Jeff

Question: what do photographers do when they're bored and there are lights around?
Answer: they model for each other.

Jeff is a man of many talents. On here he's mostly mentioned as my boyfriend and fellow photographer. In real life he's also an amazing salsero, an aspiring chef, an avid gamer, an overall wonderful human being and, I suspect, a bit of a closet model.

So when we got a new set of studio lights and needed to test them out (read: figure out how to make them work), he put his best pouty face on (don't tell him I said that) and we had a fun shoot.

We really wanted to get a shot of Jeff in salsa mode, so Jeff put on his favourite salsa shirt, and showed off some of his moves.



Then, just as we were running out of ideas/steam/patience for the lights, Jeff found an old film camera that was laying around in the studio, and decided to use it as a prop. His best attempt at a MySpace self-portrait:

Corey & Melanie

Resuming the "catching up on older shoots" thing, next up is a shoot Jeff and I did with Corey Tomicic and Melanie Mastronardi, two amazing models and dancers.

The aim of this shoot was more playing around with lights, getting some practice with headshots, as well as having fun with a white background and two amazingly creative people.

The results:









For more photos from this shoot, check out this Photoshop album.

"The Little Show" conclusion

As I mentioned last week, the arts & architecture gallery had a miniature photography group show this past weekend, to which Jeff and I contributed some shots.

I'd like to thank everyone who dropped by to check out the show, and support local artists as well as the fantastic local gallery that made it possible for all of us to put some of our work out there. The show was a success, and a great experience for me and hopefully everyone else involved as well.

I'm also happy to report that all 3 of the photos I submitted to the show were sold. We photographers are fragile souls, so validation that we don't suck is always deeply appreciated.

Below are the 3 photos of mine that found new homes thanks to this show:

Maria

During my summer/fall posting hiatus, I've been fairly productive photography-wise, so I thought it might be good, now that the cold weather is keeping me indoors so much more, to update this space with some of the results of my summertime efforts.

First up is a shoot with my friend Maria as the willing and very able model. The main point of the shoot was for me to play around with my new lights, try for some headshot-type shots, and have fun with it all to the beat of DJ Tiesto.

Some of the results are below:

November Cat Update

For the past few weeks, I’ve been battling a cold. I’d successfully kept it at bay for almost 3 weeks, when it finally decided to hit me last week and pin me to the closest warm, soft surface for 2 days.

Now, most colds come, put on their show, and move on. But not this one. This one decided to throw me for a loop by going into a 2-day period of détente, to lull me into a false sense of security and halt my intake of Tylenol Cold™ before coming back full-force last night and this morning.

Normally I don’t spend that much time at home, so when I found myself forcibly resting, I had to find a way to keep myself entertained. And with 2 cats around, this is not hard to do. So now I present you, courtesy of my cold, the November Cat Update featuring the many faces of my 2 cats:


Lady

Lady has grown considerably, both in length and in girth. She’s now on weight-control food, but for the moment she’s still a big round ball of catness. Mix that with an overpowering sense of entitlement, and you get a look I like to call Lady the Mafia Boss.



At the same time, however, she’s one of the most loving cats I’ve seen, and purrs me to sleep almost every night before moving on to Jeff’s pillow and becoming Jeff’s cat hat for the rest of the night. And every now and then she’ll put on her kitten face that is perfectly impossible to say no to:




CB

CB has stayed a fairly small cat, probably due to his near-constant hyperness-fueled mad dashes from one end of the apartment to the other, endless climbing on every piece of furniture we own, playing with anything foolish enough to come within his reach, and chasing Lady around. Still, every now and then he pauses to look thoughtfully out a window and manages to look sage; inquisitive; dignified; insightful, even.



… then, all of 30 seconds later, he’s back to being a little fuzzy goofball.

"The Little Show" at arts & architecture gallery

The long silence on this blog is interrupted to bring you an important announcement:

Jeff and I have a few prints in an upcoming group show at the arts & architecture gallery.

Details, from the gallery's promotional message for the event:

We hope you'll join us this Thursday, November 25th from 7-10 pm for our vernissage of "The Little Show". The exhibition will feature a collection of photographic prints by Ottawa photographers; all prints will be 8x10 or smaller, will be framed and will all be priced under $100 - perfect for holiday season gift giving! Stay for snacks, refreshments and to meet the artists.

Thursday also happens to be Old Ottawa South's "Shop Local" night, with stores in the area staying open late - so bring your friends and come out for a night of fun!

Exhibiting artists include: Michael Van der Tol, Marianne Graham, Shannon Pratt, Jake Morrison, Jeffery Huang, Ana Gherasim, M.E. Mallett and Andrew Fraser.

