Project 365 - Day 151 - Sebastian and Mats

Our nephew Sebastian turned 9 recently, and tonight was his family birthday party.  Most of the immediate family was there to help him celebrate, and of course Sonia made one of her awesome cakes.  I can't decide if Sebastian is more in awe of the cake or the figure of Mats Sundin sitting on top - which of course was part of his birthday present.

Project 365 - Day 150 - Count the rings

We used to have this big spruce tree in front of our house.  The tree was growing into another tree, a birch tree that had divided at the trunk.  The unfortunate part was that the spruce was losing the battle for tree supremacy and was pretty much bare on one side.  The side that had all the branches was the side facing the house.  So, after many many wind storms lately and the fact that we recently had another spruce of the same age come down in front of the house, the decision was made to remove it before it caused damage.

The tree fellers came today.  They do very good work, and are a reputable company.  We have used them 3 times now, once to remove a tree that was literally hanging over our house, once to remove the spruce that fell and the third time to remove this new spruce.  Click here to go to their web site

The stump is still in the front lawn.  They are supposed to come back and grind it down, but until then I thought I would shoot it - of course.

Here's my shot.  Now, I played around a lot with this, adding contrast and bumping up the orange levels while dropping the yellows after making it black and white.  I like how you can make out the rings, and also the saw marks.  It is a pretty clean cut, not as photogenic as a flat smooth cut, but it is pretty cool.

I had this on my tripod pointing straight down.  I had another tripod with my SB600 for fill flash.  The flash was driven by pocketwizard.  My 24-70mm lens at 70mm and .5 sec shutter at f/22

Project 365 - Day 149 - Everyday objects

Sometimes I like to shoot everyday objects.  When I do this, I like to shoot them close up.  Here, I have a Q-Tip with my Macro with 3 extension tubes.  f/32 and 15 sec shutter.  ISO800 to keep the shutter down.  I have a speedlight on pocketwizard to the right and a handheld speedlight to manually fire in some fill light to the left.

Project 365 - Day 148 - Faster than a speeding ... snail?

Rain rain rain today.  And the ceiling was so low that I couldn't even risk my life trying to get some cool lightning shots at the CN Tower.  Oh well. 

I had to work late tonight, so everything is running behind.  When I got home, I immediately went back out again to search for a subject for my latest shot-o-the-day.

So I came across this little guy.  He was slowly making his way along our hose reel holder in the back.  I picked him up and brought him inside (don't tell Sonia) and set up my makeshift studio.

A speedlight aimed at the ceiling in the den and my trusty 60mm Macro lens.

Looks like he's running laps !!  :-)

A good tip for this kind of shot.  This is shot at 1/13 of a second and since he was moving around a lot I could not use my tripod.  I had the ISO up at 800 even with my flash.  The aperture was at f/14 and I couldn't go any deeper to maintain the sharpness in the pic.

The tip is to make sure this guy is moving on a plane perpendicular to the camera lens.  His front antenna is blurred as is the top of his shell.  So if he was moving towards me I would have had to use a smaller aperture, and bump up the ISO and slow down the shutter.  But this combination worked.  

Project 365 - Day 147 - Fines doubled when workers present

There are two seasons in Ontario.  Winter and construction.  It seems like as soon as the weather starts getting warmer, out come the orange and black pylons and the Construction Zone signs.  One of the most annoying things is when I am driving home from work late at night after a service release or something and traffic is just snarled - what should be a 20 minute drive is now an hour because of rolling lane closures on the Gardiner Expressway.

So, while out for a drive this evening looking for something to shoot, I came across this scene.  No pylons were harmed in the making of this photograph.

 

I desaturated the colours except for orange to make the pylons pop.  F/7.1 at 1/125s shutter.  ISO 800 and my 24-70mm lens at 70mm. 

Project 365 - Day 146 - From the other side...

While we were doing yard work today I noticed how the light was filtering through our Japanese maple in the backyard.  So, later in the afternoon, I grabbed my camera and took some shots of it.  Pretty cool.

I desaturated the red a bit to give more detail to the veins in the leaves...

