I'm getting a new computer! A Dell XPS 420 to be exact, and also a new monitor, Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP (20.1" Widescreen). I'll post some more detailed specs for those interested, when I actually get it, which should be sometime next week.
In the mean time I've discovered the wonderful world of truthful PC vs. Mac ads. Here's one very relevent to this post:
Here are some more:
PC vs Mac: The reason I hate it the Pikto has Mac computers.
Half-Life 2 Style: On Macs and games.
Cheers, can't wait for my XPS!
Dec 29, 2007
Dec 26, 2007
Dec 24, 2007
Pictures of Clothing, No. 1
For those who don't know, my girlfriend, Olya Siniakov, is a stylist (you can check out her stuff [here]).Although fashion photography isn't my usual thing, we had a little shoot. I tried to avoid "fashion photos" although one or two might have slipped themselves into the set. This is by no means a cohesive set of images, just some random experiments.
I'll be posting more images over the next few days.
Dec 17, 2007
Dec 15, 2007
Dec 14, 2007
School Is Out
Half way through second year, time to take a breather, explore some ideas, and do house keeping.
Kicked off the winter break by attending the Planet Eye holiday party (photo above), my brother works there / created it, and I've done some photography work them.
Thanks for taking me man!
Nothing like free food and unlimited drinks to get you into the holiday spirit.
Dec 8, 2007
Dec 5, 2007
Dec 1, 2007
Self Portrait
Playing around with a bit of ring-light style lighting, where you put a soft box directly behind the camera.
Nov 29, 2007
Nov 27, 2007
Nov 23, 2007
Nov 22, 2007
Material Things
Yesterday night I decided I wanted to make list of various things, not sure why it seems like an interesting thing to look back at in some time.
So here is my first list, they are things that I want/plan to get.
So here is my first list, they are things that I want/plan to get.
- A new desktop PC, I'm looking at the Dell XPS 720
- Medium Format or Large Format film camera, probably medium, perhaps the Hasselblad 500 c/m
- Alec Soth's Dog Days Bogota and Fashion Magazine
- Taryn Simon's An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar
Nov 20, 2007
"I don't take a piss without getting paid".
The way I see it, free work is alright if nobody is getting paid, but the moment one person is paid, everyone involved should.
Nov 12, 2007
Nov 10, 2007
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)
This TED talk is about how the education system kills creativity, and the speaker (Ken Robinson) is very funny. Check it out, and find out more about TED below.
For sometime now I have been watching TED talks when ever I remember of them. TED is a conference which "brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers" to give a lecture in about an 18min period.
These talks are immensely interesting, often humorous, and the ideas or subjects which they are about are often extremely fascinating and inspirational. I think I have posted TED talks on here before, my last post was one, and I will most likely be posting more. The conference has been going on since 1984 and they have over 150 videos online with more being added each week.
You can view the talks on their site, although I find it very slow, probably due to high demand. I haven't had problems with viewing them on YouTube, the key is to start the video, pause it and let it load to the end before watching it. What's even better is that TED has their own YouTube account so one mustn't due a lot of digging to find videos.
What are you waiting for go watch some.
For sometime now I have been watching TED talks when ever I remember of them. TED is a conference which "brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers" to give a lecture in about an 18min period.
These talks are immensely interesting, often humorous, and the ideas or subjects which they are about are often extremely fascinating and inspirational. I think I have posted TED talks on here before, my last post was one, and I will most likely be posting more. The conference has been going on since 1984 and they have over 150 videos online with more being added each week.
You can view the talks on their site, although I find it very slow, probably due to high demand. I haven't had problems with viewing them on YouTube, the key is to start the video, pause it and let it load to the end before watching it. What's even better is that TED has their own YouTube account so one mustn't due a lot of digging to find videos.
What are you waiting for go watch some.
Nov 6, 2007
Nov 2, 2007
On Sharing
I made some changes on the sidebar (on the left), mainly I deleted a bunch of links and replaced them with a smaller more personal list. I have started to use del.icio.us to keep track of photography bookmarks so you can check that out.
Also I've created a Tumblr account, if you want to know what Tumblr is or why you should get it, check out my brother's blog since he's the one that told me about it.
Also I've created a Tumblr account, if you want to know what Tumblr is or why you should get it, check out my brother's blog since he's the one that told me about it.
