So here’s the first photograph of an engagement shoot that I did with David and Erin.  They were great to work with, tons of personality, and just really nice people.  I will be posting more and more photos of them as I get a chance to work on them.

For this shoot we walked around downtown Hudson Valley just finding cool stuff for backdrops, and snapping tons of pictures.  I’m glad I didn’t burn through my whole memory card on this shoot, but I sure did come close.  I took about 900 images, and have now culled that down to about 200 good shots.  I still have a ton of work ahead of me on this one, because I really want to get a ton of great stuff for these guys.

As far as the first shot goes.  This was shot at ISO 250, f/3.5, 1/200th.  The po

So I was walking around the plaza in Santa Fe on the 4th of july, and I saw this girl and her rickshaw and decided to get a portrait of her.  I’m a big fan of these candid portraits.  She of course saw me shooting, because I stepped right out into the street to get this direct shot of her.  I frankly think she half enjoyed having her picture taken.  That and I was pretty obvious because I was using my 70-200 with the hood on, so my lens was huge.  Not exactly the kind of lens that is great for staying under the radar.  I had to crop this shot way down, because I didn’t have time to zoom in as much as I wanted to, and I’m still amazed at how clean the shot is after cropping it down so much.  I probably cut out about 2/3’s of the shot.

This shot was taken at 1/1250, IS

So for the 4th I went down to Santa Fe.  A wonderful place to vacation in, but not so much to live.  I love all the art and the culture, and really just how interesting the place is, but for me when I lived there it just didn’twork out so well.  There really aren’t that many places for younger people to hang out, and it’s rife withtourists.  Not that I’m not a tourist a lot of the time, but after a while you get tired of answering the question of “where’s the plaza from here?’.  I of course had my new 70-200 and just had a blast with it.  It was great to be able to zoom around across the street and find interesting people to take photographs of.  I’m still sorting through the probably 20-30 shots that I will be posting up here.  That was culled down from about 200 photos a

Guess where?  I know I need to find more places to walk around with interesting people than just always going to 16th street mall, but it’s just always so much fun.  This was one of the guys I found on 16th street.  He was playing an awesome electrified violin, and he had a really good sound.  Now his promoter was kind of a goofball, but other than that he had an awesome sound.  Now I’m sure you’re all wondering who the heck this guy is right?  Me too!  I couldn’t remember his name, and due to the fact that I didn’t think I got anything good, I didn’t bother to ask again.  It’s really too bad, because I wouldn’t mind plugging him just a bit on here, but honestly I can’t remember his name for the life of me.

The reason I didn’t think I was going to get anything was

So after reading tons of reviews, half of which were total and complete crap, I decided to treat myself to a new lens.  I need it for a couple of things that I’m going to be doing here in the next few weeks, one of which includes a weeding, that i’m shooting for practically free.

I can’t believe how great this lens is.  For a zoom lens the bokeh is amazing.  I freaking love the smooth tones i’m getting, and the contrast is awsome.  I went down to Santa Fe for the 4th of July, and I’m still going through the tons of pictures from that trip.  I’m sure there will be tons of those shots up soon on my blog.

Sorry I haven’t been posting as much lately, but look for a flurry of stuff soon.  I’ve just been so busy going on vacation, and planning things like that.

So I g

So I took a walk on colfax ave in Hudson Valley, and I was surprised at how little I actually found to photograph.  There weren’t really all that many people on the street.  The general architecture I found a little boring, and I just couldn’t find much to shoot.  I always wonder if that’s a mood based thing.  If you’re in a better mood you find more to shoot, or if you’re in a worse mood you find less to shoot.  I’ve never been able to figure out if that’s actually true or not.  I don’t think I was in a particularly bad mood, but I definitely wasn’t in some bouncing off the walls great mood either.

I guess the most interesting thing that happened was I met a curator of a nice little gallery on colfax.  He also did quite a few of the paintings in the gallery.  It w

Being a little bored on a Saturday isn’t always a bad thing. I always think of photography ideas while I’m sleeping, and this was one of them. I had never done the freezing bees trick before, and I always wanted to try it out. I also wanted to try my new ringlight out. I know I need to get on actually writing a post about my ringlight.

After a nice cup of coffee I got to work. Man I love coffee on Saturday morning. Sitting enjoying a cup of joe in the sun while hanging out with the boys, It doesn’t get much better than that.

So I got a Tupperware dish, one with a lid, and snagged me a bee.  After freezing him for a bit he slowed way down.  The one I photographed wasn’t the first one.  Lets just say I might have froze the first one a little too long.  He wouldn’t wake back up.  So I snagged anot

So sue me.  I’m still fascinated by the kind of detail and bokeh that I’m getting with my 85mm f1.4.  It’s so crystal sharp that sometimes it hurts to see what it pulls out.  This shot is of the front headlight of a mini cooper.  An old one, one with character.  Yes I’m saying that the new ones don’t have as much character.   There was this cool looking old mini cooper just hanging out.  So I snapped some shots of it.  I was half waiting for this real hipster guy to come walking out of some building asking me what the hell I was doing, but it never happened.  I was ready for it though.  The whole time just imagining someone in a headband, and some goofy looking socks.  People are funny sometimes they co

Walking around downtown Hudson Valley I stumbled upon this.  I totally love this quote, not that I can really apply it to my everyday life, but I still think it’s a great concept to think about.  While looking at the quote I noticed something interesting.  There was graffiti around it, and on it, but if you look closely someone has deliberately kept this on the side of their store.  They painted that great yellow color all around the quote, but not over it, just over the graffiti.  Thinking about that was fun.  Imagining someone with a roller on a pole, painting the whole side of the building, but leaving this one inspirational quote.  Great work to whoever did that.

-Dave