Dana Lane Photography

On location with Kate

2011-07-21T08:15:00.000-04:00

I photographed Kate in the area just behind LensProToGo Studios in Concord, MA. They have a great studio (and lens/camera rental business) and a lovely little park area right behind. These were photographed in open shade on a very sunny day with nothing but shade from the trees to balance the light out.

Here's a few samples:

Again, the fantastic team who put this together:
Styling/Coordination: Terry Wheaton
Clothing Designer: Janfrevic Lujares
Jewelry Designer: Magdalena Stokalska
Hair and Makeup: Janeen Jones
Model: Kate Jurdi

* NEW BLOG ADDRESS *

2011-07-18T16:30:00.001-04:00

This is the last update for this blog. This has been moved to the following location;

http://blog.danalanephoto.com

Come on over and follow the blog there! Thank you for following!

More fashion, with Claudia

2011-07-14T08:04:00.003-04:00

Last week, I posted about shooting some fashion with a great team of people with the lovely Mary. That same day, the same creative team also put together another super creation with Boston area model Claudia. We did some beauty shots in the studio as well as some studio and outdoor fashion.

Here are a few samples;
Studio:

And outdoor/location;

Of course, getting images like these is a full team effort and here's the team:
Styling/Coordination: Terry Wheaton
Clothing Designer: Janfrevic Lujares
Jewelry Designer: Magdalena Stokalska
Hair and Makeup: Janeen Jones
Model: Claudia Snow

Fashion Photography with Mara

2011-07-07T19:54:00.004-04:00

I had the chance to shoot some fashion with some VERY talented people recently. The amazing Terry Wheaton chose the clothing designer (the very talented Janfrevic Lujares), the jewelry designer (also very talented Magdalena Stokalska), the amazing Janeen Jones to do hair and makeup, the model Mary, and did the fantastic job styling the whole thing as well.

Here's Mary getting ready;

Once Mary was all dressed and made up, we ventured outside. Here's a sampling of the images we shot;

All in all it was a fantastic shoot with some really great images, thanks to an incredibly talented team who put in a ton of work to make it this way.

The Warrior Dash

2011-06-29T11:39:00.010-04:00

A couple friends of mine decided to run The Warrior Dash this year. This is a 3+ mile race through the woods, mud, over obstacles, all in the name of fun. To me, it looked more like an excuse to play in the mud. ;) Of course, I brought along my trusty camera and took a few photos along the way. It looked so much like fun, I've decided, I'm doing it next year too!

Of course, for some it's just an excuse to dress up silly;

The massive start (Only 1 wave, they send groups like this off every half hour);

Near the finish, they have to climb this very large wall...

Then comes the mud!

And then the finish...

At least they offer a high powered shower at the end;

Though some didn't use it;

and it ends with a great party;

and a pile of donated footwear that they clean up and send off to some needy folks!

Shooting Amanda (and Kelsey)

2011-05-22T12:45:00.003-04:00

Amanda is a hair stylist/makeup artist who came along to a shoot I did with Kelsey. We did some shots with both Kelsey and Amanda, as well as a couple images of Amanda solo.

Good vs Evil...

A couple days with Kelsey

2011-05-15T12:35:00.005-04:00

I met Kesley at a group event with the Boston West Photographic Society, of which I'm on the board of directors. After a few shots with the group, I arranged to shoot Kelsey in my studio.

We did a few different looks, here's a sampling of the images we shot for her portfolio.

She brought along her friend to do hair and makeup, so we had to include her in the shoot too.

San Antonio - Riverwalk

2011-02-10T20:06:00.005-05:00

I recently attended ImagingUSA (Professional Photographers of America's annual conference) in San Antonio, Texas. Of course, it was rainy and kind of miserable weather while there (but still way better than here!) but that didn't stop me from going out and doing a little shooting along the famous Riverwalk.

The hotel itself, The Grand Hyatt, had a bunch of photo ops itself;

Here's a few from the Riverwalk itself, all a short walk from the Hotel and Convention Center;

Anatomy of a Christmas Card

2011-01-01T18:26:00.006-05:00

I got quite a few people asking me how I managed to get all 3 of our pets, not to mention us two humans, to look towards the camera, and strike a nice pose, at the same time. Well, I have to be honest and say I didn't. I actually shot our Christmas card in 3 separate pieces this year, so I figured I'd write a quick post explaining it.

