Karsh Festival

This past Wednesday, while driving to Milestones to have dinner, I saw a bus ad for the Karsh Festival at the Science and Technology Museum. I of course wanted to go very badly as Yousuf Karsh is one of my favourite photographers and I find his ability to capture a person's entire character on film absolutely amazing.Today, Dave and I went to the exhibit and it was absolutely wonderful. Firstly, we got in for free as we have the 3 museums, 1 card memberships (we get into the Agricultural, Science and Tech and Aviation museum for free for the next year) and secondly, it was a great exhibit full of breathtaking photos. Alongside his photographs were some of his tools like his floor to ceiling enlarger capable of creating 40" x 50" images. There were also a bunch of brushes, inks, dyes and sharp tipped objects used for editing and retouching negatives that I found really interesting. I was even able to describe the use of most of the tools to Dave as he had never really seen or heard of any of the darkroom techniques Karsh used.
The exhibit had a hands on component as well, like most exhibits in the Science and Tech Museum. There was a 'view camera' and portrait studio set up that could be used to create your own Karsh inspired portraits. I put view camera in quotations as it was really just a digital camera in a view camera setup (with the upside down, mirrored image and similar moving mechanisms). It was particularly fun because no one seemed to be interested in the portrait studio so Dave and I were able to take a couple shots of each other. You could then email them to yourself and I of course then put them in Photoshop and worked on them. There wasn't much that could be done to them as the quality of the images was so low, but I did try to lessen the noise and graininess of the images and adjust the contrast as well.My favourite one of Dave was the above photo. I like the pensive pose and his shadow in the background. Normally I wouldn't like shadows in this type of photo, but I think it works here.Dave did a really good job in the portrait studio as well. I did, however, need my 'security blanket'/prop - my camera. We took another with the typical Stephanie pose of me looking through my camera but I still think I like the above photo better.
Admission to the Science and Tech museum is $5 I believe and it is definitely worth it. The Karsh Festival runs at the museum until the middle of September so there is still lots of time to go and take a look at some of Karsh greatest works, and take a shot at it for yourself in the portrait studio.