As readers of this blog know, I am a practitioner and fan of improv. Last year I started a portrait project that documents the many faces of the improv community. Last month I had the extraordinary opportunity to make portraits of many of the early pioneers of improvisational theater at an event in San Francisco.

I first met Jamie Wright and Sam Shaw when they were producing the San Francisco Improv Festival. They are also film-makers, and are working on a documentary about The Committee—a groundbreaking improv theater founded in 1963. I won’t try to re-hash the full history of The Committee in this blog post, but in short, it was composed of some of the boldest and most talented performers ever gathered, who were WAY ahead of their time in terms of improv, comedy, and theater in general. (For more information on The Committee, and on Jamie & Sam’s documentary, visit the film’s website.)

The 50th Anniversary of The Committee was in April 2013, and Jamie & Sam put together a reunion event, gathering almost every living member of the group, plus fans and family members. They invited me to be involved—both to document the reunion, and to make portraits for my Improvisors project.

I will share some of my formal portraits in an upcoming blog post. In the meantime, here are some photos from the festivities.

Many former Committee members clearly hadn’t seen each other in years (or decades), and the reunions were heartwarming to see. These people shared some great history.

Reliving memories of youth clearly brought out the inner child in everyone.

Lots of vintage posters and memorabilia were on display at the event, and Committee members re-discovered younger versions of themselves.

The reception was followed by a presentation and a teaser preview of The Committee documentary film. Things wrapped up with speeches by the co-founders of The Committee, Alan Myerson and Latifah Taormina, and an honorary certificate presentation by State Senator Mark Leno.

Kudos to Jamie & Sam (pictured on far left and far right, above) for putting on a terrific event that was fun for me to witness and precious to the honorees who were in attendance.

When I make portraits for my Improvisors project, I find that the key to success is creating a safe space to play and embrace whatever happens…much like in an improv scene.

When I was in New York making portraits at the Magnet Theater, we worked on the main stage, which heightened the sense that we were playing in an improv scene.

Here are a couple of “behind the scenes” images of me and my portrait subjects at play (photos by Jacklyn Altuna):

And here is a photo that my fiance, Jacklyn, took just after I wrapped two busy days of shooting in New York—exhausted but elated:

The past six months have been unexpectedly busy for me, and one to-do list item that got massively delayed was reviewing the huge batch of portraits I did in December 2012 for my Improvisors series. (If you haven’t seen this project, check out my website or my earlier blog posts about it.)

By the end of 2012 I had been working on this portrait series for a while, but all my portraits were made in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I was dying to explore other improv communities. So, when an opportunity came up to tag along with my fiance on a short-notice work trip to New York, I didn’t hesitate.

New York is one of the improv meccas. Aside from being the world headquarters for all types of theater, and a major overall talent market, there several improv training centers, including Upright Citizens Brigade, Peoples Improv Theater and Magnet Theater. Unfortunately, none of my personal connections were in the NYC improv scene, so when I suddenly had to find a venue and spread the word in less than two weeks, I was in a jam.

I reached out to two improv veterans who have performed in taught in New York, and who had already participated in my Improvisors project–Rachel Hamilton & David Razowsky. (If you enjoy improv, but don’t know who these people are, stop reading this blog post and look them up immediately!!) They saved the day. With their help, I was quickly connected to the folks at Magnet, who graciously invited me to shoot at their theater. I ended up getting great promotional help from Magnet, UCB and PIT, all of which spread the word about my project to their members. I love the improv community!

My bulky lighting, backdrop, camera equipment, and computer got packed into 5-6 large cases and put on a plane. There was a lot of production involved with taking this project on the road. More than I had expected. But it all worked out in the end. I got great help once I arrived in New York, particularly from Magnet’s Quinton Loder.

When all was said and done, the trip was an incredible success. I got a phenomenal turnout—62 people over two days! I shot for about 3.5 hours each day, so for those keeping track—that’s one portrait about every six and a half minutes, with no breaks!! Many people took time off from work and braved cross-town traffic in Manhattan just to participate. I am so grateful.

And the results?

Well, you be the judge. Here are just a few of my favorite images from those two days in New York City, which I just now had time to process after much delay.

Ten years ago today I became a photographer.

On May 1, 2003, I left a career in the corporate world—everything that was familiar, everything I had been formally trained to do, and what all my peers were doing—to place a risky bet in pursuit of my long-term happiness.

