Paul Janovitz Photography

Hadestown ~ Hartford, CT 11/19/11

2011-11-19T21:33:00.001-08:00

Tom and Amy Janovitz Get Hitched ~ 7/23/11

2011-07-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

Bow Thayer and The Perfect Trainwreck. LP Promo Shots

2011-07-27T16:20:00.001-07:00

Jeremy called me and asked me if I would take pictures of him and the others. I said "yes". We agreed on a price and there were no complications whatsoever. It really is that simple, people.

Bow Thayer and The Perfect Trainwreck.

2011-07-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

Roadsaw Promo/Lp Tweed 2010 Shoot

2011-07-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

So, the whole time I'm at The Tweed River Festival last year, I'm sweating having one of my nice cameras with me. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But wait...is that Tim Catz I hear from afar? Nope! The mother fucker was right in my ear about how I've known him forever and how that somehow added up to me taking pictures of Roadsaw for nothing.

Well, as most of you know me, things of this nature seldom flush. I told him it was either his automobile or Two G's. Oddly enough, he opted to give me the cash over the Pinto. I really thought I was helping him out, but he kind of missed that pitch.

The Roadsaws live in different places and this was a rarity to have them all together. So we got neck deep, ultimately, in The Mighty Tweed and took these.

Anzalone/Peterson 4.23.11

2011-05-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

This Man was about to throw down.

Tweed Unloaded IV: The Tim Gearan Band

2010-08-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

Tweed Unloaded III: Bow Thayer and the Perfect Trainwreck

2010-08-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

Tweed Unloaded II

2010-08-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

Tweed Unloaded!

2010-08-17T20:46:00.001-07:00

Aperture/f stops/Depth of field

2010-03-31T10:38:00.001-07:00

So let us gaze into the bizarre, seemingly backwards ways of aperture. The small numbers on the lens represent the largest opening and, conversely, the big number is the small opening. Why? In the interest of complete candor, I have no clue. You would think that, after more than a decade of shooting seriously and wanting to know all there is to know, that I would be able to tell you. But I don't, so let's just move on. However, let me just add that, as soon as I have published this article, no sooner shall I have researched aperture in its entirety. But here are some of the things I have learned along the way.

Light allowance, depth of field, speed and focal length. These are just some of the terms used when discussing aperture. Look at it this way for starters. Inside your lens is a ring that opens and closes to limit the amount of light allowed through to the film (or "chip" if we're talking digital), much like the pupil of your eye. Around the outside of the lens are numbers that range from f22 to f2.8, generally speaking, that control that ring. Between the focal length of your lens, the aperture selections, the shutter speeds and the ISO of the film you are using, there is much you can control. But, though there is that much control, there is also a great deal of adjusting to the situation at hand. If you are shooting at noon in July in the middle of a football field without a cloud in the sky and no flash, chances are you will have to use one of the larger number f stops, or smaller openings. If you are shooting at the same field at the same time in October under heavy overcast and no flash, turn those numbers around. For the former you will want to use a slow film speed like ISO 200 and a faster shutter speed. For the latter...turn those numbers around. It's a lot of that. Flipping the logic around depending on the situation.

In terms of focal length, that is a discussion more of depth of field for the purpose of this article. The longer your lens (such as a 105mm vs a 24mm), the greater the range of control over depth of field you can have. If you open a long lens all the way up, the depth of field will be shallow. So let's talk a bit about what depth of field is. Well, it is much like it sounds. It is the range, or depth, of infinite focus. And, though photography is not three dimensional, you are kind of working with different planes. There are layers, rather than visible third dimensions. So when you are adjusting the aperture, not only are you adjusting the light allowance, you are also manipulating those planes. If you are doing a head shot with a 105mm lens you will want to shut the lens down as far as you can. Unless, of course, you only really want the eyes, and everything else on that same plane, in focus. The more in the shot you want in focus, the smaller the opening you will go for. And the opposite is true as well.

