Silo Point - Turner Developement

While backing up some files I came across some stuff I've been meaning to post. Here's some shots I took for Baltimore Home, a special edition of Baltimore Magazine. They're of Silo Point luxury condo's, located close to Fort McHenry in Locust Point. The condo's are the project of developer Pat Turner, who I photographed with his wife Jeanine in what was to become a reception area (if I remember correctly):

The building is, as writer Martha Thomas describes, "...a 1923 cement structure that once shot five million bushels of corn, wheat, and soybeans up and down its cavernous shafts each day, loading them on railroad cars to be transported across the country for Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM)." I found "cement structure" to be a pretty accurate description of the building. Throughout the condo's, structural elements of the grain elevator still exist and are incorporated into the design of many of the condo's. In the shot above of the Turner's, you can still see large concrete pillars behind them, circled by fancy floor lights.

Part of the article on Silo Point also featured some of the early residents at Silo Point, such as Chris Guarda and his girlfriend Andrea Lasner (above). They had this gorgeous red wall in their condo which turned out to be a perfect backdrop for our shoot.

 Also featured was Michael Cox, another resident who lives at Silo Point with his wife Cathleen. I also photographed some of the interior of their condo, which had these two walls of windows with a beautiful view of the city.

I'll have to post more of some of the interiors when I get a chance, some of these condo's were really amazing....

Baltimore Magazine: November 2009

The January issue of Baltimore Magazine hits shelves in about 2 weeks, so there's still time to pick up the November '09 issue. But in case you miss it anyway, here's a few tear sheets:



This was the "UpFront" opener, which is always a full page and in my experience has always been a blast to shoot. This month, B-mag featured Jeff Hinton, a tailgating Ravens fan so passionate that he opened a Ravens tailgating supply store in Westminster, MD. We got permission to shoot just outside the Ravens M&T Bank Stadium, and Jeff brought a bunch of merch from his store. (Oddly, the address isn't in the piece, so if you're interested in checking it out, here you go):

Home Gamers
400 North Center Street
Westminster, MD 211457

When we arrived, the light outside was ideal- slightly overcast, perfect for the small light set up I packed. But by the time we finished setting up, the sun was out full bore and we were pretty much shooting into it (towards the stadium). One of the things Jeff brought was a giant tent, which under the glaring sun made anything under it go totally dark and obscured. Fortunately, it had a silver lining on the underside, pretty much making it a giant reflector so long as I could sneak a light in underneath. It took a few more to overpower the sun and have a little control, but it worked PERFECTLY. Here's an outtake where you can sort of see what I mean:



And here's the Dep't. Arts piece, featuring Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell, a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts, and her daughter Adia (who is currently enrolled):



The article was about four Baltimore School for the Arts alums, but only Linda and her daughter were available to photograph. The auditorium at the school is gorgeous, and we thought it would be a great place to shoot. For this shot, I played with some filters on the lights and the white balance to make it a little more dramatic, here's a better look at the shot they used:



And here's a shot balanced for the light available in the auditorium. Instead of using filters to make it more dramatic, I used them to match the available light in the auditorium. So in this shot, the background is actually closer to how it appears to the naked eye, in real life, etc:



I think this second shot is nice and all, but I'm glad they went with the more dramatic option. I thought it was much cooler, and somehow more appropriate for the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Last but not least, here's a few from the "Home" special edition section:






This was a piece on a "green kitchen", owned by the Plisko family in Catonsville. The kitchen was designed by Polly Bart, who owns Greenbuilders. The kitchen is energy efficient and environmentally friendly, and th Plisko's enjoy much of their family time together and were warm and welcoming in letting me into their space and their lives to photographs. It's too bad they could only use a handful of images in the article, there were plenty more!

Coming soon...

I'm getting to that point again where I feel guilty for not updating the blog more frequently. So to stop feeling like I've been slacking....

Just finished working on the Top Salons feature for the January 2010 issue of Baltimore Magazine, which went great! Got a lot of great shots, many more than what will be featured in the piece. When the issue hits stands, I'll post tear sheets along with some of the out takes and shots that weren't used (there are many - I shot a TON). Anyway, in addition to Top Salons they're featuring me as a contributor again. I wanted to use a different head shot this time, so here's what I went with:



This was shot while testing a lighting set up before a head shot shoot. Then I played with some of the post production techniques that have been so popular lately...

Anyway, that's all I have time for now, more posts to follow soon!

Hasselblad Polaroid Self Portrait

Shot with my 503cx Hasselblad and Polaroid 100 back. I love these polaroids- the lens is so sharp and renders the tones so nicely, but there's still that instant film quality. The film is daylight balanced and there's a combination of tungsten lights and sunlight in this shot, so there's kind of a cool mix of colors.