Project 365 - Day 145 - The stone steps

Went to Erindale Park in Mississauga today.  There is a bridge that goes over the credit river in this park, and on either side of the bridge is a set of stone steps that goes down to the river's edge.  This shot is one of those sets of steps.

I haven't been to this park for ages, I used to go all time when I was in my teens and 20s.  We used to fish in the early mornings on spring and fall weekends - usually catching nothing.  It was nice to see how much things have changed, and at the same time, how much was still the exact same.  These steps haven't changed since I was going there in the 90s.

Project 365 - Day 144 - Ants, but not in my pants

When I got home today I went right back out to cut the grass.  I noticed that the front walkway was full of ant hills.  So before I swept up, I decided to get some shots of these guys.

Shooting brown ants against brown dirt is very challenging.  I finally got this shot of an ant leaving his hill and moving along the wall - which happens to be white at this point.  Snapped a couple of shots off.

Project 365 - Day 143 - The pink flower thingy

On the weekend, my wife and I bought this plant.  Not sure what the plant is, but it has pink flowers.  Tonight, there was some rain but it was really light rain - almost a mist.  It was clinging to the petals on this flower quite nicely.  So I started to shoot it.

Every time I got the shot set up, the wind would pick up and blow the flower around.  So, eventually I brought the plant inside.  We had not gotten around to planting the flower yet, so it was easily transported inside.  There, with the assistance of a little flash and handheld flashlight, I was able to get this shot.

Project 365 - Day 140 - The lost post

Not sure why this post never made it to the blog.  It was there, then it was gone.  It made it to the album on Facebook, but not much further it would seem.

This was in Mississauga at sunrise.  The day was blah but the sky was pretty cool.  Got this as the sun was creeping into an opening - and the geese were making their way to another location.

Project 365 - Day 142 - Water Droplets

This is a shot of a hosta leaf.  The hosta is in the front garden at my house.  It was after the rain today, and the way that the water is just sitting on the leaf, and the rest of the leaf is dry, really intrigued me.

The trouble with this type of shot is the movement of the leaf itself.  I handheld the camera, which made things much worse.  The leaf was moving ever-so-gently in the breeze so it was very tough to shoot.

I had my camera on rapid fire and got some very useful shots ... :-)

Shot with my 24-70mm at 70mm.  ISO400 and 1/50s shutter at f/5.

Project 365 - Day 141 - Between the storms

Today the clouds were out in full force, threatening a storm all day.  I drove home, and it actually cleared up a little.  When I got out of the gym, it was dark and cloudy again, and there was a hint of rain in the air.

Not half an hour later, the storm hit. It was a good one, lots of heavy rain - quick and powerful.  So between the storm we got and the one(s) we are expecting later tonight, I decided to go out and get some shots.

This is shot at Coronation park.  There were a lot of sailboats out on the lake today, even though there was  a storm.  But what really interested me was the clouds over the lake.  Big, beautriful and totally menacing ...

Shot at ISO100 with my 24-70mm lens at 24mm.  f/3.2 at 1/2000 sec shutter.  I enhanced the contrast when I brought it into Lightroom.

Project 365 - Day 139 - Dandelion in seed

This was inspired by my wife's cell phone.  The main screen of her Samsung Galaxy phone is a dandelion that has gone to seed.  Usually people will take the time and effort to rid their lawns of dandelions before they go to seed, but I found this guy with some of his friends in the schoolyard by our place.

This was shot using my 24-70mm lens, at ISO400 and 1/400sec shutter.  The aperture was f/6.3

Project 365 - Day 138 - Forget-me-not

These flowers are growing in my front yard, some in the grass and some in the gardens.  They are wild flowers called forget-me-not, and in googling them I found that they are the state flower of Alaska.  I guess Alaska is worried about getting forgotten ...

60mm lens , ISO 400 and 1/800s at f/10.

Project 365 - Day 137 - Oakville Harbour Lighthouse

Tonight I went down to the Oakville Harbour again.  There are these interesting birds that dive into the water to fish, and I wanted to catch one as he was entering.  The problem was that they were far off and I don't have a good long lens.  Adding that one to the list ...

