Episode#7 Edward Moffat: Nearly Naked Nuances

Edward Moffat a decidedly unique photographer on the local scene. Describes his work as not for everyone, as nearly naked often disturbs the mainstream in ways that are peculiar. He connects with his models and has an understanding. It is what is comfortable to expose, to share, to divulge to the eye. 

Being a freelance photographer has had its ups and downs but Moffat has found a niche with his love for capturing nature both in the human body and the outdoors. Specifically he is fascinated with unusual perceptions, cropping techniques and layering negatives.

Join me as we go beneath the surface of his creative process to discover what drives Moffat to capture his innovative photographs? Was it being given a camera at a young age? Or was it teaching other Photographers how to operate a camera that intrigues him?

You can enjoy more of Edward Moffat Photography on his website:

https://www.edwardmoffat.com/

Podcast Interview Credits
Sound Effects from Pixby
Audio Links from https://freemusicarchive.org/
Podcast by Carolyn Botelho

Transcript

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Creatively Thinking podcast. Join Carolyn Botelho as she uncovers the inspirations behind some incredibly creative minds that are orbiting our local communities. Hello, Edward Moffat. 
 
 How are you? It has been a while since we have chatted. You are a photographic artist doing commercial, freelance, and corporate work, as well as videography and some teaching gigs. Your photography has always inspired me, so let's take a deep dive on your creative practice. 
 
 What initially drove you down this creative path? Was it your love of working with your hands, expressing yourself emotionally, or something else? Okay, cool. Thanks, Carolyn. And nice to catch up with you, because you're right, we haven't talked in a long time. 
 
 It was definitely, you know, a combination of the emotional connection, and certainly initially it was the emotional connection, and I'm sure we'll touch on my Disneyland story. But also, more so the last, I would say the last 10 years, my love of technology. So, I've been a real fan of technical things since I was a kid, and I love mixing technology and artistic endeavors together. 
 
 So, photography and videography just work so well, because a camera is really just a computer that instead of having a keyboard and mouse on the front end of it, has an optical sensor. It's so computationally intensive these days, it's just super similar to a computer. So, I love capturing what I can in front of the camera. 
 
 Like I said, you know, sometimes for me, if it's my own project, then it will be for some sort of emotional connection. And for clients, then, you know, it's capturing whatever it is they need captured the best way I can. But I've been doing it long enough that I know the difference between what the camera sees, and what the thing is going to look like when I'm done with it.
 
 Basically, nothing I ever take a picture of is going to be presented straight out of the camera. I'm always thinking about what I would do to the image to kind of get to the end state, and I've been doing it long enough that I do see what the camera says is capturing, but I don't, I'm not really thinking about that. I'm thinking the next step.
 
 You're thinking about how you can enhance it later, right? So enhancing in some situations, in other situations, it's, it's actually the exact opposite. I'm sure we'll probably touch on this, but I love deconstruction. So, you know, sometimes there will be that. 
 
 And lots of times there will be taking an image and not removing in terms of Photoshop and like, you know, wiping out stuff that I don't want to be there. But darkening it up kind of like a mega vignetting, except very tactically, you know, I wouldn't do it on the whole thing, I would do it on the pieces that are less important, right? The eye automatically goes to whatever is brightest. And, you know, so I'm going to make sure that the stuff that isn't important, you know, gets kind of pushed either physically and literally into the background as I'm taking the shot or then in post production, doing that, so that my subject, whatever it is, you know, a person, a thing stands out. 
 
 Yeah. But can you really say that? Because about the eye automatically going to the brightest area, does it not often sometimes go to the darkest area first? Does it not depend? Does it not depend on the person or is it always? No, it's a human, it's a human trait that if you stick, like if you put blackout glasses on front of somebody and then just open a little slit in the in the front and, you know, the person could only see what was placed there, their eye would automatically go to the brightest spot first. And it's not something you have any control over. 
 
 It's certainly not a conscious thing. It's just what as humans we do. It's a reflex. 
 
 It's kind of like a reflex. It's the same. It's the same way is that if we were in a completely dark room and I had a flashlight and I held it over my head and lit my head from the top or I lit my head from underneath my chin, you would uniformly, 100 percent of humans would look at that and go, but there's something wrong with that. 
 
 If it's lit from underneath, right? Because we all know the sun only comes from above. So you can't have things lit from underneath. So it's like an instinctive thing. 
 
 You see that and you go, there's something wrong with that. I can't quite put my finger on it. But, you know, if I then, you know, had fangs or something, you go, oh, evil vampire, you know, or, or something like that, right? And it's really easy to do that. 
 
 You just light somebody from underneath and right away humans, you know, by default are going to go, that's, that's wrong. There's something wrong about that. And then you can dress it up with, with whatever, like I said, fangs or, you know, big collars or, you know, any of that kind of stuff. 
 
 It's what you're used to. Given a camera at the age of 10 on a family trip, was this the initial hook that caught you into the creative mindset? Was it the freedom to capture images or capturing a moment? Can you expand on your early inspiration and how it has continued? Yeah, so that's exactly right. The family was on a on a trip to Disney, I was 10 years old.
 
 And my mom got me this little, I don't know, instamatic kind of whatever camera I think it had, you know, had a, it was disposable, it had 24 frames available on the, on the camera. And my mom said, here, this is for you, you can take pictures of our trip, it's gonna be great, you can take pictures, whatever you want, this is yours. The only thing is, you know, don't take pictures with the sun in it, because that'll that'll ruin the shot. 
 
