VH1 Divas 2011 shoot selects

I took these shots over a month ago when we did a full days worth of filming for VH1's 2011 Divas promo and show graphics. I've been dying to show them, but I obviously had to wait until the show aired (Dec 19). So, here are some of my selects from the stills I shot.

You can see some of the video and graphics work we did for the show at this link.

Happy Holidays 2011

Happy Holidays, everyone. Here's a little lighthearted fun we made at my company:

Animated Still Life

Here's a recent experiment I did that I thought was interesting. It is meant to be presented as an endless loop, but this example is just one loop.

New Photos uploaded to Street Art album

Here are some new shots I've recently added to my Street Art album

Street Art

Photographs of Richard Serra work

I saw the Richard Serra show at the Gagosian Gallery today.  I love photographing his work because it's a wonderful canvas with which to 'paint' an image.  If you like abstract work, click here.  (Once you've gone to the page, you can 'click' to advance each image.)

Joseph Saccio sculpture show at Silvermine, Sept 25, 2011

I got to photograph my father's sculpture show at the Silmermine gallery in New Canaan, recently. I thought I'd share some selections here. I'm a big fan of his work and it's been great to see how prolific he's been this past year. It's really worth checking out!

Today at the Brooklyn Bridge Park

Here's a couple iphone photos I took today during a nice walk along the Brooklyn Bridge Park area.

Cape Cod, September 2011

I was able to get a few more days donated at a client's B&B again this year, so we had a very nice opportunity to hike around the Orleans and Wellfleet area of Cape Cod two weekends ago. Here are some shots I took. Nothing super special, but some a few nice nature shots. All in all, it was perfect weather and a good escape to nature again for me.

Labor Day Weekend Food (so far)

Couldn't resist posting some shots of the food we've been having this weekend.

Ravenous: the new online food column by Monique Truong

I'm not able to post my photos directly for this just yet, but please follow this link to see a really awesome new online column for the New York Times T Magazine that Monique Truong is writing on food. The first article is already up and yours truly took the food photos for it. It's my first work for the New York Times that has actually gotten credited to me, so that's certainly nice to see.

New Jersey / New York state line hike

I went on a hike last weekend with some friends along the border of New Jersey and New York. It was interesting mostly for the numerous steep climbs/descents we had to make and the fact that much of the trail had turned into streams due to the excessive rains from previous days. Also, it was the first time that I got to give my Capture Camera Clip a good work out. Given all the scrabbling up and down rocks that we had to do, having my camera securely mounted to my backpack strap was incredibly helpful. It was instantly available anytime I wanted to take a photo, but completely out of my way when I didn't need it. Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of breathtaking sites to photograph on this trip, but I got a few fun panoramas out of the trip. Take a look here.

Last weekend upstate

We had the pleasure of being invited upstate to spend last weekend with some friends in Ghent, NY. Here are a some of my favorite shots from the weekend. (Some items of note: JR graffiti along the Bruckner Expressway, a Shaker community near Mt. Lebanon, and Kinderhook Farm.)

Photo shoot in the Hamptons and Montauk

I was lucky enough to go on a photo shoot last week to capture panoramics of desolate Hamptons beaches. It was great to get some of the sea air (and cooler temps) in the midst of all this heat we've been getting. Here are two of the panoramics and a few other shots from a Montauk beach that was suffering some serious erosion. (Watch for promos for a new TV show this fall that will feature one of the panoramas)

Inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard

I had a rare opportunity to get inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard recently. It was a crazy couple hours, as there was a brief freak storm that happened while I was there. It snapped a small tree in half, kicked up a huge amount of dirt and debris, caused the nearby waters to go crazy, and then ended in a full rainbow. My stay was very brief, but I managed to snap a few photos. Take a look here.

Moustache strikes again

From Street Art

Italy and Greece Photos

I've finally finished going through all the photos I took from my recent trip to Italy and Greece, except for the time-lapse experiments I made. You can take a look here where I've posted some favorite regular shots, some panoramics, and a few HDR photos.
If you want to see more, a more comprehensive set of standard photos and Athens 'Street Art' can be found here.

New NYC photos - Arts Weekend in town

I've not had a chance to post anything lately, and I'm still working on the large group of shots and time lapses I shot while in Italy and Greece.

However, in the meantime, I just had a great day yesterday checking out the American Academy of Arts and Letters, way up on West 155th St in Manhattan. My wife recently won an award from them, and they have a great exhibit of all of the award winners and inductees this year. I photographed some statuary on their grounds as well as some really cool works by architect Bill Massie and artist James Turrell.

After that, we went to the Jonathan Levine Gallery in Chelsea to catch the Gaia, Miss Van, and Mario Martinez show and then finally on to the newly opened High Line extension between 20th and 30th Streets. I'd highly recommend (re-)visiting the High Line to see the extension, it's well worth it.

As we were finishing up our High Line visit, a rooftop dance performance by the Trisha Brown Dance Company began. It consisted of about 8 dancers on various rooftops and the High Line, acting out various moves that were picked up in succession (telephone-game style) and passed along from one dancer to the next.

Definitely a very New York-centric arts heavy day, but well worth it.

Check out this link for my interpretations of various things I saw yesterday.
First, some explanations: When you go to the link, try maximizing your browser to get the full effect (apple/windows-shift-f works on firefox)
The first images are of statuary at the American Academy, the next are details of a study model by Bill Massie's studio; then there are some images showing new holograms from James Turrell; Then there are various details from along the High Line and finally an image from the Trisha Brown dance performance. Hope you enjoy:

June 11, 2011 images

first night time time lapse

First time I tried out a timelapse at night. The two moves are at two different speeds as you can see.

Interestingly, you can see the flight path for planes heading to LaGuardia airport and away from JFK pretty clearly.

...and 'uninterestingly', you can see there's a problem with the track not being fixed down :-(

Hanksy!

Forget about Bansky, 'Hanksy' has just put this one up in Little Italy. (you may need to click to see the full size of this, as it's a bit far away.) This is like a joke on top of a joke on top of a joke!

MoCo Timelapse, here we go!

Thanks to Dynamic Perception, I've finally taken the next step in my long quest to get set up with a motion controlled time lapse rig. I'm pretty excited. I've put together the unit and mastered the fundamentals of the dolly controller. I still need some essential pieces to the puzzle, but I have enough ready now that I was able to do a few tests.

Above are some pictures of it coming together and here's the first test video:

MoCo04 from Damijan Saccio on Vimeo.

First outdoor tests. I still need a battery pack and tripods, so possibilities are still pretty limited. Good stuff to come in a few weeks though!

MoCo05 from Damijan Saccio on Vimeo.

New Photo Session from the Jazz Standard posted

I haven't had a lot of chances to post new photos lately, but just last week I was lucky enough to be invited to photograph Ben Allison's new band to help celebrate their new album release Action-Refraction.
Check out the pictures here

Street Art (recent photos)

I haven't had a chance to capture any relevatory shots for a while, but I was just on an errand up Kent Ave today in Williamsburg and aside from all the frightful signs of rapid gentrification, I was able to grab a number of shots of some excellent street art. I was especially impressed by an entire building mural by twin artists How & Nosm, along with RRobots. Also of note are some works by noted artist ROA. Click HERE and go to the end of the list to see the other shots from today and previous ones.