Day 58, 365 Day Project

Well the -35 windchill and icy streets played havoc with my class tonight. 7 of 11 students and the subject for tonight's advanced lighting class did not make it in. The 4 who did still enjoyed themselves, even though they had to work as each others models. Here is a quick shot of Angela and the multiple light set up we did. Main light was an Alien Bee 800 at full power with a Chimera small strip light soft box. Hair light was an Alien Bee 1600 at 1/2 power and a Chimera extra-small soft box and 40 degree egg crate on a boom stand at plus .5 stops. The accent light on the side was a Balcar Mini-Z with a Larson 4' x 18" strip soft box at plus .5 stops. Shooting aperture was f6.3 at 1/125th sec, ISO 100 on the Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 lens.

Day 57, 365 Day Project

My son Cool sings in three choirs. On Sunday morning's he sings with the choir at the 8:30 a.m. mass at St. Luke's church. He is the only child in the group. Usually there are two adults and one piano player performing. Here he is at this mornings mass. Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f5, 1/50th sec at 3200 ISO.

Day 56, 365 Day Project

One thing I have never really explored or exploited is shallow depth of field. It is one of my goals to break out of the old "f8 and be there" dogma I was taught at a young age. Not to say that this idea is wrong (it is so much easier to set the camera to f8 on aperture priority and let the camera set everything else to almost guarantee an image with modern cameras) but I want to take full creative control of the camera.

This 365 day project is the perfect place to experiment and have fun. So today I set my Canon 7D with the 24-70 f2.8 lens to wide open and then started to look for a subject to shoot. I settled on an old collection of the "Encyclopedia of Photography" that I have and zoomed in and cropped to give an interesting angle. Since the books are in my office and the light source are the florescent tubes on the ceiling I set my shutter speed at 1/40 sec (a speed I am comfortable hand holding) and then adjusted the ISO until I got a correct exposure, in this case 3200. I shot from a low angle and the books composed to read from left to right. The result is what I was looking for.

Day 55, 365 Day Project

The early morning light was coming through the window and casting lovely shadow patterns on the wall from a silk flower arrangement my wife has. I had to move quickly and grab my camera as the light was changing rapidly. In fact the shot right after this one which was only about 10 seconds later was radically different in the position of the shadows. I liked this on where the shadow in the upper right was framed perfectly in the beam of light surrounded by the rainbow of colour created by the different prism's of glass on our door. When I zoomed in on this section the light had already changed and the position was not as pleasing.

Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f9, 1/250 sec at 400 ISO.

Day 54, 365 Day Project

One thing I have always believed is that it is not the camera that creates the image, but the person behind the camera. Thus it should not mater what you use but your control over it and all the elements that are involved in creating an interesting photograph. With cameras built into so many devices there is no excuse for not having one with you.

Still you have to know what you are doing with it. So here is an image with my iPod touch and one of the apps available to it call the Hipstamatic. There are a variety of different lens types, film stocks, flash attachments, etc that you can purchase to add on to the free app you down load. This should give you a lot of options of what you want to do in an artistic sense. Today I decided to play with it in a bit of a controlled setting. I brought this old kerosene lamp I have in to the studio and lit it with one of my Balcars and a 20 degree spot. I then positioned a piece of foam core behind it and then turned the lamp till I achieved the shadow I wanted. It took a few tries to position the camera as the viewer is kind of wonky but I got what I set out to do. Settings for the Hipstamatic were the "John S" lens with "Ina's 1969" film stock. I tried a few other combinations, but this gave the look I wanted.

Day 53, 365 Day Project

So I have a busy day today and don't get a chance to shoot anything while Lysa is at work. Once she gets home I tell her I still have to shot my image of the day. Well Luke over hears me and says "I know Papa" then goes and gets his rubber duck that I brought back for him from the WPPI conference and places it on a structure that he and his brother Cool made. "Take a picture Papa" he tells me, so I oblige him. Any way here it is, Luke was thrilled with the shot and then wanted a picture beside it (see below). Canon 7d, 24-70 f2.8 @f2.8, 1/60 sec at 12,800 ISO.

