Green-Wood Flocks

I went to Green-Wood Cemetery last weekend to take some pictures of birds. As a fledgeling birder (see what I did there?), I’ve learned that Green-Wood is a great birding location; particularly if you want to see the monk parakeets that live there. I did end up seeing them; they were flocking and jostling for position with some European starlings. But I also came upon a large gathering of motorcycle club members that were raising money to fight cancer.

At first, I marveled at how different the subject matter I ended up photographing that day was. But then I realized that they’re less different than I thought.

Update: macOS Photos App to the Rescue

I tried all sorts of complicated trickery, to undo my accidentally having set the location of over 27,000 of my photos to "Lisbon". I had pinned my hopes on app called Metapho to try and reset the images to their original location, but I wasn't really getting anywhere. I even reached out to the app's creator in my panicked state, to ask for his help.

What he pointed out, and what I didn't realize, because I was away from a computer, is that the Photos app on macOS has a lovely little option up in the Images menu:

It’s the one that says “Revert to Original Location”, which is currently greyed out, because I already did it for all 27k+ images. It took a few seconds, and all is well again.

I’m finally ready to admit it: iOS 18’s Photos app is terrible.

I had been on the iOS 18 public beta, so when the general release came out and everyone was howling about how bad the new iOS Photos app design is, I had already gotten used to it, and didn’t think get what the big deal was. But, I just had an experience that has changed my mind about how abjectly terrible this UI is. It’s also partly my own fault, though.

I’m currently on vacation in Lisbon (lovely place so far, you should visit if you can), and I went for a short walk yesterday with my Fujifilm X100T I mention that because the camera is old, and doesn’t have built-in geotagging (well, it does, but it’s not easily enabled). Also, as usual, I forgot to adjust the camera to the local time zone when I arrived in Portugal. With those two easily correctable things in mind, I imported the 30 or so photos I took during that walk into Photos app.

First UI fail: an easy way to select the group of images you just imported. It’s there, but it’s sorted by oldest first, which, for me, starts in 2011, and there are almost 33k images there. I can’t find a way to sort by newest import, which seems like a basic bit of functionality, and it would have taken me forever to scroll to the bottom of that list just by swiping on the screen. Yes, there is a little scroll grabber on the very far right of the screen that appears while scrolling, but it’s invisible against the white background of the Photos app’s UI.

Anyway, I then saw the “Recently Saved” collection in the sidebar, and there were the images that I just imported. I hit “select” then “select all”; then the three dots menu on the lower right, to adjust the location of those images. I was happy to just put “Lisbon” in there; I don’t need those photos to have granular location data, just to know I took them in Portugal.

Second UI fail: I tapped “adjust” and got no feedback, confirmation, or any indication that anything was happening. In fact, I thought nothing was happening, so I went to adjust it again, and that was when I realized my error: I didn’t notice that there were over twenty-seven thousand images in that group, the oldest of which was imported in 2017. I mean… I guess that’s “recent”… it’s more recent than, say 2007, when the first iPhone was introduced; and it’s definitely more recent than Samuel Morse’s first morse code transmission in 1838. But in the context of my trip, I wouldn’t exactly call 2017 “recent”.

But, back to my story. In hindsight, the lack of response made sense, given the huge number of images being adjusted. With a growing sense of panic, I started poking around the Photos app, but realized that there is no way to undo that action for all twenty-seven thousand images as a batch. It is possible to restore an image’s original location data, and that is to select each image, hit adjust in the little map area, and then tap “revert”, but it only works on one image at a time.

I realize this might be a pretty niche scenario - ie. importing images into Photos on an iPad from a memory card, and needing to change the time and location of those images. But damn, there should really be an easier way to ensure you’re just dealing with that specific group of images.

Lightroom (which is what I normally use for dealing with importing RAW images, by the way) has a pretty sensible “Imports” section in its sidebar that groups imports based on when you imported them, and by default, is sorted by most recent import.

