Emancipate Us From Winter

First off, I feel the need to mention the title of this post.  I am not one to complain about snow or winter.  I am a cold weather person and will take the slushy snow falling on us today anytime over the heat and humidity of summer.  However, as someone who works with the public, I also know that my preferences are not shared with the majority of people.  So, in an effort to provide some relief to those of you who are having the February Blah's, here is a shot I took while taking an early morning walk in Vancouver a few years back.  Something I always look for when I'm on a photo walk is reflections.  In puddles, on glass, or in this case, on False Creek.  I found myself wide awake at 5:30AM that morning and decided that it was the perfect time to do a little walking tour of Downtown Vancouver.  I ended up down by the site of Expo '88 and found this lonely old boat floating around in a sea of modern buildings.  It was a real throwback, and upon closer inspection, I discovered that the boat had the perfect name, Emancipation.  I walked around the bicycle path, trying to find a vantage point that would allow me to take advantage of all of the reflections on the water, but also allowed me to get the name of the boat in my shot.  I took this photograph at f/4, 1/800sec, ISO 100 at 51mm.  I was curious to know if this boat was actually owned by someone or if it was just in the creek as a kind of funny exhibition, so I used Google Earth recently to check the location out and the boat is gone.  I hope it's enjoying its freedom.

A Snowy Situation

We had a little bit of a snow fall from the sky today, however I was stuck at work and was thus unable to get out and wander around with my camera.  However, waiting for me when I got home was this interesting looking pattern.  Basically, we had some wet, sticky snow which was being blown around by some pretty strong winds.  This resulted in the snow getting blown against one of the outside walls where I live and sticking to the many cobwebs left behind by some spiders that were much more active than I had thought over the summer.  It wasn't a plan-point-and-shoot situation as I decided to play around a little bit with my flash.  To be perfectly honest, I have no real explanation behind this photo.  I was limited in time and location, so this seemed like a good opportunity.  I just decided to play around and this one had a the nicest look to my eye.  The shot you see here was taken at f/2.8, 1/100sec ISO 1600 at 24mm while also bouncing some flash against the wall.  I'm pretty sure that the combination of flash and the high ISO is what caused the burned out look on the bricks. Either that, or it's just the result of the random numbers that I set the camera at.  Sometimes it's just fun to go out and play around with the camera.  Unless you decide that you really like this shot as well.  In that case, well, I obviously had the result planned all along. 

Take My Heart, Please

 I must be coming down with a case of Valentine-itis, because I have a second Valentine`s themed photo for you all this week.  Truthfully, this photo was my originally planned submission for the 14^th, but the flowers that I posted yesterday looked much to nice to pass up.  That and I have a friend who said that I should post more photos, more often.  As a result, we have back-to-back postings for the first time in a while.  This photo was taken back in September and was also seen during my photography exhibition.  I’d like to say that I was sitting on the dock when I had the brilliant idea of forming the cord that you see into the shape of a heart, but the truth is that I saw a similar photo that a friend of mine had taken and I borrowed the idea.  I changed the photo up a bit, added my own personal style.  However, there are two versions of this photo.  The one that is on the upper left side of the screen and one more that you will find at the end of this posting.  The first one may have been on display, but it is the second one that is by far one of my favourite photos.  The first shot was taken at f/4, 1/1000sec. ISO 100 at 24mm.  Shooting at f/4 really blurs out the background, putting all of your attention on what the photographer really wants you to see.  In this case, I want you to look at the heart.  The second photo was shot at f/8 1/250sec. ISO 100 at 25mm.  The difference between the two being that by shooting at f/8, the background of the photo become a little more clear, but still remains blurred enough so that a certain camera shy person doesn’t mind being photographed.  Many people told me that they liked the photo above, and even a couple were sold.  However, the version with that little extra special something on the lake is much more to my liking.

She Loves Me...She Loves Me Not...She Loves Me...

I've be wanting to practice shooting some flowers for a while now, but haven't had the opportunity.  I usually try to take pictures in my Mom's garden, however her garden is currently 100km away an under about 15cm's of snow.  Luckily, it's Valentine's Day and all of the local flower shops have a wide variety of flowers just waiting to be photographed.  I picked out a selection and brought them home.  Then came the fun part.  Since I don't have studio lighting, it was time to improvise.  I set the flowers up in front of a soft light source and added my flash to my camera.  I've had many moments with that flash.  Some good, some not so good, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of using it.  After playing around with the flowers to get them positioned in a manner than I was happy with, I placed the bouquet next to one light source and angled my flash to 45degrees and used the pull-out reflector to bounce the light towards the flowers.  I shot at f/11, 1/250sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Using a shallow depth of field like f/11 allows me to make sure that most of the flowers will be in focus, where as if I were to shoot at something like f/4, there would be many more of the flowers that would appear blurry.  Shooting a 1/250sec is pretty much the standard when using a flash, though I did get some interesting results by shooting at some slower and faster speeds while I was playing around.  I think this shot came out pretty well, and the wonderful person who received the flowers seemed quite happy as well.

