I love Baltimore | Maryland photographer

I’ve been working with this amazing non-profit called Vision Workshops for about 6 years. Vision workshops runs workshops and camps locally (Crossing Borders) and internationally (Photo Camps). I have been lucky to work with several of the local workshops, working with kids at Bates Middle School in Annapolis that have immigrated from El Salvador and Mexico, working with teens in the Drug Court program and now working with Refugee teens in the City of Baltimore.

My good friend and leader of this camp, Piper Watson put together an amazing weekend of shooting and learning for these refugee kids from Iraq, Bhutan, Nepal, and Eritrea who now attend Paterson High School.
We met the kids at Paterson HS last Thursday where we passed out the cameras and went over the weeks agenda. That first day meeting them brought some excitement to this workshop…these kids were eager and ready to shoot.

We started the shooting portion of the workshop this past Saturday. Meeting at Walters Art Museum (they were a big supporter in this workshop as well at The Refugee Youth Project), we spent some time talking about technique and story telling as it related to this weekend’s focus-Baltimore.

Many of these kids have never been downtown to experience Baltimore, so Piper arranged to show them some very interesting and fun sides of this very cool city. We started at the Cross Street Market in Federal Hill. The kids got to have some lunch and then we let them loose to begin the photojournalistic process of telling the story of Baltimore today. It was amazing to me how recpetive this group was to what we were teaching them…shooting at different angles, holding the camera a certain way to keep it stable in low light and talking to the people you are photographing to find out more about their individual stories. I became giddy as I watched them approach complete strangers and ask them if they could take their portrait…not one kid held back and almost everyone they asked said yes. Because of their confidence and wonderful personalies, they ended up starting converstations with many of the stall owners at the market. The coolest moment was when they met a husband and wife who ran the bakery…they asked where the students were from (this particular group was from Ethiopia) and a connection was made. They too were from Africa, but were Indian born and they started an exchange with the students that I could never have imagined. They even sent a box of cookies with the students…so nice! Plus the students made some amazing portraits of the couple at their bakery stall.

We then took the water taxi from Federal Hill across the harbor to Fells Point where a Christmas festival was going on in the square. Live music, food and craft stands, a balloon artist and lots of neighborhood people all had come together on a very cold day. The kids got right to shooting as they ran around capturing the spirit of this neigbohood, snapping shots of little kids dancing in front of the stage, people selling their wares, and locals in conversation with eachother. They didn’t hold back one bit. It was thriling to watch. Again, they struck up conversations with locals and met some awesome people.

As the sun started to set, I grabbed my group of five students and took them over to the docks where we could have a little lesson on self portraits. I taught them about using the golden light at that hour to make a beautiful photograph and how to show who they were to the rest of the world in a portrait. They did a fantastic job and produced some absolutely beautiful images of themselves….I was bit jealous!

After a very long Saturday, Sunday arrived a bit too fast, but we met the kids at 8:30 to begin the next day of shooting in Baltimore. We started again at The Walters, went over some of the work from the day before and talked about how to make certain photos even better. After the lecture, we were taken into the museum to see the Walter Wick exhibit that is one display until the end of the year. It is such a great exhibit to see…Walter is a model maker, photographer and children’s book author. He created the “I Spy” series of children’s books where kids can pick out objects out of photographs that he creates. The photographs are taken from very intricate models that he makes…it’s quite an intricate process and very cool to see.

After the exhibit, we chowed down on some pizza and then loaded up the bus to head to Hamden for the annual Mayor’s Christmas parade. Now, I don’t know if any of you remember just how cold it was on Sunday…but IT WAS COLD! The group braved the cold though and we took them to the parking lot were the floats, cars, dance troupes, and bands were lining up and getting ready to march down the street.
The students scrambled around taking shots of bands warming up, little girls bouncing up and down in their dance costumes to stay warm, men wearing sequined costumes & animals of all shapes and sizes. Many of the students didn’t understand what the heck a parade was all about or even who the heck Santa was, so it was fun to try to explain our culture to them.

