Frameless Frames

REDress Project & Violence Against Aboriginal Women

2012-03-04T15:54:00.011-07:00

Jaime Black's project REDress Art Installations is now on campus of University of Alberta. This project is aimed to raise awareness for violence against aboriginal women. You can read more about this project here and here. I shot this for The Gateway.

Inside UofA

2012-02-18T08:56:00.002-07:00

There are so many beautiful buildings at University of Alberta. While I am shooting a feature about campus seats for The Gateway, I was leaving an old classroom in Pharmacy and Dentistry Department and I saw this place.

2012-02-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

Preparing food in a Japanese fast food restaurant called "Edo Japan" at University of Alberta's Student Union Building.

Frozen

2012-02-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

Sunrise over frozen North Saskatchewan River (feels like: -26C).

A Day Around Jasper Avenue

2012-02-08T11:25:00.001-07:00

Glass, Light, & Color

2012-01-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

Winter Afternoon

2012-01-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

It was very cold outside. I can't remember exactly how cold was it but it should have been something like -30. When I was about to make lunch I saw this beautiful light coming in from the windows of the living room.

Playing in the river valley

2012-01-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Monitor calibration headache is back! I don't know why I changed my monitor calibration and again there are problems with gamma and color. I think I will have to buy a monitor soon to put an end to this matter!
It has been a while since I posted here. It doesn't mean there are no new photos. It just means there are other works to do. University is taking a good amount of time. Also -40 is not the most pleasant weather to do outdoor photography. I am going to do some daylight photography since I am a little bit tired of nights. Nights are awesome but I miss being able to shoot something at 1/125! (note for mathematicians: it is an exclamation mark and not Factorielle!!)

Portrait of Anum

2012-01-04T10:02:00.000-07:00

It is always fun to play with the lights at home with different settings. I took this photo at my home studio from an artist friend, Anum. My goal as I told her as well was to capture her self-image and not what I imagine her self image to be. This is a long discussion and maybe I write something about it here later.

A Street and a Restaurant

2011-12-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

A bar, a cafe, and a restaurant

2011-12-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

Passing by a club on a Friday night

2011-12-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

Passengers

2011-11-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

We meet a lot of people everyday while using the public transport. It is interesting to think that each of these people have a great history behind them. We generally and unconsciously tend to think that these people have a very short life story equivalent to the length of the time that our encounter lasts. However, each of these people have somehow the same amount of personal history as we do. As soon as we become conscious about that, their importance in our mind will be increased. Human mind works in mysterious ways.
I took this photo on the bus from West Edmonton Mall to university last week.

TB, James Nachtwey, and a photo essay

2011-11-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

This is an example of a great photo essay. I believe, James Nachtwey did a fantastic job, as he always do, in telling the very sad story of the harsh life for the people infected with TB. This is an example of a successful photo essay that tells the story and makes the viewer care. One should not think that anyone who has the opportunity to go to those countries can come back with such a powerful story even if he has witnessed the same thing.

I put this on my blog for several reasons. First, I wanted to bring a great example of a photo essay. Second, after seeing this I could not remain silent and not spread the word. Third, I always wanted to post about James Nachtwey. I do not think I can ever post something to do justice to one of the most amazing war and documentary photographers of our time. I will post more of his work later. If you are interested in him, you can watch War Photographer, which is a documentary about him.

Edmonton Nights

2011-11-08T01:52:00.000-07:00

Story Telling

2011-11-02T16:31:00.001-06:00

I was thinking about the evolution of my opinion about a good photograph through the years, then I realized that it has changed dramatically. There were many factors involved in changing my opinion and I am not going to go through them in this post. However, about the current state of my mind there are two things that I am sure of. First, I am sure about what I am interested in right now and the second thing is that it will be subject to a big evolution in the future. What I can tell you about it is that it is called "Story Telling".

Story telling is a way of taking photos. Photos from different genres can be subject to this type of photography. You can go from having story telling studio portraits to story telling war photographs. Even if we consider that you have a reasonable amount of control on the work that you are creating, you have very little control over the perception of the viewer and that is one of the factors that makes this very challenging. At a more complex level of story telling you will find photo essays. Photo essays take years and huge effort to create . Some photographers put their lives in jeopardy to create an essay. I hope I will find more time to talk about these things in detail in future.

Alternative (Music + Photos)

2011-10-29T15:58:00.000-06:00

I was supposed to shoot photos from the live performance of a band called Paper Lions for the newspaper.

Thursday night 7pm, I checked the schedule for Paper Lions concert in Pawn Shop on Whyte Ave. People at The Gateway told me that the show starts at 9pm, but the website said it starts at 8pm. As a result, I was there at 8pm sharp! They opened the doors at 9 (surprise surprise!).

