Photo of the Week 11/16/09

While shooting a BMX event about a year and a half ago, I captured the image above. I had shot hundreds of very similar frames of the various races and wanted to try something a little different. I increased the exposure time and panned with the racers to blur the motion. This was one of my favorites because of the way it takes on an abstract appearance more like a painting than a photo. This image was captured using a Nikon D40x and a Nikor 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 DX Lens at a focal length of 95mm. The exposure was for 1/30th of a second at an aperture of f10 and ISO of 100.

Photo of the Week 11/09/09

A little over a year ago, I took a day trip out to the Salton Sea, while I was visiting San Diego, California. The strange, barren, and smelly landscape was utterly intriguing to me and I very much look forward to revisiting this location, though I hesitate to recommend it to others. The image above is one of my favorites from my trip. This image was captured with my Nikon D300 using a Nikor 17-55mm f2.8 lens at a focal length of 55mm. The exposure time was 1/80th of a second at an aperture of f7.1 and ISO of 100.

Photo of the Week 11/02/09

I captured this image during a recent kids' football game. While I was focused on capturing the action shots, I am always watching for moments like this as the coach of the team gives instruction to one of the players. This image was captured using my Nikon D700, with my Nikor 70-200 f2.8 lens at a focal length of 160mm. The exposure time was 1/1000th of a second at f2.8 and ISO of 500.

Photo of the Week 10/26/09

One of the things I hear a lot is, "You must have a nice camera!" This comment implies that a nice (read expensive) camera is required to take good pictures. There are times and places where this is true but more often it is not. Just as talented surfers have been able to ride waves on a house door, excellent photos can be made with lower-end equipment. And just as the best board in the world won't make me even a decent surfer, the most sophisticated cameras will never substitute for experience and skill. To illustrate this point the picture above was captured with my Treo camera phone (less than 2 megapixels) while I was in Belize, several years ago. The key here is the location, composition, and the time of day, which provides the great warm lighting.

Photo of the Week 10/19/09

I captured this shot of the strange path of a lightning bolt on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, DC earlier this summer. This image was on my mind the following evening when I was photographing from the top of the building in the front left of the image and the skies remained cloudy. This image was made at an aperture of f22.0 and 4 tenths of a second at ISO100 using my Nikor 14-24mm f2.8 lens at a focal length of 14mm.

Photo of the Week 10/12/09

In the summer of 2008, I took an amazing trip to the Philippines lasting several weeks. As I was there primarily for a wedding, I spent time in several small towns traveling and staying with the friends and family of the bride and groom. One morning we went into the market in the town of Tigoen and I noticed a woman hunched over a pile of charcoal she was gathering together and apparently selling. Her face and hands were blackened from the charcoal dust and her ragged clothes barely covered her thin frame.

In order to not draw attention to myself, I shot several frames including this one while holding my camera at my side and talking with my friend. I like the authenticity of this image, her resolute expression and posture and apparent indifference to her clothing's lack of coverage, and the way the whites of her eyes stand out against the her charcoal-stained skin. This exposure was made at 1/160th of a second with an aperture of f6.3 and ISO 400 using my Nikon D300 and Nikor 17-55mm f2.8 DX lens at a focal length of 35mm.

Photo of the Week 10/05/09

Even before I knew its name, I was a big fan of the triangular shaped Flatiron Building in New York City. I got a chance to take a few pictures of the building this week and thought I'd share this one. This 9 exposure HDR image was taken using my Nikor 14-24mm f2.8 lens at 14mm and f22. The high aperture and an ISO of 100 enabled me to use a slow shutter speed range from 1/80th of a second up to 3 seconds for the exposures to blur the moving figures and cars.

Photo of the Week 9/28/09

As the weather gets colder here on Long Island, I was reminded of the time I spent in San Diego, California just before Christmas last year. I made it out to Black's Beach after hearing great things about it. I was surprised to discover numerous parasailers and hangliders as there is a launch area above the beach. Before going for a quick dip in the Pacific, I snapped a few pictures including this one. I made this images at 1/400th of a second at aperture of f5.0.

Photo of the Week 9/21/09

I caught this moment at a recent wedding in Syracuse, NY of a bride being walked down the aisle by her mother. What makes this image special for me are the near identical expressions of the mother and daughter, which convey so well the emotions they are experiencing.

