I only use Epson pigments on the finest papers including the most popular Epson Ultra Premium Luster, to artisan papers such as Canson Baryta, Inkpress Semi-Gloss canvas and sheets of soft silver or gold aluminum.

With several on-offs and other supercars gracing the lawn at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the Aston Martin One-77 stood out. Looking mean, nasty and incredibly wide, it was on show as the culmination of Aston’s long history of beautiful and capable grand touring cars. Aston martin was the honoured marque at this year’s Mar-a-Lago charity breakfast and Classic Sports Sunday, this past 23 January 2012.

While I didn’t get introduced to ‘the Donald’, I hobnobbed in sports-coat and tie and the 80 degree and lunched with the 699 other guests. Talk about feeling out of place.

This car, the Ferrari Daytona (officially known as the 365/GT4) wasn’t overly special when compared to the 1950 Maserati 5000 GT custom built for a client in brown with gold plating (instead of chrome), and camel hair carpets that was also available. While the Daytona isn’t the most curvy or Ferraris, it appeals to me because it has very clean lines and speaks of the brute power delivered by the V12 engine under the bonnet.

One supercar that you will never see on the road is the Ferrari FXX. Derived from the Ferrari Enzo, it is a rolling test-bed that Ferrari uses to gather telemetry and help develop the next round of Ferrari road and race cars. The major difference with the FXX program, that no other manufacturer does, is involve the owners in the process. With the FXX program, Ferrari sells the FXX cars to a very select group of clients, then works with them to test, gather, analyze, improve and develop the cars over time and for the next iteration of the program. One surprise caveat that you might not guess, is that the owners usually do not get to take the cars home. Ferrari maintains and transports the cars to six or seven race tracks around the world and the testing takes place in conjunction with the organized Ferrari Challenge series, itself co-scheduled with the Formula1 races, or other high profile race series.

These series of photos are from the XXI Cavalino Classic just this past week (15-23 Jan 2012) in Palm beach, Florida. By the time I got to the FXX, there were so many people around, I spent almost 10 minutes sitting on the grass waiting to capture the head-on shot with the doors open: a classic and iconic shot of these cars. To get away from the crowds, and to break-away from the ‘iconic’ shot, I then moved in closer to capture the muscle and bones of the car, the same as you might with a fine-art nude.

So when you are out photographing wildlife, or not-so-wildlife in your backyard, try to capture and portray your subject away from man-made objects like feeders etc.

And remember, food-baiting of wildlife is illegal in most provinces and states; even for photographic purposes.

The front of a car is the most relate-able part of a car design. Because of this, many car designers incorporate elements of a face into their designs. By choosing to accentuate the front of the car, I’ve exaggerated the features that we recognize as a ‘face’. I think it makes for a series of great images: the ultra-wide lens has distorted the car beyond what we normally see, yet it is still recognizable.

So next time you are out, look at the cars around you and see what facial features they have included in their designs. Then think how it expresses the intent or character of that car. Did the designer succeed? An aggressive face on a minivan just doesn’t cut it, while a goofy grin on a Mazda 3 says ‘fun’.

If you find yourself drawn to a car in a parking lot, on a bright sunny day, try shooting a different perspective. getting down low or on your knees can remove distracting elements from the background, such as other cars, lamp posts or people. If you know you’ll be shooting shiny cars on a bright day, you might also consider investing in a circular polarizing filter to cut down or eliminate glare and control reflections.

Mercedes Déziel-Hupé, a fellow photog is showing her art and photography here in Ottawa. The show entitled Ballet In The Streets: Dance Photography as Seen by a Dancer, is being held at Avant Garde Bar and Gallery, 135 Besserer Street, Ottawa. The show runs for three weeks starting with the vernisage and opening party which is tomorrow (Thursday 12 Jan 2012) at 7:00 pm. Visit Mercedes’ swing blog for the full announcement.

Mercedes, herself a long-time dancer, has a keen eye for juxtaposing dance in the city where you would normally encounter the homeless, business folk or just people going about their everyday lives.

