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I am back from Chitral. I went there to attend the polo festival at Shindur pass. I stayed with locals and the friends I made during my previous visit.
Shooting Polo with 55mm was a tough job. Most photographers were equipped with ultra zoom cameras or good quality tele lens but I managed to get some hard hitting action. That’s not all it, I was all over the place Dir, Mastuj, Chitral, Kailsah and Shandur and have came back with faces and street life of every place I visited. Expect a lot of stuff in the coming days.
I've been in London this week, just an overnight stay whilst my tattoo got finished off.
Amy Winehouse died at the weekend, an official reason has yet to be announced but it is suspected to be drugs.
It was strange hearing the news, it was a shock- but not a shock. As many people have said already, it was always going to be this way, it was just a matter of when.
I've read a lot of articles and seen a lot of comments online- mostly along the lines of "Waste of talent, gone too young, No more music"
All of the above is true, yet I find myself more sorry about the fact that people did try to help her, she just didn't want to be helped.
That to me, is the real waste, that the demons within consumed her. Thats the bit that sits uneasily with me.
I spent Tuesday in Camden, I saw The Hawley Arms where she used to frequent- the message on the billboard outside just read Back to Black.
We only said good-bye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to.....
I go back to us.
Derby's now demolished art-deco style bus station is the scene for this picture taken 25 years ago on 6th December 1984. Chaddersden bound, passengers shuffle forward to board Derby 140, one of then, new Volvo Citybus B10Ms with Marshall bodywork, while 278, a more traditional Roe bodied Fleetline departs the bus station in the opposite direction.
Project 365
48/366
It's been almost half a week with a very limited online access so this what I had in front of my eyes most of the day today...
Gotta check the pictures I've been taking and bring them up here =)
It's no secret that I absolutely love photographing New York City at night.
City nights create a huge spark in my imagination recalling all of the night sequences in the history of cinema. My love of night shooting is also aided along by the fact that I don't necessarily enjoy shooting the city during the daytime since I have extreme sensitivity to sunlight. And so, I spend a lot of time walking through the neighborhoods of New York City during the late hours of the night and wee hours of the morning. I would say that I spend more time out in the streets of NYC with my cameras more than I do during the daytime.
A little background about gear:
I have been posting my photography online ever since I first knew I was falling hard for photography. It's interesting to look back at posts and articles wrote a few years back opining on the exact moment I knew I was in love with photography. Many of my early posts about photography discussed how being limited with my gear early on helped me to learn about light and work within the constraints of my gear.
I grew up in Queens in a family that skirted the line between lower middle class and just slightly below. We made the most of what we had. When I was 17 years old, due to circumstances that I will write about one day, I moved out on my own in New York City as the rest of my family moved 2500 miles out west. With this context in mind, I think that starting out with limited gear in photography wasn't so much a stretch for me since I had a long pattern of trying to make the most limiting of situations work to my advantage in life.
When I finally had a little money and knew I wanted to upgrade my camera, I chose Sony based on trusted advice from a good friend. I never regretted that choice. And as I moved up with my gear choices due to an eventual partnership with Sony and then, most recently, being chosen to be one of 10 contracted Sony professional photographers, I have had the chance to experiment quite a bit with some of the most innovative cameras in the world.
I never forget where I came from though. I always feel fortunate that I can do what I do now as a career and while I am no longer as limited as I was when I started out with my $79 point-and-shoot camera, I think a lot about what I am able to do now with photography in contrast to what I was unable to do back in those early days. I think that remembering the limitations helps me to appreciate how much I am currently able to make my visual dreams a reality.
My theory about camera gear:
I felt it was necessary to include the above before I start to talk about the Sony A7S. Context is everything. Sony doesn't ask me to make posts about the cameras I use. If I enjoy the experience I have with a camera and love what I create with a camera, I will write and post about the experience. I never feel pressured to create content for the sake of creating content. I love photographing my travel adventures and my New York City adventures and if I come across gear that wows me, it's hard not to share how I feel about said gear.
My theory about camera gear is that camera gear allows me to test the limits of my imagination and vision.
Photographers are dream catchers and moment collectors and anything that lets me catch my dreams and collect the moments that make my heart sing to the best of my ability is going to be something I want to share.
Seeing in the dark:
Right before I attended the American Museum of Natural History's first adult sleepover, I was sent the A7S. It's an unusual camera in the current camera gearscape. The Sony A7S has the unrivaled ability to shoot up to 409,600 ISO, a fact which looks completely ludicrous when you first read that number. While I was at the museum sleepover, I was completely blown away by the fact that I was shooting in extremely low light at 25,000 ISO and ending up with images that had little to no visibly aggravating noise.
