Sabodala Village

On the surface, it is what I would have imagined it to be.
No electricity or running water.
No 2,500 sq ft homes.
No a/c.
No cars.
No 52" HD LCDs.
No cable TV.
No 3D Imax mega movies.
No ipods, ipads, iphones.
No bmw, versace, abercrombe or apple.
No designer shoes.
No designer anything.
No facebook or twitter.
No internet.
Not a whole lot by western standards.
They live in grass, straw and mud huts.
Not what a westerner would consider livable.
The morning communal meeting area?
The water supply station.
Where the women fill their pots.
Yet everywhere I walked, there were smiling faces.
And giggling children.
A different world.
A different pace.
Different.
Not inferior.
Their life, I would wager, is as much, if not more fulfilling than my own.
It is here, we could all learn a lesson.
I have for sure.
On what is truly of value.
What is key in life.
Key to happiness.
To fulfillment.
Sabodala Village

By the way, I've rearranged my Travel gallery to include both trips and destinations.

Halloween on Church Street

It just wouldn't be Halloween without the annual trip to Church Street to partake in the fabulous festivities.
Such characters and creative costumes!



A few images from the night are up here.

Graffiti

Looking through the pics of this year's graffiti alley walk had me reminiscing about the (now gone) graffiti I photographed in the alley back in 2009, so I ended up uploading a few extra pics from the past visit as well.



The graffiti is up here.



And as luck would have it, they were actually in the middle of retagging some of the alley the day we visited. So we were able to snap a few pics of the artists in action. I've put a couple up here.

Zombies!

The zombies are in the people gallery now.

Graffiti to follow

The kids

BTW, I've updated the Transportation and the People galleries for the Suriname trip.

My favourite photos from the past year

For bokeh, subject, story, memories, colour, or whatever reason I have, these are the photos from the past year of which I am most proud.

June 2009 to May 2010 Fav Photos:

Turn Around

Hey, guess what?
I updated my People gallery for the Halloween pictures.
That's a quick turn around for me, eh.
Go check them out.

Halloween on Church Street

One of the few things I love about living in the big city (being from the wilderness of northwestern Ontario originally) is the diversity.
And craziness.
I joined my local photography club last night to check out Halloween on Church Street.



It was so warped and freaky, that only a fisheye lens could capture it properly.
The costumes were amazing and everyone was so friendly.
I think I've found myself a new annual event.



I've included some pictures on my flickr to tide you over until I have a chance to update my site.

Images are Up

Ah, a weekend to relax, breath...
...and update the galleries.
The images from my West Africa trip are up.
And I've expanded and updated the rest of my galleries.
Check them out.

Peru Pictures

OK, so I have uploaded some Peru pictures.
They can be seen HERE.
I still have to re-upload the rest of my website to the new server so please be patient.

Day Tripping

In one day I managed to use all my lenses, both my cameras, my off camera flash cord, and even my extension tubes. And what single destination had such diverse subjects to require such use?

Niagara Falls.

Our day trip down to Niagara Falls included a stop at the Butterfly Conservatory, which resulted in some interested images thanks to the extension tubes and my macro lens.



That headless shirt is actually me. Apparently, while setting up and taking a shot of another butterfly, I looked like a pretty attractive place to land.

Of course, we stopped to see the falls.



And walked up Clifton Hill.
So who else would utilize his off camera flash cord to take pictures while at Louis Tussaud's Wax Museum?



Yeah, I got some great images...and some odd looks while shooting there.

Finally, we ended up at Bird Kingdom, a massive aviary.
Some birds cooperated...



...some, not so much
Its like he's screeching "no pictures! no pictures!"

I'll be uploading pictures this week to the Insecta, Aves, and the Other galleries.

Blowers Make me Drool

Spent today at Performance World. I love hot cars, especially ones with mean looking blowers bursting through their hoods. So the event was definitely not a disappointment.

I will be adding some pictures from the event to the Automobilia & the Other galleries this week.

Lighting Workshop

A Saturday spent in a classroom is a Saturday lost...
...unless its spent gaining key insights about the art that you love.
Which, for me is the art of capturing images, moments, objects at a certain moment in time...capturing time...taking photographs. And on this Saturday, I did gain some key insights. About light and photography.

I attended a workshop put on by a fellow photographer named Andy Mina. If you picture David Schwimmer mixed with Christopher Walken, you get a pretty good idea of Andy. The workshop covered some basic principles, then focused on off-camera external (non-ambient) light sources and how to effectively utilize them to create desired effects in images. Andy spent half the day sharing his knowledge, then we spent the other half experimenting with what he taught. Overall, it was a great workshop in which I learned and understood more about properly and effectively using light, then I have from all other workshops/sources up to now. Great job Andy!

Results of a few of the experiments:

B&W Portraiture

Experimenting with black and white.
Two images.
Same subjects.
Different styles.
Not sure which I like more.