Week 17: Sunday, April 25, 2010

There is a saying among photographers: "The best camera is the one you have with you."

Technological advancements in the last 5 years have led to smaller and smaller cameras, with cellphones coming with one (or more) camera's as standard. This can lead to some "street journalism" with bystanders filming events as they unfold; the current protests in Thailand, the tazering at the University of Florida, the shooting of an unarmed man on the BART transit system, just to name a few. At any given moment, I'll have between 1 and 3 cameras on me (my cellphone camera, my Canon SD750 and my Canon XSi).

This week's shot was taken in Little Italy using my N79 cellphone camera. The city has done a lot to the neighbourhood in recent years, and a lot of the character there is directly due to them renovating the area, without getting rid of the old buildings. So you have a great juxtaposition of old, scenic buildings with restaurants and stores that make it a great area to wander around.

From Project 52

Week 16: Sunday, April 18th, 2010

So this week's photo is a food one. I'm a little surprised it took me this long to get a food photo to be honest - anyone who knows me knows I love to cook. And the only thing I love more than cooking is eating.

Today's photo was taken at Mongolian Village in Bells Corners (link). It's a great little place very few people actually go to, for reasons that are beyond me. You go there, pick the veggies, meats and sauces you want, and they stir fry it for you there and then.

In short, food is great.

From Project 52

Week 15: Sunday April 11th, 2010

So Spring is here in full force. I've been enjoying the weather (aside from the three days of rain we got this week), grilling absolutely anything that can be grilled, and getting out and about to take some new shots. The new pictures are up at this album over on the Picasa site (click). I'll be adding pictures to that album, so keep checking it out.

This week's shot was for the Gizmodo Shooting Challenge (link). Same as how Week 10's shot was themed "Candlelight" this week the theme is "Spring's First Breath." For those wondering, the star of this shot was the same tree featured way back in Week 4.



Technical info: Canon XSi, ISO 160, 1/4000s, f/3.5, 31mm

From Project 52

Week 14: Monday April 5th, 2010

So we have had some absolutely beautiful weather this past week, and that, combined with a 4 day weekend, has resulted in the current delay in blog updates.

So I was downtown this past Saturday to see Capital Grass and the No Men perform (link here - listen to Golden Rules Bent - absolutely phenomenal tune!) and took some shots of them, as well as some more around downtown. In all my years on this Earth, I have never in my life heard the electric mandolin. Now I have. And its close cousin, the electric banjo.

One particular problem I faced was when you have a very bright foreground and dark background (or vice versa). As a result, you either end up with very washed out focal objects, or very dark backgrounds, neither of which are what you want. However, occasionally you can end up with some stunning shots.

From Project 52

Technical info: Canon XSi with 50 mm @ f/2.6, 1/100s, ISO 200. White balancing and creative filters applied in Adobe LightRoom.