Halloween Beans

There's two things that I really like about jelly beans.  One, they're real colourful.  I took another photograph of some jelly beans last year, mostly because I really liked all of the different colours mixed together.  The last time My Lovely Assistant and I made a little visit to Bulk Barn, they had these special Halloween jelly beans on sale.  I say 'special', but it's really just a bunch of orange and black jelly beans.  The colours of Halloween.  I grabbed a small bag knowing that some candy might make a little Halloween treat for those of you who visit the blog.  My original plan was to wait for a sunny day and put a plate of the beans next to a window for lighting, but I figured I'd use these beans to play around with my flash a little bit.  In the first photograph you see, I bounced the flash off of the ceiling and onto the beans. For the second photograph I used the bounce card that comes with the flash to reflect the light down on my plate.  As you can see, the results are different.  In the first photograph, the beans look a little more solid than in the second, but the beans in the second photo have more of a glow to them.  This is due to the different amounts of light hitting them.  It made for a fun little time playing with my flash and different apertures.  The first photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/9, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  At the beginning I mentioned how there were two things I like about jelly beans.  The colours are nice, but they sure are tasty as well!

Airbourne - Live

It's been a little bit over a week since my first photograph from the Airbourne concert I attended at the Corona Theatre made an appearance on these pages.  In the days since, I've tried to repeat my concert going experience and published photographs that I took of each of the bands.  Those of you who have been following at home probably don't need the reminder, but in keeping future viewers in mind, the first band to hit the stage was One Bad Son (Official Site) and the second group out were The Glorious Sons (Official Site).  I've pretty much discussed the entire experience with you all over the last three posts, so I don't really have much more to add here.  There were two specific moments that I wanted to try and capture while Airbourne was on the stage.  The first was to capture a beer arc.  During the show, singer  Joel O'Keeffe smashes a beer can and swings it around.  My friend Pierre Bourgault got such a photo last time they were in town and I really liked it.  Sadly, the lighting wasn't as colourful this time out as it was for their previous concert.  I did manage to get a beer arc, but it isn't as spectacular as his.  The other thing I was keeping my eyes peeled for was that at one point Joel O'Keeffe climbs onto the shoulders of a security guard and plays out into the crowd.  I knew that they'd be passing by directly where I was standing, so I was hoping to get a good shot of that.  In any event, it was a great night and I guess the only drawback to the fun that I was having taking all of my photographs was that I kind of wasn't paying as much attention to the actual show.  I tried not be be a camera junkie and have my camera in my hands at all times, but as I said way back in the first post of this series, I came home with 477 photographs, so I obviously didn't do as good of a job watching the show as opposed to photographing it.  Still, it was a great show and I ended up coming home with several cool photographs as well.  I consider that to be a pretty good night out.  The first photograph you saw here on the page was shot at f/6.3, 1/160sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm.  The fourth photograph was taken at f/5, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm and the fourth photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm.  Though the light wasn't very colourful, it was bright enough to allow me to finally try out Pierre's tip by using a smaller aperture than f/2.8.  I think these shots ended up turning out pretty well.  Here are some more shots of Airbourne in action.

 f/4.5, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

Caught in mid-headbang

f/4.5, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

Going through the crowd with some well placed hand.

f/7.1, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

Rocking on the stage while Joel was going through the crowd...look where the others aren't

f/4.5, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

Beer arc!

f/5.6, 1/50sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

My friend Louie kept wanting me to get a shot of the Marshall stacks

f/7.1, 1/160sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

I hoped to get a shot of the dummer as well, but he wasn't in my sight line.

f/5, 1/250sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

Thank-you Airbourne.

I had a great time photographing all three bands and I hope that you all get a feel for what a great show it was through my photos.  It was a great experience to roll through the aperture and ISO settings of my camera, trying to get the best combination possible to get my shots while not missing the action.  The only drawback was the very stubborn auto-focus button on my little 50mm lens.  I actually had a small blister on my finger from trying to switch it on and off so often.  A small price to pay.  It was great fun, I hope I get to do it again.

