When I first saw this little girl, her big brown eyes and braids reminded me of someone from the American Prairie.  To emphasize the eyes I used a very shallow depth of field with a 135mm defocus Nikkor lens set at f/2.

For this image with the shell I wanted a warmer color reminescent of sunset on a beach.  I placed a tungsten light behind her and allowed it to flare into the lens.

A soft window light gave this image its slightly cooler color.  Only the eggs in the nest are in focus as, once again, I used the 135mm defocus Nikkor set to f/2 on the Nikon D3s.  In Photoshop I darkened the area around the eggs to make them stand out even more.

This image is of a large cobblestone street in older New York.  It was photographed into the late afternoon sunlight with a 28mm Leitz Summicron lens set to f/8 on a Leica M9.  Since the photo lends itself for use primarily as a background, enhancing the bright area in Photoshop provides a clear area for placement of type.

This past week the trees in New York sprouted their spring leaves, and the last of the blossoms were in full color.  I photographed this street-side tree against the sun with a Leica M9 and 90mm Elmarit at f/2.8.

The format you use for a stock photo can suggest a usage to the designer.  Cropping the image long and narrow suggests use as a banner.  In both images I kept the background very soft to allow for overlay of type.

In my blog post of February 20th I photographed a random group of letterpress characters with the word, "I" in the middle to signify standing out from the crowd.  Since then I ordered some more letters so I could continue with the theme.  "You" is another image with a similar theme of "uniqueness".

Another use for fonts is as a symbol for designers and the concept of making order out of chaos.  Both images were shot with the Nikon D3x and 60mm macro.  In Photoshop I used LAB color to bring out the subtle hues inherent in the metal font.

Today's theme is sugar.  This first shot of sugar being poured from a spoon into a coffee cup was lit by one Nikon SB-900 flash off to the right and a little behind the subject.  A white reflector card was placed to the left to fill in the shadows.  The lens was a Nikon 105mm Macro at f/16.  All images were photographed with a Nikon D3x.

This photo of an assortment of sugar types was photographed with the 85mm Tilt-shift Nikkor at f/4.5.  I like working fairly wide open with lens.  Tilting it covers the important focus points, while the open aperture still maintains a soft focus in unimportant areas.

This is the same setup as the top photo, but the lighting here is a soft window light from the left with a bit of shadow fill from a silver card on the right. Photographed with the 105mm Micro Nikkor at f/22.

Today I went to Union Square in New York to run some tests on the Nikon 12-24mm f/4 DX lens.  I mounted the lens on a Nikon D7000, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite cameras to grab for casual shooting.  In this photo the lens was set for its widest focal length of 12mm and shot at f/5.6.  On a DX Nikon this is equivalent to a 16mm on a full-frame camera.

In this photo I wanted to test the close-up ability of the lens as well as its corner sharpness. Taken at the 12mm setting but at f/8 for improved depth of field.

The family dyed these Easter eggs yesterday and I shot them in window light using the Nikon D7000 and 60mm macro at f/5.6.  I liked the soft pastels of the dye so I kept the photo bright and airy to enhance the colors. 

Dictionary tabs -- symbol of knowledge, learning, and research -- are quickly becoming out-dated technology as they are replaced by computer and internet spell-checkers and word look-ups.  Shot with window light on a Nikon D7000 with 60mm macro at f/5.6.

For awhile now, I've been doing a series of images on people relating to technology.  These two models were in the studio on another shoot and about to leave when I asked them to do a quick shot of one person listening to music and the other texting at the same time. 

Then I saw the male model put on his hat to leave and I asked him if I could borrow it for a minute to put on the girl for one more shot.  This is the result using the Nikon D3s and 135mm defocus Nikkor lens at f/2.2, hand-held with available light.  In all, the photos took less than five minutes to setup and shoot.

We just did a two day shoot in a restaurant, primarily in the kitchen where this photo was taken.  I am not counting the photo in the blog project because it was part of my normal stock shooting work flow. The kitchen was lit with four Nikon SB-900 flash units mixed with some of the tungsten ambient lights.  To have the burner flame record, I opened the Nikon 24-70mm lens to f/2.8, and set the shutter speed on the D3s to 1/30sec.  ISO was set at only 200.  I like working fairly wide open in situations like this because the shallow depth of field lends more of a believability factor the the shot.

This photo, however, is part of the project because it was not part of the shooting plan.  I spotted this beer tap at one of the bars in the restaurant and decided to take a pouring shot while waiting for the models to get ready.  There was some daylight in the room.  I augmented it with three Nikon SB-900 flash units, and shot wide open with the Nikon 85mm F/1.4 lens on a D3s. 

This still life situation addresses several concepts --  construction, engineering, and architecture -- all of which are good stock topics.  I kept the composition oriented to a grid in order to emphasize the theme.

Both images were done with the Nikon D3x and 105mm macro stopped all the way down at f/36 to provide a deep focus.

This image of a finger on a telegraph key was done by placing a tungsten light directly behind the key.  The fill was provided by window light.  Shot with the Nikon D3x and 105mm macro wide open at f/2.8.

