Stock Shot Project

2012-03-04T06:30:00.000-05:00

Photographing the late colors of winter is something I do every year. The colors are muted and very subtle, and the plants are clinging to the last vestiges of life. Instead of choosing a super high res camera for this series I used the Nikon D7000 with a 40mm macro lens at wide open aperture. The "grain" structure of the D7000 is reminiscent of shooting with film. That and the very narrow focus of the wide open aperture enhanced the fragile vulnerability of the subjects.

2012-03-03T06:00:00.001-05:00

Another on-going series of photos I am working on is called "Camera as Object". Most of these are from my personal collection. Some I used professionally. Others I collected for their importance in the history of photography. I still use many of them today when I want to shoot film.

All of these images were taken with a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens fit with a close-up filter and used wide open for a very shallow depth-of-field.

I took this photo today of my favorite film camera, one I still use, a black paint Leica M4 retro-fit by Leica with an M6 viewfinder so it includes the 28mm frame. I included the shadow of the see-through lens hood because it is so distinctively Leica.

The Alpa 9d with 24mm Angenieux lens, a rare and beautiful combo from circa 1964. I never used these professionally, but always admired their looks, quirky mechanics, and workmanship.

An original Contax I rangefinder made from 1932-36 and shown here with a 5cm Sonnar lens and variable viewfinder that shows framing for 28-85mm lenses. I had this camera restored to full working order and still shoot with it today. I use it in conjunction with a Weston Universal Master I light meter from the same era.

This is the last rangefinder to carry the Contax name, a G2 made from 1996-2005. It was a very stylish machine and still fun to use.

Hassleblad 500CM with 150mm Sonnar lens. This is the camera I used for beauty advertising photography I did in the 1980's.

A collection of old Weston light meters all of which have been re-calibrated so I can use them when shooting with the old cameras.

My first serious professional SLR camera was the Nikon Ftn from 1968-71 shown here with a 58mm Noct-Nikkor f/1.2 lens.

Polaroid SX-70 camera circa 1970's with a photo from it taken with the new film available from the "Impossible Project".

Sub-miniature, or "spy" cameras: in the foreground the first Minox model, a Riga circa 1940. Behind is a Tessina, made in Switzerland since 1960. It takes actual 35mm film.

Nikon's ultimate photo-journalist's rangefinder, the 1957 Nikon SP was equipped with viewfinders for six lenses ranging from 28-135mm, which was very advanced for its time. This, in addition to the Leica M4 shown above, is one of my favorite film cameras to use today.

2012-03-02T06:30:00.000-05:00

It was raining lightly in NYC today -- perfect weather for me to add a few more images to another of my on-going projects I call "Urban Abstracts". Many of the photos are of street and sidewalk patterns such as those shown here.

To bring out the vibrancy of colors inherent in the subject I change color spaces from RGB to work the image in LAB, a more extensive space. The two photos above were done today. I included a few earlier images below to illustrate how the project theme fits together.

2012-03-01T06:30:00.000-05:00

These images are some of the latest added to an on-going series I am doing called "Real People". I place the models in a straight, non-modely forward pose, without expression other than looking directly into the camera, and style them with a few, simple items that indicate who they are and what they do. I reduced the color saturation and used a retro film look to keep it plain. All were shot in the studio with strobe lights.

2012-02-29T07:53:00.003-05:00

Ahhh...bling! Done two ways here. The top photo is soft, warm ambient window light for a natural look, while the one below was shot with a ring light strobe to provide a starker, hard-edged feel.

2012-02-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

Here are some light variations I did of the star fish in the studio. This one was back lit with a tungsten light, which gave it the yellow cast. It was also over-exposed by two stops to keep it very bright.

A straight shot of the star fish was superimposed over an antique nautical map in Photoshop. The blue coloring, vignette, and drop-shadow were also created in Photoshop.

This photo was taken similarly to the top image but the color was brought back to normal balance. All images shot on a Nikon D3s and 105mm macro lens.

2012-02-27T06:30:00.000-05:00

While wandering around Soho I found these starfish in Evolution, a store I often frequent for photo ideas. I thought of several ways I could photograph them. Here is the first. Shot against the sun on a clear day with the Nikon D7000 and Sigma wide angle zoom set to 16mm (that would be 24mm in full frame).

2012-02-26T06:30:00.000-05:00

I found these delicate candles in a shop while I was walking through the flower district today and thought they would make a nice photo. This is a fairly straight forward shot done with the Nikon D7000 and 80mm macro lens wide open. The delicate pastel tones of pink, yellow, and blue are a result of mixing the cool blue color temperature of daylight from a window with the warmer tones of the candle light. Both the candles and the surface they are on are pure white so the coloring is a direct result of the differentiation in color temperature.

2012-02-25T06:30:00.000-05:00

Anyone aside from me remember what this was used for? I post-processed the image to make it appear as if it had been taken on old, faded film.

2012-02-24T06:30:00.000-05:00

The danger of mixing prescription drugs with alcohol has been a topic in the news lately. So I thought I would illustrate some variations on this theme. Here are a few samples, all using the Nikon D3s with 85mm tilt-shift lens.

2012-02-23T06:30:00.000-05:00

Over the past four years I have been working on a series of photos taken from the windows of my apartment. This morning I captured the sunrise image above with a 400mm focal length lens that "squashed" the perspective of the foreground buildings into a flat, monochromatic graphic. To illustrate how this image fits into the series I included some other photos below that were taken earlier as weather phenomena changed the landscape..

