Inside New York City

Last Friday was a rather nasty day in New York City. It was cold and rainy - nothing like the Spring day it was supposed to be. I had some free time in the afternoon and wanted to get some different photos of the city. So I tucked my camera (with only my 24-105 lens) under my jacket, grabbed my tripod, and set out to see what I could get.

I hung out by the windows at Macy's (34th Street) and wanted to get some shots of their Spring Flower displays. But I soon realized that taking a static photo of the display would be boring and rather "typical". So, in order to show the contrast of the Spring displays and the Wintery weather, I moved back and took motion blur shots of people walking by the displays with their umbrellas out. I took many different shots, generally waiting for people with very colorful umbrellas. 

Then I was off to Grand Central Station to try and get some photos of all the people moving around this amazing building. I have tried shooting here before and was told that I could not use a tripod, so this time I came in through one of the lower entrances and shot as many pictures on the tripod as I could, before the cops asked me to stop. :)

I liked this image but felt that there was too much going on. It was a little difficult to find the main subjects within the frame. So...I created a B&W layer and exposed the color back into the two woman, (who remained still and therefore sharp) on the right.

Finally, I set out to find the Rose Reading Room at the main library. I had seen a photo of this room in Popular Photography Magazine and have wanted to photograph at this location for quite a while now. My friend, Phil Ryan, from Popular Photography told me where to find this location.  I figured that, with the crummy weather, this would be the perfect time to go shoot this indoor location. As I walked into the reading room, I was blown away by the amazing architecture and all of the people who were quietly going about their business.

Like most places in NY City, they did not allow the use of tripods in the library, but there was enough light in the room to let me shoot these images handheld (with a low enough ISO to get nice clean images).

This last shot is my favorite from this trip to New York. It is very similar to the shot that was in the magazine, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - right?). I love the color of the room, the way that the lines draw your attention down the center of the image, the colors in the ceiling, and the people all looking down at their books. I was lucky to have the overcast skies outside, so that the window light was not too harsh, therefore overpowering the rest of the image.

(Photographers note: On days when the weather is not cooperating with you, take advantage of what you have and find something different to shoot. If it were not for the rain and overcast skies, I would never have captured any of the images that you see here.)

Oh - and thank you Phil, for the heads up on this amazing place!

Heading way up town in New York City (Washington Heights)

On Thursday, I was luckily enough to join an amazing nonprofit group called NYSalt, led by Alicia Hansen, on their photo shoot in Washington Heights. Alicia started NYSalt to take a group of underprivileged kids and teach them photography, and she has done some really amazing work. Many of the kids are heading to college, and even getting scholarships for their photographic work.

Washington Heights is way up on 175th Street and a totally different area than the New York City that I am used to. It is a rougher area within the city, where many of the kids live. Each of the kids was given a photo assignment (shoot low, motion blur, shoot from a high position, framing images...) and we went out with them to teach them their techniques. I think I had more fun than they did, stopping by some cool places to capture the essence of the area. In this image, I saw this guy getting his haircut and stepped into the barber shop, asking them if it was OK to snap some images. I was showing the kids that you need to be social and not be afraid to ask people to take their pictures.

Continuing that same lesson, I saw this guy standing up against a wall smoking a cigarette and thought that it would be a cool shot. I asked him if I could take his photo and, with a little hesitancy, he agreed. The first time that I shot his photo, the smoke came right at me (instead of straight out) and I continued shooting to get shots with the smoke going straight out. And...of course...I showed him the images as I shot them. Funny thing is...when I got back to my hotel and looked at the images, the first one, where he is slightly hidden amongst the smoke, was my favorite.

I saw this cool wall with graffiti and asked Danny, the student, to stand against the wall so that I could take his portrait. Not only is he a good photographer, he makes a good model too. :)

This shot just makes me smile. We found a great place to shoot images of the Washington Bridge. It was a high vantage point on the top floor of the bus station. This was the part of the road which connected the station to the bridge (allowing movement at the junction point). I looked down and saw the pattern looking like a face and had to shoot that.

At 7:15pm, the sun set (although it was not visible behind all the rain clouds) and the rain started. But rain was not going to stop us from getting some shots of the bridge at night.

