My Private Tokyo

Getting a lot of support this week as well as a lot of kind and thankful words from those viewing the sets of pictures. It's been an amazing experience all around and there's plenty more to come. Once again, thank you to everyone who has been a part of it all!

Next up, Calgary!

So, the project is still coming along quite nicely. The next day or two will be a bit of a slow down as I have a few other shoots that need to be completed. Following that thought were right back on track with some more updates.

Aside from that, from a photographers perspective the project itself has been a rather rewarding experiences. It's quickly forced me to spend a good deal of time anticipating my settings, light sources and conditions, most of which have not been ideal, and reacting to them in a pretty quick manner. I set conditions on myself to only use natural light unless it really needed to be supplemented. That in itself was for several reasons. It made sure i worked quickly and it made me stop and think about what i have at my disposal. At times you stumble a bit but even if you only fired off a few frames in the span of a few minutes you spend a lot of time reviewing what you did and how it affected each image.

Long story the added pressure to move quickly and in varying conditions has helped me to grow in a particular regard.

The project also has a few other rules I've kept in my mind. I'm shooting the whole thing using only a 50mm focal length. In part this was to give he image some breadth and take a step away from the compression of telephoto lenses. On the other hand i had wanted to capture a bit more of the actual environment each shot was taken in. It's been bitter sweet at times but it helps you to think and adjust rather than just swapping out for a different lens.

I want the overall feel of each shot to be generally the same. The goal is not to get a individualistic picture for each person. Well, perhaps that is a little incorrect. Each one is unique but they all fit into a template of guidelines. I want it to be represented as a group, not as individual images. Like i said, it's bitter sweet at times but i'm not giving myself leeway.

The response has been pretty amazing. It's a fantastic feeling hearing people say they've been genuinely touched by the project. I want to keep track of some of the messages and comments and hopefully put it all together down the line. However, i certainly can't take credit for all this work. There are many individuals who have come together to help make this something truly unique and as such you should all finish reading this knowing that you played just a big a role as everyone else who took part.

Theres more to talk about, i will however save that for another entry. Finally, I did get some more great news the other day that I had wanted to share. I don't quite know the weight of it yet, it may in the end be something quite small in a sense but I was asked among others to participate in giving a little bit of a personal background and a message to Japan and those affected by the disasters for a magazine based in Japan.

To me that's pretty amazing. There is a whole heck of pressure behind it to create a message that inspires but it truly feels rewarding to be a part of an international community.

First off, thank you everyone for the fantastic amount of support and encouragement. The project is kicking off in full steam and there will be a lot of updates and donations coming over the course of the next few days.

These are a few of the people I got the pleasure to work with today. Thank you everyone for the donations and support!

By now we have all seen the tragic destruction and loss of life surrounding the natural disaster in Japan. In desperate times like these having people and organizations to help individuals pull through is incredibly important. It not only provides immediate tangible help but also develops a vital sense of community for those involved.

There has been a truly earnest response among the Japanese community at the unanticipated level of caring and support the rest of the world has shown in the past few days. Many friends have been truly thankful for even the small messages sent to make sure they were alright following the earthquake and tsunami.

To me this was important. The strong sense of community among the Japanese is truly something unique and it has always to me been something I have aspired to.

I, like many of you, have people in my life who have been affected to different degrees by this disaster. Like many of you I have also in some form donated money to help the relief effort. However, I began to feel guilty knowing I could do much more.

So this is my offer and my challenge to you all.

I want you to donate a minimum of $15 I will be taking donations on behalf of the Red Cross. In exchange, I want to take one sincere picture of you, holding up a badge of support. All the money collected will be donated to the relief effort. I will also be putting together a photo blog to showcase the people being a part of this effort.

This is what I would like to represent our message:


Special thanks go to shing02

It's simple enough but the value of it is so much more.

We can all do our part to help on a financial level. However, to me there is more than just financial support. I want people to know the face behind the gesture. I want to showcase that the international community is forever a part of the Japanese community. To me the worth of that support is equally as vital to people as assisting them financially in times of need.

To those who feel they can help be a part of this in other ways, please do so. Whether you take up your own camera and follow suit, make it your own or find another creative way you can use your talents and personal time to help the situation, put in the effort and be a part in creating an international community. I would much rather we all work on this together.

That is my challenge, be a part of this. Whether it is on one side of the lens or the other, help out and build a community that will ultimately bring a lot of good in a lot of valuable ways.

The images will be put up on a blog. The more people involved, the more we can show how much the international community is really a part and the more significant a difference we can actually make. If you know of people wanting to be involved please let them know.

So please, contact me or anyone involved and let's make this grow. You can reach me at mariuszphotography@gmail.com

For those looking to help in other regards you can do so via the Red Cross in a number of ways.

Finally, I would also like to encourage others to use these pictures in their Facebook profiles similar to the current badges going around to help spread the message to donate.

Thank you everyone!


