An iPhone Captures New York City

All images contained in this book were taken with an iPhone 4S. It was my first trip to New York City, so the images captured reflect my desire to see as many popular spots as I could during my brief one day and a half in the city. They are wide shots that show the larger context I was seeing as I took it all in. I’m sure that my photographs will be completely different the next time I visit the city and zoom my focus to show more of the people, lifestyle, textures and movement of New York City.

As a photographer, I knew I wouldn’t be able to see and capture as much of the city as I hoped to if I was weighed down by all my professional gear. I also knew there are already thousands of stunning shots of the city taken by photographers who live in the city and can shoot when the conditions are just right. I decided to focus on taking stylized images with my iPhone and SX70 with Polaroid film. This book contains the photos from my iPhone.

All but seven of the photographs were taken using the Hipstamatic app using the Loftus Lens and Rock BW-11 Film. I did not use a flash in the app. Because I was in the city and wanted to capture the huge buildings that were right on top of me, I was using an Olloclip lens that slips on the iPhone to give me wide angle and fisheye lens options. I am totally enamored with the Olloclip and the settings I was using in Hipstamatic.

I have seen the beauty of iPhone photography since I boought my first iPhone when they were first released. You can see more of my work at www.iPhonelomo.com

I hope you enjoy the artwork contained in this book.

 

An iPhone Captures New York City by Tony Cece | Make Your Own Book

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Dino And Domi Ride The Norfolk Tide

Both of my boys like trains, but Dino really likes them. This Christmas we introduced him to Polar Express. I wasn’t sure what he would think because he is only 2.5 years old, but the next day I heard him muttering about losing his ticket. We quickly made him his own golden “Ticket to Ride” and he carried it around with him. The day after Christmas we decided we needed an outing.

This year Nofolk, VA finished their light rail system called The Tide and one of the few stops is just over a mile from our house. We jumped in the car and headed up to ride The Tide to the MacArthur mall so the kids could play on the playscape inside.. This iPhone video captures their ride.

For those interested in the footage, it was all captured on my iPhone using an Olloclip lens. It is a wonderful piece of photographic equipment for the iPhone that allows you to shoot Wide Angle, Fisheye, and Macro. Check the link to learn more. I bought mine at Best Buy because the Apple store was sold out.

Music
“Night Lights” by Learning Music (http://www.learningmusicmonthly.com/)

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Today It was Dino’s Turn To Get In The Christmas Spirit

It’s Pre-Thanksgiving still, but we our household is ready for Christmas. We are trying to create and capture some memories of the boys while they are young. Dino had fun telling us what colors the lights were as he held them up. Believe it or not, we only sacrificed one light bulb and no one got hurt.

• Get the free Lightroom Preset I created for this set of photos.

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Dominic Is In The Christmas Spirit.

My wife and I decided to start putting up our Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving this year. Part of those decorations included photos of our older son, Dino’s, first Christmas and realized that we didn’t have any of Dominic to put out in the future. Today I decided to remedy the problem with a similar photo shoot for Dominic.

For the photographers that may be reading, this is a two Canon 580ex ii flash setup. My key was bounced into a 30″ umbrella at 1/4 and moved to whatever side of the camera he was facing. I used a bare flash at 1/32 power on the floor camera-left to chisel the face. I wanted this hard contrast in lighting because I knew that I wanted to use a lot of sharpening and “recovery” in Lightroom to achieve this vintage magazine ad look.

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Boys Like Planes, Trains, & Space Stuff.

I’m just getting around to some family photos from a few months ago and ran into this of Dino riding the Metro in Washington DC. It was from a quick trip the Air and Space museum. He was so content as we took the 30 minute ride from Franconia-Springfield into the heart of the city.

We had borrowed a two-seater stroller from our friends that live in the area, but upon arrival at the Metro station we learned it had a flat tire. I convinced Heidi that we should still proceed with the trip because I was certain that they would have some type of stroller available for rent like they do at the Virginia Zoo – they don’t.

The following hour at the Air and Space museum was chaotic and stressful. Dino didn’t understand why he couldn’t climb into the lunar lander exhibit and play with “Buzz Lightyear.” I didn’t realize that there wasn’t plexiglass under the bars setup around the exhibit and he made a break for it. Luckily, I am quicker and smarter than our 2 year old…or so he let’s me believe.

We pulled our family off to the side to regroup and then decided that the hands-on area was much safer for us. Dino was really excited about walking through the partial innards of DC-7 and I tried to tell him about how I flew on a DC-3 owned by MFI out of Haiti after the riots last December…he wasn’t impressed and ran around to get back in line to go through the plane exhibit again.

Looking back at the few photos I took and remembering the day made me glad we went. It was pretty stressful, but we survived and learned quite a bit about how toddlers behave in museums. I leave you with the following photo and a quote from the popular children’s movie, Toy Story.

“Reach for the sky!” – Woody

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Vacationing & 30 Second Exposures

I’m currently vacationing with my family and on the last leg of our trip from a stay in Summersville, West Virginia to our final destination in Bee Spring, Kentucky. While in WV, I enjoyed two nights shooting sunset and twilight photos of Summersville Lake. One of my favorite techniques is shooting 30 second exposures of moving water. It creates a magical effect. Here is one shot that I took of the water lapping onto rocks and a rotten stump in the water. The varying movements of the water on the tree and rocks gives it a “witches brew” look. I’ll post more later…

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A Vintage Lens, A Day At The Zoo, A Lot Of Fun.

