Family Love with Jenny

1. I'm currently selling my work. If anything particular shot, any model, or any set interests you, please email me at farenell.photography@gmail.com

Just tell me what interests you & I'll see what I can do. I try to work within people's budgets but I'm also not going to like give them away for pennies on the US dollar.


2. While I was house-sitting for a friend out in Boston, Jenny responded to one of my "seeking models" blurbs I posted on social media.

We got talking & I was invited down to her area of Scituate, MA where she took me on a mini-tour of the region.

Whenever I view this shot, I remember how much pride she had talking about her beautiful children & am especially grateful about how she warmly invited me into her home long after this was initially shot. A very deep & caring individual as I've ever met.

the Critique of the Unsatisfied Relationship with Jenna & Friend

1. I'm currently selling my work. If anything particular shot, any model, or any set interests you, please email me at farenell.photography@gmail.com.

Just tell me what interests you & I'll see what I can do. I try to work within people's budgets but I'm also not going to like give them away for pennies on the US dollar.


2. This shot takes on a VERY different context with the rise Me Too movement & the toxic male entitlement culture we're in. However the idea I had back when this was shot in 2006, went vaguely like this:

We were exploring the correlation that people often find themselves in their relationships, specifically the kind where at least one party isn't satisfied (whether it be sexually, physically, emotionally, or whatever) yet the person in question stays in said relationship...not because they are intimidated by the other but because they may not have the strength to get out of it OR they stay in it because they have nothing better to do, thereby perpetuating the cycle.

This particular set almost never happened. The model couldn't find another male model with whom she trusted enough to do this with until at the last minute she drafted her gay gymnastics partner. He had is cocky vibe about him where he could do really stupid stuff (in terms of the set's theme) & not have her take it personally.

We had a barrel of laughs about it afterwards.

Kiss in Waiting with Benny & Moni

1. I'm currently selling my work. If anything interests you, don't hesitate in email me at farenell.photography@gmail.com.

Just tell me what pics or sets interest you, I'll see what I can do. I try to work within people's budgets but I'm also not going to like give them away. 


2. The story behind the "Kiss in Waiting."

The models are Benny & Monique. They were based out of Rochester at the time & were also involved.

There was a creative phase where I didn't want to be known by any one-shot. I felt it was to limiting to say nothing about having my creative interest in being all over the place.

During one of my visits to Western NY, I met up with Benny & a bunch of his friends & I would also be introduced as "the guy who shot 'Kiss in Waiting'." Their eyes would immediately light up with interest & they'd nod & smile.

The lesson being that there are certainly worse things in this world than being known for an iconic shot.

In Favor of the Valentines Day Concept

I am single, and I am a male, and I'm in favor of Valentine's Day.

There, I said it.

This day can be one of the loneliest times of the year if you're not romantically attached to someone. Its a knawing reminder that you live in a society that values the couple. Once you've made the commitment, its expected that you'll produce a family. Once you produce a family, you're expected to produce MORE children. This doesn't even touch upon the overcommercialization of the holiday.

Its poppy-cock & here's why.

What you're seeing is an overfocus on what is called "amorous" love. The love shared between one romantic partner & another. We forget that there are 3 other lovse: affection, friendship, & charity.

Affection is the kind of love you give to another creature (like a horse, dog, or cat). Parental love can also be in this same umbrella. Friendship is a love between equals like your best friend or a professional colleague. Think of charity love as helping out your fellow man, giving the downtrodden a helping hand in some way, particularly when there's no direct benefit to you.

So the next time you're bitching about how miserable you are because you're single on Valentine's Day or how commercialized its become, pause, take a deep breath, & quit whining. Because in the grand scheme of things, maybe this world we all share could use a little more love instead of focusing on the self.


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In other news...
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Below is Dayna & her husband.



Feel free to comment on any part of this if you so desire.

My Loveable Headcases

I was reading Jaimeibarra's blog over on deviantART & it got me thinking.

One will detect an element of reverence, affection, &/or love when I speak about many of my subjects. I've periodically blabbed about my own photo-relationships & it caused me to expand upon the theme.

My style of shooting contains A LOT emotions. I'm almost entirely dependent on developing & establishing a rapport w/ my subjects. This means talking w/ them, getting to know them. Its a buildup in getting them to trust me while also revealing something wholely unique about themselves that they (in many cases) never knew existed. More importantly, I need honesty. Combine the uniquness & honesty, w/ pouring every last ounce of creativity that I can muster and I'm left drained upon a shoot's completion.

Contrary to Hollywood's portrayal, its not sexual. "Clinical" would be better description for I personally work. The bulk of what I do entails people being able to trust me as well as my crazy ideas. Its a waste of energy to hit on them because quite frankly, the creation process takes precedence. I certainly wouldn't be opposed if my subjects hit on me...but that's like different. At least how I'm viewing things, I am the one in a position of trust & I can't be the first one to blink.

Course I'm usually lost in my warped little world so if any girl was interested in me, they could walk up & shake my hand & I probably wouldn't notice. In all seriousness, it likely not THAT bad. It just makes for great comic relief. I am a tragic Red Sox fiend & they've been breakin' my heart since 1988.

There are also "my" headcases which are different than "the" headcases. "My" headcases are those I simply want to wring their necks (& they sometimes mine). They are the ones who no matter how hard we both try, nothing EVER goes as planned. Either the situation sucks; the weather's crappy; Plans A, B, C, D, & E get thrown out the window & I'm basically making it up as I go; Residual friend drama creeping in; whatever. There's often so much stress & intense emotions involved, I usually leave feeling like the entire shoot was a complete waste of time. This is why I like to decompress (2 weeks is usually good) because once said emotions subside, "my" headcase shoots are NO WHERE near as bad as I ever initially think.

