No money for fancy studio space, no money for gel filters or proper mood lighting? Do you have a bathtub but only use it as a shower? Then I have a deal for you just take one bathtub, some food coloring, a cheap Canadian Tire flood light and a waterproof bag for your camera and you t0 can produce a wonderful array of unique shots!

Disclaimer: Not responsible for leaky waterproof bags and the use of lighting that runs off 110/220 ac or explodes on contact with water!

The sign says it all, Canada’s most famous cemetery.

My first fungas shoot using Canon 100 mm f2.0 prime and a 500D close up lens.

The rest of the pictures are here.

I am ashamed to say I haven’t been to Toronto’s zoo for many a year. It really is a fantastic zoo you can easily spend the whole day and not see everything, you can almost wear out a pair of shoes it covers so many acres. Its located 30 minutes by freeway from Younge and Bloor. I guess it needed to locate so far from downtown Toronto to be able to afford the land.

Anyway I jumped at a chance to join the TPMG photographic club on a Toronto Zoo photography event.

The challenge this week:

We were all taught to ‘fill the frame’ when it came to composition, how about we break that rule in a creative manner in this week’s challenge entitled ‘The Negative Space Challenge’.

Your mission this weekend is to use negative space within your composition to give emphasis on your chosen subject. Using the rule of thirds and having a keen eye to spot such images will be the real challenge as we’ll be operating opposite of how our mind works. … A photoblog site that was recently pointed out to me that uses much of this technique is called “Round Here“. It’s a great collection of images and I’m sure that looking through the archives will spur your creativity and hopefully will inspire you to go out and try this challenge.

Ryan Tacay

My response:

Besides the bright colors I was trying to capture the precision which each snake wraps itself around the branch, a loop of its body centered as to make a cushioned headrest. The negative space surrounding the snake helps to define the precision of this shape.

The rest of the shots are here:

Not quite the zoo but at the after event dinner I had a chance to try out an idea I have had for sometime now. This shot was captured by having Adam (TPMG organizer) stand close to the screen of a projection TV.

I am stll looking for that perfect mirror of the Toronto skyline.

That same day I road upfront in the subway train, shooting photos with my 100mm f2 lens at ISO 1600 through muddy glass!

Some more reflections of the Toronto skyline and Toronto underbelly

From the time I was a child I have wanted a pair of stone lions guarding my driveway. Anyway I still don’t have a driveway so much for city living.

Here are some photos I took on a TPMG outing to Niagara.

Color vision in our primeval brain helped us to survive, to avoid getting eaten, to identify which animals and plants are edible and which are poisonous, we even used color to help find a suitable mate for reproduction.

No wonder from a young age we are attracted to bright colors. My theory is that when we have a choice of similar images to select from we are pulled to the brightest most colorful images first.

I have gathered a small amount of web statistic data that seem to prove out my rather simplistic theory.

If you want to be part of the experiment then please click-on and enlarge the image that you are first or most attracted to. Yes I know the results are skewed by the experimental setup.

The image on the left is by far the brightest and most colorful of the series. I was trying for a lomo color flash like effect. Darkened edges and saturated and brightened yellows and blues. The effect is not unpleasant but the basic content is the same in all 3 images.

Your mission this weekend is to photograph things that are framed by other elements in the picture. It is up to you to find your primary subject and make sure it is framed by its surroundings. This exercise will help you train your eye and ultimately better your composition skills.

As always there’s restrictions to this challenge and they are as follows:

• No Cropping – you have to find the framed subject before taking the picture, not afterwards on your computer screen.

• Subject must be completely framed all around but not necessarily by the same object.

It’s open themed so you can shoot whatever you want, so long as it’s framed and follows the restrictions above…

Ryan Tacay

My response

The above photograph is all frames, five frames to be precise. This shot only works because I remembered the Flash Fill Challenge. The rest of the shoot

This weeks challenge was to take low or high angle shots but because my knees are shot most of my challenge shots were taken standing looking up high or sitting on the pavement. The location was Little Italy which is a strip of Italian restaurants on College St. West, the neighborhood now days is pretty ethnically still with a fair proportion of Italians. Best calamari at any TPMG event so far.

The picture above was taken after dinner and had to have the signs selectively darkened to show the color better. Rest of the Little Italy pictures

Final after almost 2 weeks of waiting my Canon 500D close-up lens arrived from Hong Kong. I shouldn’t complain the cost was much lower then I could have brought it locally. With the money I saved I also brought a RC1 remote and a lenspen. I broke even on the lenspen, later found out they are made in Canada so they should actually be less expensive here.

The 500D screws on to the end of my 100mm f2.0 prime lens just like a filter. What it does is to allow you to get much closer to your subject. My 100mm has a minimum focal length of 0.9m with the close-up lens I can move in closer with expanding the object size in the image by about 270%. There are negligible loses in resolution and f stop when compared to placing an extension on the body camera. Also unlike using an extension the auto-focus still works correctly. Downside it only works on one size of lens diameter in this case it is a 58mm.

The kit 18-55 mm lens allows you to get within .28 meters which is at the full 55m zoom actually about the same magnification as the 100mm with the 500D but the quality is not nearly as good and .28 mm is too close a working distance.

If you are using your built in flash remember to remove the lens hood to prevent it from casting a shadow on the subject.

I can’t wait to get up and close with nature!

See a comparison with and without the 500D lens