Photojournal: Not forgetting to photograph what you love

In September last year, my wife and I were thrilled to learn that we’d be welcoming our first child into the world in June of 2009.

Fast forward to now….June of 2009!

Tomorrow, our little boy or girl is due. We decided not to find out the sex…my wife describes it as the “last surprise on earth”. She thought it would be fun to do weekly shots of her growing belly, and of course I was happy to get the project underway!

We started off by just doing very simple photos, but that proved to be too mundane for my liking. I went into full creative mode and drew up tons of concepts for maternity photos for her. She isn’t into showing much skin, so the classic and quintessential maternity shots would have to give way to something different. The result is a full 25 week long photojournal that brings to life the excitement and growth that she (and I, to an extent) have felt throughout this pregnancy.

Joe McNally mentioned in one of my favorite books “The Moment It Clicks” that you can’t forget to shoot what you love. I followed that advice, and the result is a collection of photos that we’re excited to share with folks…I’d say it’s a good start to documenting our little baby…sort of a jump start!

All of these photos can be viewed with captions at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010659&id=1540188417&l=0921d6ef06

Enjoy!! I'll be sure to BLOG about the baby upon arrival!

Weddings: Two in one weekend!

Since I decided to start shooting weddings a few years back, I’ve met some really incredible people and worked in some great locations! The weekend of June 6th and June 7th, I had the pleasure of doing more of just that - and I just couldn’t go without a shout out to those folks!

Amanda and Charlie – had a great time at your wedding! Amanda, I admire you so much for coordinating such a beautiful gathering all by yourself while you and Charlie are expecting baby number two! It was beautiful and you two should be very proud of yourselves! Can’t wait for you to see your photos – I’m very excited to be working on them!

Jenn and Adam – what can I say? I you picked the perfect spot to be wed – I never realized what an incredible place The Mile Away was! Awesome location, delicious food, and just about the friendliest staff I’ve ever met! I’m also looking very forward to getting your proofs to you for review and album design!

Both couples had great weather and an incredible collection of friends and family to celebrate with – congrats to all 4 of you!

(Pics NOT posted since the couples haven't even seen them yet! SOON!)

Bondcliff: Another Prelude to Change

In 2006, I got married to the love of my life. One week prior, I brought my dad up to the Franconia Ridge for the first time. Even though he’s been a NH resident and hiker all his life, he’d never been so I just had to take him. This is the spot that I visit over and over again – the Pemi is my favorite place on earth, and I wanted to share that with him while we hung out prior to my wedding. It was incredible, and he absolutely loved it. So, with the next exciting change coming in my life (baby on the way – due TOMORROW!), we thought it would be fitting to hit the other side of the Pemi for another grandiose location he’s never visited – the Bonds.

This trip actually happened May 9th, and so the weather was slightly different than it is today on June 18th. The first 5 miles were a confidence building cake walk for my dad, nearly 50 now. Once we hit the Bondcliff trail for the final 4.4 mile push, the story changed a bit. It’s spring, and “valley dwellers get the itch” (as I say) … we anticipated the worst, but actually dealing with challenges are always different than getting prepared for them. There are 3 large crossings of the Black Brook that were quite swollen with the spring runoff. In fact, the first one took us over 20 minutes (as I carefully avoided soaking my back, and thus my camera gear!). The others were interesting because as we got close to the water, there was a lot of snow nearby the crossings due to the temps and moisture. We’d opted to leave the snowshoes behind in hopes of more of an icy monorail for which crampons and stablicers would do just fine. The weather was fine until we got beyond the final crossing and started up beyond The Staircase – we could see across over Owl’s Head that there were big storms hitting the Franconia Ridge. It wasn’t going to be long before we’d be in the thick of it, too. While we kept an eye to the sky, we scrambled over a 3 foot deep monorail of snow and ice. We both postholed now and then, but we managed without too much hassle (it just slowed us down a bit). We found a spot to camp just below timberline off in the woods, which fit into our plan perfectly. That plan was to photograph Bondcliff at sunset, sunrise, and by the light of the full moon. So, as we scrambled to set up camp, thunder rolled in closer and closer, and just as we completed our setup the first drops of rain came.

Then, they stopped, and the sky turned a strange hue of peach. It was quite unsettled, and looked almost other-worldly. We shot up to the cliffs where dad had his first peak at the cliffs. He was in awe, as we all are for our first trip to the Bonds. I walked with him to the edge, where I planned to use him as my ‘model’ to photograph the cliffs…you know, add perspective and scale, introducing the human element to all of that incredible granite…anyhow, he got weak at the knees. He instantly got vertigo as he ventured out. In a moment though, he fought it off and enjoyed the incredible view of the Pemi while I shot for about 30 minutes in non-ideal conditions. The winds were picking up, and the sky threatened more with each passing second. We returned to camp hoping to head back up at sunset, during the middle of the night, and in the morning.

Mother Nature had other plans.

We ate and sipped Bandit Brand Red Wine while our tent was hammered with rain, wind, and even some freezing rain/hail like falling objects. Oh, not to mention thunder and lightening. We slept only a bit that night, and headed out just before 6 am (in the rain) to return to the car.

We talked about all kinds of things on the way down. We made it without incident back over the monorail, back across the further-swollen crossings, and all the way through the 9.4 miles that stood between us and our cars. I carried about 35 lbs of camera gear (lights, tripods, lenses, body), food, survival essentials, and our tent. Dad carried essentials and what not. We were soaked, our gear was dry (I love a quality pack cover and love dry bags even more), but we were happy. Hiking does that for both of us – a rush of endorphins that makes you forget any aches and pains and fears. We came out with only a few photos and, as always, a great tale of another adventure in NH’s incredible Greatscapes.

Getting Caught up on Blogs!!

So, I’ve been admittedly lazy these last few months with my blog. It’s funny, I was so resistant to allowing social media to run my life in the beginning, and then before I knew it I was facebooking, twittering, and blogging my little fingers off. Lately, I’ve just been too darn busy! But, supposing that’s a good thing, I just have to shout out an apology and a promise to at least do one blog every now and then instead of the onslaught I’m about to lay out on this site. You’ll be surprised to see probably 3-5 blogs show up in the next hour or so…I’ve been writing (always do as part of the creative process with my photos), just not posting!! Time to catch up!

And now, for something a bit random to give this blog something visual:

Nola, the pathetic looking chocolate lab says "Hope you enjoy reading!"

Sugar Hill Experience!

I had the opportunity to venture up to the beautiful (and PURE NEW ENGLAND) town of Sugar Hill the other day! My wife and I with doggies in tow left home at 2:30 am to meet with the sunrise in the lupine fields. It was my very first trip to the town, and my first encounter with the beauty, smell, and presence of wild lupines! Really beautiful, and very much worth the trip.



I learned an important lesson about photography, though...well, I suppose it was a reinforcement more than anything...if you plan on getting a pre-visualized result, plan on scouting your location - better yet, plan on studying it intensively! If you want impromptu images, and the challenge of composing in the dark of the early morning hours, forget about scouting!



Seems simple enough...but it was really interesting to compose something with a virtual blindfold on. I tend to be so much more of a planner and a pre-conceptual photographer, so this was an exercise in discomfort, for sure!

The result of me traveling outside of my comfort zone - a very healthy thing in my opinion - were some interesting first light images. Note, that I plan to get up there for a full few days of exploration soon!