One final image from the shoot with Arnika last weekend, and again this is one of the reclaimed negatives from a Fuji FP-100C instant print.
Scanning these negatives is a challenge — they don’t have the orange background mask that conventional C-41 negatives do, and film scanners invariably get confused. It took a couple of tries, but I ended up with this tonality tha I really like, faded in a retro kind of way that reminds me a bit of the Autochrome process from a century ago.
Another from my Guild Wood shoot with Arnika this past Sunday. This time, I used the negative from a Fuji FP-100C instant colour print. the black backing is removed with bleach, and the developer “goop” from the emulsion side is gently cleaned off with lukewarm water. I like the colours this process gives me: retro, but with a raw intensity, not even pretending to be accurate.
Another image from England, inside what my be England’s oldest church, St. Martin’s in Canterbury (portions dating from the 600’s CE). A warm morning light was coming through a window, and illuminated wooden pews and cloth seat cushions.
I have had the privilege of working with model/musician Jennifer Bettencourt on a number of occasions, so when she contacted me recently about a project I was naturally interested. A friend of hers named Ashley, who is a new graduate of a program in special effects needed to document her final school project, and needed a model and photographer and I was lucky enough to get the call.
The project was steam punk themed, and involved the creation and application of many. many gears to Jennifer’s skin, and we aren’t talking just make-up; Ashley made the gears using moulds she made herself to create three-dimensional pieces applied like tattoos. Preparation took many hours (see a “behind the scenes” prep shot at the end of this post), but the results were worth it! It was also fascinating to watch the whoe process; I certainly learned a lot!.
I shot both colour digital and black and white film; I am starting off with a digital image to show the great colours; in my next post I will show one of the black and white film images.
Model: Jennifer Bettencourt
Special FX/Make-up Artist Ashley Vieira
Here’s a behind the scenes image
Too tired to do much photography after the all night flight (feeling seriously sleep deprived), but when I saw this street shot opportunity in Canterbury I had to grab it. 🙂
Since the importance of the story was a frequent point of discussion at VoxPopCon this past weekend, I thought this image would fit well. It is from a recent publicity shoot at High Park with Angela Saini. (If you click on the link you an see her new official publicity shot that I took. You can also see it on her Facebook page). Even though she is barefoot, we thought leaving her shoes in the image would be a good idea, to add more of a sense of story to the image.
Today’s image is of disused railway tracks in the lower Don Valley here in Toronto. Disused tracks means more transport traffic on our roads (and more pollution), but if not properly regulated, railway accidents can have tragic consequences, as we were so graphically reminded in the last few days. hard not to feel conflicted.
(Mamiya Universal Press Camera, 127mm/f4.7 lens, 120/220 6x9cm roll film back,
expired Portra 160 film in 220 format)
One of the reasons I still like shooting film is exemplified by this image of model and dancer Kaitlin taking using my Rolleicord IIIa twin lens reflex camera. The Xenar lens has a unique character, not tack sharp unless you really stop down. It is easy to get a lot of sameness with digital cameras; each of my film cameras has own voice, its own signature, and I have a love affair with each of them.
In the spirit of refusing to allow depression to be a stigma, this is going to be a fairly open post (and long).
Today’s image is of tulips in High Park, Toronto. I took the image using my Rolleicord III Twin-lens Reflex, on Fuji Reala colour negative film. I’ve mentioned before how the Xenar lens on this camera has nice swirlies in the out of focus areas when shot fairly wide open, and I think that effect suited the flowers.
My Third Eye 