We have two more classroom days with these students to go through images and work on the final presentation, which will be exhibited at The Walters. As I sit here and think of the weekend and these awesome students I am realizing that I learned alot this weekend.

1. We need to approach life the way that these students do….by jumping right in to new experiences. They have overcome so much already in their young lives, yet have an enthusiam unlike many American students who take for granted all of the awesome culture around us and the opportunities that they have in their own backyards.

2. Baltimore is truely a melting pot of people with interesting stories to tell. The city gets such negative press all the time that we forget that it is a great city full of crazy traditions and caring individuals who want to keep the city’s spirit alive.

3. Talk to strangers! We all walk around minding our own business way too much. There needs to be more interaction in this world. We have so much to learn from eachother.

4. Finally…stop complaining 🙂 We pushed the students alot this weekend. They photographed for two pretty long days in the freezing cold. Rarely did they complain. I have alot of colleagues that would have started complaining as soon as they became chilly…and yes, I have been guilty of this. We photographers need to realize just how lucky we are to do what we do and that sometimes, the situations that we are put in are uncomfortable, but we are there at that moment documenting a slice of life and that’s pretty special if you ask me.

Our fearless leader, Piper.

beautiful things…

July 13-23rd:

1: Cooperstown wedding (actually took place on July 4th but edited during this week): I had the awesome opportunity to photograph a wedding on the Fourth of July at a beautiful lake-side resort in Cooperstown, NY. The quaint little historic town is well known for its Baseball Hall of Fame (which I’ve visited in the past when one of my favorite players, Eddie Murray was inducted), but what I didn’t realize was just how gorgeous the lake area was. I was blown away when I got there and checked out the property the day before the wedding. This was gonna be an easy one, I thought…and it was. The day went off perfectly. The bride Rebecca was absolutely stunning in her vintage inspired wedding gown that stayed true to the 1920’s feel they were going for. The groom was dashing in his simple linen suit. They complimented each other beautifully and pulled off a very classy ceremony and reception. Congrats to Rebecca and Greg!

2: Already Artist summer camp: Last week was the second of three camps that we have at Already Artists in downtown Annapolis. I had taken a little break from the studio, so I was anxious to get back to the kids and make some art! The kids that come to this class are so exceptional…and this group definitely lived up to that. Stacey, the owner and planner of all the projects, decided that for this camp, our focus would be Mexican art…something that our little studio loves and seems to be a reoccurring theme in the art we create (Stacey is a huge fan of Frida Kahlo).
Instead of describing the art these little artistic kiddos did…I’ll share a few quick shots I took with my iPhone.

3: Night street shooting: This month I’ve been going out and shooting nighttime street scenes of downtown Annapolis. My goal is to improve my style and start to see the light and shadows that can be captured on a simple street that we walk down every day and never notice the contrast and beauty. I enjoyed this little exercise so much that I am going to continue to do this from time to time. It’s a great way to push myself to see beautiful photos everywhere. You can see the full gallery at The Annapolis Sound. click here for the direct link to the latest gallery.

I love my little town | Annapolis, Maryland Photographer

July 3-12th:

This past week has been pretty awesome, had some nice time off and got to spend some good quality time with my friends and loved ones. I’ve gone biking, boating, ate some amazing food, listened to fabulous music, and finally got out to start shooting some personal projects of my own. l don’t have alot more to say about this week, so I’m going to talk about four businesses that I support and am currently involved with. I think everyone needs to know about them.

1: Crystalooney’s Creative Arts: A few years ago when worked for The Capital Newspaper in Annapolis and was out looking for some nice “wild art” I stepped into B.B. Bistro in West Annapolis and saw this energetic Aussie entertaining kids during one of her afternoon programs where she read stories and painted faces for the kids. I took a few photos and moved on my way, but Christalene also was in my memory…what a fun person I thought. Fast forward a year and I officially met Christalene at a birthday party that I was hired to photograph…we talked about our businesses and then went our separate ways once again. Then some time later, we met again at another event and the little cogs in our brains started turning…we were at the same events doing our thing time and time again…why not begin to collaborate and do some of these gigs as a team. About 6 months ago we did our first birthday party together for a mutual friend’s kiddo. It was a blast, I documented the party and she painted all the kids faces, had a story time and gave the birthday girl a little princess makeover. The album I made for the family was awesome and something they will have for years and years to remember when their little one was just 4 years old.