One of the greatest ways to learn and, more importantly, see what aperture settings can do is to play around with it. Use your standard 50mm lens on a 35mm SLR and take multiple pictures of the same thing. A still life is best for this exercise as it is less likely to be moved. And start by going from one extreme of f22 to f2.8 or wider, like f1.5 if possible, to see the dramatic differences. And once you start to get a handle on that (and then later the use of ISO ratings and shutter speeds), you will want to use your camera manually for the most part.

Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged.

New Content

2010-03-24T22:46:00.000-07:00

Those of you who approved of this will be held accountable if something goes inexplicably wrong. If all goes well and according to my grand plan, I will take sole credit, soul be damned.

The new "proposal" is to take some of my more teaching aspects of what I do at examiner to this space. And I suppose that I am so inclined. I'm thinking I'll just pickup where I left off. A more in depth perspective on each topic will be covered and questions are encouraged though I can't guarantee I'll be able to answer them all. But I'm not that popular so it shouldn't be a problem.

In the meantime, if there are topics you specifically want answers to, then ask away. But refer back to what I just said about answering them. And, hey...let's have some fun, OK??!!!!

Another Janovitz Chose the Wrong Profession!!

2010-03-09T13:48:00.000-08:00

And Scott wasn't the last of us boys to get involved in such foolishness. Truth be told, I love that we are all songwriters. It definitely was motivation for me having Bill as my older brother. Everywhere I went on tour I heard essentially the same exact questions in interviews. But it never bothered me except to say that I found it terribly disappointing that that was the only thing "writers" had on their list.

The thing that impresses me the most about Scott, and perhaps even more so Tom (aka Sodafrog~post to follow), is that he has been able to grow as a songwriter, so much so that his music is a lot different than either Billy or me. Admittedly, my songs in the Cold Water Flat days were closer in genre to Buffalo Tom than either that of Scott and The Russians or Tom~Sodafrog. Being any of us as human beings has its ups and downs, but being a Janovitz in this town as a musician...well let's just say that the names proceeding yours is always that of the rest of the boys. I've seen it a million times. There are writers who are so predictable, that you could call them "Old Faithful." Some are such fans of one that they seem to resent the rest. It's a weird thing.

But each time I go see or listen to any one of them, I become so proud. For whatever reason, my siblings are all very talented individuals...and I use that word in its literal sense. And, if that weren't enough, they are also very giving folks. And the latter far outweighs the former.

And these pictures tell that story of a giving person...to me, at least. What I mean by that, and I addressed it in the post about my brother Bill, is that, if you are the real deal, you will be giving a great deal of yourself on a nightly basis. And that is so exhausting in my experience. Frankly, at the time, it was not something I could sustain as a touring musician. If folks who make a living exposing their soul each time they perform don't take a lot of time off and pursue some sort of other outlet in a different direction, they will die young. And there is plenty of evidence to support my argument.

I realize one could easily say that this post is ridiculous. That I feel the way I do because of my relationship to Scott. And I realize that pictures are just that. They are still shots and don't tell the whole story. But they capture moments. And that's how I try to live. Moment by moment. And when I look at Scott here, I see two things right away. I see a great performer and someone who isn't just singing about liking big buts (though I think Scott has always been a fan of the big butt...you should have seen the girl who asked him to the Sadie Hawkins dance). There is way more substance.

I have no doubt that I find these types of connections with my brothers because they are just that. But it's these same connections that were and are made for me with the music I choose to listen to like a lot of us. It's just a lot easier when you don't think your siblings suck. And I don't think Scott sucks. On the contrary, it is quite good in my humble opinion. And the Russians need your help so that their record sees the light of day. And the deadline is soon. Support local music. It's right under your nose.

(someday I will learn how to use html and post the link right here to get to the Kickstarter website to donate some money towards the Russians LP. In the meantime it is right over there on the right) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

2010-03-05T18:05:00.000-08:00

Alone Pt. 3

2010-03-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

She looks lost and innocent enough to believe whoever takes her hand to lead her to her family. She has an old soul. Every time I look at her, I feel helpless. Let me project some more of my own personal baggage. It seems as though she is looking for her mom at some event. And when I look at her eyes, I feel like Cameron Frye when he looked at that painting and gets drawn in by the little girls face. Not that I am comparing my work to a master and leading pioneer of impressionism like Seurat. But the part of this series that is such a great exercise for me is that it teaches me to see further than taking pictures has already done.