So, finally the band started playing at 9:30pm and I took so many photos of them. Then they packed their stuff and I told myself OK I should pack too. I was about to leave, then I suddenly saw another band coming on stage! I told myself "...wait a minute! something weird is going on!". So I started asking questions from people and I realized that not only the band I photographed was not Paper Lions, but also this current band is not Paper Lions either! They will come after the second band! So I sat there and watched the bands play and made some photos until the Paper Lions came on stage. At least the music and sound quality were nice. During all this time I was telling myself that at least I do not have to waste anytime finding the right exposures for the lights since I already know it. But then when they finally came up, the stage lighting was totally changed! Anyway, I enjoyed 3 nice alternative rock bands and took some photos that I like. I have to say the staff and security at Pawn Shop were super nice to me and I have to thank them here.

I took an alternative approach in shooting this concert. I loved the movement and to play with lights. (I was not a fan of the stage lighting set up but anyway, I had to work with it!)

Some technical notes: Is the zooming effect added with Photoshop? NO! I knew some would ask so I have to say that you use a slow shutter speed, set your f-stop accordingly to give you correct exposure. Then while taking the photo, zoom out the lens and Voila! I prefer zooming out than zooming in. It gives me more control. Also be careful to put your subject kinda in the middle in this technique. Also you can only achieve this with a camera that allows you to change your zoom while taking the photo (likely an SLR). I also used external flash for some lighting effects in these photos.

The Setting Sun

2011-10-24T00:43:00.000-06:00

The fall is going away slowly and the winter is coming. The fall in Edmonton is very beautiful with many colors with the majority of golden leaves. It was a warm afternoon, the leaves were falling, and the sun was shining. I put this leaf between the cracks of the table I was sitting on in front of my house and then composed the picture in a way that a wall with a deep shade was in the background. After I took the photo I realized that it resembles the setting sun.

Silent Echoes

2011-10-19T22:25:00.001-06:00

A new song by myself called Silent Echoes.

Red on Blue

2011-10-10T10:57:00.000-06:00

Time passes by very fast, like the cars passing by on a bridge. Cars won't remain on the bridge, but their red traces remain on photos, just like the red traces of things in life that remain on our blue hearts.

Organized Beggars

2011-10-05T09:04:00.001-06:00

Back in July I visited my family in Iran. We traveled to the north of Iran together. On our way back to Tehran, we stopped in the city of Amol which is located in Mazandaran province 20Km south of the Caspian sea. I saw beggars asking cars for money. So I went to take photos of them while they where sitting on the other side of the street. I was crossing the street and as soon as they saw my camera they started running away. After I went back to my side of the street, they went to a shop keeper and gave all their money to them (apparently he was their boss or something). I could see from other side of the street that they are worried about the photos since they were also pointing at me while talking to their boss.

The Dance

2011-09-19T13:28:00.000-06:00

Dance floor was filled with people from around the world. All dancing to Salsa music. As a photographer I felt that I have to move with them, I have to feel their passion for dancing. I have to know when are they going to move, spin, look up, and smile. It was a great experience and here are a few photos of many that I took last night.

Serene

2011-09-07T09:43:00.000-06:00

It was a beautiful sunset filled with serenity.

Wonder!

2011-08-14T16:16:00.000-06:00

There are still photos left from my short trip to Iran to post here. However, I did some photography around the Fringe festival in Edmonton recently. I had to walk on Whyte Ave. in order to get to the festival. While walking on Whyte Ave. you could smell pot everywhere. It was so much that I might kinda got high when I was coming back home!
What I am posting here is a photo that I took on Whyte Ave. before getting to actual Fringe festival.

Fire-Roasted Corn

2011-08-12T16:00:00.000-06:00

Fire-Roasted corn is somehow a traditional snack in Iran. Although you could find it more in the past, there are still places that they sell it. They usually put it in a mixture of salt and water ofter being roasted to give it more taste. While I was in north of Iran near Caspian sea, there was this guy who was making and selling roasted corn. As I was passing by, I took a photo of him working and then later at night I took another photo of him. Unfortunately, there was no corn on fire that night and the business was slow. There is also this green color that you see everywhere in my photos from north of Iran. They had this big green search light pointed at the sea.

85 Years Old

2011-08-10T11:15:00.000-06:00

"I am 85 you know", he said with a big smile on his face after I took his photo. I could not believe this since he was so agile. I guess living near the mountains and far from the centre of the city would keep you this way. There are so many amazing faces in Iran. I was once walking with a friend and didn't have a camera on me. I was saying to myself "good photo, gone!" every 5 seconds.

