tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31131865681220767482024-03-12T21:43:14.907-04:00gary heller photographThis is the blog for Gary Heller Photography. You will discover ,more personal information and details behind some of the photographs.
Visit www.garyhellerphotography.com for moreghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.comBlogger146125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-33865878040363377262014-06-06T16:45:00.001-04:002014-06-06T16:45:59.828-04:003D Printing from Recycled Ocean Plastic<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/oAdv-oRtS9Y" width="480"></iframe><br />ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-33837035974855565462013-09-16T12:12:00.000-04:002013-09-16T12:16:32.320-04:00Al Capone's Cell at the Penitentiary<a href="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/featured/al-capones-cell-historical-ruins-at-eastern-state-penitentiary-gary-heller-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photograph of Al Capones prison cell at the Eastern State Penitentiary by Gary Heller" src="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/displayartworkartistwebsites.html?id=6971143&width=600&height=400" style="border: currentColor;" title="Al Capones cell by Gary Heller" /></a>
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Al Capone's Cell<br />
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<a href="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/featured/cell-block-historic-ruins-penitentiary-gary-heller-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="black and white photograph of a cell block in a penitentiary by Gary Heller" src="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/displayartworkartistwebsites.html?id=6961048&width=600&height=400" style="border: currentColor;" title="Cell Block by Gary Heller" /></a><br />
Cell block<br />
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The Eastern State Penitentiary is a historical ruin with quite a history. Notorious criminals such as bank robber Willie Sutton and Al Capone were held inside its innovative wagon wheel design. When the building was erected it was the largest and most expensive public structure ever constructed, quickly becoming a model for more than 300 prisons worldwide. <br />
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Al Capone's Cell at the Eastern State Penitentiary is a marvel in itself and makes one understand how corrupt the officials must have been here as well as the incredible influence Al had wherever he was.<br />
The other cells in the pen basically had a bed, a small pine side table with three drawers and a single stool to sit. During his days here the walls were in better condition and I can imagine it must have looked like a small luxury hotel room, complete with skylight.<br />
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If you click on the photo and go to my site, you can click again for a full resolution preview to discover some of the details in here.<br />
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Cell Block was shot through a steel gate blocking entrance because of the dangers of the terrible condition its in. Using a tripod and wide angle lens (17mm) I was able to grab 5 shots of varying exposures and blend them to create this black and white HDR photograph.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-11595310429248876682013-09-15T13:13:00.000-04:002013-09-16T12:18:38.027-04:00A Devils Haircut in the Demon Barbers chair<a href="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/featured/the-barbers-chair-the-demon-barber-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="A Barbers chair in an old prison cell spooky photograph by Gary Heller" src="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/displayartworkartistwebsites.html?id=6964093&width=600&height=400" style="border: currentColor;" title="The barbers chair photography by Gary Heller" /></a><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">The Barbers Chair</span></strong><br />
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<a href="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/featured/devils-haircut-barbers-chair-demon-barber-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Devils Haircut photograph by Gary Heller" src="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/displayartworkartistwebsites.html?id=7536078&width=400&height=600" style="border: currentColor;" title="Devils haircut, Barbers chair by Gary Heller" /></a>
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<strong><span style="color: #e69138;">Devils Haircut</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This summer I took a tour with a friend of mine to the Eastern State Penitentiary in PA. Paid a reasonable fee to bring the tripods inside with us, and its really a must if you want to do some serious shooting of the scenes inside.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A very interesting place with a lot of history having housed some famous prisoners such as Slick Willie Sutton and Scarface, Al Capone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Roaming around the cell blocks we came upon this weird and almost surreal sight. An old barbers chair inside one of the dismal and crumbling cells, lit up by a skylight in the ceiling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we first saw this, the light was a bit more behind the chair leaving it almost in shadow, but I figured if we came back to it a couple hours later the position of the sun would angle better onto the chair and ultimately make for a better photograph.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Both of these photographs were done with a tripod using 5 exposures blended together to bring out all the detail and dynamic range of this very high contrast scene. I like to edit to achieve a more surreal look to enhance the texture and wonderful patina of this place, and the overall mood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It reminded me of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"></span><br />ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-13446844492676598812013-07-30T12:42:00.000-04:002015-01-03T14:57:37.014-05:00A Fading Memory One Summer Morning...
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/a-fading-memory-one-summer-morning-abandoned-house-in-the-woods-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=8162346&width=600&height=400" style="border: none;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
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A Fading Memory One Summer Morning<br />
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Recently, I headed out to Dutchess County, New York State to see an airshow of old vintage aircraft. The show was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, but I had left my home at about 3:30 in the morning because I wanted to venture about the area and see what the early morning light would reveal. <br />
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I had made my way up and as I turned off a road into an area near Rhinebeck called Red Hook, I saw this old abandoned (seemingly, you never know) house nestled in the woods. It was one of those moments when your stop breathing, your holding your breath in a sort of state of anxiety I suppose. For me, I feel like a kid in a candy store when I come upon these mysterious and wonderfully intriguing sights. Abandoned places seem to give me that thrill. What's the story here? Why would a beautiful home like this, in an amazing location be left to be reclaimed by the woods?
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The location was absolutely quiet with barely a rustle of a leaf in the wind. The buzzing from the pesky mosquitos I had to deal with were pretty much the only sounds I heard.<br />
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I shot this scene from various angles so as to have a selection to choose from when I viewed them later on the computer. I find its always best, especially if you have the time to give yourself many different angles and compositions to later choose from. I shot this with a 70-200mm 2.8L IS Canon lens at a 70mm focal length. F11, 1/8th at 125 iso.<br />
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The airshow at the Aerodrome was great that afternoon, and I have some pics in the workings that I'll post later but I think my favorite time of the whole day was the early morning venture. <br />
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A quiet beautiful morning with a scene like this in front of me, cup of black coffee in hand and my camera gear set up. Life is nice.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-24140831673905108472013-06-26T11:34:00.003-04:002015-01-03T15:02:49.917-05:00The Blacksmith
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-blacksmith-smith-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Art Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=6581764&width=600&height=400" style="border: none;" title="Art Prints" /></a><br />
<a href="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/products/the-blacksmith-gary-heller-canvas-print.html" target="_blank">The Blacksmith Canvas Print</a>
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Earlier this year, I visited a 19th century Blacksmith shop that was still in use. I was given the opportunity and freedom to look around and take some pictures while the blacksmith went on with his day. <br />
It was a cold day in February and although it was very dark inside the shop, the warmth and smell of the burning coals and heated irons made for a wonderful atmosphere. The dark workspace is very important as it enables the Blacksmith to more easily see the colors of the metals as they are being heated. The color determines the proper temperature required for various metals to be worked with.
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This is a shot consisting of multiple exposures. The blacksmith had stopped for a few moments to look outside and I quickly fired off a bracket of 3 exposures.
The processing was done in a sort of two tone look, of warm and cool. This is what it felt like to me inside that day. there was the warmth and orange glow from the forge mixing with the cold air and black soot that covered the floors and
much of everything else inside.
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<br />ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-9890216808323806432013-02-21T11:47:00.000-05:002015-01-03T15:04:35.753-05:00The Red Doors<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/red-doors-charming-old-doors-on-the-abandoned-house-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=6319831&width=600&height=400" style="border-image: none; border: currentColor;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
<a href="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/featured/the-red-doors-gary-heller.html?newartwork=true">Purchase Print</a><br />
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As my friend and I were headed back down towards New York city from the Rhinebeck, N.Y. area, I spotted this gem and yelled "Stop!" This was actually still in or very near Rhinebeck. It must have been a beautiful home at one time and circumstances caused it to become neglected and/or abandoned.<br />
These abandoned homes always make me wonder about the back story, what happened and at what point did it no longer become a place someone called home. Perhaps an elderly person or couple passed away and there is no family around to care for the house, or maybe not ready to move on.<br />
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It does look as though there may be someone going in or out of there at times as noted by the trampled area of vines in front of the doors.<br />
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I shot this from across the road which may have been about 100ft away using a 70-200L 2.8 IS Canon lens. This allowed me to frame it as I did including the steps, porch and awning trimmings and side windows compressed into a neat composition. It was shot at about 148mm using three bracketed exposures which were later blended together in Photomatix Pro and then cropped and color adjusted in LightRoom 4. The IS (image stabilization) made it easy to hand hold this shot at those settings (slowest shutter speed was 1/40) and still have it all very sharp.<br />
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<br />ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-42233091918419981732013-01-11T18:04:00.001-05:002015-01-03T15:07:55.321-05:00Mosh
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/mosh-portrait-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Sell Art Online" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=6120316&width=500&height=400" style="border: none;" title="Sell Art Online" /></a><br />
<a href="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/featured/mosh-gary-heller.html">Purchase print</a><br />
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As I am in the middle of editing some pics from a recent road trip with fellow photographer George Argento, I wanted to post another shot from my session with Mosh a while back. Mosh has such a classic Hollywood starlet look that I shot her with a beauty dish and edited for a classic feel.<br />
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She is clearly wonderful and a fantastic subject. This image was shot against a gray seamless background. Beauty dish and 580EXll shot through portable soft box for fill. A strip box was used for rim and hair light but really any light and modifier could have done the job for this shot. It's what I happen to have had mounted on my studio wall....<br />
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Edited in Lightroom and CS5, some healing brush for skin perfection, gausian blur on layer for soft hair and features and color/contrast adjustment layers.<br />
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<br />ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-54228636029232930862013-01-04T13:05:00.001-05:002015-01-03T15:10:09.019-05:00A place in time, Mosh
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/a-place-in-time-mosh-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=6058729&width=500&height=400" style="border: none;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/featured/a-place-in-time-mosh-gary-heller.html">framed print available</a>
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Here is a black and white portrait I did with Mosh during our shoot. I selected it from several because of her direct and deep gaze into the lens, which was what I had been looking for and asked of her. Mosh is simply fantastic, one of the best subjects I have had the pleasure to shoot.
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This as with most of the studio sessions were shot against a seamless paper background. This in particular being a medium gray. It was later swapped out, or rather had a different background layered and blended over it in CS5. A stock image of clouds I had taken a while back was converted to b&w and used to add atmosphere and mood to the portrait.
The image was intentionally done in a gritty and grainy texture to further emphasize a sort of timeless feel.
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The setup consisted of a couple of MWhite Lightning heads using a medium softbox for main and a stripbox for rim and hair. A few portable strobes in with modifiers to add fill and background light.
Canon 5D MK2, Canon 85mm 1.8ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-90951840710934270922012-09-19T11:32:00.000-04:002015-01-03T14:59:10.642-05:00Finalist in Canon's Project Imaginat10nI have been quiet here lately, going through some personal things and also spending more time with family. I have not focused on photography for a few weeks now, and while it seemed to be refreshing initially I do feel I want to begin working at it once again.
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I was fixing my sons laptop a few weeks ago and got it fired up. His browsers homepage popped up(Youtube) and I happen to catch a banner promo on top the page for the upcoming Project Imaginat10n (a joint effort by Canon and director Ron Howard). <br />
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Long story short, I decided to submit a few photos and received a phone call several days later congratulating me on being selected by their panel as a finalist in the "Time" theme. They sent me paper work to fill out and notarize within two days and asked me to keep a lid on it until the finalists gallery launched this afternoon.<br />
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All finalists images will be voted on by the public for the winning selections as well as additional images being selected by Canon and Ron Howard.
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If your so inclined, take a click over and look or even vote for the image you feel is best.
My photo is "Life long gone" in the "time" theme in the "finalists" category.
Thanks for looking. I hope to get back to it and get some fresh work up here again.
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<a href="https://www.longliveimagination.com/themes/time/">Project Imaginat10n Finalists "Time"</a>
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<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/inside-abandoned-house-photos-old-room-life-long-gone-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3504002&width=600&height=400" style="border: none;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
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Life long goneghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-52143239554056371602012-05-31T13:31:00.000-04:002015-01-03T15:13:03.203-05:00Doghouse session
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/doghouse-with-mosh-string-bass-baby-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3685611&width=500&height=624" style="border: none;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
Doghouse<br />
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<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/doghouse-portrait-of-mosh-double-bass-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Art Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3685600&width=500&height=624" style="border: none;" title="Art Prints" /></a><br />
Doghouse, portrait
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This is a shoot I had wanted to do for some time now. An old string bass and model posed in a somewhat retro burlesque style shot in a pinup sort of way on white seamless.
