Painting with Light - Happy Spring Break!

APD2 Assignment 3 - The Decisive Moment

f/8, 1/40s, ISO 200

St. Patrick's Day parade
Challenges with shoot
- Making interesting compositions
- Cold weather made it difficult to stay in one place, waiting for the moving elements to fit my compositions
- I took many photos of the parade itself, but I did not find many intriguing decisive moments in my frames during my editing

f/8, 1/250s, ISO 100

Chinatown
Challenges with shoot:
- waiting for the right moment
- the pigeons would not move when pedestrians walked by, it took the dog to get them to fly away.
- pigeons kept moving towards me as they thought I had food for them

f/2, 1/17s, ISO 400

f/2.8, 1/9s, ISO 400

The Metro
Challenges with the shoot
- Strangers giving odd looks when I took pictures
- After choosing my composition, making sure people not aware that I was taking a photo

What I learnt from these shoots/this assignment:
- carrying my smaller mirrorless camera allowed me to get better shots (more discrete than my dSLR)
- capturing many shots blindly (from the hip) was very useful
- it takes a lot of patience to capture the moment I visualised
- I had to forget about the many missed moments and move forward and constantly try new compositions

What I liked about street photography:
- pleasant surprises and interesting images that I did not pre-visualise just from shooting repeatedly and from the hip
- it constantly challenged me: I had to think of new creative ways in each situation to try to stay unnoticed, while still achieving my composition

What I did not enjoy about street photography:
- Confrontations from strangers
- Long editing (selecting best images) process

ALP1 Assignment 2 - Architecture Interior and Exterior

Interior Composite (for exposure and removing people)

L'école polytechnique Montréal - Claudette-MacKay-Lassonde and Pierre-Lassonde buildings

f/16, Composite of exposures at 1/30s, 1/6s, 1/3s, 0.6s, 1.3s and 2 sec, ISO 100

- Construction completed: Summer 2005
- University building expansion (tunnel connects it to the main building) with laboratories, classrooms, library and open study space for Engineering students. It also houses the Department of Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering.
- Construction was inspired by the notion of green architecture with the goal to minimize any negative impact on the environment.
- The elements (magma, earth, flora and sky) are the inspiration for the colour scheme and symbols of Polytechnique’s expertise in sustainable development
- I wanted to showcase the bright open space and highlight all of the bright colours that are inspired by nature and the concept of reducing the ecological footprint, which greatly influenced the design this building.

How I made this composite:

- I used my tripod and kept all my settings the same (aperature, manual focus, ISO, composition) and took multiple shots with different exposure speeds to capture correct exposures for the sky/sky light as well as the interior of the building to show detail in both.

- I also waited for people to move through the frame at the same shutter speed so that I could put a layer of empty space over which there was a person to make the building look pristine and empty.

Natural light = Artificial Light

L'Université du Québec à Montréal - complexe des sciences Pierre-Dansereau (100 Sherbrooke Ouest)

f/16, 3.2s, ISO 100

- Administrative Building - Télé-Université (Distance Learning at UQAM)- According to the UQAM website, the Pierre-Dansereau science complex, consisting of 4 pavillions, started construction in 1993 and finished in 2006.

- Multiple architecture firms were involved: Saia et Barbarese, Tétreault, Parent, Languedoc and associates, Birtz, Bastien and Claude Cormier

- I wanted to highlight the interesting shape and structure of the building - especially the jagged windows and down-hill structure. I also wanted to show the busy environment where this building is situated with lots of traffic passing by along Sherbrooke Street. I also chose a wide angle to show the contrast between this modern architecturally designed building and the older brick building that is connected.

Vertical and Horizontal Lines Parallel to Frame
Complexe Desjardins / Hyatt Regency Hotel Montreal

f/11. 1/80s, ISO 200

- Multi-use building complex comprising four towers on a substructure, occupying a full downtown block

- Construction: 1967-1976

- Architects and planners: Jean-Claude La Haye et associés, predecessor to Société La Haye-Ouellet, urbanistes et architectes; Blouin, Blouin et associés, architectes; Gauthier, Guité, Roy, Architectes; Ouellet et Reeves; and Longpré, Marchand et Goudreau

- The building has been referred to as a symbol of the advancement of French Canadians in North America (after the Quiet Revolution), therefore I tried to highlight the height and stature of the complex in this photo by using lines parallel to the frame.

- I chose black and white for this photo in attempt to make it more timeless, and make the viewer look at the buildings and contrast rather than be distracted by the different colours present in the environment. I also inspired by the photos seen in class by photographer, Dario Zini.

Interior Space
Complexe Dejardins and Underground City

f/14, 5 sec, ISO 100

- Completed 1976
- One of the objectives of the designers was to provide a meeting place sheltered from the winter weather.
- I wanted to show the large central interior plaza surrounded by mezzanines, public art and stores with some people in it to show the social nature of the space and provide context and scale to show the height of the fountain.
- I took this image with a wide angle to show the large open space and to show the many different levels of the complex, including the underground substructure


Problems encountered with the shoots:
- It took many attempts to take the image with artificial light equal to natural light, one time the interior lights of another building did not turn on as I set up my camera and waited for the right time.So to overcome this, I attempted this shot many times before succeeding.
- For my equal mix of light shot, I had to step off the sidewalk to get a better angle of the building, so I had to be more aware of my surroundings instead of focusing on the frame in my camera (safety first).