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Through The Lockdown Glass
As a portrait photographer, my business has pretty much stalled. As has my social life.
Being locked down due to COVID-19 is taking a toll on all of us in pretty much every way imaginable. I miss work. I miss my friends. I miss being alone because I choose to be alone. I miss being stuck in my house with my family because I choose to be stuck in my house with my family. I think I even miss traffic.
This whole crazy situation has really made me appreciate how important routine casual interactions are. On the flip side, I’ve also realized how foreign isolation feels — especially from those you’re used to seeing often.
I love random encounters with random people. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a simple smile from a passerby or sympathizing with the dude behind me at the grocery store who’s pissed off because someone’s slow at self checkout. Being around people keeps me going. It fuels me. And now, it seems even making eye contact is off limits.
So, back to my friends. What were they all doing? How were they all handling this order to shelter in place? We had some group Zoom “happy hours,” which was honestly something I really looked forward to, but I wanted to see them in person.
I decided I would visit them while engaging in proper social distancing. I started driving by their houses and texted them to come to their windows or doors when I showed up. Some got fair warning, others not so much.
When they appeared, I popped out of my car door (or sunroof) and snapped a few shots.
There wasn’t much conversation but just seeing familiar faces in person and shooting their portraits seems enough to keep me sane for just a little bit longer.
Check out this project in the media
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Arielle
I was supposed to shoot Arielle inside this beautiful mansion at the edge of Philadelphia’s city limits but there was a terrible ice storm that day which forced us to put that plan on hold. Since we were both ready to work we decided to relocate to my much more centrally located studio. I assumed we’d just get a few shots against a seamless then call it a day but we ended up with almost a portfolios worth of work! Just goes to show that you have to be flexible and despite planning be fluid with your expectations.
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Sunset Lake/ Benson, Vermont
Last August, I spent a week at Sunset Lake in Benson, Vermont with my wife, daughter and friends. I spend 90% of my time in the city so this was a very welcomed change of pace. I hadn’t been to Vermont in many many years and forgot just how rural is it. I encounter more strangers in the first five minutes of my day in Philly than I did the entire week we were there.
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Portraits of Anna
Anna, a brilliant mathematician and alluring model came in for some portraits earlier this month. We shot in three locations within my studio’s building, a balcony, stairwell and hallway. I kept it simple with a single light/ beauty dish supported on a large rolling boom stand.
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fast faces.
these portraits are from a headshot booth i set up and ran during a biomedical convention a few years back. about a thousand people stopped by over three days for a quick and easy portrait. I was recently scrolling through the folder containing all the images and was mesmerized by how each face shape morphed into the next. You don’t realize how bizarrely different yet the same we all appear until you see something like this.
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Sofia
I was driving around North Philly last fall and caught a glimpse of this striking spot. The contrast of the colorful decaying leaves against the rusted metal and industrial facade was the perfect setting for some moody fashion oriented portraits. I sent my model, Sofia, a snapshot of the location and she told me had the perfect dress to match the tone. The building is owned by Verizon and I had a feeling that putting in a request to shoot on their property would be either ignored or denied. So Instead of asking for permission upfront, I figured we’d ask for forgiveness later. I set up two lights on rolling boom stands, one equipped with a beauty dish and the other I honestly can’t remember ( i really need to start documenting my behind the scenes setup) There was no opening in the fence so we had to lift everything and everyone over. I figured we’d have a few minutes to work before someone came out to yell at us and at most i’d get to fire off a few test shots. After and hour and a half of shooting various set-ups in different spots we wrapped without incident. I love discovering random locations to shoot. If and when I come across some place interesting I generally take a picture, write down where it is and upload it to a folder on my computer. I’ve got about fifty places I still haven’t gotten to yet. Any volunteers wanna step in?
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Sculpting Biceps and Light
The time, dedication and discipline it must take to transform yourself into this bulging mass of muscles is nothing short of impressive. I like noodles and cake way too much to ever stand a chance at achieving such a goal. Fitness shoots are fun though because you really get to play with light and shadow in an incredibly interesting way. William here is a champion when it come to sculpting biceps but I train and sculpt light.
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Ecuador | 10 Places | 20 People
With such a beautifully diverse landscape, wandering through this small South America country was an incredibly unique and demanding experience. Ecuador may only be the size of Colorado but what it lacks in size it certainly makes up for in character.
Traveling 14 miles from Quito, the worlds second highest capital in terms of elevation to a nearby hot springs “resort” nestled deep in the woods took hours. And once there, traversing the hilly terrain at an altitude of 12,000+ feet was no easy task. But soaking in volcanic runoff, eating trout caught moments before being prepared and sleeping next to a humming waterfall eased all hardships faced. Heading down the mountain to the coast provided a challenge that could break any seasoned adventurer. Just imagine spending 10 hours overnight on a crowded bus where only women were allowed to use the bathroom and that’s only after they convinced the driver that no solid waste would be expelled. On top of that, every so often disco lights and blaring music would fill the cabin as well as the noise of a restless passenger who would yell “Pelicula. Pelicula” whenever he woke from a nap. This is how some prison camps are portrayed in your favorite Hollywood blockbusters.
When the bus finally reached sea-level, we hopped off into the pre-dawn darkness that is 5 a.m. It was pouring, and after some sleepy negotiation we jumped into electric tricycles that could barely handle the muddy streets of Puerto Lopez. We eventually made it to the apartment we were staying in with the gracious help of our Italian ex-pat host Giuseppe. It took him only moments after arriving to offer to sell the place to us for $150,000. Oh did I mention, that in addition to the four adults (including myself) traveling, we were also carting along a 2 year old and nine month old?
This is just a glimpse into the two weeks I spent in Ecuador this past winter with my wife, daughter, our two friends, and their son. Please check back soon for a full trip report.
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