Unexpected Gem: Amherst Farm Winery

Mother's Day, this past Sunday was nice. I sat with my mother and brother for lunch after a new mommy and daddy came to the studio for a portrait session. Over the last 9 months I have photographed the expected mother once a month for a progression series. On Sunday she came in with the new baby. It was a beautiful morning and early afternoon. It was the beginning of a great day in general. A short time after my lunch ended I made my way to my girlfriend's place. Needing to do an errand in Hadley, we made our way up. The afternoon was welcomed and well received. It was once of the nicest days we have had weather wise in a very long time. Soft white clouds filled the sharp blue sky. It was warm, mid 80s. But not hot. The soft breeze was pleasant. I stopped a few times to make a few landscape shots. Pictured in the gallery below. It was such a great day, I wanted to capture the essence of what we were being given. We arrived at our destination, did what we needed to, and set out to find a means to enjoy being outside. Before long we found we had plans to enjoy the rest of the afternoon at the Quabin Reservoir. After a stop for water, coffee, and a snack, we were on our way. Moments after we pulled out of the gas station we passed a sign, "Wine Tasting 12-6" Me, "Want to go." Her, "Absolutely." We turned around and made our way back. Exiting the car and walking towards the door we were greeted by a hello and how are you. We didnt know it at the time, but the woman greeting us from the front porch with her little baby was Audrey Samek, the owner of Amherst Farm Winery. We were greeted a second time by Craig McNichol. Craig introduced us to the atmosphere, gave us a tour, and explained the Winery in detail. From a list of 15 wines, we were allowed to sample 5 each. The choices of wine we selected were subtle and provided a unique and distinct taste. Each sample teased the palate and provided a multi-sensory delight that was better than the previous tastings. After we had our samples, we proceeded to take a bottle out on to their patio, which cleverly is shaped like a wine barrel, and enjoy the late afternoon sun. As we sat, basking in the sun, talking and laughing, Craig surprised us with a fresh loaf of bread topped with sea salt, herbs and fresh garlic. Just out of the oven, on a warm plate surrounded by a drizzle of vinaigrette, we were presented with an appetizer that further enhanced the already gracious hospitality. Realizing that we discovered a rare moment on a great day, we sat with pleasant smiles and enjoyed the wine and fresh baked bread. Following our enjoyment, we proceeded to say good bye and take with us the wine we purchased. What started out as a simple thank you and good bye turned into a great conversation and an intimate view of hospitality and social responsibility. Audrey and Craig provided us with an experience and completed out day. I strongly recommend an afternoon or evening at the Amherst Farm Winery.[gallery columns="4"]

Happy Mothers Day: New Documentary

To all the mothers in the world, I hope you have a Happy Mothers Day! I have begun working on a new, personal documentary. This Is Autism is a doc about an 11 year old child, my brother, who has Autism. He was just diagnosed with autism within the last year. He also displays traits and characteristics of Cerebral Palsy. For him, life is a different view. I am documenting him, the way he interacts, the way he lives his life, and to capture what it means to be autistic. He has over come tremendous amounts of adversity and continues to do so as he grows up.

The following link will take you to my flickr set, This Is Autism

Go Read A Book, A Must Read: A Photoless Post

Take your eyes off this post, once you're done reading and looking at my photographs and order yourself This Book: Photographs Not Taken. I received a few emails regarding this book. More or less it was, hey check this out, or this is something I know you'd like. Which is true, for me this will be a great read. The text reflects a few personal interests I have in photography, unrelated to making photographs, but how the idea of an image relates to people, stories, and communication. Photography is more than just an image, it is more than just pressing the button of a camera. Photography holds a powerful place in the world, it has since they days it began and will continue to as the medium evolves. For those that spend hours, days, months, years, life times trying making photographs, they know how to communicate through images. Their stories are telling of how they see the world and tell the reader what they are thinking through a visual narrative. For myself, photography is about communicating and sharing. This book is imageless, (as reviewed on Wired) but speaks volumes about the mental image, the minds photograph, that image that was never constructed for extrinsic reasons. I suggest and recommend reading this book. The insight can inspire you and possibly teach you a very valuable lesson. Dont take my word for it, take the word of Will Steacy. Check out his Blog Here, as well.

On Location: Inside the recording studio.

