Photos are magical

One of the reasons I find photography so compelling is what you don't expect it can do.  It can bring people back to life.  Back to life in your mind during that point in time when they were physically in the same room.  When they were still here and you were able to speak to them and laugh with them.

This weekend I'm heading to a funeral for a childhood friend, Heather.  Its been a while since we've been in touch but not so long since she's been in my thoughts.  I have a 4 year old daughter that's about the age I remember being when I would play along side Heather and her sister Kelly.  Our parents were friends pre-kids and stayed in touch when we were all young.  I'll miss Heather and I'll treasure the memories we had.

Heather and her mom, Sharon

Some time with Brandy

Brandy is someone I met quite some time ago.  She's a good friend of my sister's and has recently moved to NJ to be with her husband and to invest her energy in attending auditions for NYC Broadway plays.  Exciting stuff.  She's spent a few years in Las Vegas in great performances and is now trying her luck in NYC.

When I first met Brandy, she was in grade school.  She's now all grown up and here to make her mark on the east coast.  She saw a post I did on this blog and sent me a note through Facebook offering to help out on a future shoot...I got to thinking and thought she'd be better in front of the camera vs. behind it.  I think I was right.  Check out a few of my favorites from our session.

Next up.  A shoot with her and her husband.  Stay tuned for that.

Vegas Baby

Okay, so this is a little out of order.  We made a trip to Vegas back at the beginning of February for a rather important birthday of mine.  It had been very cold and snowy lately in the North East and the whole family was very anxious to leave that all behind for a nice visit out to Vegas for some R&R and optional coats.

We arrived on a Thursday night and had a couple days to do some family time during the day and since we had both grandma's in town, they were gracious enough to watch Emersyn while several of us made it out at night.  Thanks Mom(s)!

Some pictures, of course.

One tangent.  So, we decided we didn't want to spend much on a hotel because we'd rather put that money into gambling.  We wanted to stay on the strip however, so we ended up at the Excalibur.  Wrong decision.  As soon as we walked in with our suitcase, someone approached us and tried to sell us stuff.  Go listen to our pitch on our timeshare.  How about a show?  Huh?  How about leave me alone!  How cheesy is this?  So if this wasn't bad enough, as soon as we checked in, someone tried to do it again between the check-in counter to the elevator.  They said this is the way they market their new properties, etc.  Wasn't working for me. 

Chocolate, Lighting Essentials #5

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I'm doing my best to keep up with the Lighting Essentials blog and the assignments that come out of it.  I'm not doing as well as I thought I would but I'm trying.  Really.

Assignment #5 from the blog (and #2 that I've done) was about Chocolate.  The assignment was to shoot for a local restaurant has decided to run a special on chocolate on their menu for the next month. They need something that says, no - SCREAMS Chocolate!!! More details are here but ultimately the output, after several versions is what's listed below.

Chocolate

A gift

There aren't too many people I put gifts together for but there aren't too many people like Suman & Rishi.  They are just good people.  It helps that they're smart, good looking, well traveled and have a fantastic set of friends and family in their lives.  They just celebrated their one year anniversary and while they were away in India and who knows how many other places, I put together a little something to recognize their anniversary (late, but hey - better late than never, right!?).  A quick internet search revealed some nice wodden boxes but there were too many to choose from and I know them pretty well but didn't know their taste exactly so I turned to a mutual friend of Suman's that could help narrow down the choices.  The next day I had a response and I was set to place my order.

I received the box and now came the fun....customizing for them.  Since I photographed their engagement and parts of their wedding, I had some fun images to work with.  I looked through what I had and printed several of them.  My wife suggested I make a photo collage so once I had everything in front of me, I used some funky sissors to cut the photos and made the collage.  I think it turned out pretty well.  Here are a few images of the packaging and the collage.  To make it interesting I plan on hand delivering the package to them.  Its fun to give!



Photography Assignments: Vision Statement

Since I don't shoot full-time, I sometimes look for activities to keep me challenged and thinking about photography.  'Round about the 1st week of January, I discovered a blog that I follow pretty regularly was going to setup 52 assignments throughout the year.  Sweet.  Its mostly focused around commercial photography but has elements from various disciplines.  Mostly, its a way to challenge and inspire me all year.  The assignments are posted to a flickr group giving me the chance to see what others have posted and after a few of these, have some new and hopefully interesting work to show.  So, each time I finish an assignment, I'll write about it.

First assignment: Writing a vision statement and creating an image that represents that vision.

