Project 365 - Day 304 - Light the way ...

This is one way to light your path.  Hallowe'en night - time to go trick or treating with the kidlets.  Obviously not ours, but friends' kids.  I was playing the part of Candy Inspector and would run routine random candy inspections - much to the chagrin of all the kids.  Of course, the kids wanted nothing to do with my inspections and would just run away or just plain threaten me ... :-)

This shot was taken before the heavy rain set in - when we were able to get some good candy in the bags.  I love these lights, I want to find them for our place - even though we don't decorate anymore.

Project 365 - Day 303 - Ever get the feeling you're being watched?

Heh.  I obviously set this one up.  Both guys are me, one is doing what I love to do best - nap - and the other is peering in through the window at the front.  I was going to get Sonia to pose on the inside, but I like this one better.  John on the couch doesn't have a clue what's going on, does he ? 

Having fun with this Hallowe'en theme this week. 

Project 365 - Day 302 - Man in the mirror

I had the idea for this shot for a couple of days now, and I was planning it out.  I used two tripods, one for the pumpkin/jack-o-lantern and one for the camera.  I took two shots - one in the dark with a candle in the pumpkin and one in light, both shooting the reflection.  I blurred out the back of the pumpkin so as to give the impression that the pumpkin is looking into the mirror, seeing the hack-o-lantern on the inside. 

I cut out the eyes, nose and mouth on the reflection in the light to get the glow in the shot.  The dark shot was a layer in behind in photoshop.  Then I adjusted the contrast and clarity of the jack-o-lantern in the reflection to give it more of an aged look.

It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, but then again that's what this project is about ... :-)

Project 365 - Day 301 - Hallowe'en Day 1

And thus starts the week of Hallowe'en.  I guess it officially started on Saturday with people having parties and the Zombie Walk and so forth, but this is when I am starting my shooting. 

Today I went by one of my neighbour's place and got a couple of shots.  This is part of a scene in their front yard.  I shot it close up and then brought it into black and white and bumped up the contrast and noise.  Scary stuff... :-)

Project 365 - Day 300 - Red Tail Hawk

I was out shooting the escarpment today, and reasonably happy with my shot I was returning home.  I was coming down Bronte Road toward the QEW when this little girl caught my eye.  I call it a girl although I don't know enough about these birds to properly identify it.  I know it's a red tail because, well, I saw the red tail.

I figure this one is probably quite young.  I was looking up pictures of these guys and most are more detailed than this one was.

She was standing on a lamppost when I drove by, and I pulled into a subdivison and hopped a couple of fences with my camera in order to grab her.  I got some shots of her on the post, but when I started getting closer she took off.  This was the best in-flight shot I got.  It's just a shame the sky is so drab and dull.

Shot with my Sigma 70-200 at 200mm. f/11 at 1/250.  Not nearly fast enough for a bird in flight but I didn't think she would go.

Project 365 - Day 299 - ZOMBIES!!!!

Today was the Zombie Walk in Toronto.  We had a TFC game (the final game of the season) so we only had a limited amount of time to go and check it out.  The weather really did not co-operate with the walk for the early afternoon portion, but it was getting better towards "walk-time".  The photographers really out-numbered the zombies today, everywhere you looked there was someone shooting something.  It was challenging getting people to pose for you, or to look your way sometimes.  And when you did grab someone's attention, the other photographers would home in ... like zombies to fresh brains ... :-)

I also forgot my flash, so everything is shot with a higher ISO and slower shutter speed - and because of the dark clouds and overcast day the light was really not great.

These two women had just got there when I grabbed them for a shot.

Project 365 - Day 298 - Sunset

Found a new little park on the other side of the river at Bronte and Lakeshore tonight.  I had seen people at the park in the past, but I had not known how they got there.   Obviously there had to be a way, so I went exploring.  I saw this incredible light coming from the sunset and needed something new to capture it against.  I was also scoping out a spot for a sunrise picture, seeing as the sun has decided to start rising at a respectable time again - not 5:10 am or anything crazy like that ...