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Thank you to bassist Trifon for the use of his bass and being generous with his time as to bring it by the studio and hang out till the session was finished. We got a late start, and he was pressed for time and so were we.
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Mosh is a fantastic model, appearing in tons of print magazines and covers. She is a reknowned fetish model and also interested now in getting into the burlesque scene.
Mosh did her own styling here ( quite well at that) and brought her own wardrobe and after some discussion we chose this look for the doghouse session.
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"Doghouse" is a slang term for string bass, double bass, stand up bass, etc. It's got a lot of nicknames and I liked the term doghouse, especially how the name plays off the beauty of the model.
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Lighting was two softboxes on camera right as main (one high and one mid level angling downward to expose the legs and shoes), a strip box on camera left and behind subect catching the hair and filling in the back of the models body. Another softbox camera left inline with camera position for mild fill mostly to head and chest area. Two small softbaxes aimed at background to get it white.
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Editing was done to remove some stray hairs, ome mild skin blemishes and to adjust exposure to certain areas where I wanted more and less light. Black and white conversion done as a final step in Lightroom 4.0
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Thanks to Mosh for a wonderful session, and to Trifon for coming through and hanging in there with us.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-79971142386233945562012-04-23T00:26:00.001-04:002015-01-03T15:14:50.631-05:00Barn and Tree
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/barn-and-tree-new-york-state-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3452559&width=600&height=400" style="border: none;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
<a href="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/products/barn-and-tree-gary-heller-framed-print.html">barn and tree framed print</a>
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Last month I had a chance to venture out and hit the back roads of New York state. I traveled up to Sullivan county, which is a place I spent many summers when I was younger. It was March and late in the afternoon when I came across this scene on a quiet road. <br />
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Camera on tripod, I tried many angles of this shot until I felt I had it where I wanted. Mulitple exposures to create a very natural looking hdr image. The 5 exposures blended together allowed me nice shadow detail in the barn and tree while keeping the cloud definition in the sky without it blowing out..<br />
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Processed in Adobe CS5 and LightRoom 4.0. <br />
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Ironically, a few years back i had come by this way and captured the very same tree in an image called <a href="http://www.garyhellerphotograph.blogspot.com/2010/03/playmate.html">"the playmate</a>". the image was taken from the other side of this tree, and at that time the tree had a tire swing hanging from one of its branches which apparently is no longer there....ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-3122248345804934072012-02-19T14:31:00.001-05:002012-02-19T14:54:57.776-05:00Lost Prisoner in the abandoned asylum<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/6356650219/" title="lost prisoner, abandoned asylum by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img alt="lost prisoner, abandoned asylum" height="960" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6221/6356650219_d9607a111e_b.jpg" width="640" /></a>
Lost prisoner
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/6358944951/" title="Lost prisoner portrait 1 by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img alt="Lost prisoner portrait 1" height="427" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6235/6358944951_a0376711e5_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>
Contemplation
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/6365178583/" title="Lost prisoner, out of Rm 43 by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img alt="Lost prisoner, out of Rm 43" height="427" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6230/6365178583_b21eca2c91_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>
Lost prisoner, out of rm 43
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/6377286145/" title="lost prisoner, final portrait (click image to view on dark) by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img alt="lost prisoner, final portrait (click image to view on dark)" height="427" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6051/6377286145_6e08535e8a_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>
lost prisoner, final portrait
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I know I have been slow to update the blog but I am trying to do some catchng up here. Lately I have been doing some Urbex (urban exploration) shooting and have hit some abandoned places and asylums here in New York State.<br />
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My friend Henry, who some of you may know from <a href="http://garyhellerphotograph.blogspot.com/2011/02/portraits-of-henry-william-oelkers.html">my past shoot with him</a>, saw some of the locations and suggested we shoot his "lost Prisoner" character in one of the asylum buildings. He sent me some images of his character and needless to say I did not need an arm twisting to get me to head out there with him.
Henry William Oelkers is a model/actor and man of a thousand faces. He is fantastic to work with and always brings it all to the set.
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We shot these images in building 136 some of which can be found in a previous post here about my <a href="http://www.garyhellerphotograph.blogspot.com/2011/09/abandoned-asylum-adventures-part-1.html">asylum adventures</a>.
All of these were shot in natural light except for "lost prisoner, out of RM 43" which was done with the help of a speedlite that I handheld over Henry to bring him out of the dark. I had forgot to throw my radio trigger in my bag and had to pop the flash manually during the .5 second exposure...took a few shots to time it right.
