Jul

2021

Some ‘Dark’ Photos with Owen

The world, if not exactly getting back to normal, is at least to the point where one can function more naturally. With that I’m taking portraits again.

My happy place.

Perfect lighting here most evenings and lots of space. Last couple of photo shoots, I’ve been using an old Nikon 50mm 1.8 ‘E’ series lens. This lens is likely about 50 years old. I’ve had it for years and often when shooting I default to zoom lenses, even for portraits. Zoom lenses are so easy. Definitely great for candid shots but one does lose some quality/sharpness.

So… I’m forcing myself to use a prime lens for these portraits. This old ‘E’ series lens, in my Nikon D7500 acts as about a 75MM. In a couple of days I will be able to compare these photos to some taken with a Nikon Z6 with the new ’S’ series 50MM.

I’m taking about fifteen minutes with each of these recent photo shoots. I do about 30 photos. Similar to film when one was limited to 24 or 36 exposures per roll. Pretty sure newer photographers have no appreciation how inexpensive photography is in this current day and age.

Hopefully, I will be shooting enough to post some new photos once or twice a week. Subscribe to the newsletter or check back often. If you subscribe to my ‘portrait’ Instagram account, you will get notification when there is new material. IG: @portraits.by.martin

Call me now to set up your portrait session! (Contact)

Jul

2021

“Succulents” Photo Print

Jun

2021

The Dock

Jun

2021

Pleasant Beach Canvas Print

Pleasant Beach is a small beach, as they are all, on the east end of Lake Erie on the Canadian side of the lake. North. A few miles/kilometres west of Fort Erie. An excellent little pizza restaurant near where you park or if you get a pizza or some ice cream the owner will likely let you park in one of his spots. As long as it’s not too, too busy. If you go during the summer, go early in the week. Not real busy but very limited parking. The ‘public’ section is very small but most will walk to the right which is owned by a private campground. Off season, particularly, no one is going to say much.

The beaches on Lake Erie are great winter or summer. Can be dark and moody in the winter and this and many others have beautiful, fine sand. Sand dunes aplenty. Great ‘kodak’ moments all year ‘round.

Jun

2021

“Bella”

Photo print for sale: Print or Framed

"Bella"

On Fine Art paper: Hahnemuehle Photo Rag

Printed using the giclee (inkjet) method for a gorgeous continuous tone look
Vibrant colours with original HP Vivera Inks
308 GSM cotton fine-art photo rag manufactured in Germany
Excellent print longevity, rated for 200 plus years fade resistance
Shipped in a protective tube (Print)
Shipped protective packaging (Framed)

Pricing for 12"x12 or 16"x16":
Print Only: $75/$95 (plus Shipping)

Framed and Matted Print: $210/$280 (Plus Shipping)

Jun

2021

Posts in Lake

"Posts in the Lake"

The Great Lakes can be both moody and beautiful, often at the same time. This shot was take near Ajax, Ontario where I grew up, back when God was a boy.

There is a stretch here along the northern coast of Lake Ontario that constantly beckons me with my camera. I’ve been out here at -20˚C in nasty storms and captured some incredible shots. Trudging back to the car, in what seemed like miles, with frozen fingers. But entirely satisfied that “I got the shot!”

This photo was taken in somewhat milder weather.

Jun

2021

Red and Pink Rose

A friend commented that beauty exhibits both on the ascension and the descension. I thought this wildly appropriate for the photos I’ve been taking lately of dried roses. I managed to give a couple of sets, one pink and one red, of Mother’s Day roses, a second ‘life’ in my mini home studio.

Here is one red and one pink rose. Each dries differently. As they were drying, I tried to open up and few by gently prying the petals apart so the results were varied. I’ll be drying more dead flowers, and varied, in the future.

Apr

2021

Still Life Photography

With all the crazy stuff going on in the world, I’ve been unable to take people photos. Also, approaching farmers and others with horses has become difficult as well. When I’ve asked about ‘shooting’ horses, owners have asked that I come back after Covid. And I can only take so many photos of my dinners and my bicycle rides!

