Ana Gherasim Photography

Shameless self-advertising

2012-01-24T23:24:00.002-05:00

For everyone who had been waiting for my Cuba photos with bated breath, you can now find them here.

I would love to go into stories about the awesomeness of outdoor showers at sunset, under palm trees, with live saxophone music in the background, but I'll refrain.

In other news, I recently had a reason to be in front of a camera, for a change. I recently had the pleasure of contributing a series of articles to Ambition in Transition, a blog offering career and lifestyle tips to 20-somethings caught in the transition period between study and employment. Joining their team required, aside from the implicit brilliance (this is the shameless self-advertising part of this post. Did you guess?), a headshot to go with it. This is where Jeff came in.

Jeff is one of the rare people who can point a camera at me and not have my facial muscles contract into a mix of deer-in-headlights and a young Elmer Fudd. Which is good, considering I'm neither a herbivore, nor am I hunting wabbits (be vewy, vewy quiet). Anyways. Above and below are my two favourite shots from Sunday's shoot. Big thanks to Jeff, once again, for his endless patience and the lovely photos!

Shiny Pretty Things

2012-01-16T22:21:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year! (First post of the year, so it's required, no?)

Since my last post, I had a lovely holiday (thanks for asking), and I hope everyone else did as well. I spent a week in Cuba, which far surpassed my expectations; photos will be posted shortly. In the meantime, however, here are the results of a more recent shoot - I know, chronology is not my strong suit!

Jeff decided it would be fun to do a little jewelry shoot, just for fun. So I rounded up a few of my shiny things, and our good friend Diana was also nice enough to contribute a few of her pieces. Jeff took a very methodical approach and focused on one thing at a time or a few like things together.

Then I go in... and promptly turn our little staging area into a girly mess.

This is, admittedly, busier than my shots tend to be most of the time. I think this is probably the first time that I've had, all in the same shot: velvet, paper, china, shells, various precious and non-precious metals, pearls (of the artificial variety), silk, beads... and there was much more outside the frame, believe it or not.

After that was done, I decided to try a few simpler setups, starting with a pair of gold earrings.

The Papery is a great place to get cool paper to serve as interesting backdrops for jewelry, for much cheaper than fabric.

Finally, I borrowed Jeff's setup to take a few photos of my newest ring. In retrospect, it probably needed a better cleaning first, and I need much more practice lighting gems.

The ring is sitting on what looks like wood, but is in fact the side of an Ikea basket. Props to Jeff for thinking that one up!

Cups? Cups!

2011-12-13T21:44:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of my favourite things about sharing a photography studio is getting to play with what the other photographers keep in the studio. It's a little like sharing a giant toy box, and a little like going "shopping" in your friend's closet; except, you know, with a much more mature, sophisticated and photographic twist.

... Yeah.

One of our members kindly contributed an espresso machine to the studio. I don't drink espresso (any any other kind of coffee, really), but that didn't stop me from being excited about it, because the machine had these really cute little cups that looked like they needed to be photographed. So one day, after an unrelated shoot, I did.

At first I tried some white-on-white stuff, then experimented with grey and black backgrounds, going for a monochromatic theme, but everything looked deeply uninspiring. On a whim, I leaned a gold reflector against the table on which I had the cups set up on a piece of black plexiglass.

When that didn't turn out too bad, I decided to ditch the black and white thing and add a bit of colour into the mix. The cups are still on black plexiglass, against a grey background, but this time with a bunch of red beads (from a random necklace we also had around the studio) spilling out of one of the cups.

When that worked as well, I decided to try a similar thing with blue. This time the cups are on clear plexiglass, with a sheet of bright blue paper underneath, and the blue beads spilling out of the cup are yet another prop necklace we had around.

I think I only stopped because I ran out of necklaces.

Doing this completely impromptu shoot was a lot of fun and reminded me of a side of studio photography that I love: taking things and playing around with them until you make them look good. They might not always be the most significant or groundbreaking of subjects, but there's always a way to make the mundane look extraordinary.

Ever been inexplicably drawn to shoot something apparently insignificant? I'd love to hear those stories!

Maria

2011-12-07T23:31:00.003-05:00

Another post in the Embarrassingly Overdue Photos series.

Question: what happens when you put 2 girls in a room with a bunch of make-up, an umbrella and a camera?

Answer: An awesome photo shoot, some cool photos and a lot of cleanup.

Back in (gulp) August, my friend Maria and I got together for another photo shoot. It is my deeply held belief that most girls have at least one really great dress that they bought with high hopes but don't have a chance to wear or, worse yet, have no good photos in. Add to that our love for make-up and Maria's innate modeling talent, and it was already starting to sounds pretty good.

