Following on from my Expand Your Horizons post, I’ve been prowling the house looking for more subject material.

‘Fred the fish’ here, is a souvenir of our recent trip to Newfoundland. When I look for interesting subjects, I look for backgrounds that are very simple or plain: supporting colours are also important for the composition. ‘Fred’ makes a great high-key subject, so using the available light and a white base and background and a small reflector to brighten his face, I’ve got a good macro subject.

Look for shapes that stand on their own: ignore the colours, tune out the backgrounds and get down close.

Exuding menace and purpose, this BMW M3 in your mirrors will be looking for a pass.

There are a lot of artists that I find inspiring. You can find many of them on the right side in the ‘blogroll’. I try to explore the photography, art and design  of others on a regular basis. Not only do they provide opportunities to see the world differently, or suggest new compositions to try, but they also can be absolutely mind blowing.

Recently I found the art of David Trautrimas. A Canadian located in Toronto, David’s recent imagery is made up of common items found in the kitchen. With this inspiration in mind, I went looking for some of my own ‘kitchen scenes’.

Creating a Black & White image that excites me has been very hard to date: I feel I have not yet gotten the hang of seeing in ‘tones’. Darwin Wiggett recently interviewed Cole Thompson on his B&W imagery. Cole’s images absolutely floored me. I have subsequently signed up to Cole’s blog and while reading through his recent posts, came across this one that talks about pitfalls in getting to a B&W print compared to what we see on a computer or camera screen. Visit his site for stunning photography and the post for the complete text. The messages I’m taking away are:

1. Your camera screen and computer monitor are backlit while a print is reflected light.

2. Contrasts within the photo are the life blood of B&W

3. Whether it be in-camera or post production, always watch your luminance histogram for a good spread across the whole range

4.  Getting the contrast you see on screen to the printer will require more blacks, whites and contrasts. and

5. Experience and experimentation as always so shoot shoot shoot.

Gaining experience is as simple as shooting more. It sounds pedantic and you probably feel the same way I did when I first heard it: “what the heck are they talking about” was my thought. Well, the more images I take, the more I learn what I like, what the scene looked like when I took that shot and which ones worked and didn’t work. For B&W, I’ve learned (several times), to convert a bunch of photos into B&W and see how they look. After a while you get an idea what tonal values are hidden in the colours, and you’ll start to train your eye to see contrasts. Also, keep your eye out for people like Cole Thompson or Younes Bounhar who you can learn from: either via workshops or through their imagery. From there, the step to B&W prints that meet your expectation is another short hop requiring more practice.

I have a long road to travel and am excited about the journey itself. See you out there.

Dave and I spent a few hours on the weekend shooting his ride. Dave takes a lot of pride in his ride and so he should: he’s built it up to maximize the performance and style of his car. To me, Dave’s M3 presents menace, power, capability and thrill without being ‘over the top’ or the derogatory ‘ricer’.

We started with an abandoned road works gravel “shed”, then moved on to Fitzroy Harbour and their fire station. Thank you to the fire hall for the use of their space.

The day was overcast so didn’t need to worry about harsh light, however the clouds did create a lot of reflection in the windshield. Most of the time the polarizer worked well. Other times I was positioned with the sun in line with the shot. Taking more time to wait for the sun to move (I couldn’t rearrange the walls and other compositional aspects) would create an even better image. The lesson is that the location of the sun is just as important as the type of sky> Ideally, dawn or dusk and the 45 minutes before and after is the best light for just about anything photography related.

Have you got a ride you are passionate about? Immortalize it.

We spent the previous week touring up the west coast of Newfoundland. While the main purpose of the trip was to sight see and explore with my wife and mother, I managed to squeeze some ‘photography time’. Since I had lugged 40 lbs of camera gear, I was determined to spend it photographing the sights, people and sounds of Newfoundland.

One of my dilemmas was whether I should bring my tripod or not. For landscape, especially sunset shooting, a tripod is an essential tool. So I knew I needed one. My dilemma comes from the fact that I have an old Manfrotto 055. It’s a monster of a tripod and is too long to fit into my luggage. I didn’t want it getting damaged either. My compromise? I left it behind, and went straight to a store when we arrived. As luck would have it, I had messed up the rental car booking and we had to get to Corner Brook to rent a car. So a trip to Walmart and a $30 tripod later, we are on our way and I’m happy: a tripod I can loose, wreck and generally not care about. That lack of worry came in handy when I was knee deep in salt water and waves during the long exposure shooting at The Arches. The funny thing was it cost me $20 in shipping to send it home.

I hope you enjoy these images as much as I do. For more, you are invited to visit my facebook page

Anchors Aweigh is by far, my fondest memory of our trip to Newfoundland. At the heart of it, they are entertainers who just happen to play Newfoundland music. Their show lasted for over three hours, and truly made the audience feel at home and a part of the event. They also took a chance and played a song with my wife. She played the Irish whistle and led the group to fantastic approval by the audience.

The ‘house band’ at the Ocean View Hotel, Anchors Aweigh play three nights a week over the summer. The shows sell out several days in advance, and I highly recommend you spend a evening with them.

Shooting a live band is very challenging: very low light (most of the images here are at ISO1600), tough locations and angles, bright spots and coloured light. I used automatic white balance during the shoot and then used ’spot colour’ to designate a true white in one image. I then stamped the white balance adjustment across the other images.

While at the BMW Car Club of Ottawa’s Advanced Driving School last week, I was inspired to create some art based around the images I was capturing. The event was held at Calabogie Motorsport Park (CMP) and is an annual affair that I’ve been involved in since the track opened in 2003. I’ve logged a lot of miles on this track as both an instructor and a driver. However this past school was the first time I was a spectator with the explicit goal of automotive photography.

With all the exotics, high horsepower sports cars, nimble little 2 seaters and family cars, I started to relate to the vehicles in simple, single word concepts: power, speed, fun, control, traction, roar, and many others. Associating those cars with the experience of owning and driving them, the concept for the series leapt into my eye almost fully formed.

These are the first two images in the ‘Power Word Series’. They are my initial foray into the art beyond the plain image and I’m pretty excited with the results. I hope you find them intriguing enough to comment and make suggestions for future ideas.

A quite place we can relax in is vital in today’s fast paced world.

An un-engaging photo

If a glass of cool drink were on the table, it could suggest that someone has just stepped away. Our viewer would be intrigued and wonder who was there or where did they go?  If you are like me and recognize this after you have visited a place, go back and do it again. The light may be different, you can add touches of life and you can get a completely different image. For the sake of this blog, I’ve added the bottle in post-production. When I have returned to the scene, I’ll take another image with glasses and a jug and perhaps other “props”.

A composite "test" image

Next time, when you are composing an image, look for objects that need to be removed (the lamp I removed in the lower left), also think about what could be added to strengthen a scene.