PJN Photography

Irene - During and Aftermath

2011-08-30T15:12:00.032-04:00

First I want to send my thoughts and prayers to those who lost a great deal in this storm. We lucked out, we had the minor inconvenience of no power for a couple days, able to experience the storm in the safety of our home with almost no damage to our rural neighborhood. In fact I took the day to listen to the winds and rain, to go out to capture the ferocity of the weather getting soaked head to toe. Yesterday I traveled to the family camp at Hadlock to see if it was damaged. You hope for the best, then as you travel farther north you start to see more and more destruction. Lets be honest, despite all the damage it pales in comparison to the flooding in Lake George, Granville, Schenectady, the Catskills and especially most of Vermont.

Again we lucked out. We couldn't get to our camp by car, there were power lines down everywhere, and both of the neighbors had some sort of structure damage because of the downed tree. The worst we suffered was that our raft was missing as we can only assume it had blown towards the dam during the storm. Once we assessed the situation we tried to drive around to Buttermilk Falls Road only to be blocked by a big pine in the middle of the road. We then turned around to Copeland Pond Road to see the damage on the other side of the lake. Looking at all the folks cleaning up, visibly frustrated, watching them trying to figure out where to start... it gave me that sinking feeling.

That wind reaching the 35-40mph mark, perhaps faster, did not have a speedometer on me

The rain was coming down in sheets!

Flooding in a near by pasture

Cones mark the creek overflow

The tall grass in our field never stood a chance

This was a little creek only inches deep, on Sunday it was turning into a river rising above a five foot hill

The water usually flows under that bridge

Only an hour before this the water was up over that bridge

At one point the water was up to the top of the window of that play house

These pictures were on Sunday and below are the images from the aftermath around Hadlock

A line down, clean up started

This was the access road to the camp

A quarter of the dock under water, not bad, probably worse Sunday

Poor Trailer

This was the culprit that knocked the lines down that snapped that telephone pole in half

Firing up the chainsaws

No pass through heading towards buttermilk falls road

Another blocked road

It certainly gives you a greater respect for the storms of the past like Katrina or any of the tornadoes over this past summer. In fact this was the lighter end of what was once Hurricane Irene, yet it caused so much heartache for so many and who knows the impact for the future of not only day to day life but also the states who already are scrapped for money. The government has to be given credit for the lives saved, the preparation was excellent throughout the coast and the power companies for being on top of getting extra crews to work on the power situation. Yet as you can see it can only help so much. There was a lot of history made and lost on Sunday, Vermont alone can make a person re-think the meaning of land-locked.

Making Whoopie...Pie

2011-08-07T01:34:00.002-04:00

Pete and I committed to spending this weekend at home. With my work during the week and much of his work (weddings) on weekends it's rare that we get a weekend together without work, family, or social commitments.

Last night, in hopes of starting off the weekend right, we saw Crazy, Stupid, Love. I highly recommend it.

We then went grocery shopping so that we wouldn't have to leave the house until Sunday morning for church.

Here are the highlights from breakfast and dessert today. All photography was taken by me, except for the instagram images. Those are Pete's.

Omelets with goat cheese and polenta for breakfast. Mind you, we slept in today so we ate breakfast after 1pm.

After dinner (pizza on homemade dough - thank you Pete- and salad), we used the Whoopie Pie mix from the Double H Hole in the Woods Gala at The Great Escape this year.

My favorites from the past month

2011-06-30T22:44:00.001-04:00

A busy month it has been! My wife and I celebrated our first anniversary and we were filled with photo shoots and weddings. I enjoyed everything from a Red Sox game, a lobster roll, fine art, fun families, excellent celebrations, toes in the sand, to ZOMBIES!!! There is so much to show it would easily fill up your average hard drive, but I will condense it in as few pictures as possible and keep it somewhat short.

Before I move on to the pictures, I have to mention one of my favorite holidays and my families biggest holiday (next to Christmas). Independence Day is just a few days away, so to wet the old appetite, here are a few images from last year's festivities.

Some of my favorites from this month!! Weddings will be featured in later posts.

Flash Mob!!!

2011-05-29T03:35:00.001-04:00

I am sure many have seen the current AT&T commercial where a guy in a trench coat starts randomly dancing in the middle of a train station, it turns out he's the only one as he got his text too late about the flash mob being delayed. The funny ad is an example of a new trend of public exhibition. These seemingly spontaneous acts of public group dancing, acting, even weddings are planned in advance by very talented people. Just check YouTube for the hundreds of videos of these flash mobs all over the world.

Today I was caught in the middle of a different sort of flash mob. At first as we were taking a stroll there was an odd zombie here or there but then they appeared in droves and by the escalators it was a full blown invasion. My camera strapped tight to me and at first that is all I did was shoot from the hip; it wasn't until we were on the escalator that I brought the camera up to my eye.

Many were perfectly in character obviously craving our brains!

Even the Counter-Zombie forces showed up, including our friends from Umbrella Corp.

I was pretty impressed with the hundreds of zombies and I was glad I had my camera handy... It was confusing as heck at first but a ton of fun to see it happen. Now I am a little worried that if there ever is an invasion of zombies in the future I might just assume it's a flash mob.

All Images © PJN Photography, LLC 2011

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

New Office! Spring Photoshoots!

2011-04-30T02:37:00.007-04:00

This spring has been a busy one filled with a wonderful wedding, our first new-born portrait session and a new office. Anyone who follows our Facebook page knows that we now have a space in the Shirt Factory in Glens Falls, suite 206 to be exact, we plan for it to be a place where we can meet clients and I can do some general business (as well as photo editing). We are sharing the space with our good friend Gina DeNardo of declare. Creative Services the very one who designed my current logo.

This weekend (April 30th-May 1st) was the spring open house for the shirt factory, thank you to all of you who stopped by. We had our new backdrop set up and invited visitors to smile for the camera. We sent them home with a code to download an image for free to commemorate their visit!

In other big news, PJN Photography, LLC was published in the May/June Issue of Adirondack Life! They wrote an article on our good friends Kim and Kevin at The Farm House Restaurant at Top of the World in Lake George and they featured my photography for the article. The issue is on news stands now so go ahead and get your copy!

We also photographed the beautiful wedding of Nick and Ashley. The church was amazing with some extraordinary light, while the reception was at Arts on the Hudson in Mechanicville, a church-turned-venue with picturesque architecture. The day was full of fun people, lots of smiles and some excellent dancing. Here is a quick preview:

We also had our first new-born session featuring Annabelle. Hollie and Gordon graciously invited us into their home to photograph their beautiful six day old daughter. We had an unbelievable time! It was such a pleasure to get the opportunity to witness the new family with their little bundle of joy. Below is just a little preview:

Stay tuned for more updates later this week!

