Going back to Bucksteep!

This weekend is going to be fantastic, I just know it!  Not only am I going back to the place where my wife and I got married in 2010 (Bucksteep Manor), but I am going there to meet around a dozen couples that are getting married there this year!


I photographed four weddings there last summer, and the type of folks that want to have a wedding there are laid back, are really excited about having a wedding weekend, not just a wedding few hours (we got there on a Thursday and left Sunday for our wedding weekend), they have fantastic friends and gracious families!  Working with more of these types of people is exactly what I want, and Bucksteep has some great locations to photograph people at!  


In addition to all of this, I get to see the fine staff at Bucksteep, and I heard DJ Chris (the fun, eager to pelase DJ from our wedding) will be there, too.  Being around people like this, and at Bucksteep, always charges my batteries!


But wait, there's more!  I made an album (photos below) to show off to the couples there. It's the first album I've ever designed and had printed myself.  I'm really happy with the layout, and with the images, and I hope the folks I meet this weekend are too!!  


Fingers crossed that I meet some compatible couples who need a photographer.  Wish me luck!

Repeat Press-Letterpress Printing in Somerville, MA

There are so many folks whose hard work makes your wedding day the best it can be.  From the folks you see like the wait staff and the band, to a whole gaggle of folks that are behind the scenes like the caterer, the florist, the wedding coordinator, etc.  All these folks are artists, and their goal is to help make your wedding day one that won't soon be forgotten.

When I photograph a wedding, it's a treat to walk in to the space and see that the couple chose true artists to work with.  People who take a great deal of pride in what they do; people who constantly try to do better with each project they get.  I've decided to seek out some of these folks and photograph what they do and how they do it.  

One of these artists is Mike Dacey at Repeat Press (or if you prefer to connect with them through Facebook, do it here).  His shop is located right here in Union Square in Somerville in the Fringe Union.  To be a letterpress printer is to be a craftsman.  I'm not implying craftsmen are not just males, here.  Check out my "The Craft of Rolling a Cigar" post.  The craftsman here is a woman.  The word craftsman to me carries a lot of weight, and I do not use it lightly.  To be a craftsman  is to understand your craft, to appreciate it, to respect it, and to constantly work at getting better.  Mike is most assuredly that.  

Mike has been dedicated to letterpress printing since 2003, and recently employed the services of Diana to help out around the shop.  The quality of their work speaks to the love of what they do, and I wish I had known more about them when we were printing the invitations and such for our wedding.  

Not only does he produce a finely crafted product, he has a group of a half a dozen designers/design firms to refer work to so that you can come away with a well designed and wonderfully printed product (typically, a wedding invitation takes about three weeks).  

Photographing craftsmen like them is an important thing to me.  To see (and share) how something is made helps me appreciate it on a whole new level.  Thanks so much for letting me watch y'all work, Mike and Diana!!

Benson, The Reading Therapy Dog

There was a girl in my grade school class who had the hardest time reading out loud to the class, as we were compelled to do on a regular basis.  She was quiet, shy, and I'm sure this was the worst part of her day.  


I felt so sorry for her, and wished I could do something to help her be less shy or something to help her gain the confidence to be able to read out loud without such a struggle.  If only I knew Benson back then!  


I just started working on a fairly extensive project to help the Goodnow Library in Sudbury improve their website and overall public persona.  The first step in this was to photograph one of the weekly story time sessions with Benson, the reading therapy dog.  


The way it works is Benson, trained through the Pets and People Foundation, is just there for the kids to read to.  He is a really mellow dog, rescued from Tennessee by Kim, and is happy to just lay there and listen to the kids read out loud.  Kim was a librarian, and she helps the kids with the more difficult words sometimes, but mostly, it's just the kids and Benson spending some time together. 


How awesome is that?!  What a supportive and relaxing way to be more comfortable with reading out loud, and to a greater extent, becoming more comfortable with public speaking in the future, to gain self confidence, and to pet on a soft, loving dog like Benson!

