Why Can't We Be Friends

The play-off series between the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins continues with each team having one win a piece.  Game 5 goes this evening so I decided to reach into the archives to pull out this little photograph that I took back in the Spring of 2009.  I was taking a Photojournalism course at Concordia University and one of our assignments was to go out and photograph an event.  This was the first year that the Canadiens began to have their FanJam events before home play-off games so I headed down to the Bell Center to see what was going on.  I'll freely admit that taking pictures of people is not one of my strong suits, but taking photos of strangers is even tougher.  I'm a wee bit on the shy side, despite what you may think based on my writings here on the site, so going up to strangers and asking to take their photograph wasn't really an option.  Instead, I choose to go with my strength, which is laying back and not being noticed, which isn't really that easy to do when you're someone my size.  A few minutes after arriving, I came upon these Bruins fans and I knew that if I stuck close to them, I'd be sure to get a little action.  Sure enough, a press photographer came by and asked for a photo, at which point some young Habs fans joined the fray, and voila, I snuck in and snapped my instant play-off moment.  After the game began I went to my friend Julie's place, who was a classmate at the time and who I ran into at the event, and we watched the rest of the game before deciding to go back for the end when people would be exiting the building.  The Bruins won that night and eliminated the Canadiens, and I was seconds away from capturing an irate Habs fan throwing a punch at the Bruins fan, but I hadn't brought my flash with me and ended up missing the shot.  Just for fun, I've added it to this post.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/60sec, ISO400 at 24mm.  The second photograph, in its blurred glory, was taken at f/2.8, 1/8sec, ISO 1600 at 43mm.  It certainly was an eventful evening. 

Facade - Part Two

They say that time flies when you're having fun.  I find that generally time flies no matter what is happening.  Last year while taking photographs for the Choeur Vives Voix (feel free to look at those photographs right here and right here), I ended up putting a pretty large period of time between my first and second parts.  I swore that I wouldn't do that again.  In a way, I was right.  Last year I had the second part up my May 3rd....it's presently May 7th.  What can I say, sometimes life gets in the way.  If you don't remember those photographs from Part One, you can see them right here.  When last we spoke, the curtain had just fallen on Act I and I was in the process of switching memory cards so that I wouldn't go through the same agonizing headaches of last year.  As the curtain rose, I was once again ready to go. What you see here are a selection of shots from the second part of the show.  A couple of my favourite shots from the entire play are here in Part 2.  Beginning with the second photograph.  I had been trying to find an angle where the stage lights would be coming down perfectly on the actress you see in the background.  After getting a couple of photographs, I pulled my camera away and noticed that her image was in the small screen of the video recorder that was being used as a prop.  I immediately focused on her image and took the picture, which resulted in the actress being out of focus in the background, but in focus on the screen.  I think I've seen shots similar to that on television before and I was really happy to have been able to grab this one.  Another personal favourite is the fourth photograph on this page.  The actress was 'talking' to voices in the door.  I really wanted to get the shot of her looking at the door, but us seeing her reflection in the window.  As an added bonus, the actresses behind the door can be seen as well.  To get this shot, I focused on the door and tried to take the shot while the stage lights were at their brightest.  Those are my two favourites, though that's not to say that I don't like the others as well.  The first photograph of this set happened near the end of the show and I liked how most of the main characters were in the shot.  The facial expressions were really fun as well.  The third photograph was also difficult to grab.  This was a little dance number and people were moving all over the place.  As I already mentioned, the stage lights were not very bright so I was dealing with shot shutter speeds, making it not always very easy to capture people while they move.  I had seen the play a few times before shooting, so I knew there would be little pauses in the dance routine, so I tried to make sure I'd be ready to shoot at the times when the dancers were not moving as much.  The fifth photograph took place while the actress on the left was singing a solo.  I focused on her and let my large aperture take care of blurring out everyone in the background.  You can see that her right hand is a little bit blurred.  A victim of that low lighting I was talking about.  Luckily, I managed to freeze the rest of her to create what I feel is a great shot, and a great shot to end this update on.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/40sec, ISO 1600 at 40mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/30sec, ISO 1600 at 68mm.  Photograph number three was taken at f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 1600 at 27mm.  The fourth photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/25sec, ISO 3200 at 67mm and the fifth photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/50sec, ISO 3200 at 43mm.  A huge thank-you to everyone at the Choeur Vives Voix.  I had a blast and I hope that we can do it again next year.

May The Fourth Be With You

I'm kind of cutting things close to the wire this year, but I only discovered this May the Fourth thing last year.  For those of you who are unaware, May 4th is Star Wars Day.  Created due to some creative minds who noticed there was a very similar sound between May, The 4th, and the famous Star Wars quote, "May The Force be with you."  May the Force, May The Fourth.  Quite clever.  Those of you who were around last September will remember the photos I took at the Star Wars Identities show, so you already know that I'm a Star Wars fan.  To celebrate, I decided to have a little fun with some of my little plastic friends.  I chose Darth Vader and The Emperor because if you're going to celebrate the Force, you need to celebrate the Dark Side.  I placed them on a table, closed all of the lights and then used a flashlight to light my subjects.  In order to get the red look to the photograph, I placed some red crate paper over the flashlight which acted like a red filter.  While the photograph was being taken, I moved the light over the scene in several different directions.  For the background, I used a simple tin container.  The red light reflecting off of it created a kind of other worldly background that I really like.  I also ran a piece of the crate paper along the bottom of the lens.  This created the subtle red wave that you can notice near the knees of the characters.  My only complaint is that the Lightsabers get lost in the scene.  I used my Macro lens and put the main focus on Darth Vader.  I like having the rest of the shot out of focus because it kind of adds to the 'red storm' that is happening in the shot.  I took this photograph at f/4, 15sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  Yes, I really did do all of the things mentioned above, as well as taking out my tripod, just to photograph a pair of action figures.  Some people may say that I need to find a more constructive use of my time.  They're probably right, but I find their lack of faith to be disturbing.