All Images © PJN Photography, LLC

Medium Format

2011-03-23T12:15:00.002-04:00

Fall 2009, Kowa 66 Velvia 100F

It started with a Holga, I wanted to dip my toes in the waters of 120 film format and yet it wasn't good enough for me. The camera is as simple as they get, a plastic body, plastic lens, scale focus, and shutter lever ... it's all about composition, click, then wait for the surprises. However four years ago I was looking for more than that look and though photographers like David Burnett were producing iconic images with the camera I was looking to get the most out of the big negative. Two years later I find a Rolleiflex for a great price, it's small, sleek, easy to operate and with a single-coated Zeiss Tessar the images are of a dreamy nostalgic quality. Stopped down from 5.6 to 22 the lens is razor sharp. I found composition more familiar looking down through the viewfinder, it seemed even though the world was in reverse the lines stood out more, I could see what would turn up on the negative far better than through any DSLR. When my I received my negatives and especially the positives I would just sit back laughing at the sheer beauty of these images. I found it gave me a break from the technology it provided me another way of seeing the world around me.

Fall 2009, Kowa 66 Velvia 100F

The marriage didn't last long, the night after documenting my families 4th of July 2008 at the lake the Rollei fell from my hands bounced off my bed and landed on the floor. The tumble resulted in numerous dents and most important a bent focusing arm... a nail in the Rollei's coffin. I mourned then sold the body for parts. I decided to just concentrate on Kodachrome and digital for work. Then about 8-10 months later I got the bug again wanting to have fun with those large negatives. This time I decided to give a reflex medium format camera a try ending up with a Kowa Super 66. The one I won off of the bay was in rough shape at first, I had to replace all the light seals, lubricate the shutter curtain, and had to repaint the film back. Within two rolls I got it working was finding the love/hate aspects of the reflex system, getting great results but often finding the images lacking the character that I loved about the Rolleiflex. What I disliked most was how loud the mirror-slap sounded when shooting in doors, it would cause any sleeping dog to jump out of a sound sleep, I also found it frustrating that hand holding the camera under 1/60th would end in images plagued with vibration from the mirror. By this time I was deeply in love with my now wife who was modeling for me as I experimented with using the Kowa with studio lights. She also had to hear me lament of the broken Rolleiflex. Eventually the Kowa fell out of favor and ended up funding upgrades for PJN Photography.

This January after spending some time looking over and over at the Rolleiflex images from 2008 the fire came back. I scoured the bay looking for one that would possibly have the same qualities. Finally I found it, a 1953 Rolleiflex that had been previously owned by a professional photographer in the 60s-70s and who had used it but kept it in great condition. I won the auction at a price far below what the original Rollei had cost. When it arrived, I unpacked it, cleaned it off, cleaned the lenses, loaded the film and it was instantly familiar. Taking pictures can be a very calming, very peaceful experience for myself... certain cameras can promote that feeling while others can inhibit. The Rollei after all these years had the same amazingly smooth advance, set the speed, set the aperture, still had the silky smooth focus, still had the same gentle click of the shutter, it transported me to that good place. The results are very satisfying... I do prefer some films over others as the old lens does render colors a little differently than the more modern lenses.

I went 2 weeks using nothing else, I walked around Lake George in the bitter cold taking advantage of the deep blues and the stark whites. The images speak for themselves.

I plan for my July exhibition to use the Rollei for portraits, Tri-X film... developed on my own.

Below are the first rolls, Kodak Portra 400NC ... various scenes from the first week.

The next series of images are in the bitter cold using Velvia 100F

All Images © PJN Photography, LLC

Jake: Canine Degenerative Myelopathy

2011-02-15T23:02:00.000-05:00

Last week The Post Star featured an article about a local man who's canine friend has an unfortunate terminal disease called degenerative myelopathy. This condition is a deterioration of the spinal cord that can affect the use of the back legs, motor skills, balance, and continence. It is most common in German Shepherds but can be found in many different breeds. The bright side is that the dogs who develop the condition lose feeling in the affected areas, however; this it can be detrimental to their body awareness (which can lead to various other issues).

Jake is my parents dog, our family dog since 2001 and a Black Lab/Dane/German shepherd mix. He was at the local SPCA, in a cage that had links all the way to the top because he was one of the few who could actually leap that high. His name was Norris (as in Chuck Norris). He was 2-3 years old and a bundle of energy- but still well behaved. He was a very dark shade of black with dark eyes and the cutest ears that would only perk half way, looking more like wings than ears (or as my father puts it "heli-chop-ter" ears). My family quickly decided he should be called something quick and easy (I was away at college so I was not involved in the renaming process) it turned out he responded very well to Jake.

Why I am posting this has more to do with one particular idiosyncrasy of Jake's. One that used to make me laugh but also drive me crazy. He hated cameras. He was very scared of them and knew one when he saw one. Whether it was a folding Polaroid, a DSLR, a point and shoot, a cell phone, a video camera or even my old Rolleiflex, he would head for the nearest exit.

If I put a long lens on my DSLR to try and shoot from a distance, he would see me bring it up to my eye and disappear in seconds. In fact, I have maybe five decent images of him over a ten year period and only two with his eyes open (the others are sleeping). He just would not be in the room if you had a camera in your hand.

A typical Jake portrait, sleeping circa 2008

Last year Jake started slowing down, quite quickly, and by the end of the summer he was losing a lot of muscle mass. At first we thought it was arthritis since he was always so active, but because he was a bit of a jumper when he was young we figured perhaps that contributed to his back-half deteriorating. By the fall he was starting to sway when he walked, getting up after sleeping was increasingly difficult, and it was clear he was struggling to get where he needed to go.

In November my mother heard about degenerative myelopathy. It was obvious after some research that he had this condition. In all honesty he's just slowed down. The disease hasn't incapacitated him and he still has a very healthy appetite. His back end just doesn't respond like it used to. He doesn't respond like he used to, and to many people he just looks like an old dog.

Angus, my English Bulldog, tries to keep him young, never hesitating to provoke Jake into a quick wrestle. But those short bursts of activity last only seconds now and then they both go back to sleep.

Then it occurred to me: Jake may have changed his view of cameras.

Well not exactly. He won't run into another room but the ears go back and he won't look into the lens. That being said, I did manage to get a few portraits of the old guy the other day.

Scratching the ears helps

Angus checking on Jake as they wait for a treat

In the above picture you can see his posture, his skinny back end crouched as he waits patiently for a little treat. He just can't stand for long periods of time before his legs give out on him.

Trade mark Jake ears

The body and the face has thinned, but the hunger is still there...literally.

Probably the only time I've ever got a straight-on look from Jake (but in all fairness, I tricked him into looking my way). Even though his hair is a bit salt and pepper, he's still the dog obsessed with cheese. The dog who will hit his head on the floor when he sneezes. The dog who would rather not have his picture taken.

Tonight - Art Opening at Gallery 99!!!!

2011-02-10T13:22:00.000-05:00

Tonight Feb 10th. 2011 is the opening night for Gallery 99 at the Empire Theatre in Glens Falls, NY.Artists from around the area have been brought to 11 South Street for an exhibition of various mediums.

All pieces will be priced under $100. Opening starts at 5pm and ends at 8pm, please come by to enjoy the art as well as the entertainment.

Visit the Gallery 99 Facebook page for more information!

I contributed three framed landscape prints. I hope to see you all there!

Taking advantage of the constant snow!

