Chalmers Mill

Hey there folks, it's been a while since I've been on here posting. I've been kind of lazy with this, but I've been shooting quite a bit lately, shockingly, I've been shooting a lot of architecture. If you know me, you know that I prefer to shoot people mainly, but around here in Glens Falls, it's tough to find good models for fashion and most editorial subjects are tough to get in front of the camera. So this blog is being dedicated to one building in particular that I've shot a couple of different times now.

This is the Chalmers Mill located in Amsterdam, NY. Amsterdam is home to such people as Benedict Arnold, not to be confused with the General of the United States Army who defected to the British during the Revolutionary War. Bobby Stewart, who was the 1974 National Boxing Champ who became Mike Tyson's first trainer. Also actor Kirk Douglas in 1916. Amsterdam was settled in 1710 by the Dutch, originally named Veeders Mills, it changed to Amsterdam in 1803. The mill was opened in 1913 to manufacture underwear and was an employer of 650 or so people. The mill closed in 1959, the employees were paid minimum wages at best. The mill reminds me of a prison type of building. I found payroll slips dated 1941 which didn't have names, but in place of names it had numbers.

With this project, I set out to capture the feeling that this mill gave me. It was cold and lonely in some parts and others were almost warm and inviting in a scary way. I couldn't help but to feel the pain and burden that the employees must have felt walking through this mill on a day to day basis, for next to nothing for pay and long, strenuous hours. So finally, enough jibba jabba.....here's some imagery!

The first floor entrance


First floor in the administration building


Creepy spot in the admin building with a red handprint with the tag "chilli"


From the original bathroom in the admin building. (there was still soap in the dish)


First floor of production outside of the admin offices.


This one is entitled "hell" because of it's warm tones and it's freakish resemblance to the "Amityville Horror" This was the scariest place in the building next to the absolute basement or the drop down spots that had nothing more than a makeshift latter into a black hole.


Keep an eye out for the new website to be launched soon! www.mattgrangerphoto.com
There's much more to come with this series, so keep checking back regularly!!!

New Published Work and Working with a New Designer

So as many of you already have heard from me posting on other websites, I have had part of my project on entrepreneurs published in the latest issue of JPG magazine. Issue 24 is about economics and the effects of the recession on our country and those in other countries. With the project that I'm working on, I've been showing how the recession has been effecting small business owners in the small communities of upstate, NY.
This project took about a year to kick off and morph into what it has today. When I first started this project I had no idea where I was headed with it. Starting off as a project on the people of upstate, NY it quickly shifted gears to entrepreneurs and catapulting the people of upstate project to the back of the line. What really got me pushing forward with Entrepreneurs was the fact that there were all of these hole in the wall type of businesses around while growing up that I never had the nerve to go into for whatever reason. I believe that I was just intimidated about going into someplace that I didn't even know what it was that they did or service that they offered. Ever since I started getting serious with photography, my camera and a few mentors got me to break out of that ethos and throw away any fears (large and small) that would hold me back. This is what has made this project so much fun. I get to see these people for who they are and put a personality to the people I would otherwise probably never see, or not even know who they were while seeing them in their place of business. Keep on checking my website for more work on this project under the editorial section. www.mattgrangerphoto.com

Also in new news, I have paired up with Collin Badger owner of Freshrr Creative & Design Studio to work on my new website. It has been great to find another creative mind in town to work with. Check out Freshrr at www.freshrr.com
On top of working with me, Freshrr has a strong client list, most recently Mr. Complex and J-Live. We're just getting started with the new layout of the site and everything is starting to look great and I'm pumped to be working with Collin.

Behind the scenes, lighting diagrams for my project, Entrepreneurs

Hey everyone, well anyone haha. I decided to spill a little bit about how I've been going about lighting my most recent project titled Entrepreneurs. Typically I only use one or two lights, balanced with available light sources. With this project, I've been working this formula to help me better define the mood of the subjects that I'm capturing. The point of this project is for me to show how the recent recession has effected local small business in my hometown of Glens Falls, NY. These people have been working in this area with their own business for 5, 10, 20, up to 50 years. No other recession has catapulted our economy into a worse predicament than now. So I set out to capture the struggle of these hard working individuals not only through posing and character study, but to use light as my mood setting. So I'm going to break these down one at a time.

