Commercial Drive, Vancouver

Holga and good old tri-x.

Main St., Vancouver

Fred Herzog at Emily Carr

It was a wonderful day today. I had the privilege of sitting in on lecture at ECUAD given by renowned Vancouver street photographer, Fred Herzog. Fred's work was once shown at The Vancouver Art Gallery and on the way home from the exhibit, I paused for a moment and made this photo.



Cheers, Fred!

Squamish Nation Powwow

I took these two photos at The 2010 Squamish Nation Powwow held at the Capilano Indian Reserve Park in North Vancouver.The top image I did a high-pass contrast work over on one layer and on another layer, I did a black and white infra-red conversion and then blended the two layers. The bottom photo was imported into Vignette App and had a couple funky settings applied.

Robson St., Vancouver

A few layers here to achieve this image. I think it`s a little over-cooked HDR but many like it and compliment on it. There`s some HDR and high-pass sharpening on one layer, some surface blur for the background, and some unsharpen mask on the hair and pimples. This fellow played a great slide, btw!

In almost every picture #7

I saw this in Lens Culture and thought I'd pass it on.



In almost every picture #7 photographically tells the story of a woman whose life is captured from a camera set up near the targets at a fairground shooting gallery. It starts in 1936 in The Netherlands, takes a break between 1939 and 1945 becasue of WWII and resumes up until present time. At the age of 88, Ria van Dijk still makes her annual visit to the Shooting Gallery. Very cool!

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: A Professional Photographer's Workflow

I can't believe two months have gone by! I've been on a great film set for most of the summer and haven't had a chance to have a personal life; let alone a social media one. It's great to be able sit at my desk and create some photos!

After catching up this week on emails and accounts and other business duties, I came across a Photo.net forum posting by Montréal photo re-toucher Patrick Lavoie who recommended a $25 ebook on Adobe Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 by Michael Clark Photo.




It's called Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: A Professional Photographer's Workflow and is 353 pages! I'm really impressed with this pdf e-book. It's well written, the screen captures are top notch, and it's produced by a working pro. Get your copy here,

http://www.michaelclarkphoto.com/#/BOOKS/DIGITAL%20WORKFLOW/


I hope you find Michael's tips and instructions as resourceful as I am!

Trilby Jeeves Speaks 'Twitter' at Marketing Dangerously Seminar

My friend and twitter coach Trilby Jeeves spoke at The Social Media Challenge. The Challenge is a marketing and sales coaching program for business builders put on by Neil Godin and was held at The Hampton Inn in Langley, BC.




Trilby gave a great one hour tutorial and introduction to using Twitter to a few dozen small business owners. She wowed the crowd with the power of Twitter by demonstrating the nearly instant results that her followers created by their web page visits to the couple of the business owners that volunteered.




I highly recommend Trilby and her Twitter coaching. If you are new or just dabble in Twitter and wish to get through the learning curve much quicker, you can get you in touch with Trilby and take one of her coaching sessions. On Twitter, Trilby can be reached at @tjbuffoonery and her site is here http://buffooneryworkshops.com/

RED ONE Camera I.A.T.S.E. 699 Workshop

I had the pleasure of attending an IATSE 699 workshop with the RED ONE Camera.



We spent most of our time in front of the monitor learning the software. If you're not aware, RED ONE captures in RAW and like the still cameras that shoot in RAW, you have to apply "your dream" to your footage in post production with Redcine-X. Basically, this means that you only have to be careful of exposure when shooting and then once in front of the monitor, you can adjust everything else from gamma to white balance to achieve your vision. And because it is raw data, it is non-destructive editing so you can always go back and apply different changes.



Coming from a still photographer background and personally living the sweeping changes the film-to-digital transition made to our industry these last five years, it was interesting to see the familiar looks of ponder on some of the faces these fine DOP's and moving-camera people. They are going through the same learning curve on their journey from film and into digital.



It was a great class and hosted by Craig Harris of Inspired Cinema. We went over some basic stuff for newer people. Just like our still camera work-flow, we touched on how important it is to back-up and make redundancies of your back-up's. Craig had some great stories on how RED had saved a few productions a ton of money due to the fact that the footage can be viewed immediately and re-shot as opposed to finding out the next day with film.

Dennis Hopper, R.I.P.

