I Can Has Kitty?

In September, I visited my friend Kelly in Halifax where he raises horses with his wife Stacie. They have a huge farm on 35 acres and along with two dogs, 10 cats roam the area on the lookout for mice. I honestly didn't go to Halifax to take photos of cats, but when I got there, the setting was too perfect.

The names of these cats are like characters from "The Wire". There's Booger, Charlie, Skunk, Sly, Tiny, Vo, Itchy... the list goes on. If you ever need names for a tv show, Kelly and Stacie might be able to help out.

Four of the cats were kittens and as always they were playful and eager to investigate what was going on. They never come in the house, but they do know where the food comes from and so they are usually nearby if you go outside.

Looking at these photos you might think I was using a long lens to try and blur the background, but the long lens was too long, as the cats would move around so fast that it was hard to get a nice crisp shot of them. I used my 100mm macro lens instead and that allowed me to sit nearby and if they got close, I could take photos with amazing detail.

That farm where your parents said your pets went to when they grew old and tired exists. It's near Halifax and it's about as close to a kitty "heaven" as I think you could script.

1960's Hong Kong

My dad went to Hong Kong in the 1960's as part of the Royal Navy and came home with three packages of slides that showed various parts of the former colony. I think the package designs of the slide boxes are great, but the slides themselves are terrible. Time has aged these photos with color shifts, dust and debris all over the place, but I have a feeling that the quality of these mass produced photos wasn't great to begin with.

This photo of Hong Kong from Victoria Peak shows what a difference a few decades can make to the skyline of a city. Today HK is a huge metropolis, but back in the 1960's there are very few tall buildings to be seen and nothing what you would call a skyscraper. Compare that image with a shot I took in 2001 and the difference is startling.

Known for it's neon signs and congestion, Hong Kong hasn't changed. 1960's HK looks just about the same today with cars, people and signs shoved into a tiny area of land at the bottom of China.

Night time in HK is spectacular and from Victoria Peak you can see the entire city. The photo here shows a time-lapse of the boats in the harbor and some of the city lit up. Compared to 2001 and again the difference in how much Hong Kong was built up over the years is amazing.

Lastly, I loved this photo of two young boys bowing to each other outside of a doorway. I would like to know what happened to these men and what they are doing now.

Mexico revisited

In March of 1999, I visited my friend who was on a student exchange program in Guadalajara and immediately decided I would enroll the following semester. I spent six months (July - December) going to school and living in Mexico, loving every minute of it. In July of this year, I was invited to shoot a wedding in Puerto Vallarta and as it was only a four-hour bus ride away, I thought I would take two days and revisit GDL.

I arrived at 6am and stumbled off the bus and into a taxi. I took it to the centre of town, "El Centro" and waited for the sunrise. It had just stopped raining and so there was no where to sit and wait for the sky to lighten. Instead, I started to wander around in the dark and see what I could remember of the layout of the city. Rats ran along the gutters, a few drunks stumbled by, and then the sky finally started to lighten. I took this first photo of the town centre at 8am before the crowds arrived.

When the sun came out, I took this photo of a nearby church top. Beautiful colors. I used a 70-200mm lens, which drew a lot of attention when I took it out of my bag. I felt like the one white guy walking into a black bar where all the heads turn and the music stops. I kept smiling and talking to anyone who held my gaze and soon people stopped staring.

At 10am I went to the Starbucks where I was supposed to meet my friend. I called her, sent a text and left a voice mail. I totally forgot about "Mexican Time", and so at 1pm she arrived. Three hours.. not bad. I made friends with the security guard at Starbucks. Rutbe took me to a pretty part of town, Tlaquepaque and we had lunch. We had this huge bowl of tequila and water and ice with lemons in it. I can't explain how good this was.

One of the shots I have wanted to re-shoot was the mural of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla by Jose Clemente Orozco. When I was there in 1999, I didn't have a lens wide enough to capture the entire scene. Using my 8mm fish-eye I was able to stand at the base of the stairs looking up and finally get the full mural. This mural was painted inside the government building and celebrates the father of Mexican independence.

Lastly, this photo just reminded me of Conan O'Brien and so I include it here for your viewing.

A painful wedding day

Let me start by saying that Jason and Sarah are great people and that the headline has nothing to do with them. I pulled my back out of joint two days before the wedding, and spent the wedding day feeling like any minute my back was gonna spasm. Fun. I was walking like an old man, but we struggled through, and ended up with some very beautiful photos.