Fitzy's Barber Shop. Ft. Edward, NY


Pat has owned Fitzy's for 48 years. He's a Vietnam vet and is serving 3rd and 4th generation clients. He's a strong standing individual in his community and the recession has had a modest if any impact upon him. Here's how I went about lighting Mr. Fitzsimmons:


using a mini diy softbox on a Nikon Sb-800 flash, I shot him against the front window of his shop using the sun to expose the background and the mirrors along with the light interior to help with the fill light.

Next is Joe Kaye. He owns Laminate and Frame on Ridge St in Glens Falls, NY. He's a nature photographer and a framer. His photo work includes photos stretching across the entire Adirondack Park....which is a nice chunk o' land btw. With this recession Joe has been hit hard. He's had to drop prices and try to keep everything in house order wise. His shop is almost like an apt these days because of the long hours he's putting in to stay afloat. There's a sofa in the back, along with hangers full of clothes and a mini fridge along with boxes of cereal and dining ware all over the back of the shop. For him, I devised not only pose, but also a natural light effect to emphasize how he has been struggling. Here I used a Nikon Sb-800 speedlight with a diy mini softbox and again, used the available window light along with light colored walls and mat board to create fill light. I also used a higher ISO to give it a "grungy" look. I used ISo 400 and I'm shooting with a Nikon D300 with a Nikor 35mm f/2D lens for all shots.




My next shoot was with my uncle. Here is Kevin Girard of Hyatt Machine in Ft. Edward, NY. He has owned the company since my grandfather had passed away and left it to him. Kevin is almost a mirror image of his father. They are two of the hardest workers I have ever met in my entire life. Both working strenuous hours and juggling a family. The recession has hit Kevin right where it hurts. His clients are seeking cheaper labor and also trying to be more productive within their own companies, making the parts Kevin does. Kevin, like his father stands strong on his own and won't crumble due to this. So for him, I presented him in a strong, dominate pose in front of his machinery representing how I feel of him as a person, also as an entrepreneur. I used natural sunlight coming through the large garage door he has in the front of his shop, along with a medium white reflector and a Nikon Sb-800 bouncing into it for this shot.




My next subject is Projectionist Jerry Aratare. He has been a projectionist since 1958. He moved to Glens Falls, NY from Vermont just to take a job doing this back in the late 1950's. Just recently he has opened up the Park Street Theater on Park St. in Glens Falls, NY. He not only owns and runs the theater, but he is the projectionist still along with that he runs the cash register, ticket booth and everything in between. Opening a small movie theater in a small town has been an obstacle in it's own but, Jerry is getting by. He runs new feature's during the day, and on weekends, he's showing old school horror films (which btw, I love to death!) Because of the problems that come from running a small movie theater in a small town against the corporate movie theaters without the issue of recession I felt Jerry would be a great person for my project. So....with that said, I photographed Jerry using a Nikon Sb-800 with no diffusion to create dramatic shadows and highlights to show his dedication to his craft. He's using original machinery from his heyday's and cutting his own film also. I have tons of respect for people who will go that extra mile like Jerry.




And now for my first subject of this particular project, Peter Brock owner of Sam's Diner on Dix Ave in Glens Falls, NY. Pete has owned Sam's for around 25 years now. He bought the diner from the original owner in 1985. The diner has been in this location for around 50 years or so now. I grew up in an apt less than a block away from the diner and have always had an itch to go in and see what it was like. I finally rounded up the nerve in January of this year more than 25 years after living in the cramped confines of the Ridge St apt. I found that this business was so much more than just your everyday diner. It offered more than just a meal and a bill, it offered companionship, a friendly atmosphere and just an overall sense of tranquility. I wasn't there more than 5 mins before customers were bullshitting with me and telling me things that people at a bar wouldn't dream of saying. It was just an amazing experience and it made me wish that I had done it so so much sooner. Soooooo, with this shoot it was my first, my baby, my experiment.....and it couldn't have gone any smoother than it did. With all that I have said, I HAD to show how great of a place this was and how important this place was to my community. Pete is a great, great guy so for him, I had to show him in an epic form, low camera angle, bright light. So I shot him with a Nikon Sb-800 with a scrim to the right to stop spillage on the aluminum wall without any diffusion. Also to show the "crowd" I shot wile patrons where there mingling with his employee's. Due to the recession, if it wasn't for his regular crowd, Pete would have some problems. But due to the way he has run this business, he really has no worries.