Day 52, 365 Day Project

Well I got home from Vegas late last night so yesterday's image of the day is up now. This was shot in the tradeshow of WPPI at the MGM Grand. I was wandering around in the last 15 minutes and found them putting the final touch of body paint on some models at the Unique Photo booth. There were not to many people left so I managed to have about 4 minutes directing the two girls before giving way to other photographers. This is one of my favorite images. The light source was a circular make up lamp and I got down to a low angle to eliminate as many distractions as possible. Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f6.3, 1/400 sec at 3200 ISO.

Day 51, 365 Day Project

Walking through Ceaser's Palace and thought the colors of the Planet Hollywood restraunt was very interesting. Of course it is very dark in the forum shoppes so I had to shoot at 12,800 ISO. I like the faux sky on the ceiling as well. Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f9 1/200 sec.

Day 51, 365 Day Project

Well I just arrived in Las Vegas after flying from Calgary via Winnipeg. Today's image was shot with my iPod touch from 34,000 ft. as I flew across Utah. The scenery was incredible and it was interesting to see snow, then clear areas, then snow again as we flew over the mountains. My next two posts will be of images I shoot while down here for the WPPI convention.

Day 50, 365 Day Project

Wow, 50 days and going strong. Today it is -15C but the sun is out and there is no wind. I decided to take a little walk around the house to see if I could find something that caught my eye for today's image. So as I went in to the backyard I noticed the old barn boards that I have that I use for western themed shoots. The weathered wood gives such a nice texture that I moved in and started shooting. I really like this rusted out old door latch and I tilted the camera slightly to give a more pleasing composition. Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f8, 1/125 sec at 400 ISO.

Day 49, 365 Day Project

Today I had the pleasure of being a guest on the "I Am Aduro" podcast hosted by Al Del Degan (that's him above). Al and his compadre Andrew Bolton (a former student of mine) put together an hour long podcast on interesting topics in the photographic world. It watched with great interest as these two fine people pulled together a variety of subjects and links and then did the interview with me before wrapping it up. We were also joined through Skype by Chris Niccolls of The Camera Store. If you are not familiar with the "I Am Aduro" podcast I suggest you check it out at http://aduro.podbean.com/ or visit Al's site at http://www.aduro.ca/ You can also check out Andrew at www.zombiedarkroom.com

I shot today's image at the end of the production with my Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f8, 1/30 sec at 12,800 ISO.

Day 48, 365 Day Project

Can you tell how long this exposure was by looking at it? (Answer at the end of the post).

Sometimes it can get a little tricky being creative with this project. Busy days and creative blocks seem to jump up and threaten to stall us less then 2 months in to the project. In order to combat this I try to be observant of what is around me and make notes so that if I am up against the clock I can have something to fall back on. Today was one of those days and with the seconds ticking away I remembered the wall clock beside my work station. But how to make an interesting image of such a mundane subject? The answer is in the technique.

Grabbing my trusty 7D with the 24-70 f2.8 lens I set up my mini-Manfroto tripod, camera and cable release across from the clock. Knowing what I wanted to achieve I choose 100 ISO and f18. I then sat back and did an exposure and the rest is history folks. So did you figure out the shutter speed yet?

If you guessed 6 seconds, give yourself a pat on the back. (I hope you counted the ticks in the sweep hand.)

Archive Image of the Day. Image #13

I photographed this crab on a beach near Tofino on Vancouver Island in the summer of 1986. He didn't seem to be to skittish as he let me shot of a number of frames before scurrying back into the water. This was on Kodachrome 64 with my Canon F1 and 100mm f2.8 lens @ f4 1/125 sec on an overcast day.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #12

This is one of the few images I have from my days at SAIT as I was working for the newspaper, the SAIT Emery Weal, and all the B&W Negatives I shot at the time belonged to them. However when I was photographing this Alice Cooper tribute band that was performing at the campus pub back in the fall of 1981, I felt I needed to shoot some colour so I loaded some Agfa 400 ISO film in to one of my f1's. I liked the smoke and the lighting that is created with the theatrical structure of bands. It did make for a tougher shoot as the light was constantly changing as the lights flashed on and off but I got some nice images. This one was shot with the 135mm F2 lens wide open at 1/30th of a second.

