Bowery Dugout - Penthouse

Bowery Dugout was recommended to me as “the best seafood in Kingston.”

I’m usually hesitant to take a person’s suggestion if they haven’t established themselves as having the same level of food snobbery as me, but I made an exception here because I was curious to try the place.

When we arrived, we saw two staircases leading away from the ground level.

Up: “Penthouse”

Down: “Dugout”

We were in the mood for something a little snazzier than what sounded like a sports bar downstairs, so we went up to the Penthouse.

It was a pretty, quaint place. Popular with an older crowd, based on the patrons.

I’m trying to think of what one might call a place like this. Casual Fine Dining? It’s basically on par with Red Lobster, but a local variant.

Dishes are pretty basic - fish with a starch (like a baked potato or rice pilaf), preceded by a simple salad.

The place isn’t bad, exactly. “Passable” is more accurate.

For the same money you spend here, you could have a phenomenal meal at Hotel Kinsley or Wilde-beest rather than the fairly mundane offering here.

Can’t recommend it.

That said, I’m still willing to give the ‘Dugout’ part of it a chance.

Maybe they do a decent Fish ‘n’ Chips.

We’ll see.

Oh, and for anyone keeping score: another regretted recommendation.

Le Canard enchaine

Cole claimed Le Canard Enchaine, a friend restaurant in The Stockade of Kingston, had the best french onion soup he’s ever had, all throughout his travels. I though that was a claim worth investigating.

I was excited, but the soup did not blow me away. I’ve had better, most recently at L’Express in Montreal, but that’s not really a fair comparison.

Still, it was warm and satisfying on a cold night, so it hit the spot.

Festive holiday decor

Really nice ambiance in here

My soupmates, Cole & Emma

Ducks, theme appropriate

Fred Hersch at Senate Garage

Went out for a little jazz night in Kingston, saw pianist Fred Hersch.

Engaged crowd

Senate Garage made for a very pretty and quite intimate venue.

Owner Don Tallerman saw me shooting and said “a lot of photographers have said it’s very difficult to shot in here because of the light.”

I disagree.

Shooting Film, for the first time. Ektar 100 on Canon AT-1

For all of my professional career, I’ve shot on digital cameras. Canon Digital SRL cameras, specifically:

• Canon 20D

• Canon 40D

• Canon 5D mk ii

• Canon 6D

And it’s been a really fantastic time using them, I’ve never had a single problem and I’ve always been very satisfied with my images. But after years and years of using the same system, it’s possible for things to get a little stagnant, and I felt that happening. I’ve heard a lot from other photographers about the importance of shooting film, especially if you didn’t start out with it.

Kenmore, Boston, MA. Just above Hunt’s Photo & Video. Notice the subtle reflection from shooting through the window?

It slows you down, limits the number of photos you can take, forces you to stop and consider each image more carefully.

The disparity is obvious - how many times have you pulled out your iPhone to take a photo, and you take 10 of the same shot just to make sure you got it? Even I do it, or I used to until I made a conscious effort not to. Maybe we all have a subconscious distrust of technology that pushes us to do it. But that’s an article for another time.

The point is, using an older manual camera with fewer futuristic features helps to focus the photographic process on what matters: composition. When you know you have a limited number of pictures you can take, you slow way down, and seriously consider each one.

I thought those little fairy lights on the top right were a reflection, but they’re in several of the images and might be damage in this lens.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s been wonderful to learn without that limitation, and I think that’s a good thing. Digital cameras allow us to take tens of thousands of images without a thought, and practice does help to hone ones skill - but there’s a bit in there that’s the problem. “without thought.”

And eventually, that’s what you need - something that forces you to change up the photographic process.

This is my favorite photo from the roll. I love the light that comes into the Cory Manufacturing factory though the skylights in the evening after the place shuts down. There’s something serene and peaceful about it.

I’d gone back and forth on picking up a film camera so I could see what it was all about, as I’ve found myself more and more interested in getting ‘the film look’ and for how I could evolve as a photographer by doing so.

