Be My Valentine

Today was the first day of "Be My Valentine" children's portrait promotion at Savarino Studio. Here are some portraits from today. The three children are the grandchildren of an old friend of mine from my teaching days, Gloria DeRosa McClain. They children are Wes, Elena, and Magee.

October 10, 2011 - The Final Day of the "Project"

Well, I started this project on May 16, 2010 and now this the last day of photographing, October 10, 2011. It didn't have to take this long but I had to delay the project when I got busy with high school seniors. This day I finished the project photographing 5 bridges, Jackson Mill Bridge, Krepps Bridge, Lyle Bridge, McClurg Bridge, and the hardest one to find the Pine Bank Bridge. I followed my Tom-Tom GPS as I always have to where it took me. I ended up on a road so narrowed that it became a foot trail. I had to back up and start all over. I finally found the bridge in a place called Meadowcroft. It is only open to foot traffic.

Now that the photography is finished, I have to work on every image. I removed all objects that I thought distracted from the bridge. I want each bridge to be a work of art. I also used artistic treatments. I felt that the Krepps Bridge was in a very difficult and unattractive location, so I placed it in a field that I had photographed near another bridge. I might have to do this one again in a different light.

October 3, 2010 - Covered Bridge Project

Well, it has been a long time since I have posted to my blog. I apologize for that. I could say I was too busy, but that was not the case. I just didn't know what blogging should be. I'm going to try to catch up.

I resumed my covered bridge project on October 3. That day I photographed 4 bridges, the Ebenezer Bridge, the Henry Bridge, the Leatherman Bridge, and the Wright Bridge. I have to say that finding and getting to the bridges is not an easy task. Sometimes the roads get a little narrow or end up as a dead end. The hardest bridge this day was the Wright Bridge. I have seen this bridge many times passing on I70. I could see it but I could not figure out how to get to it. Only after finding and photographing the Leatherman Bridge did I find my way to the Wright Bridge. It is actually on a farm and leads to a dead end. I had to park my car and walk through the bridge into a farm field to photograph the bridge. As with all my bridges, I had to remove all the signs and other distractions to make the bridge look really good.

Here is my version of the Wright Covered Bridge, one of my favorites.

My Covered Bridge Project

When I was at the Professional Photographer Association of Pennsylvania Convention in State College, PA. last month, I attended a seminar on fine art photography. This is an area of photography that I always wanted to get involved in but never had the time. It's photographing scenics or places and things that are not people. I have always created portraits of people and said that I couldn't take a picture unless there was a person in it.

I was so impressed with the speakers and what they do that I decided to give myself an assignment. My idea was to photograph covered bridges. I went online and discovered that I lived in the perfect place. Washington County Pennsylvania has 22 covered bridges. So my project for the weekends this summer is to photograph every covered bridge in Washington County and turn each image into a fine art painting. My goal is to publish a book of "The Covered Bridges of Washington County". I'm going to print fine art prints of each bridge and mat and frame them into finished fine art pieces.

I started my project this past weekend on Sunday, May 16. I photographed the first three bridges. Pictured here is the first bridge. The Hughes Bridge built in 1889. I also photographed the Bailey Bridge and the Day Bridge. Next weekend I will continue on the covered bridge tour and hopefully get more. It's really turning into fun.

Brianne Roman BVAHS Class of 2011

Brianne was the second place winner in our Senior Portrait contest. She won her choice of three sessions and a five pose senior portrait package worth $1006. She sure is a winner! Wow! She chose to do the Classic Yearbook session, the "Loft", and next week she will finish with "Backstreets". You can her entire gallery on Facebook or on savarino-studio.com in the "Featured Galleries" http://savarino-studio.com/index2.php?v=v1#/featured/ .

It was truly a pleasure to photograph Brianne. Her clothing choices and her photogenic attitude made every image beautiful. It was a rainy, dreary day when we went to the loft, but you would never know it looking at the portraits. The light was magical. I have to take the credit for these fantastic images. I have turned "the loft" into my "special place" for creating some of the most beautiful all natural lighting. Believe it or not it's done with reflectors and a lot of them. Most of the reflectors that I use are my own special design. You can only get "Master" portraits like these at the Savarino Studio Photography. I sure would love to create special portraits for you too.

Prom Night 2010

Just wanted to tell all the high school people who are going to the prom to have a GREAT time! AND be careful! The prom should be a wonderful memory that you keep with you your whole life. Make sure it is a pleasant memory. Believe it or not, I attended 4 proms in my early life and every one of them is a treasured memory. I wish you all the same. Enjoy your prom.

First Senior Class of 2011 !!!

Wow! Let the games begin! The Class of 2011 has officially begun. It was really a fun experience to start the season off with Stephanie Powell from Ringgold High School Class of 2011. We started at the loft. It's the first time that I have ever photographed a senior with their pet (a cat) at the loft.

I love to try new things. What ideas do you have? I really want to do some really new and different things this year.

Let's give it a go!