I flew to Toronto this weekend for a wedding, and noticed a guest had a new DSLR with “Live View.” I believe it could be a useful feature for those hard to reach places, but it’s a feature that I personally would never care about as a selling point, but that’s just me. This guest, however, was using Live View holding the camera far away from her body thus making it unstable, and shooting a straight forward portrait of the wedding couple only 5 feet away. Is this necessary or just plain neglect of a SLR’s capabilities? What’s the point of using a SLR body to take snapshots when it’s much easier and effective with a prosumer point-and-shoot? Relying on Live View just because it’s available will most definitely detract from your patience in framing correctly, noticing the slightest details due to the limits of LCD resolution, and of course prevent you from shooting in direct sunlight. Sooner or later, these photo kiddies will never have any experience of film or know what a view finder is.

Can you guess what aircraft this is?

Not too long after I checked into my hotel, the fire alarm goes off and I stroll out the rear exit and look up and noticed my hotel is on fire…

I rented a Ford Mustang GT for the weekend since I’ve always wanted to test drive a Mustang. It’s one of those American muscle cars I wish to own someday, preferably a Shelby. Even though this GT was only a 300hp V8 with AT, it was still fun and made me smile. The interior was garbage, but that’s not the point of getting a  Mustang. I’m glad that didn’t catch on fire either. These photos were taken with my Sony W170. The last shot of this series is definitely my favorite because of the perfect lighting condition with the sunset. The shot wouldn’t have worked any better without the warm brick walls against the fiery red Mustang - and of course, a little tilt adds some dynamics to a still shot.

The following day I invited a gorgeous actress from Toronto to model for me. Of course I had to use my sweet ride as the prop, all the while trying to not make this look like an import model shoot. Obviously, I switched back to my Canon 1D with 24-70mm. The trick here is to drive the car in circles until you get the proper sunlight location. I love it when girls play in the back seat with no pants.

If you’re looking for a massive open space parking lot with very few to no cars, Jacob Riis Park in Queens, NY is the place for you. It’s almost half a mile long by a quarter mile wide. My latest shots were taken by my new Sony Cybershot DSC-W170, with post processing of course. This was the perfect time of day and weather, with forecast of scattered thunderstorms.

Driving in excess of 40mph is not the proper way to execute a moving vehicle photo shoot.  This was our only makeshift method to get the motion blur as we were driving on the Pacific Coast Highway by Los Angeles, CA. This also happens to be my first attempt at a moving vehicle shoot, with my  brother on the Harley, his wife driving the chase car, with my 1D strap wrapped tightly around my arm hanging out the window, shutter activated by the wired remote, and communicating over a Bluetooth headset.

Without a neutral density filter, I was forced to shoot at ISO 50, f/9.5 at 1/90s with my Canon 16-35mm. There is obviously some major post processing and composites for the visual effects, but the motion blur is real. The overcast sky made it easier to get a softly lit image.