Virtual Essay

              Steve Carty is a Canadian photographer from Toronto, Ontario who has been in the industry for 20 years shooting fashion such as Canada Goose and La Vie and Rose, musicians such as Kanye West and celebrities such as Charlie Sheen. His work has been featured in prominent magazines such as Maclean’s, Vogue Russia, American Photo, Intersection UK and Naked Eye.  I found Steve Carty’s work very intriguing because of his ability to bring his work to life. His technique is marvelous and much of his great work is situated around urban scenery; albeit he does provide excellent photos of nature. I have chosen to compare his work with that of mine because my best work centers’ around urban scenery and nature just like Steve Carty. His use of technique, lighting and positioning allow for a great composition of excellent photos. 

Below are a few shots of Steve Carty’s work:

Below you fill find photos I shot:

 

               After conducting some extensive research, I discovered that Steve Carty used the Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR Camera which is the same camera I use, thus making a comparison between similarities relative. After scrutinizing the work of Mr. Carty, I drew a number of conclusions; Steve Carty uses his technique, positioning and lighting to convey his photos message and in some cases to express his emotions at the time of shooting. For instance, I felt as if his first photo of a Vancouver condominium skyline subliminally expressed his emotions at the time the photo was taken. He may have been feeling unhappy, doleful or dispirited. The significance of this is that I used neutral density filters and fill-flash reflectors to give my first image of the CN Tower a dark contrast look. The rationale behind this is that I was feeling gloomy that day and I wanted to use this photo as a means of expression. Given the similarity in technique, I find that this matches well with Steve Carty. The second photos shares similarities in the sense that Steve Carty and I both appear to enjoy capturing parts of Mother Nature at its finest. His second photo of the Pacific Ocean surrounding Vancouver with the Rocky mountains in the background appear to give the impression that Steve Carty enjoys capturing photos of nature. This compares well to my second photo I took while I was in Cuba. My photo shows the sun set hitting the ocean with my friend walking ahead in distance. The purpose of this photo was to demonstrate the joyous feeling I had when taking the photo of nature at it’s finest. Steve Carty’s third photo of bikes parked with cod webs on them is quite similar to the positioning and technique I used when taking my third photo of a taxi parked outside the Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto. In regards to positioning, Steve Carty and I both captured our respective photos from upfront and close to the subject at hand. This shows how close we got to our images to capture the most detail we could and I believe we both shared similar positioning (upfront and close) in these photos. In regards to the technique, I used the artificial sunlight technique to give the feeling of a late afternoon shot. This appears to align with the time setting that Steve Carty captured his photo.  Last but not least, Steve Carty’s fourth and fifth photos appear to mirror my fourth and fifth photos in that we both reiterate our joy of capturing photos of city skylines and nature’s offerings. For instance, Steve Carty’s last two photos are of the CN Tower and the ocean surrounding Vancouver with the beautiful mountains in the background. My final photos are of an upright picture of the CN Tower and cars in the middle of Dundas St. in downtown Toronto. These photos demonstrate our similarities in the sense that both of us enjoy taking photos of urban settings such as city skylines.

Sources:

 http://www.stevecarty.com/vancouver-snaps/

http://www.modelmayhem.com/224688