In addition to supporting Mercedes’ first show, she hired me to print her entire show and post-process select images.

Hope to see you there!

A specific style can establish or banish a photographer. But more importantly, a style is a reflection on the creative frame of mind or even the personality behind the eye.

I have not yet settled on a style, but currently prefer to explore what I see and feel, at that moment, with as little ‘filtering’ as possible. Still, as an exercise, going out and shooting a specific type of subject or a specific style is excellent practice for training the brain behind the eye.

A cold, overcast winter day at Pauley’s Cove in Nova Scotia, provided just such an opportunity.

So next time you are out on a photo walk-about, try perceiving the world in a different way: a specific aperture, black & white or even a special filter or post-processing.

The CSRA Snowcross racing season started at Calabogie this past weekend. Held at the foot of the Calabogie Peaks Ski resort, a rather small circuit was built on manmade snow. Still, with the smaller circuit, there was more action for the spectators: they could see the entire course. Equipped with a press pass, John Rathwell and myself  armoured up in the mandatory body armour and went stalking snowmobile racers. It wasn’t hard as we could stand so close to the track, we were pelted with snow chunks and starved for oxygen in the exhaust fumes.

As a photographer, the real challenge was to turn away from the spectacular jumps along the front straight, and look for the exciting racing in corners 1 and 2. Corner 2 in particular had some great passing: the racers streamed up hill from the start, dove into the corner fighting for position, a clear route and to stay on their sleds as they then rocketed back down the hill into a right-hander.

The 2012 Canadian Snowcross Championship circuit starts in Calabogie and runs through Ontario and Quebec towns finishing in Kitchener on the 24-25 march weekend.

Sponsored by Amsoil, Royal Distributing, Rockstar, Yamaha, Polaris, Ski-doo, Arctic Cat, OSM, Dayco, Ontario, Pioneer and Choko Design, the races are fast-paced and thrilling to watch. And with 32 distinct classes spread across 8 different races, the competition is fierce.

I love shooting long exposures: you get a very dreamy feel to the resulting images. The easiest times to shoot very long exposures is at sunrise and sunset when the light is still fairly faint. A simple long exposure will get you the shot. And, appropriately enough, you also get the best light.

So what do you need and how do you do it? Here’s a bit of a recipe for a sunset shoot:

1. Gear: 1 camera, fav lens (size really doesn’t matter), 1 tripod, one flashlight and one remote trigger. Cold weather clothes and a chair are also non-essentials that you will appreciate if you brought them.
2. Getting ready: Arrive about 60 minutes before sunset, find your subject, perspective and a comfortable seat, as you’ll be here for 2 hours.
3. Camera set-up: manual, anti-vibration off, autofocus off, set your white balance to the colour of the flashlight (another lesson at another time – just use auto white balance for the first few times), aperture on 13-19 depending on the amount of Depth of Field you want, ISO 100.
4. The best time(s): the ‘golden light’ of sunset only lasts about 15 minutes right before sunset. There is a second slot about 45 minutes after sunset when the sky can be filled with blues, purples and deep reds (if the clouds are with you).
5. The shot: Take the photo several times as the light changes to get different compositions with any moving clouds, as well as different lighting and colours: there is a lot of colour after dark, that we can’t see. Very quickly, you’ll need a remote trigger of some kind as the ‘bulb’ setting on your shutter speed comes very quickly. This photo was exposed for 195 seconds (and yes, I had forgotten my remote trigger, so that is finger on the shutter button the whole time). After that, the duration of the shot doubles with every stop of darkness, so the shutter stays open for very long periods, very quickly. My next shot, just 3 minutes later was 300 seconds of finger on the shutter button.

In the seed-pod photo, you can see some dark edges on the right side of the pods. That is not an artifact of sharpening, or jpg compression. It is actually the blur of the pods moving. I didn’t feel any breeze, but there you go: once I started taking photos, it quickly became apparent that the milkweed was moving. The milkweed itself appears sharp because the flashlight ‘froze’ it for a second.