Heart Gallery Recovery

So much for my plan to post at least once a week. I do have a pretty good excuse, though. I’ve been injured. I hurt my upper back, which pinched a nerve in my arm. Besides being extremely painful, I lost all dexterity in my right hand. Not a pleasant feeling for someone who pretty much makes a living based on the dexterity of his right hand (insert hand job/masturbation joke here). So, a few weeks later, I’m at about 80% and looking to get productive again.

Just before I was knocked out of commission I had some great inspirations for projects and directions and was really fired up (thanks universe). I have to get everything sorted out and prioritized before I can figure out what to get started on and what to put on the backburner. I will be making up for lost time with a bunch of blog posts over the next few weeks outlining what I’ve been thinking.

Today was my first photoshoot since I was laid out. It was portraits of children for Heart Gallery. They are having a national awareness event here in LA and today was the kick-off/press conference. I was asked to attend partly because LA is the host city and they wanted to have a home-town photographer there (the other photographer was from NYC) and partly because one of my former Heart Gallery portraits was selected as one of fifty from across the country to be displayed.

The LA coordinator, Stephanie Clancy speaking at the press event with my photo behind her.

Even better than that, I found out the young lady who was the subject of the portrait had just gotten adopted and the entire process started when the family saw her portrait online. This is something I volunteer for. I do not get paid and I cannot use the photos in any way; not on my blog and not in my portfolio. But knowing that I can make a difference for a child with my craft makes it beyond worth it. Besides, these kids have not had it easy but are still upbeat and a blast to photograph. I think I’m getting the better end of the deal.

For those who have never heard of Heart Gallery:

The Heart Gallery is a traveling photographic and audio exhibit created to find forever families for children in foster care.The Heart Gallery of America is a collaborative project of over 120 Heart Galleries across the United States (and growing) designed to increase the number of adoptive families for children needing homes in our community.

Now, in its ninth year, the Heart Gallery model is being replicated in many communities across the country. Although many of our children were removed from abusive and neglectful situations, they still have hope. They love to laugh, to learn, and to be with their friends. Most of all, they dream of finding a forever family to be their own.

I used a basic two-light set-up with a blue backdrop I had. There were around 20 children getting portraits made by me or the other photographer and sometimes both. I can’t show them but there were definitely some characters there. One of the standouts was Aristotle (his real name) who showed up dressed like a Texas oil tycoon, in a suit, complete with cowboy boots and hat. He walked right up to me, offered his hand and introduced himself. Then he stepped in front of the lights and stood like a tycoon. Awesome.

NBC had a crew there and they miked me just in time for four brothers ranging from four up to eleven. These guys had way too much energy. Getting them set up was like herding hyperactive cats. I decided to use that energy to get them to all jump in the air for an action shot since the chances of getting them to sit still was slim. It worked out great and I’m sure it made for good TV. I was also interviewed for another station. I’m glad I showered this morning. I had no idea I’d be on TV.

My two best friends. On the left, my workstation with my trusty heating pad and
on the right, my electrode thingy I call "the Shocker" for my back.

It was a pretty good day. So now I’m back at home, nursing my sore back by sitting on my bed, propped up on pillows with a heating pad on my back and my laptop, well… on my lap. This is how I’ve spent the last three weeks. But I’m on the mend and looking forward to getting into action on some of my new projects. Stay tuned.

El Niño: Mi Nuevo Amigo

Meet Johan. He’s my new best friend.

I had a little bit of a tough weekend. I know, I’m in Costa Rica, how bad could it be. But, believe it or not, being here made it worse in a few different ways. I was unmotivated and ended up spending most of the weekend holed up in the condo.

There was a nice break on Saturday night. I went to a local bar by the beach for a few beers and met a couple of ex-pats including the bartender Tim who is one year into a two year stint with his girlfriend who is here for a teaching job. When I came back to the condo, I was invited to the rooftop deck for a barbeque. The deck is part of the penthouse and the owner is an Argentinean businessman named Jorge. As I said, he’s Argentinean so there was lots of wine and grilled meat. We all communicated as best we could in broken English and even more broken Spanish. It was a nice night.

