Manhattan is my studio, Photographing Sophia Ayaan

I love the number of different backgrounds, moods, and looks that I can get in a one hour photo-shoot in Manhattan.

As I love any chance to hang out in cool cafes meeting creative people and it helps break the ice, I met up with actress, presenter, comedienne and dancer Sophia Ayaan to discuss the shoot, before the shoot.

I turned up early for the photo-shoot and managed to scout out a couple of other locations before Sophia turned up. I found the dark moody subway, a cracked yellow tile background and a arching entrance as well as the already planned neo-Gothic architecture.







In the end the improvised locations worked out better than the planed one. Not knowing exactly what you are going to get from a shoot is half the fun for me.

Alt, Control, Return, Apple buttoned up

All that I have to remind me of my old Blueberry Imac are the buttons that I made from it's old keys. It was a good machine but the useful lifespan of a computer is as short as a Hollywood marriage. While it was a good looker and a great design that could be collectible in 50 years or so, space is a valuable asset and it had to go. Before I formatted the hard drive and left it on a street corner for someone to adopt it, I took the keys from its keyboard to do something with.

A few years later when I lost a button from my beloved sheepskin winter coat I fashioned buttons from some of the old keys. Just take a self shank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button) button and glue it to the back of the key.

Old leather jacket becomes new leather seat

I had had my burgundy leather jacket for some years but it was just becoming a favorite when the zip broke. I like repairing things but a new zip would not be cheap and sewing it by hand would be tedious. “new” leather jackets for me come from thrift stores (charity shops) which I love to trawl for bargains and weird finds so a replacement would be the best option. But I hate waste so I would keep it to use the leather in other repairs or creations.

I found a lovely old office chair in Stoke Newington a few years ago and had been putting up with a simple ply wood seat I had cut to fit it for years. Now was the time to merge these two projects and properly upholster my old wooden office chair using the leather from my old jacket. I only hope that the seam joining the two halves (from the back of the jacket) will take the tension from the padding and the sitting. So far so good.

Foody Portraits, capturing restaurant atmosphere

It made a refreshing change to be taking some portraits whilst photographing a restaurant and food.

Here are Melibea's Manager David, and Executive chef Alex Ureña

Photographing for Zagat in New York I have just been requested to photograph food and an empty restaurant, but Melba the curated dining experience people wanted me to capture some of the atmosphere and the personalities behind the food. It took me back to my Travel photography days covering gastronomy, lifestyle and landscape. Here is Melibea's Mixologist with some of his creations

I loved the opportunity to capture some of the behind the scenes action, and of course enjoy some of the fully flavoured meditteranian fusion food at the west village restaurant Melibea.

The staff's sense of fun and attention to detail was impressive

www.melba.co/ www.melibeanyc.com/ www.jonmartindesigns.com

A mile in my shoes, abandoned shoes on the streets of Manhattan

Abandoned shoes on the streets of Manhattan are not a rare sight. Sometimes a particularly well made pair of sturdy shoes vacated by their previous owner can trigger a set of leathery questions.

On this day I happened to walk over 10800 steps (after I got my new pedometer from Jacks world) photographing Manhattan restaurants and food for Zagat in my own shoes.

As I tread my path between restaurants I keep my creative eyes open looking for something worthy of storage space in my minds cloud.

I did not shoot the old guy engaged in an intense phone conversation whilst ignoring the guy shining his shoes, but I did photograph a pair of abandoned shoes and an abstract painting made by remains of the walls of a demolished building clinging on to the side of its still standing neighbor and mixed the two together to create “a mile in my shoes”.

http://www.saatchionline.com/art/Digital-Photomanipulation-A-mile-in-my-shoes/1185/1639819/view

Curries to Kitch, Jon Martin's food photography in Manhattan

I'm running around Manhattan photographing restaurants for Zagat, everything from curries to kitsch comfort food, and Italian to Ethiopian. It is a good opportunity to keep my food photography skills finely honed and to find some restaurants that I would otherwise miss out on. I'm shooting with available light and leaving the food au naturel, without all the cheats of top end food stylists.

This Octopus and squid is the prettiest dish that I have photographed so far, but I didn't have time to eat it as I had to run to the next restaurant.

Check out some of my other food photography online:

Rooftop photoshoot

I like to plan my shoots in advance, meet with the portrait subject or model, discuss what they are looking to get from a shoot, what images and photographers they like, and what inspires them. This give me a great chance to hang out in my favorite New York cafes and to understand my subject, building an imagined world for them to inhabit.

Recently I got a chance to photograph some of the models from Hoboken based www.Drakebook.com for a modeling boot camp. This opportunity came out of the blue and I had 4 hours to photograph 12 subjects when usually I take an hour or two to photograph one.

I sat in on one of the talks by a international model video guy who was telling the young models some of the industries harsh truths and insights, I'm, guessing that a lot of it did not sink into the young models, but in time they will come to understand.

I did enjoy improvising whilst exploring a new environment seeing some new fresh faces and doing my first rooftop shoot and and I am happy with some of my results and learned some good lessons for the next time.

There was a boy and girl team shooting on film who “borrowed” my tripod during the shoot thinking it was the agencies. I would like to see their results.