Ma Fotographie

Mise en Place

2012-01-17T12:12:00.000-05:00

The Office II

2012-01-16T12:11:00.000-05:00

My weekday office

Detention

2012-01-15T12:10:00.000-05:00

Saw this man sitting by himself and just reminded me of someone in detention back in the school days.

The Office

2012-01-14T12:08:00.000-05:00

What my office on a weekend usually looks like. Today was a slow day.

Fifteen Below

2012-01-13T12:06:00.000-05:00

Usually looks like this in "sometown" Ontario when the mercury dips below 0 in the winter.

Open Hole

2012-01-12T12:04:00.000-05:00

2012-01-11T12:01:00.000-05:00

My biannual food update. Most if not all of these are created by doublecreamsinglesugar.com

Unrest

2012-01-10T19:12:00.000-05:00

Protestors occupy the intersection of Bay & Bloor in protest of Canada's stance on violence in Congo.

Memories

2012-01-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

An old highschool friend moving back to the states. We had our farewell dinner at a frequent hangout from our highschool days.

15 of us. Everyone's pretty much married / settled down. One couple now have two GREAT kids. Some people say time flies when you're having fun. I don't know; I think time just flies.

Organized Chaos

2012-01-08T13:21:00.000-05:00

Organized Chaos

The title name was my reaction after I saw what I took. Over the fence on a construction site on Queen E.

Diner

2012-01-07T13:18:00.000-05:00

Diner

When I'm starving and I have time to actually go out to eat, I go here. Diner food isn't my cup of tea, but I guess the atmosphere of the place makes me overlook the food somewhat. Portions are very generous so that doesn't hurt. Wonder if the fact that it's the only "colourful" building on the block has anything to do with it.

No Parking

2012-01-06T13:15:00.000-05:00

No Parking

Pretty soon in Toronto, even if you can afford to drive there'll be no place for you to park. This used to be a parking lot. 3 bucks on weekends believe it or not. Wonder what they're building here.

2012-01-05T13:10:00.000-05:00

Before Poaching

More food goodness

2011-04-22T11:02:00.002-04:00

Cherry from www.doublecreamsinglesugar.com have been on a rampage since January in upping her game in terms of quality AND production of her treats.

It actually literally forced me to hit the gym 6 days a week in order not to have to buy a whole new wardrobe :-)

Here are some of the more popular items she's made in the past 4 months. I gotta tell ya, they taste even BETTER than how they turned out in photographs.

Consumerism

2011-04-20T11:16:00.001-04:00

Got a few various sized gigs in the past month to shoot a whole slew of different stuff. A couple of friends wanting better pics of their inventory so in case they ever need to sell stuff, they have some PROPER photos to post online for people to see.

Absolutely love the design of this Whitlam prototype. Would be all over it if it wasn't an Anser style. The Yes Dawn was from another friend of mine. Tour issue, but I guess since it isn't a Scotty, Betti or Mills, it's having a hard time moving. Feels real soft when it rolls the rock.

Last Oct to this Apr, I spent quite a few hours in Lakeshore Links trying to keep the rust off my game. The owner wanted some better shots of the place to put in his new brochure. No problem said I, so I spent an evening doing a few shots of his place and gave him some stuff that he lacked previously

Last but not least, a golf boutique up in Vaughan wanted some shots of their IJP clothing so they can have a catalog to put online. Here are some pieces that I picked up after the shoot. (Yes, I got paid AND got some gear as well ;) ) The tartans are about as quiet as they come. You should see the other colours they have in there. Some are literally a sartorial apocalypse :-)))

Getting shot AT

2010-11-27T12:00:00.001-05:00

Normally, when I take a photo, I'm always behind the camera shooting at something. So this shoot, while I've wanted to do something like this for a long time (but not in the cold like I did last week) was somewhat exciting for me.

Nick's my golf coach, and when he approached me with the need for some headshots, I gladly said I'd take em for him. Unfortunately for us, picking a day in late November here in Ontario means shooting time will be very limited with the unpredictable temperatures and weather; but we made the best out of the short window we had.

I've always wanted to do a shot like this. God knows I have enough friends who play golf, but I don't know enough people that I trust who can pull off his shot at the same time that I'm pulling off mine without getting my camera completely destroyed. So when Nick asked me about the headshots, I told him I'll do it and we might as well do some swing sequences in the meantime to maximize the time and get more stuff for his instructional website. To find out more about Nick Starchuk, please visit http://www.onlinegolfcoach.net/

Recent food and dessert

2010-11-16T11:45:00.002-05:00

Yup, another food post. I hope you guys ate already because I feel hungry when I'm looking at these again :)

You'll see one that's got a "spooky" theme. Cherry made these for halloween -- strawberries dipped with white chocolate. All recipes and any insight in making these could be found here.

Enjoy.

Desserts, plenty of desserts

2010-10-01T18:37:00.001-04:00

As I've previously mentioned, my significant other is quite the chef; especially when it comes to desserts and pastries.

Over the past month of so, we've had a few types of pastries / desserts using apple as the theme, check em out.

