Irony

Move to New York and have spent more time out of the city than in. That's irony.
Now I'm in Vermont. Everything is on hold due to the rain. But all is good. I had a chance to stroll and take some macro shots of water droplets and other nature details.
There's always something to take photos of if you are willing to stop and look around.

A Break From NYC

Last week I was on location in Charleston, SC. I've never been there so I took some time to walk around and see the sites. What a change from NYC - quiet, no people, easy parking, yards and most surprisingly hard to find a cup of coffee at 8am (at least from what I saw). It was nice, however, to wander around without a particular goal. Just taking photos of what caught my eye. Beautiful architecture, manicured lawns, ornate iron fences and very old churches (for American standards anyway...)



As I drove to Charleston I passed many marshlands. I couldn't resist stopping a few times to take photos. The storms were amazing and the morning fog simply beautiful.

Note To Self...

When on a roof, bring your cell phone…

There were a few miracles moving up to NY. Got out of DC 1.5 hours earlier than expected, traffic was fairly light, unloading was a breeze and finally parking a 15 foot van on a Saturday in SoHo was surprisingly easy. Something had to give. It just had to...


On Sunday Kate and I decided to go for a walk. It was a beautiful day – sun shone brightly, 85 degrees, with a light breeze. Kate wanted to show me the roof top. Walking up the stairs I thought this will be a great place to sit and read, brush the dogs and get away from the hustle and bustle of the streets below. We opened the door to a bright, white tarred roof – so bright in fact we could barely keep our eyes open. First mistake – not bringing sunglasses. We roamed around, admiring the view, talking about where we wanted to go for a walk. Ten minutes later we decided to head downstairs. We went to open the door, locked. Kate looked at me, “What the hell are we gong to do? I don’t have my cell phone.” Now I NEVER carry my cell phone when on walks – it’s my time and I like getting away from technology (I’m re-thinking that strategy). But this time, for some reason, I had it with me. Talk about a look of complete and utter amazement from Kate. Now we had to and remember the phone numbers of our neighbors’ and hopefully find them home, on a Memorial Day weekend. We left two messages and the third was the charm. It took him ten minutes to get to us, by we were off the roof, a little blinded and very hot.


We’re not quite sure what we would have done if I didn’t have my cell phone with me.
Scream for help most likely. And in NYC that doesn’t get you very far.

So what did I do - Naturally I took some photos.

A New Blog

Even though the look is similar, I am starting a whole new approach to this blog.
I have just moved to the Big Apple - land of stress, smog, traffic, people, people and more people - but I love it!
So this blog is going to be about my thoughts and impressions of this land of concrete.
Titled "Notes From NY", I'm going to try to discover - through words and photographs - what makes it tick.
So stay tuned!!

Discovering

A beautiful, warm day.
Sun shining and a glass of ice water in front of me.
This is why I love taking my camera with me everywhere.
You never know what you are going to discover.

Learning to See All Over Again

There are times when I'm taking photos that all I see are patterns and design elements. Everything is abstract - squares, circles, patterns, shapes, textures. This use to drive me crazy, partially because I didn't understand or know how to utilize it. This past weekend Kate and I were walking on the Mall in DC. We decided to cut through the Hirshhorn Museum. A building I have always loved, not only for the art inside, but for the design of the building itself. But I've never really looked at it the way I did yesterday. One thing I think photographers fail to do is to look everywhere, and not just straight ahead. Looking up, down and even behind can result is some amazing sights. Being able to comparing shapes (the back of a chair compared to the roof design) or how angles and lines find similarities in different objects (lines of a table compared to the lines of a building) really make for some fantastic images.


What's really amazing is when I start seeing other peoples art in a scene. I feel like I am seeing what they saw - design, light, patterns, shapes. Edward Hopper came to mind when I saw the scene in the photo below. It's not exactly like his work, but it does remind me of his sense of design and how he composed his paintings. I just couldn't resist taking it. It helped me in learning to see all over again.

Taking Stock

Taking stock in myself. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while now. I have had images with JupiterImages, but since they were bought by Getty I took my images off their site. Call me crazy, but it was a matter of principle.

