San Diego

Original Post: 03MAY2017

Hello again. As I mentioned in my previous post, today I will share some of the photographs I took while I was in San Diego, CA.

This first picture is something I would love to see printed on a really large canvas. Maybe one day I can start making prints of all my photos to see all the detail in them and have a hard copy, even give some away. Finance will be a limiting factor for the moment.

Walking around Mission Beach placed me in this angle of life guards doing their re-qualifications for the upcoming summer. For this image I edited the excess of sky that did not context to this composition.

The next photo includes my favorite subject. People! People will always be a main focus of mine. Everywhere around the world all people have their own essence that brings out the area they live in.

This is my example of people in the city streets of Chula Vista – San Diego. The gentleman was snack vendor who ventured into an area that wasn’t really too occupied. I did not have to crop this image in post production. I was happy with the composition when I took the photograph.

Textures are really fun. As I was walking around I noticed a gift bag next to a Lincoln car. The reflection off the of tire rim was something that really caught my eye and did not pass up. Something about this was very pleasing to me. While I was editing the photograph I noticed that I took too much of the picture. I had the tires in the view as well as the bag but what I really wanted to capture was only the texture off of the rim.

These were the three images I wanted to share from San Diego. Three completely different styles of photographs but equally intriguing to me. I may post a few more on my Instagram page. I will also include some of my editing techniques from now on. Something that I get asked when I show my photos to friends.

Until then.

Enjoy!

Landscapes

Original Post: 02MAY2017

It has been a while since my last post. Many months actually but here is my latest.

I have been working on landscapes. Only a few but I have been working on technique that will make the images pop. It isn’t a new concept. I’m talking HDR. Not like the iPhone HDR or those really over cooked HDR photos.

This image was a stack of three pictures. The first one was taken to get the highlights of the sky, the second was taken to gather all the mid tones of the building and boats and the last one was to get all the shadows.

I like to use Lightroom to edit and stack the photographs. I didn’t do much editing to this photograph. I kind of just stacked them and called it a day. I could have made more adjustments but I wanted to keep the natural feel that I captured with my eyes.

Below is another stacked image.

This was a shot that I took while I was in San Diego. This was the first image that I stacked and gave me the motivation to keep trying to take more landscape photos.

In my next post I will show some of the images from my recent trip to San Diego, CA.

I will also be on a trip to Greece and some locations in between. Look out for those.

Enjoy!

Oak Harbor Music Festival

Original Post: 26SEP2016

It’s funny that I didn’t take pictures of any of the artists for the Oak Harbor Music Festival, just the guests. I had a great time and interacted a lot with the people I photographed. I usually just take candid photos but this day everyone knew I was photographing them.

I also used a film camera but I don’t know if the first roll actually took to the reel. I just remember the counter getting up to 34 or something like that and there are only 24 exposures to each roll. Oh well, I guess I’ll find out when the rolls get developed.

This next photo is of a group of young adults that had a great time having their photograph taken. We must have taken 15-20 shots together but this was the one that stood out and gave me the most of them.

I love that the Oak Harbor community does things like this. It really brings out the different characters of the city. At first I thought that it was going to be boring to photograph in my town. I just wanted to go to Seattle and take pictures there but in reality I don’t have to go to far at all. I can just go to the local events and take photos of the people who inhabit the town that I once thought was boring and uninteresting. Now, I know better.

Just one last photo for the day.

I was recently in Guam and I didn’t find it nearly as interesting as I do find this town. I believe I got a few pictures but nothing significant. I’ll go through them and post them when I get a chance.

Enjoy.

-Franco Pisano

Landscapes & Still Life

Original Post: 30JUL2016

Like any true photographer you sometimes become stagnant on shooting your style. And by you, I mean me. Not because I was lazy, but because it is really difficult to photograph the same people in the same small town. I need to travel to the big cities a lot more frequently.

In the mean time I needed to try something different, I needed to try to take some landscape photos.

I usually look at landscape photography as something anyone can do. Anyone with a point and shoot and a beautiful scene. There are hundreds of those online, a quick google search can show you all of them. All the sunsets and all the mountain sides, beaches and sunrises. And they are beautiful. I love them. But it is something that I don’t want to photograph particularly. What am I to do?

