Portrait Session - Molly

Molly wanted some fun photos to display at her upcoming Bat Mitzvah so we went downtown and created some great portraits on the riverwalk and the Dequindre Cut Greenway. Even though it was close to 100 degrees outside, she kept her cool and posed like a pro.

21:365 Black & White 4.12.10

Jake.

Some days I get creative, interesting photos, some days I get Jake. Jake is one of the high school kids I work with as a youth group advisor. Jake is a funny kid. He was the first to volunteer to let me take his photo when I asked a few of the kids. He quickly turned on the "blue steel" and was giving me all sorts of interesting poses (and subsequently making the girls that tagged along laugh out loud, or LOL for you younger folks...). To give you an idea of the kind of kid Jake is, shortly after our photo shoot, he was doing spontaneous trust falls. He would stand in front of or next to someone and, without warning, start falling into them and say "trust fall!" Needless to say, he wasn't always caught. I actually photographed Jake's Bar Mitzvah a few years ago and a few of his photos are still in my portfolio.

On a technical note, I feel the black and white worked really well in this photo. In color, there is too much going on. The window light was blueish and the color from inside was the greenish, yellow from fluorescent lights. There were some things outside the window that were distracting in color and all of this made the photo very busy. Making it black and white simplifies things, keeps your focus on Jake's eyes, as creepy as they may be... you should see the ones that didn't make the cut...

Ruby's mom has got it going on...

Here's a recent portrait I took of Danielle for her book jacket photo. She's a good friend who happens to live around the corner from me. Our daughters are 2 months apart, so we have lots of play dates. When she's not chasing Ruby around, she's a professor at Wayne State with my father-in-law and just finished writing the book that this photo will appear in, At the Dark End of the Street. Oh, and I didn't know it at the time, but Ruby's future sibling is also in this photo - congrats to Danielle & Adam!

Jen & Jeremy

Spent some time at Cranbrook with Jen and Jeremy a few weeks ago. Looking forward to their wedding this fall. Here are a few of my faves: