aaron schwab

again, it’s been a few days; apologies to my audience.

a couple days ago, i went to the movies with Cagney, Anuj and Shanna to see the new Star Trek movie, the likes of which Anuj and Shanna had seen previously. the fact that they were willing to go see it a second time in theatres hinted to me that it must be good, although i walked out of the theatre at the end dismissing my initial understatement; this movie is absolutely fantastic. i actually thought it to be better than The Dark Knight, which i thought — and still think — is close to a perfect movie.

i’ve had little, if any, exposure to the original Star Trek TV series from the 1960s, and only marginal childhood exposure to The Next Generation, and i haven’t seen any of the older movies whatsoever. with the new movie, however, no prior knowledge of the franchise is necessary to understand the characters or plotline, as everything is explained from scratch without any presumptions. knowledge of prior events, such as actors who played certain roles in earlier incarnations of the franchise, is helpful on the basis of novelty.

as is the case with most science fiction movies, my suspension of disbelief was turned up to maximum capacity, but even so, i had to marvel at how the surfaces of several different planets, as well as the space in the upper atmosphere of one of them, were conveniently supportive of human (or Vulcan) life. i suppose that could easily be answered by saying the planets featured in the film are likely among the few in the reachable universe that have been deemed capable of supporting life in a similar capacity as earth, but it still got a bit of a raised eyebrow from me.

yesterday was a bit of a low-key band practice for Anuj and i only, as Kyle is away on tour with Broadcast Zero, from which he’ll be returning in July. even so, we managed to write a couple new riffs together, which surprised me, since i generally benefit largely from the presence of a drummer. before leaving the hall, we jammed through one of our completed songs, for which i played drums (and by “drums,” i mean “the one snare and floor tom that Kyle left behind.” needless to say there was a lot of tapping on the rim of either drum to substitute for a ride.) then last night, since Cagney and i seem to enjoy Anuj and Shanna’s company for movies so much, we had them over for two thirds of a Back To The Future trilogy marathon. unlike 24 hours ago, i can now say i’ve seen the original Back To The Future, and i can also say i understand several one-liners i’ve heard used in casual conversation that previously flew over my head (“great Scott!” comes to mind.) Cagney and i had to be up early this morning for this year’s JDRF walk, but we’ll fit the third movie into our schedules sometime soon, hopefully. also, props to the homemade cookies that Shanna brought over.

as for right now, Cagney’s out for lunch with an old highschool friend, and i need to pay our rent adn go pick up some beer for Andrew’s barbecue tonight. plus it’s too nice out to sit inside; maybe i’ll go find a bench to read on.

it seems to have been another full week since my last blog. i really have to get of this trend of neglecting my ranting and raving about daily life (the whole insomnia-driven fatigue thing hasn’t helped either, which is a funk i need to get out of before grad shooting kicks into high gear next week.)

fortunately for me, the only major event to catch my blog up on is this past weekend’s journey up to the north end of Lake Simcoe for a couple evenings at Dan’s cottage. trips to Dan’s cottage have become somewhat of a tradition among Chris, Dan, Matt, Tim, et al, but this year’s first time up was my first time going overall, and i was glad to have Cagney come with me. several people went up on Friday evening, but Cagney and i got there Saturday night, although we, and a few others, had the advantage of being able to stay until Monday.

as for the cottage experience itself, it actually was everything i thought it was, and then some. i could probably go on and on about it, but suffice to say the weekend involved alot of beer, much of Dan’s awesome hospitality in terms of accomodations and steaks on the barbecue, a canoe trip through the lake’s clear waters and up and down a murky creek, exhaustive amounts of trampolining, insects, Yahtzee and Apples to Apples, and a Monday morning wherein i woke up on a wet towel with the previous evening’s clothes in a wet pile beside me and me still having no idea how i got wet when i went to bed dry (i’m still new to alcohol, apparently.) i’m absolutely stoked to go up again, which’ll likely happen sometime in July. i believe one of the proposed notions for the next cottage weekend is to canoe out to one of the islands that we could see from the shore at Dan’s cottage, so we’ll see how that ends up going. leaving Dan’s cottage was kind of hard to will myself to do, as i’m sure was the case with everyone else; perfect weather, great company and crystal-clear water and fresh air are difficult things to give up for the city, but we’ll all be back soon.

