aaron schwab

i stopped by Tall Ship Tattoos today after work, which is a brand new little tattoo shop in uptown Waterloo, run by a talented chap named Jeremy and his girlfriend Cara, an old collegemate of mine. the three of us went over a bunch of concepts for photos that they want for the shop’s website and walls, and i’m really happy that i’m getting to do some shooting for them this Saturday. Jeremy is super talented and works harder than most people i know and, though it’s new, i’d recommend his shop to everyone. can’t wait to show people the results of the shoot (which might spill into another day, as i have portrait ideas in mind for Jer and Cara themselves.)

other than that, i’m beyond excited on a few other photoshoots that are in the works, including a last-minute of of Carrie that i’ll be doing tomorrow evening. she’s wanted photos for awhile, so i figured what the hey, might as well squeeze some in in Kitchener tomorrow after a day of work (which is going super well, mind you, especially now that i’ve found a coffee shop within reach of where we’re shooting in the science department that sells a coffee and two cookies for $2.00. it’s enterpreneurships like that that make life wonderful, really.)

thusly, lots of photo-related news is on the way, up to and including my website, which is nearing fruition, moreso now than ever before. stay posted!

after hearing word of snowfall today from Cagney and from students at work, i finally got caught in this year’s first November Movember snowfall on my way back from a quick walk across the street. it was wet and surely won’t last with the upcoming warm weekend, but it was snow nonetheless. time to retire the spring jacket in favour of the pea coat indeed.

we’re currently shooting week one out of probably five or six of the science department at UW. the two previous weeks were spent in the AHS department and the three before that in engineering. suffice to say i’m feeling a little bit of shooting burnout at the end of each day, but it’s pushing me to go to bed earlier than later of late. schooting for the year will be done probably some time mid-next month, and i think i’ll celebrate by heading back to Jesse to get a ring in my nose in place of the current stud, as the piercing should be healed up completely by then. it was weird having this little metal dot on my nose for the first little while, but, as with my earlobes and tattoos, i got used to it quickly and now no longer see it as an extra item on my face.

other than being wetly snowed on a little tonight, my day’s highlight came with the drive home from work, on the way to drop Justin off at his place. every morning and evening, when going between Justin’s place and the university, we pass a sub shop called Sub Stop. according to Justin, who lives a stone’s throw from it, it’s been open for something like four years and in that time, neither himself nor any of his brothers have ever seen a customer inside. ever. it didn’t take much speculation to conclude that the place is probably a front for a drug-dealing op. well, if we didn’t shat ourselves this evening when we made our usual joke about the place as we drove by it, only to notice a customer at the cash register inside. it almose bummed me out to think that i wouldn’t be the first customer myself in there one of these Fridays on the way home from work, and i’m not entirely convinced that the man talking to the server behind the counter was actually a legitimate customer. regardless, seeing someone actually in Sub Stop made Justin and i break out in riotous laughter and whoops of “no way! no way!” needless to say, it became apparent to us tonight that taking over a thousand photos in a row during the day makes one slightly sleep-silly.

i’ll end this particularly rolicking entry with a film recommendation — Cagney and i watched our copy of Once for the first time last night and it was excellent. moving, almost, in a way i can’t explain. the nameless male lead of the film almost gives off a Damien Rice vibe (the Irishness being a contributing factor) and the songs that he performs, solo or with the “girl,” are stunningly beautiful and elegant and simple. i don’t want to start gushing like an overly-embellished Rolling Stone piece but it’s definitely a film worth seeing — half for the characters and their development throughout the film and their quirk and half for the musical content. i got a couple pangs of nostalgia while watching, actually, remembering when i was in a band that actually seemed to have a bright future at one point, and almost wished i was back there. see this film, though; if you don’t like it or love the characters, you probably have no soul (or i just like bad movies.)

