Having a 300mm with you

Boston, MA 100812 A plane on course to land at Logan International Airport and the Carnival Glory cruise liner seem to share air space as seen on October 8, 2012 from Black Falcon Pier. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff BEHIND THE SCENES: On the previous night I was told I'd be covering a 10k race and that I'd be on the media truck. This required me to go to the office and pick up a 300mm 2.8 or a longer lens since these type of lenses preferred for covering a sports event. However the advantage of having that lens with you is that if you know how the optics of the lens work you can use that as yet another tool while making images. If you know this, you can make something completely mundane a lot more interesting than what the human eye perceives. The elements inside a telephoto cause a pancake effect by stacking up the planes within the frame. I was driving around looking for a feature photo and I noticed the big cruise liner docked at one of the piers. It was only a matter of driving around a little before I noticed that at certain angle planes in route to land at nearby Logan International airport seemed to share the same air space when seen through this lens. TECH STUFF Mark IV with 1 300mm 2.8AF, speed 1/8oooth of a second. ISO 200, WB Sunny.

Things Found

Boston, MA 100512 Young people play at the Foutain of Rings at the Rose Kennedy Greenway and a woman examines flowers on a sidewalk on October 05, 2012. (Essdras M Suarez/ Boston Globe/ EMS Photogrpahy©) BEHIND THE SCENES: One of the great things about being a photographer is that the world is your muse and the camera your brush and at any time inspiration can hit you. Sometimes is something as subtle as waiting at a stop light and catching a glimpse of someone who takes the time to smell the roses. Other times is a blatant as a beautiful fall sun backlighting a fountain and people playing in it. I only had two assignments today and they were both food related. I did these, and I did them well but it is the found images which placate my yearning for creating. TECH STUFF: Two cameras: Mark IV with a 16-35mm 2.8 and a Nikon D3s with a 70-200mm 2.8. WB: Sunny, Aperture 4.5, Speed 1/400th of a second in one and 1/125th of a second in the other.

Post-panamax port activity/ Balboa Port Panama

Panama, Republic of Panama 091912 Post-panamax container ships, ships which are bigger than the width of the Panama Canal Locks allotted- beam size, maneuver at the Balboa Port in Panama City on September 19, 2012 and are then unloaded. (Essdras M Suarez/ EMS Photography) BEHIND THE SCENES: The visit to the port was the second part to the Panama Canal expansion story. The idea was to see these super-sized ships in action. Since these can't cross the canal until the new Third Set of Locks is opened allegedly on 2015, they come to both sides of the canal, the Pacific and Atlantic sides, and unload their cargo at these ports. The containers are then shipped via railroad to the other side of the canal where they are in turn loaded into ships in order to continue their voyage. EXTRA NOTE: This was pretty cool since I was allowed to climb atop of one of the cranes where I could get a bird's eve view of the operations. Also I got to take a look at all the stacked up containers and the modern skyline of Panama. Our guide pointed this view to us and said, "Without these- (the containers)- you couldn't have that- (the modern buildings)." Very astute observation on his part. TECH STUFF: two cameras Mark IV, and Nikon D3s, two lenses 16-35mm 2.8 and 70-200mm 2.8 + 1.4 respectively.

Panama Canal Expansion/ III Set of Locks 09/12

Panama City, Republic of Panama 091912 I had the privilege of being given a tour of the Panama Canal expansion for a Boston Globe/ New York Times story on the effects of the Panama Canal expansion on the US economy. BEHIND THE SCENES: Since the beginning of this project as s proud Panamanian I've been wanting to photograph some of this gargantuan project. What I caught on this day was merely a glimpse and I was stunned by its sheer size. On a side note, I did this while on sabbatical for the Boston Globe. Even though, I work for them they hired me for this specific assignment since I had planned to be in Panama on this date and I'm glad they did. TECH STUFF: MarkIV, Nikon D3s, Nikor 24 2.0, Canon 70- 200mm 2.8 + 1.4 TC, Lens Baby. I decided to go with black and white since I have a dear friend of mine who is a Panama Canal pilot and he collects all Panama Canal related historical images and documents and I've always been taken by all those dark tones found in these type of photos.

Celtics Dancers Tryo outs

Waltham, MA 063012 Close to 300 young women attended tryouts in order to become official Celtic Dancers on June 30, 2012. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe staff)/ MET BEHIND THE SCENES: When it comes to newspaper assignments you truly never now what you are going to get. After having had to photograph male exotic dancers on Thursday, today I got to photograph young women trying out to become dancers/ cheerleaders for the Boston Celtics... there is after all a balance to the intricate design of life after all (:-) It is by no means a hard thing to photograph. There were photos everywhere. If anything you have to curtail your shooting as to not overshoot the assignment. I've done this a couple of times in the past and whenever galleries like these get posted on the Boston Globe's site the hits reach the six digits pretty fast. I expect this time to be the same. TECH STUFF: Two cameras: D3 and D3s, Two lenses: 24-70mm 2.8 and 70-200mm 2.8. ISO 2,000, WB: auto, Mode: Manual.