We had fun with this. <br />
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During our shoot here I had heard footsteps in the hall outside the room we were in. I told Henry to hold on a second and let me take a look to see if we had compnay in this place. I poked my head out of the room just as two young photographers had been slowly walking up the hall and nearly scared the daylights out of them. <br />
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We later exchanged contacts and have been in touch since. Henry and I both wondered what would have happened if he had went to have a look and they saw his character emerge from the room.....ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-40294559721546787912012-01-13T22:56:00.000-05:002015-01-03T15:15:51.303-05:00August morning
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/august-morning-donkey-in-the-field-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3415075&width=600&height=900" style="border: none;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
<a href="http://gary-heller.artistwebsites.com/products/august-morning-gary-heller-framed-print.html" target="_blank">Framed Print</a><br />
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Having had some down time with not being able to shoot some personal work in a while I decided to look back into my archives and pick out a few from my "potential" collection and see if I could come up with something.<br />
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Here is an image shot back in August of 2009 upstate New York early morning. The mist and hazy atmosphere comes from the cool night giving way to the heat of the day coming in as sun rises. A young donkey looks on and watches my every move from afar.<br />
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Reading up on donkeys, I have learned that they are sometimes used to protect a flock from predators such as wild dogs or coyotes. The donkeys are allowed to mingle inthe pasture with a flock and they become very protective and try to maintain order. They generally do not like canines and when one approaches they will stand between the flock and the predator and will attack if neccesary.<br />
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This image was taken with a Canon 70-200mm 2.8L IS lens at 6.3 and 200mm.<br />
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A bit of post processing in Lightroom to bring out some more clarity and vibrance. I think I'm pleased with this. . . down time can be up time if we use it wisely.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-74299323202673621312011-11-18T14:22:00.000-05:002015-01-03T15:16:58.501-05:00Art Tour International magazine cover<table style="width: auto;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/EVNC1wEq5uLq-Zj3ta14dA?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="800" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--TB9hP56tbc/TsWFBwf3epI/AAAAAAAACrM/5yW-q1q8tb0/s800/377119_2595667856948_1412260699_33124939_1882464946_n.jpg" width="568" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/garyhellerphotograph/PortraitStuff?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">Portrait stuff</a></td></tr>
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Anyone who has followed some of my more recent portrait works knows that I have collaborated with the fabulous <a href="http://colorfulartist.com/">Masae Satouchi</a> on a number of shoots, whether she be the subject/model or working with me as a stylist.<br />
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One particular piece we did where she was the subject of a portrait done up with props and styling of her doing was this free bird haute couture portrait.<br />
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Well, working with Masae is always a ton of fun and so its a real treat for both of us to see the fruits of our creative labors grace the cover of a magazine.<br />
<a href="http://www.arttourinternational.com/">Art Tour International magazine</a> chose to use our portrait as well as give Masae and myself a full page article including some additional works of ours and some they selected as well of my dance and theater photography.<br />
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The magazine is in hard print form and distributed internationally and can also be had as a download in pdf format via subscription.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-26220394655410850042011-10-31T15:02:00.001-04:002015-01-03T15:18:42.265-05:00Janitors closet (abandoned asylum)<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/janitors-closet-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Sell Art Online" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3535642&width=600&height=900" style="border: none;" title="Sell Art Online" /></a><br />
Abandoned asylum (building 138) Janitors closet<br />
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I recently had another opportunity to venture out to the asylum from which I have been putting together a series of works. A couple of good friends (and very good photographers) made the trip last week where we managed to roam the dark empty halls and rooms of building 138.<br />
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Its always exciting to discover these places and venture in, but from a photographers perspective i was a bit dissapointed with much of the photo ops, or lack of. Some spots are real gems while others don't seem to offer more than the peeling paint but I did come back pleasantly surprised by several images I took, especially after working on them later and realizing that I had something after all.<br />
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Here is one such surprise, the very small room called the janitors closet. As with most of my series from the asylum I shot this with a 17-40L 4.0 wide angle lens at approx 17mm. I try to line things up in such a way (camera height, angle/rotation)as to have minimal lens distortion. Later in post processing I will correct whatever distortion was there as best as possible. I do sometimes like the effect of the distortion so it really depends on the scene I'm shooting and what I feel I want from it then or later.<br />
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As with most all of the pieces in this set this was a 5 exposure HDR (high dynamic range)process. The window was exposed at 1/320 @f11 iso 200 while the room interior was taken at 1/6 @f11 and then three exposures in between.<br />
The images were imported into Lightroom and converted to DNG files on import. The five images were then exported into Photomatix Pro and blended and tone mapped in such a way that brought out as much detail and smooth shadow/light transitions as possible. In this stage the image looks rather flat and boring. I think its not a good idea to try and get the image to look finsihed in Photomatix by tonemapping it into oblivion. I bring the hdr processed file into Photoshop where I bring out contrast and use dodge and burn techniques to bring back the mood and atmosphere of the scene. I will sometimes tweak the hues of various colors to obtain a sort of dreamy or cinimatic appearance. I'm not going for a documentary type realissm here but at the same time I do not want things looking unnatural or unrealistic. A good friend and fellow photographer George Argento described the finished processes as looking "hyper realisitc" as opposed to surrealistic and I felt that was a pretty cool way of seeing and describing it.<br />
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Cropping and lens correction adjustments are always the last thing I do, and I do them in Lightroom. Anyone familiar with Lightroom knows that adjustments you make there are only virtual adjustments and only applied to an exported image. the original is always left intact. This way, if I ever decide that I cropped to tight or needed to roate and tweak a bit more i still have the full image as it were in camera and will have the options to further tweak and/or open up the crop. The full image will always be there to work with.<br />
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There are a few more photos from this building that I'm pleased with and will post some up soon again. <br />
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If you read this far, thanks for your time :)ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-9289413584080187762011-09-06T16:38:00.006-04:002015-01-03T15:39:25.946-05:00Abandoned asylum adventures part 1<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/6074002511/" title="deadly corridor by Gary Heller, on Flickr"></a><br />
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/deadly-corridor-abandoned-asylum-building-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Art Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3606920&width=600&height=900" style="border: none;" title="Art Prints" /></a><br />
Abandoned psychiatric facility (first level of building 122)<br />
deadly corridor<br />
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<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/lost-souls-abandoned-places-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3515821&width=600&height=400" style="border: none;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
Abandoned psychiatric facility (upper level room at rear of building 122)<br />
lost souls<br />
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/darkness-revealed-basement-room-of-an-abandoned-asylum-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3506459&width=600&height=400" style="border: none;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
