Suspect Photography

words and images from david george brommer
March 12, 2024

David Brommer & Steve Simon Street Photography & United Nations NYC Spring Workshop May 13-17 2024

Join the waitlist for May 12-16 2025

Take your photography to the next level with this Intensive & Transformational Shooting Experience in The Street Photography Capital of The World, NYC. Plus secure your seat at the International Photography Conference’s 50th Anniversary Celebration at the Delegates Dining Room at The United Nations where Francoise Kirkland will receiver a Lifetime Achievement Dedication in honor of the great Douglas Kirkland and IPC’s Environmental Photography Award to Benjamin Von Wong will be presented. Our class will have it’s own table-a great opportunity to rub elbows with great photographers and industry insiders (and a one hour guided tour of the UN too!)

  • Dates: May 13-17, 2024
  • Genre: Street & Urban Photography
  • Group Size: Max 8 participants
  • Skill Levels: All
  • Includes: Critiques & Lectures, 2 Group Dinners, United Nations Luncheon, MTA Pass for transport to the five boroughs, Museum Entrances, teaching materials, snacks and plenty of camera whispering along with a pre and post workshop zoom.
  • $2,500 Workshop Fee ($100 Deposit and final balance due May 5th)
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Locations may include: Little Island, the West Village, East Village, SoHo, Chelsea Galleries, MOMA, Central Park, Governors Island, Coney Island, Times Square, High Line Park, Harlem, Fifth Avenue & 57 Street, Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown, Little Italy, Ground Zero and the Lower East Side, Union Square, Washington Square Park, Queens and Brooklyn.

This is a mentorship workshop where Steve or David meets with each participant prior to the start for a one-on-one Zoom meeting assessment of your portfolio and a tech check to discuss gear and best ways to use it regardless of your system brand. We make tweaks to enhance your speed of response which might include back button autofocus, Auto ISO, Easy Exposure Compensation, frame rate and playback options along with other best practices all designed to simplify your process and build your muscle memory so the technical fades to the background and you increase you success rate. 

photo by David Brommer

AN INTENSIVE & TRANSFORMATIONAL SHOOTING EXPERIENCE

This intensive workshop will help you find your own unique vision and street style through assignments created to get you past photographic fears and cliches to capturing lyrical, poetic and decisive moments that communicate the energy of the streets. But mostly you will be shooting the theatre that is the street; sometimes together, often on our own.

You’ll learn about the “rhythm of place” and you will discuss the laws and ethics of street photography as well as dealing with difficult situations that might pop up. You will define a strategy for capturing the rich daily life of people on the street; overcoming fears and shyness, approaching strangers, framing, juxtaposition, layering your compositions, letting the image come to you and whether color or black and white best suits your vision. And you will have fun!

Though the schedule may seem packed, woven into the program is down time to relax, edit your work and percolate on the experience and what is being taught.

We encourage flexibility and independence among participants and will attempt to personalize your experience whenever possible. If you fall in love with an area and want to continue working there–you are encouraged to do so.

Limiting the participants to 10 allows us to tailor this workshop to meet the needs of each participant. Lectures and assignments will be personalized to get you out of your comfort zone and push you forward in your work.

We have curated this tour to alter between the spectacular indoor and outdoor iconic New York photo opportunities like The Whitney (currently the Biennial is on exhibit), Grand Central Station and The Oculus with the usual vibrant, visually rich places and neighborhoods New York is famous for. New Yorkers David Brommer & Steve Simon will take you to these and other hidden gems.

photo by David Brommer
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The Dinners: Gemma @ The Bowery Hotel and David’s Rooftop in Chelsea

Gemma is the iconic Italian restaurant on the ground floor of The Bowery Hotel. It’s a very special dinner location,  a true New York City culinary experience. The stunning atmosphere; the delicious food and the quiet ambiance makes for a great epicurean evening of conversation.

“Gemma has an unlabored panache that makes an evening go down very easy”.

-THE NEW YORK TIMES

David’s wife Barbara Brommer is an accomplished chef and will delight you with special morsels to be appreciated while photographing a magnificent sunset 23 floors above the Chelsea neighborhood with stunning views of lower Manhattan, Empire State Building and the new skyscrapers of Hudson Yards.

Street Philosophies

Steve & David will help and encourage you to find your own unique vision through assignments created to get you past photographic fears and cliches to capturing lyrical, poetic and decisive moments that communicate the energy of the city. David will bring his years of experience and share his lessons to help you find and develop your photographic style. In classroom David will lead talks that dissect the anatomy of photographic style that will help students achieve a definable style they can call their own. 

