“Turn your body slightly to the right. A little more.” She smiles kindly and moves forward to gently adjust her subject. “There you go. Now keep your head straight, looking right at me.” Click. “Beautiful.”
For Ally Marcino, a junior at The College of New Jersey, photography is more than just a hobby to pass the time. It’s a passion. An avenue for interacting with a variety of subjects – her friends, family, fellow TCNJ students, and, of course, her majestic dog. An art form. And the click of her camera as it captures a special moment is her favorite sound.
According to Marcino, her passion for photography was quite spontaneous, beginning two Christmases ago when she received a Canon Rebel T3 as a gift from her parents.
“I always loved getting the chance to get behind a camera,” she said. “I don’t know what spurred the need for a good camera [that] Christmas, but I just remember obsessing over the idea for months. I haven’t stopped taking photos since.”
Her process is quite simple (and humorous).
“My process is 1. Put camera to face. 2. Do not put camera down until you have a bunch of photos that have a variety of lighting, angle, texture, and character,” Marcino said. “I always go in knowing that a relatively small percentage of photos will be good enough to warrant editing, and then maybe even a smaller portion is good enough for either my website or my client. So I am always ready to take a ton of photos.”
Marcino’s photography often involves kidnapping her friends and family for an adventurous photo shoot.
“If you let me, I will have you model for me all day,” Marcino said. “I have done portraits and headshots for my a capella group, [TCNJ’s I-Tunes], on the stairs of Green Hall and at Terhune Orchards, and respectively, I have done LinkedIn headshots all over campus. I have done engagement photo shoots in Princeton parks and in Pennsylvania, and I have shoved my camera in my dog’s face just about anytime and anywhere that he’ll sit still.”
If you haven’t noticed already, Marcino enjoys holding photo shoots outdoors. She credits nature as one of her primary inspirations.
“Even when my subject is a person, I always love having a park, a forest, or (my favorite) a farm as the setting. I am usually almost entirely uninspired in an urban setting. The first things I tend to look for are, in this order, 1. Light, 2. Color, and 3. Texture.”
Marcino has an undeniable talent for taking candid shots, which she says are her favorite kind of photos.
“As much as I enjoy nature photography, I always love capturing a genuine moment for a person or a couple. The photos that I have taken of people who have gotten so caught up in their significant other, the activity they’re doing, or even some terrible joke that I told them just to make them forget about the camera, are not only my favorite photos aesthetically. I loved taking those photos.”
Although Marcino refers to her dog as her favorite model, the best photography experience was her first engagement shoot.
“[The bride-to-be] inquired about my photography and asked if I would do her engagement photos. Before then, I had never done photography as anything other than a hobby. However, after working with them, I knew right away that I wanted to keep working with couples. There is just something so romantic and beautiful about capturing little moments between a couple that is starting the rest of their lives together.”
This summer, Marcino will be working as a photographer at Wellesley College in Boston, Massachusetts as part of a summer program called EXPLO. The program is a fun and educational experience for eighth and ninth graders who will explore different courses, activities and trips designed to enhance their learning. Marcino will be in on the action, capturing the students’ experiences moment by moment.
“I have the honor of getting to photograph the camp events, classes, and of course, the most important part, the campers. All the photos I take during the day, I then upload on to the EXPLO Live! feed which is a blog-like documentation of the camp’s activities and the camper experience,” Marcino said. She thanks TCNJ alum and fellow photographer, Jaryd Frankel who encouraged her to apply for the position.
However, despite all of her talent and success, Marcino still has personal goals when it comes to her photography.
“I just want to learn more about photography and the editing process (I have no idea how to use Photoshop), and continue to gain experience working with couples especially. In the long run, I would love to be a wedding and family portrait photographer. I would also love to apprentice with a wedding photographer relatively soon, and then, hopefully, from there I could start my own business.”
As an English and Deaf Education major, Marcino is confident that photography will always be an important part of her life even if her career path leads her elsewhere.
“If I end up not becoming a photographer professionally, I will still be a photographer in my own mind. Even if the only model I have left is my begrudging dog, I will still take photos.”
For those who want to hire Marcino as a photographer (or just stare at her beautiful photos all day), you can visit her website: allymarcino.wix.com/photography and Instagram account: @allymarcinophotography. When you love what you see, contact her at ally.marcino@gmail.com.