 So you know exactly what I did, right? So like 19 of the 24 images were shots of the spire of the castle in, you know, Disney, the Disney park in Florida. And all of the 19 shots all have, you know, the sun in the picture by the spire. So you know, my mom was was totally disappointed. 
 
 I think at the time when we got the pictures back from the lab. But I was thrilled. I mean, I would say of the 19 pictures, 17 of them were throwaway. 
 
 But two of them, I kind of got what I thought I was gonna get. And that was the that was Whoa, this is amazing. This camera thing is crazy. 
 
 I love this. So, so just kind of the the freedom to be able to get what what you want out of an image. You know, it's not as easy as that necessarily, you have to in a lot of situations, certainly I, as I said, I'm approached this really technically. 
 
 So, you know, you have to get all your settings right to capture the image the way you want it. But that doesn't that doesn't mean you can't capture amazing things with it. So that that was the hook. 
 
 And, you know, like, you know, I was 10. So it's been Yeah, oh, my God, it's been 50 years. So yeah, yeah, long time. 
 
 Yeah, yeah. And I had had no previous exposure to photography, or, you know, no special art training or anything like that. You know, I was I was just a 10 year old kid. 
 
 But yeah, that just kind of blew my mind. And yeah, that was that was amazing. Yeah, that's, that's insane that like, you're a 10 year old kid, I would have thought you would have gone and taken some pictures of, you know, like the, I don't know, Mickey Mouse and all those characters or something. 
 
 So you were more interested in the how light was gonna play with with the castle. That's, that's, that's amazing. And I don't know where that came from.
 
 You know, you know, it, I must have previously seen an image or something, but nothing I can remember or put my finger on it was just, you know, my mom handed me this camera and was like, boom, off we go. So you're already a photographer at 10. I was happy with the way two of the images turned out. 
 
 So I'm sure my mom, what a waste of money that was. Yeah, never getting that 20 bucks back. And it's funny, because those other 20 images or whatever, it was part of the process, right? Of getting to those two pictures that you really liked.
 
 Right. And, and, you know, back in the day, of course, everything being filmed, you know, there was no way to, to play that back and, you know, see what it was you actually got. And I mean, it was a disposable camera so that, you know, there was no aperture or shutter speed or anything, right? It just, it just did what it did. 
 
 So I mean, I was lucky. The way I think of it today, it was amazing. Anything turned out at all. 
 
 Really? But yeah, anyways, yeah. So that was, that was the thing. It just it just kind of messed with my head. 
 
 And I've been tickled by it ever since. Yeah, I got you hooked. Do you see your work as a freelance photographer as capturing a transcendental moment with the aperture? Or does it have a more meaning? Or sorry? Or does it have more meaning than that? Yeah, it, it often is trying to. 
 
 How would you say capturing an image that went viral in the in the 2013 ice storm in Brampton changed your career? Did it have an impact? Or was it a different form of engagement with the with the public? Yeah, so it definitely did not change my career in in any way. You know, I had my 15 minutes of fame, or maybe maybe, you know, realistically, it was more like 15 hours. Because, you know, the picture, the one in particular got picked up all over the world. 
 
 I got messages from, you know, Germany, and the Middle East and all over the states. And I will say it was fascinating to see who sent me a note saying this is a great image, can we use it? And other people saying, Hey, I just saw your image on. So I have to say, honestly, there were a number of American news stations and some publications that reached out and said, you know, is it okay if we use this? And basically, it was the Canadian ones that didn't. 
 
 They just went and used it. They just took your image without asking? Oh, totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
 
 Oh, my. Yeah. Because you know, it was on social media. 
 
 And if it's on social media, you have relinquished any rights. So, you know, word to the wise. But anyways, yeah, I mean, CBC still uses that image of an intersection in Brampton that's just covered in, you know, broken tree limbs and stuff. 
 
 Anytime they're talking about the 2013 ice storm, and the Toronto Star actually put out a book of pictures. And they reached out to me many, many months after the ice storm and said something along the lines of, you know, can we can we use this picture? And I said, Well, yeah, that's fine. As long as there's attribution. 
 
 I don't, you know, I'm not going to charge you for it or whatever. And then they never did. But they, but they, so what's amazing is, but they use the picture in their advertising for the book that does not have the picture in it. 
 
 Well, that's weird. Yeah, that's very weird. Anyway, so, you know, long story short, it was a very interesting and eye opening adventure in social media for like I said, for like 15 hours. 
 
 You know, the my phone was blowing up and people were reaching out all over the place. But, you know, the next day, it was like it never happened. So they forgot about you already. 
 
 Yeah, that's right. Yeah. What have you done for me lately? You know, and you know, don't get me wrong. 
 
 I love social media. I spend far too much time on social media. I get immense amounts of inspiration from social media.
 
 But I don't, I don't spend a lot of time posting my stuff there anymore. I think if I had a show coming up, or, you know, a worthy cause or something like that, I would, I would leverage, you know, Instagram and Facebook and such. But at this point, you know, I don't really post very much. 
 
 Definitely is a time sucker. That's for sure. 100%.
 