2012-02-22T06:42:00.000-05:00

I had so much Photoshop editing to do after the Wall Street shoot yesterday and the Mexico shoot that I decided to create today's blog photo right in Photoshop while I was at it. The eye close-up is from a file I keep to use for creating images such as this. All the rest of the techniques were added in Photoshop.

2012-02-21T06:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the stock market was closed for a holiday and we were fortunate enough to have access to photograph in a stock trading office that was empty and available for the day. We went with four models and reeled them through numerous situations. Here are just a few of the hundred or so images we obtained.

All the computer screens were blank so we have to add them later in Photoshop. We had visited this location at an earlier date and photographed trading screens created for us to use for this purpose.

Mostly I was able to shoot available light with IS0 ranges of 400-1600 on a Nikon D3s, which I find to be the best camera for this type of shooting situation.

In a shooting such as this it is all about the animation in the model's faces. They need to have their attention riveted to their screens and appear -- with both body language and expression -- to be in the midst of active involvement in the fast-paced, high-pressure trading environment.

2012-02-20T06:30:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend I worked on some of the Images from my trip to Mexico to prepare them for my art portfolio. Here are a few samples. The photo above is of the main Mayan Temple at Chichén Itzá. I liked the way the cloud formation mirrored the pattern of the building structure beneath it. A 24mm focal lens with polarizer to darken the sky.

This was taken inside one of the passageways through the stone wall surrounding the Mayan city of Tulum. The tunnel is long and narrow with a pointed Mayan arch top enclosing you. As you move from the bright sunlight to the dark interior, your eyes adjust to the darkness and the other end of the tunnel takes on an eerie, almost frieightening glow. Shot with a 9mm focal length on a D7000 for maximum wide-angle effect.

A small tidal pool by the ocean with the late afternoon sun reflecting in the water. Taken with the Fuji X100.

Dock with late morning sun. Taken with Fuji X100. This photo and the one above are part of a series I did on the beach in Mexico.

2012-02-19T06:30:00.000-05:00

A tight close-up of some prescription pills taken with the Nikon D7000 and 40mm macro lens with a fairly wide open aperture for a very shallow depth of field.

2012-02-18T06:30:00.000-05:00

Whenever I return from a trip I try to do some still life images using items particular to the locale where I was traveling. Here I used the passport stamp from Mexico accented by some sea shells I picked up on the beach while I was there.

And I also save some nice examples of the local currency for the same purpose. Both images taken with window light and a Nikon D7000 with 40mm macro lens.

2012-02-17T06:30:00.000-05:00

The last sunrises. This image was taken the day before I left with the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye lens on a D7000.

The wind was blowing fast and the cloud formations changed rapidly. This shot was taken about 20 minutes after the one above with the same camera but with an 8-16mm Sigma zoom set to 8mm (12mm equivalent at full-frame).

Dawn on my final day. It was a bit dark so I boosted the ISO to 400 on the D700 to gain a shutter speed that would stop the action in the water. When shooting a scene like this, timing is everything, I like to capture the water just as it washes up on the shore, but while some waves are still cresting. Here the color is more intense because the water had already wet the shore from the previous surge and the wet sand was picking up the color and light reflection from the sky.

This is the same scene as above but 45 minutes later after the sun had come up. The next time I shoot a scene such as this I should have my new Nikon D800 and won't need to carry both a DX and FX camera body. The sensor in the D800 has a resolution high enough in DX mode that it can use both DX and FX lenses on the same camera body and return a high res image from both formats.

2012-02-16T06:30:00.000-05:00

I spent the day picking up detail shots wherever I found them.

Sometimes its fun to break the rules. I took this shot three stops over-exposed while shooting directly into the sun to give it a very light and airy feel that would work for background situations.

Hmmm...looks like Robinson Crusoe was here.

2012-02-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

Tulum is an late classic Mayan center along the coast of the Yucatan peninsula. In this view you can see the main Castle of Tulum in the distance on the edge of the cliff where it enjoys a commanding view of the sea. For this view you have to descend to the water level and walk to the end of the beach. Be prepared to get wet. This photo was taken with a 24mm focal length on the Nikon 24-70mm zoom with a Nikon D700 camera and polarizer.

The monuments of Tulum are in a park-like setting with blooming trees and manacured terrain. On the right is a carved human face on the corner of a Temple. Once again, I arranged to arrive as soon as the monument opended to avoid the many tourists who were arriving by the bus load as I was leaving the park.

Not far from the monumnts of Tulum and Chichén Itzá is the quaint town of Valladolid with its colorful colonial facades

Across for the square pictured above is the old Franciscan Convento do San Bernardino de Siena dating to around 1560. The shot above is one of the many minimal graphic displays in the interior of the building.

2012-02-14T06:30:00.000-05:00

Today I visited Chichén Itzá where I arrived very early to avoid the many tourists who would come by the busload later on and make it very difficult to avoid including them in the photos. The weather was not so great so I spent a lot of time waiting around for clouds to move and the sun to come out.

Because the clouds on the horizon were mostly dense I relied on low angles to place the ruins against the upper sky where is was blue. A polarizing filter helped to saturate the color in the sky.

I had two cameras with me -- the Nikon D700 and D7000. I included the D7000 primarily because of the Sigma 8-16mm zoom, which only fits a DX camera. Other than a fisheye, there is nothing wider than the 8mm (equivalent to 12mm on a full frame camera) focal length. It was used to take the photo on the left above, and allowed me to include a high part of the sky for interest. For the D700 I had the Nikon 24-70mm and 70-200mm zooms.

Happy Valentine's Day from Mexico!

