Champions

Champions. 

That is the perfect word to describe Bobby Orr and Pat Bradley whom I had the pleasure of photographing over the summer for the covers of Golf & Leisure magazine. 

Bobby Orr is an absolute legend in these parts. Whenever I told someone I was shooting Bobby Orr, it was ALWAYS followed by either,"Wow, that guy's a legend" or, "He is such a NICE guy!" I knew this assignment was magic when I got the email from editor Rob Duca to shoot it (as if any sane photographer would say no) and I happened to be at the passport office in Boston, looking down on Bobby Orr's statue at that very second. Freaky. He was an absolute pleasure, even responding to a camera two feet from his face, held by someone he just met, with a good natured: "Just don't make me look old". I could go on and on about how cool Bobby Orr is, but lets just wrap it up with this description: he is Frank Sinatra, the hilarious guy at the coffee shop that knows everyone, your big brother that will always beat you at sports, and the mayor of whatever town he is in: all in one. Basically, he's the man. 

And that brings us to our other legend, Pat Bradley. If you don't already know who she is, let me tell you. Pat Bradley is the MOST accomplished female golfer of ALL TIME. No exaggeration. She brings  me to her local course, the one and only Hyannisport Golf Club, where we park in a back lot which I'm convinced is the secret celebrity entrance (as I imagine many a Kennedy sneaking on to the course this way). She unloads her clubs, and it simply says "Hall of Fame" on the bag. If you're a real champion, you get to stitch that on your golf bag right under your name. She is unbelievably gracious as she poses in multiple locations, and talks about her days of competitive skiing. You get the feeling Pat probably could have rocked anything she put her hand to, she just happened to choose golf. She also gushes about her nephew, pro golfer Keegan Bradley. Apparently champion blood runs deep.
So here's to the champions!(raise imaginary glass) Maybe I'll, see you on the links of Cape Cod, I'll be the one in the woods, looking for my last shot...

Save the Last Shot..

There are some lessons you learn from your mentors that you never forget. When I was 16 years old I would scan the pages of the Sentinel & Enterprise everyday searching for the best photos. Julia Cheng was a name that kept popping up over and over, of someone who's pictures I loved. When I found her one day out shooting, while I was riding my bike, I was thrilled. Through this initial encounter, she became my photographic "mother" and mentor when I started working at the newspaper a year later. One of the many things she taught me, (which was a basic photojournalist rule of thumb), was to always leave a couple frames on your film as your leaving a scene. You never know what can happen between the moment you think "Okay I'm done" and the moment you get back in your car. I was shooting a session at Skaket Beach in Orleans the other night, and I was all done. But instead of packing up the camera, I kept it dangling around my neck, with room left on my memory card. On the way back to my car I shot these two lovebirds enjoying a sunset. Cliche? Yes. Glad I shot it? Definitely.

Boston Globe Magazine Shoot

I recently shot this cover for last weeks Boston Sunday Globe magazine. It is an amazing little modern beach house in West Falmouth built by my friend Ralph Cataldo, named 2011 Best Builder...in the COUNTRY, and designed by Jeremiah Eck. Our cover model Leah did the interior design, and she spends much of the summer here with her beautiful family. This also is yet another Conry/Cutrona tag team, with writer Jaci Conry putting together words to make a story happen. So proud to have 500,000 of these bad boys in circulation!

I love that Eames Chair

Those photos above her head are amazing

I went to Cannes, ended up seeing Paris...

I got back from the Cannes film festival last week, and the number one question I've been getting is "Who did you see!?!" Cannes is misleading however, because even though practically every single movie star in the world is there, they are not exactly walking down the street picking up their dry cleaning. There are many many..many yachts, and fabulous hotels, and black tie gala's that are all very private and exclusive and keep celebrities mostly hidden from the general public. But Paris Hilton however...I ran into her three times.
Yup. First at "da club", on Monday night. Then again Wednesday night (same place), and then I ran into her on the merry-go-round, with my son. Just simply stumbled upon her with my camera in hand. My wife took Stella to the second floor of the carousel, I took Rocco to the little Ferrari around the corner that he wanted to go on, got him situated and noticed a huge crowd. I look up, and there she was! I was SHOCKED!! She was wearing panties!!

She was preening for the cameras, so I figure I'd give it a go as a papparazzo. And she lived up to her end of the bargain, spotted my lens for a brief moment and worked it. Rocco, was oblivious of course. But he and Stella can always say they rode on a merry-go-round with that beautiful girl that was in that show with whats her face.

Confession: I ran over a Senator's mailbox

Time for a riddle: What do this magazine cover, and running over Senator Scott Brown's mailbox have in common?

Stumped?

Well, they were both done by me on the same day. More on that later. 

I photographed Gail Huff, Senator Scott Brown's wife and former Boston news anchor, at their home, for the premier issue of Southern New England Living. You know you're dealing with a pro, when you make suggestions like, "Can you get on the roof of a truck?" and they say "Sure!" She was absolutely amazing the way she happily jumped on top of "The Truck" that Sen. Brown made famous driving around Massachusetts during his campaign. She kicked her shoes off and her years of experience in front of the camera was obvious.
We did a few different set-ups while we were there, and I had specific instructions from the art director to photograph her against a black background. So we found a shaded area, cranked up the power of the strobe in the softbox, and sped up the shutter speed, turning day into night. This is the result:

We then did a great session with a green MG that Gail bought for Scott as a present. In the old car, I wanted to backlight her and make her look like a 1960's movie star. None of these photos made it into the magazine, because they didn't really match the look of the story, but they are my favorite photos from that day.

There's a moment after you leave a great shoot when you take a deep breath & think "that couldn't have gone better". Beware of those moments... that's when you run over a mailbox. Yes, after an amazing shoot , I reward my gracious hostess by backing into her mailbox on the way out. I completely knocked it over. The amazingly strong mailbox left it's mark on my bumper, a nice scar to remember it by. My bumper surprisingly didn't leave a scar on the mailbox. So, I did what anybody would do. I looked around to see if there were any witnesses, raised the mailbox back up, and pounded down the cement around the mailbox post into the ground. 

Thank you Gail, you were amazing. And sorry about that mailbox debacle...