Wedding Wednesday

It's officially Springtime.  Who's getting married lakeside and celebrating under the stars this Spring?

The Tuesday Face

The Tuesday Face

Wedding Wednesdays

This flower girl was instructed to empty the flower petals in her basket onto the aisle.  And so she did.  :)

Wedding Wednesdays

I love taking photographs of the bride and groom's reactions when receiving toasts.  This photo was captured during the best man's toast.  Can you guess what he might have been saying about the groom?

Wedding Wednesdays

I've got Tuscany on my mind today.  Can you believe how beautiful this Italian wedding reception setting was!?!  If only the photo could show you how this warm night smelled....jasmine, fresh cut grass, olive groves.....

The Tuesday Face

Wedding Wednesday

I loved working with this couple last fall.  Not only were they some of the most gracious and kind people I've worked with, their chemistry and great love for one another was palpable.  Pretty obvious in this photo, don't you think!?

The Tuesday Face

Friday Photo Facts

The First Aerial Photograph

A Parisian photographer known as Nadar (his birthname is Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) is credited with the first aerial photograph in 1858.  The photograph was taken from a hot air balloon built especially for the occasion in order to accommodate the large format camera needed to achieve the photo.  This balloon, named 'Le G`eant' (the Giant), was so large and inventive, it inspired Jules Verne's 'Five Weeks in a Balloon'.  

While the photo itself doesn't exist anymore, the process to achieve it was so inventive and grand that the credit is undeniable.  Nadar was credited with many firsts in the history of photography and I will comment on all of them in coming weeks so stay tuned.  He is a favorite of mine.  

Here is a fantastic cartoon of Nadar achieving the first aerial photograph.  Below it is a photo of my foot while I achieved my first aerial photograph in Hong Kong in 2011.  What do you think?  Kind of awesome to see similar formats from such different eras, no?  
Nadar:  Hot air Balloon, 1858.  Me:  Helicopter, 2011.  Pretty.  Cool.

Slideshow Thursdays: Lillian Bassman

Lillian Bassman worked as a textile designer and fashion illustrator before working at Harper’s Bazaar as an art director and then a self-taught photographer under Alexey Brodovitch. 

It is pretty clear how her background influenced her photographic aesthetic, but, still, how incredibly brave of her to be a woman working in literally the ‘Mad Men’ era of advertising and magazine publishing New York City, and challenge the way the world sees the female figure.  I am of course editorializing here, but many have and do agree.  Lillian Bassman was a trendsetter in her time.  And in her time, it was very challenging to be taken seriously as a female artist. 

I love her work because it still challenges our perception of ‘woman’ and the female form more than half a century later.  Even her skilled darkroom experimentation can hardly be mimicked today with the most advanced technologies.  Lillian Bassman had the ability to created drama, romance, elegance, and mystery in a single frame.  All the while advertising a brand of perfume, pantyhose, fine jewelry and cosmetics. 

Bassman lived and worked until just last year, passing away in February of 2012.  There were fabulous tributes written after her passing.  If you’d like to read more, please click here to see what the New Your Times had to say.

Do you like her photography?  Do you think it would still make great advertising photography in today’s world? 

Wedding Wednesday

This elegant Mother-of-the-Bride was on her way to her daughter's wedding ceremony after hugging her daughter and wishing her well.  What do you think she was thinking about when this photo was taken?

The Tuesday Face

Slideshow Thursdays: Philippe Halsman

One of my many photographic heroes, Philippe Halsman (1906-1979) proved that portraiture has no boundaries.  The results of his dedication to experimental and psychological portraiture offer proof that no two people are alike and their portraits must be unique and exhibit the same diversity.  
Halsman's archive, library and life history are well managed and preserved here.  You can read Halsman's autobiography on his website, but here's a copy of the brief career overview from his website if you're just stopping in for a quick read...

Philippe Halsman (1906-1979) was born in Riga, Latvia and began his photographic career in Paris. In 1934 he opened a portrait studio in Montparnasse, where he photographed many well-known artists and writers — including André Gide, Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, and André Malraux, using an innovative twin-lens reflex camera that he designed himself.

Part of the great exodus of artists and intellectuals who fled the Nazis, Halsman arrived in the United States with his young family in 1940, having obtained an emergency visa through the intervention of Albert Einstein.

Halsman’s prolific career in America over the next 30 years included reportage and covers for every major American magazine. These assignments brought him face-to-face with many of the century’s leading statesmen, scientists, artists and entertainers. His incisive portraits appeared on 101 covers for LIFE magazine, a record no other photographer could match.

Part of Halsman’s success was his joie de vivre and his imagination — combined with his technological prowess. In 1945 he was elected the first president of the American Society of Magazine Photographers (ASMP), where he led the fight to protect photographers’ creative and professional rights. In 1958 Halsman’s colleagues named him one of the World’s Ten Greatest Photographers. From 1971 to 1976 he taught a seminar at The New School entitled “Psychological Portraiture.”

Halsman began a thirty-seven year collaboration with Salvador Dali in 1941 which resulted in a stream of unusual “photographs of ideas,” including “Dali Atomicus” and the “Dali’s Mustache” series. In the early 1950s, Halsman began to ask his subjects to jump for his camera at the conclusion of each sitting. These uniquely witty and energetic images have become an important part of his photographic legacy.

Wedding Wednesday!

Well, here we go!  My first blog post and it just so happens to be a Wednesday.  I'll be posting my favorite wedding image of the week every Wednesday so be sure to check back.  You might be very surprised by the type of imagery that can be created at a wedding!  

This image was captured in the enchanting Yosemite National Park.  This bride and her father share an extraordinary bond and it seems the spot of sunshine illuminating this very sweet moment knew it, too.