I’ve always found this type of bike post fascinating, like a modern art sculpture. They lend themselves to any number of angles and compositions.
(Canon 7 35mm Rangefinder with 50mm/f2 Jupiter 8 lens,
Fomapan 100 developed in TMax developer 1:9)
A Lighting Lesson
Here is another image from the workshop yesterday. I found this workshop great, as I learned that this kind of lighting is not as hard as I thought: one one side, a beauty dish with honeycomb grid, on the other side, a strip light, also with a grid to control the path of the light. I will be exploring this technique more in the future!
I should also mention the model Kaitlin’s skill as a dancer: her poise and grace came through in every image. 🙂
Let Me Never Be Confounded
In the spirit of refusing to allow depression to be a stigma, this is going to be a fairly open post (and long).
As I have alluded to on Facebook and twitter recently, I am in the midst of withdrawal symptoms from the anti-depressant drug Effexor. This drug was prescribed for me in what I now see to be a quite offhand manner by my former doctor a number of years ago. It was a mistake then, and it is a mistake now. At best, this drug is emotional Novocain; it creates a numbness which can allow one to function, in a distant and disconnected manner.
Withdrawal, even after tapering down the dosage, can be hellish. In addition to the physical symptoms of almost constant dizziness, the emotional side affects, are, well, let’s just say to I don’t have to go to Canada’s Wonderland to ride a roller coaster right now. What I have noticed though is that over the last couple of days when I am busy doing photography the emotional side effects of the withdrawal are kept in check. This afternoon I was at a photography workshop (shooting dance in a studio setting), and despite having had an extremely rough morning emotionally, with the camera in my hand, I felt OK, maybe even better than OK. The camera was a better therapy than any drug.
Also, this past Friday night I was part of the choir singing at a fundraiser concert at St. Thomas’s church, to support our choir tour in England this summer. While I no longer call myself religious in a conventional sense, in a similar sense, performing the music was transcendent, and I am thinking in particular of the final piece of the program, Herbert Howell’s Te Deum. Howell himself in many ways was a tragic figure, who faced many personal difficulties in his life, but the beauty and power of his music allowed him to rise above his pain. The last phrase of his Te Deum is “Let me never be confounded.” Partially a prayer, but in this setting of the words, joyous and triumphant. While I am singing, making photographs, writing, acting or any other creative endeavour, for that moment at least I am in a place where nothing else seems to matter.
Creativity is the most powerful weapon I have.
I refuse to let this current challenge beat me.
I will never be confounded.
8,7,9
Some numbers came together to make this image: the lens, a Soviet era Jupiter 8 50mm lens, on a Canon 7 rangefinder body. The film was Fomapan 100, developed in Tmax developer at a 9:1 dilution. This combo works for me!
Tulips In High Park
Today’s image is of tulips in High Park, Toronto. I took the image using my Rolleicord III Twin-lens Reflex, on Fuji Reala colour negative film. I’ve mentioned before how the Xenar lens on this camera has nice swirlies in the out of focus areas when shot fairly wide open, and I think that effect suited the flowers.
A Long and Winding Road
It took a few steps to arrive at the image below (again featuring the lovely Jenna). The original was shot on Fuji Reala ISO 100 colour negative film, using my Rolleicord III twin-lens reflex camera. I had to shoot pretty wide open, and with my eyesight I find this beast a trick to focus at the best of times. her face was not tack sharp, but I liked the image so much I was not prepared to give up. I converted it into black and white, added the antique look and I felt instantly transported back a century.
Mother’s Day
Today’s image was created with a first generation Polaroid SX-70 camera, and Impossible Project Color Protection instant film. In terms of a concept, the image started off as a technical exercise, but then the symbolism of dying flowers a week after Mother’s Day came to mind, and I thought of my own mother, who passed away around Mother’s Day a few years ago.
The Story
I don’t normally publish twice a day, but I really wanted to share this image. What a powerful, haunted face I saw on the subway on the way home this afternoon.
Lensbaby
I think today’s image (another one of Jenna in High Park) is the first I’ve posted that was created using a Lensbaby Spark lens. I guess one could call this a piece of neo-primitive technology: the lens has only 2 elements, one fixed aperture, and to focus one pulls the front of the lens back with your fingers, like a built in bellows. What is fun is that by changing the angle of the bellows you can put the focus point anywhere you like.
A Great Combo
I am seriously liking the combination of the 105mm/f2.5 Nikkor portrait lens, and Polypan F film (developed in Tmax developer 1:9 for 8.5 minutes at 20 degrees). It seems made for subjects such as the lovely Jenna (taken yesterday in High Park in Toronto)
My Third Eye 