The Glorious Sons - Live

When last we met, I was telling you about my adventures getting into the Corona Theatre to see a rock show.  First on the bill were One Bad Son.  They put on a great show and you can see the photographs I took of them by following this link.  There isn't really much to add story wise that I didn't already mention in the previous post, but incase you haven't seen the other one, I managed to get my camera into the Corona Theatre for the show and promptly placed myself as close to the stage, though a little more to the left than I would have liked, and began to snap away.  The second band to play that night were The Glorious Sons.  They're a Canadian rock band from Kingston, and I've managed to hear a few of their songs before on the radio.  The lighting was a little bit better for this set, though the big difficulty I had was getting some shots of the singer.  He was a bundle of energy through out the set, moving all over the place.  I tried to study his movements in the early parts of the songs as he would sometimes repeat them later.  Knowing when he'd be still, I tried to take most of my photos at this time and hope that the light would be good.  The first photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/5, 1/200sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm.  Here are a few more photographs I took during their show.

f/4, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

f/4, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

f/4, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

f/3.5, 1/25sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

f/4, 1/80sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

Once again I overexposed a most of the shots in order to gain a little bit of shutter speed.  I really like the second shot in this series simply for the look of joy on the face of the guitarist.  I also managed to catch the drummer with his stick in the air for this shot, an added bonus.  The first two acts were done, all that was left was the headliner, which we'll get to shortly.

 

One Bad Son - Live

A little less than a week ago a few of my buddies and myself made the trek into Montreal to catch a concert by the groups One Bad Son, The Glorious Sons and Airbourne.  The show took place at the Corona Theatre, the same venue where my buddies and I saw The Darkness last year and where the seed of a plan was planted in my mind.  The few photographs you'll see if you click on the above link were taken using a crappy little Kodak camera, something I could get into the building.  However, while at the show I saw people inside taking photos with Canon Rebel cameras.  If I were to take the battery pack off of my camera and used my smallest lens, it wasn't very much larger than a Rebel.  I figured that I might be able to get my 'disguised' camera into the show, and I put my theory to the test back in May at a concert by Future Villains and Steel Panther.  Since my little plan had worked the first time, I decided to give it another shot for this show.  We arrived early at the show and I followed the same steps I took back in May.  My camera was palmed in my hand and pressed against my body, but hardly hidden and still in plain view.  As we walked by the doorman and ticket taker I made to the camera was on the side opposite than they were.  I realize that all of this cloak & dagger drill was probably not necessary, but it added a little bit of a thrill to the event.  Once inside, I needed to get as close to the stage as possible.  The first row after the barrier was already occupied, but my friend Louie suggested I place myself just beyond the barrier, against the side wall.  I'd be shooting at an angle, but I had a clear view of the stage and wouldn't have to try and shoot between people.  I got my camera in the door, I was in a good spot, all that was left was for the show to begin.  The first thing I tried to keep in mind was some advice I had gotten from my buddy Pierre (Pierre B Photo).  He suggested I shoot using a smaller aperture than f/2.8.  Sacrificing a little speed for more clarity.  Though the lighting for the opening acts wasn't the greatest, I tried to keep that tip in mind.  The house lights went down, and it was time for action.  The first band on the stage was One Bad Son (follow them on Facebook).  They're a Canadian rock band originally from Saskatoon and now based out of Vancouver and they put on a great show.  It was difficult getting some good shots of the singer as he was often in shadows, but the rest of the band was often in some good light.  I hadn't heard of them before the show, but they played several of their originals before closing their set with a rocking cover of the Talking Heads hit, Psycho Killer.  Since the show, I've bought two of their CD's and and am really enjoying them.  The first photograph you see here was taken at f/4, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/4, 1/125sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm.  I was really happy that I captured the drummer with his stick in the air.  The third photograph was taken at f/4, 1/100sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm and the fourth was taken at f/2.8, 1/25sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm.  Here are a couple more photos that I took during their set.

f/4, 1/25sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

f/2.8, 1/30sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

Kind of blurry, but I like it.

f/4, 1/25sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

f/4, 1/60sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

f/3.5, 1/50sec, ISO 3200 at 50mm

Okay, so maybe I didn't get far beyond f/2.8, but the tip was still in my head and it did come in handy later in the night as the other shows had a little bit more light.  I also used the Exposure Bias function on my camera to over-expose my shots by one step to get me a little bit more shutter speed.  One Bad Son, put on a good show, but there are still two bands to come.  Keep your eyes peeled, they'll all be here soon.