2012-02-13T06:30:00.000-05:00

Today was lightly overcast. -- not good for photographing the beach, but perfect for photographing in a tropical forest. So I concentrated on tropical themes for most of the day. Generally I was striving for a lush, green feel to the images.

I shot primarily with the Nikon D700 and both the 24-70mm zoom and 16-35mm zoom on a tripod at ISO 200 and an aperture around f/8. A polarizing filter was necessary to cut though the reflections on the leaves and bring out their true color. In the bottom photo with a waterfall in the background I also needed a Neutral Density filter to reduce the shutter speed to 1/2sec so it would blur the falling water. The moisture on the leaves was added by a spray bottle of water I carry with me for situations such as this.

2012-02-12T06:30:00.000-05:00

I did some spa situations today using elements I found around the hotel and a few I brought with me.

I brought the small stones and shells with me on this trip to use in stock setups such as these and also in situations I plan to do on the beach. All of these were taken with the Nikon 60mm macro on the D7000.

2012-02-11T06:30:00.000-05:00

I arrived late last night in Mexico where I will be photographing for a week. Here is one of my first shots, taken this morning with the Nikon D700 and 16-35mm lens at 16mm and equipped with a polarizer to darken the sky and saturate the colors by eliminating reflections.

Lunch with an ice cold beer in honor of my friend, Neale. The grilled octopus was the best ever. Both images were shot with a 60mm Nikon macro lens wide open at f/2.8.

The place where I am staying is surrounded with lush tropical vegetation . I expect to photograph it quite a bit while I am here. This shot was taken with the Nikon D7000 and 24-70mm zoom lens right after sunrise when the sun was peeking through the leaves.

2012-02-10T06:30:00.000-05:00

Nothing like an old-fashioned diner breakfast of bacon and eggs. To enhance the look I applied some technique in Photoshop to simulate an old, faded Kodacolor print. Shot with the Nikon D7000 and 16-55mm f/2.8 zoom lens.

2012-02-09T06:30:00.000-05:00

We were doing a studio shoot with models in a set made to look like an architect's office. While the models were changing, I grabbed this shot of the desk details with the Nikon D3s and 85mm Nikkor lens.

2012-02-08T06:30:00.000-05:00

The idea behind this shot was to create a scene in a hospital corridor of a doctor who is caught in a private moment of contemplative exhaustion. We photographed this model in the hallway leading to our studio using the available light from the window supplemented by a very soft fill from a Nikon SB-900 flash passed through a scrim. Camera was the Nikon D3s with an 85mm lens used very wide open to focus only on the profile of the doctor.

2012-02-07T06:30:00.000-05:00

I received this car key in the mail as part of an advertising promotion and decided to put it to use in a stock photo. Placing it on a map suggests auto travel. I didn't want to show much detail in the map because it would be too specific and would also conflict with uses for the photo. A sheet of tracing paper laid over the map cut down the detail while still allowing enough information to convey the message. Nikon D7000 and 40mm macro at f/2.8.

2012-02-06T08:19:00.001-05:00

Both of these photos of an old football were taken at a Super Bowl party last night. I used the Nikon D7000 hand held with a 35mm f/2 lens wide open at ISO 2000.

The top photo gives the impression of a background blur of a "crowd" by using the colorful out-of-focus jerseys of people in the room. the bottom shot is simpler with a background blur of an incandescent lamp allowing space where someone could put type.

And then there is the number one Giants fan.

2012-02-05T06:30:00.000-05:00

For this series I wanted to use the rusty background I picked up recently, and contrast it to create financial concepts. Here it is with an old gold standard currency note and gold coins addressing a nostalgic look at old money.

In this instance I used a penny, the opposite end of the currency spectrum from gold. By showing it about to be squeezed in a vice, the photo can be used to illustrate tight money concepts. Both images were taken with the Nikon D7000 and 40mm macro lens with a stopped-down aperture to give depth-of-field that would hold detail in the rusty background.

2012-02-04T06:30:00.000-05:00

I have been waiting for a cloudless day in New York to take a picture I had in mind of the Brooklyn Bridge. I wanted to show the suspensions system in a way that suggested the complex symmetry of a spider's web. I chose the Leica M9 because of its very high resolution and crispness of detail. The extreme wide angle coverage is due to the Voigtlander 12mm lens at an aperture of f/8. Shooting the sky with such an extreme wide angle lens creates problems of balancing exposure in the sky. The northern sky (to the left) was much darker than the southern sky (on right). This resulted in a post-processing balancing act in Photoshop to equalize the two without looking false.

Another variation taken closer to the tower with the same specifications as the image above.

2012-02-03T07:49:00.000-05:00

The word, "blog" is spelled out here using printer fonts. Photographed with the Nikon D3x and 60mm macro lens.

Another version using only the "blog" letters. Conceptually, the upper image was meant to suggest the blog idea amidst the clutter of printed words and letters. The lower photo shows the word more directly and only relates it conceptually to the printed word through the use of printer fonts. In this version I used the Nikon 85mm tilt-shift lens off axis and with a wide open aperture so only the letters themselves are in focus.

2012-02-02T06:30:00.000-05:00

I have been saving up wine corks for a while now just to do some shots incorporating a lot of them. Here's one taken with the Nikon D3x and 85mm tilt-shift Nikkor lens. Tilting the lens all the way off axis kept most of the cork ends in focus.

2012-02-01T06:30:00.000-05:00

Today was a fun day at our studio. We built this styrofoam snowman to be used in various stock projects we have planned. This is one of the first photos of it against an almost perfect sky with the clouds in such a harmonious composition -- just lucky to have that. We made the snowman primarily to be used in lifestyle shoots with real models. Today, however, the little guy stands on his own.

