PHO5597 - Complete

I have posted all of my assignment from this course (with the exception of my final portfolio which was an amalgamation of all the assignment photos - and a few extras) and almost every one has had the same mark: A-. Near the end of the course I determined that it was near impossible for me to get anything other than an A- in the course itself without really screwing something up, and as it turns out I was right.
I checked my marks the other day and I did in fact receive an A- in the course. I am pretty happy with that mark as this was the first course in which I felt as if my photos were actually being graded for composition and content in a non-beginner's sort of way. I definitely learnt a fair bit in this course most of which I am already instinctively putting into practice when I shoot.
The part-time program from Algonquin College hit it out of the park yet again.

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Motivation Monday - Peter Lindbergh

"My feeling is that for years now it has taken a much too big part in how women are being visually defined. Heartless retouching should not be the chosen tool to represent women in the beginning of this century." Peter Lindbergh on the overuse of retouching in fashion photography.

Peter Lindbergh (born Peter Brodbeck in 1944) has been called "the worlds greatest fashion photographer" (Ian Phillips, 1997). He has been taking fashion photographs since 1978 and has created some absolutely amazing photographs since. He has shot several television commercials and ad campaigns for some of the biggest companies and with some of the biggest stars (e.g. Tina Turner for Hanes). He has even directed a short documentary, which received great reviews and awards. He has shot some of the most famous fashion models such as Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford (photographed together in 1990, below). One would think, as a fashion model, being photographed by Peter Lindbergh would be not only an honour, but also something you would definitely include in your portfolio.

His photographs have been published in almost every fashion magazine in existence including Stern, Harper's Bazaar (Fashion Olympics article, below, featuring Lucy Liu) and Vogue.

His first book, Ten Women, was published in 1996 and has sold over 100,000 copies. It is a collection of black and white photographs of ten top models of the moment. He has been given award after award and many photographic honours throughout his career.

One of the things that I find most inspirational about him are his views on Photoshop and digital retouching (see quote at beginning of post). From what I understand of his views, mine are similar in that, retouching should not be a photographic tool as it is. It should take less of a role and the photographer should be more aware of their subject and have the abilities to create a flattering, and yet still honest, image without relying on digital assistance. Lindbergh definitely has the skills needed to create not only flattering images of his subject, but incredibly interesting and unique ones.

(images found through Google)

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Final Portfolio

I presented my final portfolio for my Composition and Design course this past Monday and was rather impressed with how I did. I am not the greatest public speaker, and I am even worse when I need to talk about my own work (rather than an abstract idea, project or some sort of research), but I managed to talk for 10 minutes, which was just under the requested time. My portfolio is twenty photos long and since it primarily consists of photos already posted here, I will not be creating any long series of posts for the images. If you are interested in viewing the photos, most of them are in my PHO5597 set on my Flickr account.

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Motivation Monday - John Sexton

"And then as I frequently do, some times I'll peek out from underneath the focusing cloth and just look around the edges of the frame that I am not seeing, see if there's something that should be adjusted in terms of changing the camera position" - John Sexton.

John Sexton (born 1953) has had quite an impressive career thus far. He has many honours and awards to his name and of course, a fantastic portfolio. He is quite possibly one of the most widely known contemporary black and white landscape photographers and educators. He had the honour and privilege of working with Ansel Adams from 1979 to 1984 (when Adams died) and this clearly shows in his magnificent works. He teaches several workshops and has taught many museums and universities in the past on photography techniques both in and out of the darkroom (including print making).

I love how his images are so incredibly classic and yet completely distinguishable. More classic examples of how one can take an every day scene, similar to the above photograph, and make it simply breathtaking. Also the complete control of his equipment - which is evident in the second image in this post, of the forest stream.

(images found through Google)

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Waterfall

This was taken in the Botanical Gardens in Montreal back in July. It may look somewhat familiar as it is the unedited version of the photograph I used for my blog header.

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Never Forget

One of the beautiful elephants that live at the Toronto Zoo. I think they are one of my favourite animals - especially at the zoo.

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Photoshop Gone

I am temporarily without Photoshop. In order to not have to write this out twice, the story behind this is posted on my other blog and can be read here.
Without Photoshop, I feel a little lost and bewildered. I am able to complete assignments by using Dave's computer, but without a properly calibrated monitor, I am not able to work on anything else as it just takes so long. Dave's computer can't really handle the Adobe software and it is therefore extremely irritating to have to use it there - though it is definitely better than not having it at all.
Dave and I are working on a few solutions to my Photoshop problem. But in my honest opinion, I truly believe I am going to have to fork up to dough to purchase the legal software. The creative suite (CS4) is available through major retail stores and the Adobe website for $2500, but using my student number at Algonquin College I can get it for $900 (student version).
To make a long story slightly less long, I will not be posting any newly edited photos anywhere for a little while. I am going to do my best to find some already edited photos that have been completed (and resized) for your viewing pleasures though.

