Katherine Quinn for The Rhode Island Portrait Project

I photographed Katherine Quinn for the Rhode Island Portrait Project using a 70-200 mm VR Nikon lens on my D700 body set to ISO 800

I used 3 lights a 43″ Octabox set up and camera left about 5′ away from Katherine this was my main light, a smaller soft box set about 15′ back and camera right this light you can see on her neck and cheek. I wanted this light to be very subtle and barely show. And last I used a ring flash to fill in again in a very subtle way some of the shadows on her. The location we chose Fete club in Providence RI has this wonderful art piece which has a spot light on it, as well as having some purple lights on in the club which show as well.  Here is a set up drawing for your dining and dancing pleasure

And also Thank you to Brad Smith for providing me with these set up shots!

Katherine is a singer/song writer. We talked quite a bit about the effect that music has on her and the way she feels when she is not only playing it but listening to it too. I think we all have our own personal relationship with music. Katherine really feels a lightness and freedom that comes with music, so I wanted to capture her with that spirit in mind. We went to Fete Club in Providence RI for the location. Their website is right here Fete has a wonderful atmosphere I highly recommend checking them out if you haven’t yet! Here is the portrait as always click on the photo to see it at it’s right size and tell me what you think about it!

Katherine Quinn for The Rhode Island Portrait Project

Family Portrait Cape Cod Massachusetts

I had the pleasure of photographing Bobbie and her family out on Cape Cod recently. With this unseasonably warm weather we were able to do it out side! WOW in the middle of winter! What I am always striving for in a portrait is to capture the people in it 1st in a beautiful way but also as they are for real. I want my portraits to reflect the people who I am photographing in an emotional way. I think we nailed it! As always click on the portrait to see it at the correct size

I am very proud of this portrait of Dean Logan which was taken in the court room at Roger Williams Law School. Here are the technical details of how it was created.

The lens I used was an 85 mm set to F6.3 shutter 1/80th ISO 400

Using an orange filter on my main light which was about 5 feet away and set camera left and shot through an umbrella. A second light was set about 12 feet back and shot through a spot grid to keep the light set on just him and not spill out and cause lens flair. You can see the effect of this light over his shoulder camera right. I adjusted the white balance in camera to that light turned the chairs blue but left Dean Logan natural looking. You can see what the photo looked like with no added lights and with the lights firing

This most recent portrait is of David Logan. David is the Dean of Roger Williams Law school. You can see The Roger Williams law school website here

and the Dean’s Blog here

When I sat down with David to talk about this portrait what struck me was the enthusiasm for teaching that he possesses and his desire to create an environment that his students can thrive in. Logan is truly a man driven to make Roger Williams Law School a great place of learning. I decided to photograph David in the student’s perspective at the school because he is so student focused. I think we pulled it off! What do you think!

Dean David Logan for the Rhode Island Portrait Project

This most recent portrait is of Jeremy Walsh of “The Right Click” computer store. Here is their website  as well as Jeremy’s Twitter account and his Facebook Page Jeremy is a wonderful guy that does an excellent job with his very successful business providing computer support and networking to small businesses and home users in the greater Rhode Island area. I have referred many friends and clients to The right-click, and have used them myself as well. Always a quick turn around time at a reasonable price. I met Jeremy many years ago in BNI for those of you that don’t know BNI and have a business that works on referrals check it out!

Jeremy Walsh of "The Right Click" for the Rhode Island Portrait Project

The University of Rhode Island

I photographed at URI last week and the photo shoot produced this beautiful picture. I LOVE fall photos!

Here is a little info on Kim

When she isn’t teaching the virtues of the comma at Roger Williams University School of Law, writing poetry about big hair and Elvis, and doing the Cha-Cha, Kim Baker works to end violence against women. Her poems have been published online and in print and essays broadcast on National Public Radio, and she is currently working on a book of ekphrasis poems. She lives in Warwick and shares her musings at http://thinkingoutsidethesign.blogspot.com/

Here is one of the images in the show!

The Newport Bridge

The "Big Picture" Portrait for Grace Magazine

I am very excited to announce a new portrait project. I have been hired by Grace Magazine to photograph women that are pushing creative boundaries and making a contribution in an artistic and humanitarian way to our world. Nancy Parent was the first subject in the series for the October/November 2011 issue of Grace magazine. I am very happy with the results.

Here is how I created the portrait for the folks that are interested in the geeky techy stuff… The photo was taken with a Nikon D700 camera and a 50 mm lens ISO 100, aperture 3.5, shutter speed 1/250th which is the fastest sync speed for speed-lights (of which I used two) I chose that exposure because it was just about a full stop under-exposed on the background making it a little darker than it would have been if  the landscape were the focus of the photo. This allowed her to really show up nicely and “really Pop” when lit properly. I triggered the lights with Pocket Wizards attached to the speed-lights and my camera, which make my lights fire at the same time as I push the shutter. You can see from my set-up photo that the main light is about 7 feet in the air and about 5 feet away from Nancy, just barely camera left. I put a diffusing dome right on the speed-light and then shot that through an umbrella which creates a very soft, sweet light shining down on her. The second light was positioned about 4 feet away from her, hard left, and I shot that through a spot grid to give a very specific focused light to define her and make her stand out more from the background. We got lucky with just the slightest breeze which blew her hair back and that is how we created this beautiful portrait!

To read more about Nancy and read the full article, visit   www.graceforwomen.com                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Here is the set up photo for Nancy’s portrait

Lighting Set up for Grace Magazine portrait session

Portrait Photography Providence RI

This beautiful portrait was created outside using three lights I am going to explain here how it was created. from a white balance point of view and how the photo turned so blue in the back ground 1st the lights: 1 soft box above the model slightly off camera right shining directly on her and 2 lights down below her on the right and left shining up at her.

