dpg2017

Like a dog to a whistle or a moth to a flame sometimes a sound brings me to a photograph. The deep throated pounding of water onto a ridged structure first caught my attention. Watching as liquid and solid came to a resounding confrontation brought me to the only place where I could find both in one frame. Spending more time waiting and watching than shooting gave me a single image. A luxury rarely afford in commercial work. The chance to linger and observe as a picture develops before me is a pleasure I relish, but find little time to actually do. As the newest member to DPG I’m looking forward to another reason to wait and watch again and to the evolving conversation with my new colleagues. Thank you for the invitation and the chance to play.

I like to arrive a bit earlier then expected  when I have a family shoot scheduled, My goal is to get  some candid, authentic type images before the actual shoot commences. Unfortunately, it took forever for this family to get it together and I waited patiently for them to be ready. By the time we went downstairs to the street, the baby had fallen asleep and the mom realized she hadn’t taken her last look for herself in the commotion of getting a toddler, new baby and husband set for our photoshoot. This is one of those shots I took just to make sure everything was working with my cameras before I actually began. When I started my edit, I realized this image told the perfect story of a typical busy young NYC family in this millennium!

It was suppose to be a beautiful sunset sail but it all changed in an instant. As we left the marina the skies changed from bright  blue to ominus gray, squashing any hope I would get those sunset images I was onboard to capture. I put my cameras away below and settled in for a quick sail around the harbor before the the inevitable squall hit.  I think these two felt a bit more comfortable with me on board as soon as my intention was not to capture images . I couldn’t resist grabbing my camera and this  taking a few frames of a lovers moment, framed perfectly on the bow of the boat with a backdrop of the threatening skies.  As I clicked my camera , I thought the perfect caption for this image would be, “This couple can weather the storm”.

A few weeks ago I was waiting for guests to arrive at an event and the heavens opened up delaying thier arrival. I was lucky as I was already at the venue long before the rain started and their delay gave me a moment to focus my lens on creating a personal image.  As I looked out the window I marveled at how nothing stops New Yorker’s from getting places, not even a torrential downpour.  I upped my ISO to 5000 and focused on one of the cyclists, hoping to capture the essence of the city I love in one frame.  In post I heightened the clarity and vibrancy as well as some old fashioned dodging and burning. I wanted to make sure the viewer would see my vision of a rainy NY night filled with chaos but still vibrant and exciting.

This image is part of a conceptual series  about self love inspired by the philosophy “I AM” by Deepak Chopra. Over the past few months I have been shooting all types of people in the same backwards pose hugging their bodies.  The emotional context of these images comes from my own personal experience of learning to love who I am as I age and my body changes. Each and every one of us are enough, as we are. My series will help you to understand that “I AM” does not need justification, just our own personal acceptance of this simple phrase. If we embrace it we will find that ever elusive Self Love we all need to become collectively a more unified society.