Hello again everyone! I know, it has once again been quite a bit of time between entries. There is no excuse so that being said we are just going to get on with what has been happening... add some photos and business as usual...voila!

{Once again, I, Rob Weitzel, will add a note or two here in these funny little bracket things. Most of what needs to be said is summed up by saying "Sorry we have not published more blogs and more podcasts and to those of you who submitted images for the podcast, we are even more sorry. Fact is, we really like doing this stuff but unfortunately it all takes time to produce and that time is time away from things that generate revenue to help pay for gigantic lens.. see below. We will try to do better. Fact is, I may actually have time to find a photo to publish next time around - RW}

So, what has been happening? Well, not as much outdoor shooting as we would like unfortunately due to the fact that suddenly we have been inundated with massive amounts of rainfall. How massive you ask? Well, they said on the radio the other day that Regina received the most rain EVER for the month of May. Personally it just makes me happy that one day I can sit around a nice cozy fire and tell my grandkids that I was actually around to witness said event... yeah right!

Okay, enough jabbering... let's get to some pictures:

About a month ago Brooke and I headed out to our friends acreage and rode around on the quads and motorbikes. Rob bugs me because he says that this photo shows my white knuckles... yes, it has been a long time since I had been on a bike but we had a blast


My daughter Brooke quadding with Trey... she had too much fun!

Now onto some photos from our PeopleScapes field trip, the last photo field trip that we held. Originally it was scheduled for one date but it sold out in a few hours so an extra date was added and two were hosted back to back. The weekend was perfect weather-wise which has been extremely rare and from the feedback we have received it sounds like everyone had a great time and learned a lot. At some point in the future an image gallery will be added to the website with a selection of images from each field trip.

Shooting the shooters Also keeping an eye on our models and really hoping that the tree branch didn't break and plunge them into the lake! 

Rob "using his hands" to help show the participants what to look for when making images of two people together.

Shutter Speed - 1/1250th sec, F 5.6, ISO - 640, Focal Length - 85mm in aperture priority mode. Note that this image also has some pretty obvious edge burning done in photoshop. Obvious so you can see the effect. Usually a little more subtle.

Here is a shot of Tina that I took as the sun was starting to go down.

Some more pics of the field trippers.

One model and a million different perspectives as you can see from the shooting positions of those with cameras.

Oh wait, can it be??? Yes, another picture of Rob with his arms raised in the air now there's a surprise  

Giving a little bit of feedback. See, I do actually work on the field trips!

Shutter Speed - 1/80th sec, F 6.3, ISO 160, Focal Length - 38mm. Here is a picture that of Bill taking a picture. Take note that the focal point of the photo is in fact Bill's back and the combination of focal point and aperture used render the model in the distance to be soft.

The next two images were given to us by Larry Burkowsky who was one of the participants in the workshop.

Great composition and exposure!

He also shot this one of Rob. Something just seems wrong about a guy in a Tilley hat throwing a football... hmmm.

The perfect end to a perfect day... beautiful colours in the sky

We did have one opportunity to actually go out and take about 10 shots in between the rain and wind a little while ago. Here is the fruit of that labour...okay, truth be told it was nowhere near labour...been there, done that lol...

Rob taking some pics out of the back of his truck. Seriously, i think he needs a much bigger lens lol...

Getting all artsy fartsy with my photos and yes, the one above did go through Photoshop.

This one is titled "I'm a Ford"... yep, original Shutter Speed - 1/6400th sec, F 4.0, ISO - 400, Focal Length - 200mm.

Shutter Speed - 1/5000th sec, F 4.0, ISO - 400, Focal Length - 70mm

The above photo is a great example of getting a silhouette when your subject is backlit. Also, it shows how the 70-200mm lens can be used for close ups as well as distant objects.

Well everyone, that's all for now but if you can believe it, we have already started working on images for the next blog. With luck it will even get published in a timely manner...wohooo!  In the next blog will be some of our adventures from a photo shoot this past weekend out at SIR race track as well as some mountain biking adventures. They keep telling me that your butt eventually just gets used to that 4" wide seat that they put on most mountain bikes but after riding up and down hills this afternoon it will take a lot more convincing... as well as icepacks

Until next time...keep shooting and have fun! (For those of you who know who Hal Johnson and Joanne Mcleod of all the "keep fit and have fun" commercials on tv over the past 20 years, I just actually recited that in my head as I was typing the keep shooting and have fun bit lol).

Devona & Rob

That's right folks, I do believe that I am sitting right in the eye.  What makes me think that??  Well, as I type I am looking out my window and I am sure that the wind is blowing at least 100kmh... in my book we are indeed having a hurricane!  And here I thought that Saskatchewan was immune to those things   I will take the wind over the cold though.  Actually, now that I think of it maybe it would be a toss up but right now I think I favor wind because I am so sick of talking to people about how cold it is... I should have counted the amount of times in the past month or two that I have heard the line "Is it cold enough for you?".  I have come up with a new response to that so when I am asked I seriously look people in the eye and say "no"... at first they think I'm joking but then I explain that I need it to go down to at least -50 (before the windchill) as that is the temperature at which ice crystals start to merge together and I am really dying to photograph this rare event.  Yeah, not so much

Okay... once again I have found myself getting a little bit off course... sorry... so, what has been happening photographically speaking in the past couple of weeks?  Well, we have been as busy as ever teaching photo workshops.  We have a post processing workshop coming up and we have also been gearing up getting ready for our Winterscapes 2009 fieldtrip which as long as the weather holds out should be a blast.  Rob has also been busy with the University of Regina and is shooting wrestling as we speak.  Other than that I do believe that Rob is planning to shoot both Brad Paisley and the Eagles in the near future... am I jealous??  Come on...seriously, everyone knows that the Eagles were only a one hit wonder anyway Okay... I might just be a weeee bit envious.

