Klyment.com - Journal - Events

2009.04.25: Nick Vedros and David Montizambert

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:04:41 -0500

Lighttools and Lightrein are hosting a lighting presentation and demonstration at Grant MacEwan Community college's Robbins Theatre on April 25, 2009 with Nick Vedros and David Montizambert. It's a full day affair and I booked off the day over a month ago and will definitely be attending. Check out their work and see for yourself why two of the world's coolest lighting companies would book in these photographers for a day in Edmonton. I have been casually told that the usual refreshments will be provided but there will also be lunch so that attendees can spend as much time as possible with the presenters and with representatives from the sponsoring companies. I hope to see you there.

2008.09.23: Photokina 2008 Day 1

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 05:27:41 -0500

I have waited two years for this day. We are here again Koelnmesse, at last.

It's 8euro (about $12) per hour for wireless internet access so I will likely be blogging more during the evenings but I am uploading videos to Youtube with very brief descriptions of interesting things I come across. Looking up videos with "Photokina" in their name on my Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Klyment

2008.08.19: What I want out of Photokina 2008

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:33:30 -0500

I feel that I should post this entry sooner rather than later and I apologize for not having yet delivered any of the previously-promised entries. Consider this entry my official offer for agents (preferrably Canadian) and media organizations (Internet or any physical geographical location) interested in Photokina 2008, arguably the world's largest and most important imaging trade fair, but may not be sending someone themselves. I spent most of my time in Photokina 2006 talking with manufacturers about printing and lighting and now I am looking for agents who are interested in importing products which may be presented at Photokina who would like me to research and relay product information and commentary back to the agent as well as for news organizations who would like to explore Photokina beyond consumer and small format digital capture products. My interests in Photokina (including, but limited to, some companies that I know I will be visiting at Photokina):

Large format digital printers (primarily Epson, Canon, HP, and Roland for photography and fine art but also for signage)
Raster image processors (RIPs) for large format printers (EFI . . . upon first glance, no other dedicated RIP companies will be represented)
Color management (X-rite, Barbieri, Datacolor)
New printing substrates (Breathing Color, Sihl)
Medium format SLRs and view cameras (Arca-Swiss, Linhof, Sinar, ALPA, Silvestri, Franke Und Heidecke/Rollei, Hasselblad, Mamiya)
Medium format digital capture products (Phase One, Sinar, Leaf, Hasselblad)
Medium format optics (Schneider, Rodenstock, Fujifilm, Nikon)
Continous lighting (Dedolight)
Strobe lighting for both studio and location work (Aurora, Balcar, Bowens, Bron, Hyundae Photonics, Elinchrom, Photoflex, Profoto)
Light modification (The above brands plus Chimera and California Sunbounce)
Computer displays for photo editing and softproofing (Eizo, LaCie, Samsung)

What I need from agents: an opportunity to influence products that may be available to my fellow printers and photographers in the future.

What I need from news organizations: documentation fulfilling these guidelines Photokina has created to qualify journalists for the event. It could be as simple as a letter on your letterhead stating that I am collecting information and reporting back to you. I also welcome the opportunity to work with one of your journalists in the fields of interest above so that I may learn and assist by inquiring and offering insight.

I will be online almost continuously with wireless Internet access from the tradeshow floor and can send relevant information to those I am collecting information for live with Skype chat, voice, or webcam or in digested text, photo, and possibly video form. I am also fluent in Mandarin Chinese and can offer some translation which may be useful for agents wishing to communicate with a Chinese manufacturer.

Please contact me via e-mail or by phone. Contact information link is at the bottom of this page.

2008.03.31: University of Alberta Bachelor of Design Grad Show 2008!

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:26:17 -0500

It's that time of the year again. Those interested in the newest grads from one of Canada's top industrial/visual communications design programs come go check it out.

Front of the card. Designed by Natalie Olsen who is graduating from the program.

