2023 Annapolis Irish Festival • Gaelic Storm

To kick off my birthday week, and give myself a well-needed break, I took myself to the Annapolis Irish Festival.  Having the whole day to myself with no expectations or responsibilities to others hanging over me for the day was such a refreshing sensation I can’t remember the last time I felt, and filling it by being surrounded with my own Irish heritage with a backdrop of Celtic music, my soul felt overwhelmingly unhindered happiness and freedom.

I explored the vendors for some time, mainly in search of a Claddagh ring to hold me over until I settle on options for a bespoke piece; unfortunately, shopping for rings for myself is akin to shopping for pants, because I’m between sizes, and half sizes simply aren’t stocked at such a craft fair.  After browsing, and finally getting something to eat, I settled in to enjoy some of the music more purposefully.

Bastard Bearded Irishmen

Bastard Bearded Irishmen were in the later portions of their set once I finished eating, and I took some pictures of them playing a few of their last songs of the afternoon.

They finished their set with a cover of Sweet Child o’ Mine.

Gaelic Storm

The star act of the Festival was Gaelic Storm; a Celtic band headlined by Patrick Murphy on lead vocals, accordion, and spoons, and English guitarist Steve Twigger, the two remaining original members of the band that shot to fame after being featured performing in 1997’s Titanic.  They are joined by percussionist Ryan Lacey, Peter Purvis on bagpipes and flutes, and the group’s newest member, Natalya Kay, a talented fiddler who joined the ensemble last Summer.

I admit, I’d never heard of Gaelic Storm until a few months ago when a friend in another state saw them perform at an earlier stop on this same tour, and raved to me about them.  (I also have still somehow never seen Titanic in its entirety.)  Coincidentally, the Annapolis Irish Festival had already been on my radar for several months, so between the rave review by a friend, and a sense of reclaiming a tarnished St. Patrick’s Day, I was absolutely going to make sure to see Gaelic Storm play, whether at the Annapolis Irish Festival, or the night before at Leesburg’s Tally Ho.  In the end I’m glad my festival plan ultimately came to fruition.

Suffice to say, Gaelic Storm has a new “storm chaser” (what their fans are known as). I’m not new to Celtic music; I’m a lifelong fan of The Corrs, and was lucky enough to see The Chieftains perform a few years ago, but having already previewed and enjoyed some of Gaelic Storm’s music in the weeks before their concert, I was excited to finally see them live.  As the sun set, Gaelic Storm took to the stage, and I think the pictures will do the rest.

Video

I did take some video, but wasn’t intending on focusing on video, so the audio is trash using the internal mic.  This served me well, however, because it gave me a great set of files to learn on - I’ve been teaching myself Final Cut Pro, as Adobe Premiere Pro still doesn’t have a proper DolbyVision / HDR workflow (come on Adobe, get it together; it’s been 3 years, fix your Rec. 2100 support!).

Ilana and Chris: Married April 28th, 2022

In my blog post about Ilana and Chris’ engagement session, I explained my history with film; how I have never shot on it professionally, and only reached for it for fun, finding novelty in its charming imperfection, and how this appreciation of film for fun and interesting cars is what ultimately brought us all together.

For Chris and Ilana’s wedding, however, like their engagement session, I changed this history, if ever so slightly.  Just like Chris and Ilana love the artistry classic, quirky, and quick cars, they also appreciate share my appreciation of analog’s allure.  So while their big day wouldn’t be the first time I snapped Polaroids at a wedding, it would be the most film I’ve ever shot at any professional session, even if it was a few handfuls.

After getting prepped, and strategically keeping the wedding parties separate, Ilana had a first look with her family on the Anchor Inn’s dock immediately before the ceremony began.  In the refreshing breeze on the Patapsco River, Chris and Ilana took their turns going down the aisle, finally letting Chris choke up seeing Ilana in her dress; a tradition Chris was adamant to keep.