「東北地方太平洋沖地震」におきまして、被害にあわれた皆様に心よりお見舞い申し上げます。

現在も余震があり、被災地で多くの方が非難しており、懸命な救出活動が続いている状態です。

被災者の方に対し,義援金として支援をすることが、日本へカナダ内陸エドモントンからできるサポートだと思います。

具体的には、各自上記のShing02デザイン"Rise again　手をつなごう"バッジを表示したIpadを持っていただき、野外にて証明写真を作成します。

又、その証明写真購入代金（最低１５ドル寄付）として皆様から寄付を頂き、集まった全義援金は日本赤十字社を通じて、被災者救済のための救援活動及び復興支援活動等資金として寄付させていただきます。

更に、各証明写真はブログhttp://mariuszsikorski.blogspot.com/2011/03/we-need-your-help.htmlにショーケースとしてアップロードされます。

フェイスブックなどのソーシャルネットワーク当の証明写真として使用して頂ければ、更に多くの人に広め、参加していただける切っ掛けになると思います。

一日でも多くの人にご協力をいただければ幸いです。

日付、場所等に着きましてはいつでも気軽に連絡ください。

連絡先Eメール　マリオ　
mariuszphotography@gmail.com

I'll let you guys in on a little not-so-secret secret I have stumbled upon as of late. When you take the photography community and help them out, treat them as your friends and family something interesting happens: They help you right back.

You begin to learn, you begin to move forward faster than the alternative. Day by day you find ways to build upon each other as a team and put together projects and ideas with the support of those around you, things that we all push towards but sometimes can't bring ourselves to create under our own strength. You spread the responsibility between people and with it you can create much more.

Through it all you learn so much. You gain a different perspective, a different style and a different view on all you do and it helps you gain so much. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, others help us realize those, others also help us build on those.

In the end, for me this sort of a project, like in the video, is a chance to learn. It is a chance to experiment and build a community. The image itself comes second, I find the knowledge from the experience and the people you meet to be of much greater value. We all get a lot out of it at the end of the day.

Photographers
-Mariusz Sikorski
-Sandy Phimester

Makeup Artists
-Lydia Yapp
-Felicia Gow

Models
-Becca L
-Angela H
-Hannah L

Assistants
-Leroy Schulz

Shot on location @ studio-e.ca
Video shot and edited by Jason Fan @ Pixelknife.ca

This past week we got a chance to view a lunar eclipse on the night of the winter solstice. I had before that day not seen a lunar eclipse to begin with and aside from getting out of the city to get a glimpse of the celestial event I had brought along my camera for the sake of doing some photography of the night sky.

It was not something I had done before, a learning experience through and through and although it involved a lot of cold feet and frozen hands it was well worth the effort dealing with our Canadian winters to not only get a beautiful view of the eclipse itself but a lunar sea to gaze upon.

I will definitely be looking to make a few trips farther up north, away from the light pollution and city lights in the hopes of getting some truly clear and scenic shots of our countryside in the night sky.

Saturday night I was invited to shoot at a magazine launch, Phabrik, being hosted by Western Canada Fashion Week. They were holding it at the newly opened Alberta Art Gallery here in Edmonton which makes for an beautiful venue.

There were a number of us photographers attending so rather than try and cover it all I had decided to cover mainly the interaction of people and leave the other aspects to some of the others since we were all working together anyways. I saw this as a good chance to experiment as well as trying to push my camera to some of its strengths.

I had recently purchased the 70-200mm f2.8 VR II for the D3s, in part to situations as these. The venues lighting conditions were, to put it nicely, very moody, aka very little light. While I'm not against using flash what so ever in this particular case I wanted to experiment just going off ambient and seeing what the camera and lens could do. Even though I'd probably regret it I ended up intentionally leaving my wireless transmitters at home so I wouldn't fall back on the flash.

In regards to using some fill flash the setup of the venture made it a little difficult. The ceilings were very high and the majority of the area was open space, making it difficult to bounce flash off of a wall. Doing it straight on worked but resulted in images that were a little too flat for my tastes. Carrying around the 70-200 would have made it difficult to handhold a flash anyways.

So I went without and worked with the light that was available for better or worse. I have to say I was impressed with the performance of the camera and lens. The AF had little to no problem keeping up with focus in the extremely dark conditions. The VR which was marketed as able to provide around 4 full stops of Vibration Reduction completely impressed me. I hand held some shots at 1/13th of a second @ 200mm and still got sharp results, something I had a lot of trouble doing when I was shooting on the Canon side. Granted I did not have an IS lens at that time but even then I couldn't even dream of getting some of those results. As for the ISO performance on the D3s it definitely kept up. There were shots between ISO 3200 and 12,800 which showed very little noise. What noise there was can easily be cleaned up in post processing.