And the back of the card. See you at the opening reception. Sorry . . . the card looks kind of weird on the white background of this page but it looks really good as a physical card. =)

2007.04.05 University of Alberta Bachelor of Design Grad Show

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:48:16 -0500

Postcards were printed on a 100% post consumer waste paper from Unisource.

Hahah . . . I have no idea why the colours on the front and the back aren't the same. Could be something on my end . . . the cards ripped and printed just fine. Regardless, I like the design. Design by Travis Park.

Unisource's calculation for natural resource conservation using a 100% post consumer waste paper as opposed to using virgin paper. The recycled stock is suitable for many applications. While not ideal, the card stock that I used does print reasonably well in a colour laser printer. In addition, 100% post consumer waste stocks from Unisource seem to be thicker at the same basis weight compared to their non-recycled counterparts. These papers also happen to be around the same price as good virgin stocks. Check them out.

2006.06.23: Improvaganza Day 09

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 12:56:39 -0500

2006.06.15: Improvaganza Day 2

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:09:52 -0500

The festival continues. If you haven't dropped by the theatre already you're missing out.

Part of RFT's Belindameer showcase . . . except Belinda isn't visible in this shot. And Lee isn't usually part of the troop.

:-)

Part of Seattle's rock opera where little kids are getting shit on by a rhino . . . crowd goes wild. Feces never fails to amuse.

Iron Cobra's stereotypes scene. Someone in the audience thought Graham looks like a stereotypical hippie. I think he looks like Santa Claus . . . a very skinny Santa Claus.

Full gallery. It's been a while since I've laughed uncontrollable during an improv theatre night. It's not that any of the improv I've seen recently was bad . . . just that I've seen a lot of improv . . . possibly more than some players. But both Iron Cobra's scenes reminded me of how I could laugh until my sides hurt. I laughed so hard that my stomach was sore this morning.

2006.06.14: IMPROVAGANZA!!!!!!!!!

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 01:53:12 -0500

It's that time of the year again - ten days of some of the best improv you'll see. More information at Rapid Fire Theatre's website. But in short, it runs from June 14 until June 24 8pm every night except for Sunday and Monday. Friday's and Saturday's there will also be 11pm shows. There's also a puppet improv matinee somewhere in there. Check it out! Here are a few photos from the opener. You can see the full gallery here.

Michael Phair cutting the red ribbon to "open" Canada's largest improv comedy festival while Crad looks on. Phair's far from my favourite city councillor and councillors are far from my favourite people. But that's just my opinion . . . coming from a family that pays a significant amount of property tax which, coincidentally, contributes to councillor salaries.

Seattle, WA. The same scene in three different genre's.

RFT . . . Edmonton. Kevin playing an elephant in an animal allegory explaining how elephants, specifically African elephants, got their big ears.

Quiksilver, Antwerp, Belgium. I think some of the team hasn't yet arrived so to form the two other sides of the square the team created some instant Belgians.

Tonto's Nephews, Toronto, ON. An interesting open scene.

Impro Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. Replace Mark with Patti Stiles . . . there's a shot of both team members but this teams opening game involved other teams and I felt this photo gives a better idea of what the game involved. The person sitting on the box plays the "guru" and the other players ask questions to stump the guru. If the audience calls bullshit on the guru, the question's poser becomes the new guru.

Dad's Garage, Atlanta, GA. Improv ballet?

Becky (Toronto) licking a frozen chicken pot pie that Lee (Regina) just gave her.

Kurt (Toronto) playing the most enthusiastic abused child I have ever seen.

The commencement of this festival roughly marks my one year anniversary being seriously involved with Rapid Fire Theatre as a photographer. Not a whole lot has changed - same blog system, same but updated gallery system, same cameras, mostly same lenses with the addition of a few specialized optics. Perhaps the biggest change is the workflow and the software driving it - all photos will now be processed in Phase One Capture One Pro on a dual-core PC. Significantly improved exposure latitude from last year when using Rawshooter Essentials 2005 plus much better noise control, sharpening, and colour rendition.