All levels of photographic experience can benefit from this workshop. You’ll learn about the “rhythm of place” and you will discuss the laws and ethics of street photography as well as dealing with difficult situations that might pop up.

You will define a strategy for capturing the rich daily life of people, overcoming fears and shyness, approaching strangers, framing, juxtaposition, layering your compositions, letting the image come to you and whether color or black and white best suits your vision. And you will have fun!

photo by Steve Simon

Post Workshop Mentorship

After our workshop we have a post-workshop Zoom Class where we have our final lecture and critique of images not yet seen and Steve & David put together a narrative of your best work from the workshop. You also can schedule a final hour-long one-on-one Zoom session to talk about the final outcome of the workshop and areas to work on moving forward.

photo by David Brommer

Street Tech

We will talk urban-tech with Steve giving you his minimalist view on gear along with simplified shooting processes to maximizing your response time to capture decisive moments. This will be in our one on one session where we tailor the technical for the gear you use.

Steve’s street tools include Nikon mirrorless and DLSR cameras along with a carefully curated selection of lenses. He is also familiar with a wide range of equipment to help you maximize your mirrorless, compact, rangefinder, DSLR or even your camera phone for compelling urban images. David shoots Nikon and Fujifilm, but is also known for shooting analog and will have a few film cameras on hand for the curious. David is a famous “Camera Whisperer” and calls himself “PolyCamerous” from his years working for B&H Photo and the camera industry. 

Though our focus is on vision more than gear, we will talk lenses, auto focus, zone focusing, shooting form the hip, using live view, flash, camera support and tripods and a host of other tips, tricks, distractions and ideas that will improve your work dramatically. Steve will go over his post-process workflow in Lightroom.

It’s a street and urban photography masterclass but the lessons learned will benefit you in all genres of image-making and help you to create a compelling New York City portfolio.

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Any questions please feel free to email david@davidbrommer.com

Check out David & Steve’s NYC Street Photo Tips Video

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March 5, 2024

Suspect Assignment: Photograph Virtue

In keeping with a theme of Positivity through Photography we present our First Assignment: Photograph Virtue.

The idea of this assignment is to foster an appreciation for what is positive in our photo life. The Cambridge Dictionary states, Virtue (Noun) “A good moral quality in a person, or the general quality of being morally good”. Another suggestion by Douglas Holleley in his book, “Your Assignment: Photography” is to consider the “Seven Deadly Sins” polar opposites being; chastity, restraint, generosity, diligence, patience (of course we have all heard, “Patience is a virtue), kindness, and humility.
Please only use the above examples of Virtue as a starting point (Holleley stated the opposites are debatable). You are as always free to interpret virtue as you see virtue.

Submission Deadline: March 13th at midnight.
Live Review Thursday March 14th at 6:00 pm


Now point your cameras at it. Here are the rules:

You can submit one image in the theme “virtue”. This image is an assignment, you are highly encouraged to prioritize creating this photograph over this week. You may draw from your archive, because even that is an exercise, however to gain the full benefit of this assignment, you should seek out the image.
Upload ONE 2-5 mb jpeg. Images must follow this naming convention: firstname_lastname.jpg ie: david_brommer.jpg and not have a water mark. Images will only be used for a one time recorded critique. By following the naming convention you will receive credit for your work in the form of a shout out during the review.

Submit Your Image
Watch the Review Live on Zoom 3/14 6 pm et

We will review as many images as we can in one hour from David’s selection on submitted work. Class Zoom is limited to 100 participants at one time. The review will be recorded and presented on Youtube at a later date. Any questions, feel free to email david.

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January 16, 2024

Working a Subject & Scene To ‘Score a Banger’

A natural inclination of photographers, when seeing an interesting subject or scene, is to take one shot and move on. In most cases there was a good photograph in there, but by casually investing in only one shot, the full potential is missed. When you find something interesting you stand a better chance of “scoring a banger”, (meaning making a great image), simply by taking a few more shots and zeroing in on what you saw in the first place. Even if the first shot ends up being the best, at least you got a few to choose from.

A country classic: a pie straight out of the oven cooling off on a pastoral window sill.

What at first sight would seem an easy-peasy composition, needs constant compositional adjustment. Below are the shots in sequence, shown raw out of an iPhone 13 Summer 2023.

