Categories
Music

Jer Coons, Back at Higher Ground

Last Friday, in the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, Jer Coons returned home to play for his friends & family. Opening for him were Seth Glier

and Jesse Ruben.

We didn’t hear about the show until the middle of the week, so I suspect that’s why the room wasn’t sold out. (Jer has a history of selling out the Showcase Lounge.)

After Jesse Ruben finished his set, the lights went down, the stage was prepped, and quietly, the band took their places. Sans Jer, they started into a driving rendition of the 2001 theme music and  Jer took the stage wearing a space suit.

And cowboy boots.

As he jumped into “Speak”

the crowd stared on in awe.

Clint Bierman hung out in the shadows, par for the course.

Peter Day brought out the upright bass.

Jamie Bright killed it on the keys.

and Jeff Vallone largely avoided my lens for the night. (Sorry Jeff!)

These are but a selection from the full gallery of photos from the evening.

Nice to see you back in town, Jer!  Looking forward to the next show. Give us a few more days notice next time, we’ll spread the word!

Categories
Nature Photograph

Before and After: Flooding on Vermont’s Winooski River

A few weeks ago, I walked down to the Winooski River on the boarder between Williston and Essex. It’s a place I’ve always wanted to walk around, but somehow I had never stopped until that day. I was surprised to see that you can walk all the way down onto the rocks and “in” to the river. I walked down pretty far and scrambled over the rocks, looking for the shot I had in my head. I’m not sure I found it, but it was a fun experience.

Yesterday, after two days of heavy rain all across Vermont, my commute was redirected because of flooding and I passed by the same spot.  I had to stop. The contrast to just two weeks ago was astounding. It looked like we had been transported back to April or May with the spring runoff raging down the river.

You see those rocks straight across the river? That’s where I was standing for the above picture.  For the photograph below, I was standing just to the right of the building in the photo above.

I’ll finish off the post with a panoramic photo snapped on that day a few weeks ago. The river almost looks like a pleasant place to hop in with an innertube and float towards Lake Champlain (well — except for the knowledge that there are a few dams and waterfalls along the way…)

Categories
Family Photograph Portraits

Outdoor Family Photographs on a Beautiful Vermont Morning

This past Saturday, I spent the morning at Oakledge Park in Burlington with Courtney, Kinsley, Andrew, and Connor . We had a great time wandering around the park, taking a combination of posed and candid photos. When you have an almost four year old involved, you never know what you’re going to get, but both kids were in good moods, very well behaved, and we had a great time making some photos.

We started on the swings, spidering, which turns out to be one of Kinsley’s favorites things to do. It was a good way to relax and get into the swing of taking some photos.

Then we settled into some posed photographs for a little while

Totally unprompted, and they struck almost exactly the same pose.

If you go to Oakledge, you can’t miss out on the giant treehouse, so we headed up there next.

What’s Cody drawing in the sand?

“I love you, Dad” of course.  What a great kid!

I think this is my favorite series from the whole day!

It’s hard to argue with a quote like this, “The pics are SOOO great THANK YOU!!!!  It really was fun shooting pics! The best part was the kids thought so too!”  I had a great time, too, Courtney!  Thanks for the opportunity to hang out with you and make some great photos.

Categories
Music Photograph Portraits

Portraits for a San Francisco based, but Vermont bred, musician

Early last month — you remember, then the temperatures were in the mid 90’s and the humidity matched — I connected up with Miranda Ferriss Jones to take some photos for her upcoming album. She was back in town visiting her family and had a vision for some photos contrasting the vintage dresses she performs in with the rustic farmhouse, barn, and tractor she grew up with. So, Tawny & I hopped in the car and drove down to Monkton from Burlington. It was a welcome road trip because it meant we had a brief reprieve from the heat in the car’s AC! We spent a couple of hours walking around using a few locations, one of which included the upper floor of the old barn which had to be well over 100° and filled with bat guano. Despite the heat, we had a lot of fun and came up with a variety of looks.

If you haven’t heard of Miranda before, I recommend visiting her site. She described herself as a singer-songwriter when she contacted me, but it’s a bit of a misnomer. While she writes and performs her own material, she’s got a heavy Jazz influence which is quite refreshing in today’s world of mediocre pop. Give her a listen!

It was nice to meet & work with you, Miranda.  Best of luck with the new album; I’m looking forward to hearing it!

Categories
Nature Photograph

Lake Champlain or Icelandic hot spring?

The Burlington Free Press recently posted an article about algae growth in Lake Champlain triggered by the recent heat wave and lack of winds.  As soon as I saw their photos of milky-blue water, I was transported back more than 4 years to a quick trip we took to Iceland.  On the day we arrived (on the red eye from Kennedy airport) we booked an afternoon at the Blue Lagoon to relax in the hot springs and try to recuperate for the next three days. When we arrived at the spa, the water rendered us speechless.

The next day we toured around and saw some of the other natural hot springs that are close to Reykjavík. Amazingly, many of these other pools of water had similarly mystical colors. The second shot below doesn’t really capture the vibrancy of the water – it almost glowed when contrasted to the yellow/gray rocks surrounding it.

Incidentally, if you’re headed to Iceland I recommend taking a half day or so at the Blue Lagoon to adjust.  Heck, if you’ve got a layover in Keflavik, I believe they run shuttle busses for those folks that want a quick dip or massage.  If you’re staying a few hours, though, why not just extend your trip and stay the weekend or longer.  Iceland was wonderful to us and we’d go back again in a heartbeat.