For almost the entire shoot I was using just the one light. Kinda felt like Zack Arias for a minute there. Though I suppose since I wasn’t using big strobes and just using nikon speedlights, you might be thinking “more like McNally” but, there is no way Joe could use just one. Just his lighting gear bag is drool-worthy. I’ll get there someday, it just probably wont be anytime soon, and since he’s not likely to stop buying gear I’ll probably always be envious of what he’s got in his bag. For now though I’m making do with what I’ve got: 2 speedlights, a pair of shoot through umbrellas, a 5-in-1 reflector/diffuser and now this 24″ Ezybox. You’d be surprised what these few tools can accomplish. BTW if anyone actually compared me to either Zack or Joe at this point in my career, I’d probably piss myself.

On a side note: I bumped up the image sizes for this post, since the portrait oriented shots were leaving some space on either side, and frankly it bugged me. I like things to line up, have a certain order about them, but then some of you already knew that about me, didn’t you. What do you guys think of the giant-size photos? Do you want me to go back and upsize the older posts too?

Her band The Scarlet Ending had just flown home to Syracuse from a USO tour of West Asia, were now heading back into the studio to finish up their latest efforts for a full length due in March 2010, and Kayleigh herself was working on still more recordings as one half of Elective, a side project she started with composer/filmmaker CJ Wallis of Vancouver, BC. I was thrilled to not only get to spend some time catching up over dinner, but also to be able to make these images of her at the studio and hear some of TSE’s hard work. As a bonus I got to check out the newest (and well on its way to being the nicest) recording space in my hometown plus preview a few tracks from other bands who were recording there too.

Lighting setup for these images were again pretty simple. Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe high to the side and, on the one image, another bare light kicking into the ceiling to bring up the background out of blackness. Switched between the 24-70 and 70-200 for lenses but these three came from the 24-70 at 70mm. I’d really like to get that Nikon 85 1.4 but its not going to happen till Spring it seems, unless someone gifts it to me of course, since moving expenses will be eating all of my savings I’m sure. Ce la vie.

Casey and I spent a rainy afternoon together in Brooklyn while she was getting ready for a party that evening. We kept the atmosphere casual and I just worked around her as she prepared some delicious mushroom bruschetta that I would unfortunately not get to taste, as I had elsewhere to be that night. Casey was wonderful to work with, all smiley and happy all the time. It actually took us quite a few attempts to get the above no nonsense expression. Kept the main light – my Lastolite Ezybox mentioned in the last post – about head level to push the light in to her face better and popped another flash in the back to use as either fill for the room or a highlight as I saw fit.

Shot both of these with the camera on manual and speedlights on TTL. I can’t really decide if I like using the flashes in TTL or not. It is nice when the subject is moving and the light levels need to change, but other times I really just want the steadiness of “this-is-exactly-how-much-light-you’ll-get” manual mode. It was interesting to play with nonetheless, and changing it all from the menu in the D700 makes it super easy to try it out when I have the time.

Good things coming later this week!

Now, if you’re a nerd like me, you might like to know that I shot this session, and the next three sessions that I’ll be posting over the next week, with a new toy. I ventured to the B&H store in Manhattan to stare in wonder and then to eventually buy this Lastolite Easybox Hotshoe 24″ speedlight softbox. It’s a mouthful of a name but it’s a wonderful little accessory for off-camera, small flash photography. First saw one in action while in Montana for school when my buddy Thomas picked one up. I was envious ever since and have just now caved and bought one. For me at least, it is well worth owning one. I shoot a lot with speedlights and up till now was making do with umbrellas for portrait scenarios. This light modifier has already become my staple for enlarging and softening my light, especially when lighting people. My only gripe with it was that in order to use it with an umbrella adapter/moveable angle adapter you need a double spigot – envision a double sided threaded bit at the business end of a lightstand – which would be a nice include in their kit, even if they bump the price of the kit $5. Basically if you want to angle this thing at all other than 90 degrees using a straight stand, you need one.

Check back for the next installment of Portrait Session in a few days. If I’m feeling artsy-fartsy I may draw up a basic lighting diagram for how most of these sessions went. Be warned though, it really is pretty basic, both in technique and in my ability to draw.