The water was like glass though.  All the boats are out of dry dock, but none were on the water.  This is crazy, I would have been out in that - but I guess since the majority are sailboats that they can't really sail when there is no wind.  So although it makes a great photographic situation, glass like water is not good for sailing.  Duly noted.

I did get this of my lighthouse though.  When this project is over, I am going to count the number of lighthouse pics I have ... ;-)

Project 365 - Day 136 - Boat Trip

Tonight I went down to Bronte Harbour.  Quite the change from the winter time, as the boats are now all moored to their slips.  It was really busy down there, no to mention the little flies that were everywhere.

I was shooting the sailboats against the lighthouse, but the boats were too far away.  Then I saw this guy coming into dock.  At the same time, I caught a swan that was going the opposite way.  They seemed to just cross paths, and the swan thought nothing of it's bigger flightless cousin roaming the waters along with it.

ISO 800 and 1/1000sec at f/10.  The lens is my 24-70mm at 48mm.

Project 365 - Day 135 - A walk in the park

Tonight I went back down to Coronation Park in Oakville to get some shots of the flowers and scenery.  I like this park because it is close and on the water.  There were a lot of people there tonight enjoying the beautiful spring evening.

I missed the cherry blossoms this year at High Park due to my trip to Calgary.  So I thought I might be able to find something just as nice at Coronation.  Sure enough, I came across this tree.

I am not sure what this flower is, but it is pretty cool.  It is growing on a tree, but it could be a bush that was pruned into a tree - sometimes the greenhouses do this to make something different.  Whatever it is, it is pretty awesome.

There are not a lot of flower days left on this tree, so I took advantage of this. 

I shot this at ISO1600 at 1/25s.  I forgot my tripod...  f/8.0

Project 365 - Day 134 - Wildflower

Well, I'm back in Oakville again.  Today was a very lousy day weather-wise.  But when the sky is grey, the light is right.  I had to cut the grass today as it had been almost 2 weeks since I did it last - I was in Calgary dontcha know.  But this little guy was in the grass along with some of his friends.  So, before he got decapitated, I decided to capture him in digital form.

Lying on the grass in the backyard while Brodie was looking at me weird.  I just wish I could have read his mind....

f/11 at 1/50sec shutter.  60mm lens at ISO1600 so I could handhold the shot.

Project 365 - Day 133 - Last day in Banff

Today I left Banff.  I am currently writing this from work in Calgary.  It's not difficult to fall in love with the Banff National Park and the surrounding area.  There is just so much to see and do. 

I took a quick jaunt up to Lake Louise again today to get a couple last shots.  The weather was - to use a technical Photography term - cruddy.

The sky was flat and grey and it had been raining.  So when you get a flat sky, you look for other interesting things - like the way the mountains reflect in the water of the lake.  You can still see the ice floating on top of the lake, but the area around the shore line is open water now.  There are signs stating "thin ice" everywhere as well - although right now they are not needed....

What I missed most on this trip was my nice big 24inch screen at home that is properly calibrated. It makes a difference when publishing photos if you have a good screen - not like my little 15 inch laptop screen that is in no way calibrated or corrected.

Oh well, home tomorrow.  I hear the grass needs to be cut - again!!  :-)

Bye bye Banff.  Hope to see you soon!

Project 365 - Day 132 - Rainbow

Today I went to the Columbia Icefields.  The drive is about 2 hours from Banff.  It is really worth the drive. 

Just outside of the Icefields I saw this scene. The scene on its own is breathtaking, but the rainbow adds to the shot.  The rainbow is created by snow powder that is blowing off the mountains and falling down.  It's pretty cool when you are walking around in what seems like rain, but is actually melted snow that has come off the peaks.

24-70mm lens at 26mm.  ISO400,1/2500s shutter and f/5.6

Project 365 - Day 131 - Slow shutter, soft water ...

In Banff again today.  Today I went all over the place, and around mid day when I really wanted a nap I decided to drive out to Johnston Canyon.  I was there in February last year.  See this post for some of the pics.