Yesterday I was on location in a recording studio for a pretty cool shoot. I can't say I ran 2nd, 3rd, or 4th camera because there were more cameras than people to run them. There were 2 Sony NexFS100's a Canon 5D MarkIII 2 Canon 7Ds 2 Canon 60Ds a bunch of lenses and a Nikon dslr strapped to my back to capture some stills. I captured stills of some of the action taking place and video of the location and surrounding area. The musicians that were recording their album provided us with some good tunes to bob our heads to while we worked. Here is a pano from inside one of the booths.

Facebook Timeline: Studio Shot

I figured since Facebook timeline bombed my personal page, I might as well be productive and create something to put in its place. I am sure my business page is next *JeffreyB Photography on facebook*Granted, I do have plenty of images, I figured eh, why not shoot the interior of the studio and show it off a bit more than I have. I did a quick set up with the lights and couches and viola! I withheld from showing the multi-colored backdrops and decided to show the post-mill aesthetic and charm that is my studio.

Catching Up: New Website and Photo Exhibition

The month of March was crazy busy for me. So crazy that I wasn't able to really get any posts done. In fact, as much as I kept wanting to post and keep up, was exactly how often I got pulled away from being able to. March brought a lot of projects for me. So many that I just couldn't get a post out. Now that we are in a new month, projects have ended and I am moving forward with new work. One of the major projects for March, which came very fast at the end was the launching of the new site! Yes! I know finally right? It feels like yesterday I started JeffreyB. Photography, when really it was one year ago. Last April, 2011, I started JeffreyB. Photography as a website to host my personal work. Over the course of the year this transitioned into a site to host my business and a small collection of the long term projects I have been working on. The story of my site goes back to last Sunday. Sunday March 25. While attending a coffee hour for a friend running for State Rep, I got to talking with another friend of mine. Jim Chevalier. Jim is a smart cat who knows his stuff. I mean KNOWS his stuff. By stuff I mean web, "geekery" stuff as he calls it. He builds apps, sites, and can make things do things, on the web. Discussing with him the idea of getting my site together in a week and having it up by the following Friday, the opening of a exhibition I had been working on for 3 months, seemed like a novel idea. Boy did Jim pull me back down to earth, and fast. "You make great photos, concentrate on that and I will get you a site together by Friday. It is my goal." I told him I would email him tomorrow, on a Monday, and we would talk. Over the course of emailing, less than 50 electronic mail conversations, and a few hours of Jim's personal time a site was born. What makes this such worthy project to discuss was how Jim creatively made things, do things. You can check out his project page here, where he discusses how he made it happen.

I suggest taking a look at my Projects Page. I have been discussing At First Sight, A Social Documentary about Kris Wanat I wil be adding a few more projects in the coming months, but for now, I am content with showing what I have been working on for the last 2 years to 18 months back.

Halfway through March I was requested to do an engagement shoot for a friend and her fiance. I had a lot of fun shooting at the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke Ma. I have made done a few shoots there, both for the museum and for functions that have taken place there. Chris and Lisa were a fun couple that came in with a list of ideas and made for a great shoot.

Going back to the exhibition I had open last Friday. On Friday March 30th Landmark Illuminations opened at Open Square. One of the ways that I prefer to define what Landmark Illuminations was, besides a photography exhibition, is as follows: Landmark Illuminations is an exhibition of images that convey the fleeting, transitioning moment of the Holyoke Public Library. The exhibition was both display and auction of the images. I made available a certain number of prints, both framed and matted as well as a set of limited edition prints, just mated. The goal was to raise money for the Library's Capital Camping, a fundraiser to gather a certain dollar amount needed for the Library's construction and renovation. I spent roughly three months working with a committee to bring this exhibition to its goal successfully open it. On Friday night when the doors to the event space closed, we were surprised and delighted to find that just over half the exhibition had been purchased. 19 pieces sold and the dollar amount raised was just past $4000.00. As a means of social practice and social investment, the social practice being the making and displaying the photographs, the social investment being, all proceeds were donated to the Capital Campaign Fund. This was an ambitions project that consumed a lot of time through the month of March. A project that I was happy to create and work on. As a sub form of social practice, I had a lot of assistance from other local business, including The Muse Custom Framing, Sutter's Jewelry, Open Square, and the committee of members I had been working with. Their time, effort, and energy was both supportive and beneficial to seeing our goal become complete. A special thank you goes to Bob Gordon for donating his time to photograph the event to share with everyone that couldn't be there that night.

The next couple of weeks shall be fun. I have a bunch of in studio portrait sessions book and look forward to sharing them. I would like to close with an image that means a great deal to me. I came across this portrait of my grandmother while searching for a few other images. It dates back to 2008, before I had left for Boston. It is an image that captures he smile and her soul.