I love the shot, but the red car just kills it for me. Way too intrusive, we need to crop it out.

I try to compose the car out, but then a garbage can enters the scene. No one ever said photography was easy. Keep working.

Car is out, but that garbage can is just annoyingly a tad bit in the view middle left.

How about we just fix it in post? Quickly cloned out now but… I feel dirty solving the problem in post rather than in view finder in the moment. Do you feel dirty using cloning tools and generative fill? Tell the truth now.

This the final image. I was bouncing around the kitchen to make sure the background was not distracting and retained a sense of place. I miss the fields, but at least have a slice of them. Now how about a slice of that pie?

“You are responsible for every centimeter of your view finder”

Jay Maisels

What’s the lesson?

There are a few lessons here, but two stand out. First: watch out for the background. Second, and really equally important as the previous: keep working the scene & subject. Put more effort into making the image and you will be rewarded with better photographs.

This is my final edit on the image. I decided to stay in my style of dominant black and white and ran the file through the raw convertor in photoshop.

Upcoming Workshops Info Click Here

Upcoming Workshops Info Click Here

Main Media Workshop just announced new workshop: Finding and Developing Photographic Style taking place on campus in Camden Maine. Learn more here.

-David

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December 28, 2023

New 2024 Workshops Q1 – Lets Take It To The Streets! Destination: Milan & NYC

The focus is on the streets, and street photography to be precise. I’m very excited to announce the first series of photo walks and workshops in partnership with two of my favorite photography educators, Steve Simon, the Passionate Photographer, and Art of Intuitive Photography’s Mindy Véissid. Before I share with you these exciting opportunities to delve deep into our shared love of photography allow me to tell you why I’m super excited to partner with them. 

Steve Simon is a brilliant photographer and educator on many levels. Throughout my tenure at B&H Photo, it’s always been a pleasure to platform Steve as he shared his knowledge in a friendly, responsible and ethical manner. Steve’s background is in journalism and his moniker of being the “Passionate Photographer” is a perfect description of his work. Now focusing mainly on the genre of street and urban photography, Steve’s take is to examine the sense of place along with a humanism often lacking in the genre. Steve blends technology with a keen eye and is a master of teaching the technical while being grounded. I have always had a deep respect for Steve, and to work side by side with him, and a group of students, will be a sublime way to explore two of my favorite cities, Milan and NYC. 

Winter New York City Weekend Mentorship Workshop

Let’s start with the NYC three-day workshop which will be an intensive and transformational shooting experience in a wintery NYC. This intimate 3-day weekend masterclass, limited to just 6 students, (as of the writing of this post, only four spots are left open), is designed to engage in both the learning experience and your ability to create a unique and powerful portfolio of imagery from New York. It’s going to be a blast, as Steve and I are connoisseurs of this city, inside and out. While Steve will be focused on sharing his techniques to maximize street photography, I’ll be helping you imbue the work with a style all of your own. 

Learn more here:

Feb 16-18, 2024: Winter New York City Weekend Mentorship Workshop with Steve Simon & David Brommer

Street and Urban Photography Workshop in Milan, Italy

For the past 21 years Italy and I have had a special relationship. I met my wife Barbara in the B&H Super Store (counter #6) 24 years ago while she was visiting NYC and thus began a love affair with her, and her native country, Italy. I was privileged to study Italian language in Milan for three months and return to the bustling city several times a year since.

Milan is like no other city, and when Steve invited me to teach alongside him I jumped at the chance. To say Milan is photogenic is an understatement! This 5 day intensive Street and Urban photography class, with a side trip to Lake Como, will advance you to the next level. In addition to Steve and I, we will be joined by Ugo Cei, a local travel photographer. I can’t wait to share with you what I know (and love) about Milan, as we explore the neighborhoods, food, and culture of the business and fashion capital of the world. 

Learn More:

April 21-26, 2024 – The Passionate Street & Urban Photographer Workshop Milan with Steve Simon, David Brommer & Ugo Cei

Both of these workshops include a pre workshop zoom meeting. They are shaping up to be memorable, and most of all, will represent a unique chance to add images to your portfolios and socials that will be treasured and admired. 

While both of the above workshops are certainly of an advanced nature, I have vowed to help all levels of photographers. So if multi day/instructor workshops are a little too heavy for you, let’s do Photo Walk Abouts in my native NYC with the Art of Intuitive Photography School that are a fun filled 3 hour stroll.

