Natural Light – Photogeek Blog

Humble Beginnings

As I continue to purge past images from my computer and hard drive. I reflect on many of my early encounters. The people I met, the places I frequented outside my home studio, and the countless mistakes I made. And while I’ve built a cottage industry with self doubt and not giving credit where credit is due. In the end. I captured many moments worth keeping. The image below goes back to a timeI often photographed people at Hoboken’s nearby Monroe Center. The five story building deep within Hoboken served as the areas art center and housed every form of art one could imagine. With endless halls of cascading natural light and access to it’s roof. The Monroe Center always provided the right mood and environment to create. This particular woman had beautiful, emotive eyes and became a good friend. This just might be my favorite shot from our several sessions.

Pre-Dawn Outing

Canon R6 Mark II Mirrorless, Finding your Zen, Soft Light, Solitude, Street Photography, Sunrise

As a photographer, and in general, dawn and dusk are my favorite times of the day. My favorite time to breathe what’s left of our fresh air. My favorite time to watch the colors change due to the rising or setting sun. Both are somewhat inconvenient, considering I usually wake up with the sun and enjoy dinner as it develops. However, with today’s rising temperature and a sense of drive. I could leave the apartment, return without waking my better half, and enjoy a moment of complete solitude while capturing a few unguarded moments.

Abstract Moments

abstract, Art, Canon R6 Mark II Mirrorless, Dramatic Lighting, Manual Mode

Working from home is one way of closing yourself off from social interaction. Enduring a dark, rainy day ensures I won’t be going very far. However, today’s combination of both did little to extinguish my desire to attempt anything remotely creative. Thankfully, the rain left its impression on our living space. As drops of rain collected on our windows and doors. Enough to make for a pretty cool idea. In working on using light, shadow, and other aspects to achieve my future goals of using natural light to create mood in my portraits. I find that experimenting with various elements will benefit me in the end.

Recapturing a Moment

Canon Lenses, Canon lenses and equipment, Comparison, Digital Printing, Seattle

I’ve been moaning and groaning over accidentally deleting the original image I took (just below.)) with my iphone when we first moved to Columbia City in Seattle.

So this Sunday after washing the car and stopping at a local Buddhist temple. We returned to Billiard Hoang to try to recapture the lost image in order to finally capture another unguarded moment. One the might finally bring some peace to my troubled mind while ordering a couple of the best bahn mi this side of the planet. Not wanting to be intrusive or step on anyone’s feet. I found a similar spot to rest my camera and made sure to remove the flash. Though the results were pretty good. (No complaints on my part.) I really wish I had a larger file size of the original image in order to print one of those gigantic metal prints. And while the new ones I took todqy are okay. I feel it might take a few more visits before I capture something worthy of printing.

Billiard II-1.jpg

Where’d You Go?

Art, Dramatic Lighting, Industrial Photography, Location Shooting, Seattle, Storytelling

I had just arrived at my boxing class when my trainer asked me about my goat shirt and where I picked it up. While I was readily eager to share my love, appreciation and understanding of goat’s contributions to society. I could not recall the name of the market where I picked it up. “Oh, you know that art market they have in the airplane hanger.” was all I come up with at the time. The truth is, that since moving to Seattle in June of 2017. I’ve left most of, it not all of the weekend driving to my wife. Though much of my driving during the week has me within the Columbia City, Downtown and West Seattle areas. The weekends usually take us far beyond the areas mentioned. And while I retain minute details of the places we’ve visited. I can rarely remember the names of the towns, cities and businesses. Having visited the same market just a week ago. I still never bothered to remember the town, military base or the name of the market. Who knows, maybe it’s a subliminally intentional thing. If life has taught me anything. It’s that, the less you know…

I took this image as we entered the market. Let me know if you recognize the place.

Coming Home

Finding your Zen, Jersey City

After a long, hot day in the city with my mom and wife. I was eager to go home, shower, sleep and enjoy a tasty beverage. While we exited the Journal Square PATH together. I took a much need break to separate myself from the crowd as well as my loved ones. As I stopped to allow time for the herd of exiting passengers to thin as they made their way to the escalators. Standing there exhausted, poising myself for the short, yet arduous walk home. I noticed a light peaking through the concrete and metal columns just beyond the tracks. Stopping to take this one image gave me an extra boost of energy as well as short, yet sweet moment to myself. A much needed moment to exhale.