I knew there was no way I'd get both of our dogs to sit nice and look straight ahead, let alone getting Figaro (our cat) to pose at the same time. So, right from the get go, I planned this as a 3 part shot. Planning this as a composite right from the start makes the compositing very easy actually. I set the camera up on a tripod, it pretty much has to be on a tripod or at least stationary, and took a bunch of test exposures to get the lighting and framing I wanted. Once that was done, I had Robyn place Figaro up on the mantle and step back. Of course, it took a handful of tries before I got Fig even remotely looking at the camera;
Of course Kuma, our Golden Retriever wanted in on the shot as well, but as long as Figaro was good, I was all set.

Next, I posed Robyn with Zeus, our German Shepherd. This was easier. :) I snapped a few images while calling Zeus. I made sure that no part of Robyn or Zeus passed by about the mid point of the fireplace. I knew that as long as no parts of the images that I wanted to keep overlapped, the composite would work easily. It only took a couple tries to get a keeper this time;

Finally, I left everything set up and and sat down with Kuma and had Robyn press the shutter while calling Kuma's name. Again, it only took a couple tries to get an image we were happy with;

Now that I had all 3 parts. By making sure the camera never moved, the stationary parts of the picture are all in EXACTLY the same place in all 3 pictures. So, I dropped the picture of Robyn and Zeus on top of the picture of Figaro. I then masked off the part of the picture where Figaro was so he would "show through" the masked off (cut out) area in the picture of Robyn. Lastly, I placed the picture of me and Kuma on top of that, then masked off the areas where I wasn't, letting Robyn, Kuma and Figaro show through. Then a quick crop for size and shape and here's the final product;

Sounds and looks complicated, but if you plan properly ahead of time, fairly easy to actually do.

Shooting Adrianna

2010-12-07T13:40:00.003-05:00

I had the pleasure of working with the lovely Adrianna, who's an up and coming young model in the Boston area. We started outdoors, but the extra cold weather ended up pushing us back into the studio, which worked out great anyway. Here's a sample of the images we captured, both on location at a strip mall in Westboro as well as in the studio.

Dogs can be portraits too!

2010-11-19T07:54:00.000-05:00

Dogs can be very fun to photograph. We took Zeus (German Shepherd) and Kuma (Golden Retriever) into the woods for a nice long walk and photo session. Along this section of woods, behind apple orchard, there is this old road that is no longer used and it makes for a great wide open place to walk and watch the dogs.

The nice late afternoon sun made for some excellent light and some lovely images!

Peri, trashing a non wedding dress.

2010-11-15T07:00:00.004-05:00

Peri works with Erin, who I blogged about last week, as a hair stylist and also spent the day with us trashing some dresses.

Here's a few images of her at the beach!

Trash the Dress session with Erin

2010-11-10T13:18:00.005-05:00

Trash the Dress (or TTD) sessions seem to automatically imply a wedding dress, but they don't have to be bridal.

Erin is a fabulous (and I do mean fabulous) hair stylist/make up artist that I've used many times for other shoots, and in fact she did hair and makeup for multiple models earlier in the day. It was about time we get her in front on the camera as well. Erin wore this lovely silk dress for a session at Oakland Beach in Warwick RI and she worked the rocks, beach and ocean for what I think are some really great images!

Things We Project - Wrap-Up

2010-09-20T11:14:00.003-04:00

Well, the show is over and I'd have to say it was a resounding success! The gallery was packed, the presentation was gorgeous and I met so many new and interesting people. I hope anyone that came had a chance to interact with all 6 of us and enjoyed the presented work! I think this turned out way better than expected and even better than I had hoped! Hope everyone that came had a good time!

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank my fellow photographers Nicole Chan, Scott Erb, Jeff Haynes, Steve Stearns and Cindy Woehrle for putting together presentations that were both beautiful and inspiring. There's no way this goes off and nicely as it did without them!

Next, I'd like to thank the folks at Niche Hospitality for the delicious fruit/cheese platter and the folks at Sweet for the lovely cupcake platter/tree. Great food for a great show!

Next, The Sleepless Knights provided a great soundtrack to our show with the gorgeous jazz sounds.