Recipes for the above pieces could be found at http://doublecreamsinglesugar.blogspot.com/

Eric & Fiona

2010-09-16T10:36:00.000-04:00

Went out with Derwei again to capture the wedding of one of his church friends. Not my first time shooting a Jewish wedding (see Patrick & Heather), but this one was a lot more informal IMO despite the minister being very traditional.

Congrats Eric and Fiona! :)

RBC Canadian Open

2010-07-23T21:09:00.001-04:00

Every year, we try to draw some big names for our National open. It's a shame, since the last time Tiger played here was 10 years ago, and aside from Jim Furyk, no big names have ventured up here for a LONG time.

It doesn't help the fact that this tourney in 2010 is held the week after THE Open Championship (@ the home of golf, St. Andrew's no less). So obviously the big names will definitely be taking a break.

Anyway, St. George's is quite picturesque; but with that comes a price with hiking up and down the hills.

Here are some from earlier in the week.

Recent Studio Work

2010-06-15T20:58:00.000-04:00

I've been shooting, just haven't been posting due to some logistic issues.

Went on a creative binge during the spring and did four shoots in a span of 20 days. A various of themes as you can see. One shoot in particular stood out in my mind, and not for the right reasons either. Oh well, can't win em all :)

Enjoy.

The Update

2010-03-10T23:13:00.000-05:00

So like I said last week, I'd have a big update. You'll probably notice I haven't spent a whole heckuvalot of time writing anything in the past few months.
This is why:

Got the keys to this place beginning of December and spent about 6 weeks (during holiday season, mind you) doing some reno and furnishing it PLUS moving in. After I moved in, of course I then had to get sick for 2 weeks so that knocked me flat on my back until February. It wasn't until the end of Feb that I went back to shoot some fashion stuff again which I'll post in my next post.

Now that I live with my girlfriend, I've had a lot of chances to practice a genre I'd never thought I'd shoot before.
Food.
TONS and tons of it. And lemme tell you, they are absofrigginglutely DELICIOUS. Photos don't do these creations justice. Thank god this place has a gym downstairs, or I'd have to go shopping for new clothes in no time.

Here are a few samples of some of the stuff she's made in the past 10 weeks:

Stay Tuned

2010-02-15T16:48:00.000-05:00

No, I didn't vapourize off the planet. A big update will be coming inside 7 days; stay tuned.

Gabe and Corrine

2009-10-16T10:11:00.028-04:00

Derwei called me two weeks earlier and asked if I'd lend him a hand covering this wedding. Seeing how he's helped me a ton over the past couple of years, I said yes immediately.

Started at the crack of dawn (well, before that even as you can see in one of the photos); but what a nice and cute couple. :) Rarely is a bride so chilled and laid back on her big day; but these two were just cracking jokes ALL day, which makes our job that much more enjoyable. Congrats again Gabe and Corrine!

As per usual protocol, please email me directly at cyril@ma-fotographie.com should you wish to view the wedding in its entirety.

Villager

2009-10-14T10:26:00.005-04:00

Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with the group that did YMCA.

I had to throw that in there because when I was trying to explain the theme to the rest of my team, someone actually asked if they should bring a policeman uniform -.-' I didn't clue in as to what they were going on about until it dawned on me that the song is running through their heads :)

Jasmine is rep'd by Elmer Olsen (who also reps Daria). It was a last minute thing and her booker came through big time as I was working on a tight deadline. The team piled into the Ford Flex that I'd rented (securing the rental was an adventure that morning) and we drove to Pickering to shoot in 8 degrees weather with a slight breeze.

This is what we ended up getting. I can't thank my team - Eneida (stylist) and May (makeup) enough. Eneida brought a luggage that had enough clothes in it to dress at least 8 girls and May was awesome with the makeup. Fast AND good are every photographer's dream. It was a shame we ran out of light near the end of the day.

September

2009-09-28T14:51:00.007-04:00

A blink of an eye brings us to the end of September. The month where hockey once again overlaps with baseball.

I've been looking forward to the M's coming to town. Part of the reason was because I've wanted to shoot Ichiro for a while, the other being Ken Griffey would soon retire. The guy's 39, I'm not expecting him to be around the league for that much longer.

The fact that Ken Griffey can hit the long ball has never been in doubt, but Ichiro surprised me when I saw them take batting practice before the game. The guy is listed as 5-11, 170. He seemed like 5-8, 140 to me, but still he's able to hammer ball after ball to the second deck out in right field. Absolutely mind boggling.

After the Jays two games on Thur and Fri, it was off to the ACC over the weekend to cover the buds. There's no question this city treats its hockey way more seriously than baseball. I wish I was old enough to shoot the Jays when we were winning, it'd actually be a fair comparison back then.

Pictorial Review of the two games:

http://ma-fotographie.com/Mayhem/NHL%20Preseason/index.html

Recent photoshoot

2009-09-01T19:51:00.002-04:00

Been so wrapped up with events coverage lately that I finally spent some time to go back to doing what I REALLY love doing - fashion photography.

Did a shoot over the weekend with Jennifer.

Here are some exerpts. I have to admit, I'm STILL not a fan of the Terry Richardson "direct flash" type of shots. Luckily one of them actually turned out pretty decent.

