I’m finally working through some of the photos from this summer.  Throughout this summer, when I’ve had time to work on personal photos, I haven’t always wanted to.  When I get free time, sometimes I just want to go to a park, watch TV, or have a beer.  However, it’s time to get down to the business of editing the summer photos and start showing some stuff.

The shot above is from the boardwalk at Coney Island, and is pretty simple to see what it is.  This was the afternoon of the Coney Island Mermaid Parade.  If you’ve never been to the Mermaid Parade, which I hadn’t, I recommend going.  I have no  intention of going back again, however, at least not as a behind-the-ropes spectator.  It was hot, crowded, and the photo opportunities just weren’t doing it for me.  After we gave up on the parade, we walked down the boardwalk, and I saw this ticket booth which brought back childhood memories of the Cleveland County Fair.  A quick three-shot HDR and this is what you get.  Unlike Coney Island, this is pretty simple, but I still like it.

There isn’t really much to say about this photo; it’s pretty much exactly what it looks like.  While I would love to type incessantly about the capture, that too was pretty straight forward.  While shooting Matt & Di’s Wedding in July, I saw this storage compartment for a fire hose.  I stepped back, snapped a picture, and that pretty much sums it up.  When I got home, I did a simple conversion to black and white, a little cropping and aligning, and then cleaned up the image noise as it was shot at 800 ISO.

Lauren contacted me several weeks ago wanting to know if I’d work with her and Tim to take some photos of them around New York in a few of their favorite places.  They had three in mind:  Central Park (that doesn’t narrow it down too much), The Gael Pub, and the rooftop of Lauren’s apartment building.  I was immediately excited about the Gael Pub and shooting 30 floors up overlooking all of New York City.  Central Park is fun, too, but there are so many options, and we had to pick just a few as our time was limited.

While we were at the Conservatory Water area of Central Park (the pond with the sailboats), a gentleman sitting on a bench nearby asked, “Are these your engagement photos?”  Tim & Lauren looked at each other, and almost in sync said, “Not exactly…”  The gentleman knew he was in for an explanation and left it at that, “I won’t ask” and laughed heartily as we walked away.

I wish Tim & Laruen the best of luck as they start a new chapter of their lives in Atlanta.

It has been a few days since I’ve posted to the blog, and it seems like today is a good time to do so. Mike Pittman Photography’s “World Headquarters” have been buzzing with activity.  I’ve been busy editing the photos from Matt & Di’s wedding as well as moving my entire photo archive (at least the part that’s digitized) back to 2000 from SmugMug to Flickr.  I really enjoyed SmugMug, but Flickr has a better offering for my requirements.  There are also some not-so-secret changes taking place behind the scenes, but for now I’ll let those remain “not-so-secret” and unveil the curtain at a later date.

Anyone who has been to New York City knows the Flatiron Building.  Then again, most people who haven’t been to New York City know the Flatiron Building.  It’s famous for it’s triangular shape, and is historical for being one of the city’s first skyscrapers.  The HDR photo above was taken on a cold winter night, just before sunset, as the reflection of the setting sun made it’s mark on the east side of the building.  Sometimes these things just align, and this is one of those days.  I was out and about with my trusty Canon G11 and looked up to see the reflection.  I braced myself against a light pole, and started shooting bracketed sets.  I was able to fire off six frames, and the beautiful light was gone.  At sunset, patience is not a virtue.  Shoot through the sunset, and worry with the perfect light later.  If you wait for the light to improve, you may well have just missed the best light of the evening.

I’ve already said in an earlier blog post that Matt & Di were a great couple to work with, and that I had a blast shooting their wedding.  What’s been even more fun for me for the past several days is going through the photos from their wedding, and seeing how happy they and their guests were.  Looking through photos after an event is my favorite part of this job.  I go out and use the experience I’ve gained in the past, and apply it to the shoot and hand, mix it with some new ideas, and work my butt off in the process.  As soon as I’m back in the office I download the photos and start looking through them with the same zeal I had years ago when I got my 4×6 prints back from the local Costco.  Back then, I couldn’t even make it out of the store before I was looking at prints.  Now, of course, I can chimp the back of the camera to see how things are going.  Nothing compares, however, to seeing the images on a full screen.

