   Street photography has always been a point of comfort for me. It's a part of how I got my start as a cinematographer.
I used to spend weekends with friends and we'd just walk around Toronto and go to parties, shooting photos Friday to Sunday. Each week I'd come back with a few thousand shots. Over time that led to the ability to catch and balance compositions more efficiently. Sometimes there's only an instant where everything sits right in the frame. It's the most low stress training ground. Playing professionally. This set is from Chinatown ( Spadina ) . Another stack to the process is Colour Grading. Lately I've been spending a lot of time in classes, learning about the under the hood aspects of post colour. With the right information and the right tools ( sometimes custom tools) , I'm seeing that I can really dig in and enhance images as my understanding develops. It's a little odd looking back realizing how much has changed over the past few years.
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 Nothing could prepare me for the fact that a single image would represent a 7 year journey of healing and transformation.
My journey started when I'd just moved home from college and my father was dying of cancer. It was the day after I got home and I asked if there was any advice that he could give me. He said," don't let anyone , even my passing stop you. Go out and become what you want to be." That was our last day. I decided soon after that I wanted to travel the world and to be a photographer. I took his lenses with me. After travelling to Japan , Taipei and Shanghai, training my eye, I came home. The journeys gradually let me find myself. 7 years out from that conversation I took this image. Healed and whole, I can now say with confidence that I'm a photographer.  My first time shooting on the Hasselblad XPan thanks to Aidan from Aidan Camera.
 Studying and testing lenses.
When working with new models, it's a collaborative process of discovery. There are so many ways to light a figure, so many potential angles, and focal lengths to test. It's important to run tests like these to know your workable range. Once this is combined with good conversation, you can find the nuances of emotion and expression given by the model. I picked up a home film scanning setup and I've been processing a bunch of shots from the past few years. I think I'm hooked.  The wonders of the world reveal themselves to those with the courage to seek them out. Embrace the journey.
                    When I'm pulling photos I'm generally feeling out 2 things, the emotion in the piece, and something from a model that we've not yet seen before. I'd rather the photos be unconventional and honest than standard.
Today's model is Karin : https://www.instagram.com/___krnx/    Been at it on a few projects over the past few months.
Also catching up with old friends. Time is such a strange thing.  You get what you look for.
If you believe you need more, then you'll see more. If you believe you need less, then you'll see the road to less. (A pic of my mom, shot on the 40mm voigtlander with a rapido fvd 16a 2x scope -isco red - on the bmpcc6k) I find myself going back over footage to test different processing methods quite often. 1% improvement every day.  |
MANIKKOn a journey. Searching for something. Sharing what's found. History
September 2023
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