But again I return to the infinite aloneness we are all in the midst of. Right now, we are on a planet that is in a constant state of evolution. And a lot of people are not aware of the fact that we are still coming out of an ice age. It's that. That aloneness. In some ways, we are totally insignificant in our existence. Regardless or your religious or personal beliefs, what could we possibly matter in the grand scheme of things? To think otherwise is, to me, so sickeningly pompous. But here we are together.

I believe we all have three parts to us. The flesh...the anatomy of the animals that we are. Then we are also comprised of the mind. But the two are also, more often than not, inextricable. The third is that part of us that we are able to separate entirely. To observe ourselves. And that is where this whole thing rests. In that part of "us" that stands there and realizes that what we just said or did, for instance, is utterly ridiculous. We do it all the time. We talk to others close to us and therapists about it in hopes that we are not as ostensibly insane as we think we are. Or, more frighteningly, how insane we know ourselves to be. We are. We are all insane. And the sooner we all admit it, the better off we will be.

If we were able to share with someone our experiences...the way we experience life, we wouldn't need all these self help books (And in the interest of candor, I am writing one myself). It would be like "The Green Mile" where Paul Edgecomb takes John Coffey's hand. John says "...I got's to show you a little bit of what it's like for me each day..." If we could simply take one another's hand and just send it along through that channel so that someone else can actually "Walk a Mile" in your shoes we would stop judging others almost entirely. We would be better people. But we can't. So we write songs, paint or create in some way an expression of ourselves. To show the insides of you to another. And when we get close to conveying that to another person and that is reciprocated we call it love.

Giant Kings!!

2010-02-03T21:17:00.000-08:00

Jesus, man!! If any of these faces are familiar, you too have paid far too little to be able to say that.

The story behind The Giant Kings isn't entirely clear to me at all. But that allows me to indulge my already ahead of itself brain and just see what happens. As I stated in my profile, which seems more of a disclaimer then anything else, some of this will be true or at least be based in truth.

I know Duke's real first name. And I'm sure there are many of us that do. However, you are on your own with getting it out of him. But that has nothing to do with the story.

It seems as though, in no explicable manner mind you, that Chris Cote discovered his voice later in life then I can understand. How do you not know you can do that until now? Or at least somewhat recently. But I'm certain there isn't a song he can't sing in whatever key you fucking feel like throwing at him. He'd probably have no idea if on one night the song was in A and the next night the same song was in E Minor. He just finds it in there and out it comes. And he's easily one of the funniest guys I know. Something else he might find lucrative. If only...

So one day, Duke (whom we will herein refer to as "Duke") hears Chris and that's where it all began, at least in a more immediate sense. The thing is, if you were to be able to go into "Duke's" "Library of Music" inside his head, and how it all comes together when he plays, you will find endless names and genres and styles and countries you never heard of.

So how do you realize a dream?? Well, it certainly helps to know the likes of any number of folks in this town with talent in spades. And the cast of characters in The Giant Kings is just one collection of them. And there are so many more. You can find more here on my pages as well as just going out and looking for it. That's right...look for it! Its there, man.

The Giant Kings cover a lot of terrain. I'm still hoping, begging, pleading and, at this point kind of demanding, Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come." Between me and the hundred or so others in attendance, there are hundreds of songs we'd kill to hear. One of the fan favorites is definitely Dr. John's "Such a Night." The restraint that Kevin and "Duke" display during their respective solos is the most enjoyable excruciating experience I've ever had. I once told them both that "being at a Giant Kings show I felt like I was having sex with all of you." Oddly enough, they both took that as huge compliment.

So go see The Giant Kings twice this month and have easily the best sex of your life in front of everyone.

2010-02-03T21:12:00.000-08:00

What was to be?

2010-01-31T03:24:00.000-08:00

Well...this went from being a Buffalo Tom post to more of a Bill Janovitz, Ordained Minister of Rock AND Roll "blog-up."

