Reflections

I like sunglasses pictures: sunglasses create mystery, and often end up with interesting reflections. This image was created yesterday at the closed (but not demolished) Eastern Avenue bridge over the Don River near lake Ontario here in Toronto, and I like the bridge reflections in the sunglass lenses.

Reflections

 

Nikon D7100, Nikkor 18-200 lens. Post processing with Nik Efex plugins 

Reflections

My favourite part of today’s image is the reflection of the lighting in the sunglasses worn by my subject. The lighting used was a small strip light/soft box, to make the lighting very directional. In addition, a strobe was used behind her  head, facing the camera as a rim light in order to create highlights in her hair.

Reflections

 

Nikon D7100 DSLR, 18-200mm Nikkor lens, ISO 100. Post work done in Nik Efex and Lightroom
Neewer 300DS Studio strobe with strip/softbox light, Yongnuo YN 560 III flash used as rim light

Side Light

Having more fun with light tonight: this image of an Indonesian wood carving was made by placing the flash (a Yongnuo YN-560 III, triggered by an RF-603 wireless trigger) to the left of the carving, at 1/16 power

Indonesian Carving

 

Nikon D7100, 18-200mm Nikon lens, ISO 100

Background

This post is about the background. 🙂 At a local thrift store I found an old bedspread for $5. I love the pattern: it has a vintage look, and in some ways reminds me of Batik. I’ll definitely be using it again! 🙂

Patterns

 

Nikon D7100, 18-200mm lens

Playing With Light

Today’s image is all about playing with light. I placed my newly acquired YungNuo YN-560 III flash (quite a bargain by the way) behind the glass ball. It was triggered by a built in optical slave when the main flash (my Nikon SB-600 with a Lightsphere) fired. Finally, a cross star filter provided the star effect, when things were lined up precisely.

Backlight and Cross Star filter

 

Nikon D7100, 18-200mm lens
Post work done with Nik Efex and Lightroom

About Face

I call this post About Face for multiple reasons. Firstly, after months of shooting black and white, or colours muted by a seemingly endless winter, I wanted to do an about face and shoot some bold, vibrant, highly saturated, over the top colour. Secondly while I still shoot a lot of film, I felt like doing something shamelessly digital, not trying to emulate a film look at all.

Lastly, this post is called About Face as a tribute to the model Jennifer Bettencourt, who consistently delivers great facial expressions, whenever we work together! (Jennifer is multi-talented: she is also the singer on the demo version of a song from my Blitzed musical I am writing. )

Red

 

Nikon D7100, 18-200 lens, Illumination via Nikon SB600 flash and Lightsphere Diffuser.
Post work done in Adobe Lightroom and Nik Color Efex 4

Another Album Cover!

Today, “In the Beginning” by George “Saint Vybz” Chapman was released. I did the photography for this recording last year, and the cover image was taken using Fuji FP-3000b instant black and white film (recently discontinued by Fuji, boo!) with my Mamiya Universal Press Camera. I used the negative scanning technique for a nice gritty look. 🙂 It was a lot of fun working with George, and my good friend “Stevie Z” at Badly Bent Records for this project! People who read my blog on a regular basis and/or check out my Flickr stream might be able to figure out the location 🙂

In The Beginning Album Artwork Booklet Cover

Not a Summer Saturday

On any summer Saturday, this faux temple in Guildwood Park plays host to one wedding party after another, there for wedding photos. No weddings here in the winter!

Guildwood in Winter011.jpg

Pentax 67, 55mm/f3.5 lens, 1/125th @ f8
Fuji Neopan Acros 100 film, EI 80, developed in Rodinal 13.5 minutes @ 20 C.