Moving Pictures--Our Newest Work

We did it. Made the leap to video and sound, mixing with still images to create our studio's first multi-media production for one of our favorite clients: Union-PSCE here in Richmond, VA.

See it by clicking here: Union PSCE-Service Day 2009

We is Hassan Pitts and I.  I'm holding the camera in most frames, shooting stills and video.  Hassan is setting up shots, and handling all the audio.  Hassan interviewed the participants, getting great testimonials.  He also captured the hymn the group sang during their brief service that morning.

The Political Up and Comer

This is Susan Stimpson, candidate for Falmouth Supervisor, Stafford County, Virginia.

I first met Susan a couple years ago when she was the Stafford, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania regional campaign manager for then candidate, Richard Stuart. He was running for the Virginia State Senate (a tough race which he won thanks in good measure to Susan's hard work and dedication).

The day of that first meeting, we were relying on Susan to be our "go-to-gal" to help us gain access to all the various locations and wrangle the extras into the shoots we had scheduled for candidate Stuart.

She may have been just a volunteer, but wow, did she make things happen. That hot summer day in 2007 was one of the smoothest (although long) days of location work I've ever had thanks to her relationships with folks throughout Fredericksburg/Stafford region.

This year, in 2009, its Susan's turn to be the candidate. Earlier this summer, I jumped at the chance to see her again, and even tho I'm a Democrat and she's a Republican (I know, I know, I have lots of GOP friends even though I'm true-Blue) I truly feel this is a "woman on the verge."

I think Stimpson will run for governor one day. Seriously. I want to be able to say "I knew her when". But of course, she has her current race to run, which is happening right now.

One of Susan's platform issues is education for a high-tech workforce and job creation in Stafford for high-tech industries and business that support the Federal Government.

Her day-job is a budget analyst for the US State Department, working for a government contractor. Folks who already know her understand she's got a head for business. But for the folks who don't yet know her, we needed to reinforce that with imagery.

These types of conference room shoots are hard work, but I enjoy them tremendously. First off, the folks in the room are "real people". Not actors, not campaign staffers. My goal with this type of shooting is to try to get the candidate and the constituents to engage in conversation that's meaningful. That way, they keep their focus, and don't get bored with the tedium of the shoot (i.e. shot after shot after shot.)

I get each person to take a turn asking a question of the candidate. I use those moments to capture what I call "active listening" images of the candidate. Then, I capture images of the candidate responding to the question.

Its only natural that one starts to listen to the folks in the room, even though I'm supposed to be focused on the visual aspects of the scene.

After hearing these folks talk about the issues that concern their everyday lives, I came away with an overwhelming sense that this area of central Virgina, just a thin county line from what we call Northern Virginia, is markedly different from it's neighbor to the south, Richmond and it's surrounding counties. It was if I'd gone to another state.

Plus, it was fun to be the "fly on the wall" listening to the candidate tune her responses and warm up for the public forums and debates that were sure to be more rancorous as the campaign season heats up post-Labor Day.

All images and text Copyright 2009, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC.  No unauthorized use allowed. 

Henrico Federal Credit Union

One of our favorite clients is the Henrico Federal Credit Union. We've had the pleasure of working with them for a few years now, creating images of their staff, members and directors. Recently we photographed five members of the HFCU management team.

Standard operating procedure for their shoots is to ask the subjects to wear what they wear to work on a normal day. The idea is that they'll be more recognizable to customers/members when their image shows up on the HFCU website, on a display poster or advertisement.

The set is always the same: high key background (a white seamless sweep) and lighting that is directional, but with no heavy shadows. Our goal is to provide images which can be "mixed and matched" by the graphic designers who work for HFCU.

Our stylist, Winifred, helped folks look their best for this shoot. And since she's a former professional model, she also helps us with posing. Hassan Pitts, was our lighting and digital tech assistant for the shoot.

The bonus for us crew members is that we talk about financial products with the staff. And we always learn something about what's going on in the industry, credit availability and interest rates.

Whenever I spend time with the HFCU folks, I also get a general "pulse" of the local economy.

For example, I learned that they're putting HFCU branches in some of the local high schools this year. Plus, they're holding financial planning and credit management workshops for students and teachers...free of charge.

