Warning - geek working late

Warning - geek working late - #169/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

It's been a very busy week for me, but taking a little break and working some angles and lighting to photo everyday things keeps the project going. Once again, I'm choosing B&W to show engineering design, shapes and surfaces of the many tech equipment we use day to day (without noticing their "beauty"). I actually had a discussion with my brother-in-law yesterday about how some of us describe tech (especially from Apple) as sexy. He couldn't quite see it. We talk about cars as sexy, not much of a stretch to call an iPhone sexy, no ?

Comic relief at the shoot

Comic relief at the shoot - #168/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I'm lucky to have an office downtown where there's so many interesting people around. I found this scene quite comical, with a serious (but unusual) photo shoot occurring while a rather bemused onlooker provides some "assistance".

As per early comments regarding in-camera B&W processing, in natural light, the B&W in-camera settings work quite nicely.

Telly time

Telly time - #167/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Very busy day and didn't pull my camera out of my bag until after dinner. Luckily I have 3 wonderfully photogenic people leaving with me.

This is the first inCamera shot I've used that is from a RAW image. I had the image optimization set to B&W and once again, I wasn't too happy with the result. I think it is a combination of flash and the type (if any) filters I'm applying to the B&W setting. I always shoot in JPG and RAW these days, so I used the RAW image and simply saved it without edits to a JPG version. Therefore there is no adjustments for sharpness or contrast at all. The B&W version is here.

Drawing a line in (personal) photojournalism

As you may have seen from my photo blog (365inCamera) or from some of my recent Flickr updates I've been doing a little personal photojournalism of late.  So much so, I added a new set on Flickr just for photojournalism.  I say personal photojournalism, because I'm really only doing this for personal reasons rather than working on behalf of some kind of news provider (although that's not to say, I wouldn't mind the opportunity to do this at some point in the future).  Similar to sports and candid photography, trying to capture the drama of a newsworthy event is a challenge I enjoy.  By following the golden rule of photography - always have a camera with you - I've been able to photograph some interesting events of late.  I was going to say that working downtown Toronto is another factor that has provided these opportunities for photojournalism, but just tonight there was another event that was closer to home.

After dinner tonight, I decided to take my dog Kooper for a run at Sunnybrook dog park before it got dark.  On the way to the park, I noticed that Blythwood Road was closed at Mt. Pleasant with quite a lot of emergency vehicles and TV crews at the scene.  I decided that a little exercise for Kooper was more important that investigating right then, so I continued to the park.  It's been very windy for a few day so I thought a large tree may have some down.  On the drive home, Blythwood had been re-opened and a did a quick drive by and saw that there had been a fire in one of the houses.  A drove on a little, but then my new found photojournalistic instincts kicked in (plus I didn't have a great shot yet for the day), so I stopped, circled back and grabbed my camera.

While photographing the other recent events, I had some serious reservations about the potential personal injuries and losses that I may be recording.  In the Chinatown accident, I hesitated taking any photographs until I could see that the young girl was not seriously injured and those people nearby were helping her.  For the Gould Street incident, I heard from a few sources that luckily there had been no serious injuries.  For the First Nations' protest, even though there was plenty of police at the ready, the event looked to be quite peaceful.  I did wonder what the chances were of it boiling over, especially seeing a few people masking their faces.  What would I do if things got violent ?

Back to Blythwood.  So I'm walking back to the burned out house with my camera in hand and I'm wondering was anyone hurt here ?  There was just one person I noticed on the street other than emergency and TV people so I asked if he knew if anyone had been hurt in the fire.  He said that he heard from TV news that a lady had died.

I decided not to photograph the house.  I didn't feel right.  I drew a line.

The Toronto Sun report.

Flower Tower

Flower Tower - #166/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

The CN Tower is undoubtedly Toronto's most recognizable and probably largest landmark. So it naturally appears in quite a few of my photos, both as a primary interest and like in this case, an interesting backdrop.

Tentatively selected for my wrecked landscape project, but still debating it's contribution and relevance.

