The Photo Rookie

Tofuriffic!

2012-01-13T18:16:00.002-06:00

I feel like tofu tonight!

If you don't already know, I'm a vegetarian and have been for about 10 years now. This means that we do a lot of cooking at home and I *love* to cook.

Tonight was southern-fried tofu sandwiches on thick sliced fresh whole wheat bread, veggie bacon, edam, red onion, spring mix and roasted garlic and chili aioli.

Yes the sandwich was as thick as it looks. Yes it was as tasty.

I'm finding this photo setup so handy - once again this is the 60mm macro with the flash on-camera with an omnibounce. I could have used a reflector below and in front of the sandwich in hindsight, but I really like the results from this setup.

Shot at ISO 200, 1/100th shutter and f/5.6 handheld. The flash was set to E-TTL at -1 stop since it can drastically washout the image when you are shooting this close.

Wet nose, warm heart.

2012-01-04T20:06:00.003-06:00

We are dog sitting for friends, and today Shamrock the Shih Tzu was my model. I was still set up from the conservatory, so I went semi-macro with him once he sat still.

Once I started looking at him, I realized that the little guys face is all about texture so that's what I wanted to capture. I went monochrome to highlight that. I also like his pouty little lip.

Take with my 7D and 60mm Macro at ISO 100, f/4, 1/100th shutter. It was sharpened, desaturated and the contrast adjusted in post-processing.

2012 kicks off!

2012-01-02T21:03:00.003-06:00

So I guess the question is: Is this a Project 365? Well considering this first post is on January 2nd, not the 1st, probably not. What it is a commitment to get out and shoot this year. If it's daily so be it, if not so be it. I'm going to call it Project 2012.

So, one of the things I will do to get this thing going again is going back to the places and shots that inspired me. As such, the kids and I went to the Assiniboine Park Conservatory today.

Here are my three best shots of the day:

For those of you still following me, thank you!

Once more into the breach?

2011-12-29T10:20:00.002-06:00

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...

2011-08-14T21:46:00.003-05:00

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...

2011-08-01T22:00:00.002-05:00

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!

2011-07-28T22:05:00.002-05:00

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!

2011-06-28T20:51:00.005-05:00

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...

2011-04-12T14:52:00.000-05:00

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!

2011-02-22T20:39:00.003-06:00

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...

2011-02-21T21:21:00.002-06:00

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...

2011-01-30T20:36:00.002-06:00

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!

2011-01-23T20:19:00.002-06:00

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...

2011-01-12T20:29:00.002-06:00

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!

Band Promo Shots

2010-12-20T22:37:00.003-06:00

After about two hours of shot selection, post processing and re-post processing, I've got a series of promo shots and headshots for my friend's band. I've shot them before but this was outdoor shots, and properly lit indoor work as opposed to the dive bar from last time.

The band members have changed up a bit too, so I was shooting some of them for the first time.

First, we did a quick series of headshots for promo use. I shot this with a three light setup: Key to camera high left, fill to camera low right and hair light subject high right and behind, all fired with pocket wizards. The key light was shooting through the Lumiquest SB3, the fill in a 43" shoot-through umbrella, and the hairlight was snooted with a Honl collapsable snoot.

All headshots were taken with the 70-200 at focal lengths around 130mm.

Lead singer - Jack

Lead guitar - JJ

Bass - Keith

Drums - Mitch

After, we headed out into the Winnipeg winter and shot some outdoor group shots. We hit the back roads and went looking for trucks, tractors, or wide open spaces.

Initially, we shot a bit on a nearby back road, but there was a bit of a lack of interest in the shots. One worked well enough to keep, but Mitch had stepped slightly forward in the frame. Not a huge deal, but noticeable and annoying in the shot to my eye:

A quick note on this shot and the following ones. I sharpened in post, cranked up the contrast and colour and then applied a very light texture from Totally Rad Actions called 'Dirt Bag'. This is a bluegrass band, and they wanted a rough look to the shots, and I found that this touch helped to capture the feel.

Our big break came when a friendly trucker gave us ten minutes or so to shoot with his rig while he was in a service station. We moved quickly, picked a few angles and started shooting:

My favourite shot of this session was taken down low, at a wide angle, with (to my eye) the best composition of the session. I'm quite fond of this one:

I just wish I had got that one boot all the way in frame! Gah!

Anyhow, thanks for reading, I'd love any opinions on these shots!

More Gym Kids

2010-12-19T21:01:00.002-06:00

As Christmas draws closer things are getting busier but I've been getting the camera out regularly, and have been shooting whenever possible. Today I did some promo shots for a friend's band that I should be able to process and post tomorrow.

Tonight I managed to process some shots I took yesterday at my daughter's final Gym Kids session. I shot some earlier this year but this time I brought a flash to deal with some shutter speed and exposure issues.

Just more pics of my kids, but I thought I'd share them.

Thanks for reading :)

Safety is job five!

2010-12-14T21:25:00.003-06:00

Just a bit of an odd shot, taken from my office window this morning.

My building is having some HVAC equipment replaced and this old piece was being cut down with a cutoff saw, on a ladder... I think this qualifies as a safety fail. I would like to have taken a shot of the cut itself but had neither my telephoto lens or an ability to get closer. So be it, this one amuses me!

They grow up so fast!

2010-12-08T22:03:00.004-06:00

Nothing technically or artistically interesting today, but tonight I shot a few pictures at my daughter's first Christmas, oops I mean 'Winter' Concert.

I didn't expect too much, as I was dealing with horrid lighting, a position too far away at a bad angle, a spotlight moving all over the place, harsh direct flash lighting, and a microphone stand that looks like it's coming out of her head in some shots. Still, I think she's cute :)

All shot at 200mm with the 7D, 70-200 f/2.8L IS locked in at 1/100th shutter, f/2.8 at ISO 400 with the flash in E-TTL mode a +1/3 stop. Can't complain!

My day job meets my wannabe night job...

2010-12-07T21:22:00.003-06:00

In my day job, I'm an IT monkey for a branch of the provincial healthcare organization here in Winnipeg. A lot of my co-workers know about my hobby/wannabe other job so I've done a lot of shooting around for them here and there.

Today, I actually had a commission of sorts from a friend and co-worker who is the lead web developer for our organization. He needed a shot of a keyboard and stethoscope and had already blown their photo rights budget for the fiscal year. So, perhaps this isn't a paid job, but maybe when the budgets refresh in the new year, they'll consider some in-house photography services.

The backdrop was left off-white since the shot is going to be overlaid on a as-of-yet-unselected backdrop colour. There is a clear difference in lighting between the rear 'wall' and 'floor' of the lightbox, but perfection there wasn't really required in this instance. In addition, popping the lights at even brighter settings blew out the chrome on the stethoscope and presented a whole new range of problems.

Lighting on the right side is an LP160 through the Lumiquest SBIII at 1/16th power. On the left is another LP160 at 1/16th power through the side of the lightbox. The left light is at a higher intensity to really make the chrome pop and to get a nice drop shadow. Both were optically triggered by the 580EX II on-camera at 1/32nd power, pointing up with the Omnibounce for a nice soft fill light from above.

Shot with the 7D, EF-S 60mm Macro at f/5.6, ISO 100 and 1/200th shutter.

Backyard Buns!

2010-12-05T22:12:00.003-06:00

Hey all!

Another length of time between posts, but this is just a matter of lack of free time. My passion to shoot is surely back, but I'm realistic about just how busy the next month will be.

I had a good opportunity today though. We fill our bird feeders all winter, and one reason is actually the bunnies! It's quite a sight to see, the rabbits dig in the snow for fallen seed, and when they leave, the birds come and scope out leftovers in the burrows. All winter long we have little guys popping out of the drifts.

I'm sure the rabbits know us by now, they are pretty fearless and he let me get quite close:

It's nice to see wildlife in the backyard, especially in the winter.

Taken with the 7D and 70-200mm at 200mm, AV mode at f/5.6 and ISO 100. Post processing to dull the blue in the snow, heighten contrast and sharpen.

Gotta shoot, gotta shoot, gotta shoot!

2010-11-24T20:36:00.004-06:00

Hi everyone!

How long has it been, two weeks or so? The bug is coming back and today I finally had an instant inspiration, grabbed my camera, and shot something on the way home from the office. Oh, and it felt *good*.

With the Holiday season coming, maybe Santa will bring me back my inspiration.

Anyhow, here we go:

The parking authority here, like in most cities, is a brutal regime of heartless monsters that prey on the innocent and weak. No matter the weather, they are out looking for more victims. Well, maybe they are not that bad, but man they aren't good!

Pretty simple, a little bit of street photography, a hit of selective colouration and a slice of life in downtown Winnipeg in November.

Impish

2010-11-08T20:32:00.002-06:00

My Daughter started kindergarten this year (and I've been sick every week since she started!) and her two new best friends both have short hair. Of course this means that she went in to the hairdresser and had a foot of hair lopped off this weekend.