Special Occasion

2009-08-31T21:46:00.042-04:00

Ben and I have known each other since the mid 90s. I realise I just aged myself, but when one of your closest friends ask you whether you can capture the important bits of the biggest day of his life, it's an honour I wish everyone could feel once in their life; because there's no other emotion for it.

Here are some of the highlight of the day. As per my usual protocol, those who'd like to view the complete slideshow of the day could email me at cyril@ma-fotographie.com

Roger's Cup

2009-08-23T23:07:00.009-04:00

Spent the past week covering the WTA event at the Rexall Centre. Never shot tennis before, but I figure it couldn't be too bad in terms of difficulty; somewhat like baseball. As long as the timing is right, ball in frame isn't a problem. The good thing is, you have an audible cue this time as when the ball is going to arrive, UNLIKE baseball :)

Russian domination this weekend. 3 of the 4 semifinalists were from Russia and it was an all Russian final between Sharapova and Dementieva.

Pictoral recap here

As an aside from this, SI.com ran two of my images from the tournament in their tennis section this week:

Two-wheelin' at Mosport

2009-07-18T22:48:00.026-04:00

After the Indy weekend, I used some time to clean out my archives from 2008, and among the files I cleaned out were the Superbikes weekend at Mosport from last year. What a difference a year makes.

Anyway, I hadn't planned to shoot this weekend since I was never a fan of bikes. I mean ok, the races are cool as heck to watch on TV. For those of you who don't follow Motorcycle racing, you probably will after watching this. More after the jump.

Bikes are a different animal to cars. They're smaller, which means you need a longer lens, they're faster, and the worst part is, the bikes all look the same.

D3, 600mm, 1/500, f/6.3

That's a Buell leading a Suzuki leading a Kawasaki. But seriously, if I didn't have to caption the photos and I didn't already know factory Kawasaki is green, I'd have a hard time telling the difference between those three bikes. Ducatis you always know when they blast by, because the sound is just incredible. But the 3 Japanese bike brands? Forget it. (esp so if they're a privateer bike)

Anyway, I got there on Thursday for the test day just so I can take a look around the track without too much to worry about. Test days are usually pretty relaxing overall (except for the crew). Went to a few places to grab the shots before lunch.

D3, 600mm, 1/125, f/11

D3, 600mm, 1/1000, f/4

D3, 600mm, 1/320, f/6.3

You'll notice in this entry that there is a particular bike that gets a LOT of shots from me. Brett McCormick is the rider of the #6 bike, and while I am still learning the history and story of these riders, I knew right away on Thursday he's damn fast. Type the name "Ben Spies" in google, and look at the images of him vs McCormick. The style is fairly similar coincidentally and Spies is tearing up a storm on the World Superbike scene in only his first year! McCormick is 17 and he's taking the fight to three time defending champ Jordan Szoke this year. It's hard NOT to shoot him every time he goes on track because of how he positions his body in the lean. So dynamic it's impossible to have a bad photo of the guy on track.

After lunch, it was back out to the track to take some more action shots. Speaking of Szoke....

D3, 600mm, 1/500 f/5.6

D3, 600mm, 1/1600, f/5.6

D700, 24mm, 1/40, f/20

I took this shot (below) as the last frame of the day after I took the shot above. Was chatting with him earlier, and as the session was wrapping up, it was simply too good to pass up.

D700, 70mm, 1/500 f/2.8

Friday brought a more hectic schedule. I have 30 minutes to cover two corners in the morning before I lose the light. Thankfully, I've done this dance a few times last year and once already this year :-)

D3, 600mm, 1/640 f/6.3

D3, 600mm, 1/640 f/5

I think the biggest lesson I learned in May was to get the stuff done for the editors / clients early so I could experiment with my own stuff when the chance presents itself. If this means shooting at a safer shutter speed than I'd like, then so be it. If the bikes that went out in the morning was the litre-bikes and not the 600, I would've upped the shutter even more. Much harder to see lack of tire blur in slicks vs treaded tires like those on the 600s.

Last session in the morning was pre-qualifying for the Superbikes. It's also the last of my track excursion as I'll be focusing on other stuff after this.

D3, 600mm, 1/20, f/22

D3, 600mm, 1/1000, f/4.5

With the action shots out of the way, I dumped the card and then listed out a quick game-plan in my head for the two qualifying session. The tension is thick as the rider gets ready to go out for a qualifying session that'll determine the grid for BOTH races (since this is a double header weekend).

D700, 200mm, 1/800 f/2.8

D700, 200mm, 1/160, f/2.8

One thing I absolutely dislike using is on-camera flash. I know it's evitable at times to use it in events like this, but ever since shooting a ton of studio and automotive shoot this year, I've tried to incorporate off-camera flash whenever I can. Last year for this race, I noticed the series will setup a Pirelli arch for the superpole session. Superpole is the top 10 riders in Superbike pre-qualifying going out on a 1 flying lap session to determine the grid for the top 10. Out lap, hot lap, in lap; exactly like qualifying in F1 a few year ago.

At first I thought they didn't setup the arch this year when the session was about to begin, but then I saw they bring out the compressor and I quickly ran back up the tower to get the gadgets that I brought JUST for this session.

