This is actually not her first foray into professional photography; during the summer of 2006 she assisted Boothbay Harbor photographer Bob Mitchell at weddings in the Boothbay Harbor-Southport Island area.

It’s probably envitable that Angie, who grew up in Jefferson (near Damariscotta), would end up working in some aspect of the arts. With a painter mom (Mary) who teaches high shcool art at Erskine Academy in China and wrote a rap song about the principals of design and a dad (Joe) who is an accomplished Maine stock and marine photographer with work published internationally, creativity is in her genes.

Informally, her immersion in art started at an early age, as both of her parents are also professional potters; many summers were spent making vases, urns, etc., that Mary and Joe sold through craft fairs, co-ops and as custom orders. Angie and her younger sister, Nina, helped out, “decorating” pieces with brown scribbles.

Angie’s formal training was at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design  in Boston, where she took courses in a wide range of discliplines (sculpture, glass, jewelry, ceramics) while pursuing a major in photography. With a focus on fine art photography Angie studied printing techniques, large format cameras and alternative photographic methods. During a semester abroad, she studied at Burren College of Art in Ireland, where she experimented with natural materials and mixed media, including this meticulous arrangement of flies:

Immediately after college, Angie took a summer off from the arts to travel to Sitka, Alaska, where she worked at the Alaska Raptor Center, a rehabilitation center for injured bald eagles and other birds of prey on Baranof Island. Perhaps it wasn’t a total vacation from the arts, as she felt compelled to photograph the “cute, fuzzy mice” stored on site for feeding the center’s hawks, kestrels and owls.

Leaving Alaska before winter set in, Angie returned to Maine, settling in the Portland area, where she managed an after-school arts program for elementary students, an experience which made her pretty handy with pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, Elmer’s glue and glitter.  In the meantime, she continued to pursue personal work in photography, exhibiting in galleries accross the Northeast, including the Portland Museum of Art (Biennial Show), and juried exhibits across the nation.  She has a show which opens next month at Khaki Gallery in Boston’s SOWA arts district. More details about the show are at Angie’s blog.

In her spare time she enjoys travel, camping, hiking, cooking, printmaking, alternative photographic process, and mixed media. And, most recently, she and fiance’, Tim, tackled the challenges of home ownership, buying a circa 1864 cape in South Portland, where they are painting, rehabbing hardwood floors, and gardening.

Below are two of Angie’s images from 2008 Commencement at Bowdoin College, one shot from ground level in front of Massachusetts Hall, the oldest building on campus, and the second, shot from the roof of Hubbard Hall, a campus landmark.

Back in 2001 when I first launched MicheleStapleton.com, choices for portfolios were very limited; most photographers purchased a nice black leather portfolio at an art supply store and then produced twenty or so custom enlargements to slip into its clear pages.

However, the advent of digital photography and the explosion in digital books has completely redefined what passes for a portfolio; today photographers can produce custom coffee table books, many can have full photo covers.

I stumbled upon White House Customs Color’s press printed books about this time last year, and immediately was a fan. I upload digital files from my computer in Maine to WHCC’s lab in Minnesota. Within a week UPS is at my door with the finished book. You just can’t beat that kind of service.

And, the quality is superior to so many other press printed books I’ve had the chance to examine. The price is maybe half what I would have paid in 2001 for a nice art store binder and prints. So, it’s the perfect intersection of high quality, reasonable cost and quick turnaround.

Working with Dana Baldwin, a very talented graphic designer in Brunswick who also happens to be a neighbor, I enjoyed being part of the bookmaking process. I started by selecting 120 or so images for Dana to work with. From that group she picked about half for the final book, selecting images for  impact and how they worked together on spreads.

I’ve always appreciate the talent that a graphic designer brings to the table since I have a sister who is one, but I’ve not always gotten an inside look at the designer’s thought process. It was fun to hear Dana explain why pictures A, B, and C worked together on a spread, but pictures A, B and D definitely did not.

First Dana designed a general book, for commercial and editorial clients. It features a sampling of  landscape, portraiture, higher education, editorial, commercial and architecture.

After that book was sent to White House, Dana designed a book featuring solely education work. For the cover she suggested one of my very favorite photos ever, from commencement at the University of Maine.   It has rained the day before the outdoor ceremony at Alfond Stadium, and puddles of water on the track produced artsy reflections of the graduates walking to their seats. It was a gamble, because most folks will probably have no idea what the cover is or how it was produced (a picture heavily Photoshopped? a graphic?), but I’m so glad she recommended it, as it turned out looking great. The gritty texture of the track provides a speckled backdrop for the outlines of cap-and-gowned graduates walking by.

The books feature very large photos–often just one per page, and Dana finished the package off with nice details; for example, my name and new logo are on the spine.

If you’re an art buyer, magazine photo editor, or other potential client and want to see my work in a form other than what’s online, please drop me an email or call and we can ship a portfolio to you right away.

The new blog will allow me to run photos much larger, install my own logo, and make many more choices that wouldn’t be available with my old Blogger site.  

Being totally new to WordPress and the custom photography theme, I’m stumbling a bit. Hopefully it won’t take too long to find my way around.  

Also, we’ve imported some of the old Blogger posts, which worked for the most part, but the photos didn’t import. So, there is still a bit of tweaking to do to get things right.

Thank-you for your patience as I get things squared away.

She came up with a handful of possible new logos and I shared them in a very hush-hush manner with a few close friends. One by one they all commented on one logo in particular. Then, throwing caution to the wind I posted all the possible choices to a professional photographers’ forum with about five thousand members, and polled folks there. Again, there was a clear winner, a very elegant logo which was a very clever combination of a “m” and “s.”

Today’s project for the rebrand effort was creating business cards. Starting with a design framework set up by Lisa, Dana Baldwin, a graphic designer who is my neighbor is Brunswick, finalized the cards for upload to the printer.

For now we produced two square cards; the front of each card carries my new logo and a photo; on the backside (the salmony-red side) is all my contact information and a larger image of the logo.

I couldn’t be more pleased with the final design and can’t wait for the finished cards to arrive in about ten days.