Working through these photos, I tried to select the ones I thought best told the story of Matt & Di’s wedding.  It’s tough, telling a story in a few images, but I think this is a pretty good selection of photos that tell the story, and are also pleasing to view.  I hope you enjoy them!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of working with Matt & Di at 620 Loft & Garden in midtown Manhattan.  Matt and Di, and all of their guests, were great to work with.  The love these two share was almost palpable, and so was the love their family and friends share for the two of them.  I am so glad I was able to be a present for their wedding to capture the wedding day of a great couple, and look forward to sharing the moments I captured with them and their family.

Several years ago when I took this photo, I had no idea I would ever wind up living in New York City.  If you’ve been to the city, you know that during the morning hours these breakfast carts are everywhere.  They seem to pop up from nowhere (which is my perception since they’re operating before I am out and walking) and then disappear just as quickly (which is my perception since they’re gone by the time I get back from work).  For a quick bagel, coffee, or oatmeal on the go, these vendor carts can’t be beat.

They (whoever “they” are) say that luck favors the bold. Or is it the prepared?  Regardless, luck favors someone who is bold, or prepared, not just lucky.  I disagree.  On one of my first trips to NYC I was standing on the escalator in Macy’s and looked down to see that the escalator steps were made (are made) of wood!  I’ve been yelled at enough times to know that you don’t take photos inside commercial stores without permission.  Of course knowing that, I was just sneaky.  I pulled out my very inexpensive pocket digital camera and quickly snapped two shots.  Well, I thought I had taken two photos anyway, turns out I only took one that was a photo, the other was a blur of blurriness.

This was the 2nd photo, and I really think that not having a fancy camera helps this shot out.  I was able to take it without being seen, and because I just trusted it, I got the shot.  Had I been using a more complicated camera, I’m sure I would’ve missed the photo.

Now, when it comes to luck, this shot was lucky for two reasons.  The first, above, is that I didn’t have the camera I probably would have normally chosen to use.  The second is that the first photo I took was on a different escalator than the second… and the lady with the high heel boots stepped onto the escalator in front of me before I got onto the 2nd escalator.  To me, without her boots in the photo, this picture isn’t much.  You might argue that with her boots in the picture, this picture isn’t much, and that’s fair too.  Yet, I like this photo.. and no matter how you look at it, I think it’s better with the boots than without.

The New York City sunglasses vendors generally don’t like for you to take photos of their goods, for some reason.  Being the kind of guy who doesn’t like to be told “no” or “stop” or “give me your film you filthy, non-reading…” you get the idea, I take the photos anyway but try to be discreet.  This was taken with one of my favorite cameras (I have a lot of favorite cameras) my yellow Holga.  As you can see, I was moving quite briskly when I snapped this photo.  At first I didn’t like it, and almost didn’t bother working on it.  Then it sorta started talking to me.  I like how you can only make out the sunglasses in the top half of the photo, and also how bright and overexposed it is, given that sunglasses are supposed to darken things.

Whatever my reasons, I like the photo!

The photo above is an homage to Moose Peterson (http://twitter.com/moosepeterson @moosepeterson http://www.moosepeterson.com/) who will very often post photos of his “office” on Twitter with the sole purpose of making all of his followers electric green with envy.  That’s at least the only explanation I can come up with for why he does that to us.

As I was sitting in my office at home this afternoon, I thought back to what someone told me a few weeks ago, “Mike… your office has a beautiful view, a large window, and it’s 20 feet to your fridge… you’re quite lucky.”  My quick reply was a quote from an old photographer friend of mine – Robert Willett – that I hope I always keep in mind, no matter how “tough” this gets: “Yuup…  sure beats having a real job.”