Streets of Iran

2011-08-06T01:53:00.001-06:00

I had a very limited time during my visit to Iran to dedicate to photography. I basically had only one afternoon to do some street photography in old bazaar (marketplace) of Hamedan. All the photos are made during my one visit to the old part of the city. There are, however, many photos left to post here. I will post them as soon as I find the time.

While taking the last photo of these four photos that I am posting here, my sister took a photo of me. It seems to me that both my photo and here photo are at the exact same moment. I have also posted that photo here.

Photo of me while taking the last photo of this set of photos that I am posting here.

Lightning Over Caspian Sea

2011-07-22T23:58:00.000-06:00

There is not much to say except for thanking my family for an amazing week we spent in north of Iran. I took many photos that I will post later. Special thanks to my sister Negin for pointing out the distant lightnings over the Caspian sea.
As soon as I realized that there is a thunder storm coming I ran upstairs and grabbed my camera. This was the last lightning and my second photo. The lightning flashed the sky half a second after my camera started to take the second long exposure photo. The 30 seconds I spent after that waiting for the camera to take the photo was one of the amazing feelings you get only in these situations. You can also see the tail of a kite on the top left of the photo.

5000 Years Old City: Hamedan

2011-07-12T22:50:00.000-06:00

It is hot. I am walking with my sister, Negin, in the old bazaar (marketplace) of Hamedan. Street photography is both easy and hard here. It is easy since there are thousands of interesting faces, events, shops, etc. It is hard because you have to choose like a predator who selects one out of a herd of a thousand. It is hard to separate a single photo from another 100 photos you can take at that moment with a hundred different events and points of views.
She has studied the architecture of Hamedan and leading me to these old places in bazaar and caravanserais. This old man was sitting at the entrance of one of the 18th century caravanserais called Golshan.

The Dying Sun

2011-07-09T08:02:00.001-06:00

Click on the photo to see the larger size.

On the road in Iran. A sheep herd is passing by and the dying sun is going down. The dust and smog from Iraq makes the distant shapes uncertain.

Rain

2011-06-25T03:00:00.000-06:00

Another Friday night. Despite the rain, streets are filled with people waiting to enter clubs. Clubs to me are eternal ongoing parties without a host. From the very few times I went to clubs, I can say that there is something missing. I am guessing maybe some intimacy among all, or some friendship.

There was a light rain and I wished I had three hands: Two for camera and one for umbrella. I am hesitant of wrapping the camera into a plastic bag since that might make people think I am spying on them! Just love the light at nights. It is so well defined. It is so visible. In daytime you have to pay much more attention.. There are many challenges, however, that can ruin many good photos. The rain drops were glittering under the street lights while a car pulled over and the lady driver started texting. Another person was so involved in a conversation while smoking outside of a club. And then there was the phonebooth standing under the rain, so shiny, so red, and so old.

Blue Moon

2011-06-13T23:57:00.002-06:00

I know this is my photography blog but I started writing and recording songs again after a while. Here is a song composed, performed and recorded by myself at my kinda home studio. It is called Blue Moon. I hope you enjoy it. I wrote it last week.

Food Photography

2011-06-11T23:53:00.000-06:00

It has been a while that I check Penny De Los Santos' blog. She has a very different style in food photography. It is not the stereotypical way of lighting and taking photos. It seems that her style make me feel more close to the food and more hungry!
I was making bacon and egg for my breakfast today and I took some photos. So it is a new experimental work. It is always good to push yourself out of your way.

Behind The Dirty Glass

2011-06-09T20:47:00.000-06:00

I was taking photos on Whyte Ave some nights ago. It was around 11pm. A small sample of all sort of people were walking there: A few drunk, a few coming form club, a few homeless, and I was there in the middle of vast empty spaces between people, standing with my camera. Every once in a while you would encounter someone, somewhere, passing from the other side of the street. For some people it was a night for two, and for some other people it was a night to drink coke and coffee.

Fashion/Glamor Photography

2011-05-31T02:46:00.000-06:00

It was a nice day and the only problem was the direct sun. We have tried to avoid the sun at all costs but it was hard. I have to thank both Anastasia and Maria for their patience and cooperation. I have to also thank Dan McKechnie for helping us with the studio shots and giving us the required equipment. All I am posting here is some of the outdoor shots. Some of these photos are going to appear in a calendar. I will post the link to the calendar website as soon as it gets published.

The Warm Afternoon

2011-05-30T02:05:00.000-06:00

I usually wish for one good photo when I am going out to take photos. It is a thing that has been with me since I started doing photography, to wish for one good shot. This photo that kinda satisfies my hunger for a good shot sometimes come at the very end. However, it sometimes come at the very beginning! It was the case for the photos here.

