raspberries and a wide angle lens

Two exciting things today: (1) I got a new lens (2) I picked raspberries!

For all you photo nerds out there, my new lens is a fixed 28mm, f/1.8 with an aspherical DG macro lens! For all you not-nerds, it means that I can take pictures of things really close up, in low light and without the kind of distortion that usually comes with a wide angle lens.

I bought it with event photography in mind, but on this sunny breezy Berkshire afternoon, I took it raspberry-picking with my good friend Laura.

This is Bruce, who owns the farm—Howden Farms in Ashley Falls.

This is his kitty, Thief, who Bruce says stole his way onto the farm.

Ahhhh... the Berkshires.

new dimensions in portraiture

Recently, I’ve made it a goal to go deeper with my portraiture. Shooting for Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health I was always focused on getting people to smile and glow in a portrait. This is all well and good but I’m also interested in photographing other dimensions of people. I'm also beginning to experiment more with location.

My beautiful friend Sara is generous, fearless, and playful enough to be my guinea pig as I try new approaches to making a portrait. Here’s some of what we tried at her house yesterday.

(notice the impact of the angle of the face)

(cropped and over-saturated like this, it’s an album cover waiting to happen.)

(this shot makes you feel more comfortable, huh?)

musician’s portrait

Jess Jacobs, a very good friend, talented musician, and all-around-great-person, is getting ready to release her debut album! She came to Great Barrington this weekend for a photoshoot. We tried a few locations and concepts; I think the direct portraits work the best, here are a few of my favorites.

You can hear Jess’s music on her myspace page (“Perpetual Heartbreak” is my favorite).

more strangers

Here are some other folks I encountered in Woodstock during the portrait workshop.

Noah was playing songs from is debut album. At the moment this picture was taken, he was waiting for his mom to come back from the car with his song book (he doesn't have all of them memorized just yet).

Noah with his cousin, Alex.

Jean makes and sells this jewelry in the city.

impromptu portrait

Today was the first day of my portrait workshop with renowned photographer and teacher Dawoud Bey. Our evening homework was to photograph a stranger in downtown Woodstock, NY where the workshop is taking place. I wandered into a Persian rug store to meet Scott, the owner and my new friend.

ridiculous & sublime

I have just quit my job in order to focus the next year on the progress of my still-image film about the Little Brothers of Saint Francis, an inner-city monastery in Boston. I am applying to grants, fellowships, and artist residencies to provide the needed money and time to finish the film, currently titled Ridiculous & Sublime: Life in an Inner-City Franciscan Monastery.

This past week I submitted my first application to an artist colony. They require a sample work of a previous film for application to the film/video category. Since I am a first-time filmmaker, I put together a 4-minute trailer instead. I'll be posting the trailer online shortly, in the meantime, here are some of the images I used for it.