I want to thank everyone who came out today to support the Mansfield Animal Shelter!! The fundraiser was quite a success thanks to the efforts of all the amazing people who came out to help, and all of you who brought your furry friends in to get their picture taken with Santa. I don’t care how old they are, all dogs are puppies to me, and I love puppies. Not having my own, I take any chance I can to get some puppy love….. and it was in abundance today! Way too much fun! Money was raised, santa didn’t have his face eaten off, and I got tons of cute pictures of all my new four legged friends……. I’d call that a successful day.

If  you are one of the super rad and generous folks that came out today, I again want to thank you. There are too many furry friends without families that are as kind as yours, but thanks to you the Mansfield Animal Shelter will be able to make this holiday season a little better for them.

To find the photos of yourself from today’s event, click on the link below. This will take you to a gallery of all the photos. Find the ones of you and download away!

CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR PHOTOS

If you don’t have a pet, you should….. they’re awesome! There are too many really great animals out there just waiting to make your life more awesome. Wether it’s a cat pawing your face and waking you up far too early in the morning because it still hasn’t figured out the can opener…… or a puppy running by with your favorite pair of shoes in it’s mouth and discovering his new favorite game of keep away….. it doesn’t matter, you love em all the more for it. If you have a furry friend, you know it’s true, if you don’t, you should head on down to the Mansfield Animal Shelter, 175 Fruit St., Mansfield MA, and find out for yourself.

what a good sport santa is

I’m pretty sure that this guy hasn’t figured out how big he is yet, otherwise this wouldn’t be a conversation.

staring contest, they’re actually still sitting there now, I’m gonna swing by tomorrow to see how it’s going.

This what happen’s when you leave my mother and Kenny unattended in the Tractor Supply Store, who by the way was generous enough to let us and about 40 dogs take over their store for the day.

My mother found the animal that she was going to adopt. I had to explain that “adopting” from stores…… was just stealing. Kenny has perfected his leg lock here and is determined to stay on for more than 7 seconds…. good luck to ya Kenny. I’m thinking I’m gonna start rockin a cowboy hat all the time…… maybe.

Back in the spring my great friend Nick came to me and told me he wanted to hire me to photograph his two really good friends who had recently gotten engaged. He felt like this would be a better wedding present than a new cutting board and some muffin tins….. I couldn’t agree more. It took about 1.2 minutes on the phone for me to realize that Sarah is likely the sweetest person on the planet. We threw around some ideas for a place to shoot and when I heard that the Arnold Arboretum was somewhere Sarah was into, it was on. About 2 minutes into the shoot it was confirmed that Rob too was an amazing and chill guy and that they could not be cuter or more in love. Let the gigglefest begin. We had an absolute blast. It is not hard to take photos that show that people are in love, when it is written all over both of their faces, so props to you two on that one. Towards the end of the shoot Sarah and Rob went and changed so we could play with a little bit of that vintage 1940ish look. I get photo ideas stuck in my head sometimes, and the only way to stop obsessing is to get them out. I didn’t set out this day to get this certain photo out, but gladly seized the opportunity when I saw it. The panorama at the bottom is 8 photos stitched, and pretty damn close to what’d been in my head for a few months…. that is always an amazing feeling.

A huge thank you to Sarah and Rob for being amazing and in love, and to Nick for introducing us. Sarah is cooking dinner tonight as a thank you for the shoot (yes I will work for food), and there is no way I was showing up with no better excuse for not having blogged their photos yet than the fact that I’m a scatterbrained spaz sometimes……

you can click to view larger.

