My Favorite Spots

NEW YORK CITY: My Favorite Spots

Every photographer has their one subject or place they like to photograph. For me it is the greatest city in the world and my backyard, New York City. There are hundreds of places in NYC that you can photograph at any given time from street photography showing the city life and different tourist spots, to the different cityscapes you can capture from any given spot on the Brooklyn or New Jersey sides. For the above picture it was part of the same homework assignment as my Statue of Liberty photograph below. During this shot i was on the Brooklyn side of the city this time and thought to myself, "Hey, you don't really see a lot of photos of the Brooklyn Bridge with the Empire State Building. It always has the World Trace Center in the back ground." So I stopped walking in the middle of Brooklyn Bridge Park and set up my camera on the railing post (my tripod was too short) and propped up the lens with my wallet. (it would have been a bad night IF either of them fell into the East River) I set my camera timer and stepped back and waited not knowing if the photo would look right because of the wind (camera shake). It wasn't until I went to edit my photos that i saw the perfection in this capture. So where are my favorite spots?  Obviously, DUMBO, Brooklyn; but I also like shooting in the Village and along Liberty State Park, New Jersey. There are a few other spots in New Jersey I love however those are spots i only heard about from other photographers on Instagram that I know. Another place I love to shoot is the NYC Subway stations. No matter what you like to photograph New York has it, I love that and it makes my homework assignments easier to photograph. 

Lady Liberty

Lady Liberty

Nothing too special this week. For this weeks Long Exposure assignment, I decided to go to the New Jersey side of the city and shoot and go to a spot that I was told about by other photographers. I wish I would have had a better lens to shoot this in order to make the Statue of Liberty bigger in the foreground. However this shot came out amazing and I have gotten a lot of praise from it on Facebook and Instagram.  I plan over the course of my time at Suffolk Community College, to take a few more of these shots perfecting it each time till i get it right.

Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed!

Why Does Shutter Speed Make a Difference? Why use the Shutter setting on your camera Vs. the Manual setting on your camera?  Well in Digital Photography I, we learned that Shutter Speed can either stop motion or blur motion. This past Weekend I went upstate New York and decided to stop at Kaaterskill Falls right outside of Hunter, NY. While shooting the falls I wanted to give the photo the appearance of fast moving, flowing water. So I took two shots, one shot was on Manual at a normal shutter speed to capture the people standing on the middle ledge to give a size comparison to show how big the falls really are, but it stopped the water mid movement and did not look the way I wanted it to. I then switched my camera to the Shutter control setting and slowed down my shutter speed and retook the photo and "Wah-La" the water looked smooth, flowing and just majestic. I had given it the look I was going for. You can tell the difference Shutter Speed made with this landscape shot. Below is another of my examples of shooting moving water at a slow shutter speed.

Graffiti (Series 1)

GRAFFITI  

(Series #1)

  

In Digital Photography I, we were tasked with the assignment of framing out photos in the Center, Full Frame and the Edge of the Frame. While shooting this assignment at the old abandoned Kings Park Psychiatric Hospital I noticed the many different forms of graffiti on the property and it gave me an idea....take this art, and photograph it to show it to others who may not wander to these places or not pay attention to this art. While many people see graffiti as vandalism and destruction of property, I see the beauty in it and see it as these beautiful works of art. Maybe by showing others this art, people will take more notice when they pass by them on the streets of the world.