New Photography Website Soon, But Same Blog Here

I recently received a notice from my website host that after March 15, 2014 that anything on my website will not be able to be changed (i.e. - no updates), and after September 30, 2014, it will be gone.  It has been temporarily relocated at tonybelmontphotography.com while I find a new host and start work on updating it.  Meanwhile, tony-belmont-photography.com will still take you to the old site.

I had planned on a major update of the site anyway, so this works out OK.

One of the changes I want to make is to redefine what to look for when looking for a photographer.  On the current site I had a lot of the technical things (lighting, composition, posing, etc.), but the most important thing is the final product.  Do you love the photographers past work?  Are you and the photographer compatible (is he or she easy to work with)?  Could you see yourself as friends (which is why you should always meet before agreeing to a session)?  Does the photographer offer a total money back and/or reshoot for free guarantee if you don't totally love the results?

Once a photographer has the technical aspects down, the next thing, and perhaps the most important, is capturing that fleeting expression, the one that will only be there for an instant, the one that makes or breaks the perfect photo.

Many years ago I was shooting polaroid film ($1.00/shot) of tourists.  I had to catch the best expression on the first try, or it would get to be an expensive hobby.  That was good practice and instant feedback.  Very seldom did I have to shoot more than one exposure of the same people.

The following photos have nothing to do with this article, although the photo of the person at the stand was a one shot photo.

This one was shot on Dec 27, 2013 adjacent to the paddle tennis courts.  She is a paddle tennis player.  And a very good one.

Both of the above photos were shot with a Panasonic FZ30, Venice Beach, Dec 27, 2013.

Photography Portraits - Hidden Faces

First, I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  It was like Summer at Venice Beach, California, and is continuing that way for now.  Here's one of my Christmas photos taken by a friend at the paddle tennis courts.

Now, on with the headline:  I Read an interesting article that I wanted to share with you.  If you take a lot of photos of people, especially close-up, you may be photographing more than just the person you are photographing.  including yourself.  Here is the link to the article:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/reflected-hidden-faces-in-photographs-revealed-in-pupil

Now to look through some of my photos....

Well, didn't find any faces in the eyes, but did see a reflector or two, and perhaps a figure in the pupil of one.  With the sunglasses, I did see part of myself reflected.  The cameras I used in the past were probably not high enough resolution to make out reflected facial features.

You can see the window in the reflection in her eye.  Not sure if I'm visible.

Same as above, but I think my silhouette is visible - blocking part of the window reflection.

With the sun glasses a lot more is visible, even at lower resolutions.  Had her face been turned a little, I would have had a portrait of myself in her glasses.

In the Words of John Lennon, You May Say I'm a Dreamer

But Imagine the holiday spirit
Lasting all the year
Imagine everyone enjoying life
Without arguments and fights
Being kind to one another

To paraphrase what John F. Kennedy said,

“We choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Well, this is my holiday wish for everyone - to enjoy life more.  Life isn't always easy, but it can be a lot more enjoyable.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

Wow, another Christmas is almost here.  Want to wish everyone a safe and joyful holiday season and a Merry Christmas.

This photo was taken looking towards Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, shot with a Nikon FTn with film (don't remember which film, but most likely Kadachrome, as I shot mostly with that).

The following photo is one I did not shoot of Miss Santa.  I'll have to some holiday photos on my list to shoot for next year.  Maybe this year if I can find a willing subject.

  And that is what a healthy diet can do for you.  Speaking of a healthy diet, some doctors tell you that you don't need vitamins if you eat a healthy well balanced diet, but never mention your diet when they advertise or talk about the drugs you should take.  This is just about opposite of what it should be.  If you eat healthy, you probably still need vitamins to fill in any gaps in your diet (most diets are lacking in the amounts of some nutrients that we need), and you probably won't need the drugs.