I have to give a huge big up to the Blink cast and a double big up to Stephanie Heroux, owner of Jazz Inc., producer, choreographer and performer for Blink, and all around rockstar. Getting to roll with these guys from start to finish has been amazing. This group is a bunch of the most talented and hardest working peeps I know. All their hours of learning, rehearsing, and perfecting this show paid off. Blink was a 3 night hit at the Oberon theatre in Cambridge a few weeks ago, and if you didn’t have the chance to catch it, you may not be out of luck. I’d call Blink more of an experience than a show and I don’t want to give too much away, because any words I write will not do justice to seeing these artists at work, but the storyline revolves around a high school reunion. Now, I know you found a reason to skip yours last year, but it wasn’t quite like this. The music is a live band, the stage is every square inch of the club and  dancers are incredible. With the show moving all around you, on different levels, through crowds, on an off moving boxes, etc., you never get bored staring in the same direction, things are constantly changing and you feel like a part of the show…… which made photographing it all the more fun. I went two nights, for that exact reason, and both were awesome.

There is still time to vote for Jazz Inc. to have another chance to see Blink, maybe here…. maybe NY… who knows. Vote and find out! Info can be found at Jazz Inc.’s Fb page

To the Blink dancers….. every one of you has inspired me more than you know…. thank you.

Jazz Inc. is back!! On the last shoot we did a bunch of different things, candids, head shots, action shots, and towards the end I tried a few things with some ‘edgier’ lighting. When you add in some of the more creative stuff, you never really know how it will be received, you hope they love it, but then again, they may just not get it. Rarely do you expect that they will call you back and ask you to come back and do just a bunch of those…..

A few weeks after our last shoot Stephanie, the rock star owner and choreographer of Jazz Inc. got back in touch with me to do just that. She loved the anonymity and ambiguity of not really being able to see peoples faces. She was further along with the choreography and had some ideas for poses, outside of that, she told me to do whatever I wanted. Hmmmmm, free reign with a bunch of super talented and fun dancers…. it’s a tough job, but I guess someone has to do it. Yet again, I had a blast with this crew, probably even more so as I know them all now. I have been experimenting with multiple exposures recently, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Any photo that the same person is in more than once was done in camera with multiple exposures and firing the flash multiple times, all in a single frame.

I can’t wait to shoot with and see all these peeps again!! You can catch them at Oberon on May 1st, 5th and 6th where they will be premiering ‘Blink’, the show that these photos are for. You can find all the information for the show at Jazz Inc.’s website, along with any other info on their upcoming events. I know I’ll be there, you should be too!

Another big thank you to Stephanie and all of the dancers that have put their time, talent and trust into getting these photos. You are all rock stars!

Michael & Allen

these are both multiple exposures done in camera. Michael above and Allen below

Marcia & Lori

this is two exposures of  Marcia

Marty, Tony & Lori

yes Katie can actually fly

this is 10 exposure of Lori’s turns, all done in camera with multiple exposures and repeating flashes

It’s always cool to see how the photos get used in the advertising.

This trip started as most of ours do, ranting in a late night session about how rad it would be to “insert awesome thing here”, current topic…. west coast pow. We threw out a bunch of great places, and for no particular reason, Mammoth stuck. Well, next thing we know our travel agent and cohort in crime Ann has us booked and packing. It was the usual suspects, Ann, Clinton and Lance. The four of us went out to Park City  a few years ago and had an absolute blast, here we find ourselves again. I have a glamorized perception of rolling through the airport with a snowboard bag. I always think it is the coolest thing, because it means that you are about to fly somewhere sick to ride, this lasts for about 5 min and then I realize it’s heavy, awkward, and broken. Ann didn’t like it after 5 min either, so I got hers too. And yet, it was still awesome. Hop, skip, tylenol pm and a jump and we are in Mammoth, CA landing at what looks quite a bit like a self storage facility in the middle of nowhere. Apparently it’s big enough to land a plane on, because we did.  Good times for everyone…… except the kid who we were all secretly psyched wasn’t one of us, waiting for his bag and realizing that after the last bag that came out wasn’t his, there where no more. Looks like someone’s renting for the week.