Winter Walk About in Washington Square Park

12 years ago, an intrepid New Yorker by the name of Mindy Veisid, was a student of mine at the B&H Event Space. She was destined for great things as she launched her own photo school based upon a concept she pioneered called, “Intuitive Photography”. This method espouses an openness to creating images based upon emotions of the self and place. Since that humble start, Mindy has taught hundreds of classes to beginning and experienced photographers. This summer Mindy invited me to teach at her school and I’m excited to be an associate instructor. We are offering two 3 hour programs photographing in my favorite place in NYC, the iconic Washington Square Park! This will be just the beginning of AOIP collaborations and with a modest investment in time and money, you can jump start your photography by joining these “photo walk abouts”.

Learn more here (and check out AOIP’s other offerings): 

January 26th, 27th (pick the date that works best for you) – Winter Walk About in Washington Square Park

In Summary

There you have it, three amazing ways to increase you photo skills, make great photographs, get a handle on your gear, and visit some amazing locations. All skill levels, all budgets. Make sure you have signed up for the newsletter, as I’ll be adding more events in the coming weeks. 

One final word, I am honored to be partnering with these two photographer instructors. Having worked with them for well over a decade, I trust and admire them deeply. Being a big fan of the adage “together we stand divided we fall”, I believe learning all together empowers our imaginations, deepens our knowledge, and enhances our experiences. 

Feel free to email me any questions, these workshops are limited to 8 students and will fill up quickly. Ill see you on the streets! Let’s go!

-David

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August 25, 2022

Reinvigorate with Drone Photography and Fly Like an Eagle

Lago Trasimeno, Italy.

I purchased my first drone in 2018, the original DJI Mavic Air in red. I had a co-worker at B&H show me the ropes and then took the drone to Italy. For the first few flights my hands were shaking like a hound dog passing peach pits! It was truly exciting to take a camera into the sky and then apply years of early video game training to fly it over a mile away- so far that I quickly would lose sight of the little red drone.

Castello di Montecchio Vesponi, Italy
Small Castle and Olive Grove above Punta Bella, Italy

Aside from fear of crashing I was dumbfounded by the choice of either video or still. When I started droning I leaned heavily into video and even upped my Adobe account to include Premier. I put together a Tuscan countryside video that was quite basic and filled with mistakes. However among those mistakes were gold- I was learning to see like an eagle if not fly like one.

The End- Montauk Light House, NY

Drones can see straight ahead and at any angle completely down. It was the “completely down” that blew me away. Drones are smart, in that they know where they are in space (thank you GPS satellites). They can hover and remain stationary or they can fly upwards of 40 MPH in “sport mode”. What I found most appealing from a photographic perspective is hovering in cinema mode. Cine mode makes the drone move very slowly, like a slow camera pan. In still photography it allows for precise micro adjustments of the composition.

South End of Manhattan with Staten Island Ferry, NYC 2020

So get this, you are controlling a camera in the sky (400 foot ceiling as per FAA) over a mile away and making slight adjustments for framing while using altitude as your zoom. That is very exhilarating and empowering. You are now not limited to the perspective afforded by being grounded. Technology is wonderful!

Hay Rolls in a Tuscan Field
By lowering altitude you can “zoom” in a on detail or rotate to alter the entire composition.

During the pandemic I bought the DJI Mavic Mini and used it on the quiet streets of Manhattan to document the amazing city. The Mini is under 50 grams and no licenses are needed to fly it, so it was perfect for my urban explorations.

Brooklyn Bridge Morning, NYC 2020
Brooklyn Bridge view towards Brooklyn (note the low covid traffic), NYC 2020

I’ve walked past this skate park at least 1000 times but when I viewed it from above I discovered a geometry and texture that remained unseen from the ground.

Chelsea Piers Skate Park, NYC 2021
Lower Altitude with Skaters
300 % Crop of the above photograph

Sometimes great surprises can occur when you are droning that being on the ground would go unnoticed like this message in the corn fields of Warwick NY in the fall of 2020.

Corn Maze, Warwick NY 2020

Much like a view camera, there are a number of steps to ensure you achieve the image you want. Forget one step and you blow you chance or worse, crash the drone. Here is my “Pre-Flight Checklist” to ensure a successful, fruitful flight with the Mavic Air first gen.