I think she looks rather impish with the new cut:

Of course, the expression might have something to do with that.

I needed my fill light (camera left) a little higher as there is a bit too much shadow on that side of her face, but I like this shot a lot :) This was shot with the 70-200, a four light setup (primary, fill, background and hair) and processed in a vintage style. Fairly standard for my portrait stuff now.

On the business side of things, there *is* no business side of things at the moment. I'm okay with that, it's there if I need it, and all it costs me is $13 a month for hosting at the moment. I don't have as much time to devote to it as I'd like anyhow, so another year or two of practice won't hurt me.

Woof! Pt 2!

2010-10-31T14:51:00.003-05:00

A while back I went to take a few quick shots of a friends' new Sheltie, Rascal. They have two Shelties and wanted some more pictures taken, and a pic of both together for submission to a fundraising calendar. Hopefully it gets selected :)

I shot with the 70-200 and a single flash on-camera, the 580EX II using a Sto-Fen Omnibounce to diffuse. The lighting is simple but for a fast moving critter, setting up lighting would be an exercise in futility. All in all they worked out well!

First, they wanted a similar shot to the once linked above of their other dog, Roxy:

Roxy wouldn't lay down, but the look is similar enough that the two would look cohesive if seen together.

Roxy was happier to pose on the couch, and gave me this shot:

The couch was also where I tried to get both together. This was by far the hardest shot to get since they were trying to play together and any noise made to draw their attention pulled them off the couch to investigate.

Still, I got one that was half-decent :)

Not direct eye contact, but at least they have their ears up and look interested. The point to learn here is that whoever is making the distracting noise should be *directly* behind the camera!

Pom!

2010-10-25T20:50:00.004-05:00

Tonight, after two weeks of exhaustion, I got out my camera. Two weekends ago the bug the family had came back with a bit of a vengeance and we ended up at the ER with my little dude. He vomited for seven straight days before we finally shook the bug.

This last weekend was my daughter's fifth birthday, so we had a party with her kindergarten classmates, and one with our family. I took some pictures then as well, but those are just for us :)

So, the subject today was a case of bright red pomegranates that finally came back into stock at our local Costco. We are big pom fans in our house, so this was a joyous occasion.

The first shot is the cutoff stem, which tend to be full of these curled little fibers that remind me of the Sarlacc in Return of the Jedi :)

Second, I was just playing around with contrasting subjects, and my wife pointed out that our composter was full of little garden slugs. How could I resist giving one a chance to sample such an exotic treat?

I named him Sluggy Slug. Good boy, Sluggy Slug.

A few birds and a girl...

2010-10-12T21:10:00.004-05:00

So the family illness continued until Sunday afternoon, and on Monday we were all eager to get out of the house for some fresh air. We opted for a drive back out to Oak Hammock Marsh because that's the kind of thing that we do at our house :)

Before going, I had to try and get a nice goose shot at the little park at the end of the street. There were thousands, and all flying low so you could shoot some nice clusters of them:

Oak Hammock was a nice walk but it was geese, geese and more geese, so I wasn't particularly thrilled with the shooting opportunities, except for *one*. Right when we arrived and hit the first trail, we apparently startled a Northern Harrier in a nearby bush and it took off with gusto. It was only fifteen feet away or so, but I didn't have my camera in hand, and my settings were not all dialed in yet, so the only shot I got was pretty disappointing:

*Soooo close* I have to say that the 70-200mm is great, but the 1.4x really kills the AF speed and it's killing me when shooting birds at a distance. I'm still going to try, but the limitation is noticeable. That 400mm f/5.6L is in my future, even if it's ten or twenty years away.

Anyhow, it was a fun walk even though it was short since we had no energy to speak of. My little girl was in the best mood, and immediately started collecting sticks as is her tradition. She's a bit of a butt sometimes, but I still love her, so she got a picture in today's post:

I would have posted all of this last night, but the boy started exploding with puke again and we were off to Children's ER. He's still going tonight, but the docs say it's just a bad case of Gastroenteritis.

Poor little guy :(

Ah, fate...

2010-10-10T20:41:00.002-05:00

Have you ever felt punched in the face by fate?

I was really excited about this weekend, I had my first paying portrait customers lined up for an outdoor session on Saturday, and I was looking forward to it, and to sharing my shots here with you. So of course, that couldn't happen smoothly could it?

Thursday night my son got sick and was vomiting through the night. My daughter started at 4pm on Friday. My wife at 9pm. Myself at 3am Saturday.

Guess who had to cancel his very first paid photoshoot? The clients were not impressed.

Respect!

2010-10-07T20:44:00.002-05:00

Every have one of those days where to take a silly snapshot of a goofy co-worker, you take it home and apply way too many filters, and end up with something odd, slightly disturbing, and completely unexplainable.

I have.

I don't know what this is, but it make me giggle and feel a little bit creeped out at the same time.

A quiet fall walk...

2010-10-02T21:24:00.002-05:00

Have I mentioned that we like to go to Fort Whyte Alive? I think this is our fourth trip this year.

It's nice to get out, walk for an hour or so with the kids, take the camera out for a while, and get some fresh air. I didn't spend as much time shooting this trip, but I still managed a few shots that I liked:

Autumn Path

Curious Red Squirrel

Shaking Off

Three posts this week. That has to be some kind of record :)

Dark Autumn Water

2010-09-30T20:38:00.003-05:00

I decided to do a set-up shot tonight trying to capture a bit of the fall season.

I found a leaf that had a nice golden colour and just a hint of curl from drying out. I use a glass casserole dish on a black sheet, got the camera low and had the flash off to camera left nearly parallel to the water surface to pick up some of the minute surface ripples.

Here is the result:

I'm really, really happy with this shot. I expected the leaf to look nice, and the ripples just blurring off in the foreground and background are what I was hoping for on the clean black background. Where I got lucky was the crisp reflection. I was dropping the leaf and clicking away madly, so to catch it just at the point of contact with the reflection was a real bonus.

I'm just happy that I had an idea, shot it, and can be this proud of the result. Consider me rekindled!

Blowing the dust off...

2010-09-25T21:26:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone!

I'd be lying if I said that I'm not a bit embarrassed about my lack of posting lately, but man have things been busy. The good news is that I actually have real paying customers lined up for family shoots in October, so things are not a total disaster in photography land!

I took my daughter to her new GymKids class today and brought my camera with me:

Marching and Shaking the Shakers

Stretching Time

Parachute Game

We went to St. Vital Park in the afternoon as well, just to go for a walk, but I was lucky enough to see a male wood duck that was pretty much fearless and came nice and close for a portrait:

I'll try to post again sometime before the next three weeks :)

Pics from the weekend

2010-09-06T22:46:00.003-05:00

Had a couple of trips out this weekend, and here's a few favourites.

We went back to the zoo for the third time this summer, this time with friends and their son. I promised them at least one family picture, but their little guy was not in the best mood and basically refused to make eye contact with the camera. Still, I managed a fairly nice shot:

The goal in this shot was just to keep it informal and loose, but still a nice family shot. I just wish we could have got a smile out of their little dude. He *did* smile for me later, in a shot that I like much better that was taken on the playground in the zoo:

Where was that big grin earlier in the day?! I took a candid shot when he was racing his father as well, and I think it's cute:

My daughter would simply not allow pictures to be taken without her chance in front of the lens, so she decided to jump for a picture:

Yeah, she's a goof.

A few animal shots from the day as well. First, a gibbon who decided to stare me down:

And our Zoo's newly arrived Lioness, who was napping at the time:

I think there is a universal rule that the coolest animals at the zoo are always asleep. They might be stuffed, I have no idea.

Our other day trip was back to Oak Hammock Marsh, but there were some high winds so despite it being migration season, most of the birds were hunkered down. Didn't shoot much and what I did shoot was just too far away for the 70-200 even with the teleconverter. I'm looking forward to the day I can land a 400mm+ lens for these birding trips.

I *did* take another bee/flower shot that had a nice colour contrast though:

Thanks for reading!

I'm alive! Woof!

2010-08-30T12:15:00.002-05:00

So I took a hiatus, and it was much needed. I felt like taking pictures was becoming a chore rather than a hobby or a passion, and I didn't like the way that was heading.

I took out my camera for the first time in about two weeks on the weekend, and went to visit friends who just brought home their new Sheltie pup, Rascal.

He's a cute little guy and it was fun to get down on the floor and play with him. Not a great picture, but I'm easing my way back int and just shooting what I feel like when I feel like it. It's a lot more natural and a lot less stress.

Project something-something-something...

2010-08-15T20:46:00.002-05:00

As should be painfully obvious, I am really not able to keep up the Project 365 pace these days. I enjoy shooting every time I get my camera out, and I'm learning each time, but there are just too many demands on my time right now.