Funny enough, when I mentioned all this to my friend Sergei Hasegawa, he felt it was a terrible crime that I’d never shot on film (besides using a few disposable cameras as a kid), he immediately went in his closet and dug out his old Canon AT-1 and placed it in my hands.

Sergei, excited to see his old camera in action again.

Oh boy, what a camera!

Unlike most of the photos in this post taken with this camera, this meta photo was made on the trusty ol’ iPhone.

And not only did he lend me the camera, but a whole slew of goodies laid out in this old camera back that he, ever the tinkerer, modified himself, with a little film bandolier and extra pockets.

I spent most of this first roll of film taking pictures of things around the factory. The world just looks different through old cameras like this, and I see pictures forming in my head that I might not create if I were shooting on my digital camera. I plan out my shots more, I look more actively for something worthy of spending the precious few frames on.

In the case of this image, I watched this window for a time and started to envision this shot. There was a moment when everyone left the room for one reason or another, so I turned the lights off, framed this up, set the exposure, and snapped of the single frame.

Then by the time they returned, the lights were back on and everything was back to normal.

Fun fact if you’ve read this far:

I started this post on Sept 10th. Today it’s Nov. 3 and I just hopped back on my blog and saw this unfinished draft. Shameful, no? But life is very busy and I don’t make much time for writing blog posts these days. That’s something I certainly need to remedy, though. So let’s get this thing done.

Here’s another image where I wondered how the florescent lights would mesh with the daylight coming through the window. It’s not as terrible and green as I feared it would be. Sure, the white balance is a little off, but I kind of like it.

Here I tried using my modern hotshot mounted flash with the retro, analog Canon AT-1. Flash from 2016 or so, Camera from 1970. It works! Sergei’s mind was blown.

We went to dinner later that night and I shoot one of my typical restaurant photos that I used to do so many of back in the Nooklyn Neighborhood Guide days. I feel like it handled the low light very well.

This was a fun shot, and the only one for which I got out the tripod. I used my digital camera to get the exposure right and get a test shot, then I set up the AT-1 and mimiced the setting to make this picture, which I really like.

Morning window at the hotel. I’ve been making a lot of images like they lately. Really love the relaxed, contemplative vibe.

Rainy mornings make for excellent imagery. This is the breakfast lounge area at the hotel near the factory.

This images is the one I think could most pass for digital - but when you get close you can see the really beautiful film grain, which is lovely.

There’s a lot of neat stuff to see in the factory, but I was most drawn to the these open doorways with all the greenery beyond.

Toni, CNC guy and attention lover, was happy to have my taking some photos of him at work in spite of him thinking the work he was doing wasn’t interesting. But to me, who’d never seen a point-to-point machine like this in action, it was all new and exciting.

Again, the white balance is a little off from reality, but I really like the look it has, so I didn’t change it.

This bulbous monitor is straight out of Akira.

This lens produces some really lovely out of focus areas at its maximum aperture.

More open doors and soft light coming in. If you saw this out of context, you might not know there was a busy factory in the other direction pumping out cabinets.

My first double exposure, and really it was an accident because I was just showing Sergei how it was done on the camera. I didn’t actually mean to take one.

On the extremely late drive home I was nearly passing out, so I stopped for some coffee. There was the beautiful mist covering the area and this photo was calling out to me, so in spite of me nearly falling asleep, I had to take a moment to get this. It’s one of my favorites from the roll.

Maybe I should print it for the house.

I took a short nap on that couch while I waited for my drink to be ready after taking this, haha.

Got home safely, but I resolved to never drive that tired again.

Back at home, and what better to do with a new camera than make some cat photos?

Regina and I drove up to Ghent, NY to pick up our CSA allotment from Woven Star Farm, and on the way we saw this antique gas station that seemed like the perfect subject for some film photography. So on the way back home, I made sure to stop here and take a few pictures.

I don’t remember where it is exactly. Somewhere between Ghent and Rhinebeck, probably on Highway 9.

We drove down to Rhinebeck afterward, I don’t remember why. Maybe to have dinner. I decided to take a photo of the Co. Working Space for the architect, Frank Mazarella. Didn’t know how it would turn out, given that it was my first architectural photo on film, but I’m pretty happy with it.

