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Speaking candidly

unposed shots of people at work, rest, and play
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All the rain we got in 09' spoiled many a day off for me last year when I wanted to go photograph. So after a particularly bad stretch of rained out days off, a sunny Sunday broke the streak and I decided to go out and photograph New Yorkers trying to enjoy a sunny Sunday. For my location I decided on the South Street Seaport. But when I got there I discovered a music festival was happened on the grounds and the place was too packed to walk around and photograph individuals milling about.<br /> <br /> I figured I could either leave and find another spot to photograph, or stay and make the best of it. I chose the latter, seeing as I was there and so were a ton of New Yorkers, and they certainly were enjoying their day in the sunshine. I decided to record my trip through the crowd starting from the back on the balcony, and then take shots as I wriggled my way through the crowd to finally get as near to the stage as someone without a press pass could.
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All the rain we got in 09' spoiled many a day off for me last year when I wanted to go photograph. So after a particularly bad stretch of rained out days off, a sunny Sunday broke the streak and I decided to go out and photograph New Yorkers trying to enjoy a sunny Sunday. For my location I decided on the South Street Seaport. But when I got there I discovered a music festival was happened on the grounds and the place was too packed to walk around and photograph individuals milling about.

I figured I could either leave and find another spot to photograph, or stay and make the best of it. I chose the latter, seeing as I was there and so were a ton of New Yorkers, and they certainly were enjoying their day in the sunshine. I decided to record my trip through the crowd starting from the back on the balcony, and then take shots as I wriggled my way through the crowd to finally get as near to the stage as someone without a press pass could.