Johnston Canyon has a couple of waterfalls, and one of these is the lower falls.  The thing about the lower falls is you can get really close.  Today's shot was done in a little cave leading to the opening where you could view the falls.  I took four shots before retreating to protect my lens.

Looking at the images on the big screen, I can see the water droplets on the front glass and there are more with each image.  So I used the first one ....

Nikon 24-70 mm lens at 24mm.  ISO100 and 1/3s shutter at f/22

Project 365 - Day 130 - Beaming into the heavens ...

Shot today at work.  Got under an antenna with my wide angle lens and shot the subreflector.  The sky was very blue and had some very cool cloud formations in it.  Couldn't resist.

Simple crop to size, and turned clarity down a bit to lose some of the dirt on the antenna itself.  Not much else done in post.

 

11-16mm lens shot at 11mm.  f/8 at 1/1600s shutter.   ISO400.  No flash and camera was handheld.

Project 365 - Day 129 - I think my hotel room is haunted ...

I had left my camera set up when I went to the office today, and it picked up something when I was gone.  I am not sure how it got turned on and fired a shot off, but it did.  All by itself.  And look what it caught on camera!!

Very weird!!

Or, look who found the multiple exposure setting on his camera!!  :-)

I set this one up for the correct exposure and then I set the camera to multiple exposure.  2 exposures.  I used flash to light up the room and make the sheet white. Then I pulled the sheet off the bed and wore it like an old-school ghost costume.

I fired off the first exposure using my tripod and a 20s timer.  Then I hit the shutter again and ran into position - making sure that nothing was showing outside of the sheet.  I used the floral curtains as a backdrop as you couldn't tell that the sheet was translucent when I was against just the wall.

Project 365 - Day 128 - Candies ...

Back to the hotel late tonight.  It was a good day, but very busy and we didn't get out of work until very late.  So we ate late, and then I shot late.

I got back to my room and started looking for something to shoot.  I came up with a couple of candies that had been in my travel bag for probably years.  But the mix of red and white looked pretty good, and there was a lot of texture on the candy itself.   So it became my subject.

This shot took me about an hour to get, and lots of images as well.  Not much post, just a quick crop and spot healing on a black mark on the side.

And no, I didn't eat it afterward.  :-)

Project 365 - Day 127 - Under the watchful eye

Doing some work on an antenna yesterday.  On this antenna, there was this owl that was perched there keeping the other birds and small animals off the antenna and away from the cables and such.  But this owl was no ordinary owl.  He was plastic.

The eyes on this guy were pretty cool, and when I got close enough to him I could see the building in them.  It was like he was keeping an eye on the site for us.  So, of course, I grabbed my camera and back up the antenna I went to grab a couple of shots.

I got nice and close for this one, no cropping.  Just colour balance and a touch of contrast.

Project 365 - Day 126 - Wabbit Season

Yep, there are rabbits at the location we are working at in Calgary.  But these aren't ordinary rabbits, they are huge.  And they are reasonably okay with humans too.  I guess they know the guys here really don't care if they are around or not as they won't hurt anything.  Coaxial cables don't look anything like carrots ...:-)

This guy was one of two that were grazing beside the front door of the office.  I approached very carefully and this guy glanced in my direction and then kept eating.  His buddy took off, and started chattering at him.  I tried to assure his buddy that I was not going to hurt either one of them, I just wnated to shoot them.  That's when this guy bolted.   :-)

I followed him with my camera and got a shot off with the light on his front.  I have an action shot of him running, but it's the wrong angle.  This is a stronger shot.  So now he has his profile, I would love to get it straight on.

That's a regular size man-gate behind him.  A man gate is a gate that a person walks through - not equipment.  So it's 30 inches wide.   That should give you some scale for this guy ...

Project 365 - Day 125 - Calgary Panorama

Today's shot was one that I grabbed today early in the morning.  It was right after we got to work.  I grabbed this shot as insurance, and sure enough it was the only shot I was able to grab all day.  It really sucks when work gets in the way of hobbies ...

The shot is of the Calgary skyline.  You can make out the mountains in the background.  It is a pretty cool view, and one that my colleagues in Calgary get to see every day.  I may just be a little jealous - but then again they don't have Toronto FC out here.... ;-)

I cropped it down to a panorama shot.  I am annoyed by the power lines in the foreground, but there's not enough time left today to do something about them.