Guitar squeeze

Guitarist squeeze - #165/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

A couple of old university friends work in the building on the left and this newsstand used to be a really nice "little" cafe about 10 years ago. I like the proportional contrasts with some human street element and the fire escape. If this was a top shot, then I'd probably adjust for the skewed perspective, but ok to leave in for this project.

Kooper's birthday

Kooper's birthday - #164/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Our Australian Shepherd Kooper turned one year old today. My wife bought him some treat and toys and he had a fantastic time ripping off all the wrapping.

As you can see, my home has a lot of dark wood, so I always have to be very careful with the image optimization settings and in many cases the wood appears way too red with high saturation or contrast settings. So I edit the JPGs or use the RAW images most of the time. I got lucky here, perhaps because I was lower to the ground and the bounced difused flash was a little less strong than if I'd been standing up and/or the angles worked in my favour. Regardless, I liked the dog action, angle, colour and exposure.

Blossom tourists

Blossom tourists - #163/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

As you've perhaps seen in many recent shots, Toronto is in full bloom these days. I've seen some beautiful blooming trees in my neighbourhood, but my wife wanted to see the collection of tree blossoms in High Park, so I went along with my full camera bag. I actually suggested we wait to later afternoon so the sunlight would not be so harsh. However, the afternoon turned quite cloudy and the light was a little too flat, especially for the pale colours.

My wife had heard that there were bus loads of tourists on a previous day, but I dismissed it thinking it was a one-off. However, when we arrived at High Park (after battling some heavier than normal traffic en-route), I couldn't believe the thousands of tourists. I don't think I'd never seen so many tourists (mostly Asian) at any Toronto tourist location - it actually reminded me of London's most popular sights, like Trafalgar Square.

So it was rather difficult to actually capture the beauty of the blossoms, but the day to produce some interesting opportunities to photograph people.

Old and new TO towers

Old and new TO towers - #162/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

It seems like the number of new towers being built in Toronto keep growing and growing. I grabbed a few shots today and this contrast of new and (relatively) old stood out - Festival Tower is in the foreground.

First Nations protest HST

First Nations protest HST - #161/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

People from The First Nations were protesting the Harmonized Sales Tax today, walking from Queen's park and making a stop at Yonge and Dundas just by my office.

Click here for full story and set.

Big kid in the playground

Big kid in the playground - #160/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

A short detour on the way to the subway station gave me a few new photo opportunities this morning. I had shot the playground empty, but then caught the jogger dead centre and thought it added a little human interest. Had to cheat with a small alignment fix, but otherwise in-camera.

Keane and Mt Desolation

It takes so long from the time an album is announced to the time it is released. For me, lately, I try to hold off on listening to all the sneak peaks. I have found in the past that by the time the album is released, my excitement has waned.

For months, I have been hearing about Keane's upcoming release...actually it was over a year ago that I heard about K'naan recording songs with Keane.

I did watch the video for the first single Stop for a Minute when it was released, but I didn't listen to any of the songs until yesterday when I saw that the album was on iTunes for pre-order.

The video is SO good by the way:



I was quite excited knowing that new Keane songs would be entering my library in three weeks. I was also hopeful that they would be touring again. Seeing them six times so far still isn't enough.

Then this morning, I wake up to the news that Tim Rice-Oxley (the keyboardist and songwriter) for Keane has joined a supergroup.

The headline of Keane and The Killers forming a supergroup initially got me excited. Two of my favourites getting together? But it was misleading as I read on, it is only one member of each band joining a member of Noah and the Whale and a member of Mumford & Sons.

The article said that Mt Desolation would consist of Tim Rice-Oxley, Ronnie Vanucci (drummer for the Killers), Tom Hobden (violin player for Noah and the Whale) and Winston Marshall (banjo and vocals for Mumford & Sons).


However according to Mt Desolation's website, the band also consists of Jesse Quin: the newest member of Keane. It turns out that Tim and Jesse spear-headed this side project. They involved other musicians they knew.

