I’m Baaaaaaack!!

I just updated the Bi-Weekly Photo Update with five new photos … some you may have seen before but there are some you certainly haven’t (none have been on the blog). The sunsets continue to be my muse as you can see … something about the light that really gets me going. Anyway, take a look and enjoy and I plan to stay more current now … hopefully

Second of the Bi-Weekly Photo Update Updates Added

That’s right, I actually did the second update this week … Sweet! This is a photo from the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) as the sun set just the other side of the Hicksville Train Station platform from my train car. I think it’s pretty neat, but I’m sure you’ll let me know.

New Photo in Bi-Weekly Photo Update

I know I slacked off there for a while but I’ve updated with another photo … this is the result of messing around with a long exposure at night with a few bright lights (I moved the camera not the street lights).  Hope you enjoy it … it’s a little more abstract than most of my work.

We’re a Weird Bunch …

Professional photographers are a weird bunch of people. We choose a profession with few guarantees, an expectation of money running hot and cold, certain sectors where our lives are at risk (check out this page for the number of journalists [photojournalists included] who have died in wars since WWI), and a general understanding that our lives are pretty much never going to be simple.

When I went to the International Center of Photography they had an orientation period in the beginning of our program.  The very first day we were there all the students in the Photojournalism Program and the General Studies Program were seated and the heads of the program and a few staff from the school talked to us about photography and what to expect during the next year.  When the head of the General Studies got up there the first thing he said to us was, “If you can imagine yourself doing anything else for a living other than photography, go do it.  Leave right now and go do it because your life would be a whole lot easier.”  He went on to describe how photographers are photographers because they can’t do anything else.  Not physically, but emotionally and intellectually.  We have a drive inside us that doesn’t let us do anything else.  We HAVE to take pictures and document the world.  Our creative drive won’t allow us to step aside and put down the camera just because it would make our lives easier.

While it may seem that becoming a photographer would be such an easy life, just taking pretty pictures for a living, the reality of a tough market, stiff competition, and a world where no one seems to want to give you a shot unless you’ve already proved yourself (the irony of the photo world still gets me) makes the romanticized glamor of the photo world melt away real fast.  This drive all photographers have is hard to explain.  It’s an all encompassing lifestyle.  Everywhere I go I am constantly seeing how the light is playing off of the backgrounds or how it is falling on the faces of whomever I am talking to.  I am essentially perpetually taking pictures either with a camera or with my minds eye, taking note of what I see so I can recreate it in the future for a photograph.

So yeah, we’re a weird bunch … we live our careers, our lives are defined by our work because our work comes from our very essence.  It doesn’t matter what we are photographing, be it an expose on street children, covering a war, doing a portrait for a national magazine, or just taking photos of our friends, we put our hearts and souls into each image.  We give everything into what we do and we wouldn’t … make that couldn’t want it any other way.

Picture of the Week Now BI-Weekly!

That’s right!  Due to a distinct increase in traffic when I add new photos I have decided to update my Picture of the Week (now being called the Bi-Weekly Photo Update) TWICE a week.  I will probably update it at the beginning and end of the week as possible.  Hopefully this will be cool.

The photo I just added is a shot of the sunsetting over Brooklyn, NY.  The steeple is St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Greenpoint.  The photo kind of gives me an old world feel, like it’s from Eastern Europe or something … but that might just be me.  Anyway, hope you enjoy.

It’s a Matter of Inches …

A lot of people ask me why I take so many photos when I shoot.  They kind of assume that when you want a photograph you just take one image.  While this turns out some times, often it takes a great deal of observation and experimentation to discover the best photograph for a given situation.  It becomes a matter of inches moved and slight angle changes to make a beautiful image.  The first impulse when taking a photo of a subject is to take it from the point at which you first observe it and call it a day, but often we aren’t lucky enough to have started at the ideal spot.  It takes diligence and careful observation to figure out when the composition and lines work most effectively together. For example:

I was in Roanoke, VA recently and came across one of those wood fences like you see at ranches.  I thought it looked cool and decided to take a photo.  The first one I took was, as I said is often the impulse, from where I first decided to take a picture of the fence.  This is how it turned out:

It’s a pretty ‘Ehhh” photo like that.  The cars in the background take away from the overall composition and the post loses all context and is lost in the confusing image really.  So I moved 6 inches and changed the angle that I was shooting it from and came up with this image:

A far nicer image, the blurred background works well with the image and the focus is more directed at the interesting knotting of the post.  Changing the background from the pavement and cars to the rest of the fence and the green foliage simplifies it and allows the image to grow from the focus of the image (the post).