I’ve continued to work with her photographing a couple body painting demonstrations, which I was blown away by, she can transform someone into the most amazing body of art! A few weeks ago I photographed a belly henna that she did for an expecting mother. Photographing the human body form is always a beautiful experience for me, but seeing a gorgeous pregnant belly with an intricate henna design on it made it even more wonderful.

When I photograph her artwork, I become more inspired and I am pushed to new limits. I encourage you all to check out her work and consider hiring her for your child’s next birthday party, friend’s bridal shower, or give a gift of a belly henna at your next baby shower. Henna and face painting is not just for kids…it’s a fun way to express yourself, even if it’s just for one day. www.crystalooneys.com

2: Already Artists: I’ve been working at this awesome little art studio on Maryland Avenue for just about three years. Again, it’s thanks to my time at The Capital newspaper that I even found this place. I was sent on an assignment over 5 years ago to photograph at the studio and as soon as I walked and saw all these little artists learning and doing such advanced artwork, I was hooked. When the time was right, I talked to Stacey (the owner) about working with her and I soon started. I just love this place, from teaching the kids everything from the most successful artists in history such as Monet and Van Gogh, to learning about our contemporary street/outsider artists that do graffiti in the streets of their towns, the kids really do get a well rounded art experience. We work with all kinds of fun materials too. We’ve been know to even use trash as a medium…and wow the people who walk by our little window on Maryland Ave. each week. So, if you have kids under the age of 13, check it out…we’d love to have you join our fall classes! www.alreadyartists.com

3: 49 West Coffeehouse and Winebar: I’ve been hanging out and frequenting this place for quite some time now, so it was inevitable that when I realized it would be nice to make a little extra money to buy some more equipment (because a photographer always is looking to buy some new equipment), I chose 49 West as my place for secondary employment. It’s an awesome place, I can’t say enough good about it. The food rocks (I recommend the salmon bagel for breakfast & the chicken salad or one of their ever changing specials for lunch), the people are great, and they are great supporters of the local businesses (they serve Cafe Pronto coffee…a local favorite)…Being a regular there is like being part of a little family, I guess you could say it’s my <a href="“>Cheers…where everyone knows my name. The best part is the back room where some very talented musicians play on a nightly schedule. This is my favorite place in Annapolis for live music. Nowhere else in this city can you get such an intimate show without spending a ton (unlike the place I won’t mention just a few doors down). The wine and dessert selection is always a nice treat at the end of long day and they have my favorite beer (Guinness) so I can’t complain one bit. If you’ve never checked out this place, mosey on down and see a show and have some lunch or dinner…it’s the place to be!

4: The Annapolis Sound: I recently started working with/contributing to the area’s newest media group, The Annapolis Sound. I am so excited about this opportunity because I really respect what it is that they are doing as a media group in today’s crazy fast paced world with news exploding all around you. They are taking Annapolis and really showing the different angles that this city has…not just sailing and crab cakes, they are digging a bit deeper and telling good stories about our area. Unlike the local paper, which is good for it’s own reasons, The Sound has the time to really sit with a story (without the demanding deadlines that the daily paper has). They focus on interesting topics and cover them in an interesting way, such as multimedia, staff roundtable discussions (podcasts), and photo essays. It’s nice to read about your town and peel away the layers to see what’s really going on around you. My favorite segment that they do is called “Six Degrees of Sound”
where they interview a local person asking them six questions about their life, with on of the questions being, “who or what do you want to know more about?” It’s very interesting to see what the average person in this area is interested in, and a lot of time, it’s something I want to know about to. Enough about The Sound….go read it for yourself and check out some of my photos while you are there!

