Back in January of this year, 2016, I had the pleasure to photograph the Martin Luther King Jr. Awards ceremony at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ. This was to honor two women, Shane Harris who received the Visionary of the Future award and Antoinette Ellis-Williams to receive the Steward of Dream award.
The NJPAC Youth Chorus opened with Lift Every Voice and Sing, everyone stood up to join them in song. While I was taking pictures, I couldn’t help but sing as well. The president of NJPAC, John Schreiber, introduced Donna Walker-Kuhne, who then introduced Rick Thigpen of PSE&G. Afterwards, the President of the Newark Chapter of the NAACP, Ms. Deborah Gregory, spoke.
What I found one of the more adorable parts of the event was Antoinette’s husband, Junius Williams, introduced her with a cute story.
The Jubilation Chorus was amazing to listen to, and as I too sing in a choir, it was an added bonus to my ears and wished that I could join them!
Thank you all for letting me photograph your event. It’s always a great time and hearing everyone speak was uplifting and lovely!
http://www.deirdreryanphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/MLKAwardsDryanPhoto93.jpg602900Deirdre Ryanhttp://deirdreryanphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Logo.pngDeirdre Ryan2016-04-28 22:20:522019-10-17 18:06:05#FF Strong Women Awarded At NJPAC
During Spring Break, my husband wasn’t able to take any time off. So instead I spent time with our daughter who is 9 at home doing things locally. On a Saturday, we went to Philadelphia to see Independence Mall. We live in a pre-Revolutionary town here in NJ and we’ve already taken her to Washington’s Crossing and plan on going to the Princeton Battlefield and Trenton Barracks. But the day was nice, albeit a bit cool, so we took the Riverline and PATCO right to Center City.
David and I met in Philly and lived there while dating, so we know the city pretty well. I worked for a time at Quaker Photo on 2nd and Arch St. He went to UARTS for Film on 15th and Broad, that’s where we met, I was on a Mobility Program for Graphic Design and Photography from my Montserrat College of Art in MA. It was fun showing The Kid around this section of “Our City”.
First we took her to lunch at Reading Terminal Market, we forgot that it was crowded with tourists for the weekend. I used to come there all the time. But still, we managed to get a place to eat. I just wanted my chicken kabob plate and Bassetts ice cream 🙂 The two of them had crepes from a French vendor. I packed just my Canon 6D, (this camera body is lighter than my Mark 5D III) and two lenses, the Canon 20mm f2.8 and the Canon 50mm f1.8 in a Think Tank Retrospective bag and other essentials. For Reading Terminal Market I used the 20mm to shoot from the hip for a few and then switched to the 50mm for the remainder of the day pretty much. I rarely use these two pieces of glass, so I thought that day was perfect for them.
We went inside the Visitor’s Center, saw the Liberty Bell and Franklin’s Court. We got off to a bit of a later start than we wanted to that day, but we still had fun. Independence Hall ran out of tickets for the tour. All free except for Franklin’s Court which was just $5. It was great to see everything because the last time we saw it all, it was still decorated from the Bicentennial of 1976 and David used to work for the City of Philadelphia as a Town Crier. He dressed in 18th Century costume and handed out “newspapers” to the tourists in Independence Mall.
We used the Phlash bus which does the tourist stops around the city, $5 I think, for an all day pass. We ate dinner at a nice Italian place near City Hall. Showed her a painted brick wall that was an advertisement for the movie Around The World In 80 Days, and then stopped by our old building to show her where we used to live. Took the PATCO directly from our old building on 15th and Locust to start our journey home.
We actually got our photo taken and it’s somewhat in focused!
Our child is a writer and carries a notebook and pencil everywhere she goes. Our old apartment, The Vida, 11th floor the bay window closest to The Academy Apartment building on the left, 2nd one down from the top floor.
http://www.deirdreryanphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_2666.jpg602900Deirdre Ryanhttp://deirdreryanphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Logo.pngDeirdre Ryan2016-04-28 17:45:202019-10-17 18:06:21Philly Spring Break With Food, History, and Good Memories
People do ask if I can photograph their family and I can of course! Normally, I prefer to shoot in natural light outside, but with the bad weather we had here in NJ, an indoor session was what this family wanted.
Such a beautiful family! The boys were great! The youngest was acting his age of course. You need to be patient and try all the tricks in the book and work quickly, never stop shooting, or look away. Eons ago, while in art college, I worked for Expressly Portraits in the mall. There I learned how to photograph all kinds of people and work with them. I quickly learned how to be patient, and hone in on customer service skills. Unlike those days, I don’t need to rush my clients, I take my time, relax everyone, and work with everyone.
I got the shots my clients wanted, plus some great ones of the parents. Thank you for choosing me to be your photographer!
Mom wanted a photo of her and her “baby boy”. His little brother didn’t want to get too close while standing up, so after this, I had them sit down. Their mom and dad suggested they do something they like to do in the car, and it worked!
http://www.deirdreryanphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/StudioFamilyPortraitSessionDeirdre-Ryan-Photography35.jpg602900Deirdre Ryanhttp://deirdreryanphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Logo.pngDeirdre Ryan2016-04-07 16:06:562019-10-17 18:06:31Studio Portraits of a Beautiful Family
I network a lot in person, and I was approached by Dr. Sarah Meanor, my chiropractor. She was re-doing her website and needed to have new business branding photos of her location and headshots. So I brought my gear, along with my assistant, a.k.a. business partner, a.k.a. my husband, and we had a list of shots that she needed for the site. Interior shots, her working on a patient, and a headshot.
Once we arrived, we got to work, setting up what we needed. First I did the shots of the office hallway, the 2 rooms, some details of the instruments she uses, and then the waiting area. While working on the hallway, I wanted the end room doorway to be opened, but it needed “something”, so I adjusted the room decor that was already there to give it a little depth and color. For those I used available light and my fast Canon L lenses. Then David assisted with setting up the headshot area and a light for me while she worked on the patient.
I only needed one light while Sarah worked, and while she worked, I moved my light with the white satin umbrella around her as she moved. Asking her to stop only so that I can get a few shots, and then we moved again. It was like an intricate dance. I used a Dynalite D805 Power pack and a 2020 head in a very small room, and this is not a battery powered system. The power supply was plugged into a socket in the hallway. David was using my other Dynalite M1000 power supply to set up for the headshot in the hallway.
You make things work.
With set up and break down, we were done in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. AND we made it back to watch our daughter’s basketball team win to get into the championship finals!
Thanks Dr. Sarah for letting me photograph you that day. The site looks great!
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