Hooooooly crap, I don’t think any of us can believe it. I remember 4 summers ago, making the trek up to Boston with her for freshman orientation. Mostly because she was really nervous about being on her own there, but also 'cause I really wanted to wander around the city while she was busy doing orientation things :)

Since then, I have come up to Boston to visit her once every semester. I'd say we've done our fair share of sightseeing and exploring over the past 4 years, but with pretty much every visit, we always end up doing the same things:
- photoshoots in the Public Garden & Boston Common
- strolling down Newbury Street and Comm Ave
- frolicking around the waterfront
- coffee & bagels at Espresso Royale
- watching & singing along to Grease / The Sound Of Music

I would say that I'm extremely sad that this is my last time visiting her at school, but Shannon's planning on staying in Boston after graduating if she can find a job here. So with any luck, these visits will continue!

Congrats, sister! :D

While traveling in Spain, I met a Spanish girl named Marina. She is beautiful and full of life and possibly the most photogenic person I’ve ever met. She’ll be coming to the US this fall to study, so I’m sure this won’t be the last you’ll see of her on this blog :)

Usually when I visit, I bring warm, sunny weather to Boston. This time, not so much – it was about 40 degrees there in early November. So cold that Shannon had to stop and buy a pair of gloves while we were out. She totally pulled off a pair of $1.99 hot pink gloves from Goodwill during a photoshoot!

And if you’d like to book a New York senior portrait session, you can read more about it and contact me for more information! :)

This visit was no exception. We visited the same 2 cafes every day for our daily doses of caffeine. We walked so much that my feet blistered with both pairs of shoes I wore. And I took hundreds of photos of Shannon. I’d say it was a successful trip!

 
This one’s pretty funny – as I was instructing her to bend over and smell the flowers, someone drove by and yelled out ‘YEAH!’. Guess that’s what happens when you’re, uh, well endowed on the back side?

 
I hate shooting people in the middle of the day when it’s so bright out – I actually get asked about this a lot, and it seems that a lot of people assume that the middle of a bright, sunny day is ideal for photoshoots. NOT TRUE! As you can see here, the harsh sunlight cast some weird shadows on Shannon’s skin. It’s just not very flattering. But I couldn’t *not* capture Shan with the gorgeous fences and flowers along Comm Ave :) Sometimes you gotta just make do with what you’ve got!

 
This is me making a cameo here :) Shannon made me dress up with her and trek down to the harbor on a windy evening for a shoot. As you can see, but I went barefoot. Mostly because I didn’t have any shoes that went particularly well with the dress, but also because my feet were destroyed by the shoes I DID have with me in Boston. And, well, I hate shoes anyway. They hate me, too. At least we’re on the same page!

 
We didn’t have much time before the sun went down, but I managed to squeeze in a short series of photos of her by herself.

Here are a few shots from behind-the-scenes of Kelsey’s shoot. The main focus was the hair, and the concept was Star Trek inspired.

The shoot was at a studio near NYU – I highly recommend checking out space4shoots.com. At only $20/hr and with all sorts of equipment at your disposal, it’s a complete steal. We utilized a white backdrop and I arranged monolights with a softbox and shoot-through umbrella accordingly. I had plenty of time to take test shots and tweak the lighting. I’d alter the angles, raise the heights of the lightstands, and adjust the power of the monolights. I continued to make minor tweaks throughout the shoot. It was also my first encounter with Pocket Wizards! I was definitely slightly phobic of the triggers before, but once I started using them I realized how easy they are! With one click of the shutter, I can fire two off-camera lights simultaneously – pretty cool stuff for a girl who’s always been a slave to natural lighting.

The shoot itself was pretty awesome. Rah walked in with a box full of wine bottles and an ipod playlist to psych up all the guests. Friends, acquaintances, and designers all showed up to mingle, network, and step up to my set for some camera time. I was given little direction, but was told to focus on any funky accessories, hair, or tattoos. I took some full-body shots as well. Rah really just wanted everyone’s personality to shine through in the photos. Everything was done with my 70-200mm lens and only a few times I found it to be a wee bit too tight. Some people needed a little help loosening up and having fun with the shots, while others knew exactly how to pose and loved it. These images will ultimately be used on Rah’s website as a sort of look book gallery, so they all have a uniform plain white background and narrow depth of field. I probably should have used a higher f-stop, actually. It was all so different from my typical shooting style, but that’s what made it so exciting. It felt so good to pull off the shoot and stretch myself as a photographer. I’ve only just delved into off-camera lighting, but I can only imagine all the images I can create by tweaking different variables. It excites me to have this whole other world of opportunity in photography, and I’m eager to try my hand at it again soon.

I usually end up forcing her to pose and she’ll moan and groan about it, but afterwards she’s got a slew of Facebook profile-worthy photos at her disposal and everyone’s happy. My recent trip to visit her in Boston was no exception, as I staged a few shoots in the Public Garden and Esplanade. There was still a bit of fall color left, which was a nice touch in the background.

So this evening, we went down the street and I had her pose in front of some colorful graffiti when the late-afternoon lighting was at its peak. I got to play with my new 70-200mm lens, which is an absolute gem despite being huge and heavy. I am slowly getting better at directing her when she models, paying more attention to the lighting and angles to determine what flatters her best in photos.

Then once the light faded, I tried out my new Demb flip-it with the flash. I’ve been looking for some sort of diffuser/bounce card, and this product has both in one. It’s definitely more flattering light than using direct flash or a normal bounce card, and so far I’m happy with it.