I opened my email the other day to see that I had sold three prints! Maybe it was the link in my previous post that did it; or maybe it was the link I posted on Threads? I don't know, but what a great way to start the new year.
2023 Wrap-up
Well, first things first - looks like I skipped 2022. I have no excuses, but here's two of my favorites from then, and we'll call it good.
I was pretty darn close to skipping my 2023 wrap-up too - every time I looked at my favorite photos from the year, I'd find myself thinking "Really? That is one of your favorite photos from 2023?" One of the things I'm trying to do is be kinder to myself, and to remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good... but it's hard. Brains are jerks, and will tell you terrible things about yourself if you let them.
I couldn't find any overarching themes for the year, but there were a couple of notable images, and a few paid portrait gigs. I flew my drone a bit less this year, but I did make some aerial images that I reall like. And in November, I went on an epic backpacking trip to Santa Rosa Island in the Channel Islands National Park. I heard once on a podcast that it's important to experience the feeling of awe - that is, to be in a surrounding that dwarfs you, that is beautiful, but at the same time a little threatening. I thought about that a lot during that Santa Rosa trip.
So here, in no particular order are some of my favorite photos from 2023.
people
I did a few portrait sessions this year. Not as many as I’d like to; in fact one of my 2024 goals is to book 2-3 portrait or headshot or family sessions per quarter. Feel free to reach out to set up a session! Anyway; here are some images from those sessions; a portrait of some random strangers on the street; and a self-portrait with dramatic lighting that I keep coming back to.
aerial
I love flying my drone and making images from a different perspective than we’re used to. In addition to some images at the beach, and in Prospect Park, I also dipped my toe into aerial real estate photography, which is also something I’d like to do more of.
nature and outdoors
Who doesn’t love the outdoors? I spend a lot of time in Prospect Park, as I have the good fortune to live across the street, so most of these images were taken there.
nyc miscellaneous
I got a some cool random shots around the city, but some standouts for me are Damon the JĒSISM guy; the orange air pollution sky, and that cool not-quite-Manhattanhenge sunset. I also love the roller coaster image.
santa rosa
This backpacking trip with two of my oldest friends was transformative. Hard backcountry hiking, with 40 pound packs filled with food, water and supplies for four days. The sound of sparring juvenile male elephant seals were the constant soundtrack (fortunately, our camp was removed enough from them that we couldn’t smell them, cuz boy do they stink). I was absolutely outside of my element, (I suck at sleeping in tents), but it was a fantastic way to reconnect with each other without the distractions of our ever-connected society.
Bonus
These two images don’t fit anywhere, but they’re calming to me, and I like how they look juxtaposed with each other. I shot these from the window of a flight to Copenhagen (which was an amazing city, and I’d love to go back again).
2021 and Done
When I wrote last year's wrap up of what a garbage year that was, little did I know I'd be sitting down a year later to say that 2021 was a dumpster fire too. I guess the attempted coup right in the beginning should have tipped us all off, though.
Anyway. The truth is, I have to once again say with deep gratitude that it wasn't all bad for me and my immediate family. Everyone's safe and healthy and has gainful employment, and I hope that continues into 2022.
side hustle
My photography side hustle definitely picked up - I got paid more in 2021 from my photography than in any previous year. Not only did I get more gigs, I branched out and did a little videography - handheld and aerial! - which was one of my goals. And I did one of the most elaborate studio shoots I've ever done for my friend Damaris, aka Summer Baby's upcoming single, and I'm so proud of the resulting images. I also shot the album art for my niece Gigi's first single as well, so music-related photography seems to be a growing trend for me.
I also started contributing more images to Adobe Stock, in an effort to start making some passive income. I only made a few sales this year, but the meager couple of bucks was still more than those images would have made just from sitting on my hard drive, collecting digital dust. The plan is to ramp that up this year as well.
A new car!
2021 Honda Insight, in Lunar Silver!
One other significant life change this year was that at the ripe old age of 47, my wife and I bought a car for the very first time in either of our lives. After many stressful hours spent researching, and one attempt to take a test drive at the ridiculous Plaza Auto Mall in Brooklyn, we ended up with a brand new 2021 Honda Insight, and we love it.
Unfortunately, almost exactly six months later, that jerk Ida pulled through and devastated the Northeast, leaving us with a flooded parking garage. Womp-womp. So much for that new car smell. At least there are no electrical problems… yet.
2021 Honda Insight, in dirty hurricane water
Travel
We actually got to travel a little this year. Having the car allowed for a couple of quick trips to see family in Virginia and New Hampshire; as well as a couple of little jaunts to the Catskills and Greenport, Long Island.
Santa Rosa Island
The one major trip I took was out California to go backpacking on Santa Rosa Island, in Channel Islands National Park. It was an epic adventure with my childhood friend Matt, and some of his good friends. It was my first time backpacking - like, proper backpacking: carrying forty-plus pounds of gear and food; paying close attention to the weather and potable water sources; having absolutely zero cell service - that kind of backpacking.
We did about 10 miles of hiking each day for three days, and it was fun, but it was also really hard. I learned something about myself, though: that I was capable of doing this hard thing, and of having fun along the way. Also, Matt and his friends are more on the conservative side of the political spectrum, and spending time in close quarters with them for several days reinforced something I've always believed, which is that despite what Twitter says, it's possible to have ideological differences with people and still enjoy their company, and to learn from them.
random
Of course, I also roamed around NYC on my bike a bit; spent time in Prospect Park, and during that sliver of time when it seemed like we had Covid beat, I hung out with friends and family and did all those types of things that we hadn't been able do at the height of the pandemic. I also shot a bunch of random cool pictures for various reasons, or for no real reason at all.