City at Night

2011-05-15T14:45:00.000-06:00

It was a clear sky and the stars were twinkling. City of Edmonton was shining like a treasure underneath the vast sky. The full moon was lighting up the river and the wind was singing in my ears. The clicks of the shutter were fading into the infinite emptiness of night.

Downtown Edmonton

Little Downtown

High level bridge and LRT bridge

The LRT bridge going toward university

Something worth mentioning is that I was retouching one of the bridge photos in Photoshop and then I looked at the menu and there was an option in File menu saying that "Close and go to Bridge...". At that moment I totally forgot that there was a software called Adobe Bridge and I was thinking I was at the bridge why should I close Photoshop and go again?!

The Available Light!

2011-05-14T20:33:00.001-06:00

I was taking photos on street using the very harsh sun of the afternoon. It was so harsh that I had to even use 1/4000 of a second and also use higher f-stops to prevent stuff from being burned! An ND filter would have been useful here. The reason for all this nagging about light is that in the photo with the man who plays the guitar everything is in focus because of that f number and I don't like that! Right now I found out that my ISO settings was on 1250 from the last photo shoot and I don't know how could I forget to fix such a thing! Now I can see the reason for that harsh light!

The good news is I found one of my good friends in Edmonton who was a photographer for The Gateway in 1970s. He showed me lots of his photos from Mount Everest and I am thinking of proposing a photo feature to The Gateway in September to publish his work. He is the backyard philosopher.

The Fishing Net

2011-05-07T22:18:00.000-06:00

I had the pleasure to be accompanied by a good friend of mine to China Town in Edmonton today. We both went there to take photos and here I am putting some of the fishes I caught. The reason for this fish analogy is that I encountered a big drawing of dragons and fishes in the sea on a wall. I also saw a big net hanging in the empty area near it. As I lowered my position to take a photo I saw that it seems that those fishes are swimming into a fishing net and being caught by it.

Deep Into The Woods

2011-05-03T19:34:00.001-06:00

The weather is becoming really nice and it is good to walk around and take photos of things that might happen in front of you. The winter was very depressing and it takes some time for the forest to come out of its sleep and be alive again. I was walking in the forest and I heard a biker coming, I turned back, took one photo to check the composition and exposure and the biker was very fast and suddenly in front of me so I snapped only 1 shot and took this.

Gateway Photographer of The Year

2011-05-02T20:29:00.000-06:00

It is encouraging and feels so good to see that all your efforts and your work is appreciated. I just won The Gateway's photographer of the year award. By the way, except for the photo editor of the paper, all the photographers are volunteer photographers. Some of them have other positions in the paper such as being in charge of sports page, opinion, etc. I consider this as a good start to read more, practice more, learn more, and try to expand my knowledge and take another step toward producing Frameless Frames.

Breaking the Rules

2011-04-07T00:22:00.000-06:00

I was going through lots works by Alex Webb. After that I came to look at the photos I took some days ago and I suddenly felt that I liked this photo of mine. I don't know, maybe I became biased! Anyway, here is a photo in which lots of rules are broken but I think they are broken in a good way. Maybe I would feel different tomorrow.

Naked Bird Reading a Paper!

2011-04-02T19:12:00.000-06:00

Today was a good day for photography despite the big white sky! I loved the fact that people are coming out of their homes to walk their dogs, to have a cup of coffee, to eat hot dogs, or to get drunk & naked! I wasn't actually looking forward to the last one! But what can you do? When people get naked on street, you should take photos of them, especially when they are offering people a game of strip poker! It is a rule! Some people however, like to sit in a calm and warm coffee place, read paper and look at the people passing by the window. In the middle of all these, sometimes some birds are thinking of taking over the city!

Computer Poker!

2011-03-25T01:56:00.003-06:00

You might be wondering what does computer poker has to do with photography! It has nothing to do with it except when you have a vision about a photo! In early January there was an email from the Gateway to the volunteer photographers about some ideas for articles. There was one line that said something like "Guys, did you know that our university has a poker research group?!". Since I knew some of the professors at computing science poker research group and one of them was actually my former supervisor, I started thinking about this photo.
After some days I had the complete setup in my mind and I just needed 2 flashes, one tripod, one wide-angle lens, and a reflector, plus a deck of cards and some poker chips. I also brought my pipe from home and booked a time with professors and two friends to help me. As Ryan Jackson said in recent EDCUP, fail to prepare is preparing to fail, we came a little bit early to do some test shots. Then we did the photo shoot in half an hour and then some photos for fun with the available equipment. I have to thank Metanat, and my good friend Amirhassan who have been a great help for making this photo and article happen. I have to also thank Dan McKechnie for his encouragement and equipment plus Lance Mudryk for writing the article. Lets look at the photos.