There is just not enough time in the day to allot an hour or more to shooting, editing, and posting a picture with two young kids in the house, a job, and a wife who works from home in the evenings. I'm proud of what I've accomplished so far, but at this point I'm prepared to admit that I can't keep it up for the remaining 180 or so days.

So, my point (finally). I will shoot, edit and post as frequently as time allows and as inspiration permits. I will continue this blog, and I will continue to try and support my business. I will continue to enjoy photography as often as I can, but I am no longer going to frame my goals as a photographer with an arbitrary requirement to shoot daily.

I appreciate everyone who reads this blog, and I'll continue to document my learning journey for as long as anyone cares to follow along.

Thanks.

Mercurial...

2010-08-12T21:10:00.003-05:00

Today, I combined my love of flower shots, water shots and inverted trickery. Day 188's shot:

In this shot, a blue background is placed behind my acrylic tank and lit with a speedlite off to the side, and a softbox is overhead of the tank. The flower if held down into the water, and air bubbles are blown up from below it. Invert the shot in post processing, and you get what looks like mercury drops on the flower.

I've seen this technique used before, and my shot is not up to to par of a lot of the other ones I've seen. My bubbles are too big, and I think my setup is a bit amateur compared to the others, but it was a fun shot to do!

I miss Carl Sagan...

2010-08-11T21:24:00.003-05:00

Not much to say about day 187, but this is my take on the Pale Blue Dot.

This is the same paperweight used in this shot but lit more simply, and with (to my eye) a stronger composition. A blue gelled LP160 at 1/2 power through my SB3 softbox is above and to the right of the weight (a little to close thus the strong specular highlight) and a second gelled LP160 is shooting through the left side of the lightbox at 1/16th power, just to fill a bit but not blow out the shadow. Shot at ISO 100, 1/200th shutter, f/5.6.

A simple shot, but crisp, I like the colour and the composition works. I'm glad I got this shot, I was about ready to give up for the day before I reworked the entire light setup and reshot it. Perseverance!

Fort Whyte Again!

2010-08-09T13:50:00.002-05:00

Okay, okay I know that I've done this before, but my daughter loves Fort Whyte, and it's always a great place to go for a photowalk. So, day 186 is more pictures from Fort Whyte Alive!

The day we went, however, was a scorcher. We saw very few critters, and even the ducks and geese were hanging out in the shade. We saw two mallards actually sheltering under a bench, and they didn't move even with us within three feet away or so.

So here is what I managed to get for keepers. From critters:

To birds:

To blooms:

To bugs:

I just wished I got that last one when the Dragonfly was heading towards me. The silhouette is nice, and I did get a Dragonfly in flight (which is *NOT EASY*) but it could have been so much better!

All taken at f/4, ISO 100, aperture priority on the 70-200 with the 1.4x extender. That in-flight shot was a nice, crisp 1/2500th shutter speed, the others varied on lighting, from 1/125th to 1/1600th. I find I use aperture priority 90% of the time in natural light now, that might change if I get a chance to shoot some outdoor sports this year, but for now it's the most natural method of exposure for me.

One sharp lens...

2010-08-07T15:01:00.003-05:00

Day 185's picture was made possible by a mishap with a glass, some hot water, and a cold sink.

First off, here is the picture:

How sharp is my EF-S 60mm Macro? THAT sharp.

The glass, when filled with hot water and placed on the cold sink split nearly perfectly up the middle. It was just too crazy a thing not to use in a shot somehow, and this is what I came up with. I was originally going to mock it up as a fake Canon advert, but I decided that co-opting the Canon logo for this might not exactly endear me to them. As it is I still think it's a fun shot.

In hindsight my lighting could have been a bit harsher on the background and it could have been a bit more even, but for three speedlights and a cardboard box with a sheet of glass from a picture from on it, I'll take it :)

Rainbow Toes

2010-08-06T20:43:00.002-05:00

Day 184 was a day of much happiness around the house. Apparently, my daughter had never really realized that people could paint their finger and toenails. When she figured this out, she *flipped out*.

I promised her a picture so here it is:

Taken on the front lawn at ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/100th shutter. Tough shot since the lawn needs to be mowed, and this was one of those shots where the idea works, but the image isn't what I envisioned. Shooting it again wasn't really an option, I was lucky enough to get her standing still long enough to shoot this one!

I have a lot of shots like this lately, and it is what it is. Inspiration has not come easily as of late.

More fun guys!

2010-08-04T20:50:00.002-05:00

Today I had a chance to shoot the same thing as yesterday, sort of. Day 183 and I'm shooting more fungi:

Now I'm going to be honest here: I had *no idea* what to do with this shot. I mean a pan of sizzling sautéed mushrooms is a fine thing (or so my wife says, I can't stand them) but photographically it's limited. I played with crops, angles, and a few other things, but really there was only so much I could do with it. This is best I managed.

ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/6th of a second shutter handheld. Thank god for IS!

Crackle...

2010-08-03T20:31:00.002-05:00

We've had a lot of rain around here lately, and most yards are mushroom fields. I was keeping my eyes open for pretty toadstools but I found one somewhere unexpected on day 182.

This post is near the parking lot at work, and the combination of textures really appealed to me. I had my macro in the bag, tossed it on the 7D and took a few shots. Somehow or another I blew the focus on this one slightly, but I think that it still works.

The choice to go monochrome came from some advice I read elsewhere. Going mono removes colour from the equation and makes the composition and detail the focal point of the image, in this case (hopefully) enhancing the textures in the shot.

Apologies...

2010-08-02T22:18:00.002-05:00

Sorry that my posting has been rather erratic lately, lots going on, life gets busy, etc...

I've pretty much accepted that my Project 365 is going to be 365 pictures in about 450 days, but I am still frustrated on the days I can't shoot. My advice to others starting this sort of project is not to underestimate the amount of time that you will really end up investing in this day after day. I love the hobby but it's a slog to get through it!

Here there be dragons!

2010-07-31T22:15:00.003-05:00

Today was a family trip back to Dorothy Lake, which I last visited in September of last year. Last time I was shooting landscapes, but today I was hunting dragons!

Where there are mosquitos, there are dragonflies, and that's what I ended up shooting on day 181. Here are my favourites of the day, all shot with the 70-200 and 1.4x extender:

The majority of the trip involved splashing around with a four year old in the lake however, so I'm exhausted!

Kersplash! Pre-and-post...

2010-07-29T20:30:00.006-05:00

I didn't have a lot of time to shoot today, but my daughter was splashing in her pool in the back yard when I got home and I took some pictures just for the family. This turned into a good opportunity though, a chance to practice some post-processing and evaluate my technique. Tada! Day 180 post!

First off, here is the shot I kept straight out of camera:

As you can gather, if this is the best shot that I took, the rest were not very good :) She doesn't like getting water on her face, so her expression was always equally demented in the other shots.

Anyhow, post-processing was:

- Straighten
- Crop
- Fix white balance
- Sharpen
- Curves

Here is the result:

The curves adjustment is from an action set that I liked from DeviantArt, but dialed in to my own preference, and normally toned down to about 30% opacity. It just looks right to me this way.

So, this is the process I go through, more or less, for all my shots. The curves adjustment is not always applied, but this is the natural light set that I prefer for portraits.

Thanks again for reading, your comments are always welcome!

Kersplash! Pre-and-post...

2010-07-29T20:30:00.002-05:00

I didn't have a lot of time to shoot today, but my daughter was splashing in her pool in the back yard when I got home and I took some pictures just for the family.

Master of his domain!

2010-07-28T20:38:00.002-05:00

Looking for Macros on day 179, and in the backyard I went hunting about the various spiderwebs.

I thought I would find something a little bit bigger, but all my arachnid pals were hiding... except one.

This guy is *tiny*, like half the width of my fingernail. Getting a shot in focus was a challenge, because even at f/6.3 the slight breeze would take it in and out of focus. This is the best of about two dozen clicks of the shutter. This was also taken at ISO 400 so there is a bit of noise, the higher ISO was required to bring up the shutter speed due to the aforementioned breeze.

Even though he (she?) was small, he just strikes me as a bad-ass. You can tell he totally owns his little stalk of Catmint.

Blue balls...

2010-07-27T20:46:00.003-05:00

Today, another lesson has been learned. The lesson is:

If you liked your last crystal shot, and you bought some geodes at the Museum and thought that they would be interesting to shoot, don't bother. They will look like crap. Geodes are supposed to be hollow and colourful, but no, they will be solid and all white and boring. Damn.

So that explains yesterday's lack of photo.

Today, I decided to work with something similar with coloured glass. While I was shooting around and trying different compositions, I noticed something interesting when one of my flashes didn't fire. I stumbled into a neat effect, and it made today's shot:

Ah, suggestive post titles that really are only marginally related to the content of the post.