During the day we did a large number of conceptual variations of the snowman cast as different characters. This is a topical situation we came up with spur of the moment.

Then of course there is this photo to remind me that next week I will be heading down to Mexico for a mid-winter change of pace to photograph tropical scenes and Mayan ruins. All photos in this series were taken with the Nikon D3x.

2012-01-31T06:30:00.000-05:00

This close-up of a spur was done with available window light and the 85mm Nikon macro lens on a D7000.

2012-01-30T06:30:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, as an exercise, I go out with only one specialty lens on the camera. I pick a focal length I haven't used in awhile just to shake myself up. Today I selected the Nikon 80-400mm zoom lens and put it on the D7000 camera where it has an equivalent focal length of 120-600mm. Here the top of the Empire State Building is juxtaposed with the roof ornament of an older building on Broadway.

I set my ISO high, mostly around 800, because very long lenses amplify motion blur significantly, even with vibration reduction turned on, and I intended to hand hold the camera. A high ISO would enable me to use a very high shutter speed to prevent motion blur. Even with that, I would take several shots of the same scene just to insure that one would come out sharp. This turned out to be a wise move, for even at 1/500th second many images were blurred. The high ISO is not as destructive of image quality on a bright, sunny day as it is in low light. This photo is of the Flat Iron Building reflecting the golden glow of the sun, which is also picked up in a reflection in one of the windows in a foreground building.

Long and super-long telephoto lenses have a compression effect on subjects. I wanted to use this to my compositional benefit by choosing some popular New York buildings and showing how they relate to their environment. This shot, for instance, is of the Empire State Building framed by the arch of Washington Square some thirty blocks away.

Here an abstract pattern of the Empire State Building lit by the late afternoon sun is reflected in a modern sky scraper.

This super tight close-up of the Flatiron Building reflecting the setting sun reminds me of shots I did of classical Greek temples.

The steeple of a church on Fifth Avenue is compressed through the "telephoto effect" against the top of the Empire State Building. The focal length for this image was approximately 350mm.

2012-01-29T06:30:00.000-05:00

While wondering about I found these old, crusty, falling-apart books and thought they would make a good stock background photo. Fortunately, I had the Fuji X100 with me and, setting it to macro mode, made several variations.

There was one book with its cover missing. I placed it in the middle of the composition in hopes that a designer can use it as a place to add a specific message later on.

2012-01-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

For this shot we wanted the over all scene to be sharp but the person in the background to blur as he walked by. To accomplish this I needed a slow shutter speed of 1/8-1/15sec to create the blur in the person walking. Our studio is lit by daylight so I used a neutral density filter to reduce the exposure, and then asked the foreground model at the computer to hold still. Shot with a Nikon D3s camera on a tripod and 78mm on a Nikon 70-200mm zoom with f/2.8 aperture.

2012-01-27T06:30:00.000-05:00

I found a beautiful piece of rusted metal to use as a photo background. Here are a couple of the first photos taken with it.

To take the photos I used a Nikon D7000 with the 40mm macro lens set at f/8 to keep everything sharp.

2012-01-26T06:30:00.000-05:00

This is just one more in the series of illumination photos I did yesterday. Here the light is off to the left shining through the glass globe and into the models face. Since glass cannot be lit that way, I placed a white card behind the globe to pick up the light and reflect it back through the glass and into the camera. Two assistants released smoke into the scene from behind to lend atmospheric haze. A further light behind the model adds detail to his hair. Camera was the Nikon D3s with the 70-200mm zoom.

2012-01-25T06:30:00.000-05:00

Today we did a series of images of someone working on various computers and tablets where they were lit by the glow from the screen. Here are two samples, each was accomplished with a different method. The top photo is actually a composite of two images. With the camera on a tripod I took a shot of the model with a direct light shining in his face as though it was from a computer screen. Then we turned out the light and placed the computer monitor in the scene. Later in Photoshop I combined the image of the monitor with the image of the model and added the screen glow to the monitor to complete the effect.

lighting for this scene was completely different. I placed a tiny Nikon SB-R200 flash on the computer keyboard and aimed it at the screen where I had taped a white sheet of paper to reflect the light back into the model's face. Then it was a matter of balancing the exposure of the light from the flash with the ambient light until the scene looked like it was shot at night.

2012-01-24T06:30:00.000-05:00

Homage to Kodak, which declared bankruptcy this past week. I have many fond memories preserved on the thousands of rolls of Kodachrome film I have shot over the years.

Kodachrome II film was the mainstay of my early photography career. It was manufactured from 1962-74 and had an ISO film speed (then called ASA) of 25. I shot this film in Nikon FTn and F2 cameras, as well as in a Leica M2.

2012-01-23T06:30:00.000-05:00

A fairly simple stock photo taken in a church pew. Despite how it appears, the scene was quite dark and required a 1/6th second exposure after boosting the ISO to 800. I balanced the camera on the seat and used the built-in self-timer to trip the shutter. Taken with the Nikon D7000 and Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom lens. Having a wide aperture lens is always handy in situations such as this.

2012-01-22T06:30:00.000-05:00

This will be the last blog photo of the eye glasses...promise! A photo of the hand holding the glasses was combined with a second photo of the eye chart in focus to create the focused letters within the glasses. Application of the Photoshop warping tool gave a rounding effect to the sharper letters along the sides of the glasses frames where they would have normally been distorted by the optics.

