Power of Fashion

A deflated Santa

So now with a bunch of employment coming my way I decided to do what I'd normally do, go outside for a walk. I found myself scoping out the new location for fashion week. It looks like a dumpy warehouse. This is at least the second location that had been picked by the fashion council for this season's catwalks. I'm not sure why they picked this place or why they didn't stay with the previous places.


Do you live in a haunted house?

The area looks pretty dumpy as a lot of it is still under construction. Not only that available parking around here didn't seem to be in abundance. Throw in some potted plants and red carpet, kablam, the new place for fashion week. Heck, they did a good job with the unused car dealership building last year.


30 ordinance street, "the power of style"


Liberty street


A dog sign

Jamie Cullum

Massey Hall

I got a gig tonight to photograph Jamie Cullum playing at Massey Hall. As a general rule photographers are usually only allowed to photograph during the first three numbers. After that your time is up and you're being led out of the venue. There are the odd exceptions, photographing wakestock, bands in small venues, bands in big venues. Now that I think about it why is there a three song rule anywhere?

It makes sense if the photographers are in the way of the paying audience. That wouldn't go over well. Even the clicking of the camera shutter can be annoying. So okay three songs and you're out. Seems reasonable.


Jamie Cullum on piano

We waited outside off behind the stage somewhere. There were three of us, photographers shooting for various wire services, newspapers. Some other act was just finishing up and our escort was waiting with us. We were given stickers as badges identifying us as press.

Having not shot at this venue before the escort asked if I was carrying a zoom lens. Usually I shoot with a 70-200mm but because I was given a head's up by Dominic, the photographer I was standing in for I brought my lens doubler. This made my range go from 140-400mm. The disadvantage is that I would lose two stops going from 2.8 to 5.6. I would have to have the shutter open longer to get a proper exposure, meaning that I couldn't shoot any quick motion without blur.

There was an intermission and we were let in, following the escort, to the back row on the main floor. Wow, we were really far from the stage. The photo above was shot with a 400mm lens on a monopod. I would have liked to have gotten closer as this still feels far away. It was.

I lost count of the number of songs and by the end of the third song found myself juggling gear on the way out toward the exit. I rearranged everything into my camera bag and left thinking I had forgotten something.

Goings on

King George, a statue in the park north of Queen's park.

Not much happening today, or so I thought. I decided to walk around downtown. Unbeknown to me my cell phone was racking up calls. My ringer is terrible and I can't hear my phone most of the time. It's even worse when I'm outside.


Roger at Monster Records.

I was walking around contemplating work and what work I could get. How to get enough money together to pay rent, bills, etc. Did I have another change jar hidden some where? Down to three weeks before the end of the month. It didn't seem like I was making any progress in the last three weeks.

I got home to find I had three job offers. None of them were from phone calls I had made. They were all from out of the blue. Feast or famine. This was definitely a feast situation. Work on a movie, doing photography of Fashion week, photography of some music gig. I was all pretty good timing. Did I mention I still had three weeks?


"What's going on here?"

Meanwhile, on Yonge street, a whole section was blocked off by police tape. To walk south you had to go down another street or alley. I wasn't sure what was going on. I heard rumours that a truck had hit a lady. There was a truck but it seemed like something bigger to warrant the large police presence. Maybe it was just to block off one of the busiest Toronto streets? I never heard anything on the news.


I find this police car funny for some reason.


A whole section of Yonge street is blocked off

Paula's pup

Molly, photo subject.

Went over to Paula's today to help her with getting to know her computer. Spent some time taking photos of her dog.

Rainy's 80s Party

Rock hair and an air guitar... good to go.

Rainy's birthday party was an 80s themed crazy fun time. It was a nice distraction from job hunting. The cheesy big rocker hair, the feathered hair, the skinny leather ties, the big shoulder pads. Bands like Wham, Duran Duran, Journey, Power Station, Def Leppard, Michael Jackson playing in the background with folks dressed up like Robert Palmer, Tina Turner how much more 80s could you get?

Sign of Journey

Leah next to the sign.

I had to call in some money that people owed me to pay off some bills. It wasn't a lot to pay off when working with steady income. In lock down savings mode it was the difference between not having a phone and having a phone.

