Seizing the Moments

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On a recent trip to San Francisco, I got together with a bunch of Nocturnal guys and celebrated the Full Moon with a night shoot at the Sutro Bath ruins at Ocean Beach. I have to say that it was the warmest night I have ever spent on that beach. The moon was shining bright, the tide was pulling in, and the continual crashing of the waves brought a truly spiritual feeling to the evening.

Even though I was with 4 other guys, we all spread out and searched for our shots. I always have considered myself a solo shooter but I have really enjoyed being out with like-minded souls lately.
When you leave your camera open on a tripod for 3-15 minutes at a time, it’s comforting to have some friends with you. You’ll also be surprised with the type of conversations that arise in the wee hours of a long photoshoot. This got me thinking about the most common question a photographer is asked in life: What type of photography do you do?

Frequent pigeonholing answers for me have been – fine art photography, pinhole photography, travel photography, and night photography. But in reality, like a method actor, I enjoy the process of photography. The film, the developing, the darkroom, the lightroom, the time, and all the magic that comes from creating an image.

Good friend, and fellow pinhole photographer, Tom Persinger, recently debated TOP’s Mike Johnston over the importance of capturing the moment or moments. When most people pick up a camera and press the shutter, they try to capture a moment in time.
We all love that. It’s difficult though, your child doesn’t smile, or the moment is fleeting and gone by the time you raise the camera to your eye and trying to recreate it is, well, contrived. Without us realizing it, when we press the shutter, we are dealing with fractions of seconds and how do you click on the right one?
Henri Cartier-Bresson proved there was a fine art to capturing the decisive moment and became famous capturing 1/60th of a second his whole life. He was a very prolific photographer but when you think of the moments he captured during the 45 years of shooting at 1/60 of a second it probably amounted to 15 minutes! Geesh, I can do that easily in one or two exposures! When you take pinhole or night photographs, you are no longer dealing with fractions of seconds but often minutes and hours of time.
Tom Persinger says: The artifacts of motion revealed by extended exposures show the world as fundamentally impermanent and constantly changing.
He refers to this as a continuity of moments. For example, an airplane can fly through the sky and you will have the lights permanently recorded as a light trail in your shot. Instead of capturing the moment, you are seizing time itself! Why are there star trails in night shots? Well the earth is moving constantly and when you take a picture including the sky for over 8 minutes on a clear night, you’ve captured the earth revolving! Pretty cool, eh?

So I guess that makes me a photographer of time. And instead of seizing the moment, let’s seize the moments and capture the essence of the subject matter!
Stay tuned for a little history of the Sutro Baths and the rest of the group’s shots from that night.

Red Hook Nights

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Visitation St Beard St Warehouse sugar factory boat
beard lady liberty diamond trolley 2 gabe trolley
water taxi 2 Red Hook House sunnys

“We gotta do a night shoot!”

These were words I spoke to my good friend, awesome photographer, and fellow industry man Andre Costantini, over the last 6 months. You see, we’re neighbors here in Brooklyn, but we also travel so much that it’s sometimes easier coordinating on the road than it is seeing each other in Brooklyn!
However, in early October, we finally got our schedules straightened out and went out for a 4+ hour night photo shoot in the nearby neighborhood of Red Hook.

Founded by the Dutch in 1636, Red Hook still remains one of the most unique and isolated neighborhoods that Brooklyn has to offer. The Waterfront days of the Longshoreman, when Red Hook boasted 21,000 people, were starting to decline when Robert Moses finished building the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and the Battery Tunnel in the early 1950’s – effectively cutting off Red Hook from the rest of Brooklyn. Along with the loss of the dock jobs to New Jersey soon after, Brooklynites began to disappear from the Hook. Red Hook now harbors 11,000 residents, most of whom are activists and artists drawn to the old world charm and astounding waterfront views. Because of its isolation, Red Hook has remained relatively unchanged. It is home to the largest concentration of Civil War warehouses in New York and offers the closest full frontal views of Lady Liberty herself as she faces Red Hook and looks towards the statue of Minerva at Greenwood Cemetery.
Al Capone got his start as a small time criminal in Red Hook, along with his wound that led to his nickname “Scarface”. Red Hook also has been a literary inspiration to: “On the Waterfront” by Budd Shulberg, “A View from the Bridge” by Arthur Miller, “Last Exit to Brooklyn” by Hubert Selby Jr, and “The Horror at Red Hook” by H.P. Lovecraft.

