…well not really!

The Casino building, located in Asbury Park, New Jersey, was built in 1929 and ironically did not house any gambling. In it’s heyday this structure offered 3 sections and housed amusements such as a indoor/outdoor roller rink, an ice skating rink, a carousel, skee ball and bumper cars.

For you movie buffs, the Casino complex was used as a setting in the movie “City By The Sea” starring Robert DeNiro and several scenes from one of my favorite TV series, “The Sopranos” was filmed just steps from here. Finally, for you video gamers, you might recognize this building from Grand Theft Auto IV. It was rendered as “The Alderney Casino”, an abandoned casino.

The Casino along with the nearby Palace amusements and The Convention Hall formed the core of Asbury Park’s historical amusement attractions. Sadly the complex has been allowed to deteriorate for decades and plans have been proposed to replace it with a similarly built structure, albeit without a skating rink, yet no construction has begun on a permanent replacement for the complex to date.

The photo on my home page was shot from inside this building. Have a great weekend!

This is Brian Kirk from a recent Brian Kirk and the Jirks concert and I found inspiration for this B+W from a post on the PhotoExtract photography site. I followed the workflow while incorporating my own adjustments to come up with this final product. Emulating the process is fairly easy so if you have any shots that you think would look great with this kind of processing why not post a link in the comments section for all to see. Come on, show us your creativity. Yes Ron you too!

…except in this case. After processing in Photomatix there was just too much going on in the shot so I decided to use Matt Kloskowski’s High Key Lightroom Preset with a few modifications. This toned down the micro details and accentuated the main subject.

Just a short post today as it’s a pretty good football Sunday to finish off the weekend. Enjoy the game, GO NINERS!

So I was going through some old shots and have always liked this shot so I decided to have a go at a redo….what do you think? It’s not that I didn’t like the original I just thought a new take on it might be interesting. New software also helps with a fresh look. So never trash those old shots, you never know what you can do to an old favorite.

Now

Karen B, a New Englander, was closest to the correct answer regarding my question from my last post.

According to the Twinlights Lighthouse website, in 1899, Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian pioneer in radio transmission, placed an antenna and receiving station at this lighthouse to demonstrate his Wireless Telegraph. The New York Herald newspaper had hired him to report on the America’s Cup yacht races, which were being held off the tip of Sandy Hook. This demonstration worked so well that Marconi expanded his operations, making Twin Lights the nation’s first wireless telegraph station capable of sending and receiving messages on a regular commercial basis.

So I would go ahead and say that much of our modern wireless communication can be attributed to the pioneering works of Mr. Marconi. More can be learned about Mr. Marconi, should you be so inquisitive, if you go here and for his Nobel Prize accomplishment, you can go here.

As for the photo, I’m not totally thrilled with the composition but it’s the best angle I could get without giving it a nasty case of the lens distortion uglies. My Sigma10-20, or any ultra wide angle for that matter, has a difficult time of rendering a distortion free photo if the focal plane of the mirror isn’t directly parallel with it’s subject. I was positioned fairly low, as you can see, and had to use the lens correction module in Lightroom to minimize the distortion in the building behind the lighthouse. It’s still visible but acceptable. Maybe a tilt-shift lens will be in my future?

…and the rest of the world can be seen and heard(?) from some 200 feet above sea level at the Navesink Lightstation in Highlands, New Jersey.

Did you know that a bit of technology, one that has become part of our everyday lives, may have actually originated from this very spot during the turn of the 20th century? Yes, if my understanding is correct, it’s true and it’s definitely significant. In fact communication amongst many of the participants of the photo challenge at the Village can be directly attributed to this historic event……..better yet… I may have never met Ron if this event hadn’t occurred:) Anybody care to take a stab at the answer? Want a hint?………. A Nobel Peace Prize may be involved. Good Luck!

On another note, I’m pretty excited about 2 new pages to my site, they are located at the top of my home page and showcase some of my significant(IMHO, of course) work. Would love to hear your feedback…….Thanks!

….to tell a tale. I think these tight shots do give the viewer insight into the happenings of the day. They really show details of a musicians craft.

Just an update on my Google+ hangout from earlier this week. At it’s peak we had 8 participants over a 2 hour period. Let me tell you, that 2 hours went by in a flash. What was interesting is that one of the participants advocated the old school method of HDR through blending of exposures in Photoshop. We exchanged methods and photos and talked about different scenarios and the applications that would produce the most desired results. We also had a commerical photographer looking for insight into tonemapping methods for his work. All in all it was a great experience meeting people from around the world. I plan on  hosting more of these in the future so stay tuned.

….this year is to shoot more people pictures in different environments. Also vowing to see more live music, I was psyched when I heard the Brian Kirk and the Jirks were playing at the Polar Plunge on new years day. What a better way to attack one of my resolutions for the year than by snapping a few shoots of the band.

In this first shot  band leader Brian Kirk belts out one of their token covers…don’t remember which one but they all sound good.

I’m fairly pleased how my old Canon XTI handled the high iso settings necessary to stop the action.  A shutter speed of 1/150 was the best I could do  at f4…..I also knew that the noise reduction capabilities of Lightroom and Topaz could help in this situation. The overall clarity could be better but it’s not bad for the web.

In this next shot Brian’s got a hold of his trumpet player James Gibbs.

I really like how this shot turned out, pretty clear on James at f4 and 1/45 of a second shutter. My Canon 70-200mm L lens comes through  with flying colors again at 200mm. I guess there’s something to be said for good glass. Do yourself a favor, if your going to stay with this crazy hobby, save up your $$$ and get some good glass as soon as possible. Don’t go with a lens of lower quality in the interim, when your not satisfied you’ll  end up spending more $$$ and  you’ll kick yourself like I did.

I have a few more of these that I will show you in the not to distant future so stay tuned…..

Find me here and lets start a circle for all photobloggers. If you need any help email me at www.mattafoto@gmail.com.

PS: if your not quite sure about this hangout thing, go to this link for help….it’s quite easy.

 I don’t know about you but my eye is drawn to the wall, I guess because that’s what’s in focus. Damn, I missed it again!

Looking back on this shot I remember being drawn to the converging lines, the texture and colors of the stone and door. What I forgot all about was where I wanted your eye to be drawn to? I guess I should have set this shot up by focusing on the door (sad part is, I don’t remember focusing on anything) with an aperture closer to f/5.6 or so.

I’m curious, how would you have set up this shot? Where would you have set up the camera, what setting would you used? Would you have cropped with this rotation?

Note to self: FOCUS…..on everything.