An Early Portrait Attempt

This portrait is a picture of my father that I took about a year or two ago as part of a school assignment. I was never overly happy with the shot as I felt I did a lot of things wrong. However, since losing him in April there is no other photograph that I am as happy about having taken. Yesterday was my father's birthday and it seems right to me that he make an appearance here on my blog.

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Portraits Don't Really Suck

Portraits are a funny thing. It used to be that I hated portraits... despised may be a better word. They conjured up images of school photos, head shots, family trips to Sears... I think you probably get the idea. It wasn't until I had a photography teacher really help to show me that portraits are not limited to these traditional uses. He helped me see portraiture as a cool, interpretive way of taking a person's picture while trying to grab a hold of a piece of who or what they are and jamming it into the frame. He helped to increase or create an appreciation for people like Karsh (the greatest ever) and Nigel Dickson, as well as so many others. The funny thing though is that he didn't do any of this by "taking me under his wing" or anything like that. He just taught me to take better pictures, the rest just came with it. My father was the one who instilled a love of photography in me, and he is the first person I think about when I shoot, every time. But I can't help wondering as I edit or go through my pictures whether or not this teacher would approve of the shots.

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This is my sister Dawn, and if you are wondering what it about her that I grabbed and jammed in the frame... it is pure, unfiltered, undiluted cool. 

Sometimes You Just See Weird Shit

OK so it has been awhile since I posted the bird and wanted to get something else up ASAP.
Now this newest photo is of a busker (street performer.) Now I have seen more than a few buskers in my time but this is the weirdest one ever for me. No costume... not weird, a guitar or even a banjo... not weird... but when you put it all together, it's weird.

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Been Awhile

It has been awhile since I posted here... mainly because I was away but also partly because I got lazy about posting. So here is a new shot. I want to say that this is a parrot... but to be 100% honest I am not sure, as we were on an exotic bird rescue sanctuary and there were multiple species.

Either way... he was awesome.

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A Sci-Fi Shot

I really like how this shot turned out. The wood and dirt surface give the shot a kind of alien look to it that fits the subject... or it may just be me reading too much into it.

It was tough but I am happy that I was finally able to get the alien into focus... his name is currently slipping my mind but he is is from Star Wars: Clone Wars. The shot also had to be under exposed somewhat in order to reduce some washout I was getting on the alien from the sun. Overall though I do like the results and it was fun to do.

Update: His name is Cad Bane... not that anyone cares, but it was driving me crazy!!

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Would have also been cool if I could have somehow gotten rid of the background in the upper right area, I guess that is what Photoshop is for though.

More Goofy Stuff

Some more fun stuff I did, in these our brave hero faces off against the giant skunk and ultimately loses in the worst possible way.

There are definitely a few things I would change about these not the least of which would be to use an actual macro lens... that aside. I need to get the focus a little crisper on the actual "hero" and I would prefer not to have the actual base supporting him as well.

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Project 1 - Macro... not really but it was the inspiration

The first idea I took from the book is based on Macro photography, the idea was to use very small figurines in weird situations to form almost a Lilliput effect. I didn't have either a macro lens or tiny little figurines so instead I substituted a regular lens and any little action figure/toy I could find. I figure I will post some of the results and keep trying this for the next week or so... or maybe until I get bored.




Here is the Invisible Man gleaming the cube (just for you Kev!) on a rock and then riding a downspout from my father-in-law's garage.

Don't ask where I got an Invisible Man riding a skate board, I just did and I love it!!

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Ideas

One of the things I struggle with most when it comes to photography is ideas on what to shoot. In class it's easy, someone tells you but when you are on your own your left to your own ideas and unfortunately mine tend to aim far too high. So in an effort to give myself some direction for shooting I am using the book my wife and kids gave me for Father's Day, Photo Op - 52 Inspirational Projects. Not all of the projects are too my taste or skill sets but I figure it should help point me in the right direction and take me out of my comfort zone as well... and maybe have some fun at the same time.

Tree

A shot taken not far from the "ruins" in my last post.

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Historical Ruins

Not sure this really qualifies as ruins, but it is the remains of the building that Laura Secord went to during the War of 1812. The building was destroyed by fire during the 50's I believe... but I could be way off.

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Fall Colours

Another shot taken from my backyard. The colours of this bush, shrub, small tree... just really caught my eye.

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Leaves

Just a fun shot I took in my backyard. Did not really sight this at all just lowered the camera to the ground and let auto focus do its thing... but pretty much got the result I wanted.

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End of Fall Flowers

Just a couple of pictures I took in my backyard as the decent weather continued.

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Belated Happy Halloween

Gourds

Some gourds also shot at Heartland Woods.

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Depth of Field

This shot was taken at Heartland Woods in Niagara Falls. The lined up pumpkins gave me a good subject for playing around with depth of field and this is one of the results.

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Correction

A few days ago I mentioned that I was taking an online course and that I would post the results of my assignments here, well it turned out the course was garbage. I won't say who the course was with but just that it did not suit the needs I had hoped it would and I could not get behind the teacher involved.

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Train Bridge

A train bridge that I came across on my walk of the neighbourhood.

