The Ivy Street School - Best Friends Shoot

MAB Community Services shoot.  July 16, 2014

It all started with a prom....

In 2010, Barbara Salisbury the intrepid and talented CEO of MAB Community Services, (Mass. Association for the Blind and the Visually Impaired and the Ivy Street School, (Thriving after Brain Injury) hired me to photograph their annual prom.  It was an amazing experience and there began a relationship professional and personal which continues to this day.

Have you heard about the great work being done at MAB and the Ivy Street School? Please visit there website at: www.mabcommunity.org

Most recently, I collaborated with Barbara on a photographic study on friendship at the Ivy Street School.  These amazing kids!  I photographed them with their best friends and the end result will be printing these images, life-size as wall-paper. I credit the kids and Barbara's creative spirit in realizing this wonderful project.

With the guidance and talent of designer Edie Twining, the project is a continuation of Barbara's remarkable vision for the school. Edie's work already adds an element of color and fun to the school environment right down to the striking floors. The multipurpose room where these images will paper the walls serves as a positive space for the kids. Often dismissed and overlooked elsewhere, here these kids are encouraged, respected and now will be surrounded by the most positive images possible: Friends with Friends!

I absolutely love photographing for MAB and the Ivy Street School. I’m very grateful to my friend and CEO Barbara Salisbury for hiring me to document these amazing students/clients.

MAB.Best Friends

MAB.Best Friends

MAB.Best Friends

MAB.Best Friends

Betts Family, March 1, 2014,Bedford Ma

Betts Family, March 1, 2014,Bedford Ma

MAB.Best Friends

MAB.Best Friends

Knowing I needed an assistant, asking Judy (West) to work with me was a no-brainer. An extraordinary photographer in her own right, she’s also fun to work with and LOVES kids. We had a blast, as you can see!

MAB BF Blog_1001

Barbara Salisbury, CEO MAB Community Services - www.mabcommunity.org

Judy West, Assistant and Photographer extraordinaire. www.judywestphotography.com

Edie Twining Design.  www.twiningdesign.com

Anna and Nick’s day of reading and lounging! Portraits in Dar’s Studio!

Oddly enough, Anna found me on-line, googling!  Her “googling”, took her to a Boston photo-lab site that had my name listed as a referral.  I use the word odd because I find it rare that I actually book a client that hasn’t been referred to me by a past client.  Needless to say I was delighted that Anna chose to work with me! Anna also found her makeup artist online too; Ligia Centeno. I'd say she had a good ONLINE experience!

Anyone can get nervous before a photo shoot but the minute Nick showed up all of Anna's nerves melted away.

These two are so ridiculously cute together! You can tell that Nick likes to make Anna laugh, he is quite a character!

The idea for the portraits, or so I thought was to shoot sweet, timeless and classic portraits; she wanted to capture them as a couple I had no idea we’d have such a blast!

Anna and Nick enjoy their downtime by snuggling together and reading.

                        The studio became a lounge area.                        They were so comfortable, I just shot and they read to each other.

Lucy of course, was a big hit, with her sweetness and licks-they used the pic of her to end the album we made!

At the end, we thought, why not, let's go outside too! It was cold...we were done!                         What a treat! We're working on making custom prints and an album; I think I'll make 2 copies!