Follow-Up to the Vitamin Posts

If you've read, or heard the news, that multivitamins don't work, here's why.  They used Centrum Silver 50 Plus.  After reading the ingredients list, as well as the dosages of vitamins and minerals, I wouldn't take this multivitamin if you paid me to take it.  It has the very things you should avoid - artificial coloring (which contains aluminum), preservatives, talc, hydrogenated oil, synthetic vitamin E, etc.  Many of the minerals are in forms I would not prefer to take.

Here is a link to their page:  http://www.centrum.com/centrum-silver-adults-50-plus#tablets
Once on the page, click on:  ">Porduct Labeling" (just below the blue label).  Finally, here is a link to Orthomolecular News about the study with a few more reasons to take it seriously, and why not to take Centrum:  http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v09n31.shtml .

There are many choices for good vitamins.  Depending on your diet, age, health condition, other individual supplements you might take, if you take medications, and lifestyle, will determine the best one for you.  Always check with a healthcare provider (preferably someone who knows and understands supplements and diet, and possible interactions with drugs) before taking supplements.

I personally take a 6 a day multivitamin, but only take 2 instead of 6 because I take other supplements that would add to some of it's ingredients.

One last word about studies - when they want to discredit something, they'll do the study with a product that is most likely to show what they want, then generalize to all products in the same category, although the products are, in fact, very different.  If the news media had been honest in their reporting, they would have reported that Centrum Silver 50+ showed no cognitive benefits (but that would not have gotten the audience results the media want).

Whenever you read about a study (especially one that disagrees with the majority of previous studies), you need to dig in to the reasons - who did the study and who paid for it, was it flawed and in what way, who would benefit from it (money), etc.

With vitamins, supplements, nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, etc., remember it's your health that's at stake, and your health determines your happiness - so please do your research and stay healthy.

I think this will be the last word on this subject for a while.

More News on Vitamins

Some more links on why to take vitamins:

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v09n30.shtml

http://www.swansonvitamins.com/ru-articles/nutrition/outlandish-editorial-sparks-controversy.html?SourceCode=INTHIR557&mobile=off&emv_mid=2200491&emv_rid=15059072190

Of course, you can always Google "benefits of vitamins" to find many more reasons to take them.  The difficult part, once you decide to take vitamins, is which ones to take, and how much to take.  Beware of fillers, artificial coloring (FD&C this or that), talc, etc.  Remember that RDA's are the minimum needed to avoid deficiencies, but may be far from optimum for good health.  It's also important to make sure the ingredients are not synthetic, and are in a form you can absorb.  Also important to remember is to not take some supplements by themselves, such as only calcium.

In a future post I will list what I take, and why I take it.  It may not do the same for you because everyone is different.

I wish everyone a happy and healthy Holiday Season and the best of health and happiness in the new year.

Another Reason to Always Carry a Camera

I think these two photos say it better than I could, so a verrrrry short post today.  Two women from Rhode Island visiting Venice Beach, CA.  Taken about an hour before sunset.

Not only did I capture these photos, but I met two wonderful people.

Do Vitamins Work?

Not if you believe the latest media reports.  They'll tell you the latest study or studies show no benefits to taking vitamins.  What do they not tell you about the study?  Who funded it, who did the study, that the vitamins in the study were synthetic, cheap, had fillers that shouldn't be in a vitamin, perhaps used artificial colors, were low dosage, etc.  Were the vitamins taken on an empty stomach or with food?  In short, any study can be made to show any result.  Sometimes they'll do this by eliminating people who did show benefits from taking something.

Yes, there are multivitamins and other supplements available that won't do anything and should be avoided.  Why would they use these, and why would the media report only the negative studies?  Maybe because the drug/pharmaceutical companies pay big advertising money to the media.  And if you took the vitamins that keep you healthy, they wouldn't sell as many drugs.

The media and drug companies can be pretty convincing.  If I didn't eliminate many health problems after starting on supplements, and if I didn't educate myself about supplements, nutrition, and health, I might be inclined to believe them.  And that is my advice to you - educate yourself about health, supplements, nutrition, and proper exercise.  It is as important, if not more so, than anything else you do.  I personally have spent almost as much time on this (about 25 years) as I have on photography (over 30 years).

