One of my latest assignments is a small flash assignment – three quarter portrait to be precise. The assignment was to do three quarter portrait in both broad (lit side of the face is towards the camera) and short (shadow side of the face is towards the camera) lighting. As she is in town for a few days, Chris was my lovely model. We did a couple different poses, but the fan series seen below is my personal favourite. 
In the summer I had the opportunity to take shots of John in his fire gear. He had recently retired from being a Captain and wanted some photos of his gear and dress attire before he turned it all in. It was a fun shoot both on location and in studio. The two photos here are just a taste of what was done throughout the shoot, check out the Flickr set to see them all.
A different kind of compilation photo than I normally do, but I am really happy with the outcome. Three separate shots were taken and then merged in Photoshop. Great job looking at an empty frame Alli and Jenn!!
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I recently purchased the Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens. I AM IN LOVE! Below is the first real shot I took with my lens (Colour Palette):
I have been thinking of this lens and planning its purchase for quite some time and I am so happy with how I have spent my year-end bonus. It is a beautiful full frame lens that I will be able to use for the rest of my photographic life. Even though it is a full frame (FX) lens, it is still compatible with my non-full frame (DX) lens. The zoom range on a DX camera is approximately 35-105mm
According to the manufacturer (Nikon):
This lens is one of the sharpest Nikon lenses on the market today, it provides creamy bokeh and the autofocus is remarkably fast. It does have a few drawbacks such as it size, the lens is quite heavy and large as well. Fortunately for me, it still fits in my bag while attached to my camera body. The focus ring and zoom lens are in different locations than I am used to and the latter is quite close to the camera body itself.
Like I said, I am super happy with this lens so far and don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Last night I had a photo shoot with Jenn and her cousin Alli and it was fantastic! I have so many great shots I didn’t know where to start in terms of editing them so I just went to the beginning of the night. The above shot was one of the first ones we took after getting warmed up and watching another set of models go through our lighting setup. The rest of the night only got better from here on but you will have to wait to see them all --- t
o see the sets as they are completed visit the following Flickr albums;
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I had been looking forward to the fifth assignment since the beginning of the course: Portraits. We had to shoo the same subject in the five different types of basic lighting (broad, loop/short, butterfly, Rembrandt and split). Kate was my subject and she did a marvellous job. I am really happy with how the shots came out.
The above images are the five I submitted for the actual assignment, but I finished others and plan on doing even more in the next little while. Check it out on Flickr.
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A couple of weeks ago I did a fall portrait shoot with Kate at Mer Bleue, it was a really nice day and a lot of fun. The above photo is one of my favourites from the shoot but the entire set can be seen on Flickr.
The fourth assignment for my Lighting Techniques course isn’t as glamorous as others but it was pretty good nonetheless. Reprographics is essentially just photographing works of art. For my assignment I submitted a photograph of a sketch done of my old work, (above) The Forwarders Museum in Prescott, and a photograph of a painting I did when I was in high school (below). I really like how the texture of the paint and canvas can be seen in the photograph below.
Glass can be a little complicated when photographing because it takes on the colour of your background. The easiest way to deal with this is to place reflector of the opposite colour on either side of your object.
For example, if you are shooting on a white background, place black reflectors (or pieces of paper) just outside of your frame. This will make the edges distinguishable from the actual background.
The above photo has a reflector on the left side of the image and above it as well to reduce glare from the soft boxes that are lighting the subject. Another trick that helps is to put something in the glass itself (e.g. water).
The above photo has coloured water in the glasses and black cards on either side of the image.
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Assignment 3 in my Lighting Techniques course was all about metal and glass. We had to shoot highly reflective metal objects and glass objects.
My metal objects turned out alright I suppose, though to be honest, they don’t excite me in any manner.
I shot the first image (the watches) by using a 9x36 strip soft box on the background and a 24x32 on the right of the subject. White reflectors were also placed on the left of the image to bounce light back into the image. The second one was a bit trickier as the thermos was quite reflective. I ended up using a grid light coming in from the left of the frame through a diffuser, a 24x32 soft box on the right and a boom soft box above. The boom soft box had no light in it, it was merely used to reflect white from above onto the subject.
My glass photos came out much better than my metal ones did, in my opinion.
The second assignment for my Lighting Techniques course is High Key vs. Low Key. Essentially light and photograph the same image in a high key (first photo) and low key (second photo) setup.
The first image was shot with a 24x32 soft box on the left and left of the subject and a 9x36 strip soft box directed on the background.
This second image was shot with a 24x32 soft box on the left of the image as the fill light and a grid spot light coming from the rear and right of the image as the main light.
I am also pretty pleased with these shots – I had them in my head for several days before the shoot itself and they actually came out similar to what I had intended.
I haven't done one of these for a while now and that is partly because I haven't had the time to sit down and write about someone (and their work), but also because I haven't been looking at too many other photographers' work lately. That being said, there is one UK-based photographer I have been following for quite some time now and I find her work to be absolutely amazing. I show Kirsty Mitchell's Flickr site and now her website to people in the office whenever she releases a new photo and I honestly can't get enough of her work. It is so original, creative and breathtakingly beautiful. Her work has gotten many new ideas flowing through my head like no one else recently. Warholian.com just finished a fantastic interview with her and I feel that is pretty much sums up everything I would want to say here so I strongly suggest you check it out and then give her work a look too. So amazing!!