I go ahead and test out some landscape photography…

For this particular shot I was driving back from Bellingham, WA after shopping at the farmers market and visiting vintage thrift and second hand shops. Yes, I am that person. As I was driving, I was on the phone with my mom (hands free!) and immediately had to tell her that I would call her back. “Mom, I got to go, there is something I need to photograph!” Click.

I got out of the car, posted up my flimsy tripod and started to take shots. I realized that shooting landscapes is a little more of a challenge. I took several photos. I shot with my 50mm and I didn’t like how they came out. So I reframed and moved some. I switched to the 85mm and moved some more then I nailed this shot.

It was a rewarding feeling when I got to look at the photo in post processing. Choosing the right one from many taken is always a difficult and long process. Editing is another, but, it gets easier because you find a style that matches you and you go with it. For this one particular picture, the contrast was so perfect that I looked its best in black and white.

Then there is still life…

“Still life” is slightly different from landscape in the sense that, for me, it is almost close to being street photography. It is something that is happening at one moment in time and you happen to be around to take a shot of it. The only difference is that there aren’t any people in the picture to consider it street in my terms.  But a person wouldn’t have made a different to this picture. In the end it might have taken away the impact of this one. It would have take the focus away, of this beautiful abandoned grill.

So far you have seen photos of Japan and on this post you have seen some from Washington. I plan on showing more of my other travels and my other projects separate from street, still, and landscape photography.

-Franco Pisano

P.S.

Shop Owner of Okinawa

Original Post: 27JUL2016

Some of my favorite people to photograph while I was in Okinawa were the shop owners of the area.

The capital city of Naha, Okinawa was liveliest place with plenty of people in the form of tourism. From local Okinawan to main land Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese, even as far away as South Korean visitors came to the area. Kokusai-dōri was mostly for nicknacks and gimmicky gifts along with plenty of bars and restaurants. Of which an Irish bar that was hidden out in a back alley was a favorited bar and my preference for food would have to be restaurants that sell local Okinawan dishes.

Heiwadori Market area was just an alley that split off further into Naha and away from the major tourist street. There you can find niche markets of exotic fruit, exotic seafood, as well as plenty of clothing shops and musical instruments shops selling Sanshin, the Okinawan 3 string guitar like instrument.

This shop owner in particular I must have photographed 3 times in different occasions. The other two are just as good, but they convey a different message than this one does. He was deep in testing this instrument and all he could do when I took the picture was glance at me and continue tuning the instrument. I remembered it clearly because after I shot the photo I approached a little closer and gave my signature “head nod and smile” in appreciation and he continued to tune the instrument.

Other shop owners would not get much patronage. So they will do things that would keep them busy otherwise. Like reading, organizing the shop, stocking the shelfs, sleeping… and my favorite, staring off into no where in particular.

Here I saw this man waiting for a customer to approach him. In Heiwadori where there are at least 10 more fruit markets like his own, it’s not easy to stay competitive. I lingered there for a moment in the essence of what it was to be him. He was so into his thoughts that he didn’t even notice me taking the shot and he stayed that way for a little while longer until he was actually approached by a customer.

It was early spring, and maybe the tourists weren’t looking for what the sleepy and pensive shop owners had for sale at the time. Regardless, the strong willed shop owners would open day after day. If you stay long enough you get to see the shop owners, proud of what they own, wind down. Then you were granted a backstage pass of what it was to be them. Selling the last few items at a discounted price, packing up their displays, and brining in all the merchandise into their shed.

It was all amazingly beautiful to live in the life of these shop owners. Equally as beautiful was being able to save a piece of it.

-Franco Pisano

P.S.

Photographers Metamorphosis

Original Post: 23JUL2016

Today I finally show you what I have been working on. Like I have mentioned I am still honing in my skill in the art of Street Photography. I am by no means a “Pro” not at least until I am considered one by some of the best in the scene. I really started shooting again this spring in Japan.

I went to Okinawa for what seemed like the perfect amount of time. Just enough to enjoy the area and get to know the people that live and work in Okinawa, Japan. At the time I was watching a lot of videos on youtube on cameras and such because I was interested in maybe getting a new one. As I watched DigitalRev TV’s YouTube channel I started to notice when they review cameras it was usually outdoors. It was in the city, the streets, deep in lives of the people. The host of the show was usually in peoples faces and for the most part the people didn’t really care that they were being photographed. I found it amazing how easy it was for him to do it. When they showed what the shots looked like, that is when I felt a deep connection with the art.

