T. R. Appleton Blog

Sadly, I’m leaving this blog (software) behind, as it’s just not getting the job done for me anymore. More info, and an exciting announcement, on the new blog!

I was very happy to take this photo, as it’s one that I would have been unable to take a week ago. Shot on the Lower East Side around 8:00 at night, I was enjoying dinner with Meena and a couple friends when we saw this figure across the street. It was just creepy enough to make me want to take the photo — but it was so dark, my 20d wouldn’t have been able to do that.

Happily, I was carrying around my new 7d. I just received it last Wednesday, and suffice it to say, it has low-light capabilities that my old camera couldn’t have dreamed of. I’ve already been using it to freeze action in dimly lit high school gyms, and it works better than I could have hoped for. Granted, it’s not the best camera out there, but it was at the budgetary sweet spot — and coming from an eight-year-old camera to begin with, I feel spoiled anyway. Aside from its low-light capabilities, which are going to come in really handy for weddings, its 7fps burst rate is another advantage for the aforementioned high school sports. It’s got some great weather sealing, which will come in very handy when I’m shooting in a desert environment later this year. (More news on that as the time approaches.) And although it’s a camera more built for action than staid portraiture, it’s a vast improvement over my 20d in that area, as well.

This is a major change for me, photographically; hopefully one of several to be coming soon. Two more are in the works right now (of decidedly lesser caliber, nonetheless exciting) and I’m eager to see what comes after that!

Finally, a casual reminder that if you happen to be in New York, please stop by Furnish Green to see some of my work printed and available for sale!

This week, I’m taking a big step with my photography. For the first time in my career, a selection of the images I’ve made will be on display and for sale in a public showroom. And on Broadway, no less!¹

Furnish Green, a highly hip shop with lots of accents to decorate your home, held a photography contest that was brought to my attention by friend of the blog Tina Ramchandani. I entered — mostly because “why not” — and am one of two winners!

I’ll have five photographs on display, some from my portfolio (including the front image), others that haven’t seen much exposure yet. I didn’t realize  while putting together my selections, but most of them are street photography. The woman with the iron is the only exception.

The prints are gorgeous, framed and matted nicely, and available for extremely reasonable prices. If you’re reading this, and have any opportunity whatsoever to check it out, please do! I know the shop’s proprietors will appreciate the foot traffic, too. And they have an amazing selection of other antiques and shabby chic items, as well — antlers, ancient chests, Remington typewriters, and other fascinating pieces. Check it out!

Furnish Green
1261 Broadway, Suite 505 (Fifth Floor)
between 31st & 32nd St.
New York, NY 10001

My work will be presented at least through March 10.

¹Oddly, this isn’t the first of my endeavors to put me on Broadway: Meena and I, along with a few of our friends, used to have a twice-monthly comedy show at Broadway Comedy Club, ’round the corner from the Ed Sullivan Theater.

Meena and I came back into the city on a (very!) early train this morning to catch the Chinese New Year celebrations in Chinatown. It was, of course, highly colorful, and the friendliest parade we had ever been to; even the police were in on the celebrations, buying firecrackers from street vendors. I walked away with several photos I liked, so click below for bigger!

Halloween marked the end of my second photo-a-day project. This one felt very different in character from the first one, both to me and Meena. And that makes sense, to an extent. Life is very different from how it was back in February. We’re not planning a wedding, and that in itself changes everything. But I am working significantly longer hours, and I’m actually eating proper dinners now, which tends to take time. (Totally worth it, though. We’ve become big fans of AllRecipes.) I also took a blow that I suffered earlier this year a little too hard, with regards to photo. Particularly after a pep talk about 1/3 of the way through this month’s project, I think this helped me get over that.

I was more disappointed with the photos themselves during the project this time around, or at least, it felt that way. I was mostly upset that I didn’t pull off anything as technically capable as this or this, nor anything quite as creative as February’s opener. Still, I managed one that came off as Quite Good to me.

Fun with Shapes had to be the most fun this month. For whatever reason, I simply felt no pressure while shooting that one — it truly was fun.

Possibly riding off that high, I was happy to pull off something a little different for Full Moon, a night that had complete cloud cover.

The day I went down to cover Occupy Wall Street was also really enjoyable,, but in a very different way. Taking photos wasn’t something I was so conscious of; there was just so much there to document that it became second nature.

I did have at least one photo that I would really like to reshoot. I see the potential there, just not the space (in our apartment).

I’m hoping to keep the momentum going, albeit at a slower pace. Perhaps at least one photo per week — though I’m not going to hold myself to a strict schedule. I’ve certainly got a lot to manage right now, but photography should be one of those things.

Thanks to all for reading. If you’d like to see the project in its entirety, this link is where you’ll want to go.

Today, I was assigned to do the same assignment I had at the beginning of this project. This time was very, very different.

Of course, it’s Halloween. And naturally, I’m back in New York City instead of Glens Falls. I headed down to the Halloween Parade in the Village for this one, and it was almost like cheating. People expected to have their photos taken — but I was happy to oblige.

