Sunday, February 28, 2010

Boys Wrestling Semifinals Salem High School

Salem, MA 022710 During the Massachussets Interscholatic Athletic Association boys wrestling semi-finals at Salem High School on February 27, 2010 there was the impetus and hubris of the victors, the agony of defeat and everything else you can think of finding in a wrestling tourney. The kid holding his shoulder in pain was Manny Ocasio of Springfield High who lost his match. The tattoed kid with his face against the chest of his opponent is Jesse Kumer of North Atleboro and he lost this match to Derek Golner of Tyngsboro who went on to the finals to win a state title. That is coach Mark Healy of Franklin High watching one of his wrestlers compete. Brendan Battle of Nauset High picks up in the air James Collins of Reading during the 215-lbs match but Collins won the match. Longmeadow High's matt Shapiro flips Quincy High's Josh Gerry during their match. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)/SPT BEHIND THE SCENES INFO: I've never counted myself as a great sports shooter. I know I can manage but that's about it. I don't ever recall ever spending so much time shooting wrestling as on this date- it was only a couple of hours- but I have to admit. It was very exciting to shoot. It's like I've always said: I rather photograph the unbridled passion and commitment of high school athletes than professional athletes. These kids were all heart. TECH INFO: I shot most of these images with my 80-200 2.8 lens in apperture priority, or on manual at 400th of a second at 3.5 at 4,000 ISO.




Tuesday, February 23, 2010

FIRST YEMENI LNG TANKER ARRIVES IN BOSTON

Boston, MA 022210 The first Yemeni liquified natural gas tanker, the Maran Gas Coronis, arrived at Boston in the early morning hours of February 22, 2010 under heavy law enforcement escort. The ship, the first of as many an the expected number of 30 per year, was in route to the Distrigas of Massachusetts LLC (DOMAC) docking facility in Everett, MA. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)BEHIND THE SCENES' STORY: After having been a photojournalist for almost 15 years you tend to think that you've pretty much have seen it all. Yet last night while I was chasing this behemoth as it made its way through the Boston Harbor waterways I found myself giddy with excitement since I'd never seen anything like this. On a side note,it was very exciting too: the reporter and I were stopped six times by different police officers. We also had the US Coast Guard helicopter and vessel spotlights put on us. TECH INFO: This is a testament to the light- sensibility range of the new cameras. Some of these images were shot at 12,000 ISO.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Make Up Artist website images freelance

Lexington, MA 022110 Make-up artist Tamar Karakozian is a friend and yoga student of mine and these photos were shot for her website at Naz Kupelian Salon in Lexington, MA. (Essdras M Suarez/ EMS Photography) TECHNICAL EXPLANATION: I have been told my approach to lighting is odd since I tend to start with a ton of lights and then I start taking them away one by one until I find what I'm looking for. In this case I started with four lights and ended with four gridded lights. I used a 1200 Pro Pack from Calumet and it was a matter of playing with different positioning to achieve the desired result. The first light is on a boom above her and slightly to the left side aimed at her face. The second light comes also from left side at about face level. Third light is directly behind her to create a nice rim light against her curly hair. And the last light is to the right slightly in front and higher than her face level and it was aimed at the left side of her face. The result is a play of different lights which add to the texture and mood of the photo without overpowering the character of the subject. The second photo I used sun light being reflected off a hood of a car and being diffused by the window. I also noticed how the diffused shadow was such a femenine shape I thought it worth of being exploited. I thought it would look better in B & W but originally was shot in color.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Adapting to the Circumstances

Boston, MA 021710 Brigette Dunn (cq) of Brookline was photographed on February 17, 2010 at the Opera House in Boston. She is the Female Dance Captatin and Dancer Swing for the Lion King production visiting Boston. (Essdras M Suarez/ Boston Globe) BEHIND THE SCENE STORY: I was assigned to do a portrait of Dunn at the theater. I had a local PR, her assistant, and a corporate PR with Disney Corp. following me around. There were concerns about regarding certain characters of the production that they didn't want me to photograph: Obstacle 1. Then one of my cameras died: Obstacle 2. Then my flashes stopped talking to my camera: Obstacle 3. Corporate PR lady was in background saying last time she was present for a photo shoot. It had been for full Annie Lebowitz- production. As she said this she kept eyeing me sideways and giving me a puzzled look as I shot for about 5 minutes and then proclaimed, "Im done." She asked to see the photo and was floored, in a good way by the result. The bottom line is that as professional no matter what, you have to pull through and come up with something you can be proud of.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Serendipity in the Snow


BEHIND THE SHOT EXPLANATION: I was sent out to get "whimsical" snow weather since we knew there was a snow- storm coming to Boston. Since I have been hearing requests like this one from photo editors for about 15 years. I kinda had an idea what they wanted. This basically means to look for something beyond the ordinary. In this case that also meant to not shoot simply pretty-snow photos. I staked out this intersection for about one hour and a half because of the foot traffic in the area. I was putting my cameras away when I heard this ruckus to my left so I looked up and here are these two guys running my way and I noticed the guy furthest away from me was wearing flip flops and shorts. So I picked my camera with the telephoto on it and I had barely enough time to bring it to my eye, frame the shot and to start shooting. I got about five frames that were good and I really didn't know I'd gotten it until I saw it in my computer screen. FINAL NOTE: I TEND TO KEEP MY TELEPHOTO CAMERA ON APPERTURE PRIORITY SINCE IM USUALLY PRETTY SURE ILL BE LOOKING TO CREATE SEPARATION BETWEEN MY SUBJECT AND THE BACKGROUND

Monday, February 15, 2010

Boston Mystery Writers

Boston, MA 021310 Mystery writers: (l to r) Raffi Yessayan (Cq), Paul Tremblay (Cq), Dave Zeltserman (Cq), and Margaret McLean (cq) photographed at the Boston Globe studio on February 13, 2010 for a G cover. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff) This was a fun photo shoot because I got to play with tons of lights in the studio. At one point I had 10 lights going and then I decided to start taking some away to create more dramatic lighting. First I used a base line light: a 4' x 6' soft box pointed from above toward the subjects and at about 7' off the ground. This base light was about two stops below my individual spot lights. This would ensure that every person had enough detail in the metadata. Each one of the subjects got their own grid light from the side and then there were two more lights with grids coming from behind and from below toward their backs. Total amount of lights used: 7. The resulting image has individualized textured highlights and defined outline while still allowing the somber/ mysterious mood to prevail over the whole image. This set up of the lights took about one hour and a half including testing. At the end I was pretty happy with the end result. I hope these tips help you.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Charles River Oil Spill

Boston, MA 021010 Employees of Clean Harbors Environmental Services, INC of Weymouth break ice chunks as they work on an oil spill in the Charles River off Magazine Street below the BU Bridge on February 10, 2010. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Food for St. Valentines

Watertown, MA 012710 These items were shot for a story that ran on Feb. 10 in the Boston Globe's for a story on food for St. Valentines. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)/ G section