ABOUT 2009:
I was in love. It was the beginning. My goodness I couldn't get enough of my new Nikon D90 and my lenses! I had a 50mm f/1.4, and an 18-105 kit lens for most of the year. I eventually added the 85mm f/1.8 to my bag, much to my delight. I would practice on friends shamelessly and capture tons and tons of photos. I think I had continuous shutter on for the entire year :)
What I remember most about 2009 was how curious I was about the powers of a DSLR. I taught myself 4 basic elements to images: ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed and White Balance. I then reconciled those 4 elements with the DSLR. The D90, and all DSLRs have multiple values for each of those image elements; ISO 200, 400, 800 etc... or 1/30, 1/40, 1/50 shutter speed...
So my mind went crazy. I thought, "Oh my goodness, Photography is infinite." There are infinite possibilities for how one image can be composed. It's not exactly infinite, but pretty close. I would practice often by just figuratively stretching the legs of the camera. "Okay, what if I change the shutter speed, what happens? Okay if I keep this shutter speed, but change the aperture, what happens?" It was too much fun. Also, early on, I was in love with bokeh, and why not? It's beautiful and it's something you can't achieve (authentically) unless you have low aperture lenses.
Please enjoy these 2009 extras. The first image in the post, the self portrait is an homage to my distant mentor, Joe McNally. I learned quite a bit from his website and blog. I've never met him, but hopefully will one day. One of the things I love about his work is the use of multiple light sources. In 2009, I did not own much equipment, certainly none of the cool things that Joe McNally works with, but I still wanted to try to replicate the look of his images.
The self portrait image is obviously lit with the touch lamp in my right hand. I can't get enough of how the D90 rendered its light and captured its translucent/see-through quality. My fingers are glowing. I must have been working hard, because it's amazing that the 90 caught the beads of sweat on my forehead. The other consideration I made was a 2nd light source. I am standing in my brother's old bedroom, but outside of the window I set up one of my father's work lamps on a stand and shined it through the window. I love that I was able to catch the shadows of the window and blinds. So there it was, my best Joe McNally impression.
As for the rest of the images on the page, they were images of friends, random images around Stamford, CT, images around my parents house (a shout out to my dad's cats, Cleo and Claire), or just anything that caught my eye.
Final note: the last image in this set is of my friend Ryan DJ Ryfy Feinstein as we waited for a Metro North train to Manhattan. I loved the moment, the puff of steam/smoke, his stance and the word "Authority." I'm making a big deal about the image because it wasn't captured with a DSLR, but with a Nikon Coolpix S50. Well done, Nikon.
These images don't necessarily fit into a "category" or are a part of a larger set or one of my paid gigs.
These images are from when I was just playing with the camera, outtakes, practicing, or on the way to or from a session/event. I would see an interesting space, object, texture, or sliver of light that moved me and I just captured it.
These images should be shared and seen. I hope you enjoy these extra images:
