Dealing with extremes in my architectural photography

In my architectural photography work, I often make images where I use techniques and styles that occupy opposite ends of the spectrum. Some images are made hand-held with fast shutter speeds and in bright sunlight. Others are shot at dusk and require a tripod and a neutral density filter to further reduce the amount of light to allow for very long exposures and shutter speeds of 60 seconds or more.

Below are two architectural photographs from some recent personal work that cover the two extremes of the kind of images I like to make. One is an interior shot in bright daylight with a mother and child in the image to provide a sense of place and scale. Since I was hand holding the camera and there was movement of people all around, I had to make the image quickly with a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second. I framed the image such that only the mother and child are visible within the frame.

The other image is a long exposure dusk shot with vehicle trails but no people in sight. To get multiple vehicle trails I needed a long exposure of 60 seconds or more. To be able to expose for that long without blowing out the details in the lit portions of the building I had to use a neutral density filter to cut down the amount of light hitting my camera's sensor.

A mother and child taking a break in the Shapiro Family Courtyard of the new east wing of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The new wing designed by Norman Foster + Partners opened in 2010

Vehicles create trails as they whiz past the Christa McAuliffe Branch of the Framingham Library at dusk. The new building designed by Finegold Alexander Architects opened in 2016

Moving image/GIF of the Newport, NH great gray owl chowing down a vole

The great gray owl hunts rodents by sound and can plunge and locate prey in snow up to a foot deep. Their feet and toes are also densely feathered allowing them to hunt even when there is snow on the ground and temperatures are below freezing.

A rare winter visitor in New England - the Great Gray Owl in Newport, NH

Great gray owls, the largest birds in the owl family, are rarely seen, if at all, in New England. This is one of those rare years when several of them have wandered south from their normal habitat in the northern boreal forests of Canada and Alaska to southern Canada and the northern U.S. in search of food.

The great gray owl diet consists mostly of small rodents. Those winters when prey is scarce, they move further south. There were numerous sightings in southern Canada this winter, and a few moved further south to Maine and New Hampshire.

I enjoy photographing birds of prey especially owls. And a great gray owl is a rare celebrity. A few Sundays ago, when a friend mentioned a great gray being sighted in Searsmont, ME, we made the 3.5 hour drive, braving the 12°F temps and 25 mph winds.

After driving around and locating the place of its most recent sighting, we unfortunately didn't get to see the bird. It was just too windy for it to come out. I would have been happy with just seeing one in the wild let alone photographing one. So after waking up at 4am to get there and driving around all day, it was a little disappointing.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been monitoring the online chatter on another sighting in Newport, NH, which is closer to my home at 2.5 hours away. Together with a couple of friends, we drove there last Sunday. Temps were 9°F with 15 mph wind gusts. Not too bad.

We got there around 9:30am and quickly found the area where the bird was last seen the day before. Very soon, more people who were also there to see the bird found it perched on a low branch next to a hedgerow, blending in with the background and sheltered from the winds under a tree on the edge of a large field.

A great gray owl blends well with the background as it grooms itself on its perch

The bird spent the next 6 hours in that same spot, alternating between napping, grooming and looking around at the increasing number of birders and photographers coming to see this visiting celebrity. There were at least 50 photographers and birders. Everyone kept their distance at a safe 80-90 feet from the bird.

Around 4pm, as the sun got closer to the horizon, the owl flew from its perch to a fence post on the other side of the field. The low sun lit the bird in a beautiful warm glow. The performance had begun.

The owl files off from its perch towards the open field to start hunting for prey

A great gray owl usually hunts at night, dusk, and dawn by flying low over open areas, listening and watching from a perch, and swooping down when it locates prey. They locate rodents by sound and can plunge into snow up to a foot deep to catch them.

The owl flying low across the field listening for voles

For the next hour and half, the bird flew around the field from perch to perch, looking for voles. We all watched in rapt attention as it swooped down, caught, and gulped down three of them.

Great gray owl with a vole which is their primary diet

I'm not sure if our celebrity owl was a female or a male. Like in all owls, the females are larger than males, and unless they are in a pair, it's almost impossible to tell a male from a female.

