Discovering Environmental Portraiture: it already exists where you are

After I hit reply to my email thread with studio artist Tony Astone I re-read my response: "Don't worry about a thing, I'll make sure to bring my wide angle lens." He warned me about the size of the artwork (huge) and wanted to make sure it would work for our upcoming portrait session together. 

When I got to Tony's apartment in Somerville, MA, I walked in and was shocked: Lining the kitchen walls and all the hallways were 6+ feet canvasses. He wasn't lyin' about the sheer size of his art work. Luckily our photoshoot wasn’t a “copy photo session” (meaning the photographing of his paintings with even lighting, usually for portfolio reasons) but an individual lifestyle shoot to capture an environmental portrait for Tony’s recent achievement of being Somerville Arts Council Artist of the month. Before each shoot I always ask myself “what should be the backdrop of this environmental portrait?”, and within one second of walking into Tony’s kitchen I knew the paintings were the environment and perfect backdrop. So we photographed in front of them, gabbing the whole time over our shared love of American artist Cindy Sherman and my suggestions to channel his inner Dominic Chianese (The Godfather, The Sopranos). Tony easily and quickly relaxed with this suggestion, one hand on his kitchen windowsill, while his city-slicker cat, Zamboni, looked on. Zamboni is a black and white indoor-outdoor cat and is well known in the community and as friendly as his owner. But Tony has an intellectually charged deeper side in his artwork: the paintings are fantastically grotesque filled with brutal realities and metaphor. These paintings are fiery, political, sharp, honest, playful, and refreshing all in one colorful breath of a view. After our hour-long shoot together I asked myself: What makes a person dig this far into the depths of their creativity?

Tony’s latest politically charged oil painting lined an entire wall of his bedroom. In bold primary colors with comic book sensibility, I witnessed a painting of young children playing within a murderous scene in a classroom. This painting was intense - with a tension between playful and terrifying. The bold red color of the blood jumped out at me because it matched the same hue of red as the leather chair Tony sat on front of it. On a lighter note, Tony had amazing dark Italian hair with one strand that fell over his forehead, which I called “the Uncle Jesse strand” and we laughed and agreed John Stamos is a dream boat.

Tony’s sketchbook was another great element of discovery from the shoot. He opened the large black-bound book and with a tinge of vulnerability began showing me some of the most intricate sketches I’ve ever seen in a sketchbook. With tight line work and precise use of minuscule dots each drawing looked like a polished rendering. This is where his brainstorming occurs. After politely and directly telling me about the process I learned how Tony would spend months prepping each painting, sometimes laying them out in Photoshop, often changing the concept at the last minute, then spending hours (even days!) with a brush rendering them to a large scale.

Perhaps it was Tony’s schooling from Rhode Island School of Design, or the impressive amount of time he puts into his studio practice, but this work is impactful and liberating. It was an amazing photographic experience to witness an example of an artist who leaves behind no “should-haves” in his life. I highly recommend you see the paintings in person because they’ll swallow you in and spit you out covered in goopy insight.

If you’d like to see more of his work you can visit his website and read the full artist interview here. 

Take Good Pictures in Bad Lighting (flash-free on the iPhone)

Shooting in low light can be a scary, scary thing. Most of us prefer nice sunny days, our viewing screens filled with as much natural light as possible. But there are times when this simply isn't the reality. There's no windows. It's 10pm at night. You're at a concert and have to work quickly to make the shots as hot as possible. Yes, these situations can be tricky but here is some advice so you can focus on your subject vs the lighting hurdles.

Grab your phone because it’s time to try these tips!

1. Adjust your exposure in Camera Mode

Tap the iPhone camera screen on the dark areas to boost up your exposure of the image. It’ll brighten things up! Like a DSLR camera adjusting its settings, the more light will be exposed to the sensor, allowing you the most light into your camera as possible.

2. Add more lighting

How many photographers does it take to move a light bulb? ONE AND IT'S YOU. Grab a lamp nearby and light like you had a studio of lamps! No one will see that library-style desk lamp that you're awkwardly holding three inches away from your subject, just out of frame. Get weird! You can always send me some behind the scenes photos of your wildest lighting, I'd love to see how creative you can get!

3. Shoot somewhere brighter

If you are shooting indoors with low light and it's during the daytime, take the subject outside or pull some of those still life's to a picnic table outdoors. Move somewhere where there is more light. If you are in the center of a dark room during day time try your setups next to a window and let light flood over your subject all pretty-like.

4. Smooth with a filter

I use the VSCOcam app and love their editing features. You can adjust your “clarity” if the image looks a bit too grainy. Also, feel free to sharpen things or change to black and white in VSCOcam. Black and white photography has a long lineage of being grainy and offering wonderful contrast for low-lit situations.

5. If it can wait, then wait

What is this, a candlelit dinner date? No, it's a photograph! Can it wait until morning or tomorrow afternoon for you to shoot the perfect iPhone image? If it can, go ahead and wait. Your audience will be here when you’re ready. 

6. Embrace it

The truth is, I LOVE the drama of low light. If you only have one source of light at your disposal, try some new things! Photograph at a striking angle. Change your position. Try the photo with different subjects in the light and out of the light. Explore silhouettes. Now is your chance to be expressive! Shoot within your comfort zone but don't be afraid of challenging yourself with low light. I dare ya.

 [Special thanks to The Kevin Hayden Band for allowing Dakota Lenox Photography to shoot their group shots and behind the scenes of their show.]