Professors of Computing Science Poker Research Group at University of Alberta

Amirhassan posing with a pipe after the photoshoot

And here is the feature in the newspaper. You can read the feature PDF here (11MB).

Poker Research Feature in the Gateway

Winter Street

2011-03-16T22:13:00.000-06:00

Here are two photos from what I shot today on street. After a little while it started snowing. Since my camera is not weather sealed, I found a shelter and I shot these two from there. It was funny how I was deforming my body to capture the depth in the first photo. When it started snowing I said to myself, crap, now I have to go home. Then I remembered that I read from some photographers that bad weather is what some of them are looking for. So, I told myself lets make something out of this weather. I liked it.

Workout

2011-03-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

I kid you not, it wasn't cold that day! One of my friends told me that I am complaining about the cold in all my blog posts. Right now that I am writing this post it is -17 outside without windchill.
I am posting a photo from Fall when I went to take photos of the recreation on campus for The Gateway.

Graffiti

2011-03-02T00:35:00.000-07:00

A man passes the graffiti on 109 street.

Where is my home?

2011-02-21T23:04:00.002-07:00

It was cold. I asked him, won't you get cold sleeping outside? The man showed me a hair dryer hidden in his sleeve. I asked why don't you go to shelter. He said, cause all people there are drunk and sick. It smells like feet and they steal from you. There was one thing I could read in his eyes and that thing was: "Where is my home?".

Gigantic Save!

2011-02-11T01:04:00.001-07:00

Sport photography is fun. Especially in an aggressive hockey game. It was a game between U of Alberta and U of Regina and it was quite aggressive. The U of A goalie was awesome as always and he saved this shot too. Unbelievable eh? It took me a long time to get used to the way the zoom ring works on the lens I got from the paper. One day I would love to go to a game and capture the moments of the people watching the game.

Never fails, frame your photo and while keeping the photo framed, look out for the action. Sometimes I do not follow the action with camera, I just wait and listen and listen and wait and wait for the sound and then ... click click click. Maybe some photographers can follow the puck while it is traveling at 60mph. I do that sometimes too, but it is hard to get the good photo while everything is going crazy. So sit and wait.

August: Osage County

2011-02-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

This week was a photo call for August: Osage County in Citadel Theater in Edmonton. I went there and it was quite interesting. They played a scene 3 times for the people from TV channels and then asked me if you are interested in some parts of the scene. I chose two and I shoot both. Following photos are from that photo shoot. I was also impressed by the huge decoration. It was a completely functional three story decoration. I took photos of the decoration but honestly I was a little bit lazy to put them here. Maybe later I might do that.

Transit

2011-01-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

In the first issue of The Gateway (University of Alberta newspaper) in 2011, my first photo feature was published. There was an article about transit system in Edmonton and its expansions which can be found here and the PDF version can be downloaded here (13MB). I took some photos for this from the LRT and bus stations in Edmonton. It was not cold that day (probably around -5) which let me stand outside and take some outdoor photos. Here are some of the photos and the page in the newspaper. The theme is "Transit".

Summer Afternoon, Banjo, Beer, and Cigarette

2011-01-06T02:28:00.000-07:00


Summer Afternoon, Banjo, Beer, and Cigarette

So, this photo is from Edmonton Backyard series that I do during the summers! I was passing near railroad tracks and I heard music. I followed the music and there I saw him, playing banjo, smoking and drinking beer. It was a very nice afternoon and I talked to him and click, click, there I had this photo.

The Caffè

2010-12-24T18:50:00.003-07:00

The Caffè

The only thing I can say is that it was -18 degrees. My hands were freezing inside the gloves. I could not feel my nose at all and my toes were painful even in my boots. I guess I could do HDR but I didn't since the environment was changing a lot and I did not have a tripod with myself. In this photo I tried to consider two of Joe McNally's advices on mixing warm and cold colors in addition to using cloudy white balance in this setting which produces a deep blue sky and magenta on ground. If the photo is a little bit noisy it is because of the high iso speed.

The Train Station

2010-12-19T13:45:00.002-07:00

The old woman was waiting for her bus while sitting inside the train station and looking outside the window, waiting for her bus to come. It was a cold day. She told me that her son was 25 and pursuing his studies for another maybe 6 years and she wanted him to get married and she wanted to see her grand children.

That Fall Afternoon

2010-12-17T18:33:00.005-07:00

I was wandering around in mid-November around the backyards of people. At some point I was even searching to find Uri again. I could not find him and I might do it next year. Anyway, the setting sun was making everything so shining and golden and I was passing by a school yard. I saw a couple sitting in the middle of the school yard with their dog. I took the camera, metered the light and shot it. I thing this photo captured the time they will remember someday as "That fall afternoon" .

My indoor soccer shoes!