Day 47, 365 Image Project.

We had a light fog and snow last night and when we woke up the trees were covered with this wonderful frost. So this afternoon despite the -17C temperature I ventured out, camera in hand. I drove about 10 minutes from our house and I was surprised to find that the trees in this area were completely bear. So I headed home and just up the street from us found this wonderful looking tree. I got down on the ground to eliminate the cars driving by (the tree was on an island between the roadway), metered for the snow and then opened up 1 2/3 stops for the exposure. Canon 7D, 25-70 f2.8 @ f11, 1/160 sec at 400 ISO.

Day 46, 365 Image Project.

Yet another Elephant. As I said yesterday this is the main theme around our house. This image is of a candle holder that we have that is surrounded by four elephants, each in various positions. It was tough to get a clean photograph as they encircle the candle and makes it hard to see any particular figure. I was able to zoom in tight on this one and enjoyed working by only the light of the candle. Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f7.1, 1/60th sec at 640 ISO.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #11

This old tree has been standing near the Trans-Canada highway for as long as I can remember. I visited it one afternoon in the spring of 1994 and having photographed it many times decided to try Kodak's High Speed Infrared film (HIE). If you understand the characteristics of HIE you know that all living foliage comes out white and dead trees black. This is how the forest service use to check the health of the forests. You will notice that part of this old try is dead while there is still growth in other areas. HIE also has the characteristics of taking away haze and making skies appear darker, thus giving a dramatic effect especially when clouds are present. I liked this look very much. I actually was very fond of HIE images and used the film very regularly in my work. Hopefully I will find some others to share as well.

Canon F1, 17mm f4 @ f8, 1/125 sec, HIE rated at 100 ISO, Cokin Red filter no correction.

Day 45, 365 Day Project

Elephants seem to be a theme around our house. We have many different types of ornaments, statues and figures all over. This is one of two lamps in our bedroom. Image shot on the Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f7.1, 1/60th sec, 6400 ISO. Light is from the bulb above the figures.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #10

The Big Red Machine. That was what the Soviet Union hockey team was called back in 1980 when I took this image in the old Stampede Coral. It was wonderful to get the opportunity to shoot international matches like this. The games were always intense especially in an Olympic year. I wish I knew who the players in this image are and the exact date of the game as I failed to note this on my chromes. Shoot with my Canon F1 and 135 mm f2.0 lens. Shutter speed would be 1/250 sec @ f4. Film stock was Fujichrome 400 pushed two stops to 1600 ISO for the low light. This game was televised so the extra lights were on for television.

Day 44, 365 Day Project.

A pre-valentine's day image. We went out to Boston Pizza for supper with the boys and they have hearts that the kids could write messages on. Cool looked so cute and I can't help but posting my boy's photo's. Shot with the camera on my iPod touch.

Day 43, 365 Day Project

It’s amazing what you can find around the house and the interesting light and shadows that are there everyday. This ornament we have hangs in the corner of our living room and has been there since we bought it at the Stampede last summer. I never really paid it much attention until I was looking for something interesting to shoot for today’s image. Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f3.5, 1/40th sec., at 12,800 ISO.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #9

I shot the legendary Jack Nicklaus on July 7, 1984 when he played in a golf match against Canadian Golf Pro Jim Nelford. At the time I was publisher/editor of a local golf magazine called "Par 5" which covered the golf scene in and around Calgary. This was a summer project for myself and was printed at my father's printing company. Thus I was involved in all aspects from writing and photography, through production and then distribution sales and advertising. It was a lot of work and I earned a little bit of money, but a great learning experience.

Anyway back to the image. I had full press credentials for the event and was able to walk beside Jack for the entire 18 holes. For the shoot I had borrowed a 400 mm f2.8 lens from Canon and had this on my new F1 body. On the Old F1 body (camera prior to the re-release in 1980) I had a 135mm f2.0. This is with the 400mm and was at about f8 at 1/250 sec. Film stock was Fujichrome 100 ISO. Needless to say my arms were very tired after carrying all that equipment for 3 1/2 hours but afterward in the lounge I was able to chat with both Jack and Jim and have them autograph a copy of my magazine which I still have to this day. On a sad note Jim, who was a top Canadian on the PGA tour at the time, had an accident while water skiing later that summer, propeller blade severed tendons in his arm, and was not able to compete on the tour again.