Abandoned psychiatric facility (basement of building 122)<br />
darkness revealed<br />
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/resuscitator-room-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Art Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3515873&width=400&height=600" style="border: none;" title="Art Prints" /></a><br />
Abandoned psychiatric facility (building 135)<br />
resuscitator room<br />
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/stairs-and-corridor-inside-an-abandoned-asylum-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3515897&width=400&height=600" style="border: none;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
Abandoned psychiatric facility <br />
Stairs and Corridor<br />
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/old-door-abandoned-building-tea-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Sell Art Online" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3607090&width=400&height=600" style="border: none;" title="Sell Art Online" /></a><br />
Abandoned psychiatric facility (building 136)<br />
tea<br />
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/foreboding-doorway-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Sell Art Online" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3582234&width=400&height=600" style="border: none;" title="Sell Art Online" /></a><br />
Abandoned psychiatric facility (building 136)<br />
foreboding doorway<br />
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/abandoned-old-room-draped-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3515883&width=400&height=600" style="border: none;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
Abandoned psychiatric facility (building 136)<br />
draped<br />
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/dark-and-empty-cabinets-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Photography Prints" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3537554&width=400&height=600" style="border: none;" title="Photography Prints" /></a><br />
Building 136<br />
Dark Empty Cabinets<br />
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/abandoned-building-old-asylum-open-cabinet-doors-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Sell Art Online" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3537606&width=600&height=400" style="border: none;" title="Sell Art Online" /></a><br />
Abandoned psychiatric facility (building 136)<br />
Open Cabinet Doors<br />
<a href="http://fineartamerica.com/featured/long-narrow-lavatory-gary-heller.html" size="20"><img alt="Sell Art Online" src="http://fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=3582203&width=400&height=600" style="border: none;" title="Sell Art Online" /></a><br />
Abandoned psychiatric facility (building 136) <br />
long narrow lavatory<br />
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These images are from three separate trips to an abandoned psychiatric facility in New York which resides on a huge acreage and consists of dozens of buildings. The facility opened in the mid 1800's and expanded rapidly from several patients to several thousand. Thorazine, shock therapy and frontal lobotomies were part of the treatments for many patients but on the bright side reduced the number of which needed to be kept in restraints and straight jackets over time. Treatments eventually became better, more effective and more humane.<br />
During the later years, patients were transferred out to other facilities and officially closed down in 1996, although a couple of smaller buildings still are used as homes and treatment centers for a number of patients.<br />
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The first building I ventured into alone, building 122. This was part of a group consisting of a few buildings where patients were housed. This group of buildings were in terrible condition from roofs that had collapsed allowing extreme water dame to set in over the years. The other buildings had already imploded and this one I went in was ready to collapse at any time. The first shot in b&w is of the first level corridor with many rooms on each side. As you can see, the floors are caving and much of the ceiling as well exposing the upper level corridor. Foolishly, I had went in here alone and while trying to make my way down to search some of the rooms, the floor collapsed and I found myself halfway through to the basement. Fortunately, I did not fall all the way through and was able to pull myself up and get back to safer flooring. Many of the rooms were without floors due to collapse and large sections of the corridor floors were collapsed as well.<br />
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The next image of the window and faces on the wall was taken on the upper level of this building in a room at the very rear. Getting that shot was extremely nerve wracking because the entire floor in that room was swaying with my weight and many of the images did not come out quite well because the tripod would move due to the floor movement. Thankfully I came away with this image, and my life!<br />
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The next image is of a room in the basement. The entire basement was practically pitch black due to boarded up windows but this particular room had a window uncovered and a nice lighting shining through.<br />
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The next set of images are from building 135 which was used as a convalescence for special patients recovering from surgeries or illnesses. There were two floors and a basement but only the first floor had light from no boards on the upper half of the windows. I ventured into this building alone as well, but it was in much better shape than the other and aside from being a bit spooky I was comfortable in that it was fairly safe.<br />
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The next set are from building 136 which was the first stand alone medical and surgical building on the site, built sometime in the 1920's.<br />
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Fellow photographer <a href="http://www.oligney.com/"><b>James Oligney</b></a> was interested in coming along for this venture and so we hooked up and headed out armed with dust masks, plenty of water and much of our camera gear including tripods. James is a cool dude and one heck of a fine photographer. He is specializing in portraiture and headshots and you should have a look at his <a href="http://www.oligney.com/">site</a> and blog. Great stuff from James.<br />
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On previous visits I had found an opening to a basement window and thought we could access it from there but turned out it was a sealed boiler room with no way into the rest of the structure. We roamed about the perimeter for a while when James calls out that he found an opening through a window that had been raised. Actually, took me a minute to realize he was calling for me because he was using a bird call and he sounded like the real thing!<br />
This building was quite large compared to the previous ones I had hit. Three stories but covering a large footprint of about a half a block deep and side to side. It resembles two opposing L shapes joined in the center by the main rectangular structure, so inside it appears vast and a bit confusing. We made note of where we entered and kept track of how to get back to that room eventually.<br />
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All of my asylum images have been done with HDR (high dynamic range) processing typically utilizing about 5 exposures per image. This is done to try and balance the exposure from the bright window with that of the darkest areas in a room or corridor. Doing this allows for correct exposure of the entire scene without losing highlights due to blowout or detail in the shadow areas due to underexposure. <br />
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I'm using a program called Photomatix Pro to blend the exposures that i have captured in RAW format. I try to process them to have a more or less natural look about them and not look over cooked.<br />
HDR can also be processed manually by layering several exposures in Photoshop and manually blending them together using layer masks. I actually do a combination of both in some images. Photographs where there are foliage outside a window can sometimes be difficult due to the wind blowing the foliage around in between takes. This can cause problems when trying to blend the exposures together with a program like Photomatix. Although most programs have settings that help align and reduce the "ghosting" effects of moving elements, they are not always very successful. I find I can take the exposure that was correct for the window area and manually blend it into the otherwise finished HDR image thus eliminating the ghosting due to movement. There are many ways of doing things and sometimes the best way is a combination of a few together.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-45176823955876251562011-07-20T17:09:00.003-04:002011-07-20T18:00:46.108-04:00Katya Von Calder<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5304269146/" title="Katya Von Calder by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5250/5304269146_9128ed726e_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Katya Von Calder"></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5303675455/" title="Katya Von Calder by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5204/5303675455_aefe8d75bf_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Katya Von Calder"></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5303675583/" title="Katya Von Calder by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5125/5303675583_3b38cfd651_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Katya Von Calder"></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5304269296/" title="Katya Von Calder by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5288/5304269296_50c39c85c8_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Katya Von Calder"></a><br />