This effect was acheived with a flash laying flush on the paper with the glass balls. The light shining through them gives this cool like refraction pattern, and it reminds me of a natural gas burner. I took a bunch of these shots until I found one that looked just right, like little blue flames. Let's just say that this trick is more consistent at making little blue flames than my furnace is.

This took surprisingly little light, one LP160 at 1/64th power, and the 580EX II bounced off the ceiling for a little bit of fill and to trigger the slave on the LumoPro. That was enough light to shoot at f/9, 1/250th shutter and ISO 100. I suppose having the speedlite two or three inches away really helped as well!

It's a swing thing!

2010-07-25T20:36:00.003-05:00

It's day 177, and I had an idea for a shot, but opportunity gave me a chance to reshoot something from earlier this year.

I did a shot of the kids on the swingset back in april. I was using some different post processing techniques, and I was still shooting with the XSi. When my kids were out back today, it seemed like a good chance to reshoot and see what I could do:

A few notes that I think made a difference in this shot. The post processing style I'm using now is much gentler to the skin tones, and the composition seems better to me. I've done a better job of framing her face, although I still have a busier background than I would have liked. In this case, you don't have a ton of options, there is going to be part of the swingset in the frame somewhere!

A better shot to my eye, and her expression is as cute as all get out in it. :)

I'm alive!

2010-07-24T21:25:00.002-05:00

I've been busy the last few days, and my camera has been lonely in my backpack. We finally got out today, so this is day 176.

We took the kids to the Manitoba Museum today, and I was planning on taking some shots of the Nonsuch. The lighting in the gallery is really horrible though, bad enough that I'd need a tripod and I didn't have one with me.

Having said that, there are quite a few fun little things to see there, and I found a shot I liked elsewhere:

There is a gallery that is set up like a city street from the 20s complete with a pharmacy. The cabinets are packed with a variety of these tonics, bottles, pills and other narcotic quackery, which are just wonderful examples of the graphic design of the era. I took a few shot, and just ended up liking this one after a little sharpening.

It's not much, but after the disappointing shots of the ship, I was happy to come away with something I liked.

I've got a sweet Wrasse!

2010-07-20T20:37:00.002-05:00

Well on day 175 I got to cross off another shot from my 'shots to get' list. I managed to get a good shot in my reef aquarium, and it's of my newest and most colourful fish, the Mystery Wrasse:

As usual, my daughter named him. His name is Mr. Fins. Glub glub.

Crystal Clear

2010-07-18T20:35:00.003-05:00

I've been setting up this shot for three weeks, and decided to shoot it tonight. Day 174 is all about crystals!

I've been growing these from a kit for about three weeks now. They are horribly delicate so getting them into the lightbox was a challenge. Thank you to my wife and her delicate lady fingers!

These crystals are pretty much pure white, so I gelled up three lights for this, red to the left, blue to the right and green above, all diffused through the lightbox, all firing at 1/8th power. The camera was shooting at ISO 200, f/9, 1/200th shutter.

Not much else to add, not great photography but fun photography! Wheeeee!

Bored at Church

2010-07-17T22:19:00.002-05:00

Today was rather busy as we attended a friends wedding. I brought the 70-200 and 17-55 thinking I might get some nice shots of the ceremony, but the horrid lighting and not-at-all-good seating prevented that.

Fortunately another friends son provided a good shot for today:

He was two rows back and was just barely holding on by the end of the ceremony. Shot at ISO 400, f/2.8 and 1/15th shutter speed. He was sluggish enough that 1/15th was enough to 'freeze the action' as it was :)

Unfurling...

2010-07-16T18:22:00.002-05:00

Sorry to go back and reshoot something from yesterday, but that poppy pod was starting to bloom today. I'm not likely to get another chance to shoot this this year, so I had to do it!

To try and change it up a bit, however, I used a sheet of turquoise construction to create a backdrop for it and add some complementary colour to the shot:

I also stopped down the aperture to f/7.1 (I think) to give a little more depth of field. I think it's a much stronger shot than yesterdays as a result!

Growth in the Garden

2010-07-15T21:04:00.003-05:00

I saw a few things in the garden on the way home today, so I went for a wander with my Macro lens to see what I could see for day 171.

Here are two lessons I learned:

1. Wind makes shooting macros of flowers pointlessly hard.
2. No matter how hard you try, the Dragonfly knows you are looking at it, and will fly away if you come within five thousand feet of it.

Having said that I got a few shots I liked, and I'm posting two that are both themed around growth.

First, a Poppy Pod from the front garden. This will likely bloom in the next day or two so you have a limited time to shoot them:

Second, the same Blackberry bush from this shot has started to lose it blooms and grow berries. I took a different angle and opened the lens wide to get a shallow DOF shot of the last full bloom and some of the new berries:

Sadly, the bloom blew out in the shot, so the very slight purple tone was lost in the shot. Damn auto-exposure!

Faking it...

2010-07-14T21:35:00.002-05:00

So for day 170, I was trying a different technique, where you intentionally use the wrong white balance setting in post-processing.

First the shot, and then the explanation:

This is just a macro of a bamboo leaf with water drops, but the key is lighting and processing. The background is lit with two speedlites, with a red gel to camera left and a yellow gel to camera light. A third speedlite is on the camera with the Lumiquest SB3 softbox to light the leaf.

In post processing, you swap the white balance to 'fluorescent' which tones everything blue, and you get the tones you see here. The 'bluing' also makes the leaf and drops pop. I like it!

You could accomplish the same thing just by shooting with a standard white balance and toning the picture manually, but this gives you a sense of experimentation since you don't know exactly how it will turn out. When I started this 365, I *never* would have shot like this, I used to feel like you had to have everything figured out, and it had to look *right* somehow. Now, part of the fun is shooting something and seeing what happens later.

I don't think I have to tell you which style of shooting I'm preferring!

Come here often?

2010-07-13T21:01:00.003-05:00

Day 169, and it's a busy night. Another shot idea I had fell through, so I'll have to satisfy myself with a backyard shot:

Since we've stopped feeding larger seed in our feeders, our steady stream of grackles has given way to finches and sparrows galore. Much prettier, quieter, and cleaner birds, so it's a good trade.

I'll try to manage a more interesting shot tomorrow!

Green tea, too!

2010-07-12T21:04:00.003-05:00

I had a shot in mind for a few days that I finally got to shoot tonight. Day 168 is a redux on my earlier 'Green Tea' shot.

Here is my new shot:

There is trickery in this shot too, but not digital. This is shot upside down, with the stream of 'tea' shooting upward into the cup. The cup pushes the stream out to the edge and that gives you the 'crown' of drops.

This needed a fair bit of light to clear the backdrop and freeze the action so there is a little more blowout in the drops than I would have liked, but the lead section of drops is nice and crisp, so I think the effect worked. This was list with two LP160s on the background (on high and one low) and the 580EX2 on-camera to light the front at about 1/16th power. This lighting allowed me to shoot at f/7.1, ISO 100 and 1/200th shutter.

Boy smash! Grar!

2010-07-11T20:29:00.002-05:00

Well, it was a heck of a day. The first birthday party went off largely without a hitch but I'm exhausted. There will be a proper picture tomorrow, but a memory for the family today.

Boy smash cake! Grar!

Sit! Stay! Good boy!

2010-07-10T21:16:00.002-05:00

I'm super busy with my son's first birthday party preparation, post processing engagement photos, and otherwise dealing with my first week back at work, so consider this a bit of a cheat.

The picture for day 166 was taken on the same day a day 165, but the subject was pretty different, and I just love the picture.

Here is Spike, the dog whose parents are getting married this week:

What a little ham!

Engagement pics - Round 2!

2010-07-09T08:25:00.003-05:00

I'm late posting these, but these shots were all done and processed last night. I was just too bagged to get them posted! Still these qualify for day 165 ;)

The Bride

The Groom

The Ring

She said yes!

Dancing lessons pay off!

Holding hands

All shot on the muslin backgrounds with the 17-55 which I am really finding I use all the time for portraits now. It's plenty sharp, good contrast, and for full-body work it's a good focal length range for indoor use.

I took a variety of shots of them sitting as well, but the muslin really lets me down here. If I blow it out to white, the subject gets massively overexposed. If I expose to subject well, the muslin is gray and wrinkled. I can't clean it up well enough in post to make it look good *and* natural. I may have to bit the bullet, clean a section of the basement out and buy paper or vinyl. Muslin is portable, but for full body shots it's a continual problem.

Ugh...

2010-07-07T21:58:00.002-05:00

Today's picture did not go well. I was trying a technique from a site, and it just didn't work. The best picture I managed on day 164 was a heavily cleaned up shot that I took to preset my manual focus for the actual shot.

Oh dear. Quite a letdown after yesterday's shot that I quite liked. Win some, lose some.

I have round two of engagement photos with the same couple tomorrow, so I'll take an off day today if it means I can be on my game tomorrow. I'm really preferring to shoot portrait right now anyhow, so I'm happy about it!

