Fotografia

Right Way to Hold a Spoon

Sun, 16 May 2010 09:59 -0500

Taken last weekend at Balmy Beach in Toronto. While I was shooting it, this song started playing on my iphone. Somehow fitting. Have a listen

Crossing

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:22 -0500

The Bloor Viaduct bridge in Toronto.

Pretending

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:20 -0500

I miss the ocean. Badly. When looking at this photo, imagine this is the ocean and not lake ontario :)

This photo is also an example of why it is a good idea to shoot RAW. The original exposure had virtually no detail in the sky. A little bit of a gradient adjustment in lightroom to turn down the brightness brought back hidden detail that simply would have not been possible if this was a JPEG.

Be sure to check out my Flickr stream as I have been posting a few things there that have not made it to this blog.

I think I have a thing for square crops. Let me know what you think.

Purple Haze

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:27 -0500

A familiar sight, so I thought I would make it a tad purple :) 3 shot HDR from Polson Pier a few weeks ago. Blended in some of the original shots with the HDR image to correct a few issues with the HDR conversion using layer masks in Photoshop. I also tried out the new topaz detail 2 plugin, which worked nicely on the buildings. Now back to work... Hope you like it. Let me know what you think.

A Second Look

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:58 -0500

This is probably my favourite of my first day at the Spit. I had seen this structure earlier in the morning and thought that a walk down to the water may be worht it. And it was.

Nomad

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:55 -0500

This past weekend I headed out to the Leslie Spit in an attempt to catch a sunrise. Well the sunrise didn't work out, but I didn't walk out empty handed. I took the opportunity to wander around the area, and was able to access some spots that are usually not accessible during the rest of the year. I also got a chance to finally meet Mike Quigg aka ~EvidencE~ on Flickr an amazing local photographer. He had mentioned to me that there was a frozen tree near the south shore that he had captured (and which you can see in its full glory in his Photostream) that was worth a look. While I was attempting to make something interesting from said tree, Mike came wandering by the same spot. We then attempted to find a horned owl with no success, but worthwhile anyway as Mike is a Spit regular, and showed me a few new spots. By the way you can see some of Mike's prints (as well as some of other Flickr all stars) on display at Tappo Wine Bar at the Distillery district. He had his opening night yesterday and had a great turnout. Please do yourself a favor and check it out.

This image wasn't processed a whole lot. It was already high key to begin with, as that's the feel I wanted to put across. Then I simply desaturated it, tinted it and applied some negative vignetting. To me while standing there, this remnant of a tree reminded me of some sort of large animal traveling very slowly through a winterscape. I think I have a couple more to post from this day. Let me know what you think.

By a rope

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:27 -0500

Another from Wintercity.

Flying Dancers

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:16 -0500

Sometimes Toronto really surprises me. Walking home tonight, I happen to go through Nathan Philips Square where Wintercity is in full swing, and I was treated to a beautiful arial/acrobatic/dance show. It's hard to describe what it is, but you need to go see it. Beautifully choreographed and performed by (if i remember correctly) a Quebec based group. Got a lot of nice shots, but I had to post this one, the last frame in a full memory card. Pretty much straight out of the camera.

Neon on Queen

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:05 -0500

These 3 photos were taken on the same night, just a few blocks apart a couple of weeks ago. If you are familiar with the Queen Street West area of Toronto, these might look familiar. I originally thought of posting each one individually, but during editing in Lightroom I realized that these three could make a nice Triptych. So here it is. Processed entirely in Lightroom, and the triptych assembled in Photoshop. If you haven't done so yet, do yourself a favour and play with the Split Tone controls in the Develop mode in Lightroom. They are not just for black and white images.

2009 Favourites

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:19 -0500

Cutting it close! I hope this is the beginning of a tradition for me. This image, is made up of my favourite photos of the year. I selected 6 for each month and created this image. I wish I could think of a better way to present this, but it will have to do for now.

I would like to say thanks for all of the wonderful and positive feedback. I hope to bring you much more next year, and to continue to grow and improve. Best wishes for an awesome 2010!

Chinatown

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:00 -0500

Another try at some cinematic style. As the previous image, this one was processed entirely in Lightroom. Photoshop was used to add the bars, and a slight decrease in overall saturation. This is probably my last image this year, with the exception of a montage of selections from each month of this year that I will hopefully post before the year end.

Sunday

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:01 -0500

Old friends on a Sunday in the Distillery enjoying a coffee and conversation. The last few days i've been inspired to achieve a "cinematic" look to my post processing. I haven't quite gotten to where I want to be yet, but I'm pretty happy with the way that this one turned out. It's pretty much all done inside of Lightroom. Photoshop was used to add the bars and to sharpen the photo. In Lightroom, i think the keys (at least for this one) was the desaturation of vibrance and saturation, split toning, and some manipulation of Color in the reds and oranges. A small vignette was also added. Let me know what you think.

Restlessness

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:52 -0500

The appearance of calmness often hides a furious restlessness inside. Taken near the water works at the Toronto beaches. 3 stop ND filter, 20s exposure. Flipped the image horizontally for stronger composition (i think...). Not a lot of processing, the only interesting thing is the fog. Hope it actually looks like fog :) Enjoy!

Wall

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:35 -0500

The RC Water Works wall a couple of days ago. This photo was a happy accident. I was trying to figure out what shutter speed would give me the nicest smooth water, but it was still pretty bright at the time this photo was taken, and I did not have my filters with me. Yet, the sky, the rays of light, the water and the wall all looked pretty interesting to me, so I decided to try my luck. The original image isn't anything special, but knowing that I had an interesting sky, I thought about how I could post process it and maybe get something out of it. To make it, I created 2 versions of this single RAW file. One exposed for the sky, and another for the water. I then exported both into CS3 as layers and manually blended them. I then put it into Photomatix to to generate an HDR. A couple of curves, color balance, and a bit of dodging and burning later and this is what came out. Pretty happy with it. Hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think.

Pay Here

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:38 -0500

Happy Halloween! A parking lot along College Street that looked really inviting...

Fall

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:23 -0500

Taken during a walk last week down the path leading south from mount pleasant.

Spikes

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:45 -0500

One way to keep things away from you.

Escada

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:40 -0500

Taken earlier this year in Portugal, in a little town in the outskirts of Lisbon.

End of Summer

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:59 -0500

Wishing it wasn't. Taken a few weeks ago in Grand Bend Ontario.

Lost in the Rubble

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:58 -0500

Rubble at the Leslie Spit. Work has been taking over my time lately, hence the lack of updates. Finally found some time to put an image up. Hope you enjoy it.