Dec 11, Joker

Its been Far to long between posts so I had better share something.

The Super Hero Portfolio keeps raging on my friends. I had to put it on the back burner for a few weeks with finishing up another semester of school. Like everything else in life, it tends to build up pressure towards the end.

I did manage to squeeze in one last Super Shoot, with the help of my good friend Paul Broomfield who was an amazing Joker.

We first met at the end of summer and he was sporting a monster beard but I knew right away that he was ma man for the Joker. Later when I approached him with my ideas he jumper on right away with excitement and energy to help push this project.

These images are not going to be in the final portfolio, You'll just have to wait until its completely finished to have your face blown off with awesomeness, but I did want to show what we came up with.

I'm very pleased with the costume I put together and Paul tweaked with his perfect Corn Blue tie and shoes he found on the street on the way to the shoot. I know sounds gross, but its all in the details, and my Joker would wear shoes found under a tree.

I did the Make Up after many YouTube tutorials and tests on myself. I used an FX solution to make the scars, which are 3D and look sic. The design of the Make up was a combination of different joker from the past.

Next on the list, Wolverine, Penguin, Doc Oc, WonderWomen, Flash, Storm and of course SuperMan.

I gotta get back to work now.

Nov 18th, Shoot the Moon

Tricks and tips. I haven't done many of these so I thought, as I was shooting this that maybe it would make a good little piece to post.

Okay, so we have all seen those amazing images of the moon, big bright and details, but how are they shot. If you go out side on a clear night and point your camera up into the sky the chances of getting anything better than a shaky white streak are slim. But, if you take a few things into account you can increase your odds of getting a better image.

1. Time of day. I shot this out my back door at 4:30 PM not the middle of the night.

2. Shutter Speed. If your want those details to be sharp the exposure needs to be fast. Think about it. Your standing on a big ball that is spinning and moving, and you are trying to shoot another moving ball that is spinning too. Right?. Because of this you don't need a tripod if everything else is taking into account.

3. Aperture. Its getting dark so you need as much light to enter your camera as possible and your available light is really really far.

4. Overall exposure. You already know what you need so, now its Ratio Times.

5. ISO the faster/higher you go the more digital noise happens in your file. No one wants that.

So I took all these requirements and set them into my camera. I started with an exposure of 1/60th for my shutter speed (That's as slow as it gets hand held), and my F-Stop at 8.0. just to start. It was a good first step. I got the moon and the sky still had blue in it, but there was no details in my highlights (Face of the Moon). Okay more math. I moved my F-Stop down to 5.6 (that's a full stop open) so I changed my Shutter speed faster to 1/250th to make the same exposure and take the same image. That doesn't mean I changed anything, the RATIO is the same so you'll get the same image. You Following?

To make changes, I was now only left with my Shutter Speed to change, because F-5.6 is as wide as my G11 will open, zoomed in as far as it will go. That's okay Shutter speed is the one thing I want to change. I want it as fast as I can with out loosing highlights. So I pushed it up faster and faster. The exposure's were getting darker and, the shadow detail was getting better. I ended up with an exposure of 1/450th @ F-5.6 at 200ISO.

So I didn't break any Photography rules for a change. I followed basic laws of light and exposure, I just pushed my ratio to make the small amount of light that was in the atmosphere (Blue sky) to go black and let me look at the Man in the Moon properly. There is no Photoshop here either, this is the RAW image.

This is the same rule that make dark blue sky's with the sun still in the frame or the silhouette's of the fire fighter's I posted earlier in the month.

If your out shooting, get OFF of manual and start changing up your exposures, you never know what you might end up with.

Nov 15 Super Views

I am always on the look out for anything that can help my portfolio. I need some shots that look across the core of Montreal so I can work some magic on some more Hero's I have lined up.
Here's tonight's scouting report. Top of the Montreal General Hospital Parking garage.


