Thursday, March 31, 2011

Wedding Portrait: St Catherine of Genoa Church

WEDDING

This environmental wedding portrait was taken at the wedding ceremony of Marcia and Robinson at St Catherine of Genoa Church in New York City. I usually do not post such wide angle photos but I really enjoyed the view in this photo.

With no flash and a very high ISO I was able to capture this low to the ground perspective.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Pimp My Portrait: March 2011 Submission

PHOTOGRAPHY

Yes it is that time again for “Pimp My Portrait”.

For the next 62 hours I am accepting submissions of portraits YOU have taken. I will select two of them to "pimp" or "remix" in a fun/artistic way. I will post the before and after of the selected photos on my blog and on FB by noontime this Friday. Check here for last month's photos.

Here is the submission process. Email one portrait. Yes, email ONE portrait to josephdominickphotography@gmail.com. Submissions start right now and end on Thursday at 11:59pm EST.

The portrait must have a person or persons included in it. This photo remix is not for landscapes, birds, dogs, flower shots, etc. This is strictly portraiture of people. No nudity.

Sole discretion for selection of portraits belongs to Joseph Dominick. In light of the number of submissions, some great photos may not be selected. Please don't take it personal.

All people are encouraged to submit, regardless of your level of photographic skill. Please send your image in the highest quality jpg.

Upon completion of the portrait pimping, it will be emailed to the original photographer.

With email submission, please include your full name and what city/state or city/country you are from.

Thanks. And let the contest begin.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Portrait: Trini Chillin'

PORTRAITURE

With all the gorgeous portraits of Darcel I have already posted, I thought it would be great to post a humorous one.

With the water and sky behind me, I had Darcel lean up against one of the caves at Las Cuevas. She struck a b-boy pose and I got this cute portrait.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Point & Shoot Thursdays: DC

POINTING & SHOOTING

I want to show you what you can accomplish with a Point & Shoot camera. You do not need the most expensive camera to take amazing pictures. Every photo here was taken with the Canon G12, a Point & Shoot camera.

This day we visited the Capitol.


The Canon G12 allowed for this very wide shot (6mm). Of course I added a filter to have it look different than the one above.

This room is where the first Supreme Court was held.

The dome looks amazing from the inside too.

At the National Air and Space Museum, this heat thermal portrait shows how hot we really are.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

New Intro to Photography Class - March 19th

WORKSHOP

Starting this Saturday, March 19th (and continuing on the 26th and April 2nd), I will be teaching an Introduction to Photography workshop from 11AM to 12:30PM at the Studio in Harlem (125th St & 5th Ave). This Workshop includes DSLRs and Point & Shoot cameras.

I find many people have cameras but they do not understand them nor do they understand how to maximize their use. Because of this a class has been developed to get you educated, confident, and excited to have fun with your camera.

In Class #1 we will focus on the philosophy of photography. Class #2 we will focus on the technical elements of photography. During our last class (#3) we will focus on the aesthetics of photography.

Total Investment for all three classes is $50.

Maximum class size for is 12 people so reserve your seat now via email at josephdominickphotography@gmail.com.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Wedding Portrait: Thank You

WEDDING

I had the joy a couple of weeks ago to photograph Celine and Philip as they exchanged wedding vows in Queens, NY. The ceremony took place at Evangel Church and the reception was at Riccardo's by the Bridge.

Excited to share their photos with family and friends, Celine and Philip chose this portrait as their "Thank You Card".

Monday, March 14, 2011

First Album Cover

PORTRAITURE

Yesterday I received a beautiful gift. It was the fresh off the press "The Unlikely EP" from Poetik Soul. I photographed Sarah and Tennia for the album cover so it was wonderful to see the finished product.

As a photographer it has been great to work with numerous musical artists so it is with great joy I share my first album cover photo on the blog.

*Please note you can follow Poetik Soul and their music at ReverbNation. The EP will be on iTunes, holy culture and the bus shop in the coming week.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Point & Shoot Thursdays: DC

POINTING & SHOOTING

I want to show you what you can accomplish with a Point & Shoot camera. You do not need the most expensive camera to take amazing pictures. Every photo here was taken with the Canon G12, a Point & Shoot camera.

Continuing from last week's P&S blog regarding my DC trip, we took the Metro to the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

With this photo of the Metro I slowed down the shutter so I can get that blurred look of movement.


The cemetery is huge and we did a great deal of walking.


Freedom comes at a price.


And so we followed the sign.


Then we watched a soldier guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This also included the ceremonial Changing of the Guards.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Wedding Portrait: The Dip

WEDDINGS

While looking through Eurice and John's wedding photos yesterday I saw this lovely portrait taken on the rooftop of Tosca Marquee and had to share it with you. As I said in the last blog these two look amazing in photos.

Wedding Gallery

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Wedding Portrait: Eurice & John

WEDDING

Both Eurice and John make wedding photography so easy. They both look great and they were so easy to work with. Having had a blast with them for their engagement session, I knew the wedding photos would look amazing.