Conclusion
So, that’s about it. 2021 is a wrap; 2022 is brand new and full of promise…here’s hoping I’m not back here in a year complaining about 2020: The Sequel.
Elise Studio Session
This was a fun one - and a personally satisfying one, too. This is my amazing and talented niece, Gigi (recording as Elise), and I was lucky enough to be there to record her very first studio recording session. I have exactly zero musical talent, but being in a studio watching the process of finessing and refining a song is something I enjoy a great deal.
It's even more amazing when it's someone I've known as a baby becoming a mature and talented artist learning to express herself and develop her craft.
On our way from her last day of recording, we passed by a 24-hour adult video store, and just knew we had to go make some portraits in front of those neon lights.
I can't wait for you all to hear her music. Her first single, SINS, should be out soon on all streaming platforms.
2020 Wrap-Up
So, uh... 2020 huh? That was... something. First of all, I'm going to pat myself on the back for doing a wrap-up in a timely fashion (apologies to 2019, I'm very sorry for taking you for granted). Aside from that, I struggled - am still struggling - with gathering a collection of images that sums up this year in a way that is representative of the crazy roller-coaster dumpster fire we just went through. I spent much of the year in a frothing rage (well, okay, maybe more of a low-simmering despair that mostly manifested itself on [Twitter][1]) at failed steak salesman and one-term president, Donald Trump, and his colossal ineptitude and [callous mishandling][1] of the pandemic. But the truth is, I've been extremely fortunate, and don't have much to complain about in my personal life. Although I personally know at least 5 or 6 people that were killed by the virus (and I never want to attend another Zoom funeral), most of my immediate family and friends have managed to either avoid COVID-19 entirely, or not become seriously ill with it. I've been lucky enough to keep my job, keep my apartment, and never run out of toilet paper during this whole thing. I have a lot to be grateful for. [1]: https://twitter.com/flysi Anyway, here are a couple of collections of images that sum up this wild and crazy year. Here's hoping 2021 brings brigther days, and at least some of the familiar, but sorely missed things we all took for granted in the Beforetime. [1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/us/politics/trump-coronavirus.html
BC: Before COVID
Ah, we were so innocent then - I was just living my life, doing regular stuff, like going to karate, riding my bike, riding the subway, hanging out in Chinatown, and working at an office. I even made some portraits of my coworkers, all in a room together!
Just before the quarantine kicked in, my wife and I took a trip to San Antonio to see our niece graduate from Air Force bootcamp, with a little detour for me to visit a friend in Austin. As a couple that usually takes at least one fairly big vacation every year, we could never have imagined that that would be our last trip for the unforeseeable future.
the new normal
Just before shit went sideways, a friend of mine loaned me his road bike, to try and coax me into yet another expensive hobby, and I had started riding a little more frequently, and farther afield. So naturally, when the lockdown started, knowing that there wouldn't be any traffic, I decided to bike into Manhattan to get some exercise.
I've lived in Brooklyn for 24 years. Up until the last 2 of those, I commuted into Manhattan for work every week. Nothing - not even seeing other people's videos or photos of it - could have prepared me for the sensation of being in The City during those early days of the initial shelter in place orders; of being in Chinatown, or in front of City Hall, or on the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian walkway by myself. It was shocking, saddening, depressing, scary, surreal - it was like the desolation that Will Smith's character in I Am Legend lived in, before the plants and deer (and zombies) took over.
And yet, it was kind of exciting. I felt like I was experiencing something exclusive; I felt possessive and selfish of that experience, and I also felt a little sad that I knew the emptiness and quiet was going to go away, and that I'd probably - hopefully - never see the city that way again. It was deeply conflicting, and I felt somewhat guilty about it. But I got to make some photographs I could never have made in any other circumstance, and I'm grateful, too.
Aside from that, once we realized that face coverings were easy and smart to wear (and asinine to make part of the culture war), my wife busted out her sewing machine, and after a few practice runs, she made our first cloth masks from some patterns she found online.
cooking
I like cooking, and consider myself to be pretty good at it, and quarantine life drove me to cook even more. One of the best uses of video conferencing I experienced during the whole pandemic was a couple of cooking classes I took from The Brooklyn Kitchen. Our virtual office holiday party also took the form of us breaking into groups and cooking together over a video call, and it was one of the most fun video call experiences I've had.
I expanded my range, making things like quesadillas, fried rice, chow-mein, homemade pasta and cast-iron skillet pizza, but I also went the other way and fell back on easy packaged things like spicy instant ramen. At Christmas, as I've done for the past couple of years, I made a traditional Guyanese dish called Pepperpot; and also did a simple roasted chicken and a few sides.
nature and macro
Being locked down could have been much, much worse, if not for Prospect Park, which I'm fortunate to live across the street from. Coincidentally, my wife was getting an urban naturalist certification from the New York Botanical Garden, meaning she was now super interested in identifying the plants, birds and bugs that are native to the park. So we spent a ton of time going on walks, getting fresh air, and photographing what we saw.
As an aside, my burgeoning interest in birding happened to coincide with the very high-profile case of Central Park birder Christian Cooper having the cops called on him by a racist lady, so the incident struck a nerve with me in several ways.
Anyway, I was continually amazed at the quality of images I was able to make with my iPhone 11 Pro and Moment Macro lens (*affiliate link) - so much so that I wrote a whole blog post about it.
Portraits
Pandemic aside, I managed to make some portraits that I'm really proud of. As mentioned before, I shot a few of my co-workers at the beginning of the year; and I also got out there and shot several family portrait sessions, which is something I've dabbled in for years now, always threatening to pull the trigger and make it a more substantial part of generating income with my photography. I also got out of my comfort zone and photographed a few strangers in the park; and at the prompting of some good friends of mine, I started submitting to 52frames, which is a weekly photography assignment. It's challenging, full of talented, creative people, and it motivates me to shoot even when I don't really feel like it. I recommend it.
protest
No wrap-up of 2020 can ignore the long-suppressed turmoil that finally - inevitably - spilled out with the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor (among many) this spring. I won't claim to have been out there in the streets with the rest of the activists fighting for justice (I know my lane; I donated where I was able, to causes I believe in), but I did make a point of capturing some of the powerful - and peaceful - response I saw in my neighborhood.
