October 30, 2009
“Halloween Decorations”
I’ve been meaning to photograph these decorations for the last couple of days, but I always arrived past their bedtime… when they were deflated. I headed straight for them tonight and finally got the shots I was after. They are definitely ones of the best in the neighborhood, very typical of the decorations you would find on suburban lawns around Halloween. You can’t really tell on a still but the skull is actually animated. Great job neighbors!
October 29, 2009
“Of Grain”
With the sun setting earlier and earlier, catching a glimpse of the golden hour after work has become more and more elusive. Sunday’s time change will actually kill that prospect for good. I had hoped to capture a nice view of the Bronx River Parkway Reservation today but didn’t make it happen. Jasmine had a lot of fun chasing wild geese though. Not pigeons mind you, geese! I had hoped to capture some nice Halloween decorations from our street, the inflatable kind. Well, I fell asleep with Jasmine in the process of putting her to bed. The decorations were deflated by the time I went back outside. I checked out my shots, nothing of interest. It was 11:53 PM then.
I couldn’t resolve myself to use any of those poor shots for my daily photo. I had to think fast if I wanted to create something worthier. This is when I saw a couple of Kodak films I picked up at the PhotoPlus Expo, and an idea came to me. I obviously didn’t have time to set up my tripod and get a clean shot. Instead, I was going to play on grain. I thought it was ironic to push my 5D to its maximum ISO, 3200, while shooting the allegedly World’s finest grain from Kodak, the brand new Ektar 100 film. Since it’s a color negative film, converting my photo to black and white was also in order. It’s not a great shot by any means, but I hope that you will find it at the very least interesting. If it makes you think, great. As usual, I welcome any discussion on the subject.
October 28, 2009
“Express”
Tonight was one of those busy nights where I really didn’t have much time to spare for my photography, let alone think about what subject to take. When there’s only half an hour left to midnight and no inspiration to come by, my safest bet is to take a walk around the block. Eventually, I always stumble upon fortuitous subjects, all within minutes. Tonight was no exception. I came back with a few shots, amongst them this one.
Most of us probably have this mental picture of the American kid on his bike throwing the newspaper over the fence. It’s not very far off when it comes to junk mail. That kind of package can be found pretty much anywhere. At least they put plastic sleeves to protect the paper from the rain, which is not always the case. This one was laying on the front lawn of a house. I shot it at f/1.4, ISO 1600, a setting that works quite well when I do decide to venture outside at night.
October 27, 2009
“Connections”
Short of opening up a computer or another piece of electronics, I remembered that I had this unused card which would work perfectly fine as a macro subject. I tested several angles, capturing the various components of the circuit: capacitors, resistors, etc. I wasn’t happy with any of them though. This is when I flipped the card, revealing much simpler patterns. While I had to stack my close up lenses to get as near as possible to the circuit, I also had to crop the end result in post to get the composition I liked. Those connections are small.
October 26, 2009
“A Guessing Game”
So as to not give any clue, I will not write about my subject tonight. I will just let you guess what it is… good luck!
October 25, 2009
“The Central Park Pumpkin Sail”
Around Halloween, special events are aplenty in New York City. Thankfully, the weather got better on Sunday and we were able to enjoy one of them in Central Park. There was a kids Halloween parade taking place on the North end of the park, followed by a pumpkins sail. As usual, Jasmine was running all over the place, this time in a ladybug costume. The event itself was much smaller than I expected it to be. If you fancy counting the number of pumpkins in the photo, you won’t find more than fifty of them. I had a very different mental picture…
Regardless, it was a nice walk on a beautiful Sunday. Not too hot, not too cold, just right. I also discovered a part of Central Park we don’t really go often to, if at all: the Harlem Meer and the Conservatory Garden. There were quite a few shots of the park that I preferred and considered for today, but in the end decided against it and chose a photograph of the event instead. I put myself in your shoes and thought you would enjoy it better. It was certainly unusual and I don’t regret going. I’m looking forward to next week-end!
October 24, 2009
“Under The Rain”
On our way back home, we made a stop to the liquor store to get some wine for dinner. The rain was pouring on the windshield, creating this nice blur effect. I purposely threw the subject I was capturing a little out of focus to play on colors and enhance that blur. Then, I waited for a passerby to complete the composition.
When I showed the photograph to my wife, she wasn’t that enthusiastic. I got a similar reaction to yesterday’s photo, which was interesting… since they both have out of focus elements. Later, she tells me that’s how she sees when she doesn’t wear her contacts: not something she really enjoys. I found it fascinating and even thought-provoking, a really good example of how two people can view the same thing in such drastically different ways.
October 23, 2009
“Imagine… Elmo!”
We had a surprise for our daughter this morning: going to the Sesame Street’s “1-2-3 Imagine! with Elmo and Friends” live show. There she is, watching her favorite red ball of fur. The sitting still part was not totally under control, but she had a lot of fun. I have quite a few photos of the show, sharp and all, but this one is definitely my favorite. It’s different. I tried something from my daughter’s perspective, like in a dream. I don’t know if it works, you tell me.
October 22, 2009
“Waiting For The Train”
Thursday was a long day… barely slept, up early and off to the city for the PDN PhotoPlus Expo 2009. Lots of walking, meeting people… I was beat by the time I left the show. I literally dragged myself to Grand Central to catch the train. Once I got to Fleetwood, having to wait twenty minutes for my wife to pick me up was a sweet deal compared to walking some more. Furthermore, I had always wanted to take a photograph of the train as it was arriving in the station.
I started shooting from different angles when those three guys came in and sat across from where I was. It was one of those rare moments where everything seemed just right. The only thing left for me was to press the shutter button to capture it. It officially became one of the rare photos I’m truly happy with, too. If you like this photo, I recommend you check this one out, it has a similar feel to it:
October 21, 2009
“Bodyscape”
It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for today’s photo, but one needs to seize the opportunities when they present themselves. The setup was really simple. I used close up lenses and set the aperture at f/1.8 to get the focus exactly where I wanted it. Then, I bounced the flash off the ceiling, adding this warm glow to the subject all the while helping avoid any blurriness. What took most time was the composition… not that there was any rush…