Day 42, 365 Day Project.

End of another long day. Boys are in bed playing on Cool's iPod so had to grab a quick shot with my iPod touch camera. This is how the two of them are, always side by side. Absolutely the best of friends. Cool says they will be friends for ever.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #8

"Green Eyed Monster" was the title for this image created in 1994 at the Alberta College of Art and Design. I entered it that year as a student member of the Professional Photographers of Canada and recieved a merit award and had it part of the PPOC loan collection fo that year. Shot on Kodax T-max 100 ISO with the Canon F1, 85 f 1.2 lens at f5.6 1/125 sec.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #7

When I attended the Alberta College of Art I had an instructor who was a master in the darkroom and a fan of Edward Weston. Weston is famous for a lot of photographs, but his pepper series where extraordinary. In our first semester of photography classes our instructor had us do our own pepper series exploration. The rules of the assignment were that we could only use one light source and they had to be hot lights, in this case Mole Richardson's that are typically used on film sets. The college had a variety of models and we could use what ever we wanted to manipulate the light. One of the problems was that for their perceived brightness the intensity really wasn't that strong for film stock of the day (this was done in the fall of 1993). Thus with 100 iso film (in this case T-max) exposure times were in the 1/4 to 1/2 second range with f-stops around f4. The other thing is they did get very hot. It was not uncommon to cook a pepper as you photographed it (I even burned a few) or have the foam core flats used as reflectors to melt. We also had to do a new pepper every day for 15 weeks. With 20 of us doing this assignment the studio always smelt of peppers and to this day I can not stand the smell or taste of them.

Day 41, 365 Day Project.

Shot this evening at 5:52 pm. It is so nice to see the sun setting later in the day. Tonight's was extremely spectacular and this was shot from our front window as I was preparing super for the boys. No manipulation was done, straight from the raw file. Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f5, 1/125 sec at 100 ISO. I chose to drop out the houses it narrow as I like the panoramic effect.

Day 40, 365 Day Project.

A look down the mouth of the antique gramaphone that we bought in India 5 years ago. It is a lovely piece and in complete working order. I love the reflextion off the brass and the shape of it. Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f8, 1/40th sec at 12,800 ISO.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #6

This image was shot in Montreal on July 22, 1993. I had just purchased my Zone VI 4x5 field camera and wanted to test it out in one of the cities most famous land marks, the Notre Dame Basilica. Setting up I used my spot meter and determined a 14 minute exposure at f64 was needed. The lens was a Fujinon 210mm. I opened the lens and sat down and waited as the tour groups walked by giving a ghosting effect in the foreground. I was about to do a second exposure when a minister told me that photography with my type of camera was not permitted. Fortunately I only needed one shot and here is the result.

When I returned home I printed and matted three identical copies of the photograph that I entered in three different salons the next summer. The Calgary Stampede rejected it, the Red River Exhibition in Winnipeg accepted it and the National Association for Photographic Arts (now substituting Canadian for National) awarded it a Gold Medal at their salon in Vancouver. It taught me very early that judges are different and never give up on images I believe in.

In scanning this image I was amazed at the detail in the walls at the back of the Basilica even with the grain structure. The film was Kodak type 2771 stock (100 ISO). Scanned with the Epson V700 film scanner.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #5

I created this photo back in my Alberta College of Art days back in 1993. Shot with my Zone VI 4x5 camera with a 210mm Fujinon lens. Aperture was f32 @ 1/125 sec on 100 ISO Kodak negative film. I was very impressed with the sharpness of the file produced by my Epson v700 scanner and the size was over 125 meg's. I can see me getting out the old field camera once again for landscape images and scanning the negatives to produce stunning large images.

Day 39, 365 Day Project.

