Vapertureroped in
Posted on January 9, 2014
This is a black and white abstract composition of Orly Genger’s rope installation in Maidson Square Park. The exhibit was actually about brightly colored ropes in yellow, red, and blue, but I thought that the crisp detail translated better for this close up composition. Over 100,000 pounds of rope was used in total, and it was definitely one of the more impressive installations I’ve seen.
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Click the Read More bar below to see a few color photos of this brilliant installation.
locked up
Posted on January 9, 2014
I absolutely love what you can find in New York if you slow down and take a look around. I found this bright green padlock in the 34th Street subway station while waiting for the F train one day. The bright color stood out and caught my eye, but what really made this shot interesting was the soft orange and yellow background colors showing through the locked gate. The subways have some fascinating images, but before I took this photo I never imagined that such vibrant colors had a place in the darkest place in the city. Taken with a Canon 135mm f2 lens mounted on a Canon 5D Mark III camera. The aperture was wide open at f/2 in order to pull the subject out towards your eye and create the softest background possible to contrast against the sharp focus of the metal lock.
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towering
Posted on January 8, 2014
The architecture in New York is fascinating, and when brilliant design winds up with an even more brilliant natural backdrop like these clouds, you really have something special in a photograph. Taken with a Carl Zeiss 50mm f2 Makro Planar lens, which is optimized for closeup work, but can obviously hold it’s own for landscapes and cityscapes as well.
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battle
Posted on January 7, 2014
This is a scene from one of the coolest, and most confusing, things I’ve witnessed since I began trying my hand at street photography in New York.
A huge group of at least 50 people were gathered together in a dirt pit off to the side of a random path through Central Park. One guy looked like he was presiding over the event with a huge American flag, and everyone else was participating in this crazy group wrestling match with a set of rules that none of the spectators could understand. I shot at least 250 photos of the event because it was so fascinating, and this is one of my favorite shots. I love New York for things like this.
Canon 135mm f2 lens shot at f/2. Canon 5D Mark III camera.
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surreal
Posted on January 6, 2014
This photo looks like a cross between an actual photograph and a Salvador Dali painting, which is why it’s surreal to me when I look at it. The muted blues and grays in the sky, and the warm oranges and reds in the city and the water give this image a very special feeling that anyone who has ever lived in New York can appreciate within a few seconds of viewing it. This would be stunning as a large floating canvas print in 20×30 or 30×45. Taken with a Carl Zeiss 15mm f2.8 wide angle Distagon lens, 30-second exposure, f/11, tripod, remote release.
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motion
Posted on January 5, 2014
I’m fascinated with the art of capturing motion within a still photograph, and this is why! Look at the streams of light from the traffic that past through this view during the 30 second exposure time. Look closely at both levels of the bridge, and on both lanes of the FDR Drive below… a white stream from headlights traveling north, and a red stream from brake lights traveling south. It’s just a wonderful representation of what New York is all about… constant, constant motion…
Taken with a Zeiss 50mm Makro Planar manual focus lens set at f/11 mounted on a Canon 1DX with a tripod.
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lava hd
Posted on January 5, 2014
I had so many requests to see the overall expansive image behind ‘lava’ that I decided to publish one of my favorites taken with a wider angle Zeiss 35mm f1.4 Distagon Lens. The colors, clarity, and super rare subject matter that only existed for a few minutes make this photo something truly special. I decided to include a reflection off of a window to the right in the composition, and it’s unbelievable how continuous the image of the lava cloud is all the way across from the cloud itself, through the bridge, into the reflection. It’s so continuous that the window and a reflection on the right sometimes goes unnoticed. This photo would render beautifully on a large 30×45 Fuji Pearl print, and is available in limited quantities in a 16:9 aspect ratio for anyone interested in enhancing the “widescreen” look of the photo… consistent with the HD in the title. As always, no post-processing here… this is exactly how it looked the day it was taken.
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reveal
Posted on January 5, 2014
This photo was taken immediately after a thunderstorm over the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. The sun began a 20-30 second process of blasting through the storm clouds to reveal the bright blue sky behind them, and as it was doing so, it put a serious light show on display. The colors and sharpness that the Zeiss 100mm Makro Planar lens is capable of are outstanding, and I can’t wait to see this as a medium-large size print that allows all the rich detail to shine through… pun intended.
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snowsuit
Posted on January 4, 2014
What is is that makes us want to run our hands through the snow whenever we get the chance? Is is the little pile that it makes in front of our hand? Is is the clear path that gets left behind it? Is is the impending snowball that’s bound to get made? Or is it just the warmth of our favorite snowsuits and gloves when we get to run out to play in the first snow of the season as children… I think that’s it…
Taken with a Carl Zeiss 135mm f2 APO SONNAR lens mounted on a Canon 1DX DSLR camera.