summercandidSouth Street SeaportLatin dance festival

  • dsc_6843 Cellist plays for pay
  • This was my first time walking over what has become my favorite bridge in all of Central Park. As I did, I came upon this bride and groom getting their pictures taken by their wedding photographers. I always seem to run into wedding parties in parks, and for the most part leave them alone, because I don't want them to loose focus on the directions they're receiving from their photographers. But every once in a while I can tell when I can get a shot that wouldn't be a distraction, and in this instance I got several.<br /> <br /> I just love the 'Bow bridge' and I chose this off angle to better highlight the great architecture of this the most famous transverse in Central Park, as well as to make sure their wedding photographers maintained a clear line of sight to their subjects. Of all the shots I took of them that afternoon this one is my clear favorite.
  • dsc_6915 friendly conversation
  • To this day June 1st 2009 is still my favorite day spent photographing in Central Park. This photo here and the one that follows represents both ends of the spectrum in terms of hopes and disappointments from that day. This first shot was one I looked forward to adding to my gallery the most, but turned out the most disappointing when I looked at it when I got home. The shot you'll see after this one was one I thought would only turn out to be a pretty decent, but as I edited it I could see that it was easily the best candid shot I'd ever taken. The two photo's combined to help reinforce a lesson I take with me each day I photograph, which is - Don't waste too much time lamenting over a shot you butchered, another fine image may be right around the corner. If your mind is still with the shot you missed you'll end up missing the next one too.<br /> <br /> The steps that led to me missing this first shot started when I broke from my search for candid shots and stopped at Turtle pond by Belvedre Castle. I had made a vow today to only concentrate on candid shot opportunities, but as the sun started sinking in the sky, the warm light and shadows made for super landscape opportunities. Temporarily giving in I started looking at the landscape imagining it in all sorts of lighting situations, at different times of the year spring thru winter. While I was at it I decided to stop my lens down as far as it could go and took some shots to see for myself just how bad diffraction hurt image quality when I did so. I had always thought about doing that back when I used slide film 20 years ago, but money was extremely tight for me back then and I didn't want to waste a single frame on a shot I knew I was going to make bad on purpose. But now that my photo world was digital, images today are free so I can experiment away. So after recording the experimental shots I started walking away while my face was buried in the back of my camera reviewing the images on my view screen. I figured I probably wasn't going to run into any nice people shots at that exact moment that would require my immediate attention, and naturally fate called the hand I was holding, and I lost. <br /> <br /> Looking up to make sure I was headed in the right direction for the path that would take me to a small lake on the west side of the park near 101st street, I spotted a group of folks having a nice small picnic on the Great Lawn. Headed towards them were a father and his little girl. One of the friends sitting on the lawn started blowing colorful little bubbles towards her, and she started raising her hand up towards them. The heavy back lighting from the sun sinking in the western sky created near magical lighitng with wonderful golden highlights and nice form creating shadows. As the little girls eyes locked onto the bubbles I whipped my camera around and raised it up to my face. (DAMN!) My camera lens was still set to f32, if I took the time to change any settings the father would have closed the distance on his friends at the picnic and the perfect composition would have been destroyed, so I was going to have to take the shot at that absurd f-stop. I wanted a tight cropping to emphasize the girls eyes and hand reaching for the bubbles, but my aim was off, and I cropped a little too much of the left side of the picture. It was now or never and I squeezed the trigger for a quick 3 burst recording of the scene. Flipping the camera around and looking at the image on my LCD screen, the picture didn't look too bad. Showing the shot to the father, he liked it alot. I wanted to get more shots of her, and Al called his daughter Neco over so I could try. But as he was waiting for her to come over I looked up in the sky and saw that the sun was falling lower and lower and if I didn't leave immediately I would never make it to that pond while there was some usable light left. I had always wanted to take pictures at this pond but my trips to Central Park always started from the southern end and by the time I worked my way up the park the sun set in the sky long before I reached the pond, and this was as close as I had ever gotten before. So I told Al I had to rush, but I'd send him the picture when I processed them later, and hurriedly headed for the pond.<br /> <br /> Looking at the shots on my computer when I got home I could see that the tiny f32 aperture combined with the low ISO setting I had chose for the scenic shots I took at the Castle, forced my camera to choose a shutter speed too low to freeze Al and Neco in their tracks. Plus I shot the scene slightly crooked and had to crop even more off the left side to correct that in the final edits. The resulting shot of the best scene of the day was so badly butchered by me that for three years I didn't even bother to upload it to my gallery here on Smugmug till I finally had a change of heart.<br /> <br /> That night after getting over my disappointment over this shot I moved on to the shots I captured at the pond off 101st street. As I watched the image transform on my computer as I edited it, I saw the most amazing candid I'd ever recorded to this point in all my 20 years of photographing develop right before my eyes. So now when I run across a great shot and totally ruin it I try not to get overly upset over it, another great image could be waiting for me to capture and I need my wits about me if I want to get it.
  • Magic moment
