Where's my DSLR!!!

      No matter where I am or what I'm doing,  I ALWAYS have a camera/extra battery and charger in my bag... a small canon power shot just in case i come across something interesting that is worth documenting and so I don't have the feeling of a missed opportunity. In most instances when I know my destination for the day and anticipate some beautiful scenery or will be around some interesting people, my DSLR always comes with me as well.  One thing I am a big fan of is live music and concerts and always want to photograph them, but for some reason I am always skeptical about bringing my 5d with me when I attend shows.  For the reason that it's big, it's heavy and a it's pricey piece of equipment that most of the time I treat like my child.  I have missed an enormous amount of opportunities that I have kicked myself in the butt for because of that, especially my most recent concert experience.  For my birthday I was surprised with two tickets to one of my favorite bands that was playing in a small venue in NYC.  Now the thing was, originally i knew that they were playing and thought to myself what a perfect concert to photograph, but decided not to get tickets for myself.  So was told by my friend not to make plans on March 30th because he had a surprise planned in NYC for me.  I thought about what it could be and immediately thought THE CONCERT! that's the night of the concert! So of course it was a surprise for me, so i had to go along with it with out saying anything so I wouldn't ruin the surprise he had planned just for me.   So now my thoughts... on NO! i cant bring my DSLR because he"ll know that i know, or what if that's NOT the surprise.  Thinking to myself, if I am right... a small venue, general admission tickets and I'm NOT bringing my 5d! So a point and shoot of course came with me instead.  We pull up in a cab, and there we were, I was right! Highline Ballroom, standing room only with its max capacity of 700 people.  Four feet from the stage, so close i could have grabbed the base player, DSLRless!!  I took some photos with my broken zoom power-shot, but of course it wasn't being very user friendly in the low light situation, but i did my best with what i had.  What an incredible concert,  I definitely wish i had my 5d in my hand.  It was the perfect opportunity to photograph these bands but until next time... my 5d will be coming with me no matter what!

New Projects From Missed Opportunities

I feel that we all have missed opportunities in life, especially when it comes to photographs. Every time I go to the city I am not able to take my camera so I missed a lot of exciting things and wonderful people. A few weeks ago I went to the city for my birthday and only had my digital camera not my 35mm. As my friend and I were walking in Manhattan there was a group of kids on a tour or some type of field trip. The kids were about 8-10 and they were so active and colorful. They looked like they were from a different country, so they had really playful clothes.

Although I am doing my project on portraits of my club members and their backgrounds, this missed opportunity would have been a good start to a larger project. I am interested in people’s background and their personal styles. Originally I wanted to work with kids and this would have been a great opportunity. If I was able to capture this moment I would continue to take portraits of the kids, and try to continue with others from different countries or ethnic backgrounds. This would be a longitudinal project and would take a lot of time and extra effort since I would be working with young kids.

So many missed opportunities..

I think most of my missed opportunities occur when I'm driving in my car. In the way I walk, or drive, through life, my eyes literally act as a lens. It's so strange but no matter what I'm looking at, my eyes constantly crop, take a picture, edit, etc... The only problem here is that I feel like I constantly miss 'pictures.' When I'm driving, as much as I focus on the road and being safe, I'm looking at my surroundings a little too much. It's almost annoying in a way because my mind never shuts off.

For this project, there were at least 10 opportunities that I missed whether it be due to timing, location or weather. For something as simple as a broken down barn in an open field to a man working on a ladder making repairs. I would've stopped if it wasn't raining, or I would've stopped if I wasn't rushing to get home after driving all day. Sometimes I wish life moved more slowly. I feel like as much as I'm born and raised a fast paced New Yorker, I could definitely appreciate slowing it down for the sole purpose of taking more photographs.

