Lussier Photography

Old Glory

2012-02-03T07:16:45-08:00

A solo photo walk on a windy day through Boston a couple of years ago yielded this flag waiving shot.

It has been sitting in the archives since I shot it waiting patiently to see the light of day.

Olin School

2012-02-02T05:00:25-08:00

An architectural shot of the Olin School of Architecture in Needham, Massachusetts. How appropriate!

It was taken a few years ago for a small side job for the New England Carpenters Union. The version I originally provided (for the client’s website) was in color, like the rest from the set. I rediscovered it last night after combing through my catalog (which is becoming something of a compulsion for me lately).

I decided to give it the BW treatment.

Cadillac Climb

2012-02-01T06:00:37-08:00

I have to admit, I get National Park envy when I see images from places like Yosemite, Death Valley, and the The Grand Canyon. But I take comfort in the fact that Acadia National Park is right around the corner from me. A mere 5 hour drive.

This shot from the top of Cadillac Mountain is from my first visit to the park in 2006. I was there to run the Mt Desert Island Marathon, considered one of the most scenic marathons in the country. Its a hilly course that provides some incredible views of Maine’s gorgeous coast.

Sunset at Fort Foster

2012-01-30T09:06:14-08:00

I feel like I broke through a shooting funk this past weekend thanks to my friend and neighbor, +Mike Tully. We hit Fort Foster in Kittery, Maine this past Saturday afternoon. The fort was operational from 1873 through 1948. The old battery placements alone make it interesting to shoot, but its location at the mouth of the river makes at especially fun to shoot at sunset.

Alexa

2012-01-27T08:50:02-08:00

Alexa is the daughter of a friend. She is the quintessential reluctant model. Point the camera at her and she’ll back away. Then suddenly, she doesn’t.

It had been sitting on my hard drive since I shot it about five years ago at a Little League game. I stumbled upon the raw file last hight and thought it had potential.

I brought it into Photoshop and used three or four curve adjustment layers. I used onOne’s FocalPoint to simulate a narrow depth of field, then cropped the image.

Below is the original image, for comparison.

Custom House

2012-01-26T08:41:48-08:00

I’m still scraping through the archives for images. It must time to get out and start shooting again.

This is from back in 2009, or maybe 2008. I can’t remember. I’ve always liked the shot but had reservations about posting it. Something about it didn’t work for me. Last night I revisited it. I ran it through onOne Software’s Perfect Photo Suite. After a few minutes of previewing the images through different filters, the image clicked.

I opted for a vintage look and a touch of focal point.

The Foggy Coast

2012-01-25T08:52:59-08:00

This was shot along Acadia’s Park Loop Road on the same foggy day as yesterday’s image. I remember the day pretty well. It started with a deep sea fishing trip in the fog.

When the boat left the harbor, we expected the fog to lift but it never did. For about four hours my son and I, along with the 20 or so other people on the boat, felt like we were trapped in a Stephen King novel (one of the bad ones). The fog was so thick, it was impossible to get any visual cues to tell us east from west or north from south. Then the sea sickness set in for many of us, making up and down interchangeable. Not a fun day at sea.

We salvaged the day with the dinner in Bar Harbor and a photo drive around the National Park.

At that time, I was heavily into honing my HDR skills. If the image didn’t work as a tonemapped image, or I pretty much dismissed it. Revisiting them (the ones I published as well as those I dismissed) after three and a half years has been eye opening. I love how Black and White can totally transform the mood and meaning of a scene.

Cadillac Mountain Fog

2012-01-24T06:19:27-08:00

This image is from way back in the last decade. It was shot in the summer of 2009 at the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. It was very obviously a foggy day. Which might beg the question, why go all the way to the top of a mountain if you can only see 10 feet in front of you?

Because its there.

Smuttonator

2012-01-23T07:42:05-08:00

Last fall I had the pleasure of doing some product shots of Smuttynose Brewery’s collection of Big Beers.

Joanne, Smuttynose’s marketing director, and I hauled a case of the 22 oz bottles down to the shore in Portsmouth and used the natural elements to compliment the bottles.

This is one of my favorite beers from the series, and one of my favorite shots from the shoot. Smuttonator is a doppelbock (double bock). It is a very malty German lager. You can read about it on their site.

Textile Memorial Bridge II

2012-01-20T08:25:15-08:00

Another shot of the Textile Memorial Bridge in Lowell, Massachusetts.

I thought I was done shooting. I had packed my gear, climbed back up the bank to the road and was walking back to my car when the late afternoon sun broke through. The bridge was backlit in golden hour glory. I briefly thought, “I’ll come back another day at this time of day.” Then I realized how lucky I was. It is January, there is no snow and the river is low. Plus, the sky was perfect.

I realized the conditions would never be the same, so I turned around and climbed back down to the river for this shot.