Back at work
So it’s been well over a month since my last post. Whoops?
Frankly since this blog is mostly about me I’ve been waiting until I had some interesting pictures to share. My main focus over the last month has been finding work. It’s been a pretty decent month, albeit low key.
First off though I want to show some pictures from Nosara. Since being back I’m now slowly working my way through the unprocessed film I have. While there I used two rolls of Fujichrome 100F. It’s a beautiful daylight slide film and it worked pretty well in combination with my antique Baldex.
The film was processed by a place in Ottawa, Labworks, where I’ve been going for years. They have a great deal too on 120 prints; one processed roll plus a set of 5×5 prints for about $12. Since I don’t have a medium format film scanner I scanned the prints and at 2400dpi it managed resolutions at 6000px x 6000px. Which is higher resolution than my 5D mkII. Not bad for a 65 year old camera…
A selfie using the timer on the Baldex, this was taken at Playa Nosara, near the river mouth.
Slide film doesn’t have a lot of latitude. You either get the exposure or you don’t, which made shooting with it much more difficult because I had no lightmeter… so I guessed most of the exposures, using some basic photography principles like ‘sunny f/16,’ and some basic math. However, the following two were a little overexposed and pulling down the exposure using modern editing techniques did some cool things to the colour.
Guiones beach at sunset, a scan of a print made from a 120 Provia slide.
This one from when Yamina (girlfriend) came to visit me the second time in May.
Yamina stepping off some rocks at Playa San Juanillo, about 20km north of Nosara.
So I’ve been trying to keep busy and keep some of the momentum gained from school and Nosara as I continue through the fall. I am slated to start at Loyalist College’s Photojournalism program in January 2013 but that’s a few months away.
School went back two weeks ago and though I wasn’t there, my good friend was, and I’ve been receiving reports on the program and what to expect. Including some of the assignments. Each week there is a photo assignment where you have to do something specific. In abstentia I’m going to try to do as many as I can.
The first one was to take a picture of an interesting person, who is not a friend, family member or member of the Loyalist community. It took a day or two to set up the interview, but I ended up doing a photo of the dude who repaired my cellphone a few weeks ago. He has a unique operation run out of his apartment. So I showed up and photographed/interviewed him while he worked on a clients iPhone.
Roun Gew, aged 30, came to Canada from the Sudan in 1990. For the last 10 years he has repaired computers in Guelph, Ontario and for the last year he has repaired cellphones which he said now brings in the bulk of his income. He learned how to repair phones by watching Youtube videos. In this picture he is dismantling an iPhone 3Gs which had been water damaged. The blue line attached to his wrist keeps him grounded and prohibits electronic shock during repairs.
Photography has not been my main pursuit recently though, finding a job has been. I succeeded in finding a job as a full-time dishwasher at a restaurant/café around the corner from my house called With the Grain. I also got a job as a nightclub photographer for Guelph nightlife promoters Freshmedia. Tonight is my first night with them and it will be at the Vinyl (always the Trasheteria in my heart) and Friday and Saturday will be at the Loft.
However, whilst job searching in August I had a pretty fun time running around Ontario. I went to My dad’s cottage in Huntsville, stayed with my girlfriends family in Ottawa, saw some old friends and spent a day wandering Toronto before landing back in Guelph.
In Toronto I took a lot of pictures of the CN Tower… I haven’t actually tried to photograph the CN Tower since I got into photography, so it seemed like a good idea. But I was trying to find something unique and I think I did beyond just a tourist shot.
Edge walkers leaning over the edge of the CN Tower’s observation deck. I really wanna do this some time.
Toronto has a lot of Pigeons and there were a lot in the park near Kensington where Yamina and I ate lunch, I spent more time than I should have trying to photograph the nearby scavengers…
A flying rat! Dunno why I felt this needed inclusion, I guess I thought it was a nice look at an ugly animal.
To get there we took the GO Train from Guelph to Toronto, which meant an early morning, by the time we arrived in Toronto I needed coffee. So we stopped at this place on Queen St West. It looked like grunge and dirt was the theme of the place….
In a bathroom at a coffeeshop/bar on Queen St. west. I think they were intentionally going for the, ‘grungy as hell,’ look.
Over the Labour Day weekend I had the opportunity to go to my dad’s cottage on Cowan Lake near Huntsville. There are great sunsets and glass-like water. I spent most of the weekend sitting on a dock drinking beer.
Cowan Lake near Huntsville, Ontario. The morning calm, not a wave on the water.
Also hung out with this wonderful lady.
Yamina, again, this time as the intrepid explorer.
See what I mean? Great sunsets…
Cowan Lake at my dad’s cottage near Huntsville, Ontario at sunset.
So that about sets the tone for the next few months here. I’m trying to work as many hours as I can in anticipation of school, and keep from falling behind. This week we need to make three pictures, all themed around motion: one using a panning motion, one freezing motion and one blurring motion. So this Sunday I think I will pop over to the University of Guelph for some sports.
I’ve also been looking for assistant work in Guelph and have had some minor luck. I photographed a wedding with Trina Koster Photography on August 11, pictures are here and I assisted Ross David-Pilon from studio 404 during a commercial shoot with the Brampton Arts Council as an onsite editor. I’ll tease my new wedding post with one picture below.
The happy couple.
Autumn must really be coming and for the first time since January it actually feels cold…
Paz siempre,
Adam Dietrich
Adam Dietrich 