Missed Opportunity

Being a photographer makes me think differently about the way I view the world. Instead of just walking through my life and seeing everything around as just the environment in which I thrive, I see everything as a potential subject for documentation. A subtle ray of light coming through the trees and landing gracefully on a subject below creates a fleeting moment in time that can be captured forever on film rather than dissipating into a lost memory. However, there are plenty of times in which I do not have a camera and these moments do get lost among the fabric of time.

Recently, I was in New York City with my brother for a day of museum hopping. This particular day was threatening rain, however everyone was going about their business without a care in the world. Tourists were enjoying the sights of the city when it started to downpour. All of a sudden umbrellas blanketed the city. The majority of these umbrellas had logos showing off hotel names. It was such a sight to see everyone in New York City hidden under a wave of navy blue product placement. It's just so unsafe for the entirety of the already overcrowded pedestrian walkways to now be filled with large objects that are at an appropriate height to poke everyones' eyes out. This was one time where I really thought to myself, “Damn…I wish I had a camera.”

Missed Opportunity

Documenting my life, and the people in my surroundings, has always been important to me; I often find that I have very little ability to maintain a clear memory of almost anything I do. I often forget people are with me and tell them stories about an activity they were present for. So I began to shoot anything fun or even silly that I did, just as a sort of physical record of the memory.

This lead me to begin shooting pictures at parties more and more often since they are always filled with tons of small moments that are generally lost in the immeasurable chaos of the entire episode. These pictures are often much more than a record of the party for me, they delve into the social and physiological self of the individual or serve to speak as a manifestation of some greater message that I can relate to personal or generational struggles.

I recently have been "Sans Camera" on most of my outings since my DSLR has become riddled with errors and much too difficult to shoot with. About three weeks ago I went to a party that was masquerade themed and was referred to as "The Masque-RAVE."

Not having my camera for this party will probably remain as a huge regret in my life. Although I feel like I may have remembered more of the party based on all of the incidences that I continuously saw and subsequently regretted not having the ability to take a picture of. All I could do was marvel at the ludicrously dressed attendees: sheer spandex body suits, feathered masks, capes, anything available and regardless of elaborate or simple, the people were in prime dancing form and indulging in multiple vices in a fervor. Its unparalleled excellence remains intact in my memory, for now, but the physical translation of the phenomenal experience is lost to the outside world.

Missed Opportunity

This past weekend my entire family got together for Easter. Since there are 9 siblings on my mother’s side, it is very rare that we all agree to come together as a family for one day. As I sat back and observed the actions of my family, I realized that they would all be great subjects to shoot.

Like the typical Latinos my family is very animated. Speaking with our hands and sometimes our whole bodies (depending on the subject and/or story), is our specialty. Even though this missed opportunity is not one that won't come again, this Easter was particularly intriguing.

Due to the rainy weather, my entire family of about 35 people of a combination of men, women and children, had to stand and sit under my porch. Being this close to each other gave the day a very intimate vibe. Since I was sitting in the middle, I became absorbed by this intense dialect in every direction that I could turn. Being that this is a moment that rarely happens, I don’t think that I would turn this missed opportunity into a project. What this has taught me is to always have a camera on me when I know my family is getting together. 

My Life is a Missed Opportunity

The thought of a "missed opportunity" on a photograph happens every single day I walk down the street or go through my daily routines. My eyes are always looking for a photograph where the composition and framing of the image are all perfectly in balance, similar to Henri Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment." Cartier-Bresson would wait around for as long as possible to get the image he wanted, whether it be a man jumping with a perfectly-rendered reflection of this man on the ground, or a bicyclist adding the finishing touch to a photograph where there would appear to be a hole in the image otherwise. Henri Cartier-Bresson defined the "decisive moment" as " the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event it's proper expression." A lot of my photographs are primarily taken in the city, and everything in the city is always faced paced, especially the people walking down the street. Every time I'm there I always find the perfect composition for a photograph but I'm either too slow to pull out my camera, the person I wanted in the image is already gone, or I have a roll of film in my camera that's specifically for the purpose of an assignment for class.