I love arriving at places like that at night because you wake up in the morning and look out and think, holy shit….. that looks amazing!! Lance and Clinton essentially taught me to ride, and I’ve been playing catch up since. Ann’s no slouch either. She’ll kill it on the slopes, cook you lunch, plan dinner, make a bunch of new friends and still have time to catch that last lift for one more run. I love riding with these guys. Before we headed out I made sure everyone had downloaded the new Mammoth Mountain App that I had been obsessed with for a month before I got out there. You leave it running in your pocket on your Iphone and it keeps track of how many vertical feet you descend, how long your runs take, how many miles you cover, what trails you were on in real time, and what proved to be all of our personal favorite statistic, how many mph we had reached. I’m willing to bet that if they looked at high speed accidents before and after the release of this app, there would be a discrepancy. We live in a world where, for better or worse, you no longer have to wonder. We have spent years ending runs or days with questions like , how fast had we gone, or was that the trail we had been on when, whatever. 4 days, 51,753 vertical feet, 63.6 miles, and topped out at 65mph…….. Clinton said he got 74 mph, but to quote our friend Brian… pic or it didn’t happen.

As I said before, the catalyst for this trip had been to ride some west coats pow. Yeah…… they got 20ft of snow in Dec., none in Jan., none while we were there, and about another 25ft since we left. Apparently one of us has been a terrible person this year, cause we got f’d on this one. That being said, I will ride all the hard pack and icy conditions they can throw at me if it means I’m riding out there. One major advantage was that, people spoiled by tons of pow, couldn’t be bothered to ride conditions like this, and thats most of what we ride out here, so it was no big deal to us and we had the place to ourselves. Top to bottoms without crossing paths with anyone you weren’t there with….. I’ll take it.

We picked up a couple of friends along the way. Kelly and Jason are two super rad Aussie kids who decided last minute on their break, that they would head to the U.S. and go on a 3 week road trip. They saw more in 3 weeks here than most Americans will venture to see in their lifetime. Having never seen snow before, they figured, why not spend a few days of their trip at Mammoth learning to ride, and ride they did. Now, I know I said before that it didn’t snow at all while we were there, but it did flurry for a little while, so I was glad they at least got to see snow coming down, even if it was only a little. Right before we headed home I hooked up with them for a bit to capture their newfound riding skills and a little bit of trail side cuteness. These two are rock stars, and perfect examples of what spontaneity should be.

At the end of the day, pow or no pow, this trip was nothing short of epic. Tons of great pics, even more great memories, a new high score to beat and some new friends……. here’s to the next one. I figure if I plant enough Heli-riding seeds around Ann, who knows where we’ll end up next year!

Clinton

Lance

I get ideas for photos stuck in my head sometimes. They haunt me until I find them. The above picture has been in my head for years and I have never been able find the right place for it. When I saw this ridge I told myself that if I came home with nothing more than that one picture I had been searching for, I would call it a success. I couldn’t be happier with how both of these came out, I am bummed that I don’t know either of these guys, I just waited patiently and hoped something like this would happen at the ridge. I feel either of them would be pretty stoked with this on their wall. That’s ok, I’ll put it on my wall and be stoked for them.

the lights are the groomers on the back side of the mountain, not UFO’s landing as I had previously suspected

stitched panorama from the top of the gondola

I started an ongoing project years ago. I photograph my feet in a way that represents or show where I am. I have hundreds, I want thousands. Someday, years from now, I’ll put them all together in a giant photomosaic.

I am rarely happier than when I am on a snowboard

Ann, Lance, Clinton, Me

the above is a single frame so you can see them better on the trail below

below is 5 photos stitched as a panorama. notice the lack of anybody but us on the entire back side of the mountain

Lance wore his camouflage jacket

Kelly & Jason

Oh yeah, and did I mention that Shaun White was there! He heard I was up there that week and had been wanting to get some tips from me for the next Olympics, I hooked him up with a few tips…. good luck Shaun!