And then it got better. One of the things I love about sharing a photography studio is that everyone uses different equipment and there's always something new to borrow and experiment with. This time, Guillaume had brought in an amazing umbrella that I was itching to put in front of a camera, rather than in front of a light.

The results were some great shots, a few Singing in the Rain moments (minus the rain), and I hear Maria got a good arm workout out - seems enormous umbrellas get heavy after a while!

You can see the full set here.

Eventually the black dress on black background got a little old, so we switched it up with a bright red corset for a different look.

DJ shoot

2011-11-28T22:45:00.002-05:00

Playing catch-up on old shoots again. And when I say 'old', I mean 'this summer, when life was lovely and weather was fantastic, staying inside writing blog posts seemed like endless tedium not to mention a waste of perfectly good sunshine, but now that winter is here and all I want to do is hibernate, I feel a bit silly posting photos that are over 5 months old'.

So.

Back in June, I did a photo shoot with a friend of a friend who also happens to be a DJ. He had seen the results of my RoMagazin shoot and liked that we used a big pair of headphones as a feature, so he wanted to do something similar. A couple of the results are below, and more are in the Flickr set.

Copyright

2011-11-23T17:30:00.001-05:00

I interrupt the long silence on this blog to ask you: photographers, how jealously do you guard your copyright?

This post brought to you from Art Works 2011 and Strobist

Yesterday, I attended Art Works 2011, a fantastic conference seeking to endow artists with a little more business sense. I could go on and on about the great speakers I had a chance to hear and meet and the wealth of information I managed to capture, but for the sake of brevity (and our 3-minute attention spans), I’ll cut to the chase. One keynote address was provided by Jennifer Dickson, a highly regarded Ottawa-based photographer. In her speech, she advised all artists to guard their copyright ferociously against “thieving bastards” and copycats. In particular, she recounted an instance in which a student had presented her with a portfolio; the student had mimicked Dickson’s style and dedicated the portfolio to her. Dickson was neither touched nor impressed; on the contrary, she saw the work as copyright infringement and reprimanded the student for it.

On the other hand, David Hobby of Strobist recently published a post defending Justin Lanier’s reproduction of Dan Winters’ portrait of Bono, arguing that many artists learn and develop their own style in part by mimicking the style of their masters.

As much as I detest outright copyright infringement and the disregard of intellectual property, I’m with David on this one. There is – and rightly so – a difference between claiming someone else’s work as your own, and mimicking a style or technique for your own education and improvement. I’ve also been known to reproduce some of my favourite images; far from trying to become or upstage the artists I admire, adding those techniques to my repertoire is helping me find my own style, by picking and choosing the elements that speak to me and adding my own twist to them. And I know that if I dedicated any of my work to a mentor who discounted it and cited copyright law to me, I would change mentors in a hurry.

What do you think? Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery, or should we all find our own path without crossing those of the artists we admire?

Cars!

2011-03-27T20:50:00.003-04:00

I will freely admit that I am just about the farthest thing from a car buff you can get. I usually tell cars apart by colour or size, and asking me to identify the make and model of any vehicle will be just about as successful as asking my cat to do basic math: I'll likely tilt my head to one side and look cute until you give up and give me a treat.

That being said, I'm not altogether insensitive to automotive aesthetic, a discovery I made recently during a visit to the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

A couple of cars caught my eye, so I made it my mission for the day to explore the limited angles allowed by the museum exhibition and get a few good shots out of it. This led to some awkward contortions around signs and fences, and I'm sure the museum floors are just a bit cleaner after my visit. I'll let you be the judge of the results:

Salsa

2011-03-19T11:42:00.002-04:00

Dance photography holds a special place in my heart. It's not just because dancers are generally beautiful people. It's not just that dance gives them a grace and self-confidence that photographs beautifully. (Although these are both excellent reasons to get a dancer into your studio right now.) What keeps me coming back to dance photography is the ability to capture the feel and emotion of a dance.

We recently had two salsa dancers in our studio, France Trottier and Chris Feist, for a "just for fun" salsa shoot. Big thanks go out to both of them for being the inspiring, expressive and exceptionally patient models they were. Here are the results:

See the full set here.

Behind the scenes tidbit: music usually plays an important part in my shoots. People respond to music in amazing ways, and more often than not this alone will allow you to capture a drastically different side of them than you might expect. For a dance shoot, however, music is all the more important, so we were doubly grateful to Chris, who is also a fantastic (salsa) DJ. Check out his Facebook page here.

Yoga with Diana

2011-03-15T22:40:00.005-04:00

Some people are blessed with exceptional talents. Others, like myself, are lucky enough to be surrounded by these people.

