Lake in the Hills, Illinois
As a true blue (red??) Chicagoan this next sentence is very hard to type. I love New York. Ok, there, that is out of the way. Now I can breathe again. I’ve had these feelings about NYC before, there is something in the air in that city, something that is exciting. I really love visiting New York. Would I leave Chicago? Not a chance, I need the hot dogs and proper pizza that we have.
Did I mention that New York is a street photographers paradise? It is!
Personally I think that the photography world is filled with too many blog posts that explain “how to”. Yes a how to is an important part of learning your camera, developing, your software and using gear, but shouldn’t there be more.
Why should I use a softbox over my strobe? Why would a reflector help my natural light photograph?
The answers you know are still really technical, what I find is missing is an explanation of why a photographer would do a certain technique. What emotion were they trying to elicit, what was the intent of capturing the photo. read more
One of the greatest skills for a street photographer is the ability to anticipate. Picking out a stage, knowing who the players are and how the scene will unfold is crucial to capturing exactly what you envisioned.
For this photo in the old part of San Juan I noticed the girl walking from the right as well as the person walking towards the darkened hallway. I set the stage and anticipated when both players would be in the location I wanted to capture. (You can click on the image to see a larger version) read more
Mark today down in history, I am doing something that I rarely do and even more rarely admit to. I’m posting color photos. Yes I’ll admit every once in a while a photo needs to be in color. I learned to shoot film on black and white and still see photos in black and white so I do have preference for photos in shades of gray.
Both of these photos were taken in Viejo (old) San Juan Puerto Rico during a recent trip. You can purchase both of these photos and others I have taken around Puerto Rico right now on FineArtAmerica.com. If you would prefer a signed copy please contact me directly. read more
Welcome to the new and improved Behind the Shot blog! This is an exciting time. I’ve migrated all of my blog posts to the new website and added some wonderful features. As time allows I also plan to add content. I hope you enjoy the new look!
On to the post.
The New
Besides the new website, I have published a new image (shown above). I am always trying to learn new techniques for taking better photographs, and in this case improving how I process the image. I hope you like the look, I am really pleased with how it came out. read more
Every photographer runs into difficulty when they travel. The trip will never go exactly as envisioned, but if you are prepared then you can make the best of any situation. For example the image above. Last spring while visiting Spain, my family planned to visit the Alhambra palace. I had visions of getting their early in the day and staying late to photograph all day into dusk at the palace and fortress. Well, that is not what happened. The union workers of Spain decided to hold a general strike the day we planned to visit. Every for of travel, restaurants and stores we shut down. Luckily by early afternoon, most of the protests had calmed down (yes I photographed the protests) and the Alcazaba in Malaga was open. The fortress is beautifully preserved, and I’m glad that I was able to explore it. At first disappointed, I was able to capture a lot of photos that I really love. The “Malaga” photo shown above is one of my favorites, Catholics and Moors, Man and Women, Old and New, Light and Dark are all included in this photo. read more
Occasionally you are out shooting an image just hits you. On this day I headed to a road I take to work everyday. To the right of this road a small lake had dried out and between the clouds in the sky and the dried lake, it would be an impressive scene. After shooting photos of the lake, I began to walk back to my car. At one point I turned over my shoulder and noticed how dramatic a completely empty road (in itself an odd thing in Chicagoland) looked. Making sure there was no traffic, I shot out to the middle of the street and captured this. Not something you would expect to see near Chicago, this image reminds me of how interesting the day to day we travel is. read more
Behind the Shot will be the place where I share the story behind the capture of the photo. Don’t expect a lot of technical details, there are plenty of blogs where you can find that info. I wanted to share a little of the thoughts and emotions that make capturing photos special to me.
The first photo is one of my favorites from a trip to Spain this past spring. Every Sunday in Madrid there is a huge outdoor market. It seems that all of Madrid hits the streets for El Rastro after attending church in the morning. Walking around with my family and daughter I hear the sound of a Spanish guitar being played by a street performer. As my wife and daughters move on to look at one of the many booths, I find myself drawn to the guitar player. As I walk closer I see this gentleman, who is playing beautiful classical guitar music. I am on his left side and his body is facing away, I pull the camera to my eye and focus on capturing the expression on his face. As I go to snap the photo he turns and opens his body towards the camera. I snap the photo above. Only after I bring the camera down do I notice that his right hand is actually a hook! In amazement I hung around for a few more moments listening to El Gancho play. read more