We stayed in Washington Heights for dinner, eating at a traditional Dominican restaurant. We had chicken, rice and fried bananas. It was very inexpensive and very tasty! Then, those of us who were heading back downtown, headed back to the subway station. I thought it would be fun to set up the tripod and take a shot of the group with a subway going behind them. We heard a train coming and I got ready, but then we all laughed when we saw that it was a maintenance train. But, you know what, it made for a fun shot with a bright yellow background!

New York City Streets

On Tuesday, I finished my training at Adorama (photo store) and headed out in the early evening to shoot some images on the streets of New York City. As I was walking on 5th Ave, someone pointed out this alligator coming out the sewer. No, it was not real, it was a promotion for a TV show. But, it was really fun to stand there and watch all the people, and their reactions (or lack of) to the display. I set up my tripod and shot some images. I wanted to slow the shutter so that I could capture a mixture of people paying attention to the gator and also show the hurried people that paid no attention.

What a great marketing gimmick!

And from that same spot, right by Bryant Park, I turned and saw this cool reflection of some older buildings in the windows of this more modern structure.

As I continued my photo walk, I came across this common scene in Manhattan. Without letting the woman know that I was shooting her photo, I set up the tripod and captured this scene. (Photographer note: On this shot, I slowed the shutter to 1/3 sec to freeze the woman, while showing the blur of the taxi passing her by. In post, I then added two additional layers in Photoshop. One layer was a gaussian blur layer to blur the background a bit, and the second layer was a black and white layer. I then created a layer mask and exposed the color in the woman and the taxis. I liked the original image but felt that the background was too distracting and drew too much attention from the main subject, the woman.)

My next stop was Macy's on 34th Street. But, before I made it to the big department store (across the street from this building) I was captivated by the colors of this clothing store. I waited for a group of taxis to come along, to give me some good color and motion in the foreground, and shot this image.

And then later that night I got adventuresome and, with the help of a nice person from New Jersey whom I had met while watching the alligator, took a bus through the Lincoln Tunnel and shot some images of the city from the New Jersey side.  

Always looking to try something different...

A fun Bar Mitzvah in Walnut Creek, CA (on a rainy day)

On Saturday I made the drive to Walnut Creek, CA to photograph Michael's Bar Mitzvah. For those of you who are not in Northern California, you should know that we have been inundated with rain for the last couple of weeks. For us photographers, a cloudy sky is perfect for outside shots (creating a perfect softbox in the sky), but when it is pouring rain, all shots need to be moved inside. Bummer!

I started by shooting images at the front of the Temple and noticed this awesome flower arrangement. I said something to Michael about the cool flowers, and he replied with "You know, that is what my father does, he owns a flower shop." So I asked Michael to sit down in front of the bouquet so that we could include them in our portrait shots.

And then we had his mother join in on the fun. For these shots, I was using my flash and pointing it off to my left to bounce the light off of the Temple walls. You will notice how the right side of their faces have more light than their left. This creates more dimension than a straight flash shot.

 

An interesting thing happened to me yesterday. I had photographed at this Temple before and was able to do so during the service. But, it appears that now, they do not allow still photographers to shoot images during the service. I was really disappointed, because I feel that shooting images of the service is where I capture the true emotions of the day. But, of course, I had to honor the wishes of the Rabbi and Cantor, so I scooted out of the synagogue at the start of the service.

But then I noticed that they had glass windows at the back of the synagogue, at either side of the entry doors. I asked one of the Temple employees if I could stay outside the synagogue and shoot through the glass. They told me that nobody had ever asked that before, but that it should be OK. So I held my camera, with a 100-400mm lens, as steady as I could and made sure that the lens was very close to the glass (to avoid reflections) and shot away. The image above was one of those shots. This turned out to be an awesome solution to a tough problem. No clicking sounds, no distractions from me. Perfect!

Since I was standing by the doors, I also became the doorman. When a father and his twin 5 year old daughters came outside for a break, I noticed that it was an interesting "double exposure look" if I pulled away from the glass and captured their reflections, and I took this shot. 

Again...looking for something different. I saw a woman taking pictures of Michael, under his name in balloons, and caught this shot (focusing on the LCD of the camera and not the true background).

This was a funny moment during the party where everyone's attention was on the Bar Mitzvah boy. 

