Continuing my chronological series of work completed during the pandemic: After my morning shoot on August 10th at Pimlico I hurried down to College Park, Maryland, for a formal portrait of Dr. Adriene Lim, the new Dean of Libraries at the University of Maryland. I set up on the portico of McKeldin Library, the hulking edifice of brick and columns that looms over the lush and sprawling mall in the heart of the my alma mater. For COVID safety my client wanted everything shot outdoors, and I requested the portico location for a number of reasons: in the midday sun I wanted a spot where I knew I'd have shade but wouldn't have to tie down a large overhead butterfly and fight any potential wind; I'd have access to power for my laptop and for multiple lights capable of overpowering the ambient light; and finally, I'd be able to maintain a closed set that would keep the client at ease. I pre-lit a setup that would allow us three radically different shots within a ten foot radius: the main portrait overlooking the mall (a large @chimeralighting softbox on a boom); pivoting to the right for an ambient key light portrait along the columns (with fill from a head shot through a @matthewsgrip silk flag); and finally pivoting right once more for a "studio" shot, in front of the white flag lit from behind, with my trusty Softlighter for the key. Having worked so quickly, we had time to head out to the front of the library for some masked photos with Testudo (safety first of course!). I lit this with a medium softbox on a boom, an overhead flag blocking the sunlight. We had the dean in and out in record time, and happily on to her meetings - all proof that a little preparation and planning goes a long way. (at McKeldin Library, University of Maryland) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGXGZJOh2Dh/?igshid=1edeljiwpnff

Continuing my chronological series of work completed during the pandemic with a post for #tearsheettuesday: On August 10th I headed up to Baltimore for the first of two shoots that day. Due to COVID, the historic 145th Preakness Stakes horse race had been postponed and was now scheduled to run in the Fall, breaking the tradition of always running on the third Saturday in May. Normally the second race of the famed Triple Crown, it would now be the third and final contest, setting up potential for a Triple Crown winner coming out of the race (spoiler alert: it didn’t happen). Of course excitement about the possibility had people buzzing, and @BaltMag sent me to Pimlico Race Course for a portrait of Preakness announcer Dave Rodman. The folks at Pimlico have always been wonderful about access, but this year they were taking no chances - I was told we could do the shoot, but I couldn't go anywhere inside the gates where horses, jockeys, and crew were all maintaining a quarantine. This meant the infield, track, and even the eagle's nest announcer's perch were all off limits, leaving me with a hot, humid, and sunbaked parking lot. It's certainly not the first time I've had to make lemonade out of lemons: knowing I had to schedule my shoot early to make it to my next shoot near DC, I used my sun-tracking app to schedule the shoot right at the moment the sun would creeping past the building corner and onto the Pimlico Clubhouse entrance's facade. The Dave arrived I turned him away from the sun and lit him with a beauty dish on a boom and a small octobank for fill, a black flag blocking the sun's glare off my lens. Dave was super friendly, chatty, and even brought his race binoculars along - such a great sport. I got the shot and got us out of there before we melted into the hot August asphalt. (at Pimlico Race Course) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGR6zlmhJCl/?igshid=m3ajtpkw1oah

Continuing my chronological series of work completed during the pandemic: On July 20th, I hopped on a boat and headed out for a five-day shoot on Smith Island, a remote spot at the south end of Maryland in middle of the Chesapeake Bay, along with the help of fellow photographer @hannelelahti. We were headed to this unique spot for Matchcoat Sojourner, a heritage foodway tour company that provides authentic experiences on the Eastern Shore. In the pandemic, @matchcoatsojourner is retooling its tours from group experiences to a new focus on couples and solo travelers, and needed new imagery to reflect this change. One of our first stops was @smithislandbeans, an amazing artisan coffee roaster run by one of the nicest and most engaging people I've photographed. A New Yorker so dedicated to the perfect cup of coffee he decided he had to roast his own, Aram fell in love with the island after a visit and left his law degree behind to move out here and open a bird sanctuary. These shots were lit with my @profotousa B1 and A1 strobes, and were swapped out with my @hivelighting lights for the video - I love that they have the same size so I can maintain consistency with the same modeifiers. We had a light outside the window, one inside in a softbox with a grid, and one bounced for fill. Check out https://smithislandbeans.com to learn more about this excellent coffee, and https://www.matchcoatsojourner.com to learn about foodway tours. More to come soon. (at Smith Island, Maryland) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFedMKRBDNe/?igshid=1cslhrykg6255