Next, the folks at ProSystems.tv did an absolutely amazing job with the technical portion of the presentation. The 52 inch displays for our individual shows looked fantastic and the 12 foot wide projection screen was simply gorgeous! They also did a great job with the lighting design for the room!

Lastly, thanks to everyone who came out to see the event. I hope you left after having had a good time, seen some good art and a fun presentation!

Things We Project - In the News

2010-09-16T09:18:00.003-04:00

The Worcester Telegram interviewed and filmed us talking about our upcoming show. This will officially be in the paper (online and in print) on Friday, but here's a sneak peek!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid18865679001?bclid=1578009233&bctid=609859374001

Things We Project

2010-08-24T09:56:00.004-04:00

Keep Saturday, September 18th open. I'm having my first showing at The Sprinkler Factory, 38 Harlow St, Worcester MA from 7:30 to 10pm. Myself and 5 other photographers will be hosting a fully digital showing called "Things We Project".

For full details, visit http://thingsweproject.wordpress.com and visit our facebook event page.

Check this out for a teaser video.

City session with Deborah

2010-08-16T19:22:00.005-04:00

This session was actually shot a while ago, but I'm just now getting to the blog. Spent the past 2 months recovering from elbow surgery and I'm finally starting to be able to use it a bit again.

This session with Deborah was shot in and around downtown Manchester, NH.

Around town with Sera

2010-06-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

Spent another day wandering around various areas of Manchester, NH taking pictures of the lovely Sera. We shot in parking lots, on the roof of parking garages, in the sun, in the shade and in alleyways. Sera was a joy to shoot, giving so many different looks!

Urban Fashion with Mara

2010-06-12T13:37:00.006-04:00

Spent a good part of both an afternoon and evening in various areas of Manchester, NH with the lovely Mara. The idea of this session was to use the city as a backdrop to some urban fashion. It was a fun day and we got some really good images!

Three Sisters

2010-05-03T20:34:00.005-04:00

These three lovely sisters came to the studio to get some images done for a present for their mom, for Mother's Day. So, we did a bunch of individual images as well as a few different group shots. From these, we were able to put together a set of images to be framed and given as a gift.

A great gift from these three beautiful girls.

Jess and Mike are getting married!

2010-04-01T21:46:00.005-04:00

I've known Jessica for quite a while, she's one of my daughters very best friends. She used to practically live at our house sometimes, so when she said she was getting married, I just HAD to do her engagement session. Her fiance Mike is a great guy and they're both fun loving so the session was a blast! Congrats Jess and Mike, nothing but love and happiness to you!

Maternity with Jenn and family

2010-03-08T17:39:00.004-05:00

I've had the pleasure of shooting Jenn on more than one occasion, she's always been one of my favorite models. So, when she got pregnant, of course I wanted to do her maternity photos! We did a bunch of artistic images as well as a bunch of family images with her, her son and her husband! Jenn, you were a radiant and lovely mom to be. :)

Here are the results;

And just because Benicio is so cute...

Studio Renovations

2010-02-20T15:32:00.006-05:00

This past week I did some renovations to the studio, its finally in a state that I'm happy with. I took down a small section of wall to open up the shooting area, then I removed a bookcase I was using for storage and put up a whole bunch of new shelves. I've also added rails to clamp stuff too along the back of all the shooting areas, as well as hung some prints of my work.

Here are a few before and after pictures.

Primary shooting area;
Before

After

Secondary/Natural light shooting area
Before

After

Storage areas
Before

After

Prep area
Before

After

Referral Program

2010-02-11T21:03:00.002-05:00

I have a referral program, but I'm not sure anyone knows the details of it. Its detailed on my web site, under the promotions tab, but I figure I'd list out the full details here as well.

For every referral that books a session with me, you, the referrer, will get 10% of the booking fee as a credit to be used either for product or as credit against your next session. This referral credit may be added up to a total of 50% on any single session or print order. Any referrals after that can be applied to the next session or order.

For example, a referral that books a $250 session with me would earn you $25 towards your next session or purchase. A wedding that books for $2000 would earn you $200 and so forth.

Model Portfolio - Christa

2010-02-01T19:23:00.004-05:00

I've had the pleasure of photographing Christa on multiple occasions. Any session with her is always not only fun, but she always delivers great images and she's very easy to work with. We've done a combination of studio, location and conceptual work and here a few images we've collaborated on.