Not Like His Cousin

This past summer My Lovely Assistant and I were able to once again spend a little time at a family cottage in La Minerve.  This, sadly, was our final visit to the cottage as it was sold a short time after our visit.  One of the things that I always liked about our visits there was the abundance of little critters just waiting to be photographed.  Like this little guy over here.  Last year I spent a good couple of days chasing his cousin around before finally getting a photograph.  This guy was the complete opposite.  He spent most of the two days we were there almost asking to be photographed while sitting on this little stump.  I shot this photograph at f/8, 1/640sec, ISO 400 at 68mm.  I didn't even have to use any of my peanuts or anything, though I did once again leave some behind as a thank-you to my model.  I hope the new owners of the cottage remember to treat my little critter friends well.

Ready To Rock

I attended a concert by the rock group Airbourne last night at the Corona Theatre in Montreal.  I was once again successful in getting my camera in the front door and ended up right next to the stage.  In addition to Airbourne, there were two other bands playing and I ended up coming home with 477 photographs.  So, I've got a little bit of work waiting for me.  I wanted to get atleast one photograph up before Father Time works his magic and I find myself playing with these photographs in March, so here is one of my favourite shots from the night.  This photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm.  I'll put up some more photographs from the show as soon as possible.

Brown Eyed Girl

This is one of those photographs that I've always liked, yet it always seemed to get bumped off of the blog by something else.  I always seem to want to save it for some other time, even now as I'm writing these words I'm still thinking to myself if there is something else I'd rather post instead.  I've always found that to be odd, because I really like this photograph.  It's a Brown Eyed Susan, and one of the many flowers that grew in my Mom's backyard.  There were a whole batch of them growing in the backyard and I wanted to take this shot with the focus on one flower and the rest of the flowers blurred and out of focus in the background.  I also really liked the contrast between the dark black of the center of the flower and the yellow that filled most of the rest of the photo.  This photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/2500sec, ISO 100 at 45mm.  There's a couple more photos I took of this group of flowers  that I've been holding onto.  I might be able to convince myself to put those up here some day soon as well.

Are You Ready For Some Football

Back on the first of the month, I put up some photographs taken at a football game featuring a play that led to a touchdown.  Sadly, the team that scored was not actually the team that I was there to see.  I was there to watch the Champlain Cavaliers as my buddy Mike plays for them, but I seemed to have caught them on an off day.  The team from Outaouais was a little bit better that day.  Much like the touchdown photos, most of these were taken in Burst Mode so the technical aspects may not change very much from photo to photo.  For me, I found it most important to shoot with an aperture small enough to guarantee that most of the action would remain in focus, but with a fast enough shutter speed in order to not blur the action.  To achieve that, I bumped up the ISO a little bit even if it was quite sunny that day, to make sure that I'd still get enough shutter speed to compensate for the smaller aperture.  I managed to catch a couple of plays, and even got to photograph another touchdown, though my buddy Mike won't be very happy because it was once again scored by the other team.   Anyway, my buddy asked if I had any other photographs from the game and I'm always ready to share, so here comes a few more photos taken that day.  The first photograph was taken at f/4, 1/1600sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  Yes, I know that's exactly the opposite of what I just explained, but that photo was taken early after my arrival and before I adjusted my settings,  The second photograph was taken at f/10, 1/800sec, ISO 400 at 165mm.  Here are some more shots I took.

