I had to divert my attentions towards some of my other aspects of life over the past couple of weeks. I wanted to thank you all for continuing to follow me on Twitter (@semilion) and here.
Thank you for all of your support and input. It's extremely valuable to know what you all think.
Thank you,
Daniel
I took this photo at the American Photo Model Shoot with my Canon 5D and my 200mm 2.8L. My good friend Cubie King retouched this photo for kicks. Cubie is a great photographer, who inspires me daily. I recommend you check out his flickr scream.
One of the many photos taken from the American Photo Model Shoot.
I took this photo with a great camera and lens. A Canon 5D mk2 and a Canon 200 2L. I did not have a tripod or monopod while taking the series of photo which this one comes from. I held the lens by the tripod mount, as if I were holding a bazooka. It was thrilling to shoot with this massive lens. The photo quality is simply magical. Please check out my flicker feed to view this photo's EXIF data. I really want you to see how it was shot.
As some of you may already know, shooting a person on a catwalk is a situation where you have to make snap judgements. You can click all you want, but that's like carpet bombing a rabbit hole. I will post galleries from this shoot in the coming weeks. I really hope you will check them out.
If you want to be kept up to date on the release of these upcoming galleries, follow me on twitter. @semilion
Of all places to find beautiful flowers, you wouldn't think they'd grow in such abundance in the middle of a street in midtown Manhattan.
I played with the aperture of my Canon 5D to achieve this photo. Since I was shooting with my 28-135mm IS USM, I was was wishing I had the 100mm Macro 2.8L with me. These flowers are so incredibly beautiful. However what caught my eye was the new stem which was growing from within the actual flower cluster. I looked at the other surrounding flowers. This was unique among them. I think it was a good find.
It was a beautiful day, and like many other people in Central Park, New York. This man took advantage of the warm bright weather by sleeping on those steps on this. As usual in New York City, people paid him no mind. I did. His face, weathered by age and full of deep emotion demanded my attention. I watched him for a while, wondering what he was doing. I smiled when he pulled out a container of tomatoes... This man was preparing his dinner. His movements were slow and deliberate. He pondered what to pull from that bag. And I was glad he had a good meal to eat that day. But I wonder how his dinner was tonight.
A sneak look at a magnificent short hallway in 1 Time Warner Center. I refer to it as "The Power Hallway." I can only imagine what occurs behind such a well crafted hall, located behind ominous closed glass doors. A note of reference. The main corridors which cross this hallway do not look anywhere as crafted as this. Interesting...
This brilliant musician, a member of Brooklyn's "The Baby Soda Jazz Band," In my opinion captured the spirit of the day. In a place where the very young and old alike commune to enjoy the day, music and entertainment of Washington Square Park in NYC; this man play with the heart and soul of a man in his youth. It was a great day in a great park with great music; which inspired the crowd to dance to their classic sound.
Bravo Baby Soda Jazz Band
I took this shot with my Canon 5D + Canon 200mm 2.8L at Columbus Circle in NYC. In total I took over 130 photos of skaters, people, architecture and signs. In the end I choose this photo to be my pic of the day. I love the energy in it. I hope you do to.
This is an operating MTA train stop in Jamaica Queens - the J train. I can't believe people ride that train still. Holy crap!
As I often do, I post late in the day. It allows me to live the day. In the occasion that I've photographed something which I prepared the night before, I'll post during the morning hours.
I choose not to post Sunday's pic of the day, in honor of those men and women who helped heal our nation yesterday.
Thank you,
Daniel Russo
Last night I went to the Radio City Music Hall on 50th and 6th Ave in NYC. This iconic hall has been the subject of millions of photographers pro and novice alike for generations. Radio City Music Hall has a great amount of history behind it; and I wanted to be one of the millions of people who have this iconic building as part of my photography folio.
In this photo, I took the shot immediately after Radio City started turning off their shots for the night, at about 12:20 AM. I didn't think of taking a photo of the building with the lights off. I can say it really looses a lot of luster when the lights are off.
In addition to wanting the music hall in my collection, I wanted to test out the limits of my camera's ability to take quality photos in very low light. I shot various methods. But I believe I found shooting at F4, ISO 100 and at 30 seconds worked best for me. I will do this test on another iconic subject in NYC, extending the amount of time I'll keep the shutter open. I want to push it to 30 minute exposures. For now enjoy these photos.
I took this photo with my Canon 30D using a Canon 28-235mm F3.5-5.6 lens in Washington DC. When I arrived in the city, I took my time to allow the beautiful architecture to sink in. I believe most visitors ignore the spectacular architecture of the city as a whole; and focus solely on the breathtaking monuments.
What caught my eye about this building was it's beautiful clock, it's dominance over every other surrounding building, it's color and scale.
I joined a photography group which shoots typography. Yesterday, I went sign hunting. I shot several. And had many quality photos. However I wanted something a bit different, yet very familiar. I know people have shot these sign holders before. However I felt (and please let me know if you differ), this photo stands out just a bit more than the others. Take a look at the sign itself. Although the typography is simple. Take into account it's color, composition and clairty. Now search for the other sign in the photo. It has characteristics which are the in reverse. I am referring to the fire hydrant.
Both the hydrant and the sign share reverse characteristics. They are red type on a white background vs. white type on a red background. Both the sign makers didn't care about the quality of the signs. The bike sign is cut off, but still legible. The hydrant sign is carelessly printed, yet still legible. Both signs provided work (although arguably) of poor craftsmanship.
I like this shot very very much.
These flowers were extremely purple! They were darker, far more saturated. And they fought with the green leaves for dominance. I found these flowers under a porch. Can you believe it? A porch? Who keeps flowers under a porch? Maybe they need indirect light? I don't know... But I found them there.
The sun was setting. It was raining cats and dogs all day. It was really foggy. And these flowers were hiding under a porch. I am so lucky I had my Manfrotto 055XBPRO tripod with the 3047 head, a Canon 5D mark II and a 200mm L2.8 lens.
When I composited the shot in my head, I knew I needed to choose which color to dominate the photograph. I used Photoshop's RAW import feature to adjust this photo. Why? Because I am a master at Photoshop :) I could have done this in Lightroom or Aperture. However I choose Photoshop. I knocked the fill light up a notch, brought up my blacks, brightness and contrast. I then raised the clarity and reduced the Vibrance. I then adjusted the saturation of the Greens and purples. Lowering the greens and raising the purples. I then raised the luminance of the greens and purples. This caused them to really pop. A nice little side effect was the popping of the water drops. My final touch was to sharpen the image in Photoshop, using unsharp mask set to a high degree.
Some months ago a friend of mine showed me how some Leica photographers were processing their images. I fell in love with their old style processing. And tried it out on my next photo expedition. Ironically both shots have the same subject matter. This wasn't planned :)
The below photo was shot with my Canon 30D and a Canon 50mm F1.8 lens