Pre-Flight Check List Done in Water Color

The Mavic Mini is my faithful companion in rural italy where I can fly it safely and see a whole new landscape from above. I keep it in Tuscany, and look forward to a new generation of Mavic to purchase soon. Each release of the Mavic series from DJI just gets better and better. I find it thrilling and what’s really amazing is that it represents a whole new way of seeing that is accessible and relatively wide open to anyone who doesn’t have a fear of flying.

Delaware Water Gap, NJ 2021

Stay tuned for Part Two, Droning with Video.

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September 22, 2019

The Ultimate Light for the iPhone- Profoto C1+

PROFOTO C1+ Review

September 18th Profoto released the next big thing, a flash & continuous light designed for iPhone. I was lucky to be invited along with a hand full of NYC photographers by Clifford Pickett for a hands on demonstration and photowalk around the SoHo neighborhood of NYC testing the C1+.

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It’s a very interesting development for mobile photography and has some unique features that I really enjoyed and thought were well thought out. Like any Profoto product, it is very well made and has a great feel in the hands. Profoto is arguably the best lighting system in the world, and I truly believe that. Aside from all the gear always made in black there is a plethora of facts to support my statement. Profoto light modifiers are hands down the best light modifiers and the C1+ accepts all the mods made for the A series. They attach smartly with magnets and as expected, perform very well. The C1+ ships with a light dome to mimic solar light. You can remove the dome and the light becomes slightly more defined. There is a sturdy 1/4 socket for the light to be attached to a light stand (you’d want a swivel umbrella adaptor to make best use). Clifford tested it with an umbrella and the light was quite nice.

You can’t use the native camera app, you have to download the Profoto app to synch the light for flash photography. (edit: compatible with the huawei native camera app for the P30 series)The app is only available for IOS (iPhone 7 and up), no Android support yet (more proof the apple iPhone is better than android). You could use it in continuous mode with the native app, just not for flash. As expected, the Profoto app is very professional and lets you control exposure, white balance (color temp), zoom and adds a timer. Currently, portrait mode is not supported but the engineers are on it (I simply love portrait mode and can’t wait for that to be supported).

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So as photographers we want control, and below is a series of portraits made of the fellow photographer Claudia Paul on the photowalk. I took a series of photos at different exposures using the “exposure slider” on the app. I posted images from screen shots of the app so you can see the exposure variance.

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This was my favorite, and it has been slightly edited in Snap Seed.

 

What I really liked was the camera release – shutter release – trigger  on the flash itself, so you can hold your camera in one hand, the flash in the other and shoot very naturally. How many of us have held the camera out, triggered it only to have the camera turn off! Or worse yet, just fumble. I really can’t express how natural it is to use the flash this way, it’s a true evolution of iPhoneography!

The unit comes two ways, the C1 and C1+. C1 is $300 and does not support TTL in the Profoto system. The C1+ is $500, has better battery life and supports the Profoto air remote and can be integrated into the Profoto TTL family of flashes. This is key, any one who has a Profoto system will enjoy being able to put this light where other lights can’t go. Think behind a shelf, a couch, a small corner… the applications are endless. When I was a young photographer I recall an older photographer training me on a wedding and he produced a cheap small flash with a synch on it, and called it a “peep” flash, it was used where we couldn’t fit the big flashes and it provided just a little bit of fill flash where needed in tight areas.

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Characters on the streets of NYC! Notice the catch light in his eyes and emphasis on the gold teeth. With out a light this would be a much duller photograph.

Now it’s not really a flash as we know it, there is no manual and no high synch flash. It has limitations because it’s a manual simulation to bias to the automatic limitation of mobile photography. You can’t lock in an exposure. I did find exposure to be slightly erratic. I’m trained in zone system and chrome shooting, so I found that disconcerting, but it’s really ok, because it’s still iPhone and the spirit is wonky to start with. You can’t freeze fast moving subjects like with a traditional flash. Recycle time is about 1 second or so.

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Steve Simon’s son came along, after this shot, I warned him to keep his tongue in his mouth when in NYC. #germs #cutekids #scaryphoto

Here are three images to illustrate how it helps with back lit subjects.  The image on the left is adjusted with the slider in the native iPhone app, the middle with no adjustment , and the right image with the C1+ providing fill light.

 

Overall I think this light is a game changer, and as the app continues development it will be clutch as a tool for the iPhone photographer to keep in their pocket. It takes some getting used to, but once you master the usage and interface, it’s a wonderful tool to enhance your iPhone work.

The truly best part of the photowalk? We got to keep the flashes! Thanks Profoto, I look forward to using this with my iPhone work in the future.

~David

 

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