Great job guys.  Love these.  Thanks for looking.

Romantic,Fort Williams,Cape Elizabeth

Incredible stuff from Laura.  Thanks for looking - Will

Thanks for looking.  You can learn more about our fourteen different senior photos sessions by following this link.

Really love this color guard poster - I like making posters in general, but this one is pretty cool when you see it large.  Thanks for looking - Will

Okay, here’s Carrie:

Laura’s next.  Love this dress, by the way.  Almost sad to see it get dirty…

Brittney (in yellow), and her best friend Elizabeth (purple), were last.

So, I’m astonished at these images, and I was there.  You’re probably wondering why.  Why the shoot, why would they ruin perfectly good dresses, and why so many pictures.  Art, they’ll never wear them again, and I can’t take my eyes off these images are all I can say. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, and I’m really grateful to Carrie, Laura, Brittney, and Elizabeth for agreeing to do this.  You’re all amazing women, and I had a blast.  Will

Nice, right?  We headed to the beach a few days later, and Grandma came here as well, and so did Jordann’s boyfriend.  The tide was out, and we took some really pretty shots with the tidepools. Early in a beach session (about 90 minutes before sunset), the sun is still really bright, and sunglasses are both a practical, and stylish accessory.

Then the dress came out.  I always try to get a prom dress from the women at the beach sessions, because I love the contrast between a formal dress, and a casual beach.  We took these just around sunset, and I thought this was as good as the session would get.

Whenever boyfriends, girlfriends, siblings, or other friends come to someone’s session, I try to get them in a few shots.  So I thought I’d have Jordann’s boyfriend hanging out in the background, just sitting on the beach.  And as he was sitting there watching, Grandma shouted from the parking lot to the boyfriend - "Take your shirt off!" 

Wow, right?  Go Grandma, hurray prom dress, and Jordann’s boyfriend (also named Jordan) is her perfect fashion accessory.  Thanks for looking, and Jordann - Awesome.

These are a few of my favorites:

This is Chris’ wedding ring.

Did I mention they were Red Sox fans?  The pink track suit - official Red Sox gear.

Thanks for looking.  You can find more information on our newborn photos on the site, or you can call us anytime.  (207) 772 - 4274

And two shots with her boyfriend:

Rockin’ good job Cathryn!  You can find out more about senior portraits by following this link: http://www.focusphotography.info/seniors/sessions.html

Those are Album Covers, in case you couldn’t guess.  We print them as 12×12s.

Thanks for looking.  You can learn more about the different sessions we offer high school seniors by following that link.

Twice before we had to reschedule because of bad weather, and on the drive over it started raining. I was certain we were going to have to reschedule again, but really hoping for a miracle.  Rescheduling beach sessions is hard for us.  At Focus, we only shoot at the beach during the last two hours of daylight, when the light is prettiest, and so we can’t just reschedule people for the next sunny afternoon - when you only shoot at the beach for two hours - those are usually booked.  And Alyssa had a two hour session, so another rain out was going to be a huge problem.  I don’t know how Alyssa got so lucky, but in the ten minutes it takes me to drive out to Cape Elizabeth from our studio, the sun broke through. The beach was a little moist, but if you look at the images, you’ll see that getting a little wet doesn’t bother the hardcore.

Check out how cool she is.  Anytime someone brings me a prom dress to the beach, we’re going to get some awesome images.  If you’re wondering what to wear for your senior pictures, you can never look bad in a gorgeous gown in a place where it’s not supposed to be.

Oh yeah, she got in the ocean at the end, and couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering.  Fortunately, she got some awesome images while she was freezing - the pink surrounding her is the reflection of the sunset.  I keep forgetting to tell people to bring a towel, so if you have a beach session coming up, be forewarned….

Alyssa - your images rock!  I was able to pare them down to about eighty that I can’t wait for you to see. 

For more information about cool senior pictures, follow that link.  Thanks for looking - I’ll get more up soon.