it’s Devil’s Night, which, considering my lack of rotten eggs and toilet paper rolls, means very little to me. fortunately, being in an apartment building this year reduces my chances of being a victim considerably. i’m kind of stoked on my Hallowe’en costume for tomorrow night (hint: it’s a parody) but i have no idea where Cagney and i will end up or what we’ll end up doing. hopefully we can find a party or bar function to flaunt our costumes at.

other than that, i don’t know what i can go on and on about today — work’s been steady and, aside from meeting the odd interesting person, largely the same as it always is. it does feel nice to be working over having nothing to do, however.

you wouldn’t know it by my recent post frequency, but this blog’s been on my mind a bit lately — i originally started it up at the beginning of last year with the intention of posting daily or every-other-day updates about what’s going on or about whatever i feel like ranting about that day. it seems i’ve fallen far behind on my posts, but Twitter seems to be doing a good enough job with letting people know enough of what’s going on in my life. i’ll have my website launching soon, too (i’m meeting with my very talented and accommodating designer tonight to go over a draft of the layout,) so the blog portion of that site will allow me to keep up with recent photo work that i do — it’s usually photo-related stuff that i bother to update about, anyways. so who knows; this blog might get the retirement treatment or it might stick around for posterity or to give me a venue to write about things that have nothing to do with cameras. also, i know i’ve talked about all this on here before; i just recently became aware of how much less i have to say nowadays on this blog.

regardless, i’m sure i won’t be able to bring myself to delete it, and, if i consider doing so, i’ll likely think of something to put in here just as i’m about to. hell; i’ll probably announce my website launch here (and on Twitter, and on Facebook, and on my hugely irrelevant MySpace,) so stay tuned!

as usual, i’ve been reading good ol’ Kenny’s site on a daily basis as of late, and yesterday, he posted about Nikon’s new flagship pro body, the D3s. the D3s is Nikon’s midterm release schedule update to the D3, and serves as an upgrade to the D3 to tide consumers over until the projected 2011 release of the D4.

all of this new camera glitter (and my subsequent envy over the D3s) got me thinking about the fact that, for eight hours a day during shooting season at work, there’s a D100 stuck firmly to my hand. the D100 was Nikon’s first prosumer DSLR, introduced in 2002, which, in the digital camera world, is forever ago.

the technical advances made in digital cameras since 2002 seem tremendous when you compare the specifications of cameras of today to those of seven years ago. just for kicks, here’s a brief rundown of Nikon’s newest flagship update versus the workhorse that gets my job done every day:

sensor resolution: 6.1MP vs. 12.1MP
sensor size: 16×24mm vs. 24×36mm
maximum shutter speed: 1/4000 sec. vs. 1/8000 sec.
maximum continuous frame rate: 3 FPS vs. 9 FPS
maximum ISO: 1600 vs. 102,400 (not a typo; that’s 102.4 thousand)
runs like a: tank vs. tank

in spite of the leaps and bounds Nikon’s (and everyone else’s) digital bodies make every year — nevermind in the span of seven years — the D100 cameras that we shoot thousands of images with every day do the same thing that a brand new $5000 body would do, and that’s make great images. neither camera is much good in the hands of someone who doesn’t know how to use them and, with proper application of light, either can create stunning results.

it’s amazing how much people — myself included — fawn over technical details of camera gear, which makes it easy to forget that a good photographer is a good photographer with any tool in his or her hand. some tools make the task at hand easier to do or the goal easier to achieve, yes — otherwise pro gear wouldn’t exist — but the tool doesn’t equal the skill necessary to make great images.

(note: it’s entirely possible that i lifted my entire philosophy on good image-making from Ken again, but it doesn’t make it any less true. we’re all Ken-heads at heart, let’s admit it.)

i’ve been spending most of today at my computer here at home, paging down through the grad photos that we took over the past two weeks and deleting any where a blinking subject or tehcnical error is present. sorting 40,000+ images takes longer than i’d have initially anticipated, but getting it out of the way before i sit down to burn a few hundred proof CDs is a huge timesaver when crunch time actually arrives.

