So within the past few years I have been tapping into sports "portrait" photography. It's something new to me and I am learning with each experience. I mean, I have shot sports photography for many years with newspapers, But this is a new kind of photography and I have sorta kinda found a rhythm and a flow. I photograph the individual kids and then the team photos and then Rich helps me put these memory mates together. I recently photographed the little wrestlers. In talking with wrestling coaches and parents, it is very important that the wrestlers legs appear in the photo. I ask them why is it so important and they say, "because that's the way we have always done it." So during a recent shoot with some local wrestlers, I had a Dad say that he didn't want his son's legs in the photo and it made me sooooo happy! I think that it makes for a better portrait when the person's face is closer to the camera and their legs are not taking up half of the frame. Now this only my opinion, I may be right or wrong....Just sayin'. SayerMotter Photos By: Harmony Motter and Memory Mate Design By: Richard Sayer.
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Nerissa and Lee suffered a horrible loss. Their son Holden was still born. Nerissa asked me to photograph her maternity photographs for their new baby who is expected to be arriving sometime in April. She told me the story of this little bear that was given to them at the time of their son's death and how they wanted some photos with this bear. My heart was in my throat as I read that first email. I knew this would be an important photograph or set of photographs to make. I felt honored to be asked. Today we spent a few hours making some photographs to celebrate both Holden and the new baby on the way. I realized in working with Lee and Nerissa how close they are, how much they love each other and how much they love their children. I love how they speak of Holden in the present and how much they love him. I believe they sleep with this bear every night(though I didn't ask for conformation on that, but I believe that is what I understood.) Today seemed like a special day and I can't wait to go through all of their photos and make photographs for them to cherish the memory of their son and the life of their family. SayerMotter Photographs by Richard Sayer.
Harmony bought these little novelty glasses awhile back and the broke. I kept them around because....well thats what I do in hopes to find a picture to take with them. I popped out the eye pieces today and actually made a picture with them finally. As I was cleaning up I noticed the eye piece laying on a cd and decided to make a quick picture of it. And since I didn't have any thing else to do with it, I posted it here! Photograph by Richard Sayer----I still need an iphone--this sort of thing rocks with an iphone!!!!
'Get your camera ready, c'mon. This had better be your featured pictured...TOOnight!' Sara Mitchell said at the end of the Saegertown wrestling cheerleader shoot. Earlier we were kidding around with some else's camera and I held it at arms length and took a picture of the two of us together. Now mind you, we really don't even know each other, but we both thought it would be funny. Afterwards she came up and made---and I mean she was sorta kinda demanding about it(In a good fun way) me take another with my camera and then said that I need to post it right away. Well I admit, I've been a bit tired and overworked and just didn't get to it, but I thought I had better get it posted even if it is a week late. SayerMotter horsin' around photos by Richard Sayer.
I made my first photograph of my Beagle lil' bro jumping at the door because it was breakfast time probably about 10 years ago. I even have a couple of shot with both bro and Java jumping together. They are both getting up there in age, both 12 now but the little guy still manages to get some air---at least when he's hungry. Java too will still give it a go, but not quite as well as he once did. I made lil' bro's face in this picture my facebook profile photo because I heard somewhere that its some sort of sign that you support the ending of animal cruelty. I love dogs...I often say they are my favorite kind of people and I believe this. Something pretty noble about dogs I think and I envy them in many ways--at least the ones with good owners. I think if I am lucky enough to be rewarded in the next life with coming back as a dog, I think I'll enjoy rolling around in the grass on my back and finding a good rug to rub my nose on! Photograph by Richard Sayer.
When I look to make photographs, I don't wait around waiting for the moments, I look for the details. I look for something I can do to capture the beauty. In details often I find those little story telling things that give more depth to the memories of the day. And while I look for those, the moments happen...and I'm ready for them. SayerMotter Photographs by Richard Sayer.
I guess when it comes down to it, my love of making photographs, capturing moments, finding that something that sums up a feeling, a mood....a time. Thats what I love about making photographs. Weddings are a special time...now I know I resisted photographing weddings for years...because of the stress of capturing someone's day just right...well that is a very difficult thing to fathom. But as I get older I'm appreciating more and more the idea of documenting life and capturing the mood that represents that life. I try to do it daily in my newspaper work and I think when I realized that that is what weddings are ultimately about, the stress changed from a fear of not getting it right into a gift that I'm being allowed to witness and record the event and the emotion. I even feel this way after the wedding in trying to find just the right form to display the images. An album needs to show the seriousness of what taking ones vows means, but it also must show the fun of the day. It more likely than not that the bride and groom decided to take the plunge because they think its fun to be around each other. So their wedding albums should show their fun and it should have outtakes so that when they are looking through it in years to come, they can stop for a minute and just laugh and remember why they embarked on this journey together in the first place. SayerMotter custom wedding album pages by Richard Sayer.
I discovered a couple things in photographing and making the pictures for the Saegertown basketball cheerleaders. 1: That you can spell Nellie Nelllee (which I kinda liked the way she described it as two names Nell and Lee just put together! Cool Nelllee cool! 2 that when I make a memory mate that some times I can take some of the elements and re-configure them to make buttons and wallets. I hadn't done that before and sorta stumbled on it with this picture. The buttons looked pretty awesome when they came back too! SayerMotter photographs and design by Richard Sayer.
While waiting for the wrestlers to get ready today I started to make some pictures(can't keep me quiet for long). I knew that the wrestlers were running, though I wasn't sure why since it was picture day. I thought maybe they wanted to have that just finished kicking someone's butt look, but it was just that is what they do before practice and pictures were happening at practice. So I shot some frames of them running around before practice and figured I could use one or two for the newspaper even though it was my day off. Photograph by Richard Sayer.
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