2010-12-12T18:50:00.003-07:00

I was at home all the weekend because of the cold weather and my cold which I am hoping to get better. During this time I tried to use my SB-600 to take some still life shots from my indoor soccer shoes. You might have noticed how new are my indoor soccer shoes ! why ? because the winter did not let me play with them at all. I bought them and they were there waiting to be photographed! So I kind of made an advertisement shot (for example to appear in a magazine) or something. I was not trying to show all the features of product. I used side bounce flash to lit this and as you might have guessed it has been shot with a single light.

I know what you are thinking. What does indoor soccer has to do with winter! Well, winter affects my laziness and my laziness affects my playing soccer!

Streets of Winter

2010-12-10T09:33:00.002-07:00

I don't know whether it was -15 or -25, what I remember is I could not feel my hands at all. I have to buy gloves. For me it is a lot easier to be aware of light in the night time. The lights are explicitly there and you can see them. Anyway, hopefully I will get to do more winter photography if I can finish my term projects. I don't know whether this photo is too dark or too bright but if you can distinguish between the blurred head of the person and the wall behind it that is the way I see it. If you cannot, you are viewing it too dark.

The Bottle

2010-12-03T19:09:00.003-07:00

I was at home in a winter evening and I was playing with my flash lighting. After going through Mitchell Feinberg's great still life photos I was thinking of trying some studio stuff. I am just a beginner for home and studio lighting and I have a SB-600 that I usually use off-camera. I was thinking of what would be great to take a photo of and I realize that there is a bottle of Grant's Scotch that can be a good model for me. So here are the shots. These are all with one off-camera flash.

Lebanese Restaurant

2010-11-21T23:26:00.002-07:00

Lebanese restaurant on whyte ave. They have hookah, latte, and pizza.

Freedom

2010-11-13T13:08:00.004-07:00

Freedom.

Portrait of Yuri - The Backyard Philosopher

2010-11-05T23:52:00.006-06:00

Nothing satisfies my hunger for photography like a street portrait. I can go and take so many photos from different things, but one street portrait from a totally new person, sometimes also followed with an interesting conversation would give me a really good feeling. I found Yuri in his backyard plowing the field. We talked about so many stuff like politics and culture. He was a second generation Ukrainian person here. We talked about the inevitable depression of the first generation immigrants to a country. I am planning to go and chat with him more and maybe I might be able to give him a print of this photo.

I took this photo with the awesome 85mm/1.8f Nikon prime lens. That lens is magnificent.

Boy & War

2010-10-24T21:53:00.004-06:00

Boy & War - What are we preparing the children for ?

Sun Flower

2010-10-22T00:26:00.003-06:00

Simply a sunflower photo from my backyard photos of summer 2010.

Ice Hockey

2010-10-07T11:26:00.004-06:00

Taking assignments from newspaper is good in a way that forces you to explore what you have not had the chance to explore. I never did sport photography. Last week was the ice hockey match between University of Calgary and University of Alberta teams. I had with myself a 70-200mm and a 18-105mm and I used both of them. The arena was well lit but I am still puzzled about setting the white balance. I read that white balance for a hockey game is very tricky and I did not have a white card to fix that and even if I had, I saw that half of my photos are green and half are pink without changing anything ! It was weird ! Some of this pinkish stuff is the artifact of taking photos from behind the dirty and scratched glass around the arena. Anyway, lets make it short, It was a lot of fun, I suggest you do it and don't forget to take both wide and telephoto lenses.

Ice hockey is such a fast paced game and it is not possible to compare it to soccer or any other sport that I have seen before. It also has a certain amount of violence and that just makes it super amazing;) here is a photo of a body check that happened right in front of me.

Body Check

Calgary scored in this photo. However the final result of the match was Alberta 5-2 Calgary. The goalie of the UofA was amazing.

Watching ice hockey is for sure entertaining. Sitting in a safe place and drinking beer while players are butchering each other (metaphorically speaking) reminded me of Gladiator fights in Rome.

Elk Island

2010-09-30T09:53:00.005-06:00

Fall in Edmonton lasts only for a few weeks. However, if you have the opportunity to hike in national parks or river valley, you will enjoy the beauty of the colorful trees. Elk Island is located less than a hour away from Edmonton. It is sad that I could not be there for a 24 hour period to take photos of the sunset and sunrise.

Time and patience play a significant role in photography. It would have been helpful to observe different angles and compositions and wait for better light to take a photo of this place. However I didn't have the time. I took this with 10mm-20mm sigma.

The stripped trees in Elk Island were telling us that soon it will be snowing all over again and and this beautiful land will wear its white make up.

I will post more photos of Elk Island later. I am busy this semester. I have to thank Metanat who was very patient while I was stopping and taking a lot of photos.

