Geoffrey Smith, Sculptor – Artist Portrait Series

“He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands, and his head, and his heart is an artist.” – St Francis of Assisi. This quote in the opening pages of Geoffrey’s book fits this man perfectly.

Portraits by Thomas Winter

I have wanted to meet Geoffrey for some time, I was interested in the artist behind the giant sailfish in downtown Stuart FL. This morning we got together at his studio in Stuart for some conversation and photo’s.

Portraits by Thomas Winter

Geoffrey lives in a world of bronze and clay, creating his molds with detail and purpose. I had no idea of the entire scope of work involved to creating a piece.

Portraits by Thomas Winter

He showed me a movie about the making of the Stuart Sailfish which was very very interesting. In case you don’t know about which piece I am referring too, below is my art of his art, probably the most photographed piece of art in Martin County.

Thomas Winter Photography

His sculptures are intricate and amazing. “Each piece has its own sense of pilgrimage” writes author Michael Sabbeth in his book about Geoffrey.

Portraits by Thomas Winter

It was great spending time with Geoffrey and getting to know a little bit about him and his work.

http://www.geoffreysmith.com/

-tw

Inside The Bridge

Today I got a tour of the inside of the Roosevelt Bridge. Who knew there was an “inside”?  The DOT and other officials occasionally need to inspect the inside of the bridge. So I went up with them and a few locals including Commissioner Troy McDonald of the City of Stuart climbing up the ladder behind me…

The tour was led by George Denti, the project administrator for Cardno TBE, they are the contractors who also built the EC bridge and the new Indian Street Bridge.

Looking south, you can see the rise in the elevation, and the turn to the right…

Here is one of the slip joints in the bridge that allow it to expand and contract.

George was wrapping up while we waited to “de-bridge”..

Lindsay Garritson – American Pianist

As pianist, violinist, and vocalist, Lindsay Garritson is another great example of the talent that has roots and ties to our community. 

As winner of several concerto competitions, Lindsay has performed with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, University City Symphony, and the European Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Most recently, she was awarded second prize in the 2011 Montreal International Piano Competition and first prize at the 2010 Mozarteum International Chopin Competition in Salzburg. She recently received her Masters Degree at the Yale School of Music studying with renowned pianist Boris Berman and is currently on staff as an Accompanist at Yale.

She engaged me for some portrait work while she was home for the holidays and performances with the Atlantic Classical Orchestra.

I love working with musicians, they are always inspiring. They also become easily distracted by their instruments and tend to forget my presence….

Working around her concerts last week, we were able to get some time in her home and at the Lyric to make these great images.

Lindsay was a pleasure to work with, her beauty, personality, and talent blend perfectly…

-tw

gone fishing….

Last night I went fishing with Capt. John Meskauskas of Stuart Fly Fishing…

Ok, well I really didn’t go fishing, but rather went out to make a portrait of Capt. John…

Since making environmental portraits is my specialty, I took John into his work space, in and around the water. So we went to the sandbar area just inside the St Lucie Inlet in Stuart FL.

Pacing ourselves against the tide and the sunset was the game plan, and it worked out just perfectly. Below is a production shot…and yes, my gear is in the water, just above the rapidly rising water…

It was actually a great night to be out on and in the water, real peaceful and relaxing. There were so many birds flying low and fish jumping around us. A much different scene from the weekend boat crowds.

John was great to work with, really easy going and relaxed…

my favorite image of the set…

 

to learn more about John and Stuart Fly Fishing: http://www.stuartflyfishing.com/

to see more of my environmental portraits: http://www.thomaswinter.com/

a behind the scenes video of the shoot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns907W-FU4E

-tw

A Narrative Portrait – How Light Can Transform a Room

A recent portrait of Tony George, a local Stuart FL Attorney, provides the perfect example of how well placed, crafted, and shaped light can can transform a room from a drab space into something interesting with depth and dimension.

A pre-production visit to Tony’s office revealed a tight space, but with lots of details that he wanted to include in the image. I took this shot during that short visit to get a feel for the composition and light setup I was going to use.

To illuminate the various objects in the room I used 7 speedlights. I mounted 4 with tight snoots up in the ceiling, 2 on either side of me, and Tony’s key light was off to camera left, a SB900 inside a lastolite soft box.

Here is the final image, we were both very happy with the result:

Again, before and after:

Follow the link to Tony’s homepage where you can see that the image is not your typical lawyer portrait: http://anthonydgeorgejr.com/

To see more of my narrative portraiture please visit: http://www.thomaswinter.com/

 

..tw