I don’t know exactly what made me go up to my office and dig out a vintage Vivitar Canon FD mount 75-205mm lens today, but I am sure glad I did. It was pure joy to shoot with this one-touch focus/zoom lens. I may have been motivated by a photographer I saw taking photos at the zoo the day before. Yeah, I endured the zoo 2 days in a row. The first was just me and my two boys…needless to say, I didn’t have a hand free for a camera. When we decided to go back today, I wanted a little extra zoom to try to get a closer shot of the elephants (who ended up being inside both days).

Before you look at all the images, I have to admit that I bought this lens on ebay for $10 shipped. It has fungus inside the glass and is stuck fully open at f/3.8, but I love the images it produces. They image is soft and the bokeh from these FD lenses through the cheap glass of the adapter is like a painting. I’m not going to ever get a super crisp image, but that’s not always my desired effect. Knowing it’s limitations allows me to have fun creatively with it. Perfection doesn’t have to be the end goal.

I highly recommend taking a look at some of these cheap lenses and an adapter. The images can be very unique and you don’t have to give away our little secret.

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Buy An Original Tony Cece Fine Art Polaroid Series.

“Summertime Roses” is a triptych series I shot on a Polaroid SX-70 on Silver Shade film from The Impossible Project.  It has idiosyncrasies and imperfections that make the photos have vintage character minutes after they eject from the camera.

I love art. I like looking at photography and filling my home and office with fun images of my own and other photographers. My blog is usually a place to talk about the work I’m doing or the fun I’m having with my kids and my camera.

I’m going out on a professional limb and offering to sell some of my art so that one of you can hang it in your home or office.  It has already been a tough new road – once I saw it framed, I wanted to keep it and hang it in my dining room.

I am offering this framed fine art piece to one buyer who will take ownership of the one-of-a-kind original images for only $150.  Readers of my blog have the first chance to purchase it.  Payment will be made via Paypal.  Please contact me using this form and be the first to let me know that you are the one who is hip enough to hang this in your home, office, or place of business.

See a larger scan of the images below to see the softness, warmth, and imperfections that give these photos character:

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Photoblog: Dominic’s First Birthday!

Sometimes us photographer-types have to go the extra mile the capture our personal moments with the same flare we put into our daily photographic work.  Tonight turned out to be one of those occasions for me.  There are many times that I have taken the easy way out when it comes to photographing my family occasions.  That isn’t to say that the photos I did take were not thought out or artistic, it means that I didn’t spend time to do any extra preparation.  My youngest son, Dominic, turned 1 today and we wanted to celebrate it just like we had done his brother, Dino, last year – with cake!  The biggest difference was that Dino’s was celebrated outside in a park and Dominic’s was going to be in our kitchen.  We chose the kitchen because we knew how much cake would end up on the floor and the rest of the house is carpeted.  I almost took the easy way out and went with a lens that could handle low light and/or put a speedlite flash on to bounce off the ceiling and walls. I’ve done that in our house before and I knew it would not stand out as a special occasion – the pictures would appear very flat.  Our kitchen is very utilitarian and not the most beautiful backdrop for a photograph, so I needed to make sure that I directed the viewers eye to main subject through the use of light.  Had I just bounced the flash off the ceiling, I would have lit up a lot more of the background of the images and cluttered the image.  Using no flash would have really mixed lighting from the Tungsten lights in the ceiling and the natural light coming in from the left side of the shots (see photos at the bottom).

Here is what I decided to do.  First, I asked my wife, Heidi, if I could “set up” for the photos.  She knew what I meant and said that I could, but warned that I had to be prepared to deal with broken gear if Dino happened to knock it over.  I agreed and set up an umbrella with a speedlite near the ceiling to the right of the camera – with extra sandbags (2 year old Dino is a tank).  I then put a bare speedlite camera left behind Dominic’s chair as a kicker to bring dimension and focus to the image.  I shielded that from the camera using a standard issue kitchen cutting board that was already sitting right next to the flash.  I pulled out my light meter and dialed in the settings for a few f-stops that I wanted to use and put the basic settings in my very short term memory.
Everything was in place, then the curve ball….Heidi asked my mom if she could take a family photo of us.  Needless to say, I had not planned for that.  She snapped a few shots and there was my “kicker” in plain view.  I fixed it, we took a few more shots, and then the cake eating began.  Dominic was hesitant at first, but that changed the moment a taste of chocolate frosting hit his tongue.  He didn’t tear into it voraciously like his brother did last year, but he happily ate his fair share.

Once I had the main shots I wanted from the front, I moved around to play with the flares and rim lights from the kicker.  This flare also helps detract from all the items that were on the counter and in the shot.  I then grabbed a few more shots without the flash to remind myself that a little extra effort pays off big.  I was pleased with the direction, color, taste of the cake, focus, depth that this directed light brought to an otherwise “busy” kitchen.  Use this as inspiration to go the extra mile the next time you have a special family event that you plan to photograph and enjoy creating memorable light as you create family memories.

Photoblog:

A couple photos I took without the flash setup to use in this comparison:

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Rural Images From The City

These photos were taken at the same time and location as the photos in the previous post. The editing process (color, softness, and dark exposure) are all based on the original intent to put these in a frame that has a vintage oval styling.  These depth of field available using my Canon 50mm f/1.4 adds to the vintage softness of the medium to large format cameras that produced the vintage photos that I envisioned for the frame.  I’m still not sure that I have captured the image I want for the frame, but I definitely captured the look I was going for.  I’m still thinking about the subject that I want before I spend the money to print the large photo.

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