Don’t Shoot What You See, Capture What You Feel

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In a lot of ways, this image is nowhere near being a realistic depiction of the scene in Ottawa early today: the use of a fisheye optic, the fact that is in monochrome and not colour, the application of a digital equivalent of a dark red filter, all of these in one sense make it unrealistic. On the other hand, what I found amazing this morning was the stark, dramatic lighting and lines in this part of Ottawa. This image shows what I felt, as much or more  than what I saw.

Early morning downtown Ottawa

 

Nikon D7100 DSLR, Lensbaby Composer with Fisheye Optic
Post processed in LightRoom, Nik Efex

Maria, Act II

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Today another image from my photo shoot with my friend Maria Rozynska this past weekend. This is one of the colour film images, taken using Kodak Ektar 100 colour negative film, using my Mamiya 645 Pro TL medium format camera. I really like Maria’s expression here (this may be my favourite), as well as the slightly retro look of the colour film.

Maria

 

Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm/s.8 Mamiya lens,
Kodak Ektar 100 C-41 Film

Channeling the 1960’s

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I had the pleasure yesterday to do a film/digital shoot with my friend Maria Rozynska, who I first met as a fellow cast member in the Alexander Showcase Theatre’s production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Maria is an excellent actor and dancer, and these talents translated well for the photo shoot! The concept for the shoot was 1960’s. Maria provided a perfect wardrobe, and a pair of retro style sunglasses topped everything off. This image is one of the digital shots. Film to come!

At the Fountain

A Magic World

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Around 30 years ago in the early 1980’s I shot a roll of Kodak Infrared Ektachrome E4 Slide film (you can see an image from that roll here). It was magic, but I never got around to shooting more of it.

A couple of weeks ago I shot two more rolls of Colour Infrared Slide film, purchased from the Film Photography Project online store. They have a limited supply of an equivalent E6 process infrared slide film, expired but cold stored. Here is one of my favourite images:

IR slide047
With the proper filtration (in this case a yellow-green filter and a polarizing filter) you get some really interesting colour effects, with foliage coming out red in a lot of cases, and blues tone becoming very vivid. The world becomes a different, alien, fantastic place.

I wish I could shoot this film stock all the time, as I don’t feel digital infrared (either post-processed faux infrared, or specially converted digital camera) gives the same magical effect. But I must be realistic: this film is not cheap, it is no longer made, and E6 slide processing is getting rarer, except by mail order.

A magic, but transient moment, and I mourn its imminent passing.

Empty Spaces

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Another image from early Saturday morning at the Toronto Beaches. Peaceful, quiet, but filled with the expectant anticipation of throngs of people expected to descend later in the day

Empty Boardwalk

 

Nikon N90s 35mm SLR, 28mm/2.8 Nikkor lens
Rollei Retro 80s film, developed in Rodinal 1+50,
14 minutes @ 20 C

A Tale of Two Talents

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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!

Jennifer: custom knitted shawl

 

Nikon F2, 85mm/f1.8 Nikkor lens
Kodak Portra 400 film, post production with Lightroom and Nik Efex

Facing the Sun

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Yesterday I went to the Beaches in Toronto early; at 7 am the sun is lower in the sky, making for dramatic lighting and shadows. I’m surprised there isn’t more flare in this image, since I was shooting into the sun.

7 am

 

Nikon N90s 35mm SLR, 28mm/2.8 Nikkor lens with 25A red filter
Rollei Retro 80s film, developed in Rodinal 1+50, 14 minutes @ 20 C

Looking In

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I must say I like the vignetting effect of using my Bower fisheye lens (meant for the DX crop-sensor size of digital camera) on a full frame 35mm camera. I feel like I am peering into a separate world.

Outside Robart's Library

 

Nikon N90s 35mm film SLR, Bower 8mm/3.5 fisheye lens
Rollei Retro 80s film, developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 14 min. @ 20 C

Graffitti

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Today’s image comes from last weekend: I had my Lensbaby Composer with the Sweet 35 Optic mounted on my Nikon N90s 35mm SLR (a camera which more than one passerby has mistaken for a DSLR). I was drawn to the contrast of the curved graffiti lines over top of the straight lines of this alley garage door.

Graffitti on alley door

 

Nikon N90s, Lensbaby Composer with Sweet 35 Optic
Film: Rollei Retro 80s, developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 14 minutes.