It All Started With

This was one of the first photo's of the day. I was all gung-ho to do everything black and white but when I saw this one I wasn't so sure. I did work on it converting to black and white. I even experimented with a sepia version and a blue tone. I like them all. Might even show off some of the others but this was the one that won out for this little series.  Another little note, this is likely the only one I'll show on a white back ground I think white worked very well here.

 The 100mm macro shot 1sec f5.6 iso 100

Now That Wasn't So Hard

I had no trouble deciding this one should be black and white. When I started working on it I couldn't help but think of an ancient piece of pottery or some other antiquity brought up from the ocean bottom.

 The 100mm macro again 20sec f32 iso 100

Colour To Black And White To Colour

The next few days are going to be tough for me. Today I set out to photograph some sea shells we have here. I wanted to emulate some black and white photos I have seen in the past of items set on a white or black background and lit with a shadowless even light. Well I made a little set up just using the North facing balcony light. It worked quite well and came very close to what I was looking for. The problem came when I started processing them. A couple I just had to leave in colour, a couple definitely were meant to be black and white, while others I just can't decide. I have a photo in colour and black and white for those and I probably won't be able to decide which to put up till the moment I do. Maybe both.

Definitely colour:

 I used the 100mm macro at 20 sec f25 iso 100

I Am Just Trying To Make A Point Here

Well a few points Actually. 

 I took this one with the 17mm 1/50th sec f3.5 iso 100

Sushi Was A No Go

Tonight I went for sushi at my favourite little local place with the intention of also taking some photos of my dinner. I got permission so when dinner came I seriously went to work trying to get a photo. I came home with nothing to show. That hasn't happened to me in a long time. Oh well it still tasted good. 
In the meantime here is a photo of a little fellow used to hang around our work. He is (was actually) a Siamese Fighting Fish. I can't remember his name but he actually had 2, a boy name and a girl name because their was some debate over his gender. He was the second of two fish that were kept there. They both didn't last long most likely because they got too much love and care. One day I brought out the camera gear and tried out some photos. After a few experiments I got what I wanted and think it showed him off rather well.

The lens was the 100mm macro 1/125th sec f8 iso 100. I held the flash with the Lumiquest SoftboxIII Pro directly over the tank, a piece of white paper laid in front of the tank and a white piece of paper as a backdrop, at the back of the tank.  

A Cross

This cross was in a field all by itself. From where I first saw it, it looked small and lost. I got close to it to keep the isolation but make the cross the predominant part of the photo. Although the cross is a religious symbol I felt this photo of it being so simple and plain, made it almost timeless and anyone could draw something out of it.  My hope is you can get a sense of peace from this photo

 Shot with the 50mm 1/160th sec f1.7 iso 200






 

In Loving Memory

We spent a good amount of time in the cemetery even though the rain was coming down hard. I didn't have any ideas of what I wanted to do or try as this wasn't planned. So for both of us it was a question of wandering and getting ideas. Normally on our outings Dar and I stick pretty close together, this day we went our own ways for a while. I think the location put us in a bit of a reflective mood and we gave ourselves some solitude.  Sometimes an idea comes as I am framing the photograph. Looking through the viewfinder I read the "In Loving Memory of" and thought of a moment when visiting a grave of someone that was in your life. Everyday life is still carries on around you but for a few minutes you stop to be with them in your thoughts.

This was shot with the 50mm at 1/100th sec f1.7 iso 100

Out In The Rain

Dar and I went out for a photo day today. As luck would have it, it was pouring rain. We decided to forge ahead and get out there anyhow. The plan was to go to a local car wrecking business and wander through the yard taking photos. We couldn't get permission to go in so no rusty car pictures. We took a very round about route there via a couple camera stores, lunch at a local restaurant, and Mountain View Cemetery. We had just got out of the car at the cemetery when a lady walked by. As she went by Dar said "Nice umbrella" to her. I looked and said "Oh yeah! Photo opportunity!" I didn't actually yell otherwise you might be looking at a blurry shot of an umbrella swinging towards my head. We spent some time wandering in the rain taking photos. Me with my umbrella constantly falling in front of me and my hood covering my eyes.  Here is one of the first photos I came away with. I'll be posting more photos from this day for the next little bit. I hope you will come by and look. 

 Shot with the 50mm 1/500th sec f1.7 iso 100

Sometimes Plans Get Changed

For past little while I have been getting more and more interested in black & white. These phases come and go. This afternoon I sat down to look at what I could try converting to b&w from my colour shots. I like to create b&w this way. I happened upon this photo that I had taken while taking some photos for "An Old Rose" just a week ago. I liked this one but the one in the post was what I was looking for that day. I decided to work on it and see what it would like. I converted and did some adjustments and came up with something I liked. As I looked at it I thought of a process I had played with before to give a photo an ethereal glow and retain it's sharpness. So I thought I'd give it a try. I did and got it to about were I liked it. I sat and pondered and enjoyed it but, there seemed to be something missing. Colour! So I went back to the original (I saved the b&w version of course) and started the process with it. Here is what it came to be. 