How great is that?! High school students are prime candidates to learn about saving early in life and taking advantage of compound interest. Not to mention learning how to use a credit card responsibly and avoiding excessive debt early in their adult life.

That's one of the best things about being a commercial photographer. You get to learn a little something about each client's business and it helps balance your perspective as a business person. I guess it's my old college b-school head taking over.

All images Copyright 2009, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC.

Back to the Fountain with Grace & Otto

Family and friends came to Richmond this July to celebrate the marriage of Grace & Otto. Folks came from as far away as Korea, the Philippines and South America.

Since their wedding reception was at the Omni, in Downtown Richmond, we were only a block from the Shockoe Slip fountain, where a couple months earlier, we'd made their engagement pictures.

Grace and Otto wanted to brave the heat and humidity (really, for the middle of July, it wasn't that bad,) and be photographed at the fountain in their wedding day finery.






















All images Copyright 2009, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC.

Richmond River District Engagement

This is Grace and Otto. They're getting married this summer and Hassan & I will have the pleasure of being with them on their wedding day.

We do A LOT of planning and preparation before we shoot a wedding, and one of the most important ways we prepare is to shoot an "engagement session" with the couple.

Since their reception will be held at the Omni Hotel, we decided to use the picturesque River District (which includes Shockoe Slip and the Canal Walk) for our location. This allowed us to show the couple (who don't live in Richmond, thus weren't that familiar with the area) the locations we might use for their wedding portraits.

We started at the fountain infront of the Martin Agency on 13th Street. I love this fountain, but so do the birds...so if you go to make pictures, bring a few paper towels if you want to sit on the edge of the fountain itself.

We started shooting in the late afternoon, but not close to sunset, because I wanted to be sure to get sunlight on their hair, and hard light in the water droplets from the fountain.

I love Grace's hands. I always love hands showing in portraits, and it's even better when you can incorporate that with a couple. It takes some practice though, getting hands to look pretty and not like bear claws.

One of the drawbacks to shooting in urban settings are cars parked on the street. This was a beautiful Saturday, so the whole world was out. A long lens with shallow depth of field helped blur the parked autos, and keep the focus on the couple.

We lingered here on the fountain and let the two of them just look out at the scene. I always turn away from the couple and give them a few moments to chat and whisper to each other. If I'm lucky, they forget I'm around and do something silly. That's when I get images like this with energy and spontaneity.

Candidate Stolle with the Students

Perhaps you'd call it "courting the youth vote". If you were running for office, wouldn't you? We followed Chris Stolle, Candidate for VA House of Delegates to a Virginia Beach High School to capture images of him talking with students. After classes that day, the Republican Club hosted a Q&A session with the candidate.

I've shot these types of discussions before and love doing it. The students are so freakin' smart. Not only that, they're surprisingly (to me, anyway) aware of current events and local government issues. The candidates always seem to get caught a little of guard. They come in relaxed, thinking this will be a laid back discussion. They end up switching gears, going from "oh, this will be easy," to "these kids are just as smart as everyone else."

The only problem with these shoots is that eventually I start paying too much attention to what the students are saying, and not how they look (which is what the clients are paying me for.) Fortunately, there are enough other folks around (like Missi Sousa, the campaign manager, or Chris Jankowski, political advisor) looking for the occasional un-tucked shirt or slouching posture.

When I shot this, the only direction I gave the students was where to sit. Between questions/answers, we moved them around to different desks. This gave all the students a chance to be recognizable on camera and ask their own specific question of the candidate.

The side-story here is educational funding for the State of Virginia. Just like a lot of places in the Commonwealth, this high-school was very overcrowded. There were no less than 8 classroom trailers outside what looked like a vintage mid-80's main building. And this was in an affluent Virginia Beach suburb.

When I realized we were shooting in a classroom trailer, I worried about setting up the shot. It was an overcast day, threatening showers. Was any natural light getting into that trailer? Would it look like a real classroom? Would there be any students in there?

Fortunately, there were plenty of students and big windows on the two long walls, facing the other trailers. The weak diffused light from the windows combined with the overhead fluorescent fixtures to provide a soft fill light. My assistant, Sam Allen, set up off-camera strobes to the right of the candidate to bring up the overall light level in the room. My intention was to make our strobes resemble sunlight streaming through the windows on one side of the trailer. The strobes allowed us to shoot at a fast enough shutter speed to freeze action and keep depth of field (sharpness) on the candidates and students. Without the additional lighting, we would have had mushy, out of focus images.

