the enfoto media journal

Photographing The 4th Dimension: Time

2011-12-24T03:57:14Z

Recently, I received flickr mail from another flickr member, Jim Goldstein who was requesting to use one of my images in an ebook he was writing about photographing "time".

I would imagine that he'd been working on this ebook for a long time, but a few weeks after I sent him the image, he sent me a link to download a copy of the finished book.

It's a good read, touching on photography basics, and then later getting into more sophisticated and complicated techniques such as light painting and star trails.

I think Jim has done an excellent job of concisely covering a variety of photographic basics, while still managing to progress through more complex techniques in a fairly short book. Being an ebook, it was nice to see a blend of traditional print layouts and photos as well as multimedia video clips.

Check out his ebook "Photographing The 4th Dimension: Time".

Getty.

2011-12-24T03:02:46Z

Getty images is one of the largest online stock photography companies, and has millions of images which are available for license. A few years back, Getty announced a partnership with flickr where select photographers and their images would be incorporated into the Getty images collection. It is by invitation, and once invited and confirmed as a contributor, images can be submitted for review by Getty editors for inclusion in the flickr collection.

Getty editors will also seek out photographers and photos posted to flickr which they are interested in for licensing purposes, predominantly because the images match current trends or demands within the marketplace.

A few months ago, I received an invitation to join the Getty images flickr collection as a contributor and asked to submit 5 images for review for licensing. About a month later, I received another request to submit another 7 images for review and inclusion.

I'm honoured to be a Getty contributor!

All of my images available for license through Getty can be seen here.

Here are a few of my favourites:

Sophie.

2011-12-23T19:46:07Z

It wasn't all that long ago that Allison and Ian were engaged and getting ready to tie the knot, and soon after they actually did tie the knot. We shot their wedding, but I never got around to getting it on the blog.

Time sure flies, because they've since welcomed a baby girl into their family, and Allison asked if I'd take some newborn and family photos for them.

Personally, I enjoy people photos, and it's really cool to have had the opportunity to capture their engagement, wedding and now, baby girl.

Has Your Canon 7D Had Auto-Focus Problems?

2011-07-31T15:29:15Z

After having sent my 7D in to Canon Canada 5 times now, and having them tell me every single time that there is no issue with the camera, and that this is the first they've ever heard of an AF issue with some subset of 7Ds, I've decided to start tracking all of the problem threads and people who both have experienced this issue and returned a camera to Canon service anywhere in the world for it.

My camera had a very real front-focusing AF issue as evidenced by this side-by-side comparison image, using centre-point, one shot, single point AF:

I could shoot the same tree from 10 feet all day and end up with the same out of focus image.

The second body, a loaner 7D from the CPS pool produced the second image using the same lens, on a tripod, in very bright daylight. (ISO 100, f/1.2, 1/2500s).

At least in Canada, there is only one product specialist for the 7D in Mississauga it seems, so if more than one person has sent a 7D in for this problem, and probably more than once, it would suggest that Canon knows more than they are saying.

If you've had AF-related issues with your 7D and have a case to make, please sign the petition

This issue seems to affect a small number of 7Ds, so the assumption is most work absolutely fine. If yours works great, and you've never had an issue, happy shooting, but I'm mostly interested in people who have similar issues and have also sent their camera in to Canon service.

If there are enough people who report similar issues I will try and come up with a better way to organize and track this data.

Ant on Granite.

2011-06-08T13:20:56Z

This was a surprise. I took this picture last year when I was playing around with light and my macro lens. I thought it turned out to be a neat, but a throw-away, image.

I recently sold it to be used in an advertising campaign for this.

Moral of story is two-fold: One, you never know what images people will find interesting. If you find something interesting, someone else surely will. And, two, If photography is something you're interested in, take pictures, lots of them all the time. The corollary to that is the rule for becoming a better writer. Write something every day.

Julie.

2011-05-31T05:10:36Z

Julie is expecting a new addition to the family in the next few weeks. She came by and we did some studio shots with her, and her son Gabe.

She was a little anxious and camera shy, but looking at these pictures, she looks great, and her red hair adds a fantastic contrast to the low-key shots and black seamless.

The lighting in these shots definitely represents an improvement over my previous low-key work. Assisted in large part by new grids for my Elinchrom reflector which help to control and direct the light. The main light is a Ranger RX through a 1 meter Deep Octa softbox.

Angel and Emma.

2011-05-29T12:54:37Z

Some pictures from our last pet shoot. Angel is the puddy tat and Emma is the dawg:

Diane and Jeff.

