Shooting in Central Park - Modeling in New York City

Last Wednesday afternoon, while in New York City, myself and Scott (my cousin's daughter's boyfriend) made a trip into Central Park to take some new portrait shots of him. The weather was clear and cold, which was not ideal shooting weather, but we made it work.

Somewhere on the East Side near 150th, we heard about a garden within Central Park, and although it was winter time, it was still a cool place to take photos.

We managed to get Danielle (my cousin's daughter - whom I just consider my niece) out to join us for 30 minutes during her lunch break. It was a great chance to take photos of the two of them. They make a great couple!

Danielle was not exactly the willing subject at first, but once I showed her that she looked great on camera, she warmed up and let me take more shots of her. (Photographer note: Since most of us do not like to have our pictures taken, it is imperative to interact with your subject and show them your results. Once they see that you can make them look great, you will get a much more relaxed and willing subject at the other end of your lens.)

I scouted the location and found this cool fence on the upper area of the garden. I asked Danielle to hop on the other side and peak through the bars. I really like the way that the fence frames her face. (Photographer note: It would have been an even better photo if I had brought a diffuser with me, to block out the hot sunlight on her neck, but sometimes you make do with what you have, or don't have.)

After Danielle went back to work, Scott and I continued looking for cool places to photograph. I saw these trees in the distance and figured that the golden color would make a great background for him. I walked down the path, so that Scott was high above me, and shot these images of him up on the rocks.

(Photographer note: I took these images at f4.5 to maintain more of the detail in the leaves. I could have shot these at f2.8 which would have diffused them more, but I liked seeing a little more of the last fall colors in the trees.)

I really love this bridge (Bow Bridge), which is not too far from Strawberry Fields in Central Park. The pale color of the bridge along with the patterns, make this an ideal location for shooting. I had Scott stand on the bridge, waited for everyone else to clear away (although there weren't too many people out in the 29 degree weather), and I hopped a little fence and shot from the outside of the bridge. (Photographer note: I shot this photo at f2.8 because I really wanted to create a focus point exactly on Scott's face and I wanted everything else to fall out of focus. I also wanted to try and soften the trees in the background, since they would be very distracting if they were in focus.)