Mother-Daughter murders video

I've been working with a couple of reporters at the paper on a special multimedia feature about a pair of double murders in Largo that have been unsolved for more than six months. This is one of the longer video pieces I have worked on and it involved a doing numerous interviews and putting it together with new photos and file photos as well as submitted photos from the families.

Football returns

Fall is here, the cool weather has moved in (quite abruptly, I might add) and high school football is back in session. The sports editors at my paper decided that they wanted to interview three of the the top players in our county and create a web video and photo package for the paper to accompany it. I got to shoot the portraits, which allowed me to play studio photographer for the day. Here are some of the photos we made.

Summertime

Above: (From left) Kenrick Rilee and his brother Alexander line up backstage before the Eleanor Roosevelt High School graduation ceremony at the Comcast Center. The Rilee twins graduated at the top of their class and will be attending Princeton University

It's been so long since I updated my blog I'm almost embarrassed to start writing again. But, I figured I better get some of these graduation photos up before school starts again!

Every springs photogs in my office spend about a month going from one graduation to the next. I think I probably shot a dozen or so. It is a long month. The weather is usually great, and your stuck in a gymnasium or indoor arena listening to another valedictorian speech. But, the kids are having the time of their lives. And the parents are going crazy. (Hey, that's a good idea for next year... get some photos of those parents going crazy in the audience.) Any way, here are a few:




Above: People get ready... Students at Woodstream Christian Academy prepare for graduation. Below: Bishop McNamara High School students line up in the crypts of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception before graduating.

Above: Garrett Wenger adjusts his cap before giving the valedictory address at the Bishop McNamara High School graduation at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Below: Oxon Hill High School graduation.






Below: Corey Campbell-Murga delivers his commencement address at the Croom Vocational High School graduation at Flowers High School. This was a very cool graduation because some of the students just didn't fit into traditional school but you could really tell that they found their place at this small vocational school. Some of them end up with jobs in construction trades with starting salaries higher than ... let's just say higher than some newspaper employees.

Making it official

Yesterday, my partner Hampton and I went down to the city office of Vital Records and had our union "blessed" by the District of Columbia. We filled out some paper work, got it notarized at the lovely FedEx office on K Street and signed on the dotted line in a cramped administrative office with overhead fluorescent lighting on Hamp's lunch hour. I have photographed many wedding ceremonies, but this one took the cake for low budget (although ironically there was no cake, we had fish tacos afterwards). And our wedding portrait was done by one of the nice ladies who works in the office. It really captures the ambiance of the setting. I think this wedding photography is definitely an example of the cobbler's children having no shoes. 

Hamp and I are registered by Ms. D. Watts at the DC Vital Records Department.

So, after only 11 and a half years, my partner and I finally made things official, sort of. The District of Columbia offers Domestic Partnership registration, but it provides only the most meager of benefits/protections for couples (we are guaranteed hospital visitation, as long as we only get sick in this city). But it's something. We'll take what we can get and just hope that a new administration and a more friendly Congress will soon give us the same basic rights that all of our straight friends enjoy. 

Jen's headshots

I spent last weekend in Brooklyn with one of my dearest friends, Jen, who is an actress in the big city. She needed some new headshots, as working actors always do, so I came up for the weekend and we got to hang out, catch up on gossip and make some great photos. It was so much fun.

I shoot at least three or four portraits a week in my job, so I'm used to doing portraits, but I don't get to do portrait sessions with actors very often. When I photograph a business owner or a community activist--you know, civilians--I have to tell them (or more often show them) how to position their body. I have discovered that this requires a great deal of tact. You can't say to someone you just met, who is not a professional model being paid to be photographed, that their smile looks forced. It is a forced smile because I'm there taking a photo. Instead of saying, "You're slouching,"you have to say, "Try sitting up a little straighter."

It is so much fun working with someone who knows how to control her facial expressions and the position of her body. And of course it's great working with someone you've known for 20 years, who you can laugh with if one of you does something silly or if a picture looks goofy.