One of my ridiculously gifted friends is Diana, a many-faceted artist who, in addition to sharing her passion for dance and the arts with the world, also teaches some of the most inspiring (and butt-kicking, all truth be told) yoga classes in Ottawa.

Jeff and I were thrilled when she accepted to model for a yoga shoot. Since Jeff was the mastermind behind the shoot, you can see most of the highlights here.

However, I had one idea to explore as well. Rather than the omnipresent warrior/lotus/dancer pose on bright white background, I wanted to see whether a low-key, mostly black on black image might bring out what I love best about yoga, which is the opportunity for peace and introspection it allows into our hectic lives. To me, inner peace isn't the exuberance of a brightly lit white expanse, but the quiet comfort of a dim room in which we let our own light shine from within.

The result:

You can see the complete set here.

Behind the scenes tidbit: to get these shots, we had to improvise a platform for Diana to sit on, out of a step stool, a piece of hard plastic, and a sheet of black velvet. Probably not an ideal setting to meditate or pose, which is just one more reason why Diana is beyond awesome. We hope, in time, she forgives us :)

RoMagazin

2011-01-25T19:46:00.006-05:00

RoMagazin is a Romanian radio show, produced by my lovely friend Maria and her brother Alex.

They were in the market for some promotional shots to jazz up their web site (check it out, if you can read Romanian). Jeff and I were looking for new models to melt under studio lights. The result: a few hours of fun, with a healthy dose of sibling rivalry, and some decent shots, some of which you can see below.

Check out the whole set here.

Jeff

2010-12-12T11:29:00.002-05:00

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

2010-12-05T16:47:00.002-05:00

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

2010-12-03T18:36:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-26T23:43:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-22T08:53:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-21T12:20:00.005-05:00

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

2010-05-12T20:54:00.003-04:00

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

2010-04-21T20:43:00.002-04:00

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

2010-04-14T22:24:00.002-04:00

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

2010-04-06T23:21:00.003-04:00

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

2010-03-22T22:48:00.002-04:00

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

2010-03-11T21:23:00.003-05:00

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

2010-03-06T09:50:00.003-05:00

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

2010-02-11T23:39:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-08T22:26:00.005-05:00

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!

2010-01-24T00:31:00.004-05:00

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:

my table isn't very big and has a metal stand in the middle, so my usable shooting area was quite small
glass is annoyingly hard to light without reflections (the word "duh" comes to mind)
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.
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...

2010-01-17T22:02:00.003-05:00

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

2010-01-10T00:44:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-01-08T16:51:00.008-05:00

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:

HDRin'

2009-11-25T21:12:00.002-05:00

So... in the spirit of not having the time to go out and take photos, I played around with Photomatix some more. I didn't have a set of properly aligned photos, but I figured I'd try the photo alignment feature in Photomatix. It... didn't work as well as I'd thought. In fact, I think it didn't help much at all, but the result was... interesting, so I figured I'd keep it and see what others thought.

Disclaimer: I'm very aware I don't know much about HDR, so please keep in mind that this is my second half-assed attempt at this :P

C.B.

2009-11-22T12:24:00.002-05:00

Meet C.B.

He is the latest addition to my life, and Lady's newest friend, having been with us for just over a week now.

C.B. comes from a farm. He's had a bad run of luck in his early days, with his previous owner (the farmer in question) wanting to get rid of him by means of a gun, due to what we now suspect was a respiratory infection. Luckily for him, he was rescued, brought to a cat shelter, nursed back to health (or almost) and taken to a pet store from where Jeff and I picked him up. We named him Crème Brulée (C.B. for short) because his orangey colour made us think of him as a caramel version of Lady.

He's a bundle of fuzz, affection, energy and playfulness; the only clues of his former illness are the occasional sneeze, and the fact that Lady caught the virus from him, leading to a few days of cat health hell for all involved.

With both of them well on the road to full recovery, I took the time to snap a couple of shots of the new guy.

For a truly great photo of C.B., taken by Jeff, click here.

Ottawa Food and Wine Show

2009-11-08T22:18:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Jeff and I decided to check out the Food and Wine Show. We were both first time participants and thus far unaware of just how many people, mainly of the ditzy girl variety, see this as an opportunity to dress up and a socially acceptable way to get drunk and act stupid in daylight. Apart from this, though, it was great to discover new kinds of wine and sample amazing dishes from restaurants I've been meaning to try out.

"Professional" photography (i.e. having "big" camera) was somewhat discouraged, but during a quite dull kitchen demo I took the opportunity to try out Jeff's 100mm macro lens on the subject least likely to object to my taking photos of it: my tasting glass.