I had been an artist all my life, but my art was practiced as a self-guided hobby. My academic degrees were in Rhetoric and Business Administration. Most of my oldest friends were business and technology professionals, working very far from the creative arts. Up until age 28, all of my work experience had been in business and technology. In my 20s, I had no reference points for the creative arts as a professional endeavor.

My business career had been going along ok, but despite the challenge and stimulation of the tech industry, it never inspired me. The topsy-turvy wave of the dot-com boom and bust left me exhausted and cynical, and craving the ability to chart my own course. Some bad work experiences left me desperate to make a change. And 9/11 made me re-evaluate everything.

At the beginning of 2003, the economy was in recession and I had an expiring contract position that I wasn’t eager to renew. For the past few years, I had been doing photography more and more seriously as a hobby. I even bought some fancy professional lighting equipment and taught myself how to use it. When my contractor gig ended, I took a long and much-needed trip overseas. I backpacked through Japan for three weeks with a friend who was living there at the time. I took a lot of photos, but mostly just got away from all of my day-to-day reference points. I returned home just before my 28th birthday, which I spent reflecting on my adult life so far.

I was terrified of stepping out of my comfort zone. The corporate world had started to suck pretty bad, but it was familiar. It paid well. It had validation from peers and society. I wanted to be a photographer, but I also didn’t really know what that meant. Where would I go when I got out of bed in the morning? How would I determine my goals and set about achieving them? And how on earth would I pay my rent while I was figuring all this out? (After all, I was already a month into unemployment and had spent 3 weeks traveling in one of the most expensive places in the world.)

I took the leap.

For the first time in my life, I shut my analytical brain off and made a big leap of faith. I had some money saved up. The corporate job market would be down for a while anyway. Why not give photography a shot? So I did. For a year. Or for however long my savings lasted.

Ten years later, I have never gone back. And I have never once wanted to. In fact, I have frequently thought to myself that I wouldn’t trade my worst day as a photographer for my best day in the corporate world. I have been lost at times—creatively and professionally. I have been broke. And I have occasionally been very, very lonely. But I have also been more alive than I ever had been before. I own every bit of my successes and my failures. My work has meaning, at least to me. I feel like I matter.

I feel very lucky.

After ten years, I am not as far along in my career as I would have wanted. Honestly, I am a bit embarrassed at how much is still left to figure out and to achieve. But I am also proud of how far I have come, and how purposeful my life has been. It makes me excited by—rather than intimidated by—all of the challenges that are left to face.

Thank you to the people in my life, particularly my parents, who have supported me through the most challenging and important decade of my professional life. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Sam in Japan, April 2003

It is a brand new year, and I am slowly emerging from the fog of holiday craziness. December was busy with work, travel and family gatherings, all of which were fruitful. I am very fortunate.

Alas, this blog suffered from a month of non-posting. I promise to remedy that as 2013 gets started. I created some great new work for my Improvisors series in December, which I hope to start sharing in the next few weeks. Also, a new super secret personal project for 2013 is in the works, which will be shared in the coming months. And hopefully some regular features, to keep the blog fresh.

For the moment, I still find myself reflecting on a lot of what was nice about the holidays, especially time with family. With that in mind, I’ll share one of my favorite family portraits last year, photographed just before Christmas.

A woman requested a portrait of her husband and young son as a holiday gift for her. The whole family came by the studio, and the boys stayed for some father-son play time in front of the camera, while mom stepped out for a stroll.

Here are my favorite images from the portrait session:

Most of my time is spent making portraits of professionals for business purposes. However, at this time of year, things shift for a few weeks toward family portraiture. Lots of folks look at the holidays as an excuse to get an updated personal portrait. It’s so easy to print up custom greeting cards with online services. The addition of a really nice portrait on the front makes a special (and easy) gift. And of course a good old fashioned custom print (remember prints?) makes a very special gift indeed.

Along with the traditional nuclear family groups with one or two kids who always call during the holidays, this year I have received a lot of requests from young couples. I have found myself really enjoying working with this client base. They are almost always youthful, photogenic and very much in love, which makes for good photos.

This past weekend I photographed a couple who didn’t have a decent portrait of them together taken since their wedding 3+ years ago. Well, we fixed that.