D3, 32mm, 1/250, f/18

D3, 24mm, 1/250, f/18

Saturday comes along and it's raceday for both the 600 and the 1000 cc bikes. If the weather holds up, it'll be a breeze. But it's Mosport, and the weather NEVER holds up :-). I've been going to this place since 2006 (which isn't that long ago) and I've yet to have one completely dry weekend.

D700, 200mm, 1/3200, f/2.8

D700, 110mm, 1/250, f/3.5

Races are pretty ho-hum. The start is fun, because I know I only have one chance to nail the shot. I think that gets my blood pumping more than anything throughout the entire weekend. One chance, and there is no room for mistake.

D3, 600mm, 1/1000, f/4.5

Even if I stayed at the same spot to get them piling into turn 1 in the next lap, it's not the same.

D3, 600mm, 1/800, f/7.1

Before I left that position, I saw the crew signal to the riders via a bunch of pitboards on pitlane. I didn't want to shoot that angle from where I was again, so I figure I'll walk to that side of the track to see if I can get another angle on it. What a mistake. Should've stayed there to shoot it, however, I did salvage something out of it.

D700, 200mm, 1/1000, f/6.3

That was probably the most satisfying shot I took all weekend. A lesson I learned after the Indy weekend only to apply and see a fairly positive result from it 6 days after brought a huge smile to my face :)

McCormick won the pro sport race with a last lap, last corner dive up the inside to beat Szoke.

They had enough sense to not spray the people with the bubbly :)

D700, 1/640, f/4.5

No Street Racing Here

2009-07-13T09:56:00.053-04:00

With all this hype about the province of Ontario cracking down on these alleged street racing to make our streets safer, certain parts of the streets of Toronto certainly weren't safe to do any sort of pedestrian crossing, or any driving at all unless you're one of North America's group of elite drivers.

Anyway, who am I kidding. As a Torontonian, I'm glad that the city of Toronto and Andretti Green pooled together and made this happen again after a hiatus last year. Sure the cars look sluggish and are really designed to be raced on the ovals, yah they're not the most technologically advanced formula cars to visit Canada *cough* Bernie *cough*, but the upside is, there is still a race in downtown Toronto :) More after the jump.

D700, 24-70, 1/800 f/4.5

I headed down Thursday to check out the teams working during setup day. This is probably the most calm and quiet of the race weekend. Cars should've been prepped at the shop (although this particular event was the second of a back-to-back on the schedule) and it's just going over the final checklists and so forth.

D700, 24-70, 1/640 f/2.8

This is the second professional race event that I've covered with Penske participating, and I gotta say The Captain's staff sure makes our job a lot easier in the shots at the paddock. I'm pretty sure the engineer in the picture above has already completed whatever he's going over on paper, but he waited until he heard my shutter before immediately turning around and continuing on with his next task. Same thing happened last year at Mosport ALMS weekend with one of the mechanics. He'd look in my direction but not directly at the camera, I'd click the shutter and he'll duck back down to continue with his job. Gestures like that is greatly appreciated from the shooters, believe me :)

D700, 70-200, 1/320, f/7.1

Shot this on my way out. I was already walking out when I saw these guys pushing Franchitti's car coming towards me. Was too cliche to resist with the CN Tower in the background to not snap the shot.

Friday is the first day the cars will go out on the track with a 90-minute practice session in the morning and another 60-minute session in the afternoon. Two of my biggest adjustments I had to make over the course of the weekend was how close I am to the cars all the time at photo holes and having to walk EVERYWHERE. At Mosport, there are access roads where you can hop in your car from A to B, and not have to hike that much. No such luxury here. My counter ticked 50k by Sunday afternoon. 50k steps over the course from Fri to Sun.

D700, 70-200, 1/1250, f/4.5

This was home-town hero Paul Tracy blasting by me going at about 150 to 160 mph. Never thought I'd still get tire blur @ 1/1250. More on PT later in this entry.

D700, 70-200, 1/320, f/9

I tried to take in as much of the scenery as I could for this race. Mainly because catch fences just don't make too nice of a background w/o something else to mix in.

One nice thing about a long practice session is you are pretty much guaranteed action in the pits as teams try a bunch of variations in setups. That's the good thing when you get to the elite levels of racing is the teams use the track time very efficiently to evaluate setup options instead of just having the drivers pound laps in the lower category due to inexperience.

D700, 70-200, 1/2000, f/2.8

D3, 14-24, 1/1600, f/4

The mechanics in the background in the picture below are changing the springs on Franchitti's car. How they figure out to reset the ride height after changing the springs I'll never know. Sure makes for good environmental photos however.

D3, 14-24, 1/250, f/8

Of course IndyCar wouldn't be such a huge draw without personalities such as Helio Castroneves, who other than winning 3 indy 500, was also a winner on Dancing with the Stars.

D700, 70-200, 1/640, f/2.8

The afternoon's one hour session brought me out to parts of the track again.

Marco coming into turn 5. For having a team boss (and his dad) who basically owned this race track when he was driving, the AGR guys sure was having a miserable weekend. The pace didn't match Penske / Ganassi and they ran mid-pack for the majority of the weekend.

D3, 400mm + 1.4 TC, 1/400, f/10

Same corner but different angle sees Ryan Briscoe at work.

