Category Archives: Photos

Images I made, which I like.

Two out of Four ain’t bad…

I have just finished working on the photos from Nick and Elysia’s wedding. I cut it down to 100 keepers which I will send on, and I think they may like some of them.

I also received in the mail yesterday a USB stick with another 600 photos from the wedding photographer. I volunteered to post-process the photos from the day as a wedding present for the happy couple, and here they are. That, guys, is going to take a little longer to work through, but I’ll get to it promptly and have them off as soon as they are finished.

In the meantime, here is a shot I took of the two brothers, Andy and Vyvyan. Andy is quite the challenge for a photographer. As anyone will tell you, the challenge is to try to take a photo he is not in. If he wasn’t so damn photogenic that would be a problem, but he has the knack of making almost any shot look better, even when you can’t actually see the bride in the shot. Because of this unique ability Andy is widely recognised as the most photographed face in Canada, featuring in wedding albums, party photos, cell-phone videos and even, amazingly, other people’s selfies, from coast-to-Canadian-coast, as well as the UK and a large part of Europe. 

Nick_Elysia_Wedding 20140309-104

An ex rock-god, Andy was for several years a licensed pilot and qualified aviation instructor. I went up with him once in a Cessna and it was an experience I will always remember. Most enjoyable.

Andy is father of Nick (the groom) and Rebecca, and husband to Jean. Andy works and plays hard and in his spare time likes to hang around the pool with friends and family. If you are lucky, he will allow you time to remove electrical equipment from your pockets before throwing you in.

In preparation for daughter Rebecca and Denton’s wedding in August of this year Andy has already started work on growing an ulcer, which he may leverage to good effect for sympathy on the day.

Fun with Photos

As you may have read in a previous post, my nephew Nick recently married his love Elysia and Nikki and I were there for the festivities.

I took a few family-style photos which I will be sending their way very shortly. I took two of my photos and worked them into this finished piece. Which may induce some arguments from my photographer friends.

Nick_Elysia_Wedding

Some of those friends are purists, and quite vocal on the subject of using editing software. They say a real artist (whatever that may be) would never use software, only the camera. They would probably start yelling about realism and artistic integrity or some such nonsense, before looking around for a loom to smash. Pish, I say. My own position is, art is something personal that you create, not something you wave a camera at. Let me explain. Talented photographers stand out from the crowd, not because of their expensive gear, but because of the way they think and manipulate their subjects and their lighting. A great photographer can use a cell phone to create something beautiful. They can do that because they understand that a beautiful photograph is created first and foremost in the mind, before you even pick up the camera.

Which, despite any differences my friends and I have on the subject of whether to use editing software or not, is common ground. Whether you pose people for portraits or take multiple shots with the known intent of compositing them together later, the idea starts in your head. You know how you want the end result to look and how you need to shoot to get it. You have a plan.

I planned this composite. I wanted to juxtapose the symbolic cake decoration against the happiness of the newly-weds. Problem. The wedding cake was a hundred feet from the dance floor with over eighty guests between the two. There was just physically no way to get this photograph in a single shot. So I shot the cake, then moved my butt to the other end of the room to shoot the happy couple’s first dance. I took both shots in to Photoshop and spent a couple of happy hours creating variations on a theme until I decided that this was the look I wanted. Great fun.

The point is, there was literally no other way to do this. So this is something a purist would never be able to create.

Which is unfortunate. I don’t feel that it makes sense to close yourself off from new creative possibilities. Live a little, guys. Shake it up. Some creative types use oil paints, some watercolours. Some carve marble, others wood. Some crochet famous historical events. Some use only cameras, others (all professionals) use editing software, usually Photoshop. Some even try crazy new ideas, like painting statues or carving vegetables.

Is this art? Pish, I say again, and that is not an easy word to work in twice. I just know that this is how I wanted it to look. I planned it, I created it and I like it. And that last one, my Luddite friends, is the only justification I need for doing it.

Ultimately, that is the whole point of creating anything. Isn’t it?

My Brother Vyvyan

My brother Vyvyan is a very handsome and charismatic man. Intelligent and well educated, he is also a talented artist, and he himself will indeed be the first person to tell you this. If you encounter him and begin a conversation he may start quoting extracts from the works of Shakespeare and explaining their meaning. At this point a wise listener will offer to buy him a beer, which is a good way to derail his train of thought.

I am told that we are visually similar, which I think of as a compliment. I am also slightly taller than him. I don’t get to say that about many people.

My brother Vyv is a very handsome chap.
My brother Vyv is a very handsome chap.