Gabrielle Touchette is a professional photographer specializing in portraits, wedding photography, and headshots in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Our lessons on flash have been particularly fun - more than I anticipated. Sometimes all the technical garble throws you for a loop, but once you actually TRY it, the technique comes naturally. The following shots start with an initial flash, and then finish off with a long exposure to capture ambient light. Fun fun fun!
I've been thinking a lot about why photographers take pictures and about the thought-process that goes through our mind before and while we're taking pictures. Maybe I've been thinking more and photographing less because of the flu that's tied me down a lot in the past week... but none-the-less, I think thinking about taking pictures is just as important as thinking about the picture itself.
I was driving home today, watching the really bright sun shining down on the longest skating path in the world (as it happens to be). I was on Taché, looking down on the Red River, with the little pine trees set up along the winding path, and tiny skaters making their leisurely way down river. There was something about the hazy look of the light and I was thinking how awesome it would look to photograph this scene with a super tele-photo lens, squishing the elements together (maybe with a 300 or 400mm lens, kind of à la David Wityk, if you've seen his photographs of Mitzi's Restaurant and the BDI at the WAG).
But lately, there's been something to be said about enjoying a scene without even considering to photograph it - just simply and purely enjoying it with your naked eyes. On Wednesday there was a lunar eclipse, and I managed to enjoy it while hurriedly driving around from one place to another. I was too rushed to pull out my camera and tripod, so I settled to enjoy it without a lens between it and me.
That got me thinking more... why do a handful of people on this earth feel the need to photograph every striking or beautiful thing that they see? I think part of it is because we get so excited about seeing something, that we want to share it with the world. Or maybe we want to challenge ourselves to capture it exactly how we're seeing it, or how we want to see it, and then show off to others that we actually managed to pull it off.
So maybe there is a bit of ego that goes behind every photographer's work. But I know that there is a lot of heart and passion too. I think as photographers we feel something through our eyes that not everyone does, and just because we manage to master the techniques of cameras, we get to share our discoveries with others.
Since starting school I've been photographing a lot more than I ever have before, and I think it's been fine-tuning the way I see (like "good seeing", as we learned in Creative Imaging). It's almost like a sensory-overdose for my eyes. Lately, as we've been getting a lot of sunny days, I've been surprised to see how much my eyes have been catching a lot of distinct intricacies created by the sun. I even developed a new fetish for bare tree branch shadows on flat surfaces of houses and buildings. I never used to see this as strikingly as I do now!
So I say, keep shooting. And keep looking to see. But take the time to enjoy those moments without obstructing your view with a lens. There's a lot to enjoy out there, and it's ok to put the camera down once in a while. Even chefs put aways their knives and sit down to eat.
Friday night all the students braved the cold and walked around Provencher Boulevard to shoot the opening of the 39th Festival du voyageur. I've been attending these festivities over the years for as long as I can remember, so coming here with two cameras strewn around my neck was my idea of a fun outdoor winter shoot. Here are a few of my favourites, though I think I could do better with more practice. The fire dancers were by far my favourite acts to photograph (and watch!). Bon festival !
Cranked it up to 800 and 1600 ISO and went to town. Here are a few pictures from last week's show:
The Furr
Codename: The Sharks!
The Liptonians
Blue Sky Addicts
Chad
Kerri
Shannon
Landon
Christine and Shannon
This is a combo image made of 3 different photos: the first one is a shot taken inside the Fyxx, the second one is of Danielle with circles of confusion (taken at the King's Head before the Patrick Watson show in November), and the third photo is of a large tree from Assiniboine park on the first snowfall of the season. I had a bit of Photoshop fun, and now I think I'm hooked. This image was made for an emulation project for Creative Imaging. The photographer I chose to emulate is Katherine Sanderson. You should definitely check her out. Seeing her work has changed the way I think of the use of heavy photoshop manipulation on my photos. I'm thinking it's a whole other art form on its own, and I'm inspired to explore more of it (and shedding the guilt that used to come with it!).
