In the studio: Monica

This image was captured on my iPhone 8Plus in portrait mode!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio: Victoria

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

In the studio: Victoria

I had a great photo session last night with my friend Katye’s daughter, Victoria. She just finished her first year in NYC studying at AMDA (American Music and Dramatic Academy). Students usually spend the first two years in NYC, then transfer to AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. Victoria is so ahead of schedule in her skills that it was recommended that she move on to LA after just one year for further training! I used an LED ringlight as my main light and two LED lights overhead for hair highlights. These were shot with my Nikon D850 and a Nikkor 85mm 1.8 lens.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Lauren

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Lauren

I bought this pink sequin tablecloth to use as a backdrop for tonight’s photo session with my niece, Lauren. We ended up using it later as a gown. Not too shabby for improvising, huh?

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Lauren

In my studio-away-from-home with my niece Lauren, now in her pink hair phase (I love it!). She is as sweet and smart as she is photogenic. Thanks for modeling for me tonight, Gigglebean!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

2014: A Visual Recap

I’ve picked one photo from each month of blogging in 2014 to recap the year visually (starting with December 2014 and working my way back to January 2014). Now here’s to 2015—hoping it is another year of immense creativity, staying connected to family, nurturing friendships both near and far and old and new, growing my graphic design and photography business in fresh and challenging directions, continuing to dust off my rusty sketching and painting skills, decluttering my physical space, communing with nature, photographing more flowers and bugs, updating my garden with quirky and photogenic new plants, hitting the road in search of adventure (and fresh photographs), honing my writing craft, acquiring new skills and learning something new every day.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Christi

I photographed my friend Dave’s younger sister, Christi, back in the 90s (during my romantic-vaseline-on-the-uv-filter days). I had some images scanned with ScanCafe recently and this was one of them. I love the painterly light on this one—I’m thinking I might need to turn this into a real painting.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Teresa

I shot this of my friend Teresa when we were in college at Pan Am in Edinburg, Texas. I was definitely on the Renaissance-romantic-princess-fairytale-vaseline-on-the-UV-filter kick in those days. Oh, and I always had to fashion headpieces of flowers out of mom’s flower arrangements to complete the scene. Teresa was a beautiful subject for my lens!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

A very different Nicole

I photographed my friend Nicole several times many years ago (in fact, one photo of her ended up as one of two selected by American Photo magazine in their 2nd Annual Readers Photos Contest—I had two out of the 146 published!—in the early 90s. That photo had her in her “natural state,” with gorgeous Rapunzel-like hair (all hers) in a flowy golden gown. For this session several years later, I brought out my bag ‘o wigs and we decided to totally switch it up. I thought she looked like a mysterious French actress. I did a soft-focus technique with vaseline smeared on a UV filter and also upped the ISO of the film (slide days) to create the grainy look.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio: Elise

Elise is the youngest daughter of my friends James and Irma Williams. She is as equally sweet, funny, and smart as she is beautiful!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio: Marisa

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Marisa

I photographed Marisa a few days ago and we just finished converting one of our favorite images to b&w using one of my actions from Florabella. I like the warm tint to this particular action. More shots to come…

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Family photos: Aunt Lorene

My dad just shared this striking photo with me. It was posted by a family member on Facebook recently. This lovely model is my Aunt Lorene, one of his three older sisters. She was the last to pass away of his siblings (Larry, Jesse and Dot preceded her in death). In her teen years, she worked in a garment factory. Here, she modeled for a photographer in Eupora, Mississippi. I always thought she was pretty (she had robin’s egg blue eyes with flecks of gold), but hadn’t seen photos of her as a young woman until a few years ago. No wonder she inspired that photographer!

Portraits

A few months ago I donated a framed botanical image to a school auction and was offered a free full page b&w ad for their catalog. After combing my portrait archives, I’ve realized that I’ve done a LOT of portraits in my lifetime. I love doing portraits as much as I love photographing gardens, flowers and insects! I’m working on a separate website for my photography and will be launching it in a few months. There will be a separate section just for portraits. These are just a few of the many faces I’ve captured in pixels over the past few years.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Sylvia on a summer afternoon

Who says your memory isn’t what it used to be when you get older? Sure, I don’t remember some things I’ve said or done years ago (when I’m reminded), but when I look at something I’ve photographed, no matter how long ago, I remember specific things. This is Sylvia, who was one of the “Four Muskateers”—a group of four best friends (from elementary school to high school and beyond) that included my younger sister, Kelley. All four girls were willing guinea pigs whenever I asked them to model for me. I was just starting out as a photographer and dreamed of becoming a fashion photographer when I got older.

