Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Looking at the door.

One thing about trying to create a photo a day is that it makes one look at everyday objects with a more intuitive eye.  This is even more true when one has a pretty set routine and the variety of life is limited   Today while waiting for my boys at their choir I noticed a few little details as I waited by the door.  I made these grabs with the iPhone and used the Noir app to make the conversion to monochrome and added the border in PhotoToaster.
For the door handle I used Pic Grunger to add the texture and Laminar for the frame.

Monday, April 15, 2013

A few student portraits.

One of the fun things about my classes at SAIT is that I believe on the Hands On approach.  That is why I schedule three days of shooting in the basic lighting class and 5 in the advanced lighting class (these are 6 week courses).  AS such I am always looking for people to come in and be subjects.

Tonight's advanced lighting class we were working mixing light sources using strobe on our subjects and tungsten light sources and cookies on the background.  A former student, Cooper, has been kind enough to come in to class in the past and returned tonight.  I created this profile shot as I liked the way his mohawk stood out from this angle.
I usually set up to rooms so that we can split the group up and give more opportunities to shoot.  We didn't have a subject for this side so the students took turns posing for each other.  I photographed two of them, Nikki and Matt and enjoyed these results.


Sunday, April 14, 2013

A few minutes outside the McCaig Tower.

Sometimes one has to make the most of limited opportunities. That is a situation what I find myself in most day's.  I'm no different then many of you who have busy lives with work and families so when I find a few minutes to search out a subject for the days photo's I work quickly.  While I was waiting to pick up my wife from work this afternoon I took a quick walk around the side of the McCaig Tower at the Foothills Medical Centre.  I noticed the empty bike rack and was intrigued by the design.  So using the iPhone I looked for some unique angles on the row of racks.  Once I took the photo's I used the Snapseed app on the iPhone to add a few different effects that I felt suited each shot.


Saturday, April 13, 2013

The joy's of teaching.


I have had the honour and privilege of teaching at SAIT for 13 years now.  Even though it may seem to be old hat, each session always is different and has it's own flow. Now I have been fortunate to have great students over the years and they have brought wonderful subjects to work with.  Someday's there is a nice rhythm to the lecture or shoot.

On other's things seem to take time to develop and the energy level is different.  These can be a challenge and there is no real reason as to why this happens.  Today was one of those days and it took a bit of work for me to get things on track.  Once I dealt with some of technical questions about working on location with available light I was able to move on to suggestions of how to make some more unique images.

We had two lovely couples. Don and Denean who have been married 10 years came in dressed in their wedding outfits.  I took these two shots of Denean as she jumped and moved around so the student's could see that photo's don't have to be static

Our other couple, Tina and Brian, are getting married next month and we did engagement type photo's for them.  In these three shots we looked for different angles and moods of the happy young couple.  Working in Heritage hall on the SAIT campus provided many opportunities to have fun with especially on a cold and wet day.


Friday, April 12, 2013

A few thoughts.

Over the last month or so I have been busy with my teaching and family duties.  I still managed to do my photo of the day (today is 824 consecutive days) and I managed to look at a lot of photographs on a variety of photo sharing sites.  What this has done may have had an effect that I had not fully anticipated.

Now while there are lots of average photographs out there, I have seen a great amount of creative and beautiful images.  This has been a humbling thing.  I have always felt that I am a decent photographer yet when I see the great work being done by others, I sometimes question what it mine is worth.  Digital has opened the flood gates and thus the creativity has also grown substantially. Now I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic.  What I have discovered is that it takes more then passion to be successful in photography.

For the last few years I have been trying to find my place/role in the industry.  I am a good teacher and enjoy my classes at SAIT.  I love to talk photography and share ideas. As I move forward these next few months I am optimistic that I will find something that will help me establish where I want to go in the industry.  I will share these here as well as in my Calgary Institute for Photography blog as I try to re-establish that group.   I hope you will follow and support me if you can.

Here are some of my photo's from today.  I spent a few hours downtown talking to a few individuals whom I respect and hope will be involved in some future projects.  I walked along the Stephen Avenue mall and in the Devonian Gardens where the first two photo's were taken.  The last was taken at the Bow Building of the giant head that sits in front of the property.




Thursday, April 11, 2013

Making the most of spring snow.

We had another blast of snow today.  One nice thing about snowfall in April is that it is relatively warm (+2C) and the snow is extra wet.  This makes for great snowball making as it sticks together very well.  As I was waiting for Luke after school I started to roll a small ball with my foot and by the time he got out it had grown to be a fair size.  Well the kids who live close by (the others had to catch the bus or their rides home) got into it and start making their own snowballs.  Those around were mostly grade 1's but they had great fun and did a great job working together to roll the snow.  In the end the wall they created was close to 45 feet long and consisted of 23 snowballs.


More photo's from the past 40 days.

As promised yesterday, here are a selection of a few more of the photo's I took over the last 40 days.  Some day's I had taken only one and others I had more.  I hope you like the variety and this will bring me up to date with images I wanted to share.  I will post today's photo(s) of the day later this evening but for now leave you to enjoy these.
























Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Playing catch up. Photo's of the day for the past month+.

It has been more than a month since my last post.  No real excuse other then life just was full and I was not in the mood to blog.  I apologize to those who do follow me and over the next few days will endeavour to catch up.  With today's posts I will share the photo's that I had selected as the photo of the day.  Tomorrow I will add other images that I shot during the past 40 days. After that I hope to be caught up and will share some thoughts that have been rattling around my head during this time.  Thanks for you time and I hope you enjoy these photo's

March 2
 March 4
 March 4
 March 5
 March 6
 March 7
 March 8
 March 9
 March 10
 March 11
 March 12
 March 13
 March 14
 March 15
 March 16
 March 17
 March 18
 March 19
 March 20
 March 21
 March 22
 March 23
 March 24
 March 25
 March 26
 March 27
 March 28
 March 29
 March 30
 March 31
 April 1
 April 2
 April 3
 April 4
 April 5
 April 6
 April 7
 April 8
 April 9
 April 10