Oct 31, 2007
Have a Nice Halloween
Hey, I'm back from New York. More on that later, maybe. Have a good Halloween.
Oct 25, 2007
Oct 22, 2007
Oct 17, 2007
Oct 15, 2007
Oct 14, 2007
Phantom Shanghai: Greg Girard
I had the chance today to see the Phantom Shanghai show at the Monte Clark Gallery, by Canadian photographer, Greg Girard. The project, which started in 1998, deals with Shanghai's seemingly unstoppable urban-redevelopment, in China's attempt to stay with it's rapidly growing economy. It is the lower classes that suffer from this immense transformation, as their homes are being torn down and replaced with sky scrapers.The show consists of large scale prints ranging from about a meter across to several meters. They are rich with emotion that makes you feel for Shanghai's poorer residents. The unnatural color palate due to the mixed light sources, and the subtle motion blur from the long exposures (all the images were shot at night) give the images an eerie "phantom"-like feeling that jumps out of the prints.
Although today was the last day to see part one of the show, the second rotation of images will begin Thursday, October 18th and will run until November 11th.
You can also check out the book, that is published by the Magenta Foundation (who are awesome by the way).
Oct 13, 2007
Oct 12, 2007
Chris Jordan
It's been an intense week school wise, just finished a Sensitometry project, check out the link for what that's all about. I have a bit of free time now, I'd say a couple hours (I have 2 exams next week). So here is something interesting to check out.
Chris Jordan is a photographer who photographs societies consumption, check out his segment on the Colbert Report.
Chris Jordan is a photographer who photographs societies consumption, check out his segment on the Colbert Report.
Oct 5, 2007
Happy Birthday Mom!
I usually try not to upload two photos in one day, but it's my Mom's birthday and the Sumo photo just didn't do her justice.
Thanks for everything Mom, your awesome!
Sumo
Lately, I've been taking a lot of photos around Toronto again, many of them with my 50mm 1.4 lens, so you will be seeing a lot more photos being posted.
- - -
My previous image has been featured on The Daily Photoist today! The Daily Photoist is a feature on the Torontoist, where they post a photo that they like from their Flickr Pool.
For those who don't know about Torontoist, it is a news-like blog about all things Toronto. Go check it out!
Oct 3, 2007
Sep 29, 2007
Sep 28, 2007
Lupe Fiasco - Conflict Diamonds
Although I like Kanye's video more, Lupe killed him in the lyric department on this one.
That's all for the Lupe Fiasco posts... for now.
Sep 24, 2007
Halo
This is Master Chief from Halo, personally not a big fan of the game, but it's being hyped up... again, and I bough a xbox 360 (more on this later.. maybe) so I'll probably check it out.
This was shot at Dundas Square (Toronto), Best Buy has some video game thing going.
Halo 3 comes out tommorow (Sept 25, 2007)
Sep 22, 2007
Kurt Cobain About A Son
This movie looks really beautiful in a romanticism sort-of-way.
It's also post 101 on the new blog, go me.
Sep 19, 2007
Sep 15, 2007
Sep 13, 2007
I got a laptop!
I bought a laptop today and I'm loving it. Although it's mainly for taking notes in school and such, it should be powerful enough to run Photoshop CS3 (haven't installed it yet) as well as doing other things.
Here are the specs for those who are into that:
Acer Aspire 5570-4438
Intel Core Duo T2450 (2Ghz [x2])
14" Screen (Glossy)
On-board graphics card
80GBHard Drive
1GB RAM (DDR2)
Running Windows Vista
So far I'm liking Vista, got connected to the internet no problem, seems fast. I like the search function in the start menu a lot!
Keep you posted.
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And yes Slava, I did steal your new computer photo, but I edited in a different photo onto the screen. Innovation not recreation, it's allowed!
Sep 11, 2007
Kanye West - Graduation
Dropped into HMV in between classes today and picked up Kanye West's latest album (Graduation [released today]). I've listned through it, front to end about 5 times now and loving it. Seems like Kanye can just deliver awesome records time and time again. Great production and West's effortless lyrics are still here, what's better still is that he didn't include any of those stupid skits that he had on his last two albums!
