Girl Playing in a Fountain

Is this my best photo from 2007? Flickr seems to think so, and I don’t have any better metric by which to judge. It’s certainly one of a handful that I’m particularly proud of from this past year, so I figure I may as well go with it.

This was shot one particularly hot summer’s day in New York City’s Washington Square Park. It was the kind of day that makes me wonder what the hell I’m doing in the city, but I digress. As it happens, kids seem pretty fond of playing in the fountain there, can’t say I blame them. This was a young girl (8 or 9) jumping up and down in the water, and the scene is back lit by the sun, as you can tell by the shadow. I did the black and white conversion in post processing, though there wasn’t all that much color to begin with. I didn’t touch it other than that; this is pretty much straight out of the camera.

Exposure: 1/1250″
Aperture: f/9

Stand Out

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Just some quick notes as to the contents of this blog:

1. Information about the equipment used for each photo is now included by category. So you can, for example, navigate by lens used or camera body. Information about camera settings will continue to be included in the footer of each post.
2. On the subject of categories, I’ve also created one called “Tips”, which I’d hope is self explanatory, but in case it’s not – that’s the category for all posts which include bona-fide photography tips for people who are actually looking to learn something amidst my many ramblings.
3. All the photos themselves are hosted on Flickr, and link directly to their page on Flickr. I appreciate all comments, critiques, and faves you might choose to leave there. If the image is available as a print or for stock photography, you’ll find separate links there as well.
4. From now on, post tags will refer exclusively to post content, rather than the image. There’s extensive metadata about all of my photos on Flickr – they’re all tagged, geotagged, dated, and organized on my Photostream, so it should be relatively easy to find whatever you’re looking for through there.

Now, to say something about the image above (one of my favorites from 2007).

This was shot last summer in Washington Square Park in New York City, using my Tamron 18-200mm at full zoom. One of the criticisms on the lens is that it’s not very sharp, relatively speaking – but I’ve found that the trade off is that it delivers an awesome bokeh for depth of field shots like this. The focus is on the flower, but it’s the watercolor-like background that really makes this image for me.

Exposure: 1/400″
Aperture: f/6.3

Dare to Stand Out

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Photography, as much as it as study of light, is a study of contrasts. Every image needs a point of focus, something that stands out from the rest of it and grabs the attention of the viewer. So, with that in mind, I bring to you the brown leaf that thought it was a blade of grass.

Nikon D300, 50mm, 1/400″ at f/10

As Long As It Is Tall

Shot at about knee level, with a -1 EV exposure bias to make the shadow darker.

Nikon D70, 50mm, 1/500″ at F/9

Symmetry

Suburbia is awash with some of the most dull and uninspired structures imaginable. It’s dominated by streets, houses, and buildings that are among some of the ugliest sights I’ve ever seen, yet for some reason appeal to the bourgeois suburbanites that live there, who are apparently disturbed by the thought of real culture, art, or nature.

From a purely photographic perspective, one of the more fascinating exceptions to this state of affairs is pylons of the sort pictured here. I’m not sure why – I think their geometry is just innately appealing. Their shape does go above and beyond the purely functional. Someone put some thought into how they’d look, and made sure they’d be interesting to look at as they cut across the landscape, if not quite appealing. Patterns of lines, angles, and shapes almost always make for effective photographs, and these structures offer them in spades.

For this photo, I pointed the camera straight up and stood a little off center just to make all the beams come into view.

Nikon D70, 50mm, 1/250″ at f/4.

The Flow of Traffic

Given how much I hate the mall around Christmastime, it’s remarkable how often I wound up there this past month. This was taken from the third floor of the mall’s parking garage, which gave a pretty good view of the intersection below.

I’ve always been a fan of this kind of shot. Photography, by its nature, freezes scenes at a specific moment, and we’re usually not privy to what may have happened before or after. Here though, there’s a sense of activity – for example, you can see that the car going away from the camera on the right had his blinker on when I opened the shutter and had applied his brakes by its close. Kind of cool, if you ask me.

Nikon D300 with 50mm lens, 2.5″ at f/22

Merry Christmas!

Not much to say about this one, except that it seemed appropriately Christmas-themed to share today. Happy Holidays everyone.

Nikon D300 with 105mm lens, 1/160 at F/6.3

Candyland

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While not technically the first shot I took with my D300, for all intents and purposes that’s what this is. After taking a couple of test shots the night that I got it, I was eager to take some “real” photos. The candy canes happened to be something that I had around.

It’s not perfect; I probably should have taken the plastic off to reduce the glare, and the only lighting available in my apartment are floor lamps. But it’s still quite colorful, and I particularly like the way the depth of field leaves the impression that the candy canes go on forever.

Shot with my Nikon D300, 105mm lens, and a tripod. 4″ at f/22.

Reaching for the Sky

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My main goal when I take a photo is originality. Which isn’t to say that all my work is very original (not even close), or even that the above photo is (I’m not the first person to think of taking a photo of flowers from this angle). But, given that flowers are perhaps the most cliched subject in all of photography (second perhaps only to people’s cats), I’m not sure that it’s even possible to take a completely original photo of them.

Still, it doesn’t hurt to try.

Nikon D70 with my Tamron 18-200mm. 1/640 second at f/13, and then adjusted in Adobe Lightroom.

Yellow Shadows

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For someone who’s used to the splendid natural beauty found among the mountains of upstate NY, living in the suburbs of New Jersey can be a frustrating experience. I can’t tell you how many would-be beautiful spots here are just ruined by a house, power line, road, car, or simple litter.

It turns out that there are many beautiful things to be found in spite of all that, albeit it takes a while to develop an eye for it. Most of it is at the macro scale, and learning to spot opportunities where you wouldn’t otherwise expect it.

As a case in point, the above photo was taken in the parking lot outside the office building where I work. I spotted it as I got out of my car that morning. The parking lot was covered in shallow puddles – just enough to give the freshly fallen leaves a reflection that wouldn’t otherwise be present on the asphalt.

Taken with my Nikon D300 and 105mm f/2.8 lens, shot at 1/125 s at f/5.6.