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. 🙂
Category: Uncategorized
Railroad Bridge
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
A Tale of Two Talents
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
Adaptability
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
Affirmation
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
The Portrait Up Close
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
Flashback Friday: The Dancer
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.
Two for Two
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. 🙂
A Milestone
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!
Sunnyside Pavilion
This past weekend I had a shoot on Saturday at Sunnyside Pavilion in Toronto. While waiting for the couple to arrive (and more on them in a future post), I did some shooting of my own. This location has become a bit of a wedding photography factory, so I mainly skulked around the edges and did detail images.
(Canon 7 Rangefinder camera, circa 1961, Soviet Jupiter 8 50mm/f2 lens,
Fomapan 100 film developed in Tmax developer 1:9 for 9 minutes)
My Third Eye 