.The.Dirty.Shore.Media: New Video

Hey guys check out my latest video which includes footage I have filmed within the fall season at local skateparks!

Filmed By: Graeme Leung
Additional Filming By: Daniel Johnston & Caleb Jamieson
Edited By: Graeme Leung
Featuring: 
Graeme Leung
Billy Ng
Jason Riley
Derrick Flocka
Adam Riviglia
Justin Oakley
Justin David
David Woodley
Brandon Murray
Noah Tynes

Photography Assignment: High Dynamic Range Imaging

Here are the final works that I have created for this photography assignment, I love shooting imagery whether it is video or photography, and this assignment has let me try out one of my all time favourite techniques.

The first time I ever saw an HDR photo was when i was doing a photography technique assignment in grade 9, and have wanted to try it since.The concept of my idea is about skateboarders and how skateboarding has changed their perception of the outside world. HDR Photography works well with this concept because it really brings out every detail in the image and makes the colours almost surreal looking. Because when they average person looks a ledge or a flight of stairs, that's all they see.

I got tips from Tylyr Lenc, a photographer and former CyberARTS student. He also shoots HDR photography.

.Underpass.

Underpass skatepark, otherwise known as Don Valley skatepark, was built in July 2012, and has been the late night training ground for local Toronto skateboarders ever since. It is a more simple, metal skatepark, but designed with a lot of flow. Its shelter from rain and snow, and the fact that its lights remain on all through the night, make Underpass the best place to skate for free when there is nowhere else to go. This park is filled with low boxes and flatbars which create the perfect learning environment to get comfortable with complex tricks before taking them to larger obstacles. Underpass is now seen as one of the most core skateparks in Toronto.

Due to hurricane Sandy, falling debris had severed the main light source on the skatepark, But the coloured lights connected underground remained lit. this created very little light for skateboarding, but also helped created the image above! because it was so dark I shot 3 long exposure shots at different exposures to create the final image. I love how the coloured lights can also related to the Rogers centre and CN Tower, that also have large displays of colour changing light. This ties Underpass right into the Toronto night life. The steel structures holding up the DVP, create leading lines that pull your eyes into the skatepark itself which is positions behind the first row of columns.

The main lights have been fixed and activity at Underpass has continued ever since.

Sorry for the glitches in the video the edit was created as a quick clip of the day and i forgot to check export settings.

.Courthouse.Ledges.

Located in a path between city hall and the courthouses downtown, this unmarked territory creates a perfect warmup spot for local skateboarders. The courthouse ledges consist of 2 average hight ledges with literally the smoothest ground in all of the downtown area. This long pathway provides room for doing flat ground tricks as well as a flat ledge and another ledge that  slowly goes higher to about upper thigh hight. The grindable areas are around 20 feet long each and never seem to need any wax. They always slide perfectly. The courthouse ledges are also located right in the middle of all of the other downtown spots and is the idea place to warm up and meet up with other skaters.

I had to work fast at this spot, because of the other skateboarders warming up or filming tricks on these two ledges. The skateboarder in this photo(Brandon Murray), is messaging another filmer to come  along with us to get second angles. This is the very first spot that I go to whenever I am downtown.

All of the footage I have shot at this spot is being saved for a full length video hopefuly coming out by the end of next fall. But here is a COTD from Erick Valentic, a very good filmer who is well known all across North America.

.8th.Street.

8th Street skatepark, was built in July, 2011. After 11 years of hard work and planning the location was finally decided. This skatepark is home to many skateboarders in the etobicoke community and is a popular hangout spot for local LCI Students. The park offers a large variety of different styled obstacles to cater the needs of all different styles of skateboarders ranging from stairs, handrails,  different sized ledges and even a bowl that replicates a famous pool in California.

 

Daily Create Blog Assignment: Jesse's Drawing

For this assignment i decided to create a photograph that emphasized one colour over any other. As you can see, everything in this photo has a warm hue to it. The pencil is gold, the desk is a faded yellow, and even in the hand are little traces of yellow and pink. I shot this with High Dynamic range to really bring out the detail in the pencil and drawing. 

I wanted to make the pen be the focal point of the piece and did this in a number of ways. When shooting, I made sure i shot with a wide aperture of f/4(This is the widest aperture the  camera would go) to make everything but the pencil and drawing out of focus. I also decreased the saturation of the surrounding objects with the selection tool in photoshop. Then the last thing I did was crop the photo so that the pencil would be closer to the rule of thirds because i was more focused on shooting this quickly so Jesse could continue drawing.

Individual Photography Assignment: HDR Process

In this assignment we were assigned to create a series of photographs using a photography technique that we were interested in. I have always been a fan of HDR(High Dynamic Range) photographs so i decided to pick that for this assignment. 

What is HDR?

The average camera only has a dynamic range of about 5-7 F-stops, while the human eye can see around 10-14 at a single time. This is why some photographs look flatter and duller than if we were to see the scene with our own eyes. We can achieve this same effect using the HDR. HDR is taking 3 or more photos of the exact same scene, but at different exposures (1 Normal, 1 overexposed, 1 underexposed. Then when combining them it creates a high dynamic range image that gives it a lot more depth.

I chose to shoot photos of different skate spots in toronto and what skateboarders see vs what the average human sees. A normal person might see a bench or a flight of stairs but a skaters mind is adapted to see the spot differently. Our minds automatically start creating spots in our heads and the possibilities of tricks that could be done down it.  I chose HDR for this because it shows what we see instead of the average person. Something vivid and exciting. I will be shooting photos around Toronto of the spots that have influenced my skating style the most. This includes different photos such as skateparks a well as skatespots. 

I had first come across HDR when I was given an assignment to research a photography technique back in grade 9. 

Here are 2 Photos that i took of my backyard and a wall of tv's in our school. 

Animated GIF

Career Infographic

Weekly Blog Post: Long Exposure Photography

I was on my youtube home page the other day and saw a tutorial for long exposure photography. I had figured it would be something like this.  

These photos are really great. I love working with light and shadow to create sort of surreal environments. The tutorial was on long exposure photography with absolutely no light. These images almost remind me of HDRI's. Here are some examples of Long exposure photography without lights.

I want to take out a tripod sometime and try to create some images similar to ones above. I would suspect they used a high aperture rating like f/22 or f/32 with a shutter speed of maybe around a minute or two. This is the tutorial that i saw.

Weekly Blog Post: Shadows

I saw this video a little while ago. It's basically a video of some basic skateboarding tricks but instead of filming the person, they have filmed their shadows instead. It seems rather confusing at first but once you start watching it for a couple of seconds your eyes will adjust. I love the amount of creativity in this. The amazing colours from the sun that reflect off of the pavement, mixed with the distortion of the figure and a mysterious song Give it a dream like state. We cast a shadow almost all of the time yet we never seem to realize its beauty. This video has inspired me to be more observant in hopes of finding more creative angles when I'm out filming. I would love to create a video of my own with something like this.

Chair Design: The Rest

DIY Lighting For Video

This are some simple tips for creating a professional looking video without spending to much money. One thing to be careful of is the colour temperature which are measured in kelvin.