 I used the 100mm macro at 6.0 sec f16 iso 200
 (A little trick if you aren't aware of it already. It you want closer look at a photo on here  double click it).

Mount Zopkias

Well it is winter so I guess I should have a winter photograph or two. This was a very lucky opportunity. We were at a rest stop on the way to the Okanagan when I noticed the light falling on the mountain. I got out the camera and tripod and set everything up at the edge of the stop about 15 feet from the van. It was pretty cold so I only got a few shots. Lucky on this one the sun broke out at bit on the face of the mountain. This is a mountain that gets photographed quite a lot I believe just by virtue of the fact it's by a major highway. I bet there aren't a lot of it in this light at this time of year. I have always really enjoyed this picture.

 This was taken with a Hassleblad 500c and a 50mm lens. I had Ilford 100 film in it. I have said this before, I think it quite the thing to use a 30-40 year old camera that rattles when you carry it and be able to bring out such wonderful sharp photos.

Yellow Things

Photography is serious business. I can't remember what this piece of equipment was.  I wonder if I knew then. I had considered the idea that I should discuss the meaning behind what I was thinking when I decided to photograph this. However what I thought was "Hey this looks kind of neat". I liked how the pipes wandered about seemingly randomly and the bright yellow mixed in with the rust. Not much deep meaning there. Who cares though, photography is fun.

Happy Blue

This photo to me is more a comment on Jenn’s ability to pose. Going back through the blog and the photos of her, she has adapted to any look asked of her and made photos shine. From Forbidding Beauty a dark somewhat strange photo to this happy little picture Jenn is always willing, very patient and follows direction so well. Even when it gets a little too chilly as in Cosmetic Rouge she let me know she was cold but didn’t complain and carried on till I was done. I am so lucky to have such a model. 

If you're fairly new to my blog have a look at these past posts. You'll see what I mean.

 We Interrupt This Program.... 

Last One 

My Daughter The Bar Wench   

It's Me Daddy!  

More Things n Stuff

Talking about Brittannia the other day put me in mind of some photos I have of old equipment from there. I thought while I was at it I would try  some manipulation. I like putting colour and black and white together so here I made the rusty parts black and white and left the painted parts colour.  The black and white part almost looks like it was painted black in this photo.

 No exposure info for this one.

It Is Easy To Be Hard

I decided to put the photo first so if you aren't into the camera talk and just want to look at the photo's you don't have to feel obligated to read about it. 

I call this one a "Happy Mistake". Now if you want to know why you have to read through the camera talk. Is that mean?

 The 50mm at 1/80th sec f1.7 iso 200

I'm all for doing things as easy as possible. However I am finding more and more I'm getting away from "automatic" in my picture taking. My format of choice is RAW image format. I rarely use JPEG (or JPG) anymore. You have to process each RAW picture you use but the effort is worth it to me. 
On your camera you will likely have some exposure settings called P (program) A (aperture priority) S (shutter priority) M (manual). I never have used P, well maybe a couple times, I rarely use S. My preferred setting is A. Having control of the depth of field is pretty important to me. Remember f1.7? I use M a lot more than I used to but am still pretty comfortable with A.
I never use automatic white balance anymore. It can be fooled if a certain colour dominates a scene. So automatic white balance could try to correct the nice warm colours of a sunrise or sunset.  I don't go so far as to custom white balance every time I bring out the camera. It would be another routine to start but for now I'll use the ones the camera provides. 
The flash I have can be used off camera and still be controlled by the camera. When I got that I thought it was the cats meow. At first I used it for everything and it was great. When I was taking some photos of Jenn the other day I was finding I was looking over at the flash with my eyebrows scrunched together more and more. Every time I took a photo the exposure was way off or if I got it right once, next shot was wrong. I am still not sure what I was doing wrong and I had enough right photos that I didn't worry about it. If someone had been paying me for that shoot it wouldn't have looked so good me fighting with my equipment. If I had just gone manual and dialed in the flash, once I got the setting right the exposure on every photo after would have been about right.

So manual will be the word of the week.  


Today's photo is from the shoot I mentioned with Jenn. The photo was dark and flat so I started working on adjusting the exposure. While I did I tried out different colour balances. The As shot and Flash didn't look quite right to me on this one. So I changed it to Automatic and it looked quite nice. 
Oh. 
Well, I guess automatic can have a place in my photography still. 

