Dr. Draw

Some of you may recall my post from a couple weeks ago about the opportunity I had to shoot Dr. Draw while they performed at The Works Art & Design Festival here in town. I’ve been talking to their manager and will be sending a CD of some of the shots for them to include in the gallery on their main site.

Much to my delight, I noticed a new comment on one of the images I took at the show.

The comment came from Eugene Draw himself:

I love this photo…
I would love to post it as the profile pic on the Dr. Draw myspace page actually all of the photos look just amazing….
you are truly a real deal photographer
e

Thanks for the comment Eugene, glad you liked the shot and hope to see it gracing your myspace page soon! I’ll chalk this one up to the published column…

Tags: B&W, Black & White, black and white, dr. draw, festival, musician, performance, performer, Portrait, Published, the works, the works art & design festival

10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits

Being part of the 365 Days/threesixtyfive self-portrait a day for a year project, I found this article over on the DPS Blog today very interesting. Always looking for different ways to shoot myself, and I’m sure this will come in handy for portrait shooting as well!

How do you take Portraits that have the ‘Wow’ factor?

Today and tomorrow I want to talk about taking Portraits that are a little out of the box. You see it’s all very well and good to have a portrait that follows all the rules - but it hit me as I was surfing on Flickr today that often the most striking portraits are those that break all the rules.

I want to look at some ways to break out of the mold and take striking portraits by breaking (or at least bending) the rules and adding a little randomness into your portrait photography.

In a nutshell here are the ten points from the post today:

1. Alter your perspective
2. Play with eye contact
3. Break the rules of composition
4. Experiment with lighting
5. Move your subject out of their comfort zone
6. Shoot candidly
7. Introduce a prop
8. Focus upon one body part - get up close
9. Obscure part of your subject
10. Take a series of shots

My favorite technique, as you can see, is playing with and experimenting with light (photo above). I also find some of my best portraits are when shot candidly - as can be seen in the two photos below.

Be sure to head on over to the DPS Blog and read in detail 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits!

Tags: 365, DPS, People, portraits, self-portraits, threesixtyfive, Tips

Dr. Draw at The Works Art & Design Festival

Wednesday’s lunch hour performance at The Works Art & Design Festival in Edmonton was provided by Dr. Draw. Interesting mix of instruments - electric violin, electric guitar, electric harp, bass, keyboards and drums… was very cool though, lots of energy.

It was a much different shoot - a little harder shooting a band of 6 as opposed to two. Managed to get a few good black and white portraits in the process, and it was fun trying to figure out how to frame the different instruments.

Here’s a video but it really doesn’t do them justice, they need to be seen live to fully appreciate the talent within the group and the energy that the music provides.

Be sure to check out the entire set, twenty photos in all.

Tags: band, concert, dr. draw, live music, musician, performance, performer, the works

What makes an image so appealing?

Really… what makes a photograph appealing? Took this on the weekend at the Alberta Railway Museum… and I don’t know why but I really like it.

For an even better view, check it out on a black background.

Check out the rest of my set on Flickr - more photos every day, I only took about 400!

Tags: alberta railway museum, B&W, black and white, bolts, engine, train

DPP Solutions: Proper Contrast In Black-And-White

Been struggling somewhat with a B&W image conversion tonight, stumbled on this article written by Rob Sheppard over at Digital Photo Pro Magazine.

Contrast is critical to a properly printed black-and-white image. There’s no color to define and structure a photograph. It all must be done in the monochrome tonalities from black to white.

Contrast is no simple thing. Ansel Adams spends a lot of time talking about it in his classic book, The Print. Early in the book, he makes a statement that’s quite appropriate to today’s digital photographer, “Some photographers stress extreme black and white effects with very strong print contrasts … [while] others work for a softer effect … their power lies in the ‘seeing’ and the balance of values.”

Adams goes on to say that some photographers use contrast for contrast’s sake, regardless of the needs of the subject or scene. His point is simply that contrast shouldn’t be an arbitrary tool, but that there’s an optimum contrast that comes from the vision of the photographer connected to the needs of the image.

Here’s my original conversion to B&W of the image I was working on tonight:

After reading the article, I really didn’t come up with much better… maybe I am on the right track.

Check out how to use Proper Contrast In Black-And-White over at Digital Photo Pro Magazine.

Tags: ansel adams, B&W, black and white, contrast, digital photo pro, dpp, magazine, rob sheppard, Tips

Ansel Adams Photographs - Records of the National Park Service

Stumbled upon this cool archive earlier today. I love Ansel Adams, he is one of my favorite photographers…

In 1941 the National Park Service commissioned noted photographer Ansel Adams to create a photo mural for the Department of the Interior Building in Washington, DC. The theme was to be nature as exemplified and protected in the U.S. National Parks. The project was halted because of World War II and never resumed.

Check out the photographs over at The National Archives. Be sure to check out The Ansel Adams Gallery as well.

Tags: ansel adams, national archives, national park service

Edmonton Municipal & St. Joachim’s Cemeteries…

Headed out at lunch yesterday to the Edmonton Municipal Cemetery to snap a few shots… didn’t realize it was actually a couple of cemeteries, and that we had a WWI War Memorial there… turned out well though, took about 75 shots and ended up posting 22. Couple samples below, you can view the entire set on flickr.

Tags: cemetery, edmonton, graveyard

Sign - flickr Fave of the Day

Noticed this shot from a fellow threesixtyfiver, Ter5. It’s a great shot, love the perspective, depth of focus and black and white treatment.

Sign, originally uploaded by Ter5.

Tags: black and white, flickr Fave of the day, no tresspassing, sign, ter5

I is for Itty Bitty - flickr Fave of the Day

My fave of the day comes from the DPS forums alphabet game… I just like the framing on this one and the subject matter… wish we’d done more like this when our kids were still babies.

I is for Itty Bitty, originally uploaded by Amy-Rose.

Tags: amy-rose, flickr Fave of the day, foot, hand

Angelic Harp

Took a few pictures out at the Bed & Breakfast… I really liked these two.

Tags: angel, bed & breakfast, Black & White, sculpture, statue