Here is a little on the technical details which enabled me to save the moment the way I did. This image was captured using my Nikon D700 camera using my 70-200mm Nikor f2.8 lens with an exposure of 1/125th of a second at an f2.8 aperture. This exposure was made with ambient light with my camera set to an ISO of 1600. An off camera flash is backlighting the subjects here as well. The clarity of the image is a testament to the newer Nikon CMOS sensors and noise filtering technology. What little noise was present in the image was further reduced using Noise Ninja in post-processing.

My photo on the big screen in the movie 'Away We Go'

About a year ago, I licensed several of my images for use in what was then an Untitled Sam Mendes Production. That production was released in theaters this summer as the movie 'Away We Go' staring John Krasinski (Jim Halpert from NBC's The Office) and Maya Rudolph, best known for her work on Saturday Night Live. The image above was used in the set of the house of another character played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. This was an extra bonus for me since she is one of my favorite actresses. The movie is now out on video and available for rental or purchase. My picture appears about an hour into the movie and can be seen during the staring couples interesting exit from dinner with Maggie Gyllenhall's character and her family.

Links:

Away We Go on IMDB

Official Trailer for Away We Go

Photo of the Week 9/14/09

I took this photo of two recently engaged friends of mine in Philadelphia on boathouse row. Ryan and Suzanne are getting married next spring at Georgetown University, where they met while getting their MBA. Coincidentally, the same way I met them. This photo was taken at a 1/125th of a second exposure at an aperture of f3.2 using my Nikor 70-200mm f2.8 lens at a focal length of 120mm.

Photo of the Week 9/7/09

I captured this image at a portrait session for a couple that recently welcomed their first child into the world. Portrait sessions are often viewed as highly staged affairs. I prefer to give little direction and simply try to capture people and their interactions as naturally as possible. I know the new father in this image quite well and feel this picture does a good job of capturing his interaction with and emotion for his young daughter.

This image was made outside using natural light on a cloudy day against a black backdrop. I used my 50mm f1.4 lens at f4.0 and 1/500th of a second exposure at an ISO of 400.

Photo of the Week 8/31/09

I have fallen behind a bit on my photos of the week but not for lack of interesting photo opportunities. I had the pleasure of meeting this interesting reptile recently on a trip to the Washington, DC Area. Puff the Magic Dragon is a Bearded Dragon Lizard and actually the third I have come across while on photo assignments. Puff spends most of his time sunning himself under the heat light except when he is hungry. Here you see my hand feeding him a piece of lettuce. This was shot with my favorite lens, my 50mm f1.4, at ISO 800, 1/500th of a sec, and f2.8 using ambient lighting.

Photo of the Week 8/24/09

Having arrived and somewhat settled into my new home on Long Island, I thought it would be fitting to showcase an image from my new area this week. I came across this abandoned pier on Oyster Bay in the early afternoon yesterday and captured the image above with my 14-24mm f2.8 wide angle lens at a 14mm focal length. Actually 7 images one stop apart which have been merged into the HDR image above using Photomatix. For anyone who would like more technical detail: ISO 100, f8, and a shutter speed of 1/180 for the middle of the 7 images.

Photo of the Week 8/17/09

I had a very busy week moving and did not shoot much at all so I decided to do a little work on an older image I captured on a trip to Las Vegas this past summer. In particular, I cropped this one so that the lines come from the corners with the center of the perfectly round stained glass ceiling off center. Gives a different perspective to what was originally a very straight on shot.

Photo of the Week 8/10/09

I have decided to start adding a Photo of the Week on here each week. These images will come from assignments or personal work and I will try to select images that are new or have not been widely seen before and that are important to me.

The above image is a candid shot taken with my Nikon D700 and Nikor 70-200 f2.8 lens at a recent wedding in San Diego I attended as a groomsman. To avoid being noticed and to preserve to unusual natural light from the fountain I used an ISO of 2000. This let me shoot at 1/125th of a second to avoid camera shake given the 86mm focal length I was at. Technical details aside I like the unusual lighting and the interaction of the two wedding guests who had only met the night before.

New Website

I have just rolled out a new website www.peterbforman.com focused on my wedding and portrait work. In unrelated news I will be posting updates on this blog on a more frequent basis going forward.

Vote For Me in the Obamaweek Contest

I have entered a few of my images in the Fotobamaweek Contest and you can vote for me in the People's Choice category. Simply click this link: http://www.fotoweekdccontest.org/bin/Rate?image_id=1006401280 and follow the instructions to vote for my photo. If you are not pressed for time, you can even look through some of the other 1000+ entries and make sue my image is worthy. Either way, I appreciate your help!