Hello, Spring! New Jersey Portrait Photographer

We are so lucky, because seriously – we get to have photoshoots with the cutest kids ever. No, really. Other photographers may brag that they have the cutest clients – but there is no way that’s possible.
We took a trip to Spring Lake last week to get some shots of this super ridiculously adorable family. It was windy (AGAIN! Where are you, Spring?!) so we were once again forced a bit inland of where we initially intended to do the shoot. Once again, we probably could’ve done this shoot in a junkyard, and still gotten adorable photos – because when you’ve got this much cute to work with, it doesn’t matter where you’re set up!
See the full set (and like the page while you’re there!) on our Facebook page.

A Deployment: New Jersey Portrait Photographer

It is not often that I tear up when I edit photos – but it happened when I was doing these.
You probably remember the cutie from the last session. When her Mom (and a pal of mine from high school) had contacted me not only about doing those adorable Easter portraits, but also some pre-deployment shots for her family, I was touched and also thrilled that she was trusting Ray and I to capture those moments. All my love to this sweet family, and a speedy return home.
For the full set, Like us on Facebook.

Happy Easter: New Jersey Family Photographer

We have been very busy lately, hence a lack of posts. However – in order to catch up, we have quite a bit of posting to do!
We’ll rewind a bit back to Easter so that we can share this super adorable Easter themed shoot. While we had originally planned to shoot in Ocean Gate – the unspring-like (probably not a word) temperatures forced us a bit further inland. This little one was going to look cute no matter the circumstances, so it really didn’t matter where we were!
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Ortley Beach: 80 Days After Sandy

Just about 3 months after the storm, visiting Ortley Beach, NJ still feels like a different world. This post is going to be a bit photo-heavy, but it can serve as a dedication of sorts to the town that Ortley once was, and what it will be again. It’s difficult to describe what it’s like to go to a town you once knew so well that you could probably describe the streets house by house – and be met with what feels like no landmarks to identify what street you’re standing on. The rubble is extensive, the streets are buckled, and there are enormous masses of tangled rope and the fabric of people’s lives washed up on the shore. These are really the only photos I’ve taken thus far since the storm – I’ve only been back twice. Ray has been back several more times than that. The beach in Ortley is closed, and not wanting to tempt fate we didn’t try to sneak up so I could get some photos of the now-infamous fallen JetStar. In the last shot of the first grouping, Ray is feeling the water – not something we get to do every day anymore.











These photos are from the same street in happier times.

This is a favorite shot of the pier and JetStar – taken standing on the old ramp that used to lie at the end of the street.








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Stormy Monday

Yesterday, the sky was doing some crazy stuff. I love multi-layered cloud cover, and there were many fantastic examples putting on quite a show. Additionally, the sky behind the heavy cloud cover was a supremely dazzling blue. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence that these storms seem to roll through on Mondays, but this is the second instance where I’ve found that the weather was rather miserable, unseasonably cold, and generally yucky on the most hated day of the week. Lucky for me, this lends itself to some unique and wonderful sky photography.

This shot illustrates that dazzling blue that I was talking about hiding behind the clouds.

And here are the clouds covering up the dazzle on the opposite side of the island. I love all the layers and textures!

– www.deepsixphotography.com

Feathered Friends

I think I might have spoken in an earlier post, about how I love the time of year when baby ducks and geese starting running around. If I haven’t mentioned it before – I absolutely love it when this happens. I try not to be too intrusive, but I love seeing the little ones running around and being all fluffy and adorable with themselves. I had a chance to take a couple of snaps of some fuzzy little goslings this weekend, so I’d like to pass along the cute.

I kind of had to shoot through a fence, so I was impressed that I held steady for a couple shots.

Here’s another cute little fellow, in keeping with my avian theme.

Additionally, have you visited our new site?

If not- go now!

www.deepsixphotography.com

Before We Were Famous

So I was exaggerating. We are not famous now. However, if you are looking at comparative fame from 4 years ago, we are doing awesome.