D3, 400mm + 1.4TC, 1/400, f/10

I never was a fan of cropping in post, but the 550mm focal length was just too much and the TC pretty much stayed in the bag for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday morning practice was delayed by about 40 mins because of a crazy thunderstorm that swept through the city. Nope, no lighting shots striking the tower. Maybe next time ;) Earlier in the post I mentioned the AGR team having a bad weekend? Well it starts here.

D700, 70-200, 1/1600, f/3.5

After the cars resumed at 11am after the storm has passed, track was still very wet and conditions were very tough. Near the end of the session, Marco looped it on the final turn and then a few moments after that, this came into play. The irony of this photo was too good for me to pass up. I debated about cropping it tight and clipping out the Honda bridge, but the slogan with the workers pushing Marco back into the pits made it tough for me to focus on them alone.

Marco's incident + Tony Kanaan smashing his car in the same corner had the AGR boys quite occupied to get ready for qualifying that was only 2 hours away.

D700, 70-200, 1/320 f/5

D700, 70-200, 1/4000 f/2.8

So when all the thrashing is over with, we get ready for qualifying. Another cliche shot of pitlane with CN Tower in the background. This was the last stage of the knock-out qualifying with the top 6 spending the last 10 mins or so making a run for pole. Picture here in the foreground is Alex Tagliani driving for Conquest Racing.

D700, 70-200, 1/320, f/8

Up to this weekend, I have yet to take one pan shot. Mainly because photo holes don't make for good pan opportunities, and mainly because I wasn't too focused on that particular technique and type of shot this weekend. Having said that, I know I needed to do something to give to my editors.

D700, 70-200, 1/30, f/18

D700, 70-200, 1/10, f/22

Pan shots out of the way, it was time for me to quickly get off the roof and back onto pitlane as qualifying was about the wrap up. As I got close to the end of the pitlane, I saw Helio talking with his engineers. Oh, I know all too well what the guy in white is feeling.

D700, 70-200, 1/1600, f/3.2

Man of the hour was Dario Franchitti. When I spent 3 minutes hanging out in turn 9 watching the cars come by, he was by far the one who used the most track in that section. Him and Ryan Hunter-Reay were the only two cars who had a similar trajectory through this corner.

D3, 400mm, 1/640, f/7.1

D3, 400mm, 1/250, f/7.1

Race Day on Sunday always gives me the jitters. Mainly because I'll spend time Saturday night going over the images and look at what I need to change and do different to end the weekend on a high. This weekend was no different. I was satisfied with some of the stuff I took, but I wasn't jumping-thru-the-roof ecstatic with them.

First off were candid portraits. My editor loves these, so I need to turn some in - esp for high profile drivers like Danica. She doesn't like having pictures taken, and that's fine with me. I don't like having bills to pay either, but c'est la vie as they say. A friend of mine was just telling me how he's never had a photo of her this weekend before we parted ways in the paddock before Sunday morning warmups.

As luck would have it

D3, 70-200, 1/640, f/2.8

I suppose it was probably because she had to get up to go to work on a Sunday morning and be ready to go in the office by 9am, not to mention having a bad qualifying performance the day before.

D3, 70-200, 1/4000, f/2.8

I absolutely love this picture. Dixon and Franchitti are not only teammates, but were also 1-2 in the points standings respectively after the previous race at Watkins Glen. One seems quite laid back, the other more intense.

D3, 70-200, 1/3200, f/2.8

I walked past the AGR pits again as Mutoh was ready to leave the pits and this caught my eye.

D700, 24-70, 1/40, f/22

Tony Kanaan leaving the pits. I'm pretty sure he can't wait to make a bee-line after the race is done to hop on a plane and get out of town. Absolutely miserable weekend for him this year here in Toronto.

D3, 70-200, 1/6400, f/2.8

I'll have to admit, out of ALL the candid portraits I shot this year, this one (which is a sequence of about 4 to 5 frames with him helmet on and off) is my favorite. Dixon holds the closest spot to pit exit, and while almost always walks to the front of the car when he climbs out. Saw this on Sat and positioned myself accordingly near the end of the session to wait for this.

With about 45 mins before green, I walked out to the pre-grid area to snap shots of the festivities. Over on the concrete wall, I saw a few members of the RCAF with radios chatting away. So I walked over and asked one of the officers about the ETA of the jets. Parked myself in front of Franchitti's car before being swallowed up by a mob and moved over to Power's car.

Right on cue after the anthem, they roll in:

D700, 14-24, 1/1000, f/11

Right after I snapped this, I hauled myself to the other end of the track up on the BMO field. A lens I rented purely for this purpose before the weekend started.

D700, PC-E 24mm, 1/2500, f/4.8

D700, PC-E 24mm, 1/2500, f/5.6

Novelty out of the way, it was time to go back to pit-side and get some action shots. Pitstops usually look pretty slow on TV, unless you're watching DTM. But when I was down there, slow wasn't the word that came to mind.

D3, 400mm, 1/1250, f/7.1

D3, 400mm, 1/1000, f/5

That was Paul Tracy peeling out of the pits, and not soon after that, him and Helio decides to give the fans something to talk about for the next few days to come.