We started in the studio, with a simple, elegant portrait:

After a couple of set-ups and wardrobe changes in the studio, we decided to step outside and shoot some more casual portraits. My studio is located in a somewhat industrial zone, but there are soft spots, if you know where to look. They strolled and chatted while I hung back and captured candid moments. Here is my favorite:

I enjoy the change of pace when photographing couples, families and kids during the holidays. I love the people I meet, and a well-made portrait really does make a unique and memorable gift. For all you holiday procrastinators out there, it’s not too late. Whoever you hire to do your photography, act fast to ensure that prints can be ready in time for gifting.

Happy Holidays!

My good friend Vanessa is the office manager at a medical practice in Berkeley. A while back, she and her colleagues were nice enough to host an exhibition of my portraits in their very nice office. Recently, she called me because the medical practice was updating its website, and they needed a good group portrait of the doctors and of the whole office staff. They wanted something natural, photographed outdoors.

After some discussion about the project, we put a date on the calendar. Then I took some time on a day off the week before the shoot to search the area around their office for a suitable environment. I found an ideal location with a long bench, located only a block away.

On the day of the photo shoot, everyone was on time and followed the wardrobe guidelines–cool blue and gray tones to contrast against the warm earth tones at the location. They also brought their smiles and camaraderie, which made my job easier.

My lighting for this shot was pretty simple. I planned for a time of day when the building we were using as our backdrop shaded my subjects from direct sun, but provided nice diffuse bounced light from a building across the street. I brought a battery-powered flash, and set it up on a stand with an umbrella at camera left. Power was set to equal the ambient light, so the flash gave just a hint of contrast, filled shadows, and gave nice shape to everyone’s faces.

Here were the results, aided by a subtle wind-machine effect created by the natural breeze:

If you are in the East Bay and are looking for a great naturopathic doctor, contact the ladies at Berkeley Naturopathic.

As I reviewed year-old images for my NYC Halloween blog post, a rush of memories came back about that and other trips to New York. It’s a cliche, but New York really is the greatest city in the world in many ways—including for street portraiture.

I had a lot of meetings while I was in New York last year at this time, and I was more focused on showing my images to magazine editors than on taking photos while I was there. Nevertheless, I did do some street photography with my (then new) Olympus E-PM1 camera. Compact and stealthy. Ideal for street photography.

Here are a few of my favorite street portraits, starting with a few more Halloween day shots:

And what would a street portrait series be without some people and animals (in this case, people interacting with their phones, with dogs looking on):

On a more serious note, Occupy Wall Street was in full swing in Fall of 2011, and people were camped out in freezing (literally) temperatures at the main encampment. It even snowed a couple of days before I took these pictures. I think this portrait of a man eating a meal from underneath a blanket says it all:

Where is Waldo’s bailout?

Finally, street portraiture is all about paying attention to the details that can anticipate a fleeting moment, or just lead you down a path you hadn’t planned for. One night, walking down Houston Street late in the evening, my eyes focused on an unusual flyer taped to a lamp post.

No person in the photo, but a portrait nonetheless, don’t you think?

This past week was Halloween, and also the time of a devastating freak storm along the East Coast. Both of these events reminded me of exactly one year ago when I was in New York City during the last week of October.

On the last weekend of October 2011 a freak snow storm coated New York City in a layer of snow that historians and meteorologists said was the first of its kind in the month of October since the Civil War. Yes, The Civil War!

On the first day of the storm, I was attending the PhotoPlus Expo (an annual photography trade show). Around mid-day, here is what I saw when I went outside to get some fresh air after being cooped up in the convention center for several hours:

And on my way back to my subway stop in the afternoon, the snow had stopped falling, but the sidewalks were covered. (That brown stuff is snow, just very dirty snow.):

That night, just before I went to sleep, I checked weather on my phone. Yup, freezing with snow. In October!

The next morning, a lot of the slush on the pavement started to melt, but evidence of the freak snow storm was still around for more than 24 hours.

Because it was still mid-Fall, the vast majority of trees still had a full set of leaves. Heavy snow packed on top of a canopy of leaves means a lot of downed branches.

As you can see from the photo above, a little chaos doesn’t stop New Yorkers from walking their dog or reading tweets on park benches. The destructive power of that storm didn’t equal Hurricane Sandy this year, but it was still a rare and powerful event.

