There are certain people in this world that are able to walk into any room and brighten it with their personality. They can easily approach anyone with a huge smile and love. You can’t help but absorb the vibe they’ve let out and you almost immediately feel great being around that person. Lindsay is one of those rare people that I am fortunate enough to have known for many years. Although she moved away from New York about 4 or 5 years ago we have kept in touch with each other via emails, Facebook and traveling to each other’s side of the country.

When Lindsay was diagnosed with Alopecia, a skin disease that causes hair loss that affects approximately 2% of the world’s population, I knew that she was very upset and it was going to be a stressful obstacle in her life. You would never know any of that though thanks to her strength and determination to be herself. Nothing has changed for Lindsay since her diagnosis. She’s still the same lively, soulful, and loving person she’s always been. She hasn’t let this disease define who she is as a person and I am damn proud of her for that.

The first two portraits that I’ve posted here are how I see Lindsay’s strength and soulfulness. I wanted to portray that although she’s obviously been diagnosed with a disease that many people try to hide from others because they may find it embarrassing, Lindsay stands strong and is proud of her looks, no matter what. The third portrait below is a perfect depiction of Lindsay’s personality in my opinion.

Lighting

The lighting that I used for these portraits was very simple. I only used one light, an Elinchrom BXRi500 in an Elinchrom 39″ Deep Octa. I kept the power very low so that I can open up my aperture to get that shallow depth of field. The light was to camera right, basically in front of Lindsay but more behind her…if that makes sense. A white v-flat was used on the second and third photo to fill in the shadows a bit.

You can see a lot of my Observations (street photography) on my Tumblr site here.

After taking a look at all those photographs you will probably wonder why I decided to post the video below. Honestly, it’s just to try something new with my work. I want to get more into video and figure that one of the best ways to do it is by shooting something that I already love shooting. I will admit that this is not the best piece of video you will ever come across. Indeed it is very far from that. But I am happy with the results.  I think there’s an interesting story to be found in this video. What are your thoughts?

I recently had the privileged opportunity to meet and photograph the owner of Elliot Stevens, Ltd. in The Waldorf Astoria, David Assoulin. This portrait session was a very special opportunity for me because I was able to photograph someone who is very important in the arts and antique industry. I have always been interested in the arts and try to get to museums and galleries whenever I have time to do so. Mr. Assoulin has bought and sold antiques and pieces of historic art all over the world, including the royal family of the United Kingdom. Elliot Stevens, Ltd. is packed from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, with millions of dollars worth of beautiful artistry. One piece in particular is a very important piece to David. That is the coral statue that I photographed him with while he sat at his gilded and leather covered desk. The day of the shoot David received shipment of this piece (along with many engraved ivory tusks and other amazing items). What made this shipment so important to him was that David had sold this exact statue to a museum in Tennessee 50 years ago! When the crate was opened to reveal this stunning coral statue David immediately had it placed on his desk for his inspection. He told me of its history and what makes it so important and why it is worth 1.2 million dollars!

I also photographed Sandy (David’s nephew) and Steven (David’s brother) who work alongside David. I felt it was important to have a portrait of them as well since they help keep the business running.

Lighting was kept very simple due to my space limitations amongst all of the highly valued statues, clocks, paintings, jewelry cases, and other items that I won’t be able to pay for anytime soon. My assistant Ian and I set up a 60″ shoot through umbrella to camera left for both portraits and a 7″ gridded reflector to camera right and behind Mr. Assoulin for a rim light. The rim light was placed between two of those huge vases you see in the first portrait. Elinchrom Ranger Quadras were used thanks to their small compact size and battery power.

If there’s anything that I love about my career in portrait photography, it would most definitely be the wide range of people that I’ve had the opportunity to work with. One such person that I recently had the privilege of working with is Karen Orlando.  Karen is a Long Island gospel singer and ordained Christian minister. People who are close to me mostly know that I am not a religious person. It’s just my way of life and my own personal choice to not have a specific belief in a God or other related topics. Regardless of my religious views, I was very excited to work with Karen because I was able to create a portrait that I’ve been anxious to shoot for a long time.