Yes it is a Panoramic, 10 Frames, shot at 4 sec @ F7.1 ISO 200, with an 80mm

Nov 9th, Learning from tests

Yesterday I tried out some ideas and today I made them better. I learned great deal of information from the last test. Clearly there is room for improvements, there always is. But taking steps along the way and learning more about your final goal is the rewarding part.
I stood in traffic for better lights, and squatted dangerously low for a better angle. I slid it behind yesterdays test file and turned things around a little, I like that to.
Touched an idea in Photoshop just to see what would happen.

Steps along the way. I'm enjoying the walk very much.
Back to work there's more TESTs to be done.

Nov 8th, Testing, Testing

Found some time to start designing my lighting for the next Portfolio Hero. Those crazy comic book ideas are flowing out of me. I have been meeting people that want to help and get in. Its devouring me like Spiderman's Black suit, I love it. Still working on getting ALL the things I need..
I am in need of a Joker. If anyone knows a crazy person. The scene is shot, Costume is more than 1/2 way ready and un-freaking-believable. Thanks to a basement sale at a costume house in Old Port, I spent 2 hours in a creepy basement picking through old cloths yuck. Next Make Up Test. those will be fun. Staying Positive things are working, even a deal on capes.
Got a meeting with Storm from the X-Men later this week to see what we can do for each other.
I love this Portfolio. It will be part of my schools final portfolio but I can already see that I wont be stopping when school ends, this is a corner I am turning.

2 guesses who's coming by the studio soon.
This would be the something like a first digital sketch. Its easier to work alone at this point I know what I'm looking for so I stand in. Makes for funny images.
I've pulled out many research images from goggle for the character and the background. Drawn, worked out a few angles, lighting diagrams blah blah. So tonight I headed into school and hurried to grab an hour alone in the studio. Popped some stands, Threw down some lights and played. Saw some stuff working and redrew how the lights ended up, measurements angles, light direction, type, exposures for each, camera distance blah blah blah.
I like the lens choose, I think the lights are getting there. The background will match better with both lanes of traffic full and moving in both directions, with me in the middle of the street. Last Tue Thomas and I shot the new ad for Safety Canada. Nothing safe about this shot.
Must reshoot BackGround just before it gets dark.
Pieces of the puzzles.

Next test, testing 1 2 3, testing.

Nov 6, FootBall

Every weekend in Parc Jeanne Mance several city wide football leagues of all ages get together to do battle on the Grid Iron. The youngest kids are smaller than there equipment and look like cute little bumper cars running into each other, but the older boys can play. Maybe its just me getting
old but kids these days are BIG. I stopped in to watch a quarter of a game and was impressed at the level of skill these young warriors were showcasing. The parents that filled the stands were not as impressive. Loud, foul mouthed parents yelling at the kids in an assortment of languages. For 20 minutes they were casting verbal tomato's at the blind reffs.
It was still fun.

Nov 2nd, FIRE

More roof top craziness, at the end of another day of assisting I popped my head out the window and to see what was shaking out over the city and to the north, FIRE.

So, we rapper and I split to go check out the action.

I thought it was an old abandoned warehouse that is a shooters paradise, fortunately it was not. Unfortunately it was the apartments of a few now displaced people. Bummer.

Nov 1st Mon Montreal

Boom, 14 frame Pano (you know how I do it.)
This lasted for less than 5 min but I was lucky enough to be finishing up a shoot on a roof top Studio. I have been doing a ton of Photo assisting with a Photographer named Thomas Konigsthal at his studio. I was keeping an eye on the sky all day because it was acting strange and when this was starting called out "Yo Tom we should be checking this out.'' So like a couple of die hard's we grabbed up our cameras and some lenses and took off outside, without our jackets. Less then ten min later we were inside arguing who was going to send there images to where. He picked Montreal Gazette, I countered with Environment Canada.
This one is going in the Panoramic Portfolio, for sure.
Do I get two pots of Gold for this one, or four.;)

Oct 22, Catching Up.

