The Distillery District

Toronto’s famous Distillery District, with its cobblestone streets, is a collection of buildings that date back to the 1860’s that once housed the Gooderham & Worts whiskey distillery. The distillery closed down in the 1990’s and was repurposed to become a very popular location for art lovers, restaurants, bars, and boutiques.

During a recent visit to Toronto I decided to make a quick stop and grab a few photos of elements that caught my eye. Here are a few of the scenes that I photographed. In order to capture images void of pedestrians I utilized a 10-stop ND filter for exposures of 30 seconds. By doing so, the people moving through the scene would not be registered by the camera sensor, thus the street would appear abandoned 🙂

 

Read Full Post »

Rusty Old Wrecks – Teaching Moment Photographic Workshop

 

Join me on Saturday November 3, 2018 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. for a Rusty Old Wrecks Teaching Moment Photographic Workshop being held at McClean’s Auto Wreckers, near Milton, Ontario. Whether you are relatively new to photography or looking for instruction to fine tune your craft this 4 hour workshop provides excellent subject matter with acres of old dilapidated cars and trucks to chose from. You will learn everything from the basics of good composition, using filters, focusing on details, and the benefits of HDR photography. The cost of this workshop is $65 plus HST and must be paid in advance of the workshop date.

To reserve your spot and to arrange payment please contacting me by clicking here. Payment may be made by email transfer or by cheque made payable to Andrew McLachlan. The maximum number of participants for this event is 10. This workshop will run rain, shine, or snow.

Cancellation Policy:

There are no refunds for Teaching Moment Photographic Workshops. If you are unable to attend you will receive credit in the amount paid for a future Teaching Moment Photographic Workshop.

About Teaching Moment Photographic Workshops:

Teaching Moment Photographic Workshops are inexpensive, half day sessions that give back! Just how will they give back – for every 5 Teaching Moment Photographic Workshops that you attend you will receive a $50 (Canadian currency) voucher redeemable on any future workshop that you attend.

Read Full Post »

Simplified Grunge Processing

Rusty Old Wreck Interior
Nikon D800, Laowa 12mm Zero D Lens

Without a doubt rusty old dilapidated automobiles look great with a touch of grunge processing added to them. On Thursday June 21st I visited a nearby auto wrecker to photograph several old abandoned cars and trucks. I was quite fascinated by the state of decay inside this particular old car.  Using my amazingly wide and razor sharp Laowa 12mm Zero D Lens on my Nikon D800 I set out to create this extreme wide angle, interior view. The above image was created from one RAW image file. In Adobe Camera Raw I made adjustments to the Clarity, Contrast, Shadow, and Highlights slider and also tweaked the Vibrance slider as well. I then opened the image into Photoshop CC and went straight for my Nik Color Efex Filters to apply my simplified grunge processing technique. First a treatment of Detail Extractor was applied, which in Photoshop I reduced the opacity of the layer to roughly 70%. Secondly I applied a touch of Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast filter. I then saved the image as an 8-bit TIFF and created my watermarked low-res JPEG for web use. I spent no more than 10 minutes on optimizing this image using the two NIK filters for a simplified, but incredibly effective grunge look.

 

WORKSHOP NOTES:

I was pleased to sign up 3 additional participants for the Lake Superior Wild & Scenic Photography Retreat in October over the last couple of weeks. There is now only 1 spot available.

Read Full Post »

Fire Engine Red

Old Fire Engine – Topaz Detail

 

This afternoon while on my way home from running a few errands in Barrie, Ontario I decided to take one of the backroads home, and am so glad I did as I came across a wonderful old fire engine parked beside a lovely grouping of blue spruce trees. We had a very light dusting of snow last night as well, which helped add another element of interest to the scene. After creating a few quick images I rushed home to play around with the images in some of the various Topaz Labs plug-ins that I have. Above is a quasi-grunge version using Topaz Detail. Below are two alternate renderings using Topaz Impressions and Topaz Black & White Effects 2.

Please remember to click on each of the images to see the larger, sharper versions. Which artistic rendering do you prefer most?

I have decided to change the way I post images to the blog for the coming year. I will go into more detail on what prompted the change soon.

Old Fire Engine – Topaz Impression

Old Fire Engine – Topaz Black & White Effects 2

Read Full Post »

An Ontario Summer Scene

Old GMC Truck in Field. Nikon D800, Nikon 18-35mm lens, ISO 400, f8 @ 1/40, polarizing filter

I have been rather busy over the course of the last week but thought I would share this typical summer scene that I created last weekend. It is now the season where folks can buy corn from local farmers as they set-up stands along the smaller two-lane highways. I have always loved this particular farmer’s ‘advertising billboard’; a rusty old wreck at the edge of the field with the Canadian flag flying proud.

To process this image I utilized Nik Software’s Detail Extractor filter, but only on the truck so that the rest of the scene would take on too much of a grungy-look. I made some final tweaks with Nik Software’s Viveza 2.

Please click on the image to see the larger, sharper version.

Don’t forget to check out the August issue of the Creative Photography eMini-Magazine, This magazine is published on a monthly basis by Denise Ippolito and subscriptions to the magazine are free.