 Do you see your work as a freelance photographer as capturing a transcendental moment with the aperture? Or does it have more meaning than that? Yeah, I really like this question. I think if the project's for me, then yeah, I'm trying to capture a thing, you know, and it might just be a particular flower, where I've done the framing, the composition of the frame in a particular way that I want. But if I'm doing it for a client, you know, if it's product photography, then then it's kind of product photography. 
 
 And I'll, I'll do my best to make the products look as good as they can, using, you know, different, you know, tricks with the camera and lighting and then in post production. But I do get a lot of joy out of I would say, you know, doing a family, you know, kind of portraiture session in a park or something, right, where I've got parents and a child and, you know, something like that. And I love to see what I can do push the boundaries a little bit, again, from a technical standpoint, I might use a really, you know, non standard lens for a couple shots that you would never use for a portrait, but try it anyways, and see how it turns out. 
 
 And sometimes those those kinds of things really do work. And sometimes they're a total waste of time, but you had to try it to see if it would work. I like to do that. 
 
 I really do like to, you know, see what I can do to get the shot. So I have literally stood on Lakeshore Boulevard in Toronto, like a meter from the side of a race car that's going past me at 260 kilometers an hour. And it just pushes me right out of the way. 
 
 But you know, as I'm being pushed, I'm getting the shot. So that was, that's the point. Well, we hope right, that's, that's the thing. 
 
 And then, you know, or like all of the gear that I've got, I think, I'd have to really double check now, just to be sure I'm being honest. But I, as far as I can remember, all of the gear that I have is is essentially waterproof. So you know, going out into the ice storm, as it's pouring freezing rain, all over, you know, camera and lens, you know, most people wouldn't do that. 
 
 And I'm thinking, wait a minute, if I can do this, this is a great time to get really cool images. So I'll just go out and do it. You know, so I like that. 
 
 Or, you know, I've done, I remember doing a 60th wedding anniversary for, for this couple, and they had rented this, they're having the kind of party at a, I don't know, it was like a barn or something. It was all, you know, stone and timber and stuff. It was, you know, really fabulous location, photographically anyways. 
 
 And they were kind of off in the corner and the lights had been dimmed so much that even with a flash, nobody else there, and there were a few other folks that had photography gear, even with their flashes, they weren't even attempting to get the couple dancing, you know, in this corner. And I just said, well, screw it. I mean, look at that. 
 
 It's just fantastic. And, and there was like this little bit of candlelight in behind them, kind of lighting them up. And that was it.
 
 And I just said, well, I could, you know, give up and go, oh, you know, technically it's too dark to get this shot. It's going to be, the finished product is going to be really, really noisy. And I just said, screw it, let's, let's go get that shot. 
 
 And, and it turned out amazing. It just had so much emotion in it. And, and it's a lovely, lovely shot. 
 
 And, you know, if I'd thought about it logically, I would never even have tried. But I thought, you know, let's give this a shot. You know, there's no reason it should work, but let's do it. 
 
 And I, you know, cranked the ISO setting, like to something stupid at the time. This was, I don't know, this was probably like eight years ago. And, and, you know, I was shooting like right at the maximum the camera was capable of, and no sane photographer would ever use that setting. 
 
 But I thought I'd try it and cleaned it up a little bit in post-production, but it was, you know, there wasn't a lot you could do. It was pretty noisy, but it was still such an impactful picture. It was like, great, good.
 
 Let's do that. Yeah. He wanted to see what would happen.
 
 Yeah. So I, I, the, the beautiful thing about doing that kind of, of a project is, is to again, just, just, you know, use all, all the tools in the bag of tricks that you've got, right. To, to just try and get the best images for the client that you can. 
 
 And, and I love doing that. And we'll be right back. When your mother gave you a camera at the age of 10, do you remember the effects it had on you? Or was it more of a gradual reckoning where your appreciation grew over time? Yeah, that was, that was, you know, immediate light bulbs, you know, exploding in my brain.
 
 And that was, that was our first day at Disney World. So we hadn't even seen the fireworks yet. Yeah, it was, it was, it was amazing. 
 
 That was, like I said, I don't think my mom was, was very impressed by the, the images that we, we got back from the lab, but no, I was, I was super happy with that. And the ones that did turn out, you know, that, that just kind of made it all worthwhile. When you photograph models, do you see it as exploring the body, enhancing their portfolio, or an entirely unique experience where the negotiation cannot fit into words? Yeah, so that's, that's a couple of different things. 
 
 So if, if I'm working with a model for their portfolio, then again, you know, they're, they're just a client and the product we're trying to showcase is them. So, you know, lots of different lighting setups, different backgrounds, different locations, indoors, outdoors, different, different tricks in the studio and all that kind of stuff. So that, you know, in a relatively short, you know, afternoon we can, you know, put together an entire portfolio that makes it look like, you know, they've spent years putting it together and have lots and lots of experience. 
 
 So again, that's, that's, that's kind of a fun challenge. Yeah. I've, I've had people show up at my place with 36 pairs of shoes.
 
 That's funny. Yeah, it, it, it totally was. And, you know, suitcases and, and we just start laying out clothes all over the floor and it's like, all right, let's, let's start picking outfits.
 
 And then, so there's the picking of the outfits and then there's the, and what do we want to, where is that outfit going to look best on you? On a dark background, on a white background, um, indoors, outdoors, you know, with, with, you know, simulated wind, uh, or, or something very static, um, you know, very purposely posed or, or something more casual and, and, um, um, you know, I, I find that that's a lot of fun. And, um, uh, like I said, I, I, I'll try and, you know, I'll use, the only thing I, I probably wouldn't do is use multiple cameras in that situation. I'd use the same camera, but lots of different lenses, all kinds of different lighting styles. 
 
