Cool Stuff

My friends Alex Hamadey and Alex Schuster are building a site for their custom audio production team Death Rides Alone and they wrote a blog entry about the music they wrote for my multimedia piece. They were a pleasure to work with and made everything seem very simple, so it was kind of cool to read what it was like from their end. I figured I'd share and also plug their work, which I think speaks for itself.

Also, this French political blog picked up a portrait I shot of Socialist French Presidential candidate Ségolène Royale at a rally she had in Paris over a year ago from my flickr account.

And I had a photo run in the Spring issue of the Boston Bicycle Reflector, a zine which you can pick up around town or download at their website.

Matthew's Graduation Party

I know you were all curious how the Photo Cake came out. It was my most delicious photo yet!

They also matted the portrait to this board and let his friends sign congratulatory notes around it with silver sharpie.



I managed to get one more photo of Matt on his laptop at the party, as some of his family friends sat nearby on barstools and chatted. He spent most of the day in his room playing video games with his friends.

And I made one more nice-looking portrait of Erica and Paul as I was leaving. I liked the warmth of the light coming from inside the house as they said goodbye to me and my dad.


These aren't the kinds of photos I love taking, but shooting something is better than nothing in terms of keeping me from going stir-crazy while I'm recovering. I enjoy portraiture, and it's good practice.

Erica and Paul: More Portraits

I've been spending quite a bit of time sitting down lately with my leg propped up. Did I mention I had my ACL reconstructed? I'm not able to drive (actually walking is still pretty difficult) so I haven't been able to shoot too much, but I managed to snag some portraits of my friends when they came over to "visit the sick" (sit on the couch with me and play Wii).


Erica Goldstein, an old friend of mine. Something about the composition here and the curls around her face lent this to a kind of nostalgic feel, so I leaned toward a Sepia tone when I was editing.


Paul Opperman and Erica Goldstein. Simple, straightforward portrait with window light.

Senior Portrait shoot

I've been pretty immobile lately, and I just got knee surgery (ACL reconstruction) so it looks like I'll be off my feet for most of the next couple of weeks.

I did manage to shoot some senior portraits on Thursday for my friend's brother, Matthew Goldstein, who is graduating from Stanton College Preparatory School. These were shot in my home in Jacksonville, Florida. With the exception of this first one, his parents chose different "favorites" than I did, and I just finished sending them a package of their edits in exchange for a plateful of delicious brownies. Among other things, they want to put the picture on a cake, which is kind of exciting-- I've never had a photo published in edible form before.



I'm not sure exactly what I like about this photo, something about it struck me, it almost reminds me of those magazine photos of fashion models, so I played with the colors a little bit to give it that saturated look.


In this last one I wanted to play with environmental portraiture, even though I was shooting them at my own house. I asked Matt what he liked doing and he talked a lot about computer games and graphic design. I had him sit in front of his laptop, which he'd brought. I connected my flash with the off-camera flash cord and had him sit with it on his lap, under the computer, to make it look like his face was being lit from the screen. I like the idea and the effect (I think one of my colleagues did this in a class last semester), but I wish I'd played a bit more with different angles, to see if I could compress the space between his face and the "Dell" logo. Next time.

First assignment on crutches!

Our weekly assignment for Portfolio was Homelessness, and I didn't think I could do it because I tore my ACL and I can't really walk. Our professor didn't think that was much of an excuse, so I shot these at Downtown Crossing yesterday. I know that they are wholly mediocre, but they fall into the category of photos-- every photog has these-- that I think are great because I know how much pain I went through to get them.

If you look closely to the right of the white pants in the window in the second photo, you can see a reflection of me leaning on my crutches.

It was really nice to meet Anton and his companion Rosemary, who live off of their bicycles. Anton kept saying he was making an exception for me (he doesn't usually like conversation when he's busy packing his bike because it distracts him; he doesn't usually share this much when he first meets someone; etc, etc.) Finally getting Rosemary, who seemed incredibly shy at first, to smile at me and say a few words felt like a huge accomplishment.

Anton talked to me at length about the things the environmental folks and the normal folks don't realize, about the disease of human selfishness, and strategies for carrying loads on bike racks. He genuinely appreciated my curiosity in his lifestyle and I could tell it was nice for them to chat with someone new-- I only wish I could have met them when it wasn't so painful to stand up so I could have stayed longer...

Multimedia! From This Tragedy: The Murphys' Story

This was my final project for my Multimedia Journalism class, Jo518. It's kind of a heavy story, so make sure you've got 8 minutes to sit down and pay attention before you hit play.

It was my first time tackling a project like this and I'm really happy with the way it came out. I'd love your feedback.



I owe a big thank-you to Chris Conte, who had access to a fantastic story that he shared with me, and who helped everyone in our class learn to edit using Final Cut. The class was set up such that we captured footage on the same story with a partner, and each edited a separate package. Chris's version of the story is on YouTube.

To Chris and Michelle Murphy, we absolutely couldn't have done this without your help and support in sharing all that you did. Here is The Murphy Sisters Foundation website for anyone interested.

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