Black and white and gestture and catchlights and tones and of course magic.

My love for black and white photography has increased immensely in the past few weeks.

There's something so subtle about it...I like it very much for my personal work. Maybe because things have been so crazy in my life lately that it's nice to just immerse myself in the quiet details of black and white tones.

I feel like gesture becomes much more important in black and white images,
because sometimes colour can be a distraction.

These are some of my favourite black and whites. Some are old. Some are film. Some were taken with a Canon, and some with a Mamiya. All of them are rock and roll. And they are all loved ones.

O'Neil Wedding!

This is an outrageous couple.
Their love is so dynamic and moving to see...they blow my mind and I love it!
This wedding was in Wilmington, VT and it was a perfect day.
I had two wonderful assistants (my first wedding where it wasn't me solo) and the day went smooooothly.



Michelle&Ryan....!!






This is us doing a test shot for the shot above.
It's difficult doing long exposures with a self-timer!
















Basically, one of the best nights ever.

I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHING WEDDINGS.
Fact!

The difference between going back &going home.

Last weekend I went to Tennessee to photograph a wedding (more to come on that later).
I was able to spend a few days there...tooling around, going to shows, cliff jumping, swimming, meeting new neighbors, etc. Below are some portraits I took on the fly. Some use a reflector, some don't. I really like silver reflectors. A ton. That little extra catchlight they add is killer!


This is Heather and Zachary Paul.
I love the portraits of Zach.
They were just the way I saw them in my head.










This is Tylere, who is clearly the fourth Jonas Brother.







Andy Goodner (who made me a killer mix cd...and then they guy who smashed into my car the other day ruined all my Cd's)





Lyton, who resembles Orlando Bloom...






Andy wanted to show the dangers of using a reflector...blinding!







I just got home from a travel stint around the NE....Boston, Jersey, NYC, and Maine. Some crazy times were had. I ate a ton of good food, was able to hang out (and meet) the nicest people ever. I got to stay with my cousin who is a great guy. I had my car broken into (Mamiya with digital back, 2 lenses, lightmeter, and GPS stolen). Attended a wedding (which is very strange after only ever photographing weddings).

Portraits are awesome. I looooove making images of people. Very rock and roll.
While I was back in Cleveland I scouted out some great locations for portraits and engagements! This excited me. I CAN'T WAIT TO BE BACK IN THE SOUTH! I love the heat and humidity! And I love swimming in the river (it makes my skin and hair feel soooo good).

This was sooo funny to me:
While we were in Boston, I spotted a Lush. Now, if you have never experienced a Lush (hand-made cosmetics/soap), you MUST go! I sort of freaked out and ran inside. The boys begrudgingly followed...next thing I know, they are giddy about all the stuff! It was hilarious! A employee gave us the hand treatment, and we all bought the stuff. It is SO GOOD! No joke, I felt like I had baby skin. It's important to take good care of your skin and hair (and teeth, etc) because you can't replace it.

These are the boys in Lush.

I highly recommend you follow me on twitter
so you can see these fun photos I take throughout the day.


I have so many photos to sort through! I love it! I love the entire process of making photos, from the concept to the editing! Whoop Whoop!

Greylock Mountain and Trevor Lee McGee.

Yesterday Trevor (boy in the black and white photos below) took a trip to Greylock Mountain where we laid in the grass, dog watched, and walked around. We ate ate good meals and cruised around with the sunroof wide open.

Check this hobbit-like boy out at
tmleephotography.blogspot.com












and now for the iphone photos...











