Congrats to Liz and Chris. My best wishes to both of you. I’m glad I got a few minutes with both of you at some point in the evening. I know you were both very busy, and I appreciate what both of you have done.

With the formalities out of the way, time to get to the meat of the post. Let’s talk about shooting pretty people!

My dear friend Jas is the co-founder of Savillian Custom Suits earlier this year. They’ve been targeting the Indian Wedding market with some success. Two weeks ago, she asked me if I can help her take photos of the Kismet Indian Wedding Show, specifically the Fashion Show portions of it. As I’ve alluded to before, this would have been the first fashion shoot I’ve done, and above all else, my first in-person exposure into the Indian Wedding culture. This was definitely an eye opener on both counts.

My only previous experience with Indian weddings is through the wild and crazy stories told by Samir. Of the little I recall from those conversations, the weddings are over the top, vaguely surreal and pretty much unbelievable [according to my standards, at least]. I still remember him telling me about a recent wedding he attended where the groom rode in on an elephant to the ceremony. I guess that’s just how they roll. Who am I to judge?

Needless to say, though, the wedding show neither disappointed, nor destroyed this stereotype for me.

When I first arrived at the Savillian booth at the show, the first thing I noticed was not the careful detail and professional displays, but rather, what I noticed was the horse in the stall across from them. Yes. A horse. A live one that blinked, kindly accepted carrots, and was generally pleased when its head was patted. Apparently, horse rides by the groom is a staple of their events, and this particular horse has seen his fair share of weddings in Southwestern Ontario. Furthermore, a horse is by far a much better substitute for an elephant here. That, and it’s near impossible to get a fully grown elephant penned up inside a convention centre.

However, I digress…let’s actually talk about this so-called photoshoot.

One of the things that struck me as I started the shoot is simply how little control I had over the situation. The runway was poorly lit both front and back. The back of the stage was too dim, whereas the front of the stage was too bright. As such, there was really only a 2.76 second window when the models walked down the catwalk where the lighting was actually reasonable. Simple, I thought to myself. I’ll just simply shoot within the window. What could possibly go wrong?

As it turns out, however, unlike plants or buildings, models are people and come with all associated properties of being people. Namely, they blink a lot. Of the numerous photos I managed to take within the 2.76 second windows I was given, a large majority of them featured models who had their eyes closed. What insincerity and total disregard for the photographic arts!

Seriously, if we found a way to artificially prevent blinking in models, we would have significantly improved the world of fashion and fashion photography. This would be the biggest thing since discovering the use of duct tape to form fit clothing. Once again, I digress. I must apologize.

There were a number of other things I learned throughout the photoshoot. For one, I learned how heavy my camera equipment actually is on my hands. With a flash, and my hefty variable zoom lens, I found that my arm was getting tired within 15 minutes of shooting. Of course, it definitely does not help that I was constantly changing the zoom – my wrists were killing me the next day.

Note to future self: Please bring and use the tripod that past self bought to make sure this problem gets mitigated. Past self paid good money for the tripod. Please use it.

Another significant learning was to decide up-front whether to be selective with what I shot, or spend the next few weeks tearing my irises in my vain attempt at selecting and touching up the gems afterward. While I got through all of Jas’ photos this past week, I still have over 1,400 photos of the other designers I still have to comb through…especially if I want to try selling them later.

Hmm…other thoughts…

Ah yes. Photographers and videographers are great folks. They really are friendly people, and totally top-notch folks. I need to hang out with them more.

Ah…one other thing. The Flash…they do nothing…

I guess a blog post about fashion photography wouldn’t be complete without a discussion and discourse about the pretty people who were modeling that day. All I really have to say is this. They were pretty people. And no, I probably won’t share these photos with you.

I guess this entire post begs one single question: Is Fashion Photography something I’d be interested in doing professionally? In all honesty, I can’t say right now. There are a lot of reasons I liked doing this photoshoot that might not be the case any other time…I was doing it for a friend…it was all very fresh and new to me…the people there were very friendly. Further still, I don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance to do this kind of stuff again. I mean, yes, there’s still Toronto Fashion Week, but that’s a whole different issue…and I certainly don’t feel I’m good enough to play in that field yet.

So the short of it is that the shoot was fun. The people were pretty. I got a whole lot out of it [and judging by the amount of post-processing I've done, I'm still getting a lot now.] If the opportunity comes up again, I wouldn’t say no. But for now, I’m just happy to take pictures of things that don’t move as much. They’re much easier to do

Train’s just pulling in to Union. Should get home soon and start laundry…

Another fun and busy week ahead. Who knows what will be in store for me though!