Stand out!

2010-07-05T20:32:00.004-05:00

Day 163 and I was screwing around with glass and lights again. Being back home I could mess with all my toys again, so I had a bit of fun browsing around Flickr for inspiration. One shot that I really liked was this one which is just wine glasses and lighting.

The clever perspective really appealed to me, but I wanted a little more interest beyond the lighting. As such, I messed around with the elements of the shot and changed up the lighting.

Here is my shot for today:

There are a couple of keys to this shot, the biggest being a small aperture and a wide angle. This was shot at 17mm at the minimum possible distance so the focus was crisp across the whole shot and the perspective was exaggerated. I also let the background drape and throw shadow a bit since pure white tended to lose the details. I both like the hint of gray, but I admit that in some ways I dislike it since it comes across a bit 'dirty'. Perhaps shooting on just gray would have been a bit better. The raspberry was just for a hit of colour and interest, which I think the shot needed.

Lighting was an LP120 above at half power using the SB3 softbox, and an LP160 on either side at 1/8th power shooting through the sides of the lightbox. ISO 100, 1/250th shutter at f/16.

Engagement pics, rounds one!

2010-07-04T21:39:00.003-05:00

Today I did the first round of my pictures for my friends who are getting married in two weeks. They are looking for photos to display and project at the reception, so I guess these would be considered engagement photos.

I'll be doing another series with studio lighting on Thursday night, so I get two days of my project 365 out of the deal :)

Our first stop was St. Vital park:

I liked this set quite a bit. Lots of shade to shoot in, lovely backgrounds and a variety of benches, stones and the like to use as props.

After we arrived home, we wondered over to the local community club and hit the playground. These shots were much more challenging with no shade to speak of, and much more urban backgrounds, but we were just having fun here. I did a fair bit of low perspective and wide angle here:

I'm currently waiting to hear how they like them!

Chirpy chirp chirp...

2010-07-03T21:11:00.002-05:00

Yay! I finally got my Goldfinch picture!

What gorgeous little birds these guys are. We have a few males and at least one female (that I was unable to get a picture of) hanging out around our feeder.

Not much else to add, I was just very happy to finally get this little guy in frame today!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? NO!

2010-07-02T17:17:00.002-05:00

On day 160, I was enjoying the realization that I still don't have to go to work for three more days, but the running around and errands seem endless after a vacation.

So, I needed a quick shot but I specifically wanted to do something experimental. I've been thinking about using supplemental flash in daylight shots and this seemed like a nice day for it with blue skies and white clouds.

By the time I got my idea together, and my subjects ready and willing, a little gray had entered the white clouds, but I still like the shot:

It's Super Baby! I think every kid on the planet likes this game... This was shot in the shade at 1/125th, f/16 (sunny 16!) and ISO 100. The shot is done in shade, with the 580EX II on-camera at 1/2 power, using the LumiQuest SBIII softbox. The effect is what I was hoping for, with a properly exposed foreground and the sky a nice shade of blue with definition in the clouds.

What more can I say about this? I had an idea, and it worked the first try! The shot itself could use a little more artistic flair, but getting the technical elements right is a challenge and a thrill in itself.

I have some portrait time scheduled with friends who are getting married soon, and this is valuable experience for that shoot.

The Waiting Game...

2010-07-01T20:14:00.004-05:00

Day 159 of Project 365.

Why is it that when you come back from vacation you have so much to do that you need another vacation? As you might gather, this is my excuse for not having a great picture today :)

Anyhow, there is a male Goldfinch frequenting our backyard feeder, but he is incredibly skittish so the few shots I managed are distant and otherwise craptacular. While I sat waiting for him to return, I realized that there was something else I was waiting for:

The blackberry bushes in the backyard are in full bloom. Soon, my sweet little berries, soon...

Also, I know that I shouldn't be craving any equipment at the moment, but I'm in love with these!

Back to work...

2010-06-30T20:21:00.003-05:00

Well, my vacation is over, and it's back to the project 365. By my reckoning this is day 158, I didn't count any of the days on my vacation since I was largely just shooting for myself.

This morning I went out to shoot flowers in the garden, early enough to get the dew on the petals. The flower beds grew in nicely while we were away so it seemed like a natural thing to spend some time on.

Much to my delight, what I actually found was a drowsy little fly on a leaf who was seemingly not afraid of my lens. I had my Macro lens on started shooting. He moved around a bit, but I was able to get a couple of shots in focus and decently composed.

Here is my favourite of the day:

The settings on this shot were f/6.3 at 1/100th shutter. I had to go to ISO 200 to get the exposure bright enough with the decent shutter speed and reasonable DOF. Even so, I would have liked to get this shot at f/11 or so, but I didn't have enough time to fiddle with the settings before the fly finally flew away.

All in all, I can still be happy with this shot. I haven't had many macro opportunities lately so it's nice to do something different for a change.

Miscellaneous vacation shots...

2010-06-29T20:52:00.006-05:00

Well, I'm back home but I'm not quite ready to take up the mantle of the 365 again tonight. Unpacking, laundry, settling the kids... Well, my night is pretty full.

Anyhow, I have a few more miscellaneous shots from the vacation to share, and just to get back in the rhythm one of them is a backyard songbird!

We visited a hobby farm called Puck's Farm which I remember visiting from my childhood. The place seems a bit more rundown than I recall as a kid, but that may just be the haze of childhood nostalgia at work.

Here are two landscape/animal shots I took that day:

I took one family shot there as well. My mother and daughter were sharing a quiet moment in an old building on the back side of the property, and I wanted to shoot it as a silhouette. It worked out fairly well, but the foreground was still fairly strongly lit:

When I was shooting the backyard portraits, the kids were also quite enthusiastically enjoying the swingset, and I took a few shots from the deck at the long end of the 70-200, and I liked this little gem:

Finally, as promised, a backyard bird. My parents are also bird lovers, and they are lucky enough to have some wonderful specimens visit their house regularly. On this trip, a male Cardinal was visiting quite regularly, but he never got particularly close. This was the best shot I managed with the 70-200 and the 1.4x TC:

Thanks again for reading!

Portrait Day

2010-06-28T13:22:00.002-05:00

Well, shooting the grandkids' portraits went pretty well all in all. There was a certain amount of time that was spent herding them, and trying to get them all to look in the same direction at the same time, but the results are good overall.

The rental studio was set up with four AB400s which were very nice to work with, two softboxes for the key and fill lights, and straight reflectors for the background lights.

Here are the best of the shots taken today, all taken within 40 minutes or so. We got in and out way faster than I expected:

This has a guest appearance by Po, the stuffed Hippo:

Another guest star, Javelin the stuffed cat:

Mid-air shot!

Mid-air, part two!

Any comments are welcome!

Critters!

2010-06-25T20:18:00.002-05:00

Just popping in to post some favourites from a few trips in the last few days. We visited Reptilia and the Toronto Zoo as well.

Everything here is shot with the 70-200...

Nile Crocodile

Black Mamba

Monitor (forgot to note the specific species)

Plumed Basilisk

Blue Poison Dart Frog

Cayman

White Rhino

Hippo Yawning

Sumatran Tiger

Butterfly and Blooms

Alpaca

I'll be back home in a few more days, but I have the portrait shoot with my kids and nieces scheduled for Monday. I'll be packing that night, but I'll try and get shots posted.

Cheers!

Sunlight portraits...

2010-06-20T22:00:00.002-05:00

So, today was one of my first chances to really take any pictures. I've been shooting snapshots, but nothing really worth sharing at this point.

However, in my sisters back yard I managed to corral all of the kids for a minute or two and got them to sit down for a couple of natural light portaits.

My son and daughter are the first two shots, my nieces the latter two. All shot with the 70-200 at f/4, ISO 100:

I'm pretty happy with all of these, although the focus on my son is a bit soft. Tomorrow we are heading to the Royal Ontario Museum so there should be photo opportunities galore!

Vacation time...

2010-06-15T21:53:00.002-05:00

Hello my beloved and faithful readers! (Both of you!)

For the next two weeks or so, my family and I will be visiting my parents out of province so there will be a bit of a slowdown in posting. Tonight is picture-free, and tomorrow likely as well as the whirlwind of packing and travelling will devour all of my free time like a pack of locusts.

All is not lost though, my parents live in a nicely forested area so bird and animal shooting is likely to be good, and there will be trips to the Metro Toronto Zoo, the Royal Ontario Museum, and some other photo-friendly places. So, while I will be inconsistent in posting, I won't go completely silent.

It should be a nice trip and I'll be dragging most of my kit with me, minus my backgrounds and most of the lighting gear. I've booked a studio for a day of shooting with my nieces as well, so I'll have a day with studio lighting as well.

Cheers for now!

Backyard Bubbles

2010-06-14T21:27:00.004-05:00

I hope you aren't all sick of pics of my kids. The more practice I can manage with portraits, the better. Besides, my kids are cute!