Project 365 - Day 297 - Game Time

It's a great day to find something inside to shoot.  It's also a great day to play xbox and ignore the household duties.  It's #FIFA14 time baby, #Gametime!  :-)

Project 365 - Day 296 - Seagull on a yellow pole with the sunset behind him

Tonight I went back down to Oakville Harbour to visit my lighthouse.  Yes, it's my lighthouse - I have shot it enough to have an intimate relationship with it and I consider it my own ... :-)

The town has installed a railing on the pier now that goes down the left hand side, where the rocks are.  This is a good idea, as it can get windy down there and when I was down during the winter it was really slippery and I almost ended up in the water a couple of times!  ( I might be exaggerating here a bit).

But as I was shooting the lighthouse with the sunset, I caught sight of this seagull sitting on a pole.  The pole had the orange life preserver on it and the sunset in the background really made the shot cool.

I had to clean up a lot of spots on the pier - spots of white seagull "leavings"  ... ;-)

Project 365 - Day 295 - More fall colours

I went down to a park in Oakville again today.  I can't remember the name of the park, but it has a grindwheel from the mill up at street level and it's quite the walk to get down from the street.

This shot is another HDR.  I combined three shots.  These were shot closer, .6 of an exposure out.  It turned out better this time, as the exposures were closer together.

Project 365 - Day 294 - Waiting for Godot ... or something ...

Was at Coronation park in Oakville today.  I saw this scene, and I wanted to capture it.  Nice tree with a bench and the ground was covered in leaves.  I took a couple of shots, and then I thought that it needed something - someone needed to be sitting on the bench.  So for the lack of a willing model, I put the camera on a timer and set up the shot.  I then hoofed it over to the bench and sat down.  I got a couple of good shots, including this one.

Project 365 - Day 293 - Delving into HDR

Today I went to Albion Falls with the Oakville Camera Club.  This is a waterfall in Hamilton Ontario.  I have always wanted to go to the waterfalls in Hamilton, but have never travelled out to them.  Today was my opportunity.

The first couple of shots as I was making my way down to the falls were pretty good, as the sky was cloudy and the light was soft and even.  When I eventually got down to the falls though, that's when the fun started.  The sun came out and it was a beautiful day -- unfortunately this meant that the top of the falls were basked in beautiful light and the bottom was in sheer darkness.  Now, the human eye can take all the info in and tell the brain to underexpose the top and bring up the bottom to make it all even.  So it looks nice to you.  But the camera cannot expose this scene properly, because of the dynamic range of the camera - it is a lot smaller than the human eye/brain combination.  That's where the HDR processing comes in.

You start with exposing the scene properly for the middle, the main subject.  Then you bracket that exposure either 1 or 2 stops up and down.  This means that you under expose by 2 stops, 1 stop then over expose by 2 stops and finally 1 stop. 

I shot this image with +/- 1 stop as it was not that bad.  You can tell by looking at your shots to see what the result is.

Next, I downloaded a trial of Phootmatix Pro v4.2  You can download the trial and check it out before you pay.  The problem is your image is watermarked.  But at $99 for the full program, it's not that bad.... probably one of the cheaper parts of photography.  Besides, it rescues the day in a lot of cases...

To me, this shot is a little overcooked - meaning that I know it's an HDR and it's not quite to my satisfaction as well.  This was my first shot though.  I will be playing with this more .... :-)

Project 365 - Day 292 - Where has all the colour gone?

I don't remember the fall colours being this disjointed last year.  It seems like there was an early turn and all those leaves are now gone, and there are still an abundance of trees that are green.  It is almost like there is a species of tree that is missing from the middle here - maybe that is a direct result of the ash trees being taken down because of the borer infestation.  Dunno...