While working on my final project for this documentary photography class, I have found that I have missed out on many photographic opportunities because when I go into the city I only bring one 35mm slr, and I can only insert one roll of film at a time. If I am not shooting for this class I am shooting for my alternative processes class, and I somehow always find that I get the most inspired for images when I'm not shooting for that class. My worst nightmare is mixing contact sheets, and once I start getting into shooting for one class my mind automatically gets one image idea for the other class, and then I'm simply stuck in a pickle. The thought of carrying two 35mm slrs seems tedious, especially if I have a different format camera on me as well.

One "missed opportunity" that is prominent in my mind happened recently, within the past couple of days. I was shooting in the city for my alternative final project and I've been walking around taking pictures of city buildings with odd perspectives and bizarre shadows cast on them. I was walking around the Gramercy neighborhood (one of the places I usually walk around) and I walked down one of the upper '10s blocks heading west from 3rd avenue. I've been taking pictures all day for this project and I found one medium-sized apartment building that I fell in love with. The moment I looked at that building the sun was beating down hard and was free of clouds, and the buildings across the street made this gorgeous cast shadow where half of the building was filled with sunlight and the other half filled with an abstract shadow that moved up and down as you followed the line where the shadow meets the direct sunlight. The clouds had kept moving over the sun for the past couple of hours and to get that perfect cast shadow was rare for the lighting of that specific day and time. I waited around for a little while on that street, just staring at that building with my camera, hoping that the clouds would move away from the sun again and create that gorgeous cast shadow that I've been dreaming of, but after about fifteen minutes I gave up and kept on walking. I got one image similar to the one I wanted, but it just wasn't perfect in my eyes because the shadows were not as strong as what I saw previously and the sunlight was somewhat covered by a cloud.

Sometimes I feel as though I will go through my entire life and never be completely satisfied with the shots I have taken and the compositions I have made. I will always try to make up for that "missed opportunity" and try to create even better images then the ones I could only have dreamed of.

Missed Opportunity

Before I started shooting for my final project at Space Farms Zoo & Museum I planned out every little thing of what needed to be done to produce a cohesive series. I contacted the owner to get permission to shoot there, picked days to shoot, and planned out what sort of images to take. So everything was set, I was to shoot once as a patron of the zoo and then go back with the owner to shoot over spring break. It had all the makings of being a very successful shoot, and at first it was, but unfortunately it did not end the way I planned it to.

I went for my preliminary shoot on my own a few weekends ago and ended up shooting eight rolls of film, and getting some great shots. But after viewing the images it was clear I would need a few more shots to round out the series. It was now spring break and I was all set to go for my second visit, but Mother Nature had different plans. The days leading up to and the first few days of spring break were extremely rainy, so rainy in fact the zoo flooded and was shut down the entire week to be drained and cleaned. I was not going to get my second after all.

Although it was not an instance where I forgot a camera or was changing a roll of film, it was certainly a missed opportunity. It was the first time I had special permission and access to shoot a very interesting place. It would have been intriguing to get the perspective of the owner, but alas it was not to be. Fortunately I took the preliminary trip their and was able to capture the overall story of the zoo. I definitely want to continue to explore the zoo and plan to over the summer. This whole story goes to show that even with a thought out plan there are always unpredictable forces that can spoil a shoot, that’s life.

Missed Opportunity

This "missed opportunity" feeling is something that I am all-too familiar with and that I experience on a extraordinarily regular basis. I carry my camera far less often then I should and am always observing the world around me as it would photograph. Despite how often this happens, there is one instance that stands out in my mind way more than the others, and even now, probably at least two months later, I still have the image in my mind and regret not being able to photograph it.