Paul Tracy takes on Helio Castroneves

I've never heard boos loud enough over the wail of engines screaming at full song at over 10k rpm, but that's what happens when you take out the home town hero.

D3, 24-70, 1/250, f/11

Just be glad you aren't racing in New York and taking out one of their favourites Helio :)

D3, 24-70, 1/400, f/10

Looking at the jumbotron, I see that Franchitti was still leading the race, so I scooted over to the Ganassi pitbox to see if I could get a photo of his wife, the lovely Ashley Judd.

D700, 70-200, 1/2000, f/2.8

Dario crosses the line and the media mob descends on his car like bees on honey

D3, 24-70, 1/250, f/10

It begins with baseball

2009-06-29T12:19:00.007-04:00

The first half of my plans officially got under way last week. I have to admit from a development point of view, this is the easier half to tackle. The events are more readily available, so the chances of me building this portfolio is a LOT easier than the fashion side.

Having said that, unique challenges must still be faced but for my first outing to a game that I've not played in over 15 years and one that I haven't followed on TV for 10, I think I learned at a speed that was decent.
One thing I did learn was that the Dome is absolutely horrendous for white balance. I spent at least 2 hours setting up presets just to streamline my workflow a bit so I don't have to worry about it too much before I wire the images up to the agency. Thursday had some pretty crazy storms on my way to the Dome, only to have the roof open up on me at game time. I just looked over to the guy next to me and we just rolled our eyes and shrugged at the same time, as the setup we had for colours was thrown out the window with that curveball thrown at us. (HAR HAR)

The interleague series between the Reds and the Jays also saw the return of Reds 1B Joey Votto back in the lineup after coming off their 15-day DL list. He struggled big time in the first two games, but had a huge night in the last game as his team managed to not lose a 5-0 lead after the Jays tied it up.

Do wish there were more angles to cover the action. Being limited to sitting along the first and third baseline gets pretty monotonous after a while. But I did manage to squeeze in this shot, which considering the circumstances, I was quite happy with.

Mini Cooper shoot

2009-06-07T08:33:00.005-04:00

Those who know me personally know I once owned a S2000. Hands down, it was probably the best car I've ever owned to date.

Well, this new car that my girlfriend just picked up ranks a pretty close 2nd. It surely is more practical than the Honda, it doesn't turn as many heads, but the fun factor is pretty high. So glad she picked a yellow one, it's a lot more interesting than those drab off white ones I see practically everywhere in Toronto.

The interior isn't bad. Compared to her old car which was a Matrix, this seems classier. The plastic is better disguised, and the buttons and dials are all better placed. The windows are HUGE. I thought the old Matrix had big windows, but the amount of glass this one has makes keeping them clean a challenge. Steering feedback is nice and solid, and the handling is superb for a car in this price range.

All in all, no complaints yet, except the wheels are almost impossible to keep clean due to the amount of dust :)

Rebecca

2009-06-07T08:27:00.005-04:00

I've known this girl for a LONG time, and always thought she was quite photogenic. So when she asked if I could do a shoot for her before she starts her new job, it was quite difficult to turn her down :)

This was also the first shoot where I had quite a bit of input on the styling of the shoot. I thought my port needed a few more "lighter" shots as opposed to the darker theme'd stuff, so I chose a couple of locations that would let me get what I think I'd need.

2009-05-20T08:24:00.007-04:00

After a whirlwind of activity in the past month, I've finally gotten back to doing what I love to do: taking pictures.

Went through an overhaul of my gear, and did three shoots and then.....go sick :-( Hence the 16 day gap between updates. Anyway, did an engagement shoot which I'll post about later, did another shoot with Kinga and went to Mosport to cover the Victoria Day speedfest.

Kinga was just a ball to work with. She mentioned to me from a prior shoot with did together that doing fashion shoots is hard because if she starts having TOO good of a time, she'll start laughing uncontrollably.

Anyway, it was nice to be shooting outside again. I'm not too sure what I think about the first "darker" set, but the spring set I absolutely love. It looks serene doesn't it; but underneath the
serenity, Kinga was professional enough to not let the bugs and mud affect the pictures. She was really a pleasure to work with, and I really have no complaints about that set.

Inspired

2009-05-10T21:48:00.003-04:00

I've been meaning to post this for the past week but never got a chance to. Partly because I've been completely drowned with work and partly because I don't even know if what I'm about to say justifies what I felt when I walked out of the Drake last Tuesday night.

As part of the Contact Photography festival for the month of May, a group of six photographers from Magnum hosted a workshop for photographers. Part of the program for the festival was to have these brilliant (believe me, that's an understatement) photographers give a lecture during the first week of the festival. The organization needs no introduction, as it's founded by 4 of the most famous photographers of the 20th century. What drew me to the lecture was Chien-Chi Chang. I've followed his work for a while and I really wanted to see what small tidbits I could get from a documentary photographer of his calibre. (I try very hard not to use the word photojournalist, as I feel that term has been abused to hell and back by wedding photographers these days)

Both him and Mark Power had one very interesting overall message to the audience: make every frame count. Mark shoots with a 4x5, so the luxury of going through 500 frames for that 1 shot on a memory card is not available to him. It also makes photography a more mental exercise than simply holding the shutter and let the motordrive do its work.

