Project 365 - Day 45 - Love is in the air ...

Hey everyone.  Happy Valentine's day.

So today's pic is inspired by Valentine's day.  Duh.  What a stretch, right? 

A few years back, Sonia and I were celebrating Valentine's day.  We went a little overboard, and after the dust had settled we decided that we really didn't need to go all out on this one day a year, especially so close to Christmas and my birthday.  So we agreed to just spend the time together on that day, and I agreed to let Sonia spend more on me on Christmas ... :-)

I went to Metro today to get some flowers to shoot.  Also to give to Sonia, but let's face it - I wanted to shoot flowers on Valentine's day.  The floral department at my local Metro is right by the entrance.  So when I went in, I was immediately in a crowd of men - young and old - lining up to buy flowers. 

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but do grocery store flowers count as acceptible Valentine's day flowers?  I don't think so, but maybe it's the thought that counts.  I will admit that the flowers were pretty good, and fresh - they were almost walking out the door. And for $24.95 and 25 bonus air miles, you can't really go wrong. 

I will also admit that I have bought flowers from the grocery store before on Valentine's day, and they passed as acceptible, but my wife is just awesome that way.

So when Sonia got home today, and saw the flowers, she said "Shooting flowers today honey?"  It's like she knows me.

But did I get the roses?  Nope.  I got something better.  It's not just love that's in the air.  I am tired of winter.  I enjoyed the snow this year, and I actually got some pretty good shots on a couple of winter outings.  But now it's time for spring.  Yeah, it's February, but I don't care.  I need sunshine and spring flowers and my beloved TFC to start playing again.

Here's today's shot.  I lit a piece of foamcore from behind to make it white, and I lit the flowers separately.  Both off camera flash, two channels.  The flower light was set to +1 stop and the background was set to -1 stop.

Yep, Tulips.  Sonia loves Tulips.  We can't grow them because our friendly neighbourhood squirrels decide that they would rather eat the bulbs than look at the nice flowers.  So Sonia gets her Tulips in cut flower form...

Project 365 - Day 44 - Bark at the moon

I have always wanted to do a moon shot.  Today's moon was impossible to resist.  Although the shot is not exactly what I wanted, and it's far from perfect due to my lens choice (which ultimately is due to my lens collection) it is a start.

I used my Tamron 18-270 on this one, zoomed out to 270mm.  Manual focus, as this lens does not like to focus in low light - let alone dark.  F/6.3 and 1/25 shutter.  Camera was sitting on a tripod - and it seemed like the moon was screaming across the sky.  I didn't realize it moved that quickly, I guess it's on a lower angle these days.

I am likely going to rent a long lens when I go camping this year, so that I can get a good shot of the moon on a clear night.  That shot is on my bucket list.  I don't have a good enough lens right now to capture it properly.

Here's today's shot.

Project 365 - Day 43 - Mystic Monkeys

See No Evil
Hear No Evil
Speak No Evil

These monkeys look down on me every time I am at the computer at home, making sure my moral compass is always pointed at "good".  (You can read more about the monkeys here). 

But today's picture is not about monkeys, or proverbs, or turning a blind eye - no, today's picture is about depth of field.

In our basic photography class - oh so many many moons ago - we learned about depth of field.  One of our assignments was to place three objects in a diagonal line and shoot with all three visible.  We had to make the first one clear, while blurring out the other two.  Then we had to make the last one clear - again blurring out the other two.  The third pic, as you may have guessed, was the middle one clear while blurring out the others.  I used my McFarlane hockey guys for that shot and scored excellent marks.

I always saw this technique done, and now I learned how to actually do it thanks to that class.

The image today is a version of the third image that was assigned that day.  ISO400, F/5 at 1/250.  Off camera flash is to the right creating a harsh light.

Voici l'image

Pretty much as shot - just a crop to get rid of some dead space above monkey #1.

Project 365 - Day 42 - Orange you glad

The Oakville Photography club has a new facebook group geared to help people with their photography.  It's a place where you can post your photos and get feedback - constructive criticism to help you with your hobby, or in some cases obsession ... :-)

The first "theme" for photographs is Orange.  During my recent trip with Omar D'Angelo, we discussed what to shoot.  I said that I was going to go literal, shoot an orange with my macro.  Omar suggested placing a lemon behind it or contrast.  Voila, today's shot...