Today was a good day for finding some images to create. It started this morning as I was playing with Luke upstairs. The morning sun was coming through the window and I noticed a light pattern on the carpet caused by the laundry basket. Since it was not a large pattern I looked for a small object that I could place in the light. I found this little angel figurine we have and brought it over and put it on the floor and then moved it and the basket until I got a pleasing scene. The above image was shot with the Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f 8, 1/125 sec at 100 ISO.

Later in the afternoon I went out side to shovel the driveway. When I was walking back up an hour later (we have a long driveway) I noticed the snow that had been pushed up against the house had curled back over due to the heat from the sun. It reminded me of the tubes in the surf in Hawaii. I went inside, grabbed my camera and this little surfing figure that the boys have. I carefully positioned it in the tube and got down on the ground to shoot the below image. Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f8, 1/100 sec at 100 ISO.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #4

I had the opportunity to photograph Pope John Paul II in Edmonton in the spring of 1984. Even though I was freelancing for the papers at the time security was tight, even back then. I was a long way of from the Pontiff but with my 200-500 mm Tamron lens and a 2x converter was still able to capture a few images from the crowd. This was on 400 ISO Kodak film stock of the time and was shot hand held at 1/125 @ f11. It was extremely windy that day so it made things very difficult to get clear images. Thank goodness for the image stabilization in today's lenses.

Day 38, 365 Day Project.

We have had a real yo-yo of a year so far in 2011. We have gone from bitterly cold to double digit highs to yet another dump of snow last night. Needless to say the playground at Cool's school has been busy and been empty. Today it was empty as a fresh 15cm of snow covered the ground and the temp was -17C. I snapped a few images around the playground as I like the colors against the snow. This was taken with my iPod touch and the processed in Instagram with the Toaster filter. Now the melt begins once again as we are looking at above freezing once again on Thursday and through the weekend.

Day 37, 365 Day Project.

Rediscovering my past as I go through my old negatives looking for interesting images to scan. I am using the Epson V700 PHOTO Scanner that will do neg/pos up to 8 x 10. Looking forward to having fun with this piece of equipment and to posting images to the archives.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #3

Like most city kids I had a fascination with trains. We could hear them rumbling through town even though I lived up near Nosehill park. Back then Calgary was smaller and quieter. When I started taking photographs I would often go downtown or near the train tracks to shoot images. Even when I traveled I would watch out for scenes involving trains. This image was taken in August 1993 near the Bearspaw Dam in Calgary. Shoot on T-max 400 iso film with my Canon F1 and 35mm f2.0 lens. I always liked the Caboose on the trains and found this reflection made for an interesting image.

On a side note, I always thought T-max had the best grain structure for it's time and would often push TMY to 160 or 3200 iso's when shooting sports. Now that I am scanning my old negatives I am truly appreciating what we have in our current digital cameras. With the Canon 7D I have started shooting at 6400 and even 12,800 iso. I always felt the noise was not bad in comparison to the old film stocks I shot. Looking closely at the grain structure of today's image and comparing it to so recent 12,800 iso images, I say no one should be complaining about the noise.

Day 36, 365 Day Project

Today is a rest day from my exercise routine and a chance to snack on a favorite food. My weak spot is for Christie's Maple Leaf, FudgeeO and Pirate Peanut Butter cookies. So I thought I would record them and then try a little photoshop filters. I have not played with the filters at all so it is just another thing to add into the project. I choose the Sponge filter as I liked the effect it gave but still retained a certain degree of sharpness. Shot with the Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f4 for 1/50 sec at 3200 ISO.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #2

This is one of the earliest 35 mm images I have created. Shot in the summer of 1977, in an area that is now covered in house's, I found this run down old shed and stage coach. Still discovering my new darkroom and learning how to develop film I made what turned out to be a happy mistake but a technique I would use from time to time. In my excitement and impatience I developed the film in developer that was at 90 degree F (normally you would have it at 70 degree's). This caused the film to be over developed (which I learned to compensate for in the future) and for the emulsion to crack subtly, thus causing what was called reticulation. Unfortunately since it was a roll of film most of the frames were dense and unusable. However this one, with this particular subject matter, worked out to create a unique image.