Admittedly, he's my only big brother. He was the guy who brought The White Album into a house where you really only heard three things regularly. One was The King. Both folks could agree on that one (they did at least for the sake of appearances). For dear old dad, it was (and I think, still is) Johnny Mathis (I still put Johnny's Christmas record in my top three along side Vince Giraldi/Charlie Brown and Doris Day). For mom, it was The Carpenters.

So a great deal of the impressions made on me and, sometimes (like in the case of Nina Hagen) forced on me, were made by Bill. We did (and bought, I might add) the whole thing with "Abbey Road/Paul without shoes/Dead/his apparition picked up hitch hiking in the English country side" thing ...hook, line and sinker. We would sit in his room and spin Revolution 9 backwards to hear Ringo say "I killed Paul" with "Paul" being all drawn out and slow like. Those were the days.

But as a photographer, and being only as objective as any brother can be, Bill is the obvious subject. He is the heart and soul of that band like it or not.

The most profound thing about these shots to me is the way he still hurls himself around the stage with an almost unconscionable abandon. Now that he has gracefully looked "the hill" square at the top and said "Fuck You!" it is starting to become too unsettling to watch anymore. So I guess this is also kind of a Swan Song for me.

By the way, I used up two 8 GB cards at this show last June. That's a lot of fucking pictures, in the dummied down way!! There is so much more to chose from. Obviously both Tom and Chris are absent. But don't worry...I'll get to them in a Buffalo Tom post soon.

It truly is something to look your dream right in the face and really question it for the first time. I can only imagine what that must have been like for my brother (or any one of us) to become the "Part Time Man of Rock" (which is bullshit, by the way. He seems more busy these days and maybe even happier playing the way he is now). But he remains the same. In these pictures I see the same dude who, when he got his first Yamaha acoustic (which he still has. I wrote a few songs on that little guitar that made me the wealthy author who writes this for you now), lit up brighter then anything on the tree. That was it. He was through. From that moment on, he had to do one thing. And, in a way, it is a very singular thing. Everything else becomes second or third fiddle...if that.

Then a a great, tremendous, beautiful, caring, loving, adoring, patient (blah, blah, blah) wife. Then later on a daughter. ***NOTE: those of you who know me are aware of my affinity for my niece. Some of you don't yet, but you will soon enough. But for the sake of leaving the "dead horse" alone right now, I'm only going to say this once. She is easily the greatest human being who's ever graced this planet or, perhaps, universe. She also kind of saved my life. I long to see her if for only one reason. She restores my faith in the ability of another human being to love unconditionally.*** Buf Tom/Bill fans have heard a thing or two, both musically and otherwise, about this special person. And then Will...wow. For me it is in some ways like looking at myself. But he is no doubt his father's son. And is tremendous as well, as if the others were not enough. I love going there to visit. You walk into a home filled with love. My niece and nephew make a "b" line for my legs and hug away. Sometimes to the point of happily losing the circulation momentarily. "Life Vicariously" is what I call it.

But I can't sit through even a single song if I don't feel like the person delivering the message is not the real deal. That it's not real. It's not honest. Or...if it is honest, it totally sucks anyway. But for all of his faults, and we ALL have a great many of them, he is all consumed with it. Bill and I survived the experience of being in the same bands for a while. But even then, after rehearsals (and certainly shows) he was spent. He gives you everything he's got and a lot of folks don't appreciate the toll that takes on your soul after 30 years. And Bob Dylan said (and I'm paraphrasing) "...never to give people 100 % because they will always want more."

About three years ago, Buf Tom were playing this very same club. The Figgs, with one of my younger brothers Scott as a new member on keys, were opening the night. Scott and his band The Great Bandini were in the finals that night right down the street so he had to run after the set which was surprisingly short for a Figgs show. Scott's group lost the WBCN (RIP) Rumble (really???) that night and that's a story for another time. There were a lot of friends there that night. BT opened with Treehouse and it was as if they just came from the studio in LA with The Water Sisters in tow. Big Red Letter Day came out in 1993 folks. You do the "Age Math." I was blown away. I couldn't believe that they could still summon that spirit so many years later. Fucking, Bravo!! How to make me proud and maybe greener, Billy Boy.

