Fall from Mt. Whitney NY

Fall photography-we all do it. Who doesn't love those bright colors. To really get it right though you need to do a few things. One, get up early to get the tangential light of sunrise, 2) go out when there is a dense cloud cover to offer contrast to the leaves, 3) wait for break in the clouds to have the sun stream forth with its light to create the scene perfectly. For this shot a wide angle lens is a must. I used a Tamron 11-18mm with a 72mm polarizer, also a must to have color pop and add contrast. Camera was a Sony A 330 DSLR. The last ingredient for the nature photographer, and the most important is..................Patience. Jeff

Safed Girl

Safed, Israel, town of Jewish Mysticism. There I found this beautiful young girl relaxing on a curb. I used a Canon SX10IS camera with a great 28-560mm lens at about 400mm to capture her pose without intruding on her personal space. My preferred method for people photography is the technique I described in " Nora Spring 2009" below. That was not possible here. Jeff

Nora Spring 2009

Nora, A beautiful lady I saw in New Hope, PA last year. As soon as I saw her I knew I had to photograph her. The technique that I used was simply to start a conversation with her about her home and the town. As we talked and she relaxed I asked her if I could photograph her while were chatting. She agreed, as most people do if they feel the photographer is not being intrusive. My favorite street photo cam is the Canon G9. Small enough to not scare folks, but of excellent quality to produce terrific images. This was my favorite which I "developed" in Photoshop and then tweaked to the effect I liked in Topaz Adjust, a must have plug-in. Look at her, she is gorgeous and regal in her years. Jeff

Saratoga Hats

Like the tin-type, Polaroid SX-70 imagery is essentially gone. The film as originally made, malleable in warmth for up to 2 hours is no longer made. I still have one cherished pack left!

This technique reminded me of kindergarten finger-painting. What fun to compose and take a photo and then sit in a sunny place with a stylus and "smush" the photo to create the adult version of finger-painting! More to come!

Morning Light at the Basilica

I consider this one of my best images. Taken at St. Peter's Balicia in Rome, July 1995 about 9 AM. I used a Minolta Autocord TLR camera with a fixed Rokkur 75 mm lens and Fuji Reala film. I decided to use an incidental light reading with a Gossen Luna pro meter to get the fastest shutter speed at f 5.6, which was 1/15 sec. Perching the camera on a charity box ( cum tripod) I started shooting my 12 exposures on the roll. This was the last image, the capture of a young couple in love in front of this beautiful light. You don't need a complicated DLSR to take a great photo. You just need to be in a good place , know your equipment on hand and understand light and how to expose for it.

The Backstretch

Action shots require a lot of planning in equipment, technique, location and practice. This shot taken this summer at Saratoga Raceway involved pre-focusing, presetting the f stop ( f11) and shutter speed at 1/750 at ISO 400 on a Fuji S3 Pro with a Nikon 55-200 VR lens. WB was set to cloudy. I wanted good depth of field, and stop action. To do that I boosted the ISO to 400.

What an opportunity! It's fall still with reds, yellows on the trees and then a snowstorm, just enough to create a lovely contrast. When moments like this occur, grab a camera and head out! This shot was taken at Thatcher Park near Albany, NY with a Canon G9, no filters in P mode. White balance was set to cloudy with a good color result.

The Woman in Siracusa

Look for interesting people and photograph them. I noted the contrast of her sadness and the hope represented in her bright red fluffy scarf. It is these contrasts that create an image that grabs the viewer's eye.