I got up early today to get a shot of the sunrise, but to my dismay it was way too cloudy to get a good shot of anything - the sun has yet to poke his weary head through these clouds.  So I drove around a bit to parks that I know looking for colours.  I saw some colour, but only on a tree here or a tree there, and places where there was a lot of colour were not accessible to me.

So I went to a park that I had never been to before and looked at individual trees.  I got this shot of a maple leaf.  It's shot against the bright white boring sky, so I cropped out as much as I could.  The good thing about this sky is it casts nice soft light on everything - so that was a plus.

Anyway, here's the shot.

Project 365 - Day 291 - Spooky ....

I got a late start on my photo of the day today.  I was driving around looking for something new, something that said "fall" or "hallowe'en" or something like that.  I stopped at a couple of places, but nothing was really coming to me.  So I started to expand my search.  As I was going back through our neighbourhood, I noticed this bare tree and how the moon was poking through the branches.  So I stopped, and pulled out my tripod.  I backed up enough to line up the moon behind the tree, and I had the cedar in front to frame the bottom of the shot.  I took three shots of this scene, this one was the best.

I played with the colours a bit to make it look a little colder and darker.  I would have liked to get more detail in the moon, but then I would not get any detail in the cedars or the tree itself.

Project 365 - Day 290 - A Bridge too far ... or close ... whatever...

This is a shot of a railing on a bridge on Bronte road shot today.  I love the way the sunset is coming through the railing and you can see some of the colours in the background.  The best part?  When I got home and blew it up there is a lady bug on the bottom rung of the railing ...

Project 365 - Day 289 - Bronte Road Oak Tree

It's a little early for the tree's full colour, but I went and shot this tree at sunset.  I shot it with the sun facing the tree - I tried with the sun behind and bracketed the shots to do an HDR but apparently my HDR skills need some major work.

Project 365 - Day 288 - A Happy Accident

I was trying to get a shot of a leaf today and I was trying different angles with a handheld flash that was controlled by the camera.  I tried backlighting the leaf, but the flash was too strong.  So I put the flash on the ground in the grass and shot away.  I came up with this shot.

Backlighting the leaf really brought out the texture and detail.  I included the red branch of the tree the leaf was on for contrast.  This was shot at 6pm today, when there was plenty of light, but the flash overpowers the ambient light and the combination shutter speed and aperture were enough to keep the ambient out.

Project 365 - Day 287 - Guess what this is....

Cedar "leaf" on a black rock.  The cedar has started to turn and this is one of the cast off "leaves" (for lack of a better term).  I put it on this leaf for contrast - originally I had it on a white background but that was too much, then I put it on a brown-grey rock which took away from the cedar.  With the black, you see the texture of the leaf and also some of the rock itself.

Shot with my 60mm macro.

Project 365 - Day 286 - Yucky and Raining

Yucky and rainy day today.  BTW, those are official weather terms used by our weather network.  So when it is  raiing it is hard to get outside to shoot.  Everything looks grey and drab, so you look for colourful spots everywhere.  Look down, see what you can see in the gardens, the leftover colour from summer plants and early fall bloomers.

I deliberately undexposed  this one, the dark edges pull the viewer into the centre part where the colour is.

Project 365 - Day 285 - Rhino

Went to the Metro Zoo today.   I got this shot of a Rhino on his way to a mud hole to cool off.   They are pretty cool to see in person, their moves are slow and purposeful, almost like their whole day is planned.  If they start to get going, get out of their way ... :-)

Project 365 - Day 284 - Daffy Duck

I know, Daffy isn't a mallard, but this guy is a duck and he is kind of daffy.  Went down to this creek to take some shots this evening, but by the time I got to where I wanted to shoot the light was all but gone.  I was chasing these little kingfisher type birds around, and it was really hard to get them because they are skitterish.  There were, however, a group of male mallards just hanging around ...