See below

backlights set up photo

In the photo above you can see the 2 lights shining on Kelly from below. Right about now is a good time to talk about white balance a little. When a photo is taken the camera has to decide what colors to assign to all of the different values it is looking at, because to a camera it doesn’t care if it is looking at a mountain or a person it simply decides this color is red and this color is blue ect.. but you want to get the colors correctly identified, so for instance when you are looking at this red like this

red

you don’t end up with Red like this

not red...

The camera does this by assigning value judgements on what pure white is as you can see in the set up shot above the 2 lights below Kelly are showing up as white light. BUT BELOW those same lights are showing up as blue? Cool ha? But why is this happening? Because we added an orange filter onto the main light soft box and orange is at the opposite end of the spectrum to blue so in order to make the light shining on Kelly white it automatically makes all the other light in the photo turn blue! Like magic!!!

lighting set up shot

Portrait photography Providence RI

This photo was taken right at dusk on a beautifully cloudy day. We put an orange warming filter on the main light which was a soft box (which was set about 6 feet away from Kelly,and I shot with a white balance for tungsten light to match that warming filter which made the background go super blue. Cool effect ha? As you can see there were also 2 speed lights set up about 12 feet away from her on the right and left. I shot with an ISO of 400 on my 85 mm F5 Shutter 1/20th which was slow enough to catch a little movement from her leaving that wonderful dark edge on her left hand side making the image even more dramatic! She looks like Super Woman! I made some minor adjustments in Photoshop but this is pretty close to right out of the camera.

As always click on the photo to see it at the right size!

lighting set up shot

Photography and poetry meet in new exhibit

BRISTOL — Two Rhode Island artists have launched an exhibit exploring the relationship between different art forms.
Dating to ancient Greece, “ekphrasis” is the practice of literary writing about visual art. In “Braving the Light: Rhode Island Portraits in Photography and Poetry,” poet Kim Baker imagines the story behind a selection of work by photographer Seth Jacobson — the secret lives of early morning passengers at Kingston Station; an unlikely love story set against the Pell Bridge in Newport; and what pebbles rolling in the surf on the Saunderstown shoreline tell us about the cosmos and ourselves.
The exhibit, sponsored by the Bristol Art Museum, is on display in the second floor atrium at the Roger Williams University School of Law through Jan. 9, 2012. The building is located at 10 Metacom Ave.
A reception for the artists will be held Friday November 4th from 4:00 to 8:00 PM. The event is open to the public, and refreshments will be served.
Also on display are photographs from Jacobson’s Rhode Island Portrait Project, a series highlighting community-minded working professionals in southern Rhode Island.

About the artists:
When she isn’t teaching the virtues of the comma at Roger Williams University School of Law, writing poetry about big hair and Elvis, and doing the Cha-Cha, Kim Baker works to end violence against women. Her poems have been published online and in print and essays broadcast on National Public Radio, and she is currently working on a book of ekphrasis poems. She lives in Warwick and shares her musings at http://thinkingoutsidethesign.blogspot.com/

Based in Saunderstown, Seth Jacobson is a professional wedding, portrait and bar/bat mitzvah photographer since 1999. Jacobson and his work have been featured in Rhode Island newspapers and other publications including TIME magazine. His volunteer work includes photography for The DMP Annual Thanksgiving Home Makeover in South County; The American Diabetes Association; The American Cancer Society; The Jimmy Fund, and Butler Hospital. He shares photography and lighting tips on his blog, http://sethjacobson.wordpress.com/

"Braving the light"

Turn sideways into the light, as they say the old ones did, and disappear into the originality of it all.  David Whyte

Be brave.

Take a walk along the rock-strewn beach.

In the rain.

The pebbles will never be as treacherous

or as beautiful

as when they are wet.

Hold a few stones

in the deep place beneath your fingers

and above your palm:

orange and gray

egg speckled

and the one black as a whale’s back.

Then hold one to your nose

and smell time itself

for you are holding the cosmos

something primal and full of stories.

And now, you are a chapter too.

And when rock and sand and salt

take your breath away

and you have no idea

which way is home,

face the bay

where a single sunray

glazes the waves.

Then turn sideways into the light

as they say the old ones did

and disappear into the originality of it all

carrying with you time itself

and the satisfaction and contentment

only courage brings.

I worked with the very talented Bryan and Nikki of Hindsight Wedding Films Do your self a favor and check out their website!!

At the Reception Sound Design DJ’s kept everybody going! Thanks for a fun night! A good DJ can really make a party and they certainly did!

Briand Fish of Pier Cleaners for the Rhode Island Portrait Project

The first photo of Brian Being splashed by the SUV was taken outside in a real puddle and he REALLY got doused as you can see.

The shot was done with all natural lighting ISO 800 I wanted a SUPER fast shutter speed to make sure that I stopped the water in place as it was hitting him so that is why I chose such a high ISO. Plus the Nikon D700 I shoot on makes very sharp images even at that high of an ISO so no problem… I took it on my 70-200 VR zoom set to 190 mm Aperture of 2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/600th! Here is a set up shot to show you what the parking lot looked like

The second shot was taken inside an apartment using a white sheet for a background and 3 speed lights and Pocket wizards used to trigger the speed lights. 50mm lens set at aperture 3.5     shutter 1/100th    Iso 100

You can see the two rear lights here in this set up shot. One set on the floor pointed up at Brian to define his legs and also add a little fill light on his face bouncing off the ceiling, and the other to define him on the top.

And here is a full on set up shot

Here are their photos!

As always click on the photo to see it at the right size!

Barn Island Ct