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10 Hours, 39,000 steps, & 720 photos: A Day of Street Photography in New York City

November 1, 2016 by John Batdorff 4 Comments

This July I took a week to spend some time in New York City to work on my street photography. I rarely get an opportunity to go out shooting just for myself, so with clearance from the boss I headed to the big city to submerge myself in my craft. While I survived almost entirely on cereal, PB&J's, and coffee, I had a fantastic time in one of my favorite cities.

My trusted Monochrom

I spent most of my time in New York wandering around Manhattan, and what I quickly learned is there's nothing typical about a day in New York City. There is so much to see and so many images to capture. The only thing typical about a day in New York is there's never enough time in the day.

I decided to spend a day focusing on my black and white street photography, so I headed out with my Leica Monochrom kit which included a 35mm, 21mm, and 50mm. Generally I shoot with my 35mm, but I love my 21mm for architecture and hip shooting. The 50mm is a challenge for me, but I have come to embrace it's constraints in framing and adore it's efficiencies.

I had recently upgraded my Monochrom to the 246 model and heard the battery life was fantastic, but I thought I would put it to the test and make it my goal to just shoot until the battery died. I planned on about 5-6 hours of shoot time, but this new battery just wouldn't give up the ghost.

Thankfully those roasted peanuts from the street vendors provided the fuel for this journey since the Frosted Mini Wheats were not cutting it after about the 15,000th step. While I was slowly losing steam after 9 hours, the Leica battery seemed like it would never die, so I finally started heading back. The bugger did eventually give in about 5 blocks from home so I can say I did meet my goal. I'm happy for the new longer battery life, but next time I'll pick a more reasonable goal. I ended up shooting for ten hours straight, putting 39,000+ steps on my pedometer, and hitting the shutter over 700 times.

Oculus Rush

Most of the 700 shots were blurry hip shots from playing around, but I got a few keepers too. What follows is a short slideshow of a few of my favorite shots from a day in New York with just me, my Leica, three lenses, and a battery that wouldn't quit.

I hope you enjoy.

p.s. If you received this post via email then you'll need to visit the blog to see the slideshow below. 🙂

Will Google+ Kill Facebook?

August 18, 2011 by John Batdorff 11 Comments

Follow +John Batdorff

It’s official, I’m on Google+. I’m still feeling my way around the site, but I can tell you I’m really enjoying what I’m seeing. I definitely like the interface and the interaction with fellow photographers, but what I love most is the simplicity of the Circles. Google+ is an asymmetrical follow similar to Twitter, which means you can add people to Circles and follow their streams. For instance, I created a circle labeled “Photographers” and I simply put fellow photographers that I have interest in following into that circle. The people I’m following are notified that I added them to a circle and then it’s up to them if they wish to follow me back. The super cool part about circles is it allows me to control the feeds much like how I use Hootsuite to control my Twitter Feeds. I have feeds set up for bloggers, family, my top ten photographers, etc. You can do the exact same with circles and control which feeds you listen to and interact with.

Here's a quick video that will help you get a feel for Circles:

Google+ is the first social media product I’ve seen in a while that has some real potential. Google’s Buzz was a dud and MySpace is dead space, but Google+ has some real traction. I’m not sure if Google+ is a Facebook killer, but I will say this: it seems to have taken out of the equation the negative aspect of having to “friend or not friend” someone.

Google has done an excellent job of overtaking the smart phone business with it’s Android operating system and leveraging their Gmail user base. I know several corporations that have already switched to Gmail’s business platform in lieu of costly Microsoft Outlook server upgrades. I think it would be a safe assumption that Google will succeed in fiercely integrating Google+ into the Android system. There has even been some speculation in the blogosphere that in time Facebook will become fragmented, leaving behind two extremes: young people and retirees. But, I think it would take a mountain of dissatisfaction for Facebook users to quickly make that switch, and any sort of social networking demographic drain would take time. Regardless, I see myself on both Facebook and Google+ in the near future until the social networking wars present a true winner or identifiable user base. My plan continues to be searching out the best ways to interact with my three F’s: Friends, Family and Followers.

Google+ is still in beta, but I think it has a ton of real potential, so I would like to hear other people’s thoughts. I have 150 invites I can share with people interested in joining, so if you don’t belong and you’re interested in joining then just drop me a note asking for an invite and I’ll send you one. But once they’re gone…they’re gone!