Looking for photographic inspiration, Andre and I started out around 8pm with tripods and cameras in hand. Andre was shooting with the Nikon D200 and a variety of Tamron lenses and I had my trusty Mamiya 7 with the 65mm lens loaded with black and white TriX 400 film. Knowing that it was going to be a busy night we decided to energize up with some excellent burgers at the scrumpdiddlyumptious restaurant/diner named Hope and Anchor. With burgers and Brooklyn beers in our bellies, we set forth!
The first shot of the night was Andre’s “Visitation St” sign with what seemed to be a rebar cane hanging from it! The cobblestone streets led us to the recently refurbished and “gallerized” Beard St Warehouses, which can be seen in the second photo. Behind the Warehouses lie the remains of the Sugar Refinery as well as a small dock where some of the locals anchor their boats, as seen in photo number 3.
The second row of photos leads off with the old trolley tracks that lay between the Beard Warehouses. In the distance you can see the pillars where the water taxi drops off tourists as well as Lady Liberty dressed in white light. The tracks actually lead to two abandoned trolleys cars that were once owned by Bob Diamond. A modern day Don Quixote, Bob discovered one of the world’s oldest subway stations under Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn in 1980. Built in 1844 by the Long Island Railroad, it was quickly abandoned, sealed, and forgotten by 1861. Bob had hoped to reopen the station and connect it with a trolley service to Red Hook as there’s no subway line that comes close to the neighborhood. It was never funded and Bob’s trolleys lie in a beautiful state of ruinism behind the Fairway Market that moved into the Van Brunt warehouse. This beautifully revitalized pre Civil War coffee warehouse now holds a vast amount of fresh food and veggies as well as killer lofts above. The middle two shots are Andre’s take on the trolley as well as documenting me demonstrating my night shooting techniques!
The first image on the last row is a Michael Kenna inspired shot of the Water Taxi docks in Red Hook. 26 Reed St is the next photo. This original Red Hook house is Ralph Balzano’s car shop and Men’s club for the locals. Speaking of locals, Ralph’s brother Sunny owns the bar in the last photo. Sunny’s great-great-grandfather opened this bar in 1890 and I can only assume that is Sunny’s car parked in front!
It was a great shoot that ended around 2:30am with a little nightcap at The Bait and Tackle Bar.

For further reading on Red Hook History check out:
http://www.redhookwaterfront.com/_hi.main/index.html
For further info on Bob Diamond’s abandoned subway discovery:
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/TROLLEYS/redhook/redhook.html
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SUBWAYS/tunnel/tunnel.html
And to learn more Night Photography shooting techniques follow my man Joe Reifer’s inspiring nightshots and super informative blog at:
http://www.joereifer.com/words/?cat=9
To see more of Andre’s work click here.

Steel Bridge, Portland Oregon

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Steel BridgeHow many times do you find yourself driving around when you pass by something interesting and say “I should photograph that.”? And how many times do you actually do it?

It is always a constant battle with me because if I truly stopped and took all the pictures I wanted while driving I think I’d still be on my honeymoon!