So, to perhaps sum up and put into more perspective, I will leave you with this. On the night I just mentioned, Billy saw two old timers getting into it right there in front of him. He said (and I'm paraphrasing again) "Hey man...there's nothing I find more depressing then two middle age guys fighting at a rock club..."

2010-01-31T02:25:00.001-08:00

The last Monday...

2009-10-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

And so it is.
It came and
went very ceremoniously. It was something of the circus you might have imagined. But it was, as Karen Springer adequately described, church for a lot of us. The Good Reverend and his Choir were giving their last sermon at Toad. If the powers that be would have allowed us to, we would have closed down Toad and sang our way over to Atwoods and just spent the week there. People cried relentlessly at the end. There were also engagements made. There was a woman from Germany there by her self on her last night in Boston. Nice choice, lady. She probably made life long friends. I know I have.

Come see Tim Gearan and his band over at
Atwoods 877 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 617.864.2792
$5 cover.
Good food, great people.
http://www.atwoodstavern.com/index.php

...and a cast of characters.

2009-10-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

Alone pt. 2

2009-09-05T15:35:00.000-07:00

It's been challenging for me to not tell who or what is in the shots here as part of the "Alone" series. But that seems to me to perhaps be part of the point. To leave it as it is and not tell too much about who it is or where it was taken. This shot continues to strike me in a variety of different ways each time I view it. As of this writing, I see a caged animal. Much like an animal in distress as it is being captured in it's natural habitat. Often times in the pictures you see of animals being trapped they seem to be trying to ward off the tools that are doing them wrong. A lot of the time their own young are there or the other members of their pack. In this shot I can picture ropes being thrown around him and this is the moment where he realizes that it is hopeless. He seems to be crying out to his maker "Why have you forsaken me?" In a way, that is, to me, exactly the moment I saw. We express ourselves as humans in so many ways. But certainly in times of distress, we cry.

High Holidays

2009-09-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying that Jake Brennan and my brother Scott are heterosexual men. But they are also gay for each other. Or maybe one is gay for the other and that's where it ends. The whole High Holiday concept was to be a series of performances based around holidays (obviously) with the first one to be on Valentines Day (which is where I met Christoph Krey from McAlister Drive) then Easter, etc. Well, it turned out to be just one show. But boy was it a swell show. So anyway, Jake and I got to talking about what he wanted to do. I told him the whole thing sounded really pretentious and, also, really gay!! But I'm a Janovitz and an attention whore so I was surely not going to pass up another opportunity to be a part of something really lame. The Valentines Day show was all about the crooners. Did I mention that the set list would be all covers? I thought it would make sense to call Paul Q. Kolderie and get into Camp Street Studios and get Jake and Scott in suits in front of an old tube microphone. The suits might have been Jakes idea, but all the cool stuff was totally mine and I just thought that needed to be clarified. So Paul Q was amenable to the whole thing and that's what we did in early February on a snowy evening. One of the more entertaining things that happened right off the bat, for me anyway, was that Paul Q's dog took a big chunk out of Scott's calf and he was bleeding pretty heavily when I got there. He was scared and kept asking me to call our mom. You can imagine how much this amused me. I mean, how often do you get to see a grown man, and your brother no less, crying like a little girl? But, at my behest, he managed to get to his feet long enough to have his picture taken. But Scott is a Janovitz through and through and, as he once put it in regard to being the center of attention "...I relish it..." So, in suits that were too small for them and a rabid, feral dog running amok, we snap a few frames and the result was rather satisfying. And blood was shed!!!

2009-09-05T13:52:00.000-07:00

Alone

2009-09-05T00:45:00.000-07:00

When you spend countless hours staring at the same image, zooming in to get into certain parts of the picture, you realize there are often several different images in any one image. When shooting a wedding, I turned to snap a shot of two of the flower girls. I zoomed in to do some burning and dodging on the arm you see here. Inside this whole picture was something I would have otherwise not seen at all. And so was born "Alone." An ongoing series (I hope, or else I'm going to seem like an awfully pretentious tool) of pictures inside a picture. But there is more. I know...the suspense is killing the reader. I started to realize that no matter how many friends and family members we surround ourselves with, ultimately, in a way, we are alone. In this shot of Timmy he's surrounded by band mates and the whole of the club full of onlookers, but in this moment he is alone. He is on a journey inside his weird little head of whatever the hell the brain drags up to the surface and to his hands as he plays his guitar. It's a beautiful thing, if you ask me. A friend once said in response to me asking what he was thinking (because he had this shit eating grin on his face all of a sudden) "I'm not telling...I'm going to die a million miles an hour with every thought I ever had..." This struck me because, no matter how much we share with another person, we can never truly be able to know their experiences as they see them.

