Just a Canadian curious about the world
My photo taken for Les Petits Ballets is now on display around the city on the Capital Events poster. I’m really thrilled about it.
I’m also so happy for Rosa. She’s playing Miss Minchin in A Little Princess. It’s her first named role in a ballet. In the past she’s only been allowed to be corps de ballet as the school preferred to highlight the younger students. The ballet is May 28, 2011 at Centrepointe Theatre.
Today I was asked to come in to take some promotional photos for Les Petits Ballets. They are preparing for the upcoming presentation of “The Little Princess” at Centrepointe Theatre in May. I was very pleased with the results.
Instead of shooting in the classrooms (which are very cluttered visually), we used the rehearsal studio. It is about the same size, but it is set up like a theatre with a black velvet background. It is a better location than the studio.
I also wanted to use the off-camera flash and coloured gels. Rosa and I had experimented at home one evening in December, and I wanted to try again. Specifically, I wanted to put some colour into the background to make the group of girls standout.
Including Rosa, who is playing Ms. Minchin, there were four girls. The choreographer posed the girls, and I would take a number of shots. The dancers tried six different poses.
The Canon 7D has a wireless flash controller built-in, using the on-camera flash. This means that when using the Canon 420EX off camera, it must have line-of-sight to the camera to receive the data.
I put the 420EX on a stand on the floor behind the girls. It was pointed at the black backdrop with the wireless receiver pointed back at me. I used a green gel (Honl) over the flash to ‘break-out’ the dancers from the background.
Because of the limitation of requiring line-of-sight, there were times the flash did not fire. The outfits of the dancers would block the communications. The ideal solution would be to use an RF (radio) controller that would not require line-of-sight.
Because the on-camera flash is used to trigger the remote off-camera flash, this meant that for some shots, I had to fix the red-eye in Aperture. This also could be reduced with an RF controller.
When using the flash, I try to take a set of two photos as quickly as possible. I know that the first photo will trigger all the flashes. When the second photo is taken, the flash has not had enough time to recycle and so I will get the second photo without flash and without needed to manually go turn the flash off. Having photos with and without flash allows me to pick the one that I feel is better. Sometimes the flash will overpower the exposure, and can produce harsh shadows; the nature light exposure might be better. Other times the flash is needed to correctly expose the image.
The photos taken will be used in promotion for the performance (Centrepointe Theatre, May 2011) and for the school in general. In the past, some of my other photos were used for the Capital Events poster and local newspapers.
Today, I had the pleasure of spending almost the entire day taking
photographs.
The day started early with a photoshoot organized by Hagen Hohn (graduate of Harry Nowell’s Professional Photography Program) through the BMW Car Club of Ottawa. It was at the Carp Airport. Hagen started with a 30-minute overview of the techniques, issues, tips and theory of photography, leaning towards the information necessary for taking picture of cars. This was one of my objectives I set last year.
My car, sadly, was quite dirty and I didn’t have enough time last night to clean it up. I tried to wipe off some of the grime with a cup of water and a paper towel, but that only seemed to smear the dirty around. I had to choose angles that would not show the dust around the wheels and lower bodywork. I also have the winter tires mounted, so my BMW is not as photogenic as I would like.
As the morning progressed, the representative from the Carp Airport opened one of the hangers so that we could take pictures of BMWs posed with an airplane. He was looking to get some shots he can use for his own promotional materials.
At noon, I had to leave and go to my next location, the Les Petits Ballets studio in Bell’s Corners. I was asked to take some photos of the rehearsals for the upcoming Beauty and the Beast performance (Dec 11th at Centrepointe Theatre).
These photos were a little better than some I have taken at the same location in the past. I still have lots of room to improve. This was yet another photo objective from last year.
I personally find it hard to get a good shot in the studio in the Nepean Creative Arts Centre. The walls are a mishmash of colours (white walls, red bricks, with blue doors), distracting objects (bright mustard coloured exercise balls) and all of the emergency lights and exit signs are just above the heads of the girls. There is also no good place to stand back to get a better perspective, especially when the room is full for the rehearsals.
The photos will be used in articles for the local community newspapers.
After the studio work, I went for a nature walk around the Nepean Equestrian Park. The weather was so nice, so I wanted to soak up as much Vitamin D as I could before winter. I used my iPhone and AMOD AGL3080 Phototracker to record how far I walked (it was 5.5km).
I started at the former Nortel campus. In the paths around the campus leading to the Equestrian Park, I came across a deer. I put on my zoom lens and tried to stalk closer. However, the dry leaves on the ground put the kibosh on that – the deer could hear me a mile away.
I continued along the paths and looped around the park. I saw many more deer, but none that I could get a good shot – there was often a tree or fence in the way.