On a recent trip to Portland, Oregon, I found myself in this very predicament as we approached the Willamette River on our way to Voodoo Donuts. It was night time as we slowly passed over this very unique looking bridge and I uttered those magic words: “That would be cool to shoot”. Everyone was game, so we parked the car and walked back over the bridge. The Steel Bridge is named after the original double deck swing Steel Draw Bridge that was built in 1888 and was one of the first bridges to use steel instead of wrought iron. The current Steel Bridge is the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world and the second oldest vertical lift bridge in North America, after the nearby Hawthorne Bridge. Over 9,000,000 lbs of concrete counterweights help raise the lower section up to 216ft. to let large boats pass. The real ingenuity, however, shows itself when the lower section is raised 72ft. and telescopes into the upper section without disturbing it, thus letting traffic continue over the bridge. Pedestrians, Cars, Amtrak, MAX Light Rail and bicycles all use the Steel Bridge to cross over the Willamette River to get into downtown Portland.

This shot was taken on my point and shoot digi camera on the best travel tripod in the world, the Gitzo 1550. The light streaks are from the MAX Light rail and cars that passed through my photo during the 30 second exposure.

And always remember the next time you see something, don’t just say something, click something!

Eddie Adams XX Workshop

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Eddie Adams Workshop 2007For the past 4 years I have spent my Columbus day weekend celebrating the Eddie Adams Workshop in Jeffersonville, NY. Each year 100 of the top young photojournalists from around the world are chosen, via portfolio submission, to come to the Catskills and learn from the best in the industry. It is truly a gathering of the photographic spirit, where students shoot intensively for 2-3 straight days honing their skills with some of the industry heavies and producing a body of work that is shown on the closing night reception. If you are not shooting, then you are usually watching an inspirational slide show presented by a famous photographer, whom you can actually talk to and have your work critiqued by! This year marked the 20th Anniversary of the Eddie Adams Workshops, and as you walk through Eddie’s barn- turned multimedia workplace- you’ll notice the photos of each graduating class and feel a part of an amazing history.

So, when it came time for this year’s group shot of the students, faculty, sponsors, and ever present black team, I asked if I could sneak a quick 8 second panoramic pinhole exposure.

Of course everyone was game!

Though the workshop is all digital, for the first time in a while I noticed a plethora of students with alternative film cameras: Poloroid Land Cameras, Holgas, Leicas, and even a Voigtlander or two! Nikon, who is a major sponsor of EAW brought in some of the first D3 professional digital cameras for the students and faculty to use and the initial reactions were very, very positive. I think one photographer spent the whole weekend trying in vain to find digital noise in any of the D3’s images.

Now, if you can find yourself in this picture, please contact me and I will gladly mail you out a print! Until then, stay in focus!

Guided Tour of the Monster Gardens

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The Entrance The Sphinx The Struggle Between Giants - by David Brommer Venus - by David Brommer Leaning House Neptune
Hannibal The Dragon - by David Brommer Ceres The Etruscan Bench Monster Steps Proteaus Glauco

“You who wander around the world, eager to see imposing and amazing marvels, come here…”

I apologize for the delay in blogging, but with my computer’s hard drive crashing and the Red Sox winning the World Series my life has been a little topsy-turvy lately!

Click on any of the pictures above to make it bigger and let’s continue our journey through a guided tour of the Monster Gardens.

David, Nancy, and I had hoped to shoot the Monster Gardens with an 8×10 cameras and 4×5 Pinholes. Unfortunately, no amount of Euros were able to get our tripods passed the entrance. We quickly adapted, David ironically went from his signature 8×10 to one of the smallest camera formats, the half frame. He also had a Nikon EM camera with only a Lensbaby 3G attached to it. Security, or “Senor Scowl” as we called him, was never more than 20 feet away from us just to make sure our tripods never came out.
As we walked through the portal to the Monster Gardens we were immediately greeted by two sphinxes, each sitting on platforms with a well worn out welcome:

“You, who enters here, be very attentive and tell me if theses marvels have been realized due to a mistake or if it is a form of art”