Just like all photographers, I try to find reference for my work in many other photographers’ work and many other forms of art. I refer to the work of photographers who are at the top of their game and are able to execute an inspiring portrait. For this particular shoot with Karen, I was trying to figure out how to shoot a gospel singer who did not want to shoot in her church or have any religious details as part of her portraits. With that in mind, I knew that a clean background and soft yet dramatic lighting would convey the soul of her music. I was instantly reminded of a B.B. King and Etta James portrait that Annie Liebowitz created. If you know of either of those portraits, you’ll know exactly why I chose them as my reference. Of course I didn’t want to make an exact duplicate of Liebowitz’s portraits because that’s just not cool and respectful. Be your own artist! So, with those portraits in my mind I asked Karen to play her new music and just get lost in her singing. The rest was simple. Shooting with an 85mm lens at around f/4 and the 69″ Elinchrom Octa to camera left and slightly behind Karen, I was able to get these two portraits.

A few weeks ago I had an opportunity to work with a beast of a DJ from Long Island. DJ E.T. is making a name for himself and I can tell you now that you will be seeing more of him over the years. He’s already spun at Giants Stadium during Bamboozle and at Gramercy Theater to name just a few. For those of you who have checked out my One Question portrait project, you may recognize him from there as well. It was during that project when I first met him and we’ve kept in touch since.

As I’m sitting here writing this post, looking over all my photos from shooting Dream Theater for Roadrunner Records, I still can’t get over what an incredible experience it was. This band has been performing all over the world for millions of fans for over 25 years. Recently one of the founders of the band, Mike Portnoy (drummer), decided to step away from the band, leaving the guys of Dream Theater with a serious issue to handle. Any, if not all, bands have dealt with changing members throughout their history of playing together but this was different for DT. How can you replace a powerhouse drummer such as Portnoy with someone equally as talented and who can also fit in with the guys well enough to tour the world? The band held auditions for 3 straight days in New York City. Here’s Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the series “The Spirit Carries On”. After what I’m sure was one of the band’s hardest decisions to make, they chose Mike Mangini as their new drummer.

I caught up with the guys at Cove City Studios in Glen Cove, NY while they were recording their new album. John Myung was in the process of recording his tracks while I was there. I was granted full access to the recording studio (hell yea!) so that I could document the day’s events while John was recording as well as the taping of interviews with Mike Mangini and Dream Theater. It was insane to see John play in the recording studio. I’ve never seen someone play the bass guitar so quickly!

My day with the guys of Dream Theater was an absolute blast. They were all incredibly nice guys and very cooperative with me and the camera. I am very grateful to Roadrunner Records for hiring me to work with them for this shoot and I hope to work with them again very soon (Lenny Kravitz please!). Hope you all enjoy these photos of Dream Theater in the studio!

I had an opportunity to work with Roadrunner Records recently when I was asked to photograph Dream Theater in the recording studio. The main objective was to document the day’s events in the recording studio and also to get a few group portraits for promotional use. I went into this shoot determined to do the absolute best job that I could do (as I always do with any shoot) because being able to work for a major record label like Roadrunner is a big deal to me. I shot a TON of photos, capturing as many moments during the day as possible. Although I was only asked to get one group portrait of Dream Theater, I knew I wanted to get at least two group portraits and solo portraits of all the guys as well.
I started with solo portraits in the live room at Cove City Studios. I photographed each guy in front of a collapsible black background. Only one light was used which was my go to 39″ Elinchrom Deep Octa. I would have loved to go with a multiple light set up but I was restricted to about 10 square feet of shooting space. In the end, I’m quite happy with the results of the solo portraits.

James LaBrie

Jordan Rudess

John Petrucci

John Myung

Mike Mangini

After all the solo portraits were completed and John Myung finished recording the remaining of 1-2 more songs, I was able to get the guys of Dream Theater to take a quick walk around the corner to a nearby parking garage. Honestly, I would have been much happier with a better location (something not so cliche) but I made the garage work the best I could within the 5-10 minutes I had them for.