My first thought was to take a picture of the front of an A4 with the Xenon headlights with LED daytime running lights and my vision statement would be something about intrigue and mystery.  Scrapped that.  Second idea was to get the slightly opened laptop, showing the Apple symbol; still thinking along the lines of having something very sleek, simple imagery the vision would focus on imagery that invokes certain emotions (good or bad) when you see it.  Killed that idea too.  After thinking about it more, it was just too impersonal.  My photos are about people.  About emotion.  About capturing that point in time that will never be again.  That was it.  Once I had that, I knew what I needed to shoot and how my vision would read.

Here's what I posted...

Vision Statement

I want to create images that capture that moment in time that's just that...a moment, "frozen in time". What you keep in your own mind may fade, the image remains.

A Brand New Year

I'm not going to start with a bunch of promises of things I know I'll never get around to.  As I get older, I'm coming to the realization of a couple things: 1) I'm a believer in 'You always have time for what you do first' and 2) There's limited time so you have to make the best of everything you choose to spend time on.

Something I choose to spend my limited available time on are things that are photography related.  I'm trying to grow my business and figure out some goals for 2011 since I'm a goal oriented person.  Without goals, I wouldn't have much to show for my time.  One long standing aspiration is to shoot weddings. I'm finding it hard to set this up.  Its kind of the chicken and the egg - people want experience but without someone taking a chance, I can't get experience.  I have something setup for this May as a second shooter which I'm really excited about and I'm actively working on other assignments.  I'm keeping positive and I'm determined to make it happen this year!

One step in making this a reality is gear.  I know, many talk about the fact that its not about the gear.  For the most part I agree but with weddings I think its a bit different because of the conditions you're often shooting in (low light and other tricky situations). So, right before the holidays, I won an eBay auction for a new camera.  A HUGE upgrade for me as I was starting out with the Nikon D40, the entry level DSLR.  A great camera to learn on and I've taken a lot of pictures I'm very proud of.  However, now its time to kick it up a bit.  I'm now the proud owner of the Nikon D700. Huge upgrade.  Its like going from a Honda Civic to 5 Series BMW.  With that, a few random "test images".  Keyword is random.

Oh, small detail left out.  When I bought the camera, I only bought body.  No, not an oversight.  It just works out better in the long run if you can purchase each piece separately to put together the whole collection of bodies and lenses.  Ugh!  Fortunately, I have one lens that will work between each of my cameras; the 50mm 1.4.  Many more images to come - real ones next time.

 

 

Help Portrait - NYC

For me, photography is about many things.  One of which is the ability and privilege to capturing a single point in time.  It may not always be the best time but it’s a point at which you can later look back and know that it’s what was happening in your life on that day – at that moment.  Help Portrait came out of a small effort for a group of photographers out of Nashville (I think that’s correct) looking to help people in need receive a gift of a portrait (everything from hair, make-up, photography, post-processing, and the print).  Sounds simple but consider how it might feel to have all the focus on making you feel special and taking your picture to remember that point in time if that’s never been done in your life.  It has a different impact.

This was the second annual Help Portrait event that happened on Dec 4th.  It’s a global effort where local communities are established and local photographers affiliate with organizations to use photography to give back to the community.  I participated in one of six groups in NYC.  The group was the Bowery Mission to help people that are transitioning back into society.  There were about 15 of us that volunteered in for this event, there was more of a need for someone to help with processing the images vs. shooting them.  I was overwhelmed – in a good way.  The men (some women but mostly men) would enter the room, get some wardrobe assistance then move over to the photographer’s station, pictures taken then the memory card was handed to me (there were two of us doing post processing), I would bring the images in, label them with the person’s name, bring them over to have them pick their favorite, clean that image up then get it over to the next person to print it.  BAM!  And repeat, and repeat.
 
I was there from about 9am to 1pm and had a hard time keeping up but loved the great energy in the room the whole time.  The people receiving the pictures were very appreciative.  I would hear them say, “Hey, there I am” as I scrolled through the images looking for the next one to sit down with and choose the one we would print.  Such a nice time and great way to give of my time.  I look forward to digging in again next year.  I put together a quick sheet that shows some of the images that were selected from the ones I processed.  There were many more that came out of the location I was at.  Check out the page on-line for more about Help Portrait.  For some behind the scenes images from around the world, visit the Flickr group on-line.

Michele & James

A few weeks back, I was asked by a co-worker, Michele, to photograph her and her son for the main purpose of getting some images to use for holiday cards.  Actually, she's not really a co-worker, she's more of a friend that I met on my first day at a new company.  A couple weeks later I found out that she is friendly with an ex office-mate I had when I started at my previous company just over 10 years ago.  Small world.

