P.D.H PHOTOGRAPHY

     I always believe that visual mediums are connected to magic. That magic is only accomplished through illusion. This photograph that I took today is an example of an accidental illusion. At first glance you might think, "Wow. That's a great photograph of someone in the moonlight." Only problem, this was taken at 2 in the afternoon in the bright sunlight.      I was in my hometown of Babylon taking shots for a project, this was the first one. The shutter was at around 1200, but I forgot to set the white balance back to auto. I had the balance preset for when I was taking my family Christmas card. This photo was the result. I amazed me how much it convinced me that it was taken at night during a full moon. It's even more amazing that this happened on accident. It reminded me about how some of my favorite shots, scenes, or lines in famous movies happened completely by accident, and ended up being more affective than what was originally planned. I t...

     Seeing how today NASA just landed another rover on Mars I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to talk about the final frontier. I was up at around 1 AM and trying out long exposures of the moon. After a while, I got tired of it. I then looked around and saw Orion's belt. Ever since I was young I was always intrigued by that constellation. I locked my camera on my tripod and held the shutter open for about 30 seconds. My result is what you see above.      Seeing how the Orion's belt looks like three shooting stars in the sky, it reminds me of what I learned as young boy intrigued by the starts. Which is that the stars are not moving, we are. I actually managed to capture a small fraction of Orion's path in the sky. But if you zoom in closely, what lies beyond is even more interesting.      If you look closely you can see distant stars not visible to the naked eye. Stars of different colors, white, red, blue, green, gi...

You already have a picture, let me paint it for you...      Within a psychiatric hospital on Long Island, New York contained the worse kind of crazies you could think of. Worse than any of the ones you see in the scariest of horror films. On a dark and stormy night there was a riot, and the patients brutally murdered every single employee and took the opportunity to escape, and with complications from the storm, no one realized until almost a week later. After police collected all the escaped patients, just one was unaccounted for. They called him the shape, he never talked, never showed emotion, all he did was kill anyone he wanted, ever since he was a child. His eyes were...lifeless eyes, black eyes, they were the eyes...of a psychopath. After the capture of the patients, the old hospital was abandoned.  Some say the Shape is still there, quietly waiting in his room to see if anyone had the curiosity to come inside his home. This was the last know pi...

     This is an example of a picture that isn't objectively perfect but in hits me at my core with sentimentality. This is my cousin Malia. While sitting outside at a family party, I aimed my camera at her to take a photo. You may not be able to notice, but she was actually trying to hide her self from the camera (to mess with me).      After five minutes of making funny faces and covering the lens with a hot dog(hence the bad focusing), she eventually just broke out in laughter and then I waited until just the right moment to click the shutter.  This was the result.      One thing that I always wanted that I will never be able to get, was to be a big brother. I'm the youngest of four so I will never get that chance. Although I'm 19 going on 20...oh Christ..,whenever I'm at a family party all the young cousins run up to because they just love seeing me. I don't know exactly why but their parents all say they get excited when they...

     One word, family. This is one of hundreds of pictures I took that day in Greenport at a family party. This particular side of the family (my fathers side) I don't see that often. So when I heard of the party I brought every camera that I own. Two 35mm cameras, a 120 film camera, my DSLR,  and two polaroids. This picture is one of my favorites from that day. Taken on Ektar 100 film with a Pentax K1000.      Everything I love about my family is in this photo. Love, silliness, appreciation, and excitement. The reason I photograph people is to capture a precious moment. I raised my camera and the second I saw this through the viewfinder I clicked the shutter. It's perfect. James(Orange shirt) going crazy out of focus, Delphine(pink) not looking satisfied with people all over her toy car, Malia on top of her cousin James' back, and two family friends going with the flow. What else can you find in this picture?

     It was after my Graduation Party when I decided to buy my first 35mm camera, a Canon AE-1. At the time my only experience in photography was with my Nikon D3000 always on AUTO mode. Obviously every picture I took with the Nikon came out perfect but having it on AUTO never taught me anything, but with film, that all changed.       Before film I never knew anything about aperture, shutter speed, or ISO sensitivity. But I had ordered a roll of Kodak Ektar 100 before I did my camera, and when both came in I immediately drove out to a nearby lake and started shooting. What amazed me is how perfect this first picture turned out. The sharpness, the color tone, the lighting, the fact that I got so close to this goose without it hissing at me. It wasn't until after I looked at the rest to see that none of those features were present in the rest of the roll.       It was then that I began to learn about photography, so that e...