On 10 10 10 there was an amazing event in downtown Montreal. It was a fundraising event for the Steven Lewis Foundation to help combat the AIDS pandemic in Africa at the grass roots level. When Yasmin was doing her 32 hour Yoga marathon she was breaking the world record but more importantly raising funds for the SLF. Her goal was not reached by her yoga aloneso with the help of some wonderful people this event was organized. I shot the event and to help contribute my own skills I set up a Photo Booth for all the guests. It was great, everyone likes getting there picture taking by a pro, under pro lights with a fancy background. To continue to help raise more money I have offered to sell the images to those who posed for a small donation if they wanted. So far I have had a good response. Thanks everyone.

Oct 22, Ive been to busy to post

Hey Internet, how have you been? Me oh, I've been crazy busy thank you. To busy to post stuff like I said I would, but hey better busy then not, right. On top of that my Internet at home has been down for some time now and I think I'm going to smash my computer unless I can fix this problem. Dig this, turns out that MacBook Pro's like mine working with one type of modem/router that Bell provides, will at some point stop communicating. WTF? F#^$ing Bell.

The geeks at the Mac Store (Love those guys), knew exactly what the problem was. Now try to fix, if you have an extra 8 hours a day to wait on hold, no Problem, bastards. Okay I'm done.

So here's some stuff I've been working on, just some stuff.

Food on location.

Shot for Location class at the Forum Sports bar. They provide the food for the shoot and we intern give them copies of the final image and they are free to use it in there menu or how ever else they would like to. Its a good deal.

More Group Comp shots for Dawson. These are great gigs to have. This one took 14 min to shot 4 groups of people and 2 hours of Photoshop to stitch them together. I had another shoot last night and got the shooting time down to 9 min. Not to shabby

Oct 1, Super Foxes

From Super Heros to Super Foxes

This is a cool assignment I have been working on, Short story is, Take a kick ass image that has already been done, figure out how to light it the same way, and do it.

Catch, it was to be out on location and not in the studio.

Thank your for being so beautiful my love.

Big thanks to Massimo for the Hair and Make Up.

Sept 30, Your Friendly Neighborhood

Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can
Spins a web, any size,
Catches thieves just like fliesLook Out!
Here comes the Spiderman.
Is he strong?
Listen bud,
He's got radioactive blood.
Can he swing from a thread
Take a look overhead
Hey, thereThere goes the Spiderman.
In the chill of night
At the scene of a crime
Like a streak of light
He arrives just in time.
Spiderman, Spiderman,
Friendly neighborhood SpidermanWealth and fame
He's ingnored
Action is his reward.
To him, life is a great big bang up
Whenever there's a hang up
You'll find the Spider man.

Does this look familiar?

Who's having fun?

Sept ?? Busy Boy

I gotta post something. I'm in class again so I'm not writing much, but the lack of blogging has been heavy on my mind. I've been super busy these days which is a good thing but like I said something has to give.

Here's what I have been up to. If you've been following you may have seen some tests that I have been doing, well step 2 happened and I'm thrilled about where it's headed.

There has been a boat load more of things that I have been up to too, some gigs, some assisting on gigs, 3 other classes, Portraits on and on.

All is well thank you.

Many thanks to Pablo, Chris, Ryan, Peter for the help and everyone else who is letting me ramble on endlessly about The Project. Its just super

This is NOT how the images will be used in the end, I just wanted to get some Radical stuff up, because I haven't forgotten about you.

Now Dig this,

Wait until SpiderMan swings by, or climbs up. He made it to the shoot too and he brought both suite's

Sept 22nd, Me, My Self, I, and Us

There is always someone to play with.
I had and needed some time to work on some subtleties in my Portrait lighting and play with some colour casts, but no retouching.
Plus I felt I owed the Blogger's something different.
Mad Scientist hair for the Mad Scientist.

