The Story Behind the Photo

Mushrooms and the like are fascinating. In a world where things are constantly dying, these industrious life forms thrive in the lowest common denominator of materials available to them. It’s pretty fantastic that fungus exists, helping to power the machine that makes the world work.

The Story Behind the Photo

Sometimes the things that we like to remember about our children are not necessarily physical attributes; behaviours, likes/dislikes, and things along those lines are just as interesting. In fact, I know that my memories of my own child are split between remembering what she looked like, and reminiscing about how she acted. Something so simple as reaching for a purple flower may actually be just a physical reaction, driven by the crisp, colourful object in view; or does it indicate something more? Either way, capturing these images are just as important to me as displaying a face.

The Story Behind the Photo

I enjoy doing family shots, especially baby and kid shots.  The typical “prop the baby up unnaturally” bit really bothers me (as I have stated numerous times), so I like to shoot a healthy number of “serious” photos and then spend the rest of the time capturing the bits in between.  I love this photo because it looks like the father is passing on something important to his son.  This little guy has the most expressive eyes; that secret must be pretty important!

The Story Behind the Photo

I did something like this before, but I can never shoot enough images of elephants.  They are truly larger-than-life to me.  Everyone knows how big elephants can be; a photograph can diminish that sometimes.  I like trying to convey the size of something by limiting how much of it can be seen.  Capturing an image by naturally “cropping” the subject is a way to do that, in my opinion.

The Story Behind the Photo

Tucked away in a mountain fortress in Vineland, Ontario is an awesome winery called the John Howard Cellars of Distinction.  It is a wondrous place; very simply laid out; very friendly people.  I love wine and how it is made; it is like magic to me.  This is the gauges on one of the pressurized tanks.  It looks so simple and yet, so sci-fi.  It could be a piece of any machine.  I love bits like this.

The Story Behind the Photo

Most of the time, we’ll trudge all over the place looking for beautiful things to photograph.  Maybe we feel that the quality of the photo is proportional to the amount of work we put into capturing it.  Sometimes, though, pride in your own front garden is enough to shine a spotlight on something that’s right under your nose.

The Story Behind the Photo

Shaun, a friend of East Indian descent, invited my friend Mike and me over to his place.  Mike brought his sitar, and after a brief breakdown of the instrument, handed it over to Shaun.  Mike showed Shaun how to hold it in a sitting position and it looked so natural that I had to capture it.  The funny part, of course, is that Mike (who is non-brown) was showing Shaun (clearly brown) how to play an Indian instrument.

The Story Behind the Photo

My friend Mike is a very cultural guy.  As I told his mom once, he’s someone who is very much into authenticity.  Mike does not go halfway on anything.  So when he told me that he bought a sitar, I had to see it.  I knew that it would be a very beautiful thing to behold.  So we went to a friend’s place and Mike brought it along.  It is a very beautiful instrument.  I didn’t really get to play it, but one day I’ll have the guts to ask if I can try it out.  I have several images from this shoot, but this one is one of my favourites from the group.  It’s one of the only ones that focused on the instrument while keeping the backdrop of a typical North-American dwelling.

The Story Behind the Photo

I took this at a birthday party for a two-year-old. The dessert was a tray of very nicely decorated (and frankly delicious) cupcakes. One of the most fun things to watch is a child imagining what it would be like to eat one of those cupcakes. Given the number of grabby hands, it was hard to catch the birthday girl looking at the cupcakes without other little fingers creeping into the photo. It took a few tries, but I managed to capture this shot. This shot is cropped slightly to isolate the star of the show.

f/8.0 1/60 sec 105mm
8×12 – 25 Prints

The Story Behind the Photo

Near my house there is a bridge that is being reconstructed. There is rubble everywhere and rebar sticking up out of the base of the bridge. The supporting columns of the bridge have huge bases that are adjacent to the river. They afford a great platform upon which to take great photos of a subject with a variety of great backgrounds. This was taken in June, 2009. It is from a form known as Holy Heaven. With the flowing river as the backdrop, I felt that the pose looked very dramatic.