Dupont Underground Fundraiser - 7 September 2012

I'll be on hand to photograph tonight's Dupont Underground, 'Above-Ground" fundraiser. Looking forward to hearing some fantastic music and to participating in rasing money for a really unique project.

Here are a few photos of some of tonight's performers, taken during the filming of music videos in Dupont Underground.

See you tonight!

 

Citizen Effect - Team Headshot Photography

August is for vacation and relaxing and catching up. This is not to say I have not been busy. - just away from the computer and the blog for a while. So, getting back into the swing of things ...

I completed a short, on location, headshot session for Washington DC based, community-advocacy, non-profit Citizen Effect. Here are the finals that they selected.

There are many things I like about this sort of location work. For one, photographing and seeing people in their work space (in this case with co-workers looking on) presents a much different energy during a shoot which often gives me insight into how to pose and interact with individuals. In the end I feel that this lends to a more genuine portrait. I also really enjoy the technical challenges of photographing in a small space and making it look like it was shot in studio. We were really wedged in here, but I was lucky to have 1) a blank wall and 2) high ceilings. Lastly, I love when people see the lighting set up and I hear "Wow! This is the real thing." For me the lightng is an everyday thing, and I forget that this isn't true of most people.

World Bank Group Headshot Photography + Social Media Profile Pictures

Last week I did a daylong headshot session for a team at the IFC to help promote their inter-office social media platform. To encourage people to update their profile, the team provided coffee, cup cakes and an opportunity to get a professional (2 minute "photo booth" style) headshot done for their profile picture. On the day I photographed about 150 people in about 6 hours. It was a lot of photography but a really great opportunity to shoot a really diverse group of individuals.

Rob - Portrait Study #2

On Wednesday I got together with local DC musician Rob Pierangeli to do a quick portrait session. I used a single light set up (+ back ground light) with a small umbrella and worked on building a composition using the contrasting areas of lights and darks that this created - something I had been interested in experimenting with and I felt would also work well for Rob. My favorites are below with a few more here.

One thing you do find about simple lighting set ups, they allow you to focus a bit more attention on the subject - less time juggling and more time interacting is a good thing in many ways.

B.K. Adams + Surly Moonlander

I'm a big bike-noticer, so when I pulled up to the neighborhood cafe and saw this monster of a bike last week, well, I noticed - a big black Surly Moonlander mountain(?) bike with a smattering/splattering of bright paint perched on a pair of absurdly large tires. It was impossible for me to miss. It was also immediately obvious to me who the likely owner of the bike was, local sculptor, painter and (A)rtist B.K. Adams. If you are here in DC I'm sure you've spotted a few of his 'I am Art' stickers, a black and white stenciled portrait of himself wearing his signature welding goggles, and it wasn't long before B.K. was out and showing off his new ride.

Note: I'm not certain that this bike was the Moonlander model and not the Pugsley, but I have a hard time thinking that B.K. would pass up a chance to ride around on a bike that looks like this AND is named Moonlander.