Tricks Of The Trade

Many camera manufacturers have added special effects to their cameras. There are all kinds of thing you can do with them. There are settings for things like portrait, sports, landscape, and several others which have been on cameras for a long time. Now there is things like posterization, sepia, toy effect, and some others. One interesting one is partial colour which you pick a colour (say blue) everything not that colour in the photo is black and white. It is a neat effect. I have always felt special effects were better done in the computer because done in camera they are permanent, at least in my camera. Having said that now that they are on the camera, no harm in trying them out right? This is posterization (b/w) a photo of Dar when we went out to Steveston a while back. She was checking out her new camera. Or her fish and chips, I can't remember.   

 The Sony a55 with the 50mm 1/80th sec f10 iso 100. We were right about here  49.12412167,-123.18654167

Sunset Sunrise

While Peter (Nick) and I were at Crescent Beach in White Rock in the evening I caught some photo's of the sunset over the water. At the same time, on the other side of the world Nicola was getting ready to go on a balloon ride in Egypt and get some awesome sunrise photo's!

 This was taken with the 16-80 at 80mm 1/200th sec f8 iso 100 and I was here  49.05667333,-122.88749667

Grey Of Light To Colour Of Dark

Colour diminishes as the light goes away. What if it were the opposite? The idea for this photo came to me while standing in the dim cool tunnel admiring the art down here with all it's brilliant colour. 

 I took this with the 16-80 at 16mm. 3 exposures on a tripod then in the computer did layers masks and adjustments (convert to b&w etc) on each of the 3 layers.

A Bright Day

Here is another bee shot. I was going to post a darker little more gloomy shot as it is kind of a rainy gloomy day. I decided to stay all sunny and positive (gag). I actually am posting because it is raining hard enough I decided not to venture out. I had a particular photo in mind but it'll be there tomorrow. I chased this little guy (girl?) a bit when he landed on this yellow flower. I took this grab shot (yeah they were all grab shots this day) and was happy with it. At first I thought "He's a little hard to make out." The little light bulb in my head clicked on then.
Anyhow, hope you like it. 

 Hmm don't seem to have the exposure info. It was taken with a Sony a55 with a Minolta 50mm macro. I will try add the other stuff later.

Itchy Hands

  Wanderlust has stricken Nicola once again and while on a well deserved break from school she is off to Egypt. She writes a travel blog she calls Itchy Feet Take Me To...     Her story's are always interesting, often funny, ever entertaining, and can even be educational. I drove Nicola around this morning "sorting" Chip and Gracie's care so was able to see first hand the developing adventures inspiring her first post....  
This was the result of thoughts of making a portrait of a person with just their hands. The book happened to be there so adding it gave a lot of context to the person (Nicola of course) I was photographing and was quite timely too. 

I put the 50mm on the new camera for this. Shot at 1/80th sec f3.2 iso 400. GPS:  49.26311500,-123.10654167 . This looks to be about 30ft off.

I Have A New Camera. And It Doesn't Make Phone Calls

When does the subject become the background and the background become the subject? I set out to take some photos of bees today. I was attempting to catch one in flight. I have tried in the past without success, I felt my equipment was just too slow. Well with my new camera today I thought I would give it a try. I didn't get one but I think I am closer to success. I did get some I liked though and I will likely show some off. While I was going through the photos I spotted this one and at first didn't think much but something about it caught my eye. I kept it though and went and looked later. It took a moment but I got what I saw and liked about it. I hope you like it too. 

 I took this with a 50mm macro 1/320th sec f11 iso 400. The new camera has GPS on it and on this photo it showed me at  49.14758333,-122.78023000 which was about 40ft off but still pretty cool I think.    

The Airshow!

The Abbotsford Airshow started today. I however wasn't there. Here is a photo from an airshow quite some time ago just to celebrate. You will have seen a million shots of them like this likely. I think it was a bit of luck to have the clouds in the background.

 This was from a film scan so don't have exposure info.

I Saved It!

 Another photo from that antique shop on my day out with Dar. 

 I used the 50mm 1/15th sec f1.7 iso 100
Here is another good reason not to delete. This photo wasn't my first choice. I took 2 (not sure why only 2 but there's another story) and I chose the other one because I preferred how I had framed it. I opened the other photo to work on and it was out of focus, just enough it wasn't usable (I know, I know, should have chimped). Tonight while looking at that other photo I thought of this one and checked to see if it was sharp. Well it was and I am glad I went back to look at it. Although different than the other one I am quite happy with this.

In Profile

The Angle

At the museum in Falkland there is a building mostly empty with bare wood on the interior. I always think of the expression "If these walls could talk" when I am in a room like this. I walked in and turned around. I enjoyed the soft light on the bare wood. I backed up and started taking photos of the room. I moved forward and kept taking photos until I found myself back at the door. I looked down and saw this. I especially liked all the lines going in different directions but seeming to come together.

I shot this with the 17mm 1/15th sec f3.5 iso 100

Yes they have a museum and although small it is interesting. They have a Colt revolver found in the Salmon River, possibly tossed in there by Billy Miner. I will be posting some more photos.