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  1. Jinhee + Gene’s Engagement Shoot In NYC: The Preview

    May 29, 2012 by Gail

    Jinhee + Gene's eshoot in NYC

    What could be more New York than this?

    I arrived home from New York after 3 o’clock in the morning, still wired from the 500 mile / 800 kilometre drive through three states and a province. But it was worth all the mileage: I hung out with friends on Saturday, shot all day Sunday, hung out some more on Monday, and had one of the best weekends this year (even though we were all melting every day from the humidity).

    I filled an 8GB memory card with engagement shots alone, which makes it tough to choose a preview out of more than 600 photos. Here are two before I finally get some shuteye.

    Jinhee + Gene's eshoot in NYC

    above Madison Avenue

    (You know what’s coming next…) More to come, stay tuned!

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    Posted in Image Legacy, USA | Tags: , | No Comments

  2. More Scenes From Ottawa

    April 16, 2012 by Gail

    from Victoria Island

    from Victoria Island

    Somewhere in the hubbub of April was the Easter trip to Ottawa, which I haven’t had time to edit and upload yet, save for about a dozen photos. Since I can’t create time, I’m just going to post a few more that I’m quite drawn to and post the rest later. (Oh, if I had a nickel for every time I said I’d write/post more later… I could probably buy a lot of Bazooka Joe bubble gum, which was the last item I can recall one could buy for five cents. I don’t think they’re sold anymore, are they?)

    sun flare at Gatineau Park

    sun flare at Gatineau Park

    solitude at the arboretum

    solitude at the arboretum

    jetskiing on the Ottawa River

    jetskiing on the Ottawa River

    One more I’m quite fond of is this cyclist tearing down the hill in Gatineau Park. View much larger.

    Gatineau Park

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    Posted in Canada, The Great Outdoors | Tags: | 1 Comment

  3. Carlisle Bay, Barbados

    March 28, 2012 by Gail

    Carlisle Bay, Barbados

    sunset over Bridgetown

    I wish I had more time, but this post will be brief. I just finished a client website installation, which means I’m pretty brain-dead now, and I have two hospital trips to make early in the morning. I wanted to post this sunset before hitting the sack, though. It’s gorgeous and it reminds me of that 2010 birthday trip to Barbados, the land of the perfect clouds at sunset. I’m convinced it’s quite impossible to take a bad sunset picture in Barbados, even with a lowly point-and-shoot from 2005.

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    Posted in Caribbean | Tags: , | No Comments

  4. New York On My Mind

    February 19, 2012 by Gail

    Fire Island, NY

    Fire Island, NY

    Something I’ve had to get used to (rather reluctantly, I might add) in the past few years since wedding photography became a part of my life has been long(er)-range planning. I’m spontaneous by nature, I don’t like to plan that far ahead, but it’s been a necessity as weddings are booked quite far in advance and my calendar is set six months to a year ahead.

    I took the photo above during my first trip to Fire Island, New York, in September 2009 with my friend Eric and his family and I was delighted to be invited back the following year. I was booked to shoot a wedding last September at the same time that they were vacationing on Fire Island in 2011, and although I was also on a beach (albeit a freshwater one) it was definitely not the same. Mind you, I was working which had everything to do with it, but there’s no comparison to being oceanside.

    All that to say, I couldn’t help but think of New York as I was uploading more pics of that first trip to Fire Island. Or maybe I was uploading more pics of Fire Island because I was thinking of New York, since I will be shooting a wedding there (in Queens) this summer.

    I’m probably going to melt shooting a summer wedding in New York, but it’s going to fun nonetheless!

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    Posted in Blah Blah Blah, USA, Working Life | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

  5. Castel Sant’Angelo

    February 16, 2012 by Gail

    it was all a dream

    Another scene from Rome finally migrating, more than two years later, from my external drive to the internet where it belongs. (Rome was part of my birthday trip in 2009, where I spent my actual birthday in Bratislava, Vienna, Rome, and The Vatican.)

    Photography is a fantastic time machine that takes an feeling/moment/experience in the past and brings it forward to now. I still remember the time I spent at Castel Sant’Angelo.

