Father Dan

Last Friday despite the non-existent snow event, I ventured out of the house to photograph Fr. Dan McLellan at Immaculate Conception Church in Durham, NC. Cyndy Falgout is one of Father Dan’s parishioners and she happened to go onto the church’s Web site recently and saw a photo of him there. Unlike his actual warm, friendly demeanor, his head shot looks cold and imposing. She hired me to change that. A good portrait is something almost everyone could use.

On the left is a good old, clean backdrop image for various uses. Then I got to take Father Dan around to some of the most photogenic spots in the church. This is the part that I love! For the photo of the right we had originally placed him in front of another part of the stained glass window but after shooting it we all realized that Jesus was getting beaten with clubs in the background and we can’t have that. So we moved him over to the right where Jesus looks much happier.

These two work well, I think. The one on the left was kind of tricky because we wanted to include the beautiful wooden cross but it is suspended high in the air. So I got down low which can usually be a bad angle for the human beings to be photographed. But Father Dan looks great. On the right we just had to include Mary since this is an Immaculate Conception church after all.

Finally, I shot a couple of more backdrops just so they would have plenty to choose from. You just have to love the beautiful pipe organ on the left. Cyndy really wanted to include the altar and I am glad we did. The whole shoot lasted maybe 30 minutes and now he will have photographs to use for many different things for years to come. Thanks Father Dan and Cyndy!