Track 13 - Big Brother is my favorite; the song is about how Kanye idolized, and still does, Jay Z. Basically goes through their relationship from A to Z (no pun intended).
My least favourite Track has to be Drunk and Hot Girls (#8), which is a shame as it has Mos Def on it, but it just shitty.
I'm also not into Lil'Wayne on Track 7 - Barry Bonds, his lyrics just suck.
I give it a 4.5/5, just get rid of those two songs and replace it with one good one and its a 5/5! Go get it kids.
Sep 9, 2007
Sep 5, 2007
Sep 3, 2007
Back-To-School
Updates:
I'm back from Ottawa, not much to talk about there.
School starts tommorow! Can't wait.
I pick up my business cards tomorrow.
Still shooting photos of Toronto, hopefully I'll finish this week. Editing takes a lot of time!
Aug 31, 2007
Going to Ottawa/Montreal
I'm off to Ottawa / Montreal for the weekend. Sorry for the lack of updates, been working none stop all week. I'm only taking my Lomo Fisheye 2 to shoot with this weekend so should be interesting! See Ya.
Aug 26, 2007
Aug 22, 2007
New Lighting Equipment
Yesterday I just bought a whole bunch of lighting equipment that in my opinion will give me much more flexibility in the type of photos I can take.
Here is the list:
1. Light Stand (Studio Lighting System) - A 10ft-tall stand to which you can attach a wide-variety of lights.
2. Umbrella (Aurora) - A 42inch, silver umbrellas for bouncing light.
3. Umbrella Mount (Opus) - Attaches the umbrella and flash to the light stand.
That is the main set-up, and here is what it looks like when it's all together:
Now #4 is a bit of a different story, it's a reflector very close to this one. Both are silver, both are about 30 inches across, both reflect light. However mine, I bought from Canadian Tire, not a camera store, it cost me about $15 instead of $85, and also I received 2 reflectors for that price instead of one. Thus instead of spending $170, I spent $15!! If that's not a sweet deal, I don't know what is.
Here is a photo of the two-reflectors:
I'll put up some photos using the new stuff soon, as well as some comparison photos, of with/without reflector and umbrella.
Aug 21, 2007
Changes
Sorry for the lack of uploads, I'm just crazy busy at the moment.
I've recently left my job at Black's (Wednesday is my last day), so I'm strictly doing freelance photography right now! Pretty big change, we'll see how it all works out. I currently have work lined up until the beginning of September, and am working on getting a few more jobs. Also I'm buying some new lighting equipment, but I'll post that up later.
On another note I just saw Superbad and it has to be one of the funniest movies ever! Go see it, and let me know when you do cause I definitely want to watch it again!
Aug 15, 2007
Lean Back
Working 13 hours almost everyday this week, makes me miss the time where I could just kick back in a lounge chair and read a book. Freelance photography is tough.
Aug 14, 2007
Aug 12, 2007
Aug 8, 2007
Cross
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Watched the Bourne Ultimatum last night, awesome film and a good conclusion to the series. Love the final shot!
**Don't spoil the film for others in the comments, spoilers will be deleted.
Aug 7, 2007
Light
I've developed a love/hate relationship with Algonquin Park this past weekend. More on this later.
Aug 6, 2007
Door to Door Atheists!
Door To Door Atheists Bother Mormons - Watch more free videos
Now that's what I'm talking about, a bit of your own medicine!
Aug 1, 2007
Jul 29, 2007
Jul 28, 2007
Birthday!
It was my birthday yesterday. Thanks goes out to everyone who called, emailed, facebooked, or text messaged me! Cheers.
Jul 27, 2007
Jul 25, 2007
Jesus and Mary
I've recently been commissioned by my brother's company (Planet Eye), to photograph more than 100 tourist destinations in Toronto. Go me! This has me quite busy as well as feeling tired, so blogging is second to doing nothing when I get home from roaming Toronto and shooting all day.
My trips have me visiting several churches in Toronto, which has made me realize that I like churches and Gothic architecture in general. Let me tell you Toronto has some fairly impressive churches, and even the ones that seem tiny from the outside, never fail to impress with their massive interiors. It makes me miss my art history classes last year.
Jul 24, 2007
Jul 23, 2007
Bang
I was shooting this regular night scene, near my house when all of a sudden fireworks started going off!
Jul 21, 2007
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