2011-02-05T23:17:00.000-05:00

While the rest of the country has been struggling with the extreme amounts of snow that has fallen in the past 7 days (looking at you guys in Arlington, TX), here it's been a manageable 4-8 inches every three days. The result is thigh-deep snow in the fields, large snow banks like the ones I remember growing up with, and excellent weather for winter activities. I'm sure today's snow globe-like snow was enjoyed immensely by those attending the Lake George winter carnival, Courtney and I held one of our own.

We got ready, laced up our Bean Boots, and headed down the road where we borrowed a sled. The snow flakes seemed giant, they had to be falling at an inch an hour for about an hour and luckily my Nikon is weather-sealed because it was covered in no time.

My first run down the "hill"...

Courtney trekking back up the hill.

Pal loved to run along side us. He would nip at our heels, and this time, he stole Court's glove and hid it in a snow bank.

The one time the lens fogged up, it created a few pictorialist images for us. Our favorite of Pal chasing Pete.

Courtney just starting her wipe-out.

Needless to say, we had a great time!

The Last Days of Kodachrome and Christmas

2010-12-29T22:50:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know, tomorrow 12/30/10 is the last day that Dwayne's photo in Kansas will be processing the legendary film Kodak's Kodachrome. It is a sad day, but it's also a sign of the times when immediacy is king to archival quality and unparalleled color. Honestly the way I think of the past is skewed in my head with the colors of Kodachrome. Incredibly unique, not exactly accurate, it's like looking at the world in rose colored glasses except more like cyan/magenta glasses.

Back in 2006, I stumbled upon the Kodachrome slides from my parents wedding taken by a number of different people. Also included were the slides from my parents honeymoon in Bermuda. One particular shot from that carousel was a sunset my father had taken... utterly stunning... I was so enamored that I decided for their anniversary that year I would blow it up and frame it. There it is still hanging above the front door at their house to see on your way out, it's like seeing a little slice of heaven each time you leave.

My wife Courtney and I decided before our wedding in May that we would have Kodachrome used at the wedding, we still had a professional photographer (an excellent one at that), but we would have a couple family members packing a combined 18 rolls of Kodachrome. We knew that most of the slides would come out imperfect, after all the venue was a little dark for ISO64 the flashes on the cameras were a bit underpowered to make up the difference. There was about 40-50 slides that were just great, exactly what we were aiming for... in fact we used one image for our christmas card.

The image when it came up in the slide projector immediately pulled Courtney's attention away from what she was doing, it was her favorite candid from the wedding. It shows us in our post ceremony just-married glow with big smiles that can only show a mix of elation and a little bit of relief that the nerve racking part was over (well at the time we still had our dance to perform). It's our favorite mostly because it captures what we felt at that exact moment, Kodachrome has that sparkle that muted color that makes the subject seem to emote.

By this fall we had roughly 8 rolls of Kodachrome left, by Christmas we had 5 rolls left. We knew we wanted to save those final rolls to capture our families Christmas'. We also knew that in order to get it to Kansas on time we would have to send it out by the 27th, the 28th at the absolute latest. We weren't anticipating the storm, we also didn't anticipate to be a little under the weather, and so our last couple rolls we scrambled to get some portraits,some shots of the glistening snow, the decorations. Then we sped off to the post office to get it in the mail on time... but unfortunately we couldn't guarantee it would get there by noon on the 30th... so at this point our last 5 rolls are not guaranteed to be developed.

The Kodachrome Going Express to Kansas

It would be sad if we lose those last rolls, but I am sure Dwayne's is expecting a surge of arrivals in the next day or two and those machine's will be running as much as they can before New Years. Come 2011 the world will be one where Kodachrome is a relic, in the spring there will be a documentary on the last roll of Kodachrome shot by Steve McCurry (the photographer most known for his portrait of the Afghan Girl refuge, as well as numerous other portraits shot on Kodachrome). However even Steve McCurry is doing his work on the Nikon Digital SLRs like the D3 and D700. My work is dependent on digital, even if I am willing to shoot with film, love the look of film... Digital Capture has the ability to capture images like never before, the colors are far more accurate the images crystal clear, and there is even software that can come close to the color pallete of Kodachrome (Alien Skin Exposure 3 does an excellent job with the original Kodachrome, Kodachrome II especially when comparing to my Kodachrome book... though their rendition of K25 and K64 are less accurate).

We love Kodachrome, Courtney made me Kodachrome ornaments for Christmas using old slides that were too underexposed. We will continue to put up the old Kodak Carousel and look at all the slides we have taken over the past couple years as well as our parent's slides, even our grandparent's slides. Our children perhaps will still have slides, we still have Ektachrome, EliteChrome, Fuji Velvia, Fuji Provia... but they won't see themselves in the colors of Kodachrome... perhaps I'm being sentimental but it's a chapter in our world that will be forever shut.

I hope everyone has a grand and peaceful holiday season. I leave with a few quick images from this past weekend, some from my iPhone, some from the Nikon:

Snow Drifts after the Storm

Mike and Megan's Wedding

2010-12-29T00:49:00.000-05:00

Back in October I photographed Mike and Megan's wedding. When I was notified that the wedding would be at the Museum of Dance I had all sorts of visions in my head of how the images would look when all was said and done. What I wasn't expecting was a celebration that was as touching as it was fun. The look was elegant and modern, with many traditional details; some might say what you would expect from a loving couple in this century. However Megan and Mike are at heart musicians who tend to have a desire to please the gods of rock...

First I need to mention that this wedding had special significance; not just because two people were taking their vows but also because Megan's mother was gravely ill. When I first turned up to snap a couple images of Megan getting ready she was incredibly cool and collected for someone just about to be married... in fact I was impressed on how smoothly everything was going. I arrived at the museum, started to capture the details eventually seeing the note that Mike had written to guests regarding the sensitivity of the matter. I personally was unaware of the situation up to this point and once it dawned on me I couldn't help but be moved by Megan's courage. They setup a laptop in the first chair that was webcasting the ceremony to a computer by her mother's bedside. Her mother was able to witness her daughter's wedding before passing on that night.

The ceremony was beautiful and light-hearted, the reception was pure fun and turned into a full-fledged rock concert. How many photographers could say they captured a wedding where both the bride and the groom strapped on their guitars belting out "Barracuda" by Heart. The dichotomy between the traditional museum of dance with the progressive nature of the celebration was incredibly uplifting. I had just an amazing time darting around getting as many angles as possible trying to capture each incredible moment.

So without further ado, here are the images:

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T20:56:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who reads the PJN Photography blog!

A day of amazing sites and smells. Whats not to love about family, pie, and turkey.

Court's Guest Post: Cindy and Chris, a September Wedding

2010-11-06T02:09:00.005-04:00

It was a pleasure photographing Cindy and Chris's wedding together. Cindy is my sister-in-law's sister-in-law's sister. Follow that?

The wedding was in Bloomingburg, NY and it was a beautiful warm September day. Cindy and Chris scheduled it so that they would be able to see each other and take portraits before the ceremony. This let them enjoy cocktail hour with their guests after the wedding (If you're thinking about doing this, go for it. Pete and I didn't get to see our cocktail hour and we keep hearing how amazing it was!!!).