Continuing my chronological series of work completed during the pandemic: I'm one of those people who really doesn't like to make a big deal out of their birthday, I prefer a quiet day of reflection and some normalcy. So on July 8th, I was quite happy to have booked a full day of photography for MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center. Knowing I'd be in an ICU unit, I brought all the PPE I had available to me, but I was thankful not to have needed more - I took my cue from the nurses on what was safe to wear, sticking with mask and gloves. Devoid of regular visitors, the hospital was eerily empty even though staff said it was far livelier than in the early days of the pandemic. We started with a group portrait of ICU nurses who had been handling the COVID patients (even though the client was happy, I'm not posting as the waiting room we had to use was not a favorite location of mine). From there I made portraits of some of the ICU doctors, then nurses at work in the ICU itself. COVID patients lay in rooms behind glass and shrouded in tents, their presence a constant reminder even as life seemed almost normal elsewhere. From here we donned hard hats and climbed ladders and scaffolding to photograph construction of the new emergency wing. At the end I drove to the nearby home of a former COVID patient to photograph him with his family for the cover of their publication, Health Magazine. Located in Prince George's County, which has been hit harder by COVID-19 than any other Maryland county or Washington DC, the hospital had discharged the system's 2500th COVID patient only three weeks prior. The day wrapped, I enjoyed a perfect ending: birthday dinner on the water with my daughter and her mom. (at MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFMZXeOhjvP/?igshid=1jza5m4mki5r8

It's #tearsheettuesday and I'm continuing my chronological series of work completed during the pandemic, only skipping ahead one shoot to share this one. Early in the morning of July 16th, I drove to Baltimore City Hall for a portrait of Black Women's rights activist Brittany Oliver. After attending the DC Women's March in 2017, her response to a sense that the movement had marginalized women of color was to found the grassroots advocacy organization Not Without Black Women. On June 19th this year, she helped organize Baltimore's Say Her Name March for Black Women and Femme Survivors, demanding justice for Breonna Taylor and others who have experienced interpersonal and police violence. I arranged our shoot early in the day to take advantage of the full morning sun hitting the City Hall and the Baltimore War Memorial casting a long shadow across the plaza - this allowed me to light the scene as I pleased without harsh shadows or her squinting into the sunlight. As I set up my lights I was surprised how many people walked by without masks, some stopping nearby to smoke as if no pandemic were in sight. Brittany arrived and we jumped into action. Noticing that the names of victims were stenciled onto the sidewalk, I posed her front and center by a star for Sandra Bland. Once the sunlight had crept across the plaza to us, we wrapped our shoot. Please read Brittany's interview with @maxthegirl in September's @baltmag on newsstands now, or online at https://t.co/Sw44bCVsvX. Also please learn more about @nwblackwomen on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/notwithoutblackwomen/, and about Brittany at http://www.brittanytoliver.com. (at Baltimore City Hall) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFJ7uGChw59/?igshid=bot7nvzso8ix

Continuing my chronological series of work completed during the pandemic, with my next three shoots: On June 23rd, I headed into DC for my first true indoor shoot of the pandemic, a headshot for a regular client law firm. It was a blistering hot day and police had cordoned off streets as protests were now a part of daily life in the capital. As my client was only blocks from the White House, I had to park 6 blocks away and push my equipment cart through the humid empty streets. I was a hot mess when I arrived at the building, signed myself in at the lobby and gulped as my temperature was taken before I could enter the elevator. Somehow I passed muster and continued to my client and yet another temperature check from the masked receptionist. As nervous as I was to be working like "normal" again, the seriousness of these precautions gave some relief that we were taking things seriously. I went to the usual conference room, performed the headshot in the usual style to match the clients' previous shots, and their new attorney put his mask back on before returning to the stacks of paper piling upon his desk. I went back to the streets where I didn't remove my mask again until I was in my boiling car. June 26th found me early in the morning in Baltimore with Baltimore city councilman Bill Henry. Having won an upset in the Democratic primary for city comptroller earlier that month, he was the presumptive comptroller elect in this democratic stronghold. We met in the heart of 4th district at Belvedere Square. Being outside again I felt a lot more comfortable, although I knew I'd be doing more indoor shoots before this pandemic was over. The councilman still seemed to be walking on air from his primary win, and took his mask off only briefly as I took my shots on this gorgeous day. July 2nd I was back to Baltimore for my shoot at the Baltimore Zoo (check out my previous post for more images). Discussion was had with the head keepers of each enclosure as to how comfortable they were with my subject removing his mask for the shots, and I did versions of him with and without mask in case we wanted to show that masks were required there. Little did I know mask on-and-off sho https://www.instagram.com/p/CFHR3-MBlc0/?igshid=kv1utj2t6z0r

