Highlights: March 2012

Last month I did something really foreign and strange that I had never done before- I went on vacation with my boyfriend (well now “fiance” but I don’t like that word… too fancy for me) We both travel all the time for work but in our 5 years together had never actually just gone somewhere together for the sake of going.  It felt strange to swap out my professional camera for my touristy point and shoot.  We had an amazing time in Italy (I love Rome more than anywhere… except New York of course) And while we saw tons of amazing art and architecture I was mildly obsessed with the hanging laundery everywhere:

So charming!  Fellow New Yorkers- can we make this happen here?  Too gross?  What if I just went around delivering old sheets and clothes lines to strangers to hang out their apartments?  Well, I won’t go that far.  The obsession carried over to Burano (Venitian lagoon island)

where I ate this aggressive plate of pasta

Ever since visiting Florence in high school and being denied the chance to climb the dome of the Duomo (they just happened to be doing repairs that day) I’ve wanted to go back and do it.  Definitely a “touresty” thing to do.. don’t care.. the experience and view of florence and Tuscany was worth the wait:

view from the ground.  The little topper to the dome is where you pop out on a balcony after climbing several hundred stairs around the inside of the dome.

When I got back home I worked with comedian Amy Schumer.  Amy and I have worked together on several projects over the years- along with the best makeup artist ever: the lovely and talented Ms. Kim White.  Check out her great work.

Amy is incredibly talented and funny, and a total babe, as seen here:

And so fun to work with!  I love her comedy and always have such a great time shooting with her.  Our shoots get less appropriate every time we work together.  As seen here:

Amy is one of several comedians I am shooting for a personal project… more to come on that!

Highlights: February 2012

Who’s the dork in the head phones?? Me! And I’m smiling ear to ear because I am about to be taken up for a flight over the Rocky Mountains in a 4 seater plane by Blog Frog co-founder and Licensed pilot Holly Hamann.  I shot Holly and her business partner Rustin Banks in Boulder Co in early February for a feature in the April issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.  Many thanks to Holly and Rustin and Courtney Walsh for the great shoot and a special thanks to Holly for the amazing flight!

Also in February, Michael Ian Black’s book “You’re Not Doing It Right” hit the stores with my photo on the cover!

Here’s the book cover:

And here is my other photo that appears inside the book:

I shot both these photos at Michael’s Connecticut home last July.  I’m thrilled to see my work in stores and in association with such a cool project!  The book is really great.. Michael Ian Black is about as witty and smart as they come and this book is him at his best … go buy it!

Highlights: January 2012

I kicked off the new year with 5 days in Texas shooting southern authors at Kathy L. Patrick’s Girl Friend’s Weekend.  Girlfriend’s Weekend is a literary convention hosted by Kathy L Patrick, Founder of the Pulpwood Queens- the largest book club in the country.  Kathy is a small town girl with a huge personality and enough power and influence to draw lots of NY Times best Selling authors to the (hard to get to) tiny town every year for this event.

Here’s a couple of my portraits of Robert Hicks, author of “The Widow of the South”

And here’s one of John Berendt, Author of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”

And here’s one of Wade Rouse, author of “I’m Not The Biggest Bitch In This Relationship”  The book is about couples and their neurotic relationships with their rescue dogs… hmm.. sound like anyone you know?? 

Lots more from Girl Friend’s weekend on my website: nataliebrasington.com under “travel portrait stories”

Happy New Year?

What’s the statue of limitation on wishing someone “Happy New Year?”  I’m guessing April is probably outside of that window??  So, I’m a terrible blogger, facebook updater and tweeter… but I’m trying to get better!  Although I’ve failed big time to keep anyone updated, I have had a really great, busy start to the year (or first tax quarter… however you want to look at it… Im still preping my 2011 taxes so I’m thinking in those terms for the next few days)  So, in an attempt to change my ways, I’ll be posting brief monthly highlights for 2012 thus far over the course of the next week.  Happy New Year!!

Latest Album Cover

Shot the hilarious Ms. Rachel Feinstein for her Comedy Central Records album cover.  Go buy it today and thank me later- I assure you she is as funny as she is gorgeous.  And, everybody looks their best with the help of the amazingly talented Ms. Kim White: kimwhitemakeup.com.  Kim- You’re seriously the greatest!  Thanks a million for working with me on this!

So here is the album cover…

 

and here is what you see outside of the crop…

 

 

I think if the album were titled “Manscaping” they would have gone with this shot.  Thanks to the very gracious extras for this shoot, too- Razor Rizzoti who spent most the day in his undies and Will Jimenez who tolerated lots of cheek raking.

Check me out…

I was lucky enough to have both the November and December cover image of Entrepreneur Magazine.  Check out one or the other (depending on how quick your local magazine store owner turns over inventory) on news stands now.  As always,  many thanks to the amazing creative director at Entrepreneur, Megan Roy.  You can see her design blog here:  http://meganroydesign.blogspot.com/

Nat the Builder

This may sound like a fairly simple and fairly obvious idea: I really like making stuff.  About a year ago my boyfriend and I bought a little country get-away house and we’ve been gut renovating it ever since.  Next to photography, and then maybe cooking, my other (and new-found) love it building things. I heart the compressor and nail gun we were lent to use for framing and I find myself wandering away from the Canon Rumors website to look at table saws.  I don’t think the worlds of photography and construction are all that far apart…In both cases you see potential (in a room or on a photo set) and come up with a plan to make that vision come to life.  Here are some blast from the past throwback shoots where I (in a very literal way) let my inner builder drive the shoot.

I shot the CEO of TerraCycle for last year’s “100 brilliant companies” feature in Entrepreneur Magazine.  I wanted to visually convey the company’s message “garbage” is a valuable resource.  With the help of a couple exploited helpful Terracycle interns we built this magical garbage pre and post-consumer goods forest.

A while before that, I shot identical twin brothers, and owners of submarine.com, Dan and Josh Braun.  I walked into an office that was in the midst of being torn apart and relocated.. literally a construction site.  One facet of the company is reprinting old creepy/eerie comic books; so I played up the “creepy” idea and found a door to prop up between drywall studs, some chairs, an old lamp (strobe head inside to make it look like a practical source).   Along with the minimal set design, the lighting does its fair share of the building.

And, in this case, shooting WingZone CEO, Matt Friedman, in Atlanta GA, the lighting (with the help of some light set dressing) was definitely the General Contractor of the shoot.  A take-out fast food chain kitchen took on a new life with a brightly lit meat cooler, small source light on the subject and just a touch of fill.  Even chicken wings can look edgy