Sunday, February 26, 2012

Fab Fourever

Nicola and I went to a great show last night. We saw the Beatles tribute band Fab Fourever. What a nice coincidence it was on George Harrisons birthday. Also nice they did their encore with "Birthday" dedicated to Nicola who recently celebrated her birthday. 

I used the venerable beercan 70-210 at 210mm 1/125th sec f4 iso 3200.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Prepared Or Not, Get The Shot

"OH no!" I thought when I saw this. I had contemplated bringing my telephoto but chose not to because of the weight. I was faced with a choice, go home and mope or use what I had and work out the rest later. The longest lens I had was my 100 macro so I put it on. Hey, better than nothing, right? We were lucky he had just started and the thing he was taking off was pretty stubborn so we had lots of time. I shot as I walked along getting as close as I could. Dar was smart and brought her telephoto so she was able to get in close without moving around too much. I still had to crop a lot to bring him in and this was as close as I dared.

 The lens was the 100 macro 1/320th sec f2.8 iso 200.  The photo was shot here


I did a fair amount of processing. First, as I said, the photo is heavily cropped. I love the sparks so I made 2 layers. I desaturated the top layer draining the colour right out. I over saturated the bottom layer to make the sparks brighter. Then I did a lot of selective masking to bring the brighter sparks through. It was picky work but fun and I think worth what I got.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Let's Be Casual

Today Dar and I got to do our photowalk in New West. It was a great day. We got to look in on a studio and talk to the owner Mark. It was an interesting visit to say the least. We went for lunch where Dar treated me to a birthday treat. And, we even took some photos! All round very productive I think. Thought I would show a photo of Dar taking a moment to enjoy the work she had done thus far. 

 I used the 16-80 at 80mm 1/160th sec f4.5 iso 200  This photo was taken here

Friday, February 17, 2012

An Outtake

Taken the same day as the previous post we wanted to get some shots with Peters duster, hat, and pocket watch. What we were looking for was him having the watch out looking at the camera with a serious look. I was setting up trying to get the light right so took some test shots. This one the light happened to be about right and he was admiring the watch. It turned out to be one of my favourites. Of course, I had to give it that old time sepia look.

 I used the 50mm 1/125th sec f5.6 iso 100.  One flash left front through an umbrella and one flash directly behind facing forward.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

It's About The Light On The People

I said I wanted to do more people photography so I got Peter to dress up in his fancy new clothes the other day and we did some photos in my little studio. I want to do more. 

 I used the 50mm lens 1/60th sec f5.6 iso 100. One strobe through an umbrella front left, another one with a small lightbox behind right (for the hair) and one more directly behind facing the backdrop.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Thompson Express

Here is a photo that would have been pretty difficult without HDR. I think I will be experimenting with this process more in the future. I like what can be done with it and want to explore the possibilities more. I want to get a little more into people photography too so look for that in future posts. This is so much fun!

 I used the 16-80 at 18mm 5 exposures shutter speeds ranged between 1/800th and 1/25th sec at f6.3 iso 100. This photo was taken at New West Quay. Dar and I are planning on spending a day there in the near future. I am looking forward to that and seeing what we are able to capture there.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Does It Ever End?

Sometimes I get the urge just to make a print. To me even in this digital age the print is still what the end result of a photograph should be. A few days ago I decided I wanted to make an 11x17 and decided on a photo I had posted on here before. When I opened it I thought maybe it would print better in black and white so started working with it. After converting then making the lights a little lighter and the darks a little darker I came up with a photo that looks even more like that Brooding Island. I haven't ever re-posted a photo on here but with this one I wanted to make an exception. Hope you like it.

The print imhatuo (in my humble and totally unbiased opinion) looks rather epic. I think I may even want to print it larger, may have to get some larger paper 13x19, or maybe go really big with an even larger printer.......  See? It seems never ending sometimes.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Just For The Sake Of It

Here is an example of HDR just for the sake of HDR. I used an effect called grunge. Not one I would generally use but I like what it did for this photo. Hope you agree. 

 This is a combination of 5 photos all using the 16-80 lens at 18mm. Shutters speeds were between 1/2000sec and 1/100sec all f4.5 iso 100.  The photo was taken at Crab Park in Vancouver.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Look Back To See Something New

I took this photo in an alley a couple years ago. I remember the pipes caught my eye but after I took the photo, I decided it wasn't quite what I wanted. If you have been following my blog you will know I like to go through photo's from the past. There are always photo's to find that I might not have liked quite enough before to show. It is fun to look at them afresh and work a bit with them to create something I want to post. This one just took some cropping and a few other adjustments to bring out just what I wanted to see. I hope you enjoy it too.

 I used the 50mm lens 1/30th sec at f4, iso 100