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ƒ/5.6 | 1/200 | ISO400

Scoot Scoot

On a rare dry photo walk last (the rain/snow/hail has arrived) I spotted these three competitors lined up so perfectly in front of a papered-over window of an empty storefront. Iceland is such a strange place some times. There are four competing companies in this scooter market while there isn’t a single store that sells clothing for adult males that is able to stay open for business without a 3-4x mark up on clothes.

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ƒ/8 | 1/60 | ISO100

Grindin

The Faroese have this tradition where they kill whales in large numbers for…the tradition of it. They will say it is so they can eat the meat and sustain their society, but really this is simple propaganda. Having spent 98 days there, I was around for 3 of these Grindadráp and in the time in between each, I was only once offered whale meat and never saw it on a menu. Turns out, you aren’t allowed to sell it anywhere because the mercury content is too high for human consumption. So, they kill these whales (which are no where close to being endangered, to be fair) seemingly for the communal aspect of it. The Grindin call goes out and people gather and come in from the hills to join in this festive moment. It’s all so strange. I can’t abide by it all, but I am glad I was there.

74

I made a Zine called This is Portrait.

73

ƒ/5.6 | 1/60 | ISO500

How do I take a photograph of art and retain my own style in the photograph?

1. Photograph good art.

2. Be a mirror of that art as best as possible.

   1. Don’t attempt to outshine the art.

   2. Keep the art as the centre of attention above all else.

3. Step back and find the frame that illustrates mirrors my view of the art.

   1. My photographs use a lot of geometry, so I used a lot of rectangles and squares above.

   2. The leaves hanging across the top are one of my new favourite ways to frame subjects after spending a lot of time in the forest this summer.

72

ƒ/5.6 | 1/60 | ISO200

There was a period about three years ago when everyone was obsessing about camera bokeh. I think a good photographer understands that it is not about how shallow a photograph can get, but how well you can layer that depth of field in the photograph. In the above photograph I wanted to focus the viewer’s attention on the drops of rain on the leaves and highlight the red of the plant. In order to achieve this, I opened the lens up a little bit more than was en vogue a few years ago so that the viewer would be disoriented by the blurriness of everything outside of the plant. As you can see, this still allows for the bokeh to shine at the top of the photograph, but still give you, as the viewer, a path for the eye to follow.