Portraits

I watched a documentary on Henri Cartier-Bresson a couple weeks ago, and can’t stop thinking about his portrait work. Photography would not be what it is today without Cartier-Bresson, and despite having looked at his photos a zillion times prior to watching the documentary I had very little, if any, familiarity with his portraiture. His portrait of Marilyn Monroe particularly stands out – because she does not know that her portrait is being made, it is one of the most honest and beautiful images of her ever captured.

At events I tend to walk around during cocktail hours and dinners to take pictures of the guests. I generally think of these photographs as more of a record of who is in attendance, but after watching the documentary, I decided to look back at one event and think of these photos more as portraits than records.

Here are some of my favorite portraits from Keep Smiling with Ali.

Keep Smiling With Ali

Meet Ali:

Ali is one of the most cheerful and positive people I’ve ever met! Ali’s life was forever changed after a diving accident in the summer of 2007. She and her family hosted a fundraiser in November to raise money for Ali’s therapy, and I was thrilled to be able to help out!

A zillion people turned out to support Ali. Here are some photos of some of her guests!

I donated a portrait session to the silent auction, and have decided that next year, in order to help Ali raise more money, I am going to donate a portrait session with an 8×10 autographed by Paul Pierce! Then maybe people would bid on it. Right. I am totally going to make that happen.

Jungle Jim was also there to help out.  He is  an AMAZING balloon artist who makes balloon caricatures of people!  I was obsessed.

One of the volunteers with the balloon version of herself!

Ali gave a moving speech and thanked everyone for coming.

Another guest with her balloon self!

A balloon Ali! I love it!

After dinner was over, there was dancing.

I really enjoyed meeting Ali and can’t stop thinking about how positive her attitude is. If you’d like to help Ali, please click here.

Amanda and Josh – The Rehearsal Party

I am a person who loves a good trade, and this may have been the best trade ever! I second-shot Amanda and Josh’s wedding in exchange for wedding photography at my own wedding this August! I spent June 13 and June 14 documenting all of their wedding-related festivities in Philadelphia.

Meet Amanda and Josh:

They hosted their rehearsal party at Lucky Strike, a bowling alley (how awesome is that? I desperately wanted my own wedding to be at a bowling alley but sadly it was not large enough to accommodate all of our guests) right around the corner from the hotel we were all staying at.

It was a blast! I got there a little after the party started because I couldn’t resist the lure of amazing mac and cheese at Jones, my favorite restaurant in Philly. When I finally arrived at the party things were in full swing!

Amanda and Josh enjoying the party:

Here are some guests at the party, including the primary photographer! When I arrived I took over while she drank something blue!

Josh is a fierce bowler!

Folks, do not (I repeat: DO NOT) step onto a bowling lane WITHOUT BOWLING SHOES no matter how wonderful you think the shot is going to be! You will fall and break your camera and yourself. I totally bit it (banana-peal style; oh the grace!) trying to take photos of Amanda and Josh bowling when I stepped into the lane whilst wearing sneakers. Luckily my camera survived (as did I!) and I was able to get this last shot of Amanda and Josh before their BIG DAY!

Jessie’s Awesome Party

This past weekend I photographed Jessie’s bat mitzvah party at the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston, MA.

I would like to introduce you to Jessie, who is a true rock star.

The party was amazing. Jessie had a zillion guests.

This is the first bat mitzvah I’ve shot and I was surprised to see that, unlike adults at weddings, kids want to dance right away. They require no motivation. The minute they walked through the door onto the red carpet, Jessie’s friends wanted to do nothing but dance. As you know my favorite thing to photograph is people dancing, so needless to say I was ecstatic and looking forward to a looong night of dancing insanity!

When the guests weren’t dancing, they had their photos taken and developed instantly by some photographers who were set up behind the dance floor.

There was also delicious food to eat – here’s Jessie eating her meal on the dance floor.

This is a collage of some fun shots from the night.

As if things weren’t awesome enough, there were ice cream sundaes to be eaten!

There was more dancing.

And also more dancing.

Here Jessie’s parents lift up Jessie and her sisters!

Did I mention there was a lot of dancing? In this photo the kids are doing the “Thriller” dance, which caused me great happiness as my friends and I used to secretly do the “Thriller” dance in my parents’ basement way back when (and also pretend that there were zombies in my parents’ washer and dryer). I was “thrilled” that they were doing the dance in public, although I admit that I am dumbfounded as to how 13 year olds even know about “Thriller!”

And then there was more dancing.

Here are all the kids. They were hilarious.

Thanks Jessie for inviting me to shoot your bat mitzvah! I hope you had as good a time as I did!!!

Susan and Paul’s 25th Wedding Anniversary

This past weekend was Susan (my godmother, known to me as Susie!) and Paul’s 25th wedding anniversary in Franklin, MA. I was actually a flower girl in their wedding 25 years ago. The entire original wedding party was in attendance, as well as all of Susan and Paul’s families.

Nothing I love more than a photo of a photo, especially a photo of a photo from the 80s!

Here they are, 25 years ago.

The party was a surprise – the family waits anxiously at the hall for Susan and Paul’s arrival!

Susan and Paul’s children arranged for them to be dropped off in a limo!

SURPRISE!!!

It wouldn’t be a big Italian family party without a ton of food.

And if one has no interest in the buffet, there are always plenty of chips.

I have decided that taking formal photographs of one’s own family is extremely entertaining.

Nooo! Don’t cut into the awesome 80’s cake!

It’s also not a big Italian family party without the chicken dance.

Last time I checked this move was not part of the chicken dance.

Y-M-C-A!

After hours of dancing and trivia with scratch tickets as prizes (I won a ticket for knowing the theme song to one of my most-beloved TV shows, “Welcome Back Kotter;” sadly my ticket was not a winner), the DJ brought out strange little wooden horses and made the family race.

If you weren’t racing, you picked a horse to bet on.

The horse racing ended up being entertaining and fabulously fun, as was the entire party.

Congrats Susie and Paul! Here’s to another 25 years!

BONUS daily dose of happy:

International Pillow Fight Day!

International Pillow Fight Day is on March 22. I had attended the pillow fight in NYC two years ago, and decided that this year I would cover it in Boston! The fight took place in Copley Square in the small park in front of the church. It was a lovely day, and the fight was well-attended.

I got right in there. When I attended the fight in NYC my camera was new – I think it was the second time I’d ever used it outside so I timidly took photos from the perimeter of the fight. My camera is now part of me (and totally obsolete, so of course part of me was hoping it would be a casualty of the pillow fight so I’d have an excuse to buy a new one!) so I was right in there. We both survived and had a great time photographing the fight.

For more of the pillow fight, check out my flickr set.