Monday
Jun022008
Alyssa's Photography
Monday, June 2, 2008 at 7:54AM
I've been inaccurately accused of being a good photographer a number of times. I may have some minor artistic intuition, and be capable of operating an SLR (everyone has one these days), but I don't have the broad knowledge of lighting, scene composition, and Photoshop that makes a good photographer. I also don't have all the cool accessories.
by fensterbme
Alyssa Bistonath is an actual good photographer, not just a camera operator, and a friend of mine from my days in residence at Ryerson. I've attached below some of favorites from her work and I'll throw in some commentary here and there. This won't be a review or critique of her work, because not only am I not an art critic, but I probably couldn't even tell you how she produced the effects in 90% of the photos below. I just like them because they look nice.
This is my favorite of all her photos. Her strength is portrait shots and lighting, and really comes out in this one. The lighting washes out just enough to be interesting without removing all detail from the entire shot. The depth of field, real or not (I don't know), is in just the right place. The eyes are perfect. Lips, hair, it all works. Whatever.... you can see the shot, I'll stop gushing.
Generally I prefer taking candid shots to staged ones, but that's just because I'm bad at setting up and taking staged photos. Alyssa clearly doesn't have that problem. A degree in New Media and friends willing to pose doesn't hurt either.
Interesting and unique subject matter allow a good photographer to take great shots. There is only so much unique subject matter in Toronto. The innumerable photos of BCE Place, the CN tower, or that truck in the Distillery mean I don't even bother taking shots of them any more. International travel to places like Ethiopia, Thailand, China, Mexico, Japan, and the Dominican Republic allow for the opportunity to take photos that have more impact and consequence than almost anything you can take locally.
Playing with the tone and color of images is something I haven't mastered yet. Other than the standard small adjustments in RAW, the closest I've come is using the in-camera B&W setting. Which turned out alright, but nothing like the above shots. A fair portion of her photos are in black and white including the ones she took at FashionWeek. The smoke in the last one is a nice touch.
While both of these are more examples of the portraits-with-cool-lighting theme, the first has couple of things I particularly like.
Firstly, the flash lighting is very cool and apparently done with a Fong diffuser. Flash lighting is another thing I haven't really explored in my photography, preferring instead to stick to natural lighting whenever possible.
The second thing I like in the first shot is the semi-fun subject matter. I'd like to see more of that sort of thing in her photos, but that's because my personal bias is generally towards more fun, rather than serious shots.
So that's a brief selection of some Alyssa's stuff from her Flickr photostream, there is much more good stuff there if you'd like to take a look. She is a freelance photographer in Toronto, and has a website and a blog if you'd like to track her down.
From her website:
by fensterbme
Alyssa Bistonath is an actual good photographer, not just a camera operator, and a friend of mine from my days in residence at Ryerson. I've attached below some of favorites from her work and I'll throw in some commentary here and there. This won't be a review or critique of her work, because not only am I not an art critic, but I probably couldn't even tell you how she produced the effects in 90% of the photos below. I just like them because they look nice.
This is my favorite of all her photos. Her strength is portrait shots and lighting, and really comes out in this one. The lighting washes out just enough to be interesting without removing all detail from the entire shot. The depth of field, real or not (I don't know), is in just the right place. The eyes are perfect. Lips, hair, it all works. Whatever.... you can see the shot, I'll stop gushing.
Generally I prefer taking candid shots to staged ones, but that's just because I'm bad at setting up and taking staged photos. Alyssa clearly doesn't have that problem. A degree in New Media and friends willing to pose doesn't hurt either.
Interesting and unique subject matter allow a good photographer to take great shots. There is only so much unique subject matter in Toronto. The innumerable photos of BCE Place, the CN tower, or that truck in the Distillery mean I don't even bother taking shots of them any more. International travel to places like Ethiopia, Thailand, China, Mexico, Japan, and the Dominican Republic allow for the opportunity to take photos that have more impact and consequence than almost anything you can take locally.
Playing with the tone and color of images is something I haven't mastered yet. Other than the standard small adjustments in RAW, the closest I've come is using the in-camera B&W setting. Which turned out alright, but nothing like the above shots. A fair portion of her photos are in black and white including the ones she took at FashionWeek. The smoke in the last one is a nice touch.
While both of these are more examples of the portraits-with-cool-lighting theme, the first has couple of things I particularly like.
Firstly, the flash lighting is very cool and apparently done with a Fong diffuser. Flash lighting is another thing I haven't really explored in my photography, preferring instead to stick to natural lighting whenever possible.
The second thing I like in the first shot is the semi-fun subject matter. I'd like to see more of that sort of thing in her photos, but that's because my personal bias is generally towards more fun, rather than serious shots.
So that's a brief selection of some Alyssa's stuff from her Flickr photostream, there is much more good stuff there if you'd like to take a look. She is a freelance photographer in Toronto, and has a website and a blog if you'd like to track her down.
From her website:
In 2005, Alyssa Bistonath graduated from Ryerson University with a Bachelors of Fine Art specializing in New Media. Following her graduation she was recognized as one of 60 International Emerging Photographers by the Magenta Foundation for her thesis series Portraits & Paper: Memories of Thomas and Isabelle Wilson. As part of this recognition, her thesis series was published in the book Flash Forward. That year also saw more of Alyssa's photographs published in Emirates Woman Magazine and Prefix Photo.
Since 2005, Alyssa has had the privilege of shooting for Eye Weekly, Sway Magazine, and Canadian Immigrant. She has photographed on the runways of L'Oreal Fashion Week, on the ice for the Toronto Maple Leafs and on the court for the Toronto Raptors. Most recently, Alyssa travelled to Ethiopia to shoot a feature about Female Genital Mutilation for World Vision's magazine Child View.
Reader Comments (2)
nice
[...] Eric Hacke writes about this shot and others in his blog Laconic Reply. Check it out: laconicreply.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/alyssas-photography [...]