She takes requests

Keys, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Another image from the Hollywood Glamour creative shoot I did with Dorothy Weiss at the end of May.

Full description here.

Model: Dorothy Weiss www.dorothyweiss.com/
Photographer/Retoucher: Bruce Walker www.modelmayhem.com/1440574
MUA: Vivian Orgill www.modelmayhem.com/135165
Hair stylist: Ladylyn Gool www.modelmayhem.com/2096721
Photo Assistant: Marzi Leszczyk www.coroflot.com/marzidesign
Location: The Gallery Studio Cafe www.thegallerystudiocafe.ca/

Flash metering tip: one-button wireless trigger

If you have ever bought one of those inexpensive wireless triggers through Amazon or from eBay, like the great little kits from Cowboy Studio, you may have wondered what to do with the little cable that comes with it. The Cowboy Studio NPT-04 kit ships with one that has a PC sync connector on one end and a 2.5mm micro plug on the other.

That curious little cable

There are actually a few uses for these cables. The manual suggests one: wireless triggering from cameras that lack a hotshoe but have a PC sync outlet; eg medium format film bodies. But also, with a 2.5mm micro jack to 1/4" plug adapter, you can connect the output of one of the receivers to the sync input on a studio strobe or monolight and fire that wirelessly, perhaps at the same time as one or more speedlights in a complex setup.

Now, if only my meter had a hotshoe mount on it ...

Trigger those flashes directly from your light meter

But today I discovered yet another really handy use: connecting a wireless trigger to your light meter and get an instant flash meter reading capability! This will work with any flash meter that has a PC flash sync outlet and a function for doing "cabled" readings. My Shepherd/Polaris meter (Dual 5 aka SPD500) has this capability (select Cabled Flash via the Mode button), and so does the Sekonic L-308 and L-358. I imagine that any decent modern flash meter does.

Doing this simplifies the two-step process of first arming the flash meter then manually triggering the flash(es). Instead, all you do is push the measure/trigger button on the light meter; the flashes fire, and you have your reading.

This works especially well if you have a spare trigger as you can leave it connected and dangling from the light meter. This means not having to worry about forgetting to replace the trigger on top of the camera like I seem to do over and over during a busy shoot where I'm frequently altering the lighting setup and needing to re-measure.

Step by step

So for those of you not used to this, here's what you do. You will setup your lighting arrangement, stands, umbrellas, softboxes, etc., making sure to pop wireless receivers onto the hotshoe feet of all your flashes and turning them on. Set your camera on manual, dial in for example, ISO 100, 1/125th sec shutter and set the flash meter to match those settings. Then when you are ready to measure the light to get the correct aperture, you merely hold the meter near your subject's face with the dome toward the light and press the Measure button. POP! (that's the flashes going off.) Now you will have the correct aperture to use on the meter display.

Aren't you glad you didn't throw that little cable away? You did? Whoops! Well be sure and keep the next one.

Address Book Blues and I Hate Cellphones

Cellphone holder

A little rant for today.

I decided to get a slightly more modern cellphone on the weekend. You need to know that I am one of those curmudgeons who only uses a cell sparingly and only for making actual phone calls--short ones like "I'm going to be late".

I'm also really cheap and I hate the ridiculous fees charged by the local incumbent telcos for voice and data plans and refuse to be taken by them. This means that I only buy older tech and use a pay-as-you-go "plan" to keep it configured on their networks. My old Motorola V120c, new in October 2001, likely one of the oldest cellphones in existence still in working order, is holding less battery charge lately. And since the 60 day air-time top-up was due, I figured time for a new one.

I had done my homework: all the pay-as-you-go plans out there rely on you forgetting to top-up and therefore losing your accumulated minutes. "Oh gee, too bad, boo hoo! - say those a-holes at Rogers and Bell.

I had discovered that 7-Eleven sells phones, mostly Nokia, and SIMs that connect to the Rogers network. Their pay-as-you-go plans expire after a full year, so you don't have to remember to top-up so often. Seemed like the least expensive solution. I wanted to be able to sync my Mac's address book to this phone so I made sure to select a model with Bluetooth, the Nokia 2720 Fold, a new model in September 2009.

If you're a well-read Mac person you may be groaning inwardly now. Yeah, I have since discovered that Address Book sync'ing on the Mac is problematic, older phones aren't supported, and the coup de grace: Apple has completely removed syncing suport from Lion, the latest OS.