I also went out to try to capture the sense elation that many of us felt when the election was called in favor of President-Elect Joe Biden, and when Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris made history in so many ways this fall. I'm still disappointed that so many people opted in for more of the objectively apalling shit that we've experienced for the past four years, but I'm also cautiously optimistic about the future.
aerial
One thing I did this year, which was really hard, and I'm incredibly proud of, was to pass my FAA Part 107 remote pilot certification. It means I can fly a drone commercially, so that's another avenue for expanding my photography earning. It's also fun, and the perspective from up there never gets old.
So, that was my 2020, I guess. Difficult times; loss, frustration, sacrifice; but also growth, creativity, potential, new opportunities.
I sincerely hope that my optimism for the incoming administration isn't misplaced - though the bar is low, so unless Biden is paying adult entertainers hush-money, or telling white supremacists to "stand by", I think we have the capacity to move forward as a country.
I'm also looking forward to moving forward as a husband, a son, a brother, a friend; and as a photographer, a developer, a creative person, and in all the other areas of my life. And I wish the same for you as well.
🥂
Eastern Calligrapher, a type of flower fly
Macro Photography During the Pandemic
Our reality is very different now, and calls for us to practice responsible social distancing (unless, of course, you are more concerned about other more pressing issues in our society, but that's not what this post is about). As photographers, this might mean finding subjects that don't involve getting close to other people.
This is how I've come to find myself shooting more and more macro photography of insects and plants in Prospect Park. My wife is currently working on an urban naturalist program through the New York Botanical Garden, so I have to give her credit for helping me to look more closely, as well as to be able to identify some of the tiny subjects that I've been filling my frame with lately.
Wanting to get close is all well and good, but I couldn't have made these images on my iPhone without my Moment Macro lens (affiliate link). With a max focal distance of just 1", there's no other way to get this close to your subject.
With a macro lens and the help of an app like Pro Camera by Moment, that lets you manually focus your lens; and a tripod or some other means of stabilizing your phone, you can try focus stacking, or capturing different regions of the image in focus, and then blending them to achieve a crisp image overall.
Basil flowers, focus stacked
Prospect Park
The other day, my wife and I were wondering if people would have lost their minds completely, if Prospect Park and the other parks in the city hadn’t been accessible for safe physical distancing during the pandemic. It made me appreciate Prospect Park—and our good fortune to live so close to it—that much more. I got up early the other morning, when there would be fewer people, and made a few photos with my drone, to get a bird’s eye perspective.
iPhone 11 Pro x Moment 15mm Fisheye
Now that I’ve had the iPhone 11 Pro for a few months, I just wanted to do a quick post about the value of using Moment lenses with this phone. I have the Moment 60mm, which is a telephoto equivalent; the Moment 18mm Wide Lens, and the Moment 15mm, or "Superfish", and I used them all regularly with my iPhone 7.
My Moment collection
But when the iPhone 11 was first announced, I wondered about whether these lens attachments would still be as useful, given that the iPhone now has those focal lengths covered with its built-in trio of lenses. Also, the Moment lenses require having a Moment case, with its bayonet lens mount, but the new iPhone 11 cases didn’t ship until sometime in December. By the time I finally received mine, I’d kind of gotten used to not having access to my Moment lenses at all, and was getting along just fine without them:
My iPhone 11 Pro with Moment Case
Anyay, I finally got my case, but I wasn't using the lenses. It was just more convenient to not have to carry them around, plus I could be seamlessly switching between the focal lenghts of my iPhone's stock lenses.
I was out shooting some low-light photography, and I eventually figured out at least one answer for why you'd still want to use these lenses: Night Mode. Apple's Ultrawide lens (0.5x, as it's indicated in the iPhone's Camera app) is great, but is limited in a couple of ways. First, it's got a smaller aperture than the Wide (aka default or 1x) lens, meaning it lets in less light. It also doesn't work with Night Mode, which makes it doubly tough to use in low light situations. But, you can solve that by using one of Moment's Wide or Fisheye lenses stacked on top of the built-in iPhone Wide lens:
As you can see in the images above, Night Mode is impressive, but with the Moment 15mm Fisheye (fka the Moment "Superfish"), the field of view improves dramatically. These images are straight out of camera, with no adjustments, though as a matter of preference I'd normally correct some of the fisheye distortion using the Moment Pro Camera App.
Just as a matter of comparison, here's an image shot with the built-in iPhone 11 Ultrawide:
Same scene as the first two images, shot with the Ultrawide
My intention with this comparison isn't to disparage the Ultrawide; it's a fantastic addition to the hardware, and I'm willing to bet it'll get improved optics on Apple's next iPhone, which is safe to assume we'll hear about in September. It's just to illustrate what a difference Night Mode makes, and to show how you can compound those advantages with an add-on like the Moment lenses.
Similar results are available on the other end of the spectrum; namely, stacking a Moment telephoto lens on top of the built-in Tele lens will get you that much closer to your subject. Just be aware that you won't be able to use Portrait mode, because when a Moment lens is mounted on the iPhone's 2x lens, it obstructs the iPhone's other lenses, which it uses to read the scene and generate depth of field and bokeh.
Attached Moment lenses block the iPhone’s other lenses
Theoretical Dollars
What am I supposed to do with this? This is a screenshot of my stats page on unsplash.com, a photography platform where photographers can share images without licenses for people to make cool stuff.
