A Deeper Frame
Really now, what’s there to know about depth? Ensure a foreground, middle ground, and background, right? WRONG. There is more to it than that. David DuChemin explores the subject of depth, in depth. Dimension does not usually get a lot of talk but here David gives “depth” it’s due. ”A Deeper Frame” is not his largest eBook that he has written. It only weighs in at 23 pages and 12.5MB. However, the content is all good. David explains, as he always does so well, ways to turn a two dimensional frame into a dimensional scene that has depth. He explains with examples of his photography. David uses arrows and diagrams over-laid on his images to ensure the reader understands what he is talking about. It certainly helps us visual people get a more solid understanding of concepts.
David also talks about optics and lenses such as what 24mm or 200mm really mean. It’s not something, I had thought about much but I am glad to know it now. After all, we should know our tools very well to be a good craftsman/woman. This is where David fills in with some technical explanations for us. I am very glad for that portion of the eBook.
I also like his analogy of thinking of the frame NOT as flat but more of a CUBE. I usually try to get an element of dimension in my photos but “A Deeper Frame” now offers me some other techniques and ways of looking at the frame, or cube, to get the desired results. So, the next time you are trying to frame a scene that is “deep in meaning”, you will be able to add a feeling of dimension to the scene with the help of “A Deeper Frame“.
From Pixelated Image Blog:
“For the next five days only you can have A DEEPER FRAME for $4 (discount code DEEP4). Or you can buy 5 eBooks for the price of 4 (discount codeDEEP20). That’s our usual deal. But this is my 12th eBook, and I’m feeling punchy, so we’re offering our deepest discount yet. 12 eBooks for $40.That’s about 34% off the already ridiculous price. That’s $3.33/eBook! Use discount code DEEPER12 when you Visit Craft&Vision, fill your shopping cart and check out. These codes expires at 11:59pm PST July 2, 2011.”
What I took from A.R.T.
For those who don’t know what A.R.T is… it’s an acronym for Artist Round Table. It was part workshop but mostly conversation hosted by Ray Ketchum. Dr. Ray, as I like to think of him is what I would call an Art Psychologist. Sports athletes may use a sport psychologist to help them improve their game. Dr. Ray helps the artist with art. In our case, photography. Anyways, there was literally, a round table for us to discuss and converse about photography, art, and most importantly -what is our own unique voice and how do we find it. Today’s post will hit a few points of what I took from ART.
Well… where to start? There were many discussions at the round table and other venues but all had a core subject -FINDING YOUR VOICE. In other words, are we truly expressing ourselves? or are we echoing what somebody else has taught us? We finally decided that we all have a voice and it is like a finger print and nobody else can copy it. We must be ourselves and let our photography speak for us, not for somebody else.
As Dr. Ray would say, “get out of the way of yourself”. Or, as writer Wes Cecil say’s, “don’t try to be clever”.As David DuChemin says, “shoot from the heart”. To me, these people are saying don’t over think of complicate your photography. Just shoot with your instinct. Your instinct is the true you. Shoot with your gut, your heart, your instinct.
I will use hockey as a metaphor. Sometimes, when a hockey team is desperately trying to score a goal, they try to hard. They tend to cough up the puck to the opposing team by making fancy passes. They try to get “clever”. A coach’s favourite saying would be, “The players are gripping the stick to tight”. In other words, they are trying to hard. They haven’t relaxed enough to let their instinct take over and have fun. That is how goals are scored. Stick to the basics, be relaxed, have fun, and don’t over think.
How do we “shoot from the heart”? or “let our voice speak”? First, relax and don’t get uptight looking for the perfect frame. Enjoy the moment. I have figured out that when I get a little tingle in my chest, I push the button on the camera. That is when I get my strongest images. I have learned it is the true me showing in the images when I shoot with my gut.
