Category Archives: Photography Links

Kip’s Castle of Verona and Montclair, N.J

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In 1902 construction began on a castle on a hill with a view of the skyline of New York City and the villages of Verona and Montclair. For three years, work continued on what would become Kypsburg, the home of Frederick Ellsworth Kip and his wife, Charlotte Bishop Williams Kip. Mr. Kip was a wealthy textile inventor and industrialist who published several books on U.S. tariff laws.

The Kip’s Castle Estate located on the ridge of First Mountain, which is shared by Verona and Montclair, is said to have been designed by Mrs. Kip and features 30 distinctive rooms in the castle, many with vaulted ceilings and fireplaces with handcrafted tiles. In addition, there is a two-story, 6,000 square-foot carriage house on the property. A showpiece of the property was a renowned octagonal rose garden.

Over the years, the estate remained in private hands. In 2000, the law firm that owned the castle began a long fight to develop the property with condos, townhouses and single-family homes. For seven years the historic gem was threatened with continued plans of development. Neighbors and others fought to save the beautiful 9,000-square-foot castle, its carriage house, serpentine drive and grounds. As in stories of old, everyone hoped for a knight on a steed to save the property from ruin, but the chances looked bleak.

In March 2007, the County of Essex, under the leadership of Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr., stepped in to save the property, purchasing it with generous grants from the NJ Green Acres Program and the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund.

The purchase added a gem to the historic Essex County Park System and paved the way for a “happy ever after” life for Kip’s Castle.

The Lively Morgue

The New York Times has launched a new Tumblr site called “The Lively Morgue” to breathe new life into items in the newspaper’s photo archive (nicknamed “The Morgue”). Each week they’ll be sharing several historical photographs found in massive collection. Just how massive?

We don’t know. Our best guess is five million to six million prints and contact sheets (each sheet, of course, representing many discrete images) and 300,000 sacks of negatives, ranging in format size from 35 millimeter to 5 by 7 inches — at least 10 million frames in all. The picture archive also includes 13,500 DVDs, each storing about 4.7 gigabytes worth of imagery. When the Museum of Modern Art set out to exhibit the highlights of the Times archive in 1996, it dispatched four curators. They spent nine months poring over 3,000 subjects, working with two Times editors, one of whom spent a year on the project. In the end, they estimated that they’d seen only one-quarter of the total. [#]

To make the project even more interesting, they’re also publishing an image of the reverse side of each print. This often reveals information such as how often the image was used, notes by the photographer, and the original caption that was chosen.

Photographs and the real world.


Writer and Oscar-winning documentary maker Errol Morris talks about the nature of truth, art and propaganda in photography. Drawing examples from the photographs of Abu Ghraib and the Crimean war, cited in his book Believing is Seeing, he argues we’ve often underplayed the link between photgraphs and the physical world

Reworking

Sometimes when I shoot an image I not happy with the result. Over time and as my skills evolve I sometimes revisit older images and re-edit them to see if I can achieve the look and feel I was attempting in the first place. Here is am example of a rework of an older image that I did some fixing to remove distracting elements. The model is Kerri Taylor Enjoy!!!

Kerri Taylor

Karri Taylor



Real Estate Photography

I have been studying elements of the photography used in Real Estate sale material. I found this very insightful how to for realtors to use when taking pictures of there listings.

I fund these tips here Web Real Estate Market web site

Photography tips for listing agents

You will need: A camera, a towel, a table or sturdy flat surface, a hammer, a phone and a room that needs to be photographed.

  1. Remove camera from case.
  2. Remove battery from camera and put it in your pocket.
  3. Place towel on flat surface.
  4. Place camera on top of towel.
  5. Fold towel over camera until it is completely covered.
  6. Pick up the hammer and hit the camera at least 10 times. When the camera is flat you have hit it enough times.
  7. Use the phone to call a photographer.
  8. Carefully pick up the towel and keep it folded and toss it in the trash (this part may take some practice).
  9. Take the battery to a recycling center.
  10. Hire a professional photographer

Bellator 34

Bellator 34

Big night last night, stepping up to shoot professional MMA at Bellator Fighting Championships 34 tonight at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood Florida.

I have to say the MMA Bellator Fighting Championships 34 where great. They know how to put on a very professional event. I spent the night cage side shooting for CagePotato.com thanks guys for the hook up.

I have to say the Fujii/Frausto match up as a war! It was a 5 round slug fest, those ladies left everything in the cage last night.

Bad luck for Florida’s Igor Almeida, he lost by TKO via doctor stoppage for a very nasty gash over the right eye. Hope to see you in the cage again soon. Hope to see him in another Bellator Fighting Championships match up.