I'm A Highway Star

It's been a while since I pulled the camera out of it's comfy bag, and I had a bit of a trigger finger today so it was off to the bicycle path to for a 2013 Reissue.  The photo you see on the left is an update of a picture I took a few years back while I was taking my classes at Concordia University.  I originally took the image as part of an assignment called 'Mystical Light' where we had to create a photograph with special light effects.  The special effects being the streaks of light that you see which are all that remains of the passing cars.  I chose to redo this picture based on comments I received about another of my photos that was on display during my exhibition.  My photograph, Bernard's View, was pretty the most popular shot that I had on display.  One of the reasons it was so popular, I've been told, was because the street signs reminded people of specific places.  So, I reached back into the archives and was reminded of this old photograph which also features road signs for the Champlain Bridge and Laurier Boulveard.  This shot was taken at f/9, 10sec., ISO 100 at 42mm from a bicycle path that crosses over Highway 132 in Saint-Lambert.  I like how I have four different traffic sources in the picture and the sky had just enough light left in it for that nice dark blue colour.  The only thing missing are some fireworks going off in the top left-hand side. I hope you enjoy it.

Midnight Train To Saint-Lambert

Digging into the archives again for another of the photographs that was seen during my exposition this past fall.  This is a shot that I had seen in my mind for over a year, but had been to lazy to actually go out and take.  I know, I can't believe that I'd be lazy for a year either.  We'll just call it a scheduling snafu and leave it at that.  This shot was taken just a bit past the Saint-Lambert CN Train Station, and in the background you can see a part of the Victoria Bridge that leads to Montreal.  Passing by a railroad crossing near this location, I often saw how the lights from the towers would follow the steel rail tracks and thought it would make a nice photograph.  I believe I had a good idea and so did someone else as I sold a framed copy of this shot during my show.  This photograph was taken at f/10, 15sec. ISO 100 at 70mm.  Again, the long exposure creates that star effects around the lights, as well as adding some light to the sky.  The sun had just gone down, but there was enough light to be picked up by the long exposure.  I like how the red light reflecting on the rails acts as a leading line towards the light towers, and then beyond the station right to the bridge.  The same goes for the reflections on the telephone and electric wires seen on the left-hand side of the photo.  One other thing of note, I do not suggest you attempt to take this kind of photo on your own.  Train tracks are not the safest place to be.  Yes, I took the shot, but what you don't see is my spotter who was out of frame and keeping her eyes open for any trains.  I also checked the train schedule the day before taking this photo and stuck around the site to make sure that the trains would arrive when they were supposed to.  Sometimes you have to do your homework in order to get the photograph that you want.  In that regard, I'd like to hope that my Mom & Dad are happy to see that though it might take a year, my homework still gets done.

Always Look Behind You

One of the early lessons I learned in photography class was to never be afraid to move around, and maybe even get a little dirty.  Most people shoot their photographs from a standing position, while the simple move of bending over or going belly-down on the floor can turn a regular photograph into something more.  I didn't get very dirty taking this photograph, but I did take advantage of the previously mentioned lesson.  Though to be honest, it was done accidentally.  This shot was taken while on vacation at Niagara Falls.  I was feeling sad by the recent death of my Grandmother and one of the final conversations that we had was about how she had visited Niagara Falls when she was younger and how she hoped that I'd make my way there as she knew I'd be able to take some nice photographs.  I walked up and down the sidewalk next to the falls, trying to get the perfect angle, but just couldn't come up with something that interested me or was a unique image.  Out of frustration, I gave the stone wall next to the sidewalk a good kick and then turned, leaning against the metal railing.  That's when I saw it.  Illumination Tower.  The concrete stage where all of the lights that are used to light up Niagara Falls are located.  Sitting just behind the stage was the Niagara Falls casino with it's bright red lights reflecting against the passing mist created by the Falls.  I quickly spun the tripod around and snapped the picture you see here, and that was one of the featured shots on my exposition last autumn.  It was shot at f/7.1, 13sec., ISO 100 at 35mm and was the jolt that I needed to get that lesson mentioned above drilled into my head.  Everybody goes home with a picture of Niagara Falls lit up at night.  But I think my photograph of the lights that light up the Falls is much more interesting than anything else I took on that trip.

***UPDATE***

During the write-up I forgot to mention that I timed the exposure for 13 seconds purely because of the casino in the background.  Lucky 13 and all.  You could get pretty much the same result with an exposure of 12 or 14 seconds.