Mt Desolation actually consists of:
Tim Rice-Oxley - Vocals, Piano
Jesse Quin - Vocals, Guitar
Andrew Lowe - Bass
Fimbo - Drums
John Roderick - BVs, Guitar
Pete Roe - Keys, BVs
Tom Hobden - Fiddle
Jessica Staveley-Taylor - BVs

and features:
Ronnie Vannucci - Perc, good vibes
Winston Marshall - Banjo
Charity Quin - BVs
Jayne Rice-Oxley - BVs
Francois Deville - Pedal Steel

So the mainstream media took some liberties in announcing that Keane and The Killers were forming a supergroup. The supergroup "features" Ronnie.

As excited as I should be at the prospect of a new band, when just recently I was saying that I needed some new music in my life, a line in the article burst my bubble.

"They will be releasing an album of country alternative songs later this year".

What? Country Alternative? Uggh.

A year or two ago, when one of my favourite singers, Ross Copperman teamed up with Heather Morgan to form a country duo: Roots & Wings, I said..."if anyone can get me into country music, it will be Ross".

Well, they didn't release any music and perhaps with Ross releasing an EP a few months ago, his own music became the priority.

So now, I will say, "if anyone can get me into (alternative) country music, perhaps it will be Tim".

My teenager

My teenager - #159/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Using B&W for this shot with flash lighting almost blows out my son's face; but this one isn't a harsh as others I shot. When viewing the RAW version, the exposure looks perfect, but with the in-camera processed B&W, it looks like you need to underexposure so you don't lose definition in skin tones. If you did a B&W conversion in Photoshop, you could control the colour channels better and get better results (as shown here).

Time on King West

Time on King West - 158/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I liked the low angle I got by simply setting the camera down on the bench and raising the lens a little with my lens cap. As with most self portraits, focusing is a tricky, so I autofocused on the back of the bench at the end where I was going to sit. Then set focusing to manual and set the self timer for 10s. I kept a tight 2.8 f-stop on my 50mm lens to get the depth-of-field I wanted, but had to shoot high iso to keep the shutter speed reasonable.

Junos

I recently heard  that my daughter's music teacher was nominated for a Juno award for Reggae Recording of the Year.  He was the instrumentalist for Carl Henry III.  He unfortunately lost the award to Dubmatix ft. Prince Blanco.  I immediately recognized the name Prince Blanco as I met him a few years ago as he was singing with a local reggae band called the Liquidaires with a ultimate [frisbee] friend of mine on bass.    I went to the gig with another ultimate friend and had a great night.  On a related note, I was really pleased to see that a couple of other friends I met playing ultimate, Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen won a Juno for DVD of the year.

Prehistoric Sunnybrook

Prehistoric Sunnybrook - #157/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

What a perfect subject, lots of contrast, didn't object to a close up and barely moved for 5 minutes. I stumbled across this beauty after my usual dog park visit and we came across him (or her) enjoying the warm sun on a nature trail not far from a busy parking lot at Sunnybrook park. I took a number of shots to document his beautiful features, but I tried to compose a more artistic shot here and I think the low to the ground angle works well.

C bracelets

C bracelets, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

We had a houseful for dinner tonight with old university friends and their children. I did manage to get a few people shots, but I didn't seem to have a lot of time to get that creative, so although there's some nice shots, they'll be posted to my personal photo sharing site, rather than here where I try to keep my more artistic material and where the portraits offer something unique or are of high quality.

I was quite pleased with this quick shot and offers some nice contrast, reasonable composition and some interesting shapes for focus.

Gould Street wall collapses

Gould Street wall collapses - #155/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

At lunchtime on April 16th, 2010 a second floor wall collapsed on Gould Street, just East of Yonge Street. The large section of brick wall facade (seen in the background) above a newly opened Sushi restaurant fell to the street. From current reports, there were no serious injuries. I had almost chosen to have lunch at the Thai, Salad King restaurant, but instead went to another restaurant with a friend. As the press wrapped up the formal interview with the police, the man in the white glasses yelled over to the group and said they should interview this man for his story. He had been in the Sushi restaurant when the wall came down - he had a few scrapes, but nothing too serious.

