That was the plan, anyway.  Cutler was game and the stark location on Portland’s waterfront would work well.   After one cancellation (due to an actual storm, with strobe light-ruining rain), we rescheduled in December.  The weather turned out to be cold, but not bitterly so—as I’d hoped—but it was sufficiently overcast.  At least it was until Cutler actually stood in front of the camera.  That’s when the clouds slid away from the sun and the somber mood turned a few shades lighter.

So I shot the portrait I’d planned, and then decided to turn the sun’s appearance to my advantage.  Combined with a tough, somewhat enigmatic expression from Cutler, the backlit portrait quickly became my favorite.   I briefly stepped back to grab a scener, complete with assistant Charlie Widdis, my fully-functioning human-powered light boom.   Easy, simple, and all due to a great subject with a bit of seat-of-the-pantsery.  As Charlie says, it’s our standard M.O.   Check out the story on Inspire Portland.

© 2012, Brian Fitzgerald. All rights reserved.

So I guess I was predisposed to like the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.   And it wasn’t much of a leap for me to ask Donna Galluzzo, Salt’s executive director, to participate in this week’s issue of Inspire Portland.   A photographer herself, Galluzzo has repositioned Salt for the future with a new space and a transformation to using digital tools for all of its tracks (radio, photography, writing).

She well understands that the tools may change, but good storytelling does not.  Looking at the work of her students, it’s quite timeless—in the way that Minimata would be as powerful today as it was almost four decades ago.

We met and I photographed Galluzzo in Salt’s sleek new headquarters on Congress Street—yep, that’s a bamboo floor you see in the photo.   I’ve posted a few outtakes from the shoot, though in this instance I knew what I was going for and moved around less than I normally would.    You can see our multiple light setup in one of the photos, with my assistant Charlie playing the part of subject.

I’m quite happy with the final image we used on Inspire Portland.  It’s less storytelling and more evocative.  To me, it gives a feel for the optimism and energy that Galluzzo brings to Salt and that Salt, with its body of storytellers, brings to Portland and Maine.  Enjoy.

© 2011, Brian Fitzgerald. All rights reserved.

I met Leslie a couple of years ago, after photographing her former Commercial Street studio. We’ve been in touch ever since, and I thought she’d be a perfect fit for Inspire Portland.  The final image I chose is dark, somewhat gritty and taken in the conference area of her Cape Elizabeth studio.   I took lots of other, bright and commercial-looking images that day (see slideshow below for a few outtakes) but something about this scene made this image the clear winner.   Leslie Evans may be all about beautiful, airy design….but the work that goes into making that happen isn’t glamorous or easy.  I like the feel of Leslie being surrounded by the volumes of art and design, swatches in hand on a worn, weathered table.   To me it speaks to what makes creatives succeed, besides talent….hard work and inspiration.

Check out Leslie’s article in this issue of Inspire Portland.

© 2011, Brian Fitzgerald. All rights reserved.

Michelle Souliere of Strange Maine

The path to inspiration takes many twists.  If any of those dark and windy turns are located in Maine, chances are that Michelle Souliere probably can tell you all about them.

Along with her husband, Tristan, Michelle is force behind the Strange Maine blog.  She’s also a writer, having published a book on the subject of strange things Maine last year.  She’s a speaker, radio personality, and a business owner, running the Green Hand Bookshop on Congress Street.  She’s also an artist with a fine-arts degree from MECA.

Above all Michelle is a Mainer, and she loves to tell people jsut how odd, spooky or downright wierd Maine really is.

I suspect that’s why she made the suggestion of shooting her photo in a cemetery,  which I readily accepted.   The shoot went well, at Evergreen Cemetery, and I learned a few things.    One, take extra batteries.  Two, fog is hard to shoot.  Three, kerosene lanterns are very messy.  So, thanks, Michelle, for being so patient with us during a long shoot with fickle props.

