Well everyone we are finally getting some time to add a new entry as life has been a bit of a whirlwind as of late. What's new...what's exciting since we last blogged you ask? Well, in a nutshell there was a quick trip to Mexico, a few workshops and a Winterscapes fieldtrip among a billion other things!
Let's start this blog by having a brief discussion on the weather. In my furthest memories (which as aging takes hold granted are only a few years at best sometimes) I cannot recall ever having almost a month of hoar frost and fog filled days. One would think that out of all of them there would have been ample opportunity to get out and shoot at least one photo of such wierd meteorological events right? Wrong. Oh well, moving forward there is always next year. The one thing that did become abundantly clear throughout the gloom was that sunshine is my friend and I would have a really really hard time living somewhere like Vancouver!
Well...enough idle chit chat about weather and gloom. Let's move on to some pictures. We will begin with a trip that was taken with my cousins to sunny Mexico... this was a different kind of trip as normally my bag would be absolutely stuffed with at least one if not two digital slr's as well as a wide variety of lenses but this time my photography equipment consisted of a Canon Powershot G9 and a Gorillapod (fancy mini tripod)...yep, that's it folks. There is something to be said on rare occasion for just taking a break away from everything and that is exactly what happened... lot's of reading, walking on the beach and sitting by the pool. {Yep - this girl is learning from the best - remember me, damn near a month in Costa Rica with a stinkin point and shoot - Yes, I will once again provide semi-useless, strangely bracketed comments - RW}
ISO - 200, F 7.1, Shutter Speed - 1/100th Nothing beats taking long walks along the beach to destress!{Where exactly is the walking in this photo? - RW}
A shot with my cousin Rachel... what you don't know is that this took several takes as we were trying to look casual in between getting pelted from behind by the waves. {I thought I recognized the enema smiles}
Rachel's re-enactment of what must have happened to the windshield on this golf cart.{Speaking of which, at first glance I thought this was another enema pic but alas, I noticed the comment about the windsheild}
ISO- 400, F 4.5, Shutter Speed - 1/30th
The above shot was in the back of the resort. Very cool architecture and very "Italian" like. As you can see by the EXIF data a tripod was used for this shot as the shutter speed of 1/30th sec was too slow to be handheld... the image was also converted to black and white in Photoshop.
It is impossible to go to Mexico and not sample some of the tequila. This picture is indicative of two things... 1) This was definitely not my favorite sample of the day. 2) Without a shadow of a doubt this proves that I do not always have to look like a supermodel (if that were possible) to be in the blog...
If you ever find yourself in Puerto Vallarta going to Pipi's and ordering one of their margaritas is an absolute must! Another must is hailing a cab within roughly half an hour after consuming such a beast to go back to your resort for a short siesta lol...
ISO- 200, F 3.2, Shutter Speed - 1/320th sec.
The above image was shot while lying on my lounge chair by the back pool.
We had the opportunity to go whale watching one day. {and all you got was a piece of tail}
The best part of the whale watching excursion was coming across a huge pod of dolphins {and a time share pitch I'm sure}. There must have been at least a few hundred of them and they surrounded our boat.
Men with machine guns and smiles on their faces... interesting.
ISO- 200, F 2.8, Shutter Speed - 3 seconds.
These buildings were right outside our balcony and I loved the way that the light hit them at night. This image was shot at about 9:00 PM
Cocktails at the pool bar...for the record most of them were not mine {anymore}... we were there with a big group who just weren't in the picture!
ISO - 50, F 4.2, Shutter Speed - 1/400th sec.
The crab above was more than a little bit creepy. Everytime that the shutter was about to be pressed he would either do this little twitch thing or jump. He (or is it she??) was actually about 6" long and the image was shot about 2" away.
Okay... back home from Mexico and onto some more local pics!
A good friend of mine is starting up a new comapny called Vino Tapederas so I wandered over there one day and shot some pictures for her. Check out the website especially if you love having the odd drink in the great outdoors! {We would love to but you failed to provide a link right folks}
Rob and I were out with a great group yesterday as we conducted our Winterscapes 2010 fieldtrip and had a fantastic time! Below are a few images from the day.
Holy paparazzi !!!
Artsy fartsy chain link.
ISO- 160, F 4.5, Shutter Speed - 1/5000th sec.
Same shot in essence but converted to black and white.
A few images of the participants.
ISO - 160, F 5.6, Shutter Speed - 1/160th sec
This image has some special significance as it was none other than Shane (pictured above) who went through the ice in our Winterscapes fieldtrip last year... go figure.
My version of "footprints".
I have found that sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. The first image below was shot when Rob and I were out at Buffalo Pound a few years back and the one following was shot yesterday.
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Now for my two bits - RW
Four days last weekend were spent in semi-sunny Lloydminster, AB where we gave a bunch of mini seminars. We had fun and they were very well received. Chances are we will head back there at some point. Being the driver of a rather large half ton this should not likely come from my mouth but my god there are a lot of large trucks in Lloydminster. Not often anymore that I'm stricken with truck envy but admittedly was on a few occassions. That said, that town needs to enlarge its parking spots accordingly.
On the trip we had a couple of spottings, the first being a bald eagle sittting on the ground just outside of Hanley, SK. We drove about a mile past it before looking at each other and saying "What the hell was that, a bald eagle?" with neither of us wanting to sound like an ass. After another mile decided to turn around. Upon approach we had convinced ourselves that the sighting was more likely an oil barrel with a bit of snow left on it. Well damned if that oil barrell didn't fly off into the air when hassled by a couple of ravens snacking on a deer carcas. You know how the rest of this story goes.... wind chill below freezing and Rob in a t-shirt and cowboy boots standing on an ice patch trying to mount a body on a 400mm and get some form of shot of this. I should really know better.
Closer to Lloyd we had a bit more success however I was still unable to stand up in the damn boots so just grabbed my 70-200 and blew off a couple frames. Hardly a show stopper when it comes to semi-wildlife but I just wanted you to note a couple of things compositionally speaking. Said subject matter (Elk) are composed on the bottom 1/3 horizontal line. The close crop on the animal on the left and the space on the right side of the frame make for "room to move".
As for "ass vision" which is my own term for hindsight, I should have grabbed a bit more depth of field by increasing my aperture value. This was shot at F3.5 at 1/800 so had some room to move.
Tripped over a little more wildlife hanging from the trees in Bud Miller Park.
A little bit of fill flash here to soften the shadows in the face and if you look close added some nice catch light to her eyes.
The rest of the month has been fairly quiet as far as shooting for fun goes... sometimes I wish photography was a hobby as hobbyists tend to have more time to shoot.
1/500 @ F2.8 - +1EV - ISO3200
I know you have heard it said before but eye contact is everything. Not necesarily with the camera but with the activity yrou subject is engaged in
Changed it up a little with the Future STARS portraits this time as the typical portrait was getting a bit old. Went for the single light low-key in an attempt to do something a little more adult with the little guys. Who would have thunk that the biggest challenge would be getting them standing.
Make sure that you get out there and enjoy springtime with your camera in hand!
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