I'm on Flickr now

check it out!

Some new shots

I'm pretty happy with them and getting more comfortable with the whole editing thing. You can see them over on the 'book.  

Notes from the master

Seeing as (a) I've had more time and opportunities to get to know my new toy and (b) more people (i think) are looking at my shots, I thought I'd share a few notes from and about the master - Henri Cartier-Bresson. One of the reasons I was so long in making the transition to digital was I sensed that too much of the conversation was about the technology and the lenses - not enough about the actual image or the process / approach the person followed to arrive at the image. I admit this is a tough example to follow and I doubt that in our hyper-sensitive, media-saturated world it's damn near-impossible to replicate his approach.

This content is taken from Photography - Venice 1979, a book I bought second-hand somewhere:

"Fabricated" or contrived photography does not concern me...There are those who take photographs arranged beforehand and those who go out out in search of the image and seize it. The camera for me is a sketch book, the instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the the master of the instant which visually questions and decides at the same time. To "signify" the world, one must feel involved in what one cuts out through the view finder. This attitude demands concentration, a discipline of the mind, sensitivity and a feeling for geometry...To photograph is to hold one's breath when all one's faculties are joined in the face of a fleeing reality; it is then that the capture of the image is a great physical and intellectual joy. To photograph is, in a single instant, in a single fraction of a second, to recognize a fact and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms which convey and signify that fact. It is to bring one's head, one's eye and one's heart into the same line of aim...[P]hotography is a manner of crying out, of freeing oneself, and not of proving or asserting one's own originality. It is a way of life."

There's also a pretty good interview with him and Charlie Rose that you can watch on YouTube. Given that he even hated to be photographed, this is worth a watch.

Now, I do know that this is only one approach to shooting, and there are amazing photographers doing amazing work with vastly different and/or diametrically opposed ways of working. But I still think that his work has had the biggest impact on my photographic forays and the strongest driving factor in leading me to see things the way I do. In other words, it's why I'll suddenly stop on the street and shoot mailboxes, bicycle seats, stop lights, and so on. When I want to challenge myself with my shots, it's his examples and approach that I always return to.

We can do better!

Can Iggy garner the 236,000 views on YouTube, like the singing cats did? Maybe, if he had an auto-tuner.

For an ongoing project, before I forget the important details

These probably won't be interesting to anyone but me, and even then that's probably a stretch. 

Paris Metro Ticket - day pass, zone 1. - from the day i spent in Paris during a trip to london. Chunnel first class, bastille, lots and lots of walking in the old haunts.

Bronze Medal Game, IIHF World Junior Championship, Jan. 5, 2009 - they booed the russians, cheered the slovaks. a lot of people had paper hockey helmets on their heads.

Shania Twain, Corel Centre, Sept. 27, 2003. A thin, reedy voice and a range of about three notes. None of this mattered.

Ozzy Osbourne, Corel Centre, Jun 12, 2003: Sunken old-man chest. Doddering old-man walk. Sad, really.

More to come, but now i gotta walk the dogs.

Fearsome

Did you see the look on Roy Halladay's face after his 1-hit complete game masterpiece over the Yankees yesterday?

I did.

And I never want to see it again.

Things that fall out of my head (a series)

"What's the 'O' stand for?"
"Eugene."

Adventures in Retouching

Took advantage of a so-called floater day to do the "tourist in your own backyard thing." A lot of tourists go to the market, so I went there, too. I went there specifically to see the "From Raphael to Caracci: The Art of Papal Rome" exhibit, from which I derived a few things:

1. I need to get to Rome very very soon.
2. The National Gallery of Canada is a great place to find the right wall color. Finally - the right one for the downstairs bathroom!
3. Reading The Agony and the Ecstasy over many, many (many!) years does have it advantages; one of them being that you get to read about the Popes and see the very sketches that Michaelangelo did as mentioned in the book.
4. Generally, I prefer exhibits at the National Gallery to those at the Museum of Civilization. Though the IMAX screen across the river does make up for that a bit.
5. Apart from the Picasso exhibit the Gallery did a bunch of years back, this was probably the best exhibit I've seen there. Way, way (way!) better than those big people, that just creeped me out.

Also, I had some fun with retouching and stuff, which, as a follower of the Cartier-Bresson approach, is not something I do that often, or ever. You can see the results here.

Old Testament Soccer

How was last night's game? It was like playing against Moses. Actually, a whole team of Moseses. The ball was his people. And our defenders were like the Red Sea. Over and over and over again.

Oh well, at least no one got hurt.

This the best TV you will ever watch. Guaranteed.

And it's not just because of the pretty girl...

It's the "Jet Set" episode from season 2 of Mad Men. It's everything I love about Gal Dove, Roger Thornhill, Bunny Yeager, Oceans 11 and 12, Alfred Hitchcock and Hugh Hefner all rolled into 44 minutes.