This is Harrison, who totally crushed it during his two sessions.  If you see him skulking around Falmouth, let him know what a stud he is.

Hey, do you love the cross-processing on 1 and 3?  That’s an old school developing trick, where we’d develop our print film in slide chemistry.  It was really big in the fashion world, and I think it works well with strong portraits.  Obviously, we don’t do that to every picture, and most of Harrison’s senior presentation wasn’t so tricked out.  But some images just need to be special.  HDR fans - image 4 is for you.  A little something we do for a lot of the rockstar sessions. Thanks for looking.

At most charity auctions, people might bid on tickets to a sporting event.  At Make A Wish, that event was the Patriots-Colts game, in Indy, with roundtrip airfare for 4, and rooms at the Marriott in Indianapolis!  Everything about the event was over the top, starting with the magnificent rooms and catering of the Marriott (which pulled out all the stops - from sushi to lobster ravioli)!

Thank you Make A Wish for letting us be involved.  And to everyone who won the bids for our items, we’re hoping you’ll get thos scheduled before the snow flies.

Here are a few of my favorites - there is a slideshow and a gallery on the site.  Click here if you’re interested.  Thanks for looking.

You can get more info about our senior experience on our website.  Thanks for looking.

So this is the Weeks family from Brunswick, who tempted me with the idea of a family session on their new boat, but then yanked the boat out of the photoshoot at the last minute.  So this is a special appeal to our blog readers - I need a family shoot on a boat.  It doesn’t have to be a ridiculous yacht, or even a powerboat - sailing would be awesome.  And don’t get me wrong - I don’t want to be on the boat.  I want to be on the dock, or an island, or even another boat, while you and your family come sailing by.  Maybe flying a spinaker, I don’t know.  Definitely looking nautical, navy and white would be great.  If you’ve got the boat, the family, and are willing to find the clothing, (and no one in your family has three heads), the photo session is on me.  Tell your friends down at the marina.

Enough about me and how I was cheated out of the picture I really wanted - these pictures on the rocks are awesome. 

Learn more about us on our website - www.focusphotography.info.  Thanks for looking.  Will

Independence day has always been one of my favorite holidays - Thanksgiving, New Year’s, Cinqo de Mayo, the 4th of July, and maybe Christmas, not in any particular order.  The other 4 are all about the food to me, but the 4th is all about fireworks, crowds, and summer.  There should be more summer holidays. 

Here’s the secret to really powerful fireworks images - long shutter exposures.  Set your camera on manual, and stop down your aperture.  Make sure you’re camera is on a tripod - you won’t be able to do this hand held.  I like 1s/f11, depending on the night, with a film speed of no more than 400. Fireworks are burning super brightly, and you want to capture some of their great colors, and a lot of their motion.  That’s why you want an aperture of f8-f22.  The exposure time is more subjective.  Since you’re not trying to get a good exposure of the sky, or anything else around you, don’t bother metering.  Just leave the shutter open long enough to catch some of the motion that an exploding firework makes, without catching so much that it blurs. But I can never predict how long that will be, so here’s my fireworks trick.  I set the camera for a 15 second exposure, but cover the lens (with a hat or a paper plate) just until I see the rocket going up.  Then I uncover the lens, let the colors streak out, and place the plate or hat over the lens again.  That way I don’t have to worry about exactly when the fireworks go off.  I’ll add more later….

Okay, a rainy night, tough on fireworks all around. Truthfully, we didn’t go down to the Eastern Prom because we thought they would be washed out, but I hear they still went off without a hitch.  Send me a link to your own images if you got anything good.  I’m posting a panorama of the Eastern Promenade with fireworks from last year instead. 

I’m sorry I wussed out this year, as I always love Portland’s fireworks display.  I guess there’s always next year….

Connection studies are a very contemporary photo session, with an emphasis on the bonds between people.  We ask our connection’s clients to dress in black, long sleeved clothing to keep the focus on the relationship between the subjects, and not on what they are wearing.