TED Talks Somerville-2012

I sent an email to Brendan from Recover Green Roofs a few weeks ago just checking in to see if they or Green City Growers had any projects coming up that they'd like me to shoot.  Last summer, I shot a garden roof of theirs on top of The Ledge, a restaurant south of Boston.  


At the time they didn't, but they knew of a friend of theirs who was looking for coverage of the TEDx Somerville event.  TED Talks?!?  Are you serious?!   I was immediately excited.  I start many of my mornings during the week listening to a TED Talk or two.  Many of them are inspirational, some are food for thought, but all of them are just amazing.  So, after a couple phone calls and a few emails, I was asked to come on board.  To be the official photographer for the event was such an honor!


It was at the Armory in Somerville, and was attended by Joe Curtatone (the mayor), along with speakers covering topics ranging from the beauty of locks to lessons from the Occupy movement, to non-verbal communication.  It was just awesome, and I am so happy with the shots I got!  


If you would like to see all the images from the day (and there are a LOT) go here.  If you want to see more of my favorites that I posted on my Facebook page, go here.  

How I Protect Your Memories

Last night and this morning, I've been talking to some folks who had some unfortunate things happen to images of them and their family that a vendor had promised them.  


Just to be clear, these were not clients of mine, but it made me think about how I should let y'all know how I handle the memories I capture for you and your family.  


As soon as I get home from our photo shoot, and sometimes in the hotel room, if I am photographing your wedding weekend, I pull all my memory cards (which are all numbered to be sure I have all of them), and go about plugging them into my computer and dumping them to the hard drive.  When this is done (sometimes it takes several hours), I run my SyncToy program and backup all of those images to a separate RAID system of external hard drives (specifically a 16 TB Drobo device).  After that is done, I copy those files to another external hard drive and am currently looking into waterproof and fireproof safes to put that drive in to.  


So, before I start editing your images, they exist on my memory cards (until I need to erase them--not long), on my computer, on my Drobo (plugged in to a separate outlet in case of a surge), and on an external hard drive kept safe and not plugged in.  


I have never lost an image, but I rest easy knowing that if something does happen to my computer or my Drobo or my other external drive, your images are safe somewhere.  If all three of these things fail, then I think we're all in danger because it means the Zombie Apocalypse has finally happened (I actually have plans set in case of this eventuality, not for your images, but for survival, so in the words of the Terminator, "Come with me if you want to live.").


Kidding aside, know that I take my job and my responsibility to preserve your images VERY seriously.  Also, though I shudder to think about this, if something bad did happen, I explicitly state in my contract when your images are due, exactly what I promise, and what compensation you would get if the worse would happen.  Setting aside legal considerations, I strive to be the best businessman I can, and taking care of you and preserving your memories is the best way I know how to stay in business and keep growing as a person and as a businessman.


So, that's what I have to say about that.  Who ever you hire to work with to preserve your memories, I urge you to read all of the contracts before you sign them, and ask your vendors what would happen if things went wrong, or how they protect your photos.  


If you have any questions for me or with anyone you trust with your memories, please do not hesitate to ask.  Contact me here if you'd like any more information on my backup plan. 

Our Cloth Diaper Workshop Experience at Diaper Lab

For those of you that don’t know, my wife, Carrie, and I are expecting our first child (That's not him in the picture, that's just the creature we practiced diapering on)!   His due date (April 27^th) is fast approaching, so, most of our recent conversations have been about baby stuff.  We’ve looked at cribs, read a million reviews about different car seats, and found some ADORABLE clothes (it makes me sad that they done make some of these super comfy clothes in my size!).  Besides all the stuff, though, we’ve looked into a few different classes and workshops.    

Both of us are very conscientious about our impact on the planet, and we know how often a little one’s diaper has to get changed, so we started looking into the possibility of cloth diapers.  Though my parents used cloth diapers on me and my two brothers decades ago, I don’t know anyone who uses them now.  So, the picture I had in my head was one that involved me sticking myself with safety pins while I was trying to put on an ill-fitting cloth diaper on a wriggling baby.  Not a fun prospect, but one I was willing to put up with to not have to contribute thousands of dirty diapers to the ever growing landfills.

