Today’s image is a hand-tinted print of Ren from the steampunk shoot; I’ll be giving this print to her later today. You might be thinking that the bicycle was tinted orange to make it surrealistic, but actually the bike is this colour in real life; it is chained more or less permanently as a piece of art in a back alley on the U of T campus in downtown Toronto
Today’s image is another one from the “Dangerous and Domestic” shoot with the very talented Mallory, using the original prop that she suggested to skewer the cliche in the subject matter. 🙂 One of my favourite kind of concepts is taking a standard idea (in this case, sexy woman on motorbike) and twisting it, taking a poke at the underlying assumptions and stereotypes.
(Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm f2.8 lens, Tri-x at box speed, HC-110 Dilution B for 7.5 minutes.
Negative scanned, and some post processing done with Nik Efex.)
One final shot from the shoot in High Park with Tara. I had a parasol left over from a cancelled shoot, so I thought that spray painting it with metallic spray paint might give it a steam punk look when teamed up with the goggles. I was happy with how the parasol is sharp, where Tara is mainly slightly out of focus.
(Mamiya 645 Pro LT, 150mm f3.5 Mamiya lens, Tri-x at E.I. 800 developed in Diafine 3+3)
I’ve been shooting a lot in High Park recently, as I love the lighting and settings available. Last week, while waiting for a model to arrive I noticed a dead tree, set amongst living plans that I though would be a great place to shoot, but before the model arrived, another photographer and a model arrived (I think it was his girlfriend) and set up camp at the spot. They spent more time engaged in a bitter argument than shooting; I don’t think they will be happy with the results. Luckily, when I came back the next day for a shoot with model Chantal (featured in the image below) the spot was available, so we started our shoot there 🙂
Last Sunday I had a great time on a shoot with Mallory: the concept was combining the dangerous/sexy look of the motorcycle with symbols of domesticity: in this image Mallory is holding an old-fashioned egg-beater, one of my favourites from my prop collection.
Mallory is a great actress, and was easily able to create a character that made the concept come alive!
Today’s image is turning into one of my favourite portraits of the year. It is another image of Tara in High Park. The direct low sun made for a magical light, and the variety of reflections in the glass sphere seemed endless.
Today’s image is another street shot taken with my Voigtlander Vito B. It was around 5 pm on a weekday at Yonge and Bloor here in Toronto, and a mass of people were going home, like a tide going back out to sea.
Today’s image is the first of a couple I’ll be posting from a shoot with model Tara on Friday evening. The shoot featured steampunk elements such as the goggles, and in the image below a parasol that I tried to give a brass effect to. In this image, I asked Tara to spin the parasol, while I used a very slow shutter speed. I think it worked 🙂
I think I’ve found the perfect street photography camera for me, and ironically it is one I have had since the early 1970’s: my late father’s late 1950’s Voigtlander Vito B. I have not put a roll of film through it since early 1977, and I am happy to report it still works just fine 🙂
What makes it great for street photography in my mind is a feature it lacks — it has no built in rangefinder, just scale focus. This lack forces me to trust zone focusing and hyperfocal distance, getting it ready ahead of time, and then just bringing the large, bright, unencumbered viewfinder to my eye. For today’s image, it was maybe 2 seconds to see the scene, and quickly fire off the frame.
I have left this camera sit idle for far too long; it’s nice to be home.
The first two images I posted of model Theresa in High Park were to some extent dominated by lines and background. Today I return to more familiar territory: the amazing landscape of human facial expression.
(Mamiya 645 Pro TL camera, Tri-X exposed at E.I. 800, developed in Diafine 3+3)
My Third Eye 