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lava
Posted on January 4, 2014
Within 10 minutes of waking up this morning, a normal (beautiful, but normal) sunrise was replaced with this gigantic, dense, lava-like cloud. I haven’t been more wow’d by a sunrise in a long time. Taken with a Canon 5D Mark III and a Carl Zeiss 135mm f2 APO SONNAR lens mounted on a tripod and set to f/11.And, as with all the images on this site, this is straight out of the camera with no post-processing.
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Want to see how this scene evolved over the next 60 seconds?
cold
Posted on January 3, 2014
Some pictures are worth 1000 words… this one is only worth one, cold. You can feel how cold it is outside in this image. This was taken very late at night with only the light of a single streetlamp. The wind was howling and everyone escaped the cold into their warm apartments for the night. It’s a very simple composition so I had to fight the tendency to start increasing the exposure to get a brighter image, but that immediately took the feeling away from the photo. This is exactly how it looked to my eye, and that’s what I love to capture in every photo I take.
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walk this way
Posted on January 3, 2014
It’s really difficult to get nice color out of a monotone scene, especially when the lighting is low, but this photo turned out to have a wonderful palette. The scene feels cold, but the light feels warm, and I love the composition with a man and a woman following each other on a walk to get out of the snow. The fantastic apochromatic qualities of the Zeiss 135mm f2 sonnar lens combined with the exceptional metering abilities of the Canon 1DX made this photo one of my favorites.
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warm light cold night
Posted on January 3, 2014
This is not what I saw when I set up this shot in my viewfinder, but this is how it turned out after a 30 second exposure late at night. It was surprising how warm the color profile turned out (especially since the Auto ISO ended up at 5000K, which is on the cool side). It seems as though the warm lights of the distant street lamps and the bridge were being picked up by the light snowfall in an almost imperceptible way that only became visible after it accumulated on the camera sensor for 30 full seconds. It was such a pleasant irony to see such a warm photo when what I was seeing was such a cold, dark, image. It turned out very nicely in an abstract, artistic sort of way.
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shadows
Posted on January 3, 2014
Long shadows have a such a dramatic appeal to them, especially when the sun makes it’s first appearance after a storm.
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painted
Posted on January 3, 2014
The river looks as if the brush in ‘artist’ painted it, but it was a lens, not a brush, that did the painting. A Zeiss 135mm APO SONNAR lens was allowed to exposure this image for 20 seconds, and this is what it captured. The still reflections on top of the moving water created this painterly like effect, and I love the dramatic effect created by shooting in black and white as compared to the softer effect in color.
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painted in color
Posted on January 3, 2014
Take a look at the motion of the water under the still reflections. It appears as if it was painted with several soft brush strokes under those beautiful colors, and the reflections themselves also appear to painted with a finer brush on top. This was taken with a very long exposure late at night, and it turned out so crisp and clear, but with a sense of softness because the motion of the water. I would love to see this as a medium sized canvas print, but it would also work well with a simple float frame. Taken with a Carl Zeiss 135mm APO SONNAR lens, f/11, 20-second exposure, tripod, remote trigger.
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grey
Posted on January 3, 2014
There is such a special grey light that only snow creates. Rainy days have a grey cast to them too, but it’s different than snow. There is a softness about the snow grey, and a dreariness to rain grey. It’s hard to describe, but the images feel completely different even though they have the exact same tonality. Take a look at ‘its just so’ and you might see what I mean. ‘grey’ is soft, grainy, and has a quiet feeling to it, while ‘its just so’ has a dreary somber feeling. They are admittedly different subjects, but they were taken at the same time of the day, and both shot in black and white. I could see either work being a nice seasonal floating canvas piece in any room with an earth tone decor.
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studio
Posted on January 2, 2014
Another classic image from an artist’s studio that pairs well with the limited edition photo ‘artist’. This image was taken with a Zeiss 100mm f2 Makro Planar lens which is famous for it’s sharp detail and soft background that renders very artistically as compared to other long lenses. An artistic lens for an artistic shot in a true artist’s studio… right on! I would love to see this image on a giant canvas on a stark white accent wall.
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artist
Posted on January 2, 2014
This image was taken in a painter’s studio after I fell in love with her workspace… jars of brushes of all shapes and sizes… tubes of paint, some open and used, and some brand new… large poster boards used as color palettes for inspiration. It was a wonderful setting that took me back to the days when I had time to paint, and forward to the day when I have time to paint again. The artist’s work is phenomenal by the way… marilynvendemia.com.
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composed
Posted on January 2, 2014
This a wonderfully simple photo that is all about composition. I struggled for several shots to make this scene interesting, and this is the simple composition that finally did it. I was initially interested in the beautiful texture that the light dusting of snow created on the lawn, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get that to translate into a real photograph. The carefully landscaped circle outlining the base of the tree placed carefully in the corner was the missing piece of the puzzle.
Taken with a Carl Zeiss 135mm f2 apo sonnar lens mounted on a Canon 1DX.
Vaperture 