Klyment.com - Journal

Derks Formals and Menswear commissioned Dong, Jonathan, and I to shoot Bridal Fantasy, one of the biggest bridal shows in western Canada on January 22nd. Two nearly-identical one-hour fashion shows ran while over two hundred exhibitors pitched their wares to couples-to-be. A complete gallery of photos taken from the event can be viewed here. Here are a few of my favourite photos selected from those which I shot.

I love the dress (available at Sposabella) but much beyond liking what I see I can't make much of a comment. The model, however, was in university when I was and was at a private function which I was commissioned to photograph Q4 2005. She is a friend of Manchi.

Children's bridal fashions.

Menswear by Derks. Coincidentally, this model attended my junior high.

A few pieces of confetti to go with the small wedding party. This photo was converted from RAW using a custom profile compiled for my specific camera to the ProphotoRGB colour space and was used for my subjective test of Carousel's Kodak RP30 photographic printer. I used it to test the blues.

Cakes by Janna. Every detail down to the last flower petal is hand crafted and edible.

Derks' display artist's favourite creation for the show. Some of my printing is featured in the top right corner . . . I was told that this printing would be draped and viewable from both sides. Had I known it was going to be backed with an opaque surface I would have recommended a more standard material, not my polyester weather-resistant mesh.

Shoot commissioned by Linette, Eastglen Composite High School drama teacher and Rapid Fire Theatre improvisor.

A possible candidate for the poster.

Linette had to supervise a social studies final exam. The actual shot took no more than ten minutes and we all got a little bored . . . so we kept shooting.

This shot gives you an idea of how the scene was lit. Foreground was popped with a Plume Wafer 140 soft box with thin baffle and a Lighttools 50degree soft egg crate driven by a Balcar Iris 3200W/s head on a Balcar AQ Pack battery-powered flash generator. Ian set a few sets of gels to add colour and texture to the backdrop. A single spotlight from above hotspotted the car. Yup, that's a barbell weight at the end of the boom . . . it does the trick.

Sunday night marked the first night that I entered anything resembling a night club in at six months and the first time I entered a night club without a purpose directly related to work.

A force pulling me away from the front door,
propelling me back out.
Bouncers scanning ID's which I didn't want to give.
The dark emptiness filled with
familiar faces that I didn't know.
Free drink tokens that I always
give to other people before leaving.
The isolation I feel
even though I'm talking to somebody.

For us "normal" people who don't get cameras to play with before everyone else does, the sneak peak of a D200 at an unnamed location is a noteworthy occasion. In a few minutes, Dong, Huy, Jonathan, and I will all be at a location looking at the D200 officially. Three D200's have arrived at McBain Camera Kingsway, one earmarked for each of us. Price is roughly $2100 for the 10MP+, 11pt AF array, magnesium shelled, environmentally-sealed body. I don't think I'll be picking one up but I'll write again upon my return.

D200 . . .

Jackie and the D200 . . . dark hair and light eyes only makes this camera hotter. Too bad she's a Canon shooter.

Dong and . . . WTF is that? A Canon 5D? Traitor!

http://www.greenpeace.ca/e/feature/elections2006/

Voting green doesn't necessarily mean voting for the Green Party candidate in your riding but some parties are certainly greener than others. Check out the link with questions and answers sent to each of the major political parties running in this year's election and compare them . . . some funny stuff comes up. As of this entry's publication the Conservatives have yet to submit a response. All four of the other parties questioned have already answered . . . the Bloc was the first to respond on December 7th. December 14th, 15th, and January 3rd, Liberals, Green Party, and NDP respond, respectively.

http://www.zeiss.de/C12567A8003B58B9?Open

As you know, Contax/Yashica mount Carl Zeiss T* lenses can be adapted to Canon EOS mount but can't be adapted to Nikon F-mount due to differences in lens flange distances. The Canon EOS lens flange distance is sufficiently shorter than the C/Y mount lens flange distance thus allowing one to design and fabricate an adapter to mount the Zeiss lens and still focus to infinity. The F-mount lens flange distance is shorter . . . so short that you'd need an adapter with literally negative thickness to mount a C/Y mount Zeiss lens and maintain its ability to focus to infinity. My big question is [when] will these lenses be available:

• Makro-Planar 60/2.8 1:1
• Planar 50/1.4
• Distagon 21/2.8
• Planar 50/0.7 . . . just kidding

I wouldn't mind seeing the G-system range finder reborn as a digital-ready platform.

