Tangents

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Looking for photo opportunities

November 24, 2011 Neil vN 5 Comments

Looking for photo opportunities

This is what we do as photographers - looking for photo opportunities and looking for angles and backgrounds which are not mundane. Even when not taking photographs, it is always a good exercise to look for what would have made a good photograph. It's constant training for the mind. We stumbled upon this opportunity for this portrait of Jessica - the reception room for a wedding we were photographing had several large boxes of lights against the walls as a kind of light mural, with baubles inside that were lit up. And the back of each of these displays  Read more inside...

recent personal work – Manhattan cityscapes

April 11, 2011 Neil vN 16 Comments

personal work - Manhattan cityscapes

It's been a long cold winter without much chance to roam around and explore with a camera. The past weekend it seemed like the weather was finally relenting and becoming warmer. Taking to the streets to shoot for myself a bit with no purpose in mind, I ended up with three images that I liked - all deserted New York city scenes. Or in the case of the image above, nearly deserted. It felt good to let my thoughts roam for a while, getting some exercise and listening to music ... looking for anything that visually appealed to me in the camera's  Read more inside...

photo session: a lazy afternoon

April 8, 2011 Neil vN 17 Comments

 Read more inside...

portrait: Janine vN

November 15, 2010 Neil vN 11 Comments

portrait using a gridded softbox

It's been about a year since I last took a more formal portrait of my daughter Janine. Last year it was her with the steam-punk goggles, when I used a beauty dish (with a sock) as lighting. During a restaurant dinner last night I noticed Janine had 'LOVE' scribbled on both her forearms with a felt marker. I asked her about it, and she explained the idea behind 'To Write Love On Her Arms'. So I decided to include this tonight in the portrait of her. Lighting her and the words on her arms was a slight challenge. I wanted a moody portrait, instead of  Read more inside...

fire performer at PDF

October 8, 2010 Neil vN 8 Comments

After I was so thrilled with watching and photographing the fire performers at their wedding, Katie and Nathan managed to get me a ticket to the PDF event this weekend. Due to work commitments this weekend, I was only able to visit tonight (Friday), and take in the activities and spirit of the event, and chat to random people. Magical. Of the fire performers (and other participants) I photographed, I really liked the few images I got of Nichole .. and thought I'd show them here as a small glimpse of the event. Shot with the Nikon D3, using the Nikon 85mm f1.4D lens 1/125 @ f1.4 @ 3200  Read more inside...

dynamic composition – changing your viewpoint (model – Carrie)

June 26, 2010 Neil vN 8 Comments

dynamic composition - changing your viewpoint (model - Carrie)

Near the end of the recent photo session with Carrie, I walked across the street to find another angle. Walking back, I noticed the sun just dipping behind the roof of this old train station. I thought it might flare interestingly if I caught the sun just on the edge there. The problem was that I had to step into the street a few times when there was a lull in the traffic. The angle was a tough one since I had to, or rather, wanted to keep my camera at ground level to shoot up. I wanted the flare, and I wanted this  Read more inside...

Cork, Ireland – travel photography

August 10, 2009 Neil vN 7 Comments

Cork, Ireland - travel photography

I visited Cork for a few days to present two workshops on flash photography, and immediately fell in love with the historic city.  It was a simultaneous pleasure just exploring the place, and taking a short break from a hectic schedule. On the first evening, we walked around the city to soak in the look and atmosphere of the place. It had just rained, so the colors really stood out .. and I was drawn to the boldness of the colors, especially of the shopfronts. Since it was after hours, all the traffic had left that area, leaving a clear view of  Read more inside...

Personal photos from the archives – South Africa

May 3, 2009 Neil vN 17 Comments

Personal photos from the archives - South Africa

Digging deep into the archives, here are some of my favorite images from way back.  These were all shot on transparency film - Fuji Provia RDP being my choice of film at the time.  And as usual with personal photography, there are memories and stories attached to these images. To get this photograph above of the DC3 flying over Johannesburg, I had to wind down the window of the WW2 vintage Junkers I was flying in. Because there was no window glass in the way, I could get a crisp photo of this DC3 following us.  The golden glow to  Read more inside...

tuesday night

May 14, 2008 Neil vN 9 Comments

a club in Manhattan on Tuesday, past midnight Canon 1D mk3, Canon 50mm f1.2 // 1/25th @ f1.2 @ 32oo ISO  Read more inside...

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