This is what happened with the image above. Because I like dogs, I was looking for a portrait shot with the dog, Juniper. However, she wasn’t co-operating with what I was kinda looking for. My gut told me to keep the camera in portrait orientation though her positioning changed to suit a landscape orientation. I kept framing her in portrait orientation regardless of what her movement… and then my gut said, “push the button”. The image above is the end result. I broke some rules without thinking about it. I did not “break the rules” for the purpose of “breaking the rules”. I just went with my gut, my instinct, my heart. The result is a broken rule or two and an image that has a feeling of oddity. Now, I don’t think of myself as too odd of a person. However, sometimes my thinking is odd and I definitely have a sense of humour. Those things don’t show up in my landscape photos but they do with Juniper. I think the image of Juniper say’s more about me and my “voice” than any of my pretty landscape images do.
I know there is a technical issue that I am not happy with but the feel of the photograph works for me. That’s the important thing. That’s why I published it.
Boxed in a style?
Today I was thinking about style, or whatever we want to call it. I have seen many photographers who use the same style over and over again in their photographs. While some others, I have seen them explore different styles, techniques, or what ever you want to call it over time. Whether it be the same subject matter or same pre-set in LR they continue it over and over again. The images always have the same look. After a while, it gets boring to me. I understand how some vocational photographers need to “sell” their brand and “style” may be part of that branding. I “get that” but as a viewer I like to see photographers get outside of their box and explore different things.
I tend to think about photographic “style” along the lines of how musicians play music. A young rocker may play strictly heavy metal in his younger years. Over time, perhaps, mellowing and maturing with age. The rocker begins to explore different styles or genres of music. One example of this is Lee Aaron, heavy metal’s first “Metal Queen”. In the 80′s she was heavy metal. Today she is a jazz singer. Though, I think she still does the odd metal show for her old fans.
On the other hand, AC/DC is a band that has stuck to it’s formula for years. It works. It sells. Now, I DON’T dislike AC/DC but I wonder what if they experimented with jazz? Could be interesting, don’t ya think?
Last month I had a thirteen hour car drive. I threw all of my John Mellencamp collection into the car stereo then hit random. I listened to Mellencamp THE WHOLE thirteen hour drive. There was a few repeated songs(ya, I have a lot of Mellencamp music) BUT I didn’t get bored of his music because he constantly experiments with new things. He doesn’t stick to a formulatic song maker like AC/DC does. With Mellencamp, you get straight up rock, blues, country, or another genre I call, “just music”. The only constant with Mellencamp is that he sings about life.
That being said, wouldn’t it be interesting to see David DuChemin experiment with HDR or shoot a sporting event?(We’ll let him heal first.) or Trey Ratcliff do black and white portraits in a studio?
To change, experiment, or exploring different “angles” of your art is growth. I believe exploring different things may even add to or strengthen your style. At least, that’s the way I see it. Variety is the spice of life… right?
Winter in the Rockies
Darwin Wigget is one of my favourite landscape photographers. One day I hope to attend one of his popular Fire & Ice photo tours during the winter in the Rockies… one day. So, the next best thing is probably this ebook that Darwin has written for Craft & Vision. At the price, how can one go wrong?
Winter in the Rockies is laid out as other similar Print & Process books. It’s 12.8MB with 71 pages of eye candy. As other Print & Process books, it starts out with an introduction then 50 of Darwin’s favourite images that go back to his film days. They are laid out with one or sometimes two images per page. Darwin hasn’t just thrown in his most “sell-able” images. He includes many of his abstract images that is not usually seen in landscape photography. We get to see the real Darwin not just his bread and butter images.
After the display of eye-candy of the incredible Rockies, The Process is discussed. Darwin goes on to explain what it takes to do winter photography in the Rockies of BC and Alberta. He discusses attitude, preperation, dress for winter, keeping the camera warm, winter light, and winter abstraction. I admit that I already knew about some of these topics since I have mountain experience. Luckily, I am only a long days drive away from Darwin’s favourite places to shoot. However, Darwin gives us experienced winter people great winter shooting tips and locations that I did not realize. So, regardless of your winter or mountain experience, Darwin still offers us fresh information for us to take out into the field.
