Photo of the Week 12/27/10

I just acquired a Nikkor 135 f/2.0 DC lens. This is considered by many to be Nikon's best portrait lens. As I did not have a human subject handy I went outside to take some test shots of backyard wildlife. I caught this nice image of a squirrel that shows the sharpness of this lens on the subject and the soft background. I captured this image at an aperture of f/3.2 and exposure of 1/250th of a second at ISO400.

Photo of the Week 12/6/10

A while back, I photographed the wedding of Tara and Russ. The reception was at Liberty House in New Jersey so we took some formals on the water in front of the New York City Skyline. Our timing really worked out well as we caught the last of the day's light as the lights from the city started to appear. I made this image using my Nikor 50mm f/1.4 lens at an aperture of f/2.0 and exposure of 1/100 of a second at ISO 800.

Photo of the Week 11/29/10

With the cold weather upon us, I was already thinking of spring when I came across some pictures I took last spring of some rain drenched flowers. I used the CS5 painting tools again on this one and liked the way it turned out. This image was made using my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens at an aperture of f/4.8 and 1/125th of a second exposure at ISO 400. Click on the image to see the painting detail at larger scale.

Photo of the Week 11/22/10

This past weekend I traveled to Delaware for a shoot and then visited my friends Scott and Evelyn and their dog, Marleau (pronounced just like Marlow), in Catonsville, MD. On Sunday morning, I helped my friends rake leaves and took some pictures of Marleau playing with tennis balls, eating sticks, and jumping in the leaf piles. The image above was captured during a rare moment of rest for this puppy. This image was made using my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens at an aperture of 2.8, shutter speed of 1/1600th of a second, and ISO 125.

Photo of the Week 11/15/10

I was out in Park Slope, Brooklyn on this past Friday, November 12th and came across this a fire that had started in a supermarket and consumed the two floors of apartments about the store. Thankfully no one at the supermarket or in the apartments above was injured. Here firefighters work to douse the fire several hours after it started. This image was made using my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 lens at a focal length of 102mm, aperture of f/3.2, exposure of 1/8000th of second, and ISO 100.

Photo of the Week 11/8/10

A few days ago on the way out of the city, I stopped to take a few quick pictures of the Verrazano Bridge at sunset. This image was made using my Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens at a focal length of 22mm, an aperture of f/8.0, exposure of 1/30th of a second, and ISO 100.

Photo of the Week 11/1/10

I have been experimenting with some of the new painting tools in Photoshop CS5 and thought I'd feature this painted image as my photo of the week. I'm not completely sure what to think of this sort of treatment yet but I do like the way this photo, if you can still call it that, turned out.

Photo of the Week 10/25/10

I often drive across several bridges that offer a great view of New York City, particularly in the evening. This week I was crossing the Throgs Neck Bridge with this beautiful sunset off to my left. I happened to have my camera with me and snapped a quick picture. I used my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens since that was what was on my camera, an aperture of f/2.2, and a shutter speed of 1/1600th of a second at ISO 400.

Photo of the Week 10/18/10

This past weekend, I travelled to Albany, NY to see my Alma Mater, St. Lawrence University, play their rival Union College on Union's home field on homecoming weekend. It had been 14 years since SLU last beat Union in 1995 in my Junior year and first as a starting player for the Saints. It was a great game and thrilling to see the Saints prevail 23-14 as they scored 16 unanswered points to rally from a 7 point deficit at halftime. This photo was taken right after SLU used the wildcat formation on 3rd and goal to set up the final score of the day, a touchdown pass from wide receiver, Ethan Sutton, to wide reciever, Demetrios Haseotes, number 19 in this photo. This was the first score of Haseotes career and the first touchdown pass for Sutton. This image was captured with my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 lens at a focal length of 200mm at an aperture of f/5.6 and exposure of 1/2000th of a second at ISO 400.

Photo of the Week 10/11/10

This week's photo of the week comes from an engagement session I did for Alison and Joe. They are a fun couple who even brought coffee for me to our session at the Bayard-Cutting Arboretum on Long Island. This image was made with my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 lens at a focal length of 200mm and an aperture of f/4.5 and 1/800th of a second at ISO 400.

Photo of the Week 10/4/10

One of things I love about photographing children is that with them almost all photography is candid. Unlike adults, they quickly disregard the camera and go back to their exploration of their world. This week's photo comes from a recent portrait session with the one year old daughter of my friends Luis and Diana at Georgetown Waterfront Park in Washington, DC. Shortly after sunset, I was shooting with a fill flash when my subject discovered the light in the sidewalk. I quickly turned off the flash and adjusted all of my settings to accommodate the unique light this scene provided. This image was captured using my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens at an aperture of 2.8 and shutter speed of 1/2000th of a second at ISO 1600.

Photo of the Week 9/27/10

This week's photo of the week comes from the wedding of Jean and Mandy in Front Royal, Virginia. Shortly after the ceremony, Jean surprised Mandy by playing a video made by friends in Ireland who were unable to attend the wedding. This image shows Mandy's reaction to the video. This photo was made using my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens at an aperture of f/3.2 and shutter speed of 1/500th of a second at ISO200.

Photo of the Week 9/20/10

In the midst of wedding editing, I came across this image from Kathleen and Matt's recent wedding. Kathleen's uncle is a collector of classic cars so it was only natural to use this Chevy Corvair and a couple others cars for transportation from the church to the reception. This image was made using my Nikon D300 and Nikkor 10.5mm DX Fisheye Lens. The camera was mounted to the car using a rig I created using two Fat Gecko Mounts and a Superclamp and Magic Arm. The camera was triggered using pocket wizards and only ambient light was used. The rest of the details I'll keep to myself on this one.

Photo of the Week 9/13/10

This past weekend I photographed two weddings. Both were great events so choosing a single image wasn't easy. I selected this image of three girls playing during the reception for my Saturday wedding at the New York Institute of Technology's de Seversky Center because I love the expressions and backlighting in this image. This shot was not staged and the girls never noticed me so I caught them really being themselves. I used my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens at a focal length of 200mm for this image, which was made with a 1/1000th of a second exposure at an aperture of f/2.8 and ISO of 400.