Hey, they can't all be winners ... :-)

Project 365 - Day 124 - Those things you plug your car into in the winter...

Today was a busy day.  Mu colleague and I were working all day long.  It came time to leave, and we made a quick stop at the hotel to change and clean off the day's work and then go out for dinner.  On the way back, we were walking back through a very large parking lot.  This was a different lot from those we see in Ontario - it had something special.  Yes, the spots were all numbered with signs - not paint on the ashfault - but there was something more.  Each spot had its own electrical outlet.

The company had provided people with a means to plug their block heaters in during the winter so they could still start their cars when they left at the end of the day.

Man, we're not in Kansas anymore Toto -- good thing too 'cause I hear they have tornadoes down there...

Shot with my 24-70mm lens, at 66mm.  ISO400 1/160s shutter at f/5.  

Project 365 - Day 123 - "Put up a fence to keep me out ...

Just had to steal a line from the Five Man Electrical Band's song Signs.  As you should know by now I am in Calgary Alberta for work.   I am still doing the project 365 thing, although with the long hours and such it is pretty difficult.

Today was especially difficult because it was travel day, which meant getting to Pearson airport at 7am for a 9am flight, then landing here in Calgary at 11am Mountain time, working a 6 hour day, then go for dinner, catch up on my other work, and find time to shoot.

So while I was at work, I was grabbing a shot of the Calgary skyline through this fence.  At one point my camera, who by the way believes it is smarter than I am, decided to focus on the fence itself.  The resulting shot is pretty cool - which I guess proves that the camera is right.  It is smarter than me.  The shots I have of the skyline are uninspired and flat, this is by far the better shot.

I had this shot in my back pocket, and figured that I would get to shoot later in the day.  But then, that old Murphy got a hold of my time and voila - gone.

So here's today's shot.  I hope you enjoy it ... I like it.

... or to keep Mother Nature in.... :-)

Shot with my 24-70mm lens at 70mm.  ISO 100, f/5.0 at 1/4000 sec shutter.

Project 365 - Day 122 - That tree in Coronation Park - Spring Edition...

I went today to shoot one of my favourite trees again today.  This is an ongoing project (yeah, another one) where I shoot this tree in all four seasons.  Well, 2 down 2 to go.

Here's my winter shot:  Coronation Tree - Winter  Shot in February this year.

I try to keep my settings the same for each shot to allow me to properly build a timeline for this guy.

Today's shot was difficult.  There were three men sitting on the bench in front of the tree.  That would have been okay, but two were sitting and one was standing facing the camera.  It wasn't pleasing to the eye.  But eventually they got up and left - just as I was losing my light.  I snapped off two shots and when I was making sure the framing was the same as the original winter shot, a group of kids came and sat on the bench.  So I was done - besides the light was almost gone and the bottom half of the tree was in shadow.

Here's today's tree shot:

On a side note, I leave for Calgary tomorrow so the blog will be done from there until the 14th when I am back in Toronto.  Stay tuned for some cool shots of trees in Calgary !! :-)

Project 365 - Day 121 - Burned - like my dreams

So it might be obvious by now, but I am a TFC fan.  I am a huge fan.  Tonight they played the second leg of the Canadian Championship semi final against Montreal.  We were up 2-0 on aggregate.  We lost, 6-0.  This was the first time we had lost to Montreal in the Canadian Championship.

So this would have been 5 years in a row that TFC had won this.  Even last year during the worst year in league history we took down this title.  We didn't go far in Concacaf Championship League play, but at least we took home the silverware.  Alas, it was not to be this year.

So I was feeling pretty dark when I took this shot.  This is a piece of cedar that I had used when I made some bbq salmon a couple of days ago.  It's charred perfectly to create the smoke that gets right into the salmon.  My mouth is watering right now.

Shot with my Nikon 24-70mm lens at 56mm.  1/160s at f/6.3  ISO 800.  I used flash to light the wood, and made it black and white in post and cropped.

Oh, and happy May 1st!!  :-)