Pictures

New Photography Website For Me

Sedona River After years of having my pictures placed on this site I finally decided they need a site of their own. While the site is no where close to being done I feel comfortable sharing it with others now that I have a few photos up on it.

After processing this picture on the left it made me realize that I needed a website for my photography. I get asked over and over by friends and family where they can buy the pictures that I take so I have them in a SmugMug gallery where they can purchase whatever they want. Since our printers were washed away by Hurricane Sandy we are no longer able to print photos at home for now.

Coming up with a domain name was tough since I didn't want anything like “Vinny O'Hare Photos.com” I had a brainstorming session with Karen Garcia who came up with the name CameraWe.com. I like it because it has an abbreviated “Awesome” in it which if you didn't know I use in a few of my sites. I also like it because it is a word that probably pisses of my friend Lisa Picarillie who doesn't like it when words are thrown together and hard to say 🙂 I can hear her now saying is it “Camera We” or “Camera awe”. Yes Lisa I can hear you say Dam you Vinny O'Hare lol.

Choosing a theme for the site was a no-brainier for me since we promote the Expand2Web affiliate program. Since most of my viewers will be local to me it was the choice to make. I love the responsive theme and the sliders which I didn't exactly get right when it comes to sizing but I did it quickly. I don't have to worry about what device people are viewing my pictures on. Less coding on my behalf is always a good thing, or I should say outsourcing the coding.

I am not sure if I am removing the pictures section from this site yet, but I am guessing I will when this site gets a makeover.

A Good Photograph Should Get An Emotion

Last night before I started taking pictures of the Freedom Tower and the World Trade Center Tribute lights I spent a few minutes in Battery Park as the sun went down. I knew what to expect since I was here about 3 weeks before on a Trey Ratcliff photo walk.

I stumbled across a young woman taking a picture of the sun setting over Ellis Island. The sun was setting perfect so I snapped a single shot.

Ellis Island girl

As I took the picture I kept thinking about what she was thinking about. Maybe her parents or grandparents came through Ellis Island and she was proud to be taking the photo. Was she thinking what it must have been like to live through that time in history? She was not focused at all on the sunset so I knew she was thinking about Ellis Island. I started to think about what it must have been like for my family that went through there. Did they cry when they went past the Statue of Liberty? Too many unanswered questions!

One thing I do know is that the photograph stuck an emotion in me. I hope you enjoy it!

World Trade Center Tribute Lights

Some pictures I took in 2010.

World Trade Center Tribute Lights

Taking Good Pictures is All About The Planning

Today I want to talk about luck or should I say planning.

A few weeks ago at Affiliate Summit my friend Sean Dolan from Pushfire said to me “Hey Vinny, you always seem to be in cool places taking pictures.” As he said it I thought to myself “I am getting some good stuff lately. What am I doing different?”

After thinking about it I concluded that good planning has been the secret to my success of late. When I find out something is going on in NYC I usually plan what I am going to do. Usually I wouldn't find out about things until after they happen but lately I have been finding things out well in advance.

Lets take my recent journey with the Space Shuttle pictures. I saw on Google news that it was coming into NYC and landing at JFK airport. I Googled for some information on it and ended up on the NYCaviation forum. These guys were on top of it and had places they were going to meet to get the best angles. They were very sharing with their information even though I was new to their forum.

I learned that I could download the JFK control tower on to my android phone and know exactly when it was coming in and what runway. Actually what runway it was going to land was obvious since they would use the longest runway if possible.

The cool thing about the first space shuttle adventure (I have two) was that the place I picked to get the shots was a place only 3 other people knew about. The 747 and space shuttle passed over us on the initial flyby so close that I probably could have thrown a rock and come close to hitting it. (Not that I ever would of course)

Space Shuttle on 747 The next adventure with the space shuttle happened a few weeks later when they moved it from JFK airport to the Intrepid Space Museum on a barge. I knew the place I wanted to be was right in the middle of the bridge that it was going under. Early reports were they were going to move it at 8am so I was on the bridge at 7am.

