Father's Day & Jorts from '86

Today is Father's Day. In the photo above, is yours truly - and my father. This was snapped, if I could guess, probably 1986-ish. How do I know, you ask?? Well, maybe it's my Dad's white JORTS that are somehow in a panic trying to get away from his knees. Or maybe it's my shorts, also running away from my knees. If those don't do it for you, it's got to be the tube socks I'm wearing scrunched down to my ankles with the double navy stripes - completely phenomenal. This was my first house and my memories of it are vague - I wish I could remember more of it.

There are a few reasons that this image is of much significance to me. Number 1, well, it's me and my Dad. Number 2, my Dad lost his Dad, right around this time. I'm not sure if it was before or after this photo. But today, as I thought about Father's Day and about me and my Dad, I realized I've never seen my Dad be a Son. I've never seen the interaction between him and his father. I mean, I did, except I was 2 and remember nothing. I thought about how sad it was that I would never see my father look at his father the way I look at mine, nor will I see his Dad look at him, like he looks at me. I called my Dad this morning to wish him a Happy Father's Day and when I hung up, I realized he can't do that. I was grateful.

Being a Father myself I appreciate this photo more than I did before I had son. It's not easy being a Dad  and parent. I think the worry that we as parents cast upon ourselves is the worst. Worrying that everything will be ok...that if you're being a good enough parent...if you are doing things right.......but amidst all the chaos, the diapers, the crying and oh yeah just trying to be married (and I only have one kid!)  there are moments like these where it all goes away...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Sometimes we need a reality check...

Tonight I was stressin'....yes, I spelled it without the "g" - so what. Often times if I have no editing to do, I'll do research. I read other photographer's blogs, read up on the latest gadgets and technology and even spend time in photoshop/lightroom just practicing. Yes, I will pull up images and practice re-editing them - seeing what I like for the future and what I don't. In the midst of this, I found myself in a, what I call, photo-funk. Think about it this way, a new song comes out. It's the hottest song ever. It's number 1 on all the charts. You see the artist perform it on the MTV movie awards, at the Grammys, at the Today Show, etc. You can randomly flip through your radio stations and hear the song at least twice on different stations, not to mention you have your iPod hooked up to your car stereo and have been blasting it for an hour already. Yes, a bit over kill, but this is the best analogy I can think of. After several weeks, that song, that was the best song ever - starts to suck. It starts to get annoying. And, instead of getting excited when you hear it on the radio, you change the station. SAME THING WITH MY EDITING! I see an image so many times, it starts to suck. I begin to hate it. I feel like no corrections work. I then begin to curse my computer and visions of that scene from OFFICE SPACE fill my thoughts (yes, the one where they bash the copy machine). I try to convince myself to just throw my iMac through the window, that should fix my issues. It's hard looking at your own work sometimes, well, a lot of the time. I just tell myself - FEDEX......yes, FEDEX. I got the chance to work with an amazing photographer once - Peter Hurley. He was shooting my headshots and is known as the best headshot photographer in America and has three studios for doing just that in NYC, LA & DALLAS. He's legit. After each "look" we shot, we sat at the computer in his studio and deleted the photos we didn't like. Me, of course, finding everything wrong with each shot. He then whipped out a piece of cardboard with a FEDEX logo on it and said,

"YOU see the arrow, everyone else will see the FEDEX!"

Moral of the story was, I was being too picky. Do you see it??


I reminded myself of the FEDEX logo and decided I needed a break. I headed over to Vimeo.com to see if there were any new videos that I could relax with.

I watched BOY SOLDER and realized how much of an ASS I was being tonight.

SOMETIMES WE NEED A REALITY CHECK - I got mine.

Parties, Families....and the Clockwork Man??

Ok, so...I haven't posted in a while...actually now that I think of it - it's been one month exactly. I've been trying my best to do so but I've been so crazy between shooting/editing (being a dad/husband:) I just haven't had the chance. I guess it's a good problem to have though!

Instead of going back and writing separate posts for each shoot. I'm going to post some photos from each shoot, right here in this post. Much easier, you don't have to go anywhere!

First, since I'm trying to break into weddings, go to the following site to view a 21st birthday party on steroids. I had the opportunity to be the photographer at this amazing party/event and there are way too many photos to post...so just check out the custom website with all the images that I provided to them....

www.stefany.ciprianophotography.com

And here's more work from around the state...