Luckily, I'm still running Snow Leopard, I was able to figure out how to hack one of the newer phone-plugins to fool iSync into accepting my 2720 and sync to it. if I want to upgrade to Lion, I can get temporary relief by copying iSync.app and my DIY plugin over to it after the install.

But this took all of Sunday and most of today. Plus I've learned one of the critical reasons why Apple sells so many iPhones: the Nokia phone is one of the most exasperating devices ever created. I have become really adept at removing the rear cover and extracting the battery. That's the way you get the phone's attention in a number of use cases.

For example: fire up the FM radio and listen to it for 5 to 10 minutes. The phone's user interface becomes completely unresponsive. Pull battery, wait a few minutes, replace, reboot.

Tinker with Bluetooth software -- pull battery, etc., etc.

Oh. My. Fecking. Gawd.

I've also learned that I'm somewhat clairvoyant. I can see quite clearly that this phone is going to die by being submerged far out in Lake Ontario at some point in the future. Maybe then I'll overcome my extreme frugality and get an iPhone.

The Boss

The Boss from Alex Emslie on Vimeo.

In the press: SNAP Bloor West - Postmodern Pinups

I'm in the local Toronto Junction area events paper, SNAP Bloor West ...

SNAP Bloor West - Postmodern Pinups

Held Over!

Frolic, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Why is Marzi so happy, you are wondering? It's because my Postmodern Pinups exhibit is now held-over for the entire month of June, that's why!

Dorothy

Dorothy, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Theme of this shoot was Hollywood Glamour ala George Hurrell. Played fast'n'loose with that though. George would have used about 4 or 5 fresnel-lensed hotlights. I used my Pentax portable strobes. The secret sauce though is a ringlight installed inside an 18" softbox, attached to a monopod and hand-held a few inches above Dorothy by my assistant (who is probably nursing sore arms today. Sorry, Marzi!). Other lights in this shot: AF540 in a 42" bounce umbrella camera-left, and a snooted AF540 hairlight well back camera right.

Huge thank-you's to Dorothy, Vivian, Ladylyn and Marzi. You guys rock! And a giant thanks to Derek for letting us crawl all over his Cafe. Go down and catch some jazz, and have a steak while you're there. Tell 'em I sent you. :-)

Model: Dorothy Weiss www.dorothyweiss.com/
Photographer: Bruce Walker www.modelmayhem.com/1440574
MUA: Vivian Orgill www.modelmayhem.com/135165
Hair stylist: Ladylyn Gool www.modelmayhem.com/2096721
Photo Assistant: Marzi Leszczyk www.coroflot.com/marzidesign
Location: The Gallery Studio Cafe www.thegallerystudiocafe.ca/

Dust and Dance

This is quite brilliant. Dancer is dusted with flour, makes athletic leaps while back-lit with strobes. Any direct light paths from strobes to camera are blocked with black cloth. Finished shots from this project are on Flickr ...

Lee

Lee, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Many would say this couldn't be done: vintage Pentax K100D Super (entry-level DSLR), ISO 800, Pentax DA* 55 wide open at f/1.4. Accident totally waiting to happen.

"It'll be uselessly noisy!" ... "It'll all be way too soft!" ... "6 megapixels isn't enough!"

You be the judge.

At a posing and direction workshop held by my friend Neeto da Silva. I was kind of a guest participant, and I got this in the chill-out area while Lee and I were waiting our turns on-set.


Model: Lee Riley - ModelMayhem 1847806
MUA: Christine Chan
Photo/Retouch: Bruce Walker - ModelMayhem 1440574

Flash Success

I've read a fair bit of negative chit-chat on lists and forums regarding Pentax flashes, so here's just a bit of positive news: once a Pentax AF540-FGZ flash is repaired, it works well and hard.

A few months ago I blew up one of my two 540's, for the 2nd time. This time time I learned the hard way that if you have it powered on while inserting it into a metal cold shoe and you manage to short the contacts, it will try to fire multiple times rapidly and expires in the attempt. I left it out of my kit for quite a while until one day I realized I'd need it for an outdoor shoot I was to be part of.

I drove it over to Pentax Canada, they fixed it, charged me 200 bills (ouch!) and I drove it home a week later.