I also just got some expired Polaroid film that I can't wait to toy around with....

Connie Imboden

Connie is a very good friend and mentor of mine, and it was a huge honor when she asked me to photograph her for the Biography page of her new book, "Reflections: 25 Years of Photography by Connie Imboden". I've modeled for Connie countless times throughout the last several years, so it was interesting to be on the other side of the camera!

We shot this with her standing in front of a mural print in her studio. Connie works intuitively, exploring the body and allowing for discovery, rather than preconceiving or planning images. In the portrait it almost looks as though the figure in the background and over her shoulder (her work) is informing her, almost whispering to her. I also love how it's essentially both B&W and color, which seems so appropriate for the new book as it features some of Connie's never before published B&W images, as well as some of her latest color work. But most of all, I think it's just a great shot of my friend.

"Reflections: 25 Years of Photography by Connie Imboden" is an amazing book and collection of Connie's work. It's available to order now from both Connie's website as well as her blog. It's also the first book containing several images that I modeled for, so you KNOW it's good!

Violet Glaze

I met Violet Glaze in back in October when my good friend Henry Hong was helping her out with a piece she was writing for Baltimore City Paper about eating bugs. Specifically crickets and meal worms, which, I gotta say, really aren't too bad after all! Here's my favorite part of the article:

"But the final test would be in the eating. I met up with fellow City Paper foodie Henry Hong and his equally adventurous buddy Cory Donovan in the kitchen of Henry's restaurant..."

But that is another story, click here to read it.

Anyway, Violet eventually contacted me to shoot a head shot for her. She was interested in doing something fun and dramatic, something more like an environmental portrait rather than a just a head shot. The original idea was to shoot it outside, at night, near some sort of a neon light that would actually highlight part of her. Here's a sketch Violet sent me early on to give a sense of what she was looking for:



The original location we had in mind fell through (the neon lights weren't on), so instead we decided to shoot at The Charles Theater. The Charles Theater is a small but popular art house theater here in B-more known for it's hard-to-find documentaries, independent films, and foreign flicks, and Violet is well known for her movie reviews. We were given access to the second floor, which was a GREAT space with all kinds of awesome crap laying around- cool movie posters, old projection equipment, prints and negatives pinned to the walls, etc..

One thing I wanted to do was keep our original idea for the lighting - where part of Violet would be lit by the light glowing from a neon sign. Fortunately, the space we shot in at The Charles was funky and mysterious enough that it didn't look awkward. I used color gels on the strobes and loved the effect! Here's a few more of my favorite shots:











The same color gels are on for these as well, but with a little more subtlety...

Consider this a preview...

This is jumping forward a bit in the context of recapping 2008, but since I shot it in 2008 I figure it makes some sort of sense:

In April, Baltimore Magazine will be running it's annual feature on "Best Places to Live", highlighting some of the best neighborhoods in and around Baltimore. Since the issue goes into production in February, the magazine needed it shot back in July of '08, when the weather was still appropriate for an April issue.

I can't post any of the images they'll be using here yet, nor can I reveal which neighborhoods made it to the best of list. But now, damn cold February day, I figured I'd share a couple of my favorite shots that absolutely scream summer and warm weather:



I loved shooting for this assignment because it was the first time in a long while that I had the opportunity to just grab my camera and go. I hadn't done such street, documentary style type shooting in years, and it was really fun to get into again. There's a good story to these shots, but I'm afraid it will have to wait until April....

October 2008, Urbanite Magazine

Had this assignment for Urbanite Magazine back in October 2008. The theme of the issue was health care in Baltimore...

The Penn North Neighborhood Center is a facility in west B-more that offers alternative medicine and procedures to recovering addicts, one of which being acupuncture.



The description in the article of a typical treatment takes place in the large conference room, with some 40-odd recovering addicts getting their "ears pierced" by a handful of needle workers. The scene sounds quiet, calm, meditative. Delicate needles still fanning out from everyone's ears, the lights are dimmed and everyone just chills for about an hour - reading, thinking, some even sleeping. The experience sounds much more communal than you'd expect.



The color image is the shot they used, but I really liked the feel of the B&W one. Although the color image certainly grabs you, I think the B&W image feels more real, more authentic to the experience, even though we had to shoot it in the waiting area...

