The Threee Files

MOVED

2007-03-22T01:16:00.000-04:00

This Blog has MOVED!

It's new location is:
http://eugenblog.blogspot.com/
Check it out and take note.

2007-02-28T23:35:00.001-05:00

Door, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

I spent pretty much all of today in the darkroom, printing in color. I actually find that it's easier to get a good color print manually than with a computer. When using a computer there is a large difference between the printer and the screen unless both are set to the same color profile.

Above is one of the prints that I made, I can feel that printing in color is making me better at color balancing digital photos, which is good because that was one of the things I've been strugling with for a while.

On a side note: If some of the images look strange on you computer (color or lightness/darkness-wise) it is because I tried to manually calibrate my monitor and I have a feeling I screwed it up in the process. Lucky for me Ryerson recently bought an calibration device specifically for Image Arts students to sign out, so I'm going to try to get it ASAP.

The Path

2007-02-26T22:37:00.001-05:00

The Path, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

I've been shooting some film lately, yet is seems that my old Ukranian slr (kiev-19) is dying. The light meter was doing strange things and there were a lot of strange light leaks (such as the one here). More to follow.

2007-02-15T03:12:00.000-05:00

14Feb07car, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Well just to get things clear, this post will be a bit of a rant, and yes I do want you too feel sorry for me.

Someone shoot me now (please don't actually shoot me)! Reading week is coming up next week, however there is plenty of stressing out to fill this entire week. First I screwed up some of my photos that are due today, so I'll have to reprint later, it's especially annoying because I went to school yesterday just to print them, only to realize now that some of them aren't use able. Plus I have an essay due on Friday for art history which I'm not very enthused about. But the main thing that annoys me is the TTC (Terrible Train Cars) it seems that the problems with the ttc are becoming and almost daily occurrence. Stopping in the middle of the tunnel for 10 min with no explanation, the sound of the announcer saying "this train is now out of service" is becoming routine, your almost surprised when you get through a subway ride with no hiccups. And trust me being forced to leave the warmth of the subway train, and having to stand outside waiting for a bus with about 200 other lucky losers in -19 weather isn't the most exciting especially when you know you will most likely get the 2nd or 3rd bus that comes. When you do manage to get on the bus it feels like you've been mummified with people, at that point it's time to use your elbows to defend your self from idiots who think that they can walk right through people to get onto the bus. Did I mention that I have too wake up in 3.5 hours to go to school, maybe I should go to sleep.

2007-02-12T12:53:00.001-05:00

Crossing, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

This is my first (darkroom) color print, printing in color is significantly more complicated than B&W however I perfer the end result much more. I think color adds so much more to an image and goes the extra step in creating mood. Lately I've been becoming incresingly interested in film (as opposed to digital), in particular lo-fi photogaphy; photos taken with various Lomo cameras and others like them.

I will once again be changing the direction of this blog slightly... that's the plan. I will post a lot more of other peoples work, basically any artists that I think are good, or anyother things that I find interesting. I will continue, to post my own work, however hopefully sometime in the future I'll get a real photoblog, where I can post full size photos.

2007-02-10T18:52:00.001-05:00

Student Day of Action - Feb 7, 2007, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

2007-02-02T01:03:00.001-05:00

Winter 2, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Part two of my describe a place assignment.

2007-02-01T00:31:00.001-05:00

Winter, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Ah good old winter, nothing like having to do a photography project in the freezing cold. Frost bite is my friend. This is the base image for a project called "Describe A Place" where I must... uhm describe a place. The area of choice for those of you who knoe where I live is that little strip of undeveloped land and the water resevoir on Canyon Hill (in Richmond Hill). I though the project was due this week but it's actually due next week, so I've got time to go reshoot, some of the photos now that I know the direction I want to go in.

2007-01-31T02:16:00.001-05:00

VistaIce, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

There is this Windows Vista promotion going on at Dundas Square in Toronto, where they built a house out of ice (its got bathroom, bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, everything) and have various computers and tv's running Vista with presentation from time to time. Both the Ice house and Vista were pretty cool however I don't really see any association between the two. Would've been more appropriate if it was called Windows Ice, but why not.

2007-01-25T23:00:00.001-05:00

Exit, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Not sure what attracts me to photos like this, there seems to be a certain feeling to it. A anxious stillness is presents as if you are impatiently waiting for someone to burst through that door.