I was about 19 years old at the time I shot this image. Sylvia was about 15 years old. She was wearing my high school graduation Gunne Sax dress (remember that brand?). My mother was having kidney stone surgery sometime before my high school graduation and dad was tasked with taking me shopping to find a dress for graduation (fun for him, I’m sure). I doubt he remembers taking me shopping, but I do and I just loved this dress so much. It was a very lightweight floral fabric in shades of taupe, brown and cream with lace trim, a lace neckline, and a stretchy smocked waist and I wore it well after graduation. I kept it and used it often in my self-assigned fashion shoots like the one here. The shawl in the photo was a very old baby blanket that I think my sister used for her baby doll’s crib when she was little.

We drove out into the country in Donna, Texas and found this stand of beautiful trees, dappled with late afternoon light. If my recollection is correct, I shot this with a Pentax K1000 35mm that my father bought me from Sears (yes, Sears). I had confiscated his Yashica 35mm in my senior year of high school to photograph a football game for the yearbook staff. I had never used a 35mm and I begged him to let me borrow it since no one else could cover the game that weekend. He made me promise not to break it, loan it out or leave it unattended. After the b&w contact sheets came back, the images were amazing. Every image perfectly cropped, actions stopped—sheer beginner’s luck, of course. I immediately fancied myself becoming a Sports Illustrated photographer (and I am so not a sports fan)! Accolades came flying in. I was smitten with photography from that point on. And no, he never got his camera back!

The next week I covered a game and my photos were horrible, but I was already floating on the cloud of success from my first go at it, so I persevered. So much so, that he bought me the Pentax K1000 35mm and a few lenses from Sears. Later, when I started my little photography business out of our den, he invested in a Mamiya 645J medium format camera, a few lenses and some accessories. I shot weddings, portraits and events with that camera. When I moved to the Northern Virginia area in 1985, I sold the Mamiya (and got a really good price for it!) and bought my first 35mm—a Nikon N2000, as I recall. This began my foray to becoming the Nikon snob I am today.

FYI—Sylvia was very photogenic and still is—I last saw her about nine years ago and she hasn’t aged a bit! Check out this closeup portrait I shot of her during the same session and blogged about here.

___________________________________________

UPDATE: It’s funny how things often do come around full circle. My complete lack of interest in sports still doesn’t keep me away from the subject. First, high school football photography, then decades later—photographing an NFL player and then a former NFL cheerleader! I was reminded of this unplanned journey by my friend Barbara in her comment below:

“You forgot to mention your early days of photographing that high school football game eventually lead to a photo shoot at NFL’s Washington Redskins training camp in 2008 with a cover shot of Reed Doughty, safety, #37, for a feature article in Hearing Loss Magazine. Then, a photo shoot with a San Diego Charger’s “Charger Girl” cheerleader this year. So, you see, you don’t have to be a sports fan to get the great shots. You are an amazing talented girl!”

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Re-post: Portrait of Nicole

Originally posted 12.12.2009

One of my favorite portrait subjects—Nicole

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Vintage Laurie

While Laurie was in town to see my show and be photographed for the Hearing Loss Magazine, we also had a fun modeling session one night. For this vintage look, I used the Musette filter from the Florabella Luxe Collection, with a few tweaks. For the gown underneath her shrug, I wrapped her with this cool bubbly-texture throw that I bought at IKEA, of all places.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Craft Room: T-shirt scarves

Yet another craft project with my sister Debbie—scarves crafted from t-shirts. These were fun, easy and fast no-sew projects with unlimited possibilities! Thanks to the lovely Barbara Kelley for modeling for us.

Re-post: Playing with Totally Rad Actions—Portraits of Lauren

Originally posted March 3, 2010

Using an image I shot of my niece, Lauren, I have applied nine of my favorite Totally Rad Actions from photographer Doug Boutwell—just to show you some of the effects you can achieve with portraits. I love his action names, too—Prettytizer, Cool as a Cucumber, Not-So-Magic Glasses, Rusty Cage, SX-70…

The first photo in the series is a “normal” shot (with minor retouching, but no action applied). Some of the actions were used at 100% strength; some were dialed back to about 60-75% strength (particularly in the case of Technicolor Dream World, Grunge Rock and Pross Crossessed #1). I just love these Photoshop actions—they’re well worth the investment if you want to take some of your photos to another level with very little effort. And no, I don’t get a kickback from endorsing Doug’s store—I just love to share a great product when I find one! I don’t use them in my garden and nature photographs, but they’re great used occasionally with landscapes, portraits and architecture—and when you want to add an artistic effect to a dull “record” shot.

