Project 365 - Day 182 - Happy Birthday Canada

July 1st, 2013.  Canada's 146th birthday and she doesn't look a day over 125.  How do you do it Canada?  :-)

We went down to Bronte Harbour tonight to catch the fireworks.  There was a big group of us, but I split off to go to one of my usual perches to capture the 'works unimpeded.  It was really tough today as there was a western wind off the lake that was taking the fireworks in that direction.  My first couple of shots were blurred because of this, and I was also having trouble with little feet kicking my tripod around on me.

I ended up with a few good shots - not as many as I would have liked but still good shots.  This one was one of the long exposure shots.

2sec shutter, f/13 and ISO400.  My 24-70mm lens at 32mm.  I cropped out some of the heads right in front of me, but you can see the people on the breakwall under the burst.

No colour correction as this was how it was shot and how it looked.

Project 365 - Day 173 - Rules to live by

I was in Sarnia today for my sister's 25th anniversary party.  This set of candles is on her counter behind the sink.  I had to slightly re-arrange the candles so the words could all be read. 

Shot with my 24-70mm lens at 70mm.  ISO800, and 1/250s at f/5.6.  Shoe mounted flash directed up at the ceiling for bounce.

Project 365 - Day 172 - Light as a ... well one of these...

In the backyard today and found this feather lying in the garden.  So, of course I decided to shoot it.  Got down low and shot with my 24-70.   I could have done a MACRO shot of the feather showing it's detail but I wanted to show the stripes and general shape and colour of it first.  I might do a MACRO shot of a feather soon though, it's a great idea.

Shot with my 24-70 (you already said that John) at 70mm.  f/10 at 1/25s.  Handheld, but braced on the rocks for stability.  ISO 800 to keep the shutter speed down.

Bumped contrast up and saturated burgundy just a tad.

Project 365 - Day 169 - Sailboat

Tonight I went out with the express purpose of getting some star trails.  Turns out it was too bright still, even at 10pm, to get these.  So I had to improvise.

Today's shot is of a sailboat at night.  I set up and took this as a straight on night shot.  My exposure was 6 seconds, and the boat is floating, so it was really blurry.  So I got out my speedlight and fired it off just before the shutter closed, emulating a rear curtain flash.

The end result is it froze the boat and still let the ambient night light in.

24-70mm lens at 24mm.  f/6.3 at 6 sec.  ISO is 800.  Manually fired handheld flash, but the camera is on a tripod.

Project 365 - Day 168 - Hosta-ile Environment

I have always liked hostas.  We have them planted all over the front and back yards.  They grow in all conditions and get bigger and bigger every year. 

Today's shot is of one of our smaller hostas.  It's a green and white hosta in the backyard.  I took this shot then turned it black and white, and then bumped up the black level on the greens to give it more contrast.

ISO800, f/5.6 and my 24-70 lens at 38mm.  1/50 sec shutter handheld.

Project 365 - Day 166 - Playing the piano

Today, one of our friends was throwing a birthday party for their little girl.  It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of food - as always.  And, as per usual, I had my camera out shooting away.  At one point when we were getting the cake that Sonia made ready, I noticed that their eldest son was playing the piano.  He has not been playing long, but you wouldn't know it from his progress.  He is really good.

So I turned to watch him play, and noticed the light from the window was filtering through the blunds onto his hands.  The lines of the blinds created a contrast to the lines of the keys on the piano.  So I got down and low next to him and took this shot.

This is shot with my 24-70mm lens at 48mm.  ISO is 400, and the shutter is 1/800 at f/2.8.

I turned it black and white in post and added some contrast.   I played with the orange to give him some more detail on his fingers.  I also cropped for content.

Project 365 - Day 164 - Sunset in Milton

The sunsets here are pretty cool after it has been raining all day, and today's sunset was no exception.  The clouds in this direction were starting to clear, but over the lake to the south they were actually getting thicker.  This shot is taken just north of the 407 in Milton on Henderson side road.  This side road is very busy, with cars routinely doing more than 80 km/hr.  I really need a reflective vest ...

Shot with my 24-70mm lens at 24mm.  ISO400m f/11 and 1/125s shutter.

Project 365 - Day 160 - the Gutsy Walk

Today Sonia and I spent the better part of the morning at The Gutsy Walk at Spencer Smith Park in Burlington taking photos of teams that had registered to participate in the walk.  The Teams all raised money for research into Crohns and Colitis, and we were more than happy to help out in this way.

When the walk started, the Cursaders Drumline helped march the group of walkers out.  This is a group of kids that are enrolled at St Mary Catholic School in Hamilton.  These kids are awesome, and they continued playing for those of us who were left behind after the walkers had gone.

Man, if this was around when I was in high school, I might have actually joined band!  :-)

This was shot with my 24-70mm lens set to 56mm, at ISO640 and 1/8000 sec shutter.  Aperture was at f/3.5.  In post, I cropped for content, and turned down the exposure a bit.  I had a flash mounted to the top of the camera that was pointing straight ahead to allow the white drum to illuminate properly.

Well done to the Cursaders, to the walkers and the organizers of today's event.  It was a lot of fun to participate in such a good cause.

Project 365 - Day 153 - Bronte Harbour at night

I have been to Bronte Harbour a number of times, and I keep looking for something different to shoot.  Yes, there are a bunch of boats down there that can be shot in the water with reflections, and I could probably fill up a whole project 365 of just those, but I wanted something different.  When  I was down there earlier this winter, I saw the curvature of the inner harbour and how the lights ran along that curve up to the lighthouse.  So tonight I decided to shoot that.

I was late for the sunset tonight, but it didn't really matter as I was shooting the lake which is in the other direction.  So I set up my shot and took 3 test shots to choose the best exposure.  At that point, a couple approached me and advised that they were "about to block my view" and then continued down the walkway.  They are now part of post 153.

Shot with my 24-70mm lens (yes Omar, I know) at f/7.1 and .5s shutter.  Lens was at 56mm.  I used my tripod for this shot.