You know what the coolest thing about shooting film is? Getting your scans back and seeing what you shot. I mean there is a vague recollection of what you pointed the camera at but not knowing how it turned out turns into anticipation and then, hopefully, satisfaction. I shot a roll of 120 with my friend Simon's Diana clone as we were out one sunny but cold day a couple of weeks ago. There were some pretty cool light leaks at the end of the roll.
I got out with a couple of buddies on Friday night and did a bit of shooting at the Toronto Waterworks. I love shooting down there and turning the night sky into almost day like scenes by way of long exposures. The portrait of Paul is lit with a cell phone! We also looked inside the buildings and noticed quite the workshop.
The following blog post is my entry in the I Heart Faces Photo Challenge "Best Face 2012"
This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com
I went for a photowalk with my dawgs Simon and Taha today. We bumped into a couple of dogs too! See if you can guess which one we got closer to. Later on in the day, I stopped into Vistek and picked up a Lensbaby Spark. The Spark is a manual tiltshift lens. It's going to take a little bit of getting used to, but I like the results it produces.
And from this day forward, Taha will be forever known as the Snowman Assassin
On the Eve of New Year's Eve, I got out to do a bit of shooting. As cold as it was, I enjoyed getting out and pressing the shutter button. As is typically the case, a good night is one that involves shinny hockey! Here are a few images including some iPhone images.
On Friday I was so pumped up about shooting at night after posting about it, I had to get out again. Myself and a couple of other photographers got together and headed out. We started at a park just south of the Danforth where, we stumbled on an empty rink, I thought of the lockout and the Tragically Hip song that inspired the title for this post. From there we went downtown. Here are a few frames.
I got out last weekend to do a bit of night shooting. If you follow my blog, you know that Toronto at night is one of my favourite things to photograph. Last week we got down to Underpass Park, part of the waterfront development plan here in Toronto. If you get a chance, check it out either by day or nigh, it is a wonderful spot!
Yesterday, I got the chance to go out on a photowalk with more than 20 other great photographers. Here are a bunch of images that I grabbed, as you'll see, we found a lot of skaters.
It was really cool to bump into my old friend Taha on the walk, we ended up spending the whole day shooting together along with my friend Simon. I didn't know that he had taken up photography and further to that he is the greatest iPhone photographer I've ever met. Seriously. check out his Instagram feed and see for yourself. That said, I processed everything from yesterday's walk in black and white with the exception of this portrait that I grabbed of Taha, the colour was just too good. You can see Simon's set from yesterday by clicking here . It's neat to see how we each captured similar situations from different perspectives.
I'm in love with the Yonge and Sheppard/Yonge and Finch area. I really am, I've set up shop here and I really can't get enough of it, there is so much culture here that you can experience most of the world in less than half an hour. There really always seems to be something going on and I love to get out and take some of it in, This past weekend, I got out for a little bit.
I'm currently working on a series of images called Torontox3. The images are triple exposed in camera and then processed. Here's the second image.
The first image can be seen here
You can view the whole series by clicking here
To Purchase a limited edition print, please contact me: info(at)jmphotographyonline(dot)ca
I'm currently working on a series of images called Torontox3. The images are triple exposed in camera and then processed. Here's the first image.
You can view the whole series by clicking here
To Purchase a limited edition print, please contact me: info(at)jmphotographyonline(dot)ca
I was recently loaned the use of a canon AE-1 manual focus film slr. This is an insanely awesome little camera, if there were no such thing as digital and autofocus, it would be my primary camera. Seeing as there is such thing as digital and autofocus, the AE-1 is a bit of a novelty, but it's also an opportunity to think really hard about photography. Shooting film means that you need to be fully committed to the shot before you press that shutter and I see that as an opportunity to learn even more and push myself as a photographer.So I set out to load the camera and came across Ilford FP5 black and white film which is what the call "true" black and white. True black and white film only captures black and white as opposed to regular black and white which captures all of the colors but processes them as black and white. The results are a rich contrast and really deep blacks. Shooting this film will require a little more thought as I approach each shot but I really like it. Here are a few scans from the roll
A while back I posted a series of images that I shot after setting up a "Street Studio" you can see that post here As well as planned and agreed upon street shooting, I am also quite interested in the candid guerrilla style of street photography. I have been reading and following a few incredibly talented street photographers as of late. Thomas Leuthard and Erik Kim in particular have an inspiring approach to street photography. If you get a chance to read their blogs, do yourself a favour and watch some of their videos on shooting strangers in the street. I got out at lunchtime today and shot as though I was one of them, although they may say that I didn't get close enough into people's faces.
Baby steps.
I've been playing with the double exposure feature in the Nikon D90 and I really like the results. I'm working on a series that I'll be showing soon but today I did some as portraits. After seeing the results, I may actually abandon the other series and stick to portraits for this type of shooting! all of the images are exposed twice in camera and then in lightroom I applied a preset that I have developed to bring out some of the contrast and dark tones.
Last week was family vacation week as we joined the in-law side of the family at "Uncle Ken's Cottage" for the week. Insert in-law jokes here (most are applicable). It was a great time and I captured a number of great images, but most of my images are just for me and my family. I did, however, find the opportunity to sit on the dock and enjoy a cigar while capturing my first ever star trail image.
I stopped by the beach last night as the sun was going down. Inspired by the heat wave we are experiencing here in Toronto, here are a couple of images to cool you down
On Friday night, my friend and I set out, as we often do, to do some downtown shooting. As I set out to meet him, I was reminded of a video I watched a while back of Clay Enos shooting portraits in the street. This gave birth to the idea to set up a studio in the street. We set up an umbrella with my flash and wireless trigger and a reflector against a wall on the corner of Queen and Peter streets at around 11pm and started stopping people for portraits.
Update - I took a more incognito approach here
This concept generated a lot of discussion about model release forms and whether or not I need one for this kind of shooting. There is absolutely no plan to profit from any of these images, they will never be used commercially, so I see no need for a model release form. The purpose of this shoot was to get some on location lighting practice while also giving people a free portrait that they can use for their social media profile pics and such. And for me to do something that terrifies me, making myself completely vulnerable to strangers. That said, if you see yourself in this post and would like the image removed, please let me know and I will take it down. (and email you a copy)
BTW, not everyone who's image I took is pon the blog. If you had an image taken by me, please email me for your copy!
I drove down Yonge St. on my way to dinner last night with my camera on the passenger seat of the car and decided to stick it out the window as I travelled. A Drive By shooting of sorts.
