Recent tear sheets

Here are some tear sheets from some recent publications, with my images. Most papers and magazines play nice; some don't want to. Where a publication has its own photo staff, I am not about to undermine their positions and give away images. Avon, for example, refused to even give photo credit for published images. I had volunteered as a photographer for the Avon walk. I thought this was a decent use of my time and talent. No credit, no pictures.

Where's your European Cup?

Liverpool broke the Premier League jinx that Chelsea seemed to have over them. Although we have beaten them in other competitions [Champions' League, FA Cup, League Cup and Community Shield], we had a poor record against them in recent years. Today was different. With Mourinho whining about needing to spend more money on players, we flattered them with a 2-0 result. Good to see one of their better players, Petr Cech, back with the fancy helmet; glad Riise didn't hit him, when the ball hit the bar. Said Whining One was uncharacteristically contrite in defeat.

Rangapravesha Album

Alex and I photographed the Rangapravesha of two sisters, just over a year ago. Rangapravesha is a Kannada word where 'ranga' means stage and 'pravesha' means enter. Many people use the word Arangetram [I believe Arangetram is Hindi and Rangapravesha is Sanskrit. More word details here]. After learning dance under the guidance of a guru, this is the occasion for the guru to present her disciple to the public.

We have recently been designing the album of those photographs and having a lot of fun with it. Here is our initial design for the album.

Top hat and tails optional

The name Fred Astaire brings to mind black and white dance movies with impossible energy; and his name lives on, as he co-founded the first dance studio, in 1947. There are now six studios in Massachusetts alone.

I was invited to photograph this dance showcase, a friendly competition between two Massachusetts studios from Norwood and Hanover. Thanks to Elizabeth Anderson at the Norwood studio, for the information and invitation.

Modern dance in NYC

I have been lucky to photograph some seriously-flexible modern dancers, with the New York dance companies, founded by Susan Dodge and Elisa Monte. You can see images from the photo sessions here. Thanks especially to Tiffany and Solomon at Elisa Monte! You'll see many photographs of dancers frozen in the air, taken with high-speed strobe. I also like to slow down the shutter speed and see some motion blur. The slower the shutter speed, the more ambient light contributes to the image. Eventually, you'll see a very impressionistic photograph with long motion trails, as in the entry screen for these two slide shows. Another effect, used here, is to open the shutter before the dancer reaches her peak of movement, and fire the strobe while the shutter is open. You will see a ghosting effect, where parts of the dancer seem transparent. This is experimental and the outcome is difficult to predict. Practice with the timing makes it easier to achieve what you envision.

Lhochaar: Nepali New Year

I was invited to photograph the Nepali Lhochaar celebration in Boston recently. I have photographed these a few times before, in 2003 and 2004, so I had an idea of the events to expect. The dancing was spectacular and the crowd was lively and friendly! The backgrounds had been a little busy, so this year, I tried to use less flash and take in more of the ambient light. They had gelled stage lights and a smoke machine, so these added to the drama. Here are the 2007 pictures. I had plenty of positive feedback on the Nepali cultural site, Sajha.com. There was some negativity from another photographer. The food was great too, from Kathmandu Spice.

Red dress weddings

I shot a handful of Indian weddings last year. The color and bustle and drama make the average white dress wedding a little predictable. I did say I wasn't a wedding photographer. I have photographed some memorable weddings where the bride wore a red dress, so maybe I should limit my brand to targeting those...

Here is an example from last summer...my friends Mike and Lora. As part of the celebration, Mike had arranged to have a scoreboard announcement at Gillette Stadium, during a New England Revolution game. They just couldn't get the spelling of her name right.

Ballet audition sessions

Photo requirements for ballet auditions seem to vary with the weather. Our spec was for a 'headshot and an arabesque'. There are whole sites discussing these, so I aimed for some literal and some artistic. With the so-called 'safe' shots taken, we added some artistic shots near to the end, with motion blur...and cats. Thanks to Kit and her marathon-runner Mum. [hint to Mum: there are enough beautiful shots for an album]. This image reminded me of a painting. I confess I could not remember the artist at first. Vermeer: girl with the pearl earring?

Liverpool winning again

It has been a happy Saturday morning, as Liverpool won 3-0 comfortably, away at Watford. This is good news, after two nasty losses to Arsenal last week.

Indian Dance

My Indian dance photography started with a friend who arranged a studio session with her meta-niece Priyanka, who had been studying dance for about 11 years. We used a single light with a plain black background. Very colorful costume; very dramatic lighting. I have had Indian friends for years; since just after college. I had never realized just how much work goes into the dance poses, moves and holds.


I have worked for a few years with the Triveni Dance School, in Brookline, MA. It is directed by the tireless Neena Gulati, who boasts students from 7 to 75. Here are some images from her Tsunami fundraiser. Last year, I shot two other fundraising events within few days. One was a performance by dance instructors. It was called Ode to Mother, arranged by Jayshree Rajamani the other by the Dance Ensemble from Triveni. Called Faces of the Divine, it was performed on a miserable grey day in May, when the rain was lashing down. There were a few hundred people to see it, but it was sad to think many must have missed it, on a day when you really don't want to go out.

Just a few months back, Neena G celebrated her school's 30th annual performance, at the MIT Kresge Auditorium. There were about 120 students in this performance. What a great feat of organization. Pictures are here.

Students will perform a public debut or Arangetram, typically after several years of training and education. Quite often recently, I have seen two dancers sharing an Arangetram date. Sometimes we will shoot studio pictures for use in invitations and posters. These can be portraits or dance poses or moves. Here are some samples from a studio session in 2006.

Weddings etc

When people learn that I am a photographer, I am often asked about shooting a wide range of things. Pet cemetery urns? No thanks, really I am busy that day. Many photographers offer a wide range of services, so they seem to focus on...nothing in particular.

Certainly, I have photographed weddings, kids portraits, even landscapes in Scotland, France and Greece. I am trying to specialize in dance imagery. Very few photographers seem to specialize in anything, though there are many who are primarily wedding and portrait photographers. My Google Adwords results show me that 'portrait photographer' outnumbers all other search terms on my web site...and portrait photographers outnumber all other kinds, around Boston in any case. Many wedding photographers [JVS, Becker, David Beckstead are probably my favorites]; few dance photographers [Lois Greenfield, Roy Volkmann]. Anyway, I like shooting dance.

Fast forward to digital

Much has been written and argued elsewhere about the learning curve of digital photography. You see so many digital cameras these days, everyone is a photographer now, right? If you suggest that the person takes the picture, not the camera, you'll likely be flamed and abused. Try saying it somewhere like dpreview.

Digital cameras offer instant feedback, so you can learn, change, improve. You have to be paying attention, though. Really, though, you still see plenty of photographs that suck, erm, that could use some improvement; people with red eyes, with harsh shadows on the wall behind. So maybe we're not all excellent photographers after all.

High school darkroom

There were no girls at my grammar school, so what is a boy to do but play football and learn to process photographs? There is a scene in the Bill Forsyth film, Gregory's Girl , where the geeky boy is printing and selling prints of the new female football star to the lads, in his school. Mine was not such an entrepreneurial teenagehood, but I learned a lot, even on my own. There were no teachers who seemed to know anything about processing, so I had to read and experiment.


When I got to college, I shot more photographs and processed less. My first SLR was a Praktica, a heavy East-German model, that was incredibly good value for money. I used this for years and eventually replaced it with an Olympus OM2, as used by Chris Bonnington on Everest. My first was stolen in Hartford, CT. I still have the second one. As labs got cheaper and cheaper, I did less and less processing. Yes, seeing the image appear, on a print, is a magical moment. I saw little point in breathing in the obnoxious smell of darkroom chemicals.

I used Canon film cameras since about 10 years ago and Canon digital cameras for the past 4 years. I no longer shoot film. When I shoot dance in a dark theater or a wedding in a dark hotel, changing speed is such a great feature! With the Canon 1D, you can shoot at ISO 3200 and see virtually no noise.

I show people prints from a dance event where the background is a perfect black. See how much noise you get from digital?

Where to start?

I have been shooting photographs for many years; since I was a boy, in fact. I started with a Brownie 127. A family friend, up the street, had a darkroom in his house. He helped process my early mistakes! Thanks Mr Harrison! As my Dad taught my sister to ride a bike [c1970], I was there to record it on film. Note the fog in 70's Liverpool.

My second camera was a gift from my uncle David. As he moved to an SLR, he gave me a Hanimex rangefinder camera. I can thank him for really getting me into photography. I played with color film and lab processing, while I learned to process and print my own pictures. A neighbor taught me how to do all the black and white darkroom stuff.