Hockey clarity

Thought i would enjoy a couple periods of hockey tonight and took a camera with me just in case i saw a shot or two. I didnt shoot many but got this one which i liked. To get the "look" i just increased the clarity to 100%.

snow day

I shot an event today that there were not many people at. This meant that for images i had to make something out of nothing, or not much. This girl was ready to head down the hill when i yelled to her mom "just a sec". It ended up being about 5 minutes because the video guy was lugging much heavier gear and wanted to go further down the hill than me. So while she sat there and started to get bored i asked her to try and catch some snow in her mouth. I put the falling snow on the darkest background there was around so i would show up and then i took a bunch of shots. She was great and the photos and video both prove it. I was a little worried because my camera was very wet but it dried off well and still seems to be working fine. I am still learning the tricks to the d800 but the one thing that i find seems to be giving me the sharpest images is a fast shutter speed. When i shoot at 1/15 or 1/30 sec, i am not happy with the results. When im above 1/500 then all is well.

cross country

I took a few photos at a cross country ski event today.

snowman

I took a couple photos of this man today doing an ice sculpture. He was shooting snow everywhere and was completely covered in snow. Unfortunately he wiped his glasses before i could ask him not to but it still made a cool shot. I have been using a nikon D800 camera since Christmas and i have mixed feelings about it honestly. I love the way it handles and all the functions that it does. The problem lies in image sharpness. When its sharp its really sharp but when its not its just off enough to upset me. I have read that since the resolution is so high it is a different way of shooting. I am still getting used to it and hopefully i will have it figured out very soon. Another thing to get used to is the affect of very shallow depth of field. I shot this image at f4 but it looks more like 1.8 to me. Oh yea, and another thing is the image size. I forgot my sd card at home so popped in a 4gb slow sandisk ultra 2 card. It chugged to say the least and i only got 99 photos on it before it was full. The sd cards i use are made by promaster and are 90 speed. I bought them from ivans camera in moncton and they were around $90 each. I highly recommend them. No chugging i swear. Since i got the camera this is the type of image that i have wanted to shoot with it. I wanted a close up of a face and wanted to see every pore of skin. I finally got my chance and am very happy with the result. Glad i lugged my camera out with me today.

Christmas Tree

Our tree is up and decorated for another year. We are all looking forward to the holidays and some much needed relaxation, along with lots and lots of great food. Merry Christmas to anyone who may read this. As always i wish everyone the best year to come and may it be filled with awesome creative photos.

Rememberance Day

These a just a few faces in the crowd from todays rememberance day services.

Natural Light

Sometimes going with natural light, or somewhat natural, works just fine. I did suggest that one of the guys lean closer to the screen but other than that i did not change a thing. Just had to see it and shoot.

Summer Trip

I havent posted in awhile and wanted to freshen up the page so i took a couple photos from this summers vacation and hopefully they will stay fresh until tomorrow or the next day or next time i have time to post.

Golden Light

I came out of a building downtown tonight and walked right into this scene. The light was incredible and i just happened to have my camera bag on my shoulder. I did a 5 stop hdr, hand held, and threw it together quickly tonight.

Wedding Models Shoot

I had a great shoot today with a couple wonderful models, who were not really models, but really could be.

Football Dad

I am a proud football dad but often feel antisocial as i dont sit with the other parents. I kneel on the sidelines until my ankles go numb, holding my camera and monopod. This was game two which was played tonight and i managed about 30 shots that i was happy with. Next game is sunday and i hope to get 50 to add to the collection.

Inspired

I was downtown doing a quick commercial shoot tonight and this scene stopped me in my tracks. The quality of the clouds moving behind the cathedral cross was very very nice. I placed the cross in a highlight area of the cloud and composed for the rest of the clouds that were trailing off. I did quite a bit of photoshop work on it just to darken distracting bright cloud areas and lighten others. I didnt realize it at the time but when i got home i clued in that tomorrow was sept 11. That inspired me to prepare the image tonight and post.

i phone photography

I been throughly enjoying shooting with an iphone this last few weeks. I have been using hipstamatic, instagram, and camera plus, as well as a couple more that i cant remember the names of. I have taken close to 300 photos and find i shoot so much more because i have the camera in my pocket all the time. I took these two today on the side of the road while driving my daughter and friends somewhere. Took 20 seconds to shoot, 20 seconds to edit, and then they were online. I plan to take many more and be posting some here in the near future.

