A Day Late and a Concept Short
I am loving (and deeply troubled by) the new Nathan Fielder show The Rehearsal. When I was watching episode 1 I felt a twinge of stress when he looked at Tricia's blog "Cheap Chick in the City" and mentioned that most of the posts are just her apologizing for not posing, one layer of the joke being that that is the fate of so many blogs and other bloggy things. I thought about how much I don't want to do that, but here I am, delivering my first late newsletter and I don't have a great idea for it. I'm all nostalgia'd out so I didn't want to do another "year in film" dump, besides, it would have been 2009 and 2009 was too weird to revisit. Instead I'm just going to recap what I've worked on this month. August is usually a slow month. Not exactly slow, it's still in the middle of my busy season but it's usually the slowest month of the busy months. People prefer to get married or get their picture taken in the spring or fall instead of during the hottest, most uncomfortable month of the year. The images below are mostly from my professional assignments with a few fun, personal shots thrown in as well. Next week I will commence with fun adventures.
Awapuhi+Rob, Wayne, Maine. The venue was at their family's lakeside camp. Wayne is kind of in the middle of nowhere. I considered writing a newsletter about the process of shooting weddings in super-rural places. You have to print out all of your directions, make screenshots of emails and copy/paste all of the important info into the Notes app. I have to refer to a lot of that stuff over the course of a wedding day. I did all of that but then I ended up having perfect reception the whole day. Oh well. It's good to be prepared.
Molly+Eric, York, Maine. This was a mellow wedding, pretty small. Got to shoot with Julien despite the fact that we have only ever shot complicated island weddings before. The only problem I faced at this wedding was how intense the sun was. There was no shade to be found at any of the locations we shot at. Give me an overcast wedding day any day.
Jenny+Joe, Ogunquit, Maine. This was awesome, the wedding was in Ogunquit, my old stomping ground. The ceremony was right in front of Splash Restaurant, which was my first job ever. I worked at the snack bar. Within minutes of arriving on my first day I saw a bunch of police chasing a guy past the snack bar window and one of the ladies I worked with said "Oh, they're gettin' him!" To which I asked "Who?" and they said "Oh, the guy who's been ripping seagulls apart with his bare hands. He's done it a couple of times, but they're gettin' him!"
Sarah+Brad / Paige+Mark, Oaks Neck, Kennebunkport, Maine. Last month I made a newsletter post about shooting a sunrise session and a sunset session in the same day. These two images are from two weeks ago and it's basically the same thing, 7am and 7pm but this time it was at the same location even. Both were engagement sessions, and I just want to say that I love shooting engagement sessions when the couples are REALLY into each other. It's fun and easy. I can just tell couples to vibe with each other and I take pictures of it. I don't have to direct them to do anything. Both of these couples were great.
Jen+Jake, Fort Stark, Newcastle, New Hampshire. The New England coast is great. One cool feature you'll find in most seacoast towns are these cool old fortifications. There will be watch towers, holding cells, lots of dangerous stairs. Fort Stark is right outside of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and it's one of the bigger forts I've been to. Not super romantic, but it's still a great location for a pre-wedding shoot like this one. These two did a secret town hall wedding the next day. I hope none of their friends or family read this...
Feral cousins digging under the supermoon, Footbridge Beach, Ogunquit, Maine. I love how weird this shot is. Artificial light and natural light. Confusing action. Tension. My wife's family came to visit and we got to see some really cool supermoon stuff. These kids gotta dig.
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy singing in the rain outside Black Birch/Buoy Gallery, Kittery, Maine. I've seen BPB a bunch of times, and this time was magical because of the rain but also because he played almost all songs I knew and loved. I'm kind of a stickler for that. Also, he covered the song "Wild Kindness" by Silver Jews, a heavy song by a heavy guy. I don't want to talk about it.
Supermoon over our house, Wells, Maine. I should end with an intense picture of the supermoon trying to break out through the clouds. Lilly and I went to go see it after putting the kids to bed. It was intense.