2012-01-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

This model was in the studio today and I couldn't resist just one more photo with the eye glasses. Because the glasses were so over-sized for her face, I kept the theme of the photo more in a humorous vein. Photographed with the Nikon D7000 and 50mm f/1.4 lens.

2012-01-20T06:30:00.000-05:00

Of course this is the most obvious conceptual use for a photo of eyeglasses. Photographed with the D7000 and 50mm Nikon f/1.4 lens wide open to emphasize the out-of-focus areas.

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

Here is a shot of the glasses in a conceptual medical situation with finance suggested by the calculator. I also took a photo of the scene without the calculator. Photographed with the Nikon D7000 and 40mm macro at f/5.6.

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, one more of the eye glasses. I decided to continue for a full week and this is the fourth day. Three to go. We had a model in the studio for a shoot today and I added this shot to the schedule. Photographed up close with the Nikon D3s and 105mm Nikon macro lens with wide open aperture. At this distance the depth-of-field is practically nil. So getting in really close with a long lens and wide open aperture can be tricky. I had to position the film plane of the camera to be parallel with both the iris of the eye and the rim of the glasses -- both important story-telling elements -- to keep both sharply focused.

2012-01-17T06:30:00.000-05:00

Continuing right along with the eye glasses theme, I did this photo with a legal pad. Camera was the Nikon D7000 and 85mm macro with soft window light.

2012-01-16T09:48:00.000-05:00

Here is yet another photo I just did using my new eye glasses as a prop. Hmmm...I wonder how many ideas I could come up with where I incorporate the glasses. Shot with the Nikon D7000 and 85mm macro with a wide open aperture and strong window light creating the shadows.

This is another variation of the same scene. I switched to the 40mm macro and an aperture of f/6.3 to add some depth-of-field to the shot.

2012-01-15T10:09:00.000-05:00

Here is another photo I took of my new glasses. I envisioned a very dark image with a monochromatic color scheme so I shot it by harsh window light with no fill light to create strong, graphic shadows. I added the vignetting later in post-processing. Photographed with the Nikon D7000 and 85mm Macro lens set to f/11.

2012-01-14T06:30:00.000-05:00

Bought myself a new pair of glasses. To photograph them I used one of my favorite close-up combos, a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens fit with a close-up filter and used wide open for an extremely shallow depth-of-field. Camera was the Nikon D700.

2012-01-13T08:49:00.000-05:00

The gang's all here! This image is an assemblage of photos I have been taking in the studio over the period of a year. Each model was photographed individually on white with the idea of combining them into groups later on. In a project such as this it is important to always use the same lighting and camera setup so the final image looks natural when combined.

2012-01-12T06:30:00.000-05:00

This is another photo of the model from yesterday's shoot. I just got around to processing it. The softness was achieved with a technique I have used since beginning my career -- rotating a prism in front of part of the lens and using a wide open aperture to further blur the image. The prism causes some refracting lines in addition to the blur effect.

This photo was taken today in a real hospital where I was visiting someone. I always have a camera with me. In this case it was the Fuji X100 in macro mode. I like this camera because it is so small and light to carry, and very unobtrusive. It also produces very high quality images even at an ISO of 1600 used here.

2012-01-11T06:30:00.000-05:00

Today we had one model in the studio for the entire day. Janet, our stylist, prepared over a dozen different sets for the many scenes we did. Here are just two of them, a florist shop and a painter's studio. Both were set up in the exact same corner of our photo studio.

The day was bright and the sun low in the winter sky so we needed to scrim the windows that surround our studio to soften the light. I used the Nikon D3s the entire day, as I usually do for model situations such as this, but I change lenses constantly to give a different perspective and depth of field in each scene.

Here is an example of the difference a lens choice can make. The top photo was taken at 112mm with a Nikon 70-200 zoom set to f/2.8. The middle photo used the Nikon 24-70mm zoom set to 62mm and f/2.8. To achieve a very shallow depth of field resulting in an extremely soft background the bottom photo was taken with the Nikon 135mm defocus lens set to f/2. A tungsten hair light was used in the rear off to the left in all the shots to simulate warm sunlight coming from a window.

2012-01-10T06:30:00.000-05:00

Old technology often makes for good stock photo concepts applicable today. I found this old 78 record in a used record store and liked the character of the aging paper jacket. I did a number of variations of the record using the Nikon D3x camera.

The top photo is a presentation of the entire record and will probably be used as an element in a larger design. The bottom image incorporates a red background with sufficient space for a designer to use the photo large and add copy over it. When shooting stock photos like this I find it important to remember that my photo is only part of another design project.

2012-01-09T06:59:00.001-05:00

I found this bottle of organic milk while passing through the local farmer's market and brought it back to photograph in a still life with some cookies. Photographed with the Nikon D7000 and 40mm macro lens.

2012-01-08T06:30:00.000-05:00

This image is for a series I am doing on American monuments. I waited to take this shot close to noon on a winter day when the sun would be low in the southern sky so there would be little shadowing and a deep blue sky to the north of the building. The photo was taken with the Leica M9 and 90mm Elmarit lens at f/8 and processed later as infrared black & white.

This is another photo taken several years ago for the same series.

2012-01-06T06:30:00.000-05:00

I took this photo with early morning window light while my friend, Marg, was pouring herself a cup of tea at breakfast. Camera: Nikon D7000 and Nikon 40mm macro.

2012-01-05T06:30:00.000-05:00

I was in the Wall Street area today where I had an opportunity to photograph in the offices of a financial tradering company. I wanted to use an unobtrusive camera outfit so I took the Nikon D7000 and Nikon 16-85mm lens, and set the ISO to 1600 for the indoor shots.