Here’s one last photo from Central Park. Jaclyn and I, like countless others that afternoon, spread a blanket out under the warm sun on the crest of a knoll in the lawn known as Sheep Meadow, unpacked our lunch and gazed up at the beauty that was around us. Sundays are about her only days off, so we were both glad the weather was gorgeous. I told myself to make more portraits this trip, or at least make more images of people if candid moments presented themselves. So trying to keep that goal I proceeded to annoy almost every one of my friends I visited. Whats more, I put the results up on the internet – lucky them! Below is another frame of Paula on the beach in “deluxe-bury” just a few miles from her Marshfield, Mass home.

And here are a few from an afternoon at my sister’s home. I’m not entirely convinced that she lets her kids play on the piano as readily as they explained to us they could, so when she had stepped out for the afternoon and it was just Uncle Jeff and Gramma left, they made sure to enjoy themselves. As you might imagine, all of their musical selections were played forté, especially the pieces that required all six of their hands. Adaline stayed the longest at the keys, teaching the glow-in-the-dark bats she received for Halloween how to play. I’m glad I will soon be living a lot closer to them.

Incidentally, the title of this post is the name of a record – a pretty good one at that – and you can hear a song from that band (The Creature Comforts) right here: Showboat

It’s amazing how much I took for granted the cycles of nature when I was living in them, especially the changing of the seasons. Part of that may have been that Spring, Summer and Autumn always seemed so short compared to the lengthy, harsh winters of my hometown in Central New York, and thus I felt like the actual transitions took too little time to go from Summer to Fall to Winter and too much time to go from Winter to Spring to Summer. Or maybe it was completely average compared to other cities in that latitude and I was just feeling slighted for no reason. Either way, now that I have lived in Florida and am subject to what is basically – to me at least – “nice Summer” from October to April and “sweltering Summer” from April to October, visiting the Northeast in October reminded me how much I missed actual seasons. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fairly certain I will not be spending my years in the snow belt of Upstate New York any more, but I am definitely longing for a little more variety, as well as the opportunity to wear a sweater now and again.

After a couple nights in Syracuse I climbed aboard a rail car and watched the world wash by outside the window while I was taken to NYC. Traveling by train was yet another of my life long goals, and Im not sure I could have picked a better time to do it. We followed the Mohawk River east to Albany and then turned south along the Hudson and followed that all the way to Penn Station, in the heart of midtown.

For me, the best part of riding the train was being able to just sit and stare as the scenery blurred by on the other side of those tinted glass portals – something which is not easy (or safe) to do while driving. As we descended with the water through the Hudson River Valley the colors deepened with us. These trees, having been spared the frosts that a lot of New England had seen, had not yet had their leaves bitten by the cold morning air, browning and robbing them of their full glory until finally letting them go to drift down to the earth. These leaves glimmered with their full, radiant hues.

I spent an afternoon in Central Park with my good friend Jaclyn (a few pictures of her next time) on what might have been the last warm Autumn Sunday of the year. The entire park was adorned in it’s seasonal colors and it seemed as though most everyone who could come out to enjoy them were there. Late afternoon sun poked through golden branches and dappled the sheltered grasses that were now littered red and orange and crunched as you wandered through them.

Of all my memories of fall colors, from my time in the Northeast, in Montana and in countless other places, Central Park held its ground with the best of them, which made me all the more grateful to have witnessed it.

I have traveled the contiguous 48 States many, many times, but a few had evaded me. Maine was the last on my list (other than Alaska and Hawaii of course) and I finally got to check her off that list on a crisp October morning, in perhaps the most perfect of scenarios.

I had driven from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts to stay a few days, visit some old friends and experience the heart of New England in Autumn. My old friend Paula and her man Matt were lovely enough to put me up for a night, and Paula showed me around the next day and graciously tolerated my camera in her face as we explored her neighboring beach towns. The coast was exactly as I had expected it, except better in every way. Sunny with a stiff breeze, wet sand and a blueish hue that seemed to saturate everything with a cold, sad flavor of a deserted New England beach in the Fall. After a day at the edge of the Atlantic I headed to “Boston proper” – as Kaleena had put it – to meet her for food and drinks. Then I made the late night drive up 95 into Vacationland and nestled into a rented room a few miles off the highway.

