in Williamsburg

A lot of people have walked numerous times over the Brooklyn bridge, but how many New Yorkers can say that about the Williamsburg bridge? Of course, many of those who did - did it either every day, or at least every weekend... that's the beauty of it - you can take a walk, run, bike, go to work, come from work...

Life and death on the bridge..

And what you can do once you're on the Brooklyn side - visit the wood burning oven pizza place

Photograph the bridge and surrounding objects... Brooklyn is a very interesting place to hang out

Did you know that in order to rebuild in place of a historic building city requires to preserve the front of it in one way or another? Check this out....

I thought it says no Bills

Couldn't get away from that car for a while...

I know I know - way too many pictures for one post, but I don't want to forget to get back to this topic, plus I'm hopeful that you're enjoying yourself here..

And that's where the sweet'n'low comes from

Everyone's allowed to express themselves

Have a fantastic Tuesday - I'm going back to doing lots of work. Remember about the Hoboken Film Crew meetup tonight...

If you're into eco-friendly fashion...

I wanted to share with you some links that are very well worth watching:

Brad at Commerce with a conscience selects sustainable clothing that's well designed and isn't "bloody expensive".

Starre at http://www.eco-chick.com is all about green, including fashion. Very fun read...

http://www.labelgazer.com/ - I just discovered it. Pretty neat resource as well.

http://blog.titaniainglis.com/ - is a blogging designer herself. I should look more for these folks - might learn a lot from the inside!

http://fashionlovespeople.com/ - a writer about ethical fashion.


http://www.goodlifer.com/ - is such a big resource, I seem to get lost within every time. Good place for a good fashion research!

Of course, the famous:

http://www.TreeHugger.com
http://www.Ecouterre.com
http://EccoEco.blogspot.com

And don't forget The GreenShows is coming up and will host ten pretty cool eco-friendly fashion designers. I'm going!

Also, there's a GREEN FASHION exhibit at FIT right now - ends November 13. How about that? :)

On this note - have a fabulous rest of the Monday and I'll see you tomorrow!

Film geeks - there's a new Film Crew meetup starting tomorrow in Hoboken and I want to check it out. Give me a shout if you'd like to keep me company.

Continuing about our flight to Cape May

...

You must've seen a post last week with all the photos from the flight my friend took me on board of. This is why you're back, right?
We went to Cape May. It was a very hazy day, hence a lot of post-production adjustments...

But here is the most exciting part (for me at least) - I've seen photos like this only in the book by my favorite aerial photographer, called "Earth from above" and was so envious! Oh, the life he must lead...

Going around the planet with wonderful team (who are all friends by now I bet), in helicopters and small airplanes - he must have a license or two himself by now.... *dreamily*

Ooops... what was I saying?

Ah, that's right. Well, just enjoy these, they're from all around Cape May and some Atlantic city.

The rest of them can be seen on my flickr page.

thank you :)

In the past few months I've received several e-mails from some of the website visitors saying that they are very happy to have stumbled upon my work, saying that I'm an inspiration to them.

And since I never knew what to say to that, except "thank you", I decided to post here in a reply to the latest letter.

It came from someone from craigslist I think... I don't recall how it happened, because I don't hang there at all, except for when I'm looking for something used... in any case, I don't remember posting any ads for my business on craigslist, but there the message came, and it felt very good.

If you are one of the people who thinks that I inspire them in any way - THANK YOU for thinking that way! This fulfills my purpose :).

After all, the medium doesn't matter. Whether it's a photograph, a story, an experience... I find the little things - reminders of the opportunity. Possibility. I see the possibility and reach for new experiences. That's inspiration to me.

And you know what? You are a huge inspiration as well. You showing up in my life, saying something that nice about my work or me in general - inspires me to go on and try more things.

That's enough about me. Thank YOU!

Shop the Chameleon

I do web photos for a new online fashion boutique www.ShopChameleon.com on a regular basis, but one time we were doing a whole bunch of leggings and hired a beautiful model (Stephanie Hancock) to pose for us. Unfortunately all the shots were from the waist down (although she has such beautiful legs, they're still worth looking at, I swear!), so when the boutique owner said we can take a promo sample for her with all kinds of pieces that she sells at her online store - I jumped up with excitement. Quickly set up the light, Stephanie was changed into what you see and we quickly did what we could without any hair or make up....