Read more...The first assignment for my Lighting Techniques course was simply to light an inanimate object. My partner and I shot several objects but the following two are what I am submitting to the instructor. Both were shot on a black background (velour fabric for the first and paper for the second) and done with a 24x32 softbox on the left hand side as the fill light and a grid spotlight coming from the rear on the right side as the main light.
I am pretty happy with how they came out, but we will see what the instructor has to say about them.
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The above photo of my sister-in-law was uploaded to Flickr along with others from her wedding to my brother back in September 2008. I hadn't finished them before now as every time I was in the mode to, the hard drive with the photos on it was nowhere near me (aka I had forgotten to bring it with me). I finally finished them and they are up for viewing. (Thanks to Dave for helping me with these photos during the actual wedding as I was part of the bridal party and had to be in some of the photos - at least that is what my family told me ;) )
On a similar note, I also finished the photos from Nico and Alison's wedding and they too are uploaded onto Flickr. Both sets can be found in my Wedding Collection.
Some painted bowling balls at the Strange House in Safety Harbour, Florida.
I bought this one day before my second PHO5598 course as it is pretty much mandatory for completion of the course. This item itself isn’t essentially, but the ability to plug into the studio lights using a synch cord is and my camera (Nikon d80) doesn’t have that ability without this accessory.
I have however used this before as someone in a previous course had it and let me borrow it for our portrait assignment. The AS-15 is a simple accessory and not too expensive either, only $29.99 (plus taxes) at Henry’s. If you are interested in studio lighting and have an opportunity to use some nice lights, I would suggest picking one up, but check to make sure you need it first (aka make sure you camera doesn’t have this terminal on the camera itself).
Super excited Alison as she walked down the aisle. I really love the expression on her face.
I have attended two sessions of my current Algonquin College course entitled Lighting Techniques and I absolutely love it so far! I have been looking forward to this course for some time now and it does not look like I am going to be disappointed whatsoever. Throughout the next few months I will obviously be learning lighting techniques, but I will be doing so both in and out of the studio and with both animate and inanimate objects. Last week and this upcoming week are for inanimate, non-metallic, non-glass objects. Then we move onto metallic then glass and then onto portraits (formal and environmental). There are some other categories that I can’t seem to remember right now but I am looking forward to all of them.
I put this course off as I wanted to ensure I got the most out of it and felt that other courses were essential to take prior to this one.
Algonquin’s website describes the course as:
"Students learn to use a variety of lighting techniques in regards to subject matter; desired effect are discussed and demonstrated. This course includes the use of electronic flash lighting equipment, lighting ratios, portrait lighting, product lighting, exposure determination using a studio flash meter, and a variety of specialized lighting techniques for studio and location photography."
I will of course be posting my assignments here as I complete them. All of our assignments have to be submitted in hardcopy – prints rather than electronic files, so that should be interesting too.
Curling season should be starting again soon enough which will hopefully result in more opportunities to take sport photos.
A few months ago I had a photo shoot with an upcoming musician, Corinne. We took several shots and the above was definitely one of my favourites from the session. To check out more photos from the shoot go here.
I have been getting tons of rave reviews for the photos I took while at Nico and Alison's wedding back in July. I haven't quite been able to finish all of the photos I would like so there are still more to come (shortly) but what is done can be found on my Flickr account.
To be honest, I am pretty pleased with how the photos came out and even the bride and groom have mentioned how much they like them. I have even seen some interest from friends/co-workers about shooting other weddings so even perhaps it is something I should start seriously considering.
A self declared package deal (and best of friends), Taylor and Kristen.
Another shot from the Cottage shoot this time of the very pretty Jerrica. It is unfortunate that I wasn’t able to get a formal portrait shoot in with Jerrica before she moved back home – we will have to set that up for when she visits next (hint hint).
In which Pooh finds a spooky tree.
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This is one of my favourite shots from the Cottage Girls Shoot.
In which Pooh gets a closer look at the fuzzy branches.
While at the cottage this past May, I had the opportunity to take some quick portrait shots of the ladies before they went out dancing. The above photo isn’t from that shoot, but rather the prep work before the shoot.
In which Pooh finds a familiar tree (see original image here).
A photo of Justin (aka Justain) from the annual trip to Chris’ cottage.
This weekend I finally got around to doing something I had been planning and intending to do for quite some time now: organizing my Flickr sets and collections.
I have broken them down into 9 basic collections;
• Algonquin College
• Animal Photography
• Event Photography
• Nature Photography
• Personal Projects
• Portraiture
• Travel Photography
• Wedding Photography
• Miscellaneous
Each one of these is broken into sub-collections and sets that are pretty self-explanatory. These are basically the areas I am going to be focusing on/taking normally throughout my daily life.
Check out the new setup and let me know what you think.
Adorable Oliver kept coming back and posing for me so I kept taking his photo.
Pretty Cora sitting by her dish waiting for dinner.
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