Shooting my good friend Jay is always a blast as no matter what the concept/style/theme of the shoot is, one thing is certain and that is I’ll be laughing my head off.  This night was no exception.  I thought I would try Jay for my alternative theme book that I am working on and happily he obliged.  Lots of laughs between shots and let me just say his portrayal of anger, sadness and loneliness was a tad different from what I was expecting.  Maybe the camera changes people’s expression or maybe I couldn’t get the story across of what I was looking for exactly as he was making me laugh too much.  Anyway, I think after about a hundred frames, the last dozen or so finally clicked (pardon the pun) and we got something that I can definitely use.  I’m split between the first and the third shot above.  Which do you prefer?

Soundtrack to the shoot was Soundgarden’s album Badmotorfinger and Alice in Chain’s album Dirt.

I finally was able to go to the studio after a short Christmas break and explore some fashion creatives once again.  If you have been following my blog you are well aware of my yet to be titled book of alternative fashion.  This night Tima, an aspiring model from Toronto, stepped up for the challenge and did she ever nail the shoot!  She knew what I was looking for as she did some research on my past shoots of this theme and was able to do her own hair and make up. These are the obligatory favourite five from the shoot and I definitely love Tima’s expression and pose on the last shot.  That would be the one for the book.

Hey Tima, have you learned to make a fist yet?  lol

Music for the shoot was Tricky’s Maxinquaye and Pre-Millenium Tension.

I just bought this lens and let me tell you it is one of the sharpest lenses I own or have used.  Hands down!  Even wide open it’s the sharpest of all my lenses at their best aperture.  Nothing scientific here, just purely pixel peeping and I still can’t believe how sharp this lens is.

For past clients’ product shots I have been using my Sigma 24-70 2.8 Macro (not a true macro).  I also used this lens for the majority of macro and still life shots in my portfolio.  Although I was happy with the results with some additional photoshop work, I also knew that one day I would get a dedicated macro lens.  I had some extra Amex Reward points and decided to use it for a Henry’s gift card.  Voila!

The minute I got home from purchasing this lens I shot everything around the house to test for sharpness and overall responsiveness of the focusing.  My poor Simone was the main subject of this day’s experiments and I don’t think she will ever look into a lens again.  I was extremely impressed with the focusing and could only blame my own hand movements for any shots that I missed although they were few and far between.  When shooting within a couple of centimetres with this macro lens and using a very shallow depth of field, absolute precision is required.  Anyway, until the next update with this lens here’s a close up image of Simone’s nose.

Soundtrack to today’s testing included Danger Mouse’s album Dark Night of The Soul.

Shooting Colette on Sundays has become something of a ritual the last few months but with a beautiful model like Colette how could I not shoot her as often as possible.  Today we thought we would change it up a bit and pull off an edgy fashion type shoot.  Here is the shot of the day.

Tech note: Most of my gear was at the studio on this day so I used my 50mm 1.4 with two strobes (one soft box, one snoot) and one SB800.

Soundtrack to today’s shoot was Jamiroquai’s latest album Rock Dust Light Star.

I was asked to photograph Debashis Sinha’s latest sound and video installation presented by the Toronto Free Gallery and SAVAC.  This was the last day of the one month exhibition and I was glad to not only photograph the exhibition but also to absorb myself with the sights, sounds, smells, images and objects of the installation.

More information at www.savac.net/savac-current-programs/theknownworld.html

More information about Debashis Sinha and his works at www.debsinha.com

More of my images from the exhibition can be seen here

www.louephoto2.com/Events/Debashis-Sinha-Installation/14933764_SqPwF#1114942275_NFvsq