Category: Black & White

Grace I: Expression

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I have said before that a successful portrait/model shoot is part dance and part acting: dance skills allow for relaxed and beautiful poses, and acting ability allows for expression and emotion to flow unhindered from the subject. Grace (with whom I worked with yesterday) has both, and I think we got some good results. All I had to do was suggest a scenario and she found an inner dialog and a real expression to go with it.

Grace

 

Nikon D7100, 50mm/1.8 AF-D Nikkor lens
Post processing in Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2

Full Disclosure

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On the bus coming home from work today, a gift from the photo gods: a visually very interesting individual, and some great light.  I took the image with my smartphone (Samsung Galaxy Note 3) but a no-smoking sign behind the individual was very distracting, and there was no way to take the image without it being there. So in post I photoshopped it out. Even though I am being upfront about it, I still feel a bit queasy when I have to do that for this kind of photography; is the image less honest?

Man on the bus

Less Is More II

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Here is another “Less Is More” image from the Beaches this past weekend. I like the metal texture.

Toronto Beaches

 

Rolleicord Va, 75mm/3.5 Xenar lens
Tri-X developed in HC-110 Dilution B for 7.5 minutes

Less is More?

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Another Beaches image. I believe the quiet and calm of the early morning hour yesterday lends itself to a minimalist approach to an landscape image.

Toronto Beaches

 

Rolleicord Va, 75mm/3.5 Xenar lens
Tri-X film developed in HC-110 Dilution B for 7.5 minutes @ 20 C.
Toning adding in post

By the Water’s Edge

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This morning about 7:15 am, by the shore of Lake Ontario on a beautiful day. It was a yoga class, but with arms outstretched it seems like so much more than that.

By the Water's Edge

 

Rolleicord Va, 75mm/3.5 Xenar lens
Film was Tri-X, developed in HC-110 Dilution B
7.5 minutes @ 20 C.

 

The Toughest Audience

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It has been said by many performers that children are the toughest audience you can have: it is hard to get their attention and even harder to keep it. Last night Janice and I attended the 2014 Toronto edition of Dusk Dances, an outdoor dance festival. Many children were in attendance, and one particular performance (involving synchronized swimming in inflatable wading pools!) really grabbed and kept their attention, as shown in their faces below.

Children Enjoying a Show

 

Nikon D7100, 18-200mm Nikkor lens
Post work in Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2

Shooting From the Hip

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When it comes to shooting from the hip, it’ hard to beat a twin lens reflex (TLR) camera. I was out yesterday on Queen Street in Toronto with my Rolleicord Va and for this shot I had already estimated the distance and used a small aperture of f11 to get good depth of field. The remained hanging down at my waist while I quickly took the image.

Having fun

 

Rolleicord Va, Xenar 80mm/3.5 lens
Tri-X, developed in Xtol 1+1 for 9 minutes @ 20 C
Negative scanned and toning added in post with Nik SilverEfex Pro

A Great Combo

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Today’s image was created in Niagara On the Lake recently. I used my baby Speed Graphic, with a 120 roll film holder that creates 6cm by 9cm negatives. The combination of the large negative, the classic Kodak Ektar lens, the Kodak Tmax film and Rodinal developer is hard to beat.  There was no post processing of the negative scan at all: no sharpening or anything else, and I love the look!

Horse and Carriage

Back Alley in Kingston

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In Kingston, Ontario this past weekend we discovered this little back passage-way. Rollei Retro 80s film and Rodinal developer were the perfect combo for this image!

Back Street in Kingston, Ontario

 

Nikon F4 body, 17mm/3.5 Tamron lens
Rollei Retro 80s developed in Rodinal 1+50 for 14 minutes @ 20 C.

Something Slightly Different

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This image is from our trip to Niagara On the Lake this past weekend. It was a gazebo, so I had to shoot it, but to me the woman stretching out in front gives the image a slightly different, almost surreal aspect; it would be a very different image without her.

By the Gazebo

 

Nikon F2, 28mm/2.8 Nikkor lens
Eastman 2366 film, E.I. 10, developed in Xtol 1+1 for 10 minutes @ 20 C