Photography by Michael Rotiroti: Headshots, Events, Portraits, Commercial, Fine Art & Athletics in Boston
Sports Photography in Boston and on the North Shore
College and high school sports, shot across Massachusetts in gyms, rinks and stadiums where the light is almost never on your side.
Sports Photography
Most of these frames were made close to home: the field hockey pitch at Endicott College in Beverly, the floor at TD Garden for MIAA state finals, the sidelines at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Harvard Stadium in Boston, and the Ivy League fencing championships at Harvard in Cambridge. The Endicott Gulls in the fog, at the top of the page, took first place for Sports in the Boston Press Photographers Association college contest. Others in this grid took second, third and honorable mentions at the BPPA in 2018 and 2019.
Shot on Canon: a 1D X, a 1D X Mark II or a 5D Mark III, mostly with the 70-200mm and the 24-105mm, often at ISO 1600 and up, because that is where the game usually is. Click any photograph for the camera, lens and settings. New athletics work is shot on the Sony a7 IV.
Sports isn't on the current booking menu. The work is here because it is where a lot of this came from. For a game, a tournament or a season, email film@michaelrotiroti.com with the date and I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it.
Product Photography for Boston Brands and Small Businesses
Bottles, headphones and small electronics, lit on black, on grey and on reflective surfaces until the label reads and the highlight lands where it should.
Maker's Mark and the red wax seal on its neck, Glenlivet 18, Gnarly Head, milk pouring from a metal pitcher, Beats Solo headphones, an iPod Nano and AirPods in an open case. Product forgives nothing. A reflection falls in the right place or the frame is wrong, so the lighting gets built one source at a time.
Most were shot on a Canon 5D Mark III with the 24-105mm f/4 or the 70-200mm f/4, stopped down between f/8 and f/14 at ISO 200 or lower, so the whole label holds sharp edge to edge. Click a photograph for the settings.
I no longer book product as a session of its own. These frames show what the lighting kit does with a small subject on a table, and it still comes up inside commercial work, as part of a shoot day.
Portrait and Headshot Photography on the North Shore
Headshots, editorial portraits, senior sessions and family work, made in Boston, on the North Shore and on location.
Dean Harvey Young's final headshot as dean of the Boston University College of Fine Arts, made in the Stone Gallery at 855 Commonwealth Avenue. A BU student violinist for the Carnegie Hall Spotlight concert. Singer-songwriter Lucy Wijnands in Yonkers, studio fashion work in Beverly for an independent magazine, and University of Rhode Island seniors on campus in their stoles.
The headshots were shot on a 50mm, a 24-70mm or a 24-105mm, mostly between f/3 and f/5.6, so the face stays sharp and the room falls away. The dusk frame by the water in Hastings-on-Hudson is flash balanced against the last of the daylight, so the sky and the subject hold in one exposure.
I photograph on-location corporate headshots, in-studio headshot sessions, editorial portraits, events, commercial work, and fine art across the North Shore and Greater Boston: Peabody, Beverly, Salem, Danvers and into the city. Every new session is shot on the Sony a7 IV. Each session is quoted to the job: the kind of shoot, the hours, and the lighting it needs. An in-studio headshot session includes a 30-minute consultation. A 50 percent retainer holds the date. Email film@michaelrotiroti.com with the date you have in mind and I'll send a quote.