 And like I said, different backgrounds and stuff. Um, if I'm shooting models for my personal work, um, I do, um, I do a lot of, uh, body scape type work. Um, I love the concept of strength in, in the human body. 
 
 Um, I, I love, um, the texture, uh, uh, texture is, uh, is, is something I, I, I just, I go crazy for. So whether it's, it's in the skin and it's, you know, stretch marks or scars or, or that kind of thing, uh, you know, that, that, that stuff is all unique and it's all beautiful. I, uh, I, I like the texture of, of bones and sinews and tendons and stuff.
 
 So, uh, I'll do that. I'll do a lot of that. Usually very, very isolated. 
 
 So, you know, I've got this picture in, in my office. That's probably, I don't know, seven feet wide, you know, a little over a little over two meters wide. And it is kind of the shoulder and arm of a model that we were working on a completely unrelated project. 
 
 And she turned around and I know she did something with her arm and the light caught it a particular way. And I went, Oh my God, look at the, the muscle definition you've got. And she's like, Oh, well, I, I go to the gym a couple of times a week. 
 
 And it was like, Holy Mack, like, that's amazing. I, we need to shoot that. And, and, you know, it was, it was just something that spurred the moment that I saw it. 
 
 It was like, wow. And, and then, you know, it's, it's a, you know, when, when I got it printed, it's this giant piece. And when people look at it, they think it's, most people think it's a guy.
 
 And it's like, no, that can't you tell? Yeah, obviously not. But if you're doing like a macro lens of it, or no, no, yeah, no, this is, it's actually the exact opposite. It's a super wide, a super wide lens. 
 
 Oh, you know, eight or 10 inches away from her shoulder blade. But it's such a wide angle that you can see. I'm actually looking at it right now here. 
 
 There you go. Okay. So it goes like right from basically her spine, although it's blacked out on the left to her arm, hand way out in the light over on the right hand side. 
 
 And that is a very unique perspective. I would never right. And understood what that was. 
 
 And until you know, so and there you go. So you just you've, you've just made my day. Because if somebody has to look at I mean, it's the human body, how, how, how banal is that? And yet, I just find it fascinating. 
 
 So like I said, I saw this texture, I saw the ripples of the muscles around her shoulder blade. And the way her hand, I knew that if I used a wide angle lens, her arm and hand would trail off. And so I actually probably spent five or 10 minutes setting up the legs. 
 
 And I said, Okay, now stand like this again. And, and was able to kind of recreate what I saw in my head, which was a combination of what I saw in front of me and what I wanted it to look like. So I made it look like that. 
 
 So yeah, I love doing that. That kind of thing. And then, so I probably started into that 10 or 11 years ago doing doing that kind of photography. 
 
 And then maybe five years ago, I got into the idea of taking a landscape, which I also love to do, you know, a really, really wide perspective landscape, like, maybe a panorama means different things to different people, but kind of panorama like, and layering, if you will, a body scape underneath it. So that, you know, so if you think of, you know, a mountain scene, you know, the the mountain on the right is his hips leading into leg trailing off the right hand side. And over, you know, the kind of the couple more mountains over on the left hand side are like a shoulder and leading off to the neck that kind of disappears off the left frame. 
 
 And hold on a sec, can we can we just make it clear for everybody? So it sounds like you're talking about double negatives? Is that is that? Am I understanding? Yeah, kind of like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so yes.
 
 Because yeah, not everybody's a photographer. So regular people know what you're talking about, that he's using two negatives to make nature and the human body combined into one. So like, yeah, a body scape and a landscape that have identical shapes, and combining it, and then, you know, kind of the next evolution of that, I am sure I just need the time to do it.
 
 Haha, is, is, is to be able to do that in a multimedia situation where you've got the landscape, the body scape. So think of the landscape is just by itself, right? So you see this lovely landscape, you know, nature, trees, clouds in the sky, and all the loveliness. And then you've got a body that appears at the same time kind of superimposed.
 
 But the landscapes still there, they just both happen to have the same shape. And if you didn't quite catch it, then the body sits up or something, right. And so at the last solo show I did, I had a big projector going and I had, I had done something sort of like that, it wasn't body scaping and landscape mixed together. 
 
 But what it was, was kind of, it was a slow motion, pouring of paint. And so this paint, kind of, so you've got a black frame, you've got paint falling into the middle of the frame and splashing all around. So bright green or bright blue, and you've got this paint splashing around. 
 
 Well, as the paint continues to fall, the splattering of the paint is kind of revealing a body that is, that the paint is splashing onto. And ultimately, the, the body is completely covered in paint, and then the model sits up. Right. 
 
 So we had, we had some church pews, the irony is not lost on me, you know, where people could sit and watch kind of the multimedia presentation, because I had a bunch of different things. But, but that was one of them. And so you'd see all this paint falling and paint falling, and it was all in slow mo, and it was kind of like watching fireworks, you're kind of stuck watching it. 
 
 And then all of a sudden, the model sits up and the paint starts running a different direction down their body. And people are like, Whoa, what? Where? What? You know? Yeah, I didn't expect that. So yeah, I love kind of, you know, where I can combine a couple of my disciplines and, and do different things. 
 
