Charity Calendar shoot with the Lovely Ladies of Newtown.
My friend’s brother is in the Military and she wanted to do something nice for him and all of his buddies before they were deployed over seas. She came up with the idea of a pin-up style military calendar to help keep our boys motivated. She recruited some of the Ladies in town and I signed up as photographer. Definitely a different kind of shoot for me and I had a blast! We were all real happy with the final result and the Soldiers loved it. Mission accomplished.
Jen and Dan’s Wedding Video
So I’m no videographer but my friends asked me to video their wedding and I took a crack at it. There are some similarities to photography but there are a whole lot of differences as well! In the end I have to say, video is a really nice medium for telling a story. I’m gonna try to do more of it. Click FULL SCREEN (Bottom right corner) to see it big. Enjoy!
Dan and Jens Wedding Video from Dan Doran on Vimeo.
My first Newborn Shoot
My friend Jimmy was the first of all my friends to get married and now have a kid. He and his lovely wife Lauren gave birth to a beautiful little baby girl, Ella. She is a few months old now and they asked me to take pictures of her. So I finally got my first newborn job. Its funny how different portrait jobs play out. Fashion is interesting because the model knows just what to do where in wedding/senior portraits you are trying to make the sitter feel at ease the whole time. Kid photography is like shooting sports and I found out that newborn is closer to product photography. Well, at least when the baby is not crying that is! It’s all about the posing and styling of the scene. Anyway, I had a great time and I got to meet little Ella for the first time.
Fashion Shoot with Love
So I’m continuing on with my trial and error experience into fashion photography. It’s been great practice for me. I’ve never really seen myself as a fashion photographer but I’m realizing that if there’s any human element at all involved in the shoot, I’m gonna have a good time. Plus it is nice to work with a model who want to be in front of the camera and still better yet, knows how to work it! This shoot I was working with Local boutique owner Katra Michener and and her beautiful model friend Danielle. I also teamed up again with Kristyn from my previous shoot who was on make up again. It’s so nice to work with a team of people who know what they’re doing and are having a good time doing it. I still have a lot to learn as far as fashion goes but I was pretty happy with how the shoot turned out.
Shimmer and Spice Fashion Shoot
I love facebook. Well at least for making connections anyway. I’m not sure how or when I became “friends” with local Philly artist Kristyn Rudnet and owner of the cool center city botique Shimmer and Spice but I’m glad I did. I’ve been seeing her work pop up in my news feed for the past year or so and I’ve always enjoyed it. I’ve been trying to get more into my photography lately so I’ve been contacting friends and anyone who seems interesting for jobs. (For fun/learning/portfolio) Well I messaged Kristyn about working togather on a shoot and she was all for it. Luckily she has a fair amount of experience in the fashion industry and has plenty of pretty model friends so they did the make up and styling while I got try my hand at some fashion photography. I was a little intimidated at first and I had to remember how to work my lights and come up with multiple setups on the spot but the end result was definitely worth the effort. It was a really fun shoot and I can”t wait to do more. Check out Kristyn’s work over at http://www.kristynapril.com/.
Engagement Shoot – Dan and Christina at Valley Forge Park
I had a great time photographing Dan and Christina this past Sunday. They picked a beautiful park and we lucked out with a great day. Their wedding is not for another year so hopefully these photos will hold them over till their day comes!
Pose Running Seminar with Crossfit
We did a seminar for “Pose Running” with Crossfit Newtown. It’s funny, running is such a basic and essential movement in so many activities and yet, we never really practice it. Even more importantly, we never stop to wonder “Is this the right way to run?” We just assume the way we run naturally is the best way. Well our Pose Running Coach Tracy (Forgot his last name) let us all know how he feels about the “Normal” way of running. Basically Pose running philosophy states that we all run inefficient and even unsafe. There’s a whole lot to explain for you to really understand Pose Running so you’ll just have to google it to learn more but basically, Tracy taught us that if 1 single running stride consists of 10 individual steps, we need to cut out the first and last 3. Well, sorta anyways. Enough talk, here are the Pics!
Our Pose Running coach, Tracy.
Working on some lighting with an old classmate.
One of my favorite photographers, Joe McNally was in town for a lighting seminar and my Buddy Ross made the trip up from DC to hang out and go to the seminar with me. The seminar was great, learned a lot. When we got home we practiced a bit of what we learned. Here’s what they looked like.
First Fashion Show
I got to shoot my first fashion show this past Thursday. Lucky for me I have a lot of very talented friends that thought of me when they needed a photographer. Sara Be ( http://www.thelionandtheunicorn.biz/ ) put the whole show together along with a lot of help from friends. I thought the night was a success and I had a lot of fun shooting it. Thats not to say it was easy though… I didn’t really know what to expect so luckily I made sure I brought almost all of my gear just in case and as it turned out, I used almost all of it. The available lighting was way to dim at its brightest, the walls were dark, and the ceiling was too high for any bounced flash. I almost started to panic at first but I just sucked it up and started playing with my lights. I actually kinda felt like I was back in my editorial photography class, it was kinda cool. I managed to find a setup that I liked (I’m including a picture + explanation of my setup for any fellow lighting nerds) and the rest was just about good timing. I never really saw myself as a fashion photographer but I have to admit, it was pretty fun!
OK here is the breakdown of my setup. I had zero ambient to work with so it was all lit with whatever lighting gear I had. I used 3 sb-800's all with the diffusor cap attached. Two on the ground firing up towards the models backs for a rim light. One camera right on a light stand about 7 feet up firing down at the models as they walked towards me. All of the lights were triggered using my d200's pop-up flash as a commander. (Thank god for Nikon CLS, lets see a canon do THAT!) I was shooting at ISO 250 at f/6.7 for 1/125th of a sec. It was a kind of tricky setup to do but I was pretty happy with it!
No car = walk home from the train station.
OK my car seems to be dead for the time being. Still hoping I can resurrect it and squeeze a few more months of life out of it. In the mean time, it means I will have to make the occasional long walk when I can’t find a ride. Luckily this day was a really nice one.
Halloween me please.
FINALLY took a Sat. of and got a chance to hang out with my buddies with a Halloween party at Bry’s house. I was “A guy caught in the Wind”. Idea complements of Jon at work. Good times.
See "Guy caught in wind". Get it?
U2 at the Meadowlands
Man I love those guys. Nobody puts on a better show than U2. God bless the Irish.
I love slide-shows.
I know I must be the modern day equivalent of that old guy from the 70’s who would somehow trick his neighbors into sitting down and watching slides from his most recent trip to wherever. Corney background music playing and a cheesy commentary and all. Still, I can’t help myself. I love slideshows! So many of our pictures never leave our computer, facebook maybe, if we’re lucky. We work hard creating our images and we need to show them off properly so we won’t forget all the good times. There’s something about the flow of a slideshow along with a well thought out soundtrack and smooth transitions that bring your images to life. What better way to keep the memories alive? —> Enjoy the video, its a long one. Or don’t, hey I don’t care, I made this as much for me as I did for you guys. Besides, I don’t won’t to be accused of becoming that old vacation slideshow guy from the 70’s. 
Center City Protest
A protest through the streets of center city Philly provided a nice little distraction during my class. Even grabbed a quick snapshot of it too.
Soccer in Princeton
It was a beautiful Sunday for a soccer match and my sister Nicole (who plays for St. Johns in NYC) was playing nearby at Princeton University. We met my family there and even though it was a good game, I couldn’t help but take a break from rooting on my sister to take a few shots of my funny little cousins.
