Engling

It's been a while (I feel like it's always been a while). Thank God I've been quite busy these last few weeks and haven't been blogging as much as my psychiatrist says I should. Parenthetically (I figure I use parenthesis a bit too much, so if I just write "parenthetically" I could cheat a bit) I saw a Psychic Reading shop going-out-of-business sign. Shouldn't she have known that it wouldn't work? (Why do I assume it was a she?)

The point being I had a wonderful shoot a few weeks back with the Engel family (the Sender branch) @ Heritage Park in Cerritos. I finally got to use my gigantic 300mm f/2.8 ai-s lens! (for those who do not read camera tongue, that means: very large, heavy, long, manual focussing lens). Used it for some group shots to get everyone in focus and still have the background mushy like I like it (unlike cold cereal , which theoretically, if I would eat cold cereal, must be crisp).

The kids had some fun and even listened a bit! Yes it's a Chanukah miracle (which happened a month or so before chanukah).

Without further blabbage, here are some of my favorites:

Hello?! Could the photographer please attempt at getting both eyes in focus? Sheesh. (I actually copied the right eye on top of the left eye to make it a bit sharper)

All he's missing is a bottle of Vodka and some herring

I love how they're all looking in different directions

Cutie

Psssst. I'll let you sit in the front if you hand over that lollipop.

Behold the handiwork of the ridiculous large one (the lens, not the photographer)

I actually bribed him to stand still for a bit while I manually focused @ f/1.2 (in regular people talk, that means: very very hard to do)

Now I have to email my psychologist (he got demoted since the beginning of this post) and tell him not to worry, his patient is healthy and has not thrown a glass bowl in over 3 days now (hooray!). Onto some oven baked, sweet potato latkes.

Up North and Black Again (again)

A few weeks back I headed up to Crescent City for another kosher cheese production (for the first time around, check out this post). This time, however, I decided to outsmart myself and drive up instead of flying. It's a long drive, but I did save a few hundred bucks (with which I promptly bought a new lens). To put that into perspective, by the time I hit San Francisco, I wasn't even halfway there. Figured that if I took my time and stop along the way, I could see some parts of California I never saw before, take some nice pics along the way etc. I took the 405 to the 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) which I then took all the way up to San Francisco (with many a stop along the way). Funny thing was, it was ridiculously foggy the whole way up and the only part of Cali I got to see was the 100 feet on each side of the freeway as I drove along (that's a slight exaggeration).

Highlights of the trip:

1. Pulling off the shoulder to take some pics and having this cop roll over with this HUGE gun (some sort of M-16 or something (EM Shesh Esrei in Hebrew)) and ask what I was doing (told him I was shooting something... well not really, but that does sound pretty macho of me).

2. Stopping at this camera store in Palo Alto (Keeble & Schuchat) where I picked up this ridiculously old and good looking lens (late 1960's). The dude that owns the place has a Leica collection on display worth well over 2 million buckaroos.

3. Sleeping.

4. Giving my new George Foreman to the clerk at the motel so I could then borrow it indefinitely and get out of toiveling it (she definitely now thinks I'm nuts).

5. Forgetting the Kosher stamp and having to sign my name and write Kosher L'Pesach on over 700 boxes.

6. Getting over 4.1 miles on neutral somewhere on the 101 (through the redwoods).

7. Getting over 6.2 mies in neutral somewhere on the 5 (and would have gotten more but there was this cop on the side of road making sure no one was speeding because the state needs money to pay it's police force to make sure people aren't speeding so the state could get money).

8. Losing half the tread of my tire shortly thereafter.

9. Discovering what it means to multi-task (driving with my knees, while adding some water to a vitamin water bottle (I like the water aspect more than the vitamin part I guess) and watching out for the fore-mentioned police men, all while taking a power nap).

Lesson learned: IF I am going to drive again, choose one place Id like to see, head straight there, spend a few hours, and then go straight on to my destination.

I also figured out how to use the mirror up function when shooting on a tripod. Yay. Of course I could have read the manual and such, but that would hardly be manly now, would it?

On to some pics. The first two are from my trip up. The rest are just some random black and whites.

Every time I go up to Crescent city (all of two times) I plan on taking a bunch of pictures of all these wonderfully dilapidated houses up there (and many in full technicolor glory). But I don't.

The last two where in good old HB. I should clone those spots out. I will, I promise.

If some one could explain to me why I shot this one wide open, I would greatly appreciate it.

Tehillim on Hoshana Rabbah.

Rapaports @ Central Park (another pre Upshernish Shoot)

It's been a while since my last posting. Shame on me. This past Sunday I had the priviledge of doing a photo shoot with the Rapaport family (well most of them) at Huntington Beach Central Park (actually it's the park behind the library which is not technically Central Park but it kind of stole the title from the park across the street).

We scheduled it for a bit before sunset (finally, convinced someone to shoot when the light was good instead of when was convenient. I'll never get it. Someone spends big bucks to do a photoshoot, but chooses some wacky time when the lighting is horrible and the pics just don't come out as good as they should have), and it really paid off. Definitely my best shoot yet.

Funny thing is (not ha ha funny, just funny), I'm in middle of revamping my lens lineup (more on that another time), I sold both of my portrait lens, and am expecting one any day to be delivered, but in the meantime I was stuck. So I quickly bought this old manual focus Nikon 180mm f/2.8 lens (Nikon's first lens with special ED glass). Normally I wouldn't do a shoot with a lens (and a focal length!) I'm not used to, however this time it turned out beautifully. Yes I missed a few shots I normally would have gotten, but overall I hit a lot more than I expected (I wonder why I think anyone cares about this stuff).

