Good afternoon everyone...or morning...or evening as it all depends what time you are reading this Hopefully you have all been getting gout... sorry...typo, don't want you to all be getting gout as that would suck...let's try that again ...we hope that you have been getting out with your camera in hand and enjoying this beautiful weather that we have been getting as of late. Today unfortunately it is pouring but that is most likely a fortunate thing for some of us as it will help with the mounds of work that have been stacking up due to lack of "office motivation". Seriously, is there anything worse than having to sit inside an office while looking outside and seeing that it is sunny and 25 degress?

What's new amd exciting as of late? Well, photo workshops have been keeping us extremely busy as we are right in the middle of instructing for Saskatchewan Tourism as well as our regularly scheduled workshops in Regina. On top of that we have just returned from teaching in Yorkton for a few days. Nothing like returning home last night just in time to repack to head up north for a few more days.

We also have been working on making our podcast on iTunes bigger and better so that upon our return (as well as the return of our new mixer which is on a slow boat from China) we can all look forward to that.

Alright alright, enough jabbering and onto the meat and potatoes ...or is it potatos??  Well, you know what we mean...onto the photos

One of Rob's magazine covers that he did for a client.

I headed out for a week to sunny California and Arizona at the beginning of the month.  There were many highlights along the way but one of the best parts was the fact that while I was away apparently the temperature back home was hovering right around 6 degrees. I thought about that a lot while I was lying by the pool in Scottsdale, AZ where the temperature never fluctuated much beyone the mid thirties Sorry... that was my evil side rearing it's ugly head.

 ISO  - 200, F 8.0, Shutter Speed - 1/200th sec, Focal Length - 37mm

Yes, just a little bit idiotic but you have to have fun sometimes right? Here my friend Carey is playing the role of the poisonous snake or insect and yours truly is playing the part of the unsuspecting victim


This was by far the strangest thing that we came across throughout the trip. You will soon see why in the pictures that follow:

Can you all say "alien under glass" kind of like pheasant under glass only completely different! No joke here people, this place was about 4,000 sq. ft of pure alien and UFO stuff. I swear they must have had every newspaper clipping, magazine article and photo of anything to do with aliens and UFO sightings. I backed out of the building while Carey and Kristen were getting the talk from the owners about where to go to find the best orbs in the vortex of Sedona.... nope, not kidding at all. I even took along a map so that we could find the orbs at night so that we could "just observe and have fun with them" as they told us...sure...Unfortunately we were unable to attend the UFO sighting fieldtrip that they hold twice a day everyday (not that that is supposed to indicate that there may be a bit of a money grabbing theme going on here).

Wait just one minute here...what is this... you just finished telling us all about orbs and vortexes and now on the way out the door you are telling us that you can actually fake a UFO photo &*% I swear, now I have seen everything!



ISO - 400, F 10.0, Shutter Speed - 1/400th sec, Focal Length - 28mm. Shot with a Hoya ND4 filter.

ISO - 320, F 2.8, Shutter Speed - 1/800th sec, Focal Length - 31mm.

Some cacti along a bluff overlooking the ocean back in Carlsbad, CA.

These really stood out along the hike...wonder if they are edible??? If someone out there wants to try and give us a shout that would be muchly appreciated


There is one thing that you should all be warned about when venturing into the realm of photography. While seeking that elusive "perfect"...or even "acceptable" image that you can go back home and show all your friends sometimes you tend to leave your brains back in the vehicle. This is not the first time that this has happened to me (shock and awe I know)... last year I slid down almost 15 feet of rockface as well as got attacked by a swarm of what I found out later was killer bees all due to the fact that I just didn't take that extra minute or two to plan out what I was going to do etc... luckily the results have only ever been various cuts and bruises and no broken bones The above photo depicts the oceanside cliff that I just had to scale down to get some photos... I'm sure that all of you hikers out there are thinking not too bad right? Well, now try to attempt it wearing flip flops and carrying one camera around your neck with a 70-200 2.8 on it and then another camera in your hand without a strap on it... brilliant move right... check. From now on more time is going to be taken before attempting these wonderful ventures...well, at least that's the hope

Alright...enough about vacation and back to reality! Here are some of Rob's picture that he has shot recently of baseball. I just realized that I have no idea why the statement was made that it was baseball as it is rather obvious that it isn't hockey



ISO - 640, F 5.6, Shutter Speed - 1/1000th sec, Focal Length - 350mm

Rob is surely running around like a chicken with his head cut off today ...or watching car racing and the US Open either way I'm not sure if he is going to grace us with his prescence or not in this blog but when he sent his images he also added comments to go along with them...