Sept 20th, Hey Karl and Maria

Hey Karl and Maria. Thank you very much for stopping by and signing up. Its nice to know that people other than the family are tuning in. This ones for you, You like booze right?
This is the over zealous image I was working on for class. Turns out this is all wrong. Assignment calls for just a glass, ice, and a garnish. Check Sept 9th for the snoozer
This is me going overboard!

Sept 20th, Congratulations Yasmin

Congratulations my Lovely Love, and a tip of the hat to all the people who helped you get there.
In case you didn't hear, Yasmin Fudakowska-Gow, (my girlfriend) set a new world record back at the top of Aug by completing a mind blowing 32 hour Yoga Practice at her studio Om West in Point Claire. Her certificate from Guinness World Records needed some showing off. To get there she need and got a lot of help from a lot of beautiful people. Last night we had a PotLuck thank you feast. Good times. I went a little crazy on the cupcakes, Miranda went a lot crazy on the icing.

This photo is one of those composite jobie's I like. Can you tell who wasn't in the original image and had to be dropped in later? Good Luck.

Sept 19th, Jackie & Adams Wedding

I like weddings, always have always will. My favourite are the ones that I'm not in or shooting, the ones where I get to relax and enjoy the day, in a tie. Ahh the neck tie, the modern day noose. I am all grown up now and trying to make my way down the road to professional entrepreneurial business , yet I just can't tie a tie. I can however google questions and find video tutorials on YouTube. Yeap that's right, thanks for nothing Iphone. In the end I had to have a friend of mine named Evan, tie my knot, I kept it in my pocket until I could find help from a grown up.
The wedding was a short and lovely service in a magnificent location. Less than an hour west on Montreal is a lovely little piece of heaven named Oka. Perhaps you've heard of the cheese. Just off the top of a hill over looking the river is the Abbaye Cistercienne d'Oka a magnificent place that reminded me of a European church, Alma College, and the Great Hall from Harry Potter.
There was of course the usual games and traditions of any wedding. I won the opportunity to try and win the tables center piece buy "Winning" some games and having to "Do the Twist" for 5 min, right after a lovely dinner. As much as I thought I was going to chuck wedding cake all over the dance floor, I managed to keep it together even though I was finally on a losing team. I did think that the girls were going to beat each other into spewing on the dance floor when the bouquet toss finally rolled around. My God ladies. At every wedding there is always a mad scramble and someone ends up on their but when it comes to the flower toss. Why is that?
And then of course the Party...
Many Thanks to the Bride and Groom. May your love be like a tree in the wind. strong and rooted, yet adaptable to the changing conditions.

Sept 16th, its to much

Okay I'm a strong believer that I can do anything. Its how I find my self in concussion threatening situations sometimes, but this daily Blog thing is heavy. I am shooting everyday and I am finding images, but I also have a shit load of other photo related things going. The sort of things that I don't think to many people wanna read about. Most of it is research stuff, and breaking down images that are already out there to try and understand how my craft works. If you would like to see more lighting diagrams or locations that I am scouting then okay, but I feel that most of the "Homework" that I'm doing isn't really worth posting. I am of course keeping crazy busy working on ideas.
One that is keeping me up at night is an upcoming assignment for studio. The gist is we have to shoot a setting or environment that is lit naturally and then shoot a subject in studio to match the setting. The third step is to merge them in Photoshop and make the two images look as if they are one. Guess who thinking over the top crazy BIG.

This test took 2 min to shoot the building (School) and 15 min to shoot me (In Studio) with one tungsten light and a self timer. I took the first 15 min of photoshop class to cut this thing out. So that's just over 30 min work. Not bad, next time Ill measure.
I think I have finally decided on my final Portfolio, but I want it to be amazing. Pieces are falling into place. Next time you see something like this it will be bigger than life. Cross my Heart.

Sept 15, Happy Bday G$

More Sept Birthdays than the gang can afford. But we love each other so we make it happen.
Thanks Dave and Sofie for the great eats and putting up with all the boys around 1 table.

