Just a quick post. Fall is offically here as another Head of the Charles Regatta has come and gone. Tons of people, braving sunny but cold temperatures on Saturday, and cold, rain and snow on Sunday. You have to hand it to those athletes, they really love to row. I’m not ashamed to admit, as they were rowing in the rain and snow on Sunday, I was inside watching the Patriots beat up on the Titans. But Saturday, I was on those “Banks of the River Charles” firing frames of stills and even video too. Upon Download it was a rather disapointing result. Spotty light, that would come and go, mostly failed attempts at panning with the rowers, out of almost 800 frames, I think 150 or so were kept, which isnt my normal ratio these days. The whole set can be seen on my flickr plus check out the wicked cool Animoto video I created below!
Here is a video slide show of my trip to the White Mountains with friend and fellow photog John Tammaro. A full post about the trip to follow
I have won the August edition of Boston.com RAW photography contest! A little background on the contest. It is a monthly contest open to all amateur photographers, and there is a different theme every month. Each month they get local professional photographers to judge the contest. August’s theme was Architecture, the judge was Bruno Debas of the New England School of Photography, and unlike other months, this time the photo had to be taken during that particular month. View full post »
Greetings all, and especially all my fellow Boston Photographers. This blog post is going out as a kick starter to gather us together to discuss how we might help this cause. Professional photographer Jeremy Cowart has come up with a brilliant idea. It’s an idea to help, give back to the community, show that photography transcends the masses and the classes, to help out those who might not be able to afford the photo services of pros or even semi-pros like a lot of us. Please watch the following video, and leave a comment if you are interested in getting together grabbing a beer and figuring out how we can do this. We all have the gear, but we would have to find a place, print services, hair/make-up stuff like that, it would be quite the undertaking, but it will make someones holiday that much brighter. Lets put those brain pans together and figure it out. I will start threads on the various flickr groups that we participate in and we can use that forum to do the logistics and planning. You can also sign up at Help-Portrait for more information
Its been some time since without any blog updates so I figured a summer review was in order, it being Labor Day weekend and all. Lots of photos were taken this summer, new friends were made, and photo dreams come true.
Summer for me started in May with the Volvo Ocean Race coming to Boston for its only US stopover. I got the opportunity to help out my friend and fellow photographer Brad Moore, who is the photo editor at The Bostonist, cover the event. The Volvo Ocean Race is an around the world sailing race, deemed the last extreme sport in the world and seeing it first hand I couldn’t agree more. We were embedded with PUMA Ocean Racing, PUMA has an international office at the Design Center in South Boston and its US headquarters is in Westford, MA so this was a local event for them. We were invited to the press days, covered the Race Village and we were invited to spend the day on the PUMA support Rib and cruise around Boston Harbor to photograph the Volvo Pro Am Race, which puts amateur sailors and media members on the race boats to see how these guys work first hand. That also gave me the opportunity to rent a Canon 500mm f/4 lens, I didn’t think that I was going to use it for the Pro Am race, but I ended up taking it on the rib, and hand holding a 500mm lens on a moving boat taking photos of other moving boats for 5 hours!
There were multiple photoshoots around the city with friends throughout June, lots of sunsets, nights, urban environments and even a couple of portrait shoots for good measure. The 4th of July came quickly and with the weather this summer never really becoming summer till August, getting a nice day for a fireworks shoot, was going to be a crap shoot. Luckily the photo gods were on our side and the 4th was the perfect day. I spent the morning and afternoon with my friend Erin watching Old Ironside on its annual turn around, we had a mini pub crawl, then it was time to meet my friends John and Rich to set up camp on the Mass Ave bridge to photograph the fireworks on the Charles River, Erin her friend even joined back up with us for all the bright lights and big bangs of the rockets red glare.
Late July found the Tall Ships in Boston Harbor, for Sail Boston 2009. This event was on again/off again because a money dispute between the Organizer and the City of Boston. Seems the Organizer stiffed the city out of a hefty bill for security and sanitation after the last event. Luckily the sides worked things out and although it was a scaled down event, the ships came, and thousands came out to see them in all there glory. It was a difficult event to shoot given the tight security, dock restrictions and the sheer amount of people, but I got some great photos none the less. And the next time the event comes to town I’ll be a little better prepared for photographing the shoots.
August featured the second annual Scott Kelby World Wide Photowalk which photographers from all over the world got together to take photos for the sole enjoyment of it. Sure there were some great prizes to be had for the best photos but when it came right down to it, the event was about socializing with fellow photographers, sharing knowledge, and having fun. There were a total of seven walks around Boston, Brad lead the Boston: Seaport to North End walk. It was a good time, I met some good people, and I got daring, I put my Canon 5D mark II, Canon 15mm Fisheye lens, and a pocket wizard into a ziplock bag and then put that bag into the middle of a fountain to try to get the water shooting into the air. The shots didn’t come out like I had hoped but I will be trying that again before the fountains are shut off.
The Canon 17mm TS-E tilt shift lens came into stock at lensprotogo and I took that opportunity to rent it for two weeks and see what it was all about. I have to say, it became my favorite lens very quickly but at $2,500.00 it won’t have a permanent spot in my bag for quite some time. John Brad and I went up to Marblehead, MA and shot sunrise on the ocean, we might of had to leave Boston at 4:30 am to get there for sunrise but this lens performed like a champ and it was well worth it. I photographed lots of urban architecture around Boston with it and then the following weekend I took it to Newport, RI with John to shoot sunset, but while down there we broke out the big zooms and we went and took photos of a polo match at the Newport Polo Club. It was two straight weeks of taking pictures to get the most of my money for this rental, and i burned myself out doing it. I haven’t taken a lot of pictures since returning it, but that will soon be changing, I’m headed out tomorrow night to photograph sunset at Harvard Stadium with John and Rich and then most likely photos at night in Harvard Square. John and I are also planning a New Hampshire fall foliage photo trip, to break up city life and get a refreshing change of scenery.
Well that’s the highlights for the summer, stay tuned to the blog, as I am planning on participating in a few events during the remaining months of the year, including Worldwide Moment and Help Portrait.
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Chris Stern - Hello Jeff,
I am interested in participating in this project. Keep me posted on when and where we will meet up to discuss what we are going to do to help in the cause.
Chris