Near the end of the ebook, Darwin goes through each image one by one with us. He explains the process and techniques behind each image on an individual basis. It’s great insight into how each image was created. Thanks, Darwin. Once again, Craft & Vision publish another great product full of amazing images and wonderful content.
Pick up the PDF of Darwin’s Winter in the Canadian Rockies before January 22, 11:59pm PST, it’s yours for $4 if you use the code: ROCKIES4 when you checkout. Or use ROCKIES20 to get 20% off your entire purchase when you buy 5 or more of the PDF eBooks (ie, the discounts don’t extend to the Apple iPad/iPod apps) from the Craft & Vision collection.
They are important.
I can’t think of a better phrase than Help Portrait’s “A picture is worth”. In recent months, this phrase has become more and more apparent to me. I am realizing that photographs play an important role to us in many ways. Of course, there is the commercial side of things. Photographs are used to help sell products which helps an economy sputter along. Today, I just want to talk about the ways in which I have personally experienced the importance of a photograph.
Leave a smile
In the Fall of 2010, there was a death in my family. My step-father had died. We family members gathered as many photographs as we could find of Step-Dad for his Celebration of Life. Sadly, there was not great deal of them. Step-Dad didn’t like to be photographed. When we did find some photo’s of him, he rarely smiled. This is not how we want to remember him. Our memories know Step-Dad as a man with a great sense of humour and a big smile. When he smiled, his eyes grew big and lit up. He smiled with his eyes. Sadly, there are no images of him with one of his unique and genuine smiles. His smile will have to live on in the minds of people who knew him. For those who did not know him, they would probably think that he was a grumpy old man according to the photographs that he left behind. This was certainly not the case. He was a happy man who took nothing for granted and appreciated any little detail that life offered. I think it’s tragic that Step-Dad did not leave us a photograph that showed us his true personality.
Not affordable for some
For my trip to Cuba, I did something that I totally regret. I did not take my Pogo by Zink. It’s a little printer that you can print directly off the camera, kinda like the old polaroid. It crossed my mind to pack the Pogo but figured that I probably wouldn’t use it much so I left it behind. Afterall, I used it very little in Thailand, right? Well, soon after I arrived in Havana, I realized that YES, I would have used it TONS! Whenever I had taken photo’s of people, they would rush up to me to view the LCD on the back of the camera. It wasn’t once or twice but most of the time! This got me thinking that I had taken photography for granted. I mean, most people in Western Society have a camera in their pocket in the last few years in the form of a cell phone. If not a camera in their pocket, they most likely own one at home. This is not the case in Cuba. I rarely saw a cell phone or camera owned by a Cuban. A camera is not in reach of most people there. Therefore, they valued having their image preserved as they don’t usually have the opportunity to do so. Taking the Pogo along would have allowed me to leave prints behind for the people. I am thinking that a Help Portrait event in Cuba would be HUGE!
Create Heirlooms
During the Holiday Season, I attended a gathering at a home of the Douglas family. Though, I had been to their cabin before, it was my first time at their family home. While there, I was shown a photo book that was made by their son, Steve. It was a gift to his parents for Christmas. The book was a collage of photographs of the kids and grand-kids at the family cabin over a period of seven years. I have been to their cabin before. There they have a whole wall dedicated to photos of all the kids at the cabin. Gazing across the wall and seeing the kids growing up puts a smile on your face. The cabin wall is not the only place they had photographs. In their family home, they had another wall full of photographs. This time it was a wall of their deceased family and ancestors going back to, what looked like, the late 1800′s. There is a portrait of Grandma Douglas’ great-great-grandparents. What a family treasure to have decorating the family room.
Conclusion
The Douglas family certainly know the importance of a photograph. Luckily, they live in a country which allows them the economic freedom to take lots of pictures. My advice for myself and others is this:
- Don’t be camera shy, leave a smile.