We picked up this 'Bubble Typhoon' device on the weekend and set it up in the backyard today. Of course, Daddy was right behind with his camera.

Here are the shots from today:

Both shot with the 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM which I'm finding a very helpful kid-shooting lens. The autofocus is damn quick, the fixed aperture is just incredibly helpful for sorting out exposure, and for full body shots the zoom range really is ideal. Combined with the much better AF on the 7D and all my shots were crisply in focus. These were shot at ISO 100, f/4 in aperture priority.

I've really come to like this post processing style as well. It's almost become a go-to for me for strongly lit portraits. I'll need to branch out, but it's also important to develop a style to show your clients. I think this one works for me.

Oak Hammock Marsh

2010-06-13T21:55:00.003-05:00

We spent day 156 at Oak Hammock Marsh which is another wildlife area about twenty minutes north of Winnipeg. I'm enjoying shooting birds, what can I say!

Now, the problem is that I'm not very good at it. Trying to get 320mm of focal length to bear on a bird that is whipping across your entire field of vision in under two seconds is really, really challenging both for the photographer and his or her autofocus system. So I may not have a bunch of great wildlife shots today, but I had a great time.

Here are the shots I kept today, starting with two shots of the ubiquitous Redwinged Blackbird:

Female Yellow-Headed Blackbird:

Semipalmated Plover in flight:

My favourite bird shot of the day, a Barn Swallow:

Some other interesting shots:

A landscape shot deep in the bullrushes:

And the necessary shots of my daughter in her element, first with a pile of twigs and looking for some water in which to toss them:

In this picture, I can't help but think that she's saying, "I WILL CRUSH YOU":

A fun day!

Lose a flower, gain a picture!

2010-06-11T18:26:00.002-05:00

Day 155 of my Project 365. Friday. At long last.

When I got home, I discovered a nice bouquet of flowers on the kitchen table. Flowers that used to be growing in the backyard. How nice of my daughter to harvest them for us.

Oh well, got a picture out of it at least!

This is a Purple Aster, and fortunately there are several blooms left in the backyard. This wasn't the original pose that I had in mind, but she wouldn't sit still so a bunch of random shooting finally turned up one that was a keeper. I'm trying not to abuse the white background, so this was shot against the pink wall in her bedroom. Still bright, but there is a complementary tone to it.

This was shot with a key light to camera right, fired through a LumiQuest Softbox III which I have been waiting for on backorder for a little while now. It's small, but better than a bare flash and a bit more controllable as far as light spill than an umbrella. It's designed to be small enough to be used on-camera, and it fits nicely on the 580 on the 7D.

Fill light was from an LP160 to camera left, with a shoot through umbrella. ISO 100, 1/250th shutter at f/3.2. Both lights were firing at 1/8th power.

GRAR!

2010-06-10T20:33:00.003-05:00

DINOSAURS! GRAR!

DAUGHTER LOVES DINOSAURS!

(Guess who dictated tonight's photo subject?)

So, a chance to take a pretty simple shot and play with it. In this case, I wanted to throw a shadow given the interesting shapes of the rib cage, spine and tail. Initial attempts threw were pretty weak looking, so I brought the light quite high camera right and fully zoomed, although not snooted. This threw a sharper shadow that I was able to keep in the frame, but the shadows also obliterated detail on the 'skeleton'. The solution is another speedlight just to camera left, handheld in this case for convenience.

In post processing I just had to remove one crease in the gray backdrop, and then I muddied the colour down and hiked the contrast a bit. Just a bit of fun with a simple shot.

Blogger also finally has some templates that will support a 500 pixel wide main column, so I switched to this one. I tend to like the darker background and it makes the post tags and comments a little more visible.

Mummy Luv!

2010-06-09T20:29:00.004-05:00

Back to the portraits! I am travelling to Ontario to visit my family, and I've booked a small studio for a day while I am there so that I can shoot my nieces, so I'll try and get as many shots in as I can right now. Day 153 was a portrait day.

I was using my son as my subject today, and since he started crawling getting him to settle down is a chore. My wife sat nearby to help but all that did was make him stare and smile at here. This isn't the shot I planned, but it's a shot I love:

Same post processing technique as I used for the twig splashing shots from a few weeks ago. I like the effect, and it can be subtle while still being interesting. I'm not 100% set on it, but I do like it.

This was shot with a white muslin background, the 580EX II camera left, and an LP160 camera right, both with shoot-through umbrellas at just a bit above his head height. ISO 100, 1/200th shutter at f/3.2 on the 17-55mm at 55mm. A good setup for headshots with only minimal cleanup needed in post processing. I managed this shot, including setup of the lights, in under ten minutes.

I'm getting there, I hope.

Equipment review!

2010-06-08T21:56:00.003-05:00

Well my final pieces of kit arrived today, two new LumoPro LP160 manual flashes. I've been waiting for the LP120s to come back in stock, so when they announced the new model it was a happy surprise.

So, here are two simple 'product shots' for day 152 and a 'first impressions' review of the new flashes.

The first thing you notice with the LP160s (on the right) is the size of the flash head. Although the unit is overall about the same height, the flash head is quite a bit wider. It's not large enough that it would be a concern, it is still very portable. The new head also rotates through 180 degrees one way and about 135 degrees the other. This gives you the advantage of making the optical slave orientation independent of the flash head. The LP120 does not rotate at all, so this is a major advantage.

Additionally, the mode switch on the front of the LP120 has been relocated to the back on the LP160, and there is an LED ready indicator on the front instead. It's quite a handy addition, and one that I am already finding useful.

The differences on the back of the units are far more interesting. Gone are the two selection switches for power, and in it's place are two LED scales for power and zoom along with a button for each and the relocated mode switch.

The LP160 uses a motorized seven-position zoom, which replaces the manual four-position head on the LP120. Similarly, the LP120 was only capable of six power settings, where the LP160 allows you to select from seven. The addition of the 1/64th power mode is very welcome considering that the LP160 offers twice the power of the LP120.

Also new is the Si mode option, which is designed to ignore pre-flashes when using TTL metering. Since I always fire my flashes with manual settings I haven't tested this, but reviews I have read say that it works as advertised.

The last thing that I wanted to test was the recycle rate. With freshly charged Eneloops, full power recharges were achieved in three seconds as advertised. The LP120s were much closer to six seconds, so this is another great improvement.

Build quality is similar to the LP120 with a construction of fairly lightweight plastics. I've tossed my 120s in my bag without concern before, but I wouldn't consider them rugged, and weather sealing is non-existent. Don't abuse them and they should last. LumoPro also now includes a clip-on wide angle adapter and flash foot in the box with the LP160.

So to sum up, the LP160 is more powerful, versatile, quicker to recharge, and includes some handy accessories for the grand total of $30USD more than the LP120. It's a fantastic little piece of kit for a ridiculously good price. I've added two to my kit to use as fill and hair lights, and my LP120 will be relegated to background light duty from here on out.

Followed by critters...

2010-06-07T20:37:00.002-05:00

You'd figure that I would have enough animal pictures after yesterdays zoo visit, but I found this little guy in a field near my office today, so he became my day 151 photo.

I think he is a ground squirrel, but he might be a juvenile prairie dog as well. Either way he wasn't all that scared of people and he let me get very close. This shot is reduced in size, but not really cropped, he pretty much filled the frame.

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

2010-06-07T08:31:00.002-05:00

Day 150 of Project 365 and we sprung a surprise zoo trip on my little girl. She was, as you might imagine, elated. So was Daddy.

All the shots below were taken with the 7D, 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM and many of them with the 1.4x extender. I won't bother recapping the exposure settings on each shot but you can assume that everything was shot wide open: f/2.8 without the extender and f/4 with it. Some of the lower light or indoor shots I would bump the ISO to 200 or 400, but all the sunny shots are ISO 100.

I kept an even dozen of my best shots, and my favourite three are at the end. Enjoy!

Pileated Woodpecker

Peacock Plumage

Snowy Owl

Amur Leopard

Kangaroo Family

Stellar Sea Eagle in Flight - I hate the chainlink background, but what can you do?

English Sparrow

Stalking Vulture

Mallard in Green Water

And now my favourite three shots of the day:

Growling Mountain Lion

Flamingo at Rest

Lift-Off - Incredibly lucky timing on this one

When you compare this with visit to the zoo last fall, I think you can see a difference in my subject selection, composition, and post processing abilities. That's roughly 8 or 9 months of learning. In three weeks or so I'll be visiting family in Ontario and we will be visiting the Metro Toronto Zoo which will provide a greater variety of opportunities to shoot, but I'm happy with this warm-up visit to our little zoo here in Winnipeg.