I appear to have captured the sun's strength and love within my skin and my shoulders (the right one in particular) and nose are glowing.
I don't hate it (aka. I love it)

Iphone Photo Geekout.

taking photos with the iphone is fun. cute. and a lot more discreet than a DSLR with a telephoto lens. and thanks to the creators of apps, you can even edit!

i recently downloaded 2 photo apps.
first being the Camerabag app which has filters that give photos a holga look, polaroid, infared, black&white, fisheye, lolo (which boosts the colour saturation), and a few others. it's a ton of fun.

second being Polarize (which is free) and allows you to turn your photo into a polaroid and then tag it! i love being able to caption photos!




this was taken yesterday evening at sunset and i used the LoLo filter from Camerbag.
mmm...front porches, beers, good lighting, and friends.






this is probably my favourite iphone photo ever. i wish i could blow it to poster size and hang it in my room. (LoLo filter)





Poloraid filter from Camerbag.




Andy the Giraffe took this with my phone with the Polarizer.




Helga (aka. Holga) filter on Camerabag





Lolo (works great for images with greens and yellows!)






Helga filter





LoLo filter




LoLo filter (the night we handed in our final portfolios)





Andy took this with the Polarizer, and captioned it.




My friend Trevor Lee McGee, Polarizer app.



While I was editing my Red Stripe bottles, with the Polarizer.





Iphones are cool. If only I could learn to text properly on them....


Yesterday I made the big purchase of a ColorMunki, for colour calibrting my monitor (and future projector). The before and after of my monitor was EXTREME, to say the least.
I really enjoy buying things for my business. I also re-designed my letterhead today (still working on it). I think about these things all the time. Like, while I am eating, before I fall asleep, while people are talking to me...all the time.

my time for moving back to cleveland is coming soon...!!
i'm ready to giddy up.

Dizzy Des, Terminator, birds.

This is Dizzy Des, a very cool girl that makes really funny jokes.

This image was part of a set for The Flock Apparel, which I would hiiiighly recommend you checking out and supporting.


These are before and afters.
Oh, the magic of Photoshop.

According to my metadata, this was shot at 3.20am...I was SO exhausted. I am not a very good late-night person (well, not when I wake up before the sun). Anyways, I wish I had chosen my background better and swept the floor a little bit. Alas...




There was a lot of little speckle clean up on the floor, highlight and tonal tweaks in the background, and then getting those blasted bicycles out of the way (way easier than I thought it would be). I even took the chipped nail polish off her fingernails.

I turned this in for a personal submission in my final portfolio.
(which has been turned in, and now I await my final portfolio review session)

On a more mainstream note- the movie Terminator is awful. So, completely terrible. I love cheesey action movies. Not this one! Waste of time, money, and talent (or lack thereof).


Sometimes on facebook chat I get overwhelmed by all the open chat windows (plus Lightroom, Photoshop, etc being open) and so I will just log out with out finishing any conversations. I do this, not to be rude, but because internet talking is ridiculous. And...I really want no part in it. So if I have logged on mid-convo with you...I apologize. I just can't handle it and I forget to make my thing "offline".

Last night I slept a grand total of (somewhere between) 60-90 minutes. Wawaweewa. It was a pretty great night though. And the birds outside my window at 4.40am were INCREDIBLE. They were so loud! It was as if every bird in western Mass met in my backyard and they were chatting away. I tried to isolate each bird noise and listen to the pattern repeat itself...surprisingly difficult.

And now sleep time comes
(I'm so excited to go to bed that I might not even be tired. sike).

Commercial work! Everyone loves glass!

This is for an ad design I had to do for my final portfolio, shot in the Commercial studio at school.
Truly...I enjoy shooting commercial.

It's so chill to just come to school (wearing leggings, of course), set up the lights and the scene, listen to some tunes, maybe sing along, shoot away, problem solve, tweak, sing along some more, probably drink coffee out of my huge thermos....
it's relaxing; much like colouring in a colouring book.




So to get this shot, here's what I did...

Step one- went down to Ryan&Casey's liquor store to pick up this beautiful batch of Red Stripe.
Step 2- mixed karo syrup and water in a spray bottle
Step 3- sprayed the Red Stripe bottles and let the mixture harden overnight (well, for a few days really).
Step 4- shot it.
Step 5- drank it. I haven't completed step 5, but the beer (still covered with dried karosyrup droplets) is waiting in my fridge.

Voila!