- Take lots of family photos. Your’e not a photographer? Hire a good one to create those heirlooms. Display them. Pass them down.
- Give to those who cannot afford a photograph.
Light and Land
This week Craft & Vision released their latest eBook. This time landscape photographer Michael Frye is sharing his knowledge. The first thing I had noticed about this eBook was the images were simply gorgeous! The images are pure eye-candy eye heroin. Hell, I would go as far as say “eye heroin”. I had to force-ably peel my eyes away from them to begin reading the information. Oh, by the way, no fluffy information here. Michael’s goal was to demonstrate his workflow in Lightroom 3 with a landscape image. He does this very well and explains everything step by step. He has got me thinking about landscapes in a more intimate way. I think my “vision” may have been “tweeked” when photographing a landscapes now. Great job, Michael.
I highly recommend downloading this ebook that is about the price of a good cup of coffee. For the first four days only, if you use the promotional code LAND4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of Light & Land for only $4 OR use the code LAND20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST December 19, 2010.
William Davis
On one of our last days in Cuba, Trish and I were walking down one of the many narrow roads in Havana. We were just wandering around with our cameras looking for interesting shots. Then as usual, a gentleman greeted us and asked us where we were from. By now, I knew the routine. Many Cubans, but certainly not all, wanted to meet us because they had a financial motive. They either wanted a hand out or wanted to sell you something. In this particular case, the gentleman wanted me to enjoy a Mojito, a delicious rum drink that is synonymous with Cuba, in a local rum bar that I was eye-ing up with my camera. I think he was going to get a commission if we spent some money there. That didn’t matter too much as I had wanted to have a drink with the locals in their establishments before I left Cuba. So, my wife and I agreed to go in and have a Mojito.
I do not intend to paint Cubans with the broad brush of being aggressive street hawkers. They truly are most polite about it. If you’re not interested in their goods, a simple “no gracias” will suffice. This time I opened myself up because I agreed to go into the rum bar for a drink.
So, inside we went. I’ll forego how I was trying to be hustled by the gentleman because the real highlight was meeting William Davis whilst in the bar. I had ended up buying him a drink because I had ordered two Mojitos but received three… not a foreign experience for us during our stay in Cuba. They tended to up sell you without asking. It could’ve been due to the language difficulties but my instinct leaned the other way. Anyways, I had the extra drink and gave it to a gentleman whom had introduced himself as William Davis in perfect english! He saw how I was getting hustled and apologized for his fellow Cuban. What a breath of fresh air! By now, I was tired of being hustled and I explained that to him. He sincerely sympathized with me.
William told us about himself. He was born a US citizen but emigrated to Cuba as a teenager and remains a Cuban at heart. He is a jazz musician who plays sax. William had traveled extensively through the USA and Canada while on tour with his band. I was proud to hear how he loved Canada and its people. Anyways, it was unusual to meet a Cuban who had traveled outside of Cuba. Not too many Cubans get the opportunity to do so. It was very interesting to hear his points of view knowing he had seen places other than Cuba. He is a very intelligent man with a balanced sense of understanding.
He proceeded to tell us about Cuba’s citizens. He explained that they would rather have a decent paying job than hustle tourists. They do this out of necessity. William said that I, in a similar situation, would probably do the same and I agreed. He explained how Cubans are in very difficult times as they have been for years now. It was very interesting to hear about Cuba in this fashion, from a guy who had seen both sides of the fence. William is a very interesting soul that I had to have an image of him. So, I asked him if I might take some photos. He agreed.
Shooting William was difficult because, though I had his permission, I was still engaged in fascinating conversation with him. I did not want to be rude so I just snapped a capture here and there. There were technical challenges as well. The lighting wasn’t very good in the bar and I didn’t want to pull out a flash as I felt it would be too intrusive. My shutter speeds were too slow for most of the shots. I would rather have them higher but I don’t trust my camera to NOT create a bunch of noise. So, I left the ISO at 400. Though, in hindsight, I think that I should have bumped it up higher to 500 or so. I know my camera well enough to keep it under 800. Also, I was using my 50mm 1.4 lens. It’s great in low light but that meant I couldn’t zoom and had to move my feet instead to get a proper frame. The confined quarters was the challenge using this lens.