Coffee Talk

2010-06-05T23:19:00.003-05:00

Sorry, day 149 has to be quick. Had a friend over for coffee and dessert tonight:

This composition sort of came together as I was reclining on the couch chatting with my wife and a friend. I really just liked the slice of life aspect of this. It's basically a snapshot I know, but it's pretty organic so I just rolled with it.

I really need to tidy up that side table.

Just part of a bird this time...

2010-06-04T18:14:00.003-05:00

I've been waiting for our pet brown-headed parrot to shed a well-coloured feather and on day 148 she finally obliged.

I haven't really done any macro since getting the 7D so this was a welcome change of pace. The 60mm still does an admirable job on this body, so it confirms what I always heard about the glass in that lens. I love the downy bit at the bottom, and the 60 caught it beautifully.

This was lit against a black background by a single snooted speedlite off to the object's left. There was a fair bit of colour twiddling in postprocessing to bring up the iridescence that her feathers have under natural light. It's a bit of a heavy handed edit, admittedly, but that's part of the process of matching a picture to what the photographer sees.

I didn't realize that before, but now I do. It's not 'cheating' to edit it a photo, it's like icing a cake with a certain flavour of icing in order to bring out a subtle hint in the cake itself. If it's what the baker intended, then it's 'right' regardless of the method.

Sidewalk chalk and skinned knees

2010-06-02T21:02:00.002-05:00

Coming home from work, I found my daughter and wife sitting in front of the house. My son was down for a nap, and my little girl was busily decorating the otherwise undecorated swaths of concrete leading to our front door.

She ran happily to car, explained that she had a sore knee, gave me a hug and then ran back to her task.

Oh yeah, it was camera time.

I am really, really happy to take these shots. For one, I love to take pictures of my kids for my parents who live in another province, and it also gives me a chance to really work on simple snapshots and make them 'photographs'. In this case, that meant getting low, framing out the distracting dividing line between sunshine and shade while getting the highlight in her hair, getting a diagonal line between sidewalk and lawn, and then processing it in the manner that I've been enjoying for outdoor shots.

All in all, I know I would not have taken this shot six months ago. I would have taken something similar, but it would have been snap it from wherever I was and forget about it. Still, I have lots to learn, but I'm confident that I will.

Not so dandy...

2010-06-01T20:25:00.004-05:00

So I've finished up my gearing. I'm done buying equipment for a long while. I started with some pretty basic gear, no lighting and no idea what I was doing. Now, I've got some pretty great gear, a 4 speedlite off-camera lighting system, and a slightly better idea of what I'm doing, but only slightly :)

My kit now includes:

EOS 7D
EF-S 60mm f/2.8 USM Macro
EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM (yeah, I swapped up from the 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS USM)
EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM
EF 1.4x TC II
Canon 580EX II Speedlite
LumoPro LP120 Speedlite
2 x LumoPro LP160 Speedlites

I'm selling my XSi and I've sold the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM to help fund this last gasp of equipment buying. I've done it mostly with used equipment and strategic price matching and swap-ups over the last few months, but it's still a big investment.

The next step is to really put the gears to generating some business. Maybe I'm crazy trying this, but I've got to give it a try.

Anyhow, playing with the 17-55 I was enjoying shots taken low and wide. I was messing with perspective and I couldn't help but notice one of THEM. You know, THEM. Sitting there in your yard, acting all high and mighty, messing up the joint. You can kill them, but they keep coming back...

I don't like using chemicals on the lawn, but man... I'm ready to go agent orange on this lawn.

What else could it be?

2010-05-31T20:51:00.004-05:00

I had to do it. At some point I needed to take the 7D out back and shoot Grackles :D

So, for say 145, I made it a challenge. I moved my shooting position farther away, changed the angle to get harsher light, put the teleconverter on the 70-200 and cranked the ISO to 400. So in theory I would have a noisier, more heavily cropped, slightly less sharp version of a shot I already had. I call it "Grackle Picture, version 7D":

Well, I have to say the 7D performed admirably. Pixel to pixel this shot is at least as sharp as the XSi shots were, the extra 6MP really made the cropping no big deal, and even with the teleconverter on saturation is excellent. Noise is much improved as well.

Somehow despite the extra weight of the 7D body, I don't think I'm going to miss the XSi. Also, I can't wait for some other birds to start coming back north.

Babies everywhere!

2010-05-30T15:39:00.004-05:00

We had friends visiting today, and although I hadn't really planned on pictures, when you get babies together, cute stuff happens.

My boy, Marcus, and their daughter, Norah, did the classic baby thing of staring at each other in amazement and pawing away at each other's faces. I only took a few shots but I kept one and I thought it would be more post processing practice time. I think I'm getting a style down that I like, not fully Lomo or anything, but slightly contrasty and desaturated.

Anyhow, here is the picture for today:

Shot with the new 7D, and my 50mm. She's a little doll, but I couldn't get a lot of smiles out of her. I wasn't really trying to force the issue, it's not a shoot, but she was quite a serious little lass. A good visit with friends though.

This picture also illustrates the value a big wide aperture. There was not going to be a good background to this shot, period. We were all sitting around on the floor, so it was going to be someones knee or elbow or something, so dial back to f/2.2 and blur the heck out of it!

Oh my...

2010-05-29T22:39:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure how this happened, but...

Pray for my wallet...

Please extend my line of credit...

2010-05-29T14:39:00.002-05:00

Two days worth of pics today. Last night was a bit busy, but I did get a chance to play with a new toy that arrived, courtesy of the Buy and Sell forums at FredMiranda.com:

My extender arrived! So basically, this works with the new lens to add 40% to the focal length for the loss of one stop of aperture and a little focus speed. Basically, the 70-200mm f/2.8 becomes a 98-280mm f/4 but it retains stabilization. For bird shoots, and zoo visits it's a fair trade-off.

Today, we went to our local bird supply store Wild Birds Unlimited to see a few birds brought in from the Prairie Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre: Perry the Peregrine Falcon and Tao the Great Horned Owl.

Glorious birds, and very patient photo subjects. Low ambient flourescent lighting does not make for ideal photography. This is where the 50mm f/1.4 really shines. I could have gone with the 70-200 but it's awkward in a crowd, and it's not something I want to drag everywhere. It would have given me a much tighter shot with more detail, but these are fine, I think.

Nightmare

2010-05-27T21:25:00.004-05:00

Day 141 and I wanted to do a set shot that I had in mind ever since my daughter got a set of multicoloured toy bugs.

Let me just say that I don't like spiders. This from the guy with a pet 5' python, but I really don't like spiders, and even garishly coloured plastic ones make me feel uneasy. I decided that I wanted to try and capture something that echoed that.

I borrowed my wife, set her up on the couch and tried to get a shot like I had in mind. I ended up having her right on her back, me hovering above with a flash/umbrella adaptor in my left hand since I couldn't angle it correctly on the light stand.

The shot needed some work, so this is was another chance to work on my post processing, trying out some actions and fiddling with colours.

Here is the result:

I think it captured the emotion, and what more can you ask for? The plastic spiders a bit hokey but it's what I had on hand. I like it, it looks like what I expected.

No birds today!

2010-05-26T21:01:00.002-05:00

On day 140 I got ambushed. As soon as I walked in the door, my daughter was all excited to tell me that she had been gathering twigs all day and that we were going to walk down to the park at the end of the street and toss them in the lake, and it would make the biggest splash ever.

Once again, I know enough to follow the orders of the women in my life.

I unloaded the groceries, grabbed the camera, and headed out with my little girl. I took about two dozen shots, and decided that this would be another good opportunity to work on my post-processing.

I hope you like the results!

Thanks for reading, your comments and criticism are always welcome and wanted!

Birds, birds, birds...

2010-05-25T20:53:00.002-05:00

Just like I got a little obsessed with macros and lightbox shots in the winter, I've been in the backyard shooting birds whenever I can manage it this spring. I really enjoy it, and the challenge of getting your shots in quickly is entertaining. Hopefully no one minds another day of bird shots!

I haven't seen many new birds, but we are hoping to get Orioles and Hummingbirds soon. I did get one shot I've been hoping for, however.

First, it was a pretty windy day, and feathers were ruffling on the fence:

I had better shots of this Grackle, but the lighting is always tricky and they are mostly black in the feather detail. These shots are always going to be backlit, so I might have to investigate using my flash to fill a little for more detail. Something like the Better Beamer might be useful.

I had two new visitors I managed pictures of today. The first is a female Red-Winged Blackbird:

Not nearly as striking as the male, but the patterns are lovely. We also had a Chipping Sparrow this afternoon:

I would have no idea what this guy was, but I picked up a Sibley guide for backyard songbirds as I spend more time watching the birds, and it's been very helpful. I'm really enjoying this new aspect of my hobby.