James, the guitar teacher

James, the guitar teacher - #154/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

My son has been getting guitar lessons from James for quite a while now. James is a brilliant guitarist and has played and toured professionally extensively - I love talking to him about music. He has a natural (or well learned) ability to pick up notes and chords from the many songs my son throws his way and within a few minutes they've reproduced some of our favourite music. He was very comfortable when I started taking lots shots from all angles. The 50mm 1.8 proves once again to produce some great depth-of-field and crisp shots. I used a bounced flash with a difuser.

Concerned

Concerned - #153/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

This man hit the young lady on the left while driving along Dundas St in Chinatown today. While walking along the street, I heard a alerting yell and when I turned I saw the girl bounce off the hood of this man's car and fall to the ground. He appeared to be driving quite fast and she didn't seem to be paying attention as she crossed mid-block. I debated whether it was appropriate to stop and take a few shots, but 1) I felt this was a photojournalistic opportunity and 2) I thought I should perhaps record the event in case she was badly hurt and he tried to make a run for it. She remarkably got up quite quickly and it looked like she only had a few knee and arm scrapes - she was very lucky. I overheard someone ask for a 911 call, however the police never showed up. This shot was taken as a police car siren was heard close by. As things seems to settle down and the majority of the crowd dispersed, I asked the girl if she was ok - she said she was ok, although she still looked rather shocked and he appeared rather in shock himself. When he took her into a nearby pharmacy with a few other witnesses and no police showed up, I went on my way.

Mom

Mom - #152/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

My parents are visiting for a few days. I take quite a lot of photos of them but they are often posed or they miss the mark in capturing a candid moment. But recently, as I have the camera out and ready all the time, it seems that the more photos I take, the more comfortable the subject gets with the camera.

Soccer tryout day

Soccer tryout day - #151/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Both my son and daughter had their school soccer tryouts after school today. I didn't get a chance to see the action, but thought a shot of their cleats would be a way to record the day and they'd make a decent subject.

Curb side reflection

Curb side reflection - #150/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I didn't take a lot of shots today, but on the walk to the movies with my daughter, the refection of the blossoming pink tree on my street with contrast of the dark window and white van caught me eye.  Shot with my Blackberry.

Adrienne in the morning

Adrienne in the morning - #149/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I was out early walking my dog and put the "nifty fifty" [mm] lens on my camera. One of the big tips of photography is taking pictures under the rich light of early morning and dusk. I took a number simple shots on my morning walk (many of which remain unedited on Flickr), but I feel the combination of a crisp clear lens and warm morning light helped produce some lovely shots.

The visitor

The visitor - #148/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I took some time at lunch to snap away at some people on the street. There were a few people with bright coloured umbrellas and this girl turns perfectly for the shot with her umbrella as a nice background.

Blue umbrella girl

Blue umbrella girl - #147/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I took some time at lunch to snap away at some people on the street. There were a few people with bright coloured umbrellas and this girl turns perfectly for the shot with her umbrella as a nice background.

Blossoms versus hydrant

Blossoms versus hydrant - #146/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Another rainy spring day, so I boosted image optimization again here to vivid+, but it may be too much contrast ! I liked the contrast of the harsh yellow hydrant with the softer blossoms with a symmetrical backdrop.

Young on Yonge fresh cut flowers

Young on Yonge fresh cut flowers - #145/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

The rain had stopped, but the weather was overcast, but the stunning colours of these cut flowers at on e of my local fruit markets was a perfect way to brighten the day. I often boost the image optimization to vivid+ to get the most out of the colour on dull days.

Duke

I came home from my ultimate game tonight just in time to see the last 13 seconds of the NCAA Final Four Championship game.  Duke won by a couple of points.  Before bed, I then sit down to ice my ankle and I pick up What the Dog Saw to continue with a chapter I was reading a few days before.  After a few pages I read that one of people Gladwell is talking about went to law school at Duke.

U2

I had my Flickr slideshow set (698 items, 16 of which are U2) displaying on our TV in the kitchen earlier this evening and of course at the same time I glance a shot of U2, U2 starts playing from our main iTunes playlist (1179 tracks, 21 of which are U2).  Just a little coincidence, but I thought it was wroth recording since I was talking about concert DVD's with my brother-in-law earlier in the day and said U2's DVD's are excellent.