The Eagle's Nest is set atop a mountain with beautiful views of rolling countryside, but there was also a cove of trees that we were able to escape to for some of the photographs.

Pete's style is constantly growing and evolving. He's typically drawn to balanced, straight photography. Recently, he's been experimenting with angles. I believe that he's been able to make detail photographs that may seem somewhat standard (yet always beautiful) more engaging by doing this.

Cindy and Chris have been together since high school. You could tell how comfortable they were with each other, which translated into the photographs.

This was my idea. Pete took the photograph and chose the angle.

Annie and Brandon

2010-10-13T19:53:00.018-04:00

This was a busy summer for PJN Photography, LLC; to the point where my blogging has been delayed. However I plan to do a number of entries in the coming weeks to show some of the great weddings, the portraits, and some of my personal work.

August began with a bang! Brandon has been a friend of mine since high school, he also has been in two other weddings that I photographed in the past.

When he introduced me to his (then girlfriend) Annie, I knew they had something special forming; she was charming, funny, and had a real connection with Brandon. A little over a year later Brandon contacts me with news of his engagement and interest in me shooting his wedding. I accepted knowing that the celebration would not only be beautiful but the opportunity to photograph a couple with such a great dynamic and chemistry was too great to pass up.

Brandon and Annie wanted to start off with a first look shoot. Haven't had many couples who want to see each other before the ceremony but this was a unique opportunity to capture a great moment of anticipation and emotion that can often be difficult to capture during the ceremony, but here it was just the two of them in an intimate moment and myself on the side.

Then we took a walk for some fun formals

The details

The ceremony was relaxed, beautiful, and the clouds broke just as they recited their vows

The tears were streaming

Then it was time for the reception full of food, fun, dance and surprises including an engagement! Just great moment after great moment.

Thanks Brandon and Annie for making me a part of your big day!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

All Rights Reserved, PJN Photography, LLC

A Fellow Photographer In Front of My Lens

2010-08-28T12:30:00.010-04:00

Recently I had the pleasure of having fellow photographer Marlene Noonan in front of my lens. Other than being a talented photographer she is a delightful, bubbly, bold, toes-in-the-grass, friendly person who's personality pours out like a geyser. We chose Saratoga as the backdrop to capture her personality on stills, as we walked and talked about the craft I got to know more about the woman behind the Zeiss 85mm.

I always enjoy portraiture of other photographers, there is an added pressure to getting it right, but it's satisfying to know a fellow artist trusts you enough to capture their likeness. After much conversation (as well as her requests) it was clear to me that I needed to encourage her to be as outrageous as possible to get the look we were after.

Marlene also happened to be my first shoot with the Nikon D700... a fine tool; combined with my favorite focal length 50mm was like being home, I learned the basics on 35mm and it's great to back in that format.

Did I mention I love her website name?
www.eyeswideshutter.com

Shooting with Pete: A Post by Courtney

2010-07-17T23:45:00.004-04:00

I asked Pete if I could write a blog entry. I wanted to write about how we have been working together more and more and how fantastic it is. I asked him to put together these two diptychs, and then when I sat down to write, I realized I didn't take any of these photos! In fact, my cousin took the photograph of the field that is paired with the one of her in the field! This was a fun and frustrating shoot to do. I'm allowed to say that. They are my cousins.

Four kids from 22 months to 7.5 years old were difficult to get on the same page. We have done a couple other shoots with them, but the images that came from this one are my favorite. Pete and I spent some extra time playing with them so that we could capture the joy on their faces, and the laughs between the cries.

The photo to the left is one of mine from that shoot.

Pete and I have now shot a couple weddings together and I've assisted in countless portrait sessions. When we met (which will be two years ago the end of August), photography was the first thing we talked about.

I have a degree in studio art, with a concentration in photography. Pete taught himself. Anyone who knows us knows that Pete can go on explaining the ins and outs of cameras, lenses, lighting, and famous photographers forever, and that I love to set my DSLR on automatic and shoot. In my right brained personality, I can't get a good handle on the technical aspects of it.

One of the things we talked about when we were going through pre-marital counseling was how we needed to complement each other. Photography is one of the areas where we excel at this. I can see opportunities for growth and marketing, Pete can photoshop hives off of a bride or electrical cords off of a carpet so that all of her pictures are flawless. We each have different styles when we photograph, but we are continually learning from each other.

So the more weddings we book, the more portrait sessions we do, the better we get as a business and as partners. Soon you'll see a fresh new PJN Photography. We're working on getting a logo!

We're also doing a couple of shoots with Janelle Tavormina of LOOK soon. We love her because she's a fine artist (printmaker to be exact) turned hair and makeup artist! I love her so much that she did my hair and makeup for our wedding (photographs from the wedding should be up soon).

Kate and Cory - Wedding Preview

2010-07-09T23:00:00.002-04:00

You know you have a special wedding when the bride and groom both glitter their no-sweat chucks. Kate and Cory had an amazing wedding in Killington, VT. A beautiful ceremony in a little stone church that featured this amazingly warm light from the stained-glass windows; it was a real delight to photograph. The reception was an event that reflected the personalities of Kate and Cory; from the serenades to the rainbow-layered cake... it was nothing but smiling faces, tons of dancing, great vibes, and a gathering of what seemed like the happiest people on earth. Here is a little preview of Kate and Cory's wedding. Congratulations you two!

New Orleans

2010-07-06T17:20:00.000-04:00

For our honeymoon, Courtney and I traveled down to New Orleans. We instantly fell in love with the French Quarter: the historical atmosphere, the friendly people, the jazz, and of course the food. For me, the experience was everything I had hoped- being able to just walk down the street hearing the brass bands, smelling the fresh sea food, going to Cafe Du Monde for beignets- it was, in a way, stepping back in time. Here are a few of the sites from our trip. Thank you to everyone who helped make our trip possible.

New Website!!!!

2010-05-02T21:43:00.002-04:00

Today I officially announce the introduction to my new website at www.pjnphotography.com !!!

Stay tuned for more!

MG

2010-03-20T02:09:00.001-04:00

I am generally a muscle car kind of guy or even an old Auburn or Cord, but I do have an appreciation for British sports cars especially the XK120s and the Austin Healys. My appreciation stems from my brother's Miata (the Japanese take on the genre); a modern more comfortable version of these small convertibles that zipped along happily around the twisting roads (the older roadsters often consuming quarts of oil at a time as well). There is something to flying down an open road top down in a car with your love by your side that gives a feeling of freedom and exhiliration other cars fail to match.

While stopping for some soup at Panera, i spotted a rare sight in these parts; an MG TF. I have seen plenty of MGAs or MGBs but the older MGs are a bit harder to come by and it's nice to see that it was a driver. I am sure like most british roadsters of the day it was uncomfortable, creaky and leaks everywhere but I am sure it's a ball to drive!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-18T10:05:00.004-04:00

Yes, I realize I have a tendency to post on holidays. I suppose it just happens to be when I am inspired to write. Speaking of inspiration, I cannot remember a St. Patrick's day when I could wear short sleeves without ending up with pneumonia. These past couple days have been fantastic!

