Category Archives: Holiday

My first trip to Berlin took place over Thanksgiving. Gavin (a friend for the last 20 years, Northwestern classmate, and Brooklyn roommate) and his family showed me a great time…which basically meant that we hung out at his incredible office (SoundCloud; not pictured), walked the frigid streets of Berlin, sat in his neighborhood cafe, had a great time playing with his kids…and CHRISTMAS MARKETS. Man, I love a Christmas Market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brandenburg Gate, Brooklyn-style

 

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Prior to visiting Idaho for the first time, if anyone had ever told me that I would love it there…year round…I would have called them nuts.  I’ve been visiting Idaho for a few years now and it keeps getting better.  We just returned from a few days in Boise and McCall and I’m already looking forward to going back!  It doesn’t hurt that I experienced a few photographic firsts on this trip: my first bald eagle, my first hummingbird, and my first overnight shoot.  But as you’ll see, Oliver (Serene’s nephew), stole the show. Many thanks to Serene’s family for planning such a great trip and inviting me to join them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My nephew, Josh, and I took to London for the 2013 holiday season.  I was so thrilled to take him on his first trip to Europe.  He was (almost) as excited to be my on-call photographic subject for 10 days.  You can tell by his expression, right?  Let’s do it again, Josh!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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To celebrate the holiday, I decided to shoot today entirely using a technique that I’d never tried: freelensing.  It’s basically shooting without the lens physically attached to the camera.  Instead, the lens is held close to the lens mount, tilted, manually focused, and, in my case, prayed over…all in hopes of getting something interesting.  The effect is somewhat similar to what can be done with a tilt shift lens: the focal plane can be manipulated all over the frame (and even back and forth in the Z-dimension) depending on how the lens is held and focused.  So far I would describe the technique as “impossible.”  But I did like a few images from today, including a couple of rare shots of my sister.  All images were taken with a 50mm lens wide open at f/1.4.

 

I love this image, because its CRAZY to shoot at f/1.4, from this close, and have both her chin AND her eyelashes in focus.  Awesome.

This image was actually taken the “normal” way, with the lens attached.  But I always love images of my niece, so it somehow found it way into this post:-)

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  • jon

    nice work. last two are particularly awesome.