 So anyways, there you go. Did that answer the question? Yeah, I think so. That kind of answered some of the next question, I think. 
 
 So when you are photographing nature, are you capturing a moment or a dialogue? With this, I mean, do you see your photographs as commentary on how landscapes appear? Or are they images documenting the captivating instance? Yeah, really good question. I think, to me, is probably more the latter. I mean, I am kind of capturing a moment. 
 
 But for me, the thing, again, kind of goes back to the body scapes as well. It's texture and color, or texture with color. Like, I don't think I've ever shot a landscape in black and white. 
 
 But I don't think I've ever shot a nude or a body scape that wasn't black and white. It would be really interesting to go mess with that. I think you've given an idea. 
 
 Because yeah, what would it look like to do like, and again, some of my landscapes are really, really big and wide, covering a lot of ground, and they will be stitched together, you know, multiple shots. And I kind of goes to whole teaching thing, which I think is coming up. Oh, yeah, that's coming up. 
 
 But when I started off in photography, and I wanted to do a landscape, I very painstakingly would take a shot with the camera on a tripod. And then, you know, I would move the camera a bit, but not too much, because the software that stitches it together needs to be able to see enough of the previous image in the second image, and then the third image and so on. And, and it would take a long time, drove my wife crazy. 
 
 You know, we'd be out on a hike someplace. And I go, Oh, I gotta get this. And she would roll her eyes. 
 
 And she'd go, Yeah, forget it, catch up with me later. And she'd be gone. And and but it would it could take, you know, 5678 minutes for me to get this, to get this captured the way I want it. 
 
 Well, now that I'm much more comfortable with the, I was gonna say the camera, but now, now that I'm much more comfortable with the technology, I'll stand in one spot, and I'll capture a panorama of, you know, 10, 11, 12 images. And I'll do that in, I could probably do it start to finish, if I wasn't ready to do it. And I didn't have the camera set up, I could probably do the whole thing in 40 seconds. 
 
 So it doesn't take a lot of time. And I kind of have an idea of what I'm going to get. And the advantage of doing it manually, and and shooting, so I'll turn the camera sideways, and then take the images going across and then stitch them together, they'll still end up being a, you know, a landscape orientation image.
 
 But you get much more detail in the image that way. And, you know, the only time recently that I haven't done that, where I've just gone really, like, like, really quick in capturing an image that ends up being, you know, 150 or 200 megapixels is my wife and I were in Colorado, and not Colorado, Arizona, and stopped off. That's very picturesque.
 
 Yeah. You know, wandering around the Grand Canyon. And I wanted to make some, some big panoramas.
 
 And the cameras that I use, all the cameras I use are Panasonic. And they all do this multi exposure combination thing, where when you enable this feature, it'll take eight shots, simultaneous, not simultaneously, almost simultaneous, like, but every time it takes a new image, it moves the sensor. And then it stitches them all together and gives you this raw image. 
 
 It's that's, you know, depending on the camera, 100 megapixels, or 200 megapixels. So imagine, you know, every shot I'm taking ends up being 200 megapixels. And then I'm taking a panorama of 12 images. 
 
 Right? So Okay, I think you're gonna have to tell us what megapixels really mean. Because I'm thinking of pixels, like DPI on a printer. So I need you to inform me and the audience what megapixels a little bit more about that. 
 
 So we understand. Yeah, sure. Okay. 
 
 Yeah. So so I think most cameras today, unless you you've got one that has a special camera, and there's there's lots of them to do. But you know, like your average iPhone today has a 12 megapixel camera, that means that when it takes a picture, the picture is made up of 12 million dots. 
 
 Okay. And so and those are great cameras. And you know, you can print those out and the images look great. 
 
 And and the image is made up, like I said, of 12 million individual squares, if you will, that all have a color value and a brightness value. So imagine the same picture, but there's 200 million dots in that picture. So what that means is you could zoom into that and into it and into it and into it and just keep pulling out incredible definition of what's in the image. 
 
 And then, you know, if I've got an image that's 200 megapixels, and and then it's combined with a bunch of other pictures that are 200 megapixels, I've just have like this incredible detail in the images, which then in post production gives me the opportunity to call out, say, particular strands of yellow in the rock that's running horizontally, or red in the rock, or, you know, mess with the clouds, because the clouds have so much detail, I can really make them pop in the image, right? I'm not changing the cloud. I'm not putting in a new cloud or anything like that. I'm just taking the cloud as it appeared that day. 
 
 But I've got the opportunity to give it so much more detail in the finished product than I could have if I'd just taken a single picture with my camera. And so you can see I'm geeking out here, but that's where the technology has come so very far. And so when I'm doing videography, I do the same thing. 
 
 I shoot way higher resolution than I need for the client or for my project. And then when I'm done with it, I can either crop into it and throw away a bunch of extraneous stuff that I decide is no longer valuable in the image, or I can leave it as is, but then it's going to have so much more detail. It will show up as a sharper image, even if it ends up being the same resolution as somebody else taking the same video right beside me on a regular camera using a regular resolution.
 
 The stuff that I would take is just, there's no way it won't look sharper because I'm taking the original source material is so much higher resolution. So for painters, it would be the equivalent of painting the Mona Lisa, which is what? I don't know what the dimensions of the Mona Lisa are. It's only like a foot by a foot. 
 