Read Full Post »

Rotten Old Vessel

 

While vacationing in the Cayman Islands, on the island of Cayman Brac I often passed this old wooden boat along the road on the south side of the island. I could not help myself but to create a low perspective, wide angle composition that I could bring home to play around with for that grungy look. After making the required tweaks in ACR and performing a bit of image clean-up for dust bunnies and such I opened the image in Nik / Google’s Color Efex 4 and selected the Detail Extractor tool. Using a heavy hand I enhanced the detail to a slightly grunge look and applied the results. Next I opened the image a second time the exact same way to apply the Detail Extractor Tool a second time. This is my lazy-HDR technique when I am seeking that grungy effect. I often use this technique for my Rusty Old Wrecks gallery, which is on my Smugmug page. Please do click here to view this gallery too.

Read Full Post »

Happy New Year!

Abandoned Tractor in Winter

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I thought I would ring-in the new year with grunged rendition of an old abandoned tractor that sits at the end of a laneway on a nearby farm. To grunge the tractor I made a selection of the tractor using the quick selection tool in Photoshop CS6 and then hit it with a double-shot of Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro Detail Extractor.

 

Read Full Post »

Lucky 13 – Looking Back on 2013

Sunrise on the Agawa River in Ontario’s Lake Superior Provincial Park

This year I decided to come up with a ‘baker’s dozen’ of favorite photographs that I created over the past twelve months. It was difficult to narrow it down to just 13 images, but here they are. Please do click on the images to see the larger, sharper version.

This past year I re-visited my most favorite location within Ontario – Lake Superior Provincial Park, and was blessed with one of the most beautiful sunrises I have witnessed. In February I traveled to the Port Antonio region of Jamaica where I photographed one of the most picturesque waterfalls in the Caribbean and my favorite image of my daughter Ava while she was having fun in a swing at Boston Bay. I was invited to co-write the Fractasic eGuide with good friend, colleague, and mentor Denise Ippolito, and to do ‘The Three Frosties‘ guest blog post for one of the world’s premier bird photographers Arthur Morris.

A scouting trip for planning what will become the launch of my first workshop to the tip of Lake Erie’s Long Point Peninsula (a UNESCO World Biosphere) was a success. Folks wishing to be added to the interested list for this workshop, which will likely run in late spring, should shoot me an email here.

Also Gentec International, the Canadian distributor for Sigma lenses was kind enough to loan me the Sigma f2.8 15mm EX DG Fisheye Lens, which opened up a whole new world to me for creativity and fun times photographing the natural world.

I hope you enjoy these images as much as I did creating them.

May you all have a safe and prosperous 2014.

Cheers!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Ava on swing at Boston Bay, Jamaica

Reich Falls on the Drivers River, Jamaica

Johnstone’s Whistling Frog chorusing, Jamaica

Lone tree after ice storm near Thornton, Ontario

Storm clouds over winter wheat crop Bradford, Ontario (Sigma 15mm Fisheye Lens)

Bullfrog-scape on Horseshoe Lake, Parry Sound, Ontario (Sigma 15mm Fisheye Lens)

Rusty Old Wreck in fog, Milton, Ontario

The tip of the Long Point Peninsula at sunrise, Lake Erie, Ontario

Bullfrog (Sigma 15mm Fisheye Lens)

Aspen Trees Multiple Exposure inspired by Denise Ippolito

Window Frost Pattern

Fractalius of Woodland Interior, Killbear Provincial Park, Ontario

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Dilapidated Beauty

 

 

On Friday past my brother Gregg (founder of Work Cabin), and I decided to meet up at the Rockwood Auto Yard for a few hours to photograph old cars and trucks in the fields and forest. There is a certain beauty that can be found within the old relics as they sit in a constant state of decay, as forest and field take hold. Here are three of my favorite images processed with Topaz Labs Clarity and Nik Color Efex’s Detail Extractor, which were used to enhance the details in the rust, dents and peeling paint.

At first I had reservations about photographing the wrecks so late in the season, but now think that it was probably one of the best times as the fallen leaves on the colorful wrecks added an extra special element to some of the scenes. And I am a firm believer in getting out to create photographs regardless of the weather conditions, seasons, or time of day. The more this is done the easier it is to ‘see’ the images that are waiting to be photographed. As I compile my list of workshops that will commence in the Spring of 2014, I will most certainly be adding a few visits to this cool location, to capture the dilapidated wrecks throughout the seasons.

Please click on each of the images to see the larger, sharper versions of each. And stay tuned for more grungy images from the day and also some lovely waterfall images, as we saved just enough time to photograph the nearby Hilton Falls too 🙂

Read Full Post »

The Possibilities Are Endless

Rusty Old Wreck – Original Capture

Above you will see the original version of a lovely, rusty old wreck that was photographed today during one of Denise Ippolito’s numerous workshops that are planned during her visit to the Toronto area. This morning the weather conditions could not have been better as we were presented with lots of fog and some rain and drizzle to help saturate the colors of the rusted old wrecks we were photographing. Denise will also be presenting her “A Blend of Art & Nature Photography” lecture for the Toronto Digital Photography Club on Tuesday evening at 7:30 pm at the Edithvale Community Centre in North York. To find out more about how to sign up for the lecture, please click here.

Below you will see the various creative renditions I conjured up using various photoshop plug-ins. Each of the image captions will inform you of the software used to create the effect as presented. Please remember to click on each of the images to see the larger, sharper versions. Also, please take a moment to let us know which is your favorite of these renditions.

Rusty Old Wreck – Topaz Black & White Effects 2

 

Rusty Old Wreck – Silver Efex Pro 2

 

Rusty Old Wreck – Nik HDR Efex

 

Rusty Old Wreck – Fractalius

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »