It's a seedy, dark place that's ripe for a murder. But as photographers, we love it. - Joe McNally

It was comments like these that I found I was jotting down in my Moleskine rather than the lighting diagrams during Joe McNally's one day workshop in Dobbs Ferry, NY. To be sure, I jotted down the lighting setups McNally and staff put together. It was the reason I had travelled 400 miles to be there. But as someone (Hobby/Peterson/Kelby I can't google search who) said about, when McNally talks and why he should write a book, lighting gems just fall out of his mouth. (Like all the quotes in this post, that's paraphrased.) So when I heard things like the above and the few below, I wrote them down. Because they're genius and there was no way I could remember them otherwise.

The workshop itself? Unbelievable. A jam packed day. It started at 9 and officially went to 6 but really went to about 6:30 or so with McNally jamming in two more setups at the very end of the day. Most, like my wife, will balk at the sticker price of the workshop but believe me, it is worth it. For a full day of training like this with all that comes with it, it's a steal.

One of the highlights for me was being one of the models used in a quick demo McNally did right before we broke for lunch. I doubt McNally will post the picture to his website (in fact I'm sure it went straight to the recycle bin) but here is a cell phone picture I took of it:

And a few more quotes:

I prefer polka music on the set but you just can't get kids today to dance to polka! (referring to what type of music to play during a shoot)

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Take a pic of that and I'm going to blog the hell out of it.

And of course, here are some stunning pictures I made with the help of Joe McNally:

Just so you know, I suck at taking pictures of fireworks.

I can't offer any tips on taking them and the ones I have read have left me still guessing. Granted, I only get once a year to practice and I've only had my dSLR for two years so I'm probably being a bit harsh on myself. Here are this years efforts. They are composites of several shots put together with photoshop. I wish my foreground was a bit more interesting but that's how it worked out. Some are pretty good but it's tricky getting something great.

One of my favorite spots when I travel home to N.J. is to head to Weehawken. My parents used to live in an apartment here when my father was attending law school and my mom worked in the city. There is a park near where they lived which offers a fantastic view of the east side of New York City. Recently, I inadvertenly travelled there at sunset and made this panorama:



This is the same shot in HDR. I don't think HDR adds too much except adding some detail to the foreground.

The Canon 50mm lens is a great buy. It's around $80 and gives you a fast prime lens at a reasonable price. I used mine for a number of pictures and enjoyed it. At some point, I guess when it was sitting in my car during a hot summer day, the lens assembly which I think is held to the case by glue became well unglued.

When I sent it to Canon they told me it is "Beyond Economical Repair" and they would return it unrepaired. As it was $80 I understood this. As I had only owned it for a couple months, I was less impressed by their warranty (or lack thereof). I suppose you could argue I put in it "harsh" conditions but really, my car reached maybe 90-100 degrees? I guess there is a reason it's only $80.

Since then, I've managed with it, getting some great shots even in it's broken state.


But those times are over. After the last wedding, the 50mm had enough. The autofocus cable that was keeping the lens to the case snapped and that's pretty much all she wrote.

R.I.P. 50mm

In March, I helped Aaron with Gail and Tucker's engagement session. When he told me their wedding was coming up, I immediately asked to tag along.

Gail and Tucker had an intimate ceremony with only 40 or so guests. It rained that morning which causes many brides, mine included, to shed waterworks of their own. But Gail handled it in stride. The sun came out just in time and they had a beautiful wedding.

This marks the very last of Project 365. This book is the culmination of a full leap year of pictures and a further 5 months of (lazy) work doing the layout.

It's 7x7 and all told, it's 379 pages. Since Blurb does tiered pricing I figured adding in a collage for each month (similar to the cover) didn't hurt. It provides chapters for a very long read. You can of course, still look at the entire Project 365 on Flickr.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to write about this (and other topics) but it has and well I'll just have to live with that. It's not like this blog has a lot of (or any) readership at the moment so it's not like this is spilt milk.

Seurat Sunday is an annual event at Belmont here in Fredericksburg. It is a day where Belmont invites artists of all stripes to come and use the grounds of Gari Melcher's home as their muse. It is a beautiful area to draw inspiration from. This is the second time I've been and the weather has been perfect. This year was a bit warmer than last since it had been rescheduled to the end of May.

While Belmont does arrange for models in period costumes to be there during the event, this year I invite Evgenia who I had met at a Strobist meetup in Frederick to join my wife and I. While Jenn likes to model for me, her tolerance only lasts so long. Evgenia brought her boyfriend along and we had a terrific day.