Author: Jay Reiter

I’ve spent a few mornings recently standing in snow, wind, and sub-freezing temperatures shooting activities at the Amesbury Sports Park . It’s hard to hide the fact that it was pure fun, so why try to hide the fact. The facility has always been known for its great tubing runs and lifts, but this year they added a new lift – it’s not unlike a moving sidewalk at an airport – and a junkyard terrain park. (more…)

Wow…2010. A whole new decade, starting off with people undecided how to say it. Is is twenty ten or two thousand ten…or does it really matter?

I was going to post a look back at the last decade, but its pretty overwhelming when I think about the fact that at the beginning of the new millennium – remember the big scare with Y2K – well on New Year’s Eve I was in El Paso, Texas, having just covered the Sun Bowl and people were afraid to fly because they thought all the onboard computers might crash. (more…)

Just before Christmas I was commissioned to do some photographs of Cayla for a theater production she’s in. Seems like the East Coast has finally caught up with the west. The requirement used to be straight-on black and white photos – mug shots really. Now its either color or black and white, the personality of the subject is expected to come across in the photograph, and the deer-in-the-headlight stare directly into the camera is out. (more…)

For those of you who thought tap dance was old-fashioned, stodgy, or simply people clicking away on a stage…WRONG!

A couple of night’s ago I had the opportunity to photograph a performance of Clara’s Dream, a jazz and tap rendition of The Nutcracker produced by Maine dancer and artistic director Drika Overton. The costumes were stunning, the stage lighting and set design phenomenal, the band tremendous…but all paled in comparison to the dancers. They could have put this show on on your local street corner and it still would have been mind-blowing. (more…)

It’s been almost a year since I taught my last class at McIntosh College – the school was closed for corporate reasons I won’t go into but still leave a sour taste in my mouth – and I’ve missed the teaching role.

A few weeks ago I was doing a bit of volunteer work at the New Outlook Teen Center in Exeter, helping out with the beginning of a photo class since the person teaching it had a conflict and couldn’t be there for the beginning. (more…)

Saturday afternoon I was on a road trip to Concord, Mass for the ordination of our good friend Angela Herrera. A short time after we landed in New Hampshire, Angela and Carlos and their two children came to Boston so Angela could attend Harvard Divinity School. They were good friends from our tenure in Salem, Oregon and it was a real treat to reconnect with them. (more…)

Yesterday I had the opportunity to photograph Karen. She needed new headshots for a theater resume and approached me about shooting them. We ended up working in a really tight space, the back of the Lonely Little Thrift shop in Newmarket since the store was closed Monday. The setup was simple – a black background to accentuate her hair, two small lights, one shooting through a white umbrella and the other just bounced with a dome to diffuse the light. (more…)

Shooting weddings in late fall in New England is not for the faint of heart – you never know what you’ll get for weather. It could be rain, snow or a beautiful day like we had for Elizabeth and Alan’s wedding. Lucked out, no doubt about it. I usually have a plan A and a plan B – but I think I had more plans for this one than I could name. (more…)