So why did I decide to import to Photos rather than Lightroom this time? Who’s to say? I have no explanation. It’s kind of arbitrary, but in general, I guess I use Lightroom when I think I might want to spend more time editing my photos, and Photos is for everything else. So I picked Photos this time.

There’s a glimmer of hope in the form of an app called Metapho, which allows for the editing of photo metadata, and it’s available on iOS and macOS. If I’m lucky, it will help me revert this clusterfuck for the 27,229 images in my library that were not, in fact, taken in Lisbon.

2024: It's a Wrap

Here we go again with another installment of what I like to call my annual "put something up on the blog to justify its presence" tradition/rite/exercise-in-introspection. I have to say, this year I had a hard time finding patterns and common threads across the photos I took. It's not for a lack of content; between Lightroom Classic and Apple Photos, which is where I very messily store the entirety of my photographic output, there are about 11,000 photos from the last year. But there just weren't that many big, overarching themes uniting them into a cohesive body of work. Not that there really needs to be; my photos are kind of like a sketchbook or a journal, providing cues that trigger memories about my life. But for the purposes of this kind of exercise, sometimes it's nice to have a unifying thread.

With that somewhat lackluster preamble, here are some of my favorite photos of 2024.

from above

I love taking pictures from the air, whether with a drone, or while gazing out the window seat of an airplane. I only took my drone up a handful of times in the past year, though. But I did get to travel a few times and of course I tried to get myself in a window seat as often as possible.

I shot these on the way home from a trip to Stockholm last fall. We had a stop in Reykjavik, and I had fun trying to capture details of the otherworldly Icelandic landscape as abstract-ish black and whites.

 

Nature and wildlife

This year, I rented a couple of different telephoto lenses that let me dabble in some wildlife photography, and I really enjoyed it, especially during our excellent trip to Costa Rica. We spent a little time in the cloud forest, where there should have been opportunities to photograph the resplendent quetzal, but luck wasn’t with us. I had to make do with egrets, anhingas, three-toed sloths, macaws and toucans.

Back in the untamed wilderness of New York City, I managed to capture some other impressive avian specimens.

This year, I also picked up a Moment Macro (T-Series) lens for my iPhone. I’m still kind of blown away by what that thing allows you to do, especially when paired with an already great mobile camera system.

 

the city

NYC always features prominently in my favorite images, and this year was no different. Looking through this group of images, I am noticing that most of them are by the waterfront - maybe there’s a theme after all!

A vertical panorama of 1 WTC, shot from Jersey City, composed of maybe 6 images? It’s very tall.

Fujifilm X-T4 | SIGMA 100-400mm F5-6.3 DG DN OS

 

People

I didn’t really make that many portraits last year, outside of a very fun family portrait session with a newborn; and some images of my friend Kaylah for her pop-up shop.

 

Land and Sea

At first, I was going to classify this group as landscapes, but once again, I realized that almost all of them are of the ocean, or some other body of water. Look at that, a through-line continues to emerge…

 

the moon

I tried something new this year: photographing our closest celestial neighbor, the moon. I rented a super telephoto lens (from lensrentals.com, naturally) specifically to try to capture the partial lunar eclipse in September. I spent a good bit of time poking around in Photopills, figuring out where and what time to shoot from, and learned about azimuths and hyperfocal distances. That said, I still have much to learn and am looking forward to doing more of this type of photography going forward.

 

So those are some of the standout images I made in 2024, which turns out to have had an aquatic/celestial thread running through it.

My goal for 2025 is to try and push myself outside of my comfort zone some more, by trying some more new techniques and finding more unifying threads in my photography. 🥳

2023 Wrap-up

Well, first things first - looks like I skipped 2022. I have no excuses, but here's two of my favorites from then, and we'll call it good.