on what turned out to be our rather circuitous way back to KW, Dan and Melissa led Cagney, Matt and myself into a town called Rama, which is by Orillia and is known for its casino and indian population, where we stopped to get a bite of breakfast and shop for moccasins. i’ve wanted to own a really nice pair of moccasins for a long time now, and i found a brown deerskin pair that fit me perfectly, so i got them. they’ve got rubber soles, which steers them slightly away from feeling authentic, but i can comfortably wear them outside, for what will probably amount to a very long time, if the durability of “legit” moccasins is what i hear it is.

on a completely different subject, training for this year’s grad photo season at Joe’s place with Justin and Brandon has been going swimmingly; it’s ahrd for me to believe that we’ve been at this for a total of almost three weeks now, and i’m excited to get back into the shooting groove at UW engineering next week and to see Justin and Brandon apply what they’ve learned in training to actual grad sessions. looking back on the past two years that i’ve worked with Joe, it’s interesting to think that i’ve gone from mopping 7000 square feet of greasy, oily factory floor outside of his old studio to assisting in grad photo sessions to shooting them to being in a position where i can help teach new people about the dynamics of shooting them. not to brag, but there’s a bit of a feeling of pride in knowing i’ve advanced in such a way.

while i’m on the topic of cameras and coworkers, i had the chance to try a couple pieces of equipment i hadn’t touched before; Brandon brought his 105mm f/2.8 VR macro lens to Joe’s place today, and Mary, who sat in as a grad photo session test subject, brought her Rebel XTi with a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 macro lens so that she could be photographed with her own camera during her test sessions.

Brandon’s 105.2.8 macro (or “Micro,” as Nikon likes to brand it) is, by far, the sharpest and fastest focusing lens i’ve ever used. the detail that its glass pulls in is unparalled to anything i’ve seen elsewhere when i used it on Joe’s D300 body, and its autofocus is razor sharp and disgustingly quick, especially when compared to my 55/2.8 AF macro (the likes of which i still love.) i can easily see myself picking one up for macro and portrait work, especially after i own an FX body.

not to poopoo Mary’s choice of photographic equipment, but after playing with her Canon-made camera body and Tamron-made lens for five minutes, i found myself craving the feel and function of Nikon equipment. the Rebel XTi’s body fails to do everything a Nikon does well: its handgrip isn’t suited to the curvature of the hand as well as a Nikon’s is, its menus are convoluted and confusing, the controls and functions don’t simply fall under the right fingers when you pick the camera up and i found myself having to search for and press weird combinations of buttons to do things as simple as change my autofocus sensor area, ISO or aperture. mind you, i’m probably a little inherently biased, as Nikon comes as second nature to me because i’m so used to it, but i still can’t get over Canon’s questionable ergonomics. i half-jokingly found myself grasping onto the nearest D300 body to relieve the feeling of having held a Canon body. mind you, people experienced in the mechanics of Canon cameras would probably think my complaining is overly dramatic, but i’d still rather hold a sculpture than a robot. the Tamron lens almost writes itself off by being made by Tamron; weird zoom range, awkward to hold and equipped with a focus ring that turns itself around during autofocusing, much like the focus rings on Nikon’s 90s-era AF-D lenses. in this day and age of Nikon’s AF-S lenses with instant manual focus override, it feels odd to fele the focus ring rotate upon autofocus, but i even find that detail more acceptable on a Nikon lens barrel than on a Tamron (but then again, there’s that staunch brand lowalty of mine creeping into my opinions.)

now that i’m done my umpteenth rant about camera tech stuff, i think i’m going to go make a salad and watch the rest of 28 Days Later, now that the construction workers are done jackhammering through balcony concrete for the day.

