Light Painting

Long exposure + Low light + Hand held light source = a whole lot of fun. I pretty much spent all day Saturday taking photos and experimenting with light. Okay, so that might sound a little dorky, but I had a blast. I am sure Karen was wondering why I locked myself in a pitch black basement for hours at a time. "What in the world is that boy doing down there?"

Some of these photos were taken in my basement stairwell. It is dark, angular, and it allowed me to put some limits on how big my canvas was. Set your tripod up, get your scene in frame and shoot. Some of the others were taken outside which made the backgrounds a little more interesting, but made it more difficult to be accurate. Anyway, it was a blast doing it, and I can't wait to try it agian with a model next time. These were my favorites from the bunch. Let me know what you think.

Just to prove I was actually in New York....

These pictures were actually taken by my lovely wife Karen during our trip. Sadly....I have a camera in my hand in every single one. Go figure.

Paparazzi? Bird Watcher? Or New York mugger who just stole someones camera? You be the judge!

Guess what?

I have been hanging on to this for a while now (as you can tell by the date in the upper right)....but I couldn't do it any longer. Guess who is going to be a Poppa?! Datsa Righta! The Casatelli's have a little Calzone in the oven! We won't know the sex for a few more weeks so keep your eyes peeled for updates. It looks like we are slated for a Halloween baby! How cool would that be? Karen has been doing great through the first trimester and we are starting the second. Time sure flies when you have a baby on the way. We will keep you in the know.
Keep us in your thoughts and much love and peace to all of you.

Blog numero dos from NYC...

So here are some more interesting shots of the city. There is so much to shoot there, I could have easily spent a month there instead of a long weekend. However I would had to mortgage the house to be able to afford it. Have mercy, NYC is wicked expensive. So this blog will include shots from our rooftop, Rockefeller Center, the subway, Central Park and Liberty Island. Let me know what you think of these.

Back from the Big City...

So....New York is crazy. Fo' Real! We had a great time playing tourist, but it was an adventure to say the least. We flew into Newark figuring we would get a cheaper flight. Little did we know that we would nearly pay with our lives during the cab ride into Manhattan. First of all, our driver was fresh off the boat from Zaire. So much so that he was completely dependent on the GPS navigator on the dash. The only problem was....he didn't know how to use a GPS navigator. So after the longest, most expensive cab ride I have ever taken, we settled into our sheik modern hotel, dead smack in the middle of Ghetto Queens. Seriously Ghetto. Underneath a bridge ghetto. Not to mention the bedroom, bathroom and shower were all in the same room. Literally. And the dividers separating the toilet from the room....made of glass. No privacy whatsoever. Modernism sucks. Don't get me wrong, there were some pluses as well. There was a great view from the roof. It allowed for some fun shots of the skyline at night as you will see above. So you take what life gives you and you have a blast anyway, right? Well I divided the photos into two different blogs. This one will show you some funny candid shots of my lovely wife and I exploring the city. They include self portraits, ducks who walk on water, French Mastiffs that reminded us of Gus, and some cool sculptures we saw on Liberty Island. Much love to you all, we are glad to be back in the dirty south.