handle on a regular basis.
For whatever reason, my hair was growing WICKED FAST as of late. It normally takes its sweet time, but in the past two months it's been spurting out of the tiny holes in my head.
So now I have short hair mcgee and it feels so good.
Think of all the money I'll save on shampoo!

Firefly Salon in Northampton, MA (specifically Melissa) did an AWESOME job. That place is IT.

This is what my hair looked like today (BEFORE) the cut.


As you can tell, it was unnecessarily long.



I was forced to tie it back in this messy ponytail everyday because it creeps me out to feel my hair on my neck.



Tomorrow- I am flying to Orlando, FL for the weekend.
I will NOT be answering my phone or text messages.
(Not that I'm great at that kind of thing anyways).
And if you have ever texted me, you know that my texts are in their own language, a language I like to call "i-can't-get-used-to-the-iphone-keyboard".

Good-night and good-bye for the weekend!

Meet my three buds,

This was an awesome night and I'll tell you why:
1) Shamus is really cool.
2) Bear & Diamond are super fun (they are the dogs)
3) We drank PBR while taking these photos.
4) Shamus' room is incredible. I mean, look at it.




Canon 5D, 20mm, ISO 50
1/60, f8





Behind the scenes...

Canon 5D, 16mm, ISO 50
1/60, f6.7



So if you live in western Mass, you might have noticed that it has been wonderfully hot here lately. THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY!
I wake up without covers and am not cold! There are crickets that lull me happily to sleep, and then this excited choir of birds (mainly robins, I think) that wake me up.
Golden.

New England summers are why I thought I would like living up here (but the winters are entirely too long).
---------------------------------------------------------

A word about photography...
I am at the point in my life where every photograph I make is worse than the one before it. No image is good. At all. It stinks. It is a terrible feeling.

BUT!
I am going to FL this weekend to vacation (not an ideal time for vacationing, but I am ahead of the game with my shot list) and am only bringing my camera for pleasure work. Well, unless I encounter something that will work for an assignment.
My brother and I are having a family weekend full of fun, sun, and rock and roll.

Wala! (which is really spelled voila!)


ps. when making sweet tea
(which I did today), the concept of
"less is more" (in regards to the sugar)
is a falsehood.

Shamus Shamus Bo Bamus

This is Shamus and he is wicked!!
He creates beaaaautiful blues music that you can listen at here.
I have had the pleasure of photographing him twice (soon to be thrice) and he's great.
Also, his pitbulls are SO NICE! I love them. A lot. Tons. So much.




50mm, ISO 200,
1/125, f1.8



50mm, ISO 125,
1/60, f1.8



50mm, ISO 125.
1/125, f1.8



35mm, ISO 125,
1/180, f2.0



35mm, ISO 50,
1/45, f11, one white umbrella


Today I am shooting my interior shot and re-shooting Shamus with the lovelies.
But all I can think about right now is how hungry I am. Coffee makes me very hungry.

Life consists of:
Shoot, shoot, and re-shoot. And then maybe re-re-shoot.
Ya dig?!

Three boys, a camera, and a night in the studio

The portrait studio still isn't really my thing, but I'm trying to own it and get a better grasp on it. But being outside...is just so nice!



Mamiya, 150mm, ISO 50,
1/45, f16
















Today my friend Greg helped me shop. I think that is awesome. Not only is he a boy, but I am a picky consumer. I don't understand what the current style is where everything looks like a potatoe sack, but I will not buy into it. The bad news is: my favourite pair of leggings (that I wear 6 days a week, sometimes 7) ripped in a major way and are now unsuitable for public display. Very unfortunate.

Well, this is Greg. He is funny. Fubby to be exact. (Pretty obnoxious to make inside jokes in a blog, eh).




Canon 5d, 35mm, ISO 125,
1/4, f3.5, window light & bounced flash



Canon 5D, 50mm, ISO 200,
1/8, f3.5, window light&bounced flash





Today was another good day!
I've been shooting so much. You will never see all the images, because there are that many.