An Old Rose

When we get flowers we tend to keep them a lot longer than I think most people. Especially the roses. They dry up rather nicely and we don't have to get into a big rush to get new ones. I have used dried up old roses before and posted them. Actually the roses in that previous post are still around. They are in same vase as this one.

I used the 100 macro at 8 second exposure f16 iso 200. I went to that north facing window I like for light. Shooting macro you need to really close down the lens to get the whole flower in focus. So I used the tripod, a cable release and stood verrrry still for those 8 seconds.
I wonder if maybe sometime I should try catching some photos of the roses before they dry out. Oh wait, I believe I have. Time to go do a little digging maybe show 1 or 2 of those.

Things N Stuff

I've been taking a lot of people pictures lately and I love it. I also really enjoy taking photos of things. I am going to try a bit of that again. Just to start here is a photo I took at Brittannia Mining Museum. If you like taking photos of things, especially rusty old things, here is a place to go. Actually it's a great place to go just to look around. You even get to go for a ride in a mine shaft and learn about life in there. Quite an eye opener. Until they turn off the lights.

 I took this during my transition to digital and had my film camera with me that day. This is a scan from one of the rolls of film. What I am trying to say is, no exposure info. I was just never dedicated to those details enough to write them down.

Cosmetic Rouge

This is the name of the filter I used in this shot. This filter is part of a cosmetic kit LEE puts together which design for portraiture. I like it more every time I look at it but I think I'll get more use out of the Pale Amber Gold (and similar ones) I used with Peter (Nick). Jennifer had some wicked cosmetic contacts on. They just sort of make her eyes darker here but they're pretty cool up close.

The 50mm shot 1/125th sec f1.7 iso 200. The flash (with that filter over the head) was used wireless through an umbrella off to camera left. 


 

More Of That Window Light

In "(Peter) Nick Intent" I was clicking away between Peter (Nick) and Nicola. I managed to get some nice shots of them both before I wore down their patience. Well, I didn't wear down their patience, I just got them to the point where they had to be goofy. Here is a photo of Nicola before they reached that. They were sitting across a small table from each other in the same light yet the photos have 2 very different moods. 

With the 50mm 1/60th sec at f1.7

Like My Sideburns?

I bought some colour correction filters for the flash the other day. Today I tried one out on (Peter) Nick that warms the skin tones. As usual he was real enthusiastic about having his photo taken so once I had him nailed to the floor we were able to get down to business. We tried a few shots but he was interested in a tv show and kept looking at it. I told him to watch for a bit and here is what I got out of that. He is pretty proud of those sideburns.

 Shot with the 50mm 1/60th sec at f9. I used flash with a LEE filter 009 Pale Amber Gold over the head and a Lumiquest Pro III attached. I think it gave a nice tone to the skin.

All That Glitters?

Walk downtown in the evening and you see all the pretty lights, the neon signs. It is somewhat of an illusion. The lights hide the rust, the age. When you go during the day you can see all that showing through. I'm sure this type of photography isn't what the city fathers would want in the tourist books or what ever. I think though street photography can be interesting and done right will show the character of a city. I have been thinking about this more and I think I'd like to do more walk abouts downtown and learn more about street photography. Dar! Day trip! 
I love black and white. I have mentioned before I shoot digital colour and convert. I would like to get a software package that emulates black and white film emulsions. I'll have to look into that.

I've been doing my posts from work the past couple days and keep forgetting my exposure info is on the computer at home.

Street Photography of the Street

I started talking about street photography a couple days ago. I just happened to come across an interesting blog about a street photographer who's work had only recently been discovered. Vivian Maier  was a nanny who on her own time went out with her camera. I am just starting to explorer that blog site and so far there are some great photos. I don't think my photo today qualifies as true street photography but, well, I did take it on the street. I also had fun converting it to black and white then putting colour back in the neon.

 I find street photography as a genre fascinating. It's like an intimate glimpse into other peoples lives. It is close and very personal. People still do it but myself, I would be a little leary of getting up so close to people I don't know to take their picture.

(Peter) Nick Intent

That window light was awesome. We were at a Starbucks for coffee, the sun was behind the buildings so it was diffuse coming in the big window we were next to. This is before he got tired of the camera pointing at him and still was able to ignore me. I can be hard to ignore sometimes.

I used the 50mm 1/200th sec at f1.7 iso 200.

My Aunt Penny

15 April 1937 - 09 January 2011. I found out my Aunt Penny passed away at 8:20 this morning. I had been expecting this news for a while now but still wasn't prepared. I felt the need to say something about Penny in my own way so here it is. 


How do you sum up a persons life in a few words? I can't but I can tell you a few things I knew about Penny. 

