Toilet paper fashion window

Toilet paper fashion window - #347/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

You may have seen advertising for Cashmere bathroom tissue where the paper is used to make beautiful fashion pieces. Well, the flagship Bay store downtown has a window display showing some of the work from fashion designers. I must say it's pretty impressive stuff.

Lighting was a little tricky so I used the custom WB setting using a piece of white flooring and let my camera calculate the WB. There was more of a pink hue in person, but I'm pleased with the colour reproduction and the blue effect of the window. By the way, there is a rear window where I'm shooting from - I'm not actually in the window display !

Although there isn't a lot of the fashion immediately visible in this tight frame, the reflection shows much more detail. And to round it off, I thought the gaze from the girl on the right gave the whole shot a fairytale feel.

A little out of place for University Avenue

A little out of place for University Avenue - #346/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I was standing at Dundas and University looking for some unusual subjects for a nice panning shot. It's worth spending a little time getting your settings right, practicing your pan and looking for an interesting rider. I find that cyclists and scooter riders are better subjects than cars, because you include the human element. For settings, the key is shutter speed, in this case 1/30th second - fast enough to capture the rider in focus, but nice and slow to blur the background.

What do the management want Eileen ?

What do the management want Eileen ? - #345/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I received these gag miniatures from a work colleague a few years ago and keep them at the office beside their boss toss toy gun. Shortly before this shot I realized I had a problem with my Nikon 18-200mm lens. I noticed something wasn't quite right at the Raptor game and the same problem happened today - it's not focusing properly (auto and manual) beyond 150mm close to infinity. Looks like another visit to Nikon shortly, but at least this time the lens is still under warranty and I just hope the repair is covered. So I was playing with the lens, determining the exact issue and set these guys up on top of my telephone on my desk with the blurred cityscape as a background. I added a little spot lighting using a little giveaway LED light pen that's been sitting in desk draw for a while. Close up focusing worked fine with the lens. I've been thinking of using them for a fun shot, and finally came up with a posed composition and some comical context.

Foggy park with colour splashes

Foggy park with colour splashes - #344/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

Really great foggy night tonight. But I was unsure how best to capture the mood once I was home for the evening. I took the dog for a little walk over to the park and saw this image of the foggy glow of the arena with some car lights piercing through the trees. I took a few shots using a very long exposure from a small tripod (I got a little damp) and just had the camera determine the shutter speed in aperture priority mode and I really liked this shot with the four different coloured light sources. Timing was perfect as it started to rain as I was packing up.

Flag colours of the pillow

Flag colours of the pillow - #343/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I liked the look of the satin texture, colour and folds of this pillow on one of the chairs in my living room, so I started shooting. I then thought the lines and colour segments looked like an interior decorator's flag ! I shot a few different angles and fluffed the pillow a few times, but I came back to a simple aligned composition.

Chelsea landing lights

Chelsea landing lights - #342/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

This is actually the ceiling of the Delta Chelsea hotel parking entrance. The reflections were not very clear and a little more abstract when I reviewed the shots on the LCD, but when I flipped the shot and looked at them full screen, the clarity of the parked cars provide and hints of activity lend a little mystery to the shot.

Forty six

Forty six - #341/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I thought a self-portrait was appropriate for my birthday. Like yesterday's shot I set up my Nikon's flash controls in commander mode to use on the pop-up and the external Speedlight. This time the Speedlight was sitting on a mini-trouble to the left of the camera. I used the diffuser I usually have on the Speedlight to soften the light a little from the pop-up. I then used a warm gold reflector to the right of the camera to fill in the shadows better on the right of my nose (although there's still a small shadow there from my cheek perhaps). If I had a third flash unit, I'd probably even out the lighting behind me. I didn't do anything too fancy trying to get the focus right (even shooting at f2.8 with my 50mm), I just took a lot and tried to have my eyes focused on the lens rather than worrying about being centred (which sometimes but my nose in and eyes out of sharp focus). A trick I did use for composition was that as I was looking into the lens (and the via the mirror thru the viewfinder I could see a clear line between dark and light that I used to get the height right. I used in-camera black & white with a green filter. I still think the shot is a little dark, but in B&W mode, unfortunately there's no D-Lighting option. With all that setup, I still did two cheats, a slight crop to show a little less of my forehead (and there's a lot of it) and spot-healed a blemish (I can do that, it's my birthday).