2012-01-04T06:30:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again when everyone is back to thinking about dieting -- and so too stock photographers.

2012-01-03T06:30:00.000-05:00

I saved this champagne cork from New Year's Eve so I could do this extreme close-up when I returned. Taken with the Nikon D7000, 85mm Nikon macro lens, in the soft window light of my small home studio.

2012-01-02T08:37:00.000-05:00

On the last morning of my weekend trip the rising sun broke through an early morning fog and created this fitting scene for the dawning of a new year.

Considerable post-processing in Photoshop added an eerie atmosphere to the scene. Both images were taken with the Nikon D7000 and Nikon 17-55 lens.

2012-01-01T06:30:00.000-05:00

It rained during the night and a haze fell on the forest early this morning. This low angle image was taken with a Sigma 8-16mm zoom set to 8mm and f/22 on a Nikon D7000 set for ISO 100 -- the combo yielding maximum sharpness and depth-of-field.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-12-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

I am spending the New Year's Holiday weekend in a log cabin on the edge of the woods, which is where I took this sunset photo with the Nikon D7000 and Sigma 8-16mm lens used at 8mm The scene reminded me of Thoreau and his famous quote: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

2011-12-30T06:30:00.000-05:00

The color and contrast in this set of nature images was enhanced by the low position of the winter sun. I took the photos as part of a long term stock series that I call "Patterns of Nature".

This photo and the one above were taken with the Nikon D7000 and 40mm macro lens used wide open at f/2.8. The image below of an Eastern Water Snake was taken with the Nikon 16-85mm zoomed out.

I ran across this freshly cut tree in the woods and used the Fuji X100 in close-up mode to capture the graphic pattern of the rings and the crack. In this series I seek to establish a strong, central focal point in the image and allow the composition to radiate outward from it.

2011-12-29T06:30:00.000-05:00

I found this little sprout growing in the bottom of a flowerpot that held a large plant at the hotel where I am staying. The plant was placed near a window so I was able to photograph it back lit with the Nikon D7000 and Nikon 40mm macro lens. You just never know when a stock shot opportunity will present itself, which is why I carry a camera with me almost all the time.

2011-12-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

I took this photo while hiking in Pennsylvania. It fits in with a nature series of images I am doing on the transition from late autumn to early winter. The lone fallen leaf floating on the water contrasts with those leaves that have already fallen to the bottom of the lake. I used a polarizer filter to cut through the surface reflection of the water and reveal the leaves below. This was taken with the Nikon D7000 and Nikon 16-85mm zoom lens.

2011-12-27T06:30:00.000-05:00

I took this photo on Christmas Eve but was not able to process and upload it until now. It is a Christmas tree against a starry sky, taken with the Nikon D7000 and 16-85mm zoom at ISO 1600. In this small size it is difficult to see the stars, which are much more apparent when the image is enlarged.

2011-12-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

A real New York deli pastrami sandwich -- photographed with the Fuji X100 in macro mode and ISO 800. This deli makes the best corned beer, and pastrami sandwiches in all of New York.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

2011-12-23T06:30:00.000-05:00

The Empire State Building is currently lit up blue and white for Hanukkah. This photo was taken just after sunset to preserve color in the sky. Nikon D7000 and Nikon 70-200mm lens.

While waiting for the building lights to illuminate the Empire State Building for the top photo, I captured this street scene with a hand-held Nikon D7000 fit with a Nikon 24-70mm zoom, and set to ISO 1000.

2011-12-22T06:30:00.000-05:00

These images were created in Photoshop to serve as festive, holiday, stock photo backgrounds. The base image is a photo of blurred lights over which I laid a series of stars of all sizes to give the impression of falling snow.

...and of course while I was at it I did a number of variations.

2011-12-21T08:35:00.000-05:00

Today we did a studio stock shoot with two models, a little girl and a woman who played her grandmother. Here are a few of the many situations we photographed, all about relationships and the passing on of knowledge from one generation to the next.

Notice how in each of these situations our studio stylist carefully color-coordinated the entire scene matching the background to the foreground and to the clothing on the models. All of this was carefully scripted ahead of time so on the day of the shoot we can move rapidly from one scene change to another.

My primary studio is set up for daylight shooting with windows surrounding two sides. The day was very overcast so I needed to boost the ISO to 800 and sometimes to 1250. This allowed for a fast shutter speed and made it easy to hand hold the camera without blurring the image. I usually work with fast aperture Nikon lenses and use them fairly wide open in order to keep the story-telling aspect of the background soft so it will not impose itself on the main scene.

In an overcast situation it is important to balance the light to keep it from going too cool. For this we include a gray card in every situation. One click on the card in Photoshop Bridge balances the scene for daylight.

In simple situations such as these, it is very easy to wind up with static shots. So I always try to have the models actively engaged with each other to give the photos a warm spark of reality.

My camera of choice for this type of shooting is the NIkon D3s for its superiority in low light, its ability to focus quickly, and its super fast motor -- all of which allows me to capture that one moment in the scene when the situation comes alive and looks spontaneous.

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

I took this photo with available window light in the studio using an assistant's hand and an old, rusty wrench we had in the prop room. Later, I desaturated the color and added and old photo look in Photoshop.

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

This series of Christmas themed close-ups are intended to be used as backgrounds for commercial design projects.

The photos are all monochromatic with a simple, story-telling area in focus and the rest going soft.

All images were taken with the Nikon D7000 and Nikon 80mm macro lens with a wide open aperture.