Today I pause and think of my Irish heritage, for me it's a little more foggy compared to the rest of my proud lineage, but there is no mistaking which side my red beard comes from. I enjoy the traditions with my mother's corn beef and cabbage, spinning an Irish rovers LP (love "the orange and the green") and then of course the fun local tradition: a fifty cent ice cream cone at Stewarts if you wear green.

My real inspiration was the warm spring weather. We had the blooming flowers amongst the brown leaves, the scattered pine cones where there was once snow, the budding of the old red maple (sooner than I can ever remember) and the removal of the snow blower from my father's tractor for the mower deck. Granted we could easily have a snow storm in a week, March often provides the worst snow falls of the year. But as my father said, "...this time of year it will melt the next day". Yesterday, after the tractor conversion, I grabbed my iPhone to take a walk in my Dr. Scholl's "Indy" Boots, Dickies, and 3/4 sleeve baseball shirt, and I captured what I felt were the early symbols of spring.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A New Year, Bean Boots, and News

2010-01-06T16:23:00.007-05:00

First of All, Happy New Year!

Second, what was intended to be an email of appreciation for sparking an interest turned something more; a contribution to the excellent blog Sartorially Inclined. Lawrence was kind enough to include my photography and a link to this blog. His writing is excellent, he has a great sense of history, style, and culture. My bean boots have been keeping my feet nice and warm; honestly I have never worn a more comfortable pair of winter boots.

Third, had some images to post and talk about however I picked today to upgrade my main computers harddrive (a measly 250gb to 1TB!) as well as switch to Windows 7, so my files are currently transferring over from their backedup location. This will definitely help my work flow as my old drive was starting to really labor with only 4 gb left to use and XP was not taking advantage of all my system memory, so Windows 7 64 bit was the next step along with a big drive that Jolly Old Saint Nick was so nice to leave under the tree.

Besides some of the compatibility issues with printer and my audio driver (both solved), I have been impressed with Windows 7, Vista always left a bad taste in my mouth after having to uninstall it off of some dissatisfied users computers and put XP back on their machines. Windows 7 is a good mix of fast, intuitive, a lot less annoying... I even see some similarities with a few Linux builds I have used.

Here are some links for anyone who was also interested in Sartorially Inclined:

A Continuous Lean

A Time To Get

Some Photos:

Happy Holidays!!!!

2009-12-24T22:12:00.010-05:00

Christmas Eve! You can see the anticipation on the faces of the kids, the bustle of last minute shoppers and the parents who are just trying to enjoy the night until their late night putting together toys with Saint Nick. The radio stations are playing the 24 hr christmas tunes (I'm partial to the Vince Guaraldi Trio), everybody is ready for the festivities to begin.

So tonight, like Halloween, I post a few of my favorite snaps from the holiday season and get ready for the new year. This past year has been a busy one, still building, learning, improving... for my photography as well as my life. With my wedding coming up in May, there is a lot of work to do, especially on the photography end (my own photography as well as finding a photographer for my own wedding). With that being said this blog may go in a different direction, it will still be my photography (obviously the inaugural year has been a little sparse on posts) however the posts maybe more subjective, perhaps it may go into gear (more cameras, films, lights, etc), techniques, and different artists. Also my blog may stray into my other interests, perhaps cinema, men's style, or as many other blogs do post some interesting media of the day. Either way I want my blog to be primarily about photography, but I would also like my other influences to come to the surface and share them with everyone.

Merry Christmas! Enjoy these iphone snaps and as the year closes I will do my best to post one more time before Jan 1st.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T02:31:00.014-05:00

The best camera is .... the one that's with you!

This is the mantra has been used for years by photographers, it doesn't matter what kind of camera you use as long as you have an opportunity to capture that decisive moment. One might argue that it is just as, if not more, relevant today than it was 60 years ago. In fact, professional photographer Chase Jarvis has turned this saying into App for the Iphone but also published his own images in a book "The Best Camera Is The One That's With You: iPhone Photography by Chase Jarvis (Voices That Matter)", all of this spreading wildly amongst the internet and immediately achieving a love/hate grouping among photographers.

So what does this have to do with Halloween? Well my second favorite holiday is here, the weather is foul but the trick-o-treaters are still out in full force, and everyone seems to be in pretty good spirits. This is one holiday that embraces tradition, at the same time brings about new ways to chill people to the bone; the reflection is in the decorations, the costumes, the countless horror movies. Amazing scenes are everywhere you look, the leaves are perfectly framing the jack-o-lanterns, the fake corpses are patiently clawing out of neighbors lawns, make-shift graveyards have humorous inscriptions, and ghosts are blowing in the wind (even if they are sheets marked with magic marker and held together with rubber bands).

I tend to take these displays for granted, never did I have the thought to document them as a reflection of the neighborhood. Well the thought came to me a couple days before Halloween that I would take the time to just snap some of my favorite's this year... nothing flashy, nothing too horrifying, no just the spirit of the day keeping with old and new traditions. I was looking for effort, execution, but I was also looking for displays that spoke to me in some way whether it was humorous or scary.

The Iphone has proven to become an excellent tool for many photographers including myself, the ability to edit in-phone, the pleasing overall image quality (with a little boost), the use of excellent apps, and of course the convenience of almost always having it on your person has made it almost indispensable (as proven by Flickr's announcement that the Iphone is now the most commonly used camera by it's users). I have found my own comfort level in using the Iphone, have been very content with the images that I have produced, and found myself to purposely leave other cameras home because I do have the Iphone just in case.

This month the Iphone was my most frequent tool for documenting the various autumn scenes, it also gave me a chance on that inspired morning to walk around taking photos of the many Halloween decorations in neighboring areas. Not only is it a meditation on photography, but the use of an Iphone is a discipline onto it's own where you have to be very careful with your composition but also have complete freedom of concentrating on purely vision with no other worry about technical aspects of running the camera (it is truly a point and shoot).

As we move into the colder months, the moments change from the harvest colors to the muted browns and eventually the stark whites. People will be bundling up, soon will be bustling in anticipation of the holiday season and photographers will be giddy at all the photo-ops around the bend. The best camera for those moments will be ... well you know

Some straight Autumn Scenes:

Polaroid PoGo & Mixed Feelings

2009-07-31T22:06:00.001-04:00

It's small, black, and silver with a familiar name attached. What looks a little like an over-sized cell phone is really a printer that spits out Credit Card sized prints with a removable sticky back, intended to be a portable means to print images from your point and shoot digicam or your cellphone via bluetooth. The prints are made of a paper containing zinc that once heated produce the water/smudge proof image onto the paper. The concept on its own is fantastic though upon further use it falls short of living up to Polaroid's intentions of furthering the legacy of their instant film.

The color is far from accurate, in fact depending on various factors (paper age, iso value, file quality) the colors can range from relatively close to almost a cross-processed look (this must tickle the lomographers). There is an endearing quality to the prints that could be characterized as unique or quaint depending on your intended use. One might decide to use these for collage look to emphasize the quirkiness of these little guys into larger pieces of art.