During my week in NYC, I had a day off between the 3-day expo and a 3-day NYCFotoWorks portfolio review event that I was attending. That day off happened to be October 31st–Halloween! So as the last of the snow was melting, and people walked their dogs in Central Park amid fallen tree limbs, other strange juxtapositions started to appear…

A Storm Trooper taking a break to call his girlfriend:

Dr. Seuss characters commuting on the subway:

Pink bunnies walking the streets of the Lower East Side (out lookin’ for some tail??):

Bank robbers acting oddly unconcerned about being seen on the street:

I had never been outside California on Halloween before. New York, which is always a feast for the eyes and a gold mine for a street photographer, really pulled out all the stops for the holiday.

After trudging through snow in October and seeing millions of New Yorkers with their freak flags flying, I couldn’t imaging things getting any more crazy or fantastic.

But they did.

By chance, I had found a hotel for my week in NYC that was located away from the madness of mid-town, and tucked away on a small street in Greenwhich Village. Little did I know when I booked my hotel, New York has a Halloween parade, and it runs down the major avenue in the Village just a block from the hotel! After getting inside and warming up for a bit after a freezing day outdoors (taking the pictures above, among other things), I headed out and experienced the icing on my freaky New York cake!

I’ll let the photos do the talking, but here are a few photos of the crowd and the insanity. (I’m just sure of the exact attendance at this event, but I’m pretty sure it was right around a bazillion.)

Keep in mind, the temperatures were still in the low 30s, and a lot of these knuckleheads were out in nothing but some pink fur, fishnets and a silly hat. Youza.

I had a much more low key Halloween this year at home in 65 degree California. But the occasion prompted me to dig up these photos from last year and recall the craziness that was. Go New York. Stay warm and safe as you recover from Hurricane Sandy!

Last week I had the opportunity to meet and photograph the executive team at Ask.com in Oakland, California. The popular search site and parent company of Dictionary.com is in the process of updating its corporate information webpage and executive profiles, which currently don’t include portraits.

Back in early August, I was referred to a Senior Marketing Manager at Ask by a mutual acquaintance. She liked the work on my just-released new website, and my bid was submitted and accepted after an email exchange and phone conversation about the project. We scheduled a date for later in the month to do the photography.

Between when she booked me and the shoot date, the number of executive to photograph grew from 8 to 11. Also during that time, the date got pushed—since that many busy executives automatically equals scheduling problems!

Finally, though, the revised shoot date arrived and everything went smoothly. Everyone arrived on time for their appointment, followed the wardrobe guidelines, and gave me their full attention during our time together. (With busy executives, it can be difficult to go three-for-three in these categories!). As an added bonus, the corporate culture was very relaxed and unpretentious, which was reflected in the easy interactions I had and the candid images I was able to create.

A few weeks before the shoot, I had asked to speak with the web design firm that was doing the layouts. It was good that I did, because found out during our pre-production call that the design called for a slightly unconventional off-center horizontal composition, with room for text in the negative space. They also wanted negative space on both sides, so they had the choice of framing subject left or right of center in the frame.

This creative direction had a big impact on my approach to the shoot. Luckily, I was able to set up in the company’s large main conference room, leaving plenty of room for a wide composition with plenty of background.

Here are a few sample images from the shoot:

During the first portrait session of the day, we got some great candid shots where a laugh or break in eye contact produced a more editorial looking image. I pointed these images out to the Marketing Manager, and we agreed that if we tried to capture a few of these type of shots for each person, they might have a great alternative portrait series for other uses within the company.

This moment was an example of how it is not just important to nail down the specs for the shoot in advance. It is equally important to look for and recognize additional opportunities to capitalize on the limited time with the company’s busy executives. In this case, we doubled the output from the shoot—more useful images for the client and more business for me—by tweaking our game plan on the fly.

Here are just a couple of the candid alternate shots:

In the end, everyone loved the candid portraits. In fact, they liked the idea of “off-beat” portraits so much, that they called me after the shoot to request full-on blooper shots. Now that’s an executive team with a sense of humor!

This was a fun and very rewarding project that went well from start to finish. It exemplified what I like about doing this type of portrait work: I got to meet a group of interesting, educated, high-achieving individuals from diverse backgrounds. In my conversations with them, I learned about things like the physics of skydiving and what it’s like to be born in Italy then growing up in Alaska. And I got to know a bit of the inner workings of a locally-based global brand.

Much thanks to my Marketing Manager contact for her great facilitation (and executive-wrangling). The new site featuring these images is not live yet, but I will update this post with a link when it is released!