It didn't work! Same symptoms: faint ticking sound inside, the red charged light never comes on. So I contacted Pentax, the service manager apologized and asked me to try a few tests, failing which to bring it in. So I did, drove it over again (now my car knows the way), and the tech proceeded to demonstrate it working perfectly on his K-5 body. Aaaargh!

But I left it with them for observation, they ran all the tests they could think of and called me to pick it up a few days later. This time I brought fresh batteries with me and tested it in the lobby before accepting it. Drove it home, fired it up ... and it worked fine. And 100% fine ever since.

Last Thursday I did a creative fashion shoot using an Elinchrom softbox feathered to light the model's fronts and my two 540's lighting up the background (rough, unpainted concrete) with two coloured gels from a good distance back left & right of the models. I fired those suckers over 500 times, at full power, including a fresh battery change, over about 4 hours. When we finally wrapped and I got them down off their stands, the flashes were very warm and the batteries were hot to the touch.

So, summary: AF540's may be electrically a bit fragile, and kinda pricey, but they are friggen' workhorses, and will stand up to heavy use. They lit up a concrete wall 12 feet high over an area at least 12 feet across, bright enough to be seen nicely at f/8, ISO 100.

Here's one of my proof of concept lighting shots:

It's the "Accidental Tulips" setup with a feathered softbox, then the black foamcore background was lit from right and left by gelled, snooted (or gridded) and gobo'ed AF540-FGZ flashes. The criss-crossing shadows create the cool coloured patterns.

Accidental Tulips

Happy accident, really.


I have a Pentax AF160 macro ring flash that, honestly, doesn't see much use. Flower macros, obviously, but I've not been doing those lately. I tried using it for portraiture, but the geometry is wrong for that (its diameter is too small).

I recently picked up an el-cheapo wireless flash trigger kit from Cowboy Studios for 32 bucks: one trigger and two receivers. Works fabulously with my two Pentax AF540 flashes. I'm a happy camper ... except: the AF540 no longer fits in my 18" softbox with the receiver attached -- the combo is too tall. In addition, I'm trying to set up more complex lighting needing more flashes. Damn! Where can I get another flash from? Without, you know, spending money. And how can I regain use of my softbox?

So yesterday I was idly staring at the softbox perched on its stand, empty, and I somehow thought of my ringflash sitting in the drawer, useless.

Bing!

I threaded the ringflash head around the metal brackets in the softbox, dangling the control box on its cable below, attached one of the wireless receivers to the controller, pointed the softbox at some handy cut flowers and ... TADA! Brand new enablement.

Above is one of the first shots I got with it.

The undefeatable 3 minute idle power-off in the ring flash is a pain in the ass, but that's life. At least the flash retains its configuration when you power-cycle it to wake it up as they are all set by switches.

Tulip Study

Pentax K20D, DA* 16-50/2.8 @ 50mm f/8, 160th sec, ISO 200.
AF-160FC macro ring flash, Westcott Mini Apollo 18" softbox, Cowboy Studios NPT-04 wireless trigger and receiver.
Post-processing in Lr 3.6 and Ps CS5.

Postmodern Pinups exhibit in Toronto's Junction

I'm installing a small exhibit of my photography for the entire month of May in Toronto's historic Junction area. Here are the details:


Postmodern Pinups
Photography by Bruce Walker
at the Junction Chiropractic & Wellness Centre
3093 Dundas St West (just west of Quebec Ave.)
May 2 - June 4, 2012


Opening Reception Wednesday May 9
6:30PM - 10:00PM
Special Guests - Refreshments

I'm expecting many of my talented co-creators to come, and the makeup artist and one model are planning to come in 1950's dress.

If you're in or near Toronto on May 9th, I'd love for you to drop by to the opening reception and say Hi!

Panl in the news

"The Artist"

Panl Updates Cloud Monitoring Service

We put the final flourishes on an update to the Panl service, and the details of it went out on the news wires yesterday. Read all about our great changes here ... 

Picture Credits

Model/HS: Denise Stellar

MUA/Wardrobe: Chantelle Krupka

Artistic Director/Retoucher/Photographer: Bruce Walker

You code it, we'll monitor it

I can't reveal all yet, but the staff at Panl are busy adding new features to an already great service.

More to come ...