Paula Seling

2009-11-07T00:50:00.002-05:00

For those who don't know, I was born in Romania and lived there until 2003 when I moved to Canada. I don't often talk about things I miss about "the old country", because they're relatively few and far between; but one thing I do miss quite often is (some) Romanian music. Unsurprisingly, Romanian music doesn't have the widest reach outside of the country, so it's very rare that a Romanian artist makes its way to this side of the Atlantic and becomes popular outside of the Romanian community.

In this context, having a Romanian artist perform in Ottawa is a welcome event. But when that artist is someone whose music you love and whom you admire, it's quite a treat! Tonight I had the good fortune of seeing, hearing and meeting Paula Seling!

Paula has been one of the most well-known and much-admired Romanian singers for quite a few years now, owing to both her amazing voice and her charming and entrancing stage presence. Every one of her performances I've witnessed (either in person or on screen) have been captivating and touched my heart in some way. Getting to meet her here, however, in the city I now call home, and over 7000km from Romania, was another story altogether.

One perk of being somewhat far removed from Romanian artists and yet in a part of the world they're likely to tour in is that these people, who usually sell out concert halls throughout Romania, get to perform at small venues, to enthusiastic though limited crowds of compatriots. One might find it ironic but, while I've never met a single band/singer I followed in Romania, I've met two of my favourite artists in the time that I've been in Canada, all because of this quirk of geography. I'm overjoyed and grateful that I could add Paula's autograph to my collection, and snap the photos above.

Thank you, Paula, for an amazing show!

Weekly Project - From HDR to Orange

2009-10-04T23:49:00.002-04:00

Another short post this week, containing apologies for not posting a new HDR shot. Time got away from me again, and I haven't had time to edit the potential HDR-able shots I have, let alone get out and take more. So for now, the HDR project is being suspended until further notice.

Next week's project serves two purposes. It is part Weekly Project, and part contest entry (contest will remain undisclosed). And the theme is all things ORANGE.

Stay tuned. Until then, I leave you with another cute kitty photo, courtesy of Lady:

Lady

2009-09-26T09:22:00.003-04:00

Today we're having a short intermission from the Weekly Project shots, courtesy of Lady the Kitten. Because, as any photographer who loves their pet knows, it's impossible to resist picking up the camera when they're calm and adorable, and happen to have settled against a perfect background in good lighting!

The problem with this is that, the instant I get up to get my camera, Lady goes from blissful sleepiness to full-on hunt mode with whatever I'm pointing at her as her main target. And taking pictures of a hyper kitty who takes the sound of your lens focusing as the ultimate provocation? Yeah, not that easy. However, the rewards for getting it right are great:

Lady of Mischief

Hunt Mode ON

Weekly Project - HDR

2009-09-25T17:24:00.002-04:00

Today's post will be short -- I'm due for a run and a salsa night!

This week's assignment was to create my first HDR image, and figure out the whole HDR process in general. So I downloaded a Photomatix free trial, and got to work on a set of photos taken on last week's Canal walk. Here is the result:

Before HDR (i.e. image closest to the HDR result. I got the HDR image by combining 3 shots):

After HDR:

Seeing as this was a bit of a rushed job, I don't have an insightful tip to share. Which is why I'm making HDR a two-week project! So over the next week, you can look forward to more (and hopefully better) HDR photos.

Also: please don't forget that you're invited to suggest new projects any time!

The Weekly Projects are small assignments I take on to try things I otherwise wouldn't and expand my range. While I do have a few things in mind, suggestions are very welcome. If you have a project idea, would like to share your thoughts on my posts, or would like to join me on my little adventures and post a link to your own results, it would make me very happy. And I would bake you cookies. Really.

Weekly Project - Light trails

2009-09-18T22:15:00.002-04:00

Hello again, guys and gals, and welcome to my second Weekly Project!

For this week's project, I wanted to get some good night shots of light trails (made by cars' head/tail lights) reflected in the Rideau Canal. This... didn't quite turn out as I had planned. I only got to go out once, on what felt like the coldest September night in history, so I didn't really have the endurance, patience of mobility I would have preferred. Still, here are some choice shots:

This week's tip: check the weather, and dress the part. I know, I know, a big "duh" factor for anyone over the age of 10, but sometimes the most basic things (like weather... or lens caps...) can trip you up if you lack the presence of mind to deal with them.

Next week's project is a somewhat less of a photography and more of a Photoshop project that I've been putting off for a long time because I had no idea where to begin. Next week I will be trying to make my first ever High Dynamic Range (HDR) image. If you're wondering what that is, examples/explanations can be found here, here and here.