Lance was appalled that he was taking the chairlift up instead of having the Red Bull heli bring him tho the top of the park. I explained, what’s the point to having your own gold plated chair on the lift if you’re just gonna take the heli.

San Fran @ night

Boston in the am

Sometimes you are just meant to cross paths with certain people. The Mannings and the Ponds and their amazing families were just those certain people. Dean met my friend Tara pre gaming for Burning Man last year with his two brother in laws and partners in crime. Although they may not have found each other there, the Boston Burners bring that vibe home for months after with all kinds of excuses to dance. Dean aka Boosch, brought some of that vibe to see LCD Soundsystem where we met and rocked out with our friends Tmuggs, Riddles & Steady. Keeping up?  Great. Not long after that, one of the aforementioned brother in laws in crime, Greg, boards a plane with his wife Amy and their twins Sadie and Mia, directly in front of  Tara and I. Not long after that we are stuck in the Albany Airport after an emergency landing with little hope in sight. What better to distract you from the fact that you may have to make a 12 hour drive instead of a 1 hour flight than chasing curious tiny twins around an airport. Next thing I know, I’m Greg’s Christmas present……. I mean… Dean bought me for Greg….. I mean… it’s not how it sounds… I swear! Dean payed for Greg to get a couple of hours of photo lessons with me to learn how to use his new Nikon DSLR. Now I’m afraid he’s going to steal all my clients cause I taught him everything I know. After some dog park snow romping we came back for some twin snack time action. I’m not sure I can stand how cute these two are, sorry Greg, I think they get it from Amy. I tried to put Sadie in my camera bag when I left, but Mia blew up my spot. Hop, skip and a jump and month later I’m at Dean’s house, with his beautiful wife Kristin and their two rock star kids Taylor & Jack. Greg, Amy, Mia & Sadie walk in with Ty their puppy. The crew got rounded out with Gma and Gpa Larsen and the third bother in law in crime, John. It was all snow forts and snowball fights from there, Mia may or may not have been used as a shield from behind which Gma may or may not have been throwing snowballs at her children, don’t worry Irma, I saw nothing…  Who doesn’t want grilled sandwiches and dessert pizza after a snowball fight and before heading out sledding……. yeah, I said sledding. As someone who spends quite a bit of time in the snow, I am usually pretty well equipped to do so, except when I don’t bring equipment with me, in which case I’m not well equipped……. frankly, I was too excited about shooting these guys sledding to notice the wet socks. There is something about a kids face while sledding, the pure joy of getting to float down a hill. I imagine I have a similar face when riding. And Dean and Kristen had the same look on their faces when it was their turn on the sled.   Some epic jumps, and pillow landings and I’d call that a successful day…….. but as every kid knows, the snowball fight isn’t really over until the snow melts.

I love the random and often convoluted ways that amazing people come into our lives. I am so lucky to have met all of you…… and your delicious sandwiches. Thank you.

Ty

& Greg

Mia

Sadie

dad’s cooking

Amy

The Larsens, The Mannings & The Ponds

I feel this is probably not the first time Amy has done this to Kristin.

Jack

Taylor

aforementioned little kid joy faces on Dean & Kristin

Taylor was a little hesitant on the first jump………

upon landing in a 3ft. pillow of snow, she smirked…….

…… and it was on!

Jack getting Style points

while the snowball fight may not end til spring…… when you’re a grown up, you can hide in the car.

I will forever be enamoured with dancers. I’m amazed at the ability to move that gracefully, to remember all of the choreography, to not collide with or drop anyone and to remain smiling like there’s nothing to it……. yeah, nothing to go wrong there. This amazement was not in the least diluted despite getting to see behind the curtain.