If I do end up in Cuba again one day, I will for sure visit William Davis. I know where to find him. In his living room, er, I mean his local rum bar. He will be there and he will enlighten me about Cuba with his wisdom again.
Drita
I have many stories about Cuba from my short 8 day stay but today I will just focus on Drita and how I shot her. One of the first people I met in Cuba was Drita. She is a very sweet cleaning lady at the Casa(guest house) that we stayed at. She knew a few words of English just as I only knew a few words of Spanish. This made for a difficult time communicating but we managed through gestures and motions. Drita showed us great patience when trying to communicate with her as we go flipping through the Spanish dictionary looking for a word. Many times, we would communicate through body and sign language. It’s amazing how much humans can communicate without words but merely expressions and body language. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy. It’s much more tiring than using normal words but the experience was enriching.
Anyways, one late morning as Trish, my wife, and I were getting ready to head out for the day. I noticed some nice hard light coming through an upper window in the tall ceilinged room. I got my “reluctant mode”, Trish, to pose for me. I placed her into the light with her back toward the light source. It took a few shots to find the “sweet spot”. I did use an SB-800 on-camera for a fill flash. I got a decent shot of Trish but you can always tell that she doesn’t want to “be there”. I mean, she is my most used model and she just gets plain tired posing for me. You can see the pain on her face. At least, I got the lighting perfect.
Luckily, Drita was with us in the room called the Sala with us. She was watching me shoot Trish and she seemed to be enjoying it. A few days earlier, I had asked Drita if I could take a photo of her but she waved her hand, “no”. I had respected that. However, today was a new day and a new setting. I asked her again. She initially motioned, “no”. Reading her body language, I could tell she was only shy of the camera. Drita motioned toward her face and hair, “she thinks she is not pretty enough”. To reassure her, I showed her the image of Trish on the LCD on the back of my camera. She liked it. Also, my mood was very excited because I figured that I had nailed the lighting. I think she fed off that too. I asked her again. I told her not to worry. Yet, again. She motions, “no thank you”.
This time, I had known her long enough to realize that she had a good sense of humor. I decided to show some of mine. Since language was a barrier and I felt comfortable around Drita, I acted out my disappointment by throwing on my pouty lip and sad eyes and slowly shuffled off like a kid who had lost his favourite teddy bear. Drita gave in with a great big smile. She goes, “ok, ok”. The three of us had a good chuckle over my animated acting. Not to lose the moment, I then positioned Drita in the exact spot that Trish was. I took two shots. The second one is the one posted above. FYI, the specs in the background is dust in the beam of sunlight.
In the end, we had a good a laugh and made a nice portrait of a wonderful lady. Drita will be getting an image of herself in the mail… though, she doesn’t know it yet.
Comfort Zone
This post was part of a larger one that I decided to split up and was scheduled to post today. Also, the image is my mother. I had to start somewhere.
I am working on getting outside of my comfort zone. I’m quite shy about approaching strangers but there are times I want to capture something so badly that I force myself to engage. I’ve decided to start using my photography as an exercise to push myself to interact with strangers. I admit that I have not done much of this yet but the willingness is getting stronger and my courage is building. It will improve my “people skills” and interaction. After all, stretching outside of comfort zones is a common denominator of successful people.
Photographers need to interact with people no matter what we shoot. Pet photographers must interact with the pet owner, right? I’m even thinking landscape photographers have to interact with strangers at times when marketing their work, ect. Of course when shooting portraits, the photographer must have a good interaction with the “subject” to bring out the best in them. So, I’m thinking photography can help me out in this respect. Mark Krajnak is a photographer who is working on a self project called 100 Strangers. His goal is to engage and photograph 100 people that he has not met before. I think it’s a great project for a photographer to do, I should do the same but maybe a lesser number like 37. I intend to engage some strangers while here in Cuba. For some reason, it seems easier to do so while in a foreign country rather than at home.
