Karen Swensen, NECN News Anchor

Karen Swensen, NECN (New England Cable News). Co-anchor
of “Good Morning Live”, “New England Midday”, and anchors
“NECN Healthweek.” Taken in her Boston suburb home.

One thing that I thoroughly enjoy about this work is the people I get to meet. This last assignment was no different. One of my clients contacted me about shooting a few celebrities for some personal lifestyle articles. Well, I love meeting new people, shooting on location, and it doesn’t hurt that the celebrities turned out to be attractive local women TV personalities. It’s hard to take a bad picture if you start with gold.

The above image was shot at Karen Swensens home for the article. She was a very gracious host, obviously influenced by her New Orleans background and general southern hospitality. It’s not easy to open your home to 5 strangers, yet she treated us almost like family, bringing snacks and drinks, and a warm hug upon leaving. It reminds me of how I’m treated on my trips down south. I need to get down there more often!

The light coming in the kitchen area from the late afternoon sun provided a nice feel for the room behind her. I had her lean on a wall between the two rooms, and used a soft box on the right for fill. I would have liked to use an accent light on the left, maybe plus a half stop just for separation and highlights, but there was no place to put it without having it show in the frame, or be at a bad angle.

After a few more shots in the house around the kitchen table, we headed outside with her daughter. The light was getting low in the sky, barely making it thought the trees, and providing a cool shade blue color cast. Shooting on the edge with slow shutter speeds, lots of ‘kid’ motion, I lost a lot of the images to focus and motion blur. But I figured that would be the case, so I over shot the scene to increase the number of keepers.

~ by sfaust on September 20, 2007.