September 2008: Baltimore Magazine

Only a few assignments for the Sept. issue of '08, but I was thrilled with the shots. Here's the first:


(top right image)



which is a "Cameo" Dep't. piece featuring Jim Lucio, a.k.a. "Defekto", a.k.a. The Polaroid Guy". Jim is known around Baltimore for being the guy always toting around one of several Polaroid Spectra camera's, taking shots and shooting portraits of anyone open and interesting enough to be photographed. In fact, over the past 6 years, Jim estimates he's taken over 2,500 portraits in B-more. There's a lot more to be said about him and his work, it's a shame the piece had to fit one page. To check out some of Jim's work, check out his website at lastdaysofpolaroid.com and his Flickr page at http://flickr.com/photos/defekto/

I was really thrilled with the shoot with Jim. We did two sets, B-mag used one in the Table of Contents (sitting at his desk) and another for the article (in front of a wall of polaroids). The one they used for the article was great, here's another one of my favorites from that set:



The next assignment was for an Upfront Metro piece showcasing the famous "Big Boyz Bail Bonds" pens:



If you live in, or even remotely near Baltimore, you've seen these yellow and pink pens. From the article:

"From Owings Mills to Canton, they're everywhere. The owner of a Hampden sub shop takes your order with one. The clerk at a Fell's Point home decor store hands you one to sign your credit slip. Check your pockets: You might have a couple."

And it's true. If you live here and haven't noticed them, then you either haven't lived here for very long or (I'm sorry) you're not a very observant person. Big Boyz orders 400,000 of them a year and distributes them to businesses throughout Baltimore City and surrounding counties. Even during our shoot (which was just out front of a Big Boyz office), the guys were handing them out to passerby bold enough to ask, and whole cup fulls to those bolder few who promised to help give them out.

The last assignment was the opener for the "Local Flavor" section, and is on my list of most favorite shots for the year:



Bert Basignani, of "Basignani Winery". Located just about an hour north of B-more, Basignani Winery is one of 33 wineries in Maryland. It is known for it's free wine tastings where visitors can actually go into the fields, pick grapes, and learn about the process of making wine.

We had scheduled the shoot for sundown to get the best light outside, but unfortunately that means dinner time for most normal folks. The Basignani's were no exception. They were just getting ready for their meal when I pulled in to the winery; I knew this because Mrs. Basignani came out and informed me, in no uncertain terms. At which point I rolled down the window, turned off the car, and explained myself.

Haha, I couldn't blame her- I don't think Bert remembered to tell her I was coming, and by all accounts I would have seemed to her like a late coming tourist looking for a free taste of wine, just as they're preparing for a hard earned dinner.

Anyway, after shooting some quick views and details of the fields, Bert came out with a slew of border collies. I found the best spot for us to shoot - beautiful, thick vines and the sun just going down in the background. Fortunately I had brought my small wireless light kit, which is great in kind of quick and dirty situations where I don't have a lot of time to set up. I knew this would be the case because once the sun starts going down, your time with it is pretty short, but in this case there was also the pressing issue of a good dinner getting cold. I was a little nervous about the dogs running around my light stands, but they were good- just hung around Bert. And the lights proved to be necessary, otherwise he would have just been silhouetted by the direct sunlight behind him. It was also hard making Bert look natural at first; he was very aware of the camera, and a little stiff. When this shot happened, I don't even remember if I had asked him to look off camera - he just did and I was fortunate enough to click the shutter. Overall, the shoot didn't last very long at all, I wouldn't be surprised if Bert's dinner was still warm...

I think one of the reasons I like this shot so much is the layout on the page. Sometimes full page shots are just the shot alone, but this required text and the "Local Flavor" title, etc. It kind of fit perfectly together, and I couldn't be happier with the result.

August 2008: Baltimore Magazine

August was the Best of Baltimore edition of Baltimore Magazine. Whenever it comes to "Best of's", it can be pretty hit or miss, but I thought 2008 was a particularly good one!

First up is Tammie Monaco, owner of Beck 'n Call Services:



Beck 'n Call Services provides servers, bartenders, and other services for parties or events. Tammie is the former director of catering at The Brass Elephant, here in Bmore. We shot it in my kitchen, which was great - while we were setting up, she took it upon herself to unclog the food disposal in my sink! Haha, I didn't even know she was doing it, I looked up and she was like "oh, this was stuck in your food disposal, it should work ok now", holding up a mangled fork. Thanks again, Tammie!!

Next is Susannah Siger, owner of Ma Petite Shoe:



This was the full page opener for the "Indulge" section of the Best of's. Ma Petite Shoe won the Best of Award for "Estrogen Heaven". The store, located on 36th street in Hampden, sells designer shoes and high quality, hard to find European chocolates. They were later featured in American Airlines Magazine and used a different shot from our shoot for B-mag.