other than that startling revelation, i haven’t got much to report on right now, surprisingly (i wear my life isn’t boring; there’s just not a lot of things that i’d deem blog-rant-worthy at the moment.)

this weekend, however, is the start of KW’s annual Oktoberfest celebration, the drinkathons of which i’ve never attended (save for last year’s and, presumably, this year’s ARCtoberfest to see Gran Casino, which didn’t end up and probably won’t end up being a drunken night for me, anyways.) according to the universal source of all knowledge, Oktoberfest is a 16-day festival held in Munich, Germany, and is also the world’s largest fair. KW has the world’s second largest Oktoberfest celebration and, though i don’t know what the atmosphere is like in Munich this time of year, i do know that the majority of Oktoberfest goers use the event as an excuse to pay a ticket price that’s far too high to drink overpriced beer inside of local venues and tents set up on the streets. i mean, if you’re going to take part in the festival and amend your Facebook status to reflect that, at least spell “prosit” properly.

while i’m all for something like a city-sponsored drinking event, i can’t see myself paying what a festive evening might cost, even though i like the idea of going out with people i know. i don’t know — maybe my gauge for the value of booze is slanted, being a Phil’s regular and all.

after almost 66 hours of work in Joe’s barn’s hayloft, recorded via a bird’s-eye photograph every thirty seconds, and what feels like an equal amount of time spent compiling the images into a timelapse, the video that Joe envisioned at the beginning of his hayloft construction project is finally done and is viewable here. i just got it up ont YouTube last night after several failed upload attempts (the YouTube upload page gives a maximum file size of two gigs, but the help page states one and, naturally, the help page was right.)

this small victory for the start of my stop-motion career comes at the tail end of our first week back in UW’s engineering department for grad photos. it’s been a hectic week, but i figure it’s a good sign when a fully-packed schedule on any given day feels like a normal pace now and not like the pandemonium it once seemed like. it’s Friday right now and i’m seriously craving the upcoming weekend (and the possibility of another Toronto adventure tomorrow night.) as much as my job can feel like a drag after a busy week, i still enjoy doing this. there’s not a huge glamour factor to it, really, but i figure myself to be prety lucky to be able to make my income via the industry i’m most interested in, much less with a company run by more of a friend than a boss, and with co-workers who feel more like friends than co-workers, to boot.

anyways, enjoy the video, and drop a comment on the score composer’s MySpace telling him what a great job he did.

this is my third blog in a row about interesting people i’ve met in public, and the third such instance where i haven’t had a camera on me to document the person i’ve spoken to. i swear, this blog’s getting the big fat “retired” sign soon and i’ll start up an “interesting people” project blog.

i ran into Randy at the Kitchener Goodwill today; he was trying to get the attention of store employees beyond the “employees only” point by knocking on the door in order to ask for a clothing donation — new pants, or perhaps a coat for the approaching winter. when no one answered his tapping, he turned to me and said he’s been kicked out of his home, and also out of every shelter in town.

i have no idea how old he is — from the looks of it, he could be 16 or he could be 26. i asked him why he’s been kicked out of everywhere he’s tried to stay and his answer was simple; he’s racist and he tends to cause a lot of trouble. i can honestly say i’ve never heard a firsthand admission of racism from someone so i felt inclined to ask why he’s racist. he answered me in a surprisingly matter-of-fact manner, saying that every black person he’s come across has tried to kill him, one of which actually tried to stab him with a spoon, the likes of which we both agreed isn’t the most practical way to go about trying to shank someone. i had to question him further, though, so i asked him how he’d feel towards a black person who might genuinely treat him well. he then told me that he’s only ever met one like that, and that they’re still good friends. he then admitted that he knows not all black people are bad — after all, we all know both assholes and nice people of many different races — and told me that his racist tendencies confuse even him sometimes.