Anyways there has been quite a few things going on lately. It seems we are finally learning some new things in digital photography class, we just covered color correction and black and white conversions. Hopefully we will continue on with more post-production type stuff, the whole digital manipulation art-shit just kills me.
In film photography we are starting color next week and are currently doing portrait lighting and lighting ratios, fun stuff if you ask me, this is the part of the course that you find out why you spent so much light on a light meter.
Projects seem to be coming from all sides, none being to simple. I have to do 2 portraits, as well as several series of photographs, and I should really be getting some test shots done for my final project for film-photography which I will talk about later.

On another note quite a bit ago I started working as a photographer for a company called Pro Shot Event photography. So far I've been shooting hockey tournaments, but this weekend I'll get to do some green screen stuff and some portraiture, so I'm pretty excited. It awesome working as a photographer, your constantly moving around and at times it's very hectic, but hell is it rewarding when people buy your photos and have huge smiles on their faces! It's awesome.

Anyways that's all for now, peace.

2007-01-22T00:15:00.001-05:00

Pain, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

A project for school, we were supposed to incorporate text into a photograph. This is also probably one of the most complicated lighting setups I've done. It took about 2 hours to get it all ready and then about half and hour to shoot. I used 3 lights and a flash.

2007-01-20T01:47:00.001-05:00

Preparations, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

2007-01-19T01:49:00.001-05:00

Use Soap, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

2007-01-17T01:54:00.001-05:00

Westdale, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Haven't been out shooting much lately, I'm gonna try to get some done this week. I also have a few projects for class so I'll post those up as they are finished if they turn out well.

2007-01-15T01:32:00.001-05:00

Casino, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

This image was shot with a Lomo Fisheye 2 (toy camera). My next post will be all about it, I know you can't wait!

The Montreal Experience

2007-01-12T00:40:00.001-05:00

Minivan, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Hello to all, my first post of the new year and from the out look of things it will probably be a long one. As mentioned previously I spent New Years in Montreal which was a bit crazy, but I was left with some mixed feelings about the city. Nightlife-wise Montreal was awesome, being 18 it was nice to be able to get into all the clubs, bars, and lounges and have a few drinks. However that is pretty much where the bonuses of Montreal seem to end.The city it self isn't particularly beautiful (note that I didn't visit old Montreal) it seems empty and devoid of life. In Toronto even on the worst days weather-wise the city is bustling with life as a city should be. Montreal on the other hand seems like a ghost town. It's not that there is a little people out and about, they just appear to be unhappy and unwelcoming. Most big cities I'm used too (Toronto, New York, Baltimore, Chicago) what you see is an endless sea of skyscrapers. Some hate this, but I enjoy it very much, it all seems very poetic. One of the first things I noticed in Montreal was how you can see its end in any direction from anywhere you're standing. There are also large empty concrete spaces between buildings, no parks just large voids of concrete. I had a great time in Montreal but thinking it over there is really no reason for me to visit it again after I turn nineteen, except maybe to check out old Montreal. On a side note there is a lot of nice architecture in the areas surrounding the actuall center, the suburbs if you can call them that have a very European feel to them whatever that is.

More photos on Flickr.

2006-12-30T22:13:00.001-05:00

promenadeBuilding, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

I'll be goin to Montreal for New Years, I've been hearing mixed opinions about the city, so we'll see how that goes. See Ya, Happy New Years!

2006-12-25T02:47:00.001-05:00

Sneaky Santa, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-21T02:10:00.001-05:00

Olya in Cafe, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

2006-12-20T03:34:00.001-05:00

Me in an elevator, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

I really love the background in this photograph, it's the door of an elavator. There will be an increase of updates for the next while as I'm on break and have time to put up photos, so check back regularly!

2006-12-18T01:54:00.001-05:00

Window Reflection, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

This is a window display at The Bay downtown, with Yonge street being reflected in it.

2006-12-15T00:25:00.001-05:00

Santa, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Looks like its that time of year again. Christmas time is one of my favourite times of year, I love the whole atmosphere. Also I just finished writing an essay, which means that I'm done exams and am officially on Winter break! Gotta love university.
By the way, this image was shot with a Lensbaby... lens thus the blur.

2006-12-06T14:18:00.001-05:00

Untitled, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

I've been taken a lot of black and white shots lately, as I'm working on my final for school. My series will consist of photos of this style, although a certain detail will hold them together and give them meaning. That detail isn't present in this photo and also this is digital, my series is done with film. When i'm done hopefuly I'll scan them in and post them asap.

2006-12-05T11:00:00.001-05:00

Themachine, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Took this photo on Sunday, on my way home from work (more on that later). Please vote for my photo at JPG magazine on the right hand side of this page.