Q4 2005 I received a court summons to appear for jury selection. I didn't have a legitimate excuse not to attend and I felt a sense of duty to appear and participate in the jury selection process. On the other hand, a month later, my father received a similar summons. His response? Book a flight to visit his ailing mother in southeast Asia and forward the itinerary to Jury Management. I guess that's kind of legitimate . . . but whatever. Jury selection took place today. The early procedure goes something like this:

1. Names get drawn "randomly" from voter lists, phone directories and problem citizen lists (they probably found me here because I'm always at the courthouse for some reason)
   • Basic elegibility: 18+, resident of Alberta, never been convicted of crime for which potential penalty is jail time of one year or more.
2. Return a form . . . either with excuses or with your occupation and language profeciencies
3. Appear on the designated day at the courthouse. In Edmonton, I believe that jury selection always happens in courtroom 317 in the Provincial Law Courts building, #1, Sir Winston Churchill Square
4. Watch a corny video

Then it gets a bit more interesting.

http://myweb.dal.ca/mc782849/ohhalifax.jpg

Michelle just sent an e-mail with some photos accompanied by captions. She's studying architecture at Dalhousie University. She transferred there with about a year left on her visual communications design and industrial design degrees at the University of Alberta. I'll post a photo of her once I'm at the studio . . . this little note is temporary. Hahah . . . I think I see my old camera bag and possibly my old camera (Contax 139Q w/ Carl Zeiss 50/1.4 AE T*) on the table in the first photo. People from your VCD class say hi. We miss you. Sort of. I'm sure she e-mailed you already but Olya said thanks for your left over stationary.

Sign printing is one of the services I offer with my large format printing system. The ability for me to create signs gives me a false sense of authority in topics related to signage and signage printing and a perceived capacity to tell certain things about people who create signs or are otherwise involved in making them. Here is a collection of photos of stuff that I thought was interesting and related to this topic. Accompanying each photo is a little blurb to give some context around the photo and also my identification of a character trait or business skill related to the sign's owner.

Sign in the window of Athabasca Books, a used book store which has been closed forever. Inability to adapt in the face of change.

As a testament to the value of his bilingual Bachelor of Commerce marketing degree from the University of Alberta, Patrick is attempting to fit a 54" square sign into a 45" square sign box. Dude, it won't fit. Trust me. Persistence.

I thought this sign was hilarious and I can't figure out why. If you know why, please e-mail me. Leadership and delegation of immigrant labour.

This sticker was spotted on the back of a vehicle parked in front of Lighttools. BTW, this vehicle was for sale when I took this photo. I think it's a Ford Explorer. Merchant instinct.

Paper and signage products that I consumed in December. There was more but I was too lazy to extract more rolls from their packages to make a such a photo. Poor inventory management.

The Chinese text in the top left sign says "we eat white people." If read out loud in a different dialect and directly translated, it also apologizes for the owner's ability to pay to make the sign and not pay someone who can spell "store" to specify the text for the sign. Chinkiness.

I always wondered what else people smoked with bongs. Now I know. Resourcefulness and ingenuity.

Meags' second shoot comprised the last serious photos that I took in 2005. The day long photo session marked a number of firsts and personal bests: my first shoot with the Lighttools Soft Egg Crate 50 and 30degree grids for the Plume Wafer 140's, first shoot done in a playground, first serious shoot using the Balcar AQ Pack for fill during daylight, and highest percentage yield of print-worthy photos from a shoot with a non-professional model. It was certainly more productive than our first shoot. A collection of web-sized versions of the photos selected for printing are viewable here.

Here are some personal favourites from the shoot:

Meags' obsession with photobooths brought us to this photobooth on the third level of Edmonton Centre. I still don't understand the appeal of this photobooth but I have confirmed that her case isn't isolated and even serious photographers have been afflicted.

The original concept for this look was part of what would have been an implied nude monochrome figure study with a larger, more curvaceous flower. I didn't want to print this photo in colour at first but I couldn't resist; in the monochrome I lost the intensity of the model's eyes and the framing of the neutrally-coloured flower petals.

Another photo from the same look as a monochrome. Lighting with a single Balcar Iris head powered by a Balcar Nexus A3200, softened by a Plume Wafer 140 and controlled by a Lighttools 30degree Soft Egg Crate.

I don't believe that this pose was part of Meags' original concept. I can't remember actually taking this photo since it was shot in the dark with the Balcar AQ Pack and a 20degree spot grid on a single head. The AQ Pack doesn't allow for contuous modeling light operation on battery power.

I moved the light source from behind to in front. I think that it was the one shot that reflects what I thought that Meags had in mind for this concept.