There’s a ton of really nice photography on that website - for the most part these images have been created by talented photographers with gear that they’ve paid good money for, and probably make a living with. Anyway, as a photographer, if you upload your work to this site, you are agreeing to let anyone, anywhere use it without any kind of licensing or payment. In fact, although it is encouraged, using these images doesn’t require a photo credit.
My images, as shown in this screenshot, have been viewed over 15 million times, and downloaded over a hundred thousand times; meaning used in an app, or posted on Instagram or Twitter, or something of that nature. I do get tagged on social media every now and then when people use my images, but it’s fairly infrequent, considering the metrics on these images.
So my question, again, is what am I supposed to do with this? I guess it’s reaffirming about my photographic abilities, that people are that interested in my work - actually, scratch that - it really does feel good that something I made has been viewed and appreciated to that level. But I haven’t gained any tangible value from all these many views and downloads. Nobody’s reached out to hire me for any photography gigs, or to purchase or license any of my other photographs. Maybe it’s my own fault, and I’m not leveraging all this traffic properly.
It kind of makes me think of the larger question of views and likes on social media in general, and what the point of them is. There was a South Park episode years ago that I think of every time I see these stats go up.
Anyway, the point of this post isn’t to cry about not getting rich from my images being used so many times, or even to slam Unsplash (I’ll leave that to Zack Arias). I voluntarily uploaded my photography there, knowing what their usage rules were. I guess I just need to figure out how I want to grow as a photographer, and learn to use this as a tool (one of many) to get there.
7-to-11 (Pro)
iPhone 11 Pro: Not Innovative, My Ass
That title paraphrases a quip Phil Schiller made when introducing the 2013 MacPro (aka the "Trashcan"). He made that remark in reference to people accusing Apple of failing to innovate in its products since Steve Jobs' death a few years earlier.
We hear the same accusations being made in the tech press every year, like clockwork, when Apple introduces its new iPhones too. I guess any writing criticizing Apple is sure to generate pageviews, so I get it. (Incidentally, nobody reads this blog, maybe I need to change tactics? 🤔)
Anyway, maybe the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro aren't innovative. Many reviews have been written since Apple's new flagships made their debut back in September, and they all make mention of the same form factor, same notch, same Face ID, etc. as the X/XS/XRs that were released in the last two years.
But I'm writing this from the perspective of someone who upgraded to an iPhone 11 Pro from an iPhone 7. From my experience, this new iPhone feels downright magical. The speed, the quality of the images I'm able to make with it; everything about is vaguely reminiscent of what it felt like to go from a Sony Ericsson canybar phone to my very first iPhone back in 2010, just on a less dramatic scale.
The iPhone 7 I upgraded from has absolutely nothing wrong with it, other than some scratches on the finish, and a battery that doesn't hold a charge as long as it used to, which is to be expected from a 3-year-old phone. Given that our devices are getting good enough that they're starting to last this long, I wonder if it isn't time to start writing these reviews with that in mind. Or at least, if we as fans of the technology, start to acknowledge that as we crave the next leap forward in innovation.
2018 Favorite Photos
I think this has to be a record for the most out-of-date year-in-review photo retrospective, but...#yolo?
In defense of myself, I had actually collected these images sometime in January-ish, and kind of forgotten about posting them; then I remembered, but then I abandoned them because it was too late for a year-end-recap post. Now, I've come back around to them, and have decided they're worth posting anyway, because they are some of my very favorite images, and I think they look nice as a collection. So damn the arbitrary cultural constraints of whatever time of year one is supposed to do this sort of thing, and enjoy.
I promise I'll try to have the 2019 collection up in a much more timely fashion (but who's kidding who - maybe see you in 2021?).
Catskills
Food & Family
This weekend, I took the train to New Brunswick, NJ, where my sister Sarah lives, to hang out for the afternoon. My other sister Andrea had driven up from Virginia the day before, and I was looking forward to just lounging around and hanging out with them. We didn't make any specific plans beforehand, but the baseline expectation when one or more of my sisters get together is that there's guaranteed to be a ridiculous amount of eating of delicious food going on. And drinks. Lots of drinks. This time was no different.
Andrea getting busy.
My sisters can cook their asses off. They're the kinds of chefs that can look at a recipe, and improvise, subsitute, remix it, and make it their own, on pure instinct.
Back in the day, when I first moved to Brooklyn and was making $4.63 an hour working at the Gap (where was Bernie Sanders back then?), Andrea and I would pick up a half chicken and fried rice meal from the bulletproof Chinese restaurant, and she'd throw some watercress and a handful of other fresh veggies and hot peppers in there, and elevate that shitty takeout into a meal.
After a quick recon of what was in the freezer, followed by a brief run to the Asian grocery store for some fresh ingredients, the girls whipped up a lavish seafood noodle dish full of lobster, shrimp, crabs, squid, with crisp bok choi, scallions and a delicous spicy soy glaze.
I don’t know if these pictures do justice to the amount of food that Andrea and Sarah whipped up. But it was delicious, and we thoroughly enjoyed sitting around crunching through various types of seafood shells with gusto. And you better believe I brought home enough for several sets of leftovers (some of which I enjoyed at work today). Let’s do it again soon.
Labor Day 2018
I genrally avoid the pandemonium that surrounds the West Indian American Labor Day weekend, even though I am a proud Guyanese American. It's crowded and loud, and sometimes it feels like an excuse for people to behave badly. But, every few years I decide to venture out onto The Parkway (aka Eastern Parkway) to take a few pictures and soak in some of the revelry. This year, despite the 96-degree temperatures and oppressive humidity, I had a good time.
