Rochester NY Musician Photographer
Scene One: Dear Tammy. I found your blog and love your work. I’d like you to photograph my son and I.
Scene Two: Enter Tammy. Father & Son laugh nervously. You want what?
Scene Three: Father issues world’s best quote to Tammy: “I can’t believe I’m paying you for this”
Hahahaa. I’m still laughing over that comment. Jeff and his son C. were amazing in front of the camera. It’s not easy sometimes being photographed by me — I’m the first to admit it — because I play off many things while I’m shooting — environment, interactions between people, pets, light, color. I ask you to do things that you think are weird.
Mostly you like the images later. ::grin::
So much fun shooting these two — the images are amazing and we got a wild RANGE of types of images — so I’m happy. I work best when the people who PAY ME (nod to Jeff ::grin::) also are willing to deviate from their original ideas and let me just play. That’s when it’s fun.
So thanks guys!
You may like my blog.
You may like my website.
Both of these things give you an idea of what kind of work I do and a little bit about who I am…
But the day to day nitty gritty Tammy? Not so much.
If you are hungering to know, for example, that I ate more cut out cookies over the past two days than a baby elephant, or that I watched Fred Claus and hated it, or even that over the weekend I had a mini-temper tantrum at a hallmark store (they wouldn’t take my $100 dollar bill. As it was all I had in the moment and I was buying $85 worth of stuff – I was a wee little teeny tiny annoyed), you can be my friend on Facebook, Be a FAN of Tammy Swales even, and follow me on Twitter.
Have you found Twitter yet? So so much fun. 
So yeah. All Tammy all the time. ::grin::
Come play!
Part II.
I couldn’t stop with just Katie and Michael’s pics. I mean…there’s only ONE of Katie. That’s just wrong and doesn’t do her justice.
She has the most expressive beautiful face don’t you think?
The coolest of the cool. I can’t begin to tell you how much I j’adore this photo:
And then Ran. Let me tell you about Ran. The sweetest, most inquisitive guy ever. I mean seriously. I have never been asked as many questions (and HARD MAKE YOU SWEAT questions) about photography before in my life. Ran might have a second career as an interviewer. ::laughing:: But he’s the coolest kid ever and I adore him and this photo…
Last night I did not sleep. I did eat. I did work. I did ROCK out FOUR MUSICIAN sessions. BAM! ::grin::
I had SO much FUN editing these images. These guys are so much fun to work with — all from the Eastman School of Music — all creative, fun and willing to try on my craziness! I am so grateful when my peeps trust me enough to be goofy — ultimately it’s the goofy stuff that looks the BEST in images. Dunno why. Dunno how — but it works.
Here’s a couple of my favs…
ROCK IT OUT! I’m in love with the clean lines of this image. FAV!!
ROCK ME AMADEOUS — Michael is total rock star material! CHELLO! (get it?)
Or wait…what about Katie? This is the yummiest pic — I LOVE LOVE LOVE Katie’s FACE in this photo! Angelic!
That’s part one. Wait. It keeps getting better and better!
Alyssa. Alyssa just was so amazingly gorgeous I almost didn’t know what to do. She brought the coolest clothes and shoes and TOTALLY worked it out during the session.
The only glitch? She’s from Florida, wears open-toed shoes and it was like…SNOWING. So yeah. She got a teeny little bit cold. But she kept assuring me she was fine…shiver shiver. ::grin::
She loves water — so our quickest shot of the day was next to the Genesee River in downtown Rochester NY — and man…I can’t even BEGIN to tell you how cold it was! But somehow…we got some really AMAZING images (I really need a new word, I’m starting to use that too much. ::grin::) and I’m so so happy with them.
Alyssa — here’s your sneak peek! More soon!
So yeah. This is the time of year when I photograph a lot of musicians. Typically instrumentalists, but I have also photographed bands, groups, opera singers, you name it…I’ve probably photographed it. ::grin::
Ran plays the clarinet. And photographs like he belongs on the cover of GQ Magazine. I think he doubted whether or not the images we (my friend Gwyn is up from New England and shot with me today. Fun!) took were going to turn out okay…it’s hard when your photographer(s) ask you to do strange things without really seeing how cool they look — so that’s understandable.
However, after seeing this sneak peek — all doubts should vanish. They are stunning. I am posting one image that I took and one image that Gwyn took (and yes, you have to guess. hint: I suggested “superhero”) …just to show you the variety and coolness we ended up getting.
Sometimes two photographers (and this goes for photographing weddings as well) egg each other on in terms of creativity and idea development — so you get a more interesting, varied and richer product.
I had fun today — I hope Ran did too!
1.03.2009
oooh, i love that top one. and the 2nd one. when you come shoot w/ me in june, you will meet najib, and you will be converted to a cat-lover by the awesomeness that is a bengal.
1.22.2009
“I work best when the people who PAY ME (nod to Jeff ::grin::) also are willing to deviate from their original ideas and let me just play. That’s when it’s fun.”
Isn’t this the honest truth.
1.24.2009
super kung fu