Cage Homes

Alex Thomas has a very interesting piece in FotoEvidence, a site dedicated to exposing injustices through the medium of photojournalism.  His article discusses "cage homes" in Hong Kong.  According to the piece, landlords took apartment buildings and gutted the interiors in order to fill them floor-to-ceiling with pens, or cages, to rent out to newly arrived immigrant workers.  Although more prevalent at the beginning and middle of the 20th Century, these apartments still exist today.  The photos are pretty impressive.

The piece is definitely worth a read.  Click here for the entire article. 

The Battle of Madison

Thirty years after President Reagan broke the back of the PATCO union, the country is again embroiled in a passionate struggle, some say life-and-death struggle, over the future of unionization.  Over 30,000 protesters have taken to the streets in Madison, Wisconsin to protest Governor Scott Walker's proposal to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights.  This has been known in the media as the Battle of Madison, read here and here,

This struggle has seized the imagination of the country as unions across the country demonstrate against the further erosion of their collective bargaining rights.  The demonstrations came to Miami yesterday, well at least what passes for union demonstrations in this very anti-union state and in a city known for its political apathy. 

Approximately 300 people (my very rough estimate) demonstrated at the Torch of Friendship in Bayfront Park, just across from Downtown Miami.  What they lacked in numbers, however, they made up for in earnest passion.  Dismayed and angry at the sense that they are facing a full assault in several different states, the workers and organizers gathered to express their solidarity with workers in Wisconsin. 

The gallery is definitely worth a look.  Click to see the full gallery.

New York in the Snow

This past December, my daughter and I left for our annual and possibly last (she'll be 18 soon) trip to New York for the New Year's Holiday.  We heard it would snow during our stay; we didn't expect a Snowpocalypse.  

After an hour in a holding pattern, during which the tower decided whether to divert us to Kennedy, we finally landed in La Guardia with the snow already falling.  It turns out we caught one of the last flights into New York just before the snow hit. Soon after we landed, the airlines started canceling flights and stranding passengers. 

Ambient Light Photography

Kamasutra, a 90's cover band played the Brickell Irish  Pub in mid-December.  An old friend of mine, Luis, is the lead guitarist and asked me to shoot it.  He's not the one shown in this photo, though.

Flash was out of the question for this shoot, partly because it would temporarily blind the musicians but also because it would just be lousy photography. 

A little over a year ago I shot another performance at Jazid's on the Beach.  I had been hired by the drummer. [more after the break]

Miami On The Bay

Ho, ho, ho, and a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka,  Good Kwanza, Feliz Navidad, Happy New Year and Feliz Ano Nuevo.  Have I left anyone out?

For all of you in the frozen north, this is Miami in December.  The photo of Biscayne Bay viewed through a park bench was shot in Alice Wainright Park in the middle of a beautiful Miami winter's day with the temperature hovering around the low 70's.  Also, for those of you keeping score, I shot it with my Leica M8. 

This photo is available for purchase in sizes up to 20x30" on my webpage by clicking here.  

Leica M8, redux

As I posted yesterday, I just recently purchased a Leica M8 with a Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 Nokton lens.  I'm still deciding whether to keep it or not. I took this photo yesterday and just love it.  I think it's got a real vintage look, almost like a 1970's Rolling Stone article.  I love how the Nokton paints the bokeh in the background.  Some reviews I've read are a bit critical of the Nokton, saying that it doesn't render the bokeh in the same creamy manner that Leica lenses do, describing the bokeh as harsh.  I wouldn't describe it as such.  I think it's more shimmering and it gives the photo character.  My Canon lenses render creamy backgrounds, but none shimmers and adds character like this Nokton.  

Auto focus, though, is still an on-going battle.  After ten years of shooting Canon 1 Series cameras with lightning-quick, razor-sharp auto focus, focusing by hand is a slow and painstaking process.  Henri Cartier-Bresson is famous for stating that photographers needed to anticipate, wait for and seize the "decisive moment."  I doubt he would have felt the same had he carried a state-of-the art Canon 1 Series instead of a manual focus Leica.  Just auto focus and squeeze off four or five shots.  The "decisive moment" will be in there somewhere.  Not so with the Leica.  Each shot is essentially "hand-made".

Still, I like the camera.  It shoots so differently from any other camera I own or have shot in the past few years that I feel it will cause me to stretch my boundaries as a photographer and artist.  In the end, that can only be good.  For now it stays. 

Leica M8

Just recently purchased a Leica M8 with a Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 Nokton lens.  I'm still deciding whether to keep it or not.  After a decade shooting top-of-the-line Canon 1 series cameras with razor-sharp auto-focus and primo L lenses, going back to manual focus is a bit disconcerting.  Still, I'm very intrigued by this new addition.

