Category Archives: NYC

Oct 26 0 comments
Food, NYC, Organic, Personal Photography, Shooting from the Hip, Slow Food, slow food, Union Square, Vegetables

Shooting from the Hip #25

9:04AM 10/21/09, French Breakfast Radishes in Union Square Market

9:04AM 10/21/09, French Breakfast Radishes in Union Square Market

Some things look completely different from different angles. You wouldn’t expect that from French breakfast radishes since they’re more or less symmetrical and, unless you’re a radish, can tell the difference. So, here are two shots, taken less than two minutes apart. Diffused sunlight through the vendor’s white tent fabric and shot from this camera angle (Originally shot from the side and flipped 90º), this capture feels soft and nurturing.

This shot (below), however, I captured from the top of the stack (I flipped this upside down – clever me) and the radishes cast a shadow on themselves. A totally different feeling: dramatic, almost threatening in a scary movie kind of way. Alien. I like the top shot for the one radish rising about the crowd. I like the bottom shot for the drama of the tangled white roots rising against the receding shadow and gray pavement of Union Square.

9:06AM, 10/21/2009 French Breakfast Radishes Alternate

9:06AM, 10/21/2009 French Breakfast Radishes Alternate in Union Square Market

Why so different? It must be the light. Or maybe it’s the camera angle. Then again, if I’d not turned them, would they have been as visually compelling? Maybe not, as I passed these over at least three times in my editing before taking on a different perspective. Simply shooting from the hip is not always enough to get to an interesting shot.

Sometimes you have to stand on your head (metaphorically) to make things interesting.

Oct 23 0 comments
Commercial Photography, Commercial Photography, Greenmarket in the Studio, NYC, Organic, Portfolio, Slow Food, slow food, Union Square, Vegetables

Greenmarket in the Studio #5

Sweeping Leaves, Mustard Greens

Sweeping Leaves, Mustard Greens

Now that I’m moving onto this dark thing…

Black backgrounds are so completely different to shoot on. The black just wraps itself around the subject matter. Where white is wholesome, clean, crisp and elegant, and never loses my subject, black is erotic, deep, surrounding and foreboding (but not in a creepy kind of way), and can swallow my subject like a black hole.

Recently a friend asked if I was tired of shooting vegetables and the market. No, not really. It’s challenging to find the interesting and unusual in the familiar; it’s not always easy. And what I find fascinating is, there is a front and a back to these studio subjects that I am sure is not intentional, but purely by coincidence. The most involvement I have on set is getting the produce to stand up. With very few exceptions (like Green Market in the Studio #4), I don’t style. If a stem is broken or a leaf torn or eaten by a passing insect, I don’t retouch it. It’s about real food, just as I bought it. The only difference is, I shoot it before I eat it.

If you like arugula, broccoli rabe and bitter greens, you’ll love this very simple recipe for wilted mustard greens.

Wilted Mustard Greens

1 bunch of mustard greens (about a pound or a 2″ circumference of stalks when tied with a rubber band – that’s about what I had)

2 cloves of garlic pushed through a press

3 or 4 tablespoons of dashi (at about 1:5 dashi to water) or vegetable or chicken broth

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

Okay, here’s how: Tear off the leaves from the stems and thick veins (and discard those guys)  and wash and dry them as you would lettuce. In a large frying pan or sauté pan heat up the olive oil on a medium/high heat and add the garlic and brown (about a minute). Add the dashi or broth to the pan and add the greens, tossing gently for about a minute or so (not much more, or you find it’s cooked down to nothing). Remove from the burner, drizzle on the sesame oil, add salt and pepper to taste and toss. Put it on a nice plate and eat. Serves 2 to 4, depending upon how much you love your greens.

And don’t forget to share.

Oct 21 0 comments
Fish, NYC, Personal Photography, Shooting from the Hip, Union Square

Shooting from the Hip #24

9:36AM, 10/21/2009 - Fish On Ice

9:36AM, 10/21/2009 - Fish On Ice

It’s a departure from the usual images that get posted here.

I don’t always find the ice cases at the fish monger in Union Square full with fish, as they usually are the first to sell out. In fact, this is only the second time. The big line there didn’t give me much opportunity for thinking, so I just kept shooting without looking, until someone asked me if I was on line. I think it was their way of telling me I was holding things up. Fair enough.

It looks like a detail from an old master painting. I’m thinking Jean Frederic Bazille’s, Still Life with Fish, which, again, may be pushing the old master thing too far. But, that stripe of light across the fish just seems so surreal.

Oct 09 0 comments
Food, Fruit, NYC, Organic, Personal Photography, Shooting from the Hip, Slow Food

Shooting from the Hip #22

10:15AM, 10/07/2009 - Plums at Union Square Market

10:15AM, 10/07/2009 - Plums at Union Square Market

It’s been a long week and I’m off to Boston to do some cycling and check out the markets. There are some plans in my back pocket for new portfolio pieces and those should be under way next week some time. I’m thinking about moving on to a black portfolio, the white book is pretty well rounded out and it seems a good compliment. Anyway, fire looks good against black. Look for the test results, coming soon to a blog near you.

And, Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. That should make his day. It sure made mine.

Now, if only he can get a decent healthcare bill through congress so freelancers aren’t penalized by the system any longer.

Oct 07 0 comments
Food, NYC, Organic, Personal Photography, Shooting from the Hip, Slow Food, slow food, Union Square, Vegetables

Shooting from the Hip #21

10:28AM, 10/07/2009 - Edible Pansies at Union Square Market

10:28AM, 10/07/2009 - Edible Nasturtium Flowers at Union Square Market

When fresh flowers, or any fresh fruit or vegetables for that matter, are placed into a clear plastic container or bag, they continue to breathe. They exhale carbon dioxide, creating condensation, vapor and water, becoming the artist’s thumb, smearing and distorting the under painting.