I wanted dramatic light, so I resorted to off camera light and a little light painting for fill light.  Also, with the Macro being so close, I needed to close down the aperture and slow the shutter to allow me to get more of the orange in focus.

25s shutter, f/45, and ISO400.

Sure is orange.  But do you want to know a secret?  It's actually a mandarin... :-)

Project 365 - Day 41 - Family Day Photo Shoot

My Sister and Brother-In-Law are in the real estate business.  They organized a Family Day event today, where people were getting together as a family and getting their picture taken by a photographer.  That photographer was me.

So this is the first time I have done something like this.  I got my gear together and Sonia and I figured out a plan to make everything happen.  It went off pretty well, and I got to practice interacting with people and posing them - although Sonia did a lot of the actual posing, I just clicked the shutter release button ... :-)

It was a good day, and today's photo is from that shoot.

This is Dan and Nadia.  Nadia is my neice.  Dan won the coffee maker in the raflle.

The picture is taken using my 24-70 mm lens, and I have a speedlight in a softbox off to the left a bit.  I have my pocketwizards on the speedlight and the camera.  I only used a single light all day, for some of the shots I needed a second light and a bigger backdrop.  I guess I know what to ask Santa for this year ... :-)

Here's the shot.

Project 365 - Day 40 - Trip to Belfountain

What a great day.  For those of you that are in the GTA, you know how beautiful it was today.  Yes, a little cold, but it was sunny with blue skies.  A great day for a walk in the park.

My friend Omar D'Angelo and I decided to go on a photography outing.  We are both part of the Oakville Camera Club, and they are planning an outing later this month to Belfountain.  Since neither Omar nor myself could make this outing, we decided to go today instead.  What a good decision.

We were one of the first people in the Belfountain Conservation Area today, and that has it's privledges.  We were able to get some excellent shots of the area, and we also ended up blazing a trail for those photographers who followed.

We had a good little hike and came home with full memory cards.  Today's shot is from that outing.  I slowed the shutter down to get the waterfall.  You can see the moving water, and in contrast the frozen parts of the waterfall.  It was pretty awesome under the swing bridge today.  For those who have never been up there, I highly recommend taking a trip.  Belfountain is a great little community and the conservation area has a couple of challenging trails.  Omar and I will be returning in the spring for sure!

Here's the shot.

ISO100, f/22 and 1/4 sec shutter.  24mm on my Nikon 24-70 lens.  No filter today.  Cropped and adjusted white balance in post, as well as bumping up the greens and browns a bit for the trees.  Not much work at all.  I am going to post the rest of the pics on my facebook page soon.

A quick shout out to Higher Ground Coffee Company in Belfountain for making our very tasty late lunch after the shoot.  This is an awesome place to eat, they have great coffee and sandwiches.

Project 365 - Day 39 - Snomageddon

The GTA was hit with a snow storm today, more snow in one storm than we have had since 2008.  I had a 2 hour commute into work, and then a 2 1/2 hour commute home.  Upon reaching home, I was welcomed with 14 inches of white fluffy snow that I had to clear from the driveway.  I also got stuck trying to get my car into the driveway as well.  Sonia got home before me and managed to get the van pulled about half way up and she had already started clearing the snow.  So we worked together for the next hour and got it all cleared out.

So, what do I want to shoot today?  Surely not snow.  Surely, I would have had enough of the white stuff after the almost 5 hours of driving.  But what can I say, when life gives you lemons ...

Today's shot was not what I was initially going for.  The drive took it out of me today, and I also have a cold which has my energy level pretty low.  So I was really drawing a blank.  Sonia suggested I go back outside - after getting all nice and warm - and shoot the trees in the backyard.  What can I say, she was right.

Here's the shot.

It was tough to get this, as the branch was moving with the wind.  The lighting is a single speedlight camera let.

Apparently it is supposed to be 6 deg and raining on Monday, so all of this new snow will be gone - well most of it anyway.  This is all the snow I need, a photo on a blog.  Bring on spring... :-)