Cowboys

2010-09-09T20:16:00.006-06:00

This "Vanishing Breed" book did something serious to my mind. I cannot get it out of my head and I go through the photos I took here and there from something that I call cowboy culture over and over. I will probably put more photos later about cowboys later. The reason that I distinguish my definition of the cowboy culture from what is actually considered to be the cowboy culture is that I am sure that I have not grasped the essence of it yet. I believe it should take longer for me to somehow fully understand this.

First Newspaper Photo Publication

2010-09-03T22:48:00.008-06:00

I am very excited about my first works that are published in the Gateway newspaper. It is the official University of Alberta newspaper and I am finally working with a newspaper, love it.

So basically I took the first photo for the residence air quality article. I do not know how it ended up under international students seek housing. It showed the residence I guess, anyway. here it is:

Remember the previous post about Edmonton being buried under smoke? well, this photo is one of the photos I took that day which shows the smoke on campus bus station.

And this is the front page (sorry Dan, half of the front page) of the issue that my first photos are published in. Great. Unfortunately I could not get much work done this week because of the thesis defense and traveling to Calgary, but hopefully next weeks I will do more work.

A Smoky Day

2010-09-02T00:14:00.004-06:00

Friday, August 20th, "The river valley and Edmonton city skyline is obscured by heavy smoke from B.C. forest fires Thursday." So there was a thick smog in the city and I went out to take some photos. Unfortunately I did not have access to a high rise place to take a good photo of the layers of the trees disappearing under heavy smoke.

I waited in a backyard alley for someone to pass in distance to take this photo. It migh be called "A Smoky Day" or anything you like. It was funny that several Iranian friends told me that it smells like Tehran, city of smoke.

Abajour

2010-08-18T08:45:00.002-06:00

Wandering the backyards of Edmonton, you need to treasure whatever you see. It is changing so fast, either by the people or by the weather. Remember those flowers near the wooden fence that I posted here, they are all gone. This might be also gone next week. I call it "Abajour".

Old Buckaroo

2010-08-08T19:09:00.003-06:00

I felt the strong smell of some sort of cream, maybe a bug repeller ? I don't know, but the man's hands were white from a cream and he was robbing more cream on his hands. He looked like an old cowboy to me, even though he was in the city. Maybe because of his hat ? I guess even if he wasn't a cowboy, he was from this city, Edmonton, which has a good deal of cowboy culture pumping in its veins. Well, he was kind enough to let me take a portrait of him. Then I showed him the picture on the camera LCD and he replied, "yeah, that's me!".

I dedicate this photo to "William A. Allard" whose book, the Vanishing Breed, has inspired me and it has a lot more for me to learn.

Just a technical note, if the photo is too pale, or too saturated or too dark on your monitor, it might be that I have edited this photo using my laptop LCD and again the old calibration problem holds.

Death Squad

2010-08-04T13:31:00.002-06:00

I would like to call this photo "Death Squad". It was taken during my trip to a lake in Alberta, Canada. I am not sure about the colors and if they are weird on your monitor, it is probably because of my monitor calibration, which I cannot find a reliable way and a reliable monitor to do it.

Summer Times

2010-07-30T09:02:00.005-06:00

Summer in a small city, after 8 months of winter, really shows itself. People try to make the most out of it and enjoy before the next cold breeze. Walking through the backyards in city is quite amazing. It has a certain feeling of serenity. Occasionally you hear a distant voice of mother calling her children or the smell of burning wood for a barbeque.

Eugene Richards

2010-07-25T10:08:00.004-06:00

There are so many amazing photographers that I can just sit and enjoy watching their photos. However, I have to confess that after seeing so many photos, I was still shocked by Eugene Richard's photos. He is there, in the middle of what is happening, and he captures it so amazingly that you will be there too. I remember that I read somewhere that a photographer first need to master the rules of composition. After mastering those rules, it becomes possible to break them. It is easy to see this masterly breaking of these rules and lots of other rules in his works. There is no single word that I can describe his work with. The funny part is whenever I wanted to pay attention to the technical details, I found myself drowning in the photo and forgetting all about technical details. He is the master of story telling.

His works can be found in his website http://www.eugenerichards.com/.

William Albert Allard

2010-07-14T11:47:00.012-06:00

It has been a while since my last post. I was sick and I am currently busy writing my thesis and lots and lots of things to keep me away from here. Recently, I have been looking at lots of works from William Albert Allard, one of the greatest National Geographic photographers. I borrowed his book "Vanishing Breed" from the library. This book contains lots of great photographs about the ''Cowboy" culture. His photographs are a must see for a person who is interested in photography. Strong compositions which shows his great awareness of shapes and great light in his photos are amazing. He says in one of his interviews that he had more painting books than photography books. Another important aspect of his work is that most of his work is in color. He has mastered the shapes, light, and colors and as a result he can play with them so easily in his photos.