Singing in the Rain and laughing in the sun | Maryland and Pennsylvania photographer

June 25-July 2: This a shorter blog this week due to me having to hop in my car and go to Cooperstown, NY for the Fourth of July weekend to shoot a wedding. I’m sure I will be blogging and posting some photos from my trip when I return.

1. Vision Workshops: From time to time I get the incredible opportunity to work with kids of all ages through the Vision Workshops program, a non profit program that started right here in Annapolis, MD. I started working with the program back in the summer of 2006. My first “camp” that I worked was with inner city kids in Washington DC (with Sam Abell as one of the mentors…I am still giddy about getting to work alongside him). I then went on to work a few of the camps offered to kids in the Drug Court Program of Anne Arundel County. Most recently I got to work on a couple of camps that worked with kids from Bates Middle School and Annapolis High School’s ESL program (English as a second language). These programs encourage kids to look beyond their intense everyday lives and capture a feeling or story that they need to tell using writing and photography. It is an awesome experience for me every time I work with a new camp…the kids teach me as much about myself as I teach them about photography. I have had many many moments where I see that light switch turn on in one of the kids and I know that we have made difference.

Another aspect of Vision Workshops are the National Geographic Photo Camps that they have been doing for a few years now. It’s the same concept as the local programs, but these Photo Camps occur all over the globe…mostly in areas of need. Most recently a group went to Crimea to work with kids along the Northern Coast of the Black Sea. Although I did not take part in this camp, I am moved by the photos that these kids took…please take a moment to check them out-click here.

2. Engagement Shoot: I’ve known Laura her whole life. It blew me away when I got a friendly email from her a couple months ago that started out, “I know you probably can’t believe that I’m old enough, but I’m engaged…” She was right…I couldn’t believe that she was old enough. Laura’s family and mine were together a lot when we were kids…we went to the same church, our moms were girl scout leaders together, we went on youth retreats, our dads even went to high school together. Her older sister and my younger sister were best friends growing up, so when our families would get together, Laura and I would hang out. She was like my little sister growing up (6 years younger)…although, we always seemed to get along as if there wasn’t much of an age gap. She now lives in Florida with her fiance Adam (who I had met 15 years ago and didn’t realize who he was until I was informed by my sister) so I have not seen her in years. Thanks to facebook, we’ve been able to keep in touch and keep track of each other. I was so happy when she asked if I would do she and Adam’s engagement photos when they came home for a visit.

We decided to do the shoot in Gettysburg, PA close to where we grew up. Gettysburg is full of beautiful landscapes and a wonderful little downtown area, so I never ran out of ideas during out shoot. The shoot lasted 3 hours…and I could have kept going. I have to give a BIG thumbs up to Adam for being such a trooper…he had spent 5 hours out in the blazing hot sun playing a round of golf earlier in the day and was exhausted and a bit sun burned. The two of them were wonderful subjects…very natural and loving toward each other, I barely had to give them any direction. As a nice little reward to making it through the shoot without one complaint and putting up with the heat and humidity that day, I treated them to a banana split at the cutest little ice cream shop. What a great way to end the day!

3. Flicks on the hill: The American Visionary Arts Museum and Federal Hill in Baltimore put on an amazing event every Thursday in the summer. They show a movie projected onto a large screen on one of the museum buildings. Anyone can come and sit on the hill and watch for FREE! As soon as I found out about this great event, I marked my calendar for the first flick, one that could not be missed, “Singin’ in the Rain”.