An actor's headshot

2010-01-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

Tori is an aspiring actress who's considering hitting the various agencies in the area. She felt she needed a good headshot to bring with her (rightfully so) and so she came to me looking to get a headshot done. I figure, while we're doing the headshot, we may as well have a little fun and do a little more.

Here's a few images from the shoot.

Images Without Borders - Haiti Relief

2010-01-27T19:22:00.004-05:00

With the recent tragic events in Haiti, there are now literally hundreds of thousands of people without homes or adequate medical care. Doctors Without Borders is one of the organizations that is helping in any way they can. A couple photographers photographers, Laura Bergerol of New Orleans, and Stacy Ericson of Arkansas started Images Without Borders in order to help raise money for Doctors Without Borders. They've gotten hundreds of their twitter followers to donate images for sale, with 100% of the profits going directly to Doctors Without Borders, specifically for the Haiti relief effort. Photoshelter has been kind enough to donate the hosting site and the sales handling, giving us a site to publish.

So, if you're looking for some wall art and would like to help with those in need in Haiti, stop by Images Without Borders and, hopefully, buy your art there knowing that you're not only getting some lovely imagry, but you're helping those in need as well. And if you're interested, you can following Images Without Borders on Twitter as well.

Thank you!

Paige

2010-01-14T21:17:00.003-05:00

I've had the pleasure of photographing Paige on a few separate occasions. She's always lovely, and we always get some fantastic images when working together. Here's a few images we've gathered for her portfolio over the past few shoots.

The lovely Meg

2010-01-07T19:33:00.005-05:00

I've photographed Meaghan a few times and she's always not only photogenic, but is absolutely comfortable in front of the camera. Here a a few images from our last couple sessions together.

Family Portraiture

2010-01-04T10:24:00.000-05:00

Paul came to me looking for some prints to give to his parents as a Christmas present. We shot these images the night before Thanksgiving in the studio as they were looking for a more traditional family portrait set. They chose to have some prints done on the metallic paper and they really came out crisp and nice and Paul has his prints in hand in plenty of time to give them as gifts!

Thanks Paul (and the rest) for trusting me to handle your portraits!

Happy New Year

2009-12-31T11:13:00.002-05:00

Well, 2009 was a good year and I built myself a nice collection of images this year. The end of the year is a great time to reflect on what I've done for the year and set targets and goals for 2010. Here's a link to a slideshow of some of my favorite images from 2009

From the slideshow, I've pulled 3 or 4 of my absolute favorite images of the year! Thanks to all those folks who've helped make my year both enriching and successful!!

Happy 2010 to everyone and I hope the new year brings you great things!

Favorite portraits;

And my favorite non portraits;

Trash The Dress

2009-12-28T21:59:00.007-05:00

The Worcester Photography Center descended on Oakland Beach in Rhode Island one summer day for a large Trash The Dress event. The event included a combination of models wearing gowns both donated and purchased for the event, as well as real brides willing to get down and dirty in their own gowns that they had worn to be married in. The idea behind the event is to get the sort of bridal imagery that most brides will never get due to them being unwilling to get their dress dirty. Well, these ladies not only got dirty, they got wet as well! Here are a few images from the event.

Amanda and Ben are married

2009-12-20T15:30:00.000-05:00

Mandy and Ben got married in Dennis in a lovely ceremony at the Dennis Yacht club on a very lovely day! Of course, they wanted pictures on the beach at 2pm, but Cait and I were able to handle it no problem! Here's a few images from the wedding.

The lovely Emily

2009-12-17T16:31:00.003-05:00

Here are a few images from a couple different sessions with the lovely Emily T. These images were shot both outdoors, on location, as well as in the studio. The studio shots were taken at Lens Pro To Go studios in Concord, MA.

Leah S

2009-12-13T10:37:00.001-05:00

Had a session with Leah that was also in the same shopping plaza and the session with Irma. Shot mostly natural light, using the buildings as reflectors, though mixed in a little fill flash when it was required. Here are a couple of my favorite images from the day.

A session with Irma

2009-12-11T14:05:00.002-05:00

Did a lifestyle session with the lovely Irma this fall in an urban setting. We actually shot around a strip mall, using the buildings and shade to our advantage. Here are a few of my favorite images;

Boudoir Shoot with Kristy

2009-12-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

Did a boudoir session with Kristy in the studio, here are some of the results!