Here is a photo before the ceremony on the rooftop of Tosca Marquee in the Bronx, NY.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Wedding Portrait: Joey Dancing Machine

WEDDINGS

At the beautiful Perona Farms in New Jersey I had the lovely assignment of photographing the wedding of Valerie and Joey. These two are really cool people and fun to be around. So I knew the wedding would be loads of fun.

I am a huge fan of the reception part of the wedding because I get to dance and take photos of everyone on the dance floor. This wedding portrait of Joey going in on the dance floor truly captures the kind of fun we had at this wedding.

Thank you so much Valerie and Joey for a wonderful time.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Pimp My Portrait: February 2011 Selections

PORTRAITURE

I thought I would be ambitious and go for four portraits to pimp. Wow, next time I will stick to only two portraits. Time wise it is more efficient.

Thank you to all who submitted portraits for me to pimp. Here is what I have for your viewing.

Jenny from the Bronx, NY submitted this photo

The original photo was less than two inches in size which did not provide a whole lot of information in the image. I am a fan of this portrait of Jenny so I was glad to work with it. The first thing I did was add contrast and definition to her face and body. Then I cleaned her skin to minimize the pixelation and color grain which was in the photo. I added some glow. Then I played with a yellowish filter to enhance both the sunlight behind her and the overall ambient light. This brought out both her and her outfit. The resulting image is a richer, dreamier version of Miss Jenny.


Julissa from Warwick, NY submitted this photo.


This baby looked so cute I was not sure what direction I should go. I cropped the photo to draw more attention to the face. I removed the hair on her face and added some contrast and texture. Then I started to play with the coloring. It was only at the end I decided to add this old newspaper look to highlight the structure of her face and hat. The eyes popped out more when I did this and seeing both her and the hat with their tongue out was precious to me.


Melissa from Florida submitted this photo:

This was another photo which was small in size. I did not like the positioning of the body because it made Melissa's left arm appear bigger than it actually is. Because it is the closest element to the camera, the wide angle lens makes her arm look similar in size to her head. So I wanted to remove the focus from her arm to her face. One way I did that was by removing the distracting elements in the room. I settled my focus on her and not the room, which did not add anything to the portrait. I added a moonlight texture and cleaned up her skin. Then I added some more brightness to her face and brought down slightly the brightness of her left arm. I then topped it off with a lil glow.


Michael from Brooklyn, NY submitted this photo.

Michael photographs his family which he loves dearly. So I know this subject is his wife. I went to his Flickr site to see the other photos he has taken of her so I could go in a direction that was different than what he had already done.

The first thing I did was go to her face and remove a few strands of hair which did not need to be there. Had I had more time I would have removed more in the forehead area. However I thought for this photo it worked. I cleaned up the skin on her face and added some more contrast. I topped that off with a little glow which highlighted how Michael lit this portrait. If you notice he had his main light concentrated on the right side of her face. Then I started playing with pastel colors. I really liked her blue shirt so I wanted to stay in that color range. Once I found the coloring I liked I added a small frame to the edges.


So those are the photos for the "Pimp My Portrait" Contest of February 2011.

Stay tuned for the next round of submissions at the end of March. Thanks for enjoying the blog.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Point & Shoot Thursdays

POINTING & SHOOTING

I want to show you what you can accomplish with a Point & Shoot camera. You do not need the most expensive camera to take amazing pictures. Every photo here was taken with the Canon G12, a Point & Shoot camera.

Okay so I took my Canon G12 to DC on a recent family trip. It was so nice and convenient to carry a light camera. This trip was made for a Point & Shoot (Next time I go back I may bring the big guns though...lol).

The first image is from my nephew. Even a nine-year old can work this camera. He is working on his photography skills and I trust him with all my cameras. (I can't wait to hire him for a wedding. People love kids with cameras.)


Of course my nephew could not reach this sparrow so he asked me to get this shot for him. I think I used the HDR component of the camera to deal with the shadows in this shot.


En route to the White House we took the Metro, which was very clean.


While waiting for the Metro my nephew and I decided to play with the shutter on the camera and make a cool blurry image of him running.


Then we made it to the White House.


Okay those are the first set of photos. Next week I will share more from DC. This is just a reminder you took can take amazing photos with a P&S.

Laters,
J

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Sweet 16 Portrait: Tiffany & The Girls

PORTRAITURE

How cool is it to have your mother set up a Sweet 16 Photo Shoot with you and some of your girlfriends? Well at least for you ladies. Sorry fellas.

Tiffany's mother called me and set up this fun and lovely photo shoot. The birthday girl in the middle looked lovely in all her photos. I even did individual portraits with each of her girlfriends. But one of my faves was this group shot here.

Happy Sweet 16 Tiffany!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Portrait: Perfect Praise

PORTRAITURE

Pastor Michael Carrion commissioned me to photograph the congregants and the service at Promised Land Covenant Church. He wanted to show how a multi-ethnic group of people in the south Bronx get down with loving their God and their community.

This is Evon on the mic definitely letting the praise flow. She clearly exemplifies the beauty of praise and worship for a loving God.