Boston English Basketball and Coach Rob

David Gessner: Globe Magazine

Whenever you get a subject, like David Gessner, who says "You want me to go stand in the middle of the river?" You know it's going to be an awesome shoot. It wasn't just any river but the Charles river. Which is not know for being the cleanest water around. David's a great guy and I had a blast photographing him. Go buy his book "My Green Manifesto". This has to be my favorite environmental portrait that I have taken to date. It was great for a few reasons: 1)I daring subject. 2)I didn't bring lights, it was just me and my camera bag. 3)It was used in the mag exactly how I envisioned it.

SUPER POST....and July 2011 Flew By

Sorry for the lack of posts. I know it has been a while. July flew by with a ton of fun projects and a week away with my family in Vermont. So here's a super post of what went on:

 The above shot of Holly Courville running through the sunflower field ran as a double page spread in Runner's World. I'm very proud of this shot. It was shot on one of those super ridiculously hot and humid days. I was sweating and poor Holly had to keep running back and forth while I dialed in my lighting and composition. Which I found to be a challenge since the sun was coming from behind but I wanted the front of the sunflowers in the shot. I had to light the runner with a portable strobe and then hold my camera upside down to cheat the shutter sync and shoot at 1/500th of a second to really freeze the action without blur. It took a while and a lot of sweat but we nailed it and I'm proud that it ran in the mag. I also just sent out a promo postcard with this image on it. (If you are a creative and didn't get one and want to be on the list please email me and I'll get one right out!)

I also had this feature in the Boston Globe Magazine on a blueberry farm up in New Hampshire. It was a last minute assignment that needed to be shot over the weekend of the 4th of July. I'm always psyched to shoot so that wasn't a big deal. Plus my parents used to own a blueberry farm in upstate NY so I knew a little about the operation and could talk the talk. Well I guess NH and Google haven't quite nailed down the map thing yet because the road it told me to take didn't exist and combined with no cell reception it took some exploring to arrive more than two hours late. Thankfully Duncan Geddes, pictured in the portrait outtakes above, was super nice and understanding. So we got to explore his property and create some beautiful images for the story. As I knew and Duncan reminded me it was too early for the berry's to be in full go mode and if we shot it a month later the fields would be completely blue, but the editors need the shots done early to fill the space in the mag so we worked our magic and pulled it off.

Then came the call, "Hey Josh, can you please go shoot this island in the harbor for us tomorrow? We need the images as soon as possible. The story closes this week." "Of coarse I can" I replied and began figuring out how to make my way out to Lovells Island. It was me, my camera bag, a sandwich, bottle of water and a swimsuit on a ferry out the next morning. It was super cool and I kept thinking of the show "Lost" as I was exploring these old war forts and looking for the "hatch" which I did find. (see the last outtake above) I can't wait to get back out there and camp for a night or two. One part of the island I had a whole beach to myself with no one around. I threw on my trunks and went for a swim all by myself. It was awesome.

Plus my wife, daughter and I went camping in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont in July too. We really enjoyed being in the mountains. We swam, read, toasted marshmallows, made smores and I even got a day in at the awesome mountain bike trail network called Kingdom Trails. It couldn't have been a better vacation!

I had some other really fun assignments that I can't show yet but July definitely flew by.

Globe Magazine Cover and Spread

Here are a few snapshots of my recent Globe Magazine Cover and Feature Spread with Michael Curry of the Boston Chapter of the NAACP.

Globe Magazine Inside Spread

Globe Magazine Cover

Tough Winter Jobs

Mark Rechi of the Boston Bruins

Mr. Mark Recchi, the oldest active player in the NHL and a super cool guy. The one the right ran in the Globe Magazine.

Yeah we had to ask him to take down his jock strap for this one and Horton and Wheeler's too.

I threw a cheep shot and Rechi just laughed and layed me out! Thanks to my assistant Kyle Holmquist for snapping these.

Yeah I was geeking out before Recchi showed up and got these shot of the bear in the players lounge.
That bear has been up since the Bobby Orr days, who we also recently photographed for Rectrix Private Jet Company.

When I was shooting Francona at Fenway park earlier last year the rule was "Don't touch the grass!"
Here at the Bruins locker room in the TD Garden the rule is "Don't step on the B!"
It's harder than you think when you are bouncing from one shot to the other with light stands and crap in the way.
But we made it out without setting a foot on the trusty "B".

Brendan Donovan: TV's The Biggest Loser

In Print: Bodega

In Print: Richard Freeland

In Print: Vince and Bianca Wilfork

In Print: One Man's Trash-Globe Magazine

In Print: Tommy Meagher/Boston Globe Magazine

In Print: Andrea Lovett-Globe Magazine

In Print: Harvard Hockey

The Harvard Hockey story ran in today's Globe Magazine. I have a still life cover and three spreads on the inside, with a couple of cool portraits that I'm proud of.

In Print: David Allen Silbey

A Little Hockey Action

I shot a little hockey last week for the Boston Globe Magazine with the Harvard Crimson hockey team. We did a few portraits, some on ice action, and even a still for this project. The story should run in the beginning of October and I'll post a few more photos then.
Thanks to Grant at the Globe for the assignment and Jon K. for getting up super early to help me out.

In Print: Gosder Cherilus

Gosder Cherilus (Detroit Lions-NFL) for The Boston Globe Magazine

Detroit Lion Gosder "Goz" Cherilus

I photographed 6'3" Goz the other day and he couldn't have been nicer. You never know when you have professional athletes, sometimes you only get five minutes, sometimes you get cool guys like Goz who's down with whatever. When he introduced himself he said "Hi I'm Goz, make me look good." I think we did that.

Shot with the Mamiya 645 Phase One P45+ back. Lit with a Profoto 7b and the Hensel with Profoto Head.

Oh and my friend Jon helped me out, thanks Jon. Check out his photos here. Really great stuff.