Film Noir

2009-12-01T17:00:00.000-05:00

A couple friends of mine and I had the idea to do a photoshoot inspired by the film noir genre. I had the idea to tell a 3 panel story "Death of a Cheat" with the following 3 images, along with the final triptych. This was all shot with 1 or 2 hard lights with tight spots throwing light only where I wanted it.

After telling the story, it was time to just play around a little and get some additional photos.

Erica in black and white

Erica again, in color

JoJo in black and white

JoJo again in color

The M family!

2009-11-24T15:19:00.004-05:00

Introducing the M family! They wanted portraits done outside their home, as well as some pictures of the kids!

Melissa and David got married!

2009-11-24T15:18:00.007-05:00

Melissa and David got married on a rainy day at the Coachman's Lodge in Bellingham, MA. They didn't let a little rain or drizzle affect them at all and still had a great time. Thanks Melissa and David for trusting me to photograph your big day!

Renee Marcou at Gillette Stadium

2009-11-23T10:05:00.000-05:00

Local pop singer Renee Marcou was asked to sing the national anthem at the Patriots/Falcons game earlier this year. Having photographed her a couple times before, she asked me to come along and capture the moment for her on the field. Singing in front of 60,000 fans has got to be nerve wracking, but she rocked the stadium! Here are a few images from the event.

Charlotte and David got married!

2009-11-20T08:50:00.000-05:00

Charlotte's been a friend of my wife's for a few years now and when she and David got married, they trusted me to capture their wedding. The wedding and reception were both at the Red Apple Farm in Philipston, MA. They had planned on an outdoor wedding but the weather didn't cooperate and the day was drizzly and overcast, but that didn't stop them from having a good time!

The dress;

Charlotte getting ready;

The flowers;

The girls getting ready;

The reception hall had this old upright piano that was just beautiful, great place to set up the rings;

The makeshift altar;

The rain let up enough to get a couple quick shots outdoors;

Then back under cover, out of the mist;

The girls;

The boys;

The couple;

They're huge fans of The Simpsons, so of course you have to have an appropriate cake topper;

Christa looks great even in a paper bag!

2009-11-09T14:14:00.005-05:00

One day, out with my wife, I came across a mannequin wrapped in brown paper and thought to myself that it was be cool to do that with a model. The idea was to do a fashion shoot without any actual fashion.

So, first I had to cast it and Christa Marie came to mind first. I'd worked with her before and thought this would fit her look nicely. I pitched her the idea and she was happy to not only get wrapped, but to work it like a real dress. Then, I found Kristin, of Go Bare in Worcester, to do makeup and help me style Christa.

Lastly, the folks at LensProToGo studios in Concord provided me with the location to do the shoot. They have a 5000 sq ft studio space with profoto lighting gear that I was able to use for the shoot.

Kristin did an amazing job on the makeup and styling;

And Christa worked it and tore it up, literally!

Lastly, the setup that Paul at LensProToGo provided;

Upscale Living Magazine charity fashion event

2009-06-23T19:39:00.004-04:00

Recently, I had the privilege of photographing a charity fashion event for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, hosted by Upscale Living Magazine. The event started with a cocktails on the rooftop terrace of the Hyatt Regency Boston, then continued inside with featured performer Renee Marcou belting out a couple numbers.

Following Renee's performance, there was a runway show featuring several of Boston's local designers. The fashion was fantastic, the performances amazing and a fun time was had by all, not to mention that the cause was great. Here are some images from the runway show.

Model portfolio - Sunshine

2009-05-10T20:18:00.009-04:00

One of my favorite models I've ever had the pleasure of working with is Sunshine. Over the past couple years, I've worked with her quite a few times and she's proven to be very versatile and an absolute treat to work with.

Promotional session with Renee Marcou

2009-04-09T13:46:00.015-04:00

Had a great session recently with up and coming young singer Renee Marcou. This young woman has a voice that is soulful beyond her years and is going to be a star someday, I'm convinced. She needed some new images for her press kit, web site and promotional materials and my friend and favorite make up artist/stylist in the world Janeen Jones referred her to me. We spent a solid half a day both in the studio and on location shooting through a half a dozen wardrobe and styling changes.

Thanks to Janeen (again) for another fantastic job, its always a huge pleasure working with you. Thanks to Renee for being a pleasure to photograph, being damned photogenic and knowing your body and how it moves! And a special thanks to my friend Steve I for his fantastic job assisting me!

