The 365 - 10/11/17 - Day 80

Happy Belated Wednesday everyone - Today's image goes back to my days haunting around Red Hook.  As I've posted before, I used to love walking around the neighborhood looking for photos, and naturally the waterfront was a big attraction.  Just like clockwork, everyday this gentleman would wind up on the water with his two dogs on a walk.  On this one occasion, I decided to grab a quick shot or two of him as his dogs circled around him.   I was focusing on trying to capture the animated expressions they showed as they circled around his feet on their walk.  This daily activity obviously meant so much to his dogs and you could see it in their faces everyday, not only in this shot.    As far as this shot goes, I really liked it after I took it, but since then have grown quite a bit more critical of it.  My first critique of this photo is in the format.  At the time, I chose a portrait format to capture the older man against the water.  However, as time has passed, I think landscape (horizontal) would have worked better as the background of the ship and the port don't add anything to the photo.  Secondly, the older man is very much in the wrong spot on the photo.  I think he needed to be closer to a "rule of thirds"  position in the frame and probably I should have zoomed out a bit more to give him some room to move through the frame.  But, this is where we learn. 

Enjoy your belated Wednesday -  

Red Hook, Brooklyn - The Dog Walker

The 365 - 10/10/17 - Day 79

Happy Tuesday everyone - Tonight's image is from the HDR collage series.  Like some of the others in this series, the source images for this collage came from Art Alley in Rapid City, South Dakota.  I combined 3 photographs of murals encompassing elements of the raven, the words, and a some color.  The final piece merged all of these elements together based on the directions of the lines within the elements. Like all of the photos in the HDR collage series, the final image is the result of a black box process using the HDR software.  I chose this final version of the image from 4 different process images as I really liked how the raven ended up more central and the words seem to fade into the bird.   This series is visually complicated, but I really enjoy seeing how these final images come out from the initial source images.  They can be dramatically different from the original murals they are sourced from and often display very different themes and messages.  I hope you enjoy these as I really do enjoy making them.  Enjoy your Tuesday - 

HDR Collage - Raven of War

The 365 - 10/9/17 - Day 78

Happy Monday everyone - As a photographer, it is critical to understand how the light is going to play off of your subject.  This is even more critical when you are working with simple subjects as the light you use can make or break the photograph.  The subject of today's image is an old dock crane stationed in the park near the Ikea in Red Hook.  It's both iconic and mundane as the these kinds of cranes serve both as a reminder of the history of the neighborhood but also as the constant visual of the neighborhood.  So, how do you make a photograph of a subject that is easily observed (and thus presumably photographed often).  The answer is - choose the correct light.  This photograph was taken at sunset thereby providing the maximum contrast and the most dynamic light.  A simple framing of the crane house while omitting both the legs and the upper portion of the crane sells the idea of the subject while maintaining focus on the real subject, which is the crane house.   I had taken several photos of this crane over my years in Red Hook,  but this is by far my favorite based solely on the light used to define the subject.  Timing is everything in photography.   Enjoy your Monday - 

Red Hook, Brooklyn - The Crane

The 365 - 10/8/17 - Day 77

Happy Sunday everyone - When Ikea constructed their store in Red Hook, they also developed the nearby area into a local park to both draw in shoppers and also give something back to the neighborhood they wanted to be a part of. This park was one of my favorite places to photo hunt as there were always a few people milling around and the design choices in the park were interesting to me.  They had reclaimed some former dock areas and so still had some machinery exhibits around, but they also applied design choices to everything from the landscape to the lighting to reflect what Ikea was about.  This lamp here was an example of this and I always admired them.  Much simpler than a glass fixture with a bulb beaming down, these used a reflective pad to reflect light broadly down.  The effect in the park was that it created a picturesque image without the hotspots you would normally see from the bulbs.  As a photographer, I wanted to thank these designers for that choice.  So in honor of the designers who unwittingly (or perhaps intentionally) make design choices that make it easier for us camera hawks to create something appealing, I present this image of their work.  Enjoy your Sunday - 

Red Hook, Brooklyn - Street Lamp

The 365 - 10/7/17 - Day 76

Happy Saturday everyone - Storytelling is an art.  In a great story, there is a balance between the details we use to paint the scene and make the story believable and the overall narrative that keeps the manageable.  Too long of a narrative or too many details and the central theme of your story can easily become lost.  Storytelling in photography is really no different in this respect.   When I have an idea of a story in my head that I want to tell in an image, really the first question I grapple with after the overall concept is sorted out is how much detail do I really need to tell the story.  Its a personal preference for me that less is more when it comes to the details within the image.   The more details you are offering, the more likely the viewer will focus on a given detail and away from the central focus of your subject or theme.   On a particular photowalk in Red Hook, I had this story running through my head.  It was a story of life in NYC, but one that is different than the hectic one that seems to dominate everyone's imagination.  Life in the city for me, and for many of my friends at the time, was hectic at times, but also filled with quiet, reflective moments.    As I was walking and exploring, I came to waterside and saw this individual sitting on a bench and quietly watching the sunset.   Far from hustle and bustle, this was far closer to my experience of the city.  Being able to watch and observe.  To tell this story, I chose to use a silhouette because the specific details of his shirt and shoes were far less important than the idea of him sitting on the bench with NY icons near him (bike and Liberty).  I think this photo has just enough details to tell the story and locks in the focus on this idea of a different view of NYC life.  It's a more simple telling of this story.  Enjoy your Saturday - 

Red Hook Brooklyn - A New York Story