Model/HS: Denise Steller

MUA/Wardrobe: Chantelle Krupka

AD/Photo/Retouch: Bruce Walker - ModelMayhem 1440574

Wireless tethering simplified (and cheap)

Elle

Why Tether?

In tricky lighting situations, or when you're experimenting with new lighting designs, it's great to be able to see previews of what you're shooting to get feedback on whether you've got good light coverage, see that the shadows are deep enough (or maybe too deep), and so on. But inspecting that teensy image on the camera's rear LCD screen is not very useful. The contrast is poor and it's just too darned small to see much detail. You can zoom in, but navigating is awkward and you lose the overall viewpoint.

What you'd like is to be able to take a shot and immediately view the results on a reasonable size screen, like a large desktop monitor, or a notebook display. That is, you'd like to tether.

Cameras meant for studio use, like medium format bodies with digital backs, are easy to tether as they have ethernet or FireWire interfaces for the purpose. You can shoot and your full-rez image is transferred right into Lightroom for viewing. That's fine for full-time pros with high-end budgets, but what about us part-timers? And while many semi-pro cameras (many Canon and Nikon bodies) can be wire-tethered using an inexpensive USB cable, my Pentax body (K20D) cannot.

So, am I stuck? No!

Wireless Tethering

My answer to the lack of wired tethering ability is to use an Eye-Fi wireless SDHC card and my PowerBook running Mac OS X. In order to make my solution portable, I could have bought an iPad and software (ShutterSnitch), but my old Apple PowerBook that was just lying around has a great screen, so I decided to use that as my preview device.

When I press the shutter, the RAW image stays on the SDHC card but a copy of the low-resolution JPEG is transferred via WiFi to the PowerBook where an Automator script sees it and sends it to the Preview app for immediate display.

End-to-end, my solution has these parts then:

• Camera that uses an SDHC card (or CF and an adapter)
• Eye-Fi Pro X2 WiFi card
• PowerBook with WiFi
• Automator script to send JPEGs to Preview

Here's how you configure the bits and pieces.

Camera. Configure your camera to generate RAW and JPEG images. Configure JPEG images to be the lowest possible quality and pixel dimensions. On my K20D this means one-star for Quality and 2M for Recorded Pixels. This will speed-up the preview process and easily gives you a large enough image to see how you shot looks. I also configure my K20D to generate RAW images only by default and RAW+ (ie both RAW and JPEG) when I press the RAW button on the body. That way I'll only get previews when I specifically call for one.

Ad-hoc network. You need to be able to push preview images to the notebook as they are created, so this and the WiFi card need to be networked together. If you are working in your home or other controlled environment you can use the standard method of connecting to the local available network. But if you expect to be working in some random place, like a rented studio or outdoors, then you must connect via an "ad-hoc" network. This requires you to create an ad-hoc network on your notebook first, then configure the Eye-Fi card to see it. For a Windows or Mac OS X notebook, follow these directions.

Eye-Fi card. Having configured the notebook you should plug the Eye-Fi Pro card into the notebook and configure it to connect to your notebook's custom ad-hoc network. Follow these instructions on the Eye-Fi support site.

Eye-Fi Software. When the preview JPEGs arrive on the PowerBook I want to see them popup on the screen immediately for viewing. To accomplish this I arranged to have an Automator script, a "Folder-Action", connected to the image-drop folder. The Automator script wakes up when an image arrives and sends it to Preview.app. You configure the image-drop folder in Eye-Fi Card Settings. Open Eye-Fi Center, click on the little gear icon to the right of the Eye-Fi card under DEVICES. Then in the Photos tab, click Enable, and choose a folder under "Manage - Upload photos to:". Under Subfolder options select "Do not create date-based subfolders." Also disable uploading of RAW files in the RAW tab.

The drop-folder I use is /Users/{my-home}/Pictures/Eye-Fi but you can put them anywhere you have write permissions to.

Folder-Action. The exact way you create a Folder-Action and attach it to a folder varies depending on what version of Mac OS X you are running. My PowerBook is running 10.5.8 so I'll describe that ...

1. Launch Automator.app
2. Choose a Custom workflow
3. under Library - Files & Folders double-click on Open Finder Items
4. select Open with: Preview.app
5. under File menu choose Save As Plug-in
6. in the drop-down menu choose Plug-in For: Folder Actions
7. select Attach to Folder: Other ... and select the image-drop folder you configured above.
8. enter a name in the Save Plug-In As: field
9. tick the Enable Folder Actions checkbox and click Save

Steve Harley has written up how to do this for newer Automators (10.7 Lion) and also in Applescript. (Thanks Steve!)

