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!

...It never really is. Who wants to just paint by the numbers? Every subject is unique and you need to approach every person and their shoot differently. You want to get a special look or gesture that seems to be the special thing about that person.

I recently worked with the excellent graphic designer, Geralyn Miller on one such project with Anthony, a finance guy. It was a lot of fun! Anthony is a great guy, and I think it comes across in the shots. We worked in the renovated 19th century mill building where Geralyn works, and Anthony was very patient as we dragged stuff from place to place looking for just the right atmosphere.

 

Geralyn took her own shots between holding light stands ;-) Got to love shooing on a staircase!

 

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!