This guy was standing watch, keeping a close eye on me as I moved around on the rocks.  I am about 30 feet away from him, so I have my 70-200mm lens on.  He isn't threatened - yet.  He's also probably young and foolish - you can almost see his pants hanging halfway down his butt ... :-)

Project 365 - Day 283 - Lakeshore Promenade

I had a location in mind tonight, but I ended up leaving work really late and the sun was already setting on my way home.  So I pulled off the highway and went to Lakeshore Promenade park in Mississauga.  I was shooting various sunset related pictures, and then I noticed this scene - that looked like an island but was really just the corner of the shoreline.  The shore rose in the middle, and then tapered off on either side - perfectly photogenic.

I used my flash set on 1/1 power and had my shutter at 30s in order to smooth out the water that had a slight chop.  My flash was in my hand and I popped it off 17 times during the 30s shutter to get this.

Darkened the sky a bit as it was a tad overexposed, and bumped up the colour a bit.

Project 365 - Day 282 - Sumac leaves

There's a park south of the Oakville GO station here in town.  The park is pretty cool, and I have shot there a number of times, more so in the winter and early spring.  It has a river that runs through it and there is lots of tree cover.  I chased a cardinal around for a while one day, never getting that perfect shot.

I drive by at least once a week and I have been watching the leaves turn.  They are getting close to peak, but some of the trees have turned already.  Today, I braved the GO station traffic and ventured into the park.

This is a Sumac branch with the leaves cascading off.  The Sumac has turned red, while a lot of the foliage around is still green. 

Project 365 - Day 281 - Green Bug on Yellow Flower

Well, the name says it all...

Was late at work today and when I saw that the light was failing, I had to get out and shoot.  Grabbed the station's D40 and took some shots.  I saw these flowers every morning coming in, so I was going to shoot them.  Then I saw the green bug.  Perfect... :-)

Project 365 - Day 280 - Purple Flowers

You never know what you'll find in a random ditch.  Got this shot this afternoon on the "way" home from the gym - and by "on the way" I mean well off the path that would actually lead me home.  It was windy today, so what you don't see is my hand holding the stem below the crop line and trying to get the shot off.  Good thing I had a small aperture and a fast shutter speed!  :-)

Project 365 - Day 279 - Algonquin Day 3

Day 3 of 3 in Algonquin.  We awoke to drizzle which quickly became a rain rivaled only by weather experienced during a recent TFC game.  We tried to wait out the weather and go shooting, but alas Mother Nature had different plans for us.

So we left the comfy confines of Billie Bear Lodge and headed back to the big smoke.  Along the way, somewhere on Hwy 60, we came across this little marsh.  The reflections were playing perfectly on the water and I had to stop. 

Project 365 - Day 278 - Algonquin Day 2

Out shooting with the group today.  The last stop was Oxtongue River Ragged Falls.  Got this from the top of the falls.  10s shutter at ISO 100 and f/22.  0.6 and 0.9 ND filter in front of the lens.  The water is nice and soft .... :-)

Project 365 - Day 277 - Algonquin Day 1

So we're in Algonquin this weekend    I shot this leaf last night on the ramp leading to the cabin we're staying in.  It was shot at 11:59 pm ... cutting it real close ...

Lit with a flashlight and shot with my tripod and 24-70mm lens....

Project 365 - Day 276 - Wheat...

Took this shot at the end of our driveway today.  This is a plant that the neighbour put in at the end of his driveway in the culvert.  I was standing in the culvert shooting this - my car just barely in the driveway and the two driver side doors wide open.  I think my neighbours are used to this by now.  I had to get the shot and the light was fading quickly....

Project 365 - Day 275 - I get your point

... ball point that is.  Super macro shot of a ballpoint pen.  I cropped this one square and turned to black and white.  I added a bunch of contrast and brought the yellows and golds darker.

Project 365 - Day 274 - Game Day!

Tonight is the season opener for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and what better way to open the season than against our rivals, the Montreal Canadiens.  Should be an exciting game, and if not, at least we're going to be with family.  Charge up the cell phones, 'cause the trash talk is just about to start - and you know who I'm talking to Montreal!  :-)