I was pretty darn close to skipping my 2023 wrap-up too - every time I looked at my favorite photos from the year, I'd find myself thinking "Really? That is one of your favorite photos from 2023?" One of the things I'm trying to do is be kinder to myself, and to remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good... but it's hard. Brains are jerks, and will tell you terrible things about yourself if you let them.

I couldn't find any overarching themes for the year, but there were a couple of notable images, and a few paid portrait gigs. I flew my drone a bit less this year, but I did make some aerial images that I reall like. And in November, I went on an epic backpacking trip to Santa Rosa Island in the Channel Islands National Park. I heard once on a podcast that it's important to experience the feeling of awe - that is, to be in a surrounding that dwarfs you, that is beautiful, but at the same time a little threatening. I thought about that a lot during that Santa Rosa trip.

So here, in no particular order are some of my favorite photos from 2023.

people

I did a few portrait sessions this year. Not as many as I’d like to; in fact one of my 2024 goals is to book 2-3 portrait or headshot or family sessions per quarter. Feel free to reach out to set up a session! Anyway; here are some images from those sessions; a portrait of some random strangers on the street; and a self-portrait with dramatic lighting that I keep coming back to.

aerial

I love flying my drone and making images from a different perspective than we’re used to. In addition to some images at the beach, and in Prospect Park, I also dipped my toe into aerial real estate photography, which is also something I’d like to do more of.

nature and outdoors

Who doesn’t love the outdoors? I spend a lot of time in Prospect Park, as I have the good fortune to live across the street, so most of these images were taken there.

nyc miscellaneous

I got a some cool random shots around the city, but some standouts for me are Damon the JĒSISM guy; the orange air pollution sky, and that cool not-quite-Manhattanhenge sunset. I also love the roller coaster image.

santa rosa

This backpacking trip with two of my oldest friends was transformative. Hard backcountry hiking, with 40 pound packs filled with food, water and supplies for four days. The sound of sparring juvenile male elephant seals were the constant soundtrack (fortunately, our camp was removed enough from them that we couldn’t smell them, cuz boy do they stink). I was absolutely outside of my element, (I suck at sleeping in tents), but it was a fantastic way to reconnect with each other without the distractions of our ever-connected society.

Bonus

These two images don’t fit anywhere, but they’re calming to me, and I like how they look juxtaposed with each other. I shot these from the window of a flight to Copenhagen (which was an amazing city, and I’d love to go back again).

2021 and Done

When I wrote last year's wrap up of what a garbage year that was, little did I know I'd be sitting down a year later to say that 2021 was a dumpster fire too. I guess the attempted coup right in the beginning should have tipped us all off, though.

Anyway. The truth is, I have to once again say with deep gratitude that it wasn't all bad for me and my immediate family. Everyone's safe and healthy and has gainful employment, and I hope that continues into 2022.

A Latinx woman poses with assorted fruits and vegetables in front of a pink backdrop

side hustle

My photography side hustle definitely picked up - I got paid more in 2021 from my photography than in any previous year. Not only did I get more gigs, I branched out and did a little videography - handheld and aerial! - which was one of my goals. And I did one of the most elaborate studio shoots I've ever done for my friend Damaris, aka Summer Baby's upcoming single, and I'm so proud of the resulting images. I also shot the album art for my niece Gigi's first single as well, so music-related photography seems to be a growing trend for me.

I also started contributing more images to Adobe Stock, in an effort to start making some passive income. I only made a few sales this year, but the meager couple of bucks was still more than those images would have made just from sitting on my hard drive, collecting digital dust. The plan is to ramp that up this year as well.

A new car!

A silver Honda Insight parked in front of a cabin in Fleishmanns, New York

2021 Honda Insight, in Lunar Silver!

One other significant life change this year was that at the ripe old age of 47, my wife and I bought a car for the very first time in either of our lives. After many stressful hours spent researching, and one attempt to take a test drive at the ridiculous Plaza Auto Mall in Brooklyn, we ended up with a brand new 2021 Honda Insight, and we love it.