Johan is shyly trying to get my attention.

I pulled myself out of my funk and finally left the condo to head to the beach for some photos of the area. Then I was planning on heading over to the marina for some photos there as part of my photo assignment I was brought here for.

When I arrived at the beach, the sun was shining down for the perfect lighting situation. I shot pictures of the beach, coastline and people at work and play. I even shot some HD video using a couple different lenses. It was getting hot so I decided to look for a place to sit in the shade and found an empty bench.

I was sitting there enjoying the breeze and watching the sparse activity at the mostly empty beach. A boy showed up with his father and started running around the beach doing various things that little boys find so entertaining. Like throwing rocks and picking up big branches twice as long as them and, of course, climbing trees.

He saw me with my camera and started clowning around on the tree to get my attention. Now sometimes parents get really sketchy about people taking pictures of their kids so I usually don’t do it without permission. But the cute little boy was standing in a small tree peeking at me from behind a big leaf to make sure I was watching him. I had to take the shot. That was all the encouragement he needed and he kept trying to do things to get my attention.

Ah, to be 5 years old and full of wonder.

Finally, he walked up and stood a little behind me and shyly told me his name was Johan and that I should take pictures of him. I told him that if his dad said it was ok, I would take his picture. His dad said as long as I didn’t mind, he was good with it. But Johan didn’t stay interested in getting his picture taken for very long. He was more interested in asking me questions about my camera and then trying out all the buttons first-hand.

Good thing I’m not shooting film. I let Johan look through the viewfinder and push the button and he couldn’t find enough things he wanted to take pictures of. Then he started going through my camera bag and wanted to see what each lens could do. I pulled out my iPhone to take a picture of him with my camera and it was all over. He wanted to look at every picture on my phone (over 500) and every video, twice.

I wonder if this is his 'Blue Steel'.

Johan is 5 years-old and bilingual. Which means sometimes he talks in English and sometimes he talks in Spanish. He proved the perfect person to practice my Spanish with because most questions from a 5 year-old are fairly easy to answer. It is also amazing to me that this boy, who started out so shy was all up in my personal space, not to mention my camera bag. I love that about kids.

I thought the shot in the tree was going to be the best shot of the day. But, at one point, Johan was distracted by looking at my flash, I was able to get my camera back and take this picture.

My favorite shot of the day.

Fortunately, the right lens was on the camera because I was able to get the shot before the moment passed (and they passed quickly). He was sitting right up against me so I had to use the wide-angle lens to get him in the picture.

All-in-all, it was a good day. I got out to the beach, met some cool new people and got some great photos of Johan, my new best friend. A least until the batteries run out on my camera and/or iPhone.

Katie and Tyler Engagement Session

I’ve known Tyler for quite a while, I’m just getting to know Katie.

I am in Phoenix for a photo/video job and figured since Katie and Tyler were letting me sleep on their couch (formerly my couch, but the couch is not the point) the least I could do was an engagement session for the newly engaged couple.

I hadn’t really gotten a handle on the dynamic between Katie and Tyler in the time I’d spent with them so far, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. All I know is Tyler love annoying people and Katie handles it stoically and that made them a good match in that area.

I used my new Lensbaby Composer for this one. I learned that like any effect, it's best if used sparingly.
We started shooting in Downtown Gilbert (yeah, they call it that). As soon as we got to the grassy knoll Tyler and Katie started boxing while I was getting my gear set up. They were still trading punches (not real punches) when I was ready to roll so the session started with so boxing photos.

Katie and Tyler were very good at ignoring me and just being themselves.

I really didn’t have to direct them much. They were both animated and playful. All it took was a few suggestions from me on where to stand and where to face and they ran with it. I posted one of the 'outtakes' here. It was one of Tyler and Katie's favorites.

This one is one of my favorites from a pure photography perspective.

Once everybody got comfortable with the process they got a little more affectionate and I started to see the dynamic between them. This is the part I really enjoy about doing this type of photography. It gives me warm fuzzies when the chemistry is revealed in the photos.

See the rest of the pictures in the photo gallery.