London Perrantes
UVA basketball standout London at John Paul Jones arena. He was super low key and funny. Thanks Amy Jackson and Bill LeSueur for your patience, help, and direction on the shoot.
Kibiriti Majuto
Amy Jackson and I had the opportunity the other day to photograph 2 amazing students from Charlottesville High School for the cover of C-ville Weekly. Kibiriti Majuto (pictured here) was kind, thoughtful and easy to work with. A refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he has become a leader in this community. Kibiriti is the senior class president at CHS, and the president of the schools Amnesty International Club. Read about the trip he led Washington DC to lobby for refugee rights here. Thanks Bill for your help and direction 8-))
Rachel and Erica in the NICU for the UVA Health System
We photographed Rachel Nauman and Erica Weiler a few weeks ago for Lynn Woodson and Mary Michaela Murray at the UVA Health System NICU. These 2 ladies could not have been more pleasant and easier to work with. Thank you so much Amy Jackson Photography for your help and support and UVA Health System for the amazing care and compassion you give to these children and their families.
Drag Queen Max Miss Everything
We shot this image a little while back for the cover of the festival issue of C-Ville Weekly. The shoot was a lot of fun 8-)). The art director (Max March) brought the pink backdrop, and Max Miss Everything brought the dress, the cape, the patience, and the glamor. We used 2 lights on set. The main, a 20.5 inch Profoto Softlight and the fill, a Hensel ringflash to make the colors really pop. Thanks Amy www.amyjackson.co for your help, creativity, and support.
Blacko aka Robert Douglas
Really nice Shoot the other day for C-Ville Weekly. Robert showed up at the house with his daughter. He was so easy going and friendly. Thanks Bill for the creative direction, and of course Amy for the help www.amyjackson.co.
New Portfolios
I am actively seeking new work and have updated my books. I would love to come meet with you and share the photographs. Please give me a call - even if you don't have any current photographic needs.
AccuTec Blades for The Ivy Group
Recently, Stephen Burden and The Ivy Group , a full service ad agency in Charlottesville Virginia, have done a reworking of the AccuTec brand. We were so excited when The Ivy Group asked us to shoot in their sprawling Verona, Virginia factory. Everyone was so helpful and nice. Thanks Stephen and Siska for your hard work and making the shoot productive and fun. And, thanks as always Amy Jackson for putting up with me. It turned out to be about a 14 hour day.
Ink Well (maybe)
My mom found this in a little store in Jim Thorpe PA and loved it. We are not sure what it is but the texture and color are so nice 8-))
Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center (Regan)
A little while back, we were shooting for a promotional piece at the UVA Cancer Center. This little girl walked by the set. We all stopped and looked at her. She was curious about what was going on and excited by the camera. She wanted to take a picture. Why not? Right. So we stopped and spent just a little bit of time with her before she went for her treatment. After her treatment, she came back, we put her in the set and got a photo of her for her family. Over the years shooting in the hospital I have met a handful of kids that have had to deal with serious illness. Looking at this girl, and having an idea of the kind of discomfort and pain she has had to go through is just heartbreaking. It makes you have to hold back the tears. But, there is something about these kids that is so special. You can just see it when you look in their eyes. Maybe it is because of their experiences with illness, the people (professionals, family, and friends), the sacrifice and the commitment treatment requires. I don't know.
Mirabelle for UVA Health System
A while back we did a shoot with the University of Virginia Health System. Daphne Latham was the stylist and one day brought her daughter Mirabelle. Mirabelle is a great talent, she sings, acts, does stand up comedy. I am pretty sure is headed for fame. Anyways, she ended up modeling in this photo for us and was a complete natural. Here are some more images from the shoot. http://www.jacksonsmith.photography/portraits-with-mitch-and-susanna/ Thanks to Mitch www.circle120.com, Daphne, Susanna, and Amy www.amyjackson.co, for making the shoot so successful and so much fun 8-))
Space Heater Element
Each year over Thanksgiving my family heads down to Carolina Beach, NC to spend the Holiday with my mom's brother Joe his wife and 2 girls. At some point during the stay we take a walk to the ruins of the Dow Chemical plant back in the woods by the Cape Fear river. One year during the walk I picked up this rusty heater element because I thought it would be interesting as a photograph. I then decided that I did not feel like carrying it so I put it down against a stump and left it there. The next year we took the same walk and it was still there in the same spot.
Fishing Lure
Fishing Lure - This is another object from my mom's collection. She found it along the bank of Bear Creek near Jim Thorpe, PA
Apex Clean Energy take 2
I love shooting the company photos for APEX Clean Energy. They added another 80 or so employees in the last year (what) and are a pretty amazing group of people. Thanks so much to Brooke and Dahvi with APEX for scheduling and being so helpful with anything we needed. Heather Romberger (www.honeyryderboutique.com) and Angie Ferguson (www.cvilleserenityspa.com) for your support and making the employees look great. And of course, Amy Jackson (www.amyjackson.co) for making everything better.
To see a few more of these APEX heads please visit my workbook site at (CLICK HERE).
Jonathan Kipnis Lab for Vitals
Having the opportunity to shoot and get to know the research staff, the doctors, and the patients at UVa. Medical Center is always a pleasure. We recently were once again in the Kipnis labs doing work for The Medical Alumni Associations publication Vitals www.uvamedalum.org. Antoine Louveau, Jony Kipnis, and the rest of the crew are doing some amazing work in the field of neuroimmunology and have "opened up whole new areas of study about how the brain works and the influence of the immune system on diseases of the brain". (Linda Kobert - copywriter for Vitals) BIG. Anyways, Amy and I had a great time and were pretty psyched about the photos. Thanks Anne, Liz and Linda for putting together a great publication, and Amy for all your help and support 8-)).
Guinness Cap
Cap - From a signed and dated bottle of Guinness Stout gifted to my parents on the day of my birth. They had saved the bottle for 6 years. Then, one day my dad was working in the yard and asked me to go and get him a beer. When I did not find a PBR in the fridge, and without understanding the significance, I popped the top on the Guinness and took it out to him.
Dahila Lithwick and Cookie Monster
"What kind of Muppet are you, chaos or order?" Chaos Theory - A Unified Theory of Muppet Types is the Slate article Dahlia wrote that inspired this weeks cover of C-Ville Weekly. Dahlia was so nice and easy to work with. Obviously a pretty awesome person. Thanks Bill for the concept and dressing up as Cookie Monster. Here is some more of Dahlia's work with The Slate