I did head out once again to the Floral Conservatory to shoot their orchid display. I must admit that I am starting to love it there as there is nothing like walking down paths of flowers in a tropical environment when it is about -40 outside.

And with that we will move onto some pictures.  Rob has in fact finally found a bit of time to send me some more of his Costa Rican trip so I will be posting some here in hopes that Rob will add some comments after the fact as I could make some but they most likely would have nothing to do with the actual images... hmmm... now that I think of it maybe I will do just that and then he can add on if necessary I will also once again point out that Rob did not take an SLR on his trip as all photo were shot with a Canon Powershot G10.

This blog is also going to be split up into at least 2 if not 3 seperate entries as this time we have a lot of images to post and we have realized that some of our blog buddies are on dial up and it takes them upwards of half an hour on occasion to load the blog if there are a pile of images in it.

{Hello blog reading people - Being that Devona was kind enough to do all this work for us and publish these blog entries all that is left to me is to add some comments and explanations which I will do througout these postings and use these funny little bracketsf or which I have never previously found a use for.}

{Your eyes do not deceive you. The above image has been seriously tweaked in PS. At full size it looks very much like an oil painting and will ultimately be printed on a canvas or cotton stock.}

ISO - 80, F - 8.0, SHUTTER SPEED - 1/30TH SEC. {Poas Volcano in Costa Rica - The clouds parted for just long enough for me to shoot this. Most visitors during the week we were there were not lucky enough to see anything other than clouds (Don't worry, the tour guides still took their $60US per person) Can someone please remind me to change the typo on the print... or perhaps not, those tend to be the things that people buy and glom onto for decades... other people's screwups.}

ISO - 80, F - 4.5, Shutter Speed - 1/80th sec, Exp Comp - +0.7 {Yes, that says ISO 80 as all these Costa Rica images were shot with a Canon G10 which has a maximum aperature of F8.0 and quite often meeter readings not terribly relevant to the SLR world due to the size of the sensor and the close proximity of it to the lens opening etc.}

ISO - 200, F - 8.0, Shutter Speed - 1/500th, Exp Comp -0.7

ISO - 80, F - 8.0, Shutter Speed - .5 sec, Exp Comp - -0.3

ISO - 80, F - 8.0, Shutter Speed - 1.5 sec {Somehow the results I obtained from this little camera at F8.0 were suprisingly similar to the results I would see from my DSLR at about F16 or higher - I am generally very pleased with how well this camera performed especially considering how many Cervezas I had consumed by the time the sun set daily}

ISO - 400, F - 4.5, Shutter Speed - 1/200th sec {handheld}

ISO - 400, F - 4.5, Shutter Speed - 1/400th sec, Exp Comp - -0.3 {handheld}

ISO - 400, F - 4.5, Shutter Speed - 1/250th sec, Exp Comp - -0.3 {handheld}

So, I would have made some comments on Rob's photos above as I think that they are all stunning but the problem lies in the fact that looking at them makes me just a wee bit envious as I was sitting here working with the temperatures hovering around minus a zillion while he was galavanting all over Costa Rica taking amazing pictures and I didn't want to come across in my comments like I was bitter or anything

Okay everyone... this is where I say "to be continued" as after I post this I am going to start working on part II .... 

Hi Everyone,

 I must admit that I'm pretty close to having this entry done on time. Where does the time go anyway??  I'm really not loving the fact that a few blog entries from now I will be sitting here in my flannel p.j's while drinking a hot cup of cocoa and looking outside at all of the snow piled up...ugh.  By the way, I can't believe that I just said "drinking a hot cup of cocoa"... I think that's something that my grandmother would've said lol...

Okay...what's new and exciting...well....hmmm.... I got a haircut. Other than that I have been working...shooting and eating but not necessarily in that order.  Take note that nowhere in there did it mention sleep as I am once again convinced that yes, I am most definitely an insomniac.  I think last night that I had the longest sleep that I have had in about a week and that was from about midnight until just past 3:30 AM.  I have given up on getting any more than that tonight so I just finished having a double espresso which I know is not going to help the situation but I think that I have come to terms with it  Sure I have...

What else happened last week??  I went out shooting downtown at night with some members of the Regina Photo Club which was a good time.  I also had a shoot for the Museum Association of Saskatchewan, shot the Cougar Trot and I think that just about covers it.  

Note that I haven't mentioned anything about Rob in this blog...why??  Well, he's hiding under a rock.  Okay, not exactly but he is taking it easy and having a very relaxing week but I know that we will hear a lot from him in the blog next week... RIGHT ROBERT???!!!!????

Well... onto some pictures from the week...

My daughter while running in the Cougar Trot last weekend... she was just starting to recover from one heck of a cold hence the look on her face that is somewhat pained.  Now had it been myself that had been running in this race it would have been closer to something resembling a mid-stroke look 

I finally managed to get out today and shoot some fall pictures.  On another note people have said that Medicine Hat is the suicide capital of Canada due to the fact that every day is so bloody windy there.  I'm wondering if anyone has ever checked Regina as I can't remember the last time we actually had a calm day which is somewhat frustrating... please note that I said frustrating and not absolutely devastating in case some of my friends read into that the wrong way and start calling 

The last shot of the night as I was driving home.  I may absolutely detest the cold but you can't beat our sunsets.  Once again that sounded almost poetic of me