So that's my blog for today, I want to thank www.lighitngdiagrams.com for the lighting diagrams. Keep up on my site www.mattgrangerphoto.com for new and upcoming work, also for the new website layout to be coming soon! Thanks for reading!

New Pussy

Well on Sat, my girlfriend and I went to a fund raiser for her aunt at a bar in Ft. Ann, NY. We had some beers, some good food and by the end of the night, we adopted an abandoned kitten. So the story goes, someone dropped off 8 kittens to the bar and the owners had been taking care of them. While in their care, some of the kittens kept trying to wander off into the woods, where they had to keep going out and rounding them up so they wouldn't get eaten by anything. Seven of them had gotten adopted out and at the fund raiser there was this pathetic looking lil black kitten left behind that lived under a shed. So we decided to take the little runt home. What were we gonna do, leave her to fight for scraps and live under a shed in the fall? We gave her a bath that night and she seemed pretty clean. She had a ratty old flea collar on, and to our surprise she didn't seem to have fleas....until this evening when Danielle found one or two. That number just blew up after we had put front line on her. Tonight has been dedicated to following this little turd around and picking up dying fleas that have fallen to the floor around her. Well by this point you're probably bored with reading my poor story telling skills, so I'll drop some images for you to see the monster. By the way, she's a pain in the ass to photograph (as sad as that is for me to say haha)










Check out new images at www.mattgrangerphoto.com

Old Post

Here's an old one that I tried posting but, because it was actually written a while back it posted farther down as an old post. So here it is again, just in case you didn't catch it!


So this was something that I was gonna post a few months back, so here it is:

Hahaha, so I've been looking through a lot of old stuff I shot since graduating from NESOP and I found these pics that have really stirred up some shit. I got a job lead from an anonymous source ;) but the email read something like, "High profile celeb looking for "paparazzi" style photos." So I inquired and heard it was Liza Minnelli. So I figured "Why the fuck not?" I emailed the fella back and he told me where to be and when to be there. So I take the bus from Chelsea to Boston to catch the Green line to the spot. Well when I got there I managed to get a drink and some free food from the bar before getting spit on doing a light set up.......So now I'm obviously stoked! Well about 5 or 6 mins later, the other photog shows up........looking like a HUGE dick in his armani suit and his DG glasses. So here I go, guess I'm gonna follow his lead and here's what happened........"Smile Liza!!!"






























































I was supposed to go to another Hotel to photograph them at Rowes Wharf, but needless to say I didn't haha. I never heard back from the guy in the aqua polo, can't imagine why. And I think that's his son to camera right looking kinda jealous.

don't forget to peep my website. www.mattgrangerphoto.com

hooked

so lately i've been hooked on listening to the smiths louder than bombs. there's something about morriseys' cynicism along with the upbeat tempo that really draws me in. this album has been on during all my editing and any and all of my down time. i have been shooting a lot of 120mm film with my trusty lil holga because of this album. here's some of the images that i feel best represent the way i feel when listening to this album.




























































oh yeah, my girl is on vacation in boston, so if you see a lil korean girl walking with 3 white girls, say what's up.......

time, time, time

So it's been almost a year since I've updated this blog a log. Since my last time, I've moved from Jax, Fl back up to Glens Falls, Ny. It's been interesting to say the least. Within the last 5 months I found a job in a local studio which has been pretty sick. I'm diggin' our new pad, yet we're moving into another one above the one we been living in for only a month haha. But the new one is bigger and of course better. I haven't been shooting for myself as much as I would like to, but I've been making time lately. I'm experimenting with shooting with just available light lately and I'm diggin' the fuck outta it. It feels like I haven't lit a photo with strobes unless I'm in the studio.....but like I said a sec ago, I'm diiiiiggin' it! Here's some of the new stuff I've been shooting.













danielle













saratoga performing arts center 5:58am













ny state supreme court appellate division admissions ceremony 6.22.10

ok ok, so I'm gonna start getting back on this more often from now on. As usual all images ©Matt Granger 2010 and check out the site for new work coming sooooooon....www.mattgrangerphoto.com