Packing a punch

2009-04-26T14:02:00.010-04:00

This past weekend was the first round of the Ontario Provincial San Shou Preliminaries. This is a selection process to create the provincial team to represent the province in the national tournament taking place later this summer. The 10th World Wushu Championships will take place in Toronto in Fall of '09 and it'll be one of the events to watch for martial arts enthusiasts.

Sanshou is one of two branches of competition wushu, with the other one being "taolu". The former is hand to hand combat in a best out of 3 round format. The winner being the one who scores the most point given by 4 corner judges and one main judge. The latter is a form demonstration where scores are handed out based on difficulty and technical competence.

For a slideshow of the weekend's events, visit http://www.ma-fotographie.com/Mayhem/Sanshou/index.html

A healthy obsession

2009-04-12T18:51:00.009-04:00

Did a shoot with Chris this weekend, who goes by s2kobsession on the S2000 online community. One look at his car and I knew the name fits him like a glove. His S2000 is absolutely flawless. I can't wait to see this car around the track with the new upgrades he's put in. May can't come soon enough.

Rig shots have been made popular from automotive magazines for a few years, and they've been the absolute rave in the past 2 to 3 years with many serious amateurs and even working pros. I don't have a vehicle that'll allow me to transport metal tubing over 10 feet long (the minimum that one would probably need for a rig shot), so I had to improvise with a solution. I'm fairly satisfied with the results.

First there was one, then there was three.

2009-04-06T02:06:00.012-04:00

Was scheduled to do one shoot today. I've always wanted to do a first-light shoot and today was the last day where we'll be seeing some mild temperature for a while. Woke up at 4:30 to see a shortened F1 race (going on 3 hours of sleep).

First stop was Caledon, where I shot Carl's Subaru. There's nothing quite like first light. Today was absolutely gorgeous with the golden hue. Left my house at 6:45 and I snapped my first frame at 7:55. Stayed for about 45 mins in total. As you can see, the day started off amazing. Here's another view of Carl, doing 20 km/h up a hill. It turns out however, we weren't the only early birds. By the time we got there, there were a bunch of guys engaged in the following shenanigans. Absolutely insane is the only description I have for these guys.

After Carl, I met up with Jay in the evening to shoot his car. Jay is our gracious meatfest host. Every year, on the Friday before X'mas, fifteen or so of his closest friends will rampage his house to consume an incomprehensible amount of meat. I'll post a montage of what actually goes on during the fest in nine months time, but first up, here's his car. Black cars in my opinion, is where it's at. It might be because I've owned three of them, so I'm biased; but when it's clean, it's the sexiest colour when it comes to cars. Last but not least, the 3rd shoot of the evening is with Ed -- a buddy of Carl who if you've forgotten is the owner of the Subaru in the very top of the post. The two of them decided to do a shoot at night after they've detailed their cars. Carl called me, and because I didn't really pack away my gear from the afternoon's shoot, off to the 3rd shoot I go. No black car this time. Bright popping red. If I was shooting film, I don't think I'd even bat an eye. Unfortunately, sensors react differently, so I had to be a bit more careful with this one than the other two.
I have to say, ever since I started bringing my lights with me everywhere I go, my "available light" photography have been much more enjoyable.

Day Three

2009-03-31T12:11:00.008-04:00

Finally done. After racking up over 600 km in three days driving to different locations all around the city, the shooting spree is finally over.

Adriana contacted me asking to do a shoot for her because she's looking to start knocking on agency doors. I was optimistic about the weather when we first got in touch. As the day drew closer, my stress rose 10 folds. It was going to be COLD. Top marks to Addy for toughing it out; I asked her twice whether she wanted to reschedule but she was as eager as I was to get this shoot done.

The day couldn't have turned out better (well, if it was above 10'C with no wind, it'd be perfect), but we made the best of it and never once did she complain about being in the cold. I have to say, it's nice shooting outdoors again, cold weather be damned. The light, the air, the vast space I have to work with; absolutely loving it.

Day Two

2009-03-30T01:09:00.006-04:00

It really should've been day three of four, but Saturday was written off due to personal reasons.

Shot a model from Chicago today. I didn't know about Nina's visit until Perry told me that he'll be shooting her on Monday, so I figure I'll see if I can find a free slot in her tightly packed schedule during her Toronto visit.

After Friday and Saturday's shoot, it was nice to go back to what I love doing again today.

Dishing it out

2009-03-28T01:27:00.005-04:00

So after a few months of racking my head on what to do with one of my light modifiers, I finally had an ah-ha moment during dinner on Wednesday night.

Hidden deep inside one of the cabinets, was a 15" bowl that seemed to be perfect with what I had in mind. So Thursday was spent shopping for supplies with Vince and by today at noon, we have:

Did a shoot with Liz today, who's an aspiring fitness model. Here are some shots:

New direction

2009-03-24T00:11:00.006-04:00

Yes yes, pun intended (see if you can figure this out :) ) After some timely and much appreciated advice from a couple of industry insiders, I think I can see the direction I need to go in order to push my own envelope so to speak.