If people can't get in touch with you finding work will be that much harder. Still have 20 something days left in the month to make rent. Plenty of time.

Leah, the delivery person for the person that owed me money met up with me to give me cash. As we were walking down the street talking about work, finances, and all that, we stopped at a bar that she recognized. It looked like it was closed for good. I looked up and saw this sign. "Don't stop believin'". A sign from God? Probably just a Journey fan. Still, it was a weird coincidence.

When bored, go for a walk

Some doggie in the window.

Originally I left the house to go get groceries. It's been the thing to do the last few days. On lock down mode for spending money and still looking for work. Photography work, at least on Craig's list and Kijiji is pretty dismal. Most of the people looking for photographers are looking for photographers to work for free, photographers to maybe work in the future, or photographers that will pay to do the work.

"Eh? What's that? I have to pay you to photograph something I have no interest in? Uh, no."

Monster.ca, a well known web site for job placement had a posting looking for a photographer to work for three months on a trial basis. If at the end of the three months the photographer worked out they might hire that person into a full time position at $10.00 an hour. Oh, did I say that the first three months, the trial period, were non-paying. What kind of small piss ant company was this? Working as a teenager way back when we were hired onto a job maybe at a lower rate but not for free and not for three months. Three weeks maybe.

Turns out the employer wasn't some small company, just a company that was looking for cheap labour. It was Bell. Yes, Bell that phone company bell. The same company that told me I couldn't drop my phone service because I had a 3 year contract. A 3 year contract that I never signed because I bought the phone out right.

As someone that's worked for the most part in middle to upper management and freelance for as long as I can remember this working for free thing (internship) would have escaped me. It's only recently while shifting work priorities that I have found this exploitation. For some school courses some programs require that the student put in 40 hours or so to get their degree, program certificate, what have you. This is where companies have jumped on the band wagon to get free employment. Slimy money grubbing opportunists getting free labour, promising jobs but releasing people after their internship to replace them with new people willing to work for free.

This made me furious. I actually wanted to start a company just to train kids while paying them then getting them jobs so they can by pass these bastards. I was brought back down to earth by one of my friends saying maybe I should find a job first for me. He had a good point.


It's Ian!

I decided to go out and get some air, and groceries. My random wanderings ended up with me walking down to Queen street taking photos of the odd store and bumping into Ian at Squirrelys. It was a random occurrence. While photographing store fronts I noticed him and his friend in the front window of the restaurant. They had just gotten out of some rock climbing gym and were finishing dinner.

I walked in and joined them for a drink. We talked about how we both had horseshoes up our butt when it came to work. Usually things would get pretty dire. Not being able to pay rent, maxed out credit cards, and then just as things looked financially bleak... we'd get a job, pay off our bills, rent, be able to eat out and spend some money. Someone up there likes for sure.

I told Ian how angry I was at these companies hiring people for nothing. It bugged me that much. Then the issue of me not working came up. "I'm not too worried. I still have a whole month before rent is due. A lot can happen in a month." I told him. Being in the same situation before he agreed. It wasn't like rent was due the next day.

Superstitious Baking

Canada wins gold

Not having sex, wearing the same underwear (unwashed), not shaving, owning a lucky penny, having a loonie embedded under the ice, sitting in a specific position on a couch, these might all be things one does in order to win an upcoming game. They're nutty superstitions that may not do anything but to some may affect the outcome of play. To a player it might just be that small detail to give them the edge (in their mind anyway). The result, they play better.

I don't really believe in that kind of thing. Granted, wearing old underwear might make the other team back off a little because you really stink. It's one thing if you're on a team playing the game, but as a spectator? Cheering for your team might help if you're right there at the game. What if you're watching it on TV? Players can't hear you in another province. (I'm sorry to break this to my friends out there, yes Zee, your shouting at the TV won't make your team win)

A few days ago, while watching the Canada versus Solvakia game on TV, my friends noticed that all three goals scored by Canada occurred while I was downstairs baking a pizza. Solvakia scored their two goals while I was sitting in front of the TV.