Have fun Circling and let me know what you think!

P.S.
If you start your own circle, like this video suggests, feel free to add me. 😉

When did your photographic journey begin?

April 29, 2011 by John Batdorff 27 Comments

Nancy and John on the job circa 1972 photo by Robert King

All our creative journeys have a beginning. I think my love of photography began through my mother’s lens. As a young mother and journalist, she covered countless stories, often times hauling her young family along. It was a fascinated career being a photojournalist (even working for a small town paper) and I believe her experiences have led me to where I am today: First intrigued, eventually visually aware and, yeah, maybe a little skewed. 🙂

I would love to hear your stories — what got you hooked? Feel free to share them with me here on the blog or Facebook.

Very best, John

How to create an Identity Plate in Lightroom

April 22, 2011 by John Batdorff 1 Comment

Pardon my absence this week, but I just got back from visiting family over spring break. Not quite the spring break I had envisioned, since we woke up to four inches of snow in Traverse City, Michigan. Crazy!

Last week I had a great time attending the Flash Bus Tour with the incredibly talented hosts David Hobby (the Strobist blog) and Joe McNally (small flash guru and National Geographic photographer.) It was well worth the cost of admission and I walked away with a much better insight into flash photography. The tour is done for this year, but I highly recommend checking it out if it happens again next year.

I’ve fielded quite a few questions about how to place a logo into Lightroom’s Identity Plate, so I put together a quick video tutorial. I hope you enjoy, John

Untitled from John Batdorff II on Vimeo.

How my model search almost ended my relationship

April 7, 2011 by John Batdorff 49 Comments

Jodi in color

Jodi in black and white

I've been shooting some studio work over the last few weeks in an effort to hone my skills and build up the portfolio. I'll be the first to admit that I can get a little bored and I need a healthy dose of creativity from time to time. The home studio gives me the chance to play around a bit and break out of my travel/landscape photographer mold.

Which brings us to my biggest challenge — locating models. There are a ton of ways to get good models with services like Model Mayhem at your finger tips. These services make it quite easy to search based upon all sorts physical characteristics. I won't lie I felt like I was on a really bad version of Match.com and at times it felt even worse like Adult Friend Finder. I found myself hiding the computer from my kid as I was searching for “blonde, blue eyes, blah… blah.”

Now, I've heard great success stories from friends that have found really easy-going models from these sorts of sites but I'm going to tell ya it just didn't feel natural to me. I was sort of looking for that Midwestern look, but that was few and far between all the bikini wearing, super smooth skinned models. I felt like I was 10 again with the freshly pressed JCPenney catalog ogling the underwear section with my friends. It was a brutal task, but it's for the sake of my photography, so I pushed forward!

Then the warden arrived on the scene and somehow things just went south. I think it went something like this: “No, no I don't want to photograph women in bikinis.” “Yes, seriously, I need to build my portfolio… REALLY.” “Of course they're legitimate modeling services.” “You know I think you look ~~fine~~ GREAT in a bikini…” Then it went downhill from there and ended with something like this: “Fine, you find me a model then… I'm off to take a picture of another tree!”

If you're asking yourself, is John really that stupid? The answer is yes and the worst part is I'm surrounded by smart women (daughter included) and they don't hesitate to remind me. Long story short… the Stacer (the warden) delivered me a model — Jodi, an occupational therapist working for the Chicago Public Schools. Jodi has never modeled a day in her life! Frankly, I thought I was screwed because Jodi, while being super sweet seemed a little shy and nervous. Fast forward three hours later, a glass of wine, some chips and guac, and me jacked up on caffeine with Aretha Franklin (her request.. I'm more of hip-hop guy.. ;)) in the background… we we're having a blast. I couldn't have picked a better model — Jodi was a pro. Staci gets all sorts of props for making it happen (bikini or snowsuit you're number one).

Now the question is black and white or color? We want your feedback. No need to give the reason, just simply BW or Color. What do you think?

P.S.
Fun little anecdote. Jodi and I get to talking about both being from Northern Michigan having family in Traverse City. Come to find out my great grandma Anna (my daughter's named after her) and her great grandma where sisters. It's a crazy — and I mean crazy — small world.

P.P.S.
I'll give you the lowdown on the technical aspects of the shoot later this week, so stay tuned.

John Batdorff Photography

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