Another first for me. I wanted to shoot an image of a large group of family and friends from the ground. So...I was on the ground looking up (with a 16-35mm lens and diffused flash), to get this shot, and someone fell and landed on me and my camera. Pow! The camera smashed right into my nose. Ouch! But, hey, at least I got this shot. :)

As Michael did his candle lighting ceremony, I thought that it would be interesting to tilt the camera and get a different perspective.

After the party was over (at approximately 4pm), the rain had all but stopped and I asked Michael if he would go outside with me for a couple more portrait shots. He was still wearing his party hat, so we decided to play with that. This is one of my favorites.

Congratulations to Michael and his amazing family.

One Last Poem For My Mom

Yesterday was the party to celebrate my mother's life, and I decided to write a poem for her. My mother use to love it when I wrote poems, so I decided that it was fitting to write one last one for her.

My brother, sister and two good friends of my mother's, all spoke before me and I was the last one to speak in front of the hundreds of people who showed up to pay tribute to my mother. It has now been 5 weeks since she passed and I figured that I would have no problem delivering the poem. Well...we showed a video that we created for my mother when she turned 80 last April, and then Anne, who spoke before me, ended by saying goodbye to her dear friend. Well...that set me off and I had a hell of a time reading this to everyone. So...for all of you who asked me to post this on my blog (and for those of you who never met her but want to know more about her), here you go.

****************************************************

Mom was a special person known by us all
Standing out in a crowd, when only 5 feet tall

There was nobody for whom she would not talk
Morning or late, heck around the clock

You heard her stories about her family and friend
She told them quite often, to any ear she could bend

You probably even heard the dreaded "Jeff's baby story"
How people saw ugly me, and would tell mom not to worry

When we grew up, she first taught us tennis
Even with me, though I was a quite a menace

She was not the strongest or fastest at all
But she was consistent, rarely missing a ball

Mom was known for her true love of the arts
She knew all of the opera singers and all of their parts

The opera, the symphony and also the ballet
The mornings would blare loudly each Saturday

She taught us a love of music, something I embraced
Even though my love of rock was far from her taste

She loved her cuisine, and really good wine
Being served at a table, the service so fine

When we lived at the house, mom would love to cook
Taking countless recipes out of that tattered old book

We recently shared great time on our cruise
Eating, relaxing and even having some booze

She loved to travel and would leave on a lark
Crossing the globe or staying in Yosemite park

She loved San Francisco because of the weather
But most importantly was for her to be together

With friends and family who she cherished the most
With us 3 and grandkids for whom she would boast

Playing ping pong and bridge, playing for hours
She loved living here, being pampered at the Towers

All of the things to do here in the city by the bay
All her favorite things, we knew she always would stay

Mom, we will miss you as you left us too fast
It is hard to think of you only in the past

Now when I shoot my photos and post them on the net
I won't get the feedback from you that I wanted to get

You loved life and made your mark on every one of us all
You may have gotten shorter, but at the end you stood tall

Now you are gone and we have this giant hole in our lives
An end to a generation; a mom gone; it's tough to thrive

Mom, we love you and know you are still here
In our hearts, our minds, we keep you quite near

I better stop rhyming or we will be here well past seven
But then again, mom is probably up there still talking in heaven

****************************************************

My mother and her 4 grandchildren (taken 3 months ago)

For those of you who visit my blog to see my photography, you will probably notice that I am a better photographer than a poet, hence the reason that I never started a poetry blog. Thanks for obliging me in this post.

Creative flash photography

On Monday I attended the Flash Bus Tour with my good friends Joe McNally and David Hobby. These two guys are the kings of flash photography and they inspired me to try new things with my camera and flash. So...what did I do when I got home from the all day session? Without even breaking stride, I walked in the door and went straight to the camera bag and cranked out one of my cameras and a couple of Canon 580EX II flash units. Time to play!

 

My friend, Bob (who is another photographer), was with me and I asked him if he would be my model for some shots. Now, what you have to realize is that Bob is a total ham and loves being in front of the camera. Perfect! I put a Lumiquest LTP softbox on one of my flashes and handed it to Bob. I set my camera to manual at 1/200 at f11(making everything black) and asked Bob to hold it out away from his body and pointed towards his face. After some experimenting, this is what we got. Very dramatic!

You can see that Bob's arm is reaching out with the flash and diffuser in his right hand. 