Today, with nothing really better to do I watched the big hockey game. Canada versus the USA. I'm not a sports fan, unless you include roller derby. Correction, I'm not a sports nut. If Canada or the US won I'd be okay with that. I have friends in both countries. Why should some friends be "losers" while the others are "winners", it's beyond me. Watch the sport to see good hockey.

If the Leafs win or lose, no matter, as I type this I can hear Zee yelling at me for why they haven't won the Stanley Cup since he was born. I'm one of those people that will watch the odd game here and there socially.

When Team Canada went into defencive mode and started to let goals in and then go into overtime I realized that I wasn't baking anything. There was nothing in the oven. So during the start of the forth period I threw in some croissant rolls. The Pillsbury kind where you don't have to prep anything.

I kind of forgot that they were in the oven until Canada scored the winning goal. Which is why they're so brown to the point they're almost burnt. Oh yeah, that's why Canada won, it's because I made half burnt croissants. Zee, you can thank me later.

Meet the Betties

Some new, some not as new.

The Smoke City Betties, one of ToRDs four awesome teams, had a fund raiser tonight. I looked over at the auction table and didn't recognize a bunch of the people there. While normally a first reaction might be "Who are these people?" as a photographer of derby one has to take into account that a derby skater does not always look like the same person in a real life environment compared to the big exciting sport life on the track.

There are a few factors that play into this.

• helmet - usually when photographing a skater their hair is covered by a helmet. When I first saw Slaughter Lauder off the track doing some NSO work I did a second take because she had a long mane of hair. She looked "weird".


• skates - skates add height. So if you're used to shooting someone who's 5 foot something and then meeting them without skates on you wonder why you're not looking at the same height you're used to. Also while on skates, the subject moves around differently. Gliding from point A to point B. Off skates, the subject moves differently. Maybe seems more clumsy, off balance (usually if holding beer), or just moves up and down more.
  


• outfit - the brain adjusts to the skater wearing an outfit. Should the outfit change into street wear the effect is like seeing a familiar comic book character wearing something else. Imagine Charlie Brown in a tux drawn into a Bloom County background. You might recognize him but you'd have to take a second look if he's not standing next to someone else you know.

Slaughter Lauder (11) "Some thing's a foot"

As it turns out the people behind the table at the auction were actually new skaters that I had not met yet. That was good, verifying that my brain and memory (at least for derby) was still intact. wheew.


"Don't stop believin'..."

At some point in the night the old derby standard of Journey started to play. I think that's also about the time the party picked up a bit. Some of the girls got up on the beer counter and started dancing to the song while singing along.

One of these days I'll have to make a book just on photos taken at roller derby after parties with this song playing in the background. It's magical. Gold! Photographic gold!!!


It's a magnet for foot notes.

CN Power VS the Vixens

Land Shark (#1/3) of CN Power breaks through the pack.

Final Score:
CN Power 199
Vixens 49

The downsview hanger. By day a photographer's dream, by night a photographer's nightmare. This is where the ToRD roller derby bouts take place. It's a warehouse/hanger turned derby venue. While the lights that exist are good enough to see what's happening they are no where near the ideal brightness for broadcast quality photos.

I've photographed at this venue before to know any photos taken after the sun goes down would look like mud without a fast lens or some additional light or both.

Tonight I showed up with two studio flashes. Unfortunately not enough cable for power. This limited my light source on one side of the room. D'oh! Well any light is better than no light.


The CN Power and the Rideau Valley Vixens

One of the challenges of using flashes is that you have to wait between photos for the flash to recharge and some flashes will melt with continuous use. I've seen a few SB-800s melted in order to get a shot. It's not pretty but at least the photographer got the photo in the end.

There are ways to get around waiting for a flash to juice up. Of course like almost any photography solution it's not cheap. You can buy a multimax 32 for up to four flashes (A, B, C, D) and have the multimax on your camera cycle through them. You wouldn't have to wait for a refresh until getting past the forth flash and by that time the first flash might be ready to go anyway. Four flashes at $1000 each and five multimax 32s at $300 each (total $5500) and that's just for one corner of the track and not including stands, yeah it can add up. But just think of the photos you can take.

This is where I subtlety advertise the donate button on the right.