As it took place a few weeks ahead of the New York primary elections, there were tons of politicians there, including Council Member for the 40th District, Matthieu Eugene; Senator Chuck Schumer, and Cynthia Nixon, who's challenging Andrew Cuomo for the position of governor of New York. My only photo of her was obsucred by a lady in front of me who got excited and started waving her flag around very vigorously.
Perfectly obscured by this flag, is candidate for governor of New York, Cynthia Nixon
Anyay, I'm glad I went, and maybe I'll find myself out there in another few years.
Pier 16, South Street Seaport. August 2018
Seafaring Seagull
Hanging with Stephanie at the Company's Garden in Cape Town
South Africa: Cape Town and Mabula Game Lodge
My wife Stephanie and I just got back from an incredible vacation to South Africa. We picked that destination the way we end up picking most of the destinations for our trips: Stephanie skims through travel deals that happen to correspond with the times that her school is closed for vacation, and if the price is decent, we pull the trigger.
Cape Town's Water Shortage
We booked the trip several months in advance, long before the critical water shortages that Cape Town has been experiencing started making international news. We were initially hesitant, and considered canceling the trip, because we had heard that there would likely be unrest as the water situation became more dire. Fortunately, Cape Town's water conservation intitatives have turned out to be quite effective, and "Day Zero"—the day that the reservoir will run dry—has been pushed back to 2019. This made us feel much more at ease about the trip.
In any case, we needn't have worried; other than being encouraged to take 2-minute showers, and finding hand sanitizer instead of working faucets in many public restrooms, we didn't really feel the effects of the water shortage at all. Probably a side-effect of visiting as a tourist; I'm sure the experience is still much different for residents.
Getting There
We flew Emirates, which resulted in a pretty circuitous route to Cape Town via Dubai. That added up to over 22 grueling hours of flying, despite the comforts of the very fancy Emirates service (yeah, even in Economy class). Sadly, we didn't get to see any of Dubai, other than a hazy glimpse of the Burj Khalifa tower off in the distance as we were bussed across the tarmac to our connecting flight.
Cape Town, as seen from Table Mountain
We booked our trip through Gate 1 Travel, which meant we were part of a tour group of about 40 people. Our Cape Town itinerary took us through some of the city's major landmarks, including Table Mountain, the Victoria and Albert Waterfront, as well as a drive down around the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. We stopped at a charming seaside town called Simon's Town, and visited with a penguin colony at Boulders Beach.
We had a little scare in Simon's Town as we headed back to the rendevous point for our tour bus, and realized that we, along with another family, had been left behind. I scrambled to call our tour guide's cellphone, and they came back and got us. Luckily, they hadn't gotten that far.
On our last day in the city, Stephanie and I opted out of the shark-cage diving and wine tasting activities that were offered as part of the tour, and decided to do our own thing instead. (Side note: we would have loved to go shark cage diving, but it would have entailed five hours of driving and no guaranteed sharks sightings.) We ended up visiting the Muslim Museum in Bo-Kaap, going paragliding from Signal Hill, taking a tour of Langa Township, and having a lovely dinner back at the Waterfront. I think we made the right choice.
Langa Township
The visit to the township was sobering. It would be easy to visit Cape Town and come away with only the most abstract awareness of the legacy of apartheid; going to the township was a way to come face-to-face—if only in a very superficial way—with the reality of many South Africans' daily existence.
I initially felt a little weird coming in as a spectator to peoples' hardship, but our guide assured us that they were grateful for our visits, because they understood that we were interested and came to learn; and that because we were there, some of them would earn an income. They encouraged us to take photos and say hi to the locals.
In a shabeen, or speakeasy, I got to sample umqombothi (pronounced with the !Xhosa click), which is a local beer made from fermented corn and sorghum. It is definitely an acquired taste, and I didn't acquire it from that one sip. Also, I wasn't a fan of the healer that we visited; his space was dark and impossibly claustrophobic, and filled with unidentifiable, unpleasant smells. And lots of animal parts: skins, hands, horns and the like. I definitely got a bad vibe in there—but it was still an interesting part of the experience.
Mabula Game Lodge
To start the second half of our trip, we took a flight to Johannesburg, followed by a 3-hour bus ride to Mabula Game Reserve, in Limpopo. After settling into our cabins, we were separated into groups of about 10, and then assigned to guides that would lead us on our safari drives for the duration of our time at the lodge. Our guide, Sharon, was incredibly knowledgeable, and was masterful at spotting animals for us.
Mabula is fairly small at only ten hectares (roughly 38 square miles), so we had good odds of impressive sightings. Of the "Big Five" animals (lion, rhino, elephant, Cape buffalo and leopard), we only missed one - the leopard.
On our very first game drive, the evening we arrived at the lodge, we had an incredible encounter with three male lions (two adults and one juvenile). They were so close to our vehicle, we could feel it in our chests when the alpha male began vocalizing and calling out to the females, who were out hunting.
We did several morning and afternoon/evening game drives, and since our planned hot air balloon ride had to be scrapped due to high wind speeds, we opted for a horse-back ride instead. This was cool, because we were able to go off-road and get really close proximity to some of the animals.
Since we were at a game reserve, I made a point to try some game dishes, like ostrich carpaccio and kudu casserole. I also tried "pap", which is a maize-based porrige, kind of like grits or cream of wheat.
Going Home
After just over a week, the trip was finally over. One nice touch was that as we were on the bus, on our way out of Mabula, we had one last sighting of a female lion casually watching traffic go by, at the game lodge across the street. We drove back to Joburg, and flew back to Dubai, and on again to New York.
We met lots of really wonderful people—both locals in South Africa, and fellow travelers that were in our group—and as usual, we can't wait for the next adventure to come along.
2017 Year in Review
2017 is almost over—what a year, huh? As a country we learned some hard truths about ourselves, but we also learned that we're more resilient than we thought. I think that might apply to me individually as well.