man, i’m getting bad at this. i suppose things lately have been all “do, do, do,” and very little “sit down and recount it.” realistically, i can only talk about work training or our building’s jackhammer-heavy renovation so many times. at least Cagney and i got away to Stratford this past weekend (which was the official May 2-4 weekend, even though this upcoming weekend features the actual 24th of May) to attend Candice and Josh’s wedding reception. their actual wedding ceremony was held on Montréal the week before, but the reception was in Stratford for the sake of the people who couldn’t make it to the ceremony, which i believe was most people. it was a fun time, what with the open bar and buffet, both which served to fill me up to uncomforatable degrees, but i’ve learned to gorge in the presence of free food now that Cagney and i are on our own food budget. as with most things i go to, my camera came with me, and some of my finer results from the evening can be seen on Facebook here. with all of the event photos i upload to Facebook, one would think my own website would come in right handy.

speaking of that, i’ve been talking to a web designer about crafting a clean, concise and sharp-looking site design for myself — i’m totally stoked because, once the design is done, all i need to do is learn how to update it myself, pay for the desgin and for web hosting and then plaster information about its release all over the interweb (and get business cards made up so i can legitimately say “here’s my card” before tipping my fedora to a potential client. on a side note, i presently own a fedora — one that actually fits me — and it brings me joy that i’ve finally found one that works on my head.)

one component about my to-be website that i’m excited about, in spite of my recent blogging habits, is the inclusion of a blog. i’ll have a portfolio gallery on my website to act as the first element of the site people see, and it’ll likely feature a collection of my best work from the past six or eight or however many months. the blog, however, will act as a log of what i’ve been up to on a much more frequent basis. in other words, the portfolio gallery will act as the internet version of a leather-bound portfolio album i might show to someone, whereas the blog is like me inviting someone into my living room to have a seat to look at and discuss photos. whether or not my website’s blog will force me to retire using this one regularly, i’ll keep this one up for posterity’s sake, and maybe for the occasional rant that doesn’t align with photo-centric discussion.

on that note, i’ve got a bed to swan dive into if i’m to be lucid enough to continue training Justin and Brandon in the subtle and nuanced art of Newschool’s grad photography.

but seriously; i own a fedora that actually fits me. i feel so fly.

it’s a beautiful day today; the sun is shining, the mercury is well into the mid-twenties and the building restoration company that’s been contracted to give the front of our highrise building a facelift has been sawing through concrete and rebar since eight this morning, and they’re scheduled to do so for the next two-plus months.

suffice to say it sounds like it’s raining slabs of concrete in our apartment. as such, i’m wearing earplugs and have my music cranked loud enough to override the work outside. to make matters worse, Zipper seems to be terrified of the noise when it starts every morning. also, my earplugs, while effective at cutting noise levels, have these massively uncomfortable rubber ridges. but, so it goes. it makes for less of an excuse to sleep in and therefore get more work done, i guess.

in other exciting news, i dropped by the City of Waterloo’s small business office and then emailed a web designer whose work i like in hopes of kickstarting my photography website-slash-general internet homebase. i think it would be awesome to have a photo-related blog on my own domain, which leaves me wondering what’ll happen with this blog — whether i’ll keep it around for the occasional informal rant or if i’ll retire it or whatnot. time and necessity will tell, i suppose.

anyways, i should get off of here so that i can toss some laundry into the machines and then get editing my face off — it’ll feel good to get through my pile of pending editing work so that i can have a clean slate for the next shoot i do.

not so much; i was playing peek-a-boo with Zipper today and i managed to bash the side of my knee into the kitchen doorframe. this, along with multiple past instances of bumping heads with Cagney (literally,) does little to convince me that i’m not spatially-retarded.

aside from having a sore leg to ice tonight, it’s been a pretty low-key evening. i got home from Joe’s after a fourth straight day of tweaking my touch-up skills at his place, then Cagney went and made me supper after i picked her up from work. after having a couple of beers together while i ate, we both kind of crashed; she had an extra-long day today, plus we’re both pretty burned out from the week. i don’t know what it is, but i’ve been getting more sleep lately than i used to, and i still have days where i feel like nodding off midway through the day. i guess i could always get more sleep, but hopefully i’ll be able to tomorrow morning.