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    Posted in Art, Europe, Photography | Tags: , , | No Comments

  6. Chefs Run Wild

    February 8, 2012 by Gail

    My website has been pretty food-centric lately, hasn’t it? It goes hand-in-hand with travel and culture, so it should come as no surprise that I’d like to plug a food and travel adventure series that just wrapped up its first season last night. It’s on Travel & Escape in Canada, and it’s in the process of being distributed to other countries, which means the shows on the web can only stream to a Canadian audience for now.

    What’s it about? Three young chefs from Winnipeg make a journey through Southeast Asia and bring along a videocamera and microphone, learning how to cook regional dishes from the locals while teaching themselves the ins-and-outs of shooting and editing footage. (It’s not a reality show, it only became a show once the chefs completed their journey and pitched their ideas and edited footage to producers.) They toured from Indonesia to China, and the final show in the videoclip above wraps up their Chinese experience and thoughts about the whole trip.

    This show is not for the squeamish: they’re eating everything the locals are eating, including duck necks, beating cobra hearts, and watching fish getting filleted while still alive. But it’s authentic and the guys learn to communicate in a variety of ways to get past the language barriers and cultural differences.

    In the final minute of the video (9:00) when they’re interviewed at Pho Hung here in Toronto, they mentioned a couple of things I consider very important while travelling: keep an open mind and maintain the attitude that they are there to learn. Those two qualities beat any advice you’ll find in a guidebook, and I’m sure will serve them well in Season 2.

    Check them out online, on Facebook, and Twitter:

    http://www.withoutborderschefs.com/
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chefs-Run-Wild/181185462032
    http://twitter.com/chefsrunwild/

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    Posted in Culture + Society, Food + Drink, Linkage, Travel, Videoclips | 1 Comment

  7. Time Marches On

    January 24, 2012 by Gail

    Glasgow 1999 with Joe

    Glasgow, August 1999 with Joe (film scan)

    After digging out my scanner to lend to someone and testing it to make sure it still worked, I decided to scan a few photos while it was plugged in to my computer. I do not recommend doing something like this when you’ve got lots of worked piled up, because it’s an inevitable time-sink. The ultimate distraction. You get sucked into looking at old photos and the next you know, hours have passed. Yikes! But I can think of much worse ways to spend time.

    Anyway, the photo above was taken in Glasgow in the summer of 1999. (That trip was legendary — oh, the stories! In fact, it came up again when I was in England in November. Remind me to tell you in person one day, I can’t write about it on the internet.) My godson Joe was a year old in this picture, and this is him now, more than a dozen years later…

    GEF_6172

    England, November 2011

    One thing I noticed while looking at my old point-and-shoot photos is how terrible they are in so many ways: bad composition, poor lighting, out-of-focus, no focal point, colours washed out, the list goes on. Most of them are not even worth scanning, I just like to look at them. But that’s the reason why I let my clients pick the photos they want to print — because people choose photos for emotional value not for technical value, while a photographer can’t help but see the technical merits or mistakes (unless it’s their own photos, in which case the emotional values kick in).

    It’s also interesting to see how time marches on for technology, since digital cameras weren’t around when my godson was a baby — everyone was shooting with film cameras. Now everyone is shooting with digital cameras and film is getting rare to the point of near extinction.

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    Posted in Ancient History, film photography, Gail at Large, portraiture, Travel | Tags: , | No Comments

  8. Chinon CE-4: New York And Toronto On Film

    January 19, 2012 by Gail

    Humber Bay Arch Bridge, Etobicoke (Toronto)

    Humber Bay Arch Bridge, Etobicoke (Toronto)

    I picked up the roll of developed film from the Chinon CE-4 at Toronto Image Works on the way home this evening, wondering how many shots turned out. I read somewhere recently about a guy who shot digital the same way he shot film: he turned off the LCD so he couldn’t chimp preview his shots, and he shot exactly 24 frames at a time. I applaud this approach as it makes for a much more disciplined photographer and not one who “sprays-and-prays”, where good shots happen statistically from the law of averages.