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So here are a few images from a shoot a little while back with Katya Von Calder. Katya is a very interesting woman with great intellect, great sense of humor, quick wit and fascinating to talk to. She and I connected on Facebook as we were mutually interested in eachothers work. We both shared a mutual friend which turned out to be her best friend and my cousin. You know, for years we hear the expression that its a small world but I think that with the popularity of the various social networking sites as they are today, we have no idea just how closely tied together we all really are.<br />
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For the shoot we discussed doing some alternative fashion and latex looks and possibly squeezing in some burlesque/pinup type looks as well. Katya has an amazing wardrobe and brought along some incredibly interesting pieces. The black latex body suit with the outer corset was fantastic as it was but Katya designed and crafted the ruffled choker and wrist pieces which really brought this outfit up to another level of interesting.<br />
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The burlesque/pinup look shot on white included a beautiful retro green colored corset with stockings, garter and heels but in addition a fantastic feathered fan that Katya crafted herself. I believe she said it was made of Peacock feathers attached to wooden slats that she secured together at the base. Two fans that open up into a fantastic array of colors and texture.<br />
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I brought stylist <a href="http://colorfulartist.com/">Masae Satouchi</a> in for this shoot. I sent Masae some images of Katya so she could have an idea of who she would be working with and she fell in love with her fiery red hair! "Wow, she is on fire, Gary!" Masae says to me. <br />
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Yes, Katya's hair is really that red and no enhancement was needed in post processing to get that color.<br />
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My lighting set up is basically the same as I described in my <a href="http://garyhellerphotograph.blogspot.com/2011/06/retro-glamourpinup-with-marlo-marquis.html">last post of my shoot with Marlo</a>.<br />
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There is something I wanted to bring up for a while about shooting subjects, especially female models at full body and that is camera position. I see a lot of full body shots of models all over the web where the camera is at eye level with the model, just as if they were shooting a headshot or portrait. That camera position is fine when doing those headshots and portraits but when shooting full body its not, most times. Having the camera at eye level on a full body shot means your looking down at the subjects legs, which in turn makes them look shorter and less flattering. More so if your already shooting a short subject.<br />
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In these portraits of Katya here I was pretty much at about eye level. I sometimes may go lower to about chest level and there are times when I've shot portraits stading over the subject looking down which brings on a whole different feeling and presence.<br />
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The full body shots of Katya holding the feathers were shot from about waist high which looks pretty much straight on because its about an equal distance from her head to her feet. If I shot eye level, she would have appeared very short with short legs.<br />
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There are times when I will shoot even lower such as in the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5550432802/">full body shot of Marlo</a> in my last post. That was shot at about knee level which made her look very tall and with long legs. I know that for many of us who are not shooting in a fully dedicated studio with tall ceilings, this can be difficult. In that shot of Marlo the roll of paper was visible in the top of the frame but I knew it would be easy to remove it and replace with white later in post processing.<br />
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There can be times when shooting full body at a somewhat higher angle has its place. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/4927050498/">This image of model Yan</a> was shot at approx eye level and I felt it gave the subject an endearing and innocent quality which I felt went with her look and pose/expression. Another factor in this example is Yan has a petite frame and wearing very high heels her legs still do not look short.<br />
There are other times when shooting down on your subject at full body does work but its when its clearly deliberate and done from a very high angle creating a dramatic perspective, clearly intentional.<br />
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In the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5549850463/">three quarter shot of Marlo</a> I did shoot down at her for effect but it works there in that case. Had I included her entire body, it would not.<br />
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While I'm on the subject of photography tips and observations I would like to share with you a link to a photographer friend of mine whose work and knowledge I have come to admire and respect over the years. Steve Hlavac is a fashion and fine art photographer located in Central Florida. He and I know one another from our years of participation and service over at <a href="http://www.photographyreview.com">PhotographyReview</a> where he moderates and gives great advice in the Studio and Lighting forum as well as writing articles for the site and I moderate the Photo Critique forum<br />
(my screen name there is gahspidy) <br />
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Steve's work has graced the covers of and has been featured in numerous magazines over the years and he has always been very generous in sharing his knowlege and experience with others in the field. <br />
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A fine person and photographer with a great sense of humor (as long as your not the butt of his jokes) :) <br />
I recommend you to drop by his blog, <a href="http://photo-asylum.blogspot.com/">Running the Photo Asylum</a>.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-63898357605510267222011-06-26T16:27:00.002-04:002011-06-28T11:42:22.481-04:00Retro Glamour/Pinup with Marlo Marquise<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5734400493/" title="Marlo Marquise by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3471/5734400493_8590800ce9.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="Marlo Marquise"></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5549850463/" title="Marlo Marquise by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5230/5549850463_7be5ecc948.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="Marlo Marquise"></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5550432802/" title="Marlo Marquise by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5061/5550432802_0cbe9d8776.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="Marlo Marquise"></a><br />
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These are from a set that came out of my last shoot with Marlo Marquis. Marlo is a burlesque performer and loves the retro classic styles of the 30's and 40's. She has that classic look to go with it and it suits her well.<br />
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My favorite of this set is the full body pose. Although it is a static pose, there is a feeling of fluidity and movement here. I just feel she knocked this pose outta the park and I'm pleased with my light and camera angle as well.<br />
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The lighting came out of a 24x30" Photoflex softbox powered with a White Lightning x1600 head at camera right and approximately 7 ft high. A 20320" box just below it (relevant only for the full body) to light the waist down. Powered by a Canon speedlite 580EX2. Another 24x24" box at about eye level on camer left to provide fill powered by another 580EX2. <br />
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A strip box powered by a White Lightning x800 head on camera left and behind and above subject angled slightly downward. This provides some hair light and some rim for the subjects right side (camera left).<br />
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The white paper background is lit by two Vivitar 285 flashes shooting into small lumiquest softboxes (6x9") attached to the lights. I like to illuminate the background to a lesser than white exposure to avoid blowouts from reflection and also for the reason that I like the bg's to be off-white as opposed to stark white. <br />
