While down at the Jersey shore, I was driving through Toms’ River and happened upon an antique machinery fair.  Having a camera with me in the car has always paid off. This day was no exception.

Here’s a 1930′s Chevrolet that I captured and rendered as an infared black and white.  I thought this treatment was the most fitting.

Technical Detail:
Nikon D300s with Nikkor 18-200mm VRII at a focal length of 18mm, f/5.6 – 1/2500 second at ISo 400.

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Super Heros cycle too!

A recent attempt to have a flash mob photo walk ended with some slight embarrassment.  I had not checked to see what else, event-wise, had been scheduled.  Turns out the Five Boro Bike Tour took over the entire City.

So my last minute photo walk was pre-empted presenting a completely different opportunity.

I met up with a fellow photo walking veteran, Conrad Tinney. We took advantage of a target-rich rest stop for the cyclist at Astoria Park in Queens, with thousands of participants filling the parking lot and pathways.

After bringing my images into post production, this particular capture amused me.  The colorful subject unfortunately was lost in a very colorful background of other event participants.  So I set about to bring some added focus to my subject.  Using Lightroom 4, I selected the local adjustment brush and desaturated the background.  Pretty easy.

Now my patriotic super hero cyclist took center stage!

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Captured with a Nikon D800 with a Sigma 150-500mm OS lens at a f0cal length of 500mm with an aperture setting of f/6.3 and a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second.  Since I was hand-holding a fairly sizable lens, I used its pan setting on the optical stabilization and bumped the ISO up to 1600.

I did so enjoy the camera/lens pairing which was on loan from LensProToGo. Broke my heart to send them back.

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The eastside of Manhattan provided a perfect backdrop along with the overcast sky, helping to knockdown some of the contrast.

This shot was captured at f/6.3 with a focal length of 300mm, a shutter speed of 1/800 sec at ISO 800 on a Nikon D800 with a Sigma 150mm-500mm OS lens.

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Gantry Plaza State Park LensCapture Photo Walkers pose for a group shot before tripping the shutter releases along the Long Island City waterfront.

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The centerpiece is the restored gantries which once lifted rail cars onto barges for the ride across the East River to Manhattan. The rail yards are now gone, replaced by a complex of highrise residential buildings and a waterfront park. The area includes the Gantries and plaza, four piers (with the longest reaching more than 200 feet over the East River), gardens and playgrounds. After years atop the Pepsi-Bottling Plant, the 6o foot high and 120 foot long historic landmarked neon Pepsi-Cola sign, built in 1936, now resides in the northern section of this 16 acre park land.

Our April 1, 2012 Gantry Plaza State Park Photo Walk will begin in the main plaza at Center Blvd. and 48th Avenue at 12:00 noon. Regardless of your photography skills (snap-shooters to working pros), you are sure to enjoy this walk. Our photo event will last approximately 2 hours. Afterwards, I plan to grab a snack and beverage at Lounge 47 and discuss our experiences during the photo walk.

Sign-up to for the Gantry Plaza State Park Photo Walk.

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The centerpiece is the restored gantries which once lifted rail cars onto barges for the ride across the East River to Manhattan.  The rail yards are now gone, replaced by a complex of highrise residential buildings and a waterfront park.  The area includes the Gantries and plaza, four piers (with the longest reaching more than 200 feet over the East River), gardens and playgrounds.  After years atop the Pepsi-Bottling Plant, the 6o foot high and 120 foot long historic landmarked neon Pepsi-Cola sign, built in 1936, now resides in the northern section of this 16 acre park land.

Our April 1, 2012 Gantry Plaza State Park Photo Walk will begin in the main plaza  at Center Blvd. and 48th Avenue at 12:00 noon.   Regardless of your photography skills (snap-shooters to working pros), you are sure to enjoy this walk.  Our photo event will last approximately 2 hours.  Afterwards, I plan to grab a snack and beverage at Lounge 47 and discuss our experiences during the photo walk.

Sign-up to for the Gantry Plaza State Park Photo Walk.

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This image represents a classic HDR (high dynamic range) capture from five bracketed exposures.  Once I determined my composition and my base exposure, I set the camera to capture two shots under (-1 stop and -2 stops) and two over (+1 stop and +2 stops).  My base exposure for this shot was f/9 at 1/1000sec with my ISO at 800.  Why did I use such a high ISO and shutter speed?  Simply because my tripod I had forgotten my tripod at home and had to hand-hold the camera.  Plus, my camera (Nikon D300s) handes high ISO very nicely.  My focal length was 105mm (prime) and used f/9 as my aperture to maintain a decent depth of field.

My post production consisted of some minor tweaks in Lightroom 3.6 and then converting the image in Photoshop CS5′s HDR Pro.

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Sunday – October 2, 2011

I had the honor of leading a contingent of photo walkers along the Brooklyn Waterfront for Scott Kelby’s 4th Annual Worldwide Photo Walk. We had a beautiful day, with temps in the low to mid-60′s and billowy clouds in a sunny sky.

Here’s a very short video of some of the photographs I made during the walk. Hope you enjoy it.

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The Rumblers 11th Annual Car Show took place this past weekend in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York.  As expected, there were lots of screeching tires and engines, and so much to take in.  The line-up of custom and vintage vehicles seemed to grow again this year.  Here’s a quick video to show you what you missed.