2006.05.26: Derks Fashion Party

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:45:34 -0500

Here are a few samples from one of the first three galleries to enter into the new gallery system. I won't be writing about the other two until a bit later but you can dig around the gallery and find them for yourself. You can see the rest of the photos here.

Fashions by Nazila Couture. They have some really, really awesome women's stuff. I have absolutely NOTHING to do with any of their photographic advertising. It's all by the dude with the puffy hair in the black shirt holding the camera that's staring at one model's ass.

Red velvet jacket by 4you. No idea who designs the rest of the stuff but all but the sunglasses are available at Derks.

A university friend . . . and his mom. Hahah, Chuck, your mom's hot. If you see this, tell her to reply her e-mail. The last sentence and the sentence before it are completely unrelated.

Jasmine, there's no way you're finishing even half of one of those by yourself.

All runway shots were made with existing light using the Nikon D2X and the 70-200/2.8 VR Nikkor. Most were shot at ISO 640 (?) or 800 using continuous auto focus and metered with spot metering and exposure lock via shutter release. The camera nailed exposure and focus on over 90% of the runway shots.

2006.06.17: Oilers win playoff round 3

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Thu, 18 May 2006 03:03:14 -0500

A couple shots from Whyte Ave. after the game. There are lots of others but I'm sure that none of my visitors would be interested in photos containing tasteless nudity.

There's a whole series of these photos. The male police officer throws bits of his candy wrapper at the guy on the pole to get his attention and other weird stuff. If you want to see the whole series just comment here or e-mail me and I'll send it to you.

Another dude on a pole. Corner of Whyte and 105 St. where we'd always use to go to visit Starbucks . . . I mean Chapters . . . after our days in high school. I can almost taste the chocolate brownie frappacino just thinking about it.

It took me a good half hour to see the humour in this shot.

Glad to see my tax money contributing to the assurance that we have adequate amounts of organized oppression.

Are those automatic firearms really necessary?

Posting it because Jonathan likes it.

D2X, all at ISO 800 or 3200, some underexposed 2.5stops at 3200. Most were shot with the 70-200/2.8 AF-S VR. Wide angles were done with the 17-55/2.8 AF-S with the last shot taken through the 10.5/2.8 DX fisheye. All shot hand held w/ existing light. This night and the previous night on Whyte were the two nights that I decided to use 3D matrix metering instead of spot metering/exposure lock in about a year.

I saw a bunch of familiar faces, too . . . three photographers including a general arts student who earned an intership with Spin Magazine, a professional wedding shooter with whom I worked on one job (but has a website too hideous to link), and a serious glamour shooter trying out his new Canon 50/1.4 . . . perhaps the only 50/1.4 that isn't Zeiss or Leitz that's worth owning.

2006.05.14: Oilers vs. Sharks Post-game 5

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Mon, 15 May 2006 00:30:55 -0500

Thin slices of time from Whyte Avenue.

All shots made with the D2X and either the 17-55/2.8 Nikkor or the 30/1.4 HSM Sigma at maximum aperture and virtually all at ISO 3200. I had a tripod head mounted to my motorcycle handle bar but it didn't seem safe to ride down Whyte and try to snap photos at the same time. I'll try with the F10 in video mode next time.

2006 BFA Grad Show

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Wed, 03 May 2006 01:55:00 -0500

Front of post card advertising the Bachelor of Fine Arts program grad show for 2006. Card design by Jeff Kulak

Back of the same card. The cards are full bleed and provided as postscript files. They look much cooler than this but I did a lousy job rasterizing the files and saving them for web so you'll just have to take my word for it . . . or visit the grad show.

Same number of cards printed as for the BDes/BFA silent auction postcard so I'm reusing this calculator result.