Anyway, so last weekend, I made the journey up to where I now work because Michele lives about two minutes from the office in a great spot that has a lot of great light streaming through the windows and a nice backyard space as well.  I arrived around 10:00 and I was greated by Michele and her son, James.  He held his coloring book up to hide his face to block the direct face to face; for now.  He was a little shy, but not for long.  I showed him pictures of my daughter on my phone and before long he seemed open to having me around for a bit.

We started with the two of them coloring and quickly moved over to where he had a train set and some other toys.  We all headed outside briefly (since it was about 40 degrees) to kick the ball around then back in for a cookie reward for James.  That kept him going for a bit longer and getting a few more images with the two of them together.  It was a really nice shoot for everyone.  A few of my favorites are below. 

Shirley & Chris' Engagement Party

Ahhh, to be young and in love!  

A week ago Saturday, I was invited to attend and capture the memories from the engagement party for Shirley & Chris (check out the details from the engagement shoot).  As I mentioned in a previous post, I met Shirley and Chris through Suman (someone I used to work with).  Referrals are the best!

The party was set for 9pm – 2am in NYC.  I arrived at the parking garage and the guy says to me, “Hey, I just need to let you know that the elevator for the cars hasn’t been that reliable but ‘if you’ll take care of us’, we can park your car on the main level and it won’t be a problem to get the car out”. So typical NYC.  Uh – what do I say to that?  I’m pretty sure I’m being scammed but there are cars behind me at this point so I gave the guy $10 and he seemed happy enough with that.  They parked it on the main level and I left feeling somewhat confident that I could get my car out when I needed. :-)

I walked across a few blocks to get to the party and as I enter I see that the space is pretty nice, open, and ….wait, do I see a white seamless (something like this, minus the dude in the middle of the picture) area in the back!?  Oh, that could be fun!  I said hello to Shirley & Chris, then proceeded to scope out the place for some ideas and setup for the night.  

I’ve photographed parties before so I had some idea what to expect however, each situation is different so I was ready for anything.  As it turned out, people were seeking me out for pictures.  Everyone was very friendly and as the night wore on, and people were drinking, they were more and more animated and willing to pose in groups that were sometimes quite large.  The white seamless area was a hit.  For a good 45 minutes, one group after another made it over to make their mark. Some of my favorites are below.

For more images, check out what’s posted on Facebook and if you’re in one of these photos, be sure to tag yourself and anyone else you know.  Congratulations Shirley & Chris!  You had a lot of love in the room that night.  Oh, one more thing...a quick video for a fun way to experience the evening in about 4 minutes.

Shirley & Chris' Engagement Party from Darrin Estep on Vimeo.

 

 

Photo Plus Expo

Each year, there's a very large photography convention at the Javits Center in NYC called Photo Plus Expo (or #PPE10 in the Twitter world). This year was particularly exciting because 3 photographers I follow on a regular basis were going to be speaking. Yay! How awesome is that!? I signed up as soon as I heard about it.

One of the photographers was Chase Jarvis. He was scheduled to give the keynote. He's a commercial shooter out of Seattle and someone I'd consider to be a visionary and a bit of a rebel. He's purposely gone against the grain of old school thinking. He actively shares what was once considered to be trade secrets.  The week before the conference, he announced on Twitter that he was planning to have meet-up early in the week of the conference to get to know each other and for him to talk about his latest book/project called "Seattle 100". It was held at the Ace Hotel in NYC. It was one of those strange moments for me because I was able to meet and speak with a few guys that work for Chase that I've seen many times in videos. Super nice guys.

Slide from keynote

At the time I signed up for the event, I made sure I had the day off work so I could spend the day soaking in all that PPE had to offer. I took the train in from NJ and went to the first session which was with Joe McNally. Brilliant photog and has many credits to his name. This guy has shot everything and said to the crowd that he already had >150,000 miles on just Delta airlines so far this year.

Because of the way the schedule ran, I had to leave a few minutes early (sorry Joe) to get a good spot for the keynote with Chase. I was in the second or third row and quickly noticed that I was sitting behind Jasmine Star (CA wedding photographer I was scheduled to see at 3:45 that afternoon). It was again one of those moments like when you spot a celebrity where you feel like you know them but you also know that don't know you. Anyway, the keynote starts and in true fashion for Chase, he broadcast the entire keynote live and has a recording of it posted on his blog. For me, it was very inspirational.