Unfortunately, almost exactly six months later, that jerk Ida pulled through and devastated the Northeast, leaving us with a flooded parking garage. Womp-womp. So much for that new car smell. At least there are no electrical problems… yet.

A Honda Insight in a flooded parking garage

2021 Honda Insight, in dirty hurricane water

Three men in the distance hiking over hills on Santa Rosa Island

Travel

We actually got to travel a little this year. Having the car allowed for a couple of quick trips to see family in Virginia and New Hampshire; as well as a couple of little jaunts to the Catskills and Greenport, Long Island.

Santa Rosa Island

The one major trip I took was out California to go backpacking on Santa Rosa Island, in Channel Islands National Park. It was an epic adventure with my childhood friend Matt, and some of his good friends. It was my first time backpacking - like, proper backpacking: carrying forty-plus pounds of gear and food; paying close attention to the weather and potable water sources; having absolutely zero cell service - that kind of backpacking.

We did about 10 miles of hiking each day for three days, and it was fun, but it was also really hard. I learned something about myself, though: that I was capable of doing this hard thing, and of having fun along the way. Also, Matt and his friends are more on the conservative side of the political spectrum, and spending time in close quarters with them for several days reinforced something I've always believed, which is that despite what Twitter says, it's possible to have ideological differences with people and still enjoy their company, and to learn from them.

 

random

Of course, I also roamed around NYC on my bike a bit; spent time in Prospect Park, and during that sliver of time when it seemed like we had Covid beat, I hung out with friends and family and did all those types of things that we hadn't been able do at the height of the pandemic. I also shot a bunch of random cool pictures for various reasons, or for no real reason at all.

Conclusion

So, that’s about it. 2021 is a wrap; 2022 is brand new and full of promise…here’s hoping I’m not back here in a year complaining about 2020: The Sequel.

2020 Wrap-Up

So, uh... 2020 huh? That was... something. First of all, I'm going to pat myself on the back for doing a wrap-up in a timely fashion (apologies to 2019, I'm very sorry for taking you for granted). Aside from that, I struggled - am still struggling - with gathering a collection of images that sums up this year in a way that is representative of the crazy roller-coaster dumpster fire we just went through. I spent much of the year in a frothing rage (well, okay, maybe more of a low-simmering despair that mostly manifested itself on [Twitter][1]) at failed steak salesman and one-term president, Donald Trump, and his colossal ineptitude and [callous mishandling][1] of the pandemic. But the truth is, I've been extremely fortunate, and don't have much to complain about in my personal life. Although I personally know at least 5 or 6 people that were killed by the virus (and I never want to attend another Zoom funeral), most of my immediate family and friends have managed to either avoid COVID-19 entirely, or not become seriously ill with it. I've been lucky enough to keep my job, keep my apartment, and never run out of toilet paper during this whole thing. I have a lot to be grateful for. [1]: https://twitter.com/flysi Anyway, here are a couple of collections of images that sum up this wild and crazy year. Here's hoping 2021 brings brigther days, and at least some of the familiar, but sorely missed things we all took for granted in the Beforetime. [1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/us/politics/trump-coronavirus.html

sabrams-wrapup_before_19.jpeg

BC: Before COVID

Ah, we were so innocent then - I was just living my life, doing regular stuff, like going to karate, riding my bike, riding the subway, hanging out in Chinatown, and working at an office. I even made some portraits of my coworkers, all in a room together!

Just before the quarantine kicked in, my wife and I took a trip to San Antonio to see our niece graduate from Air Force bootcamp, with a little detour for me to visit a friend in Austin. As a couple that usually takes at least one fairly big vacation every year, we could never have imagined that that would be our last trip for the unforeseeable future.

sabrams-wrapup_new-normal_06.jpeg

the new normal

sabrams-wrapup_new-normal-15.jpeg

Just before shit went sideways, a friend of mine loaned me his road bike, to try and coax me into yet another expensive hobby, and I had started riding a little more frequently, and farther afield. So naturally, when the lockdown started, knowing that there wouldn't be any traffic, I decided to bike into Manhattan to get some exercise.

