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Speaking candidly

unposed shots of people at work, rest, and play
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dsc_6688 couple in the park with snakes
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dsc_6688 couple in the park with snakes

summerBethesda fountain areaCentral Parkcandidparents and children

  • A bunch of girls from my job go on a different Caribbean cruise most every year. I am eternally grateful for my good friend Michael, talking me into joining them on their Island hopping cruise in 2007'. Not only did this, the first cruise he and I ever went on, provide him with some very well deserved rest, but the trip reacquainted me with my favorite hobby of photography, after over a 15 year absence from it. Trying out my little Fujifine Pix camera for the first time (purchased just for this type of occasion with help by a gift certificate from Michael!) I ended up taking pictures EVERYWHERE I went, and it helped lead me to buying my 1st DSLR a few months later.<br /> <br /> Here I came back to our room for a minute on our first full day at sea. I had already taken a bunch of shots around the ship after breakfast, and when I opened the door to our room, the first thing I saw was Michael out on the veranda finally getting to read the latest Harry Potter novel. He ran out and purchased it the very first day it hit the book stores. I'm not the huge "Potter" fan Michael is, so I can't remember just when that was, but I'm certain it was early in 07' and the cruise wasn't till October, which shows you how hectic his life usually is.<br /> <br /> I was doubly glad to see he took his novel out on the balcony but left his "To Do" list on the table inside. No one needs a list like that on a vacation, not even a small one, and I made sure to include it in this shot to record a moment of putting play before work, on one of those times when it's absolutely the right thing to do.
  • Having already contracted photographers fever from the moment I took my first shot with my little Fuji point & shoot, I kept wandering off and shooting everything in sight, loosing my friends on the cruise numerous times and it was only our 2nd day in the Caribbean. Not wanting to loose me yet again, this time on an island as big as St. Thomas, they all told me in no uncertain terms to stay RIGHT WITH THEM as we walked into a large wine shop.<br /> <br /> As fate would have it I looked out the only window I noticed in the whole darn place and spotted these boys in the alley outside, most of them posed more or less rigidly, waiting for their mom or dad to snap their picture. When I saw a few of them begin to relax and their attention start to drift away from starring, a little too stiffly for my taste, into the camera, I could see that they were about to display an honest piece of childlike behavior any second now. Face it kids are just not naturally patient. Now at this point I simply couldn't fight the urge any longer. (How can you put a camera in a photographers hands and stick an opportunity like this in front of their face and expect them NOT to take a picture??) About the time that the little boy on the far right started to stare at the man in costume instead of the camera, I raced outside, took one quick shot and raced right back inside before any of my friends could grab my arm and stop me. Heck, picture taking is what I do I can't help myself.<br /> <br /> Whenever any parents get back from their vacation and they see a picture like this of their kids having fun, it reminds them of why they went through all that time and expense of going on vacation in the first place. I don't even know them and I'm absolutely delighted they did.
  • The view of Dominica from the back of our ship was stunning, and I raced through the maze of deck chairs hoping to capture this fellow cruise mate gazing at the beautiful cottage dotted hills in the background. When I showed her this picture she loved it just as much as I did.
  • I easily took more pictures on Dominica than on any of the other 5 islands we visited on our cruise. The only type of shot I wanted to get that I failed in securing on the island was a shot of one of the locals doing some everyday task that had nothing to do with catering to we tourists. I almost captured a picture of two men tying up their goat, but I was a few seconds too late.<br /> <br /> Turns out these two guys cleaning their tour bus was the best I could do. It wasn't a well aged woman deftly weaving a basket, but I had to admit, it was still a pretty good shot none the less.
  • dscf_0418 schools out
  • DSCF_0878 fall fishing scene at Clove Lake
  • Sitting inside the ferryboat because of the rain, I spotted this interesting pair of umbrella's on display right in front of me, and they coaxed me to pull my point n' shoot camera out of my backpack.
  • IMG_0943 keeping warm and dry