Jazz Inc. is a Boston based contemporary jazz dance company with the super talented Stephanie Heroux at the helm. Being as talented as she is driven, her company is rocking and in rehearsal for their upcoming show at the Oberon in Cambridge, you can find all the details at www.jazzincdance.com. When Stephanie got in touch with me about working together I was pumped. Before we did our more ‘formal’ photographs, I got to watch them learn and practice some of the choreography for the show. I’m baffled… I have to write down how many creams and sugars Laura wants in her coffee so I don’t forget from the car to the cashier, never mind watching someone do a complex sequence of epic moves once, and being able to damn near nail it on the first try.

I love watching passionate people work, it inspires me. After getting to see them rehearse, we took head shots of everyone, a few shots of the whole cast embodying their upcoming characters, and then we got to play for awhile. Despite being a little cold, and probably more than a little hungry, everyone was down to stick around and get a few different creative shots that I had wanted to try out. In the end, it was an amazing day of being inspired by an amazing group of dancers, and more over, an amazing group of people.

A big thanks to all of you guys for being cool, fun and talented. A special thank you to Stephanie for having me up to shoot, for bringing together the aforementioned group of fun cool peeps, and for giving them rad choreography for me to take pictures of.

These are some shots that I got while shooting everyone’s head shots.  These weren’t fun to take or anything. Thanks guys!

What? You thought there’d be no jazz hands!

I used to have every excuse in the book as to why I couldn’t rock climb. They went from excuses to reasons I should climb. I posted awhile back about my good friends Ben And Vince introducing me to rock climbing. Well, after one day I knew it was on.  A quick trip over to REI and there was no getting rid of me. Learning to climb is definitely a humbling progression and one I would suggest to everyone. I had an amazing summer of learning, trying, failing, falling, sending, and projecting. We climbed at the Quincy Quarries and out in Leominster at Crow Hill and hit up Metrorock in Everett on the days we couldn’t be outside. Thankfully all of us are wedding photographers. Ben & Vince are Avenna Studios and Vince’s girlfriend Laura is one half of Studio Noir, throw in a little Hitched Studios (me) and you have yourself a photographically exceptional climbing team that can climb on Tuesday’s, when everyone else is at work. That is the story of my summer.

Once I got comfortable climbing, I wanted to explore how I could change my approach to shooting climbing. The first hurdle, stop climbing long enough to take pictures, possibly the hardest one. I have the same problem with snowboarding, sometimes I just want to ride, not shoot. When I did shoot I could do so from where ever I wanted, as long as there was something to tie myself to, much safer than some of my previous attempts at shooting from up top. We tried to do a little night climbing a few times, which was awesome and frustrating. You would think, knowing that we would be climbing and hiking at night,we  would have remembered flashlights…… nope. No worries, we all had service, we all downloaded flashlight Iphone 4 apps and hiked out with those. More than once I thought “did you seriously just download a flashlight to your phone in the middle of the woods?”….. it must be the future.

I realize it is a little overdue, but here are some shots from a few different days over the summer. I really want to thank Ben, Vince, Laura and Murray for an amazing summer of climbing and adventure.

Ben

Vince

Having 2 Bens and 2 Lauras didn’t get confusing at all

Quincy Quarries

he became our friend for the day, super nice but a little nuts.

I’m not always lookin down

tied in, off rope on a super sketch ledge…. a little nerve racking at first

he lived

made some new friends along the way, Rachael spent a few hours alongside us teaching her friend to climb

so good she can climb in Uggs….. beats hikin down from getting the rope in your climbing shoes

Laura (Vince’s girlfriend)

I don’t suggest squishing the head of the person belaying you

story on my life

I feel Ben need more things attached to him, I’m not sure he has enough

courtesy of Vince….. me, shocked I made it that far and stumped on how to get further

Thank you Vince,

until next time……

They say Mount Washington has some of the worst weather on the planet at times. There was not a single cloud in the sky all day, except at the top of Mt. Washington.  This was the day after the blizzard and there was 3ft of fresh at Bretton Woods. I am guilty of having too much fun riding to have done any shooting, but on my way home I stopped to appreciate the end of a great day. This is 6 photos stitched.