At 27 inches or more in length with a wing span of up to 60 inches, great gray owls are very impressive birds—larger than the great horned owl at 22 inches or even the snowy owl at 23 inches.

Making another run across the field with wings outstretched

Their size, however, is deceiving and partly an illusion due to their very thick, fluffy plumage. At 2.4 pounds, their body size is smaller than the great horned owl (3.1 pounds) and the snowy owl (4 pounds). The feathers that make a great gray owl look so massive are also what keep it warm during winters in the cold northern latitudes.

Swooping down as it listens for another vole in the field

According to the Audubon, the magnificent great gray owls are a climate endangered species. It was an amazing and humbling experience to be in the presence of one in the wild for those few hours and watch it hunt and feed. Not sure if I'll get another opportunity like this.

The great gray keeps hunting as the sun gets low behind the trees

For our sake and theirs, it's more important now than ever before that we protect and preserve the boreal forests and make efforts to curb climate change.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC

During this recent visit to Washington DC, I was able to photograph the newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). As the 19th and newest member of the Smithsonian Institution and its fabulous family of museums, this new museum is also jokingly referred to as the "Blacksonian". New York Times art critic Holland Cotter, picked the museum as his #1 choice for the Best Art of 2016

View of the Museum and the Washington Monument with the traffic on 14th Street at dawn

Thirteen years in the making, after being established by an Act of Congress in 2003, (or a century if you consider the 1916 congressional bill proposing “a monument or memorial to the memory of the negro soldiers and sailors”) the Museum opened to the public on Sept 24th 2016. It serves as an amazing reminder of the influence that African American culture has had not just on the US but also on how the rest of the world sings, dances, speaks, dresses, eats, plays and works. Built on the National Mall in Washington DC, it's right next to the Washington Monument and a short distance from the White House.

A street level view of the Museum from the intersection of 14th Street and Madison Drive

The design and construction of the Museum was one of the largest and most complex architectural projects completed in 2016 in large part because of the challenges of constructing 60% of the structure below ground within the DC tidal basin.

The Museum and clouds reflected on the black granite retaining wall along Constitution Avenue

The resulting design team of four architectural firms, Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup (FAB/S), was one of six finalists selected to present design proposals to the Smithsonian, ultimately winning the design competition in April of 2009, beating out other big name architects such as Moshe Safdie, I.M. Pei, and Norman Foster for the coveted $540 million government commission partly funded by countless small, and large private donations

View of the Museum from the main entrance with the shadow of the Washington Monument

The Museum and the Washington Monument reflected on the black granite retaining wall

View of the Museum as the sun sets over the National Mall

The Museum which houses 36,000 artifacts throughout its 400,000 square foot space is more than just a museum - it is also a monument to African American history, community and culture.

According to the lead designer, the British Ghanaian architect David Adjaye, his team got the job by keeping those three aspects of the project in mind—history, community, and culture. It's an integral design aspect of the building's distinctive tripartite corona form which draws inspiration from the Yoruban Caryatid, a traditional wooden column which features a crown or corona at its top. The concept came from research into the beginnings of slavery in Central and West Africa and study of Yoruban culture. The below image of carved wood sculpture by the Nigerian artist Olowe of Ise shows the tripartite crown on the two figures on either side of the central column.

Yoruban caryatids and carved door - Image courtesy Rand African Art (www.randafricanart.com)

  Details of the bronze colored corona panels that give the Museum its distinctive shape

The bronze-colored corona panels draw inspiration from the ornate ironwork found in Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans. The design team studied this historic iron lattice work, in many cases created by enslaved Africans, and created the light-permeable façade of the museum by digitizing the traditional shapes and transposing them into a modern interpretation, scaled to the size and shape of the building.

    Details of the bronze colored corona panels on the front facade of the Museum

   The distinctive Yoruban crown shape of the Museum and the bronze colored corona panels

The exterior design is successfully able to draw upon and beautifully meld familiar imagery from both African and American history.