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And that finished up my first roll of film in the Canon AT-1.

I’m not sure how, but the shutter curtain broke after that and I didn’t notice. I shot two rolls of film and they both came out blank. The first time I thought it was user error. The second time I knew something was up and had Ian at Artcraft Photoworks (the lab where I have my film developed here in Kingston) take a look at it, and we discovered that the shutter curtain wasn’t moving at all when the shutter tripped. Whoops.

Later, Sergei found a guy in Georgia, Joe Careta, who specifically repairs this camera, plus the Canon AE-1 and AE-1 Program. And that’s it. That’s all he works on. Can you say expert? He completely fixed and replaced nearly everything on the camera for $95. it’s basically brand new. Can’t recommend him highly enough.

Revision: Real Estate

While I’m out shooting real estate for Nooklyn, I create a ton of images, sometimes over 1000 in a day.

Several of these are simple and just document a space for the prospective renter, but occasionally, there’s something special, something that speaks to me.

I see in those images the potential to transcend their life as “just some real estate photos”

Maybe they can give a little glimpse into what life is like right now in NYC.

Maybe they can show some moment of beauty in light play and shadow.

In almost every case, these pictures were originally edited to be much brighter.

I’ve brought them down the level that suits my current aesthetic:

Shadowy, moody, contemplative.

You’ll likely notice a recurring theme of mine - light coming through dark doorways or windows.

I love the way the light gracefully spills into a dark room.

Side light, like that that comes in through a bedroom windows, helps to bring out texture in brick, stone, and tile.

Sometimes there’s a slice of history, like an old lobby that once contained and active fireplace, which as long since been abandoned and unmanned.

Sometimes i’m lucky enough to catch a little scene fo life playing out in front of a building.

Surely something used to happen in these grand lobbies. Were they filled with furniture? Staff? Activity?

Now they’re just vacant corridors people pass on their way to their apartments.

They still get nice light.

Many of the places I visit aren’t quite finished, and have a bit of construction debris around. I’ve come to embrace it and appreciate the places just as they are, mess and all.

This is just a moment in time for them, and there’s something magical to be observed in every moment.

And often in the midst of that chaos there’s a window with just the right light in just the right place, that draws completely away from the chaos.

And the best days come to a close with a beautiful sunset.

Thinker

This image popped up in my apple memories feed the other day (august 6th, 2016).

It’s fun to look back at photos from previous years and see how my style has evolved over time. It’s a lot like looking at old journal entries and seeing how you used to think. You see things much differently as time goes on.

But you also see what endures, and that’s what I see here. This image is the darkest of the images I shot on that day, and now looking back on it is my favorite - an indication of my move toward more under-exposed photos and more appreciation of shadow.

For comparison, here’s another photo from earlier that same day:

Granted, I was intentionally going for a more summery vibe to match this beach, seafood-shack style restaurant, but you can see a massive difference in tone between these. This represents my earlier imagery, where I leaned often on bright, over exposed imagery - and I’m not saying there isn’t a place for that sort of thing.

But as I’ve watched the evolution of other photographers beyond myself, I’ve seen a similar trend - the longer we’re at it the more we tend toward more natural looking, softer, lightly-laminated images. Or maybe that’s just what I see because that’s what I’m currently attuned to.

I hope you’re enjoying the journey as much as I am.

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Video Fun:

Here’s another memory from that same time period. It was around this time that Instagram rolled out the “stories” feature, and I was among the first people to upload DSLR footage to instagram, which was blowing peoples minds left and right. I remember playing around with a lot of rack focus and copious use of the warp stabilizer in premiere to fix my super unsteady footage.

I tired to find the video I made here, where I was rack focusing on this beer, but my video archive in the photos app only goes back to August 15th, 2016. Here’s a good example from back then:

I later wrote a blog post about how to add said footage to instagram, and to this day it’s still the most popular post on this blog.

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Here’s an unrelated fun fact - that first image is at Hungry Ghost, a coffee shop on Fulton Street in Fort Greene. My brother, Dustin, currently works there as a barista, three years after I took this photo.