The bg would be easy to make completely white later in processing if I ever felt it worked best for a particular image, and so my options are open.<br />
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I usually let the subject do their thing while shooting but I do actively give model direction. I think a photographer should be involved in the direction and should not hesitate to suggest variations of a pose or to look a certain way, etc. A good model/subject certainly makes things easy, but they cannot see what I am seeing through the lens and the slightest variations of body positioning and/or eye contact or looking away can make a difference. Marlo is really fantastic, with an incredibly fine sense of styling and and fantastic presence.<br />
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I have a shoot coming up in the very near future which involves Mona De Lux, some retro pinup/glamour, some latex wardrobe provided by Venus Prototype. stylist Masae Satouchi and....industrial plastic wrap....<br />
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Stay tuned. :)ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-83833542397271339112011-06-13T13:52:00.001-04:002011-06-13T14:04:18.738-04:00Peeves...Peeves....we all have em. Those little things that particularly annoy us more than others and get easily under our skin.<br />
So it would be of no surprise to those who know me personally that a few of my peeves would involve driving, since driving is one of the few things that have ever come naturally to me.<br />
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I have been driving since I was about 13 years old. My parents would occasionally head off to the city by subway to take in a show and could easily be gone for about 5 hours. I knew where the car keys were kept and one day decided it would be good fun to take the old 1969 Dodge Coronet out for a spin. I'd take note of how it was parked in the back yard and make sure to keep it the same. I went and picked up a few of my friends and we would have a blast, and a few close calls where the police passed us and did a double take because I certainly looked my age then. <br />
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Since then I have driven most everything from motorcycles to 60ft long articulated buses. I was a bit of a speed demon when I was younger but like most of us we wise up and mellow out a bit with age and experience.<br />
So, some of the things that really get under my skin are not the usual culprits that seem to piss most everyone else off such as riding up on the shoulder to cut in front of a line of traffic, getting cut off, driving slow in the left lane of a highway (that gets close though), wreckless speeding, etc. <br />
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The things that seem to bother me most are the actions of drivers that don't seem to have a clue that there are others on the road. While driving along on a city street, the car in front begins to slow for no apparent reason. Ok, so I can assume the driver is going to double park or something and so I lay back and wait for his move. He then proceeds a bit further and pulls nose first into a spot, then stops mid way with rear of car blocking the lane. Arrrg! Alright, I don't get bent outta shape like I might have when I was younger but it still has me cursing under my breath and rolling my eyes in disbelief. <br />
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Another situation I have seen too often is when a driver begins making a turn, then decides midway that they want to turn in the other direction. Then there is the driver that almost comes to a complete stop on the right lane of the highway to double check if the exit coming up is the one they need...<br />
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Its important that when you begin an action that you follow through to completion. If you decide the parking spot was not the one you wanted or you needed to turn left instead of right you really must follow through with what you started and then regain your bearings and make the neccessary corrections later. Much of driving involves anticipation for both getting around traffic and for defensive purposes, so when you as a driver do things that are unpredictable it causes a dangerous situation for you and others around you, no matter how slow or careful you may think you are. Its also not really a matter of a driver being stupid, as I have seen these things done many times over by Doctors (MD plates). It's either sheer arrogance , and/or just a lack of common road sense.<br />
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Ok, so just had to get that out there! Also haven't blogged in a while and wanted to keep things alive here :)<br />
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I do have some ambitious shoots and projects coming up in the near future and also want to get back to some of the barns and abandoned structures that I love venturing into.<br />
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Oh, driving at night with your bright lights on...arrrggg! :Pghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-16463276411397645722011-05-15T14:05:00.000-04:002011-05-15T14:05:19.394-04:00A shoot with Marlo Marquise<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5536587806/" title="Marlo Marquise by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5059/5536587806_b3d4098972_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Marlo Marquise"></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5536009525/" title="Marlo Marquise by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5020/5536009525_e417eca71f_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Marlo Marquise"></a><br />
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I had the pleasure a little while back to shoot with burlesque performer/artist Marlo Marquise. Marlo is a charming woman and a pleasure to talk to. She is also an artist and exhibits her paintings in various galleries in New York.<br />
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I wanted to go through a couple of different burlesque/pinup looks and then cover one fetish/latex set as well, which we did.<br />
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Here are a couple with a fantastic outfit with bullet bra and gorgeous color. Marlo has a very fine sense of styling and did her own for this shoot.<br />
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One of the ideas I had wanted to execute in this session was to have Marlo posing with a full or 3/4 Stand up bass. I had contacted a few people about acquiring one for the shoot and found someone who had agreed on coming down and supplying a bass for the half hour os so that I'd need for her to pose with it. The very night before the shoot, the contact emails me with an absurd amount of money that he wants for the rental of the bass and so the deal was off and the shoot had to go on without it. I don't know if this guy just thought this was going to be some huge budget endeavor that he could ask for the sun and moon or if he were just trying to squeeze me knowing I might not find an alternative at such last minute, but that sort of shit really pisses me off. So, anyway, I'll be having Marlo back to finish some of the other ideas I wanted to pull off and I have a cool contact to supply the bass lined up.<br />
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I have finally set up a tether to my camera and computer and have it going through LightRoom 3.4 I set up all the metadata info and file name,sequence, etc and as i'm shooting the images are loading directly into my designated folder as well as being able to see the results immediately on the monitor. It really does make thing easier from many aspects. <br />
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These were adjusted and tweaked a bit in LightRoom and them a more extensive treatment applied in Photoshop.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-87336643654402859652011-03-30T13:07:00.002-04:002011-03-30T13:15:13.456-04:00haute couture portraiture<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5523448668/" title="Masae Satouchi by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5057/5523448668_71c82dc649_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Masae Satouchi" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.colorfulartist.com">Masae Satouchi</a> had asked if I would be interested in doing a set of work with her as she had picked up a very interesting "dress" with matching head piece. It is a dress/garment sculpted from wire and decorated with what appear to be amethyst gemstones.<br />
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This is a portrait from the set we did featuring the haute couture piece. Masae did her own styling and brought along some "friends" as accessories she wanted to work with. <br />
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I shot and processed this with a light and airy feel. Some others from the set are full body with Masae barefoot and posing in various graceful forms which she does well as she is an accomplished dancer.<br />
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Masae is great to work with, but also a blast to be around. She has a lot of stories and her English is still a bit rough so things sometimes get hung up and twisted a bit in translation.<br />