Toronto Paint Job

I was in Toronto last week for a day so at one point I just took a short walk around the neighbourhood. It was a nice little neighbourhood but what really caught my attention was the graffiti. It may be because I have really only seen large amounts of graffiti a couple of times (it is not very common locally... at least not anything that had any sort of effort behind it) but I really find graffiti interesting so I took a few shots of some that I found nearby. It is nothing outstanding... just interesting to me.

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One Last Bounce?

Getting a last bounce out of the trampoline due to some nice weather! She is so much fun to watch and shoot on there.

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Days

Some of you may be wondering why I number the days. The whole idea of the blog was to try and post a picture everyday and the numbering was my way of keeping track. Unfortunately due to life that has not been the case but for some reason the numbering is of strange comfort to me as it shows that I am still progressing the number of pictures in this blog.

Recently I started taking an online photo course, which to be honest is a very basic one but truthfully I wanted to refresh some of the basics and more importantly I wanted to try and focus myself (no pun intended) again. So I will also be posting the results of my assignments here as well.

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Day 75

My other favorite model. He always looks like he is thinking everything in the world through at that exact moment.

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Day 74

Yes you see a lot of this little girl in my shots... why? Cause she is ALWAYS there for me to take pictures of.

While posed shots are amazing and get exactly what you want across, there is nothing like that spontaneous shot of a child. Here she was using a porch as a stage and doing a song and dance. Not a perfect shot but these moments rarely are.

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Day 73 Night Clouds

I took this pic in a rush from my front porch as I didn't want to miss the colours. It is not quite as sharp as I would like it to be but I know what mistakes I made and won't do it again. There is something fascinating about clouds.

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Day 72

This picture was taken as we took a drive through the middle of nowhere... I just love the look on her face as she lets the wind blow through her hair.

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Day 71

More thoughtful camel. I was amazed by how close he/she was letting me get to them. I wanted to keep shooting when it occurred to me that camels can spit... hard. At that point I felt it was a good idea to get me and my equipment a little further away.

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Day 70

I have never been a fan of camels... just thought they were not very interesting. However this one really intrigued me. Not really sure what it is but they just look very thoughtful and seem to have some character in their faces.

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Day 69

The big cat again in another picture that I really like. Unfortunately I couldn't use a flash to bring his eyes out as it would reflect off of the fence I was shooting through and ruin the picture.

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Day 68

I love this pic. I am pretty sure I have said it before in this blog but I really like this leopard. He always seems to be active when I am there.

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Day 67... I guess

Alright it has been a long time since I updated this blog... which sucks on my part. So sorry about that... would help if blogger would let me add photos when using my iPad... but anyway.

This is a Bald Eagle located at the Safari Niagara park. He was not overly happy with how close I was getting... but then he saw my daughter and figured it was cool since I had brought lunch too.

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Day 66

This is obviously a shot of a horse. It was taken at Marshville as another horse walked by and got his attention. Not a great shot but it is ok.

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Marshville

I love going to Marshville. Every year we go the the Marshville Festival and every year I get excited about it... no idea why since it really doesn't change much year to year. I really like taking pictures there when I get the chance, and I think the excitement comes from the fact that I haven't yet gotten "The" shot there. So next year I will try again.

This is a really quick HDR treatment that I did on a shot of the water tower and sawmill at Marshville.
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Day 65 - More Michelle

And here is the back of the Workshop tee... and Michelle too.

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Through a Cracked Lens

Day 64 - Workshop T-Shirt

This is the front of her second tee based on the photo "Workshop." The model for this is the always beautiful Michelle. She also has a blog on the net (linked from this very page) but I won't tell you which one as she does not post under her own name and I don't want to be the one to out her.

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Through a Cracked Lens

Day 63 - Stupid Girl T-Shirt and more of the Douce!

And the back of the first tee which is based on the photo "Stupid Girl"

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Through a Cracked Lens

Day 62 - Cracked Lens Tees

My wife has a small company called "Through a Cracked Lens Photography" for which I am the photographer. She specializes in horror photography with a creepy, often (but not always) subtle spin. Last night I did a very quick photo session with a couple of models to show off her new t-shirts. This one shows the front of her first tee and the model is known as the Douce!

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Through a Cracked Lens

PS - All of the t-shirt shots had some minor processing done in photoshop including adjustments to the exposure, white balance, cropping and other junk like that.

Last one... well, for today.

OK, that's it for now with the HDR. It is pretty fun to do though so I expect you will likely see more of them.

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Motorcycle

More HDR... I have to figure out something to do about the people in the background on some of these shots... stupid people messing with my hullabaloo.

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Burned

When I saw this burned up building I knew I wanted to try applying an HDR effect to it. I think it came out really cool especially the bricks and the sky itself.

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Yep more HDR

More playing around with HDR. What can I say I like the way HDR looks... although I know mine need more work.

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Another attempt at HDR

Again, just playing around with HDR effects in Photoshop. This is a fire escape on the side of an old hotel in Kitchener Ontario. I watched this fire escape for 2 days hoping to get a shot of it with people sitting on it watching the Blues Festival but once I discovered that the hotel was shut down I figured it was a hopeless cause and shot it anyway.

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Day 61

You have no idea how much we miss you.

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Day 60

Just a very cool sign for a small coffee shop in Kitchener Ontario.

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Bonus

Was playing around with HDR techniques in photoshop. I always like the way these look.

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Day 59

Another cool sign. I love the name of this pub.

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