BRANDON KING

My stepdad had an old broken Canon SLR in a bag deep in the back of the closet. I wasn’t really allowed to mess with it which might have been a result of anything I got my hands on I felt I was supposed to take it apart and see how it worked. I’m sure I could have fixed it and started learning photography years and years earlier. Probably would have went to SVA and jumped around LES as an 18 year old assisting and shooting little assignments for XXL.

Instead of spending my time behind a super awesome SLR pretending to be Gordon Parks I ended up spending the majority of my middle school days in this place, The Woods. We spent all of spring, summer and fall building bridges, forts, tree houses, and mini dams. Testing the water-resistance of M-80 firecrackers and the M-80 resistance of crawdads. Other than prep for The Goatman there was just loads of time to play and build things.

The Goatman? Half goat half man. He or it lived in the huge old mansion past the corn fields with his shotgun and pack of vicious doberman pinschers. They could pop out at anytime and maul you to death if you got too close to his property! I mean, neither I or anyone I knew has seen him or the dogs but we definitely heard them all the time. Good thing we rarely left home without our slingshots, bb guns and Rambo knives (with the in-handle survivor kit) and plenty of small creatures to shoot at to keep our aim sharp.

These are a few pictures from a couple years ago. I went in to look around and in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but think about The Goatman. Maybe this would be my chance to finally shoot him.

I don’t think I’ve walked down flatbush and around downtown Brooklyn ever with the exception of Fulton mall, of course. Friday, I really needed to get out the apartment even though it was about to top 100º outside. I figured I’d just pop down to shoot the shipping containers at the new Dekalb Market and head back. I ended up finding my way to blocks I’ve never seen — like one that has turned empty store fronts into a street art gallery which will probably be up until they are ready to demo it down for another insanely tall apartment building.

Not much to say about the photo side of things. I’m using my 24-700 at around 35mm for most of my latest round of photos. Once some extra extra extra money comes along I would like to rent the wide Canon tilt shift. Nope, not for the minaturiazing affect or the way i’ve used it in the past but to get a bit wider without messing up the angles.

(forgive me if you’ve seen these. I can’t seem to find them but I feel like I’ve posted them before.)

This past spring I shot a wedding. I know, I know. I keep telling myself that I’ll only consider shooting them for close friends in need of saving money but sometimes times get tough and you have to find ways of putting cash in the empty bank account. Maybe next time I get asked I’ll require that i get to shoot it using disposables or with a phone. Then run the photos trough instagram and they’ll be all over the cool bride websites! Easy.

It really isn’t the wedding I don’t like shooting, it’s just those staged shots and the big group shots. Most couples say it’s never a big deal to get that group shot but they don’t realize how much their moms really want them — oooh, and this last one I wasn’t really introduced to the mom so I mistakenly asked her to go to the back of the group…she was not too happy about it and let it be known! Anyhow, as much as I begrudgingly accept the job, I take it really seriously and always get some pretty fresh shots.

What does this have to do with these photos? Well, I met with the couple at their place on the Upper West Side and we walked around scouting out the neighborhood for locations to shoot the day of the wedding. That is when i discovered Riverside Park. It runs along the west side with 3 or 4 tiers of parks with lots of great architectural features. These are just a few of the images from that walk. I had on a FLD filter (which is a bit red and used to balance light temperatures for film) and circular polarizing filter. No reason other than to try something out.

Ok, thats it.

Shepard Fairey hit up NYC not too long ago and stopped in and around my ‘hood.

I almost forgot about these. At the time I figured they weren’t useable. I forgot to change my ISO from H (simulated 3200 on my 5D, I think) from the night before and after walking around for a while noticed that everything was extra grainy. I just came across them again today and liked them (I also realized that i’ve seen that monster before).

Everybody knows Brooklyn’s a mutherfkn monster

If you haven’t made your way over to the new section of the Highline, do it. It’s beautiful.

I’ll be honest, I mainly stopped carrying around my camera everyday because I thought, what’s the point. Everyone seems to have a nice camera now. Anyone can shoot the exact same thing that I can. I didn’t like sharing the photographer roll.

“You big dummy” – Fred

The result of that lapse in judgment is thousands of missed moments in the past 3 years and not having the chance to really develop my style or my vision especially when shooting people. That and the portrait of my life in NYC isn’t complete. Although it’s also meant I’ve been able to stop and see what i’m surrounded by. Really take in the city and it’s character. I realized that it’s not just about the people or the big events that are so photogenic, it’s all those quiet little nooks and crannies, side streets and fringe blocks. The constant state of construction and filthiness. The perfect monden facade next the auto repair shop. The beautiful architecture under the Highline.

We (ms ella and I) head into the city via the Manhattan several times a week for all sorts of reasons. The main being going on the hunt for backgrounds for the photobooth biz. I usually take the same basic route there if I’m going to the west side, which is Classon to Flushing and across the Manhattan Bridge. What you see above is a little curve that goes beneath the BQE and round to Park. I love it especially since they painted this massive storage building a red / burt orange color.

Scenes like this I think I’d rather shoot with film. A 4×5 or 6×7 or something. There is such a light difference between the under part of the bridge and the bright sky only film could really pick up the tonal range (I try to limit my use of the fill light slider in Lightroom).

[ 24 - 70mm f8 iso 200 ]