 It's tiny. Is it really? It's that small? Yeah, no, it's really tiny. Okay, so imagine painting that foot by foot and the amount of, think of it in terms of brushstrokes, the number of brushstrokes it would take to get that onto the canvas, or painting the same thing on a 10 by 12 foot canvas. 
 
 If you stood 100 feet away from the 10 by 12 canvas, it would look the same as somebody looking at the one foot square image that we all have seen and know today. But if you got up close to it, this 12 by 12 canvas, you'd be able to see every single brushstroke. If you were really careful, chances are you'd be able to look at individual bristles on the brush and the way that showed up, and you'd be able to see texture way better in the painting technique that the artist used and that sort of thing.
 
 That's really the only analogy that I can give you for painters. It's just the idea of incredible amounts of detail rather than normal. And there's nothing wrong with normal. 
 
 I'm not saying there is. I just like having the option of being able to crop into an image or be able to take the definition out of a picture that you would just ordinarily never have. So again, me geeking out, being technical, but it allows me to do things. 
 
 If I'm doing a portrait of somebody, I can make their eyes just jump right out of the picture by softening their skin maybe and making their hair look nice and all that kind of stuff and fixing any blemishes, which I would do for anybody, but maybe not soften their eyes. In fact, maybe I would sharpen their eyes a little bit and not a lot, but a little bit. And it's just amazing when you shoot a high resolution image, the definition that you can get out of something like that. 
 
 It is really noticeable. Even printed on canvas, and I do an awful lot of my stuff printed on canvas, but you can get your nose right up to the canvas and see individual leaves on trees of something that I've shot across a bay. So I love that. 
 
 And we'll be right back. Yeah, it sounds like incredible detail and clarity with your imagery. Yeah. 
 
 And that's something that I can do. Maybe that sets me apart. I think most people don't care, but some people do. 
 
 And so that is one of my aesthetic things. So if you look at any of my body scape stuff or like that big shoulder blade thing that I showed you there, if you get up close to that, you can see every single piece of skin, every little pore kind of thing. And I love that. 
 
 And every now and then I will do that. I'll just walk right up and I'll kind of pick another area that I haven't spent any time looking at. I just find it fascinating. 
 
 Do you explore other mediums beyond photography? Do you incorporate multimedia when you work? Or is your love of photography a singular practice? Yeah, well, I'm definitely a photographer first. I love all of that. But as the world turns, the interest in paying for photography is lessening and lessening because everybody's got reasonably powerful cameras in their pockets. 
 
 Yeah, so I'm a photographer first, for sure. That's my first love for sure. But as life has it, the interest in paying for photography has waned greatly in the last 10 or 15 years because everybody's got reasonably powerful cameras in their pockets. 
 
 So on the upside, my interest in photography, and like I said, Panasonic cameras in particular, I started as a Canon guy, but moved to Panasonic because they had pretty much all the same capabilities. It's just Canons plus a whole lot more. And the technical capabilities, particularly on the video side, are absolutely astonishing. 
 
 So I will use the same camera for a photo shoot as I will for a high-end corporate video thing. And so I think I told you just earlier today, I had a good conversation with a client for a video project that we have shooting at their offices on Monday. And we'll probably be there six hours doing a bunch of product and probably interviewing some of their staff too and turning that into some promotional videos. 
 
 So I quite enjoy that too. It's a different discipline. But if you don't understand photography, you really can't do videography very well.
 
 And if you look at the trailer credits of any movie, or if you look at the schedule for any movie that's being shot, they always talk about the principal photography, even though it's videography or filming. But when is principal photography being done? Oh, well, we booked these actors from this date to this date for the principal photography. Yeah, it's really the only difference is that you're shooting 24 or 30 or 120 or 300 pictures a second. 
 
 But all the other stuff about shutter speed and aperture and lighting and ISO settings and all that kind of stuff, none of that changes. All of that is still 100% valid. So making the move to videography, for me, there are some different disciplines added to that, but all the basic stuff is there. 
 
 So I did get into teaching. That was one of the courses that I taught at Humber, which was the videography for photographers. And the assumption was, you already had a grasp of what your camera did and how you were to use it for photography.
 
 Now we're just taking a whole bunch of photos every second. Seems like an idea. What would you say your experience being a photography teacher has brought to your practice? Has it been enriching? Have you found it has taught you new things or mostly reinforced your knowledge of photography? So, yeah, that's a good question, too. 
 
 I mean, I love teaching. There's a lot of teaching in our family, in previous generations. And one of my sons is a high school science teacher. 
 
 And so the idea of passing on knowledge and sharing, helping people create their own art, super important to me. And so I love teaching portraiture. I think I've demonstrated that I'm decent at it. 
 
 But also, I love the videography side almost as much. So at Humber College, in their continuing ed program, I was teaching portraiture, you know, just still images and using your camera for that and lighting and composition and all those things. And then, as I had previously mentioned, I taught videography for photographers. 
 
 And so we didn't have to start at absolute ground zero. You know, we assumed that people knew how to manage their cameras, but pretty much anybody who has a camera these days, their camera will shoot video. So how do we take that and do stuff with it? Certainly, the professional photographers that were there were interested in being able to offer videography to their clients as an added revenue stream, particularly for, you know, folks doing weddings or babies and that kind of thing, but also product photography.
 
