Spooks Against Cancer

This past Saturday night I was asked by my friend Jasmine to be the photographer at an event she was throwing.  It was a Halloween Party and also a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society.  Jasmine is a cancer survivor, and like many people, I have lost family members to cancer. Add all of that together and this was an invitation that I couldn't refuse.  I was also looking forward to this event because I don't have much experience shooting parties, and it meant another battle with my sworn nemesis, the Canon Speedlite 580 EXII.  I don't have another piece of equipment that I can be totally in love with one minute and then be ready to throw against the wall in frustration mere minutes later.  I think I managed to win the battle this time as not only did I manage to take some pretty good shots, I also managed to successfully bounce the light using the built-in reflector.  If I could show you the histogram of this photo, it would be almost perfect.  Now, I just need to remember to return my settings after doing non-flash shots.  Using ISO 1600 with flash is not really the greatest of ideas...  Anyway, this photograph was shot at f/4.5 for 1/250sec at ISO 100.  I ended up coming home with several good shots and lots of money was raised for the Canadian Cancer Society.  In my books, that makes for a pretty good night.  To learn more about the Canadian Cancer Society and to find out how you can help in the fight against cancer, you can visit the Canadian Cancer Society website.

Still Rocking

I've still got some of that Rush concert flowing through my veins and it inspired me to dig through my archives to find this picture I took a few years back of my friend Louie, rocking out on the train tracks.  Louie is a good friend and has been playing the guitar since leaving the womb.  He was in a pretty cool band called Dim back in the 90's and still jams with his currents group of musicians whenever he can.  This photo came about because one of my projects while taking my photography courses was to create a CD booklet.  This picture ended up being used as the back sleeve where all of the album tracks would be listed, thus why I left so much space on the right side of the photo.  Even without the song titles, I really like this photo.  I was trying to capture a Bruce Springsteen/Bob Seeger type of vibe as I had seen several photos of both artists standing by railroad tracks.  To get the image, I shot at f/2 for 1/250sec at ISO 400 as it was getting late in the afternoon and the sun was going down, but I still needed enough speed so that his hands wouldn't blur as he was playing the guitar.  Creating the CD booklet was one of the projects I really enjoyed doing, and I have yet to fulfill my promise of creating a second.  One of these days...

Soon, In The Pages Of...

Those of you out there who live in the Saint-Lambert/Greenfield Park/Longueuil area will be seeing this photo in one of your local newspapers in the coming weeks.  It's a photograph I took of the department managers at Provigo Richard Gagnon, located on Victoria Ave. in Saint-Lambert.  I was asked to take the picture and was happy to do so as there is nothing I like more than seeing my name in print listed as a photo credit.  This also served as a lesson in being the 'hired photographer' as I was bound by the creative vision of the boss, thus the grey background and lack of uniforms.  The lesson, one that I have been told several times in the past, 'the customer is always right'.  Once my ego healed, I shot the above picture at ISO 100, f/7.1 at 1/250sec using the Canon 580 EXII as my main source of light.  We also blocked a large window to stop the sunlight from getting into the room and causing all kinds of ugly shadows.  I then cropped the photo to 20"x7" as I was asked to produce a panorama type of image.  Next time I see it will be in the newspaper.

***UPDATE***  The photo will not be appearing in print this week.  I've been asked to shoot another photo this coming Thursday and it will be used instead.  It will be appearing in the special Fall Advertisement section of the Saint-Lambert Journal which I think comes out in two weeks.

Oh, What A Rush

Went to see Rush at the Bell Center this past Thursday night and as usual, they put on a great show. The only distraction I had from the music happened at the beginning of the second half of the show when the press photographers hit the scene to capture some images for the papers the next day. For two songs, the music served as background noise while my attention was focused on the photographers moving around the floor trying to get the best angles for their pictures. I haven't had the good luck to photograph any big name rock bands, but I did have a great time with the Choeur Vives Voix (http://www.vivesvoix.ca) back in April. This shot came from a musical number during their show. It being a low light situation, I had to pump up the ISO to 1600. Meaning that if you could see a full size blow-up of this image there would be lots of 'grain' in the photo. Luckily, this isn't visible at such a small size and results in a nice little photo. The same applies for newsprint as the noise wouldn't show in a newspaper either. I shot at f/3.2 with an exposure speed of 1/125sec which is near the limit to be able to freeze movement. I had lots of fun at that show and maybe with a little luck, there might be a Rush waiting for me somewhere in my future as well.