We hope to see you there!

arts&architecture

1181 Bank Street
Old Ottawa South
613-737-7300
Visit us at:

http://www.artsandarchitecture.ca>

http://www.artsandarchitecturegallery.blogspot.com>

Regular Gallery Hours:
Wednesdays 11-5
Thursdays & Fridays 11-7
Saturdays & Sundays 11-5
Mondays & Tuesdays CLOSED

Jeff and I plan on being there from around 8:30pm onward, so come down and keep us company!

If you can't make the vernissage, the exhibition runs until Sunday, November 28 during regular gallery hours.

Hope to see you there!

More spring happiness, updates and future plans

Feels like I blinked and a month went by and we're already in May. Whew, time flies when you keep busy! Life, which in the previous post was described as mildly nuts, has taken a turn towards the chaotic, so now I'm scrambling to get myself back into some sort of balance, though minor injuries and major stress.

Anyway. Today's public service announcement is that I have decided to refocus my photography efforts a little bit and put more time into building up a portfolio rather than just taking pictures for fun. No, I'm not quitting my day job or anything -- I have myself and two cats to sustain (plus expensive tastes that would make winning the lottery a necessity to maintain, but let's not go there), and photo equipment doesn't come cheap, so as much as I'd love to make a living through photography, I don't really want to go through a period of living in a cardboard box while I set that up. However, I will be doing more side projects, looking for models for various things, asking for input and generally being a little more interactive than this blog has tended to be so far. So if you'd be interested in giving me tips, modelling for me, having your cat/dog/iguana/neighbour's 17 hamsters model for me, or looking at 3 photos and telling me which one you prefer, please, don't be shy to leave a comment or email me. Exciting things will be coming. Hopefully soon!

On to the photo of the day -- while at a triple birthday dinner, I snuck out, in the rain, to get a shot of a couple of leaves covered in raindrops. This was the result:



You might ask yourself why in the world one would leave a perfectly lovely birthday dinner to go out in barely above freezing weather, in the rain, to take a photo of leaves. The answer to that is not devoid of geekiness and it is that leaves with raindrops on them are one of those things I've always wanted to get a perfect picture of. It's on the same list as back-lit ferns (which embittered Jeff's life during a hike, I might add), milky waterfalls and a hundred other things in my head. There's just something about capturing the perfect little raindrops on a bright green leaf that appeals to me. Previous best effort is below:



This was taken a while back, in a greenhouse, on a suffocatingly hot summer day. I spent about 10 minutes feeling like I was about to liquefy, but I think the result is worth it. If anyone needs further proof that stubbornness pays off... stay tuned!

April Cat Update

Things in my life can best be described as mildly nuts at the moment. Work is keeping me in overdrive mode most of the day, my apartment is in need of various little repairs (the biggest of which I'm not responsible for, thankfully), and my entirely too many projects are taking up the rest of my waking time. I envy anyone who has the time to get bored and who manages to go to bed at the end of the day, rather than lapsing into unconsciousness with one hand still on the mouse.

Still, a few things are keeping me just sane enough. Two of them are Lady and CB, who are growing cuter and more affectionate every day.

Signs of spring, Part 2

I'm back, once again after a longer absence that I had hoped, and with an account on a new photo-sharing site. So far I've been using Photoshop.com to store my photos for update on this blog, but recently that site has become inexplicably glitchy, repeatedly refusing to display photos with no explanation. So I've joined Flickr, which I'm hoping will give me fewer headaches.

In any case,spring continues to grace Ottawa, and I continue to try my hand at capturing it. This time, a blossoming tree caught my attention...





Edit: I've just noticed that, even though I only just posted this now (on Friday, April 16), it's showing as being posted on April 14th, which is when I first tried to post it and failed due to a Photoshop.com malfunction. Odd.

Signs of spring

Brought to you by my love for all things springy, green, fresh and small, and by Jeff's awesome 100mm macro lens, a few lovely products of the recent bout of amazingly beautiful weather here in Ottawa:

Brand new day

After a painful week or so of laptoplessness, I am back, with a brand new 22-inch monitor, the greatest mouse ever made (ok, maybe not, but it does have "BlueTrack technology" and, as Jeff pointed out, even works on the cat), and a more optimistic outlook on life.

To celebrate all this new technology, Jeff and I decided to take landscape shots along the Ottawa river. At sunrise. On a Saturday. Yes, we are masochistic; what part gave it away?

Waking up at 4:30am? Check.
Being almost the only people (awake) on the bus at 5:30am? Check.
Getting off the bus on the Ottawa River parkway just before 6am, in complete darkness? Check and check.
Freezing out respective rear ends off for 1.5 hours trying to get some decent shots? Very, very check!

