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We're just relaunching in January 2012 with a new angle. DSLR Blog will be about images and their stories (we also write about other topics on Photography too). We welcome submissions from any type of photographer - from baby portraits to gut-wrentching humanitarian photography to pure art. Read our submission guidelines.
Category Archives: Behind the Image
Colin Gallagher
© Colin Gallagher
Yesterday, the sky over Bellefonte, PA was ripped apart by color and clouds. I know every sunset is unique and special, but I had never quite seen something like this. Rushing home from the grocery store, I frantically tried to take a picture on my 1.3 megapixel phone from pre-Revolutionary War times. Gripped by panic, I parked in front of my apartment building and charged up the steps, nearly breaking my key off in the lock. The entire town was engulfed in this pinkish haze as the sun began to disappear. I grabbed my tripod and camera, quickly throwing on my wide-angle lens and sprinting across the street to the park there.
Mud sloshed through my sandals, and I was in shorts despite it being mid-January in central Pennsylvania. Reaching a rickety bridge crossing a stream through the park, I threw open the tripod legs and quickly attempted to frame the shot…
…and then a child began running across the suspension bridge, sending it swinging and rocking as her father stomped along behind her. The sun was gone, the last bright pinks and purples fading away to grey as the bridge finally became still again. Sighing, I snapped off a few merely out of principle and trudged home.
Colin is a 27-year-old Bellefonte photographer from Pennsylvania. His uncanny ability to completely destroy any piece of lighting equipment that he touches continually drives him outdoors to capture the breathtaking scenes Mother Nature has to offer.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/colintgallagher
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Colin-Gallagher-Photographer/170407189656590
Khushroo Ghadiali: Celebration of Hispanic Culture
New Mexico is one of the states where you get to see a lot of reference to the resident’s cultural heritage. Bright colors, traditional outfits, music, food, song, the Native American Indian presence, it’s all reflected here.
© Khushroo Ghadiali
As a former reporter/photographer for a small daily I covered a lot of local events. One of these was a celebration of Hispanic culture in a local town in Northern New Mexico. A major part of the presentation involved dancers representing different regions in Mexico through a dance called the Baile folklórico. A general definition for the term is a local folk dance with characteristics of ballet – pointed toes, exaggerated movements and very highly choreographed. Both men and women participate.
The Baile folklórico dances for women involve multicolored dresses with wide flowing skirts and ribbons along the edges that the dancers twirl around as they stomp their feet in time with the music – which differs depending on where it hails from in Mexico.
I’ve always had a hard time shooting in poorly lit situations so this shot was technically challenging for me to capture because of the lighting in the auditorium. No flash was permitted hence I had to work with available stage lighting – which had some pretty heightened colorcasts.
I had to wait until she held her face perfectly still under one of the available spotlights before taking this picture. A slower shutter speed with focus on the dancer’s face permitted me to blur the skirt. Additional dancers in the background provide some variation with the color of their dresses and suggest the presence of more than one participant at the event.
The idea behind this image was to show the pride and concentration on the dancer’s face while still giving viewers an idea of the movement in the image through the swirl of her skirt. Did I succeed?
Khushroo Ghadiali is a wedding and lifestyle photographer based in El Paso Texas.
Technical Specs
Canon EOS 1D Mark II
1/100 at f4
ISO 1600
Canon 70-200mm F2.8 is/USM at 125 mm
Metering mode Evaluative
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/khushrooghadiali
Jane Selomulyo: Candid Shots
Every image is worth a story.
Or at least, that is what I want to achieve in every shot that I take. I’m going to share images that are worth telling at least for me.
I love candid shots. I like to capture people when they don’t notice that there is a camera trying to capture their emotion and action. I think candid moments are the most innocent emotion and action from people.
It was a rainy evening in April 2011 at a floating village called Amphawa, Thailand. My colleagues and I were talking on the deck of the place where we were staying in because we couldn’t go anywhere. I walked up by the stairs to the living room which was located on top of the deck and just stood there, observing my friends with my camera in my hand trying waiting to shoot something candid. Suddenly, one of my colleagues stretched his hand out trying to touch the rain. I just quickly took the shot and he didn’t even know it.