If you are running Linux, take a look at incrond to watch for the images landing in the drop-box folder.

If you are running Windows you're on your own at this point -- sorry! -- but I would guess that something similar to Automator.app is available in the OS or as a freeware or shareware application.

Test it out

Now the whole thing should work, so test it by installing the Eye-Fi card in your camera and take a shot. Make sure that you have JPEG creation enabled (RAW+). A few seconds after you press the shutter you should see the Eye-Fi Helper app's icon flash a small preview image and then you'll see the large sized preview popup in Preview.app.


References

1. Jimmy Shoots Blog, "How To Wirelessly Tether Your Camera To Your iPad Using Eyefi and ShutterSnitch"
2. Eye-Fi Pro X2
3. Ad Hoc Network Setup Instructions
4. Connect card to an Ad Hoc network
5. folder action & Eye-Fi tethering workflow

Picture Credits

Model: Elle Bunny - ModelMayhem 2200634
Hairstylist/MUA: Tea Scott - ModelMayhem 1048908
Photographer, Retoucher: Bruce Walker - ModelMayhem 1440574
Location: Acor Studio - ModelMayhem 1987608

Keeping an eye on RADIUS using PyPanl

I wrote up a tutorial on using my company's monitoring service to keep track of your company's internal services. If this sounds like something you wrestle with, read on ...

The problem we're going to solve today is a common but important one: how can we keep a watch on a critical authorization server and be notified quickly if it stops answering queries?

I'm going to show you how to create a Panl "Custom Monitor" and use a server-side timed script to send updates to it. If the updates report "down" or the updates themselves fail then the Panl monitor will send an appropriate alert to the admin's mobile device or email.

Read the full article here ... 

Eye-Candy Friday: "Elle"

It's been a while since my last restful image, so here's one ...

I took this shot recently at a collaborative photo shoot with two models, a makeup/hair artist and three other photogs.

The foggy/hazy glow effect is not Photoshopped! That comes courtesy of a flukey lighting setup error. Cooling vents on the two large softboxes illuminating the model from both sides were open and allowing direct light from the 400 watt-second strobes to hit the inside surface of the lens-hood on my camera. Pixel-peeping reveals a distinct fabric-like pattern, and I figure that the light was reflecting off the (normally) light-absorbing black felt lining.

Before I closed the vents to fix the problem I took a few shots like that and really loved the ethereal, mystical softness it imparted to Elle.

Model: Elle Bunny - ModelMayhem 2200634

Hair/MUA: Tea Scott - ModelMayhem 1048908
Photo/Retouch: Bruce Walker - ModelMayhem 1440574

Location: Acor Studio - ModelMayhem 1987608

You can see a few more shots from this session here ...

And speaking of new stuff ...

My company Panl has launched its services. Here's the blurb:

The Panl monitoring service is now launched and available to everyone! 

Panl offers free website monitoring, and the ability to create custom monitors to track almost any IT metric. Our unique "overdue alert" capability lets you know about events that are supposed to happen but don't. You can track monitor status on the web or with our iPhone app, and receive alerts via email, SMS, or iPhone notifications. 

You can sign up for our commercial plans for as little as $10/month, or get additional free monitoring services by referring your friends and colleagues. 

Please visit http://panl.com to get started, or for more information. And please pass this email along to any of your IT contacts that might be interested.

The ALFEW arts cooperative has a brand-new Google+ Page now. Go ahead, check it out!

The Piano. .||.|.||.|.|.||. from Matthew Brown on Vimeo.

Jungle Beauty

Jungle Beauty, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Sadly, there aren't going to be any more of these gorgeous daylilies here this year. This shot is appropriate though as it's a very rainy day today in this, one of the final days of summer.

I hope your summer was as enjoyable as mine was.

Sandra

Sandra, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Strobist: shot outdoors in open shade. I added front fill with a bare AF-540FGZ lying on a table camera-right, remote triggered optically from the K20D.

Reflecting

Reflecting, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Another hat pic

Untitled, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Same girl, same hat, different focus.

