Focus, Please

I just realized something!

There is this little switch on my camera, and if you flip it, the camera won't focus for you! Ok, ok. I didn't just realize that. But auto-focus is something that we as a society of camera users have come to rely on. I'm the same, don't get me wrong. Auto-focus is a glorious invention that makes it possible to shoot quickly and without any possible chance of failure!

Back when my eyes were sharp as cats, or tacks, I liked to manual focus a lot more. Now that I'm old and things look blurry all the time, I've been counting on auto-focus... I still like to explore the world of manual focus when things are a little less rushed... For example, when taking pictures of puddles.

So. Enjoy these pictures of puddles. And I hope you've enjoyed the blog I wrote specifically because I took pictures of puddles yesterday. I like sharing.

Profound, right?

Calla Lily

At the beginning of the month I was contacted by Fashion Magazine to be part of the launch party for the new Calvin Klein fragrance, Beauty. I, along with four other female photographers, was asked to photograph a calla lily according to my artistic sensibility. Uh oh.

So I phoned Jess. My favourite art director/person ever, who shares my artistic sensability, as scary as that may be. Together we set out to create something... Here is our journey...

First we collected important items...
Then used them... Outside.
We tried many different approaches...

Before coming up with our final product! We love it!

Click here to read an article about the event! Wahoo!

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

I think this is the funniest thing ever.

No Photoshop required for this trick, just pure, unharnessed, human-made hilarity!

Nobody else thinks this is funny? Hmmm. Maybe it was the 10 hours I spent outside in the freezing cold that did it.

Ah well. Did you find the special secret in this blog?

HMMM!

Spectacular Spectacles

For the past few months I have been working closely with Josephson Opticians working on a series of ads to celebrate their 75th anniversary! The three ads have been featured in the past three issues of Toronto Life! And just look at the people in these ads!

Chefs! Fashion! Culture! Take a closer look! These cats are the bee's knees!


Thank you to everybody at Josephson and everybody at Brill Communications for making these shoots run so smoothly and fun-ly!

Hardly

I can hardly believe I've gone this long without blogging, though it is hardly a surprise as I've hardly had time to wash my hair lately let alone blog. But now that I'm blogging I can hardly wait to share these photos that I shot for a new online magazine called Hardly!

It is hardly a challenge to take nice photos when your subject is the lovely and talented Seychelle Gabriel.

Check out Hardly Magazine by clicking right here to see the rest of the photos!

The View From My Face: Brampton

Inspired by the views around where I've been working lately, I decided to start a new blog segment called: "The View From My Face."

This segment will pretty much be a picture of what I'm looking at when I'm standing somewhere. Which, yes, is pretty much all pictures taken without a tripod and timer. But this will be specifically places specifically for this segment! Hooray for new segments!

Enjoy the view of Brampton! I know I have been!

Remembering In Style

Remember when Remembrance Day poppies had the green middles? That wasn't too long ago. Now that poppies have the slick black middles, people are really using poppies to enhance their wardrobes during the month of November. As we all know, red and black is a classic colour combination that is very pleasing to the eye. And while I will not go so far as to say that red goes with everything, a poppy can be the perfect accent to an already fashionable outfit, or a valid attempt to fancy up a relatively drab outfit.

This year on Remembrance Day I was on set working with a fantastic crew, many of whom were wearing poppies both to honour the veterans, and to enhance their day-to-day style.

I won't say who I think is more fashionable or less fashionable, but please enjoy this offering of poppies, seventeen ways.


Way to wear those poppies proud!

Adventures In Portfolio Land

Sometimes people have portfolios to show other people their work. Sometimes they are on websites, and sometimes they are printed out!

I have a printed out portfolio. It's printed out on real paper and all that! But sometimes, you go for a job interview for the kind of work that you don't necessarily do all the time, and so you don't necessarily keep those kinds of photos in your printed out portfolio.

When that happens, you need to make another one! A temporary type one that you can substitute pictures in and out of depending on the kind of job you are interviewing for...

I had to make such a portfolio for today!
Here are some key elements for portfolio making...

A shiny new portfolio makes portfolio making more fun!

Then you take some images! In my case, they are happy portraits!

The sharper your sharp little friend, the better!

Then you cut out pictures and huzzah! You're done!

Did I get the job?
We'll find out soon enough!

Game On Solved

A few weeks back I proposed a challenge!
Here are the answers to said challenge!

RIGHT HERE!

1. Angie - The Rolling Stones
2. Barbara Ann - The Beach Boys
3. Cecilia - Simon and Garfunkel
4. Darlene - Led Zeppelin
5. Fannie Mae - Buster Brown
6. Gloria - Van Morrison
7. Izabella - Jimi Hendrix
8. Jolene - Dolly Parton
9. Julia - The Beatles
10. Lola - The Kinks
11. Peggy Sue - Buddy Holly
12. Polly - Nirvana
13. Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac
14. Roxanne - The Police
15. Sheila - Morphine
16. Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
17. Suzy Lee - The White Stripes
18. Vera - Pink Floyd

Click the songs to hear the songs! And sometimes there are videos! Sorry for the live one(s)... Some of these songs are weird.

And the winner... IS:

IT'S A TIE! With a score of 7/18 each, the winners are Trung Ho and Melissa Di Pasquale!

That's a pretty decent score! But we have to do a tie breaker to have an ultimate winner. Or else it just wouldn't be fair... What should the tie breaker be... OK I GOT IT! Whoever is the first to guess the name I have tattooed inside my lip, WINS! You must comment on this blog with your answers to be eligible! Answer as many times as you want!

HINT: It is a girl's name, NOT my name, and it is also the name of MANY songs...

GO!

UPDATE! Trung Ho is the winner!

RandoMonday XVI

It's November!

How random is that!?

Ok, ok, you need something more random than that? Ok. Fine. FINE! Here are some pictures of eggs that cooked in this really weird way that made their shells look like wood! Apparently National Egg Month is actually in May. But I really felt like celebrating early. So I hereby dub November, Honourary National Egg Month!