I love making photos more than...well, more than almost anything.
I still really like to read, but I would probably choose my camera over a book eighty seven percent of the time.

Sigur Ros is epic and I got new rainboots today.

20 April 2009.

Twas a good day.
I love wide studio/behind-the-scene shots.

Exhibit A:

16mm, ISO 50,
1/60, f 16

The actual shots were taken with the Mamiya, but they are still in the edit stage.

Mayra, baby fawn.

Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of photographing Mayra.

This photo makes me think of a baby deer in a field.
Lovely.


50mm, ISO 125,
1/60, F4.5, fill flash and silver reflector
(it is a given, by now, that I shoot with a 5D)

I tried to go really light on the editing because it was pretty right in camera.
Just a few tweaks with the curves, levels, and some burning.
Wala!

I just got home from school where I watched a nude shoot. As in, a beautiful nude dancer was on stage and Barbra Bordnick (a great photographer) was photographing the dancer. Lovely images.

Life is good and my eyes are constantly barraged with lovely things like men's hands with soft, thick fingers like lion paws, perfectly circular eyeballs, wind that has delicate fingers (that touches my skin more than my eyes), and the Jonas Brothers.

8th graders.

Catlin and I attended eighth grade together in Fall River, MA.
The school was teeny tiny and we had to wear plaid skirts with maroon knee socks everyday (which I actually loved).

Now we are adults and she was awesome enough to drive over (up? down?) to my school and let me photograph her.

We have an assignment that is: a Public Relation headshot and an alternative portrait using the same model. I'm not going to post the PR..boooooring! But here is a candidate for the alternative.




Mamiya 645, 150MM, ISO 50,
1/60, F13
Figure out the lighting by looking at her eyes.



I got home from school at around 8.30pm last night, took my backback off, and tossed myself into bed. It was only supposed to be an hour nap because I had plans to go to Northampton. Next thing I know, its Saturday morning. Pretty rock and roll I guess. I would have liked to have gone out last night...

Ok, I have 3 shoots today so...
see ya!

Little Cousin, Eli.

I remember when Eli was a baby...and now he looms over me (and I am no short girl).
Anyways, here is Eli...he will be sweetie pie sixteen years old next week.


I don't have my harddrive plugged in, so no camera specs.
Although I know I used a silver reflector in the second one.








Today I had a great breakfast at the Shady Glen with Papa Bear and Baby Bear (Mikey C and his dad). Then I drove to CT to assist/observe the Marantz's on an engagement shoot. It was great! They are great! The town was gorgeous (Stonington, CT).
I listened to Radiohead on the way home and it was appropriate.


I didn't go to the school building at all today, which is strange for me...I miss it. It is a home to me now, since I spend a gross amount of time there (gross, as in large quantity, not as in disgusting).

Tomorrow morning I want to think of this Radiohead lyric upon waking: "wakie wakie time to rise. it's on again, off again, on again...in pretty patterns".
Ya dig?!

Kevin Landes: average height, dark, and handsome.

Today I had a client pull a no-show, so I messed around with Kevin in the studio for a few minutes. He is hilarious and recently got a hair cut. His bed head, prior to the haircut, was unrivaled by any bedhead I've ever seen.

He takes aweeeeeesome fashion&commercial shots. Better than most printed magazine shots.

Ladies&Gentlemen, I present Kevin Landes:






Shots taken with the Canon 5D, both the 35mm and the 50mm,
ISO 50, 1.125, f13


Today was warm(ish), sunny, and productive.
Tommorrow my friend Mikey C (shown in a former blog) is coming up, and I get to go assist two awesome wedding photographers in CT.
It's 11.30pm now and I think I'll go home for the night.

Cloud Cult & Margot and the Nuclear So and So's.

I had the opportunity to see Cloud Cult and Margot&theNuclearSo&So's at PearlStreet in Northampton, MA.
So very good!!

The lighting was opposite of conducive for photography.
But, like everything else in my life, it is rock and roll and you have to roll with it and problem solve.

CLOUD CULT:












They have a man on stage painting (an INCREDIBLE painting) during their set.







