Last Friday I had a vacation day, and the weather cooperated (finally!) for a shoot in High Park. When my subject (model and actor Justine Cargo) saw a huge pile of leaves, she literally made a beeline for it, with me doing my best to keep up 🙂
(Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm f2.8 lens, Ilford Delta 400 film @ box speed, HC-110 developer for 7.5 min)
Today’s image was shot this past weekend with a new (to me) “beast” of a camera: The Mamiya RZ67. This is a BIG camera, and shoots 6 x 7 cm negatives (10 exposures on a roll of 120 film). A mainstay of studios not so many years ago, it is really meant to be used on a tripod, so of course I used it handheld, with a 127mm lens attached. 🙂
Today’s image is one of the digitals from my shoot yesterday with model and musician Tasha. The shoot was rock music themed, and during the shoot we had Led Zeppelin playing in the background. But even in this setting there were quiet moments.
Earlier this week I shot the final rehearsal for Mambo Italiano, a funny, touching and moving play being put on by Alexander Showcase Theatre. If you are on Facebook, you can see some of the pictures I took here. This is an amazing show, and well worth seeing! Today’s picture is one I took before the show began, of cast member Antonio Olivito stretching and warming up. I had the privilege of working with Antonio earlier this year in Man of La Mancha: he is an interesting mix of manic, spontaneous energy and a serious approach to the art and craft of theatre, and I’d like to think I captured that in this image.
This image was created last night, on the subway on my way home. I noticed this person as I got on the train, but she was always looking down. Then a baby started getting fussy, and I knew that it would only be a matter of time before she looked up.
I had a great photo shoot yesterday with Dawn Bailey, a performer of mainly Early Music (think medieval, renaissance, etc.). As a performer who values early music, Dawn had an appreciation for photographic techniques that might seem obsolete to some, and when one of the old cameras I was using started getting cranky, she likened it to playing an original instrument — often challenging and in some ways more difficult than playing a modern instrument, but uniquely rewarding. This image was shot on Fuji FP3000B film, and I am posting the scanned negative version here.  Dawn’s lovely hair and amazingly textured and detailed jacket were perfect for the concept, and there will be more to come from this shoot, including a hand tint once I get the conventional film developed!
This image was shot with a new (to me) camera: a Mamiya Universal Press camera with a Polaroid back, and a 127mm f4.7 lens. It will be a challenge getting my head around this camera, but it will be worth it!!
Another image of Sarah today; she shows how a “neutral expression” can be anything but deadpan.
(Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm f2.8 .lens, lit with late 1950’s vintage Quartz Halogen movie light, Ilford Delta 400 film shot at E.I. 800, developed in HC-110 Dilution B for 10 minutes)
This image is from a shoot with a new model named Sarah, this past weekend. It was an indoor shoot, so I set up my usual lighting set-up, including my cactus remote flash triggers; a few shots in, they decided to stop working :-(. Plan B meant switching from strobe (flash) lighting to continuous lighting. I used a late 1950’s vintage quartz halogen movie light (which gave off a lot of heat!), bounced into an umbrella. When combined with the soft light from an overcast light coming through the skylights, I think it really worked. It’s time to try more of this kind of lighting!
In a lot of ways this image is not realistic: it is not in colour, it is not especially sharp, it is dark and grainy. But for early morning on the bus in November, it is extremely realistic.
Today’s image of the amazingly talented Jennifer is another hand-tinted print, so by definition it started out as a monochrome image. What I did with the hand-tinting though is try to create another mainly monochrome image, with just hints of purple and flesh tone here and there. I was going for intensity.
My Third Eye 