I took a little road trip down to New York City with my improv team to perform in the Del Close Marathon. I thought it might be a great opportunity to spend some time with my new friend, the Hartblei 65mm f3.5 Super-Rotator. It’s a tilt-shift lens that can rotate the tilt and shift independently 360 degrees. That’s a lot of twisting and shifting, and it can be a bit tricky to handle.
It was a very hot and sticky weekend in Manhattan, and I had lots of opportunities to try the lens out. To me, the cool thing about a tilt-shift lens is its sometimes surprising depth of field effects. Because it essentially changes the plane of focus, you can throw focus in almost any direction. It feels like splashing focus across the frame like paint in diagonal slashes. Check out the focus on this shot of a carnival in Central Park.
Focus is on the Whac-A-Mole tent in the distance, but also on the branch in the top-right corner, which can’t be more than 10 feet from me.
Here are a few more examples of fun focus effects that I created on the weekend.
Good times. What I love about this lens is that it allows me to be very selective about what is highlighted in the photo. The rest of the photo is thrown out of focus in a silky smooth and beautiful way. Due to its hand-made Czech glass, images are sharp in the focus areas, and color transmission is great. I’ll be taking this lens to China with me in October. Stay tuned for more super-rotated images!
I had some good news today. I did a headshot session with Melody, who’s a friend of Christina. I shot Christina’s headshots about two weeks ago, and Christina came along with Melody to sit in on the shoot. Christina had some good news. Since she started handing her new headshots out at auditions and to agents, she’s already had five callbacks! It’s always gratifying to hear this type of success story first-hand. Christina’s got a great look, a positive attitude, and an eye-catching headshot. With those ingredients, I’m sure she’ll succeed. Here’s one of the headshots Christina selected from her shoot.
That brings me to my next topic. There are lots of people in Toronto who need great headshots, many of whom have made the trip to Hamilton to see me. But, crazy as it may seem, not all of them are willing to come here. So, in the spirit of Mohammed and his Mountain, I’m packing up my stuff and moving the studio to Toronto… for one day only! On September 14, I’ll be setting up shop at the amazing Gladstone Hotel on Queen Street West at Gladstone.
I’ve rented the luxurious Tower Suite for the day, and hired award-winning makeup artist Sue Upton. All headshot packages will include hair and makeup. Yet, because I’ll be doing a number of sessions that day, the price is still going to be extremely reasonable. Read more about Toronto Headshots Day.
It’s funny. For the last few months, I’ve been thinking of times and dates in terms of pre- and post-Birth Your Dreams Exhibition Opening. The big night finally came on Friday, and it was time to see if all of our hard work would pay off. We were so pleased by the turnout to the reception. Our exhibition drew the biggest crowd in the Carnegie gallery’s 30-year history, and the room was just buzzing with positive vibes. All in all, it was a very satisfying night, and a great launch for the exhibition, which runs until August 30. Here’s a little video we made from some of the footage collected by our good friends Sabrina and Emily.
Birth Your Dreams opens up tomorrow, so Laura and I are thrilled that View Magazine has put us on the cover of this week’s issue. As you know, the photo on the cover was the one we were shooting in this video. Click on the cover to read the story.