I've lived in Brooklyn for 24 years. Up until the last 2 of those, I commuted into Manhattan for work every week. Nothing - not even seeing other people's videos or photos of it - could have prepared me for the sensation of being in The City during those early days of the initial shelter in place orders; of being in Chinatown, or in front of City Hall, or on the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian walkway by myself. It was shocking, saddening, depressing, scary, surreal - it was like the desolation that Will Smith's character in I Am Legend lived in, before the plants and deer (and zombies) took over.

And yet, it was kind of exciting. I felt like I was experiencing something exclusive; I felt possessive and selfish of that experience, and I also felt a little sad that I knew the emptiness and quiet was going to go away, and that I'd probably - hopefully - never see the city that way again. It was deeply conflicting, and I felt somewhat guilty about it. But I got to make some photographs I could never have made in any other circumstance, and I'm grateful, too.

Aside from that, once we realized that face coverings were easy and smart to wear (and asinine to make part of the culture war), my wife busted out her sewing machine, and after a few practice runs, she made our first cloth masks from some patterns she found online.

sabrams-wrapup_food_08.jpeg

cooking

I like cooking, and consider myself to be pretty good at it, and quarantine life drove me to cook even more. One of the best uses of video conferencing I experienced during the whole pandemic was a couple of cooking classes I took from The Brooklyn Kitchen. Our virtual office holiday party also took the form of us breaking into groups and cooking together over a video call, and it was one of the most fun video call experiences I've had.

I expanded my range, making things like quesadillas, fried rice, chow-mein, homemade pasta and cast-iron skillet pizza, but I also went the other way and fell back on easy packaged things like spicy instant ramen. At Christmas, as I've done for the past couple of years, I made a traditional Guyanese dish called Pepperpot; and also did a simple roasted chicken and a few sides.

sabrams-wrapup_nature_17.jpeg

nature and macro

Being locked down could have been much, much worse, if not for Prospect Park, which I'm fortunate to live across the street from. Coincidentally, my wife was getting an urban naturalist certification from the New York Botanical Garden, meaning she was now super interested in identifying the plants, birds and bugs that are native to the park. So we spent a ton of time going on walks, getting fresh air, and photographing what we saw.

As an aside, my burgeoning interest in birding happened to coincide with the very high-profile case of Central Park birder Christian Cooper having the cops called on him by a racist lady, so the incident struck a nerve with me in several ways.

Anyway, I was continually amazed at the quality of images I was able to make with my iPhone 11 Pro and Moment Macro lens (*affiliate link) - so much so that I wrote a whole blog post about it.

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Portraits

Pandemic aside, I managed to make some portraits that I'm really proud of. As mentioned before, I shot a few of my co-workers at the beginning of the year; and I also got out there and shot several family portrait sessions, which is something I've dabbled in for years now, always threatening to pull the trigger and make it a more substantial part of generating income with my photography. I also got out of my comfort zone and photographed a few strangers in the park; and at the prompting of some good friends of mine, I started submitting to 52frames, which is a weekly photography assignment. It's challenging, full of talented, creative people, and it motivates me to shoot even when I don't really feel like it. I recommend it.

sabrams-wrapup_protest_01.jpeg

protest

No wrap-up of 2020 can ignore the long-suppressed turmoil that finally - inevitably - spilled out with the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor (among many) this spring. I won't claim to have been out there in the streets with the rest of the activists fighting for justice (I know my lane; I donated where I was able, to causes I believe in), but I did make a point of capturing some of the powerful - and peaceful - response I saw in my neighborhood.

