Monday, March 31, 2014

Family ties


My brother, David, is a professional photographer. The photo of Kate, above, is proof of that. This year, he and my niece, Kelsey, came for a visit during their spring break. In spite of leaving his  camera and lenses in the car at the airport, we had a week filled with photo shoots, some planned and some impromptu in nature. I watched him use his iPhone as often as my Sony and all of the photos were awesome. 

One evening, he and daughter, Kelsey, set up a makeshift photo studio in our living room, with a chair overturned for background, photo light shields at the windows, and lots of treats to bribe Kate into being angelic for a brief moment. (See amazing photo above).  To set this up, he had Kelsey crouch on the chair, pretending to be the dog! I was startled at first, then I remembered David telling me about photographer, Annie Leibovitz, and how she spent hours setting up a photo BEFORE the subject even arrived.

Not to be left out, both Marilyn and Jack got the royal treats (I mean treatment) as well. 



Doesn't Marilyn look sweet!


The expression on Jack's face is a familiar one. What IS he thinking about? Something is definitely being contemplated, and I don't think it is all about the graham cracker, either.  


AllieCat was a challenging subject as she is often squirmy when held and she doesn't stay in one place for long.  As a surprise, David created a short film of Allie just being her cute self with Ron.


This is just a small sample of the photos taken, and I'd love to show you more. (I'll ask him if he'll  let me to showcase them here). It was amazing to see what he produced and how he looks at things with an eye for the best composition. He mentioned that he's working on a photo book called, Furniture in Public Places, and we had fun identifying couches left on sidewalks, chairs by the side of the road, etc. I'm afraid the whole volume could be produced just in this locale. I told him about my project, Librarians with Cool Shoes, and he seemed intrigued.....

We prowled around  abandoned factories in town, spent time on ice mounds on Lake Erie,  took night shots of our house, and the Library, and worked on an ABC poster featuring spinning wheels and knitting items. Kelsey was right in there, the perfect photo assistant-enthusiastic and adventuresome, too. It was a week I'll always remember.




















1 comment: