Kofla Olivieri Photography

History is Written by Those Who Print

 

Recently I decided that is time to start printing personalized posters and large prints of some of my favorite pictures. The image above is my first ever poster size image (16" x 20") printed. It is also my motorcycle favorite picture of all time.

If I asked you to show me a picture of your family, what would be the first thing you would get? Probably your smartphone, right? Can you remember the last time you showed someone a printed photo? Do you even remember the last time you printed your photos?

When I was younger, I hated having my picture taken. Now I look back on my life and regret not having those moments captured. I only have a couple of pictures of my childhood, and those old images were taken by my parents. Now I am trying to make up for lost time.

Nowadays, “passing down” a digital version of our family history is just not going to happen. Printed photos are what will be preserved and saved for many years to come. Have you come across any photos from your parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents? Those photos have likely been stored away or preserved in picture frames or photo albums. They are treasured by you and your family because it’s a part of your family history. Photographs are a huge part of our family history and how future generations will try to understand our way of life.

I want to print my favorite pictures, kind of rekindle my love for the final product, which is the print hanging on the wall. My pictures have been shared online digitally and I found that to be just leaving me wanting to share a bit more. It feels kind of empty, it feels like I'm not actually done. There is no better feeling than holding my framed images in my hands.

We all love to make our man-cave beautiful, so why not use the images I've taken myself to do that. Because of my love for shooting city skyline at night, most of the images in my office are standard sized pictures I’ve taken myself. In fact the biggest pictures decorating my office are 8" x 10" size prints. 

From this point forward, I am going to create larger prints of my favorite photos to preserve my history. No one else is going to go through my digital clutter on my computer in the future, I have to be the one to do this. I am going to pick my favorite images, blow them up, frame them, and make a gallery wall of my life.

Photographs are the footprints in the sand of our life.

Behind The Shot: Love Park

 

Last week, one of my Philadelphia photography meetup groups invited it's members to attend a meetup at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As it almost always happen with online meetup groups, twenty two people signed up, only three other members and a friend that I invited attended.

If you have been reading my blog, you know that it's my preference to shoot city skylines during the blue hour, and at a completely dark night when shooting motorcycle lightpainting. One of the reasons I am not too fond of museum photography, is that tripods and flash are not allowed inside the museum.

From past experience, I've never been able to take great photos inside a museum without a tripod. In low light circumstances, a tripod is essential because you usually can’t hand hold a camera when using a slow shutter speed and expect to get sharp pictures.

I figured this is a great opportunity to use a Platypod Ultra I recenly purchased. If you are not familiar with this little gadget, the Platypod is a versatile compact flat metal plate that let's you mount a ballhead on it. It is so small, it can be taken virtually anywhere.

To make a long story short, I wasn't happy with the few pictures I took inside the museum, and I didn't had a chance to put the Platypod to the test.

I stop to eat on my way home, not far from the "new" remodeled Philadelphia's iconic LOVE sculpture in LOVE Park. The park is always crowded with tourists taking selfies, especially during the summer. Much to my surprise, the planets were aligned that day for me because the park was nearly empty. And it was perfect timing, it was getting to be around the blue hour. I quickly setup the tripod and took a couple of shots.

I am very happy with the final result, so far this is the best image I've taken in this location.

Behind The Shot: Photography Meetup

 

A week and a half ago, one of my photography meetup groups hosted their annual picnic event in New Jersey. This time they selected the J. Own Grundy Park at the Exchange Place in Jersey City. These picnics are always a lot of fun, you get to meet and socialize with other photography aficionados, and I always learn something new. This is my second year attending.

At this event I got the chance to meet people from China, Australia, Canada, India and Croatia. It's like they say, the ethnic and cultural diversity is what attracts millions of visitors to the NYC area each year.

Granted, the Exchange Place is one of my favorite locations to photograph the NYC skyline, especially at night. Last time I visited was last year, for the 9-11 anniversary of the attacks.

For this trip, my goal was to capture a better light-painted image of my bike using the NYC skyline in the background, either of Jersey City or Hoboken, NJ. I recognize I am my own worst critic, so as expected, I wasn't happy with a light-painted photograph of my bike that I shot last summer.

I scouted the area in the Exchange Place looking for a dark location to shoot the picture, to no avail. So I decided to see if I could find an empty parking lot near Pier 13 in Hoboken where car enthusiasts photograph often.

After riding my bike around for a while, I found a perfect dark spot near Frank Sinatra Drive and 14th street; between the Sovereign Garage and Hudson Cat Sailing Charter in Hoboken. It was around midnight, and only a few souls ventured out to walk their dogs near the Hoboken Waterfront Walkway. I had the place all to myself for the next 45 minutes, so I took pictures to my heart's content.

The next day during editing, I noticed I had the bike image I was shooting for, but was not thrilled with the skyline background of NYC and the Empire State Building. The image didn't have the elusive "wow effect" I was looking for. Did I mention I am my own worst critic?

A quick solution was to use one of the One World Trade Center images I took during the Exchange Place photography meetup group, and combine/photoshop the image with the light-painted picture of my bike in Hoboken.

I am very pleased with the end result.