Once more into the breach?

A buddy of mine got a DSLR this year, and he wants to try a project 365. He wants me to do it with him...

I can't believe I'm actually considering it but there would need to be new ground rules for me:

- If I miss a day, I miss a day. Don't beat myself up over it. It happens.
- Every shot doesn't have to be great.
- Shoot what I see. Spending half an hour every day dialing in three or four flashes is going to burn me out.

If I can keep to those rules, maybe I can pull it off this year.

Om nom nom...

Something old and something new to post today. Pardon another kid pic, but this one is a rite of passage:



His first cob of corn! This is when it's officially summer, when you have butter and corn shmutz dripping down your chin.

I also realized I took some nice shots back in May that I didn't post. I work in Downtown Winnipeg, and the entire city centre was abuzz when the news leaked out the the deal to bring the NHL back to Winnipeg had been struck. I grabbed my camera and did a little photojournalism. Here are my favourite shots from that day:

















Thanks for reading :)

Fort Whyte, macro style...

I know I've gone shooting at Fort Whyte Alive quite a few times, but it's a nice place just to go for a walk.

Today, to change it up I went with one lens only, the 60mm Macro. This sort of backfired since we had a windy day so flowers, bugs and the like were nearly impossible to get and keep in focus. Having said that, it made me look at my photo opportunities differently and got me thinking about how I was shooting again.

Here is just a sample of the shots from today, starting with the kids, and then a few flowers that I found striking in colour and texture.

Thanks for reading!









Four days of shooting this week. Must be something wrong with me!

Three days of shooting!

I'm on training this week and that means I'm out of the office, and very close to Assiniboine Park which has consistently been one of my favourite places to shoot. On top of this, a friend who bought a DSLR this year was also on the training.

So, for the last three days we've been taking off at lunch, walking over to Assiniboine Park, and shooting for 30-40 minutes. I've collected some favourite shots from the Conservatory, Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, and English Gardens.

There is a little landscape, macro, flowers, insects and a bit of people watching too. Enjoy!



























As always, I welcome and value your comments and criticisms!

Hey guys!

No project, just some pictures from the backyard.

I figure you probably all forgot what my kids look like by this point, so what the heck. A couple from the backyard swingset, playing around with wide angles. Shot at ISO 100, 17mm focal length:





This little guy has an elaborate little web on the kids slide and decided to stay still long enough for me to switch to my macro lens.



A face only a mother could love. A horrible, drooling, furry spider of death mother anyhow.

Yikes...

Am I the worst blog guy ever? Yeah, probably.

It's been real busy, my son had a second surgery, my wife is ill, my job is nuts. At this rate, I'm going to have a Project 1!

Here's hoping things will calm down a bit and I can get back out shooting soon!

As promised!

So, in order to get myself going again I went somewhere with ample photographic opportunities, the Assiniboine Park Conservatory. Sure, I've been there before, but the kids like it and I needed a shot in the arm.

I took a bunch of shots but I'm only sharing two today. Not that the others were bad, but I'm trying to keep this simple and doable given the limited time investment that I have available.

Anyhow, the orchids are about the only things still blooming at the APC, but I'm okay with that!





Both were shot with my 7D, 60mm Macro and 580EX2 on-camera with the Omnibounce. The Omnibounce seems to really work well with Macro shots, it was certainly one of my better purchases. ISO 200, f/8, 1/80th shutter with the flashi providing fill light in TTL mode at +2/3 stops. The additional stops help with the light lost to the diffuser.

Thanks to my readers for sticking with me through the rather dry last several months. I'll get my groove back soon.

I took pictures this weekend...

No really, I took pictures this weekend. I've been down and out since surgery in the first week of February, and this was my first weekend fully back up and on my feet. I'll get them edited and posted tomorrow. Honest.

Given my inability to even get my Project 52 to week three uninterrupted, let's call this a week one redux and I'll try to get it off the ground again.

Sweet red...

This weekend, my wife and I broke out one of our new Xmas gifts, a nice little fondue set from my parents.

We had a few leftovers, and as such, the camera came out.



This was just a simple shot; macro lens, on-camera flash with an omnibounce diffuser.

Week 1. No, really!

Thar she blows, my picture for week #1, posted at the last possible minute. An illustrious start :)

My daughter is an avid collector of 'Littlest Pet Shop' toys, and some of them are nicely decorated with style of scrolling linework. They can actually be quite attractive, so I thought I'd put this little fishy to work in a splash picture. I figure when you need to get your creative juices flowing again, go with what you know and what you like, and I like splash shots :)

Taken with my 60mm Macro at f/6.3 with a three-light setup (left and right through the softbox walls, and background lit from above), triggered remotely. I had two other ideas that I shot today, and neither worked but I like this one. It's simple, but the colours are good and the focus is not bad.

The eye is slightly out of focus unfortunately, and it's exacerbated by the fact that the paint is a bit blotchy on the toy. Still, perfect focus when dropping a buoyant toy into water with razor-thin depth of field is going to be really hard to achieve. At least the fins and bubbles are all nice and sharp.

A new project...

So despite earlier protestations that I would be posting more, clearly I haven't. It's time for a little more motivation.

Another Project 365 is in my future, but not this year with a one year old in the house. So, it's going to be a Project 52 instead, starting next week.

If I can't manage a Project 52, then I'm really in trouble!