Continuing my chronological series of work completed during the pandemic: After my shoot on May 11th, things went quiet again for a lengthy period. I was avoiding full panic, having had calls for estimates and a few shoot confirmations for further down the line. Nevertheless it was almost a month before I had the chance to pick up the camera for a shoot again. You may remember my portrait of @BMoreArt Magazine editor and COVID survivor @caraober from earlier in this series -- I was very excited when she contacted me with my first assignment for her beautiful arts publication. On June 8th I headed to Gutierrez Studios for a portrait of Roya Golpira, who had helped found this visionary epicenter of bespoke metalwork with her late husband John Gutierrez. It was my first indoor shoot of the COVID era, and even though we were two people in a 20,000-square-foot open workshop I was still pretty nervous about it. Gloved and masked, I quickly conceived two portraits: one with a beautiful steel and wood chair from their showroom to contrast with the factory space; and a second of her standing amongst the rough machinery the studio's artisans use to craft the one-of-a-kind furnishings and architectural features that have put this venerable institution on the map. A simple two-strobe setup for each shot allowed me to illuminate Roya so the beautiful ambient afternoon light streaming into the space looked like it was doing all the hard work. While I'm happy with the images I made, I'm blown away by the rest of the photography and artwork in BMoreArt. Grab the magazine if you find yourself in Charm City, or ask me to send you a copy, or check out what they offer online at https://bmoreart.com. Learn more about the amazing Gutierrez Studios at https://www.gutierrezstudios.com, and please check out the Gutierrez Memorial Fund supporting Maryland Artists at https://gutierrezmemorialfund.com. (at Gutierrez Studios) https://www.instagram.com/p/CE9BtMFBW0E/?igshid=2v0xzakjyxbt

Continuing my chronological series of work completed during the pandemic: On May 11th, I went to Baltimore to photograph Dr. Lauren Gardner, infectious disease specialist and co-director of the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at John Hopkins University. Her team began a research project back in January to visualize the data of emerging infectious diseases, one that ultimately became known as the COVID-19 Dashboard. This public online information resource tracks the spread of the virus and is used by public health authorities, researchers, and anyone and everyone with an internet connection, and now receives over 4.5 billion visits per day. By May the campus was in complete lockdown, and with some amount of cajoling the Hopkins PR team was convinced to allow me to meet Dr. Gardner at her home for our portrait session. I set up my lighting outside the house, carefully moving garden gnomes in a losing struggle to make it look like we might be in some overgrown corner of the otherwise tidy urban campus. One light was placed in a neighbor's yard and another on the sidewalk as the key, and with my text message signal Dr. Gardner came out and stood on the designated spot. I remained masked and gloved and kept my distance, doing my best to assuage her concerns and my own (not wanting to be the person who single-handedly spread the virus to the vital COVID-19 Dashboard team). It was a brief shoot, but thrilling to meet someone at the center of this news cycle, brilliantly and heroically performing a service so desperately needed in this (sometime and hopefully temporary) disinformation age. Check out my previous post featuring the tear sheet, and read the interview with Dr. Gardner by @llyydddzz from the June/July issue of @baltmag online right here: https://t.co/OvDwbSvcq3. Thanks again to the amazing @amandalaine888 for this assignment. (at Baltimore, Maryland) https://www.instagram.com/p/CE6cusghrzD/?igshid=100bmu16eq65