Exotic Male Dancers

Boston, MA 062812 We interviewed local exotic dancers from the Boston area about their take on the new movie "Magic Mike" which opened on theaters this weekend. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe staff)/G BEHIND THE SCENES: The fact these images came out as well as they did is a testament to how much of a professional I am when it comes to photography and an ode to good lighting techniques. Anyone who knows me knows this wouldn't be my favorite subject to photograph but alas I work for a publication and like one of my editors always tells me, "Essdras! What do you gat? what do you gat? The beast must be fed!" Anyway, I'm of the believe if it has my name by it then I better have given it my best effort. With the premier of the movie "Magic Mike" coming up this weekend our intrepid sartorial writer Christopher Muther thought it'd be a good idea to talk to local dancers after they attended the premiere of the movie in order to get their opinion on how accurate to reality is the movie. Their take was a mixed review. Some thought it was an entertaining movie but not too close to reality. Others thought it wasn't that great but it did show a lot of what exotic male dancers go through and have to put up with. Out of the four guys, two of them were kinda wildcards when it came to personalities. The other two were a bit more mellow. One because he was young and the other, the fourth one- on the black and white image- because he had been doing this for 17 years. He called himself the "grandpa" of the group at 42 years of age, and he said he mostly did mceeing shows and managing of dancers. TECH STUFF: This is a bit of a complicated lighting set up. I knew beforehand I was going to have a minimum of two dancers but that more could be coming as well. As you can see three showed up at first and then a fourth one came in late so we added him for another version of the same image. I enlisted the help of a couple of female writers and a former co-op, also a woman, to help us by throwing money at the subjects. My idea was to make the scene resemble the kind of scenario in which they'd normally would find themselves performing. Kind of: night club with spotlights. There a total of SIX lights being used in the color portrait of the three and then only FOUR in the black and white. Again, SIX lights for the individual portrait. There is one Elichrome 300 monolight with a big softbox: Calumet Illuma X-Large Soft Box - 54 x 78 x 25 behind me being used as a fill-light. This light is what gives you your metadata "baseline." Then there are two Dinalites with grids to the side even with the dancer in the front. Then two more Elinchrome 600 lights with grids slightly behind the guys pointing diagonally across toward the torso of the dancers and then one more Elinchrome 300 with a red gel coming from below and behind the dancers and pointed toward the black- paper backdrop. My idea was to sculpt their bodies with lights and I believe the effect was indeed achieved. EXTRA NOTE: At the end the Dinalites couldn't keep up with the Elinchrome and they started faltering. So the black and white image was done only with two Elinchromes on the side and slightly behind and then the other two Elinchromes: one behind me with the big soft box and the one against the backdrop on the floor. I'm also including a lighting diagram for the image of the three dancers.

Time Square, NY as a tourist

New York, NY Time Square 052912 Street photography at Time Square. (Essdras M Suarez/ EMS Photography) BEHIND THE SCENES: After having finished my tall ships' assignment at the NY Harbor, I decided to go out and be a tourist the night before flying back to Boston. It was a rare pleasure not to have to worry about getting the names of the subjects in the photo and to simply make images strictly based on their visual appeal and to satisfy my need of being creative. At some point it started raining and people ran for cover. I decided my Nikon could take it so I stayed out and I was rewarded by the girls jumping under the rain and posing for photos being taken by a friend. And with the sailors running for cover right in front of my lens as I was shooting from a low angel. I had seen the Elmo character earlier in the day while I was heading back to the hotel and I made a mental note to find him if I went back out. I found not one but two Elmos; thus, the two different images. THEORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY: The photo with Elmo where he is to the left and there is a man to the far right; I decided to use despite cropping the arm of the man on the right at one of those "uncanny valley points." This is something I'm always drilling to students attending my workshops: "be careful not to crop the human figure at the wrists, elbows, knees etc." Even though, It seems as if I didn't follow my own advice on this one. It is important here to remember the following: When it comes to the hierarchy of elements which make a photo a good photo, decisive moments trump all other elements. Thus moments are the kings when it comes to content. The body language of Elmo on this was a definite decisive moment. I only had one frame where his body language was so unique. TECH STUFF: One camera a D3s and one lens: 24 2.0 manual focus. I went out there to play so I took the most basic set up I could think of. ISO 800- 2500, WB: A, speeds 1/60th to 1/250th of a second. And I just had a blast!