Nicholas Monaco Photography

Long Exposures-Wellington, Florida

2009-01-15T19:28:00.023-05:00

Wellington is the small city in Western West Palm Beach, Florida where I attended High School. It has changed a lot since I lived there, but it is still the same in many respects. I had an itch to do some night photography after finding inspiration from Todd Hido's work, so I hit the sleepy streets of suburban Wellington to shoot long exposures for three straight days in late December. I'm not sure how I feel about the shots. At the time of shooting, I thought the city turned into my own personal photo land where I kept discovering new points of view to shoot an old landscape in which I once knew . I didn't have a tripod to place the camera on, so I used a bench, or the ground, or I placed it on a post to keep it steady. I shot the same view multiple times with different exposure settings to have different ways of seeing the same shot in different light.

The shot above is a photo of a community recreation center that has several baseball fields and basketball courts. It would of been nice if I could of been elevated maybe 40 ft, so I could of captured more of the fields instead of just the lights in the distance from the main road.

Here is a video of Todd Hido. The inspiration behind this blog entry. I really enjoy his work. I think his photographs are open ended and speak volume to the viewer. www.toddhido.com

On the subject of long exposures, check out this 6 month exposure captured with a homemade pinhole camera. click here

Meet the Palmer's

2009-01-14T21:18:00.008-05:00

On the day I was going to leave S. Florida, a friend of mine, Matt, had his family come down from West Virginia and San Diego; they wanted to take some photo's. We were suppose to meet the night before, but there were schedule conflicts and not everyone could take part in the photo session. On the next day, I drove down from West Palm Beach to Ft. Lauderdale to meet them at Lauderdale by the Sea. On the way down, there was a heavy downpour. I didn't think we were going to be able to shoot, but right when I parked, the rain stopped.

Once everyone got there, we headed down to the beach. Since it had been raining, no one was there which made it terrific! Plus, the overcast day, gave off nice even light. In total, we shot maybe an hour and half. The Palmer family was great! They even treated me to my favorite salmon at Aruba's. If you are ever in Ft. Lauderdale, you have to go to Aruba and order the salmon. I think it's the best!

When I left to go to the airport, the rain started again. I guess we had some good timing!

After the shoot was over and I was back in New York, the post worked started which took me about 8 hours to edit 20 photo's. That's like 25 minutes per photo. In reality, that's really not too bad considering a single photo can take as long as 40 hours or longer. I will share with you what I did. First, I created two photo's from my RAW file. One of the photo's was exposed for the sky, the other photo exposed for the Palmer's. I then masked the two images together to get a photo that isn't too under exposed or over exposed. I then created a couple layers of curves, one for contrast, and one for color. I played with the selective color tool. I tried to remove any shadow's from their faces, so under the red color I removed a good portion of the black tones. I also continued to tweak the other colors as well to find the result I thought looked best. I then saved my psd in case I wanted to re-edit it, flatten the layers, and did some sharpening with the high pass filter.

Ghost of Gloria

2009-01-13T22:01:00.025-05:00

About a month ago I had a shoot with a local south Florida band called Ghost of Gloria. We met at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida. We had no clear cut idea of where we were going to shoot, but as I walked around, I ran into a friend of mine who I met playing basketball when I used to live in South Florida. He also happens to own the club Passion. Since it was a Tuesday afternoon and the club was closed to the public, he gave us access to shoot anywhere we wanted. It was a very fortuitous happening, and I was very grateful to say the least.

Once we got inside the club and decided on a location to shoot, I started to set up my equipment, but we had an issue with a power source, so the setup ended up being my laptop, camera, and a folding reflector to bounce light from the window onto the band members. This created very hard light and dark images, but it seemed to work.

After we left the club, we went in the parking garage where we found a couple of red chairs sitting aside alone, so we decided to use them. I had one of the band members throw one in the air and then act natural like he didn't throw it, and a chair was just floating in the air. I guess I could of done this in post, but it was more fun actually doing it. Can you guess who threw the chair?

Here are a couple of solo shots that we shot in the club.

New York City Marathon 2008

2008-11-02T23:20:00.001-05:00

Think Write Act with the Bill of Rights

2008-11-02T12:59:00.002-05:00

Sitting quietly under a statue in Washington Square Park is where you may have seen Meggan Gomez over the past several months. She usually has a sign under her feet stating, "Ask me what I am doing" and her web address www.thinkwriteact.com I had an opportunity to sit with her last Monday to observe her project in action.
The idea is to get people thinking and involved, specifically with the original ten amendments. She prints out full page stickers with the Bill of Rights on each of them. She then sits at a location to hand them out, usually Washington Square Park. She waits for people to approach her and then she explains the project. Nine times out of ten, people are really enthusiastic to be apart of it and take at least one sticker if not more. Just for the day I came out with her, there were several people who wanted to donate their time or resources to the project. According to Meggan, her stickers have found their way from Boston to Los Angeles and many other places.
For more information you can go to thinkwriteact.com

CMJ 2008 Music and Film Festival

2008-10-27T21:35:00.001-04:00

Since 1980, CMJ has been a source for new emerging artist to showcase their talent in front of thousands of music fans throughout New York City. This year, like last year, I was able to cover several of the shows. Here are a couple photo's from the week that was CMJ 2008.

During the week, I was able to check out several films at CMJ as well that I highly recommend checking out if possible.

What About Me?

Pressure Cooker

Sunshine Cleaning

It was a crazy four or five days of late subway rides home, but as always CMJ was worth it.

To view more photos of CMJ and other shows you can go here

Joining Howard Schatz and the Schatz Ornstein Studio as an Apprentice

2008-09-06T23:54:00.000-04:00

About a month and a half ago, I sent an e-mail to Howard Schatz, a fine art and commercial photographer who has more then twenty years of experience in the industry.

The reason for my e-mail was to inquire about possible assisting opportunities. He replied letting me know he did not need any extra assistance at the present time. However, he was interested in one of my photographs, after he had viewed it from my website. He offered to trade prints, one of my prints for one of his prints. I thought this was a very flattering gesture, and possibly an unequal trade since his work sells for thousands of dollars in art galleries, and I have never attempted to sell a print as fine art.

Since he asked me to come by the studio with my print, I realized this would be a great opportunity to meet him and possibly open the door for a part time assisting position.

I went to the studio a couple of times. Each time I went, I was blown away by the professionalism of the staff and facility. I immediately knew I had to get my foot in the door.

So after meeting Howard briefly, I sent him another e-mail letting him know I was very interested in coming by the studio a couple times a week even if it is not paid just to gain more experience.

After I sent over my resume and numerous references, Howard and I sat down to discuss a possible apprenticeship. After our discussion, we determined I would be coming by the studio four times a week for the next year.

I started the apprenticeship last week.

To view Howard Schatz's work you can go to www.howardschatz.com

East Brooklyn's Fish Grease Jenkins

2008-07-08T13:23:00.001-04:00

I originally met Fish Grease at a hip hop talent show back in April where I took some live shots for the promoter. I gave him and some of the other talent my card; I have had several calls since. Fish Grease is the first I have organized a shoot with. When we first spoke about putting a shoot together, the first question that arose was location. I suggested that we shoot in an area where he was familiar with in East New York since that is where he is from. On the day of the shoot, I took a car service over to his neighborhood as I was getting ready to pay the driver, the driver told me it was the first time he took a white person to the area of East New York in twenty years of service and that he would never personally exit the car because he felt it was such a dangerous place. Being my first time in East New York, the driver's comments made me a little nervous, but once I met Fish Grease, his family, and friends, I was put at ease. In reality, the neighborhood seemed like any other neighborhood. There was a playground where kids were playing basketball and other games. Families were having barbecue's, and everyone seemed to know each other's name.

After I brought up my equipment to Fish Grease's apartment, we decided we were going to take some shots in front of his building. We captured a couple of images that we liked, but nothing that stood out. We continued to shoot at the park, where I found a green brick wall to shoot against. It seemed to work with the blue shirt he was wearing. We decided to take a break after the park shoot, so he could change into another outfit. After he changed, we took some more shots in the stairway of his building. The majority of the stairway was painted an off white, but there was a section by the door that was painted red which went well with his black shirt and red shoes. The photo of the stairway shot can be seen at the top of this blog entry.

Vita and the City

2008-06-08T14:02:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I had a shoot with Vita who works in the fashion industry as a buyer for Macy's. She hired me to shoot some NYC pics so she could send some home to her family. The heat in the city was pretty brutal which made running around the lower west side a little uncomfortable, especially for Vita who trekked around with four inch high heal shoes on for most of the day.

I usually like to meet a client before shooting, but in Vita's case we didn't have a chance to meet before hand, so we kind of grew more comfortable with each other as the day progressed.

The original idea for our shoot was to capture NYC moments like the picture to the left where Vita is calling for a cab. We shot maybe 4 to 5 different takes of her running behind cabs trying to catch them. It was pretty funny because the cabs would stop and we had to tell them to keep going. There was a restaurant to the right of us which I think found it pretty entertaining as well.

Organic Farming at the Stone Barns Center in Westchester, NY.

2008-06-06T22:55:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks back, on Memorial Day weekend, I met a young woman named Adriane from a get together in Central Park. We chatted, and she was telling me about an organic farm in Westchester, NY where she has an apprenticeship for the next several months. She went on to tell me about the colorful people who worked there, how beautiful it was, and how much she enjoyed the experience.

I asked Adriane if it would be possible for me to come by and volunteer for a day to learn more about the process. I also asked her if it would be possible if I could bring my camera along. She told me more than likely it would be no problem. A couple weeks went by, and we organized a time for me to come out to what I now discovered to be an enchanting organic farm/restaurant/learning center called the Stone Barns Center.

I wasn't sure what to expect working on a

farm for a day. However, it ended up being an enjoyable experience. I helped harvest crops for the farmers market in the morning as well as with spreading compost over a field of blue potatoes in the afternoon. In the moments in between, I grabbed my camera and took a couple of shots.

The farm, staff, volunteers, and food were all great, and I plan on volunteering again soon. There is something rewarding about getting your hands dirty in the soil and picking fruits, vegetables, and herbs while experiencing a full day from sunrise to sunset.

I highly recommend it!

2008 Jordan Brand Classic Slam Dunk Contest and Game

2008-05-27T22:06:00.007-04:00

Jordan Brand Classic Slam Dunk Contest in Brooklyn, NY on April17th, 2008

Jordan Brand Classic Game in Madison Square Garden on April 18th, 2008

For more information on the players who played you can go here