Project 365 - Day 314 - Tahiti Day 2

Today we went on a 4x4 tour of the island.  We got very wet, and saw a lot of waterfalls and great scenery.  I have a lot of work to do when I get home, stitching together panoramas and some major HDR work.

When we got back, it was almost time for the sunset.  Sonia went back to the hotel room while I went to our "backyard" and got some sunset photos.  I think I took about 30 shots, one of which is today's shot.

This is the same catamaran as yesterday's photo.

Off to Moorea tomorrow, but not before a quick trip into town to the market.  Apparently they have pearls here?  And vanilla.... :-)

Project 365 - Day 313 - Hello from Tahiti!

So, after a marathon of flights yesterday we finally arrived in Tahiti at 05:30 local time.  We left Toronto at 2:00 eastern, and we are currently 5 hours behind eastern time.  So we landed at 10:30 eastern - meaning we were travelling for20 hours.  Let me just clear one thing up - travel time was totally worth it.  This place is gorgeous!

We got our room right when we checked in this morning and we set about getting into our swimwear.  Then we headed down to one of the two infinity pools after taking a quick stroll around the grounds.  This hotel is really nice, and the weather is perfect.

After getting slightly crispy, I went back to the room for a nap and Sonia, ever the sun worshiper, stayed out for another two hours.  When she came back, we took the camera out for a walk.

This shot was taken basically in front of our room.  This is our view, and the sun sets right in front of us.  No sunset tonight, you can see the clouds are way too heavy for that - but I did get this shot of some sun rays.

Project 365 - Day 312 - Sunrise in Mississauga

Okay, so this is going to be my last post from Canada for about 2 weeks, maybe my last post for a while.  We are going on vacation and the internet will be a little spotty at times so I may be posting sporadically.  Rest assured, I will be shooting and hopefully editing as I shoot, although I do have a whole day off when I return to go over my pictures.

Today I went to Lakeshore Promenade as I was dropping my wife off at work.  I missed the actual sunrise, but the sun moved behind some clouds to create this scene.

Project 365 - Day 311 - Mean skies mean HDR time

Today I went down to Lakeshore Promenade in Mississauga again.  This is a good place to shoot when I have something after work to do in the Mississauga or Toronto area.  Today was no exception.

When I got to the park, nothing was happening.  No one was around, and there was a smattering of canadian geese just wandering around.  My main focus was not to bore you with another goose shot - not that I didn't get a couple close shots in of course...

I shot this scene with the intent of making an HDR.  This particular HDR is a little over cooked for my liking -  but I was able to pull off the basic principle.  I am getting better at the HDR stuff, I just need more practice setting up my own profiles...

Project 365 - Day 310 - Closed for the season

Oakville harbour in the rain tonight.  I was trying a new technique that wasn't working.  I will get it, and blog about it, but it was taking time and it was raining pretty hard.  I started driving home, thinking about what else I could shoot when I happened upon this scene.

This is the docking area at Oakville Harbour.  It is usually full of boats - in the boating season that is.  Tonight, all the boats are gone and all that is left are the docks.  I am not sure if they pick the docks up or not ... I think they might ... but for tonight at least, the docks are still there.

With the rain falling it made the water pretty soft and the docks reflect the lights.  I had to clone out some rain spots on my lens, but other than that not a lot of work was done on this shot.

Shot with my 24-70mm lens at 30s shutter f/14.

Project 365 - Day 309 - Last of the fall colours

What originally caught me about this scene is the vibrant orange against the almost bare trees in the background.  Also, the scattered leaves on the ground out front.  This one orange tree is almost full of leaves, whereas the one right next to it is almost bare - only the smallest amount of leaves is showing to the right of the frame. 

Project 365 - Day 308 - Coronation Tree at night

Wow.  Is it ever dark early now.  I didn't notice how early it got dark last year - 5:30 and it's already pitch black outside.  As I was leaving the gym I had  a sinking feeling it might be tough to get a shot.  But I went by coronation park to look at my trusty tree, and I noticed the Toronto skyline in the background.  So I shot that.  30s shutter at f/2.8 and ISO 100.  It was all I could do to get a usuable exposure... everything wide open.