Loosely based on the Dr. Seuss Classic The Butter Battle Book, Newmindspace put on Toronto’s 5th Annual Bubble Battle at Queen’s Park – July 3, 2010.

                          

I’d like to share with you something I’ve been slowly updating and working on in the last while. My good friend Lukas and his friend Tyler have been developing 4ormat for the last year and while I’ve been lucky enough to play around it for a few months now, it’s now in BETA and ready for others to use as well!

Here’s a quick video showing you just how easy it is to set up a unique and beautiful portfolio site using 4ormat.

Why you should consider using 4ormat:

• Design your website using our easy to use design controls
• No HTML or CSS knowledge required
• Connect a domain name to your 4ormat site
• Unlimited and worry–free hosting on our scalable cloud
• Automatically formatted for the iPad, iPhone & Mobile
• Define advanced design styling using CSS
• 4ormat websites are supported on all web browsers
• W3C compliant and search engine friendly

The great thing about this is that it really takes no time to get your site up and running. Focus on your content (text, photos or videos) and let 4ormat do the rest for you. Of course with advanced design styling using CSS, you don’t have to worry about your site looking like anyone else’s.

The Plans

The plans are very affordable and again, let’s you focus on what you as an artist does best: create beautiful pieces to upload and share with others.  I can’t see anyone going over their Pro limits but if someone ever does, 4ormat has promised to work out a special plan for you.  If you have questions of suggestions, they have a forum on their site and are available on twitter and are quick to respond.

If anyone would like an invite to try out 4ormat, I have 10 invites to giveaway. Simply leave a comment below, requesting an invite, and I’ll send one your way!

Here are two more examples of portfolio sites built using 4ormat by my friends JD Howell and Joshua Lindsey:

                          

At the end of January I went to Chicago to do some BTS photography for Zacuto’s Shootout, putting DSLRs against Kodak and Fuji film. It was a great experience and while I had to return to Toronto for work and didn’t get to see all the end results, part one of three airs today and you can finally see it here.

                          

Well, I’m no longer a resident of Canada and am in limbo. I was hoping to publish this before I actually left but there ended up being so many last minute things that I either a) forgot that needed to be done or b) took until the very last hours of the business week to finish up on.  I left Toronto almost two weeks ago to meet Phil and start a month of traveling through the United States before flying to England.

We spent the first two days driving along hwy 101, down along the Pacific Coast heading to Manhattan Beach for just over a week. I’ve never even visited the west coast in Canada so I’ve never really seen the mountains before and it was gorgeous. Taking our time along the way, spending a night in Big Sur Lodge in a little cabin surrounded by huge Redwoods (I couldn’t help but think about Twin Peaks while there) and then an evening at the Madonna Inn in Saint Luis Obispo. This hotel was nuts! Each room had their own theme and we got to stay in the ‘Misty Rock Room‘, decked out in Rock Walls, a rock waterfall shower and some lovely drapery and bedding straight from the 70′s. I didn’t get the names of all the little parks or stops we did along the way but we did make sure to stop by San Simeon Point to check out the Elephant Seals just before sunset.

Manhattan Beach was a busy week which included Phil’s masterclass on HD-DSLRs, hosted by Neil Smith of RAWworks.  To have something new to show for this masterclass – they went out last Tuesday morning (4.30am) to shoot some horses with a PL-mounted Canon 7D, created by Illya Friedman.  Filmed using both 25mm and 100mm Cooke S4 T2 primes (which are cinema lenses and cost about $20 000 each!), Phil shot his new film ‘A Day at the Races’ which I’ve included below:

A day at the races: Canon 7D with Cooke PL primes from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Of course, on the day of the Oscars, Phil arranged the massive LA HD-DSLR meet up at Venice Beach.  I have never seen so many HD-DSLR shooters at once!  Instead of shooting the insanity of Venice Beach, we were all too busy checking out everyone’s gear and accessories.  One person even had two 7D’s set up to take 3D photos and videos.  You can see all the behind the scenes photos and videos on Phil’s Blog Post of that day.

We left Manhattan Beach early this morning and are now in Austin, Texas  for SXSW where Phil is a panelist talking about HD-SLRs for Filmmaking. After a mini holiday, we’ll finally head back to San Francisco, to the Skywalker Ranch before flying to London.  Below I’ve included a bunch of photos taken while in California that include the drive along the coast as well as some photos I took on my first visit to Santa Monica Pier that I did with our friend, Brian (or @reubal as some of you may know him through twitter).  I’m also thinking about continuing the ‘OCD-way to’ series and have a few in the works but if anyone would like me to write an article on a certain subject about organization (file naming, metadata, storing photos on hard drives, backing up files etc) please let me know what you’d like covered.

                          

Intervention from Cristina Valdivieso + Jon Connor on Vimeo.

                          

click for detailed map

Well it’s a month before I leave Canada, or Canadia as one sarcastic Brit likes to call it and he’ll actually be in town next weekend. It’s  jam packed already trying to see some of the city as well as meet friends & family before I move but we’ve found time to schedule in a meet up-slash-farewell get together on Sunday February 7th. To all my Toronto friends (and friends outside of the city), it’s my last weekend that I’ll actually be in town so if you can make it out, that’d be great as there may not be another chance until I come back to visit.

