An incredible story behind the images of the Time cover shoot in Burma by Platon.

This is a great video (6 minutes) from Time magazine. Photographer Platon speaks of his experience in Myanmar (Burma) capturing a portrait of Aung San Su Kyi. (there is a short advert at the beginning)


What a wild ride. I especially appreciate him sharing his  interaction with her, his approach, words and ultimately the portraits. No technical info here, just another extraordinary experience in photography. TR

source: Time.com

The Black Cat-Halloween edition

In the spirit of Halloween, here's a shot I put together using the Nikon CLS system. I'm really getting to love the possibilities.

First off, the cat is one of my favorite animals and "Eddie" this black persian is a fine specimen. (He's named for the rock guitar icon Eddie Van Halen)

I first imagined the shot one morning when I saw Eddie sitting illuminated by the streaming light coming through a window. His long black hair was glowing in a halo of fire.

More pics and the lighting setup below.

Mirrored Aviators

This is a fun shot for a lot of reasons. It's a simple recipe, if you can get the ingredients together:
-a beautiful woman.
-a white sand beach in the Caribbean.
-mirrored Aviator sunglasses.
-a little Photoshop masking.
Done.

Zoo Portraits: part two

In a follow up to my previous Zoo Portrait Post, I wanted to share this new shot from...the zoo. By shooting a tight frame, the lions could be anywhere. The late afternoon back light added some nice dimension and detail.

I followed up the RAW processing with black and white conversion in Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Gear: Nikon D300 / 80-200 2.8 lens

Exposure: ISO 400/ F5.6 / 1/640th

As always, click any image for the larger version. TR

Firelit family portrait with a little flash

Group family shots don't have to be boring. Here's a fun example of my sis and family hanging out in their backyard on a summer evening.

Fire is always fun to shoot, so I jumped at the chance to get some shots when my sister lit up the fire pit and busted out the skewers. (I also enjoy marshmallows on occasion!)

Street Portraits-Fast and Simple

It’s never easy approaching complete strangers on the street, not for me anyway. I like to photograph people though and I’ve found that shooting with a long telephoto lens on the sly can yield interesting candid portraits, but it’s cowardly and some might say a little creepy. I think the word is paparazzi.

If you want to get nice intimate portraits of your fellow humans you just have to go up and ask. Cooperation is necesssary. But… You need to be prepared to get the shot you want. You have to have a strategy. I figure if you’re going to approach somebody and ask him or her for something you might as well get what you want.

I get prepared before the “approach”.

Zoo Portraits

Animal portraits can be hard to come by. Wildlife photography is a very specialized and challenging art. Not only do you have to be able to survive “out in the wild” you‘ve got to know your subjects very well and wait for them to appear.

You could easily spend months waiting for a shot to come together and you rarely get a second chance. Hats off to the wildlife photographers who spend their lives getting the shots, they are truly dedicated.

Most of my wildlife photography has been done underwater. Dolphins, Sharks, reef fish etc. I’m pretty happy underwater