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Finding your niche in photography … or not

February 15, 2022 Neil vN 6 Comments

Finding your niche in photography ... or not

A photographer friend once told me that regarding my social media presence and my websites, it's not clear what I do as a photographer. I’m all over the show — portraits, weddings, headshots, corporate stuff, product photography, timelapse. He suggested that I specialize in a niche, and then make sure I stand out in that niche as the best. For example just do product photography, and be the best at products on white. Become even more specialized. Sounds like solid advice on the surface. Yet, I love the seeming randomness of what I do.  Read more inside...

Not quite a self-portrait

September 4, 2020 Neil vN 6 Comments

Not quite a self-portrait

One of the few portraits of myself that I immediately liked — more than the background and the starkness of the B&W processing, what draws me to this image is the pose — it’s as if I am hovering in decision. There’s an implied narrative here, even if shrouded in mystery. Not quite a self-portrait but I was involved in the setting it up of this, and the other photos in the sequence. Photo by my friend, Clayton. He used an 85mm lens. Posing by me. I kept changing my  Read more inside...

Photography as meditation

August 12, 2019 Neil vN 2 Comments

Photography as meditation

Since photographers don’t really have weekends to chill, I try and take a midweek “weekend day” to chill. For me, there is a certain meditative quality to just walking around, finding scenes and things to photograph. Photography in this way becomes an almost Zen-like experience -- you are focused but without the stress of concentrating. It allows for detachment, while still creating. This is also where the value of personal projects comes in. I find it hard to relax when I am truly doing nothing - I have to be involved with something. I appreciate the  Read more inside...

Photographing with available light only

November 28, 2018 Neil vN 6 Comments

Photographing with available light only

While photographing dancer, Anna Russell, in this side-street in New York, I noticed those splashes of light against the wall. These little pools of light were from sunlight reflecting off nearby windows. I wanted to see if we could have Anna hit one of those in mid-air. What also helped was the general direction of light in this area - it mostly came from the main road to the left of the frame, since we were shooting in a narrow street with tall buildings. The main splash of light on her was sunlight reflecting off this window of a building  Read more inside...

Inspiration: Be cool, be prepared, be professional

August 26, 2018 Neil vN 8 Comments

Inspiration: Be cool, be prepared, be professional. Be like SRV.

My favorite clip of Stevie Ray Vaughan in action. A guitar string breaks ... and he fluidly swaps out guitars mid-performance. If you closed your eyes, you wouldn't even know. From that I take my inspiration as a photographer. I am prepared. I am over-prepared. My back-ups have back-ups. I try and anticipate any possible worst-case situations. And should something go wrong, there isn't even a ripple on the surface.  Read more inside...

Portraits with vintage lenses

November 9, 2017 Neil vN 8 Comments

Portraits with vintage lenses

That crazy bokeh there is via the Mitakon Zhongyi Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95  (B&H / Amazon), taken at widest aperture, giving this wafer-thin depth of field. Even though this is a new lens, I would classify it as a classic or vintage lens. It is manual focus, and gives that delicious look to images exactly because of that DoF and bokeh. In terms of the composition, I like how the blue lights in the foreground is echoed by the same lights in the background. How this photo session with Anastasiya came about ... My friend, Parker J  Read more inside...

We have work to do, and art to create

August 6, 2017 Neil vN 7 Comments

We have work to do, and art to create

A quiet word to my photographer friends. I'm in various photography groups and forums, and I see a strong tendency in the more technical forums to whine about the specs of current cameras, or to bitch to-and-fro, disparaging others or other brands. My feelings about that: We should always keep in mind that our photography heroes of previous eras created masterpieces with cameras less advanced than we have now. For me, Richard Avedon immediately comes to mind. There are many others. So if you feel you're being held back by the camera you  Read more inside...

How I dodged a bullet, and got a second chance at everything

August 1, 2017 Neil vN 103 Comments

How I dodged a bullet, and got a second chance at everything

At the onset, I have to tell you exactly what this blog article is about, since it is long and self-indulgent. In short, I had an acute myocardial infarction on the first day of my trip to Italy, July 21st. I spent 8 days in the hospital in Como, Italy - 3 days in ICU, and then 5 days in the general ward of the cardio wing. We flew back home on July 31st. The cardiologist said I will bounce back from this, relatively unscathed. I dodged a bullet! Hopefully the story is told with some humor and with enough narrative  Read more inside...

Photographing semi-candid portraits out on the street

June 7, 2017 Neil vN 11 Comments

Photographing semi-candid portraits out on the street

Not quite "street photography", but rather a semi-candid portrait out on the streets, I love the resulting photograph. It encapsulates a few of the typical New York elements for me - colorful vibrancy and attitude. Late this afternoon, as usual when I had finished with a corporate headshot photo session in the Wall St area of New York, I waited out the peak time traffic by roaming around the streets with my camera. This young woman graciously waited a few seconds for me while she took selfies with the Fearless Girl - there were  Read more inside...

Controversial photography

January 15, 2017 Neil vN 14 Comments

Controversial photography

Ever wonder how controversial it is to just write and maintain a photography blog?! You'd think that mainly writing about photography techie stuff should be a fairly non-controversial thing. And yet, in the by now 11 years this blog has been going, there've been some articles that unexpectedly created hefty reaction and discussion. Often over the most innocuous things. Sometimes because the topic is seen as a challenging one. That's me being controversial ... without even being political. Just photography! Here are the articles on the Tangents blog that  Read more inside...

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