After the breaking the glass (mozal tov!), Ilana and Chris danced on a cloud to kick off their reception.  After dinner and toasts, they cut the cake to the tune of some zany TV theme songs that perfectly fit their silly personalities; King of the Hill, South Park, The Simpsons, and more.  Now it’s officially party time!

Winding down the evening, Chris and Ilana slow danced solo, just them and the music on the dance floor… and maybe a few excited guests who peeked inside through the portal window.  Under an arch of fiber optic sparklers, Ilana and Chris departed, but not before dipping for a kiss one more time, and one more Polaroid.

Megan: Victorian Trenchcoat

Following our first photoshoot together that combined Steampunk corsetry in an old textile mill, Megan and I incorporated some of our foggy graveyard photoshoot idea that never materialized into a similarly moody morning photoshoot, exploring the same textile mill’s grounds in a Victorian trenchcoat.  Although there wasn’t fog like we’d aimed for, the crumbling and overgrown stone walls paired with Megan’s ivy earrings and black lace heels brought mystical vibes to the overcast grounds, with the din of water coursing through generation equipment in the mill’s spillway immediately behind our wall drew us even further out of the 21st century in our secluded corner originating in the industrial revolution.

Having now shot with Megan twice, I can only think of a handful of people I’ve shot with who have run through poses so effortlessly; it’s a blessing in that everything we shoot looks incredible, and a curse in that EVERYTHING we shoot looks incredible (so it’s difficult to narrow down in post): a struggle Megan and I gleefully lamented going through the photos following both our shoots together.

If you don’t already, you can follow Megan’s spooky and spectacular photography of storms, cemeteries, and astrophotography on Instagram.

Like all proper creatives with pent-up artistic energy, Megan and I continue to have shared, evolving ides for photoshoots, and hopefully the next time we see each other the stars will align to bring another passion project or two together.

Until next time,

The Queen of Halloween & The Duke of Spook bid you well in 2022!

Behind the Scenes

Because of the lighting setup on our fist shoot, I didn’t even attempt any Polaroid captures, but since this photoshoot was captured simply with the same run-and-gun fill-flash technique Polaroids traditionally lean on, it was seamless freezing a few moments in time on the classic instant format; all it required was pausing for each moment for the very mechanical image capturing process to work its analog magic.

This is only the second selfie I’ve taken with a Polaroid. Polaroid selfies are both easy because the camera is so light and the shutter release is in an easy spot, but more difficult because of the tighter framing and inherent time-delayed unknowns of film photography, even on an “instant” film - modern Polaroid chemistry takes 10min to display an image, and over 20min to fully develop. It’s a format I didn’t get the chance to play with until just as the Pandemic began, but I’ve fallen in love with its beautiful imperfection and mandatory physicality.

Ilana and Chris: Engaged

For as long as I’ve practiced photography, I’ve had an off-and-on relationship with film. As a child, digital cameras didn’t exist yet for the consumer market, so my first camera was a cheap Kodak C400 point-and-shoot that used the short-lived Kodak Advantix APS film format: a now-discontinued film format that was meant to modernize and simplify film photography for the entry-level consumer. The APS format, aside from its 1.6x crop factor limiting its resolution compared to 135 film, was quite progressive in its ability to store exposure and print metadata magnetically on the film, similar to cinematography formats, but was discontinued not long after its introduction as digital cameras became more prevalent.

In college I learned to develop, process, and print film with traditional darkroom practices, which I found relaxing, but only for fun, as I’d been shooting digitally for years at that point. Since then, I only shoot film for fun, embracing its imperfection as beauty, and its pastel color palette influencing my digital retouching style to some extent. Flash forward to today, and while I’d always been fascinated by the Polaroid format, I’d never even shot a single Polaroid until I treated myself to a Polaroid instant camera for my birthday in 2020. I’ve found it to be an even more enjoyable film format than traditional 35mm film, because who doesn’t love instant gratification in the Instagram age - Instagram’s icon is even based off the design of a Polaroid camera.

The Polaroid format is just fun; not only do you have results “instantly” (it takes about 10min for the image to develop), but there’s a delight in being able to give people prints on-the-spot; oftentimes, in the Instagram age, even though a digital image may be more “perfect,” it’s the imperfect, moment captured physically that we remember the most.