This isn’t the first time I’ve photographed edible flowers in boxes; in fact, I may have a few hundred shots like these from a half dozen attempts. This is however, the first time the contents have been right. The colors were right. The condensation was right. The light was right.

If at first you don’t succeed, blah, blah blah.

Oct 03 1 comments
Food, Greenmarket in the Studio, NYC, Organic, Personal Photography, Shooting from the Hip, slow food, Union Square, Vegetables

Shooting from the Hip #20

Union Square Market 10/02/2009, 10:14AM - Accidental Still Life #1

Shoppers love to touch food. They touch for freshness and to smell and to taste. They touch for the sake of feeling something that is as essential as the air we breathe. They are the unseen human presence in my market images and constantly changing the landscapes I capture here.

What happened in front of my lens today is a real lesson in serendipity. Just a few seconds later, this tableaux was gone.

Forever.

For all the thousands of photographs I have taken here since I started shooting in the Union Square market (a quick count shows about 2300 since June), this image is a gift.

Sep 26 0 comments
Commercial Photography, Food, Greenmarket in the Studio, NYC, Organic, Personal Photography, Photography, Portfolio, Slow Food, slow food, Union Square, Vegetables

Greenmarket in the Studio #4

3:04PM, 09/25/2009 - 3 Beans in a Bowl

3:04PM, 09/25/2009 - 3 Beans in a Bowl

Finally, my first Union Square produce photo shot in the new studio.

I was waiting to get settled before capturing these images of wax beans (crappy name, but that’s what the sign said), also known as yellow, heirloom or golden beans, and almost missed my chance. Except for the folks with the big ORGANIC banner, none of the vendors had them. Wax beans (yellow green beans as far as I’m concerned) have these really gorgeous yellow to green transitions at the tips. When I started to play around with the curved ones it looked like steam coming up from the bowl, so I went with it.  Maybe this will make it to the portfolio.

Who said legumes can’t be sexy…?

Sep 24 0 comments
Food, NYC, Organic, Personal Photography, Photography, Shooting from the Hip, Slow Food, slow food, Union Square, Vegetables

Shooting from the Hip #19

10:51AM 9/05/09 - Fennel in wooden box at Union Square Market, NYC

10:51AM 9/05/09 - Fennel in wooden box at Union Square Market, NYC

In a couple of days it’s back to business, having wrapped and packed and loaded up and moved and unloaded and unwrapped and unpacked and then moved some stuff home after moving it to the new studio ’cause it didn’t fit (<looks like a run on sentence, doesn’t it?).

The September email promotions and postcards are out and now it’s time to pick up the phone and make those calls for a little face time with Buyers. I’ve spent way too much time building this new portfolio and contemplating this move. So, it’s on to the phone calls, picking up an unlimited MetroCard, buzzing through the nearly always useless security checkpoints and showing up for my appointments. Woody Allen once said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” I wonder what the other twenty percent is.

Just to make things interesting, after I wrote this entry, notcot.org, posted my scissor birds photo and it went viral with 800 hits so far in just 24 hours. Absolutely amazing! Three months of blogging and marketing finally start to pay off! So, the other twenty percent must have something to do with perserverence. And I thought it might be perspiration. Who knew?

Sep 21 1 comments
Commercial Photography, Commercial Photography, NYC, Personal Photography, Shooting from the Hip, slow food, Union Square, Vegetables

Shooting from the Hip #18 (while moving an entire studio)

10:35AM, 8/31/2009 Assorted Mini Peppers at Union Square Market, NYC

10:35AM, 8/31/2009 Assorted Mini Peppers at Union Square Market, NYC

Done. I’ve moved in to the new studio. Six trips in Vicki’s Suburu Legacy station wagon with Vicki at the wheel. Without my girlfriend as driver and watchdog, not only would I still be moving, I’d probably have been to the tow pound on 12th Avenue as part of the deal. After all, who was going to stay with the car to keep it from being towed? Vicki. And who was going to keep an eye on the equipment while loading and unloading? Vicki. Who forgot to ask Vicki if she could help with the move?

Me.

Duh. Thank you, Vicki.

I’ve already started unpacking and managed to shoot two jobs over the weekend as well: one for Lincoln Center, and one for AJ, my friends, James and Andrea’s Jazz/Soul band.

Feels like I’m off to a good start.

Sep 16 2 comments
Commercial Photography, Greenmarket in the Studio, NYC, Portfolio, Union Square

Moving Day

Sugar Hot Peppers (Greenmarket in the Studio #3)

Sugar Hot Peppers (Greenmarket in the Studio #3)

I’ve spent the last 6 years working out of a small studio inside of Graphic Systems Group on Union Square. It’s been a good run, but now it’s time to move on to something a little more, well, studio like. So it’s out and down to 12th Street, just two blocks south of my favorite greenmarket, although the market at Grand Army Plaza on Prospect Park is a favorite, too. Oh, yeah, then there’s Chinatown, under the Manhattan Bridge (one of NYC’s best kept secrets), and the markets at Testaccio and Campo di Fiori. But Rome just isn’t a daily event, so I’ve got to pull in my reins here and get back to the topic of moving.

I’m working with old friends in a crisp new space, oddly named, Cheeky Little Monkey Studio. They’ve invited me to join them and I couldn’t turn down the offer.

I had to pick a day where we expect rain…