Ethan Stacy Viewing and Funeral

I was asked by my company to fly to Grundy,Virginia to cover the viewing, memorial and funeral for Ethan Stacy, a cute little 4-year old boy whose body was found in a shallow grave near Powder Mountain in Utah. His mother and step-father are being held in jail in Utah, under investigation in his death. It was a tragic and difficult situation for everyone involved.

I was asked Monday afternoon to catch a 10 p.m. flight that night. We flew all night with three layovers and a 2 hour drive and arrived in Grundy at 11:00 a.m Tuesday morning. With less than an hour or so of rest, or as much as one can get in an airplane seat, we checked into our hotel, quickly changed and went to the funeral home to see if we could meet with the family at the private viewing for Ethan.

The people of Grundy were some of the kindest, nicest people I have had the pleasure to work with during my many years as a photographer. Under such trying circumstances when others would have been rightfully less than accommodating to a bunch of outsiders, who had travelled all the way from Utah, they went out of there way to be respectful, helpful and kind.

Joe Stacy, father to the deceased little boy Ethan, welcomed us with all the manners of a southern gentleman and allowed us to document this emotional time. I can't say enough about how difficult it must have been for him to lose his son under such trying circumstances; and yet to be so poised and gracious to everyone who descended on this small town nestled in the rolling hills of West Virginia is a testament to his character and upbringing.

I want to share with you a few of the images I was privileged to make as I documented this tragic story. I will be forever grateful to Joe Stacy and his fiance Becky Elswick, the owners and directors of the Grundy Funeral Home, Curtis Mullins and his father T.J. and the people of Grundy and Richlands, Virginia for their grace under such trying circumstances.

In these type of situations all you are trying to do is document these events for the thousands of people who have followed this story around the country. You work hard to be respectful to those whose story you are trying to tell. None of these photographs were taken without their approval. There were several moments that were not photographed, at their request.

Ethan was laid to rest in Richlands, Virginia on the highest hill top of the Clinch Valley Memorial Cemetery overlooking beautiful lush green hills and valley's stretching eastwards. My hope is that all those touched by these tragic events can find a measure of peace and comfort and that time will bind up and heal their wounds.

I will let the photos speak for themselves.

rest in peace ethan.....

Good photography is about problem solving: Fashion & Portrait

A few weeks ago I was called upon to do a quick fashion shoot.  I had 30 minutes to photograph a features cover on spring fashion and that included setting up and taking down the lights so I could make it to my next assignment. I did not have the chance to do any prep work, scout the location or wait for the time of day when the nice light starts to appear.

This happens all the time to just about every photographer.  So what do you do? Whine and complain.....as fun as that sounds it's not really going to help us get good photos.  So what we really do is "problem solve".

Sometimes as in this photo shoot, I really had very little time to problem solve. so I gathered small and big lights and a few extra light modifiers and quickly drove to the location. From experience of being put in this type of situation before, I also came prepared with a couple of extra extension cords that I always keep in my trunk, gaffers tape, and a few extra light modifiers.

When I first get to the location, in this case a small clothing boutique type store, I look for a power outlet for my lights, and I definitely needed the power cords, and then I look for any natural light coming in from windows and what type of artificial light is in the room.

Based on this, and the time of day I knew I could use a mixture of east window light coming in the shop and a softbox and snooted head on a set of profoto lights.

I wanted to get a couple of different looks, so I varied between using the softbox and available window light and a more complex combination of the afore-mentioned setup.

Also, thanks to our model Kamile Jensen here is three of my favorites from the shoot.

Chimera softbox, profoto D1 left, window light right.

Chimera softbox, profoto D1 right, profoto D1, umbrella, left

Chimera softbox, profoto D1 main fill, front below camera, window light, right, profoto D1, camera left, snooted for face.

Sometimes the problem is lack of time, other it is the location itself and the time of day. I had a recent portrait shoot of an emerging novelist that I needed to take at her home. The location was very small, wonderful and intimate, but didn't leave a lot of room for lights, I didn't want to use small lights for this as I wanted to get a more defined softer look to the portrait, so I set up a profoto D1 left and used a large white translucent sheet of fabric to soften and diffuse the main light. I then placed a second profoto D1 with an umbrella reflector outside of the house on the porch and aimed it into the house to mimic the window light of a different time of the day.

Here are three images from that portrait session.

Just remember, "Good photography is about problem solving"......more to come...

Right in front of us

Sometimes we are so busy we forget to look at what is right in front of us. A couple of weeks ago I was at the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas taking photos of all the games. I looked up during a time out and saw this. I couldn't resist taking a photo.

more to come....