I like the final image chosen—dark, ominous, with Michelle shedding light on the darkness.  She was a lot of fun, and has some cool things to say in her interview on the Inspire Portland site.  Check it out!

© 2011, Brian Fitzgerald. All rights reserved.

Enjoy!

Think First    Social Media and tribe-building from Out:think

Camera Cake    New social media site for and by professional photographers

Photoshelter Blog   Even if you don’t use the Photoshelter service, you’ll find something of value on their frequently-updated blog

Portland Food Coma   You may enjoy food, but trust me—not as much as Maine Magazine food editor Joe Ricchio.  His voice is entertaining, irreverent and worth a read.

Inspire Portland   Yes, it’s a bit self-serving—but what Colleen Wainwright calls my allotted ’5%’.  Plus, I think you’ll think it’s cool.

The Art of Non-Conformity   blog by Chris Guillebeau.  You’ve got to just check it out.  There’s a cool writeup about a cool Mainah there today.

Nate Damm  The cool Mainah mentioned above.   He walked across America.  All of it.   What did you do this summer?

© 2011, Brian Fitzgerald. All rights reserved.

I thought again of Kepware when I started Inspire Portland after reading some articles about Kepware’s successes–and founder Corson “Corky” Ellis’ involvement in the promotion of entrepreneurship in Maine through ventures like the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development’s Top Gun program    I thought, I’ve got to meet this guy.   At a minimum, he might be able to explain what Kepware does in a way that my feeble brain can understand.

Two days after he agreed to the shoot, I found myself in the headquarters of Corky’s operation, above the Post Office in downtown Portland.   He looks a little like my good friend and photographer Brad Armstrong.   We had a good conversation, and Corky emphasized two things repeatedly:  one, the success of Kepware is entirely due to the efforts of many talented people besides himself; and two, that he is very concerned about the state of technology education among secondary school students.  From his perspective, the best way to keep and attract high-paying tech jobs here in Maine is to get our kids more interested in science and math.    He sees technology education as the key to creating a technology economy here in Maine.

The shoot went well and I had the run of their amazing space across from City Hall.   Corky is one of those talented entrepreneurs who actively chose to live in Portland and now, some 15 years later, is employing more than 60 people in highly-skilled jobs.    Almost as important, he finally explained to me what Kepware actually does in terms I can understand, comparing it to the printer drivers you download to allow your computer and printer to talk…just on a much bigger scale.

Read his interview and see the photos at Inspire Portland.   I chose the lead image because it seemed the least contrived, and the most revealing in terms of his expression.   You ask questions about what people carry in their pockets, and it tends to get people to drop their guard a bit.   See the outtakes and lighting scene shot in the gallery below (sorry, iUsers, you’ll need Flash).

© 2011, Brian Fitzgerald. All rights reserved.

I love this….one of my clients is making it big.  Biba, a health “smart drink” startup based in Boston, is now in full production after a couple years of very hard work.  I just noticed them in the local grocery store, too.  Biba is hands-down the best energy-type drink I’ve ever had—light, full of vitamins rather than sugar, and darned tasty.  Go Biba!

© 2011, Brian Fitzgerald. All rights reserved.

Ferry Beach in Scarborough, the setting for the Lights on Location Workshop

It’s now October, which means that it’s time to start thinking about holidays, jackets and how to escape the coming cold.  It also means the final workshop of our 2011 series is almost upon us.

The Lights on Location Workshop is slated for 4-7:30 pm on Tuesday, October 18th at Ferry Beach in Scarborough.   This is a hands-on-cameras workshop focused on real, practical shooting with strobes (studio and speedlight) in combination with sunlight outside.

If you’ve ever struggled with portraits on the beach, or getting a great fashion style shot, this workshop is for you.   We’ll be shooting in full sunlight and at dusk using studio strobes with battery packs and with speed lights, with a variety of light modifiers.

The goal is to give you confidence that you can balance natural with artificial light to make a stunning, dramatic image for your portfolio or for your clients.

