Lovers

I was wandering around Neck Point because I came to see the sunset and make some photographs. It was a beautiful warm evening with the sun dropping into the ocean in a beautiful warm glow.  The sun had gone down behind some clouds and the showy part of the sunset was over when I saw this couple alone  on the grass.  I circled behind them and snapped a few pictures from a distance.  He leaned forward to kiss her cheek and it was the perfect instance that defined their moment together.    It is a moment filled with little intimacies, the little tattoo behind her ear, his arm around her back and... the kiss.  With the the sun still glinting in the grasses around them it is a tender moment shared by two lovers with the ocean the mountains in the background.  Henri Cartier-Bresson, an amazing French photographer, talked about finding the decisive moment that defines a situation or a personality or a relationship.  I think this moment comes pretty close to matching Cartier-Bresson’s criteria.

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

25 Years

Young lovers in a stream.  He has set the timer on the camera and scrambled over the rocks to be there on time.  The shutter clicks and they sit on the edge of the water, talking.  They sit on the rock and they are unaware of so many things.  There is the sparkle and shine of a new relationship and the whole world is lit with that light.  They don't understand what love means or how it changes a person.  They don't know that what they have is only the beginning of what it will become; for their love will have time to grow and breath and become something else entirely, something so much more real.  The babies will come and the lovers will see in each of the children a little of themselves, a little more of the other to love in the small hand that reaches up to grasp their finger.  Their love will be tested and tempered in a furnace that produces a new thing that is once again different, and beautiful and strong.  They find in the other the better angels of their own nature and they look forward to what is next.

-Russell Berg

Finding The Light

Young lovers in the light of a dying sun. EOS Rebel XSi, EF 17-85 4.5-5, at 38mm f5.6, 1/2000, ISO 200

Sometimes photography isn’t too much more than finding, waiting for, looking for the perfect light.  This was the first time that I had ever done photography for someone else.  A friend of mine asked if I would make photo-cards to lay out on the tables for their daughter’s wedding.  This was a former student of mine and I was excited to do it.  I went out to scout the location, Neck Point, and noted when sunset was.  I had them show up in the hour before sunset and we got some really beautiful light.  For this shot I knew that I wanted them in full silhouette so I set them up directly in front of the sun to avoid flare and just kept stopping down the exposure until I got the look that I wanted.  This is one of the moments when shooting in digital, is so valuable, getting that instant feedback on what your changes are doing to the exposure let me be sure that I was getting what I wanted.  I end up only needing to take it down to -1 EV.  I was really happy and it was a lot of fun.  A couple of the finished cards are below.

-Russell Berg