At the start of one of my long-distance runs, I found a rare spot in the US: A Daihatsu Rocky with the 5 speed manual in Marine Blue, a color that was only offered in 1992. Mostly sold in other countries, Daihatsu only sold vehicles in the US from 1987 to 1992, only selling 3 models: The Charade, Rocky, and their possibly most known vehicle in the US among enthusiasts, the Hijet cabover microvan / kei truck. The Rocky was powered by the same 94HP I4 engine that powered the Charade, and was offered with a 5 speed manual or 4 speed automatic transmission providing power to all four wheels. In 1992 ten color options were offered, and the choice of a removable soft top, or hard top with removable panels was offered. Being the car and photo geek I am, I took a Polaroid of it and left it as a gift to the owner; anyone who owns this has to be an interesting car geek.

This is how I met Chris and Ilana… and I was right: they’re even bigger car geeks than I am! A few months after I took this photo, they found me and as it turned out were recently engaged and looking for a photographer to capture their engagement and wedding. We met to go over details, but ended up talking for hours about cars we’ve owned, driven, and wrenched on. Cars aren’t just a hobby for Chris; he rebuilds classic cars to their original condition with frame-off restorations by day, and builds vehicles in his own collection with Ilana for racing, cruising, and showing on their off time. Chris and Ilana even have a spunky pupper named Maverick!

This Fall, we’d planned to shoot an engagement session including their beloved Daihatsu Rocky, even discussing going off-roading in it to get pictures with it in its natural habitat. Unfortunately, being the uncommon bird it is in North America, its natural habitat has instead been more in the shop, as parts are hard to come by for an older and barely sold truck in the US - its estimated that only three are still in existence on the East Coast, with Chris and Ilana’s being the only one that still runs and drives. The day of our shoot, the Rocky’s leaky radiator gave out, sadly sidelining it out of the photoshoot, but we still made the best of the day hiking around the Virginia shoreline at sunset.

Megan: Steampunk Textile Mill

Megan and I have known each other for over half a decade at this point, and have always shared a kindred connection thanks to our mutual love of all things dark, spooky, and nerdy.  As a photographer with a knack for makeup and modeling, Megan and I share a creative brainwave. When she’s not shooting the Moon and capturing the Milky Way at night, you can find Megan chasing storms and freezing lightning bolts by day.

We’ve bounced photoshoot ideas back and forth for years, but the distance between DC and Rhode Island has hampered our opportunities.  On my last visit in 2018, we had planned a foggy graveyard shoot, but this never materialized.  This Summer we made more firm plans for photoshoots in advance of my trip to Rhode Island in July.  Unfortunately our foggy graveyard plans fell through yet again… but we were able to finally have our first photoshoot together after all these years, and it definitely isn’t our last!

Over the years I’ve come to love Rhode Island’s mix of oceanic leisure and venerable rural antiquity; the small New England state is rich in history and photogenic backdrops.  At a super-secret location, Megan and I held our finally-first-ever photoshoot in a former textile mill, incorporating our mutual love of steampunk to coordinate with some of the antique equipment surviving from the industrial revolution.  We used this first shoot as an opportunity to experiment - Megan had a wardrobe first, sporting a steampunk-styled corset, and ran through poses while I took advantage of the creative flexibility and added some dramatic color I don’t usually get to include in many of my other photoshoots.

This was a photoshoot we were excited for months, maybe even years in advance, but we ended up even more excited about it after seeing the results as they offloaded onto my computer - dark, bold, and dramatic.

So today, on “The Queen of Halloween’s” 30th birthday (born on lucky October 13th!), I hope you enjoy the first creative project my Rhode Island Muse and “The Duke of Spook” finally collaborated on together.

The Queen of Halloween & The Duke of Spook will return!

Behind the Scenes

Well, less behind-the-scenes, and more selfies during the shoot and afterwards at a cookout - have to keep our super-secret shoot location super-secret somehow!