Great quotes fromTodd Heisler “I’m obsessed with light. I find where the light is and that usually brings me to a beautiful photograph.” Great advice.

“Someone told me once, ‘every assignment is important to somebody.’ And so I always carry that with me.” Even better advice.

Forty-five feet below Midtown’s busy streets, Todd Heisler of The Times took a tour of an enormous excavation project at Grand Central Terminal.Mr. Heisler’s best-known work includes intimate stories like “One in 8 Million.” So one might think photographing a tunnel would be a challenge. But he managed to find “little quirky human elements” in the vast mechanical undertaking. This video, by Mariana Vasconcellos, shows how Mr. Heisler approached the assignment.

via Human Scale in the Grand Central Dig – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com.

I was going though some portraits by photographer Stephan Vanfleteren today and looking at his portraits. I came across one image he had of Flemish author Hugo Claus that reminded me of the photos I discussed in a post a couple of days ago. (I’m less infatuated with the photo a couple of days later.) I’m still wondering when a blink ruins a portrait or makes a portrait.

A new lens arrived for me today so I had to break it out and make some test shots. A week ago I spotted a good deal on an open box Nikon 35mm f/1.8 G. I’m pretty pleased with it thus far.

I had a chance to photograph our recently retired mayor today. He served our city for the past 15 years. I followed him and his wife around for awhile taking pictures and as our time wound down I asked if I could take a portrait of him. As he was standing in front of my lens grinning ear to ear I started to ask him about being retired and how good it felt. Then I asked him to take a deep breath and relax. As he did I made a click. Back in the office I looked through the edit and something inside me really connected the picture of him, eyes closed, taking the deep breath. Out of context it looks like a bad photo of someone with their eyes closed. But to me I see a relaxed man.

So I wonder what you think? Do you see a blink or a breath?

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I photographed Molly for the paper last week. She’s being featured in our weekly artist profiles. Usually we feature the artist and their art together in one photo, but what do you do with a singer? We just walked around and found some neat spots in Peace Park to make some nice portraits.