During the next couple hours, I made it onto the expo floor to check out the gear and all the vendors vying for your attention. I had something to eat and walked back for Jasmine's talk. I was again toward the front and this wasn't a full session but it wasn't empty either. She's great. Such a full personality and so California. She reminds me of what I consider to be home since I'm a west coast boy growing up in California and Arizona. Her speaking engagements have been getting bigger and bigger and she s definitely getting recognized for her great accomplishments lately. She has a pretty consistent message which is Keep it real.   There's plenty more to her message but that sums it up. The more you put yourself out there and keep it real, the more you will attract people that like you and repel those that don't.

Caroline and Grace Baptism

On a beautiful fall day in NJ, I was asked to capture a special moment for Lisa & John when their twin daughters were baptized.  This is a cherished event regardless of the circumstances however, these girls were delivered early so the fact that they’re here and healthy compounds the joy the family feels.

It was held at a small, local church that they’ve just started to attend.  The ceremony was in the late morning.  I arrived a little early to check out potential spots for family shots since I wasn’t sure what we’d see inside. There were a couple locations I liked but most of them were covered with mud since it had just rained the day before.  So – that’s out.  Hoping there would be something inside to work with.

Once Lisa & John’s family arrived, we all proceeded into the church to meet the priest that was about to conduct the ceremony. We got started and he noted, “I haven’t done one of these before”.  Hmm.  Uh, isn’t that either supposed to be a joke someone tells because they’re nervous or just generally something you don’t admit right before you start?  Just sayin’.

We headed outside (found a different spot) in front of the church for some family shots.  Everybody was into it except for Jack (the older brother).  He’s a super cute little boy but just wasn’t feeling the fact that he had to have some pictures taken.  No worries.  We got some other nice ones of him and his new baby sisters a couple months back.  One of Lisa and one of the girls (can't tell which one from this angle :-)

 

Shirley & Chris Engagement Session

I met Shirley and Chris in mid September at a relatively new place on the Upper East Side called the Shake Shack.  One of their favorite places in the neighborhood, I later found out.  I was in the city for another event so I wasn’t able to meet with them until after 9pm.  I parked the car near the restaurant and as I rolled up on the location, I see people lined up to just outside the door.  I raised my eyebrow and thought, well – this is NYC but it’s almost 9:30 on a Wednesday night!?  I called Shirley to let her know I arrived and ordered some food from this popular place.
 
A few minutes later, they arrived and we started chatting.  We were referred from a mutual friend so the first thing we talked about was how we all love Suman + Rishi (our mutual friends).  They shared with me that they met at NYU through mutual friends and later started dating and it was love at first sight (actually, I just made that up). They're both involved in finance for work and have been in NYC for many years.  Much of their time was spent in and around NYU but they now call the Upper East Side home.
 
We talked about the feel they wanted from the images and the types of places they wanted to shoot in.  Once we had some logistics sorted out and some possible dates, we parted ways and waited for the engagement shoot day to come.  A couple weeks prior I checked the forecast and it didn’t look good.  Fortunately, the forecast was wrong and we had a really nice day for the locations they picked to focus on: Central Park, Washington Square Park/NYU area, then over to the Brooklyn Bridge for some sunset time shots.
 
I was fortunate enough to have an assistant work with me (Avi) that I’ve worked with in the past.  This proves to be invaluable for so many reasons.  From carrying the load of equipment I bring to helping with reflectors, lights, etc. I couldn’t do it without him.  Thanks Avi!

Something I took note of pretty quickly was once a new direction was decided, how quickly Shirley & Chris moved.  I mean literally moved.  “Okay, we're done with this location.  Let's look for the next place to shoot."  Then, BAM.  They collect themselves and they're off.  What I learned from watching them is that they are driven, focused, and most of all in sync with each other.  They seemed to have a great connection and I hope this comes through in the images we captured.
 
I really enjoyed the day and look forward to the next time we get to work together.  Some favorites below - along with a video slideshow...

On a park bench in Central ParkWe found a way to make it look like there weren't 100 people around us in this moment.Shirley asked if we could just pop over here quick for a picture. Turned out to be one of my favorites.A nice moment on the Brooklyn BridgeA fun shot in the subway to finish the day

But wait, there's more!  To see more of what we captured during our shoot, check out the slideshow below...

Shirley & Chris Engagement Slideshow from Darrin Estep on Vimeo.

 

Rent vs. Buy

It’s a question many of us struggle with from time to time. For me, this was an easy one. I have an engagement shoot coming up this weekend with Shirley & Chris which I’m very much looking forward to. I’ve spent some time thinking through the various locations we’ll hit in NYC and the types of shots I want to get throughout the day. During my pondering, and I decided earlier in the week that I wanted to try out a lens that I would love to own but can’t – really – buy – right – now. It’s, only $2,000 but somehow I don’t have it in my camera bag. So, for now, I’ll rent the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S, and just dream of owning it one day. I can’t wait to see what this baby can do for the type of shots I wouldn’t be able to get with my current set of lenses I would depend on. Stay tuned for samples..

