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.

Sept 7th, Reflections

Took a break from working at school today to go for a little walk and get today's images. I have spent the last week or so reflecting on who I am, Where I come from and where I want to go. I thought it best to go out and turn my reflecting to reflection's. Sorry, don't feel like writing today.
Big day tomorrow got to fire up the sleep machine.

Sept 6th, Lazy Labour Day.

No, its not. Its a gray day with low barometric pleasure. That means, the Blue's. Its not that bad it is however Labour day. No more white pants for the rest of the year, there's 4 big Birthdays in the next week and half, Schools mounting, and the leaves are already changing.

I took the day to chill out with Yasmin and her beautiful family for brunch, a quick shoot of Yasmin and her amazing Guinness World Record certificate, and more time to work work work, it is Labor Day. Yasmin had to split for the day and do here own Studio Labour day, so I finished all my other work. I have 2 phone calls to make but I can't do that now.

No rest for the Wicked.

Sept 5th, Bob's

Had to hit Bob's this morning for some fruit and I thought I'd take some shots for a Mile End Showcase. The Mike End Fruiterie, better known as "Bob's", is by far the best produce store on the entire Island. The owner Bob is a very cool dude from Pakistan who lets his beautiful grand daughter run around the store. Bob's got a good thing going. His food is always fresh and ready to go because, the way I see it is, that Bob gets all his stock from local farmers, big distributes, and other local shopping centers and supper stores. His avocados can be eating on the way home, because they have already been ripening form other sellers who have to much stock of their own. Can't go to wast, so Bob picks it up for cheaper and sells it for less. Mile End can support huge amounts of food because turns out that Mile End is the most densely populated neighbourhood in all of Canada. No shit, and the average age is 33. Explains why everyone around here is fairly cool and no one ever has anything in their fridge. They eat it on the way home.


Yes, I shot an exterior / establishing shot, but it sucked so bad I didn't even want to look at it.
This is a rip off of an image I did for Yasmin and her 108 x 108 Blog. We did a day at Jean Talon Market in the summer. I must see place In MTL, but Bob's my Bud.

Sept 4th, Saturdays alright for fighting..

Took the night to play with some old ideas that have been keeping me up at night. I have a puzzle to build and and I need to figure out all the pieces that will go into it. I played in the dark for 5 hours with 4 Tool albums, all the hardware I have, Good Times. No Drinking, just Measuring
My ideas come to me all put together as a finished thought. I enjoy breaking it apart to make it whole again.

Sept 3rd. F---in Fridays

What up ya'll. You ever have one of those days where you get out of bed on the wrong side and then trip over some crap and find out there's no more cereal? Yeah, that was today. I got a email from Dawson 2 days ago about reprints for a job I was hired for before Christmas. It was a cool little gig. Gist of it was that there was a few graduating classes that wanted a nice group photo of themselves all dressed up in their Sunday Best, on a white seamless and to look a little commercial. No Prob, the job went around and made its way to me, because I was quickest to figure out the one little hick up in the request. The seamless at school are only 9 feet wide and due to angles and some other can't break rules of portrait photography, only 5 people Max can fit in the frame at one time.
So how does one get around this little problem?

Easy, Pre-Poduction. I used a super easy lighting patter that I know will never let me down for big wide open whites. Plus I needed to keep everything the same with out moving any lights or my camera. I only wanted to move the people not the set
See lighting diagram.
Now the real trick to this is that if I have to shoot 15-20 people and I can only get 5 on set at a time I would need 3-4 shots to complete the group, right?
Boom PhotoShop, but the bitch about photoshop is it will only work with what you give it. So in a nut shell I got the group together and had them pose as a group. Then rearranged and tweaked out like we all had done to us back in Grade School. Then I asked them all to look to their right and left and remember who was there and more importantly the positions they were in when standing next to them. Then I cut them into smaller groups of 4-5 and told the people on the edges that they had the most important job to remember How they were standing next to the other person to their right or left. I Broke down what I was going to do in Photoshop and they all looked at me like I was bonkers. Then the last trick that I kept to myself was that if all these Kats were going to be in a curve, they need to be curved so I made little adjustments and "Cheated" the angles, and everything seemed to be okay.

Next step pop those things into PS, make them all the same Ress and size and start slapping them together. Like everything else in the world of Adobe there are 100 ways to do any 1 thing. I chose the easy way. Layer them one onto of each other working from right to left and start erasing what i didn't need. If everything works out well in Pre-Production Post-Production should be a snap. And it was, they groups literally slid in next to each other and no one is the wiser. Happy Cast, Happy Client, Happy Photographer.

Like most things in life Photography is full of decisions to make. Each one will effect the next, so you gotta think about where your going and how you want to get there. That reminds me, it smells like rain is coming better close the windows before bed. Good Night.

