Light Stencils....

My lack of inspiration astounds me. Usually I find something to photograph and post but quite clearly I haven’t given the last post I made in my photo blog was back in November.  Argh!!! I’ve been looking into light stencils over the past while and it looks like it’ll be fun!  I haven’t had time (or the inspiration for that matter( to get around to it, however I did find this rather cool video on vimeo (I heart vimeo – if I haven’t mentioned before – or perhaps you’ve seen the abundance of videos I’ve reposted) the other day and thought it was a great use of light stencils!  

For those who are not familiar with light stencils, it’s basically cutting out a stencil in the shape/picture you want and having a flash project light through it during long exposures. Looks like a lot of fun to try!

Anyhow back to the topic at hand, here’s the cool video I found:



Nowhere Near Here from Pahnl on Vimeo.

How to Test your Lens....

I’ve been asked in the past what I do to test out a lens when buying used or even when buying a new lens.  Typically when buying used from a character off the internet you can only do so much given the meeting time probably won’t be that long to perform extensive tests outside of making sure it’s physically okay and taking a few snaps. However, once you have the lens in your hands at home (new or used) there are several tests you can perform to really figure out the nuances of your lens, some straight forward and some more advanced that the typical shooter wouldn’t really think of performing. 

I’ve read several online articles and just chatted with other photographers as to what they do to test out lenses, however I’ve found a decent guide online that sums up a lot of key testing methods on lensrentals.com.  I highly recommend checking it out at least for a few of the more basic physical tests you can do to a lens (some very obvious).  There are a couple of advanced techniques used to identify how your lens focuses at various lengths which can help greatly if you care to utilize the micro-adjustment function in more advanced camera bodies.  Anyhow, here’s the link to the guide  : “How to test a lens”.

Ltr.

-v



AWHL 25th Anniversary....

           This past weekend was the 25^th anniversary party of the Assaulted Women’s Helpline and I was lucky enough to be invited (and take photos of course).   It took place in Toronto’s St. Lawrence Hall, a building I had no idea existed until I searched for it on google.  Everyone is very familiar with the St. Lawrence Market and the area just south of the Hall, I’ve even passed by the hall on the way to visit friends who live down the street, however the historic structure always seemed to elude me.   

            After doing some research I was really excited to take a peak at this historic place in Toronto.  The façade is being revitalized so scaffolding was hiding that aspect, however the interior was full of charm down to the gas-fired wall sconces and chandeliers.

            The afternoon was filled with delicious food and speeches from one of the founders of the AWHL, Rev. Gordon Winch and keynote speaker Jaqueline Benn-John, Executive Director, Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Services of Halton and President, Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres.

Here are a few pics from the event:

Upcoming events and boredom....

I haven’t been up to much in terms of photography.  I guess it’s that in between season where we switch between fall and winter. It’s been warm here in Toronto and I’ve been waiting for the first real snowfall.  I enjoy winter photography the most, but at the same time I rarely get a chance to get that perfect photo.  This winter I plan on making more of an effort to just get out there. In the mean time I’ve been going through some old photos and doing some random processing on them. 

The next few are some HDR panorama’s I’ve worked on. They’re a very contrasty compared to my usual work, however trying to get an image that I was happy with is something I wanted to really work on.  I used a few exposures of the same image to create these HDR images and tweaked it with some masking and layers in Photoshop.  Not perfect by any means but I’m still working on my skills.

In the near future I’ll be doing another AWHL event.  Their 25^th anniversary party is coming up and I’ve been asked to take a few snaps.  I was lucky enough to take photos at their last event (“celebrate the women in your life”) with hostess Melissa Grelo.  It’ll be a lot of fun I’m sure! And it’s in a great venue! More details and photos to come!!!

TiltShift Extreme....

I've always been a fan of tilt shift lenses however i've never quire seen something like this:

Coachelletta from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.