Well one of my neighbors who tracks the tug boats on his phone told me about this cool app that I downloaded that shows me all the boats in the harbor and when they are moving. I downloaded the app and went and got some breakfast. A few hours later I saw it move and set up in my spot and got the shots and they ended up on CNN.

Space shuttle crashing into train trestle
Using the same scanner and knowing what runways are what at JFK, I was also able to get pictures of Air Force One coming in to land a few weeks ago. Once again the guys on the aviation forum helped out but I went to another location just a few blocks from my house and took some cool pictures. It isn't every day that you get to see Air Force One in action. As I stood on the beach getting ready to take the shot I listened to the airport control tower on my phone when it cleared the airspace around JFK.

Air Force One Landing
Now I pretty much know all the cool stuff that happens in NYC because I follow the local people on Twitter and they let me know when something is happening that they may think I would like pictures of.

A few weeks ago I noticed a big storm coming up the coast. I said to myself I bet there are some big waves in Rockaway and people will be surfing. Sure enough they were surfing and this is the picture from that shot. Once again it was planned a day in advance.

surfer in Rockaway
A few weeks later I was checking the weather and they was talking about a big storm coming in around 4pm the next day. I said to myself “Red sky at dawn sailors be warned” so I thought if I went to the beach in the morning of the storm and saw the sunrise it would make for a nice picture. I got on the subway at 430 am and went in the opposite direction of the people going to work and ended up with some amazing shots of the sunrise.

Sunrise on the beach
I also have a sunrise – sunset calender set up in Google calender to let me know when the sun comes up and down. Knowing when the sun goes down is a major factor in getting pictures like this.

Sunset over Brooklyn
I guess you can chalk in up to being prepared. Years ago I was at a show and they had a sign that said Carmen Electra will be posing for pics and autographs. The sign said it was happening at 3pm or something and when I saw the sign I only had 10 minutes and I had no camera with me. I quickly went to the newspaper stand in the Jacob Javits center and bought an automatic film camera.

The Javits center has the worst shooting conditions since it is all skylights. Well here is the only picture that I have of me and Carmen Electra. Just sad, Now I am always prepared for taking pictures and I have a plan. Yes taking a good picture of Carmen Electra is on my bucket list. I didn't take this picture though so I am not sure if it counts on my overall record. I handed the camera to the guy behind me in line. Why? A lack of planning.

Lousy carmen electra picture

Black Skimmer in Sunset Picture

Took this picture last week of a Black Skimmer feeding at sunset on Jamaica Bay. It has been getting a lot of attention on Facebook so here it is.

Black Skimmer

While this is a beautiful photo it was also a lesson to me that I could link my Smugmug account in my Facebook photo albums and sell the print.

Happy 4th of July

Make some plans to Celebrate the 4th of July!

Last year I went to Hoboken New Jersey to take pictures of the Macy's fireworks in the Hudson river. My thinking was I could go to the west side of Manhattan but then the backdrop would be of New Jersey and not very good.

Fireworks over the Hudson River

I hope you can enjoy the holiday and have a few burgers and a few drinks of choice while watching the fireworks. Be safe and enjoy!

Still Pictures of Space Shuttle Crash

I was just listening to James Martell over on Webmaster radio and he said he was looking for my still shots of the space shuttle Enterprise crash. Thought I would upload them here in case you didn't want to take the time to watch the video.

Space Shuttle Picture on CNN

These first aired at 5:45 am after that the watermark said “Courtesy of Vinnyohare.com” which I had them change it to just in case a CNN affiliate picked up the story I would get a backlink out of it.

CNN Space Shuttle Picture

Debbie and I did a podcast on it that will be uploaded to Affiliate ABCs on Geekcast.fm tonight. I go into depth on how the whole thing came down and the lessons learned from it.