I also went out to try to capture the sense elation that many of us felt when the election was called in favor of President-Elect Joe Biden, and when Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris made history in so many ways this fall. I'm still disappointed that so many people opted in for more of the objectively apalling shit that we've experienced for the past four years, but I'm also cautiously optimistic about the future.

sabrams-wrapup_aerial_05.jpeg

aerial

One thing I did this year, which was really hard, and I'm incredibly proud of, was to pass my FAA Part 107 remote pilot certification. It means I can fly a drone commercially, so that's another avenue for expanding my photography earning. It's also fun, and the perspective from up there never gets old.

So, that was my 2020, I guess. Difficult times; loss, frustration, sacrifice; but also growth, creativity, potential, new opportunities.

I sincerely hope that my optimism for the incoming administration isn't misplaced - though the bar is low, so unless Biden is paying adult entertainers hush-money, or telling white supremacists to "stand by", I think we have the capacity to move forward as a country.

I'm also looking forward to moving forward as a husband, a son, a brother, a friend; and as a photographer, a developer, a creative person, and in all the other areas of my life. And I wish the same for you as well.

🥂

iPhone 11 Pro x Moment 15mm Fisheye

Now that I’ve had the iPhone 11 Pro for a few months, I just wanted to do a quick post about the value of using Moment lenses with this phone. I have the Moment 60mm, which is a telephoto equivalent; the Moment 18mm Wide Lens, and the Moment 15mm, or "Superfish", and I used them all regularly with my iPhone 7.

My Moment collection

My Moment collection

But when the iPhone 11 was first announced, I wondered about whether these lens attachments would still be as useful, given that the iPhone now has those focal lengths covered with its built-in trio of lenses. Also, the Moment lenses require having a Moment case, with its bayonet lens mount, but the new iPhone 11 cases didn’t ship until sometime in December. By the time I finally received mine, I’d kind of gotten used to not having access to my Moment lenses at all, and was getting along just fine without them:

My iPhone 11 Pro with Moment Case

My iPhone 11 Pro with Moment Case

Anyay, I finally got my case, but I wasn't using the lenses. It was just more convenient to not have to carry them around, plus I could be seamlessly switching between the focal lenghts of my iPhone's stock lenses.

I was out shooting some low-light photography, and I eventually figured out at least one answer for why you'd still want to use these lenses: Night Mode. Apple's Ultrawide lens (0.5x, as it's indicated in the iPhone's Camera app) is great, but is limited in a couple of ways. First, it's got a smaller aperture than the Wide (aka default or 1x) lens, meaning it lets in less light. It also doesn't work with Night Mode, which makes it doubly tough to use in low light situations. But, you can solve that by using one of Moment's Wide or Fisheye lenses stacked on top of the built-in iPhone Wide lens:

As you can see in the images above, Night Mode is impressive, but with the Moment 15mm Fisheye (fka the Moment "Superfish"), the field of view improves dramatically. These images are straight out of camera, with no adjustments, though as a matter of preference I'd normally correct some of the fisheye distortion using the Moment Pro Camera App.

Just as a matter of comparison, here's an image shot with the built-in iPhone 11 Ultrawide:

Same scene as the first two images, shot with the Ultrawide

Same scene as the first two images, shot with the Ultrawide

My intention with this comparison isn't to disparage the Ultrawide; it's a fantastic addition to the hardware, and I'm willing to bet it'll get improved optics on Apple's next iPhone, which is safe to assume we'll hear about in September. It's just to illustrate what a difference Night Mode makes, and to show how you can compound those advantages with an add-on like the Moment lenses.

Similar results are available on the other end of the spectrum; namely, stacking a Moment telephoto lens on top of the built-in Tele lens will get you that much closer to your subject. Just be aware that you won't be able to use Portrait mode, because when a Moment lens is mounted on the iPhone's 2x lens, it obstructs the iPhone's other lenses, which it uses to read the scene and generate depth of field and bokeh.

Attached Moment lenses block the iPhone’s other lenses

Attached Moment lenses block the iPhone’s other lenses