Local Feature: Creative Influences of Musician, Robert Noyes

Robert Noyes is a local musician of Somerville, MA with a knack for sweet vibes and awesome sounds. I reached out to photograph him for the Somerville Arts Council because he is the Artist of the Month for June!

Robert Noyes of Somerville, MA

Robert Noyes of Somerville, MA

When I emailed Robert to arrange the photo shoot, he surprised me with the fact that we’d be shooting in his main space of inspiration - his home. I LOVED this immediately, excited to get a glimpse of the influences that fuel his work. Upon arriving, I noticed Robert’s extensive record collection that rivals some of the best I’ve seen. With Laurel Aitken’s reggae/funk/soul vinyl record “Sweet Rocking Mama / Reggae Serenade” (1975) hanging prominently in the living room, I knew this guy had impeccable musical taste along with talent.

In true cat lady fashion, one of the best parts was meeting his silky black kitty, Onyx. This old gentleman was kind to me and gets to live the ultimate life - listening to the sounds of Robert’s guitar everyday. Lucky dude *and* he photographs so darn well!!

Robert strummed his favorite guitar as I began to photograph, slowly drifting into a blissful state. He effortlessly created a beautiful acoustic ballad on the spot. I knew he practices for hours, honing on his natural abilities with the instrument, and this was dream-like.

While It was amazing to witness, it was evident this particular photo shoot would be less “directing” on my part (I didn't want to interrupt his flow) and more observational photographing. So I mentally switched gears, something that is often tricky for photographers. While he stayed in the zone, I allowed myself to drift and pay close attention to the details of his home studio; I loved the pile of handmade art on his music stand, the beautiful and delicate eggshell artwork in his kitchen that his girlfriend made, and enjoyed photographing closeups of his guitar as his fingers glazed through each note.  Special thanks to Robert for the free short concert, I will forever be impressed by your musical talents!

You can find more of his music and get in contact with him here:  robnoyes.bandcamp.com & https://www.facebook.com/robmnoyes/

To read the full interview with Somerville Arts Council please visit: http://www.somervilleartscouncil.org/artistmonth/2016

Boston Business Feature: styled photo shoot with Central Square Florist

For the last two months, I’ve been texting back and forth with Jackie of Central Square Florist in Cambridge, MA, designing a styled photo shoot. We initially met at a coffee shop with the idea to have this photo shoot and agreed on the theme of “casual outing”. From there we extended the collaboration to model/style & fashion blogger Victoria Hathaway and talented makeup artist Sydney Tess. The shoot would be in the beautiful setting of local business Cafe Luna and the surrounding Central Square community.

There were a lot of voices and styles that needed to come together for the shoot to be successful and working with Jackie to achieve our perfect vision had to be calculated. Our biggest challenge was giving each variable the attention it deserved.

Flowers by Central Square Florist

Flowers by Central Square Florist

The photo shoot happily fell on a Thursday night, one of the first warm days of spring. Jackie and I walked from her storefront to Cafe Luna holding boxes of succulents, a colorful arrangement, and a bouquet that was bursting to life with orange and purple hues. We chatted on the way to Cafe Luna, our first stop of the evening. As we peeked through the giant garage-sized windows, we saw the shop slowly simmering in the aftermath of a busy day. We walked through the doors, noticing the golden yellow walls and the table settings with white paper placemats and crayons available for coloring.

The staff was smiling and offered us beautifully plated dishes and the perfect cup of joe, complete with a rosette swirl on top. We began shooting still lifes of the glorious flowers and the magical looking plates, with Jackie working as an art director for different positioning. She is incredibly decisive and I adored working with her because of this.

Victoria’s makeup was minimal and gorgeous, the beautiful artwork of expert Sydney. She carried a huge travel bag filled with outfit options, still warm from their car ride from Rhode Island. I reacted quickly and instinctively to her outfit options, and Jackie stepped in to have the final say on which outfits would work best with her flowers’ color palettes.

After 30 minutes of photographing shots of Victoria sipping on a cup of perfectly prepared cappuccino (everyone enjoyed several during the shoot - not a problem in my opinion!) we began to wander outdoors.

One of my favorite spots was Modica Way, a public walkway in Central Square connecting City Parking Lot 5 to Massachusetts Avenue. Modica Way is completely covered in artist’s graffiti, an absolute must-see for anyone in Cambridge. Victoria and I share a love of street art, so this environment totally fit our styles. Victoria wore an all black jumper and held a single gorgeous sunflower, an excellent suggestion from Jackie.

With any on-location urban shoot, there is the challenge of dealing with passersby and looky-loos. But Victoria displayed an admirable confidence as we got lost in the alleys. She allowed me to “do my thing”, sporadically and playfully halting her mid-walk to snap a photograph or asking her to shake her hair wildly. Even though the street bustled with activity, Victoria was comfortable and didn’t hesitate when I asked her to chomp down on the sunflower stem with her teeth. We floated our way through the city streets and the results are saucy. Thanks to everyone who made this styled shoot so fantastic!

The team:

Flowers/Plants: @centralsquareflorist | www.centralsquareflorist.com

Model: @veehathaway | www.thestylegurudotnet.wordpress.com

Makeup Artist :@sydneytess_sydneytess@gmail.com

Interior Location: @cafelunacentral | www.cafeluna-centralsq.com

Outdoor Location: Modica Way (#modicaway)

All photography: @dakotalenoxphoto