"We've taken care of everything
The words you hear the songs you sing
The pictures that give pleasure to your eyes."

Eating All Of Those Nuts Makes You Thirsty

As I've said before, the fun thing about going out for a day of taking pictures is that often you end up coming home with a picture you had no intention of taking which ends up being better than the ones you left home wanting to take.  Such was the case yesterday as I hit Ile Saint-Helene with the idea of getting some nice shots of the changing colours and also ending my day with some nice shots of the Biosphere's light being reflected in various bodies of water.  However, while I was walking along the numerous paths that are on the island, I came upon this little scene.  This was the base of a rather large tree which appears to have been carved out by some kind of squirrel or groundhog and probably used as as home.  And sitting right in front of the front door was a couple of discarded juice boxes.  The first thing that came into my mind was the classic scene from movies where you see the wrecked front lawn of a home after the teenagers have trashed the place after a party.  It was rather cloudy when I took this picture, and the leaves were still rather thick on the trees so it made for a dark scene.  So, I threw the camera into Manual mode and shot at f/2.8, ISO 100 for 1/20sec.  In hindsight, I probably should have upped the ISO, but I still like the finished image.  As a side note, it's crazy how much litter is strewn along those paths.  People, pick up your mess. 

A Little Love For My 70-300mm Lens

Before everything got turned upside down in preparation of my exhibition, which still can be seen at the Greenfield Park Library (225 Empire, Greenfield Park) until November 6th, I went on a kind of rant against my 70-300mm Canon zoom lens.  So, in the search for some good karma, I wanted to publish a photo taken with the much maligned lens in question.  The image above was taken from a bicycle path just underneath the Jacques Cartier Bridge.  I was there to photograph some fireworks, but this photograph was taken while I was waiting for the sky to explode.  I decided to test out my lens to make sure I was a good distance away to capture the fireworks.  The swirling effect you see around the ride is the ride itself rising up.  It was some kind of attraction that spins around a lot and generally causes people like me to lose their lunch.  Which is why I much prefer photographing these things as opposed to riding them.  The light is captured by the camera and remains in the final image, much like it does with the light streaks from cars.  The shot was taken at f/20, 30sec. ISO 100 at 270mm.  My only regret was that the Ferris Wheel wasn't turning at the same time.  I took several versions of this shot hoping that the wheel would eventually turn, but no dice.  Guess Ferris Wheel's aren't as popular as they used to be.

Smashing Success

Thank you to everybody who came to my vernissage this evening and to those who bought some of my works. Your presence and kind words were very much appreciated.

Don't forget, my photographs will remain on display until November 4th for those who haven't had the chance to see them, and for those who wish to see them again.

Merci à tous ceux qui sont venus à mon vernissage et qui m’ont encouragé en vous procurant certaines de mes œuvres. Votre présence a été fort appréciée.

N’oubliez pas que vous avez jusqu’au 4 novembre pour voir ou revoir mes photographies.

Diary Of A Photo Exhibit

 That stack of wood that you see in the above picture is the chair in my living room.  Sitting on it is 25 framed 10x15 inch photographs and one 20x7 inch photograph that will be making up my exposition at the Greenfield Park Library.  It took 30minutes just to unwrap the frames, and good four hours to finish framing everything, and 10 seconds afterwards to not want to frame anything again for a good long time.  The stack sat there until a bit before noon when everything was packed into the car.

 Up next, everything was delivered to the Greenfield Park Library, located at 225 Empire.  From there, it took a good hour and a half to do the first 15, which I thought was pretty good time for a guy who isn't known for his manual dexterity.  Things then took a slight turn for the worse as the library ran out of the little plastic hooks that hold up the photos.  The solution?  Hooking everything up using chains.  This took up much more time, as the final 10 photos ended up taking me two and a half hours to hang from the wall.  It was a bit of a pain, but standing back when I was done and seeing all of my photos on the wall put a smile on my face that is still there as I type.

So there it is, the front door with my poster on it.  This is a little voyage that began about four years ago with my first photography courses from Concordia University.  I'd like to think that I've done a good job and I hope that as many people as possible take some time out of their day to come and see my work.