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Assignment #6 - The Assignment

Monday night we were given the final assignment in my Composition and Design course: Architectural Photography. We were assigned a building to photograph, exterior and interior using techniques (and/or Photoshop work) to eliminate any distortion that occurred in the photo. In theory, this sounds like an interesting assignment and I had kind of been looking forward to it all year, but in reality it wasn't that great. I had thought we would each be assigned a different building on campus as there are so many, but all the students were asked to photograph the same building and the building itself is far from the nicest looking one (during the day or night). I struggled to take photos that night as I was really uninterested in it and knew that it doesn't really matter what mark I get on this assignment as my mark for the course is pretty much decided already based on the rest of the assignments.
I managed to scrape together enough energy to take the exterior shot at night, though I am not a fan of how the building got lit up so I will likely be returning this weekend to take a shot during the day. I then ventured inside to find an interesting, and unique location for the interior shot. I knew the larger classrooms would be pointless as everyone would shoot them and I ended up taking shots of the registration office and queue area as well as some shots of the cafeteria from a couple floor up. The latter of these two sets will be subject of other students as well but I needed a backup in case my first idea fell through.
Normally I would take hundreds of shot for an assignment, particularly one we are supposed to primarily shoot that day, but like I said before, I just wasn't feeling this one. I took about 60 shots total and hopefully it will be enough to get my standard A-, or not too far from it.

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Stephanie Beach Photography Version 2.1

This past Monday was supposed to be Motivation Monday, but as you can plainly see, I forgot to post something for it. Instead I spent the day revamping the blog and giving it a whole new look. My apologies for those of you who were looking forward to a post. But look at how pretty the new template is!

Last week I opened up this blog and realized I just didn't like the old template anymore - it really bothered me. It was a basic Blogger template and I found it to be both boring and way too colourful. I feel that a photography blog should be rather neutral in colour so that the photos (and how they are viewed by you) are not influenced by the surrounding colours of the blog. I hope that this new template enables freedom from influencing colours. I found the new template at ourblogtemplates.com which offers a ton of really great templates. You merely download the one you like and install it. After a tiny bit of coding to personalize it, you are good to go.

This new template also gave me the motivation to finally make myself a personalized header. The header used here is part of a photograph taken at the Montreal Botanical Gardens (and Insectarium). I cropped it, desaturated it almost completely (there is still some colour in there) and then obviously had to resize it appropriately. I am really happy with how it came out.

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1

I have been looking for a new point and shoot camera for quite some time now. My previous one, a Kodak DX7630, is rather old and outdated now and to be quite honest, really beat up. It has done very well over the last 6 years, and I really love many of the photos I have taken with it (some can even stand up to ones taken with my dSLR). I had a really great time using it, but it is time it is retired officially (it went into semi-retirement when I bought the Nikon d80).
The main features I needed in a point and shoot (p&s) camera were the it had fast start-up, high mega-pixels, optical zoom and some ability for manual control. I also wanted the ability to take movies. It would be really convenient if the camera used SD memory cards, as that is what my d80 takes and I therefore already have many of them (and didn't really want to invest in a new collected of say xD cards). I was interested in at least researching some cameras with underwater capabilities, but this wasn't at all necessary and was much less important than a quick start-up time.
I planned on using this camera when I didn't want to take my big, heavy dSLR for the sake of it being so big and heavy or for times when I felt it might get damaged or stolen. I also planned on using it as a backup and quick moments in which I didn't have time to set up the dSLR (I know you can set it to auto, but even that takes time in which I could miss the moment). It was also going to be Dave's form of entertainment when we are out on photo walks and I have to Nikon d80 with me. With all of this in mind, I started researching. I never got very far in my research though, as I would get distracted by lenses and other accessories for my dSLR.
This past weekend, during the Nikon sale at Henry's Dave and I found the perfect p&s camera for us: the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1 (ours is black). It is slick and pretty compact and has most of, if not all, the features I wanted.Above is a picture of the camera, and you can plainly see how pretty it is. But, getting past the exterior looks of the camera, it is pretty awesome inside too. It is lightweight (only 5.6 ounces with the battery and memory card), it takes SD cards which is very convenient for my ever increasing library and can take both pictures and movies (HD movies to be precise). The start-up time is one of the fastest on the market as is the shutter press to image capture at just .32 seconds. Shot-to-shot lag is reported to be minimal as well as approximately 2 seconds. It is suprisingly small in size (2.1 x 3.9 x 1 inch - see below image) when you consider its lens specifications (8x, f3.3-5.9, 25-200mm). It uses a lithium-ion battery that charges (from a fully discharged state) in about 130minutes. The LCD is 2.7 inches (diagonal) which makes it really easy to view your images. The only downside with it's screen is that you have to use it - it does not have a viewfinder which is one of the things I hate about p&s camera, but that is the direction they seem to have gone.
I thas customizable white balance and ISO settings as well as Auto settings for these as well. It of course comes with many different scene settings (portrait, landscape, macro, etc) as well as colour modes (natural, vivid, black and white, sepia, etc).
Below is the first published image taken with the new camera (one of the first taken with it in general) and I am quite happy with how it has turned it (it was taken in very dim light settings and hand held).I have high hopes and big plans for this little camera, and I will definitely keep you all in the loop as to how it performs.
(images of the camera itself found through Google)

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