When things are slow I don’t like to sit and pout. I search for things to shoot. This is what I love about photography. It keeps me active, searching, thinking – it keeps me alive. Because of this I am now having resurgence in photographing for stock. Being able to capture a mood, an expression or a moment is what photography is all about, and that is what I want to show in my stock images.

Stay tuned for a new web site and a stock site featuring images from New York City.

Patience

Notes on a page have always been something that has eluded me. I remember when I was in seventh grade, my music teacher ask me to read some notes written on the board. I told her I couldn’t; I didn’t know how - I had never been taught. “Haven’t you taken music before?” “Yes” I said. “Everyone can read music!” she screamed.
After that I never had the patience to learn. But then again I was never given a reason to. This hasn’t stopped my love for listening to music. The variety of notes and they way a musician can intertwine them to make a song amazes me. I really wish I could play an instrument and be creative in that way. I wish I was taught the patience to learn.

Knowing is something that has to be taught and not expected. Patience is something that is learned – some are born with it, but most have to be taught.

Patience is what photography has taught me. I’ve had great teachers who instilled a sense of love and yearning for that perfect moment. Waiting for what Henri Cartier-Bresson called the “decisive moment” gives me a thrill that is hard to explain. It isn’t necessarily about capturing the moment – it’s about the search for that moment. I guess it would be something like what a musician experiences when he or she hits the notes just the way they had expected. Or trying something new and experiencing a tingling in the body that says you are on to something special.

This is what I love about photography. It gives me a reason to search and learn. It helps me feed the curiosity I have about everything around me. Notes on a sheet of paper are once again interesting. I still have no idea what they mean or say, but I now have the patience to learn.

Tunnel Vision

I was speaking with Kate the other day about the photo industry. We chatted about the economy and how photographers are dealing with the slow down. Now there are times when it is completely frustrating to talk about the photo business with someone who doesn’t know much about what we do. And other times it can be quite enlightening. Let me explain: I am the type of person who always looks towards the future - the glass is Always half full. I believe in what I do and think I am a good photographer who will someday make it (what ever that means…that’s a discussion for another post). Anyway, I have a vision of where I want to be and how I'm going to get there. The only problem is that I tend to get tunnel vision. And this is where Kate comes in. I rarely look from side to side to see what other options might be out there. I've learned that success is not a straight line. There are detours, road blocks, hazards and forks, all of which need to be thought about, discussed and sometimes taken. We need to see these as opportunities, not as hindrances. I've found that keeping my eyes looking straight only endangers where I am going.
Focusing on the future is a good thing – having tunnel vision while you do it is not. This is the enlightenment you can get from listening to others.

Never Be Content

This past Thursday our local APA chapter here in DC had their monthly Brown Bag event. This month’s topic was about change and how we as photographers can, and should, adapt to the economic crisis we are in. One of the last questions asked was about our source of inspiration. Some said looking at other photographer’s work. Others mentioned playing an instrument to clear the mind. I think these are all great ways to find inspiration and to jostle the creative mind. For me it’s many things, but three come to mind right away.

There are certain blogs that I like to read (not consistently, but often). One of the best is Rob Haggart’s A Photo Editor. It’s full of interviews, photos, news and tidbits that other blogs just don’t have.

A web site full of "ideas worth spreading" is TED. This is brilliant site full of inspirational speakers who talk about subjects that help feed the creative mind. Most of the talks last 18-20 minutes and afterwards you feel inspired, motivated, influenced, encouraged and enthused about the future and what it holds. One of my favorites is a talk by JJ Abrams about his "Mystery Box" (see it here). TED’s latest batch of speakers just came online. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love”, speaks about the concept of being a “genius” and how we have ruined it (see it here). It’s a fascinating journey through the mind of a creative person and her thoughts on genius - who has it, how we manage it, and how we can connect with our own geniuses.

Finally I love to watch movies, especially the real arty ones. I can watch a good movie over and over again. I get inspired not by the writing or action scenes, but by the use of angles and light and how scenes are composed.

All of these have helped me realize that creating is an evolving exercise - one where we should never be completely satisfied or content. Once I am content then life seems to loose some of its meaning.
Live to Create and Create to Live. Never Be Content