Thank you Stephanie, for good times and kind words. I hope we can shoot again soon enough. I definitely didn't spend proper time playing with you ;)

Oh, and don't forget to check out this new addi(C)tion to their collection - it's for REtAiL addicts, I'd say.

Fear of heights!

Well, not exactly, but...

My good friend is making his way through his commercial rating right now and he... he took me flying with him! And I see that there's no real difference for me - whether it's me who's piloting the airplane or him... the thrill if being up high in such a small pot like cessna is unique and unforgettable.

And I get to practice aerial photography as much as I like.

This time we flew to Cape May (wow! think about it... minutes of flight replaced hours of driving) and this is what I got...

Airplane that took us up:

In the cockpit... I was concentrating on getting both of us in the shot, and forgot to smile

Greg was very focused on doing all the talk with towers... looks very serious here. Was a busy day, despite all the haze too! Don't you love how people do their fields these days? Everyone's getting smarter, better, etc. I can't forget the phrase - laziness is the wheel of our progress :)

I can never catch clouds reflections in rivers. That's a challenge I'm taking on our next flights. I'll be looking out for clouds reflections in rivers and lakes.

And that's in Princeton I believe... one gorgeous town *sigh*... miss it

Highways are always fun to observe from above. But I'm bored photographing them in the daylight by now. Have quite an extensive collection of those. Gotta switch to a different time

There's a whole bunch more photos from that flight. And those that are coming are even more exciting, so keep coming back!

There's also a video coming up, but that might take me forever with all the work I need to do. So... if anybody really wants to see what I did, you better keep reminding me.

Until later... :)

We love going to Pennsylvania. It's so close and yet... it feels like you're escaping into a whole different world. Well, somewhat different. You are still in the comfort of being in America with all the familiar chain restaurants, stores and what not, but at the same time... it's very different.

Laid back. Different values. Feels good. That sort of thing, you know?

Even their golf courses are more quaint

It was a very soggy day. Was about to rain all day long, and even did a little bit, but not to wet us or anything. Horses...

Beautiful rest-stops:

The grass is definitely greener :)

Little mysterious places to live and enjoy... when we were passing by this house it felt incredible. As if we are being shared a good old secret with:

Wild geese everywhere...

And check out this gas station! Of course, there are Shell and Diabes everywhere as well, but this one looks like a family business or something

And, of course, the waterfalls - this one is from Bushkill falls (mind you I'm not good with waterfalls, never want to explore a new vantage point, afraid of losing gear to the water damage ;) but I forget that I can at least take a good pic of my little companion)

On the business related note - we're hosting an Entertainment Network meetup in Wayne next week, check out the meetup.com, or just watch me post details on Facebook. If you're in film/music or any other entertaining business - check it out, I always meet great people there!

Check out the ghost in my picture..

Can you find a ghost in here?

A 'typical' when you are not careful aligning your HDRs. I kind of like her here though... :)

Is summer coming to an end? I'm not sure if I want it to, or not. On one hand - fall will be beautiful, children are off to school and I can squeeze in many more projects. On the other... where was the summer? I think I've mostly missed it. Plans were gigantic, but priorities this year are different - running a full time business takes it out of me, I'm telling ya~

Very exciting though.
We did go for a few small road-trips and mini-vacations with my son. This pic is from Bushkill falls in a beautiful Pennsylvania.

On model direction and photo agents

Watched a photographer pose a model the other day and thought I'd write this down, because it's a very thin ice - working well with models. Push them a little too much and they'll break into something. Don't push - and don't get anything interesting in the image.

I've found that following these two steps help (to remember what I need to do and what I should not do).

- Let the model do what they would do naturally first. Watch them move, observe - what poses are natural to them. Some people are quieter, some louder. Some move slowly, like cats, making precisely calculated steps. Some are more of "all over the place" - they move fast, may be awkwardly, but is be the beauty in them - everything depends on what you need to accomplish.

Then start directing them. Slow them down a little, or pace. Take it a little out of the comfort zone, challenge them... Challenge yourself.

They take your directions and apply to what's natural to them, if the rapport is established well enough.
There are also interesting examples... For instance, I had a model who'd do PRECISELY as I say, and it did not look good. It's all a matter of balance between them showing their moves and you pushing them a little bit more at a time.

On the other note - found this very interesting interview of a photo agent:
http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2009/06/04/photographers-looking-for-agents-q-a-with-deborah-schwartz/

Check it out - I think the insight into the industry is very good.

No photos today :).
But come back tomorrow and hopefully I'll please you with something I did over weekend~