I love gear as much as the next photographer, but the focus here is unleashing your creativity.  As such we’ll delve into light basics, lighting with just one or two lights,  high-speed flash photography, and maximizing the effectiveness of your camera manufacturer speed lights. The focus is on maximizing the gear you already own, but we’ll show examples using more lights and some more sophisticated lighting controls.

To sign up for the workshop, click to pay here.   Space is limited to just 10 participants.  Hope to see you there!

© 2011, Brian Fitzgerald. All rights reserved.

Five years ago, my wife Beth and I drove 3,090 miles from Washington State to Portland, Maine.   I had recently been transferred by my employer, the Seattle Times Company, to become the photo director at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.

In my career as a journalist, I’ve lived a lot of places but the goal was always the same:  to make my mark at the newspaper, and when it was time, move on.    It never really mattered where I lived, from Korea to Yakima, Washington, but Portland was different.  We were as excited about our new hometown as I was about the new job.

After a couple of years I decided to leave the newspaper to focus on my photography business.   We were faced with a decision:  stay in Portland, or move again.

We chose Portland.

Almost everyone, it seems, has had to ‘choose’ Portland at some point.   From the 20-something working several ‘joblets’, to the entrepreneur who decides they’ll build a business here, almost everyone, at some point, has to make a decision whether to stay.  Portland isn’t made up of people who just end up here—this isn’t Phoenix or Florida or L.A.   The winters are hard and long, and jobs can be scarce.  It’s a place where, to succeed, you have to work hard and be creative.   Not surprisingly, it’s filled with some pretty interesting, driven and creative people.

Which brings me to Inspire Portland.   Years ago, our family decided to live, work and play in Portland.   Inspire Portland is a sampling of people—people you may know about, and people that you should.  This site is based on my desire to get out on the streets with my camera and talk with people who make Portland such a cool place.    Every other week I’ll feature a new portrait along with a short question-and-answer session.  That’s 26 portraits and interviews of some pretty cool people that have inspired Portland.

On this blog, I’ll announce each ‘issue’, tell the backstory for the portrait and may publish additional photos from the shoots.   The project kicks off with three portraits dating from September 1.

The first portrait is of Rich Connor, CEO and Publisher of MaineToday Media.   I start with him because our paths are intertwined—The Press Herald is what brought me to Portland.  It hasn’t been that long since national media ran articles about how Portland was on the verge of losing its only daily (non-free) newspaper.   Connor is responsible for the paper’s continued survival during a very difficult time for newspapers.    Next up is Nan Heald, executive director for Pine Tree Legal Assistance.  Through an army of volunteer laywers, the PTLA has changed lives for the better here.  I end September with Chystie Corns, who takes the idea of ‘invent your dream job’ to a whole new level.  Her talent is that she makes it look so easy.

Let me know what you think.

© 2011, Brian Fitzgerald. All rights reserved.

I recently had a fun shoot for an e-book project called The Witch’s Code by author P.J. Mann.  Earlier this week, the book was published for sale online, so I thought I’d share the cover as well as some photos that didn’t make the final cut.    This is the first time I’ve gotten to work directly with my good friends Arielle Walrath, Kevin Brooks and Sean Wilkinson of Might & Main.  As it turns out, after searching for an appropriate model who also would fit the author’s well-defined notions of the main character (uh, let’s see…a 20-something female detective from Salem, Mass., with wavy long brown hair, who can channel her inner witch….).    After everything was said and done, it turned out that Laura Flood —my makeup and hair stylist of choice—was perfect (and willing, which was definitely a plus).   I also have to thank South Portland P.D.’s Steve Webster (a bona fide real detective) for his expertise and help as well.

The finished cover, with post-production provided by Might & Main is pretty cool–definitely my favorite photo of the bunch.    Here are a couple of others I liked a lot (Laura is holding her hand out as if it contains a glowing spell as in the final finished book cover).   Great job all around, and a way fun shoot on location in the bewitching city of Portland.

© 2011, Brian Fitzgerald. All rights reserved.