Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

I had just purchased my first full frame camera, the Canon 5D, back in the spring of 2008 so I put on a  canon EF 24mm F2,8 lens and went to the Queens Botanical garden. This is a lesson of sorts. Although I was  using a very wide lens, the fact that I was so close to the subject and was shooting at F4, I was able to throw the background out of focus. Also, the full frame helped. A smaller frame camera would have increased the depth of field making this effect more difficult to achieve. I just love these two Images and they sold me on the 5D that I still have.

I want to express my appreciation to  mothers everywhere without whom none of us would be here. I want to express my gratitude to my wonderful and lovely wife Marcy for producing our three treasures, left to right, Josef,  Jennifer and Michael. I want to thank her for putting up with me for all these years. This photo was taken while we were on our way to the celebration of the reopening of the Statue of Liberty after it was restored. The location is of course the Brooklyn Bridge. Time just flies by.

This was shot back in June of 2006 with the Canon 1-D but I do not recall the zoom I used. I was walking with my camera when I saw a heated softball game and decided to take some pictures. This was one of the better ones.

We recently posted a "rumor" from a Chinese site and now the camera is a reality. Congratulations to Olympus on keeping alive the PEN. Olympus Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of their PEN with an all new Digital PEN E-P5 WOW, 50 years  have passed since Olympus originated their PEN F half-frame 35mm SLR film camera, and to celebrate, they've brought out  their latest model in the Digital PEN line; the PEN E-P5. This model now holds the top position in the PEN line-up and has borrowed  many features features from their OM-D E-M5. Some of its basic features include the same 16-megapixel TruePic VI Live MOS image sensor found in the OM-D, FAST AF system, a fast mechanical shutterrated up to 1/8000th of a  second, 5-axis image stabilization and a  new IS-Auto mode that detects camera movement automatically, an intuitive 2x2 dial control interface, built-in Wi-Fi, a tilting 3.0-inch touch screen LCD (1037K dots), and an all new attachable EVF (the VF-4...

Photography is really too easy now; it's no longer fun. Way back when you had to work for an image. Here all the dramatic elements came into place. The venue is the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento when it was accessible night or day. Now with all the tourists and controls. this shot cannot be made. It was shot on Kodachrome X at the speed of 64! This would be laughed by the so called photographers of today. No tripod was used, only my steady hand at a 15th of a second with the Canon FT and the Canon 50mm F 1.4 FL lens that was a real gem.

These were shot at the New York Botanic Garden in The Bronx in the Fall of 2007. I just love them and I hope you will  too.

One of the great pleasures of doing what I do or did,  is that I had the opportunity to shoot many people of substance. I do not mean  the so called "celebrities" that are  really unimportant  and actually mediocrities in the news. I mean people that are really famous for their talents. One of them was Luciano Pavarotti that I photographed at an affair at the old Plaza Hotel during a big bash. He was very cordial and friendly and not at all distant or aloof. Luciano was still so young then. A really nice man and naturally a sublime tenor. He left us too soon.

Those of you who have been visiting this blog for some time, are aware of how much I love the Flat Iron Building. I never tire of photographing it. These shots date from the summer of 2002 and are taken with the Olympus E-10. This was my second digital camera and my first serious one. It was shortly followed by the  Fuji S1-Pro, S2-Pro etc. I never used the E 10 on jobs but it  became a great all around camera to shoot sights and people. This camera had only 4 mega pixels but it had a phenomenal lens.

They will do anything to stop software  pirating but this seems like a bit much. Adobe reveals  a subscription-only future for Photoshop and Creative Suite May 6, 2013 at 18:28:56 GMT SOFTWARE NEWS ADOBE CREATIVE-CLOUD PHOTOSHOP Adobe has announced that  it will no longer be developing its Creative Suite range of software, leaving its subscription and cloud-based Creative Cloud as the only way of using the latest version of Photoshop.  Are they kidding? Adobe has been trying to encourage users away from the tradition...

So it's a typically cliche shot that we have all taken but I still like it. It was shot back in 2003 and I miss the World Trade Center that would be visible on the left side. This kind of shot has always been sort of a wide angle lend test target. I was actually testing me newly purchased Canon 16-35 F 2.8 L. I still have this lens and it has been very useful.

Nikon D1-X