A Slight Change of Plans.

Canon Lenses, Finding Solutions, Natural Beauty, Studio Lighting, Studio Photography

The lights and backgrounds were all set up the night prior to the shoot. The pre shoot nervous knots were kicking and screaming and the beautiful woman scheduled for that afternoon arrived on time. The dye was set. Or so I thought. As the session began, the communication I shared with my model began to taper off. She seemed antsy and uncomfortable under the lights and during the moments I tried to keep a comfortable distance from my subject. She seemed to object, asking that I sit closer. Before long I realized it was the studio setting that made her feel overly self conscious and uncomfortable. Before I could suggest it myself. She asked if we could shoot in natural light. I wholeheartedly agreed and from there on we were cookies and milk.

After a short break we restarted. Finding a balance between window light and that of my external flash. And while I have come to detest using external flashes indoors. I found a nice way to bounce it properly to avoid those ugly shadows created when using it directly. I’m extremely happy with my new surroundings. The loft offers a nice balance and barrier between my work and living space. In the future, I’m going to have to work on defining and ultimately, separating the two. Until then, I have plenty of room to improvise.

Damion Photo is Moving

Damion Photo, Jersey City, Studio Photography

In the coming weeks myself aka Damion Photo, aka Photo Geek will be moving to the Canco Lofts at 5o Dey st. in Jersey City. The move, a long time coming, hopes to provide the perfect live/work space for my wife and me. In recent years I’ve had a makeshift studio in my living room, and though I was able to make it work, it was always far from perfect. The three floor walk up and cramped space served as two major obstacles. Obstacles that limited the kind of work I’ve always been capable of. The new space more than doubles the size of my current spot, provides plenty of natural light and areas to shoot outside the loft and the building itself. I’ve already mapped out the area I’ll use as a studio and can’t wait to explore more of Canco and the surrounding blocks.

Within the coming weeks I’ll be focusing on expanding Damion Photo’s reach to include family friendly packages that will include children, family, maternity and more. Like I said, this has been a long time coming. I haven’t felt this positive and energized in a long time. I look forward to focusing, once again, on my passion and all the things that made me fall in love with photography in the first place. Feel free to contact me via email at DamionPhoto@gmail.com for more info or to book a session in the near future. Now, back to packing.

Taking the Canon 50 mm 1.8 Into the Dark

Canon Lenses, Canon lenses and equipment, Fast Lenses, Location Shooting, Music, Uncategorized

Though I’ve been using my Canon 50 mm 1.8 as a primary lens since I first purchased it some weeks ago. The original reason for the purchase was to have a backup lens for my concert photography. One that essentially eliminating the need for flash by using a faster (1.8 as opposed to my current 2.8) So this Sunday I headed down to The Cake Shop on Ludlow to test it out. Lucky for me, one of my favorite live acts, Stuyvesant, was playing along with a couple of other acts. Though the Cake Shop is less than ideal for shooting a band. It provided the space and distance I needed to try out the lens. Though I found myself shooting at an ISO of 3200, I found that I liked the results. And while I’m not quite ready to ditch the Canon 15mm I usually enlist. I know I’ll be doing plenty of experimenting with Canon’s 50mm 1.4 Below are some results. The one at the bottom features Sean Adams of the band Stuyvesant.

The Brooklyn Way

Statue of Liberty

My wife and I spend many of our weekends in Brooklyn. Whether it be exploring different neighborhoods, food or culture. Brooklyn seems to have it all. During our ill fated search for a condo we’d canvas the different areas going from one open house after another. Knowing my likes, dislikes and moods. She noted that Brooklyn was my “Switch”. No matter the circumstance, I always seem to enjoy my time there. On this particular day we did a lot of walking, stopped for mediterranean food, antique shopping and a Greek bakery. By the time we got to the river, the sun had just begun to soften. We walked a long distance in the high wind before grabbing a ferry back to the east side of the ferry. I shot these around 4:30 /5:00. My wife suggesting the set up for the first shot. The idea for the second was all mine. I got these printed at Duggal the next day. If we ever move. I’m going to find a place to hang them. Until then…