In one of his interviews discussing the Museum, Mr. Adjaye says that the best way to experience the museum is by starting at the basement level. There, from the galleries portraying the origins of slavery, one climbs up to the upper levels to ultimately view a display about president Obama. He refers to this progression from the museum’s dark subterranean chambers to the bright and joyful galleries on the top floors evoking the African American “journey into the light”. “That’s the emotional power of architecture, to bring you into a journey and to give you uplift,” Adjaye said. “The greatest cathedrals, temples and shrines give you uplift, and I think architecture is best when it supports the narrative through the articulation of space.”

Visitors taking in the view of the Washington Monument from the Museum at dusk

View of the Washington Monument and the Museum with the evening traffic on 14th Street

Business District featured in Entrepreneur magazine Dec 2016 issue

The Entrepreneur magazine Dec 2016 issue has an article in pages 34-35 about the growing popularity of co-working spaces and features my client Business District. Catering to a high-end clientele, Business District occupies the entire 17th floor of the I.M. Pei designed building on 177 Huntington Avenue, with a very swanky space and sweeping views of Boston.

I'm very happy that Entrepreneur chose to use one of the photographs I had made for Business District as the main image for that feature article.

Below are some of the other images from the set of photographs for Business District.

One of the common areas at Business District with plush sofas and sweeping views

Pages 34 and 35 of Entrepreneur Dec 2016 issue.

Main lobby and reception desk

Living room and a view of the conference rooms, offices and hallway

Cafe and common areas

Outstanding Design Award for Austin Architects for BB&N Middle School Renovation

One of my clients, Austin Architects, was featured in the American School & University magazine's November 2016 issue for an Outstanding Design Award in the Middle School category for the Buckingham Brown and Nichols (BB&N) Middle School renovation project.

The majority of my architectural exterior and interior photography work is to usually photograph a project after it's completion. It's not very often that I get an opportunity such as the BB&N Middle School project on 80 Sparks Street, Cambridge, MA, to photograph and document the progress of a construction or renovation project from inception to completion. I was able to see how this well thought out and complex design emerged from the plans and renderings to become a beautifully constructed school building.

I first photographed it in August 2015, right after the construction had started. I photographed it periodically until the completion in June 2016 and then again most recently in October 2016. There are two defining architectural and design elements of this project that I primarily tried to showcase in the photographs I made - the new terrace that can be reached via a carefully inserted boardwalk beneath the canopy of two giant beech trees, and the two new student foyers that interconnect the buildings from different time periods to create a more open and modern common space.

Pages #44 and #45 of the AS&U Nov 2016 issue showcasing the BB&N Middle School project

Panorama of construction site in Aug 2015 shows original building raised from its foundations.

View of the construction site in Dec 2015 showing the rebuilt foundation and the steel structure for the interconnecting foyers.

Snow on the ground in Jan 2016 and major work on the boardwalk and the foyer are complete.

Students enjoying the new terrace on a warm autumn afternoon

The new walkway from the parking lot and the boardwalk lead up to the terrace and foyer

Panoramic view of the second floor foyer and common areas

A straight on view of the foyer and terrace under the shade of the giant beech.

A view of the boardwalk and new foyer of the school building at dusk

The boardwalk lit by the lights underneath the railings lead up to the entrance and foyer

Bridges are more interesting than walls .... don't you agree?

As an unusually acrimonious election cycle which definitely will be one for the record books, draws to a close, the talk about walls has been a dominant theme. Yet, regardless of who wins, I think it will take a lot of bridge building - figuratively speaking, both across and within, to get our country whole again or great again (or whichever other slogan you believe in)

As far as architecture goes, I think it's a whole lot more interesting and fun to design and build, or for that matter photograph, bridges than walls. Bridges have spanned countries and continents (and yes, there can be bridges to nowhere too - Alaska's cancelled Gravina project anyone?). In terms of an architectural structure that can have the most impact on humanity and progress, can't think of anything else that comes even close to touching that many lives in a more significant way.

As a photographer, bridges have always fascinated me with their lines, shapes, spans, heights and the variety of angles to photograph them from. Two cities that are close to my heart - Boston on the east coast and San Francisco on the west, both have some iconic bridges.

Here are a few of my favorite recent bridge images from Boston and San Francisco.

Zakim Bridge, Boston

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

Tobin Bridge and skyline at sunset, Boston

Western span of Bay Bridge, San Francisco

Zakim Bridge, Boston

Eastern span of Bay Bridge, San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

Tobin Bridge and skyline, Boston

Simply put, walls divide whereas bridges unite. Let's build more bridges in our minds, in our hearts, in our country, in this world.

