I took these of Navid and Jess a little while back.
More recently, Navid called to let me know the childbirth went well, and now he has another adorable little half-Persian girl.
Rose is old enough to walk on her own now and give me kisses before she leaves.
There’s a fundraiser for Haitian earthquake survivors at the Cube Gallery happening in two weeks. An auction will be held after the viewing, and any money raised from the auction will go to the Red Cross. I’ve donated one of my favourite photos, the very first print of “Carrot Feet” (to which I hold much sentimental attachment), to the cause. I’m also going to personally extend this to all other prints from my Fruit and Body series, so if you purchase a print between now and the auction, I’ll put 100% of the sale price towards the fundraiser.
If you have artwork you’d like to donate, please contact me and I’ll get you in touch with the appropriate people. When people can walk away with amazing artwork while helping those in need, it’s a win-win situation. I’ll be attending to meet the other artists and hopefully pick something up for myself if any artwork speaks to me.
From the Cube Gallery website:
Haitian Disaster Art Fundraiser
In light of the disaster that has befallen the people of Haiti, Cube Gallery and AfrikArt Konnection, in collaboration with Paul Dewar, MP are calling Canadian artists to rally together to assist in the efforts underway to make the lives of Haitian survivors better.
Event Date: February 9, 2010
Event Time: 6 pm viewing; 8 pm auction
Location: Cube Gallery, 7 Hamilton Ave. N.Artwork viewing: begins at 6pm
Fundraising Auction: 8pmThere will be a reception, music, light foods and entertainment at Cube Gallery on Hamilton Ave. The event is hosted by Oni the Haitian Sensation.
It’s SO great to work with a couple who appreciates art…enough to be willing to get naked for it.
Tina and I headed to a couple of small towns around Ottawa. She had her Nikon and I was armed with my new Canon 5D Mark II, which is a full frame camera and gives me such wonderfully wide angles. You can see her shots at her flickr set. They give me great ideas on how I can look at things from another perspective because they’re so different from mine, approaching shots from closer ranges and composing with more diagonal angles.
This is by far my favourite shot (above), and I’ll probably get a large print of it when I have the money. There’s a series of acrylic paintings by Ken Vincent at the Koyman Galleries in Ottawa, and I’ve always wanted this one in particular because the colours and the moody clouds speak of pure emotion to me, and I never believed I was capable of capturing such moments with my last camera1. The price — $2300 for a 28"x61" painting — had always held me back, but now I’m confident I can get that elusive look I’ve been trying to capture, myself.
If you’re in Toronto, you can check out one of my prints at the University of Toronto Photographic Art Show. Rita Bauer, to whom I owe so much in support, asked me if she could submit the print she bought from me. Also featuring the work of some of the amazing people I met the last time I was down there, such as Jeff Comber, who does awesome work with skateboarders, and Kate Tarini, whose work with panoramas won her best in show at Maximum Exposure last year.
I generally don’t show my models the pictures I’m taking of them until I’m finished the shoot, and have had a chance to do some post-processing. That’s because I want them to see the final product, not the draft, and the impact is much greater. But if a model is insecure, or I want them to get a better sense of the idea I’m going for, I’ll show them a picture or two. It helps build their confidence, and they start to trust me a little more, which, in turn, gives me a little more creative control.
I also try to look at the LCD screen as infrequently as possible. It forces me to have faith in myself and my photographic abilities. Some people laugh at those who chimp; admittedly, when I see a “professional” who checks their screen after every shot, I lose confidence in them. That doesn’t mean I won’t look down to at least make sure my flashes went off, or the auto exposure isn’t going wonky due to some extreme light conditions, but that’s it.
Some portraits of Tatiana. As a person into voyeurism (more specifically, on the end being observed), she’s more comfortable with her clothes off than on. I love working with people who are comfortable with their bodies. You get total creative freedom, instead of the frustration of having to walk on eggshells, lest you offend a model’s sensibilities.
I’ve discovered that when doing nude photography, you need to open up the aperture so that a greater portion of the person is in focus than in conventional portraits. If you focus on only the eyes, you lose the nudity and it becomes a distraction. If you focus on nakedness, you lose the eyes and it becomes vulgar.
Photographing people with darker skin is a little different than capturing those with fairer skin. You don’t worry so much about the colour tones during shoot as after, when you’re post-processing the photos.
I also find that, in general, girls are natural posers. They’ll change positions on their own initiative and play with the camera, which is very different from guys, who will just stand there until you give them some sort of direction. Each has their own advantages, as I can feed off the creativity of a model who wants to try different things, but also work well with those who will be posing dolls for me.
Four of us piled into my car to make a venture out west, in search of ghost towns. Areas that weren’t developed enough for the Canadian railway to go through, and the lack of major transportation eventually killed them.
What we found were not-so-abandoned places, black flies biting us all over, and dead ends.
Still, it wasn’t a total loss. There’s something to shoot almost anywhere, as long as you can change your perspective. And riding in a car with three new people means you get good conversation, if not good photo opportunities.
Taking portraits of families is a lot harder than I expected. It’s not so much the amount of light and large depth-of-field required (although that does play a part), but the fact that there are so many things going on at once. Getting everyone to co-ordinate what they’re doing becomes exponentially difficult with every extra person. And if only one person blinks, the photo is ruined.
One of the biggest assets a photographer can have is a sense of humour. If you can make your model laugh, you lower their apprehensiveness, which brings down their guard and provides you with much more natural expressions. Not to mention the fact that it’s a pleasure to see someone smiling or laughing.
I generally don’t take photos of wildlife, because I don’t have the right equipment; the most telephoto lens I have is a 100mm macro, where I’d say at least 200mm is needed. Wildlife also tends to be difficult to capture, since the variables are so hard to control (especially with models that don’t understand verbal commands), and the chances fleeting. Every now and then, an opportunity presents itself though.
For the In A Flash photo contest this year, I got runner up to the main prize for this photo I took of my muse, and an honourable mention for my picture of Pat in Jen’s wedding dress in the humour category.
I didn’t tie with myself like last time1, but I was still glad to get two of my photographs in there.