It was Dennis and his role in Apocalypse Now that is undoubtedly responsible for my pursuit and love of photography and photo journalism. And is definitely the reason why I chose Nikon years ago. No other images from the cinema have struck me as did those of Dennis with three of four Nikon's dangling around his neck. He's been an iconic figure for me. Years later, I had the pleasure of doing unit still photography on a show of his. I knew I had completed a life dream when I had this privilege of photographing him. He was a great man and also loved art and photography. Thank you for so much, Dennis. You will be missed.

photo: Graham Timmer

Rule #1. Always carry a camera with you.

And preferably with a memory card loaded. I just happened to have my spider-sense tingle and turned to see this going on. With a trusty Nikon in one hand, and a freshly made awesome Red Burrito in the other, I quickly snapped this.

Stereo Portrait Project

With two Nikon D90 cameras, 3D portraits have been made by Alex Fry and Jamie Nimmo will have thier 3D photography exhibition, “Stereo Portrait Project”, in Sydney Australia on 27th May 2010 to the 10th of June at the OH REALLY GALLERY.



For lighting, they used three Nikon sb900’s. One was connected via pc sync in a soft box and the other two were optically slaved.

Alex and Jamie made a custom camera rig as one was needed to put the cameras as close together as possible while roughly emulating the distance between the human eyes.

The pairs of images were then batched and sorted using Aperture before being exported into Nuke. Final tweaks were made in Nuke before combining them into the final anaglyph 3D images.

"...while Nuke allowed us to simply adapt many of the same 3d work-flows we use in our day jobs as stereoscopic visual effects compositors." says Alex and Jamie.

They also printed a limited edition run of 25 books for the exhibition using the self publishing website Blurb.

More details here;

http://stereoportraitproject.com/

Looks to be a very cool exhibit. Go check it out!

Puppy X

I took these photos of puppy that I was recently looking after for a few days. I offered to be a transition home between the vet and hopefully her forever-home.





Puppy X and her story are a sad and all too familiar story in the world of dog rescue organizations.

She was one of the 27 dogs from a historical seizure in Surrey, BC on May 1 2010. Of the 27 dogs, 26 were pit bulls and one is a Sharpei. Of the 27, 23 were transferred to SPCA and then into the care and legal responsibility of the bully friendly dog rescue organization, HugABull. Of these 23, 19 were puppies and 4 were adults. The on-going story is here on a thread inside HugAbulls forum; http://hugabull.forumup.org/viewtopic.php?t=7329&mforum=hugabull

These dogs are suspected as being puppy-milled for the fighting ring and is as much as I can say. The horrors these dogs have experienced since first brought into this world are despicable. Five of the puppies have very severe mange.




An adult has a leg soon to be amputated because fighting was encouraged and then a lack of vet care for the wounds.




The one thing that continually amazes me with this breed, is their ability to trust humans after experiencing torture and abuse from the human hand. She's 14 weeks old, yet this puppy, though scared and only with me for a few hours, is slowly letting her guard down around me and my other dog and is willing to let strangers hold her, love her and care for her. And they in return are all to easy to start over and begin wagging their tails and are almost always excited to see new people. Here's a short clip of her and my forever dog trying to get her out of shell. It didn't take long, I might ad.

Jake and X from Eric Milner Photography on Vimeo.

Stories and progress reports to come!

Cheers,
Eric Milner
Still Photographer

How photography connects us to the world: David Griffin on TED.com

I came across this video on TED and must share. The photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin, discusses photography and the power it has to connect us to our world.





Cheers,
Eric Milner
Still Photographer

I Love Shooting Dogs

Sounds horrible, doesn't it? But I do. Here's a couple favorite snaps I've taken recently of a couple favorite dogs in my pack.


This is Mags (Maggie) and is mastered by Kayte.





And this is Sinbad and is mastered by Bobby Pinn.







Both dogs have owners that put tireless hours into dog rescue and work primarily with HugABull.com, a registered non-profit organization and a community of pit bull owners, advocates and enthusiasts. We're lucky to have people like these two out there making a difference.

Robson St., Vancouver

The Making of the 2010 Pirelli Calendar by Terry Richardson

Caution, if you know anything about the Pirelli Calendar's, it is NOT work safe! Enjoy!

The Making of the 2010 Pirelli Calendar by Terry Richardson from Rafael Rubira fashion4fun.com.br on Vimeo.