"The" headcases are simply the aforementioned problems plus we're just not jiving for any reason. Could be crappy communication; one side simply "isn't feeling it"; something's put one of us in a foul mood; they look nothing like the test pictures they sent &/or those that are in their profile...the list goes on. These are the type of shoots that you remember, learn from them, mention them for comic relief but ultimately, let them die w/ dignity.

Isabel (shown below):



...is one of lovable "my" headcases. Don't worry, I'm not insulting her because we've discussed this very topic long ago. I'm choosing this picutre because of her reaction. "Its so simple, I love it! To many people makes things so elaborate, making (the images & my job) a complete bore."

Our first shoot, she was pregnant & I just didn't get her personality. Left thinking, "Man, this broad is bitchy" & vowed to never work w/ her again. This was my first meeting w/ her baby's father who didn't impress me (more on him later)

Second shoot, I was passing through & she inquired if we wanted to work again. I remembered her initial bitchiness, chalked it up as a hormonal pregnant women, gave her the benefit of the doubt, & shot her again. Our initial plan never made it out the door but as usual leaving me to pull something out my rear.

Another entailed me being like 2 hours late. I swung by a local photographer's place to talk shop over coffee. I was expecting to be in & out in under an hour, maybe 2 tops. Low & behold 4 hours later, I left. I got the tale end of her group shoot thing (its not like I was doing anything that day anyway).

Another one driving through an unsuspecting snowstorm & thus having my vehicle slide off the road. That was fun. *rolls eyes*

The most memorable was the baby's father creating a stink (no pun intended) in the hopes of getting her custody agreement revoked. The claim was "we all were smoking weed in front of the little one." This is quite curious because I was shooting Izzy outside in the backyard) & had formally turned over the baby's visitation to the father. If he stormed out like he testified in court, how was watching the baby?

This resolution entailed me leaving work at 4a (I was working an overnight at the time), driving 2 hours, dressing for the family court hearing in case they wished to have me testify (I volunteered). I didn't "need" to be there but in my book, the possiblity of losing ones kid is a big thing, so I willingly made the sacriface. As Murphy's Law would have it, my transmission died (ah, gotta love beater cars) which required a rescue from one of my friends.

I think we had a few other shoots scattered hear & there but I've kinda lost count.

Its pretty safe to say that Isabel's personality is an acquired taste.Our work relationship has become more than the usual model-photographer relationship, we consider each other friends. This is not a term I throw around lightly.

I adore all my Farenell Girls but especially "my" lovable headcases.

Twilight Review

I've been observing the Twilight craze w/ curiousity & decided to read the book in the hopes of seeing what the buzz is about.

I'm not going to lie, its definately a mixed bag. I'm trying to analyze the novel as a stand alone (as opposed to comparing it to some other similiar book) but if I fail, please don't hold it against me.

1. Ms Meyer's does a decent job when she's describing her narrator's thought process. Its complete drudgery when describing what her characters are physically doing as well as when describing a setting. I also enjoyed the ambiguity about Edward's big mystery in the first 1/3 of the novel.

2. On her website, Ms Meyer describes her writing approach:

I wrote out whichever scenes I was interested in, rather than starting at the beginning and working through to the end. I wrote most of the books in scenes, and then went back later and tied the scenes together. It cut out a lot of writer's block to write whatever part I was most interested in at the time. And it makes it easy to finish. By the time you get around to writing the less exciting transitions, expositions, and descriptions, you already have so much done!

Though I think it can be useful, it becomes problematic in other ways that will be address later.

3. Because the author is so character centric, I really think it suffers by having a disjointed plot. They're like "Oh BTW, this important plot point happens & is the cause of of X, Y, Z". I use the transition into the 3rd Act as an example. The big problem in the later third of the book, never really gives us the reader that the person in question's life is in danger. Also the big connection between the menace & the Cullen family is cheaply thrown in there at the end. Had it not been mentioned, it'd have zero consequence in terms of the rest of the story. The main character's actions in the 3rd Act are so abrupt it forces you to reread parts of the novel because you're convinced you've missed something when you haven't.

Because the author's writing style has the scenes individually written & THEN linked together later, it creates a disjointed story. I really think having a better editor may help her in this respect. The same w/ how Ms Meyer's overuses the "I did this, then I did that, that I walk to the kitchen to do this, & he just sat their smiling at me" approach. There are other ways that the canvas can be illustrated while still achieveing the intended effect.

4. It was interesting in how there were shades of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice in Twilight, (you can thank my copy's discussion notes for that tipoff). I also can see glimmers of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye w/n the rebelliously, independent Bella & all the trouble she gets into.

In conclusion, I am clearly not the demographic that Ms Meyer is aiming for. However it really does say something about the enthusiasm school age children react to this novel. If it gets them to turn off the Xbox for a few hours a day & get them to read stuff they enjoy, I'm all for it.

All in all, I give Twilight a 3 out of 5 stars. If you're looking for a light, quick read, this may be up your alley. If you're looking for something w/ a little more teeth & w/ rich detail, you'll want to pass.

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In keeping w/ the theme of love & relationships, I'm showing you an oldie I shot w/ Elysie & her boyfriend.



Feel free to comment, opine, whatever any part of this, so long as its civil.