Happy Birthday brother

Sept 14th, Domestic Day

Its raining again in Montreal. I like the rain, its the conditions needed to make rain that I can't stand. The low pressure, cold, gray clouds, and wind are all a real bummer to me. Total drag.

So I had some things to get done and due to my shitty Internet I was on the phones internet all day squinting at my little screen. But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. This man needs to get more work and work harder at spreading the word.

Also on my plate of things to do was to take care of some of the little domestic things that should get done on the weekend. This weekend was far busier than most so I had to catch up, with laundry, dishes, and all that good stuff.

I knew I would be inside all day and Yasmin and I are out of baked goods for the week. We have been saving money by making our own treats and having more than enough for lunch's and snacks for the week. So today I whipped up a Peach and Banana bread. It sucks. Dry and bready, not light and fruity. Oh well I'll try again.

Get ready for a ton of Food Photography. I'm a foodie and I am thinking that I will do one of my portfolios in food photography. Plus I can practice every day, I try to eat everyday.

Sept 13th, Remembering

4 years ago on Sept 13th a lone gun man walked into the front doors of Dawson College and started to open fire on a crowd of students. One victim died at the scene, while 19 other were injured, eight were listed in critical condition with six requiring surgery. The gun man Kimveer Gill was shot in the arm by police and shortly killed himself to end the stand off.

How scary is that?

A lone candle light vigil was set up to honour the fallen and those who were hurt during the monstrous acts of that day. Students were left alone with their thoughts and memories for their friends.

Sept 12th, Im late

Okay, I have been a busy boy over the last few days. On top of that my Internet at home works great, but my airport on my laptop has gone to shit. I'm working on it. Yasmin and I had a little Bday dinner party on Sunday night with some of our friends. We had a wonderful time eating lots of great food, drinking wine and catching up with friends. We ended up with about 3 cases of eggs, because Yasmin has a hook up with an organic chicken farmer. So we made little quiche for the party. They were a hit, but we ended up with some left over so that's lunch for the next few days. yummy.

Sept11th ComicCon

Super Dork.
Fans
Artists
Jedis Everywhere
Toys.
Ill try to put up a little write up about the convention when I get some time on Monday.

Sept 10th, Thanks Mom and Dad

Big thanks to my Mom and Dad for the Bank account Bday gifts. You told me that I should spend it on what I needed and to have fun. First thing I got a new Hockey Stick, yeah started with fun. Ill pick up some printing paper, pay rent and other school supplies, but I really needed a new road hockey stick. You see I try to go for a skate everyday, if I can get at least 30 mins to go for a tare, I'm on it. At the start of the summer I got some amazing Rollerblades that work and feel like ice skates. Not those curb sliding silly skates, and I have been ripping up the pavement to train for the 10/11 season.
My 'rink' is the back alley. The city repaved it in the spring and its still in great shape. There is very little traffic and a ton if obstacles that I like to pretend are giant D-men trying to crush me. In the Back alley I can be the Rocket, or Serge Savard, Jean Beliveau, or Mike Cammalleri. (Go Habs Go I'm 31). Its my time where I get to blow of some steam, forget about other stress, work up a good hard sweat and get some exercise. I go up and down the alley shooting off everything and chasing my little orange ball around grinning like a fat kid on cake.
Thanks for the new hard ware Mom and Dad.