Fortunately I was taught to record my technical data and though this was a mistake it was one I was able to repeat in the future when I wanted to, especially with sheet film. This was taken with my Pentax K1000 which was the first 35mm camera I owned and a standard 50mm lens.

Archive Image of the Day. Image #1

Inspired by my friend Ron Galella who has been posting images from his archive’s I have decided to dive in to my files and try and post a new image each day. Using the Epson V700 Photo scanner I will endeavor to go through my files and pick out something unique that I have shot. Hopefully you will enjoy the images I find and post.

Today's image was taken in the old Stampede Coral hockey arena in the Calgary Flames 1981/82 season. I was freelancing back then and shot the Flames periodically for a variety of publications. This image was shot on the old Ilford XP-1 film and rated at 3200 ISO due to the lack of light in the Coral. Not every game was televised back then so we didn't always have the extra lights on when we shot. Putting strobes in the rafters was also unheard of at the time. It was very different from today's age but was lot's of fun.

I am posting this image as the Los Angles Kings pay the current Flames a visit tomorrow evening and thought it would be a nice blast from the past. The Calgary players are Jim Peplinski who had 67 points that season and Reggie Lemelin who recorded 10 wins as the back up goaltender. That's Jerry Korab crashing the net being watched by Dean Hopkins of the Kings.

Image shot with the Canon F1 (new version) and 85 f1.2 lens.

Day 35, 365 Day Project

This is a wall hanging that we also purchased in India. It is a small portion of it as the full piece is used to adorn the Elephants that are used in the temple ceremonies that take place in Kerala. The largest of these festivals takes place in Lysa's hometown of Thrissur and is called Thrissur Pooram. Two temples square of with their elaborately decorated elephants during this festival that takes place in April or May depending on the Malayalam calendar. Some 50 or more elephants parade through the centre of the city in a spectacle that lasts some 36 hours. It is an event I hope to attend one day with the family.

Image taken with the Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f8, 1/60th sec at 6400 ISO.

Day 34, 365 Day Project.

Today was a bit of a challenge as I am operating on 4 hours sleep. I almost took the easy way out and post a quick snap shot of Lysa and Luke. However I thought to myself that I took on this project to challenge my creativity and to make me shoot regularly and in different and interesting ways. So I took some of the frescoed elephants we got on our trip to India a few years back and took them down stairs to figure out how I wanted to shoot them.

I took my blue backdrop and a piece of mirror and arranged the elephants in an interesting pattern. I then put my Canon 7D on a tripod with cable release set the shutter to "Bulb", ISO @ 400 and f-stop at f16. Zooming in with the Canon 24-70 f2.8 to fill the frame I set the white balance to tungsten then shut of the lights and used a flash light with a snoot to make a 36 second time exposure. I liked the slight warmth and the blue/black reflection as well as the shadow on the background that seemed to add to the depth of the image.

Day 33, 365 Day Project

I was on my way to teach my lighting class at SAIT tonight and as I was leaving the house I saw this wonderful reflextion of the sunset on my car. The rear windows are tinted and gave a nice dark reflextion and was in contrast to the blue of the car door. Shot with the Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8 @ f10, 1/25 sec at 1600 ISO.

Day 32, 365 Day Project.

Start of a new month and today is the day I take my mulligan. It's been a long busy day and the creative juices just aren't flowing. So the image of the day is a quick shot of some of my old equipment that I have used throughout the years and now sit as display items along with other photographic knick knacks. All of this equipment still works and I could easily pull it off the shelf and use it, but digital is just so much more convenient.

Just so you know what you’re looking at here. The old twin-lens AnscoFlex II is the first camera I ever used some 40 years ago. I purchased the Canon F1 back in 1980 (the very first one sold in Canada). I added the CrownGraphic to the collection and was using it about 25 years ago. The Hasselblad came along in 1990. Not shown here but part of the collection and added in about 1993 are an Empire State 8 x 10 field camera and a Zone VI 4 x 5 field camera. All of these cameras were lovingly used and it is a shame that it sits gathering dust. I actually hope to pull some of it out of its retirement this spring and along with the darkroom revisit some of the old ways. I have a few personal projects rolling around in my head so watch for them in the future.