Norestah' hits Massachussetts

Watertown, MA 011211 Boston metro area residents cope with the first major Northeaster winter storm of 2011. Photographs taken onJanuary 12, 2011. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe staff)/ MET BEHIND THE SCENES: It is a fact weather is news, specially in New England. Today I didn't have to travel too far for images. I pretty much stayed on my neck of the woods and got plenty to work with. In contrast with the last storm that hit the area, residents heeded the official advise and a lot of people stayed home. TECH STUFF: Two camera bodies as always. Two lenses 24-70mm 2.8 and a 80-200mm 2.8. I also had a 1.4TC on the telephoto which I usually do when I know I'll be making images outside. ISO 250, speeds 1/250th to 1/100th of a second. Apertures 3.5 to 8.0 depending on the situation. Mode: aperture priority to begin with ... and as I usually do then Manual Mode. When shooting in the snow you have to open up your aperture or slow down your speed in order to allow more light in. The camera will easily be fooled into darkening the image because all the white in the frame. REMEMBER: CAMERAS ARE SO SMART THEY'RE DUMB!

First Night in Boston

Boston, MA 123110 Among the First Night celebrations in Boston there were dancers from the Chu Ling Dance Academy of Boston performing on December 31, 2010 at the Hynes Convention Center and fireworks. And then on first day of the year the traditional L Street Bath House Polar Plunge in South Boston. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)/ Met BEHIND THE SCENES: Photographing the First Night activities this year was much easier than in previous years since I wasn't assigned to cover both the parade and the fireworks. I'd be the first one to admit that shooting fireworks is not my forte. It has never been anything I particularly care to shoot. I think these two images are okay and represent the spirit of the festivities and that is about it. BEHIND THE SCENES POLAR BEAR PLUNGE: I have covered this event about three times already and after the first year I figured out the only way to get good images is from the water itself otherwise you don't get to see the faces of the people running in. So I put on a pair of fishing waders and go in the water up to mid thigh. In past years this has worked out but this year due to warm temperatures the number of people who showed up to take the "arctic" plunge, mind you it was close to 50F, numbered in the hundreds. Perhaps as many as 1,000 people showed up on this day and several hundred more came to watch. Needless to say this presents a whole new issue of safety regarding the well being of the cameras. As the first wave of swimmers approached the water's edge, I heard alarm bells going off in my head since I saw how much water they were displacing as they ran in. Both of my cameras became soaking wet with salt water just from the splashing and usually these can take a beating and keep on ticking. This time the issue was aggravated when someone bumped into me and I took a step back to regain my balance and one of my cameras, the one with the wide angle in it, slid off my shoulder and into the water. I found out through a colleague at work the best thing to do in a situation like this is to clean all the salt water of the cameras and lenses... even if it means completely dunking these under the tap or submerging these in distilled water. I did this with the camera and lens that were submerged in the water and it was a painful experience. It was a first for me to actually hold these under the running water for whatever brief amount of time it might have been. I'm keeping my fingers crossed while waiting for the repair diagnose. Wish them luck... TECH STUFF: Fireworks ISO 640, time 3", aperture 9.0 and of course on a tripod, WB auto.

Nativity Play at the Congregational Church of Needham

Needham, MA 122410 Christmas Pageant at the Congregational Church of Needham on Christmas Eve December 24, 2010. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)/ MET BEHIND THE SCENES: This is about the third time I've had to cover a X-mas eve events, play etc, in my career and by far this was the cutest. It certainly was a photo-rich environment. Everywhere you turned there were moments happening. The only other point to mention is that the church members were so welcoming and nice it was kind of hard to be the "proverbial fly on the wall." But alas one must adapt and people being nice to you is certainly not a bad thing. TECH STUFF: My trusty two lenses 24-70MM 2.8 and 70- 200 2.8mm, apertures: 2.8- 4.5 depending on the light conditions. ISO: from 1600 to 4,000 (amazing sensor in the D3-S); speeds: 1/50th to 1/200th of a second depending on the specific situation.

A Christmas Story

Melrose, MA 122110 Richard Parker used to carry his son Sammy Parker,an eight-year old who suffers from cerebral palsy, up to his bedroom every night. But due to recent health problems, Richard is no longer allowed to do any lifting. Sammy's mom, Patty, called Malden Catholic High School and asked for help. The school nurse mentioned it to Rudy Favard (Cq), 17, a captain in the football team, and before she was done telling the story, he had said, "I'll Do it." So now every night Rudy comes to the Parker's home and carries Sammy upstairs. (Essdras M Suarez/ Boston Globe)/ MET BEHIND THE SCENES: This was one of the those situations in which I was the lucky one assigned to an amazing story. A lot of readers reacted to this story and praised the images but these photos really have nothing to do with me and everything to do with the amazing character of the subjects in the photos. TECH STUFF: Lens 24-70mm 2.8; aperture:5.0, speed 1/25th of a a second; ISO 800. I deliberately chose to "drag" (the use of slow shutter to show movement or to allow the existing light to become visible in the photo) in order not to overpower the scene with my strobe light. When shooting in such small quarters, one must be careful when using flash since its light will bounce all over the place creating what is knows as the "jewelry box effect" in which the light creates an even, sometimes too strong, effect.
READ WHOLE STORY AT: http://www.boston.com/community/stories_to_inspire/articles/2010/12/23/a_teenagers_simple_act_elevates_all/?p1=News_links;

