For Photographers

Reminiscing (Part Six)

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Yet another post reminiscing about some old photos.

The pictures below were shot during various press conferences which were also recorded on video. But the moments captured in these pictures are not noticeable in the videos.

The power of photography is that it can capture and isolate one moment forever. Video flashes by at 30 frames per second and your brain barely notices any of those frames. Your brain doesn’t actually see video or motion but rather it sees in a series of still images and remembers only key frames.

 

This press conference had name tags placed in the seats. While waiting for people to take their seats, US actor Tommy Lee Jones briefly held up his name tag.

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Reminiscing (Part Five)

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Another in my series of reminiscing about old photos but this one includes a public service message :-)

Working for a daily newspaper meant photographing a lot of fires: house fires, vehicle fires, factory fires. Newspapers like fire photos because the colour grabs people’s attention.

Thankfully the number of serious fires has gone down over the years due to better built homes and sprinkler systems. But fatal fires still occur despite the existence of smoke detectors.

 

This truck was traveling on Highway 401 in 1995, near Pearson Airport on the north-west corner of Toronto, when it struck some metal pipes that fell from another truck on the overpass in the background. The gas tank ruptured and the truck exploded.

I was on the highway only two kilometres away so I arrived in minutes. It surprised me that no one on that busy highway bothered to stop and help. But this is normal for Toronto.

There was a guy sitting on the guardrail, perhaps five metres ahead of the burning truck. He had his arms around himself and was hunched over in a ball. He said he was the driver, no one else was in the truck and he was unhurt. But it was obvious he was in shock. I helped him move further away from the truck and sat with him until emergency services arrived.

Several months later, a firefighter mentioned that the guy gave up driving.

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Reminiscing (Part Four)

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There’s a photography saying that goes something like: One out-of-focus picture is a mistake; ten out-of-focus pictures are an experiment; one hundred out-of-focus photos are a style.

A photographer will sometimes challenge themselves by looking for visual trends. For example:

• At a sports event, a photographer may do a series of photos of fans with painted faces.

• At a convention, a photographer might look for people doing selfies with their cell phone.

• During a political campaign, a photographer could do pictures of candidates holding babies.

A group of ordinary photos can seem more interesting if there’s a common theme or visual pattern.

Here’s a silly collection of images from a number of press conferences. The “theme” is that the people onstage couldn’t see the reporters asking questions.

US actress Julianne Moore.

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Reminiscing (Part Three)

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A few more random photos.

 

US actor Ben Affleck poses with some members of the African Children’s Choir at a charity event in Toronto, September 2007. Many arriving guests posed with the children but only Affleck knelt down and group-hugged the kids which made for a wonderful photo.

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Reminiscing (Part Two)

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Indulge me as I reminisce about a few more photos and aimlessly fill another blog page.

The pictures below are all scanned film images. Each of these portraits, except for the last one, were done in about five minutes because that’s usually all the time a photographer got.

 

US musician Kyle Eastwood (yes, that “Eastwood”) in Toronto, January 19, 1999. He composed the music for several of his father’s movies as well as for one of his sister’s movies. I’ve also photographed his father and sister.

The photo was done with one softbox to the left and Fuji Press 400 film.

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Reminiscing (Part One)

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Much of what I shoot involves people and often large groups of people. The ongoing pandemic has meant that most of my business has stopped although I expect things to slowly return this month.

So with time on my hands and blog pages to fill, I thought I’d reminisce about a few old photos.

 

Twenty-three-year-old supermodel Paulina Porizkova (L) poses with Estée Lauder in 1988. Up until this photo was taken, I always thought “Estée Lauder” was just a fancy name invented by a cosmetics company.

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Summer Hockey Memories

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The plexiglass around a hockey rink in Toronto is scarred by hockey pucks. This is another view-from-my-office photo.

NHL hockey players from various teams used to practice together each August. These casual practices helped the players get in shape before the start of their respective team’s training camps in September. These Toronto-area practices were organized quietly so as not to attract public attention. But if you knew which ice rinks were being used, you could go and watch some top-level NHL players.
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