"House" Season Finale Filmed Entirely with the Canon 5D Mark II

Latest buzz is that the Canon 5D Mark II has become the first video-capable DSLR to shoot a complete episode of this US prime-time series. Director Greg Yaitanes, of FOX's drama series 'House', used the 5D MKII and a selection of of Canon's prime lenses along with two of the finest zoom's; the 24-70mm and 70-200mm. Speaking via Twitter, Yaitanes said that this was to achieve a shallow depth of field and also added that he 'feels it’s the future'. More here at Cinema 5D...

http://www.cinema5d.com/news/?p=2818

Cheers,
Eric Milner
Still Photographer

Adobe CS5 Photoshop is set for launch on April 12 2010.

Here's a couple sneak peak YouTube videos on some of the new features. They look like amazing new tools for the tool box.

Painting in Adobe Photoshop CS5 Step by Step


Adobe Photoshop CS5 - PatchMatch



And it looks like CS5 will bring on HDR/Photomatix/Tone Mapping/Topaz Adjust filter. Some will love, and others will not.


Photos of The Adobe San Jose Headquarters were taken by Kelly Castro, a quality engineer on the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Team.


Rumour has it that CS5 will finally be 64-bit for Mac users and can utilize more than 3.2 gigs of ram!

For my photographer friends. Magnum Photos is...

accepting portfolio submissions for 2010 and will close May 15, 2010. "Magnum Photos is a co-operative owned and run by its members/photographers. They meet once a year during the last weekend in June to discuss the organisation's affairs. One day of the meeting is set aside for looking at and voting on potential new members' portfolios. Successful applicants will be invited to become a "Nominee Member", a category of membership which presents an opportunity for Magnum and the individual to get to know each other. At this stage there are no binding commitments on either side. In 2007 three new nominee members were accepted."

Information on submitting portfolios:

http://agency.magnumphotos.com/about/submission

Cheers,
Eric Milner
Still Photographer

$50K Photo Prize Announced

Scotiabank and Toronto's Contact Photography Festival announced today that the Toronto festival's renaming to be Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival and introduced the Scotiabank Photography Award for 2011.

The Scotiabank Photography Award will be the largest photography award dedicated to recognizing Canadian contemporary artists working in photography. Launching in September 2010 and to be awarded in 2011, the award will consist of a $50,000 cash prize, a pre-negotiated book publishing contract by internationally acclaimed photographic art publisher, Steidl, and a feature exhibition in the following year's Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. World renowned Canadian photographer Ed Burtynsky will chair a panel of three judges for the award in 2011.

http://www.scotiabankcontactphoto.com/



Cheers,
Eric Milner
Still Photographer

Go! Gallery

So my friend Zeebo and I climbed a 100 year old rusty fire escape, that was hardly still attached to the wall, and we made this image here from four floors up in Chinatown. It is
29 frames from a Nikon D300 that is stitched together for one large panorama. It's 5.5 feet wide.

We had permission from Sean Pearson and Alyssa Schwann to shoot their RUF project. You should head down to 46 E Pender and check it out while it is there. From their site:

"GO! transforms one of Vancouver’s many underused, under-lit areas into an illuminated canopy of light and space. Utilizing umbrellas printed with a luminescent map of the Bright
Light galleries, video projections, light installations and programmed events, the courtyard becomes a lively gathering space, encouraging participation and play, gatherings and
discovery, celebrating neighbourhood and community.
Organised by ASIR Studio, Rural Urban Fantasy Project and Organelle Design."

www.rufproject.com/
Rural Urban Fantasy Project. Vancouver
ASIR Studio

Check it out!

2nd Bootleg Sled Dog Race

Kimberley, BC

The Annual Bootleg Sled Dog Race is held February 20 and 21, 2010. As well as the races being some of the best on the continent, the beneficiaries of the races, the East Kootenay Friends of Children Fund, will also be better equipped to financially help families as a result of the races. That's right, The Bootleg Sled Dog Races have a cause. Last year they raised $18,293.59 for the East Kootenay Friends of Children Fund. This fund assists the families of patients with the financial burden of travel to the larger cities.



So check it out! There's tons of photo opportunities at The Bootleg Sled Dog Races in Kimberley BC.

Really Cool Time-lapse

"Vancouver City" music video is an artistic collaboration between Innerlife Project and TimeLapseHD.