Addendum:  After posting the above, I received an email confirming benefits of multivitamins - here is a link.  Check the Dec 17th article:  http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml

Of course, there are a lot more than just multivitamins.  I take supplements for my heart, joints, bones, immune system, sports, etc.  Can you get what you need from your diet?  Most likely not unless you have your own farm with perfect growing conditions, and eat what you grow as soon as you pick it, and get the variety you need.

Photography - How Many Megapixels Do You Need?

My first "Professional" digital camera was a Canon EOS 10D, a 6 megapixel camera.  I put professional in quotes because now it is probably considered a prosumer camera, or worse, LOL.  And yet, I was able to get the results below, and make a 24x30 enlargement that looks great, even close-up.  I have since upgraded to a much larger sensor, but still have my EOS 10D.

To answer the question above, it depends on what you are shooting and the results you might need.  More important is the lens you are using.  The photo in this example was taken with Canon's 50mm (equal to about 80mm on a full frame sensor) f1.8 lens.

The first photo below is cropped about 30%, and the close up, if it was of the full frame, would have been a little larger than the 24x30 (and with Perfect Resize, would be even better).  Note, too, the photos here have been reduced in size for this blog.

Click on the photos to see the larger size.

In a coming post, I will shot some much larger megapixel images.

Happy Holidays to all.

Some Old Snapshots on this Friday the 13th

Are you feeling lucky - the Lotto is up to $425 million for the Friday the 13th drawing.

In a post a few days ago, I talked about snapshots, and how much they mean to me, and I'm sure to many others, too.  Notice the paper these old photos were printed on - specifically the edges.  I think that was pretty cool.  The photos are of me when I was a whole lot younger, somewhere between age 2 - 7.

                 After a day of snapper fishing in Port Washington, NY, with the bamboo pole.

                                          I'm on the right in this one.

                                                            Me, with my older brother.

In Jamaica Estates, NY, near where I used to set up a lemonade stand (a few years later - in this photo, I was a bit too young for running a lemonade stand).

Before I forget, my main website will be closing next year - it was hosted by Verizon, which just notified me they will discontinue hosting.  After March, I will not be able to update the site, and after September 2014, it will no longer exist.

I wish you all a great weekend and a happy Friday, Dec 13.

Playing with Fire?

I took this photo a while back, and it lent itself to the title very nicely; actually, it was why I chose this title, LOL.

Let's start with the "playing with fire."   When you make uninformed decisions with anything in life, whether choosing a photographer, and especially what you to do to stay healthy, you are playing with fire (better to choose the method in the photo to do that, no?).  Regarding your health  - if you watch TV or listen to the news, there are constant ads suggesting you get this shot or take that drug.  Before doing anything, do your research, find out possible side effects, how well a product works, what are the long term benefits or problems.  What are your other options (diet, supplements, lifestyle, etc.) and have you tried them?  Besides the internet (mercola.com is a very good site), there are numerous books (Prescription for Nutritional Healing and Healthy Healing are two excellent books).

Now, back to photography.  If you are a photographer, there are almost limitless choices on what to photograph.  Babies, children, families, seniors (high school or college), weddings, engagements, sports, street photography, dating photos, landscape photography, architectural and astrological photography, aerial photography, war photography, celebrity photos, headshot and composite photography for acting and modeling, and on and on.

In the past, I have photographed weddings, actors and models, family portraits, sports, street photography (mostly in Venice  CA for over 20 years), and more.  Whenever I've taken a bit of a break from photography (last time to run a health food store), I've learned more and come back better.  I hope this time will be no different.  Even when taking breaks, I've studied other photographers whose work I love, and have taken webinars from them on CreativeLIVE and other sources.  Some of my favorites have been Tamara Lackey, Jasmine Star, Sue Bryce (from Australia)(http://suebryce.com/home.php), Christa Meola who is in NYC (http://christameola.com/), and many others.  I also look at many photographers websites to get ideas.  Two sites I came across today that are worth a look:  http://www.simoneportrait.com/signature-environmental.html
http://www.martinphotography.ca/galleries/index.html
Hope you enjoy them - their image ideas, as well as the other photographers mentioned, are similar to what I plan on doing in the future.

