I was out recently in downtown Toronto with my Nikon F 35mm SLR, with a 105mm.f2.5 lens attached. This lens is a classic, and is certainly one of my favourites. I was drawn to take this image by the gleaming metal, surrounded by salt and snow.
(Shot on Tri-X film, box speed, developed in xTol 1:1)
OK, they aren’t young and they aren’t sexy, and likely don’t fit in with any of the Marketing-machine driven Valentine’s Day stereotypes. But they are a couple, together, friends as much as anything. Isn’t that enough?
I grabbed this image on the way home from rehearsal tonight; just as she and her companion were getting off the train, she glanced back, and I was ready :-). I love it when that happens 🙂
Here is one final image from my shoot last week in Michigan. The original image was a instant film exposure text image taken inside the log cabin before the model arrived. I thought the negative scan of this image suited the textures and the rustic look of setting.
Another image from the shoot with Nicole in Michigan: the rustic interior of the the cabin almost begged to be captured with a retro-infused technique, and a scan of the negative from an instant print (using Fuji FP-3000B instant film) did the trick.
This image is from a log cabin in Troy Historic Village in Troy, Michigan. I had a great shoot with amazing model/actress Nicole Guibord. Even with a fire going in the fireplace, and a space heater, it was a chilly room, but the natural light from the windows was amazing. The only issue was that it got a bit smoky towards the end, so I had to boost the contrast in post. For this image, I used my “Baby” Speed Graphic, with a roll film adapter, on a tripod.
I was recently gifted with a vintage Minolta SRT 101 35mm SLR camera by my friend Nina. A beautiful camera, in very good working condition: while you can’t get the original batteries anymore because they contained mercury, I used a C.R.I.S. MR-9 adapter to allow the use of a silver 386 battery. For a test roll I used PolyPan F, exposed at E.I. 25, developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 11 minutes @ 20/68 degrees. I am still dialing in the film/developer combination  but the two images below hint a what can be done with this fine camera. Thanks again Nina!
I took this image on the Bathurst bus on the way to show rehearsal last evening. A large, burly man, wedged into his seat, he had a definite presence!
In my subway Hipstamatic series, composition is a very quick, furtive process, with not a lot of time to pay too much attention to the background. This fact makes it interesting when background elements such as words add an additional element of meaning to the image. Here are two examples of images where I lucked out with some great accidental backgrounds.
In this image, I like the fact that to the left of the rider’s eyes the words “Soar there” can be seen.
In this image, seeing the words “Crisis link” in the background made it really interesting for me.
Let’s face it; the man in today’s image is not likely to be featured on the cover of GQ any time soon. But what a fascinating face! Textures, interesting lines, the sense of biography and the living of a hard working life are all present. He is no Ken Doll: he is much more interesting. I have worked in the past with a lot of models, but this year I need to expand my horizons and capture more images of people who are not conventionally attractive. (They are my tribe, after all: I am not likely to make GQ anytime soon!) In an age where so much visual imagery is used merely to capture pretty people for shallow marketing purposes, it is important to capture this aspect of humanity.
He may not be pretty. But he is real.
My Third Eye 