After my foray through Europe in July my plan was to spend some time getting back into street photography in NYC, particularly with my analog Minolta SR-T 102 and my first roll of color film. I had some friends and coworkers in town and was excited see the results of the vibrant city streets on … More Summer ’22
I haven’t done much traveling over the past few years since, like most people, the pandemic completely transformed my day-to-day life and for a long time going overseas was just not in the equation. Other than a brief visit to the Bahamas in January 2020 just before the Covid outbreak, my last time leaving the … More Europe on Film
It’s been quite the week. I’m still struggling to put into words all of the anger, sadness, hope, fear, inspiration, compassion, and determination that I’ve been experiencing lately. That these feelings which I, and others like me, have lived with our entire lives are now being distilled and compressed into such a short timeframe is … More Black Lives Matter.
I had a couple more posts in the pipeline from February that I had originally planned to publish this month, but with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in NYC about to surpass 4,500 as of this writing—and confirmed coronavirus-related deaths up to 35—it seemed prudent to take a moment to address what’s been happening … More Coronavirus in NYC
One of my favorite things about New York has always been the diversity. Not just in individual people, but in all aspects of the city which are constantly evolving to support the ebb and flow of different cultures, lifestyles, and perspectives. Each block pulses with its own personality and character, and moving from street to … More 8 Million Stories
Portraits can be a divisive topic among photographers. Some folks enjoy the ease of working with a posing subject, while others find the results a bit too contrived. I count myself in the former camp, though my approach is often a little unorthodox 🙃 I prefer natural, available light sources to studio lighting or a … More Portraits
Back in April, after an exhaustive search, I acquired a new lens—what’s commonly referred to as the “dream lens”—a Canon 50mm f/0.95. As someone who typically shoots wide open at f/1.4, the relatively enormous aperture makes this the fastest lens I’ve ever used. Indeed, for a lens nearly 60 years old it’s still one of … More New York is for Dreamers
It’s been about a decade since I’ve spent any meaningful amount of time in Washington, DC after leaving the city and my alma mater, George Washington University, for NYC in the late aughts. This fact came up over dinner with Dominique during a recent visit to New York when she mentioned that she had never … More 8 Hours in DC
A fair amount has been written covering the history of the Jupiter lenses, so I won’t go too deeply into it here. Suffice it to say, as the Soviets invaded Germany at the end of WWII, a factory producing the Zeiss Sonnar 50mm f/2.0 was ransacked, and the equipment and lens designs were sent back … More Jupiter-8
Over the holidays, I spent about a month traveling around the Western Cape of South Africa primarily in Cape Town proper. It was my second trip to the Southern Hemisphere, but my first visit to the African continent and my first holiday season spent on the beach. The festive atmosphere of New York during December … More Cape Town
Fall has all but come and gone which means this year’s Automattic Grand Meetup is just a few weeks behind us. The company returned to Whistler, Canada, though this was my first time in the region as I missed last year’s meetup to attend a friend’s wedding. Having been two years since seeing most of … More Whistler, CA
I’ve been to Scotland before. Following a work trip in 2015 I spent a short time coworking and traveling around Europe with my pal Clicky Steve who was nice enough to let me crash at his place in Glasgow for a few days. Now, a couple of years later and on the way to another professional … More Edinburgh
After roughly a week and a half in Australia, we spent my last full day on the continent checking off another item from my trip’s bucket list. We set off Monday morning to take the train back down to Fremantle, then caught a ferry to a small island off the coast of Perth known as … More Rottnest Island
2017 has ben an…interesting year, to say the least. We are truly living in a strange new world that many of us are continuously trying to come to terms with. Abnormal is the new normal and reconciling this fact with my usual expectations and guiding principles has been a tremendous challenge. While I’ve been doing my part to stay … More Bat Country
When we finally hit 5th Avenue, the scope of the march became clear. The chanting crowd stretched for blocks as far as the eye could see with no apparent end in sight. Unprepared tourists were caught by surprise as they stumbled out of department stores lining the avenue and made futile attempts to walk against the … More Part 3: United We Stand
The enormous volume of people crowded together in one place rendered cell towers all but dysfunctional which made it tough to get my bearings. After crossing a few more blocks of marchers at a standstill, I finally came across a group that was making some progress (if rather slowly) heading West along 42nd street, and I joined up with them. Access … More Part 2: The March to Mordor
On Saturday, I joined the 400,000 people in New York City (and the over 3 million people across the country and around the globe) marching not only for women’s rights, but also in direct protest of the recently inaugurated 45th President and his party’s insidiously dangerous platform. It’s rather difficult to put the experience into words, but suffice it … More This Is What Democracy Looks Like!
A week ago we had the first significant snowfall in NYC, or at least the first one in which I had the wherewithal to bring my camera into the city to catch people battling the flurries. We tend to live in a state of denial when snow first begins accumulating and it’s always entertaining (in a ludicrous … More Snow Days, Fluorescent Nights
At long last, 2016 has finally come to an end and the new year could not begin quickly enough. As rough as the past 12 months have been, it’s important to remember that we have some very challenging times ahead, but for a few hours on December 31st we can be forgiven for setting our worries … More New Year’s Eve
Each year during the holidays, the MTA takes a break from its usual soul-crushing inefficiency to treat New Yorkers to a bit of subway nostalgia by operating a handful of vintage train cars around the city. I’ve seen them in passing over the years, but never took the opportunity to have a closer look, but this year was a … More Vintage Subway
Back in September Fujifilm released the X-T2, the latest in their professional tier of X Series mirrorless cameras. Coming in at $700 cheaper (thanks to a generous sale in light of this new release) now seemed like a great time to pick up the T2’s predecessor, the X-T1. Given this relatively hefty discount, it seemed like a reasonable choice … More Fujifilm X-T1
Another weekend, another brief trip to the best West Coast. This time I was there for one of my best friend’s weddings and had a bit more free time to explore the sights, sounds, and flavors of the Bay Area as opposed to my quick visit to San Francisco last Spring. On Friday morning before bachelor … More We’re Going Back, Back…
This 4th of July weekend has ended up being a stay-cation for me, and with the few nice moments of sunshine we’ve had in the city so far I decided to head into Manhattan on Saturday for a quick photowalk which is something I feel like I haven’t done in ages. My first stop was the Lower … More The Great Bridge
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