Later days…

Sam

While most of the talk out there is negatively slanted against the new logo, I have to admit that I’m actually quite ambivalent [leaning towards not dislike] about the new logo. As my esteemed colleague Mr. Felix stated on Facebook [I] didn’t give a flying fuck about the logo when [I] was a student. so why would i give a fucking shit about it now. holy shit, this is completely stupid. In many ways, I agree with the sentiment. Venting on Facebook or LiveJournal, or wherever will not change the logo. I certainly think that students, staff and alumni all should have a say in this, and I will defend your right to say it [as our good friend Voltaire stated]. However, I am concerned with many of the arguments that are being put forward. While I don’t wish to dig too deeply into each and every one of them, I do want to address a small number.

On Re-Branding
There’s a lot of arguments that the new logo is ‘non-traditional’ or that moving away from the classic crest is a huge problem. I respect those arguments. After all, every other school is deeply rooted in tradition and have their own crests representing its core values and traditions. There are two major points I wish to say against this. Firstly, Waterloo has been pushing towards a branding that separates itself from other schools – one that focuses on innovation and standing out from the rest of the pack as a leader. A part of leadership involves blue-sky thinking, taking leaps of faith, and shunning tradition at times. I applaud UW in trying something new and different. Secondly, how many of us UW students and alumni actually understand the core values and traditions of UW based upon the crest-logo? How many of us even know what UW’s slogan translates to in English? Hell. How many of us even know UW’s slogan?

While I can’t say much about the style and artistry of the new logo, I believe it does a good job in representing what UW is today. It is also a symbol that is much easier to interpret for all.

On Marketing and the University-Corporation
The re-branding initiative has brought about a side-argument that the UW administration is running the school more as a corporation than an academic institution. Furthermore, that this shift in direction is a bad thing, and that it hinders academic research and innovation. I will admit that this can happen. However, it’s also important to realize that even a University requires money to operate, and funding is limited. Universities need to efficiently use its funds to deliver a high quality education and to conduct research that will see through to a conclusion. A university should be able to cut funding from a professor if he or she is not able to both teach effectively and conduct world class research. Is it little wonder that many universities require research grants from industry? Yes, there are plenty of arguments that universities shouldn’t be tainted by industry, but let’s not kid ourselves – accepting money from the government can be just as bad and just as biased. By running the university as efficiently [and I guess corporately] as possible, the university would be better able to have its own say about the overall agenda.

I guess this little piece took a bit wider turn than necessary. However, I just needed to get it off my chest. It is stupid and ridiculous how much we stick by what’s already there, rather than trying something new. Automatically rejecting something new and unknown is probably the worse thing that we can do for our society and culture. I think we need to be more objective and analytical about change. Why don’t we let the new logo sit with us a bit more – maybe we’ll all find something we like about it.

I’ll leave comments open. I’ll try to approve messages that aren’t childish or made in bad taste, but don’t expect me to respond. I’ve made my peace with the issue.

Thanks for reading!

The final leg of my power drift in Asia was anything but uneventful. With only a little more than 24 hours to spend in Beijing as a tourist, there was much to see, and even more to do. Despite that, we managed to do pretty much all of what we wanted. It was unbelievable, but it’s true. We were able to do the Beijing Olympic Village, the imperial Summer Palace, and even fit in some fantastic food and a relaxing walking jaunt through the downtown core. It was a great way to end my trip and I will sorely miss seeing Jenn and Steve.

Speaking of Jenn and Steve, I was amazed with the abundance of fascination from the native Chinese and their penchant to take photos with those two. I was initially told this by Jenn the night I arrived in Beijing, but was unconvinced. That was, until we spent some time out. It was a mighty impressive sight! They were literally celebrities – at times stopping for some time to have their pictures taken with young Chinese girls and even some older men. I think they enjoyed their newfound stardom, but I’m never always so sure about that. It was pretty amusing from my perspective though.

In any case, I should get back to importing my photos into Lightroom. I must have taken 700 shots at the Summer Palace and it will be hell going through them all. I really enjoyed my power drift, but I’m pretty much ready to be back home and pick up wherever my life left off.

Man, it’s crazy to think that only 24 hours ago, I was sitting in an electric powered boat in the lake of the Summer Palace taking gorgeous pictures of its majestic majesty, and now I’m sitting at home just typing away. I am mighty impressed by the entirety of it all.