My injury was not the only one. A week before the wedding, the groom Jason had been working with a piece of wire that sprang out and punctured his right eye leaving him temporarily blind. We were the walking wounded, but this wedding was going forward.

We did the formals at a beautiful house in Mount Royal and the weather totally cooperated with a slightly cloudy day that meant no harsh shadows. I dropped ambient light by about a stop and then had a shoot-thru umbrella on camera right to add the light. I made them put their arms around each other in cheesy poses and soon the laughing began and I got this shot. Natural smiles are always the best.

At the reception, there was a nice white 9' ceiling so I was able to bounce the flash and get a more natural look to the candid shots I was hunting for. This shot of the bride and groom laughing happened as the bride's sister told one of the best stories of childhood ever.

Later in the evening there was the customary first dance. A six-piece brass band played "It had to be you" and the crowd gathered to watch the newlyweds. This photo was done with a slow shutter speed so I could get the colour of the room, and then the flash highlighted the couple at the centre of the action. In the large version of the photo, you can see all the faces of their friends smiling at them in the background. Once I had this photo in the camera I knew I could relax as I had "the shot".

A beautiful wedding day, and I hope the Jason and Sarah like these photos as much as I do.

Flowers

I shot these photos because of an article I read in Digital SLR Photography magazine. They suggested getting a white or black background and wandering around the yard. Sounded like a good idea, so I went over to RONA and picked up a 4' section of white plastic for $10. After that I took my macro lens and my tripod over to the yard and started looking for photos.

Putting the white background really allows for that studio look in the great outdoors.

This shot of the purple flower and a shallow depth of field came out great. Luckily the sun went behind a cloud a that moment, and gave the little flower a chance to shine.

The worst thing to deal with when shooting macro is movement. Any movement. The wind, your own breathing, the shutter button. Anything that can move the camera even slightly should be avoided. I used a heavy tripod, a remote trigger and if I had to hand hold the camera, I held my breath till I had the shot.

The sun came out on this yellow flower and I liked the over-exposed look. The white background is blown out, and you could be fooled into thinking this was done indoors.

I had packed up my gear when I saw one more photo to shoot. I didn't use the white board, instead allowing the background to underexpose allowing the white flower to stand out. I love the way the petals look like fabric. Flowers tend to be overdone with a macro lens, but they do look good.

Mike and Megan's wedding

On July 18th, my brother took the plunge and got married. Mike is the first person in the family to get married, he was the first to have a baby, and the first to teach me about photography. I owe a lot to him. I was part of the actual wedding, so I didn't take out my camera while holding one of the poles supporting the "huppah". As soon as the formal photos were done though, I grabbed my camera and started shooting.

Everyone attending the wedding looked so happy, but none happier than the bride and groom, Mike and Megan. This photo of them dancing shows the happiness. A little technical data for you, I shot a slow shutter speed, and let the background swirl while the flash held my subjects in focus.

When it was time to do the chair lift, everyone was on the dance floor and ready to help. Megan's eyes in this photo were priceless, and seeing Mike lifted into the air by his friends was awesome.

Mike's son Damir was a reluctant dancer, and he struggled to stay off the dance floor even as he was pulled out by his friends.

Usually, July 18th is the day to celebrate my birthday, and then the 20th is my mom's, but this year I think we were both quite happy to be overshadowed by this event.

Portrait shooting at the zoo

Ever since I bought the 300mm, I have been wanting to go to the zoo to get close up portraits of the animals. This week my friend called to tell me she had a free pass and that we were off to the zoo. Awesome.

We arrived with her baby in tow, and we walked all over the zoo checking out the tigers, new butterfly area, little red pandas, and something called a Muntjac. It was a great day as each time we would arrive at a new animal, they would all pose for me without any prompting. It was like they knew I was there to make them pretty and they simply sat down, and waited for the magic to begin. This tiger paced for a bit, found some shade next to me, and sat down and stared at me. Beautiful.

One of my favorite photos was this one of an ostrich who was no more than 20ft from me when I took this shot.Totally isolated from the background, each hair can be seen, and you really get to see how ugly this bird is. Great personality in that face.

