8:43AM, 10/28/2009 Radishes and Carrots
Another shot from last week’s rainy Wednesday.
Category Archives: Shooting from the Hip
Food, Organic, Personal Photography, Shooting from the Hip, Slow Food, slow food, Union Square, Vegetables
Shooting from the Hip # 28
Shooting from the Hip # 27(Rainy Days)
8:46AM, 10/28/2009 - Accidental Tableaux #2
Last Wednesday it drizzled pretty much all day. A little rain isn’t going to keep me from pulling out my trusty G10 and shooting. Rain brings out deeper tones and saturated colors while giving a specularity to things we normally associate as being visually flat, especially root vegetables which are covered with a dusting of earth. I tried Googling it but I can’t find a scientific explanation for why this is. I know it has something to do with the optical nature of H2O. It must be when light passes through or is reflected off a thin film of water. Let me know if you have the answer.
And, that carrot on the ground? It was out of frame until a group of people passed by and someone kicked it into my field of view. Without that carrot, it’s a different shot.
Freelance Portfolio Magazine Launches
Inside spread of D.A.Wagner's work from Freelance Portfolio Magazine
Yesterday afternoon, Greg Welch called me regarding a submission I made to his, about-to-be-launched, Freelance Portfolio Magazine, scheduled for December. He’d taken a look at the blog and felt there was something compelling about my comparisons of Mandelbrot’s fractals, NASA satellite imagery and my photographs of food. It struck a chord and we chatted a while about my past history with computers and special effects and, instead of my original submission, he asked to publish the images from the post. He mentioned that the launch was pushed up and he expected to put it up by today.
And he did. With my images included. I love the way it looks and Greg got me to thinking again about those visual relationships that somehow connect the very small to the very large. I spent most of my morning cruising through CERN, Fermilab and NASA, looking for more ways that that happens. Look for them in upcoming posts.
Thanks, Greg.
Shooting from the Hip # 26
9:08AM, 10/14/2009 End of Season Corn
There have been too many attempts shooting corn with nothing to show. Husks are just not an easy subject. But someone pulled the husk back on this one, revealing the corn and leaving it on top of the heap in the early morning light, which moved across the kernels in a hurry. It took less than 60 seconds before the light moved off that perfect spot. Three shots. That’s all I had time for.
Then, the light was gone.
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
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 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.
Shooting from the Hip #24
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.
Food, Organic, Personal Photography, Photography, Shooting from the Hip, Slow Food, slow food, Union Square, Vegetables
Shooting from the Hip #23
8:51AM, 10/14/2009 Assorted Hot Peppers
There’s been a debate about this image. Should I have included the funky tomatoes tablecloth under these boxes hot peppers, or cropped it out. I have a couple of shots this week with tablecloths making their debut in my market photos (at least that I know of, I should go and look). The other one, oddly enough, has an assorted hot peppers tablecloth under three bunches of rainbow chard. A lovely, colorful image taken just a moment later, but chard has had it’s fair share of blog time and I didn’t want to post another chard photo. So I’m posting just a little detail for fun.
8:50AM, 10/14/2009 - Rainbow Chard #3 (detail)
Funky tablecloths. Is it me, or is this is a trend?
Either way, I like them.
Shooting from the Hip #22
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.
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 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.
Food, Greenmarket in the Studio, NYC, Organic, Personal Photography, Shooting from the Hip, slow food, Union Square, Vegetables
Shooting from the Hip #20
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.