I keep meaning to work on a photo project called "How I See You", just depicting portraits of people in my life, representing how close to me they are and how I view them. (I use the term "portraits" here loosely) Anyway, I'm shooting the project with a TLR camera which has quite a lot of restrictions and doesn't really allow for me to shoot quickly or stealthily - but in this instance, this didn't really matter because I didn't even have the camera in the first place. I could've ran 15 feet and picked it up, but I knew that a. that the moment would've been missed, and b. considering the circumstances that would have been quite odd. But okay, one morning I was waking up next to my friend and the light was falling in the room perfectly on him and it was the beautiful golden light of that specific, exact time of morning which couldn't be replicated no matter how hard you tried. It was such a calm, innocent moment and would've made a perfect photograph and fit perfectly in with/kickstarted that project, but it was impossible. At least I still have it in my head, but I just wish it could be shared.

Missed Opportunity

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has wished that my eyes were actually cameras. Times when I've forgotten to bring a camera along with me, wherever I am, times where the lighting is perfect and the moment is right and I curse myself for being to lazy to carry a little extra weight. One of these times in particular occurred last summer, on a trip to North Carolina.

As a favor, I was helping my friend move some things down to her new house. We drove down, stayed for just a few days. I of course figured that I'd be too tired from driving all day and moving and building furniture to do any sightseeing or even leave the house, but I was afforded one opportunity after dinner one night. We ate dinner at the edge of the bay, on an outdoor deck of a local restaurant. As we were finishing up, the sun was setting and people were passing by, walking up and down the boardwalk, enjoying the good weather and the view. I know that there are sunsets everyday and everywhere but I felt as though I was missing out on a great environment located just there, on that deck, that particular June night. It just felt comfortable and easy, the warm sun casting a golden reddish glow on the people around me, tourists and locals alike. And there I was, kicking myself for leaving my camera in New York. Of course, now I take a camera everywhere. Sometimes even two, just to be on the safe side.

Missed Opportunity

As I attempted to take pictures for my final project at the nursing home I found that working and taking pictures is not as easy as I had anticipated. I would be doing my job and before I knew it I had to leave and I hadn't taken one picture. I thought to myself all of the pictures I had missed, such as the residents exercising, laughing together, wandering the halls, relaxing in their room, are missed opportunities. I realized early on I was confined to the dining room where the residents stay for most of the day, but in order for me to get the residents to interact with me I have to interact and show them what I wanted them to do.
As I begun to pull out my camera the residents never minded they just never stopped moving, making it hard to get a clear shot or even the image I was looking to get. The easiest time to photograph them was while they napped, but the most interesting residents are the ones who are awake and helping you out and participating. The most frustrating times were when I was so involved in the activity, that lasts about 30 minutes, and by the time it ended I realized I had forgotten to take pictures. So while I missed the daily activities such as drinking coffee, exercising, coloring, or making a craft. I did get those photographs of the residents doing activities less common like bowling or with an entertainer. In the end I found myself assisting residents then taking a few shots, helping a resident to participate, then taking a few shots, and again assisting a resident then taking a few shots.

Missed Opportunity

Although I would love to bring my camera everywhere I go, there are some times when I know it would be better protected if I just left it at home. I know this sounds safe, but as I tend to be accident prone, if anything were to happen to my camera, it would be game over. As I was thinking of missed opportunities, I immediately thought of some places I had never brought my camera, or a time when it had just slipped my mind to bring one.

One of these times was two summers ago up at a Harvest Festival upstate. Although I had been there once before, I knew better than to bring valuables as tents often got broken into. The people and energy at these events is unbelievable, and I knew it would have made for some excellent shots, particularly the people walking around in costume on stilts. They have a few big bonfires placed around the camp grounds, surrounded by stages of various types of music and vendors. The men and women on stilts were dressed with painted faces and costumes, and with the light of the bonfire, glow sticks, and stage lights, I think it would have made for an exciting shot of a portrait of these people. The area of the bonfire was especially beautiful because it had gatherings of large people. There was independent musicians as well playing bongos and harmonicas, and dancers all around. I think this area around the bonfire would have been a great series in and of it self capturing the faces of the musicians, the men and women on stilts, as well as the glow stick dancers, and of course all of it as a whole. I think the Harvest Festival bonfires had a great energy that would have translated amazing on my digital camera in color.