2006-12-02T04:44:00.001-05:00

Me in my room, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Lately the last few posts have been turning out lighter and paler once uploaded. I dunno whats the deal, hopefully I'll get a my own site soon so I can have larger images and I won't have to upload them through flickr.

2006-11-28T22:35:00.001-05:00

CanyonHillFarmsmal, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

I've taken photos of this farm many times never really liking how it turned out. This time i'm quite pleased with the results, i guess the lighting was just right, and also someone cut a lot of the grass around it down. Fun fact: at one time this used to be the Hells Angels "clubhouse" for their Richmond Hill chapter.

Tea Time

2006-11-20T02:26:00.001-05:00

Tea Time, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

This was taken for a project for my design and composition class. It was supposed to be a still life with 3 photos, on 4x4, one 6x4, and one 6x9. See the other here.

2006-11-18T20:58:00.000-05:00

This is sweet, I used to rollerblade back in the day, and have long stopped, but it is still awesome to watch others do it. So much skill, it's insane.
Found at the Torontoist.

2006-11-18T19:54:00.001-05:00

It's a Shame, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

2006-11-06T23:42:00.001-05:00

Olyaonstreet, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Was doing some test shots for an upcoming project and decided to go all out and edit this one. It seems a little colder than it looked in photoshop, strange. Reminds me of those Coolhunter people shots.

2006-11-05T00:01:00.001-05:00

Dotcom Car Sales, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

2006-11-04T01:22:00.001-05:00

Noexitcar, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

2006-11-03T01:38:00.001-05:00

dress, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Went to a fashion show at the MOCCA last night, the first designer was good and i think the last, the rest sucked. A good experience though. I think i'm gonna start carrying my flash around at all times, cause the photos from the show all SUCK, definitely need a bigger camera bag. I want one of those backpack one's. We'll see...

Matt Barnes

2006-10-29T01:14:00.001-04:00

Matt Barnes, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

This is photographer Matt Barnes from Westside Studio, went to his lecture.

2006-10-28T01:41:00.001-04:00

milkcarton, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

A Car

2006-10-27T02:44:00.001-04:00

A Car, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Filming on Bond St

2006-10-19T22:02:00.001-04:00

Filming on Bond St, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

This was a film set on Bond Street in Toronto (the same street the Ryerson Image Arts building is on). That guy in the red kinda looks like Peter Jackson!

2006-10-16T23:34:00.001-04:00

The Walk Home, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

2006-10-16T23:18:00.000-04:00

This is awesome, I love this style of art.

2006-10-15T22:20:00.001-04:00

King Deals, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

2006-10-14T14:36:00.000-04:00

A Sign of the Times, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

2006-10-13T20:56:00.001-04:00

Open, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Need Sleep

2006-10-06T00:18:00.001-04:00

Made You Yawn, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Finished my self-portraits for digital photography class. I had a bit of a block in terms of cool ideas and then today I've thought up a few pretty good ones and am happy with the way most have turned out. I looked to Chris Buck's self-portrait for inspiration and thought that I didn't pick anything up from it. But looking at the "Made You Yawn" shot is gives of a bit of a Chris Buck'ish vibe.

Sunset in the suburbs

2006-10-01T20:29:00.001-04:00

Sunset in the suburbs, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

There were gorgeous cloud formations on my way home from work today, I just had to stop and take some photos. These sorts of days remind me of the sparse yet consistent trips I make to the USA. Driving home into the sunset carefree if only for 10 or 15 minutes, no one nagging at you, no one bitching about some pointless crap you could care less about. I've come to the conclusion that I make 3 main types of photographs; ones that convey a feeling (like this one), ones that evoke a feeling, and ones that document life (although these can usually be grouped into one of the first two categories).

Mangled Car

2006-09-30T00:52:00.001-04:00

Mangled Car, originally uploaded by threee_3e. 50 mm | f/1.8 | 1/2000 s

It's been an awesome week. I've printed my first photo with an enlarger and I love it. We don't have to process black and white prints ourselves so it was fairly easy, however I realize now that there is a lot of trial-and-error involved.
I've handed in my first actual assignment (bracketing with a 4x5 camera). I have my self-portrait assignment due next week so the weekend will be spent shooting new photos aswell as reshooting old ones.
Manufactured Landscapes, the documentary about Canadian photographer and Ryerson graduate, Edward Burtynsky and his latest project about China. I hope to get out sometime soon and check it out.
A whole lot of other stuff going on but I've been yawning for about 3 days non stop now so all that will have to wait.

Seriously, don't!

2006-09-26T00:27:00.001-04:00

Scavanger hunt: Funny, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

My brother sent me a link to an article concerning what you need to "know" about design school. It is applicable outside of design and many of the "tips" are usefull to anyone in university. Read this everyday and your sure to be successful if you follow through. And for everyone's sake, don't be stupid!

