I’ve had the privilege of working with sisters Sabrina and Rowena recently, and here is an image of them together at Allen Garden’s last Saturday. I think the relationship that sisters have can be a complicated dance. 🙂
Rolleiflex E3, 75mm/3.5 Xenotar lens
Ilford Delta 3200 developed in DD-X for 12.5 minutes @ 20 C
I always tended to be a fairly solitary person (especially as a child), so I tend to have a fairly wistful feeling creating pictures of groups of friends, like this image from the Beaches in Toronto a few days ago.
Nikon F4, 75-150mm/3.5 Nikon Series E lens
Svema 125 Colour Negative film
I have decided to give my new “Daily Commute Shoot” project its own blog:
http://dailycommutephoto.wordpress.com/
I’ve put everything I’ve done so far over the last two weeks there. I think it makes sense to give it its own space. 🙂
Yesterday morning I went for a walk on the disused Don Branch railway in the Don Valley in Toronto, and went to the edge of the so-called “Half Mile Bridge” (no where near a half mile, for the record but still and interesting subject for photography)
Mamiya M645J, 45mm/2.8 lens with 25A filter
Kodak Tmax 400 film, developed in Tmax developer 1+7 for 12 min. @ 20 C
I had the pleasure of working with two very talented women recently. Katherine Matthews designs knitting patterns, and readers of my blog will recognize model/musician Jennifer Santos Bettencourt from previous posts. A lot of the photos I took for this shoot were close-up, in order to showcase the detail in the knitting pattern, and the level of detail in the shawl being showcased was quite impressive — I could learn a lot from Katherine regarding attention to detail! (Note: You can see Katherine’ pattern, and more images here.)
And of course working with Jennifer is always a pleasure — she understands that posing/modelling is like acting and choreography, and requires a lot of focus and awareness. It is certainly not a matter of just standing there waiting for the shutter to click.
It was also great to see how well the Jennifer and Katherine collaborated, and there was talk of future work together, so stay tuned!
Nikon F2, 85mm/f1.8 Nikkor lens
Kodak Portra 400 film, post production with Lightroom and Nik Efex
One of my current favourite film cameras continues to be my early 1960’s era Olympus Pen F 35mm half frame single lens reflex. The only thing I don’t like about it is that I only have one lens for it, and additional lenses are collectable (read, not cheap). So I was thrilled last week when an adapter arrived from China that will allow me to use Nikon and Canon glass on this camera. (It’s really two adapters in one: a Canon EF to Olympus Pen adapter, and a Nikkor to Canon EF adapter). Yesterday before meeting up with a friend I went out in highly variable weather with a Nikkor 105mm/f.25 lens attached. While I got some vignetting in the viewfinder it didn’t seem to affect the final images :-).
The white dots are snowflakes.
Olympus Pen F, Nikkor 105mm/f2.5 lens
Rollei 80s developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 16 minutes
Yesterday was an amazing day, photographically speaking. Jessica (pictured below) shared some feedback she got from a friend who checked out some of my other portrait work, and had the following to say:
“There is a kind of love in his photography that is sensitive and charitable to the subject, but in a number of portraits on his blog, the you can see brokenness or sadness in their expressions.”
When I read this, I felt here was someone whom I’ve never met, who understands what I have tried to achieve in my portraits, to show humanity, including all its glorious imperfections. I was thrilled to say the least.
Jessica and her friend have also been discussing Canadian philosopher Jean Vanier, and she shared with me this quote from his work Community and Growth:
“In any case, community is not about perfect people. It is about people who are bonded to each other, each of whom is a mixture of good and bad, darkness and light, love and hate. Community is the only earth in which each can grow without fear towards the liberation of the forces of love which are hidden in them, but there can be growth only if we recognize the potential, and this will never unfold if we prevent people from discovering and accepting themselves as they are, with their gifts and their wounds. They have the right to be rotters, to have their own dark places and corners of envy and even hatred in their hearts. These jealousies and insecurities are part of our wounded nature. That is our reality. We have to learn to accept them and to live with them without drama, and to walk towards liberation, gradually knowing ourselves to be forgiven.”
A great quote that really resonates with me, and the fact that someone connected my photography with this philosophy is amazing 🙂
Pentax 67 camera, 105mm/f2.4 lens, Tri-X film exposed at EI 800, developed in Diafine 3+3
Post work done in Lightroom and Nik Efex
Yesterday I had the pleasure of working with Jessica; this was her first time in front of the camera in a portrait session setting. While admitting to feeling a bit self-conscious, Jessica did quite well, and has a natural camera presence. She also has a knack for very subtle, tiny smiles, and I thought an extreme close-up (tighter than most portraits are shot) would help capture this.
Nikon D7100, Nkkor 18-200/3.5-5.6 VR II lens
Postwork done in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Efex software
I’ve decided to do the occasional Flashback Friday, using images I’ve created sometime in the past but didn’t post at the time. This film image (taken at a dance rehearsal with  I think a Nikon N90x 35mm SLR) has a number of technical challenges, but I do like the lines and light.
Today’s image is from a roll I was using to test both a camera, and a film/developer combo. I was testing my newly acquired Olympus Pen F (replacing a faulty/not really repairable Pen FT). The Pen F is a 35mm half-frame SLR of the 1960’s and is truly a cult classic.
The second test involved pairing Eastman Double-X 5222 film with Diafine film developer to increase the speed to around EI 400.
I am happy to say that both tests were successful. 🙂
My Third Eye 