after bidding him good luck, i made my way back to Cagney, who was shopping around in the clothing racks. after a little while, i ran back to the van where i’d left my phone and ran into Randy again; he was sitting outside the Goodwill doorway with his hat on the ground for spare change. it was only at this point that i decided to shake hands and ask him his name. he initially introduced himself as “Demon,” his street name (apparently he turns a little vicious when he’s blackout drunk,) and i had to dig a little more to come up with the name Randy. he’d taken his coat off to sit upon it on the sidewalk, and i could see some of his tattoos, all of which looked like homemade jobs — a cross on his upper right arm with the word “FAMILY” above it and the names of his family members around it written in a long-dead dialect of ancient Greek; a tiny heartagram on his right forearm; and the name and date of birth of his daughter on his left forearm.

after leaving the Goodwill with Cagney in tow, i mentioned, for the umpteenth time, how badly i want to start this project blog of interesting people and how regrettable it’s been for me to not have my Pen EE on me for my encounters with Paul, Bob and now Randy. i’m sure i could learn a lot and hear things from a perspective i’ve never heard from if i were to sit down for a conversation with someone like Randy for an hour. how ironic it is that i met someone today who introduced themself as Demon not an hour after passing a Jesus-fueled pro-life rally just up the street.

yesterday afternoon, Matt, Anuj and i played a little outdoor set at Waterloo Town Square with a chanteuse that Anuj has been playing guitar for for a little while named Kelly Preto. Matt and i had only spent a couple practice sessions with Anuj learning the songs and the only practice we had with Kelly was squeezed in the morning of the day of the performance, but it went pretty well, all things considered. in talking to Kelly afterwards, it was determined that Matt and i would likely join Kelly for her next performance in town, for which i hope to be a little smoother on the bass. it was en route to the jamhall yesterday, however, that i met a man named Bob.

i’d stopped at a gas station to put ten into my tank and, when i got into the cashier, a just-past-middle-age man was arguing with the clerk. he owed $20 for his gas but only had debit with which to pay. the clerk told him that their debit was down and that there are signs on all the pumps with that information. the man grew more irate as the conversation progressed, insisting that he hadn’t seen the signs. he dismissively waved at the clerk, saying that they have his license plate number and he’ll return to pay tomorrow. as he walked out of the building, the clerk said he’d have to take down the man’s information, but he continued out the door.

i don’t know why, but i followed the man out of the door and offered to loan him $20 so that he wouldn’t risk being a pump-and-run, and that he could meet up with me the next day to pay me back. he was a little taken aback at my offer, but accepted with an excess of appreciative words and gestures, and gave me a $10 he had on him.

for all i knew, this guy could’ve very well never gotten back to me, but he did so today and i met with him at a Tim Hortons where he thanked me again and gave me the rest of what he owed me. he was still astounded that i’d done something so selfless (which isn’t a point of bragging for me — i just up and helped the dude when he was in a bind) and i was almost as pleasantly surprised that he’d been honest in following through with dilligently paying me back. at the end of our short talk today, he drove away knowing that im a photographer and i drove away knowing that he has grandchildren whose pictures need to be taken; i thusly promised to give him a call when my cards are ready (the revised design concepts of which i had a look at today, and they look smashing.)

business points aside, i drove away feeling like i’d done something good for someone who decided to be honest instead of take advantage, and for that, i feel reassured of the good in people. at the risk of sounding too sunshine-and-rainbows, i’d like to point out that i still know plenty of asshats, but they’re best laughed off instead of focused on.

between this post and my last one about Paul, part of me thinks that i should retire this blog once i get my website and associated blog up and running and use that blog for photo-related posts, and start another WordPress blog about interesting people i meet. after all, no one really needs a continuous feed of what’s going on in my life. oh, wait …

this past Sunday, Mel paid Cagney and i one more visit before going back to hell Hamilton to lock into school mode. we got some bubble tea at Sweet Dreams, which was excellent as always and which we drank over a game of Connect 4, then we took a stroll through Waterloo Park. this thrilled me because, well — seeing alpacas and zebus always thrills me.