HDR can be done subtly or over the top; it has its lovers and its haters, and quite a few polemics have been thriving for a while on the topic. For my part, I think it's a technique that can get very attention-grabbing results and that, like many things, it's best used just short of any extreme. I'm trying it not only because it's been a big trend in photography recently, but also because I want to finally figure out what it takes to make a good HDR photo, and what takes it "too far." Stay tuned for results next week!

The Weekly Projects are small assignments I take on to try things I otherwise wouldn't and expand my range. While I do have a few things in mind, suggestions are very welcome. If you have a project idea, would like to share your thoughts on my posts, or would like to join me on my little adventures and post a link to your own results, it would make me very happy. And I would bake you cookies. Really.

Weekly Project - Light painting, take 2!

2009-09-12T23:00:00.002-04:00

I know, I know, my weekly assignment post was due yesterday. It's an awful way to start the whole thing, and yet I promise I have a good reason. And that reason... is this:

This little kitty, whom Jeff has very aptly named Lady, came into my life earlier this week and melted our hearts until we just had to take her home and build our days around her every whim. She will undoubtedly become one of the most spoiled (not to mention photographed) felines in the known world. For now, though, I didn't want to disturb her for too long.

Getting back to this week's Light Spirograph project, below is the second set of images, taken using the same general technique, but a different light source, and a few tweaks.

A pretty basic shot to start with (reminder: see more about this project here). The lens was a lot closer to the light source, hence the broad light trails. I was hoping for thinner and more defined trails, but after seeing these I thought they were pretty cool as well.

About half way through the shoot, I had an idea: why not twist the string from which the light was hanging, and see what happens. The results varied from the photo above (i.e slight deviations), to odds tangles of weirdness.

An example of the more extreme rope-twisting thing.

This week's tip: try, try, and then... try some more. Different light sources, different focal lengths, longer or shorter exposures, throw the light in other directions (or twist the string. Or use elastic. Or use a double pendulum by tying another object, of about the same weight as your light source, about half way down your string, and throwing it in a different direction than your light source), or anything else that comes to mind. Take the time to try, and see what works for you.

Next week's project, courtesy of Jeff, is another light painting project. This time, it will be head/tail light trails reflected in the Rideau Canal. Stay tuned!

The Weekly Projects are small assignments I take on to try things I otherwise wouldn't and expand my range. While I do have a few things in mind, suggestions are very welcome. If you have a project idea, would like to share your thoughts on my posts, or would like to join me on my little adventures and post a link to your own results, it would make me very happy. And I would bake you cookies. Really.

Weekly Project - Light Spirograph

2009-09-04T23:57:00.003-04:00

Why hello there! I bet you forgot I also update this site from time to time. And yet here I am, back after a long and painful period of seclusion in the real world. Also: I've had no Internet access for the past few weeks. Still, I've managed to somehow survive this dry spell and now I'm back, with a shiny new modem/router and some photography-related news to share.

I've decided that, for the next little while, I'll take on one little photography project a week, and try to explore it in a few different ways, whenever inspiration strikes. Each Friday, I'll name my assignment for the week, and post some shots of my progress whenever I have the time to pick up my camera throughout the following week. At the end of each project, I'll post one or two best photos, as well as, hopefully, a few tips learned by experience.

What will my projects be? Aaah, good question. And the short answer is: this is where YOU come in. I do, of course, have a few projects in mind (things I keep reading about and never get around to trying, mostly), but what I'd love, most of all, is for all of you out there to suggest something for me to try. It can be anything at all (within the limits of law, reason and decency, of course), with the minor catch that it has to be possible for me to do it within the confines of my lovely little town of Ottawa, Ontario.

So please, if you have an idea, if there's something you'd like to see me try, or something you think I'd like to try, just mention it in the comments, and I'll add it to my list.

First Project - "Light Spirograph"

Have you ever played with a spirograph as a child? I got one when I was in elementary school, and was fascinated with it for the longest time. So when I saw this post on Digital Photography School, I had to try it.

The first step was finding the right light source. After searching high and low, I found a small book light, with two little LEDs. Wasn't sure it would work, but I gave it a try and I got the results below:

I'm not entirely happy with my first results. Mainly, I find them too fuzzy. The two parallel light trails (from the 2 LEDs) are kind of cool, but they got too diffused for my liking, leading to the very soft and blown out middle parts.

And so, tonight the second part of the experiment will take place, using a different mini-flashlight, generously donated by Kat, a.k.a. the world's most amazing personal trainer. Stay tuned for results, and don't forget to let me know (in the comments) of any projects you think I should take on!

