Union Station, Washington, DC

We just arrived into Union Station, in DC. Washington is one of my favorite cities in the country, after spending my college years here it really feels like a second home. We just have a quick stop here, then off to NYC.

Classic, Flawed, Nostalgic: Hipstamatic

The photograph that accompanied Friday’s post got me thinking about an interesting trend.  I shot it with my iPhone out the window of the airport using an App called Hipstamatic.  Its the App-de-jeur for gussying up photos taken with the phone.

Hipstamatic mimics old style film and lenses, from Polaroid shot in the 70s to high contrast, high grain black and white.  Its pretty amazing, it makes even the most banal shot look interesting.

Back when we were out in LA we were talking to some filmmakers about it, and about similar digital processes that, in reality, make things worse in order to make them look better. They were talking about high-end motion cameras that shoot at 24p, or 24 frames per second.  These days most high-end cameras are able to shoot much faster than that – but there is something inherently “right” about 24p.  Its the frame rate that old film cameras shot – and there is something comfortable about it.  It looks expensive.  I doubt very much that I could put my finger on the six frame difference between 30p and 24p.  But the weird thing is, I can.  It triggers something in the brain.

Similarly, Hipstamatic makes you think you are looking at something classic, flawed and nostalgic.  In these days when my digital Hasselblad can show you the details of the veins in the eyes of portrait subjects, there is something nice about Hipstamatic’s messiness.  It shoots the type of photos you’d find in an old box in a musty attic.

Maybe we’re rebelling against the sharpness and clarity that we’ve become capable of.  Maybe, just for fun, we enjoy Low-Definition.  Or maybe its something else. Maybe we appreciate when technology can trick our brains into thinking we’ve reached back into a simpler time and taken one more photo to go in the old box.

Paris, Boston, Greenwich, Boston, Texas, Boston

Just catching up after lots of travel.

After shooting in Zurich we took the TGV to Paris for the week for the second leg the annual report.  The shoots went well, and we had a little bit of down time on Sunday.  Our hotel was across the street from the Louvre on Rue de Rivoli, so we took time and braved the weather to spend the afternoon at the museum.

The view from the Louvre, in the rain

After we finished up the shooting in Paris we flew back to Boston, landing at 4:30, then drove straight down to Greenwich, CT.  It was an incredibly long day of travel, but it was the only way the timing fit.  The two days of shooting in Greenwich finished up the AR.

We drove back to Boston late Friday night and had a quick shoot in the studio in Boston for Burst Media and Weymouth Design.  The next morning we flew to Texas to shoot an ad campaign with Jack Morton Worldwide for a local hospital.

Texas was great, I’m really excited about the shots and look forward to sharing them.

We finally picked the dog up from “camp” and she’s filthy and matted after three and a half weeks of romping.  Its good to be home.

Stepanian Band Photos

Eric Stepanian

I just got news from my friend Eric Stepanian that the press kit photos we shot for his band, Stepanian, have started making the rounds.

We shot these about a month ago at Sacco’s Bowl Haven in Somerville, MA.  It’s a great, retro style bowling alley, and the folks there were incredibly accommodating.

The band is really popular in Boston, and is on the edge of taking off nationally.  You may recognize their work used on ESPN.  The Boston Globe called them, “Famously Sweet: If Jason Mraz were a band instead of one man, he might sound like Stepanian, a local pop-rock act that plays non-confrontational acoustic tunes about love and life that have a jam band ring to them.”

They’ll be playing at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA on October 23rd, you can get more info from their site.

Stepanian Band

Healthcare Photography

We’re heading out this afternoon to shoot at a large Boston-based healthcare company.

Healthcare is one of my favorite segments of our business, each scenario has a broad spectrum of emotion built in.  Whether in moments of hope or loss, energy or reflection, honest healthcare photography gives the viewer a unique window in the lives of your subjects.  I’ve had the privilege of being in the room with a father meeting his child for the first time, and also had to experience the stress of a mother watching over her child in the neonatal intensive care unit.  I’ve scrubbed in on an open heart surgery, a laparoscopic tumor removal, and a joint replacement.  I’ve been a field hospital in rural Nicaragua to witness a global pharmaceutical company donating hundreds of thousands of doses of a lifesaving vaccine to children.  I’ve been in the room to hear a patient get a devastating diagnosis.  All of these experiences have given me not only an incredible respect for the medical field, but have given me some of the most uplifting and heartbreaking photographs of my career.

Welcome

With this first post I want to welcome you to my blog. Of all the words invented in our lifetime, I think the word Blog is my least favorite. I say this only to assure you that I am not starting this blog out of a strong desire to become a member of the Blogosphere (second least favorite). I intend to use this space to give regular updates on business related news. I hope you find this to be an interesting chronicle of my business as a commercial photographer in Boston. I hope to link to interesting sites as I come upon them, and I welcome any suggestions in this department. Please check back often, I’ll do my best to keep updating regularly.