Constant Inspiration

As a photographer, and especially a photographer without a job, one of the most valuable things you can get is inspiration. I've said this time and time again, because it remains as true as ever. It doesn't matter how well you can craft and create a photograph, if you don't know what you want to create. Occasionally one just walks into a situation that beckons to make art out of it, but most of the time one needs to go out and find it themselves. One of my largest sources of inspiration is my family's cottage outside of Grand Bend. I had a miniature holiday there this past weekend (before spending the rest of the March Break working) and made several new images. Noteworthy of those being these two, Tundra Swan Migration and Drift.
Archipelago Photography- islands of thought and image, connected with a name

It's All In The Details

When it comes to cameras, the difference between a DSLR and a Point-and-Shoot is growing smaller. The technology in a DSLR is getting better, but on a much slower curve than the technology in Point-and-Shoots. But there are still many examples of photographs where it is clear that the photo is made with a DSLR. I find that many of these photos show their origin through the amount of detail they contain. A DSLR photo almost always holds scads of detail (provided of course the light balance is kept and the appropriate lens is used). So with that in mind, here are two photos I would not have been able to make without a DSLR. The first being I, a macro shot of my girlfriend Rachelle's eye, and the second Rio Grande, a macro of my dog Rio.
Archipelago Photography- insulae de cogitum lumenque, maritus cum nomen

Skills

Two weeks ago, Fanshawe College hosted The London level of the Skills Ontario competition. The competition is comprised of about a dozen categories in the digital and physical trades where high school students compete so they can move on to the Provincial level (there are also prizes when one gets to higher levels). So the students take a day off of school and spend all day competing their respective competitions. This year, I was asked to go represent L.S.C.I. and so a good friend of mine Alexandra Eppel (the subject of the second photograph) and I hopped on a bus before the sun rose March 29th headed for Fanshawe. We spent the day editing a photo for a "client", making a thumbnail contact sheet and above all shooting photos. The criteria for the photos were: they had to be made that day, they had to incorporate the theme "point-of-view" and they all needed to include one of three household objects. The object choices were 1) a feather, 2) a piece of tubing or 3) a water bottle. I chose the latter and had to incorporate it into all of my photos. At the end of the day we needed to have a contact sheet of 24-28 of our photos from the day, one portrait and one 'everyday life' photo utilising the theme and object. At the end of the day, I had these two photos.
Archipelago Photography- islands of thought and image, connected with a name

Spring has Sprung

Finally, after one peculiar winter, it seems as if Spring is here. This is a photo of the first of the crocuses that have popped up in my yard. At my house, crocuses are the very first sign of spring and we always have about a dozen of them come up underneath the tree on my front lawn. As an announcement of spring, and the presentation of a photograph I am happy with, I give you Crocus.
Archipelago Photography- islands of thought and image, connected with a name.

Squak!

Another Toronto Zoo post for you all. This post being about birds, it is necessary to say that every bird is an entirely different photo assignment. Birds will move, turn, and fly away for almost no apparent reason. The huge standing-up bird took me almost fifteen minutes to find a good photo of. And as for the owl, how could you not love the smile on his face? He just makes me want to smile. :)
Archipelago Photography- insulae de cogitum lumenque, maritus cum nomen

Ssssssss

These here, are examples of my favourite animal to photograph. That's right, I love photographing snakes. Snakeskin contains incredible amounts of details and often unique colours and patterns, making for one great subject. Also their type of movement and relaxed positions leave them in visually interesting poses. And finally, my last reason for loving to photograph snakes, is that they are really great models; they don't move much and when they do, it is usually not very fast.
These snakes are all members of the Toronto Zoo, where my family and I went on Family Day. Be on the lookout for more pictures from that day, I made about 250.
So enjoy these three snake pictures, and if you get the chance, be sure to give snake photography a chance. It is actually really fun and satisfying (and I'm not just saying that because I am a Slytherin).
Archipelago Photography- islands of thought and image connected with a name

Leggo my Lego!

I just recently completed one of my most interesting photo assignments; I was hired by a client to photograph a Lego city. This city is about 2x2 metres with an unguessable number of pieces, that must have taken the two boys dozens of hours to create. And the coolest part is that it's all original. There are very minimal bits that are designed with instructions, and the entire rest of it is designed by them. So when they called me and told me they wanted me to photograph it before they deconstructed it and rebuilt it, so of course I said yes! After about an hour of photographing with 30 second exposures and some specific colour adjustments I came up with about 30 images of great to moderate quality that I'm pretty happy with. these are a few. For the most part the aim of the photos was for posterity, but I did take a bit of creativity with a few of them (especially the Batman photo up top).
Archipelago Photography-islands of thought and image, connected with a name