Business cards etc.

2009-08-11T23:46:00.004-04:00

My posting of photos is getting a bit scarce. This has something to do with me being too slow (read: lazy) in editing busker shots, but it's mostly a product of my being busy with other things, ranging from household chores to plotting world domination (ok, maybe not world domination per se...).

One thing I've been meaning to do for the past -- oh, 3 months or so has been to design business cards for myself. It's taken so long because I didn't quite know where to begin, but tonight I put my patience to the test and sat down in front of a Photoshop window until I came up with something that looked decent.

The brain-wringing eventually led to two designs, or rather, one design in two forms. Both are posted below; I encourage, urge, cajole and plead for comments, suggestions, preferences and/or critique.

(Phone number has been changed for obvious reasons...)

Phantastyk

2009-08-08T16:48:00.004-04:00

Since my last post, the following things have happened:
- I've gone out to shoot buskers during Ottawa's BuskerFest last weekend
- I've found religion in the form of Photoshop's dodge and burn brushes
- my computer has become slower than ever

The busker shots have, for the most part, been remarkable failures, reminding me of just how much practice I need before I can pretend I'm any good at action shots or portraits or both. But I did do my damnedest to save some of my shots of Phantastyk, an acrobatic duo (made up of Paul Perreault and Joey Albert) I've been sort of following for a couple of years, whenever I get to catch one of their performances in Ottawa.

For more information on Paul and Joey and their magnificent exploits, please visit their web site at http://www.phantastyk.ca/

Also: please forgive the over-processed look of these shots. I was playing around in Photoshop and I have yet to find a balance between subtlety and "ooh, what does this brush do?"

Mom's garden - Part 2

2009-07-31T21:44:00.004-04:00

Here is the second part of the shots I taken in my mom's garden.

Mom's garden - Part 1

2009-07-30T19:01:00.003-04:00

Last weekend, I was kindly invited to take some photos of my mom's flowers. The inordinately wet weather seems to have agreed with them, so they were in full bloom and very eager to be shown off.

After much going through my shots, pondering and debating, here is a sneak preview of my mom's garden. (More shots to come, didn't want to overwhelm this page with too many photos at once, and the slideshow idea is getting old).

Macro!

2009-07-27T22:51:00.003-04:00

Here is my first try at macro photography, on a photo walk around the neighbourhood. Not with an actual macro lens, but I got some pretty fun results.

Coming up soon, my second attempt at macro, in my mom's flower garden. Until then, I leave you with these pretty things...

Cats

2009-07-26T22:48:00.003-04:00

Apart from its roof, another wonderful feature of my apartment building is its placement. It's downtown, and a 7-minute walk to the Rideau Canal, along which Jeff and I usually run a few times a week. The walk takes us through a beautiful residential neighbourhood east of Elgin Street; the area probably has plenty of other things worth a praise, but the aspect closest to my heart is the abundance of cats. Some days, it seems like having a cat is a requirement for anyone looking to buy a house around there, and on any given day you will most likely see at least 3 cats over about 6 blocks.

Since this suited me just fine, a feline photo walk was, of course, in order. Here are its more notable results.

Love, ghetto lighting, and a rose

2009-07-24T19:53:00.005-04:00

Today's been a bit of a tough day, with a couple of curve balls thrown at me from a couple of directions. All that changed, however, when my wonderful boyfriend picked me up from work and gave me the most beautiful red and white rose!

Now, to your average girl, taking the rose home, putting it in a vase and possibly bragging to a couple of friends would be enough. I, however, needed to (1) move all my furniture around, (2) set up the world's most tangled ghetto lighting setup including every lamp I own, a few metres of aluminium foil, parchment paper and foam, (3) take about 70 shots, and (4) post 3 of them here.

So please enjoy, and if you see Jeff, please thank him from the bottom of my heart for being the wonderful man he is, and lifting my spirits whenever I need a pick-me-up and a reminder that having awesome people in my life makes life pretty damn good.

As for me, I'll be cleaning my apartment for the next 3 hours.

Vancouver Aquarium

2009-07-24T00:11:00.004-04:00

My trip to Vancouver wouldn't have been complete without a visit to the Aquarium. If you haven't been, I can tell you I was in awe of some of the coolest fish, birds and otters (among other species) I've ever seen. It's an amazing place to go if you love fish, and a great place to take your camera if you decide you have too much self esteem.

If you like shooting fast-moving fish, in the dark, through thoroughly fingerprinted glass and speckled water, then this is your photographic paradise. Otherwise, though? Please leave your camera at home and just enjoy your visit.

