I started shooting  Bar Mitzvahs (Google it if you aren’t up on them) a few years back and they were an unknown quantity for me.  Why? because I’m not Jewish so I set about to learn from a fellow photographer and friend, Herb Goldberg in Marblehead who does dozens of them a year.

Herb taught me the basics so I wouldn’t make mistakes (at least too many).  This brings me up to current day where I photographed Jessica I had photographed her brother a couple of years before so the family was happy with my work.

To me a Mitzvah isn’t too much different in structure to a wedding and in some ways it’s easier. You shoot the family members all coming together on a joyous occasion (not hard) and then you photograph the boy or girl on the Bima and these shots are almost always the same. I’ve fond a few angles that I don’t usually see and Herb even gave me a compliment by saying I came up with a shot that he had never thought of so he now shoots that one also.

Here are some of the days shots…

Well that’s enough for now please feel free to check out my online gallery of work.

Jeff Folger
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   Hi, I’m Jeff and my studio is Vistaphotography. You might be asking what a kids portrait party is? It’s where I (Vistaphotography) will come out to the home of the hostess and either set up in the house or weather permitting, set up a large tent in the yard as my studio. All the hostesses does, is have their friends bring their children over for a play date and then they bring them one by one to my “studio” for a portrait session. [SinglePic not found]
The client (or hostess) holding the “party”  will provide refreshments and mail out invitations (which I supply) to their friends and the hostess will receive credits based on number of sessions booked with up to 15% of the [SinglePic not found] total amount of the purchases made by their friends being used towards their own kids portraits.  The number of friends that schedule a party of their own on that day also contributes a credit to the hostesses account. [SinglePic not found]

Now if you say that this sounds like a Tupperware party then you’d be correct. It’s an effort for me to get my work out in front of parents so they can see their favorite subject, their kids…
[SinglePic not found] I had read about this party idea in a PPA,  (Professional Photographers of America) magazine and I went and called the photographer in North Carolina  who was profiled in the magazine. She told me all about the process she goes through. She has been running her studio for 21 years so I figured I would try this.

Lessons learned… There is a reason that the NC photog told me only one child in a session! Because if the kids aren’t in a mood to sit still, then it becomes play time and they will not stay in frame.  I had some good shots depending on the mood and age of the kids. I would say based on one outing that you should strive for a single child so you can give them your undivided attention.  [SinglePic not found]  If you have a parent saying they only want a shot of the siblings together…  I would say to tell the parent that you will try and if the shots work, great! If not then tell them that you will come to their home and reshoot in a familiar environment where they may relax and take some direction.

Because if you can’t get the kids to stay together then it will be real hard. I plan to try this with the mother who was up first with her two boys and told me straight out that she can never get a good shot of them together. I got some good (not great) shots when I focused on one or the other but not both in the same frame.  I guess Photoshop is always an option.

Jeff Folger
www.vistaphotos.net

(If any photographers out there want to try this and want to purchase all the forms and information sheets that I’ve created then drop me a line and I’ll give you my paypal account to deposit to and I’ll send you a PDF package.)

Well two shopping days left and the pressure is on. Even Lisa and I have a couple things to pick up. It makes you wonder about our sanity at this time of year. I mean it’s always a wonderful feeling to hit a home run and bring home just the right gift that evokes the response of the kids jumping up and down in jubilation over your gift. It’s also very nice if that significant other also jumps up and down but that’s another story… But to brave all the lines and the parking lots full of cars or worse the one remaining spot with a a half dozen carts in it that you have to move out of your way, if you really want this spot…

What it all comes down to, is the kids faces in the morning as they find their gifts under the tree, left with great care. [SinglePic not found] Some days it’s the simpler things that will bring the widest smiles. As evidenced by this picture of my niece last Christmas morning. I arrived early to find her holding the newest member of the family. The boys soon took Cassie out to play in the yard (and do her business) and have some boy time with the furry new addition. [SinglePic not found]

The old man in the house (Robie) who in the past year has since passed away, handed the responsibility of being the family dog to Cassie to care for. You can see here in this photo that even Robie enjoyed getting a Christmas present as much as the kids. [SinglePic not found] Although I have to admit he like most all of our four footed friends, he wasn’t very picky when it came to gifts from his people. Love is love to a dog… wish we could be more like that!

Maybe if we were all a little more like this in our daily lives and remember it’s not the gift you receive but the act of giving that is special. Remember, someone went out of their way to give you something that took thought and time. Think how much your time is worth to you today?

We’re bombarded by commercials that espouse giving cash cards because the gifts won’t be the right ones… What if we just gave of our time. Can you imagine a more princely gift in todays busy life. I can’t imagine a more important gift to be given a child than our time, attention and love…

I’ve seen on the news two occasions over the past two weeks where someone paid for a coffee for the person behind them and it would continue all day long as each person came through the line. How about if that really caught on in other areas of our lives.
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This fall we (Lisa and I) traveled as much as time would permit. I usually have a good reason to travel from Salem to the NW corner of Vermont. Our grandkids are there so my better half (better by much more than half) enjoys any excuse to go visit. This is a rewrite of a post that I made on the Yankee blog that I write in the fall.
We traveled 727 miles in the last weekend in Sept, to make this journey and yes we were tired when we pulled back into Salem.

Yes I know I broke rule 1. Pick a spot and stay there to really explore the the area and enjoy your self. Don’t drive all over creation trying to find color.
Well, here’s my red badge of courage for all that driving. [SinglePic not found]

We traveled up 93 and saw no color to speak of until we passed the Lakes region. We left 93 around route 3 and spent a good portion of the afternoon traveling in the great north woods of NH. We stopped in Bethlehem NH for lunch in the Maia Papaya coffee shop and the best coffee in the mountains (Well, that’s what their sign says).

We had a really tasty quiche (tomato, mozzarella for $3.75) and their coffee was very good…

The part I like is that they have wireless internet for free (but I left the laptop at home or I would still be there) If you stop in, say hi to Diane or Melissa the owner.
The sun was patchy all day and when we went through Granby NH I stopped and took this pic of the church in Granby NH.
[SinglePic not found]
We spent most of this afternoon on dirt roads and as I will always tell you, you can find the most amazing things on the back roads. The colors as of 27-28 Sept were still very early due to the temperatures maintaining 50-60 degrees. What I wanted to see was some of the bright reds that the North East Kingdom is known for but the really bright reds were not to be found this day. But this was just down the road… [SinglePic not found]
Which keeps one looking for more color… So we kept going… and going… and going… you get the point…

We follow 302 into Littleton NH but little color is in evidence so we press to VT.

We found our way to route 2 and we are now in the KINGDOM! We followed the river in hopes of seeing all the “peak” color they (VT tourism or the mis-information bureau) were forecasting… We were on roads so back country that the gazetteer doesn’t list their names just a thin red line to let you know that there IS supposed to be something there. Actually most of these dirt roads were in excellent shape and I was amazed at how many VT drivers were on them…
Along the way we come to many intersections that have us guessing about which way to go and while sometimes we followed Robert Frost’s advice and “took the road less traveled” we were starting to get toward late afternoon and needed to get to our stopping point in Hardwick and the Kimball house. We Continued to St Albans the next day with a quick trip down route 89 the next day. We did find good color this fall season but it took a lot of miles to to find the colors. The drought conditions and the warmer than average temps kept the leaves from changing as soon as the historic average says they should. Global warming? Probably, so in 2008 I’ll start later into Oct for my search for the change.
fall foliage