Potatoes and Shoes

This week I was not able to attend our Friday art lunch. Sadly, my wife's step father passed away. I spent the week in Michigan with the grieving family and dealing with the loss myself. I still tried to take my daily picture (www.flickr.com/photos/briansinasac/sets/72157624524234064/) but found the dates muddied together. I selected this image to honour Rudy. The potatoes and shoes for some reason seemed particularly old Europe, and Rudy was truly old Europe (but he loved his new country too)...I'm sure it's not, just some romanticized version that I have in my head... We'll miss you, Rudy. - Brian

Old stables

Here is small watercolour study of the barn Brian and Chris where photographing on Friday. It is about four by five inches and was painted in about 15 minutes. -Alexi

Roadside

While Brian and Chris were exploring the abandoned barns, Alexi and I painted near the street. It started to rain during this sketch, forcing me to quit early. I added a few brushstrokes in photoshop, to hit some colour notes that I didn't quite get time to put in the original. This is watercolour and white gouache on paper.
--Marco

Small Window, Small Hope

This Art 4 Lunch session took us out to an abandoned horse ranch. The place was overgrown and littered with junk. I did almost all my shots in both colour and black and white...but chose the colour image because is seemed a little less depressing. - Brian

Contemplation

I converted this image to black and white. I've been on a B&W kick lately. I've converted almost every shot lately, unless it contained some element that colour was necessary for. - Brian

Europe Sketches!

Here's some sketches I did in Europe.
--Marco

New Orleans in Kensington Market

We extended our photography into the weekend this week. A trip through the downtown core turned up a variety of interesting people. The shots I didn't like were just as helpful as those I did, helping me to avoid mistakes the next time through. - Brian

Chris - 3 strobes

Though I'm not a huge fan of the pose, I've selected this image because it best represents our intended goal for this week's art lunch. We set up a narrow rim light, a bounced fill light (umbrella) and third, orange filtered strobe. The shot was taken with a 50mm set at f1.4, with a shutter speed of 1/325 down a long hallway that terminated in windows, which Chris' stance effectively hides.

Besides this being my first time shooting with a full strobe set up, it was my first portraiture with my new 50mm. I must say that I am extremely pleased with the new lens. Now we need new models! - Brian

What An Erection

read the plaque- Alvin

Le Brian

Fun with flash photography 101 - Alvin

Splatter

Splashing water at the base of a fountain near Lakeside Park in Oakville. I know, I know,...not an original subject by any stretch of the imagination, but the texture of the water in the photograph reminded me of a Jackson Pollock splatter painting. With that in mind, I added a slight bit of colour to the lights and darks, which helps separate the detail in the drops and splashes. I think it's cool that attention gets drawn to a different element of the photo depending on what size it's view it at.....much like you view a lot of crazy abstract art. Who knows, I'd like to see it blown up to 20 feet by 10 feet....haha - Will

Discovery

Week 3 took us to the Oakville waterfront. A location I'm thinking we will most likely return to fairly frequently given where we work. The waterfront area is surrounded by parks and peers and green...and lots of people. I'm not super comfortable yet shooting people I don't know. I find myself pretending to focus someplace else, then quickly switching to my intended subject, taking the shot and then pretending to focus elsewhere again. Needless to say, most of my stuff was improperly focused or framed...The 300 mm let's me stay way back and out of peoples faces, but still, somehow they know I'm looking at them. - Brian

Chris

Week 2 we did some remote flash work, my first time working with this type of equipment, having previously only worked with the built in. I like the extreme contrast that the flash gave. I'm looking forward to trying it again. Obviously the shots are contrived, so it lacks that voyeur sense that I find I'm becoming addicted to. It would be fun to do some whacky portraits though. Maybe we can convince someone to model for us next time. - Brian

Oakville Marina

Our first trip out I focused on patterns and textures...which is not so strange for me. For some reason I've been avoiding the human element, whereas Chris' focus, particularly, is on just that aspect. In the upcoming weeks I'm going to try to bring the human story into my shots. - Brian

A little trip up the road yielded a fence left untouched for about 10 years it seemed, always crossing fences with photography...