Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

This is my arrianata di brocculi or cauliflower pizza that I sort of invented. It's delicious and very easy especially if you get the  fresh dough from a pizzeria. Garlic,  onions, cauliflower, Sicilian sea salt, EVO, some grated cheese, any type as long as it's Italian and a topping  of bread crumbs.  That's all folks.

News for Olympus Olympus is working on two new M.ZUIKO PRO Series lenses Olympus has just announced that they have two exciting new M.ZUIKO PRO series lenses in the works, and naturally, are designed for use with their popular OM-D and Digital PEN Micro Four Thirds camera.   Go to olympus.com for more details.

There's nothing more iconic, I hate this term really, than the Brooklyn Bridge. It is synonymous with America, even more than the Statue of liberty. It's equivalent to the Tour Eiffel  or the Coliseum. I love it and love to photograph it and hope that you share my enthusiasm and do not tire of me posting images of it. This is one of those "stand alone" images that requires it's own post.  

These photos were shot several years ago at the Cherry Blossom Festival sponsored by New York's Japanese community. This annual event is extremely successful so much so that last year I could not even get close enough with my car and the nearest available parking spot was ridiculously far. I love the feeling in these photos.

To all who visit a special thank you. I love  you all

These children were shot at an event at the Family and Children's Association [my client] summer camp back in 2006 with the Canon 30-D and the 24 to 85mm F:3.5-4.5 EF lens. It was a good lens, not fancy but it did the job. Here you have to work as fast as you can to grab the shot.

I sincerely wish you a happy Valentine's Day. I hope you will find the same love as I did and still cherish, my wonderful wife of many years, Marcy,  whose superb pictures have graced this post. Thank you my love. Thank you for all the love. And a special thank you all of you who visit this  this post, a labor of love.

News from LG, a 4K video capable cell phone L G have just introduced the LG G Pro 2 in Korea and the new device's global launch is expected at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week. With its 5.9-inch 1080p IPS screen the new model falls firmly into the phablet category and follows last year's Optimus G Pro in the LG lineup .  Unbelievable.

News from Cosina Cosina has just introuduced to the public a "new and improved" revised version of their super-fast normal prime for Micro Four Thirds cameras. It's the Voigtländer Nokton 25mm F:0.95 Type II and as a new feature, it has an aperture ring mechanism that ca be switched between clicked and clickless operation, a desirable feature for movie shooters.  The optics are the same as the previous model, but the updated lens is a little bit heavier and has a larger diameter. It should  be available in March. 0.95 is as fast as it gets. Once and for a very brief period of time I had used a Canon 50 mm 0.95 with a Leica M adapter it was big, impressive and cool but you had to shoot with the light totally behind you otherwise the flare was overwhelming. I returned it to Camera Barn and stuck with my 50mm Summicron f 1:2, a true gem. Naturally with the improvements in optical glass, this lens will fare better. We hope so.

Here we have a couple in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It always amuses me when a man takes the photo of a woman in front of flowers because the background becomes the main attraction and not the person. This brings us to another type of people picture and that is the one in a public place where there really are no rules. The concept of the decisive moment applies here. You see the shot and take it. A smile at the subject and some conversation will usually make it OK and you have the shot without hassles or the feeling that you somehow stole it. .

After the topic about getting close and personal by involving the subject in the process and shooting while they are aware and are in a way participants in the whole process, we have the classic candid portrait that is often misused by those photo snipers with their long telephotos. Here we have a person involved in a conversation who although not posing was still aware that I was photographing her. She saw me and in a way allowed me to take the shot. There was no invasion of any kind. As I have stated in the past, the best portraits must reveal something unique about the person but they must respect the person's sensitivities and must never offend. It's more difficult to do but the results are always better and more human.

Although I totally abhor winter and snow, on can occasionally make a nice image out of it. This is the camellia house at the Planting Fields Arboretum in Long Island, NY. There's more white stuff on the way.

This image was just shot at the Planting Fields Arboretum where we go on our annual camellia trip. Alas, the  camellia green house was closed due to emergency repair, too much ice has broken some glass panes, so we had to settle for the larger green house where there's a very large variety of plants.  The lens was cold and the green house was super humid and so the lens got fogged; but I do like this image and hope you will too. The trick was to wipe the lens and wait for the right amount of fog to build up.                                                                              ...

Children can be so serious at times. Their looks can be so intense and so engaging. I just love these two images.

I do not snipe photos, I shoot them close up and in this way, I  can capture the subject's dignity. This sort of photo  has to be  consensual  if one hopes to get into the subject's inner qualities. There must not be the sense that the subject was in any was shot surreptitiously. Shots taken in this "sniper" way may make for interesting and at times even unusual photos but what do they mean? A waste of what was once film and now  potential. This Hispanic woman was shot a few years ago at an event by Catholic Charities, my client.  I converted it to black and white because the image felt better this way. I just love the pose full of confidence and dignity.

I have used many cameras over the years both film and digital and although I am not an equipment freak, I have developed fond memories for past cameras. The Nikon F and the M Leicas come to mind as well as my Nikon range finder model S-II and SP's and there are also many memorable lenses. Some  items are truly  unforgettable such as my Minolta S-404 that I bought back in the fall of 2001. Then 4 mega pixels was  huge. but what I really liked, aside from it's outstanding image quality, was the fact that it felt just like a film camera. It had something that future serious pocket cameras of the present lack and that's  a really useful optical viewfinder. But alas, the company's camera business was sold to Sony and there's no more technical support of any kind for any Minolta or Konika-Minolta products. All that remains are the nice images. These are scenes from the fall of 2001 from the DUMBO area that later became super gentrified and trendy. They are out of the ca...

These were taken today from a loft in Greenpoint. The photos are nice but all this snow is really a drag. As I post this, it's snowing again. Will it ever go away? Will it ever stop? Can someone tell me what's to like about this monotonous white stuff?

The camera doesn't lie as they say and this whole push toward greater resolution is actually speeding up the death of photography as  an art. Reality is one thing, art is another. It is always useful to remember this and use images as abstractions. After all, what can be more abstract that a mere photographic image.