Architectural Photography for a PRISM Gold Award Winning Project

Got some wonderful news last night from David Schraff Architects that a residential restoration project I had photographed for them had won the 2016 PRISM Gold Award in the Best Remodeling/Restoration over $1M - Over 5000 sq.ft. I'm very honored and proud to be part of this award winning team and want to extend my thanks to architects David Schraff and Jill Breed, builder and owner Charles Bosworth, and Sabrina Baloun, for the styling for the photo shoot.

Snapshot of Award announcement from the 2016 PRISM Book of Winners

The photographs I made which were part of the PRISM award entry are below

Main facade and entrance of the residence

Mud room and view into outdoor patio and kitchen area

A view of the kitchen

Another view of the new kitchen area and outdoor patio

Formal dining room

Main entrance and staircase and a view into the newer section of the residence

Formal living room

New master bathroom

Side view of the residence and property

View of the side entrance and a section of the garage

Pool side view of the residence at dusk

Another pool side view at dusk

A newly renovated Pacific Northwest residence

Even though one can find different architectural styles of homes in neighborhoods across the US, each region of our country has a specific style that helps define its dominant residential character. For example in the New England area we see a lot of houses in the Colonial revival and Greek revival styles. The Puebla revival is common to the Southwest. The Northwest regional or Northwest modern style is mostly seen in the Pacific Northwest areas of Oregon and Washington. A lot of regional factors like history, weather, natural landscape, availability of material etc. have a big impact on the architecture common to each part of our country.

I have always liked the Northwest regional style of modern houses with open floor plans, clean lines, and minimal to no ornamentation. They also have high ceilings with lots of natural light.  And with exposed beams and use of natural, unaltered materials in both exteriors and interiors they often tend towards an industrial feel.

Dusk settles over Seattle as the last rays of the setting sun kiss the peak of Mt. Rainier

During a recent visit to Seattle, I photographed the interiors of my friends Bharat and Sonal's house in Mercer Island, Washington. They just renovated their place with a beautiful new kitchen and dining area which Sonal did the interior design for.

The whites of the cabinets and counter tops go very well with the brown and wood tones of the floor and ceiling in the newly renovated kitchen.

A view of the dining area and kitchen as the warm late afternoon sunlight streams in.

A view into the kitchen from the living room area

A view of the living space, dining and kitchen area and the outdoor front patio. The fireplace and center column separates the living from the dining space while preserving the flow and openness.

The living area

I had a lot of fun styling and photographing this beautiful space for Sonal and Bharat. Sonal was a big help with the styling, as well as in being the model in a few of the images.

Hope you enjoy the images.

Hot-air Balloons in Hudson, MA

It was Fri Aug 19th, World Photography Day (the day on which the patent for the daguerreotype, an early form of analog photography was released to the public - August 19, 1839, and starting in 2010 the day began serving as a celebration for all photography). So when the opportunity came to attend the Media Day for the Hudson Balloon Festival, I jumped at it even though it meant waking up at 4am. Together with a couple of photographer friends, we drove over to the field where the balloons would fly at dawn from, and reached there at 5am, well before sunrise.

That morning, sunrise and moonset were about an hour of each other, sunrise at 5:55AM and moonset, that too with an almost full moon, at 7:12AM. Hot-air balloons, sunrise, moonset - great photo opportunities overall.

This was the first hot-air balloon event I had ever been to. I was offered the opportunity to go on one of the balloons, but the recent fatal accident in Dallas crossed my mind. And since I had a client photo shoot that evening, and didn't want to risk any injury, I decided to pass. Yes, I know these rides are pretty safe, and it was probably foolish of me to decline and give up on the amazing photo opportunities I might have gotten had I gone on the ride. Oh well, another time.

It was a great morning overall and I had a lot of fun talking to the pilots and crew, and making some photographs.