2010-12-19T16:56:30Z

Remember Sylvia? Well Diane is her cousin. Remember Ken? Jeff is his cousin.

Diane and Jeff have four children who, luckily for me, gave me some good face time. They had fun with this recent shoot.

Sylvia and Ken.

2010-12-14T15:47:48Z

The exceptional amount of snow that we've been having lately has me reminiscing about the great Summer and Autumn that we had this year (even though technically we're still in Autumn). Back in early Fall, Sylvia and Ken wanted a family shoot done with the seasonal leaves in the background. I kind of miss those leaves.

Burtynsky Theme.

2010-12-05T20:27:50Z

It was a very long time ago that Judy suggested our present "Burtynsky" theme. She's a fan of Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky and wanted to see what we could come up with as a tribute to his work.

It took me a while to get my butt in gear to actually realize the photo that I wanted to do for the theme and then Adrian and Kelly had a baby.

It'll be a while before he is able to get around to doing his idea of the theme.

So rather than delay this game any further, we've decided to go ahead and post my entry, Adrian will skip this theme and we'll go to the next!

My shot is angled in such a way as to avoid overhead power lines but in the process I was less than pleased with the overall composition. In any case, there are ideas of oil, mechanisation, quarries, mining, and rhythm all in a landscape-type shot. To seriously attempt a true Burtynsky-type shot, I'd need a helicopter or boom to take the picture from.

The Forest.

2010-11-08T03:20:32Z

Weeks back, I was inspired to invite a bunch of the neighbourhood kids (well, and their parents) to the forest near the park one Sunday for photos. I'd thought that with a group of kids, their interest might have lasted longer if I could at least encourage at least one of them that it was fun!

As it turned out, the kids were actually way more interested in playing in the park and with the fallen leaves than having their picture taken. Aside from all of that, we still managed to have some fun, and capture some of it too.

It all starts with rock star posing:

and continues with some log ride fun:

...the rest is history!

Lennon.

2010-11-07T03:42:01Z

Lennon is a little man who will soon be 6 months old. When Karyn asked if I'd be interested in taking some pictures of him, I thought we'd get together and see how much we could do in a single session. On the agenda was Halloween, Christmas, a little mom and baby and some including Molly, their dog.

I was quickly reminded of what a moving target little ones are. ;)

For location-based shoots, I've been trying to reduce the amount of gear I travel with, while still bringing enough to be flexible. We did this shoot at her house, so I didn't know what to expect, and also couldn't depend on the weather to co-operate.

I've been mostly shooting with fixed focal-length prime lenses as the image quality, sharpness, speed and subject isolation are much better than zooms. Of course, the trade-off is that I carry a bag full of lenses with me. I used a 50mm f/1.2 for almost this entire shoot.

On the lighting side, if I'm doing a shoot by myself, I tend to only bring strobes for lighting. A couple of 580EXs and a couple of Lastolite EzyBox softboxes with lightstands are what I tend to use for location shoots, especially indoors. For this shoot, I also brought a 6'x7' collapsible Lastolite backdrop that has both a black and white surface.

While we didn't manage to get all of the sets we were hoping for, Lennon was extremely patient, and we did get a whole lot of great shots.

Maybe we'll see this little guy again in the future!

Mr. September 2011.

2010-10-05T14:42:12Z

One of our puddy tats, Rex, made it into the Toronto Humane Society's 2011 calendar. Rex is almost fully grown now and doesn't like cuddling as much as he did when I took this picture. He was about 4 months then.

Karma.

2010-10-04T19:07:05Z

This is from a shoot at the One Love One Heart Yoga open house on the weekend that supported artists and businesses around Beeton. This particular shot features one of a kind yoga bags that are sure to be popular items -- as you can see from the thievery that was foiled in action.

Andie & Marshall: September 2nd, 2010.

2010-09-06T03:49:32Z

Back in February, one of my cousins sent me a note saying that a friend of his was looking for a wedding photographer. At the time, I had no idea that that note would lead to us covering their intimate wedding on a beautiful day in September.

When I asked the bride-to-be if she'd be interested in an engagement shoot, she told me it might be kind of difficult, since they reside in Vancouver. In any case, they committed to having me shoot the wedding.

It was a really nice day, and even though it was sticky and hot, some nice clouds and periods of overcast skies helped to temper the midday sun a little bit.

We had a great time covering their wedding day and I believe we were able to capture much of its emotion and happiness. I hope that they have a wonderful life together!

For more from the wedding, view the slideshow.