Stop and smell the mountains

For years I’ve peered out the window as I drive down the road and something would catch my eye. I’d think “that would make a nice photo. I should come back here some time and take that.”

It’s a terrible habit - passing up something that is wonderful right now, ignoring the fact that moments are fleeting, and knowing deep down that I’m never going to come back.

So I’ve been changing my habits. I’ve started to pull over and take it in, and snap that photo that I want right now, while it exists.

It gets me to pause for a moment and take in how wonderfully beautiful our world is, which, in the end, is what my photography is all about.

Reading is Fundamental

I’ve been ‘reading’ a bunch of audio books lately. Here’s a quick tally of books I have at least started:

Life/Philosophy:

12 Rules for Life - Jordan Peterson - This is what I’m on currently. Listened to a bit of Ch. 4 this morning.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People - In here he presents the idea that you should, within 48 hours of reading a chapter, talk to someone about what you’ve learned in that chapter. Because your mind rewrites it when you’re presenting it to someone, and if you know you’re going to present it to someone when you start reading, you’ll pay more attention. I intend to adopt this model for all books of this style, which is part of what prompted me to write this post and hopefully many more after it.

Wait, What? - James Ryan - “true wisdom comes from asking the right questions” is what one reviewer said. Given that, I suspect this was  Tim Ferris recommendation, since he often says that asking good questions is paramount. 

Sales/Business:

Sell or Be Sold - Grant Cardone

The 10x Rule - Grant Cardone

If you’re not First, you’re Last - Grant Cardone

Be Obsessed or Be Average - Grant Cardone

• Just a note here, all of these GC books are amazing. He reads them himself, adds more than is in the books, and gets fiery and animated in an infectious way. They’re exciting to listen to.

Never Split the Difference - Chris Voss - a book on negotiation by an FBI crisis negotiation

The 4 Hour Workweek - Tim Ferris

The Automatic Millionaire - David Bach - I actually listened to this one quite a while ago when I first got audible, but I’ll include it in this list anyway.

Architecture:

A Place of My Own - Michael Pollan - I actually got a physical copy of this from the local library, but after reading it for a while decided to go audio. I got this because in my effort to be a better photographer of architecture, I seek to understanding it more deeply.

Built - Roma Agrawal - This is really a book on engineering, but it’s super interesting. This one I’ve been reading a physical copy of, not audio. Which is important because of all Roma’s great engineering doodles.

Biography:

Steve Jobs - Walter Issacson - this was fantastic. Really helped to demystify the guy. We love to look at successful, iconic people and assume that they made everything happen straight by pulling it out of the void. This book helps show how one thing lead to another, and the invention of the iPad and iPhone made a lot more sense to me after having read it.

Here are a few I have in the Audio Library I haven’t read:

How to Win Friends & Influence People - Dale Carnegie

The Graveyard Book: Full Cast Production - I bought this by accident, wanting to get the Neil Gaiman read version at Tim Ferris’s suggestion. But I’ve heard this version is good, too. I’ve already read this, actually, as I read a physical copy some years ago. Great book.

Where should we begin - Esther Perel - Tony Robbins had this lady on his podcast a few times and she’s got a lot of interesting things to say on love, attraction, fidelity, and relationships.

You are a badass at Making Money - I listened to this before, but discovered that the physical book is much better since it’s filled with exercises, and those are easier to do when read. But I got the audio book again to listen to in the car. Haven’t gotten around to it yet, though.

The Three Body Problem - Liu Cixin - I’ve heard this was great. Obama liked it.

More Walter Issacson bios:

Einstein

Leonardo Da Vinci

The Innovators

• I don’t have Ben Franklin yet, but I hear that’s great, too.

• I should get Elon Musk’s bio, too. And Richard Branson. (not by Issacson)

So that’s what I’ve had in the queue or what’s coming up in the queue. I’ve also been listening to this 10 hour long youtube video of Alan Watts which is basically a visual audiobook. My brother, Dustin, sent me a picture of his version of the paperback, and I went hunting for it - Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life, and I could not locate an audiobook of it. But then I found this video, which is perfect, and probably better than audio since he gives lots of visual examples. I’m guessing that’s why there isn’t an audio book version.

