Fazri

I love and I hate working down at the docks. When we get an install job down at the shipyards, the working environment is heavy, heavy industrial. The smell, the noise, heavy objects being moved just above your head, it’s all very stressful. And on top of that, you actually have to concentrate on work too!! At the same time, it’s a great backdrop for great picture taking opportunities. Every moment I have, I sneek a quick picture off, since I don’t want to waste any time at work. I was able to get this picture off because I was up on a manlift above the welder. We were working on a Coast Guard ship, and as we were maneuvering above and around him, I quickly took a few shots off, and this one stuck. I didn’t know how the sparks would affect the camera’s exposure, but I think it did a pretty good job. Pretty heavy post production work: Focus blurr, colour isolation, vignetting, aggressive contrast increase.The only thing that bothers me about the pict...

I took a picture a few days ago of Yoshi resting on her log, like a stump. It was such a busy day, I just ended up making that my pic of the day. I wish I could go back and put another picture…. but I know I can’t. Today, I didn’t get home from work until past 8pm, and didn’t get a chance to get any sweet shots, so I knew I had to hunt down a pic inside the home. So I sat in front of Yoshi’s 55 gallon tank and started shooting, and shooting, and shooting. I finally got this shot. I’m shooting iso 400, and still shooting a slow 1/15 of a second, while Yoshi moves back and forth and left and right and up and down……. I’m pretty happy with what I got though. I shot it at F 2.o, so the depth of field is a bit shallow and not very forgiving……. Side point: I wonder why Yoshi moves both her arms up and over her front with her claws out like that? Is she attacking? Double-sideways high 5’s? Whatever it is, I think tur...

Can you guess where I am? I took a picture of my reflection on a chromed knob end of a towel rack!! And yes, this is my second self-portrait from a washroom. Weird right? Anway, I like taking reflection shots against warped glass or mirrored metal surfaces because of the way it distorts reality, kinda like an impromptu fisheye lens (one just came up for my camera mount for $600 on Craigslist!! What a deal!!). I’ve taken cool reflection shots on this knob many times, but other pictures made my blog instead. This isn’t the best shot I’ve taken up to now on this silly chromed knob, but I took it today, so here it is. I had to shoot at iso 400 because my hands were too shaky to hand hold 1/6 of a sec today. In fact, you can see my other hand bracing against the towel bar so as to steady the camera a bit more….. oh ya, and also, this is my 3rd self portrait….. so vain……..

I’ve been wating for dramatic clouds since I’ve started this project. I ride to work, and I cross 2nd Narrows Bridge (okay, Ironworker’s Memorial Bridge!!) on the East side in the morning, and the West side when I go home. Depending on the time of year, I get real dramatic sunrises and sunsets, and double bonus if I get dramatic clouds or fog. The dead of winter or the middle of summer has either too much sun or not enough when I travel to and from work, so I love spring and autumn the best for taking dramatic landscape shots. Since today was a grey and cloudy day, there was no point in shooting in colour. I think black and white truly brings out the different textures and layers, much better than colour. As well, by equalizing the shadows and highlights the best I can, I can get a very HDR-like picture. Punch up the contrast and then darken the image 2-3 stops, and you get this very sereal image, almost as if its a painting…..

As my previous pic mentioned, my wife loves pets. This was a rescue turtle my wife adopted from my little sister. We renamed him Yoshi, although we’re pretty sure it’s a girl, as her nails are not long or sharp enough to be a male red eared slider turtle. I took a picture of him just as I was leaving the house. I knew today would be a really limited day to take pictures. I think I only really took two shots today, including this one. Not a great shot of Yoshi. Before I took it, she had her arms and legs and head stretched out, but as soon as I approached, she shrunk back into her shell like a turtle……. but this is my shot of the day…. too tired to run around the house and try and get a better shot. I’ve got work tomorrow, so I should have more opportunity to get something more interesting than a turtle in a tank…….

I love the 1970’s, and I love the way pictures looked back then. Since I had a Japanese dad, he took plenty of pics back then, and so any picture that has that same 70’s look evokes very strong emotions for me. I actually had a technically better picture to post, but I just want to jump into this picture. I want to put on my brown couduroy pants and my blue and yellow addidas runners and be part of this picture. I took this shot riding downtown on a Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfectly clouded over, and I took this shot on the way home, near Pender and Cambie. I’m sure if I waited long enough, I could of framed in a couple of European hippies coming out of the hostel upstairs. It would have totally looked like 1975…….

I know I said I don’t have many pictures of myself, and that’s true, of other people taking pictures of me. But I do take pictures of myself. I don’t know why. I guess I like the aspect of me taking a picture of me posing back at me, does that make sense? I can direct myself to pose a certain way, and then instantly see if I’ve done a good job as a poser….now I know I’m not saying it right. Anyway, I liked this picture because it reminds me of a pose that Bob Dylan did on the cover of his album “The Times They Are a-Changin'” way back in 1964. Sort of like Blue Steel, but with more of a “Get Lost” or “I don’t care” type attitude written all over his face. For Dylan, he wasn’t posing. For me, total poser. I guess you can discern as well that I like black and white. I like the rawness of it. My brother always says you can convert it later to b&w, but it’s not the same. Taking a pictur...