  • Last year Josh, my good friend of over 20 years, and I took his son Tim (who's also my oldest godson) to Citifield. Being that it was the new ballparks first season and since we had never gone there yet, we wanted to take it in, and I brought along my camera to record the event. In addition to getting shots of the stadium and game action, I made sure to take several shots of Josh and Tim interacting in nice father & son moments, for Tim's mother's Toni who I knew would cherish the shots forever. (What mother wouldn't?)<br /> <br /> Here I just managed to race all the way back to my seat from taking pictures down around the field level along the right field corner, to capture Tim & Josh celebrating K-Rod's recording of the final out in a 5-3 win over the Nationals. Of the pictures I e-mailed her of her two men, this one was Toni's favorite - mine too.
  • Back when I first started taking pictures some 25 years ago I always wanted to take candid pictures of people, but after several years of shooting I only had three photo's to show for it, and one of those was a picture of my mother doing her bible studies in our living room. Every time I pointed my camera at someone, they'd freeze or tense up or someone would call out to me "are you a professional - what are you going to do with those shots?", not being used to seeing a serious looking camera pointed at them. But after getting back into photography after over a 15 year absence I saw many people had become much more relaxed over it, especially in a city like New York, because tourists and locals are walking around with some type of camera, shooting everyone and everything in sight. So on this day I decided to go into Central Park and try my hand one more time at getting candid's. I chose a different tactic and packed really light using my smallest camera bag and just 2 or 3 lenses for freedom of response, and shut out all other photographic subjects from my mind looking only to capture candid's. <br /> <br /> I was just a wee bit apprehensive as I was devoting one of my extremely rare full days off (one that didn't require me to use part of it towards some time consuming household, medical or financial concern), and apply it to the only photographic pursuit I had ever been a total failure at during my old picture taking heyday. I was afraid I would waist the entire gorgeous day off looking for a bunch of nice shots, botch them all and end up at home in the evening with a CF card without one decent shot on it.<br /> <br /> My butterflies lasted for about 45 seconds. Right as I entered the park from it's southeastern tip I walked down this strip of road and saw that it had artists all along it, painting people. This scene captured here was the best of the whole lot, as this particular ladies bright happy smile, and her artist canvas were angled in a position where I could capture both the brush strokes and her face together in very favorable lighting. As I was taking several pictures, her husband saw his wife become distracted, as my camera clicked away and, understandably he politely asked me to halt, which of course I did. I showed him the photo's I took of her, and would you believe he liked them so much, he actually asked me to take another one of her with him in it!<br /> <br /> Once I successfully captured this first candid scene, I felt like a seal sliding down an ice covered slope and hitting the water with a huge splash. I forgot every apprehension I ever had. That one day changed my whole out look on candid's, and to this day if I take an entire day off to capture them, I never return home without at least one shot to add to my collection that makes me glad that when I left the house I took my camera and went hunting for people pictures. Success truly is 90% persistence.
  • dsc_6492 Moishe & his wife
  • A young boy gets an informal music lesson while his mother watches on just out of sight of my camera.
  • dsc_6577 nice summer moment at Conservatory Water
  • dsc_6609 #73
  • When I set up camp at this spot in Central Park, I wanted the shots I recorded to be a blend of scenic beauty and wonderful candid moments. For the candid subjects to stand out in the photo, there was a certain size in my mind that they would have to be in the pictures. Still I wanted the people to be small enough to give breadth to the background and create that scenic feel to the shots.<br /> I chose the best distance for that, but it forced me to stand farther back from my subjects than I originally wanted to. This caused endless amounts of people to come and stand between me and my potential subjects. So many shots I hoped to capture got blocked because of it. But it was a gorgeous day and I was willing to stay as long as it took to get some great shots. This one is my personal favorite. The little girl teetering on her toes made the shot.
  • dsc_6641 inline skater stops for a quick shot
  • dsc_6688 couple in the park with snakes
  • dsc_6711 snakes, snakes everywhere
  • While walking through Bethesda fountain in Central Park I spotted a photographer and model (wearing a great outfit) taking pictures all over the grounds. They even borrowed a musicians cello as a temporary prop (that's the cellist foot sticking out from under the photographers bag). Their efforts made for a good shot to add to my collection.
  • That's the real owner of the cello.
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