The Limited

Here is some more work from a recent shoot I did for The Limited, it's a screen shot from the website featuring "going-out tops". If you'd like to take a better look at the photos or to shop the tops (they are beautiful!) go to http://www.thelimited.com/features/trends/going-out-tops .

Faking a Sunny Day

I recently had a shoot with The Limited during which we had planned to include a series of images to showcase pieces from their new athletic line and the idea was something to the effect of "urban yoga studio awash with sunlight". It sounded great in planning so we scouted our location (it was a bright yellowy, sunny day) excited for the shoot. When the day arrived, along with a crew of 7 people, it was gray, rainy, and quite dark. The building in view through the windows was also gray. While this was not ideal, it was an opportunity to conquer a photographic challenge and produce the look we wanted regardless of Mother Nature's plans to rinse the city that day. Although it may have been easier and less stressful to actually have a wash of sunlight, I will admit that it is quite gratifying to utilize some of the tricks up my sleeve.

Epitome of Summer

There are few things that represent Summer quite as intensely as raspberries for me. Aside from sun, sand, and water, the menu of summer in general also brings a sunny nostalgia: sweet corn, cucumber salad, watermelon, barbecued chicken, and so on, but raspberries surpass these taste associations by far. Growing up we had a raspberry patch in the back yard. It started as one plant, which I believe my grandfather had transplanted from his yard to ours, as a sort of experiment to see if we could cultivate a few handfuls of berries to garnish our corn flakes. We had already tried growing strawberries to no real avail and as I recall they were eventually mowed by accident. Not only did the raspberries thrive, they multiplied exponentially without much in the way of manicuring on our part. Every summer the bramble spread until it was growing far beyond the yard's edge and into the neighboring field and woods. So many summer mornings I would get up ready to head straight to the beach or out for a bike ride only to find my fate on the kitchen table, that of several empty mixing bowls and a note from my Mom, "Please pick before you go. Love, Mom". It was one of my sole chores in the summer (the other was mowing the lawn) and eventually there were no notes, only empty bowls, no explanation necessary. Our crop yield was astounding. I could spend over an hour filling containers and still see ripe red fruit spotting the shrubs. We froze many pounds and gave bags to the neighbors encouraging them to come into the yard and help themselves anytime. We had raspberries on cereal, we made raspberry pancakes, muffins, we put them in salads and on ice cream and, of course, we ate them by the handful as I did whilst picking. For as much time as I spent engaged in the chore, I'm not sure I ever disliked it. In fact, they are fond memories, these Summer mornings. It was often meditative and also productive, a good way to start any day. I often gathered solo, but it was also something that my mother, sister and I would do together, usually laughing over the astonishment of the overgrowth of our raspberries that exceeded in confirming our hypothesis that the plant would survive. Probably the only bad thing was how scraped up my arms were so frequently from the thorns, the raspberry bush is in the same family as the rose bush after all. I no longer tend to a crop of berries, but I bought some today and after taking the photos I popped one onto my tongue and thought, "tastes like Summer."

Spring Blossoms

The cherry blossoms come and go so quickly each Spring, as does Spring itself. Every year I dedicate myself to setting aside a day to photograph them, ideally when they have just started to fall and there is not only an abundance of flora covering the branches but also an ethereal layer of petals on the ground below. These few days are magical in New York City. While I always notice when they begin to bloom, planning for the fleeting days of sylvan perfection can be rather difficult. One can never be sure exactly when this will happen and often waiting one more day will result in missing it altogether. Not this year though. Angie, my frequent muse and sweet friend, has helped to keep watch over the progress of the blossoms in Prospect Park. When she called me with news that they were looking lush I knew I had to embrace the sentiment "carpe diem", regardless of my busy week. So, in between pre-production for tomorrow's job and uploading the fruits of yesterday's job, we made it happen.

Editing...

I am in the midst of editing the many images from this shoot, but so far this is a favorite of mine and also a couple of others who have perused the contact sheets. Editing is both a pleasure and a pain. It is satisfying to see the fruits of your labor, but choosing can be difficult and it often takes me several editing sessions to make final choices. I believe this will stay in the final running.

Pygmy Seahorse

I am presently fascinated with a variety of fossils and other relics of nature, with and without decay. This is a Pygmy Seahorse, and pygmy it is. The actual height of this fantastic creature is equal to the length from the tip of my thumb to the first knuckle. I have two of them and will photograph them together as well. The roster also includes mini starfish, a variety of butterfly wings, and a selection of fossilized nautiluses. All of these things are very fantasy-like so I would like to explore some different ways of shooting them. This first example is not quite clinical though it does suggest science before fantasy. Strange sea creature discoveries definitely make one want to encapsulate and study, get to know the subject before deciding what to do with it.

Hibernation is Over

I have not been very diligent about posting lately, but the good news is that it's because I have been busy working! Even with less down time I am putting great effort into my personal portfolio, determined not to get drained by my commercial jobs which, while I enjoy many of them and am grateful to be working, can leave one with less motivation to take on additional projects. I attribute some of this determination to the arrival of Spring. It is still slightly out of reach as far as the temperature is concerned, but the extended daylight certainly helps. This image is part of a new series of portraits I am working on. I have several shoots planned over the next couple of months and a few that are waiting to be edited. I hope that this change of seasons and longer days will initiate a surge of energy and inertia to produce many, many images.