Javier Dominguez Photography

Tag: Urban

  • New York commuter

    I think this is a quintessential New York image. It is not the Empire State building, or Lady Liberty, or Grand Central Terminal. It is just a commuter pedaling his way through steam to get to work in Midtown Manhattan.

    I was coming back from a shoot, so I had my camera with me. I saw the steam leak and took out my camera. I did take a bunch of pictures, using different angles. Then I saw cars passing through the steam, and some people riding bikes. This was one of the best shots I took that day.

    So, here it is, to the heroes who brave the streets on New York to go to work.

  • Digital Photography: Emulating Dark Room Techniques

    Thanks to my mentor in Peru, a German photographer who moved to Lima in the 80’s, I started taking pictures using slide film. During all the years that I shot on film, I might have shot ten rolls of black and white at the most. That’s all. When you shoot slides, you must be very precise with the exposure (very narrow exposure latitude). There is no room for mistakes. If you underexpose, you will lose details in the shadows. If you overexpose, you will lose details in the highlights. If your subject has areas with very different, extreme tones, you must choose which details you are going to lose. The color saturation, and high contrast that slides offered always appealed to me.

    With black and white, the film is more forgiving because its exposure latitude is much broader. There is a lot of room to play with. In the lab, you can burn and dodge areas in the print to get those details. With slides, what you shoot is what you get.

    Today, with digital cameras, shooting in RAW format, and using photography software, you can replicate dark room techniques digitally. Granted, Adobe Lightroom has many more tools …

    So, I shoot in color, but I can “develop” the image in black and white. I can increase contrast and enhance the image to show the vision I want to share.

    I took this picture in Montreal a couple of weeks ago. I spent a week there training Aikido at a summer camp. This is a picture of a woman crossing the street taken from the 17th floor of our hotel. I really liked the late afternoon long shadows. I hope you like them, too.

  • Oculus in Downtown Manhattan

    Picture of the Month (October, 2023)

    I had a long lens and was located on a higher floor at the Oculus in Downtown Manhattan. That makes observing people and their behavior much easier. It’s like an anthropological study of visitors and tourists inside of one of New York’s newest attractions. The Oculus is a combination of transportation hub and shopping center. Actually, it is the third largest transportation center in NYC. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava, a Spanish architect born in the town of Benimàmet in Valencia. Calatrava is not only and architect, but also a structural engineer, sculptor, and painter.

    As I was observing the people walking or standing around this particular stand, I noticed how everybody was living in their own world. I had my camera ready and carefully composed my shot. You can see the result below.

    The Oculus
    Downtown Manhattan

    I did take several shots and it took me some time to do the post-production (because I was busy with other projects). But I finally worked on the pictures and chose the ones I liked the most.

    I hope you like this one, too.

  • The Naked Cowboy

    Picture of the Month (March 2023)

    Manhattan is full of well-known tourist attractions: the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, Grand Central Terminal, the Statue of Liberty, and Times Square, among others.

    Times Square was the center of many sinful activities and businesses during the 70’s. Sinners from all over will visit this crossroad (7th Avenue, Broadway, and West 45th Street) to enjoy strip tease shows, drug dealing, adult magazines, prostitution, and much more.

    In the 80’s, Times Square started changing when the City of New York adopted strong actions to provide safety in the area. Disney Corporation bought buildings in the area and the City of New York invested money to make changes. Today, Times Square hosts well known corporate stores and offices, like Disney, M&Ms, Hershey’s, NASDAQ, and Hard Rock Café. It also offers a kiosk to buy tickets to a Broadway Show at a discount, and a myriad of Comic characters ready to be part of your selfie. The lights from the neon, and LED signs, with their varying palette of colors, bathe hundreds of tourists, commuters, and a few locals who walk around.

    Times Square still has vestiges from the 70’s. Summer or Winter, the Naked Cowboy wanders Times Square dressed in only a hat, boots, and a guitar that covers the front of his underwear. He walks Times Square ready to sing to tourists and pose with them for a picture …

    The Naked Cowboy
    The Naked Cowboy sings to tourists at a balmy 56 °F.

    Everything changes, but everything remains the same …

  • New York Skyline

    Picture of the Month (January 2023)

    I usually, that is about 99.8% of the time, do not modify the pictures I take to look differently from what I saw. I do not add lightning, or change the sky, or abuse the editing tools available in Lightroom or Photoshop. The idea is to represent what I see in a truthful manner.

    Having said that, I had a “what if” moment when editing this cityscape from lower Manhattan. I decided to manipulate the color of the sky to make it a little more dramatic. I like the result very much. I just don’t plan on doing this more often 😊

    New York Skyline
    New York Skyline