"Sports - Tight Action - Sometimes Eye contact matters, sometimes it is not required". - direct quote from Robert F. Weitzel

ISO - 500, F 5.6, Shutter Speed - 1/2000th sec, Focal Length - 400mm

ISO - 200, F 3.2, Shutter Speed - 1/320th sec, Focal Length 195mm, Exp. Comp - (-0.3).

The above shot is one of Rob's ... he made me laugh when he titled it "You, Mr. Photographer, Are Interrupting My Meal". That being said I have never professed to be very skilled when it comes to identifying birds... unless it's a robin, a seagull or a terradactyl I am pretty much clueless although I am trying hard to change that Seeing as how this bird remains nameless I'm going to call it a "black brown and white small seed eater" for now

 We recently had a rather large storm pass through the city and beyond and both Rob and I shot some photos... granted... Rob was exhausted and didn't leave the comfort of his own backyard.  Here are a variety of Rob's cloud shots along with some more of his inspirational prose

ISO - 250, F 13.0, Shutter Speed - 1/500th sec, Focal Length - 70mm, Exp. Comp - (-0.7)

ISO- 250, F 6.3, Shutter Speed - 1/500th sec, Focal Length - 16mm, Exp Comp - (-1.3)

"Finding Composition in textures and contrast - The Creation of a "Background" - These images move or direct the eye to a particular area of the image. This is accomplished with the placement of the lead or strong foreground element (The trees in each image or the white cloud in the bottom left of the purple sky). That area where the eye is lead to would be the most suitable place to add text or layer additional subjects. Ask yourself where you would add text to these images and why. How would you align the text, centered? right aligned? left aligned? etc." - another direct quote from Robert F. Weitzel (with the exception of the 2 spelling errors that I corrected).

I also ventured out into the wild not-so-blue yonder but soon realized that Rob was the smarter one as after heading East this is what I ran into:

No, that is not a pile of dust on the sensor. It is in fact massive hail surrounding my vehicle Unfotunately this is the price that is often paid when one likes to be a storm chaser. I am not posting my camera setting for this shot as this was hand held out of my running vehicle which makes this nothing more than a snapshot.

 After driving to get ahead of the storm it was possible to get a few lighning shots:

ISO - 100, F 16.0, Shutter Speed - 2.0 seconds, Focal Length - 55mm

ISO - 100, F 11.0, Shutter Speed - 2.0 sec., Focal Length- 81mm

Before we move on to the end of the blog I just realized that I forgot to add a photo of this little guy that I shot on my trip down south... as most of you know these little guys are everywhere down there and I'm sure that most of you have come across piles of them in your travels but I'm willing to bet that you have never come across one that was trained as well as him. While crouching down and taking some pics of him he kept turning his head and looking away everytime the shutter was pressed...I would move around so that he was facing me, go to take the picture and he would turn his head away again. This went on for about ten pictures until my patience was getting drained so I just finally told him to keep his head still...ironically enough he then did Yes, you can just call me the "lizard whisperer" from now on.

I also managed to stumble upon on of Arizona's famous beetles while at a rest stop along the way. Needless to say there is no image posted on the blog from me as this thing was about 4" long and there is no way that I was sticking around long enough!

I am very happy to announce that Rob now is the proud father of twins! Pictured below is the newest addition weighing in at around 2,000lbs and 76.2". She also boasts a towing capacity of 9,500lbs :) She will be a great addition to the VStrom 650 that he purchased last year. Please watch for my 2002 Honda Civic to be sporting some whizzy decals soon...yipee... am I ever lucky

Well, that's it for this addition. Please stay tuned as the blog will hopefully be getting back to a much more regular schedule as we have vowed to take it a bit easier over the summer so that means more time for shooting!

Devona & Rob