NIGHT PAPER with Karina Libido
A budding fashionista on the Upper East Side.
The alluring Karina Libido (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook), joined us last night on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to make another NIGHT PAPER shoot come alive. Uptown was upstaged as Karina became the paper she wore, making an amazing set of photos with us.
Thanks for being amazing Karina! Here are the picks from the set:
NIGHT PAPER with Suffragent and Richard Louis Boccia
Last evening we made beautiful art with Suffra Gent and Richard Louis Boccia on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Mabel secured a gorgeous lounge / 3rd floor rooftop area from a friend of ours (and permission from the building!) we embarked upon an amazing shoot with the creative duo.
This is the first time I've made what I'm calling "Facebeards" – a combination mask and body piece. Here are a couple of them:
"A little tease from the fitting for the artistic madness happening this evening. #NIGHTPAPER"
"More #NIGHTPAPER preview - a second "facebeard" cut paper fashion for this evening"
This was a very fun, collaborative shoot and we're grateful to Suffra Gent and Richard for joining us. Here are the picks from the shoot:
Google+ 2nd Year Anniversary Photo Walk
I had a blast yesterday attending the 2nd-year anniversary of Google+ in the form a of 100+ person photo walk in NYC. Hosted by Alan Shaprio and sponsored by SmugMug, it was truly a friendly, quality gathering of photographers.
Our walk started in Chinatown, went to Brooklyn and back across to Manhattan. Rough mapping below.
I, as usual, brought a little too much gear to be constantly shooting, but I was happy. There was a team of us from MAC Group attending to spread the love and cheer about X-Rite, PocketWizard, Induro, MeFOTO, Sekonic, Kupo and more. I was celebrating by shooting Hypersync flash (example above). You know me, I prefer long exposures, so daylight I can do, but it's not my preference.
The quality of the people at the photo walk was excellent! I got to meet many new people and finally catch up with some others I've been wanting to shake hands with and chat. Good times! Looking forward to next year.
Night Paper #8 FILM: Falana Fox on the 56th Floor in Manhattan
Just got back some processed film! Here are two shots from Falana's shoot back in February.
I love them both for different reasons.
Mamiya 7, 43mm lens
2 mins @ f/8 + light painting
ILFORD XP2 Super
LOMO Belair X 6-12, 58mm lens
2 minutes @ f/11
Fuji Acros 100
69th St Transfer Bridge Revisited
Five years ago, Gabe and I had our first night out shooting NPy together at this location.
Two nights ago, I had the pleasure of revisiting this place with Erik Ward and Dan O'Neil, two guys who also met around five years ago and have been doing Urbex together ever since. Cool guys, very fun with which to shoot.
I must admit, one of my favorite NPy photographs I have ever shot was at this location and I was loathe to encroach on my personal enjoyment on its happy memory. But I approached it with an open mind to experiment and apply all that I have learned in the last five years. Great decision :)
Here is the image I hold dear from back then:
May, 2008
Mamiya 7, 43mm, f/16 @ 12 min
Ilford XP2 Super, 120
I remember Gabe shooting for much shorter times and wondering why I was exposing so long. I am not sure I knew what I was doing, but instinct told me to expose for 12 minutes. In hindsight, I knew I wanted the transfer bridge to stand out and since it was at least 3 stops darker than the correct exposure for the rest of the City, I let it burn...
This lesson has stuck with me over the years. Upon returning, I wanted to test the theory again and shot two different exposures just to see what happened:
March, 2013
D700, 14mm, f/13 @ 2 minutes
March, 2013
D700, 14mm, f/8 @ 2 minutes
I think they are both successful for different reasons. The former has the qualities of all the light sources and shadows. The latter is more of an artistic statement about the relationship between the foreground and the background.
Moving on... here are some more shots & experiments from the evening:
Night Paper #8: Falana Fox on the 56th Floor in Manhattan
My favorite image from the shoot
We were fortunate to borrow a little time in a beautiful apartment space near 30th St in Manhattan, all the way up on the 56th floor, facing downtown.
The scouting photo where the Freedom Tower was unobscured by clouds.
During our scouting mission, the sky was clear and a gorgeous view of the near-finished Freedom Tower was occupying the view at the foot of the wedge of Manhattan Island.
Last night, however, the weather was a mix of drizzle, low clouds rain and sometimes not rain. I do like shooting night photography in adverse weather simply because I like the challenge of making something beautiful out of what people typically call "shitty weather" (grin). Clouds and water make for great movement and reflections.
So we set the lights, metere, put aside two film cameras for later in the shoot and were ready for our beautiful model, Falana Fox, who is also a burlesque performer in NYC.
Here are the rest from the shoot. It was very hard to choose just these:
Want to see more NIGHT PAPER? Read more about the project and see the gallery of images.
Grand Central at Night
Just a simple one I shot with my Voigtlander Bessa-R. Long live film!
Manhattan Nights
Did a night shoot with Gabe and Brian a few weeks ago. Here's a few choices from the evening...
High Line – Sunset and Evening
The newly-opened High Line Park in Manhattan is simply gorgeous. Such a beautiful solution to a structure that had expired. Do yourself a favor and check it out. Take a stroll in the sunset/evening - it's worth it. [gallery link="file" columns="2" orderby="ID"]
The park staff was really cool. They missed that I was using a huge softbox and power pack for about 1 1/2 hours. Unfortunately, I had to stop with the flash, but tripods are OK. You can shoot flash (like, 600 Ws +) if you get a permit from downtown.
I blended my cut paper art and night photography tonight as a test. Random walkers of the High Line (mostly people from other continents!) donned the paper mask and made funny for the camera. New Yorkers (with one awesome exception) ignored my portrait requests with total, "you're not even talking to me" disdain.
My favs:
Oh, and I made my first act of public art. The mask was on adhesive-backed vinyl :) Take only pictures, leave only art behind. (grin)
69th St. Transfer Bridge
One night, Gabriel Biderman invited me out to shoot the 69th St, Transfer Bridge in Manhattan. Boy, did he open me up to a beautiful experience. Thanks, Gabe. You're aces, dude. Here's my two favs from that shoot. [gallery link="file" columns="2" orderby="ID"]
Mamiya 7, 43mm, f/16 @ 12 min / Ilford XP2 Super, 120