Scavanger Hunt

2006-09-22T18:19:00.001-04:00

Scavanger hunt: Structure, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Damn I'm tired, for my digital photo class we had to do a scavanger hunt with a list of 10 items (stability, structure, dark, lovers, ancient, blue, moving, beauty, funny, and photo), we have to shoot in RAW and I was up untill 3am yesterday editing. The photos aren't my best work by far, it was a really busy week and I shot most of them yesterday within an hour but you can chekc them out her e. Have a happy Car Free Day!

Where does the time go?

2006-09-21T00:29:00.001-04:00

Self-Portrait, originally uploaded by threee_3e.

Sorry for the serious lack of posts, it seems that there arn't enough hours in a day. Since it takes almost 2 hours to get home from Ryerson I usually end up getting here at about 6pm and on some day 8pm even. Combine this with a multitude of readings and one soon sees where the time goes. To all you highschoolers I can't stress enough how important it is to live on campus, or at least near campus in not neccesarily in residence.

Anyways in regards to the photo accompanying this post it is from my digital photo class. We are to create 5 self-portraits and we can interpret the assignment in anyway we wish. I did a self-portrait a while back which I really liked however I saved a low resolution image over the original so I've wanted to redo it ever since, this assignment has given me reason too. This shot was originally in a portrait layout however I cropped it too landscape and perfer it this way. I will be redoing it and shooting in landscape in order to have a higher quality image and will also be removing and/or moving several of the elements in the photo. I have many on going projects right now so photos should be plentiful.

2006-09-12T23:49:00.000-04:00

50mm | f/1.8 | 1/5000 s

Having been busy lately I haven't been able to go out and shoot as much. This photograph as well as the one in the previous post are from a shoot a few days ago for my series on urban sprawl. I first started this series back when I bought my DSLR, it started out as photos of garbage left on construction sites, then developed to include the construction sites themselves, and now even contains the beautification attempts (reforestation) after construction is over. I've always been uncomfortable posting photos from the series alone, as I think they should be viewed together. I've often ended up posting single photos as sort of fillers when I don't have any new photos. This however will be the last photo from the series to be published until the series is complete. I have no date in mind, there are many ideas regarding the series I want to explore so it could range anywhere from a few months to a few years.

Black's Is Photography

2006-09-12T23:31:00.000-04:00

Well this last week has been a little hectic with everything going on. The first week of school is over, time flies when you have different classes each day of the week. I was also just hired at Black's Photography! I have training tomorrow morning, my goal of surrounding myself with as much photography goodness as I can is slowly coming together. My computer has been sick for a while now and all my efforts seem to be of little use. Although it isn't as bad as it was a week ago, it's still abnormally slow. There is a file I cannot single out, that I belive is causing the trouble. When ever I run a spy ware scan (I've tried 3 different programs so far) it freezes when it gets to the file. I think it's a registry file and I can't see the extension so I can't delete it manually. Hopefully I'll back up all the stuff I need and format my hard drive by next week, perhaps even install Windows XP 64 edition ( I have an AMD64 processor). I'll try to write up a post on Ryerson related things in the next few days.

2006-09-08T01:48:00.000-04:00

50mm | 1/1250s | f/1.8

2006-09-06T23:28:00.000-04:00

East Brunswick, New Jersey | 18mm | 1/15s | f/3.5

The First Day

2006-09-06T23:26:00.000-04:00

So today was my first day as a University student, it's awesome. I had my concepts and theories course, which is a general Image Arts course everyone takes. The course is about "concepts and theories which animate visual work in all media and forms" in simpler terms, it talks about why various works of art are what they are, what makes an art work intriguing, it also discusses the power and limitations of different mediums of art and their potential effect on society. Pretty interesting stuff if you ask me. My professor said something along the lines of, a work of art should be like a travel destinations, it should attract visitors, it must be explored, and like a travel destination it should be worth returning to, because there is always something new to find. I'm liking this university style of studying especially the class once a week thing, which gives one plenty of time to prepare. One thing I wasn't expecting was to be marked based on attendance. I mean, I'm paying money to learn about a certain subject and as long as I learn all the unnecessary materials and pass the courses, I don't see why my marks should suffer if I miss a class here or there. I'm also aware that for many other programs this isn't the case so why is Image Arts any different?