In one open field in the park, I stopped and watched 7 deer and three wild turkeys.
By the time I made it back to the Corkstown Road, my knees were hurting, so I ambled back to my car.
In the evening, we had a nice gathering with friends to celebrate Rosa’s birthday.
Today is the last work day of the decade for me. I’m still working in the office in Lab 9, as I have some work to complete before I leave on vacation. I end the decade only feet from the exact point where I started the decade.
Jan 1, 2000, at 12:00:01, I was here at work, in Lab 6, as part of Nortel’s Y2K task force. We were all carrying pagers, waiting by the phone and basically doing nothing. For me, it was a non-event, as our software had been updated in the months before, and patches sent out to all of our customers. At the exact moment of the new millennia, I was in the cafeteria, where Nortel had brought in some light snacks and (secretly) handed out glasses of champagne to anyone working to celebrate. I did wish I was downtown though – I’m sure it would have been quite a party.
At the start of the decade, the US elections were in full swing. I told anyone who would listen that Bush would set the US back by decades. Never did I expect that his performance after becoming president without winning the election would have been worse than I anticipated. Of course, no one could have expected 9/11, except for the US agents who specifically told Bush 4 weeks before that an attack against the US was being prepared. And who would have guessed that the US would have invaded a country who had nothing to do with the 9/11 tragedy, other than Donald Rumsfeld who said on 9/12 that the US should attack Iraq because “there aren’t any good targets in Afghanistan“.
The year 2000 was also the start of the layoffs at Nortel. The earliest reference I can find is that they started in October 2000. This was my life for the next 9.5 years. I made it through the first year of layoffs before my entire team was cut 2 months after 9/11. I returned and worked for CDMA, dodging more than a dozen layoff rounds before being picked up in the Ericsson purchase a few months ago.
The time at Nortel was good in one respect. I was introduced to the love of my life at Nortel: a blind date over lunch in the Lab 6 cafeteria. Rosa and I talked for 2 hours that day, and we knew immediately that we had found who we were both looking for. Seven months later we got engaged in Paris, and on Jan 3, 2007, we married in Rome.
I’ve traveled more in the last 5 years than I had in my entire life. Rosa and I have visited Halifax, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, Istanbul, Ankara, Athens, Warsaw, Krakow, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Jerusalem, Amman and London. In 2 days, we leave for our next trip: Berlin, Prague, Budapest and Vienna. Before Rosa and I met, I had also visited New York, Toronto, Montreal, Dallas. 2 years ago I had a business trip to Bangalore.
I seems like I have been racing for so long, but it was only in 2001 that I became a licensed marshal and 2003 before I received my race licence. I have raced in a 1971 Datsun 510 (“The Pumpkin”), 1991 Nissan NX2000, Nissan Sentra, Honda Civic, Formula-1600 and this year multiple Acura Integra Type-R’s. I also became a Secretary of the meet for 5 MCO Race Schools and 5 Ted Powell Memorial Race Weekends, including the first full race weekend at the new Calabogie Motorsports Park.
I’ve starting learning French, so I may become a bi-lingual Canadian. And I started to kayak.
I wonder what December 2019 will bring?
Yesterday, some of my photos were used on the local CTV news.
Aleah Ostrowski, one of the ballet students at Les Petits Ballets, was named the CTV High School Athlete of the Week for Dec 10, 2009. Aleah’s mother had asked me to take some pictures that could be provided to CTV for the report.
Since I set goals for myself, I have already progressed towards some of the items on the list. I have joined the RA Photo Club. I have gone to a meet-n-greet (about the World Press Photoawards) with some other photo students and some professional photographers.
I had planned to have this list ready as well, but with an important milestone at work (design test complete) and a visit from my mother, I was not able to post this until now. This is a (possibly incomplete) list of all the types of photos I would like to create for my portfolio. From the list, I can select each one, obtain/rent any required equipment, set times, book any locations if necessary and start learning how to take each photo. This list is in no particular order.
