Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

I know the pictures aren't technically the best, or even good, but today, just like every year at this time is all about an exhausted Dan who needs to get his Jacks on the blog so that I can wish you all a Happy Halloween!  Have a good one everyone!

Dan

It's been a while

       I think I said way back at the beginning of building this blog that I am crappy with updating these things.  I was right.  Once again it has been several months since my last post.  I let the summer slip past, which is usually my main season for getting out there and shooting, and yet I seem to have very little to show for it.  I did take lots of pictures, but there are for more snapshots that there are art shots.  Here are a few of my recent favs.  I tried my hand at a few new techniques, with varied results.  Most of these are from one shoot with my Brother Ryan.  It's great having him for inspiration.  I tend to fall back to the comfortable pace and just let things happen, but he helps me force myself outside the box.  Thanks!

Anyhow, enjoy and let me know what you think.

Dan

More Flowers

        Here are the rest of my edits from this weekends shoot.  I had a lot of fun experimenting with my new canon 50MM f1.8 lens.  It just gives me such a creamy looking background for portraits and still life.  I think I need to move up a stop or two though, as my depth of field in some of these shots is too shallow. For instance on the slightly worn flower below, the stem is blurred and the rear petals are completely out of focus.  I tried to use it to my advantage in the shots that I used that lens, but next time I'll be a little less extreme with it I think.  I think next time I head down there I will follow suit with Ryan and rent a nice lens.  It should be a good time.  BTW, if anyone has any tips for must shoot places in TO and surrounding area please drop me a line, I'd love to try shooting somewhere new.

Flowers

I'm a little too tired to write much, but please enjoy these pictures of some of the flowers at the Toronto Botanical Gardens.  Special thanks to my brother Ryan for introducing me to this awesome place.  I'll post more shots, and maybe some comments tommorow if I get more editting done.  Good night.

Dan

Unlucky Ducky

This Unlucky Ducky (Whom I have affectionately named Daisy) has chosen a very inconvieniant home for then next month or so.  Daisy has laid a clutch of eggs underneath a gas meter behind my work.  She is now stuck in a fairly populated and busy parking area and is most likey going to have a pretty rough month.  She has become somewhat of a store mascot for us, and we're going to do our best to make sure she is confortably, and minimally disturbed during her nesting (I'm not nearly as close as I seem in the picture).  Here is hoping things go well for her.

Dan

Spring is almost here....again?

OK, I tried to call it back in March and say Spring is almost here.  Clearly that was incorrect at the time.  I'm almost hesitant to say it again, but I figure this time I have photographic evidence to back it up.  I snapped this today while waiting to pick up the kids from school and I am pretty happy with the shot.  I've changed the colour significantly on this one, it was much more blue in the original shot, and I kind of like the stark contrast of it.  It makes me feel kind of how this whole season has made me feel so far this year.  Cold and hopeful.  Yeah we haven't had the spring I was hoping for, but it can only get better from here and I'm looking forward to it.  It's time to start getting back outside and shooting, so you guys should see some new stuff soon...weather permitted of course.

D

Family in Colour

        Yesterday I posted three of my photos from my shoot on the weekend.  Those shots I chose to process in Black and White for various reasons.  Todays shots are the ones I chose to process in Colour.  I find colour processing a little trickier to get the result I'm looking for.
       When processing in black and white it is easy to make very big adjustments and still have the resulting photograph look good and interesting.  In colour everything has to be a little more subtle.  I tend to choose photos for colour processing that are very well lit (which all of these were thanks to Ryan and his awesome knowledge and equipment) and have some sort of bright colour in them that I want to bring out.
       From there the choices are nearly endless.  Do I want a high key photo?  Vivid Colours? Maybe something a little more subtle?  It's a very organic process and where with a black and white image I tend to go into the process with a vision of what I want, colour tends to be exactly the oposite.  I have the photo and then I start playing around with it until the feature I want to showcase looks right.  It's far from a science, and hopefully you guys see it as I do...art.

Family in Black and White

Here is the second lot of shots from my photoshoot on the weekend.  These are the shots I chose to process in Black and White.  It's not always easy to decide which way to go when processing a shot.  Many photographs can look great in any number of styles.  My process of making that choice tends to lie in what I see when I first open the raw file.  I try to start off with an idea of what attracts me to the photo.   I then try to figure out the best way to accentuate that feature.  To give an example, on the first shot posted here (the one above this text) my favorite part of the shot was his huge beautiful eyes.  I really wanted them sharp with a lot of contrast when I looked at the raw shot.  My B&W shots usually have very high contrast and I can really pull the features I want to the forground without making the rest of the shot look uneven.  The result in my eyes at least is usually an interesting photograph.  Though it isn't always to everyones taste  it tends to just be how I see the shot.  I would love to some time have a few of us photographers take the same shot and each process it in our own style to see what different final products we end with.  I imagine that the results would be very cool and very unique.  I'll post some of my colour shots in the next day or two so you can see the difference a little colour can make.

Dan

Spring is almost here!

         I feel like I've been hibernating for the last few months, photographically at least.  I haven't really taken anything other then the odd snapshots of Christmas and Birthdays since my last blog entry, hence the radio silence.  Anyway, being always the showoff, when I have new work I feel I need to post it.  Here are the first few shots from my latest shoot, along with my Brother Ryan .
         The shoot was a family affair, Kristie's side.  Shots of the kids all together and apart and whatever else we could capture.  Had a blast and again learned a lot about lighting and composition.  Thanks to everyone involved for a successful shoot, not to mention a great meal and some good times :)