Good afternoon everyone! Yes, you are probably thinking what the H#**... 2 blog entires in just over a week...she must be mad!! Believe me yours truly was mad way before I ever started doing blog entries What has been keeping us busy lately? Well, to give you a direct quote from Rob "all I have is F'n soccer photos!" yep, that was his exact response when asked if he had anything to give me in the way of photos for the blog as apparently he had been a wee bit swamped with doing all of the provincial photos for the Sask Soccer Association. Not being able to speak for him but in my humble non-sports photographer view I do believe that all of the photos would eventually start to look like the same one over time. To further clarify so that I don't get chewed a new one...I don't mean to say that all of the finished and edited photos would look the same more like when going through and editing 15 billion images of soccer they may eventually start to meld together a little bit...there Rob... that should clarify enough that you have fantstically original photos even though the venues and subject matter are relatively similar.

Well onto some photos so that you can see what has been keeping us (more like me as Rob is doing non other than shooting more soccer today) busy as of late. Here are some of the photos that a few of our Nightscape Field Trip attendees took. The first one was shot by Tina and the second two were shot by Terry...please take note that no last names have been used so that we can protect the innocent

ISO - 200, F 10.0, Shutter Speed - 26 sec, Focal Length - 75mm

We didn't really shoot much of anything throughtout the fielld trip as we were lending a hand to those in attendance but I did take a shot from the parking lot before we departed:

From here we will move pretty much straight to a nice relaxing four day vacation that I took last weekend. This trip will ne named the "Devona needs to desperately take a break before she loses her marbles" getaway I didn't do a whole heck of a lot but shoot some photos and fish which are two of my most favorite things to do.

ISO - 100, F 7.1, Shutter Speed - 1/200th sec, Focal Length - 100mm shot with a Tokina 100mm 2.8 Macro Lens

I do believe that for most photographers living out on the prairies it is impossible to go driving around without coming back with a picture of a canola or flax field. I liken it to not being able to only have 1 chip like on the commercials or not popping at least 1 bubble in a roll of bubble wrap... impossible!

ISO - 400, F 8, Shutter Speed - 1/400th sec, Focal Length - 17mm, Exp. Comp. (-0.7)

ISO- 320, F 5.0, Shutter - 1/500th, Focal Length-165mm shot with a Sigma 70-200 2.8.

While sitting on my parents deck shooting pictures of their flowers and gabbing a baby chipmunk came out and posed for a little while: (And for the record it may not be a baby at all as how is a person even supposed to be able to tell? It was small in stature anyway)

ISO - 250, F 5.6, Shutter Speed - 1/800th sec, Focal Length - 200mm

Wow...that was not nice Have any of you ever had the horrid experience of taking a sip of iced tea (or your beverage of choice) and instead of it going down into your stomach it decides to take a wrong turn and go straight into your right (or left) lung??!! I have been trying to recover for the past fifteen minutes and it has not been pleasant due to the fact that my throat still feels like it is on fire due to this nasty viral thing that is going around... yuck Right Devona, we're here to talk about photography.

This is a ____________ hawk. The blank will be filled just as soon as my buddy Jim looks at this blog and realizes that the need to find the name is relatively urgent. Actually...Randy, if you are out there reading this then maybe you could find it in your heart to contribute the name of said bird...please.

 This is going to be a warning to everyone who is reading this that now is the time in the blog that I am about to go on a bit of a rant which I really try very hard not to do...this is also the place where you will see me using "I" an awful lot as that is what happens when I get opinionated about something I'm sure that you have all heard about the new trespassing law and if you are like me you have heard so much about it that if someone even dares to mention the word trespassing it makes you want to grab whatever it is that is nearest to you (hopefully not nearest and dearest) and chuck it a mile and a half out the bloody window For those who haven't heard here it is in a nutshell... from now on if you are caught on any land that states that there is no trespassing you can be fined up to $2000.00 . There has been some major uproar (and about 1000 emails) regarding this new law and how it is going to directly impact photographers. Here is my take on it... I don't care and I am going to contiue to do what I have always done. Here is the way that I see it... I'm sure that this new law isn't directly going out and targeting photographers but more directly hunters and people driving quads, skidoos and anything else that can destroy or harm someones property. I have yet to have a land owner come up to me when I am passing through on my own two feet with a camera and tear a strip off of me for taking photos. I have however had the very pleasant experience of meeting new people and having some rather entertaining conversations about what a small world it is that we all live in. Like the old saying goes... "Take photos and leave only footprints"... or in my interpretation... "Use your head dumbass" Okay I know...enough already... here is my photo interpretation of what has just been spoken of:

And yes... I did it... I crossed the line:

Well everyone that is more or less it for this weeks edition. Rob and I are quite excited that all of the equipment that we ordered to once again begin doing our podcasts has arrived so we will be starting to post more before the end of August (yes Robert, I said before the end of August...no pressure though).  We are also starting up our classes at the end of the month which are now booking into the end of September and if you are wanting to attend but are unable to make those dates we also will be teaching classes at the Cathedral Community Association in October...wheeee....busy!! Oh yeah, and I guess University will be starting shortly which means that Rob will be once again spinning which he is actually getting better at doing

Have a great couple of weeks everyone!!!

 Devona & Rob