The results:

On hiatus once again

I have a sad announcement to make. My trusty laptop of just about 4 years has decided enough is enough, and has handed in its resignation. Actually, that's not entirely true. Most of it is still in perfect working condition; however, the backlight on its screen wore out and now my display looks as thought it had been underexposed by about 3 stops, to the point where one can hardly make out anything on it at all.

Since I was planning to get a new laptop anyway, I'm thinking it may be a better idea to take this as a hint that the time has come for that upgrade rather than put more money into my old laptop. Since this has just happened in the last 24 hours, though, I'm still weighing my options, which may take a while.

The relevance of this news to this blog is that, since I won't have much access to my current photos, or much of a way of downloading and editing any photos I take from now until I figure this out, this blog will be on hiatus until I once again have some fully functioning form of personal computing.

Until then, wish me good luck. And be nice to your computers.

February in review

At first glance, it looks like my Project 52 has taken an overly long vacation. And that's partially true. But that doesn't mean I haven't been keeping busy photography-wise. Over the past month or so:

... Jeff and I have been working to develop Candid Light Photography. We now have T-shirts, a logo, a watermark, and business cards are in the works. May not sound like much, but weekends are only so long.



... We've also shot another salsa event, namely GoSalsa's Valentine's Day Gala.





... I've been playing with my feathered hair clips some more...



... and of course there are the cats. In between killing plants, breaking random things and eating me out of house and home, CB takes the time to give me the most disarming look in the world



Anyway. Now that things are settling down a bit, I am hoping to get back to more regular updates. This month the theme to focus on will be composition. Stay tuned!

Tiger Lily accessories by Breanna Fabbro

I interrupt my posting of Project 52 shots to bring you something pretty.



A month or so ago, I was admiring a friend's unique accessory: a gorgeous feathered hair clip unlike anything I'd ever seen. This sudden attack of girliness led to my discovery of Tiger Lily, a line of handmade accessories by Breanna Fabbro. Breanna is a young designer based in Vancouver, with an eye for beauty and a talent for creating it. Right now, her designs are limited to hair clips, but she does plan to expand them into other types of accessories.



I couldn't resist getting the clips you see here and, of course, snapping a few photos of them which hardly do justice to the intricacy of the designs. If you are interested in seeing more of her designs or would like to purchase them, please contact Breanna at Breanna.FabbroAThotmail.com

Establishing environment-- Winterlude fireworks

I apologize profusely (and mainly to myself) for the extended absence. Life was put on hold by health issues, both mine and the cats', yet again. And so I find myself already in February, the month of Establishing Environment, according to my Resolutions post.

For my first such project I chose to shoot the Winterlude fireworks. (If you're not from Ottawa, Winterlude is a huge deal around here, probably in the hope of making the most of the 5-6 long and fairly miserable months of winter we usually get) My big plan was to find a vantage point from where my shots wouldn't just look like yet another fireworks display, but to make it clear that this is the Ottawa Winterlude fireworks display. After some arduous Google Maps and Street View searching, I decided to perch myself on Laurier Bridge, which gave me a nice view of Parliament Hill, Chateau Laurier, the fireworks, AND part of the Rideau Canal (world's largest skating rink, and pretty much the focal point of this whole Winterlude deal), which I hoped would establish enough environment to fit this assignment.

The trouble with perfect plans, of course, is that they don't always hold up in real life. The canal, which I imagined a smooth sheet of ice lined with pretty little cabins and lights, was partially closed and sported odd fences and less than pretty storage blocks, among other imperfections. The park around it looked barren rather than Winterludish and festive. And, of course, the best part of a fireworks display is always the finale, by which time the sky is almost always too smoky to look pretty on camera.

The best results are below, from widest view (including part of the Canal) to narrowest (Chateau Laurier only).

Point of view -- Lookout below!

As I mentioned in my resolutions post, January is Point of View month. This week's photo shoot once again involves my cats. This is in part because I was too lazy to go out into the cold and look for something to shoot, and in part because I had and idea for what I thought was an original point of view to photograph a cat from. Namely, I was going to shoot them from below my glass tabletop, to catch them from a new angle and to show off their paw pads (which, when clean, are quite adorable).

It turned out my idea wasn't nearly as original as I thought. One day this week, while I was still formulating the idea for this shoot in my head, I saw that a co-worker's calendar (a daily calendar that has a different cat photo each day) displayed just such an image. Still, that didn't dissuade me -- after all, if I were to only take photos of things no one else had ever thought of, there'd be precious little to shoot! So today I got to work on this, set up my table, rallied the cats, and started shooting.

