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I realized that I never actually posted this. Back in January I had the honor of learning from a master developer, on how to develop and print Black and White Film. The experience was fun actually, and I’ll admit I was a little nervous when I started the processing, if the shots I had taken would even work, or if I screwed something up. I was using my old Yashica, which does have shutter problems in the cold weather.

But after pulling the negs out I was pleasantly surprised that it had actually worked! Aside from some issues along the edges, probably due to loading/unloading the film in the bright sun (it was a clear sunny day at the Pit Mine). The next day was printing, that was a little bit more tricky, but again got some good results for my first attempt.

All shots were taken using a Yashica-12 (Copal-SV 80mm 1:3.5) on Kodak TMax 400 film, developed in Kodak D-76 Developer. Scanned using an Epson V500 scanner @ 1200 DPI, edited in Adobe Photoshop CS3 for curves, and sharpening.

With the Olympics being hosted in Vancouver for 2010, the Olympic Torch and flame has been making it’s way across Canada, this past Saturday it passed through my home base, so I got up early to grab some shots of it as it passed through.

Went out for a fall photoshoot with Emily. You can view the results below.

These were all taken using one camera and one lens, one off camera flash (SB-600) using radio triggers along with an umbrella or a grid snoot.

At the beginning of October I got to work with a wonderful aspiring model, Amy. We took to the streets of Lindsay, ON to do a quick photoshoot. The fun part about working in small towns is that it does attract the attention of the locals, who were very curious about what exactly we were doing. Kent Street provided an excellent backdrop, from the historic downtown to the ruins of the old mill.

At the beginning of the month I had a the honor of photographing another fall wedding, the couple whom I worked with was Tyler and Erin, and they were wonderful to work with, patient, understanding, and just a joy to work with. With unpredictable weather that day we were able to use the sanctuary of Knox Presbyterian Church which provided a beautiful back drop for the portrait work.

I had a chance once again to go and photograph the CNE Airshow over the Labour Day long weekend, specifically the Friday show. Of course part of the experience is talking shop with various other Photographers around. It was rather impressive the number of dSLRs there. It also gave me a chance to try out different camera modes. For the most part I found myself shooting in manual mode, just so that I could under expose the image, and then I could edit it later to keep the sky exposed correctly and then manually adjust it so that the planes would stand out. I also experimented in Shutter Priority mode (mostly setting the speed to 1/2000″), just to capture the planes mid flight.

The US Navy’s Blue Angels of course, in my mind, stole the show. Here are a few of my favourites from the Angels.

A selection of photos of the US Navy’s Blue Angels. They’re flying F/A-18 Hornets

The rest of the Airshow Images can be found at my flickr account.

This time the Civil War. This weekend I was at yet another re-enactment doing the photography thing (I have one expensive hobby, I cannot afford to pick up another one and join them out in the field! Maybe one day!).

It was a lot smaller than the Siege, but just as enjoyable as the spectators were a lot closer to the action this time around, and they had horses! I spent most of the morning taking photos of people and chatting with the various folks around the camps ect, several whom had also been at the siege. However the most impressive work came out of the battle at 3pm (they had to move it back an hour because of a wedding happening at the same location, can’t have the vows happening while rifle and field gun fire were going off).

All my photos from the event can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/axle81401/sets/72157621998707303/

Once again I was allowed back to photograph the Siege of Fort Erie event. This year, unlike last I was much more restricted in my movements so I wasn’t able to shoot in true photojournalist style, but I was able to pick up some great shots from the event as it is.

The British Line.

The trouble with events like this is because dispite appearances things happen really quickly out on the battle field. I found that setting my camera to Continuous High Speed mode, will give you a better selection of shots to choose from. During the day it’s hard to catch the explosive forces when a musket/rifle is fired. But with careful timing you can get some impressive shots.

The Americans fire a volley into the Fort.

I was able to get onto the Battlefield for the re-enactment of the Battle of Chippiwa, and often found myself in the middle of the line of fire. I had to be pretty quick on my feet, and lugging a D300 with my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens around made it difficult, all while wearing period clothes.

Glengarry Light Infantry

As Dusk comes, it makes capturing the explosions from the muskets is easier, however I had to once again reach into the high ISO settings on my camera.

The British send hot lead screaming across the field of Battle.

I was also very happy to have a camera and lens that are fully weather sealed, as the rain started to come down, I could shoot without worrying about my equipment…too much. Events like this are very hard on your camera, but that’s why I paid for the top quality equipment so that I could drag my camera out into the battle field, even if it was a fake battlefield.

And before I leave, just this one awesome shot that I caught during the night battle:

If you want to see all my photos of the event you can view them here: www.flickr.com/photos/axle81401/sets/72157621992580652/

This past weekend I had the chance to tour around an abandoned mental hospital. The place, closed in 1995, seemed to gain a life of its own after the closure.

Whenever I photograph an event I try to cath the emotion of the event, lots of facial expressions, people having fun, in action, the usually things you see in your daily newspaper. But how do you do that for things that don’t have emotions? Like a building?

Nikon D300 ~ AF-S Nikkor 17-55mm 1:2.8G DX
17mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/20″ ~ ISO-1600

You need to use your eyes, to be able to see a scene within the building that would induce emotion, often times, a trick in the post processing will help, the in above case, the chair looks like it’s trying to escape, the high-contrast black and white gives it a very harsh look. No surprise, this building housed people undergoing Electro Convulsive Therapy.

When you walk into a building, think about what it used to be, let that be your guide when looking for emotion. This was a mental hospital, within my own mind I thought of emotions of loss, isolation, fear, desire to escape. So while I was walking through the halls I looked for scenes that evoked that emotion within me.

Nikon D300 ~ AF-S Nikkor 17-55mm 1:2.8G DX
23mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/40″ ~ ISO-1600

Now, go out and start exploring your world, remember, there is a huge range of emotions that you can shoot into.

As I mentioned in my previous entry I was at Canada Youth 2009 last week attached to the Presbyterian Record as a photographer at the national youth conference of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. I put my D300 through the workout of its life while there, taking around 2000 photos. It was fun narrowing it down to around 200 photos to edit.

But over the course of the week I learned a couple things.

1) Weather sealing is key, nothing like getting caught in the rain with your gear and not having to worry.

2) Fill Flash is your friend, even in direct sunlight, some flash is great to lighting up those shadows.

3) Ignore your meter, manually set your camera, and cranking to ISO-3200 can yield some great results.

4) Lenses that are older than you are, still give amazing results.

If you want to see the rest of my CY09 photos click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/axle81401/collections/72157621857323330/