Replicating Photos Taken Many Years Previously...or trying to!

September 23, 2019

You’ve seen the photos where siblings - many years later - get together and try to replicate photos from their youth? Where they try to match the outfits, the decor, the posing…all with hilarious results due to the fact that they’re all much bigger now, the decor is outdated, and polyester is no longer an option when it comes to clothing?

Well…this isn’t quite like that!

Last fall, we got the opportunity to photograph Caroline’s crew again; the first time was 14 years previously, almost to the day. It’s always amazing to see somebody that you first had in front of your camera a long time ago, back in front of it again! Except for the fact that it makes one feel old, it is one of the intangible benefits of the job - and the process we’ve undertaken lately of looking back after #15years of our business has given us so many examples of people that we’ve seen grow up that we’ll be sharing a few of them in the coming weeks…but back to this family!

In the process of photographing all large family groupings, we always do a bunch of combinations of people - and especially when dealing with multiple generations. We had the whole family positioned in a field and did a bunch of these combinations, breaking it down to the point where we got to just the kids set up. One of them said “Let’s do that picture from when we were kids!”, so they all sat down and tried to recreate the shot - who was on what side, where the hands were and whose expression was what - was all earnestly discussed for quite some time between them.

Mom jumped in there, too, and started positioning them!!! No one could quite agree on what was right…

And I was no help at all! I really wasn’t sure what was going on while it was happening, and I couldn’t remember the photo in question, even though I took it! But we just kept taking pictures. It wasn’t until after we got back from the session and saw the original that it all came flooding back.

Thankfully, the 2018 version did not include tears like the 2004 one did!

Here’s some of the other shots we did from both sessions. Enjoy!

One of our best photos...period.

September 19, 2019

When we started thinking about the 15th anniversary of locps, and some of the images we created in the past…one of the first photographs to come to mind is this one….

Taken in December of 2004, Amy captured this moment in our Mill Street studio…and we’ve been haunted by those eyes ever since! In the single click of a shutter, an image that conveys so much emotion and so much feeling is really hard to put into words, even after so much time passing.

Liz had a footwear store around the corner from us, and came into our shop one day nervously with a request - could we capture the intimacy of her breastfeeding her little one? Of course we said yes!

The date was set, and I took the afternoon off. In order to help ease into the session, Amy took a bunch of photos working up to the feeding photos, and this is one of them. At three months old, Paige was not able to sit up on her own - most babies do so at six months - so mom lovingly held her for a bunch of them.

We used this photo as a sample everywhere. It was on a bunch of print ads and on our original website. We used it as our Gift Certificate image forever, it was the cover of a United Way brochure we designed, and it was prominent on the banners we had displayed on the outside of our second location on Main Street. In fact, Liz told us that when Paige was older, they would drive by and she would exclaim “There’s the Photo House!” when she saw herself.

Amy also captured the breastfeeding shots, but only a few. The session was cut short when, while naked and feeding, Paige had a bit of a bowel movement! It went everywhere!!! Poor Liz wasn’t sure what to do, holding a a baby without a shirt on and baby poop all over her. And neither did Amy - do you keep taking photos at that point, or do you start the clean up?

#TBT - Dance Photos with a Classic, Timeless Appeal

September 12, 2019

With our daughter starting dance class this week at Center Stage School of the Arts, we thought it might be a good time to revisit some photos we captured for them back in early 2006….

The vision was to represent the young dancer and their goal in reaching for the skills of the older, experienced dancer…an attempt to create a visual representation of the dream. So, in the cold of February we interrupted a dress rehearsal at the John Elliot Theatre and set about to capture the magic!

Utilizing one of the owner’s very young daughter, we pitched our lights around the theatre and set up our tripod on stage. Our young dancer was very operative, and very mesmerized by the ballerina in front of her! We got a bunch of great shots relatively quickly - which was good, because we were surrounded by dancers who wanted to keep rehearsing! - but we took a bit more time away from their practice to get a different look.

Studio lighting is the professional photographers tool for ensuring that you are able to get a proper exposure of all elements of the final image - to create a 2D image you need to be aware of all the light in the three dimensional world. On four of the examples below, there’s a light specifically for the red seats, and another light on the stage (to the side) to light up the dancers. The positioning of the lights is critical to highlight features of the environment, create the shape of the shadows and the overall feel of the photograph. The image changes when the direction of the light changes - for example, a “direct” light source like a flash mounted on the camera will light up the subject in front of the lens but darken down the background!

After getting some great shots, we just weren’t satisfied the we got “the” shot…so we made some adjustments. We turned off our lights and adjusted the camera exposure settings to the spot light provided. It accentuated the shadows on the stage and provided a lovely glowing effect around the subjects that the powerful studio lights had minimized. By that point, our tiny model was providing some awesome expressions that captured the joy and wonderment of a youngster entranced by dance!

We did use one little trick though…to help keep the little one focused on reaching for the ballerina’s leg, we placed a tiny piece of duct tape on the tights! Kids just can’t resist grabbing that sticky tape!!!

Although they are almost 14 years old, these images still stand up to the test of time…and they are still proudly displayed in the ballet studio at Center Stage for the next set of tiny dancers to be inspired to reach for their dreams!

Check out some other Dance stuff we’ve done in the past by clicking here. Let us know what you think! We’d love to hear from you!

Amy & Jeff

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