My whole reason for adopting the PoGo system was to document my trip to Las Vegas the 2nd week in July, take these prints and stick them into my moleskin as a mini album documenting the excursion from airport to strip back to airport. For the record, the execution was far more difficult than the plan and it was not all the PoGo's fault. In fact, I have not even finished the journal and we are approaching August; this is in part due to my schedule as well as the somewhat inefficient means for printing. When I was able to hunker down to print and then log my thoughts it all worked perfectly in sync, but of course the PoGo's battery is only good for about 10 prints.

So how does one get the files to the printer? Two ways, either USB (using Pictbridge) or via Bluetooth, it sends the image automatically spitting the image out within 2 minutes. Pictbridge is pretty simple, attach the camera via usb, turn it on while the PoGo is on, and then pictbridge boots up already ready to send your JPEG files to the printer. Bluetooth is a little tricky especially if you own a Iphone (whose bluetooth does not recognize the PoGo yet) or Mac computer, otherwise you just enable your bluetooth adapter to receive and then enter the PoGo's ID number then you can send any files you want wirelessly to print. The system is pretty portable (with the gigantic charger being the exception), I was able to do prints via my Fuji F30 on the plane while up in the clouds, and straight from my Nikon D90 while in the Hotel Room in Vegas. Of course time was limited while in Vegas and I was only able to do a couple journal entries before it was time to move on to the next activity, then after that it was time to head back east, homeward bound.

The funny thing about the PoGo it is definitely a Polaroid product; in the sense that it was portable but not really. Think of all the Polaroid cameras that have existed through the years since their invention, all are bulky, the packaging for the film is bulky with tons of waste after opening it and in the case of the pack film every single peel apart film comes with the containing package that needs to be discarded. Many will argue that the PoGo does not have the charm of the instant film, there is some truth to that statement, yet the Pogo prints are really starting to grow on me as their own little charming memories that I can stick into my little journals. Will they have the longevity of the film? If polaroid decides to improve upon the Zinc technology, improve the printers, and especially improve the portability; then yes I think the PoGo could be around for years to come. In the meantime I will continue to explore the use of these little prints and perhaps take them beyond my moleskines.

Moleskine art and PoGo prints are a real phenomenon; I am hardly the first to combine the two. Since I lack any real drawing skills my Moleskines are minimally illustrated, they merely consist of prints and words. Flickr has groups dedicated to the art of moleskine notebooks/sketchbooks; this is about the art not only in the drawing/design but also displaying the entire book as a work of its own. Once a means for the likes of Van Gogh to keep their thoughts, ideas, by their side is now become a widely practiced omage to the moleskine and it's heritage.

Next entry maybe relatively spontaneous but may be dedicated to weddings, the designs, the photography, and what it all means to me. Though it might be something completely different.

Links:

Moleskinery Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/moleskinerie/

Notebook Stories: http://www.notebookstories.com/ (a blog dedicated to those who love their notebooks)

My new favorite blog: http://www.acontinuouslean.com/

Polaroid... my beginning

2009-06-16T10:30:00.000-04:00

My first experience behind the camera was using a Polaroid 600 series, it was my grandparents 50th anniversary, and my aunt decided to let me loose with 4 packs of film. Mind you I was about 7 years old, this was more about just having fun with a toy that I would not otherwise have a chance to use. The result was 40 images of family members from the perspective of a 4ft-nothing photographer. To this day I credit this event as the one that buried the seed in the soil; of course I didn't realize my passion until the age of 23.

Polaroid's have always been a part of my life, the images of me in my mom's arms as a newborn was shot on 600 series film, and much of my childhood is a series of polaroids, compared to the rest of my siblings whose childhoods are captured mostly on slides. Early in high school when I worked for a local drug store I marveled on how cheap the Polaroid cameras had become: $25 dollars with a pack of film. Of course you had to pay $20 for 20 shots and that is why polaroids never were as dominate as they could have been. My parents presented me a Polaroid One-Step for my birthday later that year, something I used mostly for documentation throughout high school. Then it became my party camera when I arrived at college, in fact I have a series of 50 or so images that were a result of one amazingly fun floor party my freshman year in Warren Towers, and another from my junior year (mostly from the Super Bowl in '01 when the Patriots won their first title). The whole point was just to document friends. My guess is that at some point I just realized I never took pictures of anything or anyone beyond my little APS camera that was even more expensive to run then the polaroid. I did love it, I probably did not realize at the time just how much I loved photography, it just never occurred to me.

When digital photography entered into my life I wasn't very impressed. My brother managed to secure a Kodak DCS-1 (a rectangular camera that looks more like a sports rangefinder with a binocular design), it was a 1 megapixel, and it eventually became my camera. It was clunky to use and the images were decent. Again, I never though past documentation and it sat as a novelty for awhile. Eventually I would have my epiphany with an old film SLR, then move to a Fujifilm S3100, and the rest is history. Despite all the digital technology, medium format, Kodachrome, and various other films, I still get giddie and anxious whenever I find a pack of 600 series film that I can load into my One Step. I have a healthy love for Polaroid Pack film as well but it doesn't quite bring me back like the 600 film.

Much to my delight one day, upon picking up some processed slides from W-mart I stumbled onto a pack of 600 film and even better the price wasn't jacked up. Unfortunately my local CVS also has 3 packs of the film but are marked at $20 a piece (each pack only has 10 pictures) and at this moment those 3 packs remain. I decided I needed to take advantage of the price at the W-mart and enjoy the store-bought film one last time since I won't likely be able to do it again.

Let's break down Polaroid film to it's basics... The image is slightly rectangular with the always welcome border at the bottom for proper holding (or for some, shaking like a po-la-roid pic-ture), the image quality is very lo-fi with a pastelle (in daylight) - brown (indoors) pallette that always presents the picture as if it was taken 20 years ago. I have images from 2001 that look as though they were shot in 1981 and this is one reason they are amazing. Polaroid looks like nothing else, sounds like nothing else, and has a picture taking experience like nothing else. Most famously the beginning of Texas Chainsaw Massacre has the very sound of a polaroid in the beginning credits.

Unfortunately despite all that Polaroid has stopped producing it's instant film, most pola-fans are left hunting on ebay, going to swaps, or going on specialty sites if they want to restock their own inventory of polaroid film. A group of former Polaroid workers are located in the Netherlands are currently trying to reverse engineer the instant film and hope to continue to produce it as a niche product. The new film (if they succeed, it is called the impossible project after all) won't look exactly like the old film but will at least contain the same process and same basic characteristics.

In the meantime? 600 series film is becoming increasingly hard to find but there are options. Fujifilm still produces the instant peel apart films for pack cameras (like my Polaroid Model 250), for the instant crowd there is the Fujifilm Instax/Mini camera/film (for those who saw Yes Man it was the camera Zoey Deschanel was using) however the film is usually a web-only purchase (Urban Outfitters use to stock the film and cameras, I think the lomo stores still do). For digital there is the Fujifilm Pivi printer, though not your typical printer it actually uses film to expose your digital image onto credit card size polaroid-looking film. Again the problem being very limited availability as you could probably only find on ebay and expensive.

