When you come to my studio to have a pre-shoot conference, we can relax and have coffee, or a beverage of your choice, or maybe even lunch at the cafe at The Space. I recently finished up the shots of the interior of the rehearsal space and recording studio at the Western Avenue Studios complex, called The Space. The second part of this shoot was necessary because the recording studio had not been finished until recently. It is complete now, and is a really amazing place, right at Western Avenue Studios, in Lowell.

And last Friday evening, just after I finished shooting, The Space held one of its Open Mic nights. Here's the venue, just before people started to arrive:

But when you come to my studio for a conference or for a shoot, the cafe provides a great place to talk and relax. It's in the same complex of buildings as my studio, so access is just down the hall.

Melissa said that she was nervous. I couldn't tell. But we talked about all kinds of things as I arranged lights and modifiers. Melissa works in health care, and her friend Matthew, who came with her to the shoot, works on a sustainable farming project, so we had lots to talk about. She even asked about me, which was really nice, so for a while we talked about music and photography. I was hoping that her nervousness had dissipated by this point, and I was happy to hear her say a little while into it that she was enjoying the shoot.

I think sometimes that a subject's nervousness is actually excitement. Excitement about the event, the process and the whole idea of being literally and figuratively, the focus of attention for that short time.

There are times when you get a chance to photograph someone who is really excited to be photographed. I think this was the case that evening because in these shots of Melissa her personality and beauty just jump out at you. When I do studio shoots like this I rarely photograph two people the same way. After we interact for a while, I start to develop a direction in my mind of the way in which I want the shoot to go and how to capture that person in images. With Melissa, I knew somehow that I just wanted a simple, almost monochrome theme, and that I was working with someone with whom I could use relatively hard light, and would absolutely glow, contrasting with the starkness of the scene in a really significant way.

As you might have guessed, I am working on a project to capture images of people that I meet around the Lowell and Merrimack Valley area of New England. I asked Andrew Wetmore if he would sit for me several months ago, but time has a tendency to slip away if you aren't attentive. We finally got to it during the recent holiday break at my studio. Andrew is a playwright, journalist, high-tech nerd (and I mean that in the best possible way - I was one myself ;-), and Canadian, in no particular order. As you will see, he has a very interesting and character filled face!

This year I decided to browse the studios, along with other Holiday Open Studio guests. It was fun to be able to talk with lots of the artists that I don't see that often, or that I usually only have time to say hi to in the hall. As always though, the camera was with me and I wanted to share some of the portraits and other scenes at Open Studios while it is still going on. Details of hours and how to find Western Avenue Studios are here, on the Western Avenue website.

Western Avenue Studios - Holiday Open Studios 2009

Last Saturday, November 28th was the Annual City of Lights Parade and Holiday Art Stroll in Lowell, Massachusetts. I had the privilege of shooting for COOL, The Cultural Organization of Lowell, which gives me access to all venues and the ability to cut in line! :-) And they encourage me to photograph anything that interests me. So here is a small part of the documentation of my adventures on Saturday.

I started by visiting local businesses who were participating in the 2nd Annual Hot Chocolate Competition. I went to too many to list here, but here are a few that were chosen ... because I got better pictures ;-)  Unfortunately, the time that I had allotted to me to do this walk-around was short, and I wasn't even able to get to all of the places that I had on my list.

Dharma Buns Sandwich Co.

Coffee Mill Emporium

Welles Emporium

And here is the first place entry being created for me at the Second Wind Cafe.

Second Wind Cafe
Then it was off to the main event, the parade reviewing stand, where there were dancers, floats, bands...and the kids supplies all manner of cute.

And my friends from Western Avenue Studios were there!

Among the many who made this a success were the event's MC, Trica Boshco, and COOL's Director, LZ Nunn.

Trica Boshco and LZ Nunn

Last week I worked with independent film maker, Bridget Driscoll, of Mill City Studios, photographing her at the famous West End Gym, in Lowell, Massachusetts. We were after environmental portraits of her shot in this unique location where she has been documenting the gym, the owners, staff and athletes, and how they all contribute to the community.

Mill City Studios produces all kinds of videos for the academic, business and public service markets. The idea with these shots was to put Bridget in the ring, a central theme of the studio's made-for-TV documentary, "Fighters: Road to the Golden Gloves".  I also had the pleasure of meeting the gym's owner, Art Ramalho, and seeing the location first hand. I can attest that this is not a movie set, but the real thing. I really wanted to capture the real look of the gym, so nothing in the scenes was moved and I lit Bridget without gels and allowed plenty of ambient light into the shots so that I could get the color of the fluorescent lights around her.

Bridget Driscoll at The West End Gym in Lowell, MassachusettsAn environmental portrait of Bridget Driscoll at the West End Gym

Around here, this "summer", you have to be ready to take advantage of the breaks in the weather when they happen. I had an actor's headshot session scheduled for last Monday, which, as it turned out, was the only good day this week. Not funny, really. It's July 9th as I type this and I think we hit 68F for a high today, and when I looked at the thermometer at 8:30 this morning, it was 60! At least it wasn't raining today, even though we haven't seen the sun to speak of since Monday.

Anyway... Monday... Justin Carrasco, an actor who has recently returned to the Greater Boston area from Florida was interested in having new headshots done outside. There are several locations in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts that I like to shoot in because of the colors, textures and the shade.

I'm sure if you are familiar with downtown Lowell, you will recognise at least some of these locations.

But we also did some nice work in the afternoon sun, balancing things nicely with small strobes. Justin didn't choose this next one, but I really like the look of the scene,  and his expression.

I stopped by another great festival in Lowell last Saturday. The Lowell Latin American Festival (http://www.lowelllatinamericanfestival.com) was at the North Common Park. I cannot believe that it was pretty much the only good weather that we've had, all last week, and it looks like this week as well. But it was an intensely sunny day. I unfortunately was unable to stay past the middle of the afternoon, so missed the music that was planned, but I did meet many really interesting people.

I plan to be at the Lowell Folk Festival, held downtown in Lowell every summer, in my ongoing personal project to portrait who we are. I hope to see you there!