 But, you know, from a teaching standpoint, you know, I would say there was some reinforcing of stuff I already knew. I don't think I would say I learned a lot, except from the perspective of the experience of the teaching. Imagine having 20 students in a room, you've hired a model, you've set up lights, and you leave the lights static. 
 
 And you're trying to get the students to direct the model to, you know, move their head to the left or right or up or down or, you know, whatever, just getting that into the discipline of conversing with the model. And some people are very uncomfortable with that. Some people are much more comfortable with it, but you have to be able to do that to get the shot. 
 
 So imagine, you know, having 20 people in a room all shooting the same model under exactly the same lighting setup and looking, you know, getting the students to, you know, pick your top two or three images and kind of centrally then go through them all. So you've got 60 images that the students have made, and never are there any two the same. It's amazing, just amazing. 
 
 It's so cool and inspiring to see. And, you know, at the college, you know, we weren't paying the models very much, but we would get them shots afterwards. And they also were just blown away by, you know, the variety of images that they would see in one static lighting setup. 
 
 And, you know, over the course of a class, we probably have three different lighting setups. So yeah, it was, that was just a ton of fun. And I really find that inspiring and enjoyable.
 
 How would you describe your experience working with galleries? Do you see it as engaging or predictable? How have you seen working with other artists? Has it benefited your practice? Yeah, so boy, there's a there's a lot packed in there. I certainly have loved working with other artists. And, you know, as you would know, in Brampton, when we had the dearly departed Beaux Arts, it was such an awesome collegial opportunity to work with folks and, you know, like learning how to hang a show and set up the anchors around the room so that you're directing people through your show, whether it was your show, or, you know, maybe it was a group show, but you wanted to have anchors and lead people around the room. 
 
 Or certainly, I found that invaluable for my own show. You know, that kind of thing is great. Now, that was a kind of a group experience. 
 
 I think where you're going is working with, you know, private galleries. And you know what, it's like working with any business. You know, you come across folks, and they're really good, and they want to do the best. 
 
 And other folks, it's just a business, and they just don't give a crap. So there's so many different types of people out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
 
 So you need to kind of suss that out. If you're going to work with a gallery. It's, it's as important to talk to other artists and understand their experience working with those same folks as it is to look at the gallery and the gallery's notoriety and the gallery's location and hours of operation and those things. 
 
 Those things are super important. But if everybody you're going to be working with is spectacular, and the gallery is a little bit off the beaten, beaten path, well, maybe that's okay. And, and the opposite is true, too. 
 
 It could be in a great location. But if everybody's an asshole, then you know, who needs that? Right? You want to get through that real quick? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I think once you've worked with a few galleries, it kind of is relatively predictable. 
 
 As, as a, you know, as an artist, but also as a, you know, kind of member of the general public, I love going through a new show. I love to see stuff I haven't seen before, or things I have seen before, but kind of presented in a new way. And, you know, sometimes it's as simple as, look at the paper they're using for that. 
 
 Holy cow, that looks amazing. Or, you know, I would never have thought to put that on on metal or to layer cut out pieces of cardboard on top of that paint, or, you know, whatever, right? It's just, it, I love seeing the creativity of people. And so I mean, that's that, as a member of the general public going to a show, you know, that's, that's what I'm looking for. 
 
 I'm looking to be blown away by things I haven't seen before, or, you know, somebody kind of, you know, they've got their own thing that they do, and they do it really well, and they've honed it. And I appreciate that, because that's one of the criticisms I get for my shows is that I'll have, you know, one wall that will all be, you know, bodyscapes or landscapes or something, and another wall that's not. People, you know, and I'll get that, well, what are you trying to show? It's like, I'm trying to show two different things. 
 
 How is that not obvious? But that messes with people. So... But they want it all together. They don't... Well, they'd like to have showing, and it goes back to just kind of what I was saying 45 seconds ago, which is, I like to see a show that, you know, somebody is showing off what they do, what's their aesthetic? What's their MO? How do they do things? Right? And I'm just, I'm just too scattered to do one thing. 
 
 So doing a single show that only has one, that only has one aesthetic, I don't know if I can do that. That's just me. You know, I... You want to show all sides of you, right? Well, or at least two. 
 
 I'll do two. But yeah, just one. Oh, man, I just get bored too easily.
 
 I don't know if I can do that. So... Maybe these people you're talking to just want you to be consistent. That's what they're after.
 
 And I understand that. And I do, I do. And, and, you know, a lot of great artists, they did a thing, and they did it really well. 
 
 And if you spread yourself too thin, then you're not going to do, you know, anything really well, maybe. So and I'm sure that, I'm sure people are just trying to be helpful. So, but... Well, what's that saying? What is it? Jack of all trades, master of none? Right, right, right, right, right. 
 
 So, however, I think, I think my outdoor, you know, nature photography stuff is decent enough that it stands on its own. And I think my kind of body scape landscape stuff is different enough that it stands on its own. So anyways, but that's just me. 
 
 You know, whatever, everybody's got their own. Well, I think they sound connected. Because what they're both scapes, right? There you go.
 
 They can be. Yeah, yeah. So anyways, I just think the the visual portion of our world, largely is awesome. 
 
 And, and, and amazing, and always intriguing. It's just the humans that, you know, that they get in the way of a lot of things. But we won't go there.
 
 No. We want to end it on a positive note. That's right. 
 