Getting Ready For Round Two

Those of you who are from the Montreal area are already well aware that Round Two of the NHL Play-Offs begin tonight as local favourites, the Montreal Canadiens go head to head with their hated rivals, the Boston Bruins.  No two teams have faced off more in the play-offs than these two teams.  While you all look forward to what will hopefully be an exciting series, why not get ready by taking a look at some hockey photographs.  These are a few more photographs from the same series you saw here last month (What A Save).  Once again, the goaltender is my friend, Florence.  There isn't much more to add that wasn't said in the last update, other than the technical aspects.  This shot was taken at f/4.5, 1/400sec, ISO 1600 at 95mm.  Here's a couple more shots before the game begins.

f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 1600 at 68mm

Sorry Florence, there's no shame in letting one go by.

f/4.5, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 105mm

Another great pad save.

Enjoy the game everyone, but don't forget to keep coming back here.  Feel free to visit my at my Eric Mahannah Photograph on Facebook as well.

Rules Are Meant To Be Broken

One of the first things they teach you when you begin to take courses on photography is about the Rule of Thirds.  Stated in simple terms, the Rule of Thirds is a guideline of sorts in which you try to position your model, of whatever you happen to be taking a photograph of, on an imaginary line in order to create a more pleasing image to the eye.  Think of placing a Tic-Tac-Toe board over your photograph.  The most important elements of your photograph should be placed along one of those lines, rather than in the center square.  In other words, the complete opposite of what you see in the first photograph.  So, why did I break this rule?  I did it for one reason.  I really liked the blurred out colours in the lower left and upper right of the shot.  The flower is the star, but I wanted to keep those two other elements in my photograph as well.  I could have tried taking the photograph at a larger focal length, but then there were other flowers that would have found themselves in my shot.  It's not always the right choice to break the rules or step out of the box, but these are your photographs, you should make them how you want.  For instance, let's look at the second photograph.  In such a case, I'd normally make sure to focus on the stems of the flower, but in this case, I found the rain drops to be more interesting so I chose to focus on them instead.  I don't think the photograph is any less interesting because of my doing so, but that might also be because it was my choice to do so.  For an example of what I would have usually done, feel free to check out my photographs of a Day Lily from last year, taken in my Mom's garden.  These came from her garden as well.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 51mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/640sec, ISO 1600 at 51mm.  I took these shots at such a high ISO because it was late in the afternoon and after a short rain shower.  I didn't want to use my flash as I find it to be a little harsh on flowers, although I suppose that might be a little rule I might be tempted to break one day as well.

Fresh Rolls

I've been eating homemade rolls like those that you see here for as long as I can remember.  The first that I tasted were made by my Grandmother, Grammie.  Later in life, the next batch would be made by my Aunt Tootsie.  Finally, this batch you see here was the first one to be made by my Mother.  I figured that such an occasion needed to be captured in digital form as both a tribute to those who have made them in the past, and in recognition of my Mom's first successful attempt.  I really wanted to capture the texture of the rolls, as well as the warm colour of their tops.  I set the rolls on a plate next to the window and used another white plate to reflect some light onto the left-hand side of the frame.  While looking at some shots, I noticed that the sun was creating a little glow against one of the living room walls, so I moved the plate a little bit to catch that rectangle of reflected sun that you see in the top left-hand corner of the photograph.  I think it adds an extra little something to the shot.  I also really like the reflection of the light along the bottom of the plate.  This photograph was taken at f/4, 1/50sec, ISO 400 at 60mm.  The macro lens really brought out the texture of the rolls, as well as the background blur from shooting at f/4.  These rolls have been my favourites for many year, and hopefully for many more to come.

Still Waiting For The Train

Here's another photograph that I took during my Monday night walk with Vincent and Renée-Claude.  As you can see, I'm still at the Saint-Lambert train station.  For some reason, I've always been drawn to railway tracks.  Some of my earliest shots were of either train stations or train tracks in the middle of nowhere.  I've been to this location several times over the years.  There was the photograph in my last update, as well as a shot I posted last February.  You get double links in this update because I forgot to mention the February shot last time.  Always with the links, need to keep up my traffic.  I used a small aperture and long exposure time once again in order to get the star effects on the lights, and I used the train tracks as leading lines in order to draw you further into the photograph.  I took a couple of different shots in order to make sure that the words 'Saint-Lambert' were visible and not blown out.  I grew up in Saint-Lambert so I kind of enjoy giving it some publicity every now and then.  I also like the small little traces of reflected red light on the tracks near the building.  I took this photograph at f/22, 44sec, ISO 100 at 68mm.  The only thing I felt was missing was for a train to pass through so I could get some light trails.  We waited for several minutes hoping a train would pass, but no luck.  A few minutes later after walking a bit down the street, I heard the train I was looking for.  I guess I'm still waiting for that train, although I now have another excuse to go back to the station.