These two married photographers and business partners were some of the very first people I met during my first Connecticut Professional Photographers Association meeting in October of 1981. For whatever reason I seemed to gravitate to the movers and shakers, and they to me within the pro associations. The closest photography friends I have 45 years later came from that very first meeting! My own B&W mentor, Jack, one of only a handful of passion photographers I have traveled with for 40+ years. Tim, a frequent traveling companion and big film shooter who I would learn later in life is married to a distant cousin of mine, Darlene!  Save for the bloodline, in every sense of the word, we are family ! To say each of the named photographers have traveled and shared photo experiences with me is fact, a more accurate phrase, we have adventured together !

     Each of these portraits exemplify the subject’s DNA, no posing was necessary. Each have been pro photographers for much longer than me, they projected their personna perfectly, while I took care of the large film B&W end. To my point of movers and shakers, each have been President of the CT Pro Photographers Association. Glenn more technically oriented, business minded and a PhotoShop wizard while Marie the perfect face of their business with social skills second to none. Marie’s passion for B&W was born from one of her first jobs in a photo processing lab, that passion still burns brightly.

     They are so many subtleties the B&W photographer can communicate in the final presentation of an image. Without the side by side of these two images those subtleties might go unnoticed.  In each portrait the subject occupies one of the most important parts of the compositional rule of thirds. Draw a Tic-Tac-Toe grid over the entire image, the 4 points where the grid crosses one another are the four most powerful parts of any visual image. When the background is this unusual, by NOT placing the person in the center of the image heightens an unconscious awareness of their surroundings. Each of the subjects wore the perfect color clothing, not only were the clothes B&W, the relationship of the clothes against the background project the clear intent of the image. The backgrounds and the printing of each that I chose perfectly convey their respective personalities. Glenn, seen as the alpha male with dark clothing against the lighter background projects confidence and knowledge. The low camera angle combined with a cooler color in the shadows subliminally carries that theme to another degree. Marie, the warmer background and look you in the eye with the big smile is the perfect insight to as warm a person as I know. The rugged textured landscape that surrounds Marie may not resonate immediately, but those that know Marie understand the rugged outdoors, particularly the SouthWest is where her heart lies. To that very point, Maire chose this exact image to hang as her Presidential portrait amongst the more traditional shirt and tie studio portraits of her male predecessors. Marie was only the second female President of the CT Professional Photographers Association, the first, my cousin Darlene…again, movers & shakers I’m blessed to call lifelong friends !

     Marie honored me as her sponsor when she received the coveted Master of Photography degree from the Professional Photographers of America back in 2007 in in San Antonio, TX. All of the named photographers have attended each of my own children’s weddings, as I did to their childrens. 

from the Family Series from the Adventure Series