Chris Stolle for Delegate

A couple weeks ago, we went to Virginia Beach to photograph a Republican candidate for the VA House of Delegates, Chris Stolle. We got to the shoot and that's when I realized the Obama 'O8 bumper sticker was on my truck!

Fortunately, Chris's campaign manager, Missi Sousa (a worldly young woman direct from Washington D.C.,) wasn't phased in the least.

We spent the day with Chris, going to various locations and photographing him with lots of different folks who work and live in Virginia Beach.

Creating images of a candidate for office is just like creating images for any product or service. Our job is to visually tell a story about that person. Chris' campaign was in need of specific images to help tell his story; illustrating key issues in his platform.

One of the images the campaign needed was a casual portrait.. His "day job" is an OB-GYN at a local Tidewater hospital. He's senior staff at the hospital; sees patients along with evaluating the hospital's response to patient treatment in general. But "Dr. Chris" as I called him the day of the shoot, didn't need another white coat physician portrait. What he needed was an "I'm a taxpayer like you" across the kitchen table portrait. An accessible, next door neighbor approach was called for. My goal was to create an image that would make a good first impression with a voter who is just getting to know Chris.

The frame above is what the campaign chose for the campaign home page.

Copyright 2009, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography.

Easter Bee

Honeybee keeping is making a comeback. All the news about 'colony collapse disorder' has gotten environmentally-aware folks into bee keeping, which is a good thing for all of us.

A photographer friend, David Stover, has been keeping bees for a couple years. Now, my neighbor Stacy Moulds and her husband Charlie Field are going to start here in Church Hill (they went to bee-keeping class last week!)

Yesterday, I walked out of the studio to admire the redbud trees we planted a few years ago. I was surprised to see honey bees all over the blossoms.

Trying to photograph the tiny honey bees was challenging (for me, anyway) and I realized (again) why I'm not a nature photographer. I'll leave that to the wildlife pros like Lynda Richardson.

I shot this with one of my back-up cameras, the Canon 50D, hoping the multiplier effect of the smaller sensor would help get me "closer" to the tiny bees. I used a medium zoom 24mm-135mm lwna, with a screw-on +2 close-up filter, 200iso, 200th of a second at f11.

A honey bee moves faster than a 2 year-old on twinkies. Using auto-focus, I struggled to keep up. Shot a bunch of frames...I like this one because it shows the all-important pollen ball on the bee's right leg. I hope this bee and all it's bee-buddies make it back to the hive and live it up!

IP Super Hero

This is Katie Horvath, an attorney who specializes in intellectual property and patent law. The field of law we image creators really dig. I've photographed her before, for the XDL website.

Whenever I see Katie, I always ask her about her work protecting clients' intellectual property. I can't help it, other areas of law just don't mean as much to me. Occupational hazard, I guess.

Now, about the picture. We made her portrait in downtown Richmond a couple weeks ago. Since Katie is based in Michigan, I was a little concerned about how her wardrobe would travel in a carry-on bag. Thank goodness she favored a soft-fabric suit. If she'd had one of those man-tailored structured suits, we would have spent 30 minutes steaming out the wrinkles.

We were at the offices of Durrette Bradshaw, where I've shot in nearly every office, conference room and the law library at least twice. It was time to do something new (for my own sanity and out of respect for our subject).

After cruzin the D-B offices for someplace new, we went down to the lobby and looked around. There it was, the arch, the flag, the office buildings. The only drawbacks were all the glass windows to reflect my lights back at the camera. I just kept moving light stands around till I could stop seeing them in the windows behind her. Winifred got Katie ready for the camera upstairs in the D-B offices while I worked out the lighting.

We were going for a "Federal Court House" look with this composition. Getting access to a Federal Court House to shoot a portrait is unrealistic these days. It's about as easy as getting access to the Federal Reserve Bank--imagine airport clearance only ten-times more invasive. The other goal we achieved was giving Katie a "could be any big city" shot. Since she travels a lot for her work, we didn't want to place her with any identifiable landmarks or natural scenery that would confine her to a specific region.

I love the way this turned out.

