August 31, 2009
“Clean Lines”
I didn’t have to walk far to get today’s shot. A brand spanking new Mercedes was standing in our driveway. The angle of the natural light was just perfect. I also got lucky with the reflections of the trees and houses, which created interesting patterns. It cannot be seen clearly at this size, but my reflection is right underneath the logo. What can I say… some cars are just works of art, it’s difficult to mess up such shots. While a few specs of dust are visible, it’s really nitpicking given the location of the shoot: the car was amazingly clean.
August 30, 2009
“Manor Park”
Thankfully, it stopped raining today. We spent the late afternoon in Manor Park, Larchmont. It’s a lovely town with a large French community, a short drive from our place. The park itself, while small, is gorgeous. One of my favorite photos was shot there during winter. What’s great about this park is that it’s not crowded. I was happy to be able to take advantage of the late day sun for this shot. The low tide also revealed reeds that I used for the foreground.
A raw file is to digital what a negative is to film. It needs to be developed. I shoot in raw for two reasons. First, it records all of the data captured by my camera’s sensor, unlike JPEG, a lossy compression format. Second, I prefer to develop my photos myself instead of letting the camera do it for me. Developing a photo can be a lot of fun… it’s also very easy to get carried away. It can lead to great and creative results, or to a display of poor taste. Personally, I like my photography to stay as close as possible to the way I saw it when I took the shot. I am guilty of going too far in my editing sometimes, so I go back to it and tone it down. I had initially made the sky a little bit too blue in today’s shot, which made me think of blogging about this. Actually, my wife is of great help as a second pair of eyes. For great nature shots, the best and obvious trick is to be there at the right moment, which may only last a few minutes, when nature is in its full glory. Then, it is beautiful enough to stand on its own without the need to embellish it further.
August 29, 2009
“Urban Abstract”
Astoria is a very cosmopolitan neighborhood of Queens where we used to live a few years ago. I had an hour and a half to kill there while our trusted mechanic was inspecting our car this morning. It was nice to revisit some familiar places and I didn’t mind the rain. This shot was taken underneath a bridge, which served as a much appreciated shelter for my camera. I was on the hunt for a water puddle that would give me some sort of interesting reflection. I liked how the moss, grass and graffiti were all complementing each other. Coincidentally, a face can be seen in the reflection. Can you see it?
Another shot I took during that same walk was of a dead pigeon on Steinway, one of the busiest streets of Astoria. There’s a reason why I mention it. It’s not really a photograph most people would think of taking, let alone dare to. I didn’t know those passersby. They were all strangers to me. However, something inside me didn’t want to be labeled as “the weirdo who takes photos of a dead bird”. I didn’t stop at first, but came back, acknowledging this was a ridiculous conditioned response that I would eventually need to surpass. Why should I care about what others might think? I believe anybody at one point or another has been in a similar situation, whether it was street photography or something else. How we choose to respond to it defines whether we get the shot… or not.
August 28, 2009
“The Acorn”
I haven’t been sleeping nearly enough those past few days, and I started to really feel it today. Low energy, low drive. I ended up waiting until the last hour. It was raining, but since I was totally uninspired to shoot indoors, I went outside anyway. I didn’t go past the stairs though. The old wrought iron handrail had a nice glow under the rain and the acorn was a great point of focus: that was it. I shot a couple of frames and came back inside… too much rain, and not in the mood to get soaked! Looking forward to the week-end. For now, I’m off to bed.
August 27, 2009
“Lizzie”
Our pets are rather unusual: a couple of lizards. They are very easy subjects to photograph as they typically just sunbathe. I don’t have any circular polarizing filter to eliminate unwanted reflections on the glass of their vivarium, but I did just fine without one. Light aplenty and a model who can hold a pause, what else can I be asking for? A towel was used as the improvised background for this shot. No special photographic setup… just the environment we created for them. Keeping it simple really works.
August 26, 2009
“Flatiron Building”
One of the most famous and regarded landmark in New York City… One of those buildings that have been photographed so many times and under so many angles that getting something fresh and new seems like an impossible feat. However, the sky itself was interesting, filled with beautiful patchy clouds. At such an angle, the Flatiron resembled an approaching ocean liner and I framed it to express that vision. If only there were seagulls at that time… even pigeons would have done the trick. It could be fun to create a photomontage with it.
Unfortunately, the light was not cooperating. A nice sunset would have been perfect but it wasn’t going to happen. I expose to the right, but this time I was expecting some clipping in the shadows. Well, I was happy to capture it all without losing any detail in both highlights and shadows. I am not a fan of bracketing my shots, or using HDR techniques. Instead, it forces me to find a way to get it right within the camera. I have to concede that today’s sensors are limited by their dynamic range, so a single exposure may not always capture it all. Nevertheless, my method pushes my limits as a photographer, so I am happily sticking to it.
August 25, 2009
“In The Bathtub”
I rarely shoot wider than f/2.8 and almost never at f/1.4. It’s my safety zone. The depth of field is shallow enough for what I want to do and the lens is tack sharp. Recently, however, I have seen beautiful shots executed at f/1.4. It changed my perspective on what could be achievable at that aperture and I wanted to explore it more today. At f/1.4, being indoors is certainly not an issue. It also gave me ample shutter speed to freeze Jasmine in action without having to resort to high ISO. This is where having the Ee-S focusing screen came in handy. I found it much easier to focus manually than relying on the 5D to do it. Faster, too. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. The focus was spot on. I will definitely be using this aperture more often from now on. One more tool to my toolbox. If there’s a moral to this story, leave your safety zone and go explore!
August 24, 2009
“Walking My Camera”
Yeah, that’s exactly how it felt like. Taking a photograph each day is a constraint, I would be the first one to admit it and a reason of my taking up the challenge. Our guests went to bed, and since I couldn’t bring myself to do another indoor shot, I went outside. A lovely summer night in a quiet street, with so many potential subjects. The constraint was a blessing in disguise: it forced me to get out and shoot, actually do something that I love. In many areas of life, the initial step can be tough. But once you make it a routine and start to recognize its positive influence, it no longer is a drag. You look forward to it. I came back with a few different photographs from which I chose that one. It may not be the perfect photo, but I like it. And that’s all that matters.
August 23, 2009
“Old House”
The combination of Hurricane Bill and having guests coming over the next day set the mood for spring cleaning. Besides taking the trash out, we didn’t really venture far away. Another day of taking indoor pictures… At times, the Victorian house where we live does show its age, as can testify the stairway leading to our apartment. I had some trouble with the lighting. The color temperatures of the bulbs were conflicting with one another so I ended up converting the photo to black and white to spare me any white balance hassle. Naturally, I started thinking about my daily photograph at 11 PM… I need to work on that.
August 22, 2009
“Helping Herself”
Jasmine was helping us cleaning up the fridge. Well, more like playing with the yogurts. I took that opportunity to get a couple of shots. “Oh, so innocent I am”. She moved as I was taking the photo so there is a little bit of motion blur, but I still like it. I’m sure she will cherish it when she grows up. If you always wait for the perfect light and perfect moment, you will regret missing a lot of shots. I’m reminding myself of this quite often. Life is not a studio.
