TESTING

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Photo of the day: “Still life with Camera…and Elsa” I put together a couple still life images today for my post on the Luminous Traces blog which I am a regular contributor to. This is perhaps my favorite shot from the series. I shot it with my iPhone and the Hipstamatic app, my favorite outlets for creativity right now. The thing that really gets me is the reflection of my daughter Elsa in the lens. It just makes me happy. Behind the scenes: iPhone 4 , Hipstamatic, D-Type film and Jane Lens. Natural light.

Photo of the day: “Still life with Camera…and Elsa”

I put together a couple still life images today for my post on the Luminous Traces blog which I am a regular contributor to.

This is perhaps my favorite shot from the series. I shot it with my iPhone and the Hipstamatic app, my favorite outlets for creativity right now.

The thing that really gets me is the reflection of my daughter Elsa in the lens. It just makes me happy.

Behind the scenes:

iPhone 4 , Hipstamatic, D-Type film and Jane Lens. Natural light.

Source | zpstephens.com
Turtles. Sometimes you just need to keep your eyes peeled. I was driving along a back road in Dummerston, Vt., I looked to my right as I passed by this murky pond and saw this guy, just sitting there taking in the sun. I found a place to park my car and slowly made my way back to the turtle. From my experience with trying to photograph turtles, I have found that they are extremely skiddish. Just walking along the road I saw several quickly disappear into the water. This one on the other had must have been enjoying the sun too much. It just hung out there while I took as many shots as I liked. So here is to you little turtle. Thank you for allowing me to take your picture and I hope you enjoyed the nice weather. Behind the scenes: I shot this with my Canon 40D and the Canon 70-200mm f/4 L lens. I definitely would have liked to zoom in a little closer but I was limited to 200mm and zooming with my feet would have resulted in wading through a very murky pond. When forced to pull out from my subject like this, I try to make up for it by working the negative space into the composition to add another element to the image. Purchase this image: You can purchase high quality prints and more of this image by visiting this link: http://ten13.smugmug.com/buy/27039259_XWqbFp/2463974040_LnpMCmV/

Turtles.

Sometimes you just need to keep your eyes peeled.

I was driving along a back road in Dummerston, Vt., I looked to my right as I passed by this murky pond and saw this guy, just sitting there taking in the sun.
I found a place to park my car and slowly made my way back to the turtle. From my experience with trying to photograph turtles, I have found that they are extremely skiddish. Just walking along the road I saw several quickly disappear into the water. This one on the other had must have been enjoying the sun too much. It just hung out there while I took as many shots as I liked.

So here is to you little turtle. Thank you for allowing me to take your picture and I hope you enjoyed the nice weather.

Behind the scenes:

I shot this with my Canon 40D and the Canon 70-200mm f/4 L lens. I definitely would have liked to zoom in a little closer but I was limited to 200mm and zooming with my feet would have resulted in wading through a very murky pond. When forced to pull out from my subject like this, I try to make up for it by working the negative space into the composition to add another element to the image.

Purchase this image:

You can purchase high quality prints and more of this image by visiting this link: http://ten13.smugmug.com/buy/27039259_XWqbFp/2463974040_LnpMCmV/

Source | zpstephens.com

Adventures.

There is nothing better than getting into the car with your favorite people and taking off on a weekend to go on a photo adventure.

For the past ten+ years my wife and I have been adventuring with cameras in hand. Exploring new and interesting places together and taking photos along the way.

Now we are lucky enough to bring our 2.5 year old daughter on adventures with us.

This past weekend we did a little exploring in Greenfield, Mass., and we gave our daughter a camera for the first time to take her own photos. It was an amazing and fun experience for us all.

The images posted here are a small selection that I took. I am also in the process of putting together a photoblog for my daughter so we can share the world through her eyes. Once I have that done I will share the link here.

Cheers!

Behind the scenes:

These images were shot on my iPhone 4 using the Hipstamatic app, which I am absolutely in love with. Though I really wish they would add a feature to be able to adjust the exposure a little. Perhaps a little slider or dial that has a sun, clouds and a house like the old Holga camera. Just a thought.
Anyway, I love the app and currently my favorite combination of film and lenses are D-TYPE black and white film paired with the Jane lens. I post A LOT of the photos I take with it over on my Instagram feed here: http://instagram.com/zacharystephens.

“The Geese” I’m driving along a back road in Brattleboro, Vt., and on my left I see this amazing, picturesque pond in a vast field with a big open sky. In the pond are a gaggle of geese swimming. Immediately I’m thinking that I can get some kind of good image from this scenario. I drive down the road a little way so I can find a place to turn around and I head back to the pond. I park in front of a sign that reads “Stay out of pasture” which easily translates into “Your best shot will be from the pasture.” I get my gear from the car and start snapping away. First I’m thinking that I could get some nice tight shots of the geese. I do that a little and realize that it’s not what drew me to the scene. I swap lenses and put something a little wider on my camera. That’s it. That is what I was looking for. It’s the whole landscape that is speaking to me. Not just the geese but the pond, the sky, the field and the light. The light is soft  and broken up by the clouds just enough to have some great shadows playing across the scene. It adds texture and depth to the image. So much depth. I get a little closer to clean up my shot. Correcting the horizon line, making sure I include all of the geese that I want to, eliminating any distracting trees and of course nearly falling into the mud from the wobbly rock wall I was standing on. There. I got it. Time to go.

