ColorStory Series

Utata is a photography group. It was the first one I joined on flickr, back in 2005 or so. They host projects constantly–Iron Photographer, Thursday Walk, Weekend Project. A few years ago, they started a Big Project. I was too intimidated to attempt any previous Big Projects, sadly. This summer the project is Color Story, where you choose a color and create a series of photographs around it.

When the hurricane was approaching, I had the idea to go up on my roof the  day before, the day of, and the day of, with my green umbrella as a common thread. Framing and processing are all a little different. Then I decided that I could easily do a night photo and a morning photo. Et voila, my green color story!

This week I went to Florida for work, and took two bonus photos:

Irene: Outside, Inside

Well, Tropical Storm Irene “hit” New  York City and didn’t do too much in Brooklyn. We went out for a walk this afternoon (and saw plenty of others) to survey the “damage.”

Most stores and restaurants were closed. I guess the owners ran out of this cafe without getting all their trash.

This grocery store was closed and all the produce shelves were empty, except for these forsaken squash.

Not sure if this place wants to be open despite the weather, or if the sign got knocked down from somewhere else.

Bar Tabac is a famous French bistro. Sad to see it closed for the day.

Inside One Girl Cookies (with street debris to the left and my green sweater reflection to the right).

We found this coffee shop open on Smith Street.

Same place from the inside.

I noticed a lot more of the signage on all the closed shops.

No idea what these are; they kind of look like strawberries but clearly fell from a tree.

 

We saw a lot of leaves and smaller branches, but this was biggest tree piece that was down.

Hope that everyone in the major hit zones in staying safe and dry! For those who lost power, hope it gets back on soon.

Lightning!

When the weather goes wild, my instinct is to grab a camera.

On Friday night, I resisted the urge for awhile and avoided looking outside.

But when I saw the flashes lighting up over the city, I couldn’t help it.

I brought my camera and tripod up to the roof, continuous-shot at the ready.

I squealed and grinned in delight every time a massive strike lit up the sky.

I was super excited when I captured some of them. (Most of the shots were of dark sky, of course.)

I was even more thrilled to see these off the camera–wow!

New York City Portrait Photographer: Before and After

 

Meet my friend L!

She moved abroad last year, but is back in New York for the summer, which is great! Since she’s staying with us for a bit, the other night I made her model for me. I hadn’t done anything with my umbrella lately, so I set that up on one side of the coffee table and she was on the other side. It faced her directly, but I told her to angle this way. Below is the original, unedited image. I thought it was pretty good! The light hit her evenly, it’s a genuine smile–all in all I was pretty happy with it.

 

But of course, I knew I had to take it to Photoshop to clone out the wall sconce. First I used the content-aware fill, but I still had to do some major cloning and patching to get rid of the unevenness.

My flash unit (sb800) had been on TTL; it was still a bit dark. I brightened the whole image with an adjustment layer, which made it look even better. Then I remembered a new “toy” I just got on sale–Perfect Skin from Jen’s Fabulous Stuff. This was the first time I used it, and it did a great job! I also did a bit of teeth brightening.

Wow, much better! However, I figured I should tidy up the edges, so I cloned out the stray hairs. Et voila, here once again is the final image!

 

New York City Photographer: 125th Street

Today for work, I visited a prospective client in northern Manhattan. The stately stone of Columbia is nearby, but over on Broadway, the lines are grittier.

 

NYC Nature Photography: New Highline Park

Are you a fast walker? I normally am. When walking with big groups of people, I can always be found way up front. I’m just not not a dawdler by nature.

Unless…there’s a camera in my hand and interesting things to be seen. Then you will never find me at all, because I will have lagged behind everyone taking photos.

Such was the case the other week when a bunch of us met up to see Rainbow City and the new section of the Highline! The light was about to fade, but still had that lovely golden tinge, so I took as much advantage as I could. Lovely!

NYC Street Team Photographer: Chris Wight

The other weekend, I met with Christopher Wight, who is starting an exploratory committee to run for Congress next fall. He spent a couple hours meeting passersby and asking them about their opinions on politics and NYC. Now, if you have ever walked a New York sidewalk, you probably know that it is no easy feat to get someone to look at you, let alone talk! So I was impressed at how many people stopped to chat, and how interested Chris was in what they had to say! I photographed him interacting with constituents on two days in different locations.

 

 

 

Gay Pride Parade 2011

I stopped by the Pride Parade today! What a perfect day for it–everyone was so thrilled that New Yorkers finally have equal marriage rights!

 

 

Animals in Europe!

Walking around Istanbul, right away we saw so many cats! In front of the Blue Mosque, roaming the Topkapi Palace, everywhere!

In Athens, we saw dogs lounging–on sidewalks, in front of monuments, all over the place.

On Naxos and Paros, there were kitties.

On Santorini, more dogs.

Aren’t they all adorable?!

NYC Author Photographer: Bob

Bob was referred to me by Keith. Bob is also a former teacher and filmmaker–he’s finishing up his vampire flick, which he wrote, directed and produced! He wanted author photos for his website, and specifically wanted very serious, almost intimidating shots. I think we definitely got that!

He suggested we meet in a spot he used in a few scenes of the movie, the Carroll Street Bridge in Brooklyn. It was a great spot for portraits–tons of different colors, textures, and scenes.

Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot!

I *love* this one–he looks like Clint Eastwood about to kick some punk ass!

Isn’t this a great evil little smirk??

I couldn’t help grab a laughing shot too, just in case!