New website

All future posts can now be found on http://www.scottspitzer.com

TransOral Robotic Surgery (TORS)

In late April I had the opportunity to photograph a reception showcasing “da Vinci,” a robot capable of performing TransOral Robotic Surgery. It is an amazing piece of breakthrough machinery invented and developed by the pioneering team of Gregory S. Weinstein, MD and Bert W. O’Malley, Jr., MD at the University of Pennsylvania. TransOral surgery is historically a very facially destructive operation however TORS leaves the patient virtually scarless. Even more monumental was the personal appearance by Cynthia Miller, a motivational speaker who was a former patient of TORS (featured in the slideshow below). I felt completely honored to photograph this reception and learned so much in the process.

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Anne & Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library in High Dynamic Range (HDR)

The Anne & Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library at the University of Pennsylvania is one of the most dramatic buildings on campus. With its Gothic and Victorian architectural details, photographing the library in High Dynamic Range (HDR) was bound to give interesting results. Setting up in the library proved to be the biggest hurdle. Carrying and setting up a tripod on a spiral iron staircase was not the easiest thing to do without making a small disturbance. Additionally, photographing all of the interesting angles seemed to place me into cramped locations that required some creative tripod adjustments. Overall, the warm tones of the brick and iron give the space a very surreal and timeless appearance. View on Flickr…

From the Archives : New Jersey Circus

In 2000 I photographed a circus in Southern New Jersey, focusing on the “carnies” behind the scenes, with my newly purchased medium format Pentax 6×7. I recently rediscovered these images on DVD and thought I’d post them. Enjoy!

The Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine

The Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine

Last night I completed the High Dynamic Range (HDR) version of The Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. When I first saw the Perelman Center in Philadelphia, I knew right away that this magnificent building was meant to be rendered in HDR.

After scouting the location numerous times I was set on photographing the building from the roof of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and I set out to get the proper authorization.

The image was rendered using Photomatix Pro for the HDR / tonemapping and I highly recommend the software. Let me know what you think!