My first 4×5 shot for this project. Shot last week, but developing it took more time to figure out timing on then I expected. Hopefully this week will be a bit faster on the draw. This is part of a fountain in Grand Army Plaza near Prospect Park in NYC. I played with depth of field in this shot, using camera movements to reduce the overall depth of field and control what was in vs out of focus.

Got this one in under the wire. Travel for work makes it a real challenge to get film shot processed and scanned. I am till really enjoying the Mamiya 7II. This was shot with the Mamiya 7II, 80mm f/4N and Ektachrome 100G film.

I have not shot enough since I moved up to NYC. I wanted to move here in part because I want to shoot MORE, and this year is the time to change that funk, and how. This shot is from a fantastic fishmarket, on Canal St. near Mulberry St.

The shot below shot is cherries at an open food stall in Chinatown also on Canal St. near Mulberry St. No crazy setups, not even a macro lens for these tight shots because I was only carrying a single lens with me and because I wanted the effect of the mass of the things rather than focus on a single object from the mass.

Its going to be a fun year keeping up with this.

My first entries into food shots. These were taken to sell the aforementioned cookies, as I have (engaging in my other passion) begun working with my girlfriend (sometimes fashion stylist) Malarie on a baking oriented food shop through the website etsy.com.

The easiest way to take these is definitely to have a nice big open window, but I took these late at night, so what did I do?

Answer: I DIY’d together a BIG lightpanel (about 5.5′x4.5′ wood frame with white ripstop nylon) and fired one Profoto Acute2 1200 into the lightpanel. This simulated having a large window with a cloudy sky. Main difference is that I can control the light level explicitly. Now I just need to add some bookends to the setup in order to prevent the huge amount of spill I currently get.

The better solution, in my opinion, is still a window, but this allows me to work more easily, as our kitchen has no window light at all, and often I work later into the day.

Enjoy!

When approaching a macro shot, always try angles from below your target. It requires some work on hands and knees yet, but the results tend to be better than the human standing perspective of above.

I feel as though I lucked in to this particular photograph. I had decided to go to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens in early April, not really sure what I would find. The sky was supposed to be cloudy but it ended up almost completely cloudless. The shade from the mass of flowers on this cherry tree provided me exactly the light I needed for the right photograph.