White flower with blue bokeh

White flower with blue bokeh - #144/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I've taken blind shots from ground level like this one a few times and sometimes you get lucky or the composition isn't exactly as planned, but it works (in unpredictable) ways. I took a few other shots lying on the ground, but this blind one was still my favourite. The blue foreground flower bokeh was planned, and I liked the slash of green bokeh and symmetrical fencing. My custom in-camera image settings these days are auto saturation and tone compensation, Nikon colour Mode IIIa and +1 image sharpening.

Balancing rocks versus The CN Tower

Balancing rocks versus The CN Tower - #143/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

The lighting was a little tricky, but the composition was more important, with the balancing rock tower versus the CN Tower.

Father-in-law smile

Father-in-law smile - #142/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I've been spending a lot of time at my sister-in-law's recently with my mother and father-in-law visiting for a few weeks. I'm pleased that they haven't been complaining about the amount of photos I'm taking, and this is probably why I've been getting some good shots. If you're always taking shots, some people just start ignoring you after a while and that's when you catch a real smile.

Guilty pleasures

I'm sure every music fan who is conscious of their music taste and feels they have a good grip on the quality dial of the music scene has at least one guilty pleasure.  

For me, it's Neil Diamond.  Although his earlier work and interestingly, his latest work is well respected, most middle agers / Xgeners likely heard Diamond during his sappy middle period (maybe his You don't Bring me Flowers duet with Barbara Streisand).  But I first heard Neil Diamond during a once in a lifetime trip to Singapore, Christmas 1975.  I had never been anywhere outside the UK when my family made this trip to visit my Australian uncle and family who were living in Singapore at the time. Therefore my memories of Singapore remain very vivid, the topical humid air, the exotic smells, 4pm rainstorms, new tastes and funnily enough, the sounds of Neil Diamond.  My uncle was a big fan of Neil Diamond and I recall sitting in his living room with all the windows open late in the evening, with family all around and hearing Diamond's classic live album Hot August Night.  

So today, an unusually warm (hot even) April day here in Toronto while the kids are elsewhere and my wife (not the biggest Diamond fan) is out - the windows are open, I'm taking a little breather and I put on my favourite tracks from Hot August night and I'm back in Singapore.

Also posted on my music blog in Tune in.

Guilty pleasures

I'm sure every music fan who is conscious of their music taste and feels they have a good grip on the quality dial of the music scene has at least one guilty pleasure.  


For me, it's Neil Diamond.  Although his earlier work and interestingly, his latest work is well respected, most middle agers / Xgeners likely heard Diamond during his sappy middle period (maybe his You don't Bring me Flowers duet with Barbara Streisand).  But I first heard Neil Diamond during a once in a lifetime trip to Singapore, Christmas 1975.  I had never been anywhere outside the UK when my family made this trip to visit my Australian uncle and family who were living in Singapore at the time. Therefore my memories of Singapore remain very vivid, the topical humid air, the exotic smells, 4pm rainstorms, new tastes and funnily enough, the sounds of Neil Diamond.  My uncle was a big fan of Neil Diamond and I recall sitting in his living room with all the windows open late in the evening, with family all around and hearing Diamond's classic live album Hot August Night.  


So today, an unusually warm (hot even) April day here in Toronto while the kids are elsewhere and my wife (not the biggest Diamond fan) is out - the windows are open, I'm taking a little breather and I put on my favourite tracks from Hot August night and I'm back in Singapore.


Also posted on my general interest personal blog.

Painting silhouette

Painting silhouette - #141/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I had some difficulty choosing my shot for today. This was a typically tricky setting, dark bedroom and bright light from the window. I took lots of shots, including compensating flash with lots of -EV, but I wasn't too pleased with the result. The half way line with light and dark does break the rule of thirds, but with my daughter's silhouette it seems to work. This is actually the second shot (of 23) and I'm now liking the blown out light showing some of her hair details, her side-on silhouette and just enough light to show the bright colours of her painting.

April 1st Milestone

April 1st Milestone - #140/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Improvised jazz journey

A little journey I took while searching for some new jazz artists.

Improvised jazz journey Originally uploaded by PJMixer