2011-12-16T06:30:00.000-05:00

I found these river rocks while out shopping today and brought them home to do a spa concept photo by combining them with a tropical leaf. I did several versions starting with the one above, which is a simple treatment on a white background. The holes in the leaves echoes the shapes of the stones.

For this version I darkened the background, and added the wood surface and water drops. Both images were taken with the Nikon D7000, 80mm Nikon macro lens, and soft window light. In further variations I added a candle but felt it was becoming to complicated. There is a smooth, slick feeling in the stones and leaf in the top version that has me leaning towards it as my favorite.

2011-12-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

This is a time lapse video clip showing the view of a New York City sunrise from my studio window. We set the camera up before leaving for the day so that it would take the sequence from 6:00AM to 8:00AM in 7 second intervals. It is comprised of 999 jpg images taken with the Nikon D3s and 70-200mm lens. My favorite part is at the end when the reflection of the rising sun crawls up the Empire State Building.

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

This photo was a team effort -- the stylist made a suggestion that led to placing the little tree off to the left; I took the photo; and the studio retoucher added the falling snow. Photographed in the studio with a Nikon D3x and window light.

2011-12-13T06:30:00.000-05:00

A fun shot of a group of Statues of Liberty in a tourist shop using the Fuji X100 set to ISO 1600 and f/5.6. The Fuji is a champ at low-light-level shooting. There wasn't even a need for post-processing noise reduction in this 1600 ISO shot.

2011-12-12T06:30:00.000-05:00

Olives, one of my favorite foods, which is why the props were disappearing faster than I could shoot them when I did this olive photo session over the weekend.

All the photos were taken with available, backlit window light and soft white fill cards from the front.

The camera for all photos was the Nikon D7000 with the 85mm Nikon macro lens. The aperture varied from f/8 to f/16.

2011-12-10T06:30:00.000-05:00

In this images I was striving for a concept of riveted attention. To achieve this I envisioned a pinpoint focus on the pupil of the eye with a plane of focus picking up some of the eye lashes and the glasses, while everything else was out of focus. Coming in this close with the Nikon 105 macro, even at f/5.6 the depth-of-field was extremely shallow. Shooting from the side instead of straight on emphasized the shallow focus and rendered the right-side background completely soft.

2011-12-09T06:30:00.000-05:00

On the way to the studio I stopped to pick up this small Christmas tree because I knew this model was coming to the studio and I wanted to do a holiday shot with her. The weather was clear, and this time of year the sun sets early. We went to the roof of our studio where I took this photo.

2011-12-08T06:30:00.000-05:00

It's that time again to start doing the annual Christmas stock shots. This year I decided to do some in a darker style. This close-up was taken with the Nikon D7000 and Nikon 85mm f/3.5 macro lens. The background is out-of-focus Christmas lights.

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

The idea for these photos came to me during a tasting of Italian wines this past weekend.

I saved the corks and made this composition. Both images were shot backlit with a tungsten light on the Nikon D7000 and Nikon 60mm macro lens with a wide open aperture.

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

I set out to do a series of still life photos in a style reminiscent of the 1950's & 60's. After I finished this shot my next set fell over and broke the prop I was going to use so I called it quits for a frustrating day. Sometimes things just don't work out.

2011-12-05T06:30:00.000-05:00

This year I have been photographing autumn in its entirety from the first turning leaves, through the peak color, and into the final throws of color and decay. Here are some shots I picked up on my morning bike ride through the city.

When riding a bike, I like to have a compact camera outfit. In this case I knew I would need a very long lens to reach the tops of trees and isolate the last individual leaves still clinging to the branches.

All photos were taken with the Nikon D7000 and Nikon 70-300mm lens.

2011-12-02T06:30:00.000-05:00

A model we had used many time before is pregnant with her second child and came to the studio for a photo shoot. She brought along her other son who is pictured here in a spontaneous expression looking up at his mother. Photographed backlit against a curtained window with the Nikon D3s. At this time of year the sun is very low in the sky and streams into the studio so I was able to use an ISO of 200 and still shoot comfortably handheld at f/4 and 1/320 second.

2011-12-01T06:30:00.000-05:00

Here's another conceptual still life image addressing global financial concerns. It was shot with a ring-light strobe on a Nikon D3x. I kept the subject a little off to the right with the pig looking left, thereby leaving space for someone to add type.

2011-11-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

This was a fun photo to take. A single Nikon SB-900 flash was placed to the right and behind the match. I wanted the flash to light both the match and the smoke. A silver reflector card kicked in some fill light from the left. An assistant lit the match with a lighter and I timed the shot to go off as soon as the flame spread sideways because I wanted a horizontal image with interesting patterns in the smoke filling up the frame. This is the result after twenty attempts.

2011-11-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

I did a number of conceptual still life photos in the studio today. This one of a feather was lit with both daylight and tungsten. Color was balanced for the tungsten falling on the feather. This rendered the feather pure white, while the daylight hitting the background went blue. Everything in the photo is pure white. The color differentiation was achieved by mis-matching the light sources. I use this technique a lot, even -- to a lesser degree -- in the photo of the pennies below.

This macro shot of two old pennies was taken with the Nikon 85mm tilt-shift lens fitted with a close-up filter. The lens was tilted fully forward and the aperture set for f/40 to achieve maximum depth-of-field and detail.

2011-11-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

These images were shot on Agfa Scala, a black & white transparency film that is no longer made. The film was very sharp, had an very wide tonal gradationation, and showed very little grain.

I shot the photos with a Leica IIIg camera and scanned the transparencies on an Epson V750 Pro scanner.

