Food Shooting...

This past Thursday I was asked to take some photo’s of an upcoming menu for the new ‘Lardon Restaurant’.  I’ve never really done anything in terms of food product shots before, other than the normal being at dinner and taking photos in poorly lit dining rooms.   Given this opportunity to create my own ‘set’ of sorts, I was able to do a bit of research in terms of food photography and spent a lot of time just looking at photos of food.  In the end, I decided to go with the setup of 2 flashes with shoot through umbrella’s, one at 2 o’clock and one at 8 o’clock.  I was originally doing some test shots with a reflector but I found that the 2^nd flash helped neutralize some of the harsher aspects of a reflector.   The flash was at a ratio of 1:4 (2oclock:8oclock) to get the light that I wanted and went from there.  I also decided to bring my laptop and hook that up to the camera so the client could see the shots and make any suggestions or adjustments to his food.  Given I don’t have a food stylist I could use all the chef input I could get.  This is definitely something I’d like to try again, after all as with most photography practice makes perfect, if there is any such thing as perfect.  In the end the client was happy with his shots, as was I.  Lardon Restaurant opens officially March 26^th, 2010.  From the samples I had during the shoot, everything tastes delicious! You can also check out some shots of Roncesvalles that I took hanging in the restaurant too!



Winter shooting....

The winter in Toronto has not proven to be very winter-like.  I was hoping to get more images of snowflakes and snow covered streets and locales this year, however Mother Nature seemed to have a different plan.  This past week provided a bit of snow to Toronto and surrounding parts and I tried to take advantage of fact it lasted all of 24 hours.   I was able to head up to Main St. Unionville to take some images of Too Good Pond.  It’s often a place where hockey is played by locals and just a nice area to walk around in the summer.  I was able to get a few nice shots here and there, as well as stalk a flock of various ducks that seemed to be congregating on a hill not too far away.   I was dressed in full waterproof attire as I figured I’d be getting some good snow picks, but it proved even more useful when I took a little step/fall into a river near the pond.  I quickly up righted myself but the waterproof gear proved highly useful, as I had no water damage to my equipment or myself as a result.  Note to self… look for thin ice signs.

2010 Canadian Autoshow....

A huge delay in posting has occurred due to the recent Olympics in Vancouver. As much as I would’ve loved to be there I just couldn’t work it into my schedule.  However, that did not stop me from keeping my eyes glued to the TV.  Now that they are over, I suppose it’s back to the normal grind and to post some images and blogs regarding past adventures.

A few weeks ago I was able to take in the annual Canadian Authoshow held in toronto.  It’s always been a challenge at venues to take photos, as there generally are so many sources of light to take into account.  More so when you are viewing exquisitely polished show cars which provide a wonderful canvas of reflection.  I was able to get rid of several reflective lights by using a polarizer but of course that’s not perfect as it just removes a certain set of lights above.   I’ll be continuing to try to test out different methods but I’m not quite sure if there is anything out there that is perfect. 

Although I’m not a big advocate of HDR to be used to make things look a bit more “cartoony” in my eyes for landscapes and other more natural coloured images, the autoshow seems to have provided a perfect venue to test out some of these HDR techniques.  I’m particularly proud of a few cars, one being a new infinity that had a “tattoo”/paintjob that I instantly thought would be enhanced by HDR.  And of course there is this Mustang (or cobra? i don't know my cars...sorry)  that explodes off the screen.  I’ve posted them below, as well as linked them to my flickr where other images from the show may be seen.



FLG asks for Photos....

It’s always exciting to have your photos published.  I’ve had a few before used in various manners but just recently I’ve had a representative from the Flaming Lotus Girls (FLG) contact me for access to images from my set from the exhibit they had going on for Toronto’s Winter city.  A few images have already been posted in this blog as well as my day-to-day photo blog.  I’m curious how they’ll use them, if only in there gallery or other media forms.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to see my efforts as they are a word-wide group.   I have a few other commercial type endeavors going forward so hopefully I’ll be able to get those moving a bit quicker in the next month.

On a side note, Canon has a new announced a new T2i for the consumer market, it seems to pack more features in, hopefully I’ll be able to play around with one soon just to see how it feels.  Having a small second body is always very useful.   For now my point and shoot will suffice. 

2010 WinterCity Kickoff

Toronto’s Annual winter celebration couldn’t have come at a better time.  With the first big chill of the season I decided to brave the coldest temperatures of the season to take a few quick snaps of this years Winter City kickoff on Friday.  Low light and evening conditions generally can be a challenge for most photographers and dare I say even avoided!  I don’t have a terribly fast set of lenses so I make due with my F4 hardware and often look forward to night shooting.  Although very challenging at times, I find the colours just jump out nicely in low to dark lights.  The Winter city kick off proved to be an interesting challenge as it was both low light and bright light with bursts of fire from the city’s “Angel of the Apocalypse” installation.  The results will be seen slowly over the next few days in my daily photo blog but here are a few images I’ve already posted on Flickr.  The installation can be seen throughout the week and synced to music next  weekend.  There is also an acrobatic display that I was unable to stay to watch.

For more information about Winter City click on the following Link: About Toronto's Winter City