All of these photos were taken with direct flash, which is never my first choice, but in an outdoor space at night, what other choice is there? Bounce off asphalt? Additionally, I had only a 256 meg card — it was actually a lot like shooting with a single roll of film. I kind of liked it.

This one only makes sense if you’ve played Minecraft. I have, and it was a perfect costume. He actually had a couple buddies similarly dressed, but this was the best shot I could get in a rapidly moving crowd.

I really liked these two. Their costume was pretty neat, but they were also just very nice people. The “deer in headlights” look is staged — as soon as I lowered the camera, they were all smiles. “It was her idea!” said the man on the right, beaming.

This guy. Yeah. I just wish I had gone a liiiiittle wider. You know, to get his full wingspan.

This guy’s costume was just so great. And his facial structure totally works for the costume, in my opinion. I only wish I could have achieved a tighter focus. It was so dark out, of course, that it was pretty difficult to do this. Additionally, the guy was so pleasant, almost zen-like, about having his photo taken. I kind of wanted to buy him a beer.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that these guys were here. They were all dressed up in costume, too, but this camp donned a noticeably different kind of costume from “zombie nurse” and “sexy nurse.”

This guy was the epitome of subtlety.

And while there were no zombie nurses, there was zombie journalism.

To end on a lighter note, the smaller, fringe group of #OccupySesameStreet was also present.

And that’s a wrap for this project! I’ll do a bit of a retrospective tomorrow, but for tonight, I’m happy with these images.

Today’s post handles the entire weekend in one! The weekend was also pretty noteworthy for us here. First of all, it snowed! In October! The last time that happened, supposedly, was 1952. [citation needed] It was a healthy amount, too! It continued snowing long after this photo was taken. But by the time I woke up today, most of it had melted. Nonetheless, I hear it’s supposed to be another rough winter for us here — I guess this was the start of it.

Meena and I also hosted our first party in our upgraded apartment. (It used to be a bachelor pad. Now it’s much more habitable.)

We played bobbing for apples. As far as I could tell, none of us had actually played before. It was a lot of fun, though!

This one on the left, I just think the girl is real pretty.

There’s another, similar photo, in which you can see what I would look like with my natural blonde hair and freakishly black eyebrows, which are formidable to begin with. It is not something that anyone should be subjected too — I look like my name should be Igor — and I apologize to anyone who had to see that.

One final post in this series tomorrow! I’m looking forward to it — I think it’ll be a fun one.

I had a couple ideas percolating for this one, but ultimately, I went with “CD in the Microwave.” I’m kind of disappointed that I did, because it’s a pretty lackluster, lifeless photo, but in keeping with the theme, I wanted to do something a little risky.

Granted, tossing a CD in the microwave really isn’t very risky at all, provided you’re not inhaling too deeply. But it looks risky, and shenanigans like this one are the same type I used to pull back in college, which led to, well, a lot of ruined CDs, some interesting videos, a Kraft Single on the ceiling in perpetuity, and an (impotent) threat of expulsion. So it was as much about remembering that as anything else.

Part of me kind of wants to try putting a candle in the microwave, as I’ve heard that that can lead to plasma balls in your own home… but I wouldn’t try that. (Even if I wanted to, I’m pretty sure my wife wouldn’t be a fan.) But that’s what the Microwave This? guys are for.

If you’re at all interested in technical details: Our microwave has a carousel, so I kept the disc in the absolute center, and used a smaller aperture and lower ISO so that I could increase the shutter speed, in hopes of catching as much arcing as possible.

I’m not entirely sure what exactly happens in this situation, but the CD is always scarred with these very interesting paths after the fact. They’ll follow the circular path of the disc, until they reach a certain point, wherupon they’ll extend exactly outward from the center of the disc. An uneducated guess says “something to do with the path of least resistance.” More educated folks would be welcome in the comments!

For today’s Shadows, I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to do — this was it. I was a little disappointed by how much work I had to do in post, which I’m hoping isn’t terribly evident, but I probably should have expected that given the stuff I had to work with.

Not a ton going on here technically — a single strobe, a reflector opposite it, and a ghost-shaped tea light just out of frame on the right. It’s kind of strange, because it doesn’t look like it, but the strobe was also positioned far, far right. The only reason I can think that Big Boy is better illuminated on the left (his right) is because both the back wall and the reflector combined to make it brighter than the right (his left) side.

Also, Big Boy has the best fried clams.

This is yet another late-night post! Again, we’ve been very busy around here, so this photo was squeezed into about a five-minute time frame.

There’s still some stuff I like about this photo. It has particularly warm tones, mainly because I was bouncing a flash off my khakis. I like the look that lent to it, though I might also try re-toning this in black and white whenever I get some time (hah!).

Oh, and I guess for this to be actually taboo, you have to imagine yourself in Victorian England. But I’m not bound by constraints of the modern era for this project!