Padawan Dad

I had a fun shoot today with Melissa; a young lady starting a yoga instruction business. She asked me to take some shots for her website, flyers, and business card. I found a nice location called “Straw Point” in Stoneham, Ma, which is part of the Middlesex Fells Reservation. I hiked down a path and came across this particular location. I sent a photo of it to her, and she loved it, so we went with it. It was a perfect evening for a photo shoot, even though it just stopped raining as I parked my car. Perfect timing!

Melissa’s boy friend, Pat, helped out by lugging some of my gear, and holding the strobe light so it wouldn’t fall in the water… Man, I really need an assistant.

This year I am shooting photos for Cheryl’s School of Dance in Melrose. I just did the individual shots last Sunday. Friday the 29th I will be shooting the group photos at the rehearsal. It just so happens that Mary is taking dance this year at Cheryl’s, so here are her photos from Sunday. I was really surprised at how well she did!

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I remember seeing it opening day in Burlington, MA (it was the first showing of the day.) The very same day, I went to see it again in the evening.

Two of my favorite characters in the Star Wars universe premiered in The Phantom Menace, and unfortunately, both were killed off; Qui Gon Jinn & Darth Maul. It’s funny, I never thought that my 3 year old daughter would also have a love for a character like Darth Maul, but she does. Mary loves… no wait… she is “obsessed” with Darth Maul to the point that she has created her own stories about the character. In her world Darth Maul is a pretty nice guy. He has a wife, two kids, a mommy and a daddy. Mary is, however, very concerned about his temper, and believes that his anger stems from the fact that he has a red face. I guess it’s as good a reason as any. She also believes that if he cuddles with his daddy more, he will be a much nicer person. It’s really fun to see her imagination at work. I love listening to her stories about Darth Maul.

It’s really hard to believe that 10 years have past by so quickly. So, in order to celebrate the films 10th anniversary, we popped some pop corn, and watched The Phantom Menace. As all things Star Wars to me, I can never get tired of it. It just gets better with age.

Being a part time photographer, I thought that it would be fun to start sharing some of my work on a regular basis here in my blog.

On that note, this featured portrait session was for a woman, Christina, and her son Dominic. We shot these at Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, Massachusetts on May 13th. The weather was gorgeous all day, but when it came time for the photo session, the wind began howling! It was so windy that when I was photographing Christina at the edge of the lake, she stumbled on a rock and only God knows how she escaped plunging into the water. My heart completely stopped.  Fortunately, daddy was holding on to Dominic at the time.