Connection Studies are shot on both black backgrounds, for artistic black and white images, as well as on medium tone brown images, which complements most homes decor.

I’ve been shooting a lot of Mother/Child sessions lately for a fall exhibit we’re planning.  I’ll post the dates here when we have them firmed up.

At Focus, we offer 14 different photo sessions so that every senior we work with gets a unique session that they choose.  From sports themes such as our superjock session, to fashion portfolios, to our rockstar session, we offer unique photo sessions for unique people.  You can learn more about them here.

Emily told me that what she loved most about seeing these pictures of Caroline was that they captured her personality, and I’m overjoyed.    Our children’s sessions are completely unstructured and freeform, because I hate the fake smiles that are typically associated with kids photography.  I’ve been trying to find the words to describe it in marketing materials, but I’m visual, and words have never been my strong point. I can describe what I don’t like, and that tells how we got to freeform, but I could really use some help describing what our sessions are. 

Okay, here’s what I don’t like: sit still, say cheese, look at the whatever, don’t move, I’m watching you, don’t move, smile for mommy,  stay right there, smile big, put your hands like this, don’t move.  If you’re looking for pictures of your child with that say cheese smile, hair perfect, upright posture, I’m not your guy.  This is what I know how to say.

What I’m looking for is a playfulness in the eyes, a devious smile, a sense of wonder, joy, and love.  I want to see what parents see in their own minds when they think of their children.  And I want to be able to show you as many sides and natural expressions of your children as I can.  So when Emily told me that this was the real Caroline, it made my week. 

Thanks for letting me share.

Will

Briana just had her braces taken off, and to celebrate the years of wearing them (and the benefits), her parents gave her this photo session.

Briana before the dress and hair….

My mother tells me she hates seeing young women photographed any way but as sweet and innocent, and I think a lot of us understand that.  It seems that adulthood is forced on kids at a constantly younger age, and we offer a lot of other options for photo sessions other than The Hollywood Experience.  But I remember my early teens as a time of enormous self-doubt, wondering what I would turn out like, and desperately wanting a stronger self image (no luck - it turns out I was truly a geek who would keep his acne for twenty more years). We’ve had a lot of people asking us for beautiful portraits of their girls who are in this 12 to 15 bracket, for that very reason.  Reviving Ophelia has raised the awareness that without a positive self image, adolescent girls are far more likely to develop eating disorders, depression, and lower expectations for themselves.  We all deserve to feel good about ourselves, except for meter maids and IRS agents.

Anyway, congratulations Briana, the teeth look terrific, and so do you.

We’d like to see more families able to record this special time in their children’s lives.  These girls are all graduating from eighth grade this year, and these are their graduation portraits:

Christina:

Rachel

Vanessa:

Learn more at www.focusphotography.info

The very small babies are from our "little pieces" photo session which we do for babies between 2 weeks and 2 months old, the younger the more effective it is.  Thanks for looking. 

This is an oil painting I did of Oliver, giclee printed on canvas

The Malette’s family album - Ace is giving it as an anniversary present.

We had a blast working with these guys, and Lucia did a great job on this album.

So the Hills came in for a family shoot (I’ll post those tomorrow), and they also brought some of their skiwear to create a winter poster. Here’s what we do.  Each person is shot seperately on a white background, sitting on a sleigh, and they have to rock back and forth and pretend to be sledding.  We’ve got fake snow to press on them, and give the sleds some realism.  Then the images are combined to create our snow stories.  Okay, here are some of the snow images that created this:

Here’s Sarah’s snow angel:

We also did a cheer poster for Sarah and Scotty:

Same thing here - a ton of images are taken of them seperately and together, and combined to create the entire cheer squad. I’ll post the family part of this photo shoot soon.  Thanks for looking.

Learn more about family portraits on our website - www.focusphotography.info.  Thanks for looking.  Will