The Messy Desk Rules

For years, whenever we made environmental portraits, we'd buzz around and clean up/rearrange the office, reception area or conference room where we were shooting. The idea was to create a calm vista where the subject of the portrait (typically a human) would dominate the field of view. The environment was supposed to be evocative, but not overpowering or too distracting.

Well, that approach worked sometimes, and other times, we'd end up taking all the personality out of the subjects' environment. Nearly "de-saturating" the environment, if you will.

Last week, we were invited back to Durrette Bradshaw to update portraits for a few of their attorneys.

This is Chris Hill, in his office...at his desk. Looks like the real thing, and it certainly is. Chris has developed a specialty construction law. He blogs about it at http://constructionlawva.com

There certainly is a lot of stuff in the image frame, but hopefully, through thoughtful composition (using the rule of thirds, and the natural triangle of the human head-torso,) we've made it easy for the viewer to focus on the person first, and then take a cue (or two) from the environment surrounding him. From a functional standpoint, we were able to set up the lights (there were 2 in the room--a smallish office about 8x12) and allow Chris to continue working at his desk.

One of the bonuses of Chris's office were the downtown buildings, including one under construction, just outside his window. This made it even easier for us (Winifred and I) to leave him at his desk. Our client, Amy Kimon Smith-Pike, agreed that the busy exterior environment balanced the cluttered interior environment, while adding yet another visual cue about Chris's professional expertise.

All images and text copyright 2009, Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC.

Standford Financial Group -- who'd a thunk?

Its a weird feeling, and that's probably putting it mildly for the folks who work in the Richmond, Virginia, office of the Stanford Financial Group.

Late last year, we were hired to make portraits of the folks who had just opened the local office of this international company. Just yesterday, I heard the story on NPR about their founder Allen Standford: how he was served papers by the FBI (up the road in Fredericksburg) and is now under investigation for securities fraud.

This morning when went to the Stanford Group website, I was greeted with a receivership page. Wow.

Now, I can't stop thinking about those folks I met in the Richmond office last December. Can you imagine being a financial adviser, who's reputation and integrity is everything, having to field calls from your anxious clients who have just learned the company who they've invested with is in receivership?

What must if feel like to wonder whether your boss, the founder of your company, your "fearless leader" who inspires you and your coworkers to work hard and believe in your products/services, may have duped you? And duped your hard-earned clients? Pretty depressing.

Of course, if you or I were in this position, we'd probably try to calm our clients, and remind them it's only an investigation, and no criminal charges have been filed, and everything will be ok when the dust settles. Hoping that this is just all a big mistake.

Now this may sound odd, but when I make someone's portrait, I chat them up...ask em questions about their lives and get to know them. There have been times when I got a weird vibe from someone and would think "no way could I ever do business with this person".

But that didn't happen in the Richmond office of the Stanford Financial Group. My goodness radar was on, and these folks all achieved the "good guy" rating.

One of the folks we met is Bobby Long. He's well known in Richmond, and has been in the financial services industry for over 35 years. He's active in the community and volunteers for several Richmond area non-profits.

Ironically, the Stanford Financial Group offices in Richmond occupy old Wachovia office space in the Riverfront Plaza (West Tower). One of the folks we met, Chris Long, had worked for Wachovia. I'm pretty sure he was happy to continue his career in financial services here in Richmond. Joining the Standford Group must have seemed like a great opportunity back in 2008.

And next is Dave Innes. Smart, trustworthy, a veteran of USB-Paine Webber. We chatted about cameras, as he was thinking of getting a new one for the Christmas holidays.

These are all decent hardworking folks. I can't help but think that no one deserves to go through the kinda stress they might be going through now. I feel for them, and their families, and I wish them the best of luck getting through this.

I also hope their client's assets are safe and sound.

Aquarium Shoot for Dominion Power

This was one of my favorite commercial shoots all year. Dominion Power is overhauling its website in the next few months, and wanted some new imagery.

Everyday uses of electricity was kind of the theme...and an aquarium certainly relies on a dependable energy source.

This concept of kids looking through a fish tank was something Dominion had tried to create a few years ago, but unsuccessfully. If you stop and think about it, a fish tank is a reflective surface nightmare, not to mention the issue of water clarity (murky faces is typically what you see when you shoot through an aquarium.)