actually, that’s likely not going to happen; after Cagney goes to work, i have to take Candice’s cat over to hers and Chris’ new place to swap him for our old dinette set which is going back to Cagney’s folks’ place in Stratford, get a new litter pan so Zipper has someplace besides the rug to poo, get a Mother’s Day card (which is something i’d encourage anyone with a mother or mother-type character in their life to do,) possibly meet with a bride and groom to discuss photographing their September wedding, do some light housework and make it to dinner at my parents’ place after Cagney gets off work. after all that’s done, we’re heading off to Stratford to spend the other half of the Mother’s Day weekend with her family.

all of this family- and household- and girlfriend-oriented stuff has me occasionally thinking of the term “domestication” and what it’s always meant to me. i always thought that being overly-domesticated meant being a typical white-picket-fence, nine-to-five, white-collar, uncreative, aspirationless automaton, but then i got to thinking; if i have a place that i’m sharing with my girlfriend and i don’t want to become the lazy boyfriend who’s going nowhere in life and does nothing to help out in the relationship, then it only stands to reason that i do as much as i can to take care of my dwelling, as well as all of the responsibilities that come with it. sure, i feel a little like a standard housewife when i spend an afternoon on the weekend washing dishes and vacuuming in between loads of laundry, but in no way does that have to lead to the nine-to-five lifestyle that i dread ever falling into. and at the rate i’m going, such a lifestyle seems unlikely — the very nature of my job pulls me in directions far from it. it’s a comforting thought to be confident in one’s domestic abilities without fearing becoming “typical,” for lack of a better generalization. after all, if myself and Cagney have an apartment to take care of, why not try to do it right?

ah, it’s been awhile since i’ve had a good epiphany just come to me without feeling like i’m choking over every word i type. lately, i’ve felt that there’s less and less to blog about, and not because my life is grinding to a halt — i still feel very busy, on the whole, and i still like to think i fill my days with (mostly) productive activities, but it feels difficult and almost pointless to sit down and blog when the only real revelation is “everything is going the same as it was before, and that’s just dandy,” and that’s not even a revelation to speak of.

however, in talking about the wonderful future with Joe today, i got some ideas for how i want to run my website when i finally launch it. essentially, i want simplicity in the form of black text on white; a contact page, a portfolio gallery that i can overhaul completely every few months with samples of my finest work and a blog. at first glance, having a blog on my photography site might seem redundant in light of this blog here, but it makes sense; it would be a way for me to give updates of what i’ve been up to every few days or every week, which i feel will be crucial for keeping my site current and relevant as time passes. i’ll have the aforementioned portfolio gallery, but i’ll likely only update that every few months — maybe only two or three times a year, even — with the best of my best work; the blog would allow me to literally say “here’s what i’ve been doing lately,” or “here’s my favourite photo from yesterday’s shoot and here’s how it went.”

having a blog on my photography website would not only encourage me to use my camera and make interesting images as often as possible, but it would alleviate the pressure of keeping this one up to date within two or three days. i almost like the idea of updating a blog once a week with a purpose and something to show instead of talking about mundane details of my day just for the sake of having something to write every other day. as for this blog, i don’t know what i’ll do — either keep it active for personal rants, raves and bones to pick that aren’t related to my photo work, or formally stop writing in it, stikcy the top post with a link to my website and leave it online for archive’s (and posterity’s) sake.

either way, i’m excited to get my website up and running, which i’ll do after i talk to a particular web design and web hosting company i’m familiar with, which i’ll do once i register myself as a business and potentially calling myself “Aaron Schwab’s Photographic Expressions Of Unicorns,” as per Joe’s suggestion. man, i spend too much time with my “boss.”

okay, so yesterday was Star Wars Day, but i was too busy cranking out edited images for work, so i didn’t get a chance to write a celebratory blog. the fact that it was May the fourth yesterday only dawned on me as Cagney and i were strolling down Queen Street in Toronto; we decided to make a day out of thrift shopping yesterday, and we’ve pretty much exhausted our options for buying quality used goods in KW.