Update: I wrote the first part of this just before I went to the store to rent the lens.  When I got there, they suggested I consider the 17-55mm f/2.8.  I was not disappointed.  Here's what it looked like on the camera. 

 

Looks pretty mean! :-)

Twins!

It was back in July that I shot with a family in the neighborhood.  A family that went through a lot bringing these cute little girls into the world.  But, that was then and this is now.  They're here and they were ready for some pictures.

I came over on a bright, sunny day (actually, its been a couple months - I don't remember what the weather was) and got started.  We took about an hour and shot with Caroline and Grace then with their big brother, Jack.  Then a few with the whole family.  A few of my favorites are below.

 j

Since its been so long since I did this shoot, I was fortunate enough to shoot with the Mundy family again.  More on that in another post.

Anna & Jackie

A good photographer friend of mine, Lou, let me know of a concept shoot he was putting together in the city.  "Let's shoot in the city with some high fashion models and make the best pictures ever!", said with his french accent.  How can you turn that down?

On a Monday night a few weeks ago I make the trek into NYC to a studio I had been to one time before.  Beautiful space - especially for the price.  By the time I got there, lights were already setup and Lou had done some test shots with one of the models.  Hair and makeup were almost done with the second model and we were ready to shoot.  

We took turns with the model and various setup's.  This time we had professional hair and makeup which makes such a huge difference.  Below are a few of my favorites.   Check out the Gallary page for more of my work.

Suman & Rishi's Wedding, part 1

Back in the fall of 2009, I asked a good friend that was getting married if they would be open to me shooting their engagement pictures.  She (Suman) checked with her husband to be and he was interested so we picked a date and found a really nice place in Central Park to shoot.  It was a really nice day to shoot because the weather was cool but not cold and the colors of the fall were in full bloom.  I've posted a few of the images from the engagement session here but for more of them, check out the set on flickr.

So onto the video.  The wedding itself was 3 days long with multiple events.  The first was the Mehndi ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.  During this session, I shot both stills and video.  It was a great way to kick things off.  Next was Sangeet at the groom's parents house.  So many colors and creativity from the children to the grandparents.  Everyone got involved in the singing, dancing, and just general celebrating of life.  Last was the day of the wedding.  In the morning, we started with a Chuda and Haldi ceremony.  Then comes a break and final preparation for the wedding and reception.  Actually, its probably best if I stop describing it with words and show you the images.

The video linked here are bits from all of the events described above that took place over the 3 days.  I was inspired quite some time ago by what a company in Canada is doing with wedding video.  They're called StillMotion (choose Cinema to see the movies) and they have some really amazing videos.  They suck you in immediately and feel like a movie trailer!  That's what I was going for here in the wedding highlights but keep in mind this is my first attempt :-)

 

Suman & Rishi's wedding highlights from Darrin Estep on Vimeo.

There's so much more to talk about with this wedding (which is why I named this part 1).  Stay tuned for more behind the scenes in putting this together and a shout out to all the great people I had the pleasure of meeting and working with. 

Shooting with Matt

As I was putting this site together it became apparent that I only had females in my portfolio and no men.  So, I reached out using ModelMayhem and found Matt as a potential subject.  We exchanged a couple emails and settled on a date.  Matt is an aspiring actor and does modeling on the side.  He has plans to move to L.A. so I'm happy we were able to shoot when we did.

Not having a studio meant that we were going to shoot outside.  Not a problem as long as you're dressed properly.  It was about 35 degrees and had lots of snow on the ground.  I had a couple concepts in mind but decided to do some scouting with a neighbor ahead of time to make sure I could envision the result.  Its a good thing we did that because I scrapped several of my original ideas for what you see below.

Matt was a great sport and a big thanks to my neighbor, Geoff for navigating and helping with whatever came up on the shoot.  I've posted a few of my favorites. 

We mixed it up a little with poses but I like how this one came out with the sun setting in the background.

This one felt very GQ or Abercrombie to me.

Believe it or not, we shot this outside with Geoff holding a black fabric behind Matt for a studio feel with speedlights going through an umbrella for some nice, soft light.

Here are a couple more that aren't posted in the Portrait section of the site.

 

 

Looking forward to the next session!

For more of my work, please see my Facebook or Flickr pages.