A flock of geese fly across the early morning skies as the moon continues it's descent behind the trees

The first balloon ascends as the early rays of the morning sun kiss the sides

As the balloon is inflated, a crew member peers in through the vents near the crown

The view through one of the vents as the hot air fills up inside

A crew member holds on to the lines as the balloon is inflated

This pilot's shirt leaves no doubt as to which balloon is his

Balloons in different stages of being inflated

Another balloon sails away

A balloon inflated with cold air is ready to have the burner turned on

The pilot turns on the burner to heat up the air in the envelope

Pilot makes final checks to the lines before take off

Time to take off and go with the other balloon

Balloons sail away as a dramatic sunrise fills the skies

View through the vents near the crown of another balloon as it is being inflated

Pilots and crew check on the crown lines as the balloons get inflated

Getting ready for take-off

And off they go

And up and away

And away ...

The retrieve crew will head out and wait for the radio from the pilot to get to where the balloon will land

Photographs in a billboard for TreeTop Adventures along I-93 in Braintree, MA

A billboard for TreeTop Adventures in Canton, MA went up on I-93 South, Exit 6 in Braintree featuring two photographs I made.

Closeup of the billboard on I-93N Exit 6 in Braintree, MA

View of the billboard while driving on I-93N Exit 6 in Braintree, MA

Outfront Media who owns the billboard space had three sample layouts of the design they had put together initially using stock imagery.

Initial design layout #1 - © Copyright Outfront Media

Initial design layout #2 - © Copyright Outfront Media

Initial design layout #3 - © Copyright Outfront Media

The final design is what finally came about below, after a few iterations with the graphic designer from Outfront Media, and it used two of the images I had photographed for TreeTop Adventures.

Final design of billboard - © Copyright Outfront Media

Original full image of an adult on a zip line that's on the left of the billboard

Original full image of kids on a challenge bridge that's on the right of the billboard

A summer morning in Crane Beach, Ipswich, MA

One way of relaxation for me is to be out in nature photographing birds, animals and landscapes. So whenever I can squeeze some time for myself, I venture out to some of my favorite spots around Boston. Crane Beach in Ipswich on the North Shore is definitely one that's on the top of my list. It's a Trustees of Reservations property that has miles of well maintained trails and pristine beaches. It is also home to several species of birds like the endangered piping plover during the summer months, and the snowy owl during the winter. I visit there all year round and have always been rewarded with great photo opportunities, whether it's 90°F out there, or -10°F with the wind chill.

Early morning sunlight reflecting off the ocean waters along Crane Beach

A view of the beach and Ipswich Bay

A pair of early morning walkers on the beach

Early morning light and shadows on the patterns left in the sand by the receding tide

Breakfast time for a piping plover chick

A juvenile common tern makes its way across the dunes

An adult common tern as it flies towards the waves for small fish to bring back to the young

As the tide recedes, a piping plover chick looks for small insects and worms along the shoreline

A piping plover chick runs back towards the mother

A flock of sanderlings fly over the waves looking for a place to stop and feed

Improper Bostonian magazine July 6-26, 2016 issue: Tearsheet of real estate advertisement

Photographs I made for high-end real estate company Heath Properties in Boston, of two of their properties - one in 755 Boylston Street, and the other at the Harbor Towers in 65 East India Row, are featured in a full page advertisement (on page #49) in the July 6-26, 2016 issue of the Improper Bostonian magazine. Below is the scan of the page from the magazine.

Full page advertisement in Page 49 of Improper Bostonian, July 6-26, 2016 Issue

Three of the images used in the advertisement are below

View of kitchen, hallway and living room at the Harbor Towers property

Living room of the 755 Boylston Street property

One of the bathrooms in the 755 Boylston Street property

Boston Magazine article featuring TreeTop Adventures Park, Canton, MA, includes three of my images

Boston Magazine did an article on TreeTop Adventures Park in Canton, MA which opened on July 2nd, 2016.

Three of my photographs are featured in that article.

The TreeTop Adventures Park has three layers of courses of different heights and difficulty levels

Both kids and adults can find ropes and zip-line trails to suit their difficulty levels

Zip-lining through the tree-tops is a fun and exhilarating experience

A PDF version of the article is available.

Tearsheet of real estate ad of 755 Boylston in Improper Bostonian magazine

Some photographs I made for a real estate advertisement for 755Boylston are featured in a full page advertisement (on page #5) in the April 27-May 10 issue of the Improper Bostonian magazine. Below is the scan of the page from the magazine.