Go play on his site here and try out his “recipes” for cool effects. Now I’m thinking I might have to add his “TRA 2—The Revenge” to my arsenal. When I ordered my actions and had a little problem completing the download, Doug was very quick to respond personally. Very nice guy with very nice products!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Mandy Harvey: Musically Inclined

Mandy Harvey, a jazz vocalist and songwriter from northern Colorado, was one of the feature articles in the January/February 2012 issue of Hearing Loss Magazine, published bimonthly by the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA). I met and photographed Mandy at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, WI, host to HLAA’s Convention 2010. Mandy was the guest entertainer at Friday night’s Rumble event at the Museum.

Barbara Kelley, editor-in-chief of Hearing Loss Magazine and deputy executive director of HLAA, interviewed Mandy for this issue of the magazine. Learn more about Mandy here and listen to her music and buy CDs here.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Mandy showed an early talent for singing, but also had infrequent periods of hearing loss. At age ten, her family moved to Colorado. Her vocal talent blossomed and she won numerous school awards, notably Top Female Vocalist of 2006 as a high school senior.

After high school, Mandy went to Colorado State University. During her first semester, Mandy noticed she had to move closer to hear recordings. Hearing aids helped at first. Six months later, she had no hearing left. Discouraged, Mandy returned home to take American Sign Language classes and pursue Elementary Education at a local community college.

Once she returned home Mandy decided that she would take a year off from singing, but continued to play the guitar with her father. One day, while searching the Internet, Mandy and her father discovered a song titled Come Home by One Republic. Mandy’s father suggested that she learn the lyrics. Mandy thought this would be impossible but she gave it her best effort, and to her surprise she was able to learn the lyrics. She realized then that she didn’t have to give up singing.

I met Mandy in 2010 in Milwaukee at the HLAA Convention where she sang at one of our events at the Harley-Davidson Museum. HLAA photographer Cindy Dyer photographed her at the Museum before her performance. We were pleased to catch up with her recently to ask her a few questions.

Tell me about your hearing loss.
My hearing loss is due to neurological damage and the last it was tested showed it around 110 dB in both ears.

Do you use any type of assistive technology?
I had hearing aids when I was first losing my hearing, which was around winter 2006 and the beginning of 2007. Once my hearing loss progressed to a specific stage hearing aids didn’t help much. Because of the nerve damage, a cochlear implant was not an option for me. At this point I rely mostly on lip reading and American Sign Language.

Talk about your aspirations to become a music teacher.
I went to Colorado State University in the hopes of becoming a vocal jazz teacher. In all honesty I wouldn’t feel right about giving my professional opinion to students wanting to study voice. If I cannot hear them to give advice or to teach 100 percent, I would end up just getting frustrated and feeling as if I was wasting their money. Instead, I have turned my life to performing jazz as well as working in the medical field.

What about your personal life and family?
I currently live in Denver with my hearing service dog, Annie, and my love, Travis. My family is extremely supportive and they have learned some American Sign Language. My sister, Sammi, is fluent in the language now. It helps a lot to be able to communicate with your loved ones. Travis is currently learning the language for me.

Where is your singing career right now?
My singing career is in a beautiful place right now. As things stand I work a regular 8-5, Monday through Friday, job. The weekend is mine for performing. Having the regular job mixed with weekend work relieves the pressure of having to do a bunch of gigs just to be able to pay the bills. Instead I am able to do gigs that inspire me and that bring joy.

I have two albums, Smile and After You’ve Gone, which are both full of jazz standard, though the latter contains some original work by myself and Mark Sloniker. I am currently saving up to make a Christmas album this year.

Tell me something about yourself you would like people to know; something that would surprise people.
That’s a hard question. I used to be fascinated by insects and toads and non-girly things like that. When I was a child I wanted to travel the world and discover amazing finds on archeological digs.

You have a fascination with the 40s. How has this genre influenced you and your music?
I have been fascinated with the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s my entire life. I grew up listening to The Beatles, Doobie Brothers, and classic jazz. I love everything in those eras from the clothing to the inventions. It truly was a beautiful time in history…seems to have had lots of details that were not as obvious as things are today. Back then, there could be a song about someone’s smile and how it would capture the imagination. I feel music today has lost some of that mystery and has become far too blunt.

What are your favorite songs?
My Funny Valentine, Someone to Watch Over Me, Come Fly with Me, Over the Rainbow, and of course, Smile…this list is never ending. I find passion in the music and it makes you feel something different every time you sing them.

What music don’t you care for?
I love most everything but I am not a huge fan of most Rap or R&B. I will admit I do enjoy a few songs here and there but in general they all tend to feel the same.

Who is your favorite artist and why?
Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Blossom Dearie, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Thelonius Monk, Duke…oh my goodness, my list could go on and on. They are brilliant and the work they have done inspires me every time I think of them.