The group portrait in the garage was shot with two lights. A large Elinchrom 69″ Octa directly above my camera about 8-10′ up and a bare bulb from the back. As I mentioned above, I only had about 10 minutes with the guys to get this portrait, so I was working my ass off to get the lighting down quickly. Not too easy when working alone but you have to make due with what you have. Regardless of the stress, sweat and craziness involved to get this shot, I’m happy with the results of my hard work. This photo is all over the internet right now being used for Dream Theater‘s promotional use and on the main Roadrunner Records website.

Coming next will be the documentary photos in the recording studio.

It’s hard to believe that one year has passed since one of the best days of my life. Today is the one year anniversary of when I married my beautiful bride, Michelle. As I’m writing this post, I’m thinking back on everything that we have done over our first year of marriage. We traveled over to London for our honeymoon. We both have made huge decisions to pursue our passion and follow our dreams to be successful in our careers. Our home has gone through major renovations (which is also a test in patience) and now we live more comfortably in our little house in Medford. Although there are probably hundreds of other things that I’m missing here, it goes without saying that Michelle and I have most definitely enjoyed this past year. I’m looking forward to many more years with this woman. Love ya bebs.

You can see more of our wedding photos on AltF’s (John Michael Cooper and Dalisa Cooper) here on their website.

Mark has worked for Wenner Bread Products for over 22 years as a truck driver. That’s a long time to be behind the wheel of one of those beasts but after talking with Mark about his job, I now understand that it is just something that he loves to do. Mark is responsible for delivering truck loads of products to distribution warehouses and high quantity customers of the company. I personally can’t imagine trying to drive one of those trucks considering the trouble that I had with a 30 foot RV during a cross country road trip 2 years ago. Mark is truly just a nice guy who is willing to do just about anything (within reason of course) for his company. When he was asked to participate in the “Portraits of Loyalty” project he didn’t hesitate one second to say yes. He even came in on his day off to have his portrait done with his truck. That doesn’t sound like a lot to ask but when I have him moving the truck all over the road to get the right angles and spent some time setting up lights with Austin while he patiently waited, I was very appreciative of him coming in that day.

This first portrait was shot on the road in front of the factories. I spent a little bit of time trying to get the full length of the truck in the shot. Although those photos did come out nice, I like the intensity of this photo showing the size of the truck relative to Mark, who’s also a pretty big guy. Lighting for this was just a white beauty dish with a gold deflector. Shooting up from the ground gives you the impression of the size of the truck (and Mark) as well as only showing the sky in the background. I wanted to remove everything from the background in order not to distract you from what really matters.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts about this project, everyone was asked to have two portraits done. One in studio and one in the employee’s respective department of the company. The photo above is Mark’s studio portrait, shot with just the 39″ Deep Octa.

As most of my shoots go, I wanted to start off very simple with the look and lighting. This helps my subject and I get familiar with each other and get comfortable for the rest of the day. For these first two images, I was only using a 69″ Elinchrom Octa. I love this modifier because of the beautiful soft wrapping light it creates. Although you do see a large strip box in the background, it was not used for this photo…which is obvious in these photos.

As we moved on to the second look of the shoot, I decided to keep the lighting exactly the same. I was really enjoying this light for Nicole’s photos so there was no need to change anything. Rather than worrying about the light, positioning of the light, and my settings, I continued to talk with Nicole more and just get to know each other. This type of interaction really helps your subject get more comfortable in front of your lens, especially for when your subject is not used to having their photo taken. Obviously this is not the case for Nicole with her being a model, but it certainly helps one way or the other.

Now it was time to move on to what I was very excited for. A 6 foot tall bear skin. I usually don’t work props into my shoots and that is exactly why I wanted to bring along the bear skin. I had a lot of different ideas that I wanted to shoot for this bear skin but the weather did not permit us to go outdoors. I was very happy to shoot in the studio though because of the results that Nicole and I were getting. Nicole was a real trooper as she carried the bear skin on her back and laid on the ground with it. That thing was not exactly light in weight and had a certain scent to it that I personally didn’t think was exactly pleasant. Nicole did a great job with it though and I am very happy with the images that came from this look.

For this final image I really stepped out of my comfort zone by trying to create a nice composite image. Although there are a few things here and there that I think can use some extra work, I am overall pleased with the results. I think I’ll try to improve on this type of work during future test shoots. What do you think?