Stephanie

I had a shoot with Stephanie this evening, and it was the first time I've ever really approached photography with an artistic direction other than taking nice pictures. I mean, I usually hope for something more than "nice", but you know what I mean - I've never tried to make the pictures anything other than what was there.

Stephanie was open to suggestions, though, and so we talked about it and I suggested something in the vein of Dior in a Ralph Lauren setting... a lot of contrast between the clothes, the vibe of the shots, and the setting. She was game, and was willing to go looking for clothes (and did a fantastic job finding the dresses to fit what I described to her), and I found the location and.... this is what we came up with.

The shot above, for me, captures what I wanted more than any of the others.






Yeah, I know fashion is supposed to be about the clothes. But, if you're familiar with my pictures, it's no surprise to you that I had to get at least a couple of her face...

I'm pretty happy with how it went. I hope you enjoy them - if you want, you can see the rest of the set here.

There Are So Many

There are a lot of things that I don't get. And not just math things, either: why people who drive so slowly don't just take the bus, instead. Why stores and restaurants with two doors seem to like to keep one of them locked (they are trying to reduce their business by 50%?). Why people making signs don't bother to check their spelling.

But here's the one that's been getting me, lately: when I buy bagels (one of the things I'm enjoying about being back in Canada), and they say "sliced" on the bag, they only kind of are. I don't know if you've had these, so I'll try to describe it.

Imagine that you're holding an unsliced bagel in your hand, with your thumb on one side and forefinger on the other. Someone challenges you to slice it without moving your hands... and so you cut on one side until the knife comes up against your thumb and finger, then go from the other side, until the same thing happens. You're left with a bagel that's sliced about 80% of the way through (40% on each side) and you hand the knife back, with a look on your face like you tried to do one of those little wooden puzzles where you have to do something that looks impossible until you know how.

Only, it seems, no one knows how.

Now I would guess that, with the extensive popularity that bagels have enjoyed over the last however-many decades, there is some pretty significant technology that's been developed for them. There is for everything, right? And like in most industries, I suspect that the big companies have access to the best of that technology... I mean, those bagel guys must have the equivalent of nuclear-powered nano computers for bagels, whatever that might be.

But they can't figure out how to slice them all the way through.

I can understand not slicing the bagels - for people who really like their bagels whole. I've never met any of those people, but I'm not saying they're not out there, and I support them completely. I can also understand slicing the bagels, for people (like me) who like to have their bagels in two pieces. What I don't understand is partially slicing the bagels except for a strip down the middle that stays attached so that, to get them apart, you still need to slice them yourself.

There might be something to this that I'm just not getting... maybe they've had focus groups, and the feedback has come in that some people want to put things in the sides, kind of like Subway used to do, without having them touch in the middle. Or that they're going hiking or something with their bagels, and taking all the sandwich fixings with them; they don't want the bagel to separate during the hike, but like to have a little help to know where to slice when they find the appropriate blade on the old Swiss army knife.

Or maybe they need to have a baked-goods summit of some kind. I think that the hamburger bun people have done rather well... they leave a little bit so the buns aren't flying all over the bag, but they do it at the side so the buns don't just rip into pieces when you try to separate them. Can any of you UN-type people set up something like that?

In any case, this is making me hungry.

I'm going to go have a hamburger.

Shhhh.....

I might go see that Star Trek movie. Please don't tell.

Medicine Hat

Yes, that's actually the name of a place. A real place. And the best part?

The people who live there are called "Hatters". Isn't that fantastic?

Anyways, I went out there yesterday to spend the day with a friend, and had a great time. I associate The Hat with, well, pick-ups, chewing tobacco, and cowboy boots. And we did encounter a bit of that - minus the chew, thankfully - but we also managed to locate a couple of really interesting restaurants, and to find the COOLEST tree to take some pictures of.

The tree was kind of by accident. You see, Medicine Hat is the home of the world's tallest teepee. With, coincidentally, the world's worst paintings on it. In any case, it really is worth a visit, and so we decided, since neither of us had spent much time there before, to visit it. Captivating as it is, the thrill only lasts so long, so we decided to wander down into the ravine/gully/valley thing behind it and take a look.

Definitely worth the look. Hope you like the pictures... there are a couple more here.

Jordan

I went out today to make some pictures with Jordan, and it was great just to be out in the sunshine and NOT WEARING A COAT! Finally! And, as usual, it was wonderful to be shooting. Here's what we came up with...

Considering it was both his and my first attempt at anything fashion-ish, I'm pretty happy with the result.

There are a couple more shots here. And by "a couple", I mean two. Don't say I didn't warn you...

Fast, Furious, and Setting

So, the third Fast & The Furious movie is now out. Can someone tell me how this happened? I remember seeing the first one on the plane, at a time - as far as I can recall - when Air Canada was still just showing everyone the same movie at the same time. I'm pretty sure that's right, because I'm pretty sure that there is no way I would have watched it on purpose.

I remember being struck by a number of things: how pointless it was, how bad the acting was, how long it actually took me to realize that it wasn't a spoof. But it must have made money, because they made a sequal. And now a third one. I suppose that it wouldn't be that tough to develop the subsequent screenplays - they probably spent more time choosing the rims for the main cars. But really... a third one? really?

So, as my own personal antidote to Vin Diesel driving fast (probably to get away from the awful dialogue with that other guy whose name I don't remember and who may be the only actor in the world, besides the beloved Keanu Reeves, who can make Vin look so good), here are some sunset shots I got tonight on my way home from a little road trip to Edmonton.

Oh, and it was just a sunset, so I didn't bother to post a bazillion pictures... the others look pretty similar to these. But if you want to see these ones bigger, you can do that here...

Calgary

Well, I finally decided to grab my camera and do a little walking, and see what I could find. This is what I found.

You can see some more here. Enjoy!

Furry

When the little chick and I were on our way home from a weekend in the mountains, we saw some things off to the side of the road. Well, I did... she was engrossed in a Franklin book in the back (for those of you keeping track, no, she's not reading yet, but she wants to be), and decided to stop for a look. I pulled off to the side, grabbed my camera, and tossed her up on my shoulders. We went out and had a look, and they turned out to be big-horned sheep, as far as I can tell. In any case, I think I ended up being more impressed than she was. Oh well. At least she has Franklin, and I managed to get a few shots off.

Here are my favorites:

There aren't that many, but you can see the rest here.