Although Scala film gives a rich black & white tonality, as in the top photo of the 1951 Nash automobile, I did add a warmer, platinum-type tone to the bottom two images in post-processing.

2011-11-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

Over holiday weekends I enjoy getting away from my commercial work to spend some time with my collection of old cameras. The photo above of the Empire State Building and the one below of the lamp post were both taken on film with the Leica I that is pictured above in the masthead for this blog, and also shown at the bottom of this post. Scanning the negative in color mode gave a sepia tint to the images.

Sun light was streaming in from the right and I knew it would flare dramatically with the older, uncoated lens. When shooting film where you do not have the instant gratification of reviewing shots, you just have to hope things work out the way you plan.

This is the camera I used for the photos above and the oldest 35mm camera I have, a 1930's Leica I, Model A with a fixed 50mm Elmar collapsible lens and accessory rangefinder. I had this camera restored to complete working order and still use it for photography.

2011-11-25T06:30:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving holiday in the United States is turkey day. This series shows the progress of cooking and serving our Thanksgiving turkey from beginning to end. All of these images will end up in stock. In the meantime...Yum!

This is Andrea's plate.

2011-11-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

I set out to create a very conceptual shot to be used for education. The lone students chair with books lit strongly from the side so that it cast a hard shadow against the studio floor. A wide angle lens lent a feeling of space to the shot.

2011-11-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

These images were done in the studio for an art-stock project I am working towards. For this series I came in really close with the Nikon 105mm macro lens stopped down for deep focus.

All were lit by window light on an overcast day. A silver card reflector added the fill and gloss from the right side.

The flowers were spritzed with water from a spray bottle. These images were shot in the studio where I have total control, but even when photographing in the woods I carry a bottle of water that I can use to moisten the foliage.

2011-11-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

After using the drill in the studio I noticed it on the table and took this stock shot with the Nikon D3x.

2011-11-21T07:30:00.000-05:00

To kick things off at the beginning of the second year of this project here are three images of autumn leaves, each taken for a different project. This image is a background shot of red maple leaves I found in Battery Park in NYC, brought home and photographed by filtered window light.

This photo of a single leaf was done for an art portfolio I am doing on autumn leaves. I used Photoshop to apply the monochrome effect.

I am working on a book called "Looking Down" showing abstract views of mostly city sidewalks as you look straight down at them. This one is of an autumn leaf on a sidewalk grate.

2011-11-19T18:08:00.001-05:00

The posts below are from the "Daily Stock Shot Project". This was a one-year project that ended mid-November of 2011. Here is the original introductory text from that project:

For over 30 years I've been teaching photographers how to take marketable stock shots. I decided that it is time for me to impose a discipline upon myself. This blog is the result. The plan is that I will take one stock photo a day for a year and post them to this blog. I won't include anything from my normal, planned stock shoots. The shots here will be grab shots from things I am exposed to daily. I may take a photo while on one of my normal shoots, but the shot will only be happenstance, not anything that I planned in advance as part of the shoot.

The idea here is to see if someone can derive stock income by taking the concepts and principles I have subscribed to for years and applying them to everyday, grab-shot opportunities. This is a low-budget to no-budget project -- opportunistic shooting only.

To see how well it works, I will actually market the images through various stock agencies and towards the end of the project I will begin posting the earnings results.

2011-11-13T07:01:00.000-05:00

GOAL ACHIEVED...365 DAYS OF CONTINUOUS STOCK PHOTOS! Today's post completes the project I set out to do one year ago -- taking at least one new stock shot a day, with each shot being out of my normal workflow so that none of them would even exist were it not for this project. I'm happy to say that I did not miss a single day of posting, even with my travel schedule.

Let's look at the results.

There were 671 photos taken directly for this blog. This does not include the many ancillary images that were produced as a result. The big question everyone has been asking me is what return was realized as a result of the project. It is a little complex figuring that out with complete accuracy because it takes 4 to 6 months from when an image is shot until its first sale can occur. That means that the photos taken since June are just now coming into the market place. Nonetheless, I did some calculations based on three months of recent income from blog shots that are available, and interpolating them out can calculate with some accuracy what the final annual outcome will be for the entire project.

Drum roll please!

It is safe to say that the images from this project will generate upwards of $25,600 per year based on what they have earned in the past three months. Keep in mind that this is found money since none of these images would ever have been produced were it not for this project. This is considerably lower than my normal return per stock image, and primarily due to the nature of the images done for the project, many of which are simple still life and grab shots. Even with that in mind, I have to say that I am pleased with the results.

What's next?

I have to admit that this project has been a lot of fun and I don't want to give it up. It has kept me thinking about photography day in and day out in ways that I have found to be very productive. Soooo...I am going to take one week off to regroup and make some changes to the blog site. I will return again Monday, November 21st, with modifications to the plan that I will announce at that time.

In the meantime, thank all of you have visited the site and especially those of you who have sent emails of encouragement.

To celebrate the end of this project, I decided to do a variation on the first photo I took for it one year ago. So I went out, picked up a cup of coffee, a bagel with cream cheese, and photographed them in the same situation as the first photo of this blog. I included one of my all time favorite cameras, a Leica M4 that I had retro-fitted with an M6 viewfinder.

From the first blog post on November 14, 2010

2011-11-12T07:06:00.000-05:00

This is one of the favorite autumn leaf shots I did this fall, just a simple leaf resting on piece of lace lit by the light of the setting sun from the window in the behind. Photographed wide open for a very shallow depth of field on the Nikon D3x.