• Penny had MS and although it slowed her down a bit it never stopped her.  
• She lived in Seaside Oregon where she kept an immaculate little house. 
• If you stayed in that house you got to listen to Police, Fire, and Ambulance calls all day and night. 
• She often knew who was going to the calls and often who they were going for.  
• She had been married to a cool guy named Floyd.  
• She and Floyd once lived in the Hotel above the Seaside Fire Hall. 
• Penny loved walking down to the Shiloh. 
• Happy hour at the lake was a favourite time of day. 
• She volunteered at the Seaside Chamber of Commerce for many years. 
• Penny was born and raised in Canada but became a very patriotic US citizen. 
• Once when I grew a beard she confided in me she thought men with beards in uniform were quite handsome. 
• Penny cared a lot about her family. 
• She came and stayed with my Mom at the lake whenever she could and I know my Mom always looked forward to that.  
• Penny had a ready smile and a big heart.

This is Penny (on the right) and her sister Phyllis at 119 Main in Saskatoon. 

This doesn't even skim the surface of Penny's life. It is just some of what I saw. I believe if you were able to talk to every person she ever came across, they would have a kind word or a fond memory to share. She was a neat lady.  

  

Penny (on the right again) and my Mom Barb at the lake.

More From The Street

Here is Chip and Nicola as they crossed the street to meet us. I chose to keep the camera up and clicking as she came. I really like having the eye contact. Using fixed focal I had to improvise a bit to keep them both in the frame as they approached. Makes kind of a fun photo I think. I usually try to crop to match 8x10 size but this one stays full frame (matches 8x12 format).

 For this I used the 100mm shot at 1/640th sec f2.8 iso 200

Street Photography

Today's photo is of Nick. We went downtown today in the afternoon and the sun was getting low in the horizon. Looking down Granville I wanted to get some heavily backlit shots and here is a favourite. We met up with Nicola and Chip for coffee so I have some of them as well I want to show over the next few days. I am not one to approach people cold so it was nice to have some (sort of) willing subjects. Chip didn't care anyhow as long as he got to sniff stuff. 

  This was with the 50mm (yay for the 50!) 1/1600th sec at f2.8 iso 200.

Hey The Neighbours Went And Got an Automobile

You go to look over the fence and as you walk you get your first glimpse of that shiny new car.

100mm at 1/320th sec f5.6 iso 200

We Interrupt This Program....

Jennifer got her hair dyed. Just had to take a photo and I liked it so much I just had to get it posted. I was looking to show off the hair colour so isolated it and made it the main subject. I like doing this kind of thing and in this case I think it came across really well.

Shot with the 100mm at 1/60th sec f8 iso 200. Used one flash through an umbrella wireless to camera left.

There's A Storm Coming

On the beach at Varadero in Cuba if there were more than 5 people it was a busy day. This is going back a few years mind you. Cathe and I spent a week there once. It is an interesting country providing lots of opportunity for photography, especially in Havana. Even lounging on the beach on a not so great day could provide interesting opportunities. 

Of course being before the digital age no exposure info. This was scanned from a print because I am not sure where the negative is. I was working on improving it right up to when I uploaded it. I think I'm going to have to dig up that album. 

 

Jenn And Her New Pea Coat

Wow! I think it is a rare occurence but every once in a while the first shot is the one you are looking for. I took this one just to make sure the light was right, looked at it, thought "great" and carried on. We got some more nice photos but this was the one I decided I should show today. I did get a few others I'll likely post but this was what I was looking for today. 

 The exposure and lighting is pretty much the same as (Peter) Nicks.

Peter (Nick) And His 5 String Bass (Not Guitar Dad!)

Here he is with his new pride and joy. Now he just has to learn how to play it. 

 For this series I used the 24-85 at 26mm 1/60th sec f4 iso 100. The 50 was a bit too long for such a confined space. We set up the backdrop in the living room. I had one flash shot through and umbrella just to camera left and another flash behind (Peter) Nick and to camera right. Had the power down to 1/16th and no diffusion on it.

Sometimes It's Just The Memory

I work at bringing good photographs to this blog. However sometimes a photo can be, not so sharp, maybe the exposure is off but looking at it evokes a memory that grabs you every time. This is one for me. I sometimes forget about this day. Part of a day really. The kids and I went for a walk to see if we could find a hill for them to slide down. We were at the lake when hardly anyone is around. For a little while we felt there was nothing could be louder than us. We were totally alone. There was no bigger problem than finding that little hill. It was so nice. 

Tomato's For The Year

What better way to start the year than with a photo of some tomato's?

 1/160th sec f1.7 iso 100.  The lens of course is the 50mm