My Space Shuttle Pictures on CNN

Yesterday I was contacted by CNN asking if they could use my images of the Space Shuttle Enterprise crashing into the train bridge. Of course I said yes and they used them on air a few times over the course of the morning.

Now I can say “As featured on CNN” to my business card 🙂 I will be doing a podcast on how this all went down on affiliateabcs.com.

Hard Work and Persistence Pays Off

My Journey with the Space Shuttle
Since they announced the Space Shuttle Enterprise was flying into NYC to go to the U.S.S Intrepid I kind of took it as a challenge. I joined a forum with guys that plane spot and learned a ton about where it was gonna fly in. Yesterday was the day that it left JFK airport by barge on its way to the Intrepid. If you didn't see my post about the Space Shuttle flying in click here and then come back.

Yesterdays schedule had the shuttle leaving JFK at 8am or so it was suppose to. I woke up at 7am after getting about 2 hours sleep. I loaded up my backpack with enough batteries and cards to film for 2 days, you have to be prepared for events that only happen once. I had a plan that I was going to film the shuttle from the Crossbay Bridge that connects Broad Channel and Rockaway. I knew the shuttle had to come through that way since the other bridges are too low. My plan then included getting on my bike and riding ahead of the shuttle and take pictures from a few locations as it headed to New Jersey.

Space Shuttle Enterprise Landing at JFK Airport

On Friday I decided to go out and try to capture a few shots of the space shuttle Enterprise as it arrives at JFK Airport. This ended up being an adventure and a lesson all rolled up in one and one heck of a good exercise. For the past week I have been tracking the plans and try to come up with a strategy for getting good pics. I was figuring that they would have to use the longest runway and land into the wind so it was kind of easy to figure out where to go. On Thursday I joined an aviation forum after seeing an article online about the best places to view the shuttle landing.

I really have to thank the guys on the forum for some tips. After chatting with a few guys I found out that the popular place to go was by the Inwood golf course. To me this didn't make sense as the plane would be going down the runaway and all you would see is the tail. I wanted it from the front so I decided to go to the place near the train bridge on the north side of the runway. To me it just made more sense. I walked about 3 miles to the spot where I thought would be the best for taking pictures.

There were four of us on the beach and it was very windy and a little cold but I knew we were in the right spot. I actually met some guys from the forum. How often does that happen? Join a forum and the next day you meet someone from that forum. I was glad because one of the guys suggested a camera setting which I used to get these shots. I also learned a lot about taking pictures of airplanes from them.
Space Shuttle buzzing JFK Tower
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Become a Better Photographer Using Google +

On July 4th I went over to Hoboken to shoot pictures of the Macy's July 4th fireworks. I can tell you that I really stunk taking pictures of fireworks but after doing some research on how to shoot fireworks and then explaining to Debbie what I read she put it all in perspective for me. To tell you the truth all the settings confuse me just like it does the average user. Learning about camera settings is boring and not many people do it for that reason.

Looking at your pictures after you upload them to Google+ and checking out the details you can learn from your mistakes. You can also go around and see what settings other people used when taking fireworks pictures and learn from them.

The Mayor of this Branch

I am tired of talking about foursquare and how tired I am about seeing “Mayor updates” in my Twitter stream. The other day I took a picture and it made me think about it. I call this “I am the Mayor of this branch”.

If you notice there isn't even a seagull around as they don't care if this Yellow warbler is the Mayor of this branch. Actually I just needed a good excuse to post this picture.

Pictures From Las Vegas

When we went out to Affiliate Summit we also did the tourist things and took some pictures. This was a good test for me as I hadn't really used my Sony A300 all that much. Most of these pictures were taken outside the Mirage Hotel. This is the waterfall that is really beautiful.

waterfall outside the Mirage Hotel

The Mountains behind the Rio were amazing, this was taken through the glass from our 18th floor room at the Mirage.
Mountains behind the Rio Hotel

Here is a closer view of these amazing clouds, snow and mountains.
white snow on the mountains in las vegas

mountains surrounding las vegas

You can see the view we had from the room, you can't tell where the sky ends and the mountains begin. It is a shame that crane ruins a great picture. Have a feeling that will be photo shopped out in the future.
mirage hotel

Here is a view of the Las Vegas Strip with clouds in the background and the newly opened City Center.

