Loud!

I didn't realize it at the time, but yes, those musicians in the foreground are covering their ears while the percussion section sounds off behind them.

It was part of a wonderful program for second-graders by the National Philharmonic Orchestra I photographed yesterday. That's Piotr Gajewski, the NPO's music director, conducting at left. Needless to say, the school kids loved the sound. But this is probably not a photo that's going to show up in the NPO's promotional materials anytime soon!

Perfect

A long-time and favorite client of mine is Barry Remley, of Salvations Architectural Furnishings. Barry and her painters and blacksmiths design and build beautiful tables and other furniture, sometimes starting with found objects like heating registers salvaged from old homes and buildings.

From the designs to the welding to the last touches of paint, these pieces are just perfect. This month, I realized, marks the 10-year anniversary of when I began photographing them digitally. This meant the dropped backgrounds, perspective correction and other effects that normally wouldn't be affordable for a small business became something I could do for Barry's images. So the images became perfect too (at least more perfect than much of my other work, where dealing with real people and real situations means the images have that real -- and less-than-perfect-- edge to them!).

To celebrate the 10-year mark I used my library of images to create a short film of the Salvations works, and the people who make them. I hope you can take a minute to check it out.