Until all of this becomes sorted, there is only one choice for small format/lo-fi/instant gratification art-minded lovers; The Polaroid PoGo Zinc printing system. A love it or hate it solution to fill the polaroid void in ones life. More on that later

Links: Polanoid

The Impossible Project, trying to keep polaroid instant film alive!

Big News: Olympus has revived the Pen series with the new EP-1, compact and snazzy-looking (perfect for those who were missing the tourist look of the old Olympus compact rangefinders... right courtney?)

Using what you have

2009-05-29T15:35:00.001-04:00

Those who know me know that I am a bit of a gear head; I like to know anything and everything about my cameras, lenses, and software. I try to keep the best of my gear with me at all times, when I can't then I do my best to take the next best thing. Even though a camera is just a tool it is still important to have the best materials you can to capture what your mind perceives. Of course when you don't have your best you use what you have and you make it work.

A few years back I decided to look into the Fujifilm F30 for the times when I did not want to carry a DSLR or any of my film cameras. A great little camera, especially in low light, it has served it's purpose over and over again. In fact it has traveled (not with me, but my brother-in-law) to Afghanistan as well as Williamsburg and Boston. At the moment it is serving as one of my other sibling's main camera. In the meantime I became very aware of the work of Terry Richardson, enthralled by his use of point and shoot cameras for much of his fashion photography. The natural thing for me to do was research his methods and of course his equipment. That lead me to the Yashica T4, my pocketable (just barely) friend that is always with me loaded with various types of film from Kodachrome to super market Fuji 400. In fact my upcoming Exhibition has at least two images that I captured using the T4. As much as I love that camera, many times I do wish it were digital for not only the immediacy but the volume of images you can keep.

This brings me to the image posted, taken on a fine Tuesday morning at Assembly Point in Lake George. As soon as I stepped outside the door I saw in front of me a scene that would have made many of pictorialists jealous. I wanted to take that image in a way that would remain true to the pictorialist spirit. My blackberry has a camera, it is at best mediocre, however it can capture an image. To my delight it has a Sepia mode and when facing the sun the lens flares in much the way some of the old uncoated lenses used by those photographers. The result is soft, dreamy, the rays of the sun are imprinted on the image as well as the shimmering reflection on the water.
So on this day, for this moment, the blackberry captured what my mind had perceived. Does that mean I want to rely on this camera every time I am out? No a Nokia N95 or N85, any of the Sony Ericsson phones would serve me better. However did the blackberry do the job? Absolutely

Textures

2009-05-19T13:22:00.011-04:00

Why would anyone want to add texture to a photograph? Besides the texture of the paper that the photo is printed upon or the texture of your subject featured in the photograph, why would there be a need for adding anything to the image? Some would argue that adding additional layers and textures is dishonest; your altering the image as a whole in order to make it something it's not.

The use of blending layers with images of various textures (old paper, fabrics, metals, glass, even negatives, and dusty viewfinders) have become quite the phenomenon for modern photographers. Layering one, two, even three images together to create something more than the original image. It cannot be designated as a montage because your not changing the actual subject matter rather you are editing the nature of it's environment. Almost as if you are viewing an image of an image; in my mind this technique is spawned from photographers wanting to recreate the look of old, withered, deteriorated photographs discovered in an old shoe box. The look, when done correctly, is something hard to describe but is nostalgic and sentimental... it tugs on the right heart strings. Honestly it is a new type of art, very accessible with a little patience and photoshop know-how. Though it can be very difficult to master; I myself have only begun to create respectable pieces.

The first example is a group of horses feeding that I had come across on the side of the road. I actually did not have my camera with me at the time and decided to turn around to capture that scene because of the subject, but also because of the amazing dusk light that was quickly escaping. When processing this image, I knew almost instantly that I would go further and add some sort of texture. The problem with the image was that much of the definition in the sky was lost due to the fact that I was shooting straight into what was left of the sun that evening. The sky was not blown out, however despite some dodging and burning I was still unable to recover the sky. What I lost in the sky I had gained back when adding a grunge texture that I believe was paper with ink unevenly rolled over it. The effect is almost as if someone wiped off a framed photo rescued from an earthly grave. The vignetting created by the texture also forces your eye straight to the curious horse lifting his head from his evening grain while the others contently continue to feed. When printed, the effect does not feel cheap, in fact it even temps you into trying to touch the texture to see if it is as gritty as it looks.

Honestly, it took me a while to convince myself that what I was doing was still photography. My natural tendency is to want an image to look as real as possible, not surreal. Photography for me is often documentation, even if there is extreme emotion it is still creating a document of that event and not so much creating additional emotions for the subject or viewer. Adding textures is a conscious attempt to evoke further reaction out of the viewer, whether it be to simply catch their eye or perhaps to enhance the image to connect with the viewer on various levels, you are purposely changing the image to engage the viewer, as opposed to allowing the subject matter to stand on it's own. For a photographer this is not only a creative decision but it is also an ethical one. This isn't even mixed media since you are blending images together, it is still a photograph, but one that has blurred the lines between photography and mixed media works.

The other example I have posted brings to mind the other reason I have gone further into this work: the ability to recreate what is slowly going away. Below is an image of a gumball machine. At first glance you would think this was a polaroid I took with my Model 250 camera loaded with type 669, but no. This again is a digital mash of texture, subject, and in this case a type of frame consisting of a 669 border. Polaroid film is no longer made and anything that is still being sold is just remaining stock. Fujifilm still produces their own version of polaroid peel-apart film: just as competent and almost as expensive. It is very difficult to reproduce the colors, the amazingly smooth tonal transitions of that film, however I like to think I can try. I added a canvas type texture to the image to give it a little more grit and imperfection that can often be found with polaroid film. Character is so much of what I love about film images, each film has a different look, different color pallete, different grain structure, and the various idiosyncracies that cause photographers to fall in love as well as grow mad with frustration. Digital is perfect everytime except when it isn't. The problem with imperfect digital is how ugly it can look and those times are the ones where I go find ways I can save the imperfection or at least give perfection some soul. Textures can enhance an already brilliant looking photo but can also save a mistake and turn it into something beautifully flawed. In the case of the gumball machine my biggest pet peeve of digital is the way cameras convey the color red. Often extremely vibrant: an out-of-control fire engine red with almost no subtlety. My favorite film, Kodachrome, has amazingly deep, saturated, yet mute reds. I have found that unless you nail the exposure perfectly with digital, the only way to control those reds without losing the pop of the photo is to add a layer. Preferably one with a texture that will slightly dampen the colors brightness without killing the saturation. Add the polaroid border for an added touch of nostalgia and you get a very palatable photograph.

I tend to use this technique sparingly as I still prefer my photography to stand on it's own right out of the camera. Photoshop layers can get out of control very easily. Photo montages, especially, can suffer the wrath of over abundant computer sterilization, and worse, pixellation. I still encourage any budding photographer to experiment, if they can, with these techniques. Once you see the various effects that textures can have on your images, you will see not only a change in your vision for your existing photos, but you will also begin to see future images in a different light: full of greater possiblities than the one that you captured on the spot. You will start to understand that photography is still just one medium and within that medium there is room to grow.