Here are some shots from a shoot I did yesterday. It was my first time shooting with a crew of nine people (3 girls, 3 MUA, 1 hair, 1 stylist, 2 close friends helping me out). Absolutely could not thank each and every single one of them enough in this collaborative effort. 4.5 hours went by like a whirlwind, as it was a non stop queue of girls to get them on set. Went very smooth and I have Kat, Kinga, Tai, Nhung, Linda, Susie, Angella, Dayle, Vince, Cherry and Phil to thank.

Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year.

2009-01-20T16:58:00.002-05:00

I got a package delievered by Fed Ex today shortly after the 44th President of America delivered his inauguration speech. What impeccable timing I thought, in that I heard the speech uninterrupted.

Last time so many people paid attention to a single news event on CNN must've been Sept. 11, 2001. All through facebook and on various forums on the internet, the pending (and now sworn in) arrival of this new President is met with huge hope and expectations.

The speech itself was pretty good. I was hoping it to be on the levels of JFK / MLK after having heard his speech in Denver but I think it fell a bit short. Nonetheless, for those who've missed it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEGd75awApM&eurl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjUTymL1T5s

Thanksgiving Wedding

2008-10-31T02:35:00.014-04:00

Got tasked to help second shoot a wedding up in the Muskoka region during thanksgiving for a very small Jewish wedding.

Congrats Patrick and Heather :)

Mosport, 2008

2008-09-01T00:20:00.003-04:00

4 months of practice, countless critique, all for this weekend.

I think I did alright. First time shooting for someone else; first time on the "right" side of the fence. 6 days of hiking hilly terrain, mosquito bites, 7:30am photographer's meeting from IMSA officials (that means getting up at 6 am to DRIVE to the track), 12 hour days for the week.

Was it worth it? Hell yah. Sometimes photography is a bit similar to golf: it just isn't the same unless the shots are pressure packed. Right now I'm suffering from such a euphoria that track days and HPDE almost can seem TOO easy.

Some highlights:

I shot this Tuesday during pre-event testing. By Thursday the same vantage point had not one, but TWO ez-ups blocking the view already. Mosport is one of few "classic" tracks on this continent. Fast corners, long straights and more fast corners winding through acres and acres of trees.

That's almost what it looks like for the majority of the ALMS paddock until Saturday evening. Teams spend a lot of effort prepping the cars so they're in tip top shape for the race on Sunday. These guys get to the track at 7am and dont' leave until probably 9 pm.

Racing glamorous? Maybe for the drivers; certainly not the crew, that's for sure.

Of all the shots I took on the weekend, I'd have to say this is probably my proudest shot. Not an angle usually seen at Mosport from the stuff that I've seen circulating around the net; and trying to track a car going by you at 175mph around a high speed corner with proper framing isn't exactly easy. I have maybe 3 from the 50 that I shot here that I kept; but this one I'll probably blow it up to a 11x14 and hang it up on my wall.

Going Sideways

2008-08-18T00:34:00.003-04:00

I shouldn't need to introduce which city this event was held if one pays attention to the building in the background in this photo.

That, my friends, is the CN Tower. The tallest free-standing structure in the world (until the one in Dubai is completed anyway). Two weeks of motorsports photography frenzy begins with a DMCC event held at Downsview park here in Toronto.

Admittedly, I don't understand this drifting business. I thought I did because I was HUGE into it 6-7 years ago, but now the more I think about it, the more I don't get it. No matter, "getting it" isn't why I'm here. I'm here for the images; albeit in a lacklustre venue full of water-filled plastic barricades and chain linked fence.

I will say this. The event might've done with a better venue, but the organizers probably had us folks in mind in that the weekend was action packed. Cars on track in the morning, cars on track at dusk; cars on track at NIGHT. Absolutely awesome photographically because we had a bunch of light variations for photographs.

What happens when you do it perfectly.

What happens when you miss by an inch.

Welcome to Ma Fotographie

2008-01-01T01:44:00.000-05:00

This will be my blog/journal where I will post some updates on my projects as well as share tips and tricks that I've learned to help make our images better. If you didn't reach here through my website, it's at http://www.ma-fotographie.com

A question I get asked a lot is "What sort of photography do you do?" My answer is almost always "I shoot a wide spectrum of subjects, but the genres that I feel the strongest in are motorsports and fashion/portraiture." The two genres cannot be more different from one another. One is action packed and fast-paced; the other is slower-paced, yet require a different type of creativity. The former does not always need a connection between the subject and the photographer, while the latter almost always need a form of emotional connection between the person sitting in front of the camera and the person behind it.

Personally, I love the challenge of shooting race cars in that I need to create a picture that'll evoke some sort of emotional response when my audience sees it. Having zero control of a lot of factors yet still being able to achieve the desired result is extremely satisfying.

On the other hand, I love dealing with people and doing fashion photography as well as portraiture allows me to be more social compared to shooting at the track. Building rapport is extremely important for these shoots. Without it, I feel that the resulting photos always lack a form of connection when I look at the prints. The eyes tell so much about how a person feels or the emotion he/she is trying to convey and having that rapport between myself and the subject makes it a bit easier in telling a more complete story behind the picture.