I’ve noticed lately, that my computer has been insanely bogged down. My CS5 is running at a really glacial pace, which is slowing down photo editing something awful. I’ve been working on a nice watermark to slap all over our photos, but I was barely able to create a text box in under 3 minutes. I realized that the sheer mass of photographic excellence on this computer’s hard drive might be the culprit. There are easily close to 10,000 photos on my desktop, if not more than that. While I do love each and every one, it was time to do some deleting.

Here are some photos from before we really started doing photography seriously, and some from the very beginning.

I used this shot in our promos up until very recently. It is stupidly simple, but I’ve always loved it. It was taken early in our game, but it still makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

One of my all-time favorite shots. Ray and I went crabbing and caught 1 crab. We had him in the bucket for a bit with a cutting board and knife. When I went to check on him, the crab had picked up the knife and was waving it around. Really. Just goes to show you: New Jersey crabs are badass and carry knives.

I rarely go see sunrise. I typically run in the mornings, so I wake up for work at around 5:30. The last thing I want to do on the weekend is drag myself to the beach before sunrise – that’s Ray’s thing. Luckily, the couple of times I’ve done it – I have been richly rewarded. This sunrise was simple – but my timing could not have been better with that bird.

Each year I obsess over what I term ‘the running of the duckings’ which is when the ever-present Canadian geese have their babies. I consistently go on the hunt to obtain photos of the cute little balls of fluff.

There are many more favorite old shots – but these were the ones I stumbled upon early. Hope you enjoyed!

Perspective

Every once in a while I end up having a really epic sunset session, where it feels like everywhere I look there is an awesome photo opportunity. I especially like it when each opportunity presents a totally different photo experience – almost to the point where you might think that each of the photos was taken on a different day.

So basically I’m going to present to you a sunset that was lookin’ good from the front, the side, and even the back.

Front. Lovin’ it. And it wasn’t all for show.

Side. Look at that form! What beautiful cloud shape. I also love when the sky reflects off the water and kinda makes it glow. It’s totally happening here, and I’m digging it.

From the back. You can see Ray taking some pictures inside the gazebo. I really didn’t think this would turn out. I love how crystal clear the bay looks. Drink it in now, because in two months the bennys will have yucked it all up. I just love the glow the sun was shining on the wood of the gazebo, and the nice orange-y blue-y tones.

So yeah. Lookin’ good Lavallette. Lookin’ good.

Visit our site for more about DSP. We’re now booking spring shoots – so if you need photos drop us a line!

Somethin’ Special

I made a modest attempt at using my new portrait lens for some scenic HDR photography. I didn’t really expect much out of the results, because it’s really not the right lens for the job – but I got a photo that I really do adore. It has a strong color cast and is obviously rather surreal, but I do like what happened. I suppose it’s good to experiment every now and again.

That’s lovely, right? Well. I happen to think it is.

 

A Word on Fisheye

I own a fisheye converter. Note, I did not say that I own a fisheye lens I just said a converter. Essentially this means that I can take the converter and attach it to a lens, and make that lens ‘fisheye’. I wouldn’t necessarily call it true fisheye – for that you would really need to purchase the glass. Fisheye lenses are quite a pigeon-holed genre of lenses. Yeah – they’re cool, and they can immediately cool-ify a shot because of that neat distorted ‘funhouse’ effect – but it’s not something I’m sure I would really invest in just because it is so niche. Anyway – for professional grade photos, a fisheye converter is not where it’s at. It looks cool, but the sacrifice in image quality for the effect isn’t worth it.

Example:

Took this with the converter. I can’t sit here and say that it doesn’t look cool: it does. However, check out all that distortion at the tips of the frame. That should still be sharp, and if it had been taken with a true (quality) fisheye lens, it would be. The converter just mucks it all up.

Now check out the crispiness of this:

Sharp the whole way through, even at the tips.

This was really a lovely sunset, and I was glad that I broke out the converter just for something a little different – but I don’t find the results to be print-worthy. The one thing I hated about this sunset was that gnarly little boat that made its way to the dock just as things were getting good. You can’t see it particularly well here, but it was destroying my shot.

Here is just one more from the other night – some nice rock action. Crooked horizon because I don’t fix these before putting them on here. Have to offer some incentive to buy the real deal prints!