Home Made Studio

The other day I bought a roll of black background paper for about $40 at the camera shop, and a couple of big red garage storage hooks from the hardware store for $2. Now I have a small photo studio in the garage. I also have a couple of home made soft boxes I made out of shoe boxes and some white table cloth.

This is me trying to look thoughtful. I found this was much better than all the photos I shot with a fake smile or trying to look goofy or surprised. Also, that suit coat only cost me $1.99 a few years ago.

Lung Diary

Just a quick post today. A simple shot from a little band practice with good friends of mine. It's a new project, Lung Diary. Check them out.

Patches

Whenever a T-shirt becomes so worn out that it has to be converted into a house hold rag, I always save whatever is printed on it. Sometimes I'll use the smaller patches to liven up a Value Village find. The rest I keep for some reason. Its hard to just throw them away. Maybe later in life I'll use them for some sort of art project. (Click the photos to enlarge)

Glow Sticks

This is how my bike looks when it goes out to a rave.

I've had a few glow sticks laying around for a while now waiting to use them for some sort of photo experiment. My original idea was to hang my bike upright from the rafters of the garage, but after failing to think of a way to keep it from swinging back and forth every time I spun the tires, I decided to just lay it upside down on the floor. I taped a glow stick to the inside of each wheel, spun the wheels then outlined the frame with another glow stick by hand. The frame glow is a little sloppy but I tried it many times and this was the best result. Its pretty accurate because the frame is almost the exact same color...minus the glow.

On a separate note I'd like to pass on a good documentary I happened upon last night on CBC. It was the story of an Australian adventurer, Andrew McAuley who attempted to kayak across the Tasman Sea (from Australia to New Zealand) alone. I'm not a fan of kayaking (I'm quite terrified of open water) but I found it all very interesting and it really stuck in my mind. So check the trailer.

New Car

New, as in different.
Car, as in Bike.

Since my car died on me about a month ago I've been walking and riding my bike everywhere. This isn't my bike, just a random mountain bike that was laying around in the garage that seemed to work better with this project.

I've been meaning to try this photo technique for a while now. With the help of an old seat post and the top of my tripod, I was able to mount my camera on the handle bars in a variety of angles. I originally wanted to do this with my BMX bike, but the bars were too thin and there just wasn't enough room to mount a camera anywhere on its modest stature.

I'll admit I was a little nervous bouncing around with my camera hanging over the front tire, but it worked out well and my camera is still in one piece. I used a slow shutter to get the motion and a small aperture to get a slow shutter. Also, I used my fisheye lens which isn't nearly as fisheye...ish on my digital, but oh well.

Dirt Racin'

Every Monday night my dad and I load the van up and head out to the county for some old fashioned dirt track kart racing. Back when I was a teenager we used to race on the paved road course in Leamington but this is our first year on dirt. The general idea of the club is a bunch of guys racing for fun, without spending too much money on parts and engines. But each race seems to bring a desire for more horse power.

I've loved auto racing all my life and this is a fun, relatively cheap way to do it. There are about 30 karts that race each week. I run in the regular class which is usually split into 2 groups of 10-12 karts, depending how many guys show up each week. We run 3 heats. My dad runs in the senior class which just runs one heat each week.

As my dad was getting ready to start his only race of the night, I flicked the ignition switch to "on" and yanked on the pull cord to start the 6.5hp engine...Snap. The pull cord broke. With no quick alternative to start the engine, his day was done. I felt bad after he spent all week to get the kart ready to go. I offered to let him run one of my heats so he could at least get some racing in, but he didn't seem to mind not racing. I still felt bad, even though it wasn't really my fault (I warned him a few days earlier that the cord looked fairly worn out).

Luckily we were able to fix the pull cord before my next race. I didn't win...but I did alright, and didn't break anything else on the kart...just bent the back bumper and exhaust.

The second photo is my dad running a few laps for fun at the end of the day. The last photo is a few weeks worth of rubber exchange. You can check out a complete gallery of photos that my dad and I have taken from all the races at www.fog.calebest.com. More photos from this day will be up there shortly...as soon as I'm done posting this....hey, that's right now.

Keys

A simple post for today, not much to say. I've always found these Maple seeds fascinating. The natural engineering of them is nearly flawless.

I gathered a handful, tossed them in the air and took the photo. I used a flash, then took the color out of the sky to make them stand out a little better.

Two Cakes

Every year I ask for no birthday celebrations and each year I seem to get more. I'm not really complaining though. But the only place I like attention is far away from me. So when the singing starts I reach for my camera. Both these photos where taken while my family and friends were singing me "Happy Birthday" against my wishes. Thanks to Mom for the cake with candles, and thanks to Kristina for the one with the sparkler. Getting older is no longer fun for me but I still had a good day/night with family and friends. Thanks to everyone who cares I'm still around to grow older.

Good Bye to 25 and the Topaz.

Day one and I've already decided to change this concept a little. Instead of just one photo everyday, I may post a collection from a shoot. I want to post at least one photo a day, but some days I may have more. I'm going to try to shoot everyday, and each day I'll post a photo (or photos) from the previous day.

So let's start the next year of my life by saying goodbye to a big part of the last 15.

My parent bought this '93 Topaz brand new when I was about 11 years
old. I still remember riding home in it from the dealership. When I was about 19 years old my parents moved on to a new car and handed her down to me.

Over the years I added thousands of miles, a louder stereo and some minor dents. In early summer of 2005, I started driving her north on a vaguely planned (and poorly funded) solo camping trip. I spent almost every night sleeping in the passenger seat.
On that trip I drove 1400 kilometers with a shot wheel bearing.

I parked it about a month ago when the final straw came along as a spongy brake pedal and a warning light on the dash. I crawled under the car and found a growing leak in the brake lines. Without a steady job, I decided to give up the luxuries (and headaches) of a car. I trust my bmx bike to take me where I need to be...until winter.

So in honor of all thankless work the Topaz has put in over the last 15 years, I've put together this little photo collection. Enjoy.

Twenty 6

In an effort to force myself to take photos everyday, and to start writing more often I've come up with a plan. Not the most original idea, but interesting, I think. Since tomorrow is my 26th birthday I am going to start a blog (for lack of a better medium). The idea is to shoot at least one photo a day for the next 365 of 'em. If I know myself as well as I think I do, I'm sure I'll miss a few but we'll worry about that later. I'm sure I'll make some good excuses for it when it happens.

This is probably going to be hard to keep interesting, especially since I no long have the luxury of a car. So I'll be doing a lot of walking and bike riding. Not a bad thing, I guess. I'm sure there will also be a lot of photos from my room and backyard.
If this turns out well I'll self publish a book at the end of it with all the photos and stories. Even if its just one copy for myself.