2006-09-02T01:03:00.000-04:00

CRANK

I just came back from watching Crank and damn it was awesome. First of all every movie I've seen with Jason Statham was awesome so this was bound to be good. Crank is action packed right from the beginning, it's the only film that has none stop action that I've seen and it works wonderfully. The film was also very comedic, which was unexpected but appreciated, every few minutes the theater would burst out laughing. The entire film flowed very smoothly and another plus was that it was only about 90 min long, in a time where movies are becoming ridiculously long it's nice to still have feeling in your ass at the end of the movie. And what an end it was, it gets you thinking, what would you do if you knew that you would die as soon as you stopped doing crazy insane shit?

Orientation at Ryerson

2006-09-01T00:37:00.000-04:00

View a few more photos from the concert here.

As O-Week has passed I'm in a shitty mood and am realizing I've made a big mistake about declining residence. Originally I wanted residence in an apartment style unit however when I was offered a spot in one of the single-room units, I declined... I'm an idiot. Walking about it seems that the people having the most fun are those living at residence. There is much to do at Ryerson and Toronto, however most of the events have fairly long timeperiods between eachother. If you live in residence you can go out, during the stale periods go home and then during the evening go out again. If you commute you really think twice about everything. Is it worth traveling 2 hours to go do something and once your there what to do during the 2 hours that there is nothing going on. Both Wednesday and Thursday I ended up not staying for the later events simply because there was nothing to pass the time. I hope to find a place downtown a.s.a.p. however do to some family matter that might be a while from now.

Orientation at Ryerson was generally pretty fun. On Tuesday I had the Image Arts orientation, which was nice and quick, an intro to all the profs, program polices, that sort of thing. The heads at Function Magazine (the Image arts magazine) also gave a little speech about what they do. Function is throwing a party on Sept. 21 at el mocambo (464 Spadina at College), not sure of the time, but once their website gets up and running there should be more info there.
The other two events going on that day were Sex in the Quad, which was hilarious and also an outdoor screening of V for Vendetta. I also checked out the RAC (Ryerson Athletics Center aka the gym) and will be signing up today probably. I also managed to forget my camera battery which made the normal practice of carrying my camera with me everywhere I go very annoying.

On Wednesday it was the more boring day. At Dundas Square they had this Race car Pit Crew Challenge thing going on, basically two teams seeing who can fill up a car and change it's wheels faster. Then I went with Olga to the Graphic Communications Management orientation, which was certainly much more informative than the Image Arts orientation but it was 3 hours so it was much more boring. That was pretty much it we were going to go to Yuk Yuks later in the evening, however there was nothing to do in the time between so we went home (see residence is needed).

On Thursday it was probably the best days. They had a concert going on and The Stills were performing, so it was sick, I even got a t-shirt. I was going to buy a TTC pass but they were sold out, but they should get more in stock today so hopefully I'll have better luck. We were planning on staying for the Hypnotist show later in the evening, and pub night at the Ram at the Rye. Yet once again we went home because there was nothing to do until then (living far from campus sucks).

School technically starts on Tuesday, but since I have no classes on Tuesday, my first day is Wednesday. Apparently there is also somekind of semi-formal cruise going on on Sunday however I'm not sure about all that.

Note: If your a Ryerson Student and you happen to somehow run across this blog give me a shout at esakhnenko[at]gmail.com

2006-08-31T11:30:00.000-04:00

In light of some recent changes some explanation are due.

"hey, your 'older posts' thing is all screwed up... it opened up this thing full of source code."

The reason older posts might and probably do look screwed up is that I signed up to the new Beta version of blogger. It has lots of cool new features how ever it's way to early as non of the other compatible programs such as Flickr and Hello/Picassa have been upgraded to support it. I will try to republish the blog so hopefully it will fix many of the current problems with the older posts.
Sometimes if one of the things your trying to do doesn't work, I recommend trying it again, oddly enough this has been the case with me several times. Also if you switch to the new blogger you cannot switch back to the older version, consider your self warned.

Tomorrow: A full rundown on Orientation Week (O-Week for the cool kids) at Ryerson.
p.s. The Stills are playing today on campus!

2006-08-31T00:06:00.000-04:00

*100% Photoshop Free

2006-08-28T15:09:00.000-04:00

Since Pluto is no longer a planet I've decided to share a planet that I've discovered not to long ago. Trileta (pictured above) is still being developed, has a warm climate, and supports human life.

2006-08-28T04:10:00.000-04:00

2006-08-27T02:29:00.000-04:00

I always wonder about these Psychic businesses. Do they really have enough customers to be able to pay the rent? Are most of their clients, return customers or new ones? Not sure about their rates, but if you send me $5 I'll read you your fortune, I guarantee that it will be a pleasant one too.