I’ve seen “Singin’ in the Rain” several times when I was younger, but have never appreciated it so much as a film until now. I was moved by each musical number and wanted so badly to get up an dance around the hill…I actually pictured everyone sitting around me getting up and breaking into a choreographed dance number…it was such a magical evening. My favorite part of the evening was right after the character Cosmo finished singing “Make Em’ Laugh”, a hysterical number full of so much visual comedy, the crowd watching the film broke into applause as if Donald O’Connor himself had just performed the number on a stage in front of us. It happened again after the title song “Singin’ in the Rain”, and I assumed once again that Gene Kelly was going to step right out of that screen and take a bow. I found this interesting that a movie over 60 years old could grab our 2010 attention spans in such a way that it would move us to applaud a screen. It was a wonderful moment as I sat there with my boyfriend and looked at him with the biggest grin…it’s the simple things in life that really mean something. I can’t wait for the next film!

As Don Lockwood would say, “Dignity. Always, dignity”

4. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July everyone!!

New blog format… | Annapolis, MD photographer

So, I’ve been getting a bit lazy with my recent blog posts. I love all the families and kids that I photograph, but find that after a long shoot, and a long edit…I run out of steam. I’m going to try a new format…a weekly blog post that sums up my high points of the week, personal, professional and miscellaneous information that I find interesting that week as well as the photos that I like from the week. I’d love to hear your feedback good and bad in the next few weeks so that I can tweak my posts to make them interesting and fun to read on a weekly basis. So…here it goes!

Week of June 8-15th:
Top 5:

1. Swampcandy Rams Head gig: My main squeeze, Ruben Dobbs (aka: Swampcandy), is a musician who plays 1920’s/30’s style Delta Blues and singer-songwriter style songs that can’t quite be summed up by any one genre. He and his upright bass player, Joey Mitchell have had a regular gig playing the Rams Head Tavern rathskeller bar every Tuesday night from 10-1.
This duo makes you stomp, clap and move and you feel the dirty blues jump up right to your soul. I hear them ALOT and I am still not tired of this true roots music. You must check them out! Click here for a swampcandy schedule.

2. Family shoot in Kent Island: Liz wanted a family photo session with her two girls before she and her boyfriend moved to Australia (where she is from). It was a beautiful day on the Eastern Shore….except for the seaweed on the beach, the massive amounts of mosquitoes, the bright bright sun, the ants, and a bit of heat. All that aside, the shoot turned out great and I think I captured some nice photos for her to take with her to the land down under. Thanks guys for putting up with all the obstacles! I forgot how Maryland summers are along the water 🙂
We did find a nice little spot in Stevensville to go to for a different scene before they went off to have dinner at Rustico. Have a great move Liz and Ian!

3. Documentary project: I am obsessed with documentary photography & films and have missed doing documentary photography since I left The Capital Newspaper back in 2007 where I was a photojournalist for 3 years. While I try to shoot in this style as much as I can, I still want more. I’ve been throwing around a few ideas in the past months about what subject matter I wanted to tackle and document for a week, month, year, whatever it took and see where it led me. I’ve finally made the right connection with a local media goup called Annapolis Sound that will allow me to move forward on one of my ideas…very exciting! Stay tuned to the blog for updates on this project (which I will talk about more once we get the thing going).

4. Great motivation: I am constantly looking for inspiration all around me. We creative types can never be satisfied with what we are doing…we are always looking for the next thing…
I’m currently inspired by a great humanitarian photographer, David duChemin. I have big dreams of becoming a humanitarian photographer and the more I read, the closer I feel to getting there. Then, I read his recent blog post called ‘Begin’ and I realized that I need to stop reading and dreaming and get out there and kick some butt. So it is.

5. Housewarming: A bit late for a housewarming (we moved on New Year’s Eve) but with Ruben being a musician and me a crazy self employed photographer, we couldn’t get our schedules together to host a party. This past weekend, it happened…and it was good. Over 50 good friends and family members showed up, we had some awesome Maryland crabs from Wild County Seafood in Eastport, many friends joined in on a live music, session, & tons of food and drink were brought by our awesome friends. As the sun set, the tiki torches and fire pit were lit and the party continued. The live music moved from electric to acoustic and more food was thrown on the grill. I finally hit the pillow at 3am…what a day/night. It’s so nice to have such great friends and a great house to host a party at!