A matter of 6 inches and a few degrees change of angle and the image becomes completely different and (I dare say) much better.  So keep shooting and don’t stop until you’re sure you have the shot you want.

New Picture of the Week Up

Hey All, I’ve updated the Picture of the Week page at the top of the blog with another photo this week. This is a shot I took in Roanoke, VA recently of a streetlight and communication tower at the top of Mill Mountain by this enormous neon star they have over looking the valley. It’s another of my long exposure night shots for anyone who is a fan of those. Enjoy!

What we do to get the shot

Most of the greatest photographs in history have come when the photographer goes beyond what the average person will to get the image. The idea of photography is to tell a story with one split second in a way that allows the viewer to almost experience the situation or subject. With those in mind it makes one think about the lengths that human curiosity and daring will take photographers in their never-ending quest to document the world and to tell the stories that only images can.

We see the images that come back from the war front and try to imagine what these soldiers are going through, but the photographer who shoots those images is in the same situation, with bullets flying but they’re only armed with their camera and nerve. One of the greatest war photographers of all time (arguably THE greatest) is James Nachtwey. He is renowned for his ability to capture the essence of whatever situation he is in. His hauntingly arresting photographs of war and human misery is a testament to his ability to engage his subjects and put himself in the middle of the action. We see the photos but we never usually see what the photographer behind the lens goes through to get it, but this photograph gives a glimpse of what they do to get their image:

Could you continue to do your job as a man with an AK-47 turns in your direction?? I’ve done some things to get images but I’m not even sure I would be able to keep my composure enough in a situation like that.

My own story, while not quite as dangerous, is pretty interesting and goes along to help illustrate this same topic. On July 18, 2007 I was in New York City to shoot an event uptown around 70th Street. When I got out of the subway I saw a lot of people standing around being blocked from getting onto downtown trains and I figured something was up, but I was on my way to a shoot so I couldn’t really investigate. Almost as soon as I got to the event I got a phone call from my editor telling me that something was going on in midtown and that I should get down there as soon as possible. So I jumped in a cab and told him to head downtown towards Grand Central. I got out my NYPD Press Badge and set up my cameras so I would be ready to go. My heart started pounding as I saw the giant plume of smoke rising above the building downtown as we started going down there. My editor texted me on the way saying that she was told it was possibly a building collapse (it was right as it was happening so no one really knew what was going on). The cab driver turned around to me and said, “We’re not going to be able to go right down there because something is happening” so I told him that that was exactly what I was going to. He gave me a very confused look and didn’t talk to me for the rest of the ride.

We got about 20 blocks away and the traffic stalled and we couldn’t get any closer. I paid the man and got out and began running towards the rising plume of smoke. As I was making my way down there were crowds of people making their way away from the scene covered in dirt. I was trying to catch bits of their conversations on the phone to get an idea of what I was heading into. I got about 4 blocks away and the police had the road blocked. I showed them my badge (which normally allows me to cross police lines) but the officer said “Sorry, no one, not even press, are allowed past this point. It’s a safety cordon.” Now I wasn’t about to give up yet so I started walking down a side street and put my step ladder (which I had for my original shoot) behind some construction equipment and kept walking. I soon saw an alley leading closer to the scene with no police in it. I started walking confidently down and when a security guard started to hesitantly walk towards me I flashed my badge and kept walking and he stopped trying to stop me.

So now I was on a walkway above the area where the emergency crews were but the police stopped me again. So I started to look for a way to get down and saw an attendant standing outside a parking garage. I asked him if he knew how I could get down there and he offered his stairway. So I went down their back stairway and was inside of Grand Central Terminal (which was closed off at this point by the police and National Guard). I looked across the concourse and saw flashing lights through a bunch of glass doors and knew that was where I wanted to go. I started making my way there but saw a bunch of National Guardsmen standing with their M-16s in front of the doors stopping people from going through. I figured they had only been told to stop people getting in but not the part about stopping the press so I walked up to them and said I was with the press and was allowed to go through, so he let me go.