Singularity

Singularity, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Le Chapeau Noir

Le Chapeau Noir, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Here's Iryna again, in the "studio" with a borrowed hat on. The studio, of course, is a room at home with all the furniture pushed to one end. :-)

Iryna 2

Iryna 2, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

I've been concentrating on portraiture lately; setting up the shoot, directing the models, lighting, post-processing, retouching. Altogether, quite a challenge.

In this shoot I (somewhat) learned how to direct the human reflector stands ... somewhat. With 30Km/h gusts of wind, my reflector holders kept wandering out of place. Plus they couldn't see around the 40 inch opaque reflector so they didn't know when they'd gone out of alignment. Oh, and the long hair kept flying around and getting into eyes.

Everyone did their best and I got some decent shots, I think.

The Coppertone

The Coppertone, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

I caught this blueswoman at the (sadly final) Rock the Coliseum in Mississauga. It was an excellent set, only slightly marred by insufficient vocal levels from the unfortunately undersized PA.

You should do yourself a favour and listen to her music here ...
http://www.myspace.com/thecoppertone
http://thecoppertone.com/

Rock The Coliseum, July 10, 2011
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=193226800725354

A tern for the worse

My tern, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Jezzie - In Memory of Jezebel

Jezzie - In Memory of Jezebel, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Sadly, Jezebel passed away yesterday (June 30th, 2011) at age 17. This is one of the last pictures we have of her.

Jezzie was a terrific cat, chock full of character. She was extremely chatty and had a comment about just about everything and let us know when anything needed adjusting, usually in aid of her comfort. She was also quite sociable, always following us around the house. She preferred to keep us company while we worked and even appeared to enjoy watching movies, perched up above us on the back of the sofa, purring.

So long, Jez. You'll be hugely missed.

Solar Fields | Cocoon Moon (Glastonbury Festival 2005 Mix )

A beautiful ambient piece ...

You can also get the MP3 (or OGG) here.

A quiet stream

A quiet stream, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Red Rover, Red Rover, we call God over

Red Rover, Red Rover, we call God over, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

Seen at the Mississauga Art Gallery.

The Optometrist #5

The Optometrist 5, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

An unidentified (non-flying) object I saw recently at the eye doctor's office.

The real UN logo

The real U.N. logo by ~JoniGodoy on deviantART

Joe Jackson - Steppin' Out

Ah, Joe Jackson. There's nobody else like him ...

Purple Sandcherry

Purple Sandcherry, a photo by Bruce M Walker on Flickr.

I haven't posted a photo for a while -- I've been pretty busy and it's been pouring rain here for about the last two weeks. I've been watching this bush outside my kitchen window coming into bloom and this afternoon the clouds finally cleared.

PDML Photo Annual 2011

The latest yearly photo book from the Pentax Discussion Mailing List is out. There is work from 73 photographers, including myself, in this one, and I think it looks pretty fine. :-)

PDML Photo Annual 2011 by Mark Roberts (editor) | BOOK INFO

Storm

A tour de force animated beat poem with words by Tim Minchin, direction and animation by DC Turner; produced by Tracy King.



Official site here.

The Unseen Sea

A rather beautiful timelapse, although it's best viewed large in HD so you should pop over to Vimeo.

The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo

Stop The Meter On Your Internet Use!

This is of particular concern to Canadians ...

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are about to impose usage-based billing on YOU.

This means we're looking at a future where ISPs will charge per byte, the way they do with smart phones. If we allow this to happen Canadians will have no choice but to pay MUCH more for less Internet. Big Telecom companies are obviously trying to gouge consumers, control the Internet market, and ensure that consumers continue to subscribe to their television services.

These Big Telecom companies are forcing small competing ISPs to adopt the same pricing scheme, so that we have no choice but to pay these punitive fees.

This will crush innovative services, Canada's digital competitiveness, and your wallet.

We urgently need to send a clear message to Ottawa, saying that we won't stand by while some of the most profitable companies in the country indiscriminately add new fees to our Internet bills. Enough is enough.

Per: http://openmedia.ca/meter

Julie

Julie, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

This is from a product shoot. Julie is modelling her line of custom hand-painted visors.

Grasses in January

Grasses in January, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

We had an unexpected little snow dump this morning, and as it was about -20C it fell as the lightest, fluffiest stuff imaginable. The results on the plants in our garden were spectacular!

Merry Christmas!

