The Blizzard of 2010

New York City
Dec 27, 2010

Some photos from the East Village after the blizzard of 2010. This is being called the sixth largest snowstorm in the city's history, with 20-inches deposited in Central Park.

Complexions Contemporary Ballet - Summerstage 2010

The Complexions Contemporary Ballet perform at the City Parks Foundation's Summerstage in Central Park, August 10, 2010. Photos by Michael Seto.

I got the wonderful opportunity to shoot a couple shows for the City Parks Foundation's music program, performed in parks throughout the five boroughs during the summer.

Live action performances in a low-light situation present some tough challenges for a photographer, from an equipment standpoint and then from a capture standpoint.

Equipment-wise, better performing gear will give you greater opportunities to get the shot. The low-light levels require a combination of fast-glass, lenses with a max aperture of f2.8 or faster, and a camera capable of shooting high-ISO (1600+) without a lot of noise. Higher end camera's also possess superior (read faster) auto-focus systems.

This combination allowed me to shoot at my selected ISO of 2500, with a shutter speed of 1/250 - essential to freeze the movement - at an aperture of 2.8. I normally shoot in Manual mode, selecting all three key exposure measures based on conditions and my intentions.

Whereas, a consumer zoom at f5.6 would require an equivalent shutter speed of 1/60, giving unusable amounts of motion blur, or a ISO of 10,000.

Often, the distance to the performers calls for a telephoto lens, in this case, I used the Nikon 70-200 f2.8. The 85 f1.8 and 50 f1.4 also come in handy in these situations...now if I can just pick up the 200mm f2.

Gear aside, the other challenge is, similar to sports photography, capturing the classic "decisive moment." When is the dancer at the apogee of her leap? When is the critical interaction between dancers? The peak moment of emotional performance?

If you have not seen the performance before, you don't know any of this and need to 1) guess, 2) anticipate, and 3) get lucky. For me, it's taking clues from the music, the body language and facial expressions of the dancers, do they tense or do something that "tells" an upcoming peak movement? Is the music reaching a crescendo? These often signal a critical moment in the performance.

The other aspect is to consider your shooting angle, be aware of what is in the background, are you singling in on one performer or taking in the whole? Are you leaving room in the composition for movement? Is the light silhouetting the performer? Side light? Back light? Gulp, hatchet light?

All these factor in - camera, environment, performers, and the photographer's skills and intent. When it works, it's a zen-like feeling, where I am aware of all these inputs, but at an unconscious level; I'm not thinking about it. I know what my settings need to be, I feel the music and the dancers, and the moments seem to pick themselves and the shutter fires. That's being in the flow of your work, and I find that I feel that most often when photographing a live performance.

New York Marathon 2010

The mass of runners pours down Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

See more photos of the 2010 ING NYC Marathon that were shot for The L Magazine at their website:

http://www.thelmagazine.com/newyork/at-the-2010-nyc-marathon/Slideshow?oid=1808307

Migrating Travelogue to Blogspot

Good morning,

Over the next few days (as time allows), I will be migrating my old Travelogue to Blogspot. The entries will be backdated to the appropriate date. This Travelogue represents my travel writing while on an around-the-world backpacking trip from 2001-2003. I'm doing this to rationalize some of the many disparate web properties I'm maintaining and hopefully through this, expand the audience as well.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Michael

Definitely Not the Cheap Seats

This past summer, I received recognition from the Met's Teammates in the Community program for my work, including photography, for the New York City's premiere food rescue organization, City Harvest.

I accepted the award at home plate at CitiField, home to the New York Mets, just before the first pitch was thrown out. And it was right after the National Anthem. Wow. Not an everyday occurence. Here's the video from that award presentation, courtesy of the Mets and CitiField. And of course, thank you to City Harvest, who nominated me for the award. They are a cause near and dear to my heart.




Video Courtesy and Copyright New York Mets

PS: Would have been even nicer had the announcer known how to pronounce my surname.

Dave Nee Foundation 2010 Gala Images

We recently worked as the event photographer for The Dave Nee Foundation's 2010 Great Gatsby Gala, an important fundraiser and awards ceremony for this non-profit that promotes suicide prevention.

Take a look at a montage of our images at their website:

http://vimeo.com/16735856

Above: New York City's skyline at dusk and early evening.

I'm lucky to be a photographer living in NYC. Everything around us is a photographic subject. I admire those photogs that spend a lifetime documenting some aspect of the city, Jay Maisel's images of the World Trade Center come to mind.

But one needs to be disciplined about bringing your camera with you. As Chase Jarvis said, "The best camera is the one that's with you." No camera, no photograph - unless of course you consider iphones or other camera phones.

Walk Around Lens

I recently added the Nikon 35mm f2.0 prime lens to my arsenal. I found the 50 f.14 just not wide enough for a walk-around lens. Carrying one of the big zooms, either the 17-35mm or the 24-70mm, just felt too heavy. WAAAAH! It's one thing to lug those on a paying job, another to just sling it on my D700 (sans MB-D10 battery pack) as a camera/lens combo to carry all day.

I did like the 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 ED as a walk around consumer zoom. Unfortunately, mine got damaged and I'm holding off on repairing it. I'm anticipating this rumored 24-105 f4 that Nikon Rumors and Thom Hogan expect to be announced any day now from Nikon.

Anyway, I do love the 35mm/D700 combo. It's light and unobtrusive. I plan to start shooting more with just primes, using the 35, 50, and 85 f1.8.

Dessertopia

Mmmmm, some of the deserts from Chef Eric Ripert at Le Bernadin, New York City. All shot with the Nikon D700 paired with the older Nikkor 50mm f1.4 AF, not the new G version, wide open under natural window light (well, about f2.0). That aperture and about 1/80 second to keep it sharp while hand-held called for ISO 1250 or so ensures a narrow depth of field and that creamy bokeh to the rest of the image. I chose the settings manually to give it a white, dreamy background - perfect to match the dreamy deserts of celebrity Chef Ripert. I love the different shapes of the plates as well.

St. Andrews - Golf's Birthplace

Top: Links golf, where the land meets the sea.
Middle: St. Andrews, the home of golf
Bottom: A foursome starts down the 1st fairway of the Old Course, the St. Andrews hotel in the background.

Watching the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews golf links this week reminds me of my trip there in August 2006. We experienced perfect weather, 65F and sunny for four days of golf. However, the morning we stepped on to the famed Old Course, the golf gods reminded us of the nature of true Scottish links golf. They blessed us with 40 MPH sideways wind and rain. Later that afternoon, we played the New Course to glorious blue sky and puffy cumulus clouds.

But at least we got our taste of some real Scottish weather.

Happy Father's Day 2010

Father and son, Shelter Island, NY. May 2010.

Beautiful Kyrgyzstan

I'm saddened by the news of the ongoing ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan, pitting Kyrgyz against Uzbek peoples. I was in this beautiful mountain country in 2007 and found the people warm and welcoming. I do hope that the violence abates soon. Here are some images from that wonderful ten-day trip from Bishkek, the capital, around Issy-Kul Lake, then south to Osh.

For more images, see www.michaelseto.com/Proofs/Kyrgyzstan/