All images copyright Dana Lane Photography, all rights reserved.

Amanda G

2009-03-19T14:36:00.003-04:00

From a session with aspiring model Amanda G. We got together at The Grist Mill, near the Wayside Inn in Sudbury Massachusetts on a saturday afternoon. We shot in a few different locations with a couple outfit changes and here are the results.

Portfolio shoot for Janeen Jones and Caitlin

2009-02-28T21:47:00.010-05:00

When the incredibly talented Janeen Jones, one of my absolute favorite make up artists, asked me to shoot a concept she was planning I jumped at the chance. She always seems to hit it out of the park when it comes to design and implementation. She specifically designed the look for one of our favorite models, Caitlin Patricia, so we all were looking for portfolio images.

We started out with hair and light makeup. I set up some christmas lights on a background stand, hanging in front of black muslin.

From there, Janeen glues a bunch of gems to Caitlin and we moved to a white muslin background.

My friends studio that I was using has this gorgeous old staircase in the back. I grabbed my Vagabond and a 3 foot softbox and we moved out into the hallway for the next few.

After a hair and wardrobe change, we took over the staircase again.

Lastly, back into the studio in front of black seamless for some wild styling and moods that fit the styling.

A fun shoot with some of my favorite people. And a special thanks to my friend Steve for the big assist with the shoot!!

The Brown Wedding

2009-02-19T14:54:00.004-05:00

Finally getting around to blogging about this wedding. Paula and Tim had a small ceremony in a gazebo outside of the local Eagles club, then held the reception there as well.

Vacation Pictures

2009-02-05T21:37:00.006-05:00

Recently took a short vacation to Florida to visit some family. While there, of course I took some family photos, but did it strobist style mid day. Your family portraits don't have to be snapshots! Of course, they put up with me carrying my camera around everywhere we go. ;)

My very understanding wife Robyn and stepdaughter Amber.

Amber headshot for a new facebook profile pic.

Amber again

Amber again.

365 Project

2009-01-19T19:30:00.002-05:00

A couple days ago, I decided to start a photo-a-day project (commonly referred to as a 365 project). I've added a link to it in my sidebar and you can find it at http://danalanephoto365.blogspot.com/

The Studio is complete (almost)

2009-01-19T19:24:00.004-05:00

Its been months since I actually started this project, but when you work a day job and try and stay up with your photography, some things take longer than expected. My new studio is a 370sq foot room that sits above my garage. It used to be a combination storage/sewing/photography/junk room but I finally was able to turn it into a workable studio.

After getting everything actually out of the room (probably the hardest part of the job), I was able to rip up the old carpet and pad. Then I had to pull off all the baseboard and give the sub floor a thorough cleaning. Then, I put down a laminate oak wood floor, which really brightened the room up. A little paint and put the base board back up and I'm now in business!

Ice isn't Nice!

2008-12-19T21:06:00.008-05:00

This past week, the worst ice storm I've ever seen hit our area. My neighborhood literally looked like a tornado whipped through.

This is my street 2 days after the ice storm, 1 day before the national guard came to help finish clearing the road so National Grid could come survey the damage. Quite a few trees fell on my property as well...

Crushing my fence;

And downing my power, phone and cable lines, as well as pulling some conduit off the side of my house;

However, I consider us to be pretty darned lucky. I know folks who are still without power, 8 days later and National Grid is telling them MAYBE before Christmas. Other houses in my area got whacked by trees large enough to make holes, some folks had cars crushed so my little annoyances are small by comparison.

Of course, being a photographer, I just had to go outside immediately following the storm and take a few images as well. While the storm brought large scale destruction, it also brought quite a bit of beauty that I tried to capture.

I'm almost back to normal and I expect it won't be long before things are running smooth again!

Some downed baby trees;

My christmas lights;

Some vines and a leaf that hadn't dropped yet;

PC Troubles

2008-11-25T15:39:00.003-05:00

All I can say is thank goodness I was a believer in backing up everything a long time ago. Last night, my primary photoshop PC decided I could no longer log in, giving me an error "Unable able to log user in, domain ______ is unavailable" Of course, this is a standalone PC that doesn't log into a domain, but that doesn't appear to matter. After several attempts to boot into safe mode, I'm still unable to log in and access my data.