Over the years, at the suggestion of just about every self-help lifehack and prodicutvity blog in existence, I have made many half-hearted attempts at developing a daily journaling habit, but it never seems to stick. But when I look back at my photography, I realize that this has been my form of journaling all along—it's my one daily habit that happens virtually unconsciously, and that I have the itch to do almost no matter what. So ths collection of images is like a look back at my journal over the past year.
With that in mind, for this year's recap, I decided that rather than restrict myself to a specific number of images for the year, or picking a certain number of images per month, I thought I'd just go back and try to pick out the broader themes in my life that materialized through my photography.
Trump's America
Love him or hate him, Donald Trump and his ridiculous politics dominated this year. I'm not shy about saying I loathe the guy from the depths of my being. Because of that, and the renewed sense of civic duty that I know many of us felt as a result of his election, there was no question about whether I would attend the Women's March in January. The experience was reassuring and helped me to realize that, after having felt let down by a good portion of this country, there were others that were not going to be apathetic, and would fight every day against the indecency of Donald Trump's presidency.
Prospect Park
I feel so fortunate to have Prospect Park as my front yard. When I'm stressed, or need a workout, or want to move slowly for a long time (as the Primal folks would say), the park is my go-to spot.
The Oculus
This didn't happen on purpose, but as I looked back over my photos from this year, I realized that I really spent a lot of time wandering around the Oculus at the World Trade Center. Some people really hate this building (and the fact that from the inside, it kind of feels like you got swallowed by a whale, and it cost billions of dollars), but I really love this space, and find myself compelled to try and take a unique photograph of it every time I'm there.
Everyday Surroundings
Although I try to shoot every day, I have my moments when I don't feel particularly motivated, especially when I'm caught in the day-to-day grind of going to work and coming back home for an extended, uninterrupted period.
I try to pull myself out of that by switching up my commute; by taking a longer route to or from work; by going out for a walk at lunch, even if I brown-bagged it. During those times, I make a point of consciously looking for the light, shapes, colors and designs that surround me. I guess this year, I had a thing for silhouettes and dramatic lighting.
Night
I've always loved night photography. It takes a little more effort, forces you to slow down, and is definitely helped by better gear (wider apertures, sensors that are more light-sensitive). But there results are always so worth it. I didn't do as much of it this year as I could have, but going over some of my night photos from this year made me remember how much I enjoy it.
Being Active
As far as being active and moving a lot, this was a good year. I lost around 14 pounds in April with my second round of the Whole 30 plan. I realized that I do really well with sticking to a workout when I sign up for something, like the Nike+ Run Club or Nike Training Club's coaching plans. Aside from that, for a good part of the spring, I developed a routine of going to karate twice a week, and had lots of fun getting beat up by Dante in sparring class. I also spent a lot of time on my bike, commuting to and from work a total of 38 times, (roughly 266 miles). My wife Stephanie and I even decided that we wanted to start doing more outdoors activities together, so we started with an easy hike at Franny Reese State Park this fall.
I'll admit that I got a bit lazy later in the year, and have been in full-on hibernation mode for the last few weeks, especially since it got dramatically colder here in New York. I even ended up gaining back some of the weight I had lost, but I'm ready to get back to it for 2018.
Wedding Photography
I went way outside my photography comfort zone this year. A friend approached me about shooting her wedding, and even though it gave me the jitters almost immediately, I decided to say yes. I was nervous for weeks leading up to the wedding, and had all sorts of doubts about my ability to do justice to Amanda and Alex's special day, but I had an amazing time doing it. I ended up feeling challenged, but also energized and creative in all sorts of new ways. The lesson for me was, it's true what they say: get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Music and Culture
Concert photography is one of my favorite things to do. Aside from my usual pilgrimage to the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, I managed to go to a couple of events this year, including the Afropunk Battle of the Bands in Williamsburg and 2 Chainz' performance closing Advertising Week in New York. I also decided to challenge myself to document the West Indian American Day Children's Parade, which is one of the more "low-key" events surrounding the main Parade on Labor Day. We also went up to the New York Botanical Garden's incredible Chilhuly Nights exhibit.
Friends and Family
Some of my favorite pictures this year (most years, for obvious reasons) were of the people close to me. Some of the highlights: we celebrated my father-in-law's 70th birthday at a gorgeous Airbnb rental up in Maine; I photographed my aunt Rose and cousin Claudia, along with her adorable new daughter Danai; I spent time with my cool, funny niece Alexandra; celebrated my sister Sarah's birthday; and I took advantage of a short trip to San Francisco for Afrotech, to reconnect with one of my life-long friends and his family. Finally, I capped off the year with a trip to Virginia to see my mom for her birthday.
2017 certainly had its moments. Politics and the moment we're having as a nation, as well as my own insecurities about myself and my professional growth were probably the most stressful things for me this year. But I think I learned a lot, and got to spend time with the people I care about the most. I don't really do the New Year's resolution thing, but I'm looking forward to continuing to work on myself as a person and as a photographer; and to nurture my relationships with my wife and friends and our families.
Here's to growth, health, and positivity for 2018.
I’m Friends With Some of My Favorite Photographers
Ask any photographer who they’re influenced by, or who their favorite photographers are, and chances are pretty good that they’ll list some of the titans of the genre: Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Eggleston, Ansel Adams, Bruce Davidson, Diane Arbus. Makes total sense; there’s a reason these photographers are seen as the epitome of the form.
Typically, people lavish praise on their favorite artists when they’re dead (just to be clear, Bruce Davidson is not dead). I decided that I want to acknowledge some of my favorite photographers, who are not only living, but who I also have the good fortune to know personally, even if only as acquaintances. I’m not trying to be too effusive or fawning here; just stating out loud to some photographers I respect greatly that I’m a fan.