... Or do what I did and stubbornly take 150 underexposed, *slightly* blurry shots. The ones I had most luck with were, unsurprisingly, starfish (which didn't move), jellyfish (which were brightly lit and moved slowly) and a Mandarin duck, which was slowly wading in a pond outside (and therefore in bright light):

Vancouver

2009-07-23T07:57:00.004-04:00

I couldn't go to Vancouver and not take some shots of the city itself...

Vancouver -- Chinese Garden, Take 3

2009-07-21T21:40:00.003-04:00

While in the Chinese Garden, we also got the chance to catch a glimpse of an Indian wedding. The couple came by for wedding photos (and video, as it turns out), and I tried to get a few shots of them as well. Didn't fare too well overall (due to the number of guests, photographers, other tourists and walls obstructing the view ), but I did get a couple of shots, which I thought might also be a nice selective colouring project.

The bride's bouquet

The happy couple

Vancouver -- Chinese Garden, Take 2

2009-07-20T22:04:00.002-04:00

The second installment of the Chinese Garden photos, still trying to make the best of some very unforgiving light...

Vancouver -- Chinese Garden, Take 1

2009-07-19T15:23:00.003-04:00

Somewhere in the midst of my photo-posting hiatus, I went to Vancouver for Jeff's graduation, and got a tour of the city for good measure. I'm finally getting around to doing some real editing now, and finding out that tourism trumped photography this time around. Still, I'll post some of my best (and maybe most representative) shots, and let you be the judge of them.

To start, a few shots of the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden. Jeff and I were there on an unbelievably bright and sunny day, which made for good tourist weather but less spectacular photography. Thankfully, the omnipresent bamboo helped provide some interesting shade...

Shoes

2009-07-14T22:25:00.003-04:00

In case you're wondering, I haven't stopped shooting salsa events. Most recent one was on July 4th, when Jeff and I shot a SalsaOle party. I might refrain from posting samples from the actual shoot though, lest anyone get sick of salsa photos. We'll see.

However. When I first came into the room where the salsa event was going to happen, and was looking for something -- anything! -- to act as a subject for a few practice shots (it had been a while!), I saw a pair of shoes that somehow looked interesting; they reminded me of a b/w photograph I'd seen a long time ago, of a pair of very worn boots against a white background. I remember being in awe of how something so unappealing in everyday life could make for such an interesting photo subject, and I like to think that lesson's stayed with me until today, at least in my more inspired moments. I don't kid myself that the quality of this shot is anywhere near as good as the one I'd seen back then (all other criticism aside, it was the first practice shot, about 2 minutes after walking into the place), but I'm still putting it up, to remind me never to lose my curiosity, and to keep shooting new things, even when the subject is as mundane as a pair of shoes.

Life at 50mm

2009-07-13T23:10:00.003-04:00

As part of my recent photo equipment shopping spree, in addition to the 24-70mm Beast, I also got myself a nifty little (or, in this case, not quite so little) 50mm prime lens. I was talked into this by Jeff (i.e the boyfriend), who loves his own 50mm and sings odes to it in a lovely tenor voice whenever he takes it out for a shoot.

So. In honour of my having caved, we both went out with our respective Nifty Fifties and, as is tradition (it seems!), got rained on abundantly. Before that, though, we did manage to get some good shots. Mine are below, and you can see Jeff's on his brand new Flickr account at www.flickr.com/photos/jeffhuangphoto/.

Flower box along Sussex.

Some bikers abandoned their bikes for a minute on Alexandra bridge, to take photos of themselves (and each other) with Parliament Hill as a backdrop. I, on the other hand, was happy shooting their bikes.

A groundhog in Jacques Cartier Park. He ran away, but kept poking his nose out of his burrow even when I got this close.

Decided to try and shoot something less shy... like a wall.

... And then this little guy came out to play, probably hoping to be fed. He eventually gave up on that and went to chill with the groundhog.

Ottawa by night

2009-07-12T20:50:00.002-04:00

Because I've taken a liking to long exposures...

What's your favourite colour?

2009-07-12T01:30:00.004-04:00

In keeping with the somewhat patriotic / Ottawa-specific theme of my previous post, I went by Parliament Hill tonight. It was in part to play with my new toys (new tripod, new 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, my first L-series, hooray!) and in part to get some shots of Ottawa by night; what hadn't occurred to me was that the Sound and Light Show was going on. For those who haven't seen it, it's a... let's call it a movie (all about Canadian heritage, of course) projected onto the facade of the Parliament building (Centre Block, if we're being exact). I believe it to be cool.

