Nifty Fifty: A Retrospective of Magazine Cover Portraits

A retrospective of Hearing Loss magazine (now Hearing Life magazine) covers that I’ve photographed and designed since 2006—50 to date! I’ve designed more covers than these for the magazine, published by the Hearing Loss Association of America, but these are the ones that utilize my portrait photography. I also do the design and production of the magazine, which has morphed from Hearing Loss to Hearing Life, and from bimonthly to a quarterly publication. So many nice memories with these subjects through the years, and it never gets old seeing my work in print. I’m excited every single time!

Learn more about HLAA here: https://www.hearingloss.org/

Bearded iris ‘Poem of Ecstasy’

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bearded iris blooming in my garden

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Portraits of Bearded irises in my garden

I’ve been creating these images of Bearded iris grown in my garden for about five years. The images are shot directly in the garden with ambient lighting and a black background held behind each stalk. Here’s a collage of my favorites!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Rabia

Fun in the studio Sunday with Rabia! For this shot, we were inspired by a b&w image of Winona Ryder, so Rabia donned a short and sassy dark wig and we added a smokey eye look. I so enjoyed this shoot today (as well as the insightful conversation!), Rabia. More photos to come!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

In the studio with Chandler Rae

This photogenic little cutie is Chandler Rae, my great niece, daughter of my nephew Landen and wife Megan. Smart as a whip, uber funny, a very expressive face, and so fun to photograph!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

In the studio with Alex

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Alex

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Alex

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

All in the family: Landen, Chandler and Megan

All in the family—my nephew Landen, wife Megan and daughter Chandler Rae

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

In the studio with Madison

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Madison

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

First shot: A nod to one of my favorite illustrators, Alphonse Mucha—“dress” made from a pucker-y fabric sofa throw from IKEA of long ago and a crown headpiece I made with eucalyptus leaves on a thin metal headband. I added several layers of Mucha backgrounds in Photoshop and tinkered with that a bit.

Ribbet!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Lotus in bloom

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In the garden with Claudia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Claudia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Claudia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Japanese Water Iris — Iris Ensata ‘Ise’

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Claudia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

After we did many shots with more “traditional” outfits, Claudia was game to try something fun and creative in the studio with me, so I found this funky “spiky sequins” fabric I hadn’t had a chance to use before and created a medieval-queen-meets-game-of-thrones-ice-princess look (or something to that effect).

Garden portrait session with Claudia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Annabella

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I photographed Annabella this past Friday (in the garden) and Saturday (in my studio) for her senior portrait session(s). She has never modeled, but she did a great job. I’m still in post-production mode, but here are a few standouts from both sessions.

In the studio with Nancy

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Hearing Life Summer 2022 issue

I photographed HLAA’s Director of Public Policy, Lise Hamlin, and her hearing dog, Shine, for the cover of the summer issue of Hearing Life magazine, published quarterly by the Hearing Loss Association of America. I met up with Lise and Shine at the Schwartz Peony Garden at Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg, Maryland in May.

Lise writes about over-the-counter hearing aids for this issue. You can view this entire issue in pdf format in the link below:

https://hlaa.ygsclicbook.com/pubs/hearing-life/2022/summer-2022/live/index.html#p=1

Peruvian daffodil (Spider Lily Ismene)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Nikon D850, Nikkor 105mm micro

In the studio with Michael Powell

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Lotsa purple! Siberian irises, Columbine and Spiderwort

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Siberian iris

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

May is one of my favorite months in the garden because it’s iris time!

Daffodils!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Nikon D850 / Nikkor 105mm micro

Tulip ‘Lady Jane’

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Nikon D850, Nikkor 105mm micro

In the studio with Lisa

This past weekend I had a new subject in the studio—Lisa! We did some Alphonse-Mucha-inspired conceptual shots with wigs, headpieces and goddess gowns, and I captured some “regular” portraits such as this one. I’ve got a lot of photos to go through, but wanted to share this pretty one of her. Special thanks to my friend Gladys for doing the makeup and helping with styling!

Westcott FJ400 strobe with softbox, Westcott Spiderlite T6 with softbox, V-flat for bounce/fill; images shot with my Nikon D850 and 85mm Nikkor lens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.