Sept 2 How's and Why's

Alright, first things first. Ill let the world know why I write the way I do. Regarding the "Unique" style I have had in my last entries, I feel I should maybe explain a thing or two.
My writing is different because I have no idea what I'm doing. I have had no training in writing on any level. Yes I can spell, poorly at best, but that's what spell check is for right. Its the grammar that I have a hard time with, I write like I talk, and I talk differently then most do. I have always been able to communicate with anyone about anything and I feel that's a good thing. Plus I have also been told that I speak in what my friends call Banner-ism's. I refer to people as Kat's, things as stuff, strangers as Turkeys and Montreal has taught me to use curse words as punctuations, (you should hear how the French speak). I sometimes think that maybe I should have been a Black pimp living in Chicago in the mid 60s.
I am also aware that I use a lot of syntax's to describe things. Its like using something or a situation that is completely removed from the topic of conversation at hand to draw a parallel to the conversation. Example- "man, I have had a crazy week. Ive been all over the place, like Indiana Jones ripping through the underground roller coaster in Temple of Doom." different things but the parallel is that the week has been full of ups and down.
Another huge factor to my writing is that I easily get off topic and get on some other unrelated tangent. See last paragraph for example. So you'll have to keep on going and Ill get back full circle at some point. All of this is because I have no idea what I'm doing, yet I enjoy it. I recommend that if you are joining me here that you read along as if your were being spoken to. Read it fast and try not to take any of it to seriously, like we were having a very casual conversation. I think that's the best way to describe my style, I still don't know what I'm talking about.

Alright, Photographic work space.
I am the type of person that needs organized chaos. My office may look like a mess but I know where every book, cable, pen, and scrap of paper are. That's kind of how I roll. My work space is like that but I can't stand it when the rest of my environment is like that. Yasmin has this knack for dropping things as she goes, she's also the type that likes to try and do 16 things at once. We are working on that, but she gets way more done in a day than I do, so who's right and who's wrong. I make a list and start plowing through it one at a time cleaning as I go. I also get lost in the clouds a lot, that's where all my sketch/note books come in handy.
Being an artist first, I have a stack of old books that are full of ideas. There is always one in my back pocket, car, or bag. I need them because my imagination is a visual one. I see finished ideas and have to deconstruct them if I want to see them come to life. The small books I have on me at all times are for those idea and the first step of taking them apart. Once I feel I have a good idea on how to build an Image I will rewrite them with lighting ideas into my medium sized book that stays safely at home. That's where all the details of what will be needed and my first Lighting diagrams go. If all goes well during a shoot I will take a few quick pictures of my lighting set ups and do a detailed diagram in my Big Book of Knowledge and keep it with the final finished image and a log of how my Post Production went.
Ill do some entries in the future regarding the details of how to put together an idea you have and bring it to life and all the little steps that may be needed to get'er done

As for future content that I will be showing in the Blog, I would like to show you parts of my life that I enjoy, things that I do on a daily bases and new and exciting things that come up. I'll do some tech talk about gear and whats new and exciting for all the geeks and would be buyers out there and of course, how to light things, How I light things. Ill break down shoots that I do and the photoshop that is required in today's computer driven world. I may do some dirty street photos using just my Iphone and upload from it. That seems like something that is way out of my normal style so I feel I should give it try. I usually jump right into things without thinking about it. Like skiing in Vermont last winter, result, concussion and Smashed goggles, or Surfing in Maine 2 weeks ago over big ass rocks that I noticed at the last moment, no worries I didn't hit anything, for a change. I don't see any head trauma in Iphone photography. (ahh another tangent, see, try to enjoy them)

That's enough writing for one day, my fingers hurt and I miss my pen so I'm going to split now. I've been writing in a bitchin little cafe around the block from my apartment and my coffee is cold. I can't stand cold coffee, its as gross as warm lettuce. Hey there's a good idea, I'll be sure to showcase some of the amazing people and places that my city and neighbourhood have to offer. I am glad that I live in this part of Montreal called Mile End. Its full of weird-o's and artist just like me.

Sept 1st, A Home Comeing

Maine Sunset, Aug 2010

JazzFest, 2010

Negril Jamaica, March 2010

Noah & Sarah's Wedding, July 2010

Hello BlogOshpere. Well I'm back at it again. I was hoping to come back with a bang but truth be told I'm up to my eye balls with things right now. Schools back in, I'm very excited about that. I love School. I am in my 4th and last semester at Dawson College in Montreal and this term is a massive work load for us. All good, Ive got some great ideas that I would like to see come to life and some challenges that will push my imagination and organizational skills to the limits. On top of that I have been picking up some assisting gigs that are great experience teaching me all the other things that school just cannot.

I wanted to write up a big long novel of an entry but its late and I have to do more interviews in the morning with my girlfriend, Yasmin. We are looking for a new roommate to help with the financial load of living in a fantastic apartment in the best part of town. Plus I have some homework that needs my attention before I hit the sack, and I'm already cross-eyed.

I'll be sure to set aside some time tomorrow to give you the down low on how I intend to set up this blog of mine, what I'll be showing, how I'll be writing (turns out I have a 'unique' way of writing), and general thoughts on everything that's going on in this crazy life of mine.

I want this to be a photo driving blog so I will not only be showing you my own work and process, but some tricks you can use to hopefully help you in your own image taking. I would like to share people and works that have and are inspiring me, Music that helps me along the way and I may bitch about some of the things that happen in our world but I'll be sure to celebrate the wonders of it too.

So here are a few shots (Up top, stupid Blogger) over the last few months. In no particular order just some stuff that I dig and hopefully you will enjoy to. Be sure to click on them to Jump to a better look.

Catch ya later, Ill be right back after a quick ride in the sleep machine.

I'll Be Back

Ill be back on the 1st of Sept,
Why not its a good time to start over again.
But this time, no holding back

Just checking to make sure this thing is still on,
Testing testing, one two testing