Finally, the shot I was hoping for. A wings-extended, in-focus, flight shot:

Another Grackle, so not much interesting in the colour, but I was happy to get a crisp flight shot. I opened the aperture to give myself more DOF while increasing the ISO a bit to compensate, set my focus on the fence where the Grackle was sitting, and then panned over while maintaining the focus. Then it was just patience and a quick shutter finger when it took off to go to the feeder. It worked! next I have to try this trick with a smaller, faster bird and hope for similar results.

Back off my back!

2010-05-24T20:26:00.003-05:00

Day 138 and I can walk!

Today, when I woke up, the clouds outside were just amazing. I don't think I've ever seen clouds like this before in my life. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. The last one includes the roofline of a house up the street to give a little more sense of depth:

I have no idea what these cloud formations are called, but I love 'em.

Anyhow, the original plan for shooting today was to head up to Lockport, Manitoba and the Half Moon for fries and ice cream, and a walk down to the locks to see the Pelicans. Lockport has a resident population of a hundred or so White Pelicans that hang around near the Half Moon and feast on the fish that get trapped by the locks. Unfortunately, they all hang out on the far side of the river and even at 200mm I couldn't get a keeper of a shot.

As I got home, I decided to camp out at the backyard bird feeder again. I liked my cloud pictures but I wanted one more for my first day back. I didn't see any new birds, but I did see a Grackle with an attitude.

Look at that guy strut. He's got it goin' on... Oh yeah...

Ouchie...

2010-05-23T23:16:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I managed to throw my back out again, quite badly this time. It's a chronic thing, and it happens a few times a year.

Since there are these unavoidable absences from my 365, I've decided that the best way to handle it is to not count those days towards my year. Sure I won't be finishing on New Years Eve, but I will get through my project without too much trouble, and it should only slide my end day out a few weeks.

I'll be back and shooting again tomorrow.

Miscellany

2010-05-18T20:39:00.003-05:00

I didn't really plan to take any specific pictures today, but a couple of them turned up.

First, the backyard had a bunch of new visitors today, so I had five or ten minutes of silence in my backyard birding chair and snapped a pic of a common Grackle eyeing our feeder:

Tomorrow is my wife's birthday so we also made her cake tonight, and it's my daughters job to decorate after I ice it. She chose pink icing, and sprinkles. All the sprinkles in the house. Possibly some borrowed from the neighbours.

My teeth ache just thinking about eating a piece this monstrosity tomorrow night.

Sprout in the sky...

2010-05-17T20:38:00.002-05:00

Day 135 and it's just amazingly gorgeous outside.

My daughter and I took a stroll down to the park to see what sorts of birds were out, but small kids are not exactly adept at stalking down flighty waterfowl. I didn't really mind as the walk was great, and we had fun.

There were still some nice shots to take, and I ended up just enjoying the blue skies and the signs of new spring growth. Here's my favourite of the afternoon:

I found a Canon TC 1.4x II extender this week as well and I am anxiously awaiting it's delivery. The 200mm is decent, but a little extra reach sure won't hurt with my attempts to shoot songbirds. I know you lose a little clarity, and a full stop of aperture, but it should be a benefit overall if I can reduce the amount of cropping I need for those distant shots.

Raceday!

2010-05-16T20:54:00.003-05:00

Day 135 and I spent about three hours up in Gimli, MB, shooting the opening race of the MRA motorcycle season. It was a great chance to play with the 70-200, and work on some high shutter speed and panning shots.

The weather was great, but the sun was incredibly bright, so expect some blown skies in the pictures, and a lot of pictures to boot. I shot about 400 exposures, and a good 50% of them are usable, but I picked a few favourites to share.

The pit area was set up with a variety of tents and shades from various competitors and teams:

There were about twenty or so racers all together, and they were kind enough to line up a number of their bikes for me:

Some of the hardware on display was pretty impressive and expensive:

And of course, my friends team, Defiant Motorsports, was in attendance:

You have to love it when the competition flies the Jolly Roger as well:

Now to the racing itself. Initially, I went with some straight high shutter-speed shots. I kept the aperture fairly wide to achieve that, and to blur out the terrain and trailing bikes. This first series was shot in one of the main curves, at f/4, ISO 100 and roughly 1/1600th shutter, manually focused on the tripod:

From there, I moved on to some panning shots on a slower section of the track. It took some fiddling, but I found that my magic exposure was about 1/160th shutter and f/11 still at ISO 100. IS is on in mode 2, which allows for movement in one direction for panning, and I handheld all these shots:

These panning shots worked fairly well, and I kept about 1/3rd of these shots. The bikes were only hitting about 80kph here, so it was a good starting point.

I moved back to the corners for a bit, and tried some different angles to find interesting points to shoot. I actually had to cross the track to get this angle, please don't tell the guys at the MRA.

Finally, a challenge. Panning shots, close in, on the main straightaway. I was about fifteen or twenty feet away and these bikes were hitting 240kph or so at this point. Handheld again, same 1/160th shutter at f/11. This was a challenge, and I kep a lot close to 10% or so of these shots, but I consider the fact that I managed to keep any of the a huge victory. Here are my best two from this section:

All in all, a really fun day, and I got away from the kids for a few hours :D

The 70-200 performed *admirably*. Sharpness is everything I should have asked for, focus was accurate and fast, and the panning mode for IS made my very first attempts successful.

Love.

This.

Lens.

Summer on a dessert plate...

2010-05-15T20:49:00.003-05:00

Day 134 of my Project 365, and 2-for-1 quarts of strawberries at Safeway meant that there could be no doubt about dessert tonight.

Oh yeah, it's summer alright.

So, let's talk about the picture. I didn't want a blown background again, I think it makes the pictures a little to clinical, and I'm trying to work on adding depth and character to my 'object' shots. I specifically went white background though as I do like the brightness. The gradient of white to gray is nice, and I think I'll continue to work on that in future.

Composition was another point. Reading about food photography I tried a tip that I had read a few times, and now I notice everywhere. You don't just shoot the food, but add some related items around it to provide a little more interest, in this case the strawberries. It's simple but it does seem to help, and if I have more time to set up the shot next time I'll be sure to add more to it.

For now though, I'm gonna eat it :)

RGB

2010-05-14T20:05:00.003-05:00

So I was a bit rush for shooting on day 133, and I've been moved to a new office at work that is not downtown, so my opportunities there have pretty much vanished.

I was screwing around with my reflection setup, and decided to try not blowing out the background completely. The reflection and refraction of the light made some interesting gradients, and I decided to add more glass, water, and a splash of primary colours.

This is pretty much just an experiment but I kind of like it! I also lit the setup from above and below the glass platform instead of on the sides as well, so there was a change in reflection from that as well.

These sorts of shots are helpful to me. I learned a fair bit, and I got a good result in a fairly short time. Also I learned that hand blown crystal glasses are not always the same height even if they came out of the same box. Who knew?

Rainbow rollup...

2010-05-13T21:34:00.003-05:00

Well, day 132 wasn't a great day. I tried a few ideas for shots, but none of them really worked out... I have an ambitious project in mind and I did some preliminary tests for it as well, but the results were not particularly encouraging either.

So, when in doubt, go for lots of colour:

Construction paper, as any parent of a young child knows, is indispensable. I wanted to shoot down the tube and get the spiral, but lighting it proved to be near impossible, and there wasn't a way to get enough depth of field to get the effect I wanted, so I had to compose it this way. Here's hoping for a better shot tomorrow.

On a side note, I will hopefully be managing a trip up to Gimli, MB on Sunday to shoot a motorcycle race involving my friend's racing team, the same one featured in these shots. I'll try and do some panning shots, and give the new 70-200 a workout.

For the birds...

2010-05-12T21:04:00.003-05:00

That's right, day 131 is for the birds. I spent today making a point of taking some bird shots now that I have a little reach in my bag o' lenses.

Our backyard has a variety of feeders and we attract a lot of songbirds. They are, as one would expect, a bit flighty when someone comes into the back yard, so I pulled up a lawn chair, trained my lens on the feeder and tried to stay still for 20 or 30 minutes while snapping anything interesting that came by.

I got a couple of shots that were nice enough to keep, and although these aren't really anything special as photos, I do like to have a record of our backyard visitors.

Today, my best shots were of an unknown finch, and a mourning dove:

In addition, by the office I saw the first goslings of the season, going for a walk with Mom and Dad. I would have liked a closer shot, but geese get notoriously grumpy when they are nesting or have young, so I didn't want to agitate them.

The 70-200 is turning out to be everything I remember from this renting the lens, but it's easy to forget in the day of super-zoom point and shoots that 200mm is not a ton of focal length. It's certainly a lot more than I had, and the IS is completely worth the money, but if I want to every get serious about wildlife photography a 400mm or longer lens is going to have to find it's way into my kit.

Upgrade!

2010-05-11T21:49:00.001-05:00

I'm sorry for a short post tonight, but day 130 can be summed up with one word: Upgrade!

So the f/4 version lasted a weekend before I decided to move up to the lens I really wanted, the EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM. Now I just have to pay for it...