2005.11.23: Bill Rancic Speaks

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 17:10:34 -0600

Two days ago Bill Rancic, first winner of NBC's The Apprentice, Patrick LaForge, president and CEO of the Edmonton Oilers hockey club, Jim Dinning, past minister of Education and Provincial Treasurer of Alberta, LuAn Mitchell-Halter, Chatelaine and Profit Magazines Canada's Number One Female Entrepreneur three years in a row and chairperson of Mitchell's Gourmet Foods, and Kelly Hrudey, full-time analyst on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada and former NHL player with the New York Islanders, LA Kings, and San Jose Sharks, spoke at the Alberta Professionals & Entrepreneurs Conference. I've included some photos and a short video clip. Photos are a bit bigger than normal at 250px tall. They'll be back to normal once the excitement of shooting with a P&S camera that can produce dSLR-like photos wears off a bit.

Wide angle environmental shot of the auditorium, Winspear Centre. ISO 1600, F/2.8, roughly 1/8s with Fuji F10 hand held from third balcony.

People always have different interpretations for what is appropriate business attire. Here, LuAn Mitchelle-Halter illustrates that it is really alright to wear a costume crown and Snow White's evil step mother's mirror. Maximum zoom on Fuji F10, F/5, ISO 1600, 1/75s from about 150' away. In the full resolution photo the speaker's face is recognizeable.

Whoever said that "there is no such thing as a stupid question" obviously never met the old guy to the right. Well, maybe his question wasn't as stupid as it was rhetorical or attention-mongering. Thanks for taking floor time away from people with more insightful questions. Like the one about whether or not Donald Trump's hair is real.

Cover of a Queen CD less one person. Left to right: me, George who graduated from high school with me, and Scott who graduated from the U of A with me. Making hand-held self-portraits is a double-edged sword: one may think that they can do a better job than anyone else but when one does a shitty job, there's no one to blame it on. Man, I need a nose.

Right click and save a short clip of Bill Rancic's account of his life as an entrepreneur during post-secondary school and beyond. Going into the conference, I wasn't sure what to expect. In fact, I'm not a big fan of Donald Trump and wasn't interested enough in the series description to ever watch an episode of The Apprentice. But now I'll be looking for the show.

Teaser: More Rapid Fire Theatre photos to come!

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 06:10:55 -0500

Rapid Fire Theatre's TheatreSports and Chimprov is back in session at the Varscona Theatre (103 St. and 83 Ave.) Shows are 11pm Friday and Saturday respectively and run for about an hour and a half to two hours. I'm tired so here's a list of some coming blog entries for which I already have photos:

Theatresports Opening Night
Chimprov Opening Night
Sold my S2 Pro - tribute to a special camera
Purchased S3 Pro - some bitching about Fuji, Nikon, McBain Camera, workflow and other stuff
Printhuge.com - updates
Burning thistle seeds - experimental photos

CHIPS!!!!

2005.07.26 Klondike Days Documentation - Blue Willow Restaurant

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 17:14:43 -0500

The grandson of the owner of Blue Willow Restaurant commissioned me to document their new, used concession trailer. This concession trailer was purchased off of Tony Roma's and is this grandson's pet project. The owner's grandson, Patrick Mah, is a university buddy of mine. He has about another year left in his bilingual Bachelor of Commerce degree since he decided to go on exchange to France and then travel southeast Asia last year. Blue Willow, like many other independent restaurant and food thingies, got shafted this year by the organizers of Klondike Days. They were placed in an area with no real rides, just a couple of carnies and garbage bins. They were also stuck paying the same price per square foot for rent for the ten day event.

Image is a composite of about half a dozen other photos. The fireworks display looked awful from this area due to the poor location and the density of the display was very low. D2X tripod mounted with roughly 1/2 to 1s exposure times at ISO 100 and maximum aperture.

Two cool carnies. I don't know what game they were operating but they wanted prints of this photo and exchanged a few stuff toys for the prints. Thanks Patrick for handling the exchange.