Sunday, September 27, 2009

Tour de St. John's!

Tour de St. John's\

Got back from the Tour de St. John's this Saturday, dead tired and more than a little achy. Taking pictures of the event was a pretty fun experience, and I was able to race ahead with the fast group and then hang back in a photogenic location (winding roads, trees, etc.) to shoot the medium and slow groups that came after.

Tour de St. John's

The tour was organized to raise money for the Bread And Life foundation, which works through St. John's University to provide food and all sorts of necessary services to people who can't get them.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Portrait of a Michael Posessed!

Fred Christ

Real departure from the pastels and relative calmness of the last portraits! This is Mike letting out some anger in the lighting set-up he'd set up to take a portrait of me (those should be coming soon). More info on the lights can be found if you click through.

All in all it was a whole lot of fun, and was Mike's first experience adding light to a scene! It was interesting adding onto the setup together, and I think we both learned a heck of a lot. We went through three distinct positions in the room and went from one light to three at the end of the shoot (and there was a reflector in there somewhere I think as well).

Demon Mike

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Analee and Her Amazing Toys!

Took a visit to Analee's place at Henley today, and further reinforced that I should have gone and lived there! She's got a stunning view of a huge portion of Queens from her window (which should come together when I figure out how to do panoramas). But besides the view, she has TOYS!

Creeper

Lots and lots of creepy creepy toys!

This Is A Bunny On A Slug

Unlike her toys, Analee is way less scary (although strangely more of a creeper!). But she was kind enough to model for a few impromptu portraits, which actually came out pretty well given the gear I was carrying.

Analee!

La Madonna

Monday, September 7, 2009

Facades

Facades 2

I've never been satisfied with the pronunciation of 'facade', ever since someone corrected me in 11th grade. Fuh-sahd is an alright pronunciation sometimes, but fuh-cAde sounds so much cooler and more muscular.

Facades 1

These facades were taken outside St. John's Universitie's Manhattan campus, which is pretty excellent by the way. To get in, you swipe your ID over an unassuming area of the front desk and a system beeps you in. It felt very much like the future.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

F Train Graffiti Crawl

Tunnel Aliens

One of these days I'm going to have to spend some time going along the F train line looking for these advertisement modifications. They're all over the line, and it kills me to have to stay on the train to get to school after seeing some great bit of art.

Absurd
Wit

The tags and gang signs aren't that interesting to me - they tell a story that really can't be told by still pictures and not really by me. But there are some strongly opinionated people riding the lines with pens using the advertisements as a record for the little thoughts that pop into their minds. I like that there's an outlet for that. It makes the city feel more alive. When you pull into a station and it's filled with unadulterated and cheesy ads, it makes me realize how much of the space we traverse is ad-space. This kind of modification provides a minor distraction from the grind.