New Beginnings Are Relative

2009-05-06T21:39:00.001-04:00

This image is on the surface a pile of LPs in a garage and yet they represent much more. On the face of it the collection is a mix of a huge number of albums from numerous people. At least seventy years of vinyl (or shellac for the 78s) bought for the music that is engraved into them. Think of the many reasons that one might want to own an Elton John LP or an older Count Basie 78 or the Star Wars soundtrack (I'm thinking of keeping it). You can imagine the radio being so influential in the distribution of these albums, judging by the scratches and pops, the hundreds or thousands of times the needle had been dropped into the dusty grooves. I am sure that some were purchased with a party in mind (no matter the decade), records are always desired as long as they contain plenty of tracks that will encourage spontaneous dancing. One of the boxes contains a more modern variety, beats and breaks for DJs ready to be mixed into something greater than the sum of its parts. The jazz records, some of my favorites, had to be purchased with freedom of thought in mind. Many of the LPs are from collections, mostly classical, probably purchased by an older couple looking to have all of their favorite pieces together in one small library. It is a pile of history, desire, escape, and love that has been discarded for space, money, contemporary technology. Yet, I was told today that three-quarters of it is worthless and should be thrown into a landfill.

To me, this image represents much more; a burden of gigantic proportions. To sum it up without a long story, I had a chance to get rid of this weight and was denied. Do I blame someone for not wanting to take all these records? No, not really though I am tremendously disappointed that I still have this volume of material. So hopefully in the coming weeks there will be generous record collectors or future record store owners that will gladly take these off my hands.

Why do I bring this up? This image illustrates my point from my last post, that images contain stories on so many levels for both the viewer, the photographer, and the subject. This image has great significance to me, it has hidden meaning to the former owners of the records, and yet it is just an image of stacked LPs.

I end with an image that is more superficial: beauty, color, and my own touch of art. This will lead into my next entry where I will be exploring the use and my love of textures. Where photo-collage can go horribly wrong, a photo with proper layers and textures can be as aesthetically pleasing as a painting. The questions are; Why would you want to give a photo texture? Should a photograph stand up on it's own? How far can you go with this kind of manipulation before you lose your photograph?

Tish's Amazing Fry Factory

2009-04-27T22:24:00.000-04:00

A few days ago Courtney (my SO) and I spotted the lights of the annual Wilton Carnival, saying/thinking "Look at it! I need to go!", unfortunately with my camera back at the house it was a date for another night.

Friday we decided to make it a date night, fun and food, this meant Carnival and then Indian cuisine. Carnivals are festivals for photographers, the lights, the people, and the food all make for scenes that beg to be snapped. These days with the excellent high iso capabilities of most DSLRs the atmosphere can be captured exactly as the eye perceives. The scenes are all familiar, vendors calling out to the crowds of young people who are there more for the social benefits than the fried bread dough, the ambivalent ride operators collecting tickets to the two groups of kids wanting to give "Zero Gravity" another try, the rows and rows of giant stuffed animals that are destined to be a futile attempt by a man to symbolically win a women's heart. I challenge myself to take it all in then figure out what I want to keep with the mindset that these images will be not just memories but also images that strike something familar in the hearts of others.

Ideally, you want to be able to take photos without disturbing the scene, even with a smaller SLR you have to be a little coy with your technique to get what you want, eventually I will move to a smaller capable camera for these types of sprees (for the gear heads, the Sigma DP2 is looking fantastic, reminding me of a digital version of a Yashica GSN or the like). With my Nikon around my neck and Courtney by my side we walk around talking, finding interesting perspectives, and pressing the shutter when everything seems to fit. Obviously its not always a concious effort, many times its a look, react, and maybe take a few steps before looking at the LCD to see if the image is worth keeping. I'm not out there darting around like a ninja trying to catch the "decisive moment". No, sometimes in these venues it is just as effective to walk around as a tourist and enjoy the subject you are capturing.

It was color that intrigued me the most, I wanted to see if I could frame these images to emphasize the shear bombardment of eye candy. People are an excellent subject however they tend to be more a part of the landscape than being the primary subjects. What is more interesting to me is how they blend into the environment. This brings me to the posted photo: Tish's Amazing Fry Factory.

When I saw this vendor I immediately wondered outloud, "I wonder if they fry twinkies, I have never had one, and I want to try one tonight!", then as we made our first lap around the carnival ground we came back to see a woman patiently standing in front of the fryer waiting for the next round of customers in the window. Surrounded by the lights and signs of the "factory" you can't help but wonder if she is not only waiting for customers but also waiting for her night to end? You also wonder if that is in fact Tish standing in that window? If I bring a pack of Oreos to her will she batter them up and throw them in the fryer for me? The image is a shot that is meant to seem obvious but also meant to cause curiosity beyond the light and color.

Thankfully for my stomach we marched on looking for more moments, stopping at one point Courtney and I take portraits of each other (as we try to do when we are out and about with our cameras), then we decide to call it a night with the carnival. I always like to think about not only what I did but also what I didn't do; despite my recent confidence boosts I still find my self apprehensive about asking people in public if I may take their portraits. Yes, as you can see below, candids are always a very interesting for the moments you catch but I want to get to the point where I feel comfortable to take a random street portrait.

Fun Links:

Eugenio Recuenco

One of my favorites Nick Brandt

Some amazing images at Shorphy: All with my favorite film Kodachrome!

The Beginning

2009-04-23T16:27:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the PJN Photography blog!

Here I will share thoughts, links, and above all photography. Those who know me will get a chance to see more of my day to day photography, I will include my own thoughts about the images I post; you may learn a thing or two about me. For those who are visting this blog for the first time will hopefully enjoy not only the images I post but also can relate on some level to my general theories and feelings on not only my work but in photography on the whole.

So why did I begin with the image above? This bowl of tomatoes was exposed to my sensor just about one hour ago, it is new, it is simple, and it represents my current direction in my photography: simplicity. Not that the images themselves have to be simple, more that the image represents a practice of the basics, light, color, and composition (framing for the more literal photographers out there). This is very much a concentration on light and form, this kitchen nook has the most fantastic light; the table is surrounded by windows on three sides with white curtains providing a great mix of hard and soft light. In the history of still life images far softer light would be used to limit the number of distracting reflections however in this case, in my opinion, they actually frame the tomatoes.

If you visit my portfolio you will see my primary work is in the wedding and portrait area. My passion for photographing people is also my great frustration; I want to have a chance to put everyone in front of my lens however this is rarely possible. Weddings are not only a great challenge but they are also the arena where I can showcase the many sides of my photography. I prefer to tailor my photography to the tastes of the couple, though I do maintain my own style, I want any bride or groom to have their photography reflect their personality. My current exercise is to get back to basics however build upon them to take the images to a level that is instantly both a record and art.

I will elaborate in future posts how I plan to mature and refine my photography; I encourage comments to the blog to discuss these posts. More to come shortly! - Pete