Nikon D850

  

So we lost power today. It doesn't happen too often but when it does, work stops. I am totally dependent upon power to run my computers and two external monitors as well as YouTube TV. So when the power went out I got my camera, put it on my favorite Tiltall tripod and set it to live view. I have my live view set to silent shooting, auto ISO and I trigger it by tapping the back LCD. The lens was a Tamron 300mm but the D850 is set to DX (as opposed to FX) so the 300mm becomes 450mm. That way I can sit in a chair on the deck and not bother the birds. The bird feeder is green not blue. What you see here is the focus help that the D850 gives you in live view. Anything that is blue is sharp. Even though the temperature is going up to the mid 80's, this morning was cool, breezy and I had a nice morning photographing birds.

1992 Ducati 998R

I was contacted to shoot a pretty rare Ducati motorcycle. Although this one is from 1992 it only has 2 miles on the odometer. I found 2 identical 998's in a garage in southern NY. We brought the low mileage one out onto a gravel driveway next to the garage. We were fortunate because the day had been rainy so I had a nice broad gray sky as a light source.

Here is the retouched bike outside on the gravel. For resale, this is probably the one they'll use. For fun I stripped the bike out and put it on a black background with a glow. It's what I do and I wouldn't do it if it were not tons of fun.

 

My very first photo job in NYC

I opened my studio in 1979 after 4 years of assisting. I got married that same year and it was a good thing because my (20 year old) wife got me my first great client. She was working for a gift shop in Brooklyn (where we lived) when a coworker asked her "what does your husband do for a living dear?" Barb answered " my husband is just starting out as a commercial photographer." The coworker said "that's great! My husband owns an advertising agency! Your husband should call Vito." So Catelano & Gornick became my first client. I shot a lot for them. We did great work together. One of their clients was C&C cola. In 1980 DDB (Doyle Dane Bernbach) bought the agency to get C&C cola. So after only one year I was shooting for one of the largest advertising agencies in NYC. We did work for Lord Calvert and Ore-Ida and of course, C&C cola. I've had a couple of reps in my over 41 years of shooting but my wife got me my first and best client!

Peanut M&Ms

All through the late 70's I carried my own book. I made the calls and I booked the appointments and rain or snow I would bring my portfolio to art directors in NYC agencies. The reason for the image above is that every time I would head out, I would buy a small package of peanut M&Ms. I knew that if I could suck the candy coating off before crunching down I was "chill". However, if I just started eating the candy whole, I would know that I was not relaxed enough to be a good salesman. I would breathe slowly, calm down and as soon as I could just suck the candy coating off before chomping on the peanut, I knew I was ready to sell.