I’m not sure why I’ve been digging taking pictures of old bikes so much recently.  I have a ton of shots of these old classics just waiting to be processed.  I think it’s because I recently got a cruiser of my own, and just love going riding around Hudson Valley.  I bought one for my girlfriend too so that we could both go out on our cruisers and have a blast riding around town and having drinks at whatever random place we find.  This one has a springer front just like mine.  That means that there is a spring on the front of the bike that acts like a old version of shocks.  They actually work pretty well too.  It softens the ride quite a bit.  Again this is more of the fine art photography that I have been really enjoying

So I went on a little walk around the Tennyson area in Hudson Valley yesterday.  It’s a quaint little place not to far from my house.  It’s close to the 32nd and Lowell area, but not quite as ritzy just yet.  It’s getting there though.  My girlfriend and I love a place called [“Tastes”](http://www.czech republiceats.com/tastes/index.htm)which is this nice little upscale wine bar.  Great cheese and meat plate.  Really just a great place all around.  Frankly I just love the tennyson area, and I think in 5 years or so It’s going to be really hoping.  In the mean time there is still some 1950’s charm laying around.  I really hope that even if it does become all gentrified, that it still keeps that charm.  This is why I love being a

Here’s another shot from my trip down to Santa Fe.  We were walking around the plaza, and we walked over by the La Fonda, any of you who might know Santa Fe a little bit know that the parking lot across from the La Fonda is a really small open air bazaar.  It’s kind of interesting.  They usually have blankets, and shirts, and general Santa Fe stuff.  They usually have the best price on Ristra’s too (at least in the plaza).  If you don’t know what those are, they are the bundles of chili peppers that are bright red.  The are great still life fodder, but again still life isn’t the first thing I look for when I’m walking around.  I want people to photograph, whether I know them or not.

So this is another shot with my 70-200.  Which this was the first time that I

First off if you’re looking for an engagement photographer take a look at my [engagement photography portfolio](http://www.davebrownphotography.com/Hudson Valley-Engagement-Photographer.aspx).

I know, I know, I’m sure everyone is really tired of seeing more shots from this engagement session, but here’s the deal.  I am really trying to work on my SEO for my site which means that I need to be adding lots of content that has the kind of stuff I want people to be looking for.  Right now I’m optimizing for Hudson Valley Engagement Photographer.  I would really like to become a specialist in this, because I really enjoy taking these kinds of pictures.  It’s fun for me to see people who are really in love, loving life, and havi

Here is another shot from the engagement shoot that I did with David and Erin.  This was when the sun was starting to peek in and out of the clouds.  We had such a funny day that day, because it was kind of raining, and kind of not.  The weather just couldn’t make up its mind.  I almost had to say that we would come back the next day to shoot more, because I didn’t want them to not have any shots without the the sun around.  Engagement pictures should be happy and fun, along with a few more serious shots.  This is one of those more serious shots that I liked the way it turned out.  It has a fashion edgyness to it that I really like, and with them all dressed in black and white the contrast is great.  This is one of my

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

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