So, after hours of scouring the internet, it looks like I have 1 option, reload the O/S. The general consensus is that some sort of virus has corrupted my network configuration and the O/S now thinks I'm supposed to be on a domain, even though the PC isn't configured for one.

I have everything backed up, twice. My primary data source is on a fully mirrored RAID 1 (2 500GB SATA drives). And I have an external USB drive that I periodically backup all drive on my mirror to. So I have my data, I know its there, but now I'm going to have to spend a night reloading and reconfiguring my PC so I can access that data again. What a pain.

However, at least I can rest easy knowing I haven't lost any data, just time.

Remember, AWLAYS keep backups of your data, you never know when hardware will go wrong!

Creative Lighting Workshop

2008-10-29T11:44:00.014-04:00

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending a 2.5 day workshop hosted by Stephen Faust, of Stephen Faust Photography. Stephen is a Boston based commercial photographer with studio space in Watertown Massachusetts, but the workshop was held in a 2000 square foot warehouse space in Littleton that is home to several artists, as well as other commercial business. The workshop ran Friday night, from 4pm to 9pm, Saturday from 9am to almost 9pm and then Sunday from 9am to about 6pm.

Friday night started with a little meet and greet. There I met Stephen, his amazing assistant Terry as well as the rest of the workshop attendees. The attendees were a nice mix of experienced photographers and near beginners, but all with great attitudes about learning and a genuine passion for photography. I so enjoy a good conversation with anyone who's passionate about photography. Once we were all settled, we went through a review of lighting tools, techniques and terminology. While this was a review for me, it was a good way to guage the other attendees knowledge. We finished by reverse engineering several of Stephen's images and reviewing his lighting. We packed up for the night and agreed to meet in the studio at 9:30am for a days worth of hands on.

Saturday morning, once everone arrived, we packed up and headed out to a beautiful location about 10 minutes away. The location turned out to be a large open field with some beautiful tall grasses, some fantastic fall foliage colors and a couple barns/sheds. I quickly identified at least a half a dozen promising "set" locations for shooting. Stephen had male and female models, make up artists and hair stylists on hand as well as enough equipment to set up 3 or 4 seperate concurrent shooting locations powered with with portable generators or with a battery pack.

My first exercise was to balance/overpower the sun. Since it was overcast, we stuck a flash with a CTO gel and aimed it at our location and called that the sun and did all of our lighting around it. We ended up adding in a small softbox and cross lighting our subject. The setup was quite popular with the class and stayed set up pretty much the rest of the morning.

Next, I spied some tall grass with overcast sky in the background and thought that would make a nice challenge. We brought in a small octobox and later a beauty dish on a boom, really close to the model. This allowed us to stop down and turn what would have been a blown out sky into something with some interest and texture.

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing the same sort of thing, in different locations. We'd look at how our model was being styled (makeup, hair, wardrobe) and device lighting setups to best take advantage of this.

After hours of this, and a quick catered lunch (included with the workshop), it started to rain so we packed up the gear and went back to the studio. For the evening session, we had new models, new stylists and an empty studio to work with. Again after seeing the styling, we built a handful of "sets" and devised lighting. As a side note, both outdoors and in the studio, the make up artists and stylists did an AMAZING job! Pretty close to 9pm, we wrapped up shooting and retired for the evening.

On Sunday, again, we met at 9am but this day was a little different. This time, Stephen had a couple sets already configured, and we have some very highly stylized models to work with. Our first problem was a half black, half white background and models dressed in either all white or all black, forcing us to figure out how to light white on white and black on black and keep both detail and seperation.

Next up was a human marionette behind a curtain with ropes. Lighting that without shadows and the like turned out to be a very fun exercise.

We moved on to hot lights afterward, diffused with scrims and reflectors to bounce light around. We used gobos to force shadows and lighting into specific patterns.

We used window light, with and without reflectors to allow us to shoot wide open and get very shallow DOF portraits.

At the end of the weekend, I have to admit I was beat. 2 full days of shooting, moving lights around, designing schemes and generally flexing our creative muscles but it resulted in some fantastic images, some new knowledge, renewed confidence in my creative thinking and, certainly not least, some amazing contacts with some incredible makeup artists, models and stylists. All this for the price of less than even a cheap lens.