Eating Healthy and Supplementing, and Why It's Good to Always Carry Your Camera

I've mentioned in prior posts that you have to eat healthy, have a good diet, etc.  But what does that mean?  Well, just very briefly - it means staying away from the following - processed foods, fast foods, foods that contain chemicals, anything artificial (sweeteners, coloring, flavors, etc.), GMO foods, sugar, fructose (aka corn syrup, HFCS, high fructose corn syrup), trans and hydrogenated fats, and more (meat, fish, eggs, and milk that contain growth hormone, antibiotics, GMOs from the feed they eat, etc.).

It means eating fresh whole foods and a balanced diet.

Because you may not eat a balanced diet and one that hasn't lost nutrients on store shelves, and because you are probably exposed to environmental toxins that may further cause problems, supplementing (with vitamins, herbs, etc.) can help you get what you need for optimum health.

Anyway, I just wanted to clarify what I meant by a healthy diet.  By doing this, I have eliminated many health problems I've had in the past, as well as preventing possible future problems.  I hope you will, too.

Now back to photography - I almost always carry a camera wherever I go.  But yesterday I didn't, because I was going to play paddle tennis at Venice Beach and didn't think anything special was going to happen.  Well, I was wrong, darn!  They had the Muscle Beach toy drive, with Santa arriving and a bunch of beautiful elves.  Some wonderful pictures were to be had which would have been posted here.  Lesson learned.  There will be photos on my next post.

Photography, Health, and Your Life

As you know if you've been following me here, my two main interests are photography and improving health or maintaining good health (through diet, exercise, and supplements - not to mention proper sleep, minimizing stress, etc.).  Some may wonder why I talk about health on a photography blog.  Well, it is my belief that if your health is suffering, and you have a photo session, your images will suffer, too.

Why did I go to health?  When I was in my teens and early twenties, I used to think that what I ate might take a couple of years off the end of my life - you know, live happy until I'm 78 instead of an unhappy diet and make it to 80, or whatever age it might be.  What I didn't think about was that a poor diet would lead to poor health, resulting in unhappiness and a shorter life, too.  My first wake-up call came at 24 when I had constant stomach aches and found out I had an ulcer.  Had to quit soft drinks, bacon and greasy foods, and take Mylanta every day.  And the ulcer went away.  Then at 30, I started having stomach problems again (frequent nausea, cramps, etc.).  No ulcer, but diagnosed with nervous stomach.  After some research (the doctors didn't have an answer for it), I cut out all sugar, artificial ingredients, etc.  Over a period of about 6 months, the nervous stomach went away, for good.  But that's not all - my frequent colds got less severe, and other problems also started disappearing.  My next step was to add supplements, and now I seldom get sick, almost never get headaches, and many other problems went away.  The only time I see a doctor (for the past 25 years or so) is for a sports injury.

I see many photographers posting on FB on photographers I follow, and have seen some photos of themselves.  And when the mention of favorite food or snacks is mentioned, many of them have really terrible diet choices.  If that is you, and you want to enjoy a healthy life, it is my hope that you will make the appropriate changes.  I can't guarantee you'll have perfect health, but I think I can guarantee it will be better than it would have been had you not made those changes.  And I can also pretty much guarantee that as a result, your photography will also be better.

Think about it - if you're shooting a wedding, and you have a headache, nausea, cramps, etc., how are you going to give your best?  But more than that, it's your life and you want to enjoy every minute of it, don't you?

One of the best sites I've found, which explains why and how diet works, is http://www.mercola.com/.  You can sign up and get his daily newsletter, which shares a lot of excellent information.  He sells products, but there is no obligation to buy them.  Another excellent site is "Orthomolecular Medicine News Service," and you can sign up for free here:  http://www.orthomolecular.org/forms/omns_subscribe.shtml  I get a newsletter from them about once a month or less, but they are good.