Scan of full page advertisement from Improper Bostonian, which includes the main image at the top and a few other images from the shoot at the bottom.

In the ad the main image was cropped slightly to fit the layout. And below is the actual full un-cropped and un-retouched version of the horizontal image.

Original horizontal version of the image that was featured in the ad.

The residence was empty with no furniture, so I used a few simple props to style and add some pops of color to lead the eye through the space.

Making composite images with digital photography

As a photographer, what I enjoy most is creating photographs in-camera. Yes, I still have to do some post-processing to the raw digital image captured by the camera sensor to get the final photograph. This isn't very different from the techniques of the analog days.

Digital photography, however, allows me more flexibility. I find it more forgiving than the development and dark-room techniques of analog photography. It also opens up a lot more creative possibilities for me.

I can place my subjects in different backgrounds and create images that couldn't have been photographed in real life. You can argue that similar images were created through multiple exposures and darkroom techniques in analog photography by Jerry Uelsmann and others. But then, not everyone is as skilled in the dark-room as Jerry Uelsmann—least of all me.

Last week, I photographed my friend Jason, an avid mountain biker, with his riding gear and bike in a studio against a white background. I then layered his photo on top of a photo that I took of the Ammonoosuc trail in the White Mountains of NH. It's not a trail that you can mountain bike on. So my goal was to create a believable image, but one that I can't actually photograph in real life (unless Jason and I physically haul the bike up the trail just to make this photograph).

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View from Ammonoosuc Trail, White Mountains, NH

To create a believable composite image, I had to match the lighting, perspective, and focal length of the lens in each photo. I had photographed the White Mountains scene with a wide angle lens at about 24mm and at a low angle. So I photographed Jason in the studio with a 24mm lens from a low angle to match the perspective. To match the light of the late morning sun, I used a single Profoto Magnum reflector to provide intense but even light on Jason.

Other factors like white balance, noise, and depth of field also play a role, but to a lesser degree. They can generally be fixed during post processing.

In the studio, it wasn't possible to get a photograph of Jason with both his feet on his bike pedals. So I took two separate photographs: one with his right foot on the pedal while he balanced himself on a milk crate, and then one with his left foot on the pedal.

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Jason on his bike in the studio with right foot on pedal

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Jason on his bike in the studio with left foot on pedal

I combined the two images in Photoshop to create a single composite image with both of Jason's feet on the pedals. Next came the final stage where I digitally selected and placed Jason and his bike on the background image and masked and blended the two images to look like one.

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Composite image of Jason biking the White Mountains, NH

Making this image was a lot of fun and I hope the result looks realistic to you.

Photographing the interiors of the Boston Public Library

The Boston Public Library is recognized as the second largest Public Library in the US, behind only the Library of Congress. The main building, also known as the McKim Building, at the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston Streets in Copley Square, opened in 1895 and was designed by Charles Follen McKim in the Italian renaissance style to resemble a classic Roman palace including a central courtyard. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986 for its architectural and historical significance.

It's a daunting endeavor to try and capture the grandeur and beauty of the interiors of this magnificent building in the two-dimensional format of photography. Here are a few of the photographs I made during a recent visit. My awe and curiosity for this space have not been sated, and I'm sure to be back there soon with my camera and tripod.

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The main entrance staircase to the McKim Building with the twin statues of lions, sculpted by artist Louis Saint-Gaudens.

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Another view of the marble main staircase and the lions. The lions are a memorial to the 2nd and 20th Massachusetts Regiments of the Civil War.

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A view of the main staircase and hallway from the second floor of the McKim Building.

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Bates Hall, the great reading room of the Boston Public Library, was named after Joshua Bates, the library's first great benefactor.

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Sargent Gallery is named for the great American painter John Singer Sargent, who spent years decorating its walls with his powerful and original mural sequence, Triumph of Religion.