What one place in the world would you like to visit?
I have always had a dream to live in Scotland. The country has always called my name. My goal is in the next 10 years to have been there for at least three months continuously. If you are there for only a week you cannot understand the culture.

To find some of her recordings, go to YouTube.com and search for Mandy Harvey. You will find several videos, including her rendition of Smile.

Barbara Kelley is deputy executive director and editor-in-chief of Hearing Loss Magazine. She can be reached at bkelley@hearingloss.org.

Join the Hearing Loss Association of America!
Do you have a hearing loss or know someone who does? Consider membership in the Hearing Loss Association of America. Student annual dues are $20, individual annual dues are $35, and family/couple annual dues are $45. Fees outside the U.S. are slightly higher. All memberships include discounts on hearing-related products, convention and special event early bird discounts, AVIS and Alamo car rental, Costco membership, and the award-winning Hearing Loss Magazine. Sign up for membership here.

In the studio: Barbara

Here’s one more shot from my photo session with Barbara last Friday night.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio: Barbara

On my long-term wish list: a huge, light-filled studio with skylights, a wall ‘o backgrounds, furniture settings, racks of clothing, a make-up and styling station and ample room to back up so I can get full-length shots of my subjects. Yes, I do well with despite the small set-up I have in my studio now, but I’m always tripping over something, losing something or constantly shifting piles of stuff from one place to another when I need to spread out to shoot. I work with what I have, but a girl can dream, can’t she? If I lived in Texas near my family, I could probably afford it. In the D.C. area, fugetaboutit!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio: Barbara

Just two of my favorite shots from this evening’s photo session. I love using this new (pleather) chair! My friend Karen’s daughters call it my “James Bond girl chair.” We were shooting updated photos for the Hearing Loss Magazine, which I design and produce bimonthly for the Hearing Loss Association of America. Barbara is the editor-in-chief of the magazine and deputy executive director of the organization. I changed the banner on Barbara’s personal blog, Kelley Hospitality, with an updated photo as well.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Joe McNally Presents: A 9/11 Remembrance, In Pictures

Joe McNally is one of my very favorite photographers. He has been shooting for more than 30 years and was LIFE magazine’s staff photographer from 1994-1998. He has contributed to National Geographic magazine for 20 years and is the author of The Moment It Clicks and The Hotshoe Diaries (which I highly recommend adding to your library!). Wikipedia reports, “McNally has been described by American Photo magazine as perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today and was listed as one of the hundred most important people in photography.” Check out McNally’s website and blog here.

I attended one of his Flash Bus Tour workshops in Austin this past spring. He paired up with local photographer and flash guru, David Hobby of Strobist.com fame, for the entire tour. Dave lives in nearby Maryland and his website is a great resource for lighting tips. (I intend to blog about that fantastic workshop and share photos soon. I shot this photo of Joe during the workshop).

McNally recently guest blogged on Scott Kelby‘s Photoshop Insider blog. Scott, another of my favorite teachers, is a graphic designer, photographer, the editor-in-chief of Photoshop User magazine and the founder of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals). Scott is a best-selling author as well, having penned more than 40 books. He is also president of Kelby Media Group, an Oldsmar, Florida-based software training, education, and publishing firm. He is most definitely a Renaissance man—there’s not much he can’t (or doesn’t already) do!

In his guest spot, McNally writes about shooting 246 portraits of NYC firemen with the Giant Polaroid camera in the aftermath of 9/11 in Joe McNally Presents: A 9/11 Remembrance, In Pictures. It is an inspiring read with amazing photos accompanying it. Head over to it here.

Come hither

I found this photo in my archives yesterday. Although I had prepared several really nice photos of Karen from this session, I had overlooked this one! I used a Nikon soft filter when I shot it to give it that romantic, glowy effect. I told her that I did not do a lot of retouching on the final image (but I don’t think she believes me—and she should!).

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio: Anna

Anna (as herself in photo #1 and playing with wigs in #2 and #3). I used my Spiderlite TD5 cool lights for this session.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Margot

I was going through my archives to find stock photos for a client and found this photo of Margot that I had overlooked during my initial editing of the session in April 2010. I want to get her and her sister back into the studio for some shooting play time—they both take direction well and are very photogenic.

See more photos from that session in the links below:

https://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/margot/
https://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/sisters/
https://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/hannah/
https://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/margot-again/
https://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/this-ones-for-karen/
https://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/and-finally/
https://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/karen/

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Holly

I shot this portrait of Holly with a Nikon D300, Nikkor 105mm micro lens, and a Nikon Speedlight SB-800 with a RayFlash ringlight attached.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Isabel & Holly

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.