Having said that, his photographs are like old paintings. I do not know paintings from what era. I have never been in art school nor studied different eras in painting. However, I can say that his style can be easily mistaken as paintings. I think he inspired me a lot. I am putting some of his work here.

Street - A New Way of Seeing

2010-06-20T21:25:00.009-06:00

Street photography is about capturing the street, whether it is life on street or something else. We walk the streets of cities everyday and we don't usually pay much attention to the things surrounding us. Among most of things that we just walk away from and consider them insignificant, there are always some stuff that can be interestingly seen from a different point of view. Paying attention to the most insignificant stuff and thinking about them can help finding interesting things. Viewing this subjects from a different view (both literally and figuratively) can result in very interesting and original photos.

No one usually cares about little lakes and dead leaves after fall showers. What is there to see ? why should we care about so common stuff ? Have you ever sat down to see them from a closer or different point of view ? The photo I have here is taken by me on a very ordinary fall day in Karimkhan Street in Tehran. There is a very little lake of water on the side walk and people are passing by. There is a dead leaf that is drowning in the little lake. Its life was as important or as insignificant as anyone else, depending on one's view of life. Anyway, I sat down and took a few photos of it to show its drowning, the lake, and the people who are passing by to show how life on street is going on.

Documentary - Ashoora (Ashura) in Iran

2010-06-16T21:14:00.007-06:00

Street/Documentary photography is one of my favorite areas of photography. The reason might be my passion for anthropology. It gives you the opportunity to observe real people. A camera can be a shield that you can hide behind and observe life as it goes on. This invaluable shield also gives you the opportunity to make the striking moments of life eternal.

One reason that I like documentary photography is that our memories are fading. A moment as seen with the eye can be striking at that moment and then it fades away. However, a photo can make that striking moment eternal, if it captures the heart of that moment. Another reason is that not all people has the same opportunities, and not all of them can be present at those moments. So as a payback for what I had the opportunity to see, I like to show them to people. To show them how bizzare things in your life can be totally normal in other people's life. So "Open mind for a different view".

This photo has been taken during the night before Ashoora/Ashura which is a very important day in Shia (شیعه)(Shitte) Islam. There are many different traditions in different parts of muslim countries. During this night, people gather usually at mosques or places called Hosseinieh (حسینیه) in Tehran. They hold a big funeral and they mourn till passed midnight. Each neighborhood (specially in older ones) they have groups they called Dasteh (دسته) which go on the street and carry big signs. People follow them in lines and mourn in different ways.

I should note that Ashoora is the 10th day of a ten day mourning the starting day of which is on the beginning of lunar year in Arabic countries (Iran is not an Arabic country).

One of the most important traditions during these 10 days in Iran is that some of the rich people who are also considered to be believers, or more faithful to Islam, give out free food to who ever comes and mourns in this big funerals. As part of this tradition they will sacrifice sheep, sometime for the mourners and sometimes for themselves. This sacrificed sheep is killed in the Islamic way of killing that makes their meat halal, usually on street. Then they make that dinner that they give out to the mourners with the meat of this sheep.

I took this photo in an old neighborhood in Tehran, Iran during this funeral in Winter of 2007. It shows one of those sacrifices taking place on the street. The butcher is slitting the throat of the sheep.

A New Photoblog

2010-06-13T21:27:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my photography blog. In this blog I am going to talk about everything related to photography including my works and other photographers' works. I hope this blog would help both of us, you and me, to pursue our goals which in my case is to improve my work and discuss photography from various points of views.

Frameless Frames is a goal I am trying to achieve. Some photos take you to a great journey far beyond physical boundaries of that photograph. There are so many ways to see photography and talk about it: different styles, different genres, different techniques. However, regardless of what a photographer's style is or what genre he is working in, if he can produce a frameless frame consciously, he has the power to change the world.

Now lets talk about this photo. I took this back in summer of 2009 in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. If you search for Lake Louise photos, most of them are from the same angle in which you cannot see the hotel and the camera is facing south-west. At least I did not see many photos from Lake Louise from other angles. The reason might be the fascinating beauty of Lake Louise when you enter its area from north-east. I took this photo in the middle of the walking path near Lake Louise and the camera was facing north-east.I used my Canon A640 (yes a compact camera with swivel LCD) to take this. I attached it to my tripod tilted the LCD to be faced down. Then I put the camera on timer and hold the tripod up in my hands in order to get the photo from a 3.5 meter-ish height. I could adjust the composition in the faced down LCD and I did the light metering and focusing when the camera was down.