Art Crawl street portraits - June 2010

Posted on 23/06/2010

The latest round of street portraits from the James North Art Crawl are up.  Link after the jump.  To the right, Megan, who works at My Dog Joe in Westdale.

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Art Crawl street portraits - May 2010

Posted on 19/05/2010

The Art Crawl last Friday night was terrific.  The weather was gorgeous, there were many interesting shows opening and one-time-only events, like the performance artist beside the Leons Furs building, and the street just felt delightfully alive.  Thanks to everyone who stopped for a moment and let me photograph them.  Link after the jump.

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W.H.A.T. ?

Posted on 29/04/2010

The West Hamilton Artists' Tour, that's what.  It's sort of an old tradition (10 years or so), and sort of new because it's been planned and organised by a new group of people this year (and is no longer called the "Studio Tour").  I'm on the tour this year and I'm excited to be a part of it.  It runs all day Saturday and Sunday May 8 & 9, Mother's Day weekend, and features 14 artists in 8 studios and homes.  Michelle Prosek is joining me at my house, at 280 Locke Street South. Hope to see you there.  Links and map after the jump.

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With flare

Posted on 23/04/2010

Like other photographers who shoot a lot of architecture, I have a real love-hate thing going on with the sun. It gives me good shadows so I can convey depth, it helps me create contrast in certain textures, but just as often it will be firing into my eyes and blowing out the background sky or shining so intensely that I can't expose for both the sunlit and shadow sides of a building.  Well, this past week I got even and made the most of Phoebus' inconvenient positioning in two images that, I think, only really work because of the appearance of the sun in the frame, generally a no-no.  Both were found images - I walked onto the scene and found that I could shoot my subject while flaring the sun behind it - but in each case it took a lot of minute adjustments of exposure and, mainly, positioning to get it right.  And in each case the final image was made on a return trip the next day when I knew what I was aiming for and what worked and didn't work from the first attempts.  Images after the jump.

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