This is one of the first shots, taken of friends while out at dinner.  Love the bokeh background, some say it's a bit jarring and not as creamy or smooth as Leica lenses, but I like it.  The lens renders photos in a really classic way, much like an old model from the 40's or 50's.  I took some shots today that I'd swear look as if they were taken in the early 70's.  I'll post those tomorrow. 

For now, the Leica stays.  Who knows, may be tomorrow I'll vote it off the island, but don't really think so.  Besides, it just looks sooooo cool on my shoulder.

Barcelona Street Scenes

Located directly on the northeastern Mediterranean coast of Spain, Barcelona has a rich history dating back at least 2,000 years when it gained prominence as a Roman town under its old name, Barcino. Spain's second largest and arguably most beautiful city "is full of what European cities are known for (outdoor markets, restaurants, shops, museums, and churches) and is fantastic for walking with an extensive and reliable Metro system for more far-flung destinations.

Carleigh & Eric's Wedding

After the wonderful comments I received as a result of Lizzie & Frank's Engagement Gallery, I thought I'd continue the theme by posting a wedding. 

Carleigh & Eric were married in St. Joan of Arc's Catholic Church in Boca in October, 2009.  The train is a relic located in the local Tri-Rail station.  As always, I tried to capture the feeling of the day rather than just a bunch of boring poses. 

Click here to view the entire gallery.  Click here to leave a comment.

Lizzie & Frank

On a cool and unbelievably beautiful afternoon in April, I photographed Lizzie and Frank in the Brickell neighborhood of Miami, right by the bay.  At the time I was kicking myself for not bringing my polarizing filter in order to deepen the sky.  In fact, I really didn't need it because the day was just so gorgeous.  The only thing lovelier than the day was the couple themselves. 

Click here to view the entire gallery.  Click here to comment on this post.

The Most Important Image Ever Taken?

I stumbled across this video while surfing the web.  Although not about photography in the way I or any reader would use the word, it still is technically "photography".  Also, it's set to Pink Floyd, which is always cool and brings back memories of smoke-filled, midnight showings at planetariums. 

Enjoy.

Adobe Plenoptic Video

First, a definition: "A plenoptic camera, also called a light-field camera . . .  is a camera that uses a microlens array (also known as a lenticular lens array) to capture 4D light field information about a scene."  Click here to see the entire Wikipedia article. 

Adobe has recently demonstrated a light-field camera that is truly amazing.  Through software, it actually lets the user refocus the image through then entire depth of field.  Light-Field cameras are able to do this by refocusing the image through many, smaller lenses much like a bug's eyes focus through many small lenses.   Essentially, an unprocessed image looks totally blurred, but can be focused at any point in the depth of field.  It can be focused after the fact.

Ratrix, a company out of Germany actually makes light-field cameras for sale and will also modify existing cameras to work with their light-field software.  Click here to see their products.

Check out the video.  It is truly amazing.

Portrait of a Young Candidate

Katie Edwards

Currently the Executive Director of the Dade County Farm Bureau, Katie Edwards is the Democratic nominee running for Florida State Representative, District 119.  Comprised of parts of unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Homestead, Florida City, Redland, The Crossings, Country Walk, Richmond West, and Sweetwater, District 119 is very geographically, ethnically and racially diverse.

In April, I spent a day following Katie and her campaign volunteers around as they engaged in old-fashioned door-to-door politics in order to meet the voters and garner the necessary number of signatures to qualify for the primary election without a filing fee. 

None of the photos in the essay was staged.  I had complete access to Katie and was granted unhindered freedom to photograph at will.  The photo-essay shows an earnest and eager young candidate who engages the voters and her campaign volunteers with friendliness and respect.  This is democracy at work.  Click here to view the gallery.

10 Things Photographers Should Not Do

Brian Auer has an interesting piece on Epic Edits listing 10 things photographers should not do.  My favorites are number 2, "Don't lust for gear", and number 9, "Don't ignore the rules". 

Photographers are a curious group that includes hard-core gear-heads on one extreme and the touchy-feely artsy crowd on the other.  While I love the gear (don't get me wrong I really love my gear) to focus (pun intended) on the gear misses the mark entirely.  Photography is about the images, it's about what you can capture and how you can display it.  To focus on the gear is not only super expensive but totally misses the mark.  The gear-heads might as well be talking fuel-injectors or hard-drives.

It's all about the images.

As for the "rules", yes there are compositional rules for photography.  In sum, you should learn them and commit them to memory so afterward you can intentionally ignore them.  That's the difference between accident and intent.

Click here for the rest of Brian's article.

Suburban Knights

NPR has done a very interesting profile of work by Venice-based photographer, E.F.Kitchen in which she photographs medieval reenactors from The Society for Creative Anachronism.  According to NPR, Kitchen "photographs with a large-format 8x10 camera, and makes her own prints using an old-fashioned platinum  process" which takes about a month for each print.  Click here for the article.