Finally, a black-and-white digital camera

Leave a Comment / Equipment / By

Yesterday the British Journal of Photography reported that Leica has announced a new rangefinder camera, the Leica “M” Monochrom, that includes an 18 MP, full-frame CCD sensor stripped of its conventional Bayer Pattern filter. As the camera does not “see” colours, says Leica, “every pixel records true luminance values to deliver ‘true’ black-and-white images that are significantly sharper than comparable exposures from a camera with a colour-sensitive sensor. On their website, Leica imaging writes on the Leica “M” Monochrom: The Leica M Monochrom more than satisfies the expectations of discerning […]

Finally, a black-and-white digital camera Read More »

Autofocus and the Canon 7D

Leave a Comment / Equipment / By

Much of my photographic efforts over the past six months have been devoted to curling, particularly since I became involved with the Laurier Golden Hawks High Performance Centre in November. Since then I’ve photographed a number of teams and clinics in a variety of different curling clubs. When setting up the High Performance Centre website, I consciously chose a grayscale theme because my intent was to convert all the curling photographs to black and white. My reasoning, which I think was sound, is that black-and-white photographs would unify the various

Autofocus and the Canon 7D Read More »

Lake Huron

Leave a Comment / Projects / By

This past week my family holidayed on the shores of Lake Huron, near Kincardine, Ontario. For a lad from the Prairies, the Great Lakes are incredibly imposing, with an astounding breadth of water and a skyscape that has the potential to change every few minutes. On August 22, an F3 tornado hit Goderich, Ontario, about 54km south of Kincardine. While we witnessed much of the storm system as it crossed Lake Huron from the state of Michigan, Kincardine and beaches surrounding it received only a little rain. But the sky

Lake Huron Read More »

Shooting high key

Leave a Comment / Projects / By

At the end of May I had the privilege of digitally photographing Heidi Wall, a young, virtuoso pianist who recently completed her degree in Music Performance at Wilfrid Laurier University. Heidi was interested in a high-key look with a solid white background, so for that we rented studio space in Stratford from Lori-Ann Franklin at Laf’s Photography. Kevin Garrett was my “assistant” – I use “assistant” in quotation marks since it became abundantly clear during the shoot who was the “teacher” and who was the “student”. The first issue in

Shooting high key Read More »

Acropolis

Leave a Comment / Travel / By

This morning I toured the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum in Athens. For my trip I had planned to shoot 35mm Ilford FP4+ and Kodak Tri-X, and so had taken along my Canon Elan 7 with my Canon 24-105L IS zoom, with my old Canon Rebel and a Canon 50mm for backup. However, the website for the Acropolis Museum wasn’t enthusiastic about bringing camera bags to the museum – the Museum does not permit photographs whatsoever – so I left the gear at my hotel and went to the Acropolis

Acropolis Read More »

Bruce Barnbaum – The Art of Photography

Leave a Comment / Books / By

On a recommendation from Jim Blomfield I recently purchased a copy of Bruce Barnbaum‘s book, The Art of Photography, first published in 2010 and now – already – in its fourth printing. Jim was right; this is a great book, certainly ranking in the top five in my library. I purchased the book mostly because I have been a fan of Barnbaum’s black-and-white images for several years, and I wanted the book as a resource for helping me produce the finest gelatin silver black-and-white prints I possibly can. That detail

Bruce Barnbaum – The Art of Photography Read More »

Joy

Leave a Comment / Prints, Projects / By

Canon Elan 7 with Sigma 24-70mm, with yellow #8 filter, using Kodak TMY 400 film developed with Ilford 2000. Exposure unknown. Printed on Ilford FB Warmtone glossy developed with Ilford Multigrade developer. Toned with Kodak Selenium toner 1:9 for 3 minutes. Famous French photographer Robert Doisneau, whose 2011 wall calendar graces my office, is often quoted as saying “If I knew how to make a perfect photograph, I’d do it every time”. I have certainly taken my share of poorly-constructed, ill-composed, out-of-focus photographs. During the 2004 Waterloo Busker Carnival I

Joy Read More »

Notre Dame – Paris

Leave a Comment / Prints, Travel / By

This past September I attended a Dagstuhl workshop on Robust Query Processing, and chose to fly in and out of Paris rather than Frankfurt. On the weekends bookending the workshop I stayed at the Select Hotel in St. Germain, across the street from the famous Sorbonne. Luckily, the University was open to the public that weekend for tours and photographs, and I certainly took my share while I was there. For the trip I took my Manfrotto tripod, my favourite Mamiya C330S with 55mm, 105mm, 135mm, and 180mm lenses and

Notre Dame – Paris Read More »
Scroll to Top