Archive for Trudie

Unplugging

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , on May 21, 2013 by benlarrabee

For the past four years we’ve returned to the same place to unplug from the day to day and plug into each other. We’ve discovered the perfect setting to do this, a small private island in the Grenadines where we have no Internet, phone and TV, only a handful of other guests and complete privacy.

Trudie on stonewall

View from cottage

Shedding all the cares of the outside world allows the heart of our relationship to emerge with few distractions. The joy of intimacy and connection with each other nurtures us so we return renewed, refreshed and in love all over again.

Sharing our most intimate thoughts

Sharing our most intimate thoughts

Yoga and meditation at sunrise

Yoga and meditation at sunrise

Dinner

Dinner

View from our cottage

The Bluff

See our slide show below for more:

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Breakfast, Trudie

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , on February 11, 2013 by benlarrabee
Louisville Kentucky  (20x24) 01.02.11 _H3H6093

Breakfast, Trudie

My muse in a quiet moment eating her breakfast.

She’s being natural, allowing me to explore her, allowing for a window into what is happening. She is the perfect muse, letting go of any goal beyond just being herself so I can capture the moment. It’s the mundane imbued with a story, leaving room for the viewer to fill in the details. She is herself.

Trudie wasn’t sold on the image when I selected it, but it interested me because it shows a vulnerability, a beauty that comes from dropping any effort to make it “artful”.

(Later Trudie told me she thought to herself as I started to photograph, “oh, please don’t shoot this Ben, I know it’s going to show up on some gallery wall”. Actually now it’s a prize winner at the Rowayton Arts Center and hanging in their Gallery at 145 Rowayton Avenue, Rowayton, CT)

Receiving the Gifts of the Muse, Nantucket 2012

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , on February 4, 2013 by benlarrabee
Nantucket _86O4444

Trudie, Outdoor Shower, Nantucket

It’s a perfect Nantucket day.

I’m in the outdoor shower and Trudie comes over to keep me company, setting up her towel to get some sun. As I look out, I see her, relaxed, natural. I’m soaking wet but I have to quickly get my camera before the moment is gone. She’s being spontaneous, I don’t ask her to pose. My job is to see the moment, interpret it so the formal qualities work as an image. She’s in repose but that energy is there.

As I explore her with my camera, she moves and remakes the view. Her aesthetic is visible even in the way she arranges herself on the deck. This intimacy of image is where we unite. This is the connection we have that goes beyond our relationship as husband and wife. We share a visual idea of the world and Trudie’s place in it.

Trudie is in motion, even at rest. She inhabits her own skin with something more than common physicality. Transforming the space surrounding her with this presence, which is beyond an addition but some further alchemy. I see this energy and work to show it in my images. I’m her biggest fan, recording her “Moments of Grace”.

My muse is the embodiment of the feminine, sensual and uninhibited. She moves unlike anyone else. She creates a context. The world is her stage.

For me, to photograph Trudie is to receive the gifts of the muse.

Nantucket 07.20.12-08.06.12 _48A5236

Trudie, Coatue, Nantucket

Nantucket 07.20.12-08.06.12 _48A5666

Trudie, Bedroom Window, Nantucket

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Trudie, Reading, Nantucket

Exploring New Ideas with the Macro Lens

Posted in Ben's Vision with tags , , , , , on June 1, 2012 by benlarrabee

For a while Ben has been interested in creating up-close images, especially with his portraiture. The latest addition to his collection is the Canon 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro Autofocus Lens. It allows him to see his subjects from a different perspective, broadening his visual vocabulary.

One of his first experiments was photographing Trudie’s garden.

Trudie’s Garden

A week later he took an unusual close-up on a portrait shoot. The similarities between the bleeding hearts and the lips are uncanny.

Kelly

TIP: Ben gets all his equipment from B&H Photo. Great service, good prices and they’ve got everything. Here’s a link for his new macro lens.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/12145-GREY/Canon_2537A003_50mm_f_2_5_Compact_Macro.html

Transition Day

Posted in The Artist and HIs Muse with tags , , on February 10, 2012 by benlarrabee
Larrabee, Portrait Photographer, Nantucket, Nude, Transition

Ships Inn, Nantucket 2011

When Trudie and I went to Nantucket last summer for our two weeks of shooting, we spent a couple nights at Ships Inn before our house was available.

We discovered that our first day had to be a transition day.

It became a day to shift our energy, tune into each other, allowing time to reorient and connect in this new place. We agreed to have no agenda, no place to go, nothing to do.

That morning I noticed Trudie sitting in the window in a moment of reflection. She was writing down her thoughts about being a muse. As has happened so many times before, she inspired me to pick up my camera and begin to photograph. This moment becomes one of the many in the body of work that shows our life together.

I like seeing Trudie among the patterns and textures of the wallpaper and leaves outside; foreground, middle ground and background.

On Being Ben’s Muse

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on September 12, 2011 by benlarrabee

Ben says he married me for two reasons: The Tokeneke Beach Club and my legs.

Larrabee, Tokeneke Club, Darien CT, Beach, Yoga, Artist's Muse, Portrait Photographer

Trudie, Tokeneke Club, 2009

Larrabee, Shadows, Grenadines, Beach, Artist's Muse, Portrait Photographer

Shadows, Grenadines, 2010

He’s often inspired to photograph me. It’s during those intimate moments when we’re hanging out and Ben notices me blow drying my hair, putting on makeup, stretching or just lying on the bed when he’ll say….”Wait, I want to get my camera, can you hold that?” or if he already has his camera he’ll ask me to “do that again”.

Larrabee,  Artist's Muse, Portrait Photographer

Poetry Inn #1, 2006

Larrabee, Petit St Vincent, Yoga, Artist's Muse, Portrait Photographer

Petit St Vincent, 2011

He says I seem to have a spontaneous way of positioning myself that gets his attention. It might be the way I place my feet, how I lean on a pillow or sit in a window sill. He likes how yoga poses organize my shapes and activate my energy.

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