Maybe for others, they may be afraid of heights but will push themselves higher up that ladder in order to “get the shot”. If you’ve read any self improvement books, they’ll all say, “Get out of your comfort zone.” It’s a key to success. Those people who succeed in doing this will find themselves better off than those who don’t. Successful people take risks which, sometimes, aren’t really risks at all and shedding that cozy blanket has many benefits. During a conversation with my friend Ray Ketcham about asking strangers to photograph them he said, “What’s the worst thing that can happen? They say, ‘no’?” Honestly, is a two letter word going to destroy my self esteem? Well, my feelings may be hurt a teeny weeny bit but I think that I could deal with it. So, when I think about approaching a stranger for a photograph, I’ll think of what Ray said.
Playful Surprise
Last night, Sabrina Henry and I went to a unique location in Richmond BC, called Finn Slough. If you are into old and aged subjects, this is a very neat place to shoot. It is rich in history and there seems to be some interesting characters living there too.
Anyways, today I want to talk about the above image. It was a “happy mistake”, I think. The over-exposure was intentional. I had done what I don’t usually do just to see “what if?”. I had spot metered the fore-front building. I knew that if I metered with the matrix, it would cast a lot of shadow on the buildings. So, I “lived on the edge” and spot metered the building not expecting to get an over-exposed ugly image. When I first viewed the capture on the LCD viewer, I was not impressed. Actually, I almost deleted it on the spot but I didn’t.
When I got home and reviewed the images in Lightroom 3 the above image turned out to be a pleasant surprise. We had not shot a lot of images that evening because of the disappearing light and because we became involved in conversation with a local resident. Now, I know this area had been photographed before but I wanted to get my own perspective. I like most of us photographers, didn’t want to shoot the same shot somebody else has already done. However, my other shots were exactly that, in my opinion. The same as others. Perhaps, this is why the above image stands out to me. It’s not HDR or B&W. In this case, I think the over-exposed capture works.
Now, I am going to step back a bit and talk about some of the questions that Sabrina has posed to me before we set out to shoot. I felt like I was being interviewed by the FBI with a bright spot light in a dark room. She asked tough questions that were really intended to help me understand myself and my art. Tough questions that help us grow as artists. I thank her for doing so. One of the things that came up was, “Why was I drawn toward a graphic type of image?”. I believe it’s because I think photographs are interesting when they don’t look %100 like a photograph. Or, perhaps, as Sabrina had suggested, maybe it’s because of my fine art background. Maybe.
OK. Now back to the above image. What I felt good about, is that when I first saw it in LR is that it looked like a water colour painting, a graphic, even when straight out of the camera. I did very little treatment in LR. Added a touch of colour saturation and such but what really makes it look like a water colour, in my opinion, is the reflections. It really was a pleasant surprise for me. It’ s not a masterpiece, a human element would have been nice to add but I like it, regardless. I would like to think that I captured an image of Finn Slough that, perhaps, nobody else has. I am really glad that I took a playful chance of a spot meter instead of my usual matrix meter.
It’s in the planning
Sadly, I shot very little on our Whistler trip. It takes a lot of planning to do landscape shots. Planning I did not do. I had no idea what I wanted to shoot. I was hoping I would just stumble upon some shots. It didn’t happen. Also, with the very long days, the sweet light hours are very late and very early. I tried to get up early but my body had nothing to do with it. I slept in past sunrise everyday.
Being in Whistler in shoulder season had its limitations. That means it wasn’t ski season nor was it hiking season. There was mountain biking to do but with Trish’s fractured clavicle it was out of the question. The alpine area was still covered in snow and un-accessible to hike because the peak chair was closed. I have seen some photos of the alpine in peak summer with amazing views and flowers. August would be a perfect time to visit the alpine.
