Vito Paratore Photography

Just recently, I came to the realization that it is shameful that I only have one photo from the beach on my website while I live within 25 minutes from the ocean. A few weekends ago, I drove around exploring the beaches closest to me, with the specific idea in mind of finding pavilions or gazebos with views of the ocean.  Two Saturdays ago, I arose at 5am and drove around 30 minutes to Spring Lake, New Jersey to a pavilion I found in the scouting trip. It was a cold, crisp morning with crystal clear skies except for a thick cloud bank right on the horizon. This is my favorite from the trip. It is composed of three different exposures merged to HDR with photoshop. I then used Hugin, an open source panoramic stitching program, to straighten out the vertical posts in the pavilion.

During the fourth weekend of October, my dad and I took a trip to Shenandoah National Park. We drove down there Thursday afternoon and stayed until Sunday afternoon. My grandparents were already there since the Tuesday before, so we met them for dinner Thursday night. During dinner I talked my grandfather into getting up for sunrise with me.

We awoke nice and early and drove a few miles down the road to Thorofare Mountain Overlook. It was very foggy while driving to the spot, but we were hopeful that the sun might poke through at some point. Unfortunately, we sat at the overlook for over an hour and a half, seeing the wall of fog get slightly lighter and lighter, but no break in the clouds.

Before leaving,  I decided to take some shots of this lone tree in the fog and one shot of my grandfathers Mazda Miata. I did not take it for artistic reasons but as a testament to how awesome my grandfather is. I don’t know many people willing to get up at 5am on their vacation and sit in a car looking at a wall of fog, with some vague hope of seeing the sun rise.

Last month, I went up to my grandparents house in the Poconos to visit them. They have a nice waterfall about 20 feet tall within a mile and a half walk from their house. I received a handheld GPS unit from my parents for my birthday, so I decided to map out the trip with it. Right in the beginning of the hike, I noticed that the ferns in the area were starting to die out, making them a nice light brown color. I love photographing ferns because of the patterns their leaves make. I found the fern shown below in a spot of sun that made it through the tree canopy, highlighting it nicely and causing the background to darken.

After we made it back from the summit of Blue Mountain, Edward and I decided we could make it up Snowy Mountain. Snowy Mountain is a 3.9 mile hike with a 2100 foot climb. We brought lunch and plenty of water this time (we overlooked water on our hike up Blue Mt, not smart) and planned on breaking for lunch halfway up for a nice rest. The beginning of the hike was nice and easy, with a few minor climbs here and there, but generally just hiking to the mountain. Around halfway in, the trail starts climbing, getting steeper and steeper until a level spot, which we took wrongly for the top. It turned out the *real* climb was yet to come. I will never forget after thinking we were just crossing the ridge and would be coming up to the fire tower soon, looking up through a clearing in the trees and seeing the real summit another 800+ feet above us. This last part was probably the steepest climb I have ever hiked. After a couple stops for water, we made it to the top of a rock outcropping with a fantastic view. A short walk led us to the fire tower, which was at least twice as tall as the one on the top of Blue Mountain. Blue Mountain had a large clearing at the top, with the fire tower in the middle. Snowy Mountain had no clearing, so the fire tower had to be tall enough to clear the trees. After another inner battle of will, another climb to the top of the tower, I took this virtual tour.

Click here to view the virtual tour.

This past August, I took a trip to the Adirondacks with my long-time friends, the Ritter family. This trip in particular, I spent some time beforehand researching possible photo locations and trails to hike. I found two summit hikes with fire towers at the top that seemed to have good views. The first was Blue Mountain, right near the Adirondack Museum. It was a relatively short hike, 2.2 miles to the top, but with the largest climb I had done at 1500 feet. I talked my friend, Edward, into climbing it with me. It turned out that 2.2 miles is quite long when you are climbing the entire time, but we pushed through it and made it to the top in good time. I am not a fan of heights; it took an internal battle to will myself up the rickety-looking fire tower. I took this virtual tour from the inside.

Click here to view the virtual tour.

Hello Everyone. After a long break, I am re-kicking off my blog. I have spent the last summer and early part of fall in an uninspired slump. I have not completely broken out of it, but I was able to take a few trips to get some new photos. Over the next couple weeks I am going to cover my trip to the Adirondacks in August, my trip to the Poconos in September, and my trip to Shenandoah National Park this past October.

This past Saturday, I was finally able to carve out a block of time to photograph. I woke up early to drive there for sunrise, but the clouds were too thick to see the sun coming up. I was surprisingly okay with that, since lately I have wanted to take some abstract macros. I found a nice little oak (?) tree covered in water droplets and began to shoot it. While repositioning to try a new angle, I looked back into my viewfinder and found the composition below. I was not even shooting the grasses there, so I’m considering this shot a gift from God (Well, all my shots are…but this one in particular). In the uninspired photographic “slump” I have been in the past few weeks, I needed a little Divine intervention.

After deciding the clouds moving in were going to ruin the sunset, I started to drive home. What a misjudgment! About 5 miles down the road, I looked back to find great color and very dramatic light. I found a spot to turn around and went back. I missed the most dramatic light because of my impatience, but the sunset was still quite beautiful when I got back to take photos. I learned a key lesson of photography that day: Never leave before the sun is down!

After a few uninspired, busy weeks, I made time to go shooting this past Friday and Saturday. On Friday, I took a trip to scout out Batsto Lake not too far from Tuckerton, New Jersey. It looks like it has some promise, although bug spray is a must. I found 3 ticks on me after walking for less than 15 minutes. I went back to Whitesbog for sunset and found a few good spots for future photos.

On Saturday I went back to Whitesbog for sunset. I found this small group of stumps in one of the bogs. Because the bog is so shallow, the water is very still, making for awesome reflections of the sky. Here is what I ended up with:

A few weeks ago, in thinking about pursuing real estate photography, I realized I would need a flexible portfolio to show off my work to potential clients. After talking to some friends and family and doing some research of my own, I figured a Mac would fit my needs well. I found a previous generation 2.2ghz Core 2 Duo White Macbook for ~30% off the original price on the refurbished page of the Apple.com store. I ordered it the Wednesday before easter and received it in the mail the next Wednesday. It took literally 5 minutes (or so) to set up my user account and network connections. This is my first Mac, so the operating system is all new to me, but I found it simple and easy to use. Overall, the Macbook is excellent. Fast, easy to use, and simple, elegant design. Of course, surfing the web and instant messaging on the couch again is great.