She had told me of a film she had done in which she was an extra playing a prostitute standing along the street with others. The films producer discovered that Masae is a fantastic fire performer and had wanted to include a performance by her in the film. As they were discussing the details of her fire performance and arrangements, the terms of compensation came up and Masae said to me "Gary, I tell them that I will be their prostitute for free but have to charge my full rate for fire peformance. . ." Too funny<br />
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They hired her and I'm looking forward to seeing the film when its released.<br />
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Incidentally, soon after our shoot Masae left for a trip which included a stay in Japan to visit family. During her time there, the massive earthquake hit. Fortunately Masae and her family are ok and she is back here in the states doing various fundraising events to support the relief efforts needed to help the people of Japan get through this horrible time.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-31478442656644480122011-02-15T23:04:00.002-05:002011-02-16T17:13:32.138-05:00Portraits of Henry William Oelkers<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/4764676359/" title="Henry William Oelkers by garyhellerphotography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4140/4764676359_73f4001f77_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Henry William Oelkers" /></a><br />
the man waiting<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/4757765809/" title="Henry William Oelkers by garyhellerphotography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080/4757765809_fe9e3cb54e.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="Henry William Oelkers" /></a><br />
hillbilly<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/4758262542/" title="Henry William Oelkers by garyhellerphotography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4139/4758262542_4394e4d975_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Henry William Oelkers" /></a><br />
upper hillbilly<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/4758262604/" title="Henry William Oelkers by garyhellerphotography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4123/4758262604_38f23b33b8_z.jpg" width="502" height="640" alt="Henry William Oelkers" /></a><br />
Henry William Oelkers<br />
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These are some images I have from a shoot a little while back with actor/model and all around gentleman, Henry William Oelkers.<br />
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Henry is capable of portraying a wide variety of characters. He brought along various costumes and achieved quite a few different looks in the few hours we worked together.<br />
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Henry is also somewhat of a celebrity in that he was the model that artist David Jon Kassan sketched live on his ipad which wound up going viral in a short time. It was actually through contact with David that I came to know Henry.<br />
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In these portraits, a medium softbox was used for main light, with a snooted strobe hitting the face from slightly above head level to bring an extra glow. Smaller box used for fill and another for rim and hair.<br />
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Most work done in Lightroom with some images being brought into Photoshop for a bit extra treatment.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-91007300234257553212011-02-14T13:45:00.000-05:002011-02-14T13:45:32.922-05:00Portrait of Woman<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5375543705/" title="portrait of woman 1 by garyhellerphotography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5205/5375543705_240c9ca2e9.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="portrait of woman 1" /></a><br />
portrait of woman 1<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5375543729/" title="portrait of woman 2 by garyhellerphotography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5202/5375543729_8524e86c8b.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="portrait of woman 2" /></a><br />
portrait of woman 2<br />
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Portrait of woman is a bit of a series I have started on. I am focusing on subtle motion and body language to convey the character of the subject as well as a bit of a story that can take form in the imagination of the viewer. The identity of face is covered although we can see some hints of facial features. These along with the movements can allow us to think about the subject and character and perhaps come up with unique stories and interpretations.<br />
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This was achieved with the subject moving about in a slightly rehearsed method while the camera was set at a 1 sec exposure with a single strobe burst fired at a precise moment. <br />
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It is one of a few experimental series that I am looking into building on further, but I do like the start of this.<br />
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The lighting was a 22" beauty dish as key, a strip box for rim and a small softbox near camera and eye level providing very slight fill. I'm not all that crazy for the beauty dish although the results here were pretty descent.<br />
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These photographes were imported into LightRoom 3.3 and fully finished there. The process involved converting to b&w by simply eliminating all saturation, and then tweaking color temperature, tint, and various exposure controls such as fill, brightness, black, and clarity to achieve the tone and overall aesthetic I was interested in.<br />
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I'm looking forward to getting on with some more works in these latest endeavors. Stay tuned. . . :)ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-67300836772421601152011-02-07T15:20:00.002-05:002013-01-04T11:25:40.808-05:00Retro Lovely Magazine Vol. 4<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5017245193/" title="Jade Vixen by garyhellerphotography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4086/5017245193_4c113f489a_m.jpg" width="171" height="240" alt="Jade Vixen" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5017245301/" title="Jade Vixen by garyhellerphotography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4091/5017245301_b5c376c14e_m.jpg" width="240" height="192" alt="Jade Vixen" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5332749637/" title="Jade Vixen bubble gum pinup by Gary Heller, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5166/5332749637_ebd1a8dfaa_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Jade Vixen bubble gum pinup"></a>
My pinup work with Jade Vixen will have a two page spread in <a href="http://www.retrolovely.com">Retro Lovely Magazine</a> vol.4 due to be ready for shipping in Mid to late February 2011.<br />
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Retro Lovely is a high quality publication printed on heavy glossy pages with substantial content. Its more like a fine art book than a mag. A collectors magazine in the making.<br />
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The magazine has featured some of the best pinup models and photographers of our time and its quite an honor to have a spread in their next issue.<br />
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Learn more about <a href="http://www.retrolovely.com">Retro Lovely</a> and order a copy while your there. Some past volumes are still available having gone into second printings but are running out fast.<br />
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Visit <a href="http://jadevixenblog.com/2011/01/retro-lovely-magazine-no-4/">Jade Vixen</a> and learn more about the model and what she was wearing for the shoot.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3113186568122076748.post-25837485856516800472011-02-07T15:02:00.001-05:002011-02-07T15:03:32.309-05:00Wide Open 2 (juried exhibition)<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyheller/5316597687/" title="Ree ja motion portraiture by garyhellerphotography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5210/5316597687_b94302db75_m.jpg" width="240" height="192" alt="Ree ja motion portraiture" /></a><br />
Ree Ja motion 1<br />
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I'm pleased, and honored to learn that my photograph "Ree Ja motion 1" was selected from amongst 1600 submissions by noted juror Nathan Trotman of the Guggenheim Art Museum in N.Y. <br />
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Artists and photographers from around the country submitted a total of 1600 works of which 144 have been selected to exhibit in the show "Wide Open 2" being put together by the <a href="http://www.bwac.org">Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, or BWAC</a>.<br />
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The exhibit will run from March 12 - 27, 2011, Weekends from 11-4PM<br />
Opening reception is Saturday, March 12 from 1-6PM<br />
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I had been accepted into the show last year "Wide Open 1" and can tell you that the work on display is quite a treat to view and experience.<br />
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If your in New York and can come on down, its really a fantastic show and well worth while. Learn more about it by wvisiting the <a href="http://www.bwac.org">BWAC website</a>.ghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07964296075867476410noreply@blogger.com7