Since the Whistler alpine was not available, we thought we would try a hike to view a glacier at Joffre Lake. It’s a 400m walk to the lake which is beautiful. There is a glacier to view from the lake but I wanted to hike the 5k to get up close and personal with the glacier. However, the trail took a beating from old man winter and made the hike too scrambley for Trish. We didnt want her to slip and hurt her tender shoulder. So, we turned back.
The shots that I did take from the lake were lame. The mid day sun made for a beautiful view but the hard lighting was not working with the camera. The highlights would be blown out of the shadows too dark. Perhaps, I should have set up the tripod and taken 5 shots for an HDR but I didn’t. What I learned from Darwin Wigget blog post is that maybe a Neutral Density filter would have come in handy for what I was trying to achieve.
So, the only decent shot I am relatively happy with is the one above of Trish on the Peak 2 Peak gondola. The SB-800 flash was mounted to the camera with a 1/4 CTO gel velcro-ed to the flash. It’s not a fine art shot that I was hoping to capture on this little trip but I like the exposure done with the flash.
What I did learn from this trip is that a real good fine art landscape shot takes a lot of planning. It’s difficult, at least for me, to get an image that I am proud of on a whim. It takes detailed planning. With my next time off of work, I will have to ensure some better planning and research on capturing images.
Night Rock
On the full moon, I went to White Rock to do some night photos. I really like shooting at night because public places aren’t so busy. Honestly, I feel self-conscious when shooting in public. Shooting at night, I don’t have to concern myself with people watching me or asking me questions. It’s not that I don’t like people, it’s just me not feeling comfortable around strangers who may be watching me. I was in a solitary mood and night shooting suited me that night. I really enjoyed the time to myself.
I had figured shooting at night was an unusual pursuit. Ironically, it turns out that there was another night photographer shooting that night as well. It must have been a rare site having two night photographers in the same place! I saw him from a distance so we did not talk but I know his name. Some other fellows had mistaken him for me. So, if Gino is out there reading this, drop me a line as I would love to see your photo’s.
Shooting wise, I did have some challenges with the prolonged exposure as I don’t have a remote for firing the camera in “bulb” mode. The digital cameras these days don’t have a traditional trigger release. I need to look into a wireless solution. Anyway, most of my exposures were 30 seconds or less. To help compensate for shorter exposures, I had brought my SB-800 speedlight and fired it manually several times per exposure at 1/4 to 1/1 power. On a few “bulb” shots I actually held my finger on the button to keep the shutter open for up to 2 minutes. It certainly is not the recommended method for bulb shots since no matter how still you think your hand is, there will still be a small amount of camera shake. Unfortunetly, those shots I took did not turn out very well. There was too much lense flare.
Also, this time I remembered to set the Long Exposure Noise Reduction to “ON”! I am so proud of myself. I usually forget some sort of setting but I suppose that the more I shoot, the more I remember to adjust settings.
Summer Time!
I recently made a few purchases to add to my camera gear. Firstly, I got a SB-800 Flash. It’s an amazing piece of equipment. I love the wireless feature. I can use it as an off camera light source and fire it wirelessly from the camera. You can use it as a studio flash or on camera.
Also, I got a Circular Polarizer Filter. It cuts down on glare in water and pulls out more blues in the sky. I have a sample shot of a creek at Bear Creek Park to demonstrate the abilities of the filter. The sky was bright but over cast. Therefore, I did not attempt any sky shots. Notice how clear the water is WITH the filter compared to a bare lense. It’s a good investment for $65.
In other news, my wife and I are going to “cycle tour” Vancouver Islands and a few others including Cortez, Denman, Hornby, and Savary. We will work our way up to North Island from Naniamo and be island hoping along the way. We will return via the Sunshine Coast. I should be able to find many photographic opportunities during this two week journey. I will have many shots to share when we get back plus maybe lose a few pounds 
Also, I have moved this site to “plantephotography.com”. Currently, deltaboy.com is still up but it will forward to plantephotography.com soon.
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