we started out at the east end of Queen Street, at a Value Village that had been recommended to Cagney by her boss. sadly, it didn’t yield many gems in the way of clothing, but we did pick up a couple movies on VHS for $3 apiece. after that, we made a day of driving down the length Queen Street, periodically finding parking so we could walk around and poke our heads into some of the different shops.

i don’t know what it is about Queen Street in Toronto, but it feels like you could spend a few days on end walking up and down it without getting bored. maybe i’m lacking in exploration experience, but some of the coolest shops i’ve been into are on that street, including Marty Millionaire. please don’t let the hilariously outdated website design fool you; after squeezing my way through makeshift aisles of used and “damaged new” furniture and seeing some of the home décor that Marty has kicking around, i’m convinced that i want to own a house someday, if only so i can furnish it with things from this store (i’m pretty sure Cagney coined this notion yesterday, so props to her interior design ambition.) the fact that many of the items for sale and rent there have been used in the production of major motion pictures ups the cool factor of the store and its proprietor considerably. Cagney and i aren’t funded nearly well enough to deck our apartment out with Marty’s home furnishings, but we did walk away with two very reasonably-priced sets of square- and oval-shaped stacking shelves.

after striking minor gold at Marty’s, we walked around some more, got street meat for lunch and exhibited awe at how many antique, thrift and pawn shops there are in Toronto. we only checked out one pawn shop, and i’m pretty sure we would’ve been hard-pressed to peek into a worse one. i spotted an old Nikon Pronea S APS film camera in the window of it, so i went inside to ask the shopkeeper to see it. i know i’d be hard-pressed to actually come across any APS film, but i figured i’d give it a shot, so i offered the guy $25. after a brisk “no,” and an explanation to check eBay or the Salvation Army if i want that price, i asked what he’d want for it, to which he replied by telling me i’m not worth his store if i’m going to offer $25 for it. all this for a camera that goes for less than $12 on eBay, and from a guy who smokes around his cobweb-covered merchandise. somehow, i’m turned off of Toronto pawn shops for the time being.

today was another day of brushing up on photo editing skills for print orders at Joe’s place with Laurel. the same thing is going on tomorrow and Thursday, so i won’t have a computer at home, and far be it from me to mooch Cagney’s laptop too excessively. hopefully something blog-worthy will come up between now and then; if not, i’ll just keep Twittering my life’s mundane/amusing details.

(side note before i sod off for the night: one might say that blogging about one’s personal life is out of date to a degree with the advent of Twitter, but i think i can justify keeping this one going for the sake of my life’s happenings that can’t be explained in 140 characters or less. Twitter, though very useful and kind of neat, can act as a blogging system for people who don’t have the patience to elaborate on events in their life, or have little to say but say it often. this obviously doesn’t apply to everyone on Twitter, but y’know; just saying.)

tonight’s finals round of the 2009 ARC battle marks the end of a competition that’s spanned five months, eleven show dates and several hours of nine of my last eleven Friday nights. it was nice to be on the judging side of the stage for once, though; after havings bands i was once in enter the battle between 2005 and 2008, i felt alright about not having a band up and ready enough to compete since i still got to participate in one of the largest annual events in the local music scene (although some of the dates’ audience turnouts might argue that statistic.) Path Of Obliteration took the winning spot tonight, and my personal favourites, Life Like Rockets, placed second (which isn’t bad for a pop punk band playing a show where the majority of the crowd was rooting in favour of a metalcore or hair-windmilling band.)

in other recent exciting news, i’m starting to worry about exactly how scatterbrained i actually am; while shooting new promotional photos for Set Anchors two days ago, i accidentally stepped on my flash’s diffusion dome when i took it off and set it on the rooftop we were all standing on, and then i showed up to pick Cagney up at her work all of two hours before quittin’ time yesterday. i couldn’t help but facepalm at myself when i walked in with a spring in my step only to see the giant wall clock behind the counter telling me that it was indeed only 5:00. but at least i got back home in time to get the laundry out of the dryer, so no major casualties were suffered in the end.

i’m going to keep this update short because i should probably go to bed; i have what might just amount to a shitload of adventure to behold tomorrow, after which i’m sure i’ll have a tale or two to recount.