This picture was taken from the monorail platform behind the Bellagio. The monorail is new and goes from the Bellagio to City Center, great place to get some pictures of the Las Vegas Mountains.

This is the sign above Harrah's Casino. I love the details of it.
sign on top of Harrahs casino

The waterfall again outside the Mirage but this time it has the Dolphin statues.
dolphins outside the Mirage casino

This was the first shot I took at City Center. I like the reflective nature of this shot.
city center las vegas

Here is a shot of the Bellagio with some very dark clouds over it.
bellagio casino with dark clouds

I hope you enjoyed these pictures, I made them small for the web. The originals are quite larger and were shot in RAW files. Can't wait to print some of these and put them up in the office.

Photography – A New Passion

Some of my favorite shots

Mini Manhattan Vacation

This past week My Friend Ed brought his family to New York City and since I know the town well I helped show them around. I booked a hotel on Friday night through Priceline and stayed at the Courtyard by Marriot on 40th street and 5th ave. Since Ed was staying at the Milford Plaza I knew I would only be a block or three away from being able to meet up with him, his wife Lois and their beautiful daughter Sasha.

After trekking into the city late on Friday night Debbie and I went to catch a late dinner and we ended up at the Playwright Irish Pub on 35th street. Atmosphere was good but the food kind of stunk so we got out of there and went back to the hotel so we could get a good nights sleep as we were meeting Ed early in the morning.

When we got up we walked towards the New York Public Library Building and Bryant park and came across some pretty flowers. We went and met Ed and we hopped on the NY Subway towards lower Manhattan. We stopped by the World Trade Center site and paid our respects.

We then walked over by this big cube and off to Starbucks for something warm and to rest our already tired legs.

We then headed down towards Wall Street looking for the big bull that was in the street. I had never seen where this thing was in all of my 40 years living in NYC. We found Trinity Church then walked down Wall Street in pursuit of this bull.

After walking around in the rain I asked someone were the bull was and they pointed me in a general direction but we found it right back on Broadway where the Canyon of Heroes starts. There was a volleyball team gathered around the bull but Lois and Sasha was was able to sneak in for a pic.

By this time we had no clue were to go since the weather was lousy but we trekked on to Battery Park. We saw some squirrels in the park that liked to pose for us.

We were going to go out to the Statue of Liberty but like I said the weather was bad. We walked up to the South Street Seaport and got some lunch and dry off a bit. We passed a cool firetruck with Godzilla on the roof.

While we were eating at Brennans (which has great food) in the Seaport we decided to try and walk over the Brooklyn Bridge and take the subway back to Manhattan. I wish it was a nice day but they were troopers and how often can you say you walked over the Brooklyn Bridge.

We really got wet walking over the bridge but none of us really cared. We got to Brooklyn and hopped on the “A” train back to Manhattan. We went to Bryant park and watched the crazy people ice skating in the rain.

We were all getting tired and being wet we went back to the Milford Plaza after stopping in Times Square and got dry and went out to dinner.

Being that they have been on the road for a while I figured they were longing for some familiar food. A few weeks before I had read in the New York Times about a new restaurant that serves Australian style food. We walked down to 38th street to The Australian. This place was great from the word go. They sat us in a booth in the back where we would have enough room, the waiter was great and made us feel right at home. They even had lemon bitters which I had never had before. I don't remember what everyone had but they were raving over the barrimundi. Just the names of the food had me confused. I tried some damper and even had some Australian beer which was quiet good. Desert was out of this world, Everyone was stuffed the meal was one of the best times I have had in a long time.

It was good catching up with Ed and meeting his family.