    That said, this roll did produce some interesting images. Unlike the last roll I did apply some editing in software, but unfortunately in a couple of cases it was because the person who developed the negatives left streaks that are visible in the scans. I’m basically covering up the streaks because it’s too much trouble to clone them out. I’m tempted to take it back to complain, but since this is a hobby roll and not for work, it would sure take some of the fun out of the process of shooting film if I tacked on the trouble of following this up with the folks at Toronto Image Works. However constructive it would be, I’d much rather give the developer the benefit of the doubt that this doesn’t happen on a regular basis.

    Let’s get on with the images. First, some from December 26 in New York City.

    I much prefer the way film handles full-on sun compared to digital.

    Battery Park, New York City

    Battery Park, New York City

    New York Harbor

    New York Harbor

    Battery Park

    Battery Park

    Backlighting also has a different effect on film.

    Battery Park, New York City

    Battery Park, New York City

    Irish Famine Memorial, New York City

    Irish Famine Memorial, New York City

    The whole set is best viewed as a full-screen slideshow (film shots at the end).

    The Toronto film images were shot on January 8, just a few to finish off the roll. My favourites are of the Humber Bay Arch Bridge, especially the one at the top of this post.

    Humber Bay Arch Bridge, Etobicoke (Toronto)

    Humber Bay Arch Bridge, Etobicoke (Toronto)

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    Posted in film photography, USA | Tags: | No Comments

  9. Boxing Day In New York City

    January 4, 2012 by Gail

    World Financial Center

    World Financial Center

    One of my goals for 2012 is to sleep more than I did in 2011 (due to work, not insomnia), which means this will probably cut into my personal photography — although I hope not. I’m already spending less time on my own photos, a lot less than I’d like, but sleep is at a premium these days and my photos aren’t going anywhere… I’ll just have to be more patient about uploading them.

    These photos were all taken at and around the World Financial Center in New York City on December 26. More photos from the Irish Famine Memorial to come.

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    Posted in USA | Tags: | No Comments

  10. The New Year’s Eve Feast

    January 2, 2012 by Gail

    Big Bird

    Big Bird

    At some point in my adult life, New Year’s Eve drinking has been usurped by New Year’s Eve eating. It must be a sign of getting older, and the fact that I barely drink these days. In fact, after one glass of wine I had to take a nap at 9pm and woke up an hour and half later! The days of partying are best left in past decades. But eating? Never gets old.

    The Montrealers were gracious hosts, and I always look forward to a variety of good cheese in Quebec. The turkey didn’t find its way to the oven until around 6pm, so we ate TWICE… the bird made its debut right about midnight!

    I didn’t take many photos on this excursion, partly because “hanging out” and “photo-taking” have become mutually exclusive activities since I started photographing for a living. I prefer to give people my undivided attention, and if I want to take photos I’d rather be alone and free to roam.

    I did, however, have a few food-oriented errands while in Montreal, namely:

    … bagels — how could I leave Montreal without them? It’s been exactly six months since the last time I was here, and it took me no time to finish my supply!

    Montreal, city of 24-hour bagel shops

    Montreal, city of 24-hour bagel shops

    … poutine, and this time I had the smoked meat poutine to cover the other food Montreal is known for:

    poutine piled high at La Banquise, Montreal

    poutine piled high at La Banquise, Montreal

    I bought two dozen bagels to freeze and ate a couple of them hot out of the oven with smoked salmon cream cheese. How much do I wish that Toronto had 24-hour Montreal-style bagel shops! Somebody get on that! I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants it.

    I also wanted to check out a movie, but since certain films require a certain mood it took a little while to come up with one. Finally, The Artist was chosen, partly because we could see it at Excentris, an independent cinema with a beautiful interior space. We watched Melancholia at the house, and I stayed up to watch Black Swan on my phone in bed — not recommended if you get nightmares easily! I was on a movie-watching roll, also taking in Babel on my phone enroute back to Toronto.

    A weekend of food and films and friends, now it’s back to reality… (work and detoxing through exercise!)

    The Montreal set can be viewed here as a slideshow or thumbnails.

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    Posted in Food + Drink, Reel + Screen, Travel | Tags: | 2 Comments

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