Fortunately, I learned how to "shoot fish" a few years ago doing some work for Tetra (aquatic habitat supplies). My fish images were used in pet store displays and still appear on their website. Eliminating reflections of our studio lights, yet still finding a way to illuminate the set and subjects was the technical challenge photographically. Once you figure that out, you just gotta have a squeeky clean tank, clear water, and fish that swim "prettily" for the camera.

This shoot took about 2 weeks of advance studio preparation. Dave Thomas of Thomas Aquatics (804) 355-0455 was our official fish wrangler and aquatic environment wizard. He and his assistant, Ryan, set up two 50 gallon tanks in the studio. One for photography and the other as a "holding tank" for extra fish.

Fin and Feather supplied the set tank and all the decorations along with a selection of fresh-water exotic fish. To get the water perfectly clear, Dave & Ryan must have replaced the water in the set tank at least 6 times over the 2 week period. We also added lots of water treatment chemicals to knock out the chlorine.

Spending 2 weeks with the fish, I got to see that they really do have "personalities". My favorites were Dave's hybrid African Cichlid's. They are the 3 big orange fish swimming in the foreground of the tank. They didn't have any of the aggressiveness associated with the species and they'd swim to the top and "kiss" your fingers or, nibble on our hands/arms whenever we had to move something inside the tank. I also have a sweet spot for Gouramis of all kinds (they tend to be shy).

Jessica Kantor did a terrific job of casting and "kid wrangling" for the two afternoons we shot. She and Winifred Halliday found 2nd graders at their respective public elementary schools willing to spend a few hours modeling with the tank...between snack and game breaks.

Electricity uses: the fish were fresh water exotic species in a water temp about 75-degrees maintained by an electric heater with thermometer. Lots of filtration needed, especially with a bunch of fish in the tank; another use of electricity. Bubble fountains are just for looks, tho some fish like to play in them, again more electricity. Lastly, the strobe lights and digital camera all powered by Dominion.

Recliners Band Portrait

So here they are, from the galaxy of cool, via satellite for your lounging pleasure: the Recliners. Check out their website to hear their "post modern power lounge" sound.

We made this portrait in a local theater here in Richmond, VA, the band's east coast home. They'd been filming their new video since 6am that day, and had just enough time to do a still shoot before wrapping. Damn, they look good in tuxes after 6 hours of filming, don't they? Of course, they were doing what they love, playing music together.

The tux shot is their "formal" portrait for folks who might like to see how the band looks all dressed up for a fancy gig (weddings, corporate events, etc.). We also captured this more informal look for the folks who book them in night clubs when they're go more casual-hip look.

Russell Young is the founder of the group (he's the guy with the trumpet.) He also arranges all the music for the group. I'll never forget the first time I heard them, Capital Ale House, I recall. We had a blast dancing all night. According to this week's Style Weekly, they're playing on Valentine's Day 2009 at Capital Ale in downtown Richmond.

The singer, Joseph, sounds like a husky Frank Sinatra on some tunes...and he can really belt it out. All the band mates are swell musicians in their own right. Super cool, martini-infused lounge rock. Oh, and you can dance to it, too!

Why I shoot so much.

The reason is, I'm an artist. And the pictures I like are not always the ones my clients select. So I have to over-shoot. This started with photo editors of magazines never choosing my favorite shots for publication (I'd even stack the deck with my faves up front in a web gallery of previews.)

Now it happens with my portrait clients, too. Like it did with this family shoot.





















We had blocks stacked under the backdrop to create seating. Mom & dad were comfy but junior was having none of it...he just kept wriggling his way down off the set to run around and play (exerting his independence!) We managed to get this shot where everyone looks reasonably good. And this is the one they selected for prints.

Since junior was happiest being chased around the studio, I suggested we shoot something more physically active. So, I moved the blocks and






















let them "swing". This only works cause mom & dad are in good shape, and the kid is still small. And this was my favorite shot from the session. But did they chose it for their prints? Nope. I like it because it shows energy and youthfulness. And that belly!!! Love the fact you can see the kid's tummy. Just like real life.

So, that's it...after years of shooting, I still can't say for sure which poses my clients are going to select for their favorites until after they see the proofs. So, I'll continue to shoot what looks good and try different things, hoping that in all those hundreds of frames, there will be something that pleases my clients' tastes. Fortunately, my clients forgive this "creative process" I have to go thru to come up with images they ultimately chose for prints. Whew!