2006-08-26T10:42:00.000-04:00

Course Selection at Ryerson

2006-08-25T23:55:00.000-04:00

Lets get it out in the clear, the way the whole course selection process at Ryerson works plain sucks. It's complicated to use and is very counter-intuitive. First no where during the course selection process does it tell you how many courses you need, or where to find your electives. The information is buried in the very layered website, that even if you find it once, if you fail to bookmark the page, the probability of you finding the info again is very slim. When you do find the list of courses that you must choose from, the process of finding when these courses are available is very annoying. Instead of being able to click on the course and seeing when it's available, you have to navigate to an add/swap course page, where you have to do a search for the course by filling out various fields with titles that have no meaning to students at all. I was lucky as I only needed to add one course, so this process wasn't to bad. Others from whom I've heard had much worse experiences, which resulted in them calling me and crying. In the end I only have 2 photography specific courses (Photography Productions & Tools and Applications), both of them lab courses. Then I have 3 courses that are common to all Image Arts students, theses are; Design Composition (lab), Art History (Lecture), Concepts and Theories (Lecture). My final course was a liberal studies course (a course of your choice) and I choose Economics of Human Behavior (Lecture), if you've read Freakonomics (which you should!) then it's pretty much what that book is made of. Mondays is my earliest class (9am) but then I get Tuesdays off so it's all good! To all my fellow students at Ryerson see you August 29, that's orientation in case you didn't get the memo.

2006-08-24T23:16:00.000-04:00

Another change is on the horizon for The Threee Files. As you may or may not know, I will be attending Ryerson University in Toronto starting September. At first I was going to create a seperate blog to document my experience at Ryerson and keep this one strictly for photography. I am however attending Ryerson to study photography, so I decided to keep only one blog and use it for both purposes.

2006-08-24T01:19:00.000-04:00

2006-08-23T02:45:00.000-04:00

Pimp My McDonalds

2006-08-22T03:43:00.000-04:00

2006-08-20T14:47:00.000-04:00

A library in New York City.

2006-08-16T23:18:00.000-04:00

This was taken at Times Square in New York City.

2006-08-14T01:28:00.000-04:00

This was the only playground that I saw while in New York City, it was squeezed in between a school and a construction yard. I'm sure there were more, but in a large city playgrounds are bound to be near the bottom of the priorities list.

2006-08-12T01:55:00.000-04:00

A while ago I signed up to google analytics so that I could see stats about my site. Over the last few months I've witnessed my pageviews rise, in the past week I've recieved 102 pageviews, which might not sound like a lot but i used to get around 15 page views a week. I haven't however had an increase in comments. I would like to ask those of you who visit my site to express your opinion about my work, what do you like, what you don't, etc.

2006-08-12T01:44:00.000-04:00

I have gone to ground zero in New York City nearly every year since 9/11. To the passerbyer there doesn't appear to be much progress on the surface, one thing that has had a considerable change is the number of people standing around checking out the site. It seems that only a few years ago the place was packed with people straining to see past the tall fence, yet now hardly anyone even turns their head as they walk to their destination.

2006-08-10T00:37:00.000-04:00

This photo was taken in Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore has the nicest harbour front that I've been too. As you walk about you can see a beautiful city skyline and the neon of the aquarium across the water. Everything is lit up and one could spend hours there just taking everything in. In terms of size it's fairly small yet the abundance of activities is one of the things that make it all so agreeable. I've visited the harbour on several occasions and there have always been some sort of street performance going on; concerts, jugglers, and other types of street performances. There is also several restaurants with patios giving you a view of the harbour. On my last visit my girlfriend and I got to see Jupiter and it's moons, through a telelscope set up by an amature astronomer, it was really to much to take in at once. Baltimore's harbour front is awesome, 'nuff said.

2006-08-09T00:34:00.000-04:00

While visiting New York City last week one of my girlfriend's most desired destinations to visit was Canal St. Located between Little Italy and Chinatown the street has obtained quite a reputation as a place to buy all-things fake. Looking for a few specific items, we were invited more than once into the back rooms of the vendors, allow me to explain. Walking down Canal St. you are surrounded by vendor stalls were there is a large variety of goods for sale, Mont Blanc, Channel perfume, and fake versions of purses (for example Praba instead of Prada), etc. However, if you want the realistic fake goods, aka counterfits, you have to take the initiative. Once you ask for a certain product, for example a Gucci fannypack, you are discretely taken through a hidden door into another, much smaller, room where the keep the real counterfits. It's all very hush hush and feels as if your in some kind of movie. After doing a bit of research I found that although the majority of the goods are counterfeits, some are grey market imports (which are legal). Police raids are frequent however are nothing to worry about as it's only illegal to sell the goods, yet perfectly legal to buy them.
If you want to learn more about Canal St. try here and here.