Also, I was thinking about the way we consume photography today. Because of the sheer volume of photography being created, it has inevitably become a really thoughtless exercise in swiping and double-tapping to show surface-level appreciation for an image, so I’m doing this as an exercise in forcing myself to slow down and articulate why I consider these photographers some of my favorites.
Clay Enos
If you’ve seen a poster for a superhero movie in the last 5-10 years, there’s a strong possibility that Clay Enos shot it. But that’s not all he does. I met Clay when we both worked at AOL’s internal media group way back in the early 2000s. I first fell in love with his work through his Street Studio project: a brutally simple idea, consisting of a white backdrop on a street corner, and an invitation to passersby to pose for a photo. That’s it. This project is inspired by the work of Richard Avedon, one of Clay’s favorite photographers. The project initially started in the five boroughs of New York City, but Clay eventually brought it across the country and the world. Taken as a whole, it connects the viewer instantly, and intimately to a huge cross-section of humans. One of the reasons I love this project so much, is because of my own shyness and inability to approach strangers on the street, much less connect with them the way Clay does.
Other things you should know about Clay: he's one of the least gear-obsessed photographers I've ever met. He once rode a Vespa from New York City to Vancouver, and then to Central America, documenting the state of sustainable food production along the way. And When not working as a still photographer on the set of a major film, he spends much of his time photographing and sharing the stories of coffee farmers in places like Eastern Congo, Rwanda and Guatemala.
Scott Witt
When I think of Scott’s work, I think of impeccable technical execution coexisting with a kind of loose, artistic spontaneity that shouldn’t be possible. Scott’s also a perfectionist, and has impossibly high standards (whether we’re talking about his mixologist tendencies, or his love of Spanish jamón, or his preference of camera gear), and it’s clear that this also applies to his photography. He works relentlessly towards honing his craft. Aside from the high profile stuff he shoots at events like the iTunes Festival (some of which you’ve seen without realizing it, if you’re an Apple Music user), some of my favorite of his work is the spontaneous moments he captures in the streets of various cities late at night, and, of course, the fantastic images he makes with his family.
Lev Kuperman
I worked with Lev when he was still working a 9-to-5 in the world of advertising, and I’ll always remember the day he came over and announced that he was quitting to go and be a wedding photographer. The idea of doing something like that still strikes fear deep into my core (I have some issues I need to work out), but I was really happy for him, and it has certainly worked out in his favor. His work stands out in a crowded field of me-too wedding photographers, whose work all seems based on the same playbook (and the same batch of Photoshop filters). It’s clear from his work that he connects intimately with the people he photographs; that he’s genuinely invested in helping them make lasting memories of one of the most important days of their lives. I really hate the generic, watered-down meaning the word “curate” has taken on in our modern usage, but Lev really does curate everything that’s included in (and excluded from) each frame he shoots — the framing, the shadows, the light — everything there is totally intentional.
These are a few of my favorite contemporary photographers that I also call friends (I picked three, but there are many more.) Who are some of yours? Go beyond double-tapping or liking, and let them know you dig their work.
Editing RAW on the Go with Lightroom Mobile
I had an awesome time at the Afropunk Battle of the Bands at the Knitting Factory the other night. All of the performances were incredible and dynamic (of course I think my friend Gbenga's band, Olu Bliss should have won, but I’m biased like that).
Anyway, it was a fun opportunity for me to indulge in a little bit of concert photography in an intimate, low-pressure setting. I got some great images, and I thought I’d use this as an excuse to write a bit about how I use Lightroom Mobile to begin processing a shoot like this on the go.
Lightroom Mobile is Adobe’s free mobile companion to the desktop version of the software. It has a ton of powerful editing features, and If you’re a Creative Cloud subscriber, it syncs back to the desktop, so you can continue editing on the big screen when you’re back at your computer. There are a lot of plusses about this workflow, but there’s also at least one significant downside, which I’ll get into later. With that said, let's get into it.
Import and Review
The show was in Williamsburg, which meant that I had time during the longish subway ride home to download my photos to my iPhone, using the handy SD to Lightning adapter that’s usually in my bag. I popped the card in the reader, connected it to the Lightning port, and opened the Photos app, (which is the only way to get images off an SD card onto your phone). Next, I tapped Import, then Import All. Boom - done.
Once the images were downloaded from the card (it took a while; I entertained myself by people-watching on the train), my next step was to open up LR Mobile and create a collection to hold the images from the event.
Now that I had those images in Lightroom on my phone, I was able to easily swipe through and do a quick review of my shots from the event, adding “Pick” flags to the shots I liked the most, and then filtering the view to focus on just those flagged images. Just as I was finishing up, I got to my stop. Nice.
One of the major advantages to a workflow like this is that I can now easily share a couple of my favorites from my fancy mirrorless camera (with its big sensor and great low-light performance that few mobile phones can match - I'm sorry, but them's the facts) on social media in a very immediate way. And since I’ve already done some initial rating/triaging of images, when I get back to the desktop, a big chunk of the work is already done. I can then spend a little more time and process the rest of the images from the shoot more carefully. Plus, it's a great way to kill time while traveling. Sweet!
The Caveat: Color Profiles
Okay, so this part is gonna get a little technical, but I feel like I have to talk about it. We all know that RAW images are great, because they give you more control over how you expose the highlights and shadows of your image. Lightroom has a default recipe called Adobe Standard that it uses to apply specific color, hue, saturation, etc. to every RAW file you import. On the Desktop, you can choose from a range of built-in profiles; you can even go as far as to set a specific RAW profile to be applied on a per-camera basis, but this option isn’t available in LR Mobile.