Anyway. I set up my tripod and my new lens (lovingly called "the Beast"). Since the images/lights were moving relatively fast, I had no idea how my shots were going to turn out, but I figured I'd just take a nice long exposure, hope for the best, and see what happens. I was pleasantly surprised. All of the images below were 30-second exposures at f/8.

So: what's your favourite colour?

Happy (belated) Canada Day

2009-07-03T18:04:00.003-04:00

Here is, hopefully, the end of the aforementioned hiatus, brought to you by Canada Day.

My new apartment has a wonderful feature: its roof. It's a wonderful feature not only because it keeps rain from making its way down onto my stuff, but also because I have access to said roof, which also happens to grant me a view of downtown Ottawa and, on Canada Day, a half-decent view of the fireworks. Still had a few buildings in the way, which is why this year I decided to focus on tighter framing of single (and sometimes multiple) bursts rather than broader landscapes. Comments are, as always, very welcome.

Hiatus

2009-04-11T10:34:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone, it's good news, bad news time!

The good news (for anyone who's tired of the salsa shots) is that I'm out of salsa shots to post.

The bad news (for those still checking this blog hoping for new shots) is that I don't have anything new to post.

In other words, I've taken a break from taking my camera everywhere, mainly because the past couple of months have taken a lot out of me and I'm very much in need of a bit of rest. So this year I'll be celebrating Easter by sleeping, hitting the gym, and watching DVDs with the boyfriend while moving as little as possible.

As for this blog? I'm contemplating two options: it may either endure a hiatus until my next photo outing or, if I can muster the energy, I might dig through my photo archives and post some of my better old shots, in part to reminisce and in part to try and build myself something resembling a portfolio. So stay tuned!

Salsa, Take VII

2009-04-02T07:31:00.002-04:00

Here is the last installment of the SalsaOle shots. The effect in it was... only half-intentional. I'm not the kind of person to take bad photos and call them a style choice, but I found the motion blur effect and lighting in this one interesting (i.e. emphasizing movement without making it incomprehensible), so here it is:

Critique is, as always, very welcome in the comments, so don't be shy!

Salsa, Take VI

2009-04-01T07:32:00.003-04:00

Two more shots from the SalsaOle event:

I've just realised I haven't posted a "balance sheet" of this photo shoot, so here goes:

total shots: 246
shots kept after final edits: 68
shots that I'm proud of: a dozen or so
proud/happy moments in general: 6
major annoyances/irks/disappointments that made me wonder why photographers have to deal with people: 3

Salsa, Take V

2009-03-31T07:19:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-30T20:57:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-28T08:45:00.006-04:00

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

2009-03-25T23:07:00.004-04:00

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

2009-03-17T23:20:00.002-04:00

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

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

Salsa, Take I

2009-03-16T22:17:00.002-04:00

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...

2009-03-12T23:09:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-03T23:45:00.003-05:00

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'

2009-03-02T22:14:00.003-05:00

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:

Winterlude Diary - Fire

2009-02-11T23:00:00.002-05:00

This awesome bit of plasma kept me from freezing throughout the day.

Winterlude Diary - Portraits

2009-02-10T23:16:00.001-05:00

Two portraits of one ice carver whom I found particularly photogenic.

Winterlude Diary - Day 3: Finished ice sculptures

2009-02-09T22:10:00.003-05:00

Winterlude Diary - Day 2: More ice carving

2009-02-08T23:10:00.001-05:00

Winterlude Diary - Day 1

2009-02-07T09:38:00.002-05:00

Ice carver at Winterlude

If you live in Ottawa, you most likely know Winterlude started yesterday. Since I now have this photo blog, I've decided to try and document some of its progression this year. This first installment presents an ice carver smoothing the ice blocks that will become his sculpture, with a circular hand saw.

Locked out, Part 3

2009-02-06T07:19:00.000-05:00

Last installment of these "Locked out" shots.

Locked out, Part 2

2009-02-05T07:14:00.000-05:00

Locked out, Part 1

2009-02-04T07:31:00.003-05:00

Out in the cold

2009-02-03T07:34:00.001-05:00

This was an abandoned secretaire, left out in the cold and developing an ice cover.

February 2, 2009

2009-02-02T07:14:00.001-05:00

Are your Christmas decorations back in storage yet?

2009-02-01T20:10:00.001-05:00

Welcome to my photo blog!

2009-02-01T13:01:00.003-05:00

Hi there!
Whether you know me from my other blog, or you stumbled on this page by sheer happenstance (or I force-fed you this link in an ever-so-tactful attempt at self-marketing), welcome to my new photo blog!
This space will showcase some of my least clumsy photos, and hopefully document my progress in the world of photography. Please feel free to leave comments on my work. In fact, I am encouraging, urging and cajoling you into doing so.