The 'A' fam from Montclair - beautiful family - some of the nicest people ever!

A shot from the park...

The 'S' fam - newborn/family shoot....Basking Ridge

Father & daughter...

THE new edition....

Love the 100mm macro for details like this....

The 'L' fam...Rockaway 

I wish every backyard was set up like theirs....

Asbury Park, NJ - I've been wanting to get down there and take some shots for the longest time....FINALLY !!

I mean is there really anything cooler??

I wish I were around when this place was in its prime...would have been cool to experience. HBO's BOARDWALK EMPIRE was originally supposed to film in Asbury Park on this boardwalk, but permits held them back.

Ahhh yes, the clockwork man! Dude is legit. You'd think he was a statue if you weren't paying close enough attention...he had noticed I was taking some shots of him...so he smoothly, robotically slipped out his business card and handed it to me...too cool.

My man... www.facebook.com/theclockworkman

OH OH OH - I almost forgot....in filming a make up tutorial (that will be live soon, I'll post it when complete) I got to finally do some headshot work geared towards actors....simple lighting setup but great, great results - Peter Hurley style.

Lifestyle Shoot | MONTCLAIR NJ

Yes, yes I know it has been a while - and MUCH has been happening here. I've been meaning to share this post and finally I have a few minutes.

Gary and Buddhika contacted me about doing a lifestyle shoot, just them - husband and wife. In talking with Buddhika, she asked for some suggestions of places to shoot in North Jersey. The first word that popped into mind was...MONTCLAIR. I know the area well and immediately thought of the rediculously awesome parking deck on Bloomfield Ave, Brookdale Park and just the downtown area itself. A quick side note, try Villa Victoria Pizza right on the corner of Bloomfied and Park - chicken parm pizza is unreal.

Anyway, I wanted to do something cool here...in this cool town. I suggested to Gary and Buddhika that they bring something fancy for one of their looks because the contrast would be awesome on the parking deck.

They arrived and we shot for at least 3 hours, pretty much until I ran out of light and we were all forced to  go home.

I just want to go on record saying that this was one of the best all around shoots I've done. And, I don't mean by the outcome of the images. Yes, I liked how they came out, however, the shoot was just pure FUN the entire time. People usually start out stiff then loosen up once we get going. I think Gary and Buddhika were stiff for maybe one click of the shutter. They came alive so quick in front of the camera and I was so happy they were having so much fun. Great energy = great results.

Here are some shots...

Goodfellas all over again

Beautiful

This shot...and the next are definitely 2 of my favorite.

Smokeshow

Legit

Need to know how to tell someone not to mess with you without even saying anything - refer to this image

"Yes, my husband told you not to mess with us"

Now you're just being cocky

Caught ya!

Love the contrast here, the black dress makes the image

Brookdale Park

Love the suit

Even though the stairwell smelled to the high heavens, this was too good to pass up. Pretty sure Gary is holding his breath here

Reminds me of an old movie

Same here....

Park St in Montclair

Brookdale Park has several trees with couples names carved into them, pretty cool. However, the more I look at this image I can't help but think he's stabbing, not carving haha - just kidding, Gar!

Ever try to balance on a 4ft stone wall that's only a foot wide with one eye closed and the other eye looking through the viewfinder? DON'T

Coffee after several hours of shooting

Coming Home

Many of us have seen the bits on the evening news of loved ones coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan surprising their unsuspecting family members. Saturday, I lived one. I was extremely honored to even be apart of this, let alone photograph it.

I've probably never been more nervous on a shoot and just wanted to make sure I captured some stuff worth keeping - I wanted the images to truly reflect the day and when they look at them 20 years from now, I want them to feel like they did on Saturday.

I realized a few things on Saturday:

One, being that I cannot emotional handle a Marine coming home to his family and watching his daughter run to him. I don't care who you are, if you don't have a frog in your throat - you aren't human. Two, I sat at a local Frozen Yogurt parlor and hung with the family and snapped a few more shots. At one point, I caught the man of the hour, Staff Sergeant A. Kelly, alone with his daughter.

 He sat with her, each just enjoying the other's presence and he kissed her on the head. I realized this day was way bigger than I thought. Here's a guy sitting in New Jersey, eating frozen yogurt with his family at 11 am on Saturday morning - when not even two weeks ago he was in Afghanistan fighting for my freedom. Boggles me. He's a different breed of human being, and I thank him for that.

OOH-RAH