| 1 | Self-Portrait. If I want to learn to work with models (whether they be models, family or friends), I should learn to work with myself. Most other portrait photographers also have taken self-portraits –Karsh, Avedon, Leibovitz. |
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| 2 | Smoke trails. The requirements are very simple, a black or white background with something like incense creating smoke. The light has to come from the side in order to show off the smoke trails. |
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| 3 | Water droplets. The technical issues include the timing and having a light source that brings out the shapes of the water. This may require a macro lens. I can so this in my kitchen sink, although more creative ideas can be used as well. |
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| 4 | Coloured water droplets. Unlike the subject above, this is dropping coloured water droplets into a tank of clear water. The abstract patterns created are similar to the smoke trails listed above. I would need to set up a water tank with very clean, clear sides to shoot through. |
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| 5 | Star trails. This was something I had planned to do during the meteor shower last month, but work intruded. Looking at the full moon last night, I realized I would need to do this during a new moon. The full moon would be too bright, and would move across the sky causing a long streak. Requires a tripod, which I already have, and a good location without much city light, which I don’t. It might be something for the race track, as the tracks are all very dark at night. |
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| 6 | Painting with light at night. There are some really neat images atDesign Shed under the Lost America galleries. The technique involves using lights, coloured or white, which are used to paint an image that is otherwise very dark. This requires a tripod for the long exposures, and some sort of light source. |
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| 7 | Car taillights. A long exposure at night of a city street. A good location is key, as Ottawa does not have the same amount of traffic as, say, New York. The location should also have height over the street I am using. Perhaps from the top floors of one of the apartment buildings along the Queensway would work out. |
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| 8 | Ballet. I have been taking photos for the ballet school Les Petits Ballets (Rosa is a student; I am on the Board of Directors, the web maintainer, and provide some of the promo photos). However, I have not been satisfied with the results so far. I’ve only taken one photo that I would keep for my portfolio. I want to be able to show the school in the best light. Some of that is the location (the class rooms are very hard to take a good photo without the background being very distracting.
Additionally, I don’t feel I have captured what Rosa is capable of doing. She is a lovely dancer and I want to show her talent. |
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| 9 | Car shot, like the ones in the urban car mags (i.e. Import Tunermagazine instead of Car and Driver). I am more interested in a gritty sort of photo. I like some of the examples from local Ottawa photographer Mani Azeri. Location is key, and perhaps strategic use of flashes. |
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| 10 | Boxer. Many wonderful shots have been taken in gyms, training camps or around the ring. This could include kickboxing or wrestling. My cardio kickboxing instructor is Wayne Thompson, who is the Canadian champion and is training to become the world champion in the heavy weight division. I will approach him to see what facilities exist in Ottawa.
These sports are intense physically and mentally, which makes them so appealing as subjects. |
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| 11 | Ottawa downtown at twilight. Sometimes when I am driving past the downtown core of Ottawa on the Queensway at dusk, the way the buildings are lit up from inside with the darkening sky, it just takes my breath away. | No photos available |
| 12 | Airplanes taking off or landing, like the photos on airliners.net. Planes are some of the most complex machines regularly used by the public, and have that wonderful sleekness of flight. My main concern about this topic is not getting into trouble with the airport police. Since 2001, the security around airports has made it occationally difficult. The photo on the right was taken by me out the drivers window of my car as I drove up Riverside Drive. It is Air Force One with George Bush, just after push back. The security was very tight, as you might expect. I was aiming with my camera, as I was driving and shooting at the same time; too bad the camera auto-focused on the fence instead of the plane. The police were not allowing people to stop along the road during the take off.
Showing a huge plane at lift-off would be amazing. Certainly there must be plane-spotters already in the city. I just need to contact them for location ideas. |
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| 13 | High key portrait, where the subject is brightly lit on a light coloured background. The important part of this technique is learning about the light, and how to obtain the correct exposure. |
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| 14 | Low key portrait, where most of the photo is dark. The example on the right of the cat shows that the light creates a real ambiance and drama. Again, the key is learning about using light (in this case the near absence of light) and correctly exposing the image. |
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| 15 | Waterfall. Perhaps at Hog’s Back, but I’m not sure if it has the same ambiance as the photo on the right. A tripod is the only equipment, but the location is critical. |
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| 16 | Abandoned Places. There is an entire photographic subculture of people who do urban spelunking. There have been some good examples posted to Abandoned Places and Bldgblog. Ottawa does not have as many examples as larger or older cities. I have a low tolerance for danger, so finding an accessible location is key. A photographer died last year in the Don Valley Brick Works. In New York, for example, there are derelict ships and a submarine along the industrial areas of the water front, which are accessible from boats and do not require safety equipment (beyond life jackets) if you are taking the photos from the boat.
I was able to see some interesting subjects during the Doors Open Ottawa event. The photo on the right is a nuclear fusion tokamakin the Canadian Science and Technology Museum. This dovetails into another interest of mine in the operations or human systems of large scale projects, usually large engineering projects. I am fascinated by topics like how airports or dams or the Large Hadron Collider work. |
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| 17 | Lilies. Inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe‘s pictures of lilies, and a recent article in DSLR User magazine. Requires a macro lens. |
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As each of these are done, I will post how they were created.
I am so happy. Last week, I had my first published photo. A picture I took for Les Petits Ballets was used in an article for the school published in the newspaper Nepean This Week. The online article does not show the photo, which is reproduced on the right.
One of my other photos is being used by Les Petits Ballets on a promotional poster. The poster is being distributed around the city.
