bug noir: December 2010

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Farm Christmas

Another Christmas out of the way, and with it, my annual trek to Peterborough. I took my new lenses with me and had a go with them. I particularly enjoyed using the 11-16mm ultra-wide-angle lens while shooting around the barn with my dad. I learned that there really isn't a low battery warning on my SB-900 flash; it went from usable to dead seemingly without warning.

P.S. I processed these images along with a whole bunch of other family photos over the course of two nights, and I think during the process I applied my usual sharpening filter to the horizontals twice. I'm not going to fix them because I don't think it's worth it. Also thinking of building a blog from scratch because I'm starting to not like the small horizontal images and the detail they present. But that's a story for another day...

Inside the main barn, facing west.

Snow through the cracks in the wall, main barn, facing east.

Main barn walk-in 'basement'.

A shed looking cold in the snow.

Lots and lots of snow...

This all natural effect was created by shooting outside in the cold for an hour or so, then coming inside the warm house, where condensation formed on my 11-16mm lens. I kept checking it as it dried and about half of the lens had dried off when I took the photo. The center of the lens cleared first, hence the natural blur.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

St. Lawrence and Union

Today was a 'I'll take my camera to work today because I have errands to run and I might have some time to shoot' that turned into 'I don't have time to run errands because I have to shoot' day. I had fun, but I missed having a tripod on hand for some shots.

I went to the St. Lawrence to take photos, but the priority was lunch! Half and half ravioli with meat sauce and cheese, $8-ish.

When I realized my 35mm (52-ish mm on my DX camera), wasn't wide enough to do the kinds of shots I had in my head, I focused on smaller subjects instead. And in the case of this stack of bacon, by 'small' I mean 'really freaking huge and super awesome looking'.

I basically drool constantly while in the market.

Good inspiration for color photos!

Some random people, doing random market things...

Picnic symmetry.

This is one of the many narrow, rabbit warren hallways where I work.

An old and foreboding-looking church I didn't shoot due to the foreboding locals.

I've been wanting to take photographs inside union station for years, and while the 35mm wasn't wide enough for most of what I wanted to do, I had some success focusing on the details.

The roof is a fantastic display of artistic brickwork.

/Salute.

The sign from the Royal York peaked through one of the windows (and if you look really carefully at this incredibly small photo, you can one of the panes is partially open).

The skyway (?) on the way to the CN Tower.

I was getting a little distracted at this point. Just some lines and tones... nothing to see here, move along.

It was really hard to get this shot, not because it is a hard shot to get, but because I'd turned my lens to manual focus a few steps back and forgot. Golly gee, I couldn't shoot a focused image to save my life! I actually left in disgust, got about 300 feet, remembered I switched it, and went back for this shot.

Some clear direction on the way back to... Well, you get it.

On the platform where I caught the train to Richmond Hill almost every night for 2.5 years. Can't say I miss the experience very much.

Back in the day we didn't have these fancy locomotives, either. A rushed shot due to GO staff avoidance techniques in action.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Lunar Eclipse

There's nothing like on-the-job training, especially at 1:30 a.m. while standing in a snowdrift trying to feel one's toes. There was a lunar eclipse tonight and it was very cool to watch. I took about 300 photos of the event, and had a bit of a disappointment near the end.

My tripod, up to this point completely versatile and trustworthy in every situation, let me down by not being able to 'aim up' enough. This left me with no stability for the longer-exposure shots I needed to catch the eclipse's colorful climax.

But no matter! The budding photographer in me took geek pleasure in watching the histogram change as the event wore on, and I am pleased with a set of grainy photos that might one day make an interesting montage. If only I was able to pick up my TC on the weekend, they might even have been printable. Anyway, without further ado, the moon, to nothing:

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Cheapest Model I Know

I've been trying to learn more about lighting but practicing is difficult. I hired this model and I didn't pay a lot and it was awkward. No talking, took directions poorly (odd, given the size of its ears), and had a wicked facial hair problem.

Sigh.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Working Late

Today I decided to take my camera to work with me, armed only with my 35mm 1.8. Last night I tried shopping in the Eaton's Center and it was insane, so I escaped outside for fresh air and saw how fantastically colorful Dundas Square is, complete with its holiday trimmings. I vowed to go back tonight and shoot it.

Now, it seems to me I have a short memory and should know better. I *know* I won't take good night shots without a tripod, but I didn't bring mine. I decided to do some guerrilla high ISO handheld shots. It was cold, and that helped keep me moving.

The night started with me killing time waiting for a phone call that didn't come. I vowed to wait until 6 p.m., which is late for a Friday before a working weekend, imHo.

I basically walked in circles around the office looking for stuff to shoot. This is a great exercise (not physical, I'm not in that bad of shape yet), as it gets the creative juices flowing, and gets you looking.

I was happy to take this photo because every time I walk to and from the washroom, I look out this window and say to myself, man, I really have to shoot that alley one day. Done and done!

This is a row of fake flowers on a window sill. They do not belong to us, and are likely the long lost remains of someone's trinkets and trash marketing spend. I got lucky that the light reflection kind of highlights the subject. The reflections are a little wonky, though.

I'm a bit of a fanatic about white board cleanliness, so this photo makes me chuckle.

Six p.m. hit and I wasn't sticking around any longer. I grabbed my coat and scarf and left.

Across the road.

Towers of banking power.

I took this one because of the photography in-joke. Those are not sunstars from a carefully stopped down long exposure shot, but light patterns created by lampshades cut to cast the star pattern. Cheating! That, and 'I went to the big city and all I saw was a fake snowman' t-shirts.

This was fun. A tree of light reaching for the moon. The moon blew out and I was really wishing for a wider lens so I could do more with it. Regardless, the illusion created by the leading lines to the dot is neat.

A well lit building on the way to Yonge St. via the shortcut to the King subway entrance.

Other pedestrians don't respond well to someone stopping in the middle of the road to take photos. In this photo it's possible to get a sense of how much visual confusion is created by the Christmas decorations combined with other lights.

A beautifully lit building.

More pseudo-jaywalking.

More visual confusion.

It's at its worst here in the (relatively) recently renovated Dundas Square. I liked the guy in the ad and how he interacts with the woman walking into my shot. He looks upset!

I had to leave some color shots in just to give an idea of how wild the colors are. I'm sure they're something to see all year, but add in Christmas and it's ka-razy!

These color photos are shot at ISO 200, and the camera's auto white balance hit daylight/flash temp (5500) all by itself. I managed to catch this race between three fake polar bears and a street car. The bears won. That's a little TTC joke for my streetcar riding friends.

I'm fairly confident I'll never know how to control light in a shot like this.