Unit stills photography for a Meineke TV commercial

During the first week of August I was fortunate enough to be on assignment as the unit stills photographer on set for the filming of several TV commercials for Meineke Car Care Centers. It was a 4-day assignment and the filming was taking place in and around the Boston area. Behind the creation of the campaign and concept was an award winning boutique advertising agency Mythic, based out of Charlotte, NC. The filming and production were being handled by leading Boston based production house, Element. I was hired by Mythic.

This being my first ever gig as a unit stills photographer, I was a little apprehensive. For my research I read up on articles by UK-based unit stills photographer Andrew Young. He has a very informative and well written website - http://www.production-stills.co.uk/tech-talk/. It's a must-read if you're thinking about unit stills photography. My NESOP teacher Shawn Read, who has had several stints as a unit stills photographer under his belt, was kind enough to give me some tips and advice as well. All of this proved very helpful in knowing what to do, and most importantly what not to do, while on set.

It was amazing to see first hand what it takes to make a film/commercial. The entire crew was very friendly and made me feel at home day one. They made it a very fun and enjoyable experience overall. I would do it again.

Meineke's humorous "On With Life" TV ad campaign was launched on Aug 31st. One of the commercials has been airing nationally for the past couple of weeks.

It shows a wife sending her husband off with a backpack and enough supplies to last what looks like a major journey.
He's just about to take their car to get the oil changed, then to the tire store to get the tires replaced and then to the brake shop to get the brakes fixed.
Instead he should've gone to Meineke Car Care Centers and gotten everything done in one stop.

If you haven't seen that commercial yet, here's the link

Below are some of my photographs during the filming of that particular commercial.

Off goes the clapper for Take #1

Emotional moment before the husband heads off

Yet another emotional moment

Time to go

Husband reiterating the 3 things he needs to get done for the car

Ready to go

The Director of Photography framing the shot

The film and sound are rolling

Crew behind the scenes

Colors of the "As If It Were Already Here" hanging sculpture

When I went there with a friend last Saturday evening to photograph the "As If It Were Already Here" hanging sculpture by Janet Echelman at the Greenway, Boston, my goal was to capture all it's different colors. It takes a while for the lights pointed at the sculpture to cycle through all the different colors. So a time lapse or a straight video doesn't do it justice. A time lapse goes by too quick and a video is just too long. Therefore I decided to try an animated GIF instead using individual photographs that I took of the sculpture with each of it's different colored lights. This was put together using 16 different images.

As If It Were Already Here by Janet Echelman

What I did this summer (Yes, yes, I know it's not over yet)

Fortunately we're still enjoying some warm 80+ degree weather, but the longer and cooler nights seem to keep reminding that summer is almost over.
It goes by quick. Doesn't it always.
With classes, several freelance assignments, and my first ever trip to Seattle to visit friends, it was a fun and very busy summer so far.

Was fortunate enough to get into a few juried group shows as well.
Listed in reverse chronological order are the shows and my selected photographs.

Think Small - Panopticon Gallery, Boston, MA
Jurors - Jason Landry, Corrine DiPietro
Sept 10th - Nov 30th, 2015
http://www.panopticongallery.com/events/entries/index.html

Adorned

Annual Juried Exhibition - Amazing Things Arts Center, Framingham, MA
Jurors - Nikolay Cherny, Linda Hirsch and Willard Traub
Aug 4th - Sept 19th, 2015
http://amazingthings.org/event/juried-show-reception/

Remains of the Day

Red Sox Photography Night Gallery Show - Hunt's Photo and Video, Melrose, MA
Aug-Sept 2015
https://www.facebook.com/events/1442784086049628/

Peanuts Before the Ballgame

Street Photography - Photography Center of Cape Cod, Barnstable, MA
Juror - Shiv Verma
Aug 2015
http://www.photographycenterofcapecod.org/Street-Photography.html

Kolkata Yellow Taxi

The National - Cape Cod Art Association, Barnstable, MA
Jurors - Jenny Kelley, David Weinberg, Ginny Zanger
Jul 16th - Aug 24th, 2015

Brooklyn Shuffle

Annual Juried Exhibition - Off The Wall, Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, MA
Juror - Catherine French
http://www.danforthart.org/assets/forms/exhibtion_OTW_2015_catalog_WEB_V2.pdf
Jun 7th - Aug 2nd, 2015

Silence of Snow #1

Silence of Snow #2