“The Geese”

I’m driving along a back road in Brattleboro, Vt., and on my left I see this amazing, picturesque pond in a vast field with a big open sky. In the pond are a gaggle of geese swimming. Immediately I’m thinking that I can get some kind of good image from this scenario.

I drive down the road a little way so I can find a place to turn around and I head back to the pond.

I park in front of a sign that reads “Stay out of pasture” which easily translates into “Your best shot will be from the pasture.”

I get my gear from the car and start snapping away. First I’m thinking that I could get some nice tight shots of the geese. I do that a little and realize that it’s not what drew me to the scene. I swap lenses and put something a little wider on my camera.

That’s it. That is what I was looking for. It’s the whole landscape that is speaking to me. Not just the geese but the pond, the sky, the field and the light. The light is soft  and broken up by the clouds just enough to have some great shadows playing across the scene. It adds texture and depth to the image. So much depth.

I get a little closer to clean up my shot. Correcting the horizon line, making sure I include all of the geese that I want to, eliminating any distracting trees and of course nearly falling into the mud from the wobbly rock wall I was standing on.

There. I got it. Time to go.

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Homeless Brattleboro

Four men share their experiences of being homeless in Brattleboro, Vt., at the First Baptist Church and Winter Overflow Shelter. 3/25/13

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(This man chose to be known as his initials F.E.H.)

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(Victoro Johnson)

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(Kevin Regan)

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(Ferris Cathey)

Behind the scenes:

The videos for this assignment were shot on an iPhone 4 with the Kitcam app utilizing the black and white filter.

The still images were shot in the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church in Brattleboro, Vt., with a single Canon 580 EX II on a stand with a shoot through umbrella at camera right.

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Circus Spectacular teaser

Mario Diamond performs his act “Robot Love” during the New England Center for Circus Arts’ Circus Spectacular at the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro. 3/2/14

Check in later this week to see more photos and video from this event.

Behind the scenes:

I shot this video on my iPhone 4 with the Kitcam app. It’s a fun little app that gives you a whole lot of features and creative freedom. The quality of the video isn’t amazing giving the conditions but being able to nab a little clip here and there to tease the photos is fantastic.

Reformer 100th anniversary

The newspaper I work at, The Brattleboro Reformer, has been in operation since 1913. Today we are celebrating our 100th anniversary weekend with some festivities at the Reformer offices on Black Mountain Road in Brattleboro, Vt.

To help share this event with the community I will be taking photos throughout the day of the festivities and the Reformer community and uploading them to the paper’s Instagram account. @BrattleboroReformer

This slideshow is a new tool that I have incorporated into our workflow to share photos immediately from events on our website and encourage the community to contribute by using specific hashtags for events.

If your coming by the Reformer today, share your Instagram photos with us by using the hashtag #reformer100.

Splash! A truck plows through a large puddle on Western Avenue in Brattleboro, Vt., as rain melts the snow causing flooding in some areas, Wednesday, February 27, 2013. (Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer) Behind the scenes: I drove by this puddle earlier in the day and thought that it might make a good shot to illustrate the nasty weather that we were having. I had some other things to do first so I decided that I would stop on my way back. I parked on the other side of the street and had to navigate my way through the giant puddles without falling in ( I should have brought my floaties). Once I got across I had to play the waiting game. I wanted to get the biggest splash I could and it turns out that I lucked out with getting the mail carrier with the umbrella in the background, which is my favorite part of the shot. Overall I think I shot 4 or 5 different cars going through this puddle. There were a surprising amount that would actually drive around it. The key was to wait for traffic coming from both directions so the cars would be forced into the puddle. I shot this with a Canon 70-200mm f/4L so I could stand a little further away and not get soaked by the cars. Even so, every shot I took I had to quickly jump back into the snow bank as the cars came closer and hit another one of the giant puddles right near me.

Splash!

A truck plows through a large puddle on Western Avenue in Brattleboro, Vt., as rain melts the snow causing flooding in some areas, Wednesday, February 27, 2013.

(Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer)


Behind the scenes:

I drove by this puddle earlier in the day and thought that it might make a good shot to illustrate the nasty weather that we were having.

I had some other things to do first so I decided that I would stop on my way back.

I parked on the other side of the street and had to navigate my way through the giant puddles without falling in ( I should have brought my floaties). Once I got across I had to play the waiting game. I wanted to get the biggest splash I could and it turns out that I lucked out with getting the mail carrier with the umbrella in the background, which is my favorite part of the shot. Overall I think I shot 4 or 5 different cars going through this puddle. There were a surprising amount that would actually drive around it. The key was to wait for traffic coming from both directions so the cars would be forced into the puddle.

I shot this with a Canon 70-200mm f/4L so I could stand a little further away and not get soaked by the cars. Even so, every shot I took I had to quickly jump back into the snow bank as the cars came closer and hit another one of the giant puddles right near me.