Reindeer from Treat on Vimeo.

Pigeon: Impossible

Pigeon: Impossible from Lucas Martell on Vimeo.

Cat Diaries: The First Ever Movie Filmed by Cats!

Jetty Dreams

Jetty Dreams, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

Seen on a jaunt into Port Credit this morning.

I'm experimenting with creating tinted gradient filters in Adobe Camera Raw. This image was processed to simulate a filter like the Singh-Ray "Gold-N-Blue".

Teresa

Teresa, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

My brother-in-law's sister recently agreed to model for me, and we spent a very pleasant afternoon this past Saturday in her lovely home. I enlisted my own sister as assistant. Teresa has been working out body building so after doing some traditional portraiture, I had her pose with weights.

This was shot using entirely window light (big bay window behind), aided by a 40" silver reflector (Photobasics 5-in-1) in front below, slightly left.

Teresa

Teresa, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

My brother-in-law's sister recently agreed to model for me, and we spent a very pleasant afternoon this past Saturday in her lovely home. I enlisted my own sister as assistant. Teresa has been working out body building so after doing some traditional portraiture, I had her pose with weights.

These are shot using mostly window light (big bay windows), aided by a 40" reflector (Photobasics 5-in-1 [a great deal, btw]).

Pentax K20D, DA* 55mm, f/2.4, 1/45th, ISO 400.

Teresa

Teresa, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

My brother-in-law's sister recently agreed to model for me, and we spent a very pleasant afternoon this past Saturday in her lovely home. I enlisted my own sister as assistant. Teresa has been working out body building so after doing some traditional portraiture, I had her pose with weights.

These are shot using mostly window light (big bay windows), aided by a 40" reflector (Photobasics 5-in-1 [a great deal, btw]). In this portrait I also added a hairlight: a gridded AF-540FGZ on a stand behind to her right.

Pentax K20D, DA* 55mm, f/1.7, 1/500th, ISO 400.

Gazania

Gazania, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

Seen near the Chappell House in the Riverwood Conservancy in Mississauga Ontario during a Flickr group walk Sunday. These were in full glare sun so I used myself as a light modifier: I shot them in my own shadow. :-)

Adele

Adele, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

From a headshot photoshoot in and around Mississauga City Hall.

Strobist: a teensy bit of fill from an on-camera AF-540FGZ modified with a Westcott Micro Apollo softbox.

Adele Casuga: "Mom, Education Consultant and aspiring knee and elbow model." Tutor Doctor

The Brownman Akoustic Trio

The Brownman Akoustic Trio, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

Made the pilgrimage to The Gate last night and had a great time. Started off with their Rib Steak dinner which left me in a serious state of bliss. Then Brownman served up sizzling hot, fat-free jazz protein. Oh yeah!

Brownman Ali - trumpet (http://Brownman.com/)
Michael Herring - upright bass (http://DangerHerring.com/)
Ernesto Cervini - drums (http://ErnestoCervini.com/)

Food - Gate 403

Watercolour

Watercolour, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

Here's another one for the bokeh fans. Believe it or not, this isn't Photoshopped. I reduced the Clarity somewhat and the Contrast a little (in Adobe Camera Raw). The rest is through the magic of Pentax optics!

Warning signs

Warning signs, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

Sumac.

Was out walking along Etobicoke Creek this morning with my friend Julie and our dogs when my eye was caught by the sun sparkling off the creek and backlighting the flowers and foliage.

Clock tower

Clock tower, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

While meeting with friends for coffee in the cafeteria at Mississauga City Hall I spent some time prowling around the ground floor. I happened to look up and noticed all these crisscrossing lines.

Mopar

Mopar, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

Chrome grille reflected in chrome bumper. Tinted duotone.

Rudbeckia

Rudbeckia, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

SVT

SVT, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

As seen on a late model Shelby Cobra Mustang.

Butterflower

Butterflower, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

Butterflies were all over my backyard the other day. Perhaps celebrating Canada Day?

Sixteen candles

Sixteen candles, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

My nieces celebrated their birthdays recently. They claim they don't feel any older. I know that I do.

Hansa rosebud

Hansa rosebud, originally uploaded by Bruce M Walker.

This has got to be my favourite of the roses. The heady perfume from a large Hansa shrub can simply knock you down, it's so fragrant. I wish that my Pentax could capture smells! :)