I don't get around to making updates on my main website jasondwyer.ca very often. I guess it's just more interesting to blog about projects I'm currently working on. Something I did decide I wanted to add to my site for the new year though, is a handful of my photography.

My photos have gotten to the point where they are not so embarassing, and also a medium I find I'm working in more. Often I might be doing photography, illustration and design all on the same piece, so it seems like photography has found its way into my workflow as another way I can have more control over the final results. And with Photoshop I can basically edit or turn an image into whatever I'm picturing in my head rather than being stuck with something that's existing.

I've added a showcase of different pictures, ranging from gourmet food and advertising to travel snapshots and magazine portraits. Most of my photography is done with my lovely low-end Sony Alpha and a 50mm portrait lens.

I recently had the chance to take some snapshots of former Niagara Ice Dogs and Canadian Junior Team Goalie, Mark Visentin. Currently playing for Phoenix's farm team during the NHL lockout, he keeps fit by incorporating yoga sessions into his training routine. Aside from being pretty casual and down-to-earth, he's also extremely flexible, which produced some unique photos.

Back in my youth netminding days I stretched a little to warm up, but it reminded me of how serious athletics have become. I wonder if the old greats like Johnny Bower and Terry Sawchuk even stretched at all. Given that they didn't wear masks, it would seem like flexibility was probably a low priority.

Having been unable to sleep due to the inability to breathe through a wall of allergies, I found myself awake very early in the morning. I was up before the sun, and I think even before the birds. It kind of felt like I was experiencing this weird private earth quiet time, that humans really aren't supposed to be a part of. Like getting to see all the toys come alive when you aren't there.

The experience reminded me that ideas can strike at any time, out in the world when you aren't watching, or in your head while you're sleeping. I wanted to capture the moment so a few hours later when the sun started to come up I snapped some photos.

Sometimes extraordinary people serve as inspiration for art and design. In this case, a magazine photospread, inspired by a group of people who's dedication to fitness and well-being is its own tale of triumph.

For the photoshoot each person was not available at the same time, so they were shot separately (by Stephen Dominick) and pieced together afterwards by me. Strong rim lighting against a black backdrop was used to give it that determined hero vibe. Afterwards, further dramatic lighting affects were added in photoshop, along with the background atmosphere.

 Back in the day, church bells were sort of like a Facebook event invitation. It was the only way to easily communicate to a whole village that an event was taking place. In the current era, if you live in a neighbourhood with a lot of churches, they are really just more of a loud cuckoo clock. Still, it was kind of peaceful, one grey winter afternoon, to watch the snow fall to the sound of the bell tolling.

 A few weeks ago I began an ongoing project with AMD artist management, helping with their promo materials for local musician Kevin McGowan. His sound is a back-to-basics acoustic folk rock infused with introspective lyrics. To capture this earthy vibe, we headed up to some hiking trails to snap some photos and get some visuals to work with. A key ingredient to the photo shoot was showing up at the right time to capture the golden sunset lighting. Kevin proved to be a natural rock star, and after a couple hours of hiking around with his guitar, we managed to get some pretty decent shots.

While hanging around the ultra-touristy pier area in San Fran, I was treated to my first live dance crew performance. A group of about 6 or 7 guys from across the Bay Bridge in Oakland, materialized with a ghetto blaster and some pieces of cardboard and began to throw down some moves. A few had some skill and the others were fairly sub-par, but all were full of bravado and racial trash-talking. They didn't hesitate to start asking for donations of twenties from the crowd.

I snapped a series of photos on burst mode of some of the dancers, thinking it would make some interesting action shots. With a little layering and masking in Photoshop, it turned into a crazy multi-limbed bboy creature.

I finally finished up a panorama of the PCH, taken from a great lookout a little ways out from San Francisco. I'd been chipping away at it for a while and was really craving to see it complete. I've included the before and after images, to show what I was working with. I find Photoshop and other programs never really give a decent piece together on any automated settings, so I set all the photos out and line them up as best I can, peeking with transparency. In this case, I used at least 6 photos, to make it a nice long stretch.

In theory, for panoramas, all the photos should be taken on a manual exposure so the colour and especially the sky will always look the same in each frame. I just fired off some quick photos in sequence, and brought on the extra work...but I guess I enjoy the challenge. After layering things together I synched up the colour as best I could. The most time consuming part was filling in all the missing areas and correcting all of the bad overlaps. I find the key to adding in new chunks is just copying and pasting in chunks from other parts and then using clone and paint to blend it in. Just using the clone tool doesn't work for large areas and creates too much blur. Once everything was patched, I droppped in another whole sky to try and smooth it out, and then merged and adjusted the colour for the whole photo.