XMas Spirit

Jamaica Plain, MA 129410 Dozens of children gathered in Jamaica Plain, MA on December 3, 2010 during the annual Mayor's Trolley Tour Christmas lighting ceremony to await the arrival of Santa. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)/ MET BEHIND THE SCENES: Xmas motiff assignments are ubiqutuous during this month so I make it a personal challenge to find moments, or graphic images or new angles. I think I found all three on these images. The little girl's body language as she speaks with Santa is a universal gesture. The shot from above I took after getting three NOs from the trolley people. Each time I asked to talk to a supervisor and finally the head person said, "sure." DON'T TAKE NO FOR ANSWER. In my opinion the X-mas tree-clad Santa's helpers made a more interesting photo from behind than to photograph them from the front. TECH STUFF: ISO 25O, speed 1/125th to 1/500th of a second, aperture between 4.0 and 5.6 Lens: 24-70mm 2.8 MORE BEHIND THE SCENE: The tree lightings were happening all over the city so they had started at 10:00AM and went from place to place so needless to say at 1:30PM it was just not worth it to photograph the tree itself.

2010 Boston Globe's 25 Most Stylish

Beth Ludlaws a.k.a "Ms Thang" was photographed for the 25 Most Stylish on November 5, 2010 at Jamaica Pond. BEHIND THE SCENES: Every single photo shoot was dealt with on a case by case scenario which included sometimes lengthy conversations with the subjects in order to find out a suitable location for their photoshoots. Sometimes the latter was determined by their availability or by geographical convenience. TECH STUFF: Every photo shoot but the Boston Ballet dancers was done with one softbox either plugged to a wall or with a battery pack. The Boston Ballet shoot was originally planned for five lights but a right before shooting commenced one of my two battery packs blew up so I ended up lighting them all with two lights. The rest were all shot with one light. Sometimes the light source was bare and only with a dome reflector on the head in order to control the spill of the light. Most of the times I used a square soft box. ISO: mostly 100 or 125 ISO depending on the camera that I was using. Speed: varied from 1/30th to 1/320th of a second. Lenses: 24-70mm 2.8 in most cases and a couple of times I used my 80- 200mm 2.8 as well. EXTRA INFO: This would be my fourth year involved with this project and once more I was humbled by how the best laid plans mean nothing sometimes. So you simply do what you must in order to adapt. You keep shooting, you keep moving and keep adjusting.
2Boston Ballet members: Lawrence Rines (cq)(african american, glasses, gray jacket, white shirt), Leah Cirio (have a discrepancy between this spellng and the website's spelling more info TK) (gray top w a lot of draping to it, dk hair) her brother Jeff Cirio (cq) (with lil hat on), Kelsey Hellebuyck (cq) short black short dress with shoes w straps) and John Lam (cq) (w knee high tall light brown boots). They were photographed at a space adjacent to the Boston Ballet in South Boston on October 8, 2010.
Paige Tatum (Cq) was photographed at her Jamaica Plain home backyard on October 27, 2010.
T.S. Whitlow was photographed at Forest Hills Cemetery in Roxbury on October 13, 2010
Marc Brent (cq) was photographed at the Boston Harbor and Rose Wharf on October 20, 2010
Naomi Mirando (cq) was photographed on November 4, 2010 at her Fort Point Channel apartment.
Willa Bodman (cq) is a teacher of Russian language and culture at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge, and head of the World Language Department and she was photographed on November 3, 2010 at her Cambridge home.
Clayton Samuels (cq) was photographed for the 25 Most Stylish on November 5, 2010 outside of the African American History Museum in Beacon Hill
101210 Architect David Hacin (cq) was photographed on October 12, 2010 at his South End.
Yolanda Sellucci (cq) was photographed on October 17, 2010 at the Larz Anderson Museum.
Alyssa Braithwaite was photographed on October 19, 2010 at the John W. Weeks pedestrian bridge which connects Cambridge and Allston.

Runner and the Thermodynamics

Charlestown, MA 111610 Members of the band "Runner and the Thermodynamics" Marc Pinansky (Cq) with beard, Mike Oor (Cq) base and drummer and Roger Knight (cq) practice at a Charlestown, MA location on November 16, 2010 as they get ready for an upcoming performance in Cambridge, MA. The band was together from 2000 to 2005 and had reunited for this occasion. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)/ G BEHIND THE SCENES: This came in as a band practicing assignment so I made sure I had ear plugs in my camera bag. The music was loud but these guys were very good. Great visual representatives of the archetypal band members too. TECH STUFF: ISO 2500; aperture 2.8- 9.0; speed 1/15th- 1/60th. Some images were shot with an off camera flash being set off by a remote on top of camera. The main light was a big fluorescent box of lights above them which worked for those playing right under it but the drummer was in the shade; thus, the flash. After all was said and done I remembered what my friend Dominic Chavez, a great photographer, always says; "do not disrespect the light." So I followed suit and the final portrait was done just with the overhead fluorescent and I think it worked pretty well.