It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a Sunday to myself with a drive through the country and a camera or two in hand – so yesterday I met up with a good friend and off to Jackson’s Point we went starting with brunch at The Briar’s on Lake Simcoe. After brunch came a brief walk on the icy snow drifted dock with a view of all the ice huts out in the distance of avid fishermen.
What looks like a quaint little corner store – the coffee was certainly something else (and not in a good way). $2.35 for the equivalent of a Starbucks ‘tall’; one sip and your coffee is finished. The coffee at The Briar’s on the other hand was freshly ground and brewed to perfection.
I know the image of my cat Hanoon (an Arabic word meaning ‘affectionate’) seems out of place – but he is often the lucky recipient of the last few frames on my rolls of film before processing.
My Sunday was an awesome day with a great friend and a drive through the country side north of the city. It allowed me to slow down and enjoy moments in time. Sunday’s are great! Camera’s of choice for the day: Contax 645 and Canon EOS 1n. Film: Ilford Delta 400 Pro and Fuji 800z.
Recent discussions with the event organizers tell me that well over $4000 was raised in support of Haiti. Its not too late to donate – please visit the Canadian Red Cross to give your support.
Hey everyone! If you follow my blog you’ll know that this past Saturday was the Annual Photography Enthusiasts Conference held at Humber College in Etobicoke where I was a guest lecturer on Creativity, Inspiration and Composition. Along with 7 other amazing photographers we all presented 1 hour lectures on various aspects of photography. From the basics of photography (Margaret Diotalevi) to the business of photography (Irina + Mihkel Fortey), large group photography (Amber Richmond) to posing for portrait photography (Gail Kenney), location lighting with minimal equipment (Cliff Spicer) to photoshop techniques (Jennifer Cavagna) and a final presentation of slideshow creation (Sebastien Auger). The following slideshow was created by Sebastien Auger literally in 5 minutes with photos from the day of the conference as an example of what could be done creating a slideshow. The final frame of the slideshow is the master Sebastien himself.
Since Saturday I’ve received an overwhelming response to my presentation on Creativity, Inspiration and Composition that I’ve decided to create a new section on my website called ‘52 weeks‘. 52 weeks will be a blog based site where each week I will share an exercise, tip, trick or inspiration to help keep your creative juices flowing as you travel the path to becoming a professional photographer or you just need some inspiration to keep your professional photography going. This will be a site for everyone looking to improve their photography and will attempt to get you to see things differently.
My own photographic style is one that is unique and recognizable and I wanted to create 52 weeks to share the things that have helped make me successful.
52 weeks is currently in the works and I will announce the official launch via my newsletter. Head on over to the 52 Weeks site and enter your email address to subscribe to my newsletter and be the first to know when 52 Weeks launches. Join me on this creative journey!
This Saturday I will be presenting a lecture on Creativity, Inspiration and Composition at the Annual Photography Enthusiasts Conference being held at Humber College in Etobicoke.
Every artist always goes through a phase (or many) where they feel a lack of creativity or do not feel inspired. Some call it a ‘rut’ and others call it a ‘creative block’. Rather than looking at the psychology of why we get into these ruts or blocks, this lecture will explore the ways to keep you creative by looking at things differently, noticing the subtleties between light and shadow, texture and form as well as ways to remain inspired and utilize basic compositional rules (and then breaking or bending them) to create your own sense of style and recognition as an artist.
I have yet another addition to my camera family. I’ve been wanting a Contax 645 for quite some time now — and for lack of a better word — this is one sexy piece of equipment! Fitted with a Carl Zeiss 2.0 80mm Planar T* Lens, I’m just loving what this lens can do on medium format film. This past Saturday afternoon I put on my headphones and went out for a long walk with my new toy loaded with Ilford Delta 100 Pro rated at 80 and captured the following test images. The thing that I love about black and white film is that I can process it right away at home, hang the negatives to dry and then digitize the images via scanning. Just doing my part to keep film alive.