Mainly this was a shoot for Meyer's Upshernish, hence the lack of extraneous Rapaports. Hopefully we could do this again with the whole fam...

Anyways, on to the pictures. I'm not going to post all of them, if you want to see more, check out my flickr page (click on any of the pics, they should take you there, if they don't, your browser's sick and should see a doctor):

Actually this was taken with the 50mm, the rest were with the 180 (isn't that interesting).

Love his hair. Many are going to miss it. They'll survive.

These Rapaport kids are a photographers dream. They all have these awesome eyes... and cute smiles (unless you ask them to smile, then it gets dorky)

I almost nailed the focus on this one, good enough to print. Thats manual focus for you (autofocus isn't much good for subjects running toward or away from you anyway).

Yum.

And then we saw the light...

Yup. (All those white dots are bugs...)

Wonder how often this happens.

Okay, that was definitely more than I expected to post, but I just can't hold myself back. Until next time...

Old Friends

Many years ago, in another incarnation, I was a diehard camp counselor. Back in those sunny Southern California summers in Silver Gan Israel, I breathed, lived, swam and slept camp (although not so much of the latter). One thing I wish I had done a lot more of is keeping in touch with the campers during the rest of the year. We had a really awesome time in the summer, had some great conversations about yiddishkeit, G-d, life, and other goodies, but after the summer I didn't keep it up enough. I sent card and called every once in a while, but I definitely could have done more.

One kid I did keep in touch with (to a certain extant) was a boy by the name of Daniel Calick (I got to start ditching this sentence structure, I could have just written "I did keep in touch with Daniel Calick" or something simple like that. What's with all the posturing? Sheesh). Smart kid, funny (with an odd habit of mixing his food groups a bit too much), and really interested in all things Jewish.

So when I needed to scout out the parks in the area (for some wedding shots that were going to happen, and have since), I gave Daniel a call. He obligingly obliged.

And the pics:

First few were in the Butterfly park off of Graham.

Next bunch were in Central Park (the other park wasn't that great for the shots I had in mind).

One of my old hiding places

I actually added some grain to this one (not very visible in the small size), I'm really liking this black and white thing.

Anyway, I ended up shooting the wedding formals in central park, twas more green and shady. And more central. Way more central. In fact if you would walk ten miles in each direction, Central park would be exactly in the center. Pretty neat.

Moishe's Upshernish Invitation

A few weeks ago I went to Central Park with my brother Yossi and his son Moishe to take some pics for his Upshernish Initation. 'Twas fun as always but the sun came out earlier than expected (it keeps on doing that, maybe I should change my expectations), and he kept on chucking his yarmulkah (which is cute for pics but not for the invitation). So here's the final invitation:

And here are some of the shots we took there.

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How'd you like that spiffy new gallery?

Now my only issue is what category do I put this posting in? If I put it in design then peeps looking for photography won't find it. If I put it in photography... If I put it in both then the thumbnail will be in two places on the homepage. Life is so tough.

wide angle yumminess

Perspective. It's all about perspective. As in the rest of life, there is much to learn from photography. As a Dorothy something-or-another once said "Photography is learning how to see without a camera". A good photographer notices things he previously would have been oblivious to. The wonderful way the afternoon sun lights up Chanaleh's hair. The spectacular swirls of oil in ate. The way the morning sidelight highlights textures. The flowers. The petals. The shapes and forms. The colors.

Another, and in my extremely humble (and proud of it) opinion, more important lesson is learning how to read yourself. Say you come on a what you think will be a great picture. Before you snap, you have figure out why this is interesting. What about this interests you. Once you qualify that, then you could figure out how best to express that in a photograph. Which perspective to use. Which lens. Portrait or landscape? Shallow or deep? What should you leave out and what should you keep in? Underexpose maybe a bit? Makes you slow down a bit, and it gets a little deeper each time, hopefully.

Perspective. That's how I started. There's a common misconception that a wide-angle lens gives a different perspective than say a telephoto lens. The truth is perspective as nothing to do with the lens, it has to do with how far you are from an object. A wide-angle lets you get closer, while still maintaining a wide angle, and the closer you get the more perspective changes.

For example (all pics were taken with a 24-70 @ 24mm and 2.8):

Here we have a wonderful picture of Chanaleh with a huge head and a ridiculously cute face. Her head looks so big because the camera is like 6 inches from her face.

The point is that sometimes theres this huge obstacle/problem/challenge that seems insurmountable by dint of its sheer brogdingnagianess. However, what you have to remember that the reason Chanaleh's head looks so big is because you are too close. Back off, take a breath allow other things into your field of vision. Broaden your perspective and Chanaleh's head won't seem as massive.

On the other hand since kids naturally have big heads, a close-up pic with a wide-angle lens (as long as their head isn't too close to the edge, then weird things start too happen) can magnify that cuteness. Adults on the other hand... No. Be very careful of shooting adults close-up with a wide-angle. They might never talk to you again. Even if you make their double chin disappear.

A few more examples:

A bit dizzyish, but cute nonetheless.

This you may be able to get away with with adults. I'm really getting into this black and white thing. It just seems so timeless (besides for the whole ipad-piano thingie).

Zevi doing his stretches with mommy.

More stretches.

Moral of the story. The perspective comes from where you are. Back up. Take a breath. Turn around. Touch your head. So says Simon.