This past weekend, I decided to take the camera with me and my friend Spencer as we wandered around the Lower East Side. Spencer is one of the most talented guitarists I know and when we hang out in the summer, he usually brings his guitar to play outside, so I figured I would try to record his playing on the streets of NYC late at night when the light wasn't so great. While I love taking photos at night, I have felt limited in the past when it comes to areas of the city that aren't well lit.
Video's allure:
Anyone who has talked extensively with me over the last few months knows how much I am obsessed with exploring video in terms of creating new media. I have always viewed life as if it is a cinematic sequence. Even as a child, I imagined that every action was a frame in a never-ending film that I am directing. Photography is my way of capturing stills from that never-ending film and exploring shooting video is my way of capturing the sequences as they happen.
Some statements about this video:
1. I have almost no experience shooting video currently. I am still waiting to get a great directional shotgun microphone for my camera, in fact. This is one of the first videos I have shot that I was ok with posting online because I am blown away by the image quality (and I love his guitar playing).
2. I shot this video handheld as an MP4 (I hadn't changed the record settings yet.). There is quite a bit of city noise and my focus was on capturing his playing against that great backdrop.
And so, this was the result of my spur-of-the moment recording.
....This was recorded at 40,000 ISO!
40,000!
It was 1:00 in the morning and we were sitting in a low-lit section of Orchard Street on the Lower East Side. I didn't edit this at all aside from passing it through a noise filter in Premiere to lessen the city noise (minimally). The video does look a bit compressed due to upload to YouTube but other than that, it's hard for me even to fathom that I was able to record at such a high ISO with no issue. I could have pumped it higher as well but then I would have run into over-exposure issues.
The photo that accompanies this video was shot at 32,000 ISO on Clinton Street the next night. You can view it larger here if you wish: New York City - Night - Lower East Side - Clinton Street.
As I mentioned in my museum sleepover photo-set, when I got my first Sony camera (the A55), anything past 800 ISO was unusable due to noise. And when I shot most of my New York Snow photos, it was with the A99 at 4000 ISO which (for me) was the limit for that camera. So, 20,000 ISO and 40,000 ISO just seems like a dream!
Getting back to the beginning of this post, as an avid night shooter who prefers night photography over daytime photography, the implications that this camera has on my own photography is huge since I no longer feel as limited as I can't wait to do more night photography and video (I have a video project in the works currently, will tell more about it in due time) and capture the moments and sequences that make my heart sing.
And that makes me incredibly happy.
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Information about my New York City photography book which is releasing in stores and online in the autumn of 2014 (including where to order it):
NY Through The Lens: A New York Coffee Table Book
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View my New York City photography at my website NY Through The Lens.
Interested in my work and have questions about PR and media? Check out my:
About Page | PR Page | Media Page
To use any of my photos commercially, feel free to contact me via email at photos@nythroughthelens.com
Akaroa, day two of my friends visit from London I took them over the Port hills to Akaroa. We had such a beautiful day and they enjoyed the trip.
Akaroa is a village on Banks Peninsula in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand, situated within a harbour of the same name. The name Akaroa is Kāi Tahu Māori for 'Long Harbour'.
Akaroa is 84 km by road from Christchurch and is the terminus of State Highway 75. In the 2006 New Zealand census of population and dwellings, the permanent population was 567, a decrease of 7 since 2001. The village has a high (29.6%) ratio of residents aged over 65.
Set on a beautiful, sheltered harbour and overlooked by craggy volcanic hills, Akaroa is a popular resort village and in summer the temporary population can reach 15,000 which places stress on the summer water supply, which is entirely dependent upon rainfall on the hills.
Many Hector's Dolphins may be found within Akaroa harbour, and 'swim with the dolphins' boat tours are a major tourist attraction.
For More Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akaroa
Explore #449 do dia 17 de Dezembro de 2008.
He left no time to regret
Kept his dick wet
With his same old safe bet
Me and my head high
And my tears dry
Get on without my guy
You went back to what you knew
So far removed from all that we went through
And I tread a troubled track
My odds are stacked
I'll go back to black
We only said good-bye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to.....
I go back to us
I love you much
It's not enough
You love blow and I love puff
And life is like a pipe
And I'm a tiny penny rolling up the walls inside
We only said goodbye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to
Black, black, black, black, black, black, black,
I go back to
I go back to
We only said good-bye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to
We only said good-bye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to black
Amy Winehouse.