Knowing my reservations, and wanting to understand better than the vast number of resources on the internet can seem to explain, Carrie found a cloth diaper workshop that was really close where we have our midwife appointments.

At 9:00 a.m. last Saturday, we headed to Diaper Lab in Somerville . We were surprised at how full the class was; clearly we're not the only couple trying to navigate this tricky subject. Jennifer was the instructor on Saturday and was incredibly helpful and informative -- and full of all kinds of poop-puns that brought laughs out of her half-awake attendees! My favorite of which came when she referred to their wide selection of diapers and accessories as their “poop platter”!  HA! But eeewww!

She started with the variety of reasons to use cloth diapers  (cost savings, reducing environmental impact, and the overall health of our son), then showed us the array of different options of diapers and diaper covers (pre-folds with covers, fitteds with covers, pockets, all-in-ones, and all-in-twos)  -- some of which are so adorable, it’s just ridiculous (again, why don’t these come in adult sizes?!?!). Then came the magic moment -- technology has come a long way since my parents were using cloth, and now there are these Y shaped fasteners (snappies) instead of those scary safety pins! They work like ace bandage clips and are much less complicated and MUCH less sharp. 

There are also a lot of different fabrics to choose from, like hemp and bamboo, which is so soft!  I immediately put bamboo reusable wipes on our registry, saying that it would make our son’s tushy extra happy (psst!  They are really for me!  I’m going to make those full PJs with feet outta them—complete with a little turtle patch over my heart so you’ll know their mine!). 

We learned a lot there, and not only about the diapers, but how to best wash them (not as difficult as I thought), that they have a program where you try a few different brands/styles for a short while so you know you got the right kind, etc.  I’m really happy we went, and knowing that there are folks there who are incredibly helpful and supportive (and someone I can trade poop jokes with--I’m looking at you, Jennifer!), makes me confident that I can stare, unafraid, into the chasm that will be our dirty diaper pail knowing that I have the skill to provide clean and super soft diapers to our little boy!  

My Job is to be Your Storyteller

Recently, I went to a photography seminar in Mystic, CT that gave me not only the push I needed to be a better photographer and better business owner, but provided me with the direction I needed by having some AMAZING photographers show off the gorgeous images they create, and how they made them.  But, one of the phrases that stuck with me was said by Tony Corbell, which was "Find your voice, but use good grammar."  


I have found myself at the beginning of a new chapter in my photographic and business life, and I am invigorated by the potential that lies before me.  


This is not to say that I am unhappy with the previous chapters.  As in most books, there have to be those beginning chapters that lay the foundation of what is to come.  They have to establish the tone of the author, and they have to be interesting to keep the reader interested.  Each image that you have seen of mine is a different word to me, showing off my skill, my awareness of how to photograph in different (sometimes difficult) situations, and collectively, it shows off my vocabulary.  


Mr. Corbell's words have stayed with me and spurred me on.  My goal whenever I photograph you is to tell your story.  You have seen that I have the vocabulary to do it, but, to become a better author, I need to work on stringing  those words/photos together to create a story that reflects who you are as a family, as a couple.  I am the narrator of your story, and I need to use good grammar.  


I took these photos just last week of my sister-in-law who has been gracious enough to let me hone my skills and try new things with her on several occasions.  I have tried to lay these out in a way that it tells a story, each photo acting as a sentence or even a paragraph.  I am curious to see what story you infer from them.  So, look at the images, make up your own story, then compare it with the one I hoped to create, which I posted after the images. 

 Click on any image to see a larger version of all of them.

This was a fictional story of how this girl met you.  Normally, I would have the story be played out in front of the camera, and the viewer (you) would be an observer.  But, her husband was not able to join us.  I feel like he was definitely there, though, as I kept asking her to think about when they first met, what she noticed about him, and so on.  Anyway, I came up with a story of how you noticed this person in Davis Square (my neighborhood) and were taken with her beauty.  You found it necessary to sit down for a moment because you were so taken with her.  Then, you see that she notices you.  This leads to an invitation to join her on the bench and you start chatting.  Then, she has to go, but invites you to join her to walk her to her destination.  Yep, it's a short story, but I am happy with it for now.