Mainers to be Thankful For

The past couple of weeks have been pretty peachy at the Press Herald-as probably a few folks know, I like making portraits, and over the past few weeks, I got to make portraits. Every year the Maine Sunday Telegram (our Sunday paper) runs a Thanksgiving feature chronicling people who are heavily involved in their communities. To make the series uniform, (I photographed the series with fellow photog Gabe Souza) we decided to photograph subjects against a white backdrop, square cropped. 

Somewhere out there, a studio gear head is rolling in his grave. I promise not every backdrop looked this crap-tastic. For those that care, I used a 580ex as my main with a shoot through as my only modifier, and a sb800 triggered optically by the main. The only reason I'm posting this is to prove (mostly to myself) how simple lit portraits can be, and have written evidence of admission that I should try and incorporate them in situations that don't seem to call for such efforts. Admittedly, my life would've been easier for this project if I had three lights and barn doors for each setup, but check out that break room where I set up my first 'studio' above. No-way-in-hell is any more crap fitting in that space. 

I thoroughly enjoyed making these images, but getting to hear people talk about how passionate they are about their community, school, or walking trail, was just as enjoyable.