I have oodles of studio equipment. And being that there is a certain joy in creating, I thought I might apply my skills to another area. This all lead me to taking some photos of things. I kinda like food as well, so thought I might start with food oriented still shots.

I like classic art and photography as you can see from my nudes and portraits. I’ve made a separate page/section of my website for my Still Life Photography. You can look there for more but you can see here a couple of my first efforts.

My inspiration comes from many places over the years. (Lots of years… quiet, OK!!) From fashion magazines to Dutch Masters and those of the Renaissance. I did courses as well, always trying to learn from already successful photographers that I admired. I have stacks of books on lighting techniques and art.

If you are going to order any of these to matte and frame, I would suggest a minimum size of 11”x14”. The ideal ratio for viewing is a ratio of 1.1.618 (Golden Ratio). The closest you are going to get to that would be 11”x17”. This (11x17) is not a standard size for frames, usually, so you may have to have it customized.

Prints can be ordered with mattes and frames as well. For certain, regular sizes and they would be very simple (but excellent quality).

Also, I’ve given a painterly effect to some of the pieces, so indicate what you prefer when you order. If there is a choice.

Go to the Still Life page on this website to see some of the work I’ve started with over the last week or so.

Apr

2021

Selfie – Self Portrait

Dramatic Portrait

I was getting revved up last Fall to do more portraits. I had viewed a bunch of videos done by Chris Knight. Excellent course available on ProEdu.com if you are interested.

There is no shortage of material on Youtube and elsewhere for learning studio photography and lighting. My learning process goes a bit like this. I try and find someone’s photos I like, then figure out the lighting and do exactly what the other photographer did. That’s the first step. The great thing with someone like Chris Knight is that he guides you through step by step. I honestly knew a fair bit of the material in his video course but there were definitely some hole that needed filling in. But more than that, the course showed me how to apply what I knew to what I wanted to do.

The other thing that continuous learning does, is keep it fresh.

Once I’ve duplicated exactly the techniques of whatever photographer I’m emulating, and after I’ve done it one or several times, I gain more understanding of what does and doesn’t work for me.

At that point I can make some decisions of what to add or subtract or alter using other bits of knowledge that I’ve acquired. Without the first step, I never really get to this third step. But here I can add other things like some of the techniques of head shot guru Peter Hurley.

And studying Dutch masters and how they used chiaroscuro or Leonardo’s “Divine Proportion” and working with these until they become second nature will go a long way to making your photos really communicate. The way to do this is duplicate whatever process you are trying to learn. Do it over and over and over. The more this is done the better your understanding and then the better you will be able to put your own create or spin on it.

All dressed up and no-one to photograph because the world shut down!

So, I took to shooting a few photos of myself. All the lights I used had modelling lights but that wasn’t a lot of use except for the backlight. As a result I made more trips back and forth to the camera than I care to count.

The photo here was accomplished with four lights. Camera right and very near and on the same plane I used a Strobepro 63” Para-Deep Parabolic Umbrella with STROBEPRO 600M Studio Strobe. Camera left, a 4 foot Octabox with grid and StrobePro 400M Studio Strobe. Camera right behind subject (me) a 4 foot rectangular soft box with grid. Light for this is ProFoto 500. And to shed a little light on the back a small 80MM with a snoot. (StrobePro.com)

The model was very patient while I went through various combinations of power on the lights. Thank god for the remote firing thingamajig!

Some tweaking in Lightroom and Photoshop and this is the result.

Never stop learning.

Jan

2021

Ode To LOR

Dramatic Portrait

Trying out some new lights with a beautiful young princess and Sting from Lord Of The Rings. And a sword from the Dark Ages.

Using four and sometimes three lights.

Four foot Octabox with grid to camera left.
63" Umbrella just behind and right of camera with Strobpro 600 (strobepro.com)
12"x 55" Softbox with grid rim light camera right pointing at subjects shoulder and hair
Small strobe with snoot pointing at backdrop.

I honestly may have been able to get something similar with fewer lights but love that I was able to do this way.

A bit of editing in Lightroom and Photoshop.