Okay. Stay with me; I realize that I'm off on a tangent here. The preview image you see on the back of your camera when you’re shooting is generated by a built-in, secret-sauce profile that your camera automatically embeds in the RAW files it saves. Why this matters, is because I’ve noticed that sometimes when I import images into LR Mobile, the second I start tweaking sliders and making adjustments, LR’s default profile (Adobe Standard, remember?) gets applied, and suddenly my image looks dramatically different than it did a second ago. Whaaaaat!?
Note the solarization, aka distorted colors, in the performer's face. It looks kinda cool, but that's not what the scene looked like when I shot it.
This happens to me especially with low-light images, with funky lighting—aka concert lighting. As far as I know, the only way to fix it, is to hop over to the desktop version of Lightroom and apply a profile other than Adobe Standard to your images. In the Develop module, scroll down to the Camera Calibration panel and choose something other than Adobe Standard. If I’m using my Fuji X100S (as I was the other night), I usually choose PROVIA/STANDARD, because I believe it’s similar to the internal profile Fuji cameras apply, so it should bring it back to something close to what that original preview image looked like. Phew.
Lightroom's built-in camera profiles.
Oh look - no more solarization!
The good news is, this change in profile syncs back to LR Mobile, so you can continue editing there if you like. I know it makes for a clunky workflow, but judging from the complaints on Adobe’s forums, this seems to be a known issue. I really hope they figure out a way to fix it in a future version of the app.
Wrap it Up
Okay, this turned out to be a lengthy, tech-heavy post, and it has quite a large caveat, so take that into consideration. But I can definitely recommend this workflow as a way to get a jump-start on importing and triaging images while on the go. And it's a great way to quickly share some favorite shots on social networks - as long as they don’t need to have a different color profile applied (which you can only do on the desktop).
Good ➡️ Better: Food Photos
I recently had dinner with my wife and friends at a great restaurant in DUMBO, and like basically, everyone these days, I wanted to document the delicious food I was eating. For posterity, or whatever.
That night, I happened to have my fancy Fuji X100S with me, but as is often the case, it was just more convenient to use my iPhone. Here's a picture of my entree:
Smoked Long Island duck with daikon radish, lavender, roasted apricot and duck jus
It was the duck and it was delicious. You might even actually believe me, just from seeing that photo, but... let's just be clear, here: food photography is an art, and requires tons of skill and preparation, and at minimum, proper, balanced lighting to make it look good. It's really, absurdly easy to go from appetizing to nauseating when taking pictures of food, particularly with a mobile device, in dim restaurant lighting, which is one reason I rarely post my food shots on social media in the first place. Be realistic with your expectations, y'all.
That said, here are some steps you can take to set yourself up for success:
- First things first: give your lens a wipe with the corner of your t-shirt before shooting. That's an easy win - your image will be much clearer if there's not a schmear of crap on the glass (that's photographer-speak for "lens").
- Also, know your equipment. I'm shooting with an iPhone, and no disrespect to Tim and Jony, but iPhones (and most mobile devices) are happiest in bright sunlight, not the carefully curated ambience of a restaurant. Because of that, in low light situations, make sure to hold your phone as still as possible to avoid camera shake before tapping that shutter button.
- Speaking of avoiding blur, make sure your subject is in focus. Soft edges on food = a pile of gross mush. On iPhone, tap to focus and expose a region of your scene; tap and hold to lock in those settings so you can recompose the shot if necessary. You can slide up or down on the screen to brighten or darken your image.
- Lastly, composition is crucial. Frame your photo at an interesting angle, being sure to keep the clutter out of the frame, and create some depth.
Okay, now that I have my photo, as seen above, there are some basic tweaks to be made in my editing app of choice. If you have an iPhone, you can start with the built-in editing features in the Photos app (bonus: the edits you make will be synced with iCloud, so you can call continue to edit in Photos app on the desktop or other iOS devices).
Tap here to edit!
One of the first things to do is boost the exposure of the image. Almost any image can benefit from a little pop of exposure and/or contrast. Be judicious, though.
The Photos app tries to automatically help you out by offering a "Light" slider that, in many cases will figure out the right combination of exposure, brightness, shadow and highlight tweaks to make your image look good. Just by moving that slider to the right, I'm already in a better place than where I started.
I could stop here, but there's still room for improvement. By tapping the list icon on the right, I can edit individual properties of the image, and have more fine-grained control. Awesome.
Indoor lights — usually incandescent — can make everything yellow, which isn't great for food photos. A quick tweak to the white-balance, or color cast, under the Color slider, should help.
So here we are, just using the built-in tools that come with iOS:
Again, miles better than where we started. Now, because I'm a fancy photographer-dude, I sometimes like to go beyond the default tools in iOS, and use one of the myriad editing apps that are available in the App Store. One of my favorites is Lightroom Mobile, because of its advanced editing tools and desktop-syncing features (the app is free on iOS/Android, but a Creative Cloud subscription is required for syncing and some of the editing tools). Snapseed, free on iOS and Android from Google, is also a fine choice.
Lightroom Mobile's interface
Here's where I ended up, after correcting the white-balance, performing a Curves adjustment and cropping out some of the distracting highlights on the bottom of the plate:
I also messed around with the hue and saturation of some of the individual colors. Another thing to remember is that, much like a skilled chef cooking a meal would never use every spice in their cabinet, we must resist the temptation to be heavy-handed and use every slider available when editing our photos. Less is very often more.
Anyway, still not quite ready for Bon Appétit, and there's certainly areas that could be improved, but I think it's way more share-worthy than before. And before you ask, yes, I did snap a quick shot of my caramelized banana dessert:
So there you have it: while you probably still won't get hired as a food photographer based solely on tweaks like the ones I've made here, these simple steps you can take to get your food pictures from Good ➡️ Better.