Mermaid Parade

It is time again. Sunday, June 23 is the annual Mermaid Parade at Coney Island in Brooklyn. This will be my 4th one - here are a few images from the past parades. This could only happen in New York kids, only in New York.........

Mermaid Parade

Mermaid Parade, Coney Island

One of my favorite events is only 7 weeks away, the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade. So, of course I went back in my archives and found today's posted image. I always felt this image had a semi-religious feel and did some additional processing on her eyes to further create that illusion.

That being said this is the 30th anniversary of the parade. The date this year is June 23rd and it is marked in red on my calendar.....Always a fun time - only in New York kids....And don't forget Coney Island is the home of Nathan's World Famous Hot Dogs....

 

Coney Island

Coney Island 

“Fuck Art, let's Dance!”.....Lawrence Ferlingetti 

Coney Island Pier

Coney Island Pier

Coney Island - Morning Fog

Coney Island - AM Fog

I really enjoy walking on the beach on a cool foggy morning -  always create an much diffrent perception of the beach when the fog rolls in - creates something very different to photograph....Reminds me of a quote a friend sent me awhile back...

'I do not want to end up simply having visited this world'.....

Coney Island Cyclone

Cyclone, Coney Island

This is from the 'Point and Shoot' series.

Back in the day I always carried a Canon Anniversary film camera as I walked around New York City. MY film of choice was Tri-x at ISO 400. Never really looked through the viewfinder - just shot from the hip....call me old fashioned but I do miss the film days...I pulled out that old Canon the other day and just might put this into the travel gear bag....scanned film just has that look about it....you get all the benefits of shooting film without getting your hands wet....

A couple of subscribers have asked my what travel bags I use. There are several depending on whther I am traveling by ground or in the air...

1. Kiboko Bag - lightweight, great zipper pulls, major storage, good handle placement, fits the body well. The only thing I would change is to have a computer compartment for air travel....

2. Think Tank International Rolling Bag: Perfect carry on size for air travel. Plenty of space inside and with the low dividers you can place a laptop on top of the gear. They also make several cable management see through bags. Pack all cables in these see-through bags and it becomes much easier to get through airport security. Also, with this bag, you can set a backpack on top and wheel through the airport. The only drawback it that the pull handle is a bit flimsy - one has to be careful...not sure why an expensive piece of gear like this has a cheap handle but it does...

These two bags are my air travel set-up....when traveling by car I find the Kiboko and a computer bag are all I need.....There are times, when traveling by car, I bring a small camera bag when I need to move a few pieces of gear to a specific location -

Coney Island

Coney Island

'I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island'.........Thornton Wilder

Coney Island Color

Summer, Coney Island

'Let the subject generate its own photographs. Become a camera'.........Minor White 

Coney Island is always colorful candy for the eye. Flashes of color everywhere you look, and, let me also mention the human element is rather colorful. This image appeared out of nowhere - it surprised me while walking down to the beach - looked up and the composition appeared....loved the saturated colors and man made objects against the perfectly blue summer sky....

Image Management;

Canon 5DMKII
24-105M Lens
Single Image converted in Capture One
Photoshop CS5
Lightroom 3

Happy July 4th

Wishing everyone a Happy July 4th...........

Image photographed at Coney Island next door to Nathan's using a Canon 5DMKII - 85MM lens

Street Image

Coney Island Street Image

 Another one from the day of the Mermaid Parade.....

Image Management:

Canon 5DMKII
24-105MM Lens
converted to black and white using LAB Mode

Street Scene - Coney Island

Parade Observers, Coney Island

Not all the images were of the parade that day.....

 Image Management:

Canon 5DMKII
24 to 105MM Lens - set at 67MM
Image converted to Black and WHite using Silver EFX Pro2

Mermaid Parade

Just finished another 24 images from the Mermaid Parde and have posted them on my website: http://harrysandler.com/galleries/mermaid-parade/

 

I AM STILL NOT ABLE TO SEPARATE MY IPHONE BLOG FROM MY TRADITIONAL CAMERA BLOG.  TO THAT END IF YOU HAVE SIGNED UP FOR THE IPHONE BLOG NOTE THAT IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS I WILL BE MOVING THE IPHONE BLOG TO WORDPRESS. STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS. 

Mermaid Parade 2011

Mermaid Parade 2011

Mermaid Parade 2011

Today's images are from the Mermaid Parade last Saturday in Coney Island. There are more images posted on my website: http://harrysandler.com.

More images wil be added to this page of the website over the next few weeks.

Mermaids 2011

Just arrived Copenhagen this morning. Going out to photograph in about 45 minutes but wanted to get a few images posted from the Mermaid Parade last Saturday.

So many more to come.......

Mermaid Parade

Mermaid Parade 2010

Off to the parade this morning - the image above is one of my favorites from last year...

Mermaid Parade, Coney Island...

 It is that time again - only 9 days and counting to the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island.......This image from last year - only in NY kids, only in NY....

Image made with a Mamiya 645DF, Phase One P65+, 80MM Lens

The Mermaid Parade

Lou Reed - Laurie Anderson

It is that time again. Mark your calendars for June 18th and the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade - do not miss this.

The image above is from last year - the Grand Marshal's Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson.....Love the look on Lou's face...

Below find a few images from last year..... Can't wait to see what this year has to offer...

 

King Henry

As the TV show once said, 'there are 8 million stories in the naked city, this has been one of them'. This portrait.  is a Henry, aka King Henry, a fixture in modern day Coney Island.

As with most of the characters in Coney Island, Henry appears to be from a totally different time and place, other then the year 2011. Is it Coney or is it the person. I believe that Coney Island has a way of stopping time - when I visit it conjures up imagery from special days when as a youth a good deal of time was spent at Nathan's and various other Coney iconic locations.

A friend wrote me this morning and said this image was every bit as detailed as landscape - never quite thought about these portraits in that way and I thank her for opening a new train of thought about the work. I have kept these images around for quite some time and am happy to see them in this new light.

Captured with a Canon 5DMKII, 24-105MM Lens, converted to black and white using a LAB Conversion method

Prime Lens

Carousel Horse, Coney Island

 So I was renting gear at Foto Care a few weeks ago and Brian (rental department) said I should try the Zeiss 105MM macro F2 prime lens. Other then my 85MM Canon, which I really like, I have not had many prime lens since my old film and Nikon F days. And for that matter was not using my 85MM that much since acquiring a high resolution medium format camera.

Not being a tech type I have to say how pleasantly surprised I was at how sharp the lens was at the larger f-stops. Aside from the sharpness it was quite revealing to see how this lens handled sharpness and tonality in the out of focus areas - add that to the handling of the color in these areas and it is a new ballgame. Not really understanding the technical part of why this happens I  go by the results, which in this case are hard to ignore.

Today's image was captured with the Zeiss F2 105MM macro lens on a Canon 5DMKII. What you lose with this lens is the ability to auto-focus - if you happen to be a Canon shooter there is the 135MM which will auto-focus as well as several other choices in prime lenses made by Canon.

Coney Island

Coney Island Beach

All I can say is 'Only in Coney Island kids, only in Coney Island'...