The next day when the sun was shining brightly, I took the shot of “The girl and the dog”. I was walking along the kiosk/stall in the neighborhood and then saw what might have been a begging game. The dog was waiting for food to fall from the table or hoping that the girl would generously give the food to him. Pedestrians became the obstacle for taking a great shot. I didn’t want them in the frame. So, i keep an eye on the dog and the girl, patiently waiting for a good candid moments. My patience was tested and finally a moment came where there were no people walking by. I then just took quick continuous shots.
Candid moments are so rare and precious. Always be observant, always keep your camera with you, and be quick but patient when needed.
Jane Selomulyo is an amateur photographer who lives in Jakarta, Indonesia and is interested in candid/street, food, human interest/portrait and landscape photography.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Lady_Jaws
Behance: http://be.net/ladyjaws
Rikki Snyder
I took this photograph during the first couple of months that I was in photography school. At that point we were all just learning how to shoot tabletop photography, and this was our first still life assignment where we had the freedom to decide what we wanted to shoot. Before that, we had only shot a few things in the school’s commercial studio, such as a simple product on white seamless (now I call that “the boring stuff”). As you can imagine, I was very excited to finally be able to use my creativeness and create something that I really wanted to. I had so many ideas in my mind of what I wanted to shoot. I finally decided to go with an elaborate idea that involved slate, fake moss, mason jars, natural sponges, red rose petals, little purple flowers and some trimmings of one of my landlord’s house plants. I was so excited for this assignment that I went into the studio the night before, dragged all of my props in and shot my picture.
The next day during our studio time, I showed one of my instructors the picture. He liked it a lot, he was a little shocked that I went to such a great length of finding all these props but little did he know that it was only the beginning! Looking back now, that picture is a little much, but at the time I was satisfied and excited.
After my partner was finished shooting her picture for the assignment we had two hours left in the studio. I had these pretty little daisies that I bought the day before when I was buying the roses and I brought along those tiny scissors, too. I figured I’d take advantage of the extra time we had so I photographed the other idea that I conjured up in my head. This picture is the one you see here. It was finished in a matter of minutes. It was so much simpler than my elaborate, fairy tale and garden inspired image that I shot the night before. After some hemming and hawing, I decided to turn in my first picture for the assignment.
I got a good grade for that picture and since I didn’t turn in the image you see here, it got pushed back on my hard drive and covered by all the new images I was taking. A couple months later when we had to decide what area of photography we wanted to go into, I had a meeting with one of my instructors who was the head of the commercial studio. I told him that I wanted to specialize in still life photography and he said ok, show me what you have. Together, we went through all the pictures I shot in the commercial studio. The last image that was in the collection (that I had actually almost forgotten about) happened to be this one. When he clicked on it, I started to dismiss it and say, “Oh I shot that a while ago… it’s nothing special…”, but he stopped me. He asked why he never saw this before and I told him because I handed in the other shot for the assignment. He looked at the other picture and said, “This… this is nice, it’s good, ya know”.
Looking back now, I realize that this image was the first one that really showed the style that I would soon start to develop and that I now incorporate into all of my images. All I needed was someone to point that out to me and guide me in the right direction. It marked the beginning of a new chapter in my photography. I went on to turn that image in for an assignment later in the year and it ended up being chosen as the cover image for my class’s graduation invitation, which in itself was a huge honor.
To this day, it is still one of my most liked images in my portfolio and people have no clue it was taken so early on in my career (well now they do).
So a quick thank you to Dick, for teaching me, guiding my way through the commercial studio, and ultimately pointing out to me that this image and my abilities are something special. And thank you Joan, for giving me the information and confidence I needed to develop my own sense of design and for thinking of my work and choosing my image for the graduation invitation. You both are of huge importance to me!
Rikki Snyder is a freelance photographer and stylist specializing in food, product and still life. She is currently available for work in NY and Boston.
Blog: http://rikkisnyder.com/blog
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/RikkiSnyder
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rikkims/
Kurien Koshy Yohannan: The Reds
The Red Arrows, the aerobatics team of the Royal Air Force, was formed in late 1964 and consists of nine BAE Hawk T1A aircrafts, the RAF’s advanced jet trainer. Frontline fighter jets are not used owing to the operational costs.
By the end of 2009, the Red Arrows had performed a total of 4,269 displays in 53 countries. Their 4,000th display, and one that I personally witnessed, was at RAF Leuchars, Scotland during the Battle of Britain Airshow in the September of 2006.
