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Bum

Probably my last shot of the girls of Rockalily Ottawa.

While my primary focus in photography is people and portraits – which usually denotes their face and eyes – I can’t help but notice other assets. For these girls their curves were certainly worth exploring, their comfort with each other and their involvement in the burlesque troupe gave them confidence that allowed the photographers around them to better do their job: focus on the subject.

Often I spent too much time focusing on getting the face in the frame and the eyes in focus, when I should really be paying attention to gesture and pose. It can be more telling, and in a way is far more human than a “BAM” face-shot.

Mar 25, 2010 | Categories: Portraits | Tags: Models, Ottawa, Rockalily, Strobist | 1 Comment »

Choices

I had recently been spending some time offering advice to fellow photographers. Both solicited and otherwise.

This quickly earned me two things, positive and negative feedback, with no room in the middle.

I tried my best to keep my comments helpful in the overall development of a frame, assuming that others would want to benefit what a discerning eye may have to offer. What I forgot to realize, was that many, many people do not want this – and it was vain of me to think so.

The epiphany came to me when I read this very good post at Lighting Essentials. The piece here that really struck home for me was this “It is rude, amateurish and quite honestly rather stupid. If you have not been asked, then you probably don’t know what the photographer was trying to do…” so true, and I feel kind of shitty for anyone I may (and know) I pissed off.

While my intentions were good, I definitely jumped into something a lot bigger than myself. Though, I will say this, users of sites like Flickr seem all too content to let meaningless “rewards” and comments like “awesome” pile up, but the minute someone says ANYTHING that offers a critical view of the image – that feedback is deleted. I’m of the all or none mind – I either let all comments come in, good and bad, or I turn off comments. But there’s a hierarchy at play there – and I spent some time upsetting it this week…

Mar 23, 2010 | Categories: Portraits | Tags: Legs, Rockalily | 2 Comments »

Green Pee

Full credit goes to Gord for inspiring this photo.

For whatever reason he’s fascinated with telephone poles and equipment.

We’re so intent on scouring the ground and what’s in front of us that we often forget to look up. This happens a lot in big cities – places like New York where the buildings have such history and character; millions of people scurry around just trying to dodge traffic, but rarely paying attention to the detail and craftsmanship above their heads.

Sometimes these things are a little less dramatic, but no less important. I’m not saying this is a good photo, what I’m saying is that the act of LOOKING is good. Take a moment and look somewhere you didn’t before, maybe put your camera there.

And yes, you certainly CAN take that out of context, be my guest!

You can also check out this photo bigger on my Flickr page.

Mar 22, 2010 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Electrical_Pole, Parking_sign, Pole, Post, sky | 3 Comments »

Benched

It’s been a while since I’ve had any good pics of the kids – spending some time this weekend to make sure I do. If you haven’t put in a concerted effort into photographing the folks around who you love, I hope you do the same.

Mar 20, 2010 | Categories: Portraits | Tags: portrait, Quinn, sunset | 4 Comments »

Sterling Lynch – Revisited

Almost exactly a year ago I entered into a mutual contract with my friend Sterling; I take pictures of him in order to learn my trade, and he have the patience to let me fuck up a few times. This year, we revisited this on the same premise with a single caveat – he now owes me some beer.