The winner for Best Restaurant for First Dates:



was Tapas Teatro. Which was a tricky shoot. To say the least. I had contacted the manager to set a schedule and discuss what we needed, and thought we were pretty clear on the details, specifically that I would need two young staffers who could be available to pose as "first-daters". Don't get me wrong, I could have found two people I could have brought to pose, but I thought it would be fun to have a couple people who worked there be part of it. Long story short, when I showed up for the shoot, the place was pretty swamped and the manager had either forgotten about our discussion or was too busy to care (I assume both). Fortunately, two friends of mine happened to show up just as I was about to leave and plan a re-shoot and were nice enough to let me photograph them throughout their entire dinner. The restaurant was too crowded to set up any lights, even though I had brought my small light kit, so I had to shoot at a relatively higher ISO than I'm comfortable with, but I wasn't too disappointed with the results. If things worked out the way we had planned, I think we could have had a better shot, but with this kind of work they rarely do and you've got to be able to improvise.

And outside of the Best of features:



An Upfront Metro piece that showcases Mike Rudden, who is a partner in the California based company "MotoArt" that makes furniture and art with components from old fighter jets and commercial planes. Him and his wife Lilly also own a salon in Ellicott City called "Lilly MaRitza Salon and Gallery", which is furnished and designed using pieces from MotoArt. One of my favorite pieces in the salon is in the shot to the right - it's a fish tank made from an MK-84 aqua bomb. MotoArt caters to some pretty heavyweight clients including Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Red Bull, and Boeing Company, and even made the desk that the judges sit at on the show "American Idol".

For the Arts Dept. piece:



featuring the performance group Fluid Movement, a community based volunteer dance and performance group. They put on different shows and events throughout the year, and in August they put on "Mother Goosed: The Nurseryland Campaign Tales". The show was actually a water ballet being put on at Patterson and Riverside parks, and as you can see featured the performers decked out in all kinds of crazy outfits. The shoot was pretty easy - they were just finishing up with a rehearsal, and being performers they were natural at posing for the camera. It was pretty broad daylight, but a couple of small lights with umbrella's helped make them pop just a bit from the background, which is the pool at Riverside Park.

New Puppy!

Just had to take a break from updating here with shoots and tear sheets from '08 to post a couple pictures of my beautiful new puppy, Nelly! Obviously there will be lots of pictures - most of which will be saved for the Facebook - but, just this once ;) I couldn't resist....

July 2008, DC Magazine

Had a couple of good assignments from DC Magazine for the July issue. It was kind of a hectic month for DC- they were transitioning from one photo editor (Forrest Stillin) to another (Jeff Millies), and as a result seemed like there were some last minute changes to the issue before printing. In any case, here's the first assignment:



This is Krista Johnson (left), with Judy Mayka and Thalia Attinger. They own and run a boutique on Wisconsin Ave in DC called "We One You Two". The focus was on Krista as she was the one interviewed for the piece. I was really happy with a lot of the shots, it's a shame it ended up running somewhat small. (They also cropped the hell out of it to make room for copy, which is always disappointing). Here's another shot of Krista that I really liked:



The boutique had lots of white walls and a really open sort of structure, so there was a lot of flexibility and control for lighting.

The other assignment was David Fogel of "Space 88":



Space 88 is a small business incubator space located in Silver Spring, Maryland. Small companies or individuals with small businesses can rent the space and it's amenities (including work stations, a conference room, a multimedia studio, and a lounge) for a relatively small monthly fee. They ended up going with something else instead, using a shot that was less about David and more about the space, but I still really like this shot of him.

July 2008, Baltimore Magazine

If you live in B-more or have visited here recently, you may have seen what people have been calling the "billboard trucks". With glass walls enabling you to see inside, these small box trucks roam the streets as cruising advertisements. The trucks get decked out with their clients company's logos and showcase some pretty attention grabbing eye candy, like the Victory Motorcycle we used for the shoot:



We had a blast shooting this! The location is the point up in Federal Hill park, which has a gorgeous view of downtown and Inner Harbor, Baltimore. Needless to say, you're really not supposed to drive a truck through the park, much less park it where we did for the shots, so we had very little time to get what we needed. We were only a little concerned about getting caught, convinced that the worst anyone would do is tell us to go away, but no one ever did. And it didn't seem to bother anyone at the park, in fact most seemed at least intrigued, some taking pictures of us photographing the truck.



Also in this issue I photographed Michael Osborne, executive director of Baltimore's Harbour Pointe, a treatment facility dedicated to helping compulsive gamblers. A former gambling addict himself, he's become an expert on illegal gambling and even gives workshops on the subject to the FBI and IRS. At the time of the shoot, he was working on a pilot episode for a reality tv type show being bid on by HBO and A&E.

When we met, I was hoping the sun would be down a little more than it was. It looks somewhat dark in the image, but it was actually quite bright out. I used tungsten filters on my lights to make the ambient sunlight blueish, and a fast shutter speed to darken it. I also put a small light on the ground behind him to help with the spotlight effect.