Little hands & my seminar

Walking down 10th Street the other day I noticed these little handprints in the sidewalk. I've seen them a hundred times but never stopped to shoot them until I noticed the late afternoon bluish light reflecting in the water pooling inside the prints. As I raised my camera an older gentleman walking by stopped and said,"Those kids are in college now."

Today I spoke at a seminar at the Marriott Marquis at Times Square. I did the same thing last year, invited by my friend Leah Bailey. It was sponsored by SPD, The Society of Publication Designers. I spoke to a fairly large group of college students who were graphic art and photography majors. My part was to discuss what and how to take a photograph for publication and the possible obstacles one might encounter. I put up a slide show of some jobs that were especially challenging regarding lighting and the amount of time I had with my subject. I spoke on how to get a good shot in a very short time. I also covered my choices of camera equipment, lighting choices and how to achieve certain effects like shallow depth of field to blur the background. Other speakers included a woman from Glamour and another from Popular Mechanics. It was an interesting experience and I got a few laughs. Afterwards I fielded questions and spoke to the students who had more questions. All in all a pretty cool day.

Tomorrow I'm shooting still life all day. It'll be a long one. Lots to do.