please please just make it stop!

Rant time.

You know that trend out there in photography land? I am sure you do. I am sure you have been afflicted with pictures ruined by this trend. If you like pictures at all and spend any time at all on photography sites I am sure you have encountered the following...

Dreaded baby demon eyes.

Looking at these pictures, I feel as if I have to duck lest I get scorched from the hellfire about to rain down on me from their dangerously glowing eyes.

Here is a picture of my cousin's marvelous little girl that I took using a particularly optically sharp lens:

She has naturally "wet" eyes that actually seem to glow a bit without the aid of a demon. Do not add the demon.

Now look at what four minutes in Lightroom can do to this little child to make her look like something from the deeps:

It does NOT LOOK GOOD!!!

In fact, it looks horrible.

Subtle is not the approach being used in this style of photography. (We all know how it is done. Highlight the eyes in something like Lightroom using the adjustment brush. Boost the clarity beyond anything reasonable. Boost the sharpness a bit as well. Tweak (upwards) the exposure. At the same time, smooth away detail in the skin using the soften skin brush. Toss in some vignette, and what do you get? A picture of a demon possessed child.)

Someone is actually taking the time to wreck some otherwise beautiful pictures of otherwise beautiful children.

It is enough to make one cringe.

Please Please Make It Stop!

hillside music festival moments

This year's rendition of the festival has come and gone.

For those not familiar with it, Hillside is a festival held at the end of July every year at the conservation area near Guelph in Ontario. It is comprised of three days of live music, spoken word, and children's entertainment spread out over five stages. Good food and vendors abound. Water is free. The main stage is permanent. The festival is the greenest in Ontario with dishes being reused, compost being collected, no plastic water bottles (bring your own and use the tanker truck!).

All this is good.

But why go?

A good friend of mine put it this way. There are these things called "Hillside moments". Times when things just click for whatever reason. You feel transported. Moved. On another plane. And all that without chemical assistance (heh).

The Kopecky Family Band is not, as the name might suggest, a family band except in so far as a close group of friends may be considered more family than family. Family is what you choose, and for them, it was a choice well made.

Sometimes, the moments center around the music, around the discovery of a new band that you have never heard of that gets under your skin and makes you crave more and more of what they have to offer.

Pokey Lafarge's infectious music - a curious blend of styles from the 1930s, but almost all original music - gets under your skin - they are entertaining, funny if you watch carefully, and very very tight as a band.

Is it the food?

12 to 14 hours a day of making sausages, rain or shine, heat or cold. Does not matter. Sausages are king.

 Sometimes it is about who you came to the festival with. Friends, family, who make the weekend or day or even the hour you see them and visit with them more special for them being there.

Or is it being fortunate enough to meet with, or connect with a performer in some way that would not happen in a more formal, or distant venue?

We ended up chatting for a bit after the show - she liked the pictures I sent the band.

In this case, Snowblink's lead singer and my daughter made a connection as my daughter said to her how much she liked their music, and in return, received a gift of a little bell.

Or is it seeing others making connections of their own? Having their own Hillside moments?

Whatever the case is, the festival is one well worth attending.

it's festival season again

This year should be a good one - Waterloo Jazz, Hillside, Kitchener Blues, and who knows, more?

Here are some pics from a quick wander by at the Waterloo Jazz Festival. More ought to be coming in the next day or two.

when cute meets light gathering

you get magic