I hope everyone has a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season.  And I hope, too, for your New Years resolution, you decide to go to health and improve your diet.

Oops - I guess I better add a few photos as this is a photo blog, LOL.  The following photos were taken last night on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, CA.  With my new camera, as a test.  All were shot at ISO 1600.

The bottom photo was taken without flash, hand held.  Unfortunately, because it was dark out, I did not see the figure running across the frame until I got home.

Snapshots vs Professional Photography

These days, almost everyone has a digital camera, whether as part of a cell phone, a point and shoot, what is called a prosumer camera (although some of these are quite capable of professional results), or what is considered a professional DSLR.  Does that mean everyone can get professional results?  No, no more than if everyone had paint, brushes, and canvass, they would not suddenly be making paintings like a Rembrandt or Picasso.  Can people with these cameras take nice snapshots and capture images of things that are happening in their lives?  Of course, although even these are sometimes poor quality.  Check professional photographers on Facebook, and then look at the photos of every day people.

I've seen many out of focus images, ones that looked hazy (even though there was no haze when the photo was taken), images that were underexposed or overexposed, etc.  Of course, there are many nice photos, too.  But the best, most artistic, most beautiful images will generally be shot by those who have studied and practiced photography for many years.

Day to day snapshots are still important - I am so glad I have them of my family.  Below are some of the reasons why:

My father in our backyard - shot with a small metal box camera.

My father and me, shot a Jones Beach, NY.

 My mother, me, and my older brother on the front steps, in Jamaica, NY.

My mother in our backyard.

Me when I was around 3 y.o. or so.

My brother and me at Jones Beach, NY.

These photos, and many more, are in our family album.  But the large ones displayed in frames and on the wall are the ones that were taken professionally, as below.

My younger brother Scott.

Me, around age 4 (I still remember that suit - it was wool and itched way too much, LOL).

                                                                      My father.

My younger brother, Harold.

My mother - this photo has faded a bit over time.

If you want the best images possible, use a professional photographer (more on how to choose one and what a professional photographer is, in my opinion, in a later post), and also use a professional make-up artist to highlight your best features.

Thanksgiving 2013 (and some people to be thankful for)

Hope you had a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.  I was riding my bicycle down (not sure I say down, but anyway...well, I guess the elevation is a tiny bit lower at the beach, LOL) to Venice Beach on Thanksgiving to play paddle tennis, and as I just crossed Pacific Avenue, a friend/paddle tennis player called me over to Bellissimo Venice , where they were giving out free turkey sandwiches, coffee, and other food.  I had a sandwich (not a coffee drinker), and after thanking them and about to leave, they gave me about a dozen sandwiches to give out at the paddle tennis courts.  The courts were pretty empty, but was able to find enough people to give them all out - which I enjoyed doing, and they enjoyed receiving.

Here is a photo of me with the free sandwich organizer.

Then, on the bleachers by the paddle tennis courts, was a family that each year gives out free pie (apple and pumpkin).  It's nice to see these very nice people.  Speaking of people like this, I have to mention two of my favorite photographers, who give back so much to the photography community, and more.

The first one is Tamara Lackey - here is a link to her blog:  http://tamaralackeyblog.com/finding-joy-whenever-wherever/ - she had a contest about finding joy, and the winner would receive a coupon for a free cup of coffee.  I was one of the winners, but don't drink coffee, so asked her to give it to another person whose post was good.  She has also had other contests and give aways, plus always is sharing he knowledge and more.  I first saw her on CreativeLive, and she has been a favorite of mine ever since.

Equally, Jasmine Star Photography - I'm sure you'll love her blog posts and her FB page, too.  She has supplied a road map to how she built her business, so you can learn how to build yours.  Here is her blog:  http://www.jasminestarblog.com/index.cfm

As for me - if you have any questions about photography (or vitamins and supplements, my other specialty), please don't hesitate to ask.

As always, stay well and enjoy all that you do.