And then my son came home from school and, voila, we had a human activated light stand. :) Now Bob could use both hands and Connor could move the light around Bob's face with ease. We also added a second flash (gelled blue) behind Bob to add some separating light to the back of his head.

And then it was Connor's turn to get into the act. Bob was holding the flash unit and coaching Connor as I shot images. It is easier for you to see the blue light coming from the second flash in this image. Without the second flash, Connor's hooded sweatshirt would blend right into the black background.

This very directional light really creates a mood in the image. I took some shots of Connor smiling, but really liked the serious look for these shots. 

This is one of my favorites of the bunch. When I look at this image at full resolution on my 30" display, Bob's eyes just draw me into this image. I darkened the back of his head a little but left enough light to create separation. I also darkened his hand in the foreground and blurred it a bit. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun shooting these images, and I had an equal amount of fun in the editing process.

A really fun Bar Mitzvah and party

Yesterday was another good long day of shooting, as I started photographing at the Temple at 9am and then ended at 1:30pm. I arrived back home and then edited images for an evening slide show, with just enough time to get to the JCC in Palo Alto to shoot the party, which ended at 10:30pm. Combine that long day with day light savings time and I am really tired today. But, it was well worth it. We had a great time celebrating Michael's big day.

I love shooting images at Temple Beth Am in Los Altos, CA because the colors inside the Temple are just amazing. As I have been doing lately, I used the new Sigma 85mm 1.4 lens (wide open) to get this nice shot of Michael at the bema. (Photographers note: Using a wide aperture really helps to separate the child from the background, and in this case, really draws the eye right to him and away from everything else.)

Also, during the service, I like to break out the 15mm fish eye lens to capture the entire synagogue from the back of the room. 

This is one of my favorite images from the service. Michael was carrying the Torah behind the other Bar Mitzvah boy and I wanted to key in on "my family" (since the other family had their own photographer). I put the focal point right on Michael's face (keeping the camera in AI Servo focus) and tracked him as he came towards me. What really makes this shot is the sunlight highlighting his face, drawing the attention right to him. Part good planning and part good luck!

And then it was time to party... They had their evening party at the JCC in Palo Alto, CA. I had never photographed there before, but really enjoyed the venue. This was one of my favorite shots from the party. mostly because of everyone's expressions. (Photographers note: Because my flash was closer to the people in the foreground, they were a little too bright, drawing undue attention to them. So, in Photoshop CS5, I darkened the people at the bottom of the image to draw the viewers attention to the people on stage (which included Michael).

Not all venues have a place for a photographer to shoot from above. But, this particular location did, and I found it in advance and planned on getting some shots from up high looking down at the festivities. As luck would have it, I ran up there right as they were starting a conga line. Fun stuff!

Shooting with the Canon 50mm 1.4 lens and keeping the aperture to f2, I grabbed this shot of Michael dressed up in some of the DJ's props. I really like the genuine smile on his face. Nothing forced in this image. (Photographers note: Like the image of the dancers on stage, I darkened the boy in the foreground to draw more attention to my subject.)

To me, this photo says it all. You can see the love and admiration that the parent's have for their son. I shot some images of just the parents and then realized that the best shot would be from behind Michael. So, I moved behind him and focused on his parents (using a 70-200 2.8 lens wide open) blurring him but keeping his parents tack sharp. The key to successfully shooting a Bar or Bat Mitzvah is to tell the story of the entire day. This shot helped me sum it all up!

Having fun shooting some portrait shots

A while back, I was talking with my wife and mentioned to her that I wanted to try my new beauty dish (a great attachment to my studio lights). She said "I know who we need to call", and immediately called friends of ours who have two great looking red head girls.

They came over for an hour and we had some fun together. How about that expression on the younger sister's face?

 

The little one had a TON of energy and was not easy to pin down for more than 5 seconds, so I decided to start with some images of their older daughter.

My goal was to shoot all of the images with only one light, although soon after starting, I did break out a reflector to add a little extra light to the darker side of their faces.

My wife had the good idea to give her an old telephone (from the house I grew up in) to play with. It is always funny to see kids reactions to the dial telephone. So old school! :)

Hello? Anyone there?

 And then...back to being her goofy self.

We also went outside to take some shots in our backyard. Even though the goal was to shoot indoor studio shots, I still prefer natural light shots. Funny that almost every shot was taken in the indoor studio but my favorite of the day was this one.