The process itself turned out to be quite a bit more difficult than I thought, for a few reasons:

1. my table isn't very big and has a metal stand in the middle, so my usable shooting area was quite small
2. glass is annoyingly hard to light without reflections (the word "duh" comes to mind)
3. my cats will not sit still, especially on a relatively small part of the table, without a very good reason. And when by some rare chance they do sit still, they literally sit. And their rear ends against glass do not make good photo subjects. I have photographic evidence of this.
4. glass is also hard to keep perfectly clean for very long when you have two cats leaving paw prints all over it.

After a frustrating hour or so, here are the two best results -- one per cat.

Lady was the more willing subject, being both calmer and more cooperative. It also helps that she actually responds to her name and would stare right into my lens whenever I called her. I just love her big olive-green eyes!


CB, on the other hand,was very hard to work with, since he's more likely to recite the alphabet than either sit still when asked or recognize his name. Even getting him in focus was hard work. Still, those cute pink paw pads make it worth it. (And yes, I know it looks like he's missing an ear, but rest assured, he was only bending it back for some reason.)


Now if you'll excuse me, I must go play with my cats.

Speaking of viewpoints...

My "point of view" photo shoot this week didn't turn out anything great, sadly. However! While browsing through my older photos I found one that makes up in humour what it lacks in photographic quality.

This was during some road work on MacKenzie King bridge, and a stone's throw from uOttawa, which may explain this a bit further:



I do apologize for the quality of this shot, though. It was taken in the dark, with pop-up flash, and in a hurry because I was just about to miss a bus. Still... arts majors and sharp objects need to be guarded against! Teehee.

Cat update

Lady and CB, i.e. my two awesome cats, have had quite an eventful month or so. Since the last post on the subject, they have recovered from their flu-related ailments, have moved back to my apartment, have received a few more toys to play with, and most recently have been spayed and neutered respectively.

In spite of my fears and misgivings, they have handled all of the changes and recent trauma with an impressive amount of grace, patience and even good humour, and are back to being the lovely and lovable kittens that have and will continue to grace this blog occasionally.

Lady is growing into quite the fine young cat with a "I'm not taking any crap from you" attitude that could rival the epitome of Eastern European mothers:




CB, on the other hand, is still very much a kitten with energy and affection to spare and the most disarming face:




Most often than not, they take turns playing predator and prey; on their downtime, though, they look after each other in the most endearing ways. Lady often takes on the role of CB's groomer, holding him down until he's good and clean, while he's lapping up the attention:

Belated New Year's resolutions. And ice.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2010 brings all of your resolutions a lot closer to reality. On my side, I'm hoping this year will be a photography-filled one, one a few fronts:

1. Project 52: Photo Idea Index
A few months ago, I decided to take on one mini photo project a week. That failed to last very long. So this year, one of my photography resolutions is a Project 52. And, to give me more direction and inspiration, I am using Jim Krause's Photo Idea Index. The idea is that each month will have a theme inspired by one chapter of the book, and within each month, every weekly project will explore a different aspect of each theme. Since there are only 9 chapters in the book, some will take me more than month, as follows:

• January: Point of view
• February: Establishing environment
• March: Capturing composition
• April: Capturing composition
• May: Attracting attention
• June: Picturing people
• July: Thinking creatively
• August: Thinking creatively
• September: Light
• October: Light
• November: Camera variables
• December: Digital effects

2. Photo of the Month project
Between bouts of bronchitis, Christmas, New Year's Eve, work and pet related drama, Jeff and I have been in a photography rut over the past 1-2 months. So, to hopefully jump-start our creativity, I've proposed a photo of the month project; the idea is that we go on at least one photo walk together every month, and we will each choose our best photo each month; this photo will be both posted on our respective blogs, and printed and framed on our respective coffee tables for the following month.

3. The Cat Chronicles
Even during a photographic dry spell, my two kitties are the subjects I can never get tired of shooting. I don't anticipate this will ever slow down, so expect cat updates to become a regular part of this blog. Consider this your fair warning.

4. Portfolio building
Another one of my resolutions is to have a portfolio put together by the summer. For this, I will need to not only take new photos, but also go through my old ones, categorize them, and pick out the portfolio-worthy ones. Some of these might go up on here as well.

And speaking of older photos, Christmas in Ottawa brought with it an odd mix of temperatures that led to everything being coated in a thick layer of ice for about one night. Jeff and I jumped -- or, rather, wobbled and slipped -- at the opportunity to nip out to Confederation Park and document the event. The results are below: