Denny Henry

The below portrait is of Susan Sterner, the head of the photojournalism program at The Corcoran college of Art + Design.  She was also my teacher when I was a student there. 

It can be nerve racking enough photographing other photographers, but I think it's even worse when that photographer is a former teacher. 

I started with two ideas for the portraits that would relate to Susan's involvement in Photography.  The first idea was to shoot her in a studio environment, and to include the strobes and seamless as part of the setting for the portrait.

The second setup was to use a 4x5 Crown Graphic to shoot a tight shot of her face with a very shallow depth of field.  I set up against a white stucco wall with a large window to the left of the camera.  The image on the bottom shows me focusing the 4x5 camera.

Susan Sterner

Behind the scenes image by Jacqulyn Maisonneuve

Update on Friday, March 5, 2010 at 8:00AM by Denny

More behind the scenes photos can be seen on Jacqulyn Maisonneuve's blog. 

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

This past summer I upgraded my scanner to one that can handle 4x5 film.  I recently discovered that along with the ability to scan my 4x5's , it can also help me create substitute contact sheets for any 35mm film I shoot. These have been very helpful in determining what and what not to scan. 

The below is a scan of negatives from Joel and Chelsie's wedding.  Normally I only shoot digitally at weddings with a few sheets of 4x5 film thown in.  At this wedding I shot a few rolls of 35mm to go along with the rest of what I shot. 

Contact sheet from Joel and Chelsie's Wedding

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