This past weekend at Doors Open Toronto 2014, one of the buildings I visited was the fascinating Coach House Books, a Toronto printing house that values traditional methods. One of the more interesting pieces of gear is the Heidelberg Offset press. Like me in many respects: Big, bulky, and dating from the 1960’s 🙂
Nikon D7100, Lensbaby Composer with Sweet 35 Optic
One effect I like with the Lensbaby Fisheye optic is how it can turn a back alley wall of graffiti into an image that looks like one of the marbles I used to play with as a young boy.
Nikon D7100, Lensbaby Muse with Fisheye optic
Here is another image from my photo shoot this week with model Cat Huntress. I again used my lensbaby muse lens to get the focus effect, as well as doing some post processing in Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Having more fun with light tonight: this image of an Indonesian wood carving was made by placing the flash (a Yongnuo YN-560 III, triggered by an RF-603 wireless trigger) to the left of the carving, at 1/16 power
Nikon D7100, 18-200mm Nikon lens, ISO 100
I call this post About Face for multiple reasons. Firstly, after months of shooting black and white, or colours muted by a seemingly endless winter, I wanted to do an about face and shoot some bold, vibrant, highly saturated, over the top colour. Secondly while I still shoot a lot of film, I felt like doing something shamelessly digital, not trying to emulate a film look at all.
Lastly, this post is called About Face as a tribute to the model Jennifer Bettencourt, who consistently delivers great facial expressions, whenever we work together! (Jennifer is multi-talented: she is also the singer on the demo version of a song from my Blitzed musical I am writing. )
Nikon D7100, 18-200 lens, Illumination via Nikon SB600 flash and Lightsphere Diffuser.
Post work done in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex 4
I mentioned some time ago that I got to do my first cover photo for the new EP titled Leap by the incredibly talented Angela Saini and with her recording now released in Europe and about to be launched here in North America I can finally take the wraps off and show you a scan of the cover.
Angela is an artist who understands the importance of story; every song of hers has a story, and the concept that evolved for the cover definitely was definitely story-centric as well. The concept of the Leap cover was to show a mix of emotions surrounding taking the next step, taking the risk, “going for it.” That mix of nerves, fear, thrills and excitement you feel when you realize you are about to do something significant; the knowledge that when you go through the door, and take that leap, things will be different and that there will be no going back.
When going through the images there were a lot of very subtle differences in facial expressions, and the image that was finally picked I think has the perfect expression, full of the subtlety and complexity that Angela can muster so effectively.
The launch party for Leap will be held on November 14th at the Rivoli here in Toronto . I cannot go as I will be in 17th century New England that evening (as part of my role in The Crucible, being put on by Alexander Showcase Theatre), but that doesn’t mean you can’t go! The evening is sure to be a lot of fun!
In the meantime, check out some videos of her music!
I think slide film has its one particular magic: holding a strip of slide film in one’s hand is like holdng a collection of little universes, with each image being a doorway into  each world. Today’s image is from a roll of Fuji slide film I shot in England this summer using my medium format Mamiya 645 Pro TL
The grounds of Hever Castle (childhood home of Ann Boleyn
Today;s image was shot recently using the redscale technique. For this technique, you use regular C-41 colour negative film, but wound backwards in the film cassette, so you are shooting through the back of the film. The light hits the red emulsion layer first, resulting in the deep red and orange tones in the resulting images. I love the effect; it makes me feel like I am on Ray Bradbury’s version of Mars.
(Pentax K1000, 28mm/2.8 Pentax lens, C-41 ISO 400 no-name expired colour film, wound backwards)
I had the pleasure of shooting Andrea Gauster playing at the Freetimes Cafe in Toronto this past Saturday night. This talented singer/songwriter does an amazing job of connecting with her audience: just look at all the smiles. 🙂
(Nikon D7100 camera, 18-105mm Nikon lens)
Today’s image is part of my ongoing “Portrait of the Artist” series. Â Ashley has actually appeared in my blog before, but behind the camera, as the make-up/prosthetics artist in the Jennifer Gears Project, here and here. She is holding an airbrush of the kind that she very skilfully used for that shoot, and she is truly an artist in that regard.
While her vocation in a sense is “behind the scenes” she also has the instincts of a performer, and feels at home in front of the camera as well.
(Nikon D7100 DSLR, 18-105mm Nikkor lens, Post-work done using Colour Efex Pro 4)Â
My Third Eye 