A musician from Ottawa answered a casting call for my Broken project; he would be in Toronto, and was I interested in photographing him? Yes, and I am glad I did! The image below won’t be part of the broken series as the object is not visible, but I really like the intensity that comes out of this image!
Interesting guy” he collects vinyl LP records, so naturally he had an interest in real film 🙂 It was also fun chatting about guitars.
This image is another one from my “Broken” project. I had the pleasure of working with “Rae Gun”, an alternative model who brought a lot of creative spark and enthusiasm to the shoot. (As an aside, it has been my experience that alternative models — tattoos, piercings, different hairstyles etc. — have almost aways been amazing folks to work with!)
The prop is the remains of a metal bucket that has been rusting away in our back yard for at least 5 years. I think it’s a perfect prop for the Broken series.
Canadian literary critic Northrope Frye was famous for his work The Great Code: The Bible and Literature, about the pervasiveness of biblical themes, metaphors and symbolism in Western literature, and as I worked with this image I was struck by the fact that while the model and I were not consciously trying to do so, to my mind at least we created an image that reminds of of the story of the Annunciation, with the combination of the head scarf, the lighting, and the model’s upward gaze. It’s ironic that at a time when I am at best agnostic (with atheist tendencies), I am still affected by the universality of the story.
With this post I am starting a new series called “Broken”, where subjects (not just models) will be posing with objects that are broken, damaged, incomplete or otherwise imperfect. In this case, the model suggested the concept of the Fallen Angel, and in a sense made herself the broken object. In my view, her expression, especially the look in in her eyes is absolutely stunning. Something indeed has broken.
I recently acquired some basic studio lighting gear (a very cheap studio strobe, some “umbrellas”, remote flash triggers and some soft boxes) and have started a journey of learning more about studio lighting. I have always been an available-light photography, and this area has always been a gap for me. The image below was shot earlier this week: I had the strobe placed above and to the model’s right side, shooting through the umbrella to soften the light a bit. I had nothing on the model’s left side, as I wanted some fairly pronounced shadow areas.
For film, I was shooting Fomapan 100, developed in Rodinal, for a fairly contrasty, retro look.
I finally got around to developing a roll of Delta 100 black and white film I had shot with “The Beast” (my Pentax 6×7) over the last few weeks. I like this image because it shows a contrast in architectural styles in downtown Toronto. I am also thinking of another contrast: with a roll of film that waits a while before being developed, it is easy to forget what images are on the roll, and hence I get a pleasant surprise. No such experience in the digital world of instant gratification.
On a shoot last week I found I had not brought enough Ilford Delta 400 film with me. This film is my bread and butter for black and white portraits, and so with some trepidation I was forced to dip into my camera bag for some Ultrafine Extreme 400, an inexpensive film I had not shot before. When it was time to process the film I did some research online and was not happy to see various lousy reviews of the film, until I ran into a post by a photographer I know on Flickr who had managed to tame this beast. I messaged him a couple of questions and in a very short time I had the magic formula (Xtol, 1:1 for 13 minutes @68 degrees). The negatives turned out fine (an example is below).
This will never be my primary film (I got it mainly as a cheaper way to test lighting set-ups), but I still got some great shots, thanks to a helping hand from the Internet
I had a shoot in Toronto’s High Park last week with a model named Caitlin. She described herself as shy, but I sensed thoughtfulness and depth: in this image below, I believe I captured her not just looking at a sunset, but seeing and thinking.
I had another shoot with a model recently; Megan is an aspiring actress, who may be getting a shot at a TV pilot! The photo shoot took place in downtown Toronto, at Massey Hall. I’m starting to think that to be a good model is to be a good actress/actor: there is always a special depth of expression and subtlety coming out of people with acting experience.
When I tell people I still shoot film, and show them a film camera (normally a medium format or 35 mm camera) I often get the question “Can you still get film for that?” and people are surprised when I tell them that getting film is no problem. A case in point is two films I tried out this past weekend, Fomapan 100 Classic, and Ilford SFX Extended red sensitivity film.
The image below was taken using Fomapan 100 Classic. This is a Czech film, medium speed, with a classic tonality and grain structure. I developed the roll using the classic Rodinal developer for extra sharpness and definition. I’ll becoming back to this combination a lot!
The second film I tried for the first time this past weekend was Ilford SFX film; not quite an infrared film, but with an extended red sensitivity, which when coupled with a red filter gave a lovely almost porcelain look in the skin of the model in this image (NSFW). No post-processing was required for this tonality, and this is another combination I’ll be going back to in the future!
My Third Eye 