2 Weeks Ago.
"Hurry up Harley, your such a slow-poke."
"Sorry Mistah Jay, it is just hard to walk all the way from the Fun-house to this place."
"Ah, I see that they still use this place as a testing facility for bombs."
"What boss, you mean that they use this place for bombs and stuff like that?"
"Isn't that what I just said, Jecko? Now that we are here I can tell you the plan of attack for this war that is starting in Gotham."
"What do you mean a war, Mistah Jay."
"It is so obvious, all of Gotham's most wanted coming out of hiding and making themselves known and feared again. Heck, even I am planning something to make myself known."
"Ok, Boss, can you start explaining what it is."
"Sure, Jecko. Ok, now as I was saying..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
O.O.C: This is my first pic for GCW round 5, and my 15th installment in my version of Joker's back-story.
In all honesty, this is probably my best build in a while, and I am really pleased with the outcome.
My first sight of repatriated London Transport RTW335 (KXW 435) was on June 6th 2004 as it trundled along the seafront at Southend-on-Sea. Bound for the Historic Bus & Transport Show it was at the time running on trade plates.
At a loose end in Sheffield tooay so i thought i would do something different as opposed to the usual street stuff so a bit of sheffield "Urban grime"
A mobile upload in response to the previous 'misleading northern' shot. Out of the few shots I tried, the chosen upload cut out the rolling valley background.
Anyway before heading back to Birmingham, I pulled up to drop my brother off in the town centre and saw a photo opportunity.
We're moving soon enough though, so it's a goodbye shot of temporary town and the few finds I saw there!
Etna's New Southeast Crater emitting a lava flow and producing Strombolian activity from three vents on the evening of 23 April 2012. View is from Piano del Vescovo, on the southeast flank of the volcano
Flashy looking back
Seen by the Minolta 1986 AF 70-210/4 "Beercan" on Sony Alpha 77
1/350s., f/4,5, ISO 1000
Used a Vivitar FD 24mm f/2.8 and a Soligor 21mm f/3.8 lenses for the star photos and a Minolta Rokkor 200mm tele for the moon shot.
Got a lot of stars, considering how light polluted the skies of the DC area are, however, I'm not super-happy with these pics.
There seems to be a lot of distortion no matter what combination of settings I use. Could simply be a matter of using cheap lenses.
Ah well, I'm still learning, and any advice would be gratefully appreciated.
Cadets participate in the CFT Ruck Back after completing Cadet Field Training at Camp Buckner. West Point, NY, June 28, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Kyle Osterhoudt, USMA)
Time flies and summer is nearly gone, this year's back to school event has already started in several stores. We started to think about the theme almost right after last year's event. Lots of improvements were made in the whole process of planning and thanks to our stationery team's effort, each really played an important role in making this event successful.
The entire layout was planned using Google Sketchup, the first in city'super's history and I'm particularly proud of it. I started using it for this fair last year but lots of measurements were inaccurate, but this time it is near perfect! When we were standing on the aisles after 4 hours of setup, we could see the big difference and we could feel the satisfaction rush to our hearts. Layout is only one of the many critical success factors, the way our team "pour our hearts" to this really makes everything click and I can't be thankful enough for that. In the process, we all better ourselves. Almost everyone had some innovative small moves, gee I appreciate a lot! What can I do? Buy you gals lunch?
One of the backdrop was my overnight illustrator work and the result is stunning to me. It is a "personalize + stylize" your notebook section. Here you get all the components you need to create your own perfect notebook, in addition, pen holders, pen, clips, stickers, stamps, MT-tapes are all there for customers to create something unique for themselves.
6 years ago when I first became a stationery buyer, I introduced computer related products for this fair coz school was no longer paper based. Since then we had a deal with Apple Computer directly to be in the fair and offer something special no other places have. If you carry a student card or show them your teacher's identification, you will get discount and a free iPod touch when you buy a computer, in addition a few free gifts for you to choose including hubs or computer carrying cases.
I had high hope on the leaflet of this fair too, to make it like a magazine offering useful tips instead of just a product list brochure. It didn't happen as expected, but it is already one big improvement in terms of communication between various teams.
So in short, this year's back to school fair in city'super/LOG-ON, you can find Apple Computer's exclusive offer, colorful computer carrying cases, super funny and beautiful USB memory/gadgets, fashion headphones, cute portable speakers, hottest Korean stationery, Staedtler gears, personalize and stylize your notebook, newest stationery gadgets, Pilot's erasable gel pen, etc etc....... Just come over!
More on Scription blog: moleskine.vox.com/library/post/back-to-school---style-and...