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.