That was my first attempt at writting a photo story, I'll keep it up for now and see if it works for me.

2006-08-08T05:02:00.000-04:00

In an effort to progress my photographic skill and become more photojournalistic in nature there will be another change coming to my blog. From now on each photo I post will be accompanied by a paragraph, explaining what is going on in the photograph and perhaps expanding on the photos topic in a broader sense. There have been several pushes that have made me move to this method, at first I took photos just for the sake of taking photos, still do the majority of the time. Then after reading a few photo essays and looking at work of other photographers I decided to try my hand at making a few series, this led to the garbage and construction series’ which are still on going yet are joining into one series of photos. Also it led to the “Ground” (texture study) series, and to my latest series of black and white photographs of household objects.

Several weeks ago I received an email from my brother that went like this:
“if you take a photo that connects with you on some level - think about why; what does it capture and what does it say about the world, and then try to see similar instances in the world around. That way, you are not just walking around capturing interesting scenes, but capturing instances of some idea. It's all about ideas”

At the same time I found this website, where I read an article called “10 Questions to Ask When Taking a Digital Photo”, point one was “what story am I telling”. From there I found a more in-depth article titled “telling stories with photos”.

With that I thought of writing stories with each of my photos, because for me documentary photography shouldn’t be up for interpretation by the viewer, the viewer should be told what they’re looking at and why they might want to look at it.

2006-07-28T23:42:00.000-04:00

I feel shitty, thought you should know. But not as shitty as this cow who is stuck outside all year round.

2006-07-28T01:48:00.000-04:00

As you may or may not know it was my 18th birthday yesterday. I can do all sorts of cool stuff now that I couldn't before, like vote and... did I mention vote? Okay, so there isn't much of a difference but 18 still sound pretty grand, no? The photo above was take with my new Lensbaby (thanks to my girlfriend who got it for me), I now possess the asthetics of blur at my fingertips (no I really do, that's how you focus). A lot of trial and error is required for this bad boy or girl, however I'm guessing that with more practise, focusing and setting the exposure will become easier. Look for more Lensbaby photos in the future. Also I'm leaving to the U.S. tommorow, I'll be visiting New Jersey, New York, Maryland, and perhaps Washington D.C. I'll be gone for a week so there probably wont be many posts, if any. That's all, cheers!

2006-07-27T09:28:00.000-04:00

This isn't a topic I would normally discuss, but this hilarious yet true post in the "Streeter" section of the Torontoist:

Streeter: Reigniting the Horse Cop Debate
"Overheard" on the Toronto Livejournal community:

ME (On Bicycle): What kind of bike is that?
COP (On horseback, in the bike lane): WHAT?
ME: What kind of bike is that?
COP: It's a horse.
ME: Great! Get the @#$% out of the bike lane then.

got me thinking and a link later I was at the Spacing Wire reading about cops on horseback and thinking WTF?? Never really having put much though into cops on horseback I now find myself totally agreeing with this article. To me cops on horseback have always been a novelty of sort, yet I've never actually though of them as actuall police officers. I mean it's not like their going to leave their horse in the middle of the street to chase after a criminal, at least I'd hope they wouldn't.

2006-07-26T00:45:00.000-04:00

2006-07-25T00:51:00.000-04:00

2006-07-24T12:38:00.000-04:00

2006-07-23T09:18:00.000-04:00

2006-07-22T02:24:00.000-04:00

As kids, these people spent too much time in the sandbox.

2006-07-21T00:18:00.000-04:00

I started a new series today. It will be B&W still life photos of various items found in my home. I've always collected random items, thinks that have long broken down or things that are compleltely useless and just sit around collecting dust. However, I keep theses things for no reason at all. This series will perhaps be slightly about consumerism and in a broader sense just a documentation of items found in the house. Why black and white? I don't perticularly like photographing in the studio or doing still-lifes however whenever I do the only way the photos seem to look good is in black and white. So for this series I'm starting of thinking the majority of the photos will be black and white with perhaps few exceptions.------- Above is a contact sheet of various lighting positions that I tried for a photograph of an old fax machine that I've never used.

