Backstage Pass is a hit at the Currier Museum of Art!

Yesterday, I decided to surprise my partner in crime with a trip over to the Currier Museum of Art. See, the Currier is having a special exhibition this Autumn that showcases never-before-seen photos of pretty much every legend of rock and roll since Carl Perkins. Led Zeppelin, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, REM, Arethra Franklin, Kris Kristofferson, The Byrds...the list goes on and on!

As photographers, we always love to look upon the work that inspires us. Jesse, in particular, is a really great concert photographer so I knew she would enjoy this display. I was right.

Featuring over 175 photos - most of them poster-sized -, this exhibit features out-takes from staged photo shoots, previously unused tour photos and many candid moments. Take for example a powerful photo of Kurt Cobain sitting against a tub sobbing his heart out over who knows what. Or David Bowie eating lunch in a diner in England. Or Iggy Pop seated in a chair under a framed painting of Jesus - who Iggy eerily resembles in the photo.

Several pictures of Debbie Harry (think Blondie) adorn the walls and reflect her relationships with various rockers over the years. Grace Jones looks out from one photo as powerful as ever while Courtney Love applies her make-up over a rundown bathroom's sink in another photo. In yet another display, a young James Brown shows off his trademark split in one photo while, in another photo, a slightly older Brown plays a grand piano in a large room singing an obviously soulful tune.

I won't even try to describe every great photo in this blog - there's just too many and my words won't do them justice. If you have some time to kill and you find yourself in the Manchester area between now and January 15, 2012, be sure to stop in to the Currier and take in this magnificent photographic journey through rock and roll history!



http://www.currier.org/nowonview.aspx

For 603 Media Group,
Jeremy Jones
jeremy@603mediagroup.com

Wonderful day for photos and fun!

Sunday was a great day for 603 Media Group. Not great as in "We just won the lottery!" or "We just had a photo on the cover of National Geographic!" No, it was great because it was one of those days when it seems like you are really just living life the way it's supposed to be lived.

We started off the day with a senior photo shoot in Bellows Falls, Vermont. The subject was a very lovely young lady named Tori and we accompanied her and her wonderful mom, Mary, to the local drinking water reservoir where Tori thought the lake and foliage might make for a nice backdrop for her photos. Boy, was she right! The water was as calm as glass, the colors were just right and she worked with Jesse as if she had a lifetime of professional modeling behind her! After the lake portion of the shoot, we decided to bring Tori and her mom into downtown Bellows Falls for some more "urban" shots (if Bellows Falls could ever be called urban!). The results, as seen below, were just fantastic and we ended the shoot knowing that we had yet another happy client in the books.



On the way home from Vermont, we decided to stop into Keene, New Hampshire and see what was going on in my old stomping grounds. Turns out, it was the day after the annual Pumpkin Festival and the downtown area was a jumble of people, cars, litter and smashed pumpkins. What fun! (Well, from a photographer's point of view, anyways!) Despite it being a Sunday, several workers were busy cleaning up the streets to restore the downtown area to the quaint and lovely little town that Keene is known for being.



When we left Keene, I surprised Jesse by taking her through the village of Roxbury and up onto the top of Otter Brook Dam. The sun was low in the sky and the colors of the leaves were simply beautiful. While I puttered around getting some nice landscape shots, Jesse found a place to rest and take a breather from all the bustle of the day's activities:



The combination of the clouds, low sun and Autumn colors made for some perfect shooting and I think I got a keeper or two from the day. What do you think?





On the way home, as we headed across Route 101 towards Manchester, we rounded the western edge of Dublin Lake and, looking back, realized we had been handed an amazing stroke of luck with the sun literally just about to sink below the hills. I whipped the car into a private beach on the eastern edge of the lake, got out the tripod and barely had time to catch the last rays of the setting sun. Simply amazing luck and an impressive light show from the heavens!!!



All in all, it was a great day! Did I say that, already? ;o)

Juline and Matt

Jesse and I had an awesome engagement photo session today with a great young couple who hired us to shoot their wedding next year.  It is so much fun doing shoots with people who are fun, lively and clearly in love!

Since they are not from the area, they asked us to choose a location for the shoot and their only request was that it be outside.  I remembered a really scenic walking bridge I discovered by accident on the New Boston rail trail and thought that would be a perfect setting for their photos.  This is a photo that I took there earlier this year:

We are always a little nervous about outdoor shoots because you just never know how the weather is going to treat you but, wow, did the weather really come through for us today!  We shot in the late afternoon so the sun was at a perfect place in the sky to allow us to avoid the harsh lighting of noon-time.  The leaves were perfectly lit, the sky was clear and the mosquitoes gave us a break until nearly the end of the shoot.

Like many couples newly engaged, Juline and Matt had little experience doing couple photos in front of a lens.  With a little direction, though, they were able to loosen right up and really get into the spirit!  They were very playful, not afraid to show their affection for each other and were very clear with us that they wanted the photos to be more fun than formal.  To make their point, they even brought their Patriots jerseys for a few photos!

All in all, it was a great day and we look forward to shooting this wonderful couple's wedding next year!

Juline says she is in love with Matt and that she WILL get him to the altar even if she has to drag him kicking and screaming!  We believe it!!!

Tomorrow, we're off to Portsmouth to do a profile of local upscale gift shops for Gift Shop Magazine.  Looking forward to that one!!!

For 603 Media Group,
Jeremy Jones
jeremy@603mediagroup.com

Autumn is here!

Well, well, well....

Another summer season has flown swiftly by, the leaves are in full-on autumn regalia, Halloween is on everyone's minds and the chill of October nights is reminding us of the winter that is soon to follow.

For us, October brings about another special event: the 2nd anniversary of the birth of 603 Media Group!

Starting a business is typically a long, slow and arduous journey.  I knew that when I first conceived the idea of all this.  But it seemed almost heretical to throw away the opportunity that was in front of me that Autumn in 2009....I was a couple short months into a new relationship with an amazing woman who I already knew was my soulmate despite our short time together.  She was a professional photographer recently unemployed when the newspaper she worked for as a photojournalist abruptly closed their doors for business.  Landing on her feet was something she seemed to excel at and, by the time I met her, she was already hip-deep in helping to create a new publication to help fill the void wrought by the disappeared newspaper.  I personally was no stranger to working behind the lens and our passion for the art quickly became a binding force between us.  It seemed inevitable - a joining of skills would accompany our joining of hearts....

So here we are, two full years later, and still hard at work building this business.  We suffered some major setbacks along the way due to the economy, we both were unemployed for an extensive amount of time due, also, to the economy, and we have found this process to be both frustrating and fulfilling all at once.  In spite of the difficulties and the hurdles, though, we have discovered two very important things:  One, we are madly in love with each other and, when we put our minds together, there is little that we cannot accomplish and, two, we are so proud to have the opportunity to live and work in this great state!  This business has brought us in contact with some of the most amazing, heartwarming and genuinely kind souls ever to walk the earth and we have made many great friends along the way.

Please continue to follow us on Facebook and check in on this blog from time-to-time for updates on what we are doing and where we are doing it!  Thanks so much for all of your support over the past two years - we could not have come this far without the backbone of encouragement provided by all of you!!!

For 603 Media Group,
Jeremy Jones
jeremy@603mediagroup.com