ROBOTICS


Windham Regional Career Center student Kyle Champney won the championship at the VEX Robotics Competition in Worcester, Mass., and is going on to compete in the world competition in April.
See Kyle and his classmates from the Robotics class at the WRCC as they work with students from Youth Services Big Brothers Big Sisters program at Vernon Elementary School. 2/26/13 
(Video produced by Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer)

Behind the Scenes:

This is one of those assignments that I shot stills and video at to create a more comprehensive multimedia story. I shot it with a small Canon VIXIA and edited in iMovie. Right now it seems that although iMovie has it’s limitations it is still the fastest way to go in the newsroom to get a video clean cut and uploaded.

I’m planning on doing some experimenting with other editing programs in the future. I have used Adobe Premiere in past but it tends to be a little too slow to get the content out in the timeframe that I’m working with at the paper.

Visit our youtube page at www.youtube.com/brattlebororeformer to see more of the video work that we have done in the past 5 years.

Spring is near! Despite a mild weekend storm daffodils are starting to sprout up alongside the TD Bank building on Main Street in Brattleboro,Vt.(Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer) After a sloppy weekend of snow, rain and ice, it’s nice to see a little bit of Spring popping up. I try to get out and find these types of images that show off the changing of the seasons. They work really well for what we call “Stand Alones” or “Features” which are images that stand alone by themselves without a story and tend to be more of a public interest type of image. Working in Vermont, people really care about the weather and when it’s going to change again. So an image like this is going to get the community really excited that the dreary Winter months are almost behind us. ALMOST. It does look as though we will be getting a little more snow this week. This is also one of those cool moments of being a newspaper photographer. You get to be out there photographing pretty much EVERYTHING. One minute it’s a car accident the next minute it’s flowers or kids playing. Every day is something different and interesting.

Spring is near!

Despite a mild weekend storm daffodils are starting to sprout up alongside the TD Bank building on Main Street in Brattleboro,Vt.
(Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer)

After a sloppy weekend of snow, rain and ice, it’s nice to see a little bit of Spring popping up.

I try to get out and find these types of images that show off the changing of the seasons. They work really well for what we call “Stand Alones” or “Features” which are images that stand alone by themselves without a story and tend to be more of a public interest type of image.

Working in Vermont, people really care about the weather and when it’s going to change again. So an image like this is going to get the community really excited that the dreary Winter months are almost behind us. ALMOST. It does look as though we will be getting a little more snow this week.

This is also one of those cool moments of being a newspaper photographer. You get to be out there photographing pretty much EVERYTHING. One minute it’s a car accident the next minute it’s flowers or kids playing. Every day is something different and interesting.

1 note

2013 Queen’s Pageant

Last Friday, February 21, 2013, was the annual Winter Carnival Queen’s Pageant in Brattleboro, Vt. The pageant is held at the Brattleboro Union High School in the auditorium and draws quite a crowd from the community.

Behind the Scenes:

One of the really nice things about shooting events like this in an auditorium is that you really don’t need to worry about the lighting at all. All you have to do is crank up your ISO and pick out the right moments. Someone else has basically already taken care of the lighting for you. One thing to watch out for though is the white balance. Theater lighting can be a little funky. Hues of magenta and green and yellow tend to get a little exaggerated. I find that the best thing to do is shoot in AUTO WB with RAW files and correct the color cast in Lightroom during the edit. Most of the time the camera is smart enough to nail it in auto but sometimes you will have to make some manual adjustments. If you go the Custom WB route in camera you will run the risk of the light changing too often and having a serious color problem.

Photos from the 2013 Winter Carnival Queen’s Pageant can be purchased here!

88 notes
This is an intense photo of Oscar Pistorius on the stand during his bail hearing. The photographer did an amazing job in including the other photographers in the shot rather than just getting a shot of Pistorius. Can you imagine what must have been running through his head at this moment?? Can you imagine having all of those cameras right there in your face?? There is no hiding from that. A really great image from Themba Hadebe-AP and a big thanks to Time Lightbox for sharing it. -zps timelightbox: Themba Hadebe—AP From female fighters in Syria and smugglers under Gaza to the second anniversary of Libya’s uprising and a 100-year-old hospital for dolls, TIME presents the best images of the week.  Feb. 22, 2013. Photographers take photos of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius as he stands in the dock during his bail hearing at the magistrates court in Pretoria, South Africa.

This is an intense photo of Oscar Pistorius on the stand during his bail hearing. The photographer did an amazing job in including the other photographers in the shot rather than just getting a shot of Pistorius.

Can you imagine what must have been running through his head at this moment?? Can you imagine having all of those cameras right there in your face?? There is no hiding from that.

A really great image from Themba Hadebe-AP and a big thanks to Time Lightbox for sharing it.

-zps

timelightbox:

Themba Hadebe—AP

From female fighters in Syria and smugglers under Gaza to the second anniversary of Libya’s uprising and a 100-year-old hospital for dolls, TIME presents the best images of the week. 

Feb. 22, 2013. Photographers take photos of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius as he stands in the dock during his bail hearing at the magistrates court in Pretoria, South Africa.