Was that supposed to be a riddle? Were we going to be thrown off the cliff as in the story of Oedipus?
We passed by unscathed and looked below us to a lower level were a stream ran and a huge colossal sculpture of Hercules tearing apart Cacus stood. Dubbed the “Struggle between Giants”, and shot with David’s lensbaby, Cacus’ mouth is wide open in grotesque pain, a silent scream that echoed throughout the gardens. Turning away, we saw ancient moss covering a gigantic turtle bearing the winged victory, Nike, on it’s shell. This could only be seen in the distance since the area was under renovation, unapproachable, and unfortunately unable to be photographed without a telephoto lens. You can, however, find a drawing of it by Bartholomeus Breenberg in the Louvre, where it’s regarded as one of its masterpieces.
There was definitely more people there than when Nancy and I visited in 1997, but it was still easy to take our time and get lost in the gardens. We approached the beautiful fountain of the 3 Graces where David took this amazing half frame panoramic of a very Etruscan looking Venus. We continued on, passing by a small theater and several ancient fountain bathtubs, walking directly to the Leaning House basking in the sunlight breaking through the sacred forest. This ancient fun house was probably one of the first of its kind to be purposely built at a 30 degree angle. Its foundation and floors rose up and literally pushed us out the door. I guess the Prince didn’t want anyone overstaying their visit! We now stood at the main courtyard. Rows of 4 foot tall giant vases rose from each side and led us toward an ancient fountain featuring the king of the sea, Neptune. Behind the Giant vases lurks one of Rome’s fiercest enemies, Hannibal, atop his famous war elephant crushing a Roman legionary. Next we see David’s lensbaby Dragon. The dragon, who represents time, is being attacked by a dog, lion, and wolf; symbols of spring, summer, and winter. Turning away from the courtyard I came across the most beautiful sculpture in the gardens, Ceres, the nurse of Rome. Ceres is of the older sect, the precurser to Diana, and was goddess of agriculture, grain, and the love a mother bears for her child. Experts consider this sculpture one of the most beautiful in the world for its perfect proportions…especially in a garden so out of proportion. Leaving her gaze I turned around to see the steps that lead up the Ogre’s mouth. We stopped and did a photoshoot there for a while. I sat inside the monster’s mouth with about 7 other people, the sacrificial tounge table sat empty between us. I felt that place could truly be a gateway to the Underworld.
The dreamworld continued as Nancy laid down on the Etruscan bench whose Latin scripture read:

“You, who wanders the world,
Anxious to see huge and magnificent marvels ,
Come here where you will find hideous faces
Of elephants, lions, bears, ogres, and dragons”

We walked past the goddess of the garden and of the hearth, Proserpine, and took the lensbaby stairway past Cerberus, the 3 headed dog, who guards the gates of hell.
“Senor Scowl” watched us as we watched the Lions and furies battle it out. On the highest level of this ancient mound lies the Temple that was not part of the original Villa of Wonders. It was built 20 years later in 1572 and dedicated to Prince Orsini’s recently deceased second wife, Giulia Farnese.
We had been wondering around these wonders for over 2 1/2 hours when we finally found ourselves in front of the sphinxes again. This time we went to the left and passed by short columns along the side of the road. On each column lay a sculpted head of a god of Antiquity: Saturn, Janus, Evander, the Faun, and the Triple Hecate. We were along the stream again and the final sculpture loomed in the distance. Slightly smaller than Giant Ogre and off limits to the tourist, the colossal head of Proteus-Glauco bore a huge decorative globe which in turn held the castle of Orsini. This symbolized the power the Orsini family wielded in this world. The name Proteus-Glaucos is interesting because it represents two different gods from Greek and Roman mythology. Proteus was an early sea god, originally called “Old Man of the Sea” by Homer, and was also the son of Poseidon. Glaucus, according to the Roman Ovid began life as a mortal fisherman before eating an herb that turned him immortal but also changed his arms and legs into fins and tails and forced him to live his life in the sea. Both gods, if captured could foretell the future.

Well, this ends the tour of the Monster Gardens. It was Nancy and my second trip to the forest of Marvels and we could definitely find ourselves there again. Next time, however, we’re contacting them prior to make sure those tripods come in…Monsters at night anyone?

*Most of this info was found in the barely English Monster Gardens Guidebook, 5 euros, and countless hours on the world wide web.