In the morning I found my way down to the coast to brave the thirty-some-odd degree weather plus wind for a glance at the North Atlantic. I can understand why so many have been drawn to a life out there past the horizon, on the cold and rolling waves of a seafaring vocation. I then turned abruptly and drove off into the woods of Maine to be surrounded by the gloriousness of a New England forest in Autumn. More on that next time.

above: Mission Mountains looking East

Steve and I got into town on Monday the 1st and after some brief delays, checked into the hotel, got some food, ran some errands and rested up from the four day marathon drive from SC/FL. Monday night was dinner and beers and getting reacquainted with the locals. Tuesday we started installing the show in the gallery and stayed and worked until they turned out the lights and locked the doors. Then we enjoyed some sushi and the company of great friends just down the street. Wednesday we continued the installation process and picked up friend Kim from the airport. Kim was the first of 6 friends to arrive from out of town for a mini-reunion based around the opening on Friday. Thursday was finishing touches and Friday was the opening with reception. Celebratory drinks followed with dinner, of course, and fun times consisting of recalling old memories and making new ones lasted well into the early morning Hey, when you work on something for six months you’re allowed to party a little when it’s done, right? On Saturday, Steve and I talked to the 2009 RMSP class and answered questions about our show, what its like going through the course, being an RMSP graduate, and spending time in Montana. Sunday was farewell brunch for almost everyone, then a great afternoon of snacks and drinks on the deck at the Post with Steve and Jenny (Donna Dangerous from GTG) who is beautiful and awesome and seems to have tons in common with friend Steve. And then by seven o’clock that night I was the only non-local left from the weekend. Luckily, I was saved from my solitude by Kerri, her visiting mother Jeanne, and Tom through an invite to dinner. Oddly enough I spent at least some part of each of the next three days with this group, as I was staying at an extra room at Tom’s villa (yes, an actual villa!) and Kerri and Jeanne are just irresistible : )

Monday I started venturing out on my own a little; meeting with Marcy James, lunch with Bob McGowan, chatted about future projects with a local couple who showed some interest in my work during the opening reception, intended to drive out of town and shoot but the rain kept me in and working on what would become the video below; that and playing rummy with Kerri and Jeanne before enjoying a home cooked meal for four. Tuesday I managed to get out of town and drive up the west side of the Mission Mountains to continue shooting for a long term project I started last summer during school. I ended up driving back the east side of the mountain range to check out Swan Lake and The Mission’s eastern face. Stopped and made some images along the way and decided I need to revisit the area during the winter, hopefully sooner than later. Wednesday I stopped by the Missoula Museum of Art to experience Kerri Rosenstein‘s installation with a few less people than had been crowding in there over the weekend. Then, after some lunch, I headed South down the Bitterroot Valley on what I thought would be just a sightseeing/reconnaissance trip for future projects when I inevitably return to Montana, but I actually ended up stopping and shooting quite a bit. I really love the green version of Montana in the late spring and early summer and between the friends and the scenery I contemplated moving to Missoula many times during this trip.

above: view of Wyoming from Montana looking Southwest

After some goodbyes Thursday morning, I began the somber trip home, which will be covered in another post, because that part of the trip has somethings in it which needs more time to put together. I did stop a few places on the way out to make some images though, including the Wyoming/Montana border on I-90. I’ll leave you with this video of the installation process of Day 231 and a few images of Montana from the trip. If you’re still reading this far into this post, then thanks : )

above: Swan Lake and the northern tip of the Mission Mountains looking West

above: Trapper’s Peak and the Bitterroot Mountains looking West

Day 231 opened June 5th 2009 at Rocky Mountain School of Photography Gallery. The title of the show is a reference to the number of days since both Steve Stockin and I graduated from RMSP’s 2008 program. We installed the show the few days prior to the opening with Ghost Town Girls taking the right half of the space and Hidden Lake taking the left. The reception was kind of whirlwind; talked to a lot of people, got to meet a lot of the 2009 students and pretty much enjoyed myself with friend Steve and many other RMSP 2008 alumni. You can read some of the press we received for the show here, here and here. I’ll dedicate another post to the overall awesomeness that was the Steve and Jeff Montana Adventure 2009 in a few days once I’ve caught my breath and sorted through the images and memories enough to regurgitate them here. For now though, here is some pictures I grabbed to help illustrate what the show actually looks like installed. Many thanks to Kim Dresser for the window title shot.