Ode to Olivia

I have a lot to be thankful for in my photography career…… I’ve had opportunities to go places and meet people that would otherwise never happen. I’ve met tons of great photographers, worked with a bunch of fantastic clients, established  connections with great companies who I love working with…..I’ve had clients call me up teary eyed after seeing their wedding photos. There’s few better feelings than waking up to a email inbox full of new job opportunities or selling a huge print to someone half away around the world ….I’ve even met people I idolized growing up……

With all due respect to all of those wonderful things that I’m so thankful for…..none of that means as much to me as getting the opportunity to watch Olivia Johanna Kubica, my 1 year old niece grow up. I was the youngest of two boys and never had the chance to experience watching a young mind and body grow on a week to week basis, it’s truly an remarkable process. This weekend I got a chance to shoot her first birthday party with most of the family on both sides present and it was amazing. Although I do complain about the long winters and bad traffic in New England, I consider Boston to be the greatest city in the world……. because my family lives here. Just thinking that these are the photos my brother and his wife will be showing to Olivia’s boyfriends to embarrass her makes me grin from ear to ear.

Priceless Moments

A lot of people ask me tricks and tips about how I manage to get natural expressions and good candids during wedding/bat mitzvah/event shooting, so I decided to reveal some of my secrets. The first and most important aspect is to always take the time to converse with people , no one is comfortable giving there best look to a stranger. I see a lot of photographers walk up to their subject and just shoot or simply ask “can I get a picture of you?”. Instead of that approach,  I walk up to people and say something like, “Wow were so lucky we got such a beautiful day” or “Doesn’t the bride look beautiful?”. This always leads to casual conversation, and then when the conversation starts to tail off I say, “well lets get a nice  picture of you two dressed up looking nice together.” Once you make your way around the room and interacted with most of the guests you then can maneuver around for the rest of the event relatively unnoticed capturing those split second gems of people acting natural.

Let’s face it no matter what you say or do there’s always at least one person at an event that is highly photo-phobic and won’t budge an inch. For everyone else here’s a quick guide to one liners I use on the job…..

1. Grandmothers- “Ladies can I get a photo of you real quick before all the single guys find out your eligible? Let’s face it I probably won’t be able to get anywhere near you when that happens…..”

2. Group of middle age guys- “Alright gentleman I’m going to have to ask you to get together and show me some bro-love….” or “You guys have seen Zoolander right? Show me Blue Steel …”

3. Bride and Groom- “Ok now show me some magic” or “Let’s see your magic faces” is my all time favorite…(courtesy of photographer Matt Teuten)

4. Kids- no one liners….I usually give them something fun to play with like a bubble maker, at that point they could care less your taking photos.

5. General- If a group of people posed themselves with too much space in between each other or become a little stiff I say, “come on guys get together and pretend like you like each other…..don’t worry you only have to pretend.”

The “Anything goes shot”-  While doing group shots walk up to everyone an explain to them that is your favorite shot and here’s how we do this…..everything think of a fun pose like “charlie’s angels” and keep it to yourself….when I count to three everyone has to do there fun pose. (courtesy of photographer Felix Rust)

Welcome All….

Welcome everyone to my first entry in my blog. Here I hope to give my clients and fans a further look into what makes me a photographer, and a behind the scenes look on my various photographic endeavors. First off a little about my journey…..

Photography first entered my thinking around 7th grade…..I asked my parents for a camera for my birthday but being the type that always wants the top of the line in everything (like most guys i guess) my parents didn’t think my fleeting nature was quite right for the heavy investment that film photography brings. I can’t argue with their logic….it was probably for the best. The years past and when digital photography was becoming more and more affordable, once again my birthday wish around the age of 22, this time to my current (and now ex) girlfriend, was a point and shoot digital camera. She got me the camera and in just a few short days I was completely hooked on the art of photography. Shortly after I took a trip with some friends for my birthday to San Francisco and partake in a week long fun fest including awesome seats at a San

Francisco Giants game. The game was amazing, my highlight was still the garlic fries….. I wouldn’t even spill them for a foul ball headed straight for me, instead I choose to turn to my friend Ami and calmly mutter  ”That one is headed right for us”. With a commendable attempt to catch the ball she spilled her $8 beer and garlic fries all over the ground unfortunately coming up a few inches short of an amazing grab at full stretch. In the 9th inning Barry Bonds hit a 3 run home run into McCovey Cove to win the game…..the split view shot tells the story. I think every photographer has that one shot that will never let them put their camera down ever again….this is my shot.

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