Denny Henry

Triptych panorama of Luray CavernsLast weekend I drove with Jackie to meet her parents at Luray caverns in Virginia.  They were there while traveling along Skyline Drive on a motorcycle for vacation. 

I've been carrying a small film camera with a 50mm lens on weekends as a way to separate shooting for work, and shooting for fun.  The 50mm F/1.4 lens was great for the low lighting of the cave, but the focal length wasn't great for getting images of the large rock formations. In order to overcome the limits of the lens, I decided to make a panorama in the camera.  I shot three images, and tried to line them up so when the film was viewed un-cut it would read like a panorama.  I didn't line up the frames exactly, but overall I think the effect worked well. 

This Thursday, February 4th, is the opening reception for Jackie's  senior thesis at The Corcoran. Everyone's invited.

Before graduation, every senior at the Corcoran College of Art + Design has to complete a thesis project.  Photojournalism students spend the first half of their senior year researching and producing a photo story on a topic of interest to them.  Jackie started the semester with the idea of documenting sustainable living in Washington, DC.  Early in the process Jackie met Sidra, John, and their daughter Martin-Lane, they are a local family who run a restaurant out of there home.  The family and their restaurant are centered around healthy living and sustainable practices.  From July through December, Jackie  photographed Sidra, John, and Martin-Lane regularly to document their way of life. The final images offer a  view of a family living in an socially and agriculturally sustainable manner. 

If you can't make it on Thursday, her work will be hanging in Gallery 31 of the Corcoran Gallery from Monday February 1st through Sunday February 7th, 2010. 

Below are a few shots I took of Jackie during the final stages of her project.

Leaving the final shoot

Working on the edit and layout.Printing the invitations for her opening reception.

Picking up the the 12 final images that were float mounted by Joe Heintze

After many years of shooting nothing but digital camera's, I've been sneaking film back into my personal work.  It started when I purchased a Crown Graphic 4x5 camera a little over a year ago, and more recently I've been shooting 35mm as well. 

There have been a few things pushing me back towards film. The film camera's I've been using are the completly manual. The act of manually focusing and advancing the film slows me down just a bit and makes me think about each frame for a little bit longer than I normally would.  It also keeps me on my toes by giving me a few more things to think about. I'm not sure how much longer film will be easy to buy.  It isn't yet at the point where It's hard to find the film I'm looking for, but in five years, it could be very hard (or very expensive).  Black and white film in fully manual cameras is what originally got me interested in photography, I might as well shoot it while I still can. 

The image below is a scan of two images I shot before leaving the Air and Space museum in Dulles a few weekends ago. 

Diptych of a plane leaving Dulles Airport

Over the past few months I've been very interested in making portriats of people.

This is a portrait of Jackie taken in open shade against a white seamless.

Jacqulyn Maisonneuve

Dancing at the reception

More from this wedding can be found in my wedding galleries.