The meet up will be taking place at Jack Astor’s on Front Street between 12-2pm and would love it if you could come down to meet Phil and myself. Please RSVP by email so I can keep track of numbers and update the reservations if needed.

                          

Juliette Lewis

It’s a bit late, but better late than never, right? First let me wish everyone a happy new year. I thought I’d spend my first post of 2010 to reflect on my work with concert photography in the last year. I really only started shooting concerts in early 2009. A few years before then, I offered to help friends in bands out by shooting some of their shows in Hamilton – I had my Nikon d70s which I purchased in January of 2007 and a kit lens. The last year before switching over to Canon, I bought a Sigma 30mm f1.4 which helped a lot in the low light, and being in small venues let me get up close.

April 2009 was my first taste at ‘official’ concert photography. Ben Folds gave me my first break by letting me come down to Syracuse, New York to shoot one of his concerts. Having been a fan of him and his previous band, Ben Folds Five for years – I couldn’t say no. The concert was on a Sunday and I drove 4 hours each way to shoot the concert and get back in time for my Monday morning meeting at the office. I was lucky enough to shoot for him again about a month later in Oakland, San Francisco. By then, I knew I wanted to continue this in my hometown of Toronto.

Through the powers of twitter, my friend Krissy Meyers linked me to a (now) good friend of mine and another concert photographer, Pete Nema. He let me tag along with him during Toronto’s big music & film festival, NXNE and shoot beside him. I came out for two of the nights and shot maybe a total of 10 bands within those two nights. I had enough photos to have something to show other managers or promoters of bands to try to get whatever I could – and this was all still with my Nikon d70s.

In July of 2009 I bought my Canon 5DmkII and 2 L series lenses: the 24-70mm f2.8 and the 70-200mm f2.8 IS and haven’t looked back. Expensive as hell to purchase everything all within a week (including batteries, tripod, flash, and another lens, the 35mm f2.0) but it was well worth it. Since I wasn’t a writer and couldn’t review a concert to save my life I couldn’t get photo passes to any of the larger shows unless I worked for a publication or did a lot of research. That involved looking for any band’s management or promotion company’s email on band’s site and cross my fingers hoping that showing samples of my work would be enough. Of course I got turned down but I also got approved for some artists such as: Juliette Lewis, Lykke Li, Miike Snow, Steve Martin, Zeus and Moby.

Thankfully, others took notice of my work and I have had the priveledge to work for 3 websites, shooting for them as well. They include: I Heart the Music, We Go To Shows and Blare Magazine. In the last half of 2009, I’ve gotten to shoot many shows, including a few award shows. I’d like to thank the following people for their support, advice and friendship:
Philip Bloom, Carrie Musgrave, Pete Nema, Frank Yang, Josh Khan, Stephen McGill, Kimberlee McCormack, Jennifer Polk, Steve Weiss and of course the many friends I’ve made through flickr and twitter.

Here are some of my favourite shots from this past year… d70s shots included. All of the full sets of these shows can be viewed on my flickr site and I hope you Enjoy. A word of warning though – don’t expect to get rich from trying to get into concert photography. If you don’t like music and are just hoping to make some extra money then look somewhere else. It’s a great marriage of my love of music (no joke, I probably listen to music for about 10 hours a day) and photography. I still have a full time job and only a few of the very talented can live off of shooting concerts. If you are interested in getting into some concert photography work though and have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send me an Email.

Juliette Lewis

                          

I hope to use this site to showcase more of my photography while also writing about workflow and the struggles that come with certain photography assignments. It should be noted that since I have a Canon 5DmkII, I may experiment with video but other than admiring friends’ works – I know nothing about it but will always welcome a new challenge.

In just over 24 hours I will be getting up and heading to the airport to visit Philip Bloom for the Christmas holidays. We’ve got a pretty packed schedule (with a few days up in the air still) but knowing either of us, you can expect a lot of photos and videos from this trip. Will try to post updates during the holidays but you will most likely find them through twitter, and photos of my time in London will have to wait until I get back home to Toronto in the new year.

Happy Holidays!

                          

Reel Inspiration

Please check out his site to see why I chose these films and you can view the rest series here:
Reel Inspiration: Take 1 with Joe Simon
Reel Inspiration: Take 2 with Philip Bloom
Reel Inspiration: Take 3 with Sara Collaton
Reel Inspiration: Take 4 with Kevin Shahinian

                          

Megan Platts

This past summer my best friend Mike and his partner, Megan announced that they were expecting their first child. Actually, Mike let it slip by accident to me (in front of Megan) very early on but there’s no need to go into those details because as expected, it was Mike being his usual offensive self, which I love.

The baby shower was planned by Megan’s good friend Christine who really went all out. From the invites, to the catering – everything was planned well in advance. She put a lot of thought into the tiny details, and (thankfully) refused the suggestion of any games at the shower.

As this baby will be my first time playing the role of an aunt (official or unofficial), it makes me sad knowing that I’ll only be around for a few months after the baby is born before I move to London. Thankfully, keeping in touch and sharing is easier with things like Skype, e-mail, digital cameras and web cams. I can’t wait for its arrival (due date: January 29, 2010) and wish Mike & Megan all the best and much love.