Recent Projects

This is the interior of a new bank in north Edmonton.

Broadmoor Public Golf Course

This is the second major piece of the Broadmoor Public Golf Course installation.  It hangs directly opposite the entrance to the lounge.

I'm not really into the world of self promotion but I was very pleased to get this note from the club pro on Saturday night:

'Jim, you are very talented and If I could use one word to describe you it would be  "Class "... First class.  Your work has been impeccable and your service as well'.

There ain't nothin' like positive feedback!

Broadmoor Public Golf Course

Last summer I was hired to photograph the Broadmoor Gold Course in Sherwood Park; one of the goals was to have a series of photos to hang in the new club house.  Yesterday I hung four prints in the lounge; images selected by the club pro and I.

This is one of the larger pieces; about 40 inches across.  It has the look of a John Constable painting I think; Constable was an English landscape painter.

Across the bottom of the print are the words: 'Broadmoor Public Golf Course, Sherwood Park, Alberta Canada'

From the Vaults

Seems Like I took this photo yesterday but it was three years ago...Corporate offices for a major banking services company.

From the Vaults

I had a call this week from the client for whom this photo was taken in 2009.  It was a challenging shot, long and low building with a north facing frontage.  It was late October and there was snow coming so there was not time to lose.  Anyway, they were happy with this photo and it looks like more work is coming my way this summer as a result.

From the Vaults

Like Yesterday's post, this photo too is from 2008.  Not bad but it would look much different if I took it today.

From the Vaults

This is one of the first photos I took on a paying basis - in 2008.  Canon 40D with Sigma 10-20 lens.

Recent Projects

Video x Ray is an important aspect of the new  endoscopy clinic at the Walter C. McKenzie hospital.

Recent Projects

This is the new endoscopy clinic at the Walter C. McKenzie hospital.

Recent Projects

This is the new endoscopy clinic at the Walter C. McKenzie hospital

Something from Nothing

We'll make this the last iPhone photo for a little while....

Something from Nothing

 For today's post I've added two photos of the same scene; the top was made with the iPhone camera and the lower one with the iPhone Hipstamatic app. Both have merit and I have my favourite....but you'll have to make up you own mind.....

Something from Nothing

To create this image of an old dead tree I used the iPhone Hipstamatic and added a little colour and contrast in Photoshop.

Something from Nothing

I am a sucker for photos of leaves exposed from their winter tomb - very hard to walk past without making some sort of image.

Something from Nothing

Anyone who pays regular visits to my blog know that I'm pretty high on the iPhone Hipstamatic - the last several posts have been made with this convenient app for the iPhone.  But what is it exactly?

Plastic cameras from days gone by featured unsophisticated lenses, bodies that leaked lights, controls that were primitive or non existent, view finders that were cropped and/or tiny, etc.  Different films would yield results.  The photos almost never recorded an accurate representation of the scene.  You can still buy these cameras, Holga and Dianna are two popular options.  They;re fun to use but there is that film business - you have to chose and buy the film, load it, shoot your photos and hustle the film to the lab where it will be sent off of processing. Or you can use the iPhone as I did here to record this image spring receding.

Something from Nothing

Ice had formed on this shaded area of our local park.  there was water beneath and all sorts of grass and other stuff that rendered the thin ice a lovely greenish hue.

Something from Nothing

Somebody added this strange symbol to the bark of a paper birch.

Something from Nothing

I came across these tree roots whilst out with the dogs in the river valley.

Something from Nothing

Here is another photo from the sample room at the office.

Something from Nothing

These are tile samples; they come from the manufacturer on a heavy cardboard carrier that has the edges painted green so they stand out when stacked in the sample room

Something from Nothing

This is a piece of mesh that is used as an architectural finish; as seen through the lens of the iPhone and interpreted by the Hipstamatic app.

Something from Nothing

I took the iPhone for walk in the sample room at the office the other day....lost of great textures and forms awaited.  In this instance the Hipstamatic printed a date on the border.  It's wrong, at least the year is wrong; but a date none the less.

Something from Nothing

I came across this face in the woods the other day.  Felt marker on an old fallen log.

Something from Nothing

Just like with the cheap plastic cameras the Hipstamatic tries to replicate, composing ones photo and getting the horizon sort of level is a challenge.  This the best of six photos I took of this scene.

Something from Nothing

Carving the bark of a tree is deplorable conduct for disease and/or insects can attack the core of the tree thereafter.  But it can make for a cool photo.

Something from Nothing

The iPhone Hipstamatic app does weird stiff to colour as it tries to replicate the look of a tired old photo.  The purple blobs in this photo are actually fluorescent orange.

Something from Nothing

The charm of this photo is the way the iPhone Hipstamatic added radiating beams of light that make the tree in the centre look like it's glowing.  Try to look at this photo on a large, bright screen for best effect.

Something from Nothing

One of the things I like best about the iPhone Hipstamatic app is that even when you have a good understanding of the features the final result is, too some degree, almost always a surprise.  Rusty old junk can be transformed into quite a stunning image.

Before and After

 Here's a before and after pairing that's a little different from those posted over the last few days.  As before the top photo, taken in San Antonio, is the unedited RAW file and below is the tuned up black and white version.  The subject is a mosaic; which is actually rather appropriate given that every digital photo is a series of tiny little squares; a digital mosaic in every way.

Before and After

As time goes by I find my ability to 'see' the final photo before I even take it improves.  When I trip the shutter I know exactly what I'm going to do with the RAW file in the editing/post production process.  In this case I had two possibilities in mind; either the log in the foreground would be a prominent element or it wouldn't be part of the image at all. Either way the photo was going to be cropped square and converted to black and white.  In the end I opted to crop the photo so the fallen log would not be part of the final image.

I used Adobe Ligthroom for the initial edit and cropping (the RAW file was a little underexposed and it is crocked).  I then exported the RAW file to Nik Silver Efex Pro for the black and white processing.  This software gives a wide range of editing controls as well as some presets that show the effects of simulated filters as well replicating characteristics of various black white films and papers.  Black and White photos - film and digital - are far more complicated than their simple name would imply - there are an infinite range of choices to be made in the editing process.

Final editing and cropping was made in Adobe Photoshop CS4.  Canon 1Dx with Canon 24-105 lens.