2006-07-20T14:21:00.000-04:00

2006-07-20T04:37:00.000-04:00

Andy Warhol
Supernova: Stars, Death, and Disasters

Yesterday I went to check out the Warhol exhibit at the AGO. "Supernova" deals with a different side of Warhol's work that most don't see. Simply stated it's not the most famous work and is more dark and morbid in a sense. Much of what is on exhibit addresses Andy's concept of 15-minutes of fame, ordinary people being able to achieve fame with out effort. Series such as his "Most wanted men" and the couch film and others like it, showed that anyone could be famous if even for a brief period of time. Men who have commited crimes and now have celeberty like fame because of their wanted poster or Andy's couch at The Factory where ordinary people could come in and be videotaped on the couch doing whatever they like and later become famous by being in Warhol's film. In my opinion his statement "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15-minutes" is already coming true in todays society. Realty shows like American Idol, take nobodys and make them famous. Blogs allow anyone to become apart of internet history and make themselves known to a world wide audience. Fame is now every individuals choice and it's becoming more-so everyday. Check out the exhibit it's a different twist to say the least. A nice bonus is that for the majority of the work on display there is an audio commentary by David Croneberg and little handsets are given out free of charge as you enter the exhibit.

*Secret Tip: If you got to Hillcrest Mall (Richmond Hill, ON) and go to the information booth, you can get free tickets by filling out a survey that literally takes less then a minute!

2006-07-18T23:42:00.000-04:00

This is just too cool to not share, I two words for you: Google 3D.

Designed by a young UK designer, Pei Kang Ng, Google3D is meant as a viable business proposal for Google, five to ten years from now. With Google3D, the idea is literally, to bring the conveniences of the search engine to your fingertips. Now, you can find out things on the move - wherever and whenever you want to - just by taking a picture. You don’t even have to type! Considering the technological advances in search, wireless technology and flexible screens, it should be a matter of time before the concept becomes feasible in technical terms. This handy partner brings the Google search bar into your world of real, tangible objects - you do not have to sit in front of your computer anymore. Armed with a camera, it allows you to search live! with a simple snapshot.

Scenario 1) Looking for a bargain? Take a picture of the product and Google will tell you where to buy it cheaper.
Scenario 2) Lost? Take a picture of the nearest road sign or any landmarks, and Google tells you where you are.
Scenario 3) Looking for a good restaurant? Simply take a picture of the restaurant’s signage and Google will tell you its customers’ ratings. by Andy G

- http://www.thecoolhunter.net/Gadgets/GOOGLE-3D/

2006-07-18T00:15:00.000-04:00

2006-07-17T02:35:00.000-04:00

2006-07-16T00:24:00.000-04:00

2006-07-14T12:38:00.000-04:00

2006-07-13T10:05:00.000-04:00

2006-07-12T13:23:00.000-04:00

2006-07-12T13:17:00.000-04:00

Well I got my wisdom teeth removed yesterday, lets just say it wasn't a pleasant experience. My appointment was at 9:30 however we finally got to the procedure more than an hour later. Some girl sitting opposite of me, waiting to get the same thing done broke down in tears. I was taken into different rooms twice being assured we would begin in ten minutes before being told to go back into the waiting room. Finally on the third time it was actually my turn. My blood pressure was taken and electrodes to monitor my heart were place on my wrists. Next and oxygen mask was put on me wich I was told to breath. The nurse then turned on the laughing gas, which was one of the worst feelings ever. Then the IV was put in, I hate needles. As the nurse turned off the laughing gas, I felt totally awake, opened my eyes as much as possible, and was about to say 'wait I'm not asleep' when woke up in another room with my mom beside me. I didn't have any major swelling and arn't in any pain, just some minor discomfort. I can see the stitches inside my mouth, which should dissolve in 4 to 6 days. Eatings a bitch as I can only have liquid type foods, baby type apple sauce stuff, yogurt, jello, water. I have to take antibiotics every 6 hours. Thats all for now, keep you posted.

2006-07-12T00:37:00.000-04:00

2006-07-11T00:30:00.000-04:00

Went camping at Lake Simcoe for 4 days, didn't take a lot of shots so there are only a few worth sharing. Check them out here.

In other news, I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed today, so I'll keep you posted on the experience.

2006-07-10T01:16:00.000-04:00

2006-07-09T00:02:00.000-04:00

I went to the Toronto Street Festival today to check out the outdoor art expo and saw this guy, drawing a huge picture of some superhero, on the way there.

2006-07-05T00:48:00.000-04:00

Me and Olga went to the Rosedale area and walked about yesterday. It's a really nice area to walk around and get lost in. So the three photos below are from the trip, more will be posted later. I'm going camping for 4 days and that is why I'm posting 3 at once. Enjoy.

2006-07-05T00:46:00.000-04:00

2006-07-05T00:45:00.000-04:00