Fish Hatcheries, Muscle Cars, Raccoon Skulls, and Apple Orchards
Another busy week. Four shoots. The four things in the title of this newsletter played a big part in each of the shoots but none of them are featured in any of the photos below. I'm just being silly. I think it's funny that my job is to help people tell stories about their lives and how serious and personal that is. I never want to tell the full stories here, just show "nice" pictures and let you imagine that the subjects I'm shooting have rich, interesting lives. I'm happy to share little nuggets of the stories in the descriptions but never the whole stories.
Thursday I shot a retirement party for a man named Tom who worked for the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. I guess he was in charge of hatcheries. He was a shy, friendly guy and his many colleagues seemed to really like him. He was eager to get the formalities like toasts and group photos out of the way so he could dance with his family, which I thought was cool. His favorite song is "Long May You Run" by Neil Young, which I thought was even cooler. I won't share any other photos, it was just too personal.
On Saturday I shot Cassandra and Ryan's wedding in Dayton, Maine. It felt like one of the most Maine weddings I've shot. Many of the guests looked like they had just come in from hunting or stepped off a lobster boat. The groomsmen arrived in their old muscle cars. The dj played exclusively modern country and Bon Scott-era AC/DC. Things got rowdy. Oh yeah, and their "flower girl" did a great job.
Sunday I did a brief engagement shoot in Portland at Mayor Baxter Park with Caitlin and Whitney. It was a sentimental place for them so it was nice just walking around the trails of the park with them. We found a raccoon skull but I didn't want to photograph it. It's a funny park, strange things happen whenever I go. It always briefly rains when I'm there. One time a deer jumped out of the woods about 10 feet away from me. He was spooked and just froze. We were pretty close to the busy street so I tried to clap and shout for him to go back into the woods but he seemed really determined to cross the street and did so without issue. Anyway, at this shoot we had a beautiful sunset and the pictures turned out great.
On Monday I drove down to Leominster, Massachusetts for a portrait session with Sarah. The shoot was at Sholan Farms, an apple orchard that is popular after hours with local kids because on the outskirts of the farm there is access to Heywood and Fall Brook Reservoirs, popular swimming spots even though they are reservoirs and you aren't supposed to swim in them. It was nice to do a portrait session that wasn't for a wedding or engagement. It's nice to have the freedom to do some more experimental stuff. We talked about inspiration for the portraits and decided it would be fun to think of it as dreaming or sleepwalking in nature, if it was fun and liberating instead of weird and confusing like dreaming usually is.
RE: experimentation - this shot was made using The Brenizer Method, where you use a telephoto lens with a large aperture and take a number of shots you later stitch together to create a large panorama. What this does is create a wide angle shot with a very shallow depth of field. Usually when you shoot wide angle lenses you get a really wide depth of field, even at large apertures, making everything in focus. Think of a fish eye lens or your cell phone camera. The lens is very wide and everything is pretty much in focus. This method gives you the compression and depth of a telephoto lens while taking in the wider landscape. The effect is subtle but interesting. It's just nerdy photo stuff that will usually only be noticeable to other photographers. This shot is a collage of about 30 frames. I'm excited to try more of this. I wouldn't want to take the time to experiment like this on a wedding day.
For the next couple of weeks all my shoots will be close by! Under an hour! Really happy for that. Also I had some film cameras with me at some of the shoots this week so hopefully I'll have some of those to share soon too. Peace out.