As mentioned earlier, The Reds are usually a nine aircraft team but only eight planes can be seen in these images and this is due to the tragic demise of one of their pilots, Flt Lt Jon Egging. Flt Lt Jon Egging’s Hawk T1A aircraft crashed near Bournemouth Airport. These images were captured during the Airshow at RAF Leuchars in September of 2011, less than a month after this incident.
The loss of a fellow pilot and a team member would certainly have taken an immense emotional toll on the entire team and uncertainty loomed over whether they would perform at RAF Leuchars but they did, and the sense of respect for the Red Arrows was palpable in the air when they performed. And their performance, as always, was true to their motto – Éclat meaning “excellence”.
The images themselves were captured free hand without the use of a tripod. A Sigma 50 – 500mm lens mounted on a Canon 50D was used to capture these images. Owing to the speed of the subjects being photographed, using a tripod would not have been the best method of capturing these shots.
My main aim of capturing and showcasing these images is that they act as a tribute to the pilots, past and present, of the Red Arrows also referred to as The Reds.
Kurien Koshy Yohannan is a Scottish based professional Corporate Event Photographer who in his spare time loves photographing wildlife, nature and aviation related subjects.
Facebook: http://facebook.com/BlackStallionPhotography
http://www.igallopfree.com
http://www.fluidr.com/photos/blackstallionphotography
Chris Horner: Michigan Central Station
This is a picture of Michigan Central Station in Detroit, MI USA. It is considered one of the greatest urban ruins in the country. In fact this building is what first got me interested in photography.
© Chris Horner
This building has a presence like no other. In person it’s powerful. Built in 1913 at a cost of over $15 million, it was created to make a statement – an 18 story monument. It was modeled in a classic beaux-arts neoclassical style, and has the distinction of being designed by the same firm that created Grand Central Station in New York City. Millions traveled through here, and it sits just a mile or so across from the busiest border crossing in the USA – the Ambassador Bridge that leads to Canada.
Anticipating future growth and aided by streetcar service, it was placed just outside of the downtown Detroit area. However, the expected expansion never took place. One of the casualties of the Great Depression in the 1930’s was the streetcar service to the station. All of a sudden, MCS was cut off. Thus a slow, painful death ensued for this magnificent building that stretched for decades. In 1988 MCS was shut down for good. From then on the only visitors to MCS would be scavengers and curiousity seekers.
The first time I really paid attention to this building was seeing it from the highway at night one cold, winter evening on the way to take my family to dinner. It stood like a dark monolith against the urban sky. I asked my wife, an architect with an interest in historical buildings, “What is that??” She explained a little bit of the history to me. After dinner we drove up to it and I just stood staring in utter amazement. A lone streetlight illuminated the front, the only thing breaking up the deep darkness from within. How could a building this magnificent be allowed to deteriorate into a condition like this? I knew I wanted to get a picture for myself.
A couple of months later I came back, after learning how to set a camera to take night photos. The results were not good. I quickly learned that there’s far more to getting a picture than just setting up and pushing the shutter. Obviously I had a lot to learn. That was back in 2007.
Over the course of several years, this became my favorite spot to shoot. Still, finding a way to create an image that made a statement as strong as visiting the building in person was proving elusive. I tried many times. Finally, in January 2011 I captured the image in this article. I titled it Forlorn. It was one I was finally satisfied with. From this angle, it looks alone and abandoned – even though downtown is only a mile behind me. The cold, grey Michigan winter day and featureless sky matches the mood of the building perfectly. The beaten down snow and slush add to the cold feeling emitting from inside MCS. By this point in time, SAVE THE DEPOT had been spray painted on the top of the station. It was a culmination of perfect circumstances and many lessons learned from previous failed attempts.
© Chris Horner
Many plans have come and gone to restore MCS to its former beauty. Currently some renovation work is underway. It’s interesting to notice how the rise and fall of MCS has so perfectly aligned with the city it sits in. It would be a shame to completely let this building go. It was created in a time and with details unlike anything you’ll find today.
Below is a link to other pictures I’ve taken at MCS. You can see some of the inside as well – and more reasons why this building is incredible. You’ll also find other articles on my website with more specific information about MCS. It has, by far, been my favorite photo subject. Enjoy.
Chris Horner is an award winning freelance photographer based in Charlotte, NC who specializes in fine art prints and commercial photography.
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lensartwork/sets/72157617220524223/
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