Sometimes the challenge in creating impactful travel photography is to isolate the photo from the environment. Originally I was taken by many cormorants occupying bare trees along the Niagara River. Try as I might, I could not compose a decent photo as the background and the subject matter were much too busy. Finally, I decided to zoom in on a just a few of the birds and carved this shot out of the background. While the entire scene would have been unremarkable, in the cropped shot the cormorants seem to be engaged in a meaningful conversation in their own blue universe.
Month: September 2022
Kingston, on the Hudson
Sometimes life throws you fog. When that happens it’s best to get out your camera. For this image, I used the old, trustworthy Nikon N90, Kodak Portra 400 Film, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 lens. The camera did a great job of metering a fairly tough image despite the fact that it is more than 30 years old. The colors came up great with the Kodak film. What amazing grain!
Woodstock Dog
This dapper dog and his personal slave were very happy to pose for a portrait in on New Year’s Day in Woodstock, NY. Because of the cold light and the overall lack of color that you get in mid winter, I chose Ilford HP5 400 black and white film and tried to leverage the rich contrast on this overcast day.
My camera was a Nikon N90 with a Nikkor 35mm f/1.8g lens. The dog was the best model I have worked with in years.
Photographer at Work – Banksy Style
While I’m not a fan of Banksy’s pretense, I am a fan of his work. One image that I love is the girl losing her balloon in the wind. This image of a photographer making an image in the wind hopefully catches some of that essence. It was shot with a Nikon Z7ii, using a Nikkor Z 24-70 f/2.8 lens.
Sometimes indirect photos can suggest a good story.
Foggy Landscape at Harriton House
The Nikon Z7ii is an astounding camera, and is probably the most capable camera body that I have ever used. It produces a 48MP image with image stabilization and very good low light capability. For this shot, I got up early on a foggy morning and ran out to a 18th century mansion, Harriton House, on Philadelphia’s Main Line. There wasn’t a whole lot of light when I shot this, but at 1/10 of a second at a f/14 aperture, I was able to get all of the detail that anyone could reasonably expect to get, plus that wonderful fall of created by the fog.
I used an old lens for this, the f-mount Nikkor VR 16-25 f/4G, and was very happy with the results. Converting to black and white was the best choice for this image.