Ideas

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I love it when models come to a shoot with ideas — a good shoot is always a collaboration, and Miranda came not only with some amazing props (such as the broken garnet jewelry) but great ideas for unconventional poses (she was shot from above in this image).

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One item of note: this is the second post in a row where I have featured a digital image (taken with a Nikon D90 camera). I wouldn’t call it a trend, but in this case, being able to show Miranda the shots immediately helped spur the creativity and refine ideas, which is never a bad thing.

Look Closely

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Today’s image is of Miranda, an actress and musician from Hamilton. This image is from a shoot for my “Broken” project, for which she brought a long a great broken pearl/bead necklace. The vase was a great garage sale find — 25 cents! If you look closely, you’ll see me 🙂

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Expressions, Again

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More expressions, this time from Natasha Henderson, a Toronto comedian and actress, whose strong personality and presence made for a lively and fun photo session combining a retro film noir look with poking fun at old attitudes regarding the role of women. Natasha’s enthusiasm was great, and as a result she created a memorable character!

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See Natasha in action on Youtube.  She is the host of Comedy Thursdays at the Starving Artist in Toronto.

Expressions

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Every now and then, I’m lucky enough to capture an amazing expression in a portrait — one that has complexity and subtlety, and in this recent image of model Julia Lewis,  the expression she created is really quite something. Every time I look at this image, I see something new and different in her expression. At the end of a rather iffy week photographically speaking (models not showing up, weather-related shoot cancellations, technical screw-ups), getting this image made for a very positive end to a not so positive week. 🙂

Julia A. L.

(Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm f2.8 lens, Fuji Neopan Acros 100 film, developed in HC-110, dilution H)

Art and Grieving

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Today’s image has a touching story behind it. Caitriona the model (who is also an artist) had messages me saying she had to be a bit late for the shoot, due to an unavoidable issue. When she arrived for the shoot,  she told me that a close friend of hers had passed away that day. I asked if she was still up to shooting (and would have understood if she wished to cancel the shoot) but she said her friend had also been an artist, and would have wanted her to keep going, keep creating. When I showed Caitriona the first images from the session she remarked that doing the shoot definitely helped her out.

Caitriona

(Photograph made with Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80 mm f2.8 lens. Arista 200 Ultra film, developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 1o minutes)

An Interesting Accident

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The term “Lomography” refers to using old/cheap cameras such as Holgas to create images that may suffer from technical defects (light leaks, vignetting, out-dated film), but achieve a certain style and mood as a result. I have a new term, “Blowmography” for when I blow it technically, but the resulting mess looks interesting. Lomography is on purpose, Blowmography is accidental. This image (from the shoot with model Caroline in downtown Toronto) is an example of Blowmography — I developed the film (Polypan F) in the wrong developer (an extremely low contrast special purpose developer meant for another film, Adox CMS 20) and got a very muddy, thin negative. I cranked up the contrast on the scanner, and got this. I thought the colour shift artifacts, and the emphasis of some surface defects on the  made for an interesting vintage shot.

Interesting accident

Power

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Today’s image is NSFW, so all I can do is add a link

The model in today’s image is striking in her power and intensity. Although nude images often imply submissiveness and objectification, in this image the model makes it very clear that she is in the image on her own terms, and is definitely not submissive!

Glowing Shadows

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Today’s image is of Kaitlin, a model I worked with recently. I really went wild with the post processing on this one, to get the heavy glamour glow I like. The background is an old curtain I got at a thrift store for about $5.00 sometime back; I love its pattern and texture.

More Kaitlin

Young and Old

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Today’s image of a new young model is from my Vintage 35mm project — using old rangefinder cameras for portraits with a vintage feel. For this photograph I used my 1939 vintage Leica IIIb body, with a 50mm Summitar f2 lens. As I was using a very slow film (E.I. 20 Adox CMS 20 film) even though it was a bright sunny day I was shooting wide open at f2, for a nice swirly effect in the background.

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Built to Last

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This picture was taken last week in Arizona; I used my Leica IIIb, with the Voigtlander Color Skopar 21mm/f4 super wide-angle lens. This picture was taken sometime after I had dropped the camera by accident on a rather unforgiving pavement. Ouch. Luckily, either than a bent filter ring (which I can likely fix), the camera survived just fine. I can’t help but think that if this had been a modern day plastic camera it would have broken into a number of pieces.

Pardon the cliche, but they don’t make them like the used to!

JW Marriot complex in Scottsdale Arizona