So the second I walked through the doors I realized I really probably wasn’t supposed to be allowed in there. There were firefighters putting on their gear and police everywhere. I was a block away from where I could see the emergency personnel doing their thing. I was there with two other photographers (one from the AP and another I had not seen before) who had managed to make their way through as well. So the three of us started to make our way down the block taking turns getting closer to see when we’d be asked to leave. So we make our way down to the corner and see shattered glass windows, and by this point the brown liquid stuff was falling down on us. When we got to the corner and looked down the street it was maybe 75 feet away and did not look like it was under control. So I was shooting this whole time when a FDNY Officer walks up and says “I don’t know how you got in here but you shouldn’t be here. You’re already probably EXPLETIVEing yourself up. We don’t know what’s coming out of that thing.” So I then walk away, circle around a police car and come back and start shooting again. A second officer walks up and asks me to leave so I do the same thing and keep shooting and finally the second guy comes back up and says “Come on guy, I already asked you to leave.” So this time I did since I was getting calls from my editor asking for the photos. So I get out of the cordoned area and sit down on the sidewalk outside of a closed Starbucks using their WiFi to send the photos to my editor, getting calls telling me that when I get home to take off my clothes and throw them out since there might be asbestos in the stuff that was raining down on me, and noticing that everyone else in the area was wearing facemasks. Here are some of the photos I took:

When I was doing it all I could think about was getting the images which is what I imagine goes through the head of all photographers in situations that seem crazy to most people. But I guess that’s what makes us Photographers …

Photographer’s Rights

I am a freelance photojournalist and I have been sent on a number of assignments of varying complexity and directness.  At each of these assignments I have taken photos of people, some with their express permission, but many times without their express permission.  I’ve been told many times by some of these people “You can’t use a photo of me without my permission.”  These comments inevitably come in angry, derogatory, and dismissive tones.  It’s one of those things that really seems to catch me the wrong way because the plain fact of the matter is that, yes, yes indeed I can use a picture of you without your permission so long as that photo is not being used “for advertising or purposes of trade” which has, through legal decisions, been narrowed to EXclude art and any editorial usage.  This extends to any public space or anywhere that the expectation of privacy (not simply from photographs) is not implied.  This means that I cannot climb your fire escape, shoot you dancing in your boxers in your living room and publish those photos, but if you came downstairs and danced in your boxers in the middle of the street and I photographed you, then I CAN publish those photos without your permission.

Sometimes it becomes very contentious, such as when a police officer decides you’re not allowed to take photos in the subway (which you most certainly are allowed to since the proposed legislation to stop that was put down) or when someone gets in your face.  With a complete lack of factual information, these people take it upon themselves to assert what they think without any regard for what is actually the truth.  It’s annoying and pertinent to all photographers, both professional and amateur, in their everyday activities because without our rights to document and express we have nothing.  So if you are doing something in public that you don’t want other people to see, don’t do it … or take it inside.

And just to show that this is a reality that is faced by all photographers, look at the lawsuit Philip-Lorca DiCorcia faced http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nussenzweig_v._DiCorcia

Canon Vs. Nikon … Really??

So I am, by all counts, a Canon Guy.  I love the sight of a white-gray lens attached to the appropriately named body (it’s number THEN letter).  I love the Ultrasonic focusing and the red is a much cooler accent than the yellow/gold.  But when it comes down to it there aren’t many truly exceptional differences between the two competitors in photography.  People talk about Canon’s superiority in telephoto (which is true) and Nikon’s superiority in flashes (… maybe it’s true …), but in the end they both are exceptional producers of quality photographic equipment.  The reality of the situation is that regardless of which outfit a photographer might have, whether or not they will be able to produce a beautiful photograph is entirely dependent upon their ability as a photographer.

The argument about who is better isn’t reserved solely for photography, people argue this same point about pretty much everything.  Some people will buy no other car but Ford, some people will only use a particular brand of cereal, some people refuse to eat at certain restaurants, etc, etc … The fact of the matter is that in each of these cases an argument can be formulated to support the position (“Ford has the highest towing capacity in its class” “Total has more of the vitamins and minerals I need to start my day off right” “McDonald’s hamburgers are far inferior to the flame-broiled goodness that is Burger King”) but equally strong cases can be formulated in response (“I don’t need towing capacity to go grocery shopping and Toyota has a better drive train warranty” “Why would I need 100% of my daily recommended allowance from one piece of one meal in my day when I can have the tasty, never soggy crunch of Crispix?” “Flame-broiled or not, McDonald’s Chicken Sandwich is far crispier and fresher than that sorry excuse Burger King offers”).  It becomes a matter of personal taste in the end but no one seems willing to admit it.  I may enjoy the Canon over the Nikon but a photographer with a D200 can still get an incredible picture if they know how to use a camera … Hell, I could get an incredible picture with a D200 despite my love of Canon.

If we could get past this confusion of absolutes Vs. personal preference I think we could all get along much easier … over the far superior and smooth taste of Dr. Pepper …