MARGOT AND THE NUCLEAR SO&SO's











Instead of using a slider, he is using a Red Stripe bottle, which juuuust so happens to be one of my favourite beers.



This was a tight show. Both bands are just as good live, maybe even better!, than their albums. And their albums are good.

Mikey C; the radomness of life.

So,
this boy was touring my school a few weeks ago and the faculty member stopped by my computer and asked if i would show the boy what i was working on.
i did.
turns out, this boy lives a the town next to scranton, PA (where all my family lives). so i got his number and arranged to photograph him when i was there.

this weekend, i went to PA.




50mm, ISO 160,
1/180, f1.8




50mm, ISO 160,
1/180, F2.0, silver reflector




50mm, ISO 250,
1/125, f2.8, silver reflector



35mm, ISO 125,
1/90, f2.0, silver reflector





50mm, ISO 125,
1.125, f2.0, fill flash


Mikey C is awesome.
Ask me how much retouching I had to do to his skin?
Answer: none.
!!

Scranton, PA!

Ohhhhhhh man!
My weekend has legitimately been one of the best weekends possible. All I have done is drink special vanilla chai (with hearts in the foam), taken photos, and stayed up so late that you could grocery shop with the bags under my eyes. This is rock and roll.

There are (probably?) going to be many photos from this weekend that I eventually post, but here are several.


Brother took this photo, of me shooting the following photo.
Like I said, rock and roll.


My cousin Michael,

Canon 5D, 50mm, ISO 200,
1/125, f3.5


My cousin Eli and I, shot in this sweet upper level of a parking garage in downtown Scranton, PA.

Canon 5D, 35mm, ISO 125,
1/2000, f2.0, fill flash



Eli (cousin), Mike (cousin), Mike (friend), Brother (brother), me

Canon 5D, 35mm, ISO 200,
1/500, f 2.0



Brother, shot in our room at the Radisson

Canon 5D, 50mm, ISO 50,
1/10, F5.6, one white umbrella



Check out how cool my family is:
(very)



This will conclude the hasty edits I have done.
This trip has been awesome.
My family is...."legitimate."

Ooolala.

If you didn't already know, I attend a pretty spectacular photography school called
Hallmark Institute of Photography.

I dare you to check it out.

Promos. Bands. Boys who play instruments and sing. Promos.

I got started in photography from shooting shows. Rock and roll shows. Which led to band promos. It was all very rock and roll. Very grab-your-camera-and-one-kit-lens-and-jump -in-the-car-and-go. My favourite.
When I was back home last month, I shot my friend Lyton's band: Behold the Brave.
We shot at the Old Woolen Mill, which I usually try and avoid because it's probably the most over-photographed place in the world, second only to the statue of liberty.

But I tried to incorporate some different elements, and I am content with how they look. (If it had been an overcast day, I would have been ecstatic, but that's usually the case).

But I digress and here are the images.




Canon 5d, 50mm, ISO 125
1/1500, f2.5, fill flash





I was shooting through this huge piece of circular scrap metal. This piece of metal had a hole in the middle of it (creating this wicked vingette type effect) and was just slightly larger than my lens. It was awkward for me, because I wasn't quite tall enough to see through the hole so it was a jump-and-shoot kind of thing. I also used the 16-35mm lens for more of these shots.
Canon 5D, 50mm, ISO 125
1/2000, f1.8



Canon 5D, 23mm, ISO 125
1/750, f2.8, fill flash



Here are some other band promos I have done in the past:


AsCitiesBurn (SolidState Records)
Photos taken in Atlanta, GA,







Bloodlined Calligraphy (Facedown Records)
Photo taken in Nashville, TN,





iamairplane (these guys actually stole my kitchen chair. they took it right out and put it in the back of their van, no joke.)
This photo was taken at sunrise,



I like good music as mich as the next guy.
Actually, I like good music more than the next guy.
And the new Manchester Orchestra is very, very good. Way more intense and edgier than their former album.
Ella Fitzgerald has been hanging out on a lot in my ears lately.
Smooth.