October 23, 2009 by Gail
I had a tough time deciding what to do this evening. The choices were:
#3 won, but #5 still had to be done. Got a lot of photography-related work to do — not shooting, but everything else.
Posted in cameraphone | No Comments
October 23, 2009 by Gail
My mother-in-law’s cat Penny died at the end of last year, and Xena and Beano have inherited some of Penny’s things. I brought back the cat bed after visiting two weekends ago and this is the first time I’ve seen them both in it.
Posted in Critters + Creatures, Mobile Blogging, Xena & Beano | 2 Comments
October 22, 2009 by Gail
07:25 – leave home, pick up Natalia
07:45 – stuck in rush hour traffic, Natalia at Rosedale Station waiting for me
08:05 – can’t find Natalia, my phone calls not getting through!
08:20 – Natalia finds me
08:40 – arrive at Brickworks for photo shoot
09:00-11:15 – photo shoot
11:30 – park car, drop off Natalia
11:45 – arrive at The Firm, change for work
12:50 – leave work for Ontario Provincial Court
1:00-2:00 – in traffic court to fight speeding ticket from March (outcome: paid small fine, but no points!)
2:30 – grabbed sandwich at courthouse (first meal of the day!), back at The Firm
5:30 – brain dead, return to car to drive home
Not a typical day, but a FULL one. Tonight? All I want to do is attend the Cine-Cuba Film Festival. It’s on today and tomorrow night, and it’s exactly the break I need.
(P.S. HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY MADDY! Your birthday/Halloween costume is enroute!)
Posted in Working Life | 1 Comment
October 21, 2009 by Gail
Poor Luna! She had to go to the vet today. What did we do to try and cheer her up? Put on a cape and a lens cap. Hmmm… didn’t quite work, did it?
I went over to Maria’s briefly tonight to do some test shots in preparation for tomorrow morning’s shoot at Brickworks. Er, test shots with Maria, not the cat. Although that would be pretty funny, considering it’s a corporate shoot with real estate agents. In the course of my research (’cause I’m a nerd, remember?) I visited a lot of real estate websites. Call me biased, but the industry could sure use more flattering photography!
I’m sure Luna would agree, but she’s too busy calling PETA to report us for dressing her up in a Halloween outfit.
Posted in Critters + Creatures | 2 Comments
October 20, 2009 by Gail
Two incredibly cute munchkin cousins from my family photoshoot last Sunday at Wilket Creek Park. I have so many adorable shots of the toddlers with their parents, but I’ll wait a bit longer first before posting while everyone gets a chance to make their selections from the contact sheet.
Posted in portraiture | 3 Comments
October 19, 2009 by Gail
Some photos taken along Queen Street East as I was location scouting on Saturday. I love that photography gets me to places I wouldn’t otherwise reach. Sitting in front of a computer, editing, can be argued as the downside of the digital age for photography; in the old days there were film lab people to do corrective work but that’s all gone now. Digital photographers must now BE the lab. Phooey, I’d rather go out and shoot… I like to be, you know, at large!
Posted in Photography, Working Life | 2 Comments
October 18, 2009 by Gail
It’s Sunday night and I’m trying not to fall asleep at my chair, waiting for these RAW files to convert in Lightroom to make an online contact sheet. I had a jarring start to the day, having made the mistake of setting the alarm for PM instead of AM and waking up literally 15 minutes before this morning’s photo shoot in North York. Talk about a SCRAMBLE!
The morning photo shoot included four adults, two toddlers and some harsh lighting conditions, but everyone made it to the end with only a few tears. (Not including mine, ha!) Straight after the shoot I went to The Brides’ Project to volunteer in the shop for the afternoon, where I came across these beautiful flowers.
There’s a whole story behind this bouquet that was delivered to The Brides’ Project, but I’ll link to the story later when it’s written up on the TBP site. For this photo I didn’t have very much light to work with, so I put it on top of the microwave and beside the fridge under a kitchen light. The side lighting is coming from a window. I posted the flower photo originally because I wanted to talk about lighting, but I think a commentary about lighting in general would make this post far too long for my sagging brain. Lighting is a beast — it completely dominates photography and requires a lot of practice to master. Anyway, in the meantime enjoy the flowers!
Posted in Photography, Working Life | No Comments
October 18, 2009 by Gail
Oh how I love this… Best viewed larger.
Lighting’s a little harsh on this second one, but I loved the moment and I didn’t want it to get away. (I shoot fully manual so I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the quickest gun in the west when it comes to finding The Perfect Exposure.) I’m of the opinion that capturing the moment in a flawed way technically is altogether preferable to losing the shot.
Both shot with the Nikon 85mm f/1.4, which I rented for a wedding last month. The rest of the set is here. For more examples of shots taken with this lens, see Ryan Brenizer’s collection on Flickr.
If money were no object (and I had a personal assistant to hold all this gear for me), I’d shoot with several prime lenses carried with me always, on three separate camera bodies. I love the sharpness and responsiveness of primes, but most of the time there is simply too much going on to swap lenses on the fly. Also, you know what happens when you swap lenses quickly? They drop. Also, dust everywhere — on sensor, lenses, everything. It’s a constant battle to be dust-free.
Anyway, time to pack up the gear, unpack my brain and go to bed — I have a photo shoot with two families in nine hours.
Posted in Photography | 1 Comment
October 17, 2009 by Gail
Waking up this morning required the assistance of an alarm. Not because I imbibed at the company party last night (I didn’t, unless you count two glasses of wine over five hours imbibing), but because I went home and worked late editing! I was probably the only person in the whole company who would even consider returning to a computer after Friday night’s festivities.
I made a trip out to Brickworks today with Jan and Natalia to do some location scouting for two non-wedding shoots this next week. I haven’t been to the property since the ravine walk a year and a half ago, and I’ve been meaning to get back there since. Shooting there tomorrow might be problematic due to the Toronto Marathon routing through Bayview Avenue, so I was looking for either access alternatives or location alternatives.
While we were there, we took in the Farmer’s Market and a First Nations social which included dancing, drumming, and yummy free food. Who can turn down free food? The bread was delish.
I shot a short clip of one of the dances called the hoop dance, which was really interesting: the dancer lay down a bunch of hoops and one by one picked them up and danced with them until she was wearing them all! Check out the video for 30 seconds of it:
Posted in Out + About, Videoclips | 4 Comments
October 16, 2009 by Gail
Posted in Mobile Blogging | 1 Comment
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