Canada Day 2012

Happy Canada Day to all. We spent this years holiday in Shediac New Brunswick and saw lots of great images. For this one we were actually eating breakfast and the light was really nice on my niece and her boyfriend. I went out to the car to get my camera and met this man when i was walking back to my meal. He was very nice and i told him i had to get a shot of him and his great tie. We talked for 5 minutes, i met his wife, and then i finished a great breakfast.

family photo

I had a great family photo session tonight with a great family. I have only download one of two cf cards and have a post already. What does that say. I tried some different things tonight too which was fun for me. I left my lights in the bag (crazy i know) and set my lens at f1.4 and left it there. I feel so young and wild, or wilde (only one person will get this one). Ok, cant wait any longer, must see the other card.

riverdance

Overall this show was ok i guess. I am not a fan or anything, i was just practicing shooting under concert lights, thats all. I did not stay long and really only got a couple shots. This was just one of them that i thought was ok.

old house hdr

I have been working on a bit of a group assignment with some friends called "up close and personal". I was walking by this house recently and it just seemed to fit the bill. It looked like whoever was sitting on the front porch had just vanished. I loved the way the door was ajar. It just seemed to be a personal scene that i had stumbled upon. I had my camera and tripod and thought an hdr would further enhance the theme. I wanted to show every detail in every shadow and highlight, nothing hidden. I did a 9 image bracket and ran it through photomatix pro and topaz detail 2. I think honestly that i overdid it and may go back later and tone it down a bit, but for now its a sketch and is postable. Whoever was inside shut the door halfway through my shoot and then it felt impersonal and i left.

Superheros at my door

I have been very very busy lately and have felt like i've been chained to my office chair. So friday after work i said to myself "not touching my camera this weekend. Going to read, go for a run or three, and thats it." Then Friday night two superheros rang my doorbell. I had my lighting figured out before the cat ran outside. Main light up high pointing down at a 45 degree angle (sb flash zoomed in to 85mm and at full power), background light behind them pointing directly at their backs and zoomed to 85mm at full power. With superheros they will complain if you dont use full power. Its all or nothing. I laid on the ground in front of them with a 24mm lens to maximize the sky which was looking pretty cool. Managed about 10 shots before their bedtime. In photoshop i upped the clarity, used topaz detail 2 a bit, and then imported back to lightroom to use the bleach bypass preset filter (i think that was the one i used). I did this on a seperate layer so i could lower the opacity and flavor to taste. I also retouched my lightstand out of the background and darkened the houses and car that was on the road. I overdid the image a bit with sharpening and detail and drama but felt it needed every bit. I got up at 8 this morning and saw the two of them, back in costume, running up the sidewalk by my house. You can never go wrong with a couple superheros in the neighborhood.

dramatic sky hdr

I had a few minutes tonight while leaving a wedding and the sky and light was very nice. Grabbed my tripod and did a 9 stop bracket of this building with a 24mm lens. I ran 5 images through photomatix and then used topaz detail 2 on most of the image (did the whole thing then masked out the sky and a bit of the foreground). I applied a heavy vignette and masked out the building and a bit of the flowers. The flag was moving so it was pretty messed up. To fix it i opened one of the images and stripped in the flag. I retouched a bit of the messy one out. I was going for nice and dramatic.

145 layers

I was very fortunate to work with a great team recently to produce a photo that i was very very happy with. I photographed 142 individual people one evening over a span of three hours and spent the entire next day selecting people and pasting them into this one comp. I have done this type of work before several times but this was the most amount of people i have done in one image. I used the photoshop 6 beta and it worked perfectly. Not one hitch or crash, however i did save often. For selections i used the quick selection tool and then the refine edge command with smart radius selected with a radius of 10 pixels and a feather of .3. For most i then had to zoom in and use quick mask to tweak my selection as patterned clothing did not select well and the white hats had some troubles also. I used an action for refine edge as i did it on each image. I would then drag the person onto the comp and use another action for matting - defringe by 1 pixel. I then just arranged the layers for look which was the fun part. I was exhausted after this job was complete but it was well worth it when i saw the look on the conference attendees faces when they saw it for the first time.