Tony Llerena Photography – Bangor Maine Wedding and Portrait Photographer

Now that I’ve had some time to heal my wounds and separate myself from the project that consumed me for an entire year, I have some final thoughts and observations that I wanted to share.

1. Take time for your family. –  Probably the biggest regret about the entire project was my inability to prioritize my time. All of the hours spent on the project were hours not spent with my wife and kids. In many cases editing the day’s Portrait would take precedence over everything else, even sitting down to eat dinner with my family. This was a huge sacrifice for me and one that I will not be making again.
2. Take time for yourself. – This is something I failed at miserably. I can’t begin to tell you how many late nights and hours of lost sleep I’ve racked up in the past year editing, blogging, emailing, and planning.
3. Laughter is good for the soul. – The way you laugh, if it’s real laughter, reveals a lot about a person’s personality. Especially in a photograph, it makes the difference between a good portrait and a great one.
4. The camera looks both ways. – I became very deliberate about choosing my attitude and being present for each session. For many of the Portraits this was the first professional image ever created of them. That is very special to me and I treated the honor as such.
5. Take time to get to know someone. – I believe I was successful, in part, because I had to walk to many distant locations with the individual for the sessions. I was able to practice the art of conversation every single day with someone new. People are more relaxed and look more natural when they’re comfortable around you.
6. Word of mouth is your friend – I’m still amazed at how quickly word spread about the whole thing. At one point I was booked up to 60 days in advance. That made my life so much easier. It helps when you become known around campus as the guy who creates awesome Facebook profile pictures.
7. “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Robert Capa – Looking back, it took me a while to break out of my standard mold. I wasn’t taking the risks early on that I should have. It takes courage to get into someone’s space to really capture them. Once I figured out how to do that, I think it made a world of difference.
8. Enjoy the journey. – For too long I was focused on finishing, now that it’s done I miss it. Do I want to do it again? No, but I do have very fond memories of just about every single day from the project that I will cherish for years to come.
9. People are amazing. – It took 365 people to make this happen, many of whom I didn’t know and didn’t owe me anything. I have never felt so supported in my life as I have been by everyone who helped me out and encouraged me to keep going.
10. Follow your heart. – I am proud of what I have created. I hope that my friends and family are too. I’ve created something that my children will be able to show their children someday and that was very important to me. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Steve Jobs

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. ~ Sir Edmund Hillary

I had been looking forward to this day for a long time, for many reasons. It was the final Portrait of a year long body of work. It was also the day I would conquer the mountain I’d been hoping to climb ever since I’d moved to Maine over 8 years ago. I had to prove to myself that I could do it. It was basically all or nothing. I was determined to say the least. What I didn’t realize is how difficult the journey would be that would demand every single last ounce of energy I had and a lot more.

The day began at the MaineBound Adventure Center at 4am where we picked up the group comprised of Dave, Derek, EJ, and Thad and headed up to Baxter. After some final preparations, we set off on our hike on the Abol Trail just before 7am. The higher you climb on the mountain, the steeper and more rigorous the ascent. I’m an inexperienced climber to say the least so I didn’t realize how much water I was consuming on the way up. I was a little past the 3/4 point when my water supply ran out with the toughest part of the climb still ahead of me.

My muscles were beginning to cramp, the sun was beating down, and I still had what seemed like miles to go to reach the flat lands. A couple of hikers on their way back from the summit checked on me, gave me some of their water (what would become a recurring trend) and gave me words of encouragement. I continued to climb but the boulders were getting bigger and my energy was fading. The biggest motivator that kept me moving up was looking back down. There was no way I was going back down the way I came. After many hours of hiking, I reached the summit of Katahdin just before 4pm. It was an emotional experience for me and the culmination of a year’s worth of sacrifice. I had been planning for this shot for a while and it came out with the help of my human tripod (Derek). I had purchased a special cable for my camera and used Pocket Wizards to remotely trigger it. I had EJ and Thad standing on either side of me with strobes for fill. We were only at the summit long enough to take a few pictures before we had to go. Little did I know I was already in trouble.

I thought the descent would be easy, or at least I did until the adrenaline wore off. Then my body slammed into a wall and my pace slowed considerably. I didn’t reach the Saddle Trail and the beginning of the slide until about 6pm. The sun was already going to bed on the other side of the mountain and I was beginning to get worried. Little did I know that everyone else was starting to get worried too. Thad and Derek had gone way ahead and EJ stayed behind with me. As the sun set, we began to communicate with the rest of the party that we weren’t sure how much farther we had to go until we reached Chimney Pond.

After nightfall, visibility was poor and only one of us had a flashlight. EJ would shine the light in front of him,walk 20 yards, stop, turn around and shine the light for me to reach his current location. We did this for an hour and half and I was well beyond the point of exhaustion. We had been hiking for over 13 hours. The rangers were called to try and locate us but it took a short while for them to mobilize. We heard some rustling around us and EJ made a makeshift shaker by putting some stones in a bottle to warn the animals and bears we were there. We didn’t want any surprises.

When the ranger found us, we were apparently 100 yards away from the station. He offered us food and a place to stay which we gladly accepted. Dave returned in the morning to meet us at the end of the hike and he was a sight for sore eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see a car in my life. In total, we hiked over 11 miles in about 19 hours. It was a long and grueling day and a half. It was one of the greatest accomplishments of my life and probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Was it worth it? Absolutely. I don’t feel like there was a more fitting way to end the project.  I summited two mountains on this day and that will stay with me forever.

(Left) Derek, (Center) Thad, Tony, EJ, (Right) EJ looking at Chimney Pond

Nearly one year ago, 364 days to the day and time to be exact, I was standing in the same spot photographing my wife in what would be the longest, busiest year of my life. I felt it was only fitting to photograph Nicholas in the exact same spot where it all began when I photographed his mommy. I have one day to go and I’ve been planning the last Portrait for nearly the entire Project. It has been a long time coming and I hope it turns out the way I’m envisioning it. Only time will tell. Wish me luck!

I am a HUGE Star Wars fan. I’ve seen the originally trilogy at least 42 times so imagine my surprise when I found out that our family doctor is a Star Wars geek too! He’s also a technophile and Apple connoisseur, so in my book he’s the perfect physician for my family. What’s not to like about a doctor who has a huge cardboard cutout of Chewbacca in the examination room?

On a serious note, he is a very well known and respected doctor in the area. Any time I’ve ever mentioned him to another physician their eyes light up and they say “JACK! He’s awesome!” He’s also selfless and has been donating supplies and his services to the Andrea Ritz Clinics in Paraguay  for the last two years and plans on taking another trip later this year.