It's #tearsheettuesday and no I didn't take this portrait of Art Garfunkel getting a piggyback ride from his college roommate Sandy Greenberg. I did take the inset photo. Why am I sharing it? Because it's only the second time one of my photos has graced the pages of People Magazine. I grew up thumbing through @people, the one magazine my mom has read religiously as long as I've been alive. In fact she still continues to buy it at the grocery store because she insists she gets it one day faster than the subscription delivery. This photo was originally taken a couple of years ago for @baltmag, and I'm so gratified that @ilanaschweberkaplan felt it was good enough to also run in the pages of People. The article ran in the July 27th issue, on the occasion of the release of Sanford "Sandy" Greenberg's new book, "Hello Darkness, My Old Friend." It tells the remarkable story of how Sandy's college roommate, Art Garfunkel (yes that Art Garfunkel), helped him navigate and conquer his life again after he lost his eyesight during his junior year at Columbia. Mr. Greenberg went on to grad school at Harvard and Oxford, later becoming a White House fellow, an inventor, and ultimately a philanthropist. He eventually created the Sanford and Susan Greenberg Prize, an award of $2 million in gold to whoever contributes the most to ending blindness this year. I'll be reading the book, and I know it’s going to be a good read not just because it has a foreword by Ruth Bader Ginsburg or because it has an afterword by Margaret Atwood, but because the story of Art and Sandy's incredible friendship is so inspiring. Check out the article about the book by @sandra.sobieraj.westfall in People here (https://bit.ly/2Ze4CIs) and about Sandy Greenberg by @corey_mcl in Baltimore Magazine here (https://bit.ly/3imw7XT). https://www.instagram.com/p/CE3yvyzhgCo/?igshid=16gpbies2lvnr

Continuing my chronological series of work completed during the pandemic with an outtake from my portrait of the director of the Emergency Department at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Dr. Mustapha Oladapo Saheed, shot on May 4th (I posted another portrait of him earlier this month). While it was nerve-racking to head to a hospital, particularly in a place that was quickly becoming a COVID hotspot, I reminded myself that the healthcare workers I was photographing spent every day on the font lines of this battle. I had masked up and put on my gloves to photograph them for a few short minutes, but at the end I had the luxury of turning around and leaving those outdoor locations, while they turned around to walk back into the hospitals. I owed it to these heroes to honor the courage and resolve they showed in order to do their jobs in the face of this virus, taking those lessons to help tell their stories in my own small way. It’s worth repeating this quote from Dr. Saheed's interview with @charmcityjane in @baltmag, that really hits home on the sacrifices our healthcare heroes are making every day for us: “Many of us have never thought about medicine in this way. We thought we’d work ourselves to the bone and give everything we had for our patients, but we didn’t think that maybe we’d need to give our lives for it.” Read Jane's interview from the June/July issue online here (https://t.co/DFFZir5ckP). (at Johns Hopkins Hospital) https://www.instagram.com/p/CErAdm1hbhJ/?igshid=2tcc5dzg91ra

It's #tearsheettuesday and today's post from the June/July issue of @BMag fits perfectly with my current series, a chronological look at the work I've been producing during this pandemic. On May 2nd I headed up to Baltimore and the famed 32nd Street Farmers Market, its 60 vendors still working hard to provide locally produced fresh foods and flowers to the city's citizens. I'm a huge fan of famers markets, and do the majority of my grocery shopping every week at my local market on Kent Island (shout out to @kentislandfarmersmarket) - during COVID I've especially appreciated being able to shop outdoors in a space perfectly designed for social distancing. Not to mention the crisp veggies just pulled from the earth, fresh meats and dairy to dictate my meal plans for the week, delicious baked goods, yummy preserves, necessities from my local distilleries... the list goes on and on. I love a good farmers market, and @32ndstreetfarmersmarket did not disappoint. I photographed market manager Marc Rey before I went shopping myself. Now celebrating its 40th year, the market has only missed four Saturdays (hurricanes and blizzards), and continues to safely provide local food to the community. As Marc told writer Grace Hebron, "We've always been there for our community, and we'll still be there through this crisis." Check out the 32nd Street Farmers Market online at http://www.32ndstreetmarket.org, and please mask up, shop safely, and support your local farmers market! (at Baltimore's 32nd Street Farmers Market) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEl2a7Hh9XU/?igshid=bnn797oe1iql

