Neglectful

I have been posting to Facebook for the past year rather than here, and for that I am sorry. Blog readers, you deserve better. 🙂 I have a number of projects that I will need to catch up on, but for now I want to promote the idea of revisiting old images. Many photographers have a dynamic digital portfolio, but they also have a rich film collection that might be sitting in obscurity in some closet or basement (as was my case.) I broke out my film scanner and looked through some of those old images. Here is some of what I found from a trip to Mongolia/China in 1998.

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More Oliver

So Oliver tends to be a big photo focus lately. Not surprising. Here are a few recent shots. He’s pretty cute. And no, I’m not biased. Whatever gave you that idea?

Recent Fun

Recently we moved from the Philadelphia area, back to the Chicago area. But in the middle of all the moving chaos, I was able to do a few fun art/nature shots in Maryland and in Pennsylvania. Here are a few of my favs.

Birth of Oliver David

So my wife and I celebrated the birth of our first a week ago, and the lead up to all of that is why I have been absent from posting for so long. Here are some shots from the first few days of his life. I know I’m biased, but I think he’s pretty cute.

Makes me consider doing portraits again.  If anyone is interested in newborn pics, I’ll put together a package.  🙂  It’s amazing how much more you like babies after you have one.

Test shots for Headshots

A couple weeks ago… or maybe three…  or was it four?  I think we can all agree the time line isn’t exactly relevant.  Recently, a good friend of mine, Karis, an actress in New York was scheduled to get headshots taken by the very talented Michael Tamarro.  She was excited to do the shoot, but wanted to try out some looks and outfits beforehand.  She promised dinner and I was itching to get into New York for the day so I said, “of course.”  It wasn’t a fancy setup, just her and me in her apartment with natural light and my Nikon speedlight, but we had fun and she got to see what she needed.    We took a lot of shots and some turned out quite well for being a quick and dirty test run.  Here are some of my favorites from the afternoon.

Jackie & Eric

A little late, but a glimpse of the fall engagement session in Philadelphia with Jackie & Eric.  We had a great time, and some really fun shots came of the morning.

First showing of Nostalgia opening Friday night.

I’m excited that The Little Yellow Paintbrush has asked me to be a featured artist during the month of October.  This Friday, (Oct. 1st, 2010) will be the opening reception for this showing.  For this show, I went ahead and finished a project I had been working on dealing with nostalgia for my childhood and the area where I grew up.  Friday night will feature the first presentation of prints from the Nostalgia series.  All of these images reflect Talbot County, Maryland as seen through my memory.  They were taken over two trips to the area, during the summers of 2009 and 2010.

Some of the images are crisp and vibrant, indicative of those bright clear memories that often are more creation, then fact.  Sometimes the images in your mind of a particular place or time are so clear, merely because you have spent years building up those concepts, reinforcing them over and over with feelings and opinions until they have been somewhat idealized (or villainized) in their appearance.

The bulk of the images, however, have been combined with rich textures of age and worn paper.  These memories are the ones that are like looking through an old box of memorabilia.  Some photos, some letters, some keepsakes like ticket stubs, etc.  These items, with the memories that they represent, may have drifted to some dark corner of your mind, but by pulling them out of the dusty corner of the attic, you are taken back to a time or place once significant.  These memories are not vibrant, but more raw, aged with perspective and viewed through the filter of subsequent life experiences.  But they are treasured.

I grew up in Talbot County.  I lived in Easton, went to school in Cordova, spent my summers in Oxford and St. Michaels — all towns within this Eastern Shore county.   My memories are both aged and vibrant, idealized and stored away.  It is my hope, that while these images are what I take as a memory of an area and time, the viewer may find a connection, either with their own experiences with Talbot County, or with memories of other places and other childhoods.

If you are in the area, please come out Friday night and enjoy — if not enjoy below a selection of images – both vibrant and aged — from Nostalgia.

Ron & Renee

Ron and Renee had a small, beautiful wedding in Cape May this summer.  It was a last minute booking so I was thrilled that I was available and I had a blast working with these two.  Below is a preview of some of their images.

Welcome to the blog

Thanks for coming to the official blog for Gregory Lee Photography.  Forgive me, though I’ve been deep in the online world since high school, I have mostly steered clear of blogs other than occasionally reading one or two.  It might take me a while to figure out all the fun and exciting options. So hopefully we’ll be up-to-speed soon and you’ll be loving all the updates and posts.  (Really, feel free to love them.)

If you haven’t, check out the main website here:  http://www.gregoryleephotography.com.  I’ve been working in the photo world since 2004, when I graduated from Wheaton College (Illinois).  Most of my undergrad work was in black and white darkroom processes in the documentary style.  Stepping into the professional world, I quickly realized that I needed to go digital and have been working in that medium ever since.

I’ve shot for magazines, newspapers, commercial clients and weddings.  During that time I’ve also cultivated my own art.  This blog will probably focus mostly on the later, but you might see posts on any number of projects I’m working on, personal or paid.   Feel free to say hi or give some feedback on what you like or want to see more of.  Thanks and enjoy.  To start off, I’ll post one of my favorite recent images that I took while covering a wedding this past summer: “Under the Rainbow.”

Copyright: Gregory Lee Photography