Interception!

f/10, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

Photos you see in the paper aren't 4x6, so neither is this one.

f/14, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

 

 QB Sack

f/14, 1/200sec, ISO 400 ay 115mm

 

 #5 makes the tackle

f/14, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

QB Sneak for a Touchdown

f/11, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 102mm

There you go Mike, a few more action shots for you.  The team has a few more home games before the season comes to an end, so hopefully I'll have the chance to get out there one more time to try and capture some more of the action.

Stars & Cars

Long exposure night photographs are some of my favourite photographs to take.  They're the original reason why I wanted to learn more about photography and I still enjoy taking them to this day.  Light trails, star effects and light tricks and are some of the fun things you can create when shooting at night, and this photograph has all of them.  By combining a small aperture and a long exposure time, I can create the star effects you see on the street lights and the lights on the bridge.  The long exposure allows me to capture the streaks of light left behind by the passing cars, as well as having all of the separate colours of the traffic light appear to be on at the same time.  It's photographs like this that I really enjoy taking.  This shot was taken in Cowansville one evening and really like the way you can follow the lights left by the passing cars through the photograph, in addition to all of the other things I've already mentioned.  It was taken at f/11, 14sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.

Degrees Of Separation

It's true that I don't do very much Photoshopping with my photographs, but I do like to play with certain little things every once in a while.  One of the things that I sometimes like to do is to rotate the canvas and turn vertical photographs into horizontal shots, or vice versa.  That's what I did with this Day Lily.  You've seen lots of Day Lilies here over the past few years, and you're likely to keep seeing them as they remain my favourite flower to photograph.  However, this one has been in the archives for a while now because there was just something about it that seemed to bother me.  I had tried something different with this shot, having the flower pointed to the right of the screen rather than to the left as I usually did.  It might just be a case of my being picky, but it just rubbed me the wrong way.  So, I decided to see how I'd like the photo if I rotated it 90degrees.  I liked it.  It seemed new, fresh and interesting to me.  The base of the flower seemed to come more alive at the bottom of the screen and I liked how the stems seem to be reaching out.  I also liked how the petal, now in the background of the photo, kind of sticks out a little bit more, likening it to a kind of cap.  Maybe all of this is in my imagination and in the eyes of others there really is no difference in how you view the photograph, but the simple change of rotating the photograph did make a heckuva difference to me.  This photograph was taken at f/5, 1/320sec, ISO 1600 at 60mm.  What do you think?  Is all of this in my head?  Is there one version of this photograph that you like better than the other?  Feel free to let me know.
 

Touchdown!

A friend of mine currently plays football for the Champlain Cavaliers in Saint-Lambert.  He mentioned that his team would be playing a game this past Sunday and though I had something else planned, I managed to pass by long enough to catch a quarter of the game.  During that time, I was lucky enough to have a touchdown scored almost exactly where I was positioned.  Sadly, it wasn't Champlain that scored, but as a photographer I couldn't have been happier to capture the moment.  There's lots of action on the football field, and lots of people moving around.  That means using a large aperture and fast camera speeds to make sure that all of the action is not only in focus, but doesn't suffer from movement blur either.  I also put my camera in burst mode because in sports, if you see the moment, that means you missed the moment on camera.  I saw the quarterback get ready to throw and the receiver headed in my direction so I began shooting as soon as the quarterback began to throw and caught the whole scene.  The first photograph was taken at f/14, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 105mm.  Here are the rest of the series.

f/14, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 105mm

f/14, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 105mm

f/14, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 105mm

f/14, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 105mm

f/14, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 105mm

Because I was shooting in burst mode, there wasn't much of a change in how the photographs were shot.  The speed changed a little bit since I was shooting in AV.  I upped the ISO to 400 for these photos because after taking a few earlier shots at ISO 100, it wasn't giving me enough speed.  Boosting up to ISO 400 gave me the speed I needed, and enough leeway to shoot in AV and burst without having the shutter speed get to slow.  I took a few more photos during my time at the game and I'll share them with you at a later time.