I enhanced the blue a bit in these passport page shots because I always relate the color blue with a passport.  Next I focused on stamps with the more romantic locations while trying to avoid showing the stamp year wherever it would be in focus.  Stock photos such as these will last a long time and I don't want the images to appear old.

Both images were shot with a Nikon D3x and 60mm macro at f/2.8 with daylight mixed with tungsten to add some modeling interest to the light of an otherwise flat subject.

What better way to end this week of shooting symmetry concepts than by combining two of the most well known symbols of symmetry, DaVinci's Vitruvian Man, and the nautilus shell.  The shells are actually petrified specimens, which have a more antique feel to them than a real shell.  The Vitruvian Man was photographed and reworked extensively in Photoshop and then superimposed over the shell image as an overlay layer. 

That ends the week of creating symmetrical compositions.  Back to normal tomorrow.

This symmetrical abstract is something of a Rorschach composite of buildings.  Originally shot with a 14mm Nikkor lens and then assembled in Photoshop by combining image quarters, and finally rendering the star burst.

Mint from the farmer's market on a reflective white cardboard from Staples.  In keeping with the weekly blog theme of symmetry, the square shape of the soil is placed in the center of  the frame and echoes the square shape of the image itself.  Shot by window light with the Nikon D3x and 105mm macro.

A rifle scope has an absolute symmetry that is perfect for this week's blog theme.  I photographed one by placing the camera lens where the eye would normally be.  In Photoshop I superimposed an opacity layer of the image over a close-up of an eye. 

Midnight -- the cusp between one day and the next.  It doesn't get more symmetrical than that.  To make this shot even simpler, I used a hand-held camera and lit the scene with a small LED flashlight.  LED light has a blue tint, which contrasted nicely against the red clock. The blue color also implies nighttime as the time of day.  Nikon D700 and 60mm macro wide open at f/2.8.  ISO was increased to 400 due to the low light level.  Simple as this shot is, there is still a lot of story-telling drama in it.

An apple cut in half -- its slight asymmetry adds interest and a natural feel.  Done with the Nikon D700 and 60mm Macro wide open at f/2.8.

Today I decided to give myself a shooting theme for the coming week.  My goal is to take a daily photo of something very simple, and by putting it into a highly symmetrical composition give it an elevated stature.  Here is the first example, a photo of the mid-day sun shot with the Leica M9 and 28mm Summicron lens at f/11.  In Photoshop I took the right half of the image and flopped it over the left to obtain a mirror reflection.  The white contrail from a passing jet created a pyramid design. One down, six to go.

With the arrival of spring I have begun walking around more outside with my camera.  Today in a light spring rain I focused on some blossoms in the park with the Flat Iron Building out of focus in the background.  Shot with a Leica M9 and 50mm f/1.4 Summilux lens at f/2.8. 

A simple graphic with plenty of neutral space on the lower left to tempt the designer into putting type there. Nikon D3x with 105mm macro wide open for maximum background bokeh.

I used some of the watch parts from yesterday's blog shot with a hand model to make another image concerning the passage of time.  Nikon D3s with 60mm macro wide open at f/2.8.  I chose the 60mm over the 105mm because the shorter focal length would give more of a "rounding" effect to the hand and put the viewer right in the shot.  The longer 105mm would have compressed the hand too much.

Some old clock and watch parts I picked up at a flea market years ago. 

I wanted to do some graphic concepts of the passage of time.

All shots were done with available window light.  The sun kept ducking in and out.  In the bottom two shots I used the hard shadows to emphasize the graphic shapes.  In the top shot the light was softer so I chose an overhead angle, sharp focus, and warm coloring to bring out the details of the parts.

These unusually colored organic eggs were at the local farmer's market. Apparently they come from different varieties of chickens. The soft variation in their colors lent itself to a simple, wholesome treatment.

The stylist prepared a scene with muted colors that did not distract from the eggs themselves.  Shot with the Nikon D3x and 80mm tilt-shift lens with a fairly wide open aperture to achieve focus in important areas while maintaining an overall softness to the image.

It's a never-ending challenge keeping up with images of changing technology.  The new USB standard is 3.0.  This cable was shot on a glass table top in my living room with a Nikon D7000 and 60mm macro at f/2.8, ISO 320, and available window light.  Blue is the symbolic color of the USB standard so I emphasized it by giving the photo an over-all blue cast in Photoshop.

You know spring has arrived by the proliferation of flower plants for sale at the local farmer's market.

This series was shot with the Nikon D7000 and 24-120mm f/4 zoom wide open.

There is an over abundance of flower shots in stock photo agencies.  Many agencies no longer even accept them.  By including the sales signs and flower pots, the concept of the shots shifted from a theme of just flowers to one of shopping and gardening -- both of which are good selling subjects.

Girl studying music with her flute.  Nikon D3s, 135mm defocus Nikkor at f/2.

I wanted to create a warm, nostalgic, richly colored effect around the concept of golf.  Shot with the Nikon D3x and 60mm macro wide open at f/2.8, the dark, soft effect was added later in Photoshop by applying a gaussian blur to a duplicate layer that was then over-laid in "multiply" mode.