Anyone who knows me knows, I love people. I like to get to know them all. The who aspect of who they are, what they are doing at that very moment. That is what I like capturing in a photo.

When I look back at my first few photographs I noticed a trend… that I shot the photos from far away.

And that I captured people in unobtrusive angles.

Things that didn’t really take away from the photograph, but it didn’t really make them stand out in the way that I wanted them to stand out.

The previous two were shot using a Nikon D3100 and a 50mm lens. The camera I have had for a really long time. About 5 years actually and I love it. I took it everywhere and it was a trooper through and through. I noticed that the camera was a little underpowered for what I wanted really. Maybe because I was still scared of approaching people and I wanted something that was full frame so that I may crop a photo if I really needed to with out loosing too much detail in the process. The only problem with that is when you crop too much you still notice the detail loss and well, what am I to do?

So I did what I always do and I impulse bought the camera anyways. Now I shoot with a Nikon D810 with the 50mm practically married to the lens. I rarely shoot with any other lens unless I am going for a different style of photo and I will share that later in the future.

I had to change my approach and start shooting like a street photographer  and begin to approach people with out any barriers. Language, language was a barrier, but I over came with my broken Japanese.

I rarely take more than one maybe two photographs. Mainly because I really dislike editing. It just takes so much time and can get annoying and frustrating. Maybe I can hire someone in the future, or maybe someone or some company can hire me.

Another reason is that when I had film I was restricted to shooting a limited amount of times. I had to get it right the first time and be happy with what I shot.

I had to get comfortable with people knowing that I am taking a picture of them. Below is the first picture that I took with the person noticing. He really didn’t mind it. After I took the picture he went on with his business.

Then I started to talk to them and photograph them.

They really didn’t mind that I didn’t speak Japanese that well. They must have sensed something about me that looked like I knew what I was doing and I continued to do so through out my stay in Japan.

With out giving too many pictures away in one post I am going to end it here. As you saw I developed something in me that changed how I photograph people. Till this day I am discovering new things about myself and that is all part of the fun.

Stay posted for my next entry.

-Franco Pisano

P.S. Here are some additional photographs.

Florida Blur

Original Post: 20 August 2016

I was in Florida recently and aside from visiting friends and family I managed to get a few shots off here and there.

The first destination was the Florida keys, and although I took many pictures, there was this one that stood out to me the most. It isn’t sharp, it isn’t blur free. It just feels natural, and I loved it because of that.

Recently the trend of what is a “good photograph” is determined by the sharpest image with the steadiest hands. But that is not how life is. At times it is at a stand still and you can capture that stillness, and other times it goes by so fast that if you’re not quick you may miss it. What I like about those times is that they may not be remembered clearly or full of detail, but it will be remembered. The special moments.

The next one was taken at “Second Saturday” in Wynwood art district.

Sometimes you have a lot going on in a photo. It can usually take a way from the subject, but when the different aspects of it converge to create a unified subject you end up with photos like this one. Thank you 9ieband.

There are a few more from Florida, but these are the ones that I wanted to share today. Hope you enjoyed a mini trip through my quick blurred Florida trip.

-Franco Pisano

P.S. Here are additional favorites from that time.

Candid vs Posed

Original date: 15AUG2016

Here I have a couple of examples of candid vs “posed” shots. I use the quotations marks because they already knew I was going to take the picture, I snapped a few off while they weren’t looking and then I asked if I can take a few more.

This shot was actually the first of the day.

At first I thought I didn’t like that he smiled, but it turned out to be more than I wanted. It gave me the reason to think of the smile project, of getting people to smile while I portrait shoot them. I have several of those and I put them to the side because I didn’t like them at the time. I think for my next post I will be bringing in on the begging stages of the “Smile” Project.

This is the candid shot…

This is the candid shot of the day. It shows a much different emotion.

This is what I am working on, and I have many more from previous shots that I have to add as well and I will be doing that within the next few days.

Also I participated in a wedding photoshoot and a family portrait shoot. Maybe I will share a few of those.

-Franco Pisano