what made my day in a way, however, was a man named Paul. as the three of us walked by a seemingly vacant bunny pen, an open-shirted man sitting on a nearby bench and holding an old guitar said to me, out of nowhere, “you look like you like Bob Dylan.” this startled me at first, since i thought he said i look like Bob Dylan, but it made much more sense when he repeated himself. i affirmed that yes, i do indeed enjoy Dylan. so he put down his smoke and started playing on his guitar and singing Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.

tastes in Dylan songs aside, i found it amazing that this man played Bob Dylan for us, seemingly out of nowhere. after he was done, he arranged his two ceramic bunny rabbits inside of his open guitar case (it makes about as much sense to you as it did to me at the time) and then walked over and introduced himself as Paul. after returning his handshake, i told him that my name is Aaron, to which he remarked that i’m in the New Testament and he’s in the Old. it took me a second — what with my limited biblical knowledge and all — to clue in that he was talking about our names. he then shook Cagney’s and Mel’s hands and then bid us a good day when we said we had to move along.

this all happened completely out of the blue, and i could understand it seeming creepy at first glance, but i was actually really happy to have that sort of genuinely random and pleasant exchange with a complete stranger. as we moved along through the park, i instantly regretted not having my Pen EE on me, and vowed to take it with me the next time i go for a stroll. hopefully i’ll get to meet and maybe photograph someone unique on the streets or in the park next time.

i had my first day of “work” today after what ended up being a five-day Labour Day weekend for me — Joe and i spent the day in his hay loft again, finishing up laying laminate flooring, moving furniture and filing cabinets around and basically kicking up more dust than my allergies appreciated me taking in. if only i were allergy-free, i’m sure i could stand being more of a country boy of sorts, in theory. then again, mine and Cagney’s drive to Toronto yesterday made me feel as though i could never permanently live in a city that size, so i suppose i’m best relegated to a moderately-populated town where i can live inside a hermetically-sealed bubble.

Toronto was a nice way to spend a Tuesday off together and i always enjoy walking around Queen or Dundas or wherever we happen to land that day, but if i somehow found myself residing there, i don’t think i’d bother to own a vehicle if i could at all get away with being without one. finding parking in downtown Toronto, coupled with driving through the core of the city during rush hour, are complete mood-ruiners. not to sound like a complete nancy (with which i think i did a good enough job in complaining about my body’s aversion to nature in general this time of year) but in getting from Yonge and Dundas to beyond the traffic blockage on the 401, i almost yelled “go go Gadget wheels” at my van. fortunately, Cagney brought one of her Modest Mouse CDs for the van ride, and i’m starting to think it’s physically impossible to be angry while listening to Modest Mouse.

one highlight of our shopping expedition for me, aside from finding a fall jacket at Forever 21 that fits me like a glove, was finding a Lumix LX3 to play with. i’ve wanted to get my hands on one to try it out for awhile and, even though the battery in the one i played with in the shop we walked into had only a few seconds of juice left in it, i was actually more impressed with it than i thought i’d be, for more reasons than its light yet still substantial weight.

i’ve probably ranted about this little compact before in previous posts (i’m too lazy to check, really,) but its 24-60mm f/2-2.8 equivalent lens is what sets it heads and tails above other point-and-shoots. other compact cameras exist that zoom out to 24mm, but at a slower maximum aperture, and Canon’s new S90 goes to f/2 at the wide end, but can only hit a 28mm equivalent. plus every Panasonic Lumix compact camera has the luxury of being equipped with Leica optics. Leica themselves also have a version of this camera in the form of the D-LUX 4, but, seeing as a logo reading “Leica” is the camera equivlent of branding a car with the word “Bentley,” it’s a touch more expensive.

as far as a future camera purchase goes, i feel comfortable saving a few shekels by letting Panasonic deal with the manufacture of my camera’s digital guts, as long as Leica’s fantastic glass still sits on the front.

anyways, i’ve done it again. i write so few blogs nowadays and each one seems to reek of camera nerdery. i’ll do my best to not mention the superb LX3 again (or link to it) until i get my hands on one, at which point i’ll surely adorn my blog with images from it. really, what else is to be expected of me?