Salsa, Take V

Here are two portrait shots, for a change of pace.



People with very expressive faces make my life so much more interesting...

Salsa, Take IV

As you can see, I'm starting to post these two at a time, in the hope that I don't become too repetitive or monotonous. I am, however, hoping to find the time to get back to more static forms of photography and give my flash a break. In the meantime, I predict no more than 5 salsa-themed posts from now on. I think.

Birthday Break

Are you tired of salsa photos? If you are, then I'm sad to say you'll be subjected to them for another little while, just because I'm not out of good ones to post, and I have a few that I'm too proud of not to post. So... I'm sorry. But I promise they're good!

In the meantime, however, I'm taking a short break to wish myself a happy birthday and to advertise one of my absolute favourite Ottawa restaurants, Sweet Art, which is, of course, where I am going for dinner tonight. It features:

• The most awesome spring rolls in the city, and their special Sweet Art tea which is, in my opinion, happiness in a teacup:

• My favourite vermicelli (and a lot of other very yummy Vietnamese dishes):

• All sorts of amazing fine European desserts:

• A very sweet owner:
  

And so, next time you want a delicious meal, feel like Vietnamese food, and would like some amazing desserts to go with it, pay these guys a visit:

Sweet Art
305 Dalhousie Street
Ottawa, ON K1N 7E8
Phone #: (613) 789-8885‎

Salsa, Take III

It's been a while, so I think it's time for some photo updates:

• I am still taking and editing salsa photos. Right now I'm hard at work on a batch taken at a SalsaOle event; they're due by the end of the week, so they've been taking up quite a bit of my time. I hope to post some on this blog pretty soon, with SalsaOle's permission.
• Jeff (le boyfriend) and I have started thinking about setting up our photography "brand" and at least getting our name out there more broadly. More details to come.
  
• One more salsa event coming up this Sunday, which could possibly result in some paid (!) photography work. Cross your fingers!

Salsa, Take II

Basic photography lessons that I’ve relearned the hard way (during salsa shoot):

1. The lens cap will mess with your metering if you’re unfortunate enough not to take it off your lens.
2. Zoom before you focus (sigh!)
3. Auto focus may as well not exist in low light.
4. Manual focusing takes practice. Manual focusing in low light is just mean.
5. On-camera flash is… on-camera flash. Greatness should never be expected.
6. All things come to an end. Including battery life and flash range.
7. When all else fails, fix it in post.
   

Salsa, Take I

Salsa shoot balance sheet:

• shots total: 186
• shots kept after first edit: 58 (ranging from “good” to “meh, at least it’s properly exposed/focused, maybe I can do something with it”)
• extremely proud moments: 0.5
• lucky breaks: 4 or so
• extremely infuriating moments: several hundred

More shots (and lessons learned) coming soon, as I have time to edit them.

In the meantime...

This is an apologetic post for the lack of recent updates. However, between all the other stuff that’s been causing me to run around recently (which you can read about on my other blog), I haven’t had a chance to take my camera anywhere in way too long.

Ideally, I would love to have at least a couple of posts per week. In reality, I’m lucky to get one good photography day every few weeks.

I do, however, hope to somewhat redeem myself this weekend. On Saturday night, I’ll be attending a salsa dancing social event; my boyfriend has taken to teaching me this dance (i.e. how not to trip over my own feet), and this will be my first real outing in the world of salsa. True to form, I am bringing my camera along for moral support, as well as in the hope of getting some good shots, even if with limited light and on-camera flash (limited resources prevent the acquisition of a decent flash unit before Saturday).

Wish me luck, and check back soon!

Portrait study

Jeff was so good as to volunteer for a portrait study. I'm afraid he continues to beat me by a mile in the portrait department. Don't believe me? Check this out.
And don't forget to add his blog to your bookmarks: http://jeffhuangphoto.blogspot.com

Smokin'

A photo trend that I have recently become aware of is taking photos of smoke. For some amazing coloured smoke shots, please visit the photographer that started the trend, Graham Jeffery, at http://sensitivelight.com

While this may be old news for those more in tune with the world of photography, I finally got around to trying it out as well this past weekend, with some half-decent results: