Cats, Dogs, & More: Out & About, Toronto Photography

I saw a great cat photograph on Google+ which motivated me to get out with my camera on Saturday, looking for cats out and about in the neighbourhood.

I met Denise, and just love her one orange paw, isn’t she adorable?:

Denise cat x2

Denise the cat

This is James, he lives in the same house as Denise:

James the cat

Denise James cats

I also met a puppy (+ few more cat photos):

Puppy cats nature collage

On Sunday Noah and I headed out to do some errands, at Whole Foods, in Yorkville, and then over to Yonge Street:

WholeFood Yorkville Yonge collage

Kept it light, and just took my old Canon 5D and the Canon 50 f1.4 lens:

Flowers 50mm collage

Captured a few shots of Alice on the back deck when we returned home:

Alice deck 50mm collage

joshi danielOctober 4, 2011 - 12:44 am

liked the look that you have captured!

End of Summer Nature Photography: Toronto, ON

A collection of nature photography images I’ve captured over the last few weeks.

(Equipment: Canon 1DMkIV with either the Canon 85 1.2L, Canon 100 f2.8 Macro or the Lensbaby Composer lens.)

Pink against yellow

White flower green background

Pink flower yellow background

Wild Flower collage2

Purple flower

Wild Flower collage

This image was shot wide open with the Lensbaby composer:

Spiky plant lensbaby

Spiky Looking Plant collage

Bw flowers

This collection of images was captured with the Lensbaby Composer:

Wild Flower lensbaby collage

Discovered this hornet on my deck last Friday afternoon. Could tell he wasn’t long for this world, as he couldn’t fly:

Hornet collage

The next morning I found him on the deck, he became my still-life subject for the weekend:

Dead Now

Lensbaby Hornet

Hornet lensbaby collage

Magdalena PlewinskaSeptember 13, 2011 - 3:23 pm

These are all beautiful. The colors and the shapes are stunning.

George | PostcardsSeptember 17, 2011 - 4:43 am

These photos are so amazing! You brought up the beautiful and lively colors of the flowers. I keep on staring at them.

Monster Cookies aka Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies: Toronto Food Photography

Whoa nelly! These cookies are super sweet and rich! I couldn’t even finish mine, but Noah was happy to finish mine up. My daughter, and a friend, grabbed a couple on the way out the door, will have to hear her consensus before I decide whether we’ll bake them again (I know it’s a thumbs up from my son, he wanted to eat another one!). (Recipe posted after the photos.)

(All of the following were shot with the Canon 1DMkIV and the lensbaby composer lens.)

MonsterCookies

Monster cookie baking collage

Monster cookie baking collage2

B3C1082

Remains of Monster Cookie

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (we used half whole wheat/half nutri-grain flour)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 package Oreo cookies
  • Directions:

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

    Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

    Place one scoop of dough on the top of an Oreo and once scoop underneath it. Use your (clean) hands to mold the dough around the Oreo so that there are no holes. Place on cookie sheet and repeat until you have used up all the cookie dough. (We found the dough too soft and sticky to use right after mixing, so refrigerated it for a while before making the first batch.)

    Bake for 9 to 13 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

    BTW, the images do not show how LARGE these cookies are. They really are three cookies in one, two chocolate chip cookies + the Oreo cookie. Enjoy!

    ChaseSeptember 16, 2011 - 12:38 pm

    The recipe looks great

    and so does the effect from the lens.

    but not together, it was really hard looking at those pictures of delicious looking cookies with the effect that makes me feel like I’m nauseous/dizzy and have tunnel vision, I apologize it’s just very off-putting and just hope to help with composing photos and food, no disrespect. :]

    ChaseSeptember 16, 2011 - 12:40 pm

    All your other food pictures look fantastic, it’s only this combination that doesn’t work for me :S

    ChaseSeptember 16, 2011 - 12:41 pm

    just letting you know–triple post, my apologies.

    HollySeptember 16, 2011 - 9:33 pm

    Thanks for the feedback Chase. I see what you’re saying, perhaps the Lensbaby works a bit better with other subjects then baking. 🙂

    Headshot Mini-Session: Corporate or Social Media Headshots, Toronto

    In today’s social media and online world, having a great profile picture can make all the difference. Headshot mini-sessions take place at an outdoor or indoor location in downtown Toronto.

    Headshot collage

    This mini-session will last 10–15 minutes, with a quick review of the images on the camera LCD to choose your 2 images. Images will be web quality/resolution, and include colour correction, and retouching. Images will be emailed to you within 24 hours of the headshot session. Please see my Photography Packages page for pricing details.

    As an example of the retouching/processing done to each image, this is a before/after from a recent headshot session:

    Before after

    (Equipment used: Canon EOS-1D MarkIV (new version of this camera is the Canon EOS-1D X Digital), Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens, and the Canon 85 f1.2L lens)