Sept 9th, The Barn

What up Thursday!!!
Finally Studio class is back in action. Out from behind those gum covered desks and into the Studio to get to work of some assignments. I love the studio, Banana's for it. I dig the total control over your Space, Light, Quality, Subject I've been told is a God complex. There's not to many places where I am the Boss and I naturally flow with the equipment and the over all vibe. Last night on the other had was a disaster. Not a total write off, but a pain in the ass sort of night. I pulled a few boneheaded moves.
One, I went in all full of piss and vinegar ready to take on everything with the idea that everything will just fall into place and take care of it's self. Wrong.
Secondly, I didn't pay close enough attention to what the assignment was calling for. Fail, pay attention.
In a nut shell, Ass 1 this term is a snore. On the surface anyways. Its title is the Cocktail, and we need a Drink, Ice, and some Garnish that's it. I of course took the title an ran with it. I had started to work on this funky back ground design and pulled out my favorite bottle of scotch a nice low ball with a serving of two fingers in it, double rim lights with a spot on the label, the whole sha-bang. Yeah not necessary at all. It was like a pin popping my thought bubble. Shit back to the drawing board. The idea is not to go crazy and fill the image with a bunch of distractions. Its to break it down to as little as possible and focus in on the details. Ohhh got'ca.
So what did I learn?
1, Slow down hotshot. I get worked up and excited and start to spin around in circles and waste time and energy. Gotta be like a kick ass drummer. Make as much noise as possible with the least amount of movement and energy spent.
2, Listen up, listen to everything and not run off half cocked with some over the top idea's.
Ill be sure to remember both of those cause my little book of ideas is quickly filling up with some BIG ideas. Less is more less is more.
Here's a quickie, nothing fancy. I wont be using for my assignment, its just a tester. I have some new thoughts in mind. Tomorrows a new day.

Sept 8th. Bonne Fete

Happy Birthday, Me.

This is how I spent my Birthday Night, in Photoshop class. What a drag.

So I just completed my 30^th year here and have started my 31^st year. Its crazy to think back to when I was a young pup running around thinking I was invincible and recall my mindset I had way back when. Oddly enough not a great deal has changed, accept that my 31 doesn’t seem sooo old, now, and my hairline. Very much the opposite really, I look at younger people and think there’s no way I was like that. Yeap I sure was.

You ever ask yourself “if I could go back in time, what would I have to say to my younger me?” I have, First off I would tell me to pull up my God Damn pants, cause you look stupid kid. Okay I do still wear them a little low, but at least my ass is put away (sometimes). I would also have to tell mini me, to follow your heart, But really do it. As cheesy as it sounds and we have all said it to someone else a million times, there is so much truth in it. I could be 10 years ahead of the game if I just stuck to guns and had unwavering faith in my unique abilities and myself. Not a cocky pride sort of mask to get me by. The kind that has had me put my head down and push through shitty jobs that are a waste of time. But that’s the road I have traveled and I am glad that I done what I have done. Of course there have been a few regrets, happily I am glad to say a very small number of them. I would tell a younger me to always always keep communications with your loved ones. No matter how much silly shit pops up during the long life span of any relationship. Now I’m talking about all the different types of relationships, Family, Friends, Lovers, and Professional, all of it. Cause when its good it’s oh so good, but when it’s gone it’s gone. And Brother some things are hard to get back, even just a little of what you had is a shit tone harder to rebuild. There’s some people out there that I really truly miss, and others that I am afraid to think about how much I will miss them once they are gone. Don’t be some glum is another thing I would tell myself. I am really good at kicking the crap out of myself over the little things. My “If its your Birthday” Horoscope tells me that I should stop and think about why I can handle the big crazy things in life, no problem, but the little shit keeps me up at night. I will take a look at that and try not to stress about them.

I don’t know could’ a would’ a should’ a right. I am in a wonderful place right now and have nothing to complain about. I have seen some amazing things in this brief life of mine and shared them with beautiful people. Currently I am sharing the most gorgeous apartment I have ever lived in with the most superb women I have ever known. Best part she’s as bonkers about me as I am for her, that’s a great deal. I have my health and I’m getting stronger. School has grown my brain 4 times the size and filled me with confidence, the good kind. My family is well, what more could a man ask for. Maybe a Canon 5d Mark II, but I’m working on that.

Many thanks to everyone who sent birthday wish’s, and thanks to Facebook for the reminder. I wasn’t going to.

Thanks again for the Bday sweets Terri. I think this would make a great breakfast.