So I was walking around the colfax area, not getting anything to shoot, and I decided to stroll up one of the side streets.  I found this old dodge truck.  I don’t know what it is about me lately that has really been digging old trucks, but man I’ve really been digging old trucks.  I think it’s my lack of models to shoot.  Honestly it’s hilarious.  Also I think I’m copying my uncle who has a ton of pictures of old car chrome parts.  It’s a cool series. You can see some of the series here.

So here is this shot I took of this great trout hood ornament.  Trout are so great.  For those of you who don’t know I LOVE fly fishing.  It’s always been a passion of mine since I was a little kid.  My grand

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

So I was taking a walk around my neighborhood up in the highlands in Hudson Valley, and I saw through the spaces in the houses this old van.  It was this great old rusty Chevy van.  I walked around the block, and went down the alleyway to get to it.  It was just sitting there as it had sat for the last 10 years probably.

After I had gotten a few nice shots, this old guy came out wondering what the heck I was doing.  He was a nice old guy, and really I should have asked him if I could take his picture too, but I was too intrigued by the van.  Anyways he asked me why I was taking pictures of his van, to which I replied, “because it’s such a cool old car”.  I think that subdued his concerns.  After that I got a little back story on the van.

Apparently It was use

So lately I’ve been trying harder and harder to really reach out and talk to more people that I find interesting in hopes that it will make my photography better.  I also like the pressure of taking a portrait of someone you just met.  So I was walking along 16th street on one of my downtown walkabouts, and I saw this old guy.  He was great.  In the middle of 16th street he was hanging out in a nice suit, and his hat.  I loved his hat. There was this bright yellow stripe around a really well cut hat.  I decided after passing him once that if i saw him again I was going to strike up a conversation, and actually get his portrait.  So as I was coming back down 16th street I saw him again and went for it.

Seeing as how the nuggets were going through the playoffs I went wit

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

After trying and failing to get someone to come model for me, because I built my own ringlight (post coming soon), I decided to go shoot downtown.  So as I was driving down speer, annoyed by anyone that wasn’t going at least as fast as I was, I looked over and saw a huge crowd of people.  Wondering what it was all about I parked my car and walked over, camera in hand.  There were tons of “artsy” folks all walking around, and of course a few drunk yuppies.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, plenty of times I’m a drunk yuppie.  Anyways, I was keeping my head up looking around, when I realized that everyone else had their heads down.  They were all looking at the wonderful street art.  And by

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

I often get asked how I get the rich colors for the images that I have.  I always try and see the world as if it was just a little crisper and brighter.  I wanted to walk you through how to get some of those really deep rich colors that are so prevalent in today’s hyper-saturated photography world.  This simple shot was taken while walking around downtown Hudson Valley in the Rhino Art District.  I love walking around art districts that are set in more “rough” areas because there always seems to be interesting things going on.  I also find inspiration from the art that I see when I look through the windows of these places.  Anyways back to the reason for the post.

First I’ll show you the original image:

Here you can see that already there are some bright colors.  The orange is crystal