What Successful People Do On the Weekends

Mid-December paddle in the snow and ice of Hemlock Lake

Before I worked as a full-time professional photographer and opened my studio, I worked as a part-time photographer, and devoted most weeknights and many hours of the weekend on my part-time profession. My weekday hours were filled with my duties as an environmental scientist (12 yrs.) or software quality manager/engineer (12 yrs.), which were my two careers in Corporate USA.  My fellow photographers were never surprised to get e-mails from me at 2am from my home studio, then followed up by at 7:30am e-mail from my corporate job.

Photo Chosen in Top 10 of Project 9.11

On September 11, 2011, I was one of more than 40 photographers that took part in Project 9.11, sponsored by the Professional Photographers of NY State (PPSNYS).  The project was merely to capture a day in the life of people on the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks.

One of the photos I took and submitted was chosen in the Top 10 of the more than 400 photographs that were submitted.  The photo shows the detail of mourning bands on the badges of several officers lined up in formation.  It was taken at a memorial service held by the City of Rochester to honor all the first responders....police officers, fire fighters and emergency medical technicians....that lost their lives rushing towards the disaster as everyone else was running away.

The Top 10 photographs are shown on the PPSNYS website, and are all truly works of art.

A winner will be selected among the Top 10 and will be announced at the Photo Northeast Convention in Woodcliff Lake, NY in March 2012.

The other photos I submitted for the project are shown below.

A Photographer Should Be In Every Photograph

Team Building at Luke Photography.
This is where I literally and figuratively put myself into my photography.

I saw a question recently that struck home with me….and I think the answer should be blatantly obvious to anyone in any creative field.

“What’s more important as a photographer… to remove yourself from the photograph, or to make the photograph about you as a photographer?”  - fashion photographer Jay McLaughlin

See the Light, Not the Camera

I just saw a really great quote about photography, and it really resonated with me, especially after the last session I just shot:

Beginning photographers think about cameras.
Intermediate photographers think about composition.
Advanced photographers think about light. 

The photography industry has been bombarded with new photographers in the last 5 or so years, now that digital cameras have come down in price, and produce such high quality results.  Now stop right there if you think this article is going to lambaste all those new photographers.  Let's get beyond that.

The Ladder to Success

I was faced with a dilemma recently: how do you photograph a tennis player differently than everyone else does?  Tennis takes place on the ground, on a standard sized court, in daylight.  Usually.  That is, unless you fly over Arthur Ashe Stadium in NY in the evening and get to see the US Open Tennis Championships from 800 feet in the air, like I did last night.  I swear I could hear Maria Sharapova grunting from that high up.

Kayla is a Rush-Henrietta high school senior who plays tennis.  When she came to my studio, and I felt like I owed her something different…something that no one else had.  It required a change of perspective…a different point of view.  After photographing her near the net in different standing and sitting poses, I brought out a new weapon: an 8 ft. step ladder.

The Lion’s Share of Creativity Comes From….Everywhere

Last weekend, my family and I went to see the touring show of The Lion King.  If you haven’t gone, then you simply have to find a way of getting to this show.  It took all of 5 seconds into the first scene and I was hooked.   Those of you who have seen it will understand…when the giraffes enter the stage…you had me at “Hello”.  We first saw this show four years ago when it came to town, and I couldn’t wait to go back when the show came through this way again.

It’s not only the giraffes and the spectacular costumes and puppets that caught my eye.  The scenery was inspiring.  Looking at anything inspiring should…well, inspire you.  As a photographer and a slave to visual imagery, I find inspiration in all things around me.  Big or small, long or short, high or low.  Artists can and should be inspired by whatever they happen across.  By the way the light strikes a shape, or the way two objects interplay with each other.