At one point of the night there was a ballet performance right in the middle of the dimly lit room. In order to freeze the action I had to shoot at a higher speed, I cranked the ISO to 12,800 and got some great results. I found that really impressive given the circumstances of being in a venue with lighting not specifically tailored for that sort of performance. Having that sort of flexibility in the camera reminds me why I invested in it.

After yesterday I'm no longer particularly worried about shooting the ceremony side of a wedding in a church which prohibits the use of flash. Being able to shoot at 200mm, 1/20th of a second at f2.8 and ISO 6400 and still get quality images will make life easier. In the end it gives me more freedom to worry about composition.

Otherwise it was an interesting night. I got a chance to meet the mayor and grab some shots of him. That in itself was kind of a bit of a wake up call, a realization of not having a second chance at some of these shots.

One other aspect that I'm not too used to quite yet is approaching people I would like to use for models sometime in the future. Oddly enough I don't feel out of place asking those advertising themselves as models, even given the idea they probably on a regular basis work with photographers much more talented than me. Coming across people in every day situations always feels a bit more daunting though. Perhaps it's the notion of not wanting to come off as some creep with a camera or the fact that I really need to make a new business card already, something that looks a lot more professional than my old one.

Luckily though I'm slowly getting rid of that mentality and approaching some of these people. The fact that some of them I probably won't run into again and others are incredibly hard to come by has made me realize I need to take some initiative and make it happen.





What I want to do now is learn how to develop the photos to have a greater tonal range and get more knowledge on evening out the white balance. While I fully understand the concept of doing so using gels on flash getting good results out of the camera in which the conditions and colors are continually changing is another thing on its own. It's still something I can't control anywhere near as well as I'd like. Though perhaps it's just the nature of the beat shooting with some many different colors of light in one scene. You can only go so far.

The past few days here in Edmonton has seen some beautiful weather, at least for this time of the year. With temperatures hovering around 5°C and a little free time I've finally managed to explore the area around where I live. Being quite close the North Saskatchewan River it's a little surprising I have yet to find a way to the river since moving here.

It's not exactly accessible on this side of town, most of it is still under construction so there are no parks or bike paths that run along side it as other parts of town. Regardless, there turns out to be a residential area, of the country variety, that runs not far from it. A testament to the serenity of the area, I spotted a couple of deer grazing near the forest as I arrived. It had only been about 5pm. Unfortunately, they ran off by the time I got out of my car. Not that I was equipped for the shot anyways, having only brought with me the 105mm f2.8 Macro lens.

I had wanted to test this lens out for a series of shots in a similar vein to ones I had taken the past fall. At the time I was experimenting with using dried or dead leaves in a variety of environments. I had wanted to continue this through out the entire year, capturing the leaves in the different seasons and states.

I got a few shots in and definitely want to explore the area a bit more this week. There's a lot of beauty to be found there.

As for the lens, I'm really starting to warm up to it. The pictures I was shooting in Fall of last year were done on the 16-35mm f2.8, mainly on the 35mm end of the scale but even though the lens had a really small minimum focus distance the length of the lens limited the amount of out bokeh I was able to get. With the 105mm lens it is a lot easier to isolate the elements, maybe even too much so.

For those interested in black and white photography / post processing I would highly recommend checking out the Nik software packages, specifically Silver Efex Pro. You can get a trial run from their website, check out the lessons and give the add on package a go. It's well worth it.

I can't remember where I heard the slogan but it gave me a good laugh.

So this past weekend my cousin had asked me if I could do some shots for her of her baby, which she had about a month ago. Normally taking pictures of kids is not my cup of tea. I prefer something a bit more cooperative but it's always fun to give it a shot.

I ended up spending most of the afternoon at her house taking shots of the newborn. Ironically enough he ended up sleeping through most of it, even to the mother and fathers attempts to wake him up for the majority of pictures. I imagine this will probably be the most well behaved kids shoot i'm bound to have in my career.

Luckily though, I had my trigger finger ready and got a few shots of his big blue eyes and smile.

I think a big part of shooting children is having a lot of patients You're working off their clock, not the other way around. I've also found that it helps put a fresh perspective of things when you get down to their level and see the world through their eyes. It's a much different perspective down there.

Aside from the fairly obvious easy to organization another important part of it is when you're using sites like flickr.

Plain and simple: It will help get your image seen.

Last year I had someone contact me via flickr asking if a particular shot of mine was available in a larger size and am I willing to sell usage rights for the image. After doing some research on the person/company making this offer it turned out to be a group working out of British Columbia. The company was actually pretty prominent in the advertising world.


To make a long story short I ended up selling the usage rights to the image to them, twice to be exact. They had wanted the image to be a part of promotional material being put together for the Government of Alberta promoting the province of Alberta. The second time they had contacted me was to extend the rights to posters and billboards, something that was not mentioned in the original usage rights.

Companies watch sites like flickr and do contact users. Tagging your photos with appropriate keywords plays a key role in having your photos seen on such sites.Spent the extra few seconds to tag your photos properly. It might make you some money or bring you attention in the long run.