Church at Night

Back out at night I went. This time, I wasn't going for light effects, or cool colors; I went out because it was warmer and less windy than it was during the day. I did some grocery shopping earlier and drove past the nearby church and after seeing how it was lit, I decided to shoot it.

Before we start with the church: The Christmas spirit is alive and well in Richmond Hill, even if it isn't yet December.

Obviously I wasn't going to have much success shooting the whole church. Not only is it steps from an intersection with many interfering lights, I would have to stand a far distance away to get it in the frame and that's not practical with a 35 (effective 50) mm lens.

Instead I tried to focus on detail. I ran into a couple of problems. The boring nature of the church (at least on the outside... will have to go in one day) means the detail is... boring.

So I tried to fall back on lighting to make more of it. There were a couple of street lamps and a globe over a door that, had the church bothered to replace the burnt-out bulb, would be spectacular.

In some spots the available light cut dramatic swaths across the frame.

In other areas it created larger blooms of light.

I tried to say 'here is a 190 year old church on what is otherwise, a boring residential street'.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Floating Coin

I had some time to kill and found myself lovingly caressing and fondling my camera equipment as I tend to do. I have been plotting and planning a lot lately about how to light my dining room to give me the most flexibility when I shoot, as I am becoming less a fan of flash studio photography the more I do it. I don't mean using the creative lighting system strobes remotely; I mean having a flash on the camera when I shoot. I feel it's very limiting and some times difficult to deal with, especially when I'm shooting a reflective surface.

I decided to mess around with some quickly set up props and one of the photos that resulted is the coin seen here. I was using the on camera flash (I didn't feel like hauling out the SB-900), and I shot the coin on a white piece of paper. Normally I hate using the on-camera flash for macro because the 105mm lens is just long enough to get in the way of the light, depending on how close I am to the subject and the angle at which I'm shooting it. The SB-900 doesn't have this problem as it is about six feet high off the top of the camera when mounted (a slight exaggeration).

The on-camera flash gave me an interesting effect this time so it all worked out. the light bounced off the white paper and back up at the coin (a 2010 Canadian Navy Anniversary commemorative Loonie), which cast a dark shadow on the coin's surface. A little tweaking in Photoshop blew the paper out almost completely, leaving the coin with an eerie floating optical illusion.

It floats, it floats!

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Moon Punch

Another night session, this one from the comfort (cold comfort!) of my balcony. I saw this shot last night and didn't get around to taking it until tonight. Thankfully conditions were similar and I was able to pull it off. The high ISO required meant I had to use a but more photoshop than I'd like; furthermore, I didn't do a great job of the photoshop effects. The moon was a bit blurry making it hard to selectively sharpen without bringing out the outrageous grain in the rest of the photo. I wound up sharpening the moon and blurring the clouds.

The color comes from light pollution from the tungsten lights that are everywhere.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Richmond Hill at Night

Last night (thanks to a work at home day today and no commute) I took a walk around Yonge St. to shoot some night shots. Everything was high ISO and handheld, mostly at f/1.8 to f/2.8 with my 35mm. It was too cold to lug my aluminum tripod around. I went black and white because I was more interested in texture and light than color. Light is a complex subject, and I need the practice before buckling down and focusing on my studio work.

One of the advantages of shooting in the wee hours is that there is no traffic on Yonge St.

Shooting at night lets one use the existing lighting and shoot whatever it emphasizes.

Probably the coolest sign in downtown Richmond Hill, with the exception of the Three Coins Diner.

The city always does well when it comes to dressing up for holidays; the Christmas look is starting to appear.

Sitting and watching the cars and people go by.

Brick plus light plus a touch of grain is so cool.

What used to be my favorite Persian restaurant, now a Persian restaurant that I haven't yet tried.

An inanimate object breaks the law.

An automobile, no doubt of some lingering significance.

Natural framing.

The parking lot lights beside the grave yard were doing really interesting things to the grave stones. Then they turned off as I was shooting.

Just before the lights went out.

And just after. Used the pop-up flash for this one, to try to blow out the white on the tree.

41 Acacia Avenue. Not really, but I think about the similarly named Iron Maiden song every time I see this door.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

I'll Survive Winter

After finishing my last post, I couldn't sleep, so I decided to take a crack at my mini-studio, even though I don't have a lot of the bits and pieces (like lighting) I think I'll need to create decent photographs.

Forty or so shots later I figured out how to get through the night. ;)

Yee-haw.

I think it's important for me to record how I create my studio shots so I can understand what I did and learn from it.

This shot was taken using my 35mm at 1.8. The Tequila bottle was resting on a full-length mirror laying face up on my dining room table. I shot down the length of the table at bottle height. I collected the leaves a couple weeks ago, and flattened some in a book because I figured I'd need a combo of flat and stand-up texture. The back drop is the matte (?) side of a piece of white bristol board taped to a box with a book in it to help it stand upright.

Lighting is a desk lamp with a reddish-pink shade resting on the rolling I beam of my rowing machine standing vertically (hey, at least it's getting used), at about 6 feet high from the ground, 2-3 feet above the bottle. It was directly behind the camera to eliminate shadows. I placed one SB-200 five inches or so behind the bottle with a orange filter, and aimed it down at the mirror so it was bouncing up at the bottle. I tried to angle and position it so the light would shine through the tequila.

I took 44 captures with a lot of experimentation with leaf positioning and aperture/depth of field. I settled for f/1.8 because it knocked some of the leaves and shadows in the back out of focus, but I did so knowing the lens (and subject) would not be as sharp as if I'd shot at f/4.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

My Name is Mud

I've done very little photography lately and it bothers me. It's what I think about when I'm on the bus or subway commuting to and from downtown instead of anything productive. The good light at sunset occurs at about 4 p.m., when I'm trapped in the cave of an office where I work with two more hours of grind before I can escape. With the light being what it is, I arrive home from work at about 8 p.m. and it's already been dark for almost four hours. All I want to do then is eat, catch up on some web sites, and go to sleep.

It's a far cry from the summer when I would get home from work at 5:20, go for a swim, eat, and then head out somewhere to shoot a sunset.

I got so sick of this blog not being updated that I had to look back in my collection of photos and post something suited to how I feel.

Sigh.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Stolen Sunshine Day

Today I checked out the shooting locations in my neighborhood to see how they were being influenced by the advancing season. The sun was shining brightly in the morning but as soon as I stepped outside the day became overcast, with the sun breaking through only once the entire time I was out. The Millpond is used for skating in winter, but now it's caught in a limbo between Fall and freezing temperatures. The local cemetery has green grass and many fallen leaves, rendering it in orange, brown and marble red, black and grey.

The day was so overcast I was able to shoot a swan without over exposing it; usually the sun reflects too brightly from their white feathers.

Creepy bokeh.

A mutant, but very pretty, duck.

The fungus seems to still be doing well this time of year.

Creepy old tree. It had a raccoon sleeping in it. Or it was dead. Let's say sleeping.

I stopped briefly to check out the nearby cemetery. I didn't shoot much but I thought the natural wear on this headstone created a neat effect on the last name.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

First Canadian Place

I've started a new contract and getting time to shoot is difficult. I took my camera downtown today to try and shoot First Canadian Place (home of the Hockey Hall of Fame). I took a few snap shots and that was that.

It was also raining. A view from my bus stop in the morning.

My coworkers are in the crowd. It's a very cool architectural design; I will have to think about the place and go back when I have more time.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.