shoot

2015 tree

Another Christmas and another HDR tree shot. I used three images through photomatix and then a few curves to try and correct colour cast. I used a tripod with a low iso setting and around f5.6 for this. Shutter speeds started around 2 seconds as room was pretty dark.

winter again

Im not much of a winter kind of guy as my fingers just don't like the cold. I did manage to get out last week and take a few images of our first snowfall of the year. I didn't have a tripod but i did bracket 7 exposures (hand held) for two reasons. The first was easy, in case i wanted to do an HDR later. The second was to see if there were any unexpected surprises in the scene that i just wasn't seeing (for example, two stops underexposed looked pretty cool and dramatic). I did do an HDR using three of the exposures i shot and then i did quite a bit of burning and dodging to bring out the light and dark parts that i wanted the eye to bounce around to. I do recommend a tripod and warm gloves if you want to do some winter HDR shots. Also photomatix pro is my HDR program of choice.

Remembrance Day

more blue jays baseball

Go Jays

I happened to be in toronto this past weekend and was lucky enough to see the jays play the yankees. Great game with great company and even liked a few of the photos i took.

harvest jazz and blues

The harvest jazz and blues festival has kicked off with the downtown blues band giving a free concert tonight. I love this band and have been fortunate to have done lots of photography for them over the years. This should be a fun week.

on duty

I walked by this on my way to a shoot recently and had my camera at the ready. I always set up my camera in the car and walk in with it around my neck as i always see something worth shooting on that little trip.

whale watching

We went whale watching for the first time this past weekend but unfortunately did not see a whale. We had a nice boat ride though and i shot about 500 photos during the three hour trip. There was a weird fog on the water which made for a great background behind this herring net. I exposed the image for the brighter parts, having decided that the net would go black. In lightroom i boosted the clarity, lowered the blacks and the exposure to where it looked good and brought the saturation down to 0. I cropped it to a bit of a pano and that was that.

ellens stardust diner

We watched pitch perfect tonight for the first time and it reminded me of ellens stardust diner in new york. This was a great night and my children loved it.

recent sports shoots

last flood

with warmer temps planned for next week this may be one of the last floods for the season. I got up and was on the ice at 7:30 this morning in -34 degree wind chill to get some working shots. This photo was taken closer to 8 but it was still mighty cold on my fingers. the guy working the hose could not have been nicer and it was a pleasure to spend a half hour documenting his work.

light test x 2

I have a portrait to shoot tomorrow that i have been overthinking so i thought i would do a couple test shots. I was playing with some ideas that unfortunately did not turn out like i imagined so ended up with these. The background in both shots is the same white seamless paper backdrop. The image on the right has a light on the background and the one on the left just has a bit of spill from the main light. My models were great and overall i thought the shots were good but had another brainstorm last night and will be testing more today. The lighting info for those that would like to know is just one large softbox with a big piece of black styrofoam in front of it to narrow it down a bit and the photo on the right has an added nikon sb flash pointed at the background.

ashley

Ashley was looking super cool when she walked in the office today and lucky for me said yes to an impromptu shoot. I had not tried out our new beauty dish yet so this was a perfect opportunity. I can't say that i feel comfortable with it yet but more practice will come soon. Thank you Ashley for the modelling and your patience as i fumbled my way through the new to me light.