 I noticed you took some photographs of race cars on a racetrack. Was this entirely a contract work? Or what were you trying to capture with them? The intensity of the drivers, the energy, or excitement? Yeah, so it was a it was an engagement. A buddy of mine runs a distillery district magazine.
 
 And he distillery district magazine was doing some stuff with the IndyCar race in Toronto. A couple years back, because I've done it a couple years. And, you know, he said, you know, would I be interested, you know, that because I hadn't really shot cars before? And would I be interested in, you know, if he could get me credentials? Would I be interested? I said, sure, that's, that's something I've never done before. 
 
 And going back to my, my, my previous comment about, you know, being always, you know, looking for different things to do. So, yeah, I was able to get images I was really, really pleased with, particularly the first year I did it at the Indy race. It was a super hot day. 
 
 And it's amazing taking a picture of a car that's going really, really fast. And so you would think the heat coming out of the car is dissipating very, very quickly, because it's going very fast. And yet you look behind the rear wing of the car, and there's so much heat distortion captured in these images, like in a still image, you can't you see it even more than you could as a human standing and watching this car go by you at, you know, 100 kilometers an hour on a on a sharp turn. 
 
 And anyway, so it was it was just an entirely different photographic experience for me. And, you know, not, not something I've done a ton of, I've shot a couple IndyCar races, I've done some Porsche races and some some work at the Canadian Tire, what's it called CTMP, CT Motorsport Park, used to be Mossport, but Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and shot some really amazing races there. NASCAR, and trucks and stuff. 
 
 Anyways, it's just that it's a different thing. Right? It's, it's, it's like shooting a wedding. It's got its own set of disciplines and things you will need to do.
 
 And things you can't do. Right? You know, there's no such thing really is as a having time. You know, the cars are just moving too fast. 
 
 So you have to know what you want to get in advance of it happening, as opposed to at a wedding. You know, that when you know, a ring is going on a finger, you know, you need to get a picture of that. That's, that's a big deal.
 
 So yeah, it's just different. And I get bored easily. So it was some really good experiences.
 
 Last but certainly not least. Are you familiar with the photographer Man Ray Emanuel Rednitzky? What are your thoughts on his work from the Dada surrealist period in art history? I'm sorry, he's my favorite photographer. So I had to talk about him because you're a photographer.
 
 Oh, that's so funny. All right. Well, here, here's me hitting the hitting the website.
 
 Oh, you don't know him? Okay. Okay, there you go. I know the name. 
 
 And now that I've seen these pictures. So so it's interesting. So you like the black and white stuff? Because that's all black and white, but it is mostly black and white. 
 
 Well, it's funny, because he's, he's a photographer, but he always wanted to be a painter. And I'm a painter that always wanted to be a photographer. So I thought that was kind of funny. 
 
 Oh, wow. Well, hey, you know, a guy who teaches. So yeah, no, I what's really, really cool about the era in which these images were taken was the lighting. 
 
 So black and white, but, but very purposeful lighting, which is which is kind of my gut takeaway, in addition to some of the surrealism that's that's going on. And it kind of, in no way is like Karsh, but is kind of like Karsh in that Karsh's lighting was super purposeful, and just astonishing what he could get away with. But lots of times, Karsh, a famous portrait photographer, you know, there's, he's, he did a a lot of famous portraits in the in the middle of the last, or not middle, but yeah, middle and, and later portion of the last century. 
 
 So you know, he's got a very famous portrait of, of Churchill, that he had 45 seconds to shoot. So he had time to set up for it, but he was literally only going to have Churchill for like 45 seconds. And, and so the thought process that went into how he was going to light it and where he was going to stage it and how he was going to do it. 
 
 And you know, when I when I look at the Man Ray work, there's the surrealism portion of it, which is super creative and different. But then there's the, the lighting piece, which is just as important. Unfortunately, a lot of those images were shot on film, you can tell. 
 
 And, and they faded. So the blacks aren't as black as, as he would have liked them, I'm sure. Yeah, fascinating stuff. 
 
 But But sorry, I I know, I have heard of him, and I recognize some of these pieces, but it's not, you know, he isn't somebody that I studied, for example. Right? Like, no, but you see that he did the cello. So it's sort of like your body.
 
 Oh, totally. Yeah, yeah. And I've seen lots of stuff that folks have copied.
 
 That's with a similar idea, where they've used, you know, the the female form, like a cello or, you know, a viola, and done stuff with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, no, I love it. 
 
 Yeah, love that stuff. Okay, well, thank you so much, Edward, for being a part of this podcast today. And I've taken a lot of your afternoon. 
 
 So thank you for, for being able to do it. So impromptu, I thought I sent you the invite, but it was so good. It worked out good. 
 
 So yeah. Yeah, well, hey, thanks for asking me. And it was a pleasure and great to get.
 
 Yes. Yeah, exactly. All right. 
 
 Well, I will get this off to you as soon as Yeah, yeah, it kind of was. Yep. Okay.
 
 All right. Well, it is five to five right now. So you bet you best be going for me.
 
 Okay, thank you so much. You are very welcome. And good luck.
 
 Oh, yeah. Thank you. All right. 
 
 Take care, Edward. Yeah. Okay. 
 
 Bye. Okay. See ya.
 
 Bye. Join me next time as I go down another rabbit hole with another creative professional on their insights, their inspirations, and their ingenuity.