Even though it has not been a recent missed opportunity, I keep revisiting this thought in my head and what the images could have been. Hopefully if I get the chance to go back to the Harvest Festival or a similar concert festival event, I will most definitely have my camera on hand and ready to shoot.

Missed Opportunity

There are times when I wonder if I see the world through a viewfinder. I've always had a knack for composition, and I love noticing something small that eventually works it's way into an entire frame of a photograph. Sometimes, the things I want to capture are hardly noticeable, and that's what makes them stand out a little more to me. I like details, and I hate missing little things. Especially when my camera is on Long Island, and I'm in the subway.
I go into the city every weekend for my internship with a men's clothing company. I take the same subway trains every time, and I'm generally less than enthralled by my surroundings. While I almost always have my camera with me, mostly out of habit and paranoia that I'll miss something, one weekend about two months ago, I left it behind. Of course, this was the weekend I decided to take a different subway route, which dropped me into a different station. The Times Square subway station that branches off onto almost every subway line, and that has pillars. These pillars are chrome plated, and when the fluorescent light hits them just right, they gleam. As I climbed the stairs onto the main platform of the underground subway station, these pillars, soldiers of Manhattan, looked almost like trees in metallic forest, and from my lower vantage point, created a unique perspective on objects that were passed without a second glance by thousands of people every day. I kicked myself all the way to Grand Central.
I know that particular image would have been wonderful. I know the reflections and the blur of the passing commuters would have added an eery motion to an otherwise rooted photograph. I worry that I'll never find that particular angle again, and even though I know exactly where I stood, and where I was looking, I don't know if I'll ever find that particular moment in order to put it on film or digitally record it. I hope I do though, because I know that would have been a fantastic photo.

Missed Oppertunity - Pick Up Game

The way I see the world is that everything is interesting. If you look closely or long enough, anything can be photographed and be fascinating. Looking at the world, one sees moments that hold immense promise for pictures all the time: sometimes you may catch them, but there are other occasions when you nearly hate yourself for not having a camera.

One such moment happened to me when I went back home last winter break. My childhood friend and I went for a walk in my neighborhood late in the afternoon, when the sun casts that magical light: warm and golden. As we were walking, I saw a group of children (about 6 of them) playing soccer in the middle of this dust road near my house. It was perfect: as the game picked up more momentum and the kids got more into it, the dust rose off the ground and enveloped the small area creating a sort of haze around the players.

 The sun was hitting at the right angle so that the haze would be completely visible, the kids’ enthusiasm and heartiness would have rendered perfectly; the goal post made of pieces of found bricks and rocks, the slightly deflated ball would have just added to the feel of simplicity of this pick up game in the mountains. It was so beautiful to observe and I’m sure it would look even better had I had my camera by my side.

I regret that I decided not to go out with my camera that day because that pick up game could have been visually very interesting and produced some pretty good pictures. I learned from this afternoon walk was that I should have my camera with me as much as possible so to be able to capture those moments where everything is at the right place at the right time, or seemingly so. Because, after all, we live for these moments.

Missed Opportunity

It's April 23rd, and the perfect day to go on assignment. I packed my backpack full of all the essentials that I would need on my drive (Nikon D40 DSLR, Canon RebelG SLR, Fuji Instax 210 Wide, extra film, and a banana). I checked my map printout from Google.Maps just before leaving so that I had freshly in my mind the exact areas I wanted to go and shoot; even ones to revisit. Although at this point, as prepared as I felt, it wouldn't have been enough to keep me from missing certain opportunities.

My first stop was to check out a few roadside memorials on the Wantagh State Parkway, southbound side, just south of where it crosses with the Southern State Parkway. For awhile I was very apprehensive about stopping on the side of the parkway to shoot the memorials. But this time I mustered up the gaul to do it.  While driving down the parkway at 11:30 this morning, I though I was driving slow enough that if the memorial was close, I'd be able to stop, roll down the window and shoot. However, I didn't anticipate to be coming up as soon as it did, and missed one of the memorials I wanted to capture. I was kicking myself on the inside. It was one of the better ones that I wanted to shoot, too. I had it all planned out in my journal, and in my head.

Eventually I did stop and shoot from the driver's side, without getting out from the car. I didn't immediately go back onto the Wantagh State Parkway. But rather, I went around to other memorials in the area, tried a few different vantages (one from across the road in the parking lot of a bank), then went back onto the parkway. However, now that I think back to the time, I think I was in the wrong position on the grass where I was shooting. Looking over my contact sheets, I realize if I had just moved up a bit further, it would have made all the difference. I'm certainly going to try it again.

Tim Hetherington, 1970-2011

Tim Hetherington, a British photojournalist and documentary filmmaker, was killed Wednesday in a mortar attack in Misurata, Libya; Chris Hondros, an American photographer was also killed. Hetherington is most publicly known for his work on the oscar nominated documentary film Restrepo, which he made with writer Sebastien Junger. Hetherington's series of sleeping soldiers has been a favorite of mine for some time and I have shared the work with other classes. The work is unabashedly intimate, even sensual; the subjects radiate warmth and life even while the stillness darkly hints at the possibility of death.

Hetherington's accomplishments are detailed in the NY Times lens blog today.
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/parting-glance-tim-hetherington/

Missed Opportunity

This semester I think I got a lot of photos that I wanted to get. However, there are always a few pictures that you never took that you wish you did, and I certainly am no exception to that. Its not really just one particular shot, its more like a project I would have loved to do. I am very interested in fashion (even though I don’t dress like it!) and I think residents in the lovely city of Manhattan display some of the funkiest and freshest styles I’ve ever seen. I work a lot and always swamped with schoolwork so I don’t get to go into the city much, but I would have loved to spend a weekend in NYC. I would have just gone around to different neighborhoods taking photos of the different kinds of styles. I find that when I go into the city, certain areas display specific kinds of styles. People in the Upper East Side usually dress more elegant, with a preppy twist. The Village seems to have much more of a laid back style. People in Chelsea sometimes have an extravagant colorful fashion sense. I think its so interesting how one island can have so much to offer fashion wise, and have so many different styles at once. I of coarse would have wanted to shoot it in color… black and white would have done the fashion no justice. The most important part of clothes is the colors. Each color on a different style says a lot about an individual’s personality. I also would have loved to up the saturation and contrast to make the fashion pop from the background. I would have liked to play with the different environments and how they work with the varied types of clothing as part of the piece. Even though it sounds like it may be more of an editorial, fashion project, I would have tried made it more documentary. I wouldn’t ask the people to pose. I think the photos would be so much stronger if the subjects were just casual and doing their natural thing. I would have loved to use different angles and heights at which I would take the frames. I love shoes, so I think a worm’s eye view, sort of on the ground starting at the sole of the shoe looking upwards at the subject would have been a fantastic shot. It could have highlighted the footwear, along with the tall buildings and other people in the background. When I’m home for the summer, I usually work full time, but I would love to take a weekend off and go into the city. In my head, I keep picturing a photo of a girl wearing some kind of funky colorful bright fashions, in front of a hot dog vendor in Times Square with friends. It might sound posed since I’m already picturing it in my head, but I think a shot like that would be extremely interesting to compare to other styles such as a woman in a more conservative, traditional outfit near a book store or coffee shop on the Upper East Side. This project seems like it would be a great deal of fun, and very rewarding as well. This is something I will most certainly look into doing for a future project. Watch out Bill Cunningham, here I come! J