Mondays at Toad

2009-09-03T15:05:00.001-07:00

What can I say about Monday nights at Toad? A lot, actually. For the last 15 years, Tim Gearan and some of the best musicians and people you will ever encounter, have been playing there free of charge. And on every one of those nights these boys deliver. And on the few nights where they weren't delivering in the way I know they are capable of, they still put to shame every other show in town. And this is less of a show where as it is an opportunity to experience an atmosphere filled with soul. Timmy is a blues man and he's the real deal. We got to talking one day about the music in the '90's when we started talking about Buffalo Tom and as Timmy put it "I had my nose to the blues grindstone." Timmy takes liberty with traditional arrangements like virtually every other artist does, but he goes a bit further with it. He finds some way, some piece of it that had always rang a chord with him and tells his story through his words. He'll take a verse or two and in the second half you hear his story if you are paying attention. Every time I walk into these rooms to see the likes of Tim, Dennis Brennan, Duke Levine, Kevin Barry, Lou Ulrich, Scott and John Aruda, Paul Ahlstrand, Andy Plaisted, Mike Piehl...the list goes on and on in this town...I want to get down on my hands and knees and thank whoever I should for not only being able to see them play, often times for no charge, but also for the privilege of being able to call them friends. I realize the latter may make me biased about the former, but ask anyone worth their salt who is not friends with them and they will say the same thing.

And sadly, as of the end of September, it will all be over. 15 years...FIFTEEN YEARS!!!! That's quite the accomplishment for any musician to be able to fill a room to capacity each week. Lou Ulrich and I were talking a couple of Monday's ago and he told me that they played during the March 31st/April 1st blizzard in 1997 and there were about 30 people in attendance. I remember where I was that night and, knowing what I know now, I wish I had been at Toad. Lou, who was living in Watertown at the time, told me it took him two and a half hours to get home and that it was totally worth it. These guys are not getting rich doing this and never have. I'm not even sure it pays a whole lot of bills. But what's important is that they love and live it.

If you do only one thing this fall get your sorry ass down to Toad before it's too late.

Tim and co. will be moving to Atwoods in East Cambridge for Friday nights beginning in October. $5 cover, good food and great people.

2009-09-02T00:13:00.000-07:00

McAlister Drive Promo Shoot March 2009

2009-08-31T23:28:00.000-07:00

It was in the basement known as The Lizard Lounge in Cambridge where I met Christoph Krey. Or should I say he met me, as if it were HIS pleasure. The High Holidays were making us all swoon in honor or St. Valentine's Day. Christoph had a lounge thing going on with a red velvet smoking jacket and horn rimmed glasses. We got to talking and he had a whole concept for what he was going for with his band McAlister Drive. I gave him my card (which I hate doing, by the way...seems awfully presumptuous) and told him to give a call when he was ready to take some pictures. He did and we did up in North Andover at the Collins Center where they were filming their first video. They were in the middle of lip sinking (which is a God awful thing to have to do) and Christoph had on two dollar Wayfarer's with bright fluorescent green sides. As soon as they were done with the take Chris looked over and saw me and said hello. I said "Yeah, whatever...what's with the lame sunglasses??" He said that "someone" thought he needed some POP. I assured him that THAT was not pop. His band mates rejoiced when he took them off. But it quickly hit me that the "someone" was most likely the producer/director and I quickly tried to back track but it was too late. Once again, I had spoken with my heart and not with my brain. Sometimes that works...other times not so much. But he seemed to take it all in stride.

2009-08-31T23:18:00.001-07:00