Not sure when I’ll post again, so don’t expect anything from me any time soon. Until next time.

Today was a long one – woke up before 6 [that sounds familiar] and went out for breakfast dim sum with my grandfather and parents. Good start to the day, overall. I had about 4 hours to kill afterwards [before my next bout with dim sum], so I decided to grab my camera and go out for a leisurely stroll around the city. I wound up catching some interesting sights and shots [to be uploaded when I have time to touch them up], and even managed to get up to “The Peak” district [guess...it's one of the tallest points in Hong Kong - total tourist trap.] Doing that in 4 hours is no easy feat, especially when the only forms of transportation were a boat [ferry, to be precise] and a tram that goes up at something like a 50 degree angle. The photos didn’t turn out as well as hoped – the smog today was pretty dense. I can barely get anything past the barrier. I’ll see if Lightroom can help with that, but I think this is something with which not even the Almighty can help.

I went for lunch dim sum with my other grandfather back in the city. Nothing more needs to be said about that.

Wandered the city a bit more, tried to get some souvenirs [might have to make a trip in Beijing instead...not much here anymore], and finally got home to rest for an hour or so before being called for dinner. And that brings me to now. Feet sore, sleeping pills kicking in like no tomorrow. Think it’s time to wrap this one up.

Morning in Hong Kong, followed by airport lounging, with the day topped with meeting Jenn and Steve in Beijing.

Good times, no?

The flight across the Pacific was done in one of those fancy new Boeing 777s, where there is noticeably more legroom and personal space as compared to my previous intercontinental flights. This was a huge plus. On the down side, it seems like the extra space came at the cost of precious inches in the aisle. For my 15 hour flight, I must have had everything but bodily fluids spilled on to me. That was mildly unpleasant. Hopefully, the red wine stain will come out of my trousers and the instant noodle soup smell will come out of my shirt. Otherwise, the flight itself was quite dull. I met a couple whose kids went to Waterloo for Engineering [they complimented on my spoken Cantonese, which was different], and they had Easy as Pie on one of the ‘Canadian’ movie channels.

My stay in Hong Kong has been anything but dull. My parents immediately dragged me to the funeral halls to pay my respects to the faimly….lineage. That was kind of nice. It turns out I’ve become quite incompetent with the whole fire concept since my last trip back; I had trouble lighting incenses, making candles stay upright, and if it weren’t for the fact that I didn’t burn myself, I would’ve labeled myself as a fire hazard. I am, however, more than happy to report that I am simply incompetent with this ‘fire’ concept. Thank goodness I was never back in the stone ages; I would certainly have pushed back the development of the homo sapiens species for quite a few centuries.

I had hot pot tonight with most of my extended family. It was nice – and I even tried to speak more Cantonese than I’m used to. I may eventually get a hang of speaking this language again. But then again, maybe I may just be deluding myself. I’m certainly at the age where my mind has become a frozen tundra that is impervious to anything new.

Not many plans tomorrow just yet. If I wake up early enough, I may go for dim sum with my grandfather [dad's side]. I’ve got lunch dim sum with my grandfather [mom's side]. Hopefully, I’ll have some time to go around the city and take some quick photos if the weather cooperates. A part of me suspects that it may have other plans for me instead.

Needless to say, I’m exhausted. I’ve barely slept on the plane, and I was up Saturday morning before 5:30 to get to the airport. Hopefully these sleeping aids will work as advertised, otherwise, I’m going to be in for a rough ride come morning.

Take care y’all. Be home in 6 days or so.

I’ll be travelling quite extensively next week [YYZ-->HKG-->PEK-->HRB-->PEK-->YYZ, for those who understand airport codes]. I’ll definitely be taking tons of photos, and I’ll try to upload those on the road if I get net access.

It’ll be a rough trip, but I hope it’ll be a good one.

Take care, y’all. See you guys on the flip side!

Sam

Based on ellie_bellie’s lacklustre experience with Universalove Friday night, I wasn’t going in with spectacular expectations. Still, I got into the rush line at around 7pm, and got into a showing of Pontypool for 8:15pm. It was the “World Premier” and the director and cast were there to answer questions afterwards.

The film itself? Fantastic! It was clever, witty, and very Canadian. The dialog was able to shift from comedy to suspense and back seamlessly and without effort. The acting was masterful, and the effects were gruesome but mildly tasteful. I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience at TIFF.

I hear zaldan was also in the audience, I’d like to know what he thought. If time permits, we should hit up another film this week.