Continuing the chronological series of my work completed during the pandemic with an outtake from my portrait of ICU nurse Denny Marshall, taken April 29th. I posted about her earlier this month, and I think the text is worth repeating: You may remember learning about Dr. Joseph Costa, head of the ICU at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, who tragically succumbed to COVID-19 late this past month. It was a grim and sad reminder of the risks our frontline caregivers take to treat, heal, and ease our pain. Back in April I found myself at Mercy photographing one of Dr. Costa's colleagues, Denny Marshall, a career ICU nurse. At the point most of us were just getting a bare understanding of what lay ahead, she had already spent over a month on a specialized team of COVID nurses in her divided ICU. While some of us we were still visiting our loved ones, she had been social distancing from her firstborn grandchild, born only weeks before. This epitomizes the selfless resolve I've witnessed in so many medical professionals during this time. As she told writer Lydia Woolever (@llyydddzz), “We work together and help one another. ICU nurses are ready for the sickest patients. We’re problem solvers, we have the grit to handle difficult situations, and this has forced us to up our game.... A lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same, in that the care is still there. People say we’re heroes. We’re not heroes. This is what we do. We go to work. We care for the sick. And people get sick from the coronavirus, so we’re there to take care of them, too.” Please read Lydia's interview from the June/July issue of @baltmag online here (https://t.co/DFFZir5ckP), along with more of the magazine's excellent coverage of the city's fight against COVID. (at Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore, MD) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEjkC8ABq3T/?igshid=1s1wummav0gon

Continuing my series of work completed during the pandemic. On April 27th I went to Baltimore to photograph Cara Ober, the editor of BMoreArt Magazine (@bmoreart) and someone I had long wanted to meet. However the purpose of my visit was not to share my portfolio with her but to photograph her for an article she had written, "Fever Dream," on her experience suffering from COVID-19 only a month before. Her story, published in the June/July issue of @baltmag is a harrowing account of the pain, questions, doubts, and fears a COVID patient goes through, as they struggle to get tested and worry about spreading the illness to their loved ones. Separated from her husband and son, not knowing if they were asymptomatic or might also fall ill, ending up in the hospital, and not knowing when or how it would all end, it's a terrifying reality. A couple of lines that really struck me: "It’s a comfort to know that professionals are monitoring my heart and lungs and I’m not going to die alone in the middle of the night... I have nurses who are so kind and generous that it brings me to tears. I realize they are risking their lives every time they enter the room." Like my Thrivent shoot, I masked up, wore gloves, and shot from a distance, but this time I returned to my usual style of lighting the scene, how I'm most comfortable working. Cara was kind, wonderful. Her son Leo and her quarantine companion, a chihuahua named Mr. Big, were incredibly generous of their time for me. Please take the time to read Cara's powerful and sobering essay online right here: https://t.co/EeU1rmN702 (at Baltimore, Maryland) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEbfRjCBPIa/?igshid=yk9jmqlo98p2

Continuing my series of work completed during the pandemic. After the shoot for Stanford, my business went into a tailspin. I had almost 20 jobs on the books, all of which were cancelled or indefinitely postponed, and after only two weeks I was already seriously considering a career change. I felt like I was thinking again about what I want to do when I grow up, but after over twenty years in business for myself I don't feel qualified to be doing anything else. That’s when the phone started to ring and a few jobs started to trickle in again. On April 6th I found myself travelling to York PA for the financial services company Thrivent, to photograph the Null family in an article for the company magazine. This was the first shoot where I really had to think about a new approach to things in the time of COVID, where the simple act of traveling suddenly seemed risky. It was determined that I would use a long lens, we would stay outdoors, I’d wear a mask and gloves, and we’d communicate all along the way about making them feel safe during the shoot. Everything went fine, and even my directions to produce summery images in an early spring landscape where the snow has only just melted were fulfilled (thank god they had some evergreen trees in the backyard). The biggest problem I encountered was realizing I had taken a several hour drive and public restrooms were now a thing of the past. This shoot was a big step for me in figuring out how to venture back into the world as a photographer after the new reality of the situation had hit home. Check out the final article on "strategies for newlyweds to establish a solid financial future" in Thrivent Magazine right here: bit.ly/31yurD8 (at York, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEY_8M1hXWJ/?igshid=1dh2c74k0jn04

