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Elise Pearlman has been covering arts and leisure for seven years. Her work has appeared in Newsday and Long Island Pulse Magazine as well as in various local newspapers. She has met and written about many celebrity authors, including Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, Candace Bushnell, Rosie O'Donnell, Caroline Kennedy and Barbara Walters. She creates the popular "There's No Place Like Northport" calendar with her husband. She can be reached at LotusElise1@aol.com
Featured Artist - Elise Pearlman
Veterinarian James Herriot’s semi-biographical novel, “All Creatures Great and Small,” has delighted readers for decades because of his heartfelt appreciation for animals in all their diversity. The same can be said for prize-winning photographer Mike DiRenzo, a teacher in the South Huntington School district, who has been at the helm of the Huntington Camera Club for the past two years.
In 2010, Mike’s fanciful photograph, “Bubble Boy” (in which the iridescence of a huge soap bubble blown by a young boy echoes the rainbow of colors of nearby tulips) took first place in the Town of Huntington’s Tulip Festival Photo Contest. Other prestigious accolades include two Leonard Victor Memorial Awards (the highest honor accorded by the Photographic Federation of Long Island) and a gold medal from the internationally-renowned Photographic Society of America.
Although most celebrated for his landscape and lighthouse images showcasing captivating sunrises and sunsets, Mike has a gift for capturing the wonders of the animal kingdom.
In order to convey the essence of his subjects in their natural habitats, Mike photographs them head-on at eye level.
Lighting is an all-important consideration in capturing the glorious color for which his photographs have become known, and “timing is everything,” Mike indicated.
Award-winning shots include a ‘smiling’ amphibian which Mike dubbed “Kermit Da Froggie,” and “Eye-Opener,” which appears to portray a tender moment between two macaques but was actually an exercise in grooming.
Both were taken at the Riverhead Aquarium; the latter was chosen as photo of the month by Popular Photography.com.
To see more of Mike’s work, visit mikedirenzophotography.com.
Mike DiRenzo
Creatures, Great and Small
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