I’ve been listening to audio books for a long time before subscribing to audible, too.

Previously I was making really heavy use of Overdrive/Libby to get audio books from the Brooklyn Library, which is totally fantastic, but newer/more popular books can take forever to come available because 30+ people might be in line ahead of you.

I could go through and list all the audio books I have read on that service, but I’ll stop here.

I’ve done a moderate to okay job of keeping track of my reading via Goodreads, which you can check out to get a further understanding of what I fill my mind with.

Columbia University Medical Center

By: Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Gensler

Sometimes I hunt around online or in books for beautiful buildings to photograph.

On one such hunt I came across Columbia University’s Medical Center and found some really beautiful pictures of it.

I wanted to give it my own shot, so one day after some client work on the upper west side, I decided to drive up and see if I could catch it at twilight. Benny Crown was with me, as he had assisted me with my shoot for UEG. We got lucky with a parking spot nearby, and then scouted around the building trying to get onto neighboring rooftops - to no avail.

So I found the best spot I could right in the driveway, looking straight at the building.

I kind of like the way the garage driveway looks. I keep thinking about the X-Men jet launching out of it.

I made the image out of just a few bracketed shots - in order to get detail in some of the darker areas of the image, I had to take a few where that light in the garage was incredibly bright.

By fusing them together in Photoshop, I was able to make this image, which I’m pretty happy with. I would have preferred that the lights be on in that one section that’s dark, but you don’t always get lucky with lights when you’re just popping by a building at night on chance.

Here’s a basic outline of steps:

Here’s a handy gif to show you how the editing process went. What you don’t see: all the behind the scenes selections and masking.

Part 1 - In the field

1. Find the composition, which involved backing up in some bushes next to a sheer drop into an alley that I’m sure would have hurt a lot if I slipped.

2. Raise the camera as high as possible on the tripod.

3. Shift the lens up to get as much of the building as possible.

4. Shoot brackets from deepest darkness to brightest blinding lights.

5. Pack it up and get outta there.

Part 2 - Post

1. Combine the images in photoshop, from the darkest images used for the brightest lights - the garage, to the brightest images used for the darkest areas - concrete in the building facade and the bushes.

2. Replace the sky

3. Adjust color and tones, add a vignette, color cast, and other creative touches.

4. Fix the perspective

5. Export

Part 3 - Share on the blog

Oh, that’s this part! Look, we’re here already. Hooray!

Got any burning questions about this photo, or any photography related questions? E-mail me.

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More posts on Architecture Photography:

Airbnb in North Bergen, NJ

I’m a big fan of Airbnb. I always love living just a little bit like a local when I’m visiting a new place. I almost always go hunting for an Airbnb to stay at instead of hotels, so I’m always excited to do a project where I get to help out an Airbnb owner.

In this case, it was a little 3 bedroom house in North Bergen, NJ, for a very friendly fellow who was kind enough to make me an espresso while I was in there photographing the place. Fortunately it was already well staged, so I didn’t have to spend much time moving things around, and instead got to focus on composition and light placement for each image.

What most surprised me was the level of precision and craftsmanship that went into the renovation, and it turned out that the owner did a lot of of the work himself. Very impressive. I remember one time I made a tile backsplash behind my stove, and let’s just say it did not come out quite so polished.

I had a really good time on this shoot - I spent 4 hours on site totally absorbed in making images and finished up with around 20 great ones - Here are some of my favorites.

By the way, scroll down past my images if you’re interested in seeing the “before” images of what the owner had posted before he hired me.

After

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Before

Below are the images the owner had before he brought me in photograph his space. I’m really excited to see what impact this will have on his bookings. It’s a bit too soon to know now, but I’m going to check in a few months down the road and then in a year to see what return he gets year over year. The difference in images is pretty drastic, and I’ll bet the increase in bookings will reflect that. I’ll put an update here once I’ve got that data (it obviously won't be for a while).

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