It's #tearsheettuesday and yes those are real penguins. At the beginning of July I was given the awesome assignment of photographing zookeeper Ransom Livingston on the occasion of the Maryland Zoo's public reopening. Located in historic Druid Hill Park, America's third oldest zoo is now dedicated to conservation efforts - in fact these endangered African black-footed penguins are part of a breeding program and partnership with SANCCOB, an internationally renowned seabird rescue and rehabilitation facility headquartered in Cape Town. I also joined Ransom with spur-thigh and leopard tortoises (they are deceptively quick when they want to munch on green shoelaces, now I know!), and Caribbean flamingos (as shy as they are colorful). Thanks to Claire Aubel at the MD Zoo for the behind the scenes shots, and to art director @amandalaine888 for these fun assignments! (at The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore) https://www.instagram.com/p/CETud3MBNO-/?igshid=1v91spnfi7reo

Working during the pandemic: By March 19th we were officially in a lockdown around the mid-Atlantic states, and I still had a full slate of shoots scheduled and continued to work. I wasn't nervous at the time. People weren't wearing masks yet and social distancing and copious amounts of Purell were the recommended precautions. I drove into deserted DC that day for Stanford Lawyer Magazine to photograph Robert Charrow, general counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services. The building was practically empty, but Mr. Charrow was still working around the clock in his massive corner office and nevertheless I would have a very small amount of time with him. I jumped into creative mode and came up with five options I could pre-light for a 15-minute shoot window. I started at his desk so he could keep working until I took the first shot, and then swung the lights around toward the windows, and then brought him to the lobby for two more set ups where again I only had to swivel my lights around to change the scene. Even with his busy schedule he was gracious with those 15 minutes (I think he even let me go over a bit), and talked to me about photography while I asked how he ended up as a healthcare lawyer after getting a physics degree. Had I known where we were headed on the pandemic, there are so many more questions I would have asked. Afterward I grabbed a lunch to go and ate it on the lawn of the US Capitol. The only other two people I saw were a father and son playing catch on the grass. Even though I'd never seen people playing ball on the Capitol grounds, it felt like a slice of normalcy in this otherwise strange scene. Check out Robert Charrow's Stanford interview online at: https://law.stanford.edu/stanford-lawyer/articles/robert-charrow/ (at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) https://www.instagram.com/p/CERN5UlBc_9/?igshid=1wm2z1jpbghhj

Continuing my series of work completed during the pandemic, with a portrait of Delali Dzirasa, founder and CEO of Fearless Tech. Delali and I had scheduled our shoot for March 18th, illustration for an article on Hack Baltimore, a movement designed to use technology and civic hacking to create sustainable solutions to housing, education, transportation, public safety, health and wellness, and workforce development. On the 16th of March, Maryland's governor ordered the closure of bars, restaurants, fitness centers, and theaters and the state essentially went into a lockdown. I conferred with Delali and we decided to keep our schedule, albeit with social distancing measures. The day of the shoot I drove through a deserted Baltimore and arrived at normally bustling Port Discovery. When we found out his office building was now closed to all non-essential personnel, I quickly decided to do the shoot outside the entrance in the empty plaza. It felt eerie, almost apocalyptic at the time, to stand in this usually bustling restaurant and nightclub plaza bereft of human activity. Little did we know this was about to become the new normal. I have no doubt Hack Baltimore is now applying its brain power to solutions for this new reality, god knows we need very smart people to move us forward from here. Learn more about Hack Baltimore here (https://hackbaltimore.io) and read the interview by @kpacheco95 from May's @baltmag right here (https://t.co/LU2VsDg86I). (at POWER PLANT LIVE!) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEJ-VHDB5o5/?igshid=f3j7qobk6rs2