even though it was really only about a month probably.

i took some time off of shooting these past 2 weeks to finally catch up on my fucking classes. i've been so busy with shooting and doing things photography related for the past couple months that i sacrificed going to a lot of classes to shoot and try to push myself forward in the real world. i'm excited to get back in to that mind set of trying to do as much work as possible but i had to take a break to get my ass in gear for my final exams and catch up on projects. there was a lot of work piled up but it was kind of fun to get in to "school mode" for 2 weeks this entire year. :P

i didn't even do that bad on my exams ... i got 75% on my spanish oral exam which was basically talking to my teacher for 15 minutes in spanish on any topic she would bring up ... any verb tense from the semester. it was tough as fuck to study for but honestly, once i got down to studying, it wasn't that bad. not sure about my written mark yet but i think i did well on that too!
one of the assignments i had to do was a still life in the studio ...

i have these really fucking cool looking drum sticks that i use when i play live and my dad says "might give people a wrong impression" but i think they're jokes anyways ... and i wanted to contrast them against a "natural" environment and juxtapose their metallic look with regular wood drum sticks ... so i set up this scene and lit it with 4 spots and a main light ...

i had my friend rachel bouncing light from the right ... and my other friend erik is looking at it on the left.

i've never done still lives and this was my first time really playing around with lighting equipment. i think this was an assignment that really was useful for the students. i think i had a general disdain for some of the previous assignments - but mostly in the visual concepts class - this year but i learned a lot from this one and if any of my profs are reading this, the still life assignment was really, really cool! :)

the final looked like this ...

these were just digital tests for what was shot on a 4x5 and ilford hp5 film ... i never bought a light meter for school so i did all my light tests with my digital camera. but i think i will buy a light meter since they're useful!

the portrait lighting assignment was useful too i think ... one of the ones i really enjoyed fucking around with! even though i was late to hand it in (sorry mindy) i think it was really cool and i had a lot of fun doing it!

i think my aunt did too ...
i think she will like the 11x14's i printed in the dark room for her ...

and again, these are digital test photos for what was shot on agfa apx 400 film!
i think it's really interesting to see the difference between how the same light and exposure looks on digital and film. i wish i had the scans but the lab i go to to do my processing and scans forgot i wanted scans. i was pretty pissed, trust me. i really wanted them ... :(

i love this 24-70 lens! scott, you don't know what you're talking about!! this is amazing! :P

and i think f/4 was a nice aperture for this ...
honestly, someone in my class was surprised i was shooting 400 film in the studio. "but it's so grainy, it will look like shit." i think the grain on 400 looks good. and i like the agfa apx film. a store was selling them for $2.19 per roll so i bought a bunch but now they're apparently going under a different name ... "arista"

what??

another cool assignment was to make a website showing our work ...

and since i've been meaning to re-do my dot com for a while - i think it was perfect timing to make me do it up!

i'm pretty happy with how it looks ... i started it yesterday and finished early this morning and i'm actually really satisfied. and so glad to have a normal website with my recent work! now i need to make business cards!


my final project was a critique of a series we had to do ... that's me presenting i guess. i dunno what i'm doing with my hand.


there's part of my series - 4 photos aren't in the frame! but i used my fashion week material. i liked it and i got good feedback from my friends and profs. but i was really shooting these for myself and since it fit nicely in to what i had to do for my final project i decided "why not." my primary goal was not to shoot these for school or to blow away anyone's minds but to just fulfill whatever it is inside of me that said shoot some film ...

i'm happy with them!

hmm ... what else?

i shot sum 41 a few weeks ago as well!


they're amazing!

deryck is just a really "into it" performer!


maybe he's looking for something?

must be cool to look out and see this ...


too bad their demographic is like 14 year old girls and emo guys ...


i'm sure he's happy with avril though! i think they're a well-suited couple!


their relationship seems "natural." and so did his performance which was wicked! i love seeing bands that are really feeling what they're doing.

like the foo fighters -
i think these guys are one of the tightest bands live ...

and definitely one of the bands that really love what they do for a living.
no body ever fucking photographs the drummers. i always give them some love! i guess it's a drummer thing. :P

these two and one other are going to dave grohl in print form to sign:

the one of him running is for me. i'm excited to have the signed 11x14 up on my wall when it returns to me!! i love the bored security guard ... and all the fans.


i photographed a birthday party of a very close family friend that my parents have known for over 20 years a few days ago. it was really cool. and miki was so happy that i came to shoot it - they're a family that really loves photos and i'm happy i could make some for them for his 50th! that's my mom, dad and sister as we walked in!


the birthday boy!

it was so cool to see all these old family friends i remember seeing from when i was a kid ... michael, on the right, thought i was 23.


they're good friends with my grandma!

and i love white ceilings to bounce flash off of!

the cake was nice!


i wanted to spank her hand and say "don't touch" after taking this! :P

i think it was my dad who took this photo of me at home before the party ...


definitely one of my better moments. :)

my sister didn't seem too excited at first as we were leaving the house:


but she got in to it as the night went on ...


then the cake came out by miki's son, zach:


i used to live on the same street as him. i taught him how to skateboard and we used to wrestle a lot when i was a kid. so many memories.


some of his friends were there too ... i went up to these two and asked how they knew each other. awkwardly, the guy says, "we don't really, we just uh ... we just, umm, go to the same school." i asked them for a photo together and he was very hesitant and i was like "common bro it won't be bad, just a quick photo" ... i think i captured the awkwardness ...


poor guy - i think he may have had a crush.

funny enough, that guy, is named michael ... and i grew up with him too. i haven't seen him since he was maybe 6 ... so i totally didn't recognize him. and it was kinda dark ... but me and him used to chill as kids quite often as he was zach's neighbor and also lived on my old street!

same with his brother anthony ... finally reunited:


they told me one of our other little innocent neighborhood friends from back in the day is a huge stoner now who's flunking all his classes. sucks!

but it's all about the birthday boy ... people started dancing:


i like the "50" in the middle ...

there's a lot more but it's mostly guests and other dancing photos.

i think i'll leave it at that ...

i like this photo i took of my mom and i ...


and the two brothers who i didn't even know were there but when we recognized each other later in the night it was all good!


it was a really fun night!!


i shot some film too and i'm excited to see the roll ... and present miki with an 11x14 fibre print! :)

hopefully he'll be happy!

but since they're "picture-people" i think he'll appreciate it!

anyways ... i know i've been MIA like crazy lately, but i'm done school now and my websites up so i plan on re-adjusting to shooting more often now that all that is out of the way. i plan on hitting up the weed march in toronto to cover it!

and my band is playing a show opening for three days grace and in front of a member of triumph and randy lennox who is the ceo of universal music canada so it should be cool!!

and a new album is on the way ... and we're gunna start recording our second immediately after this is released since we have enough material to do 2 already!

lots more to come!!

bye bye for now.

PS - happy early birthday scott! :)