  • Taken around 1984 in September, this for almost 20 years was one of the only decent candid shots I'd ever taken. (this and a nice candid shot of mom doing her bible studies). Even so this photo still means more to me than whatever visual quality it possesses. <br /> <br /> I was on vacation at the time, the first vacation taken exclusively for photography purposes, and it was a perfect summer afternoon, and while I was capturing this painter, I became caught up in the thought of how I was doing what I liked to do immensely, while this gentleman, no doubt was doing what he liked to do immensely. And how it would be the greatest thing in the world if everyone, everywhere was able to say the same thing each day that they went to work.<br /> <br /> This shot was taken with one of my holdover series 'E' lenses. That was Nikon's cheaper lens line created to go with their beginners camera the 'EM', which was my first camera. This zoom allowed me to visualize the world in a whole new way through my little EM's viewfinder, and was responsible for my capturing the world before me in so many new ways. Even after I brought my refurbished F3 at the Nikon house at Rockefeller Center and started adding several Nikkor lenses to go with it, I still kept using this lens for several years afterwards as it's image quality far exceeded it's price tag.<br /> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> Nikon F3<br /> Kodachrome 64<br /> 70-210 series E F4 zoom<br /> 80mm<br /> f4<br /> 1/30th sec
  • All the rain we got in 09' spoiled many a day off for me last year when I wanted to go photograph. So after a particularly bad stretch of rained out days off, a sunny Sunday broke the streak and I decided to go out and photograph New Yorkers trying to enjoy a sunny Sunday. For my location I decided on the South Street Seaport. But when I got there I discovered a music festival was happened on the grounds and the place was too packed to walk around and photograph individuals milling about.<br /> <br /> I figured I could either leave and find another spot to photograph, or stay and make the best of it. I chose the latter, seeing as I was there and so were a ton of New Yorkers, and they certainly were enjoying their day in the sunshine. I decided to record my trip through the crowd starting from the back on the balcony, and then take shots as I wriggled my way through the crowd to finally get as near to the stage as someone without a press pass could.
  • Over the years, every time I have put a non Nikon lens on one my camera's I have always bitterly regretted it - with one lone exception. This Tokina 12-24mm f4 has performed so well I reach for it now without even thinking. Here again when I wanted to take in a sweeping contrasty lit view, it didn't let me down.
  • The world is a 6 foot man's paradise. But for those of us who fall far below that lofty ideal (I'm 5' 6"), we can many times feel short changed - pardon the pun. At my height it became quickly apparent that I wasn't ever going to get a clean shot at the stage with one of my longer lenses because of the hundred pairs of hands and heads between me and it. So I decided to capture the emotions and reactions of the crowd as they enjoyed the performers on stage instead.<br /> <br /> With so much going on around you at an event like this, one might ask how do you know when a group of people are doing something that's worth recording above everyone else in the crowd? If candid photography flows through your blood you'll know instinctively. Here the young performer turned back for a moment to hear what her friend was saying to her. Only they know what he was teasing her about, but the parallel of those two turning from the action on stage, while the rest of the crowd intensely followed it, easily made for a great shot.
  • dsc_7367 rhapsody in blue
  • After much time and effort I had worked my way through the crowd to as close a spot to the stage as possible. I could finally start getting some shots of the acts on stage. The sun was so hot, my feet in my sandals felt like they were cooking in an oven, and perspiration was running down my face. A very nice woman standing next to me would stop and fan me now and again so I didn't have to stop shooting to keep the sweat from running into my eyes. (Thanks so much to you!!) Here I recorded the finale of a number that got a nice reaction from the crowd.
  • dsc_7398 performers get to relax
  • dsc_7484 children get their chance to shine
  • After taking a break to eat lunch, I went looking for a view from above and behind the stage to get a different perspective. I found this one. But this view was partially blocked if I simply stood straight up from the railing, and in order to get the shots I had to aim the camera down and stick it all the way out over the railing as far as I could reach while it sat in the palm of my right hand, and pull the neck strap dangling from my camera towards me with my left hand to create enough tension to keep the camera steady in this unorthodox grip.<br /> <br /> Those of you familiar with the more professional line of camera's, can guess that without the use of my motordrive which conveniently has a trigger button located on it right where my thumb had to rest in this odd arrangement, I could never have been able to push the trigger to get the shots. This button on the battery drive was added to allow for easier vertical composition shots, but you know what they say about necessity. Once I had the camera balanced steadily I used the live view option to aim the focus point at the dancers on stage. All a bit tricky, but as you can see it worked.
  • DSC_7767 captive audience
  • Even though the Latin dance festival that took place here today was long over, there was still music in the air, as this spot by the piers is available for rent by large groups for whatever event you want, and has festive music playing over the loudspeakers all the time. The three folks captured here are actually a dance instructing team from South America who teach also in Florida and were here in the Big Apple from down south to catch the spirit of New York for a spell, and in this case, do what comes naturally.
  • DSC_7854 Latin dance group portrait
  • Anyone who has been to this spot at Battery Park City knows exactly why the wedding photographers for this party, chose it. A mini waterfall flows from the balcony into a beautiful koi pond, filled with, reeds, ducks, lilly pads, and of course koi. In this case though what they didn't realize, was what a great photo opp they were creating from the back. Walking by I saw the opportunity to capture this perfectly balanced shot. It is by far my favorite candid wedding photo that I have been fortunate enough to capture so far. The long wedding train was one of several keys to the impact of this memorable shot.
  • DSC_8337 Smile
  • I come here often to Battery Park City. It's been a good place to gather interesting shots of people doing all sorts of things. Now normally playing a musical instrument in a park would not necessarily motivate me pull out my camera, playing it in your boxer shorts on the other hand....<br /> <br /> Avram Fefer : musician-teacher-composer ~ EMAIL: avramfefer@earthlink.net<br /> SAXES, CLARINETS, & FLUTES<br /> <br /> 164 Ludlow St. #7<br /> N.Y. N.Y. 10002

  • Jane Thomas

    on August 20, 2010

    I love that you provide a comment for each picture. Good on ya. My Bro was a Captain on a tall ship. He married his current wife - and they did the Boston to Halifax race on a 124 gaff rigged sloop. If you haven't noticed - I too love sailing. Anyhow - moving on to the next pic now.

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