In the butterfly exhibit, I was having trouble using a large lens with a minimal focusing distance of 2.5m. I would see something, try to focus and then remember I had to back up, and by that time the butterfly had moved on. Lucky for me, there were so many photo opportunities that I felt like I was shooting fish in a barrel. The depth of field on this lens was amazing. The edge of the butterfly is out of focus, while the centre is crisp. At that distance, 2mm was the difference between in or out of focus.

Lastly, we made it out to the Canadian Aviary exhibit and saw this huge owl looking at me. It would look puzzled at me, straighten up, and then when it heard the camera click, the puzzled look came back. Such a beautiful bird and the detail in the large image is outstanding.

What a beautiful day at the zoo, and the results that I came away with made me really happy I made this lens investment.

The Fast & Furious

This week I was invited to Race City in Calgary to view cars practicing the beautiful art of drifting.

Although the majority of drivers were amateur, they were still a ton of fun to watch and listen to as they threw these cars around the course. Lots of spin-outs, lots of bumpers falling off, and the air was full with the smell of burning tires and clutches.

I used my new 300mm 2.8 so I could stay safe, while the other photographers were using smaller lenses and therefore had to be in the danger zone. The lens was great, but with at 2.8, I was shooting too fast to make the cars look anything but static. After a while I put the shutter speed down to about 1/160th, put the f-stop at f8 and then the cars started to show a little more speed in the photos.

As the sun began to set, I suddenly remembered another trick to making the cars look like they are zooming around: tilt that lens. I loosened the ring mount, cranked the lens a little to the right, and suddenly the photos looked like every shot in most car magazines.

A great night and I came away with a better understanding of drifting, and how hard it is to control a car with a ton of power and way too much speed. Thanks Diane and Mike for inviting me out there.

A Puerto Vallarta wedding

A few months ago I was asked by my friend Jeanne if I wanted to photograph her wedding in Mexico. Well... let's see... ummm... YES. To be able to spend time with my friends, at an all-inclusive resort and shoot a beautiful wedding is pretty much the best way to spend a week in my opinion.

July in Mexico is the rainy season, which means overcast days. That also means great light to shoot a wedding with as the wedding party will have no shadows on their faces and the sky can act as a huge soft box. In the days preceding the wedding, the weather was cooperating with overcast days and the odd drop of rain here and there. Then the night before, the clouds opened up and we had to discuss alternative wedding plans. Luckily, that burst of rain was gone by morning and we had a dry wedding and a perfect day.

This shot of Jeanne laughing is a good example of soft light. She is lit only with the natural light falling on her, and I overexposed the background so that she is the sole subject. I used my 70-200mm 2.8 and shot long for most of the wedding so that I didn't intrude as space was at a premium inside the small gazebo. This photo where they are saying their vows would feel different if I was in close with a wide-angle lens.

Later in the evening as the light slowly faded from the sky, we had a small miracle as the sun popped out for a very fast sunset. I quickly metered the sky, put my flash on a cord to get it off the camera and then overexposed my flash compensation by about one stop. We were able to shoot about ten photos before the sun was gone again.

Jeanne and Scott chose a beautiful location to have their wedding and I can't thank them enough for allowing me to the opportunity to come along for the ride. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

My new lens

I finally bit the bullet and laid my credit card on the table for a Canon 300mm 2.8 lens. I wasn't planning on getting it, dreaming always, but never planning. Spending a large sum of money is always hard for me to do, but I figured it was a "perfect storm" in financial terms and I couldn't pass this opportunity up.

A lot of my friends and family have all asked the same question: "what can this lens do that your other lenses can't?" Good question. It's a long lens, so I can shoot sports, wildlife, etc. It's an extremely sharp lens with a great auto focus so it's fast in comparison to my other lenses. But overall, it's simply having it that means everything to me.

When I was at school, I borrowed the 300mm every time I could. When I worked at the Calgary Herald, I dipped into their selection of 300s at events and assignments and really got used to carrying such a large lens. I loved the feeling of walking into a place with a huge lens on your shoulder and people "ohh-ing" as you walked by.


I think I can blame this purchase squarely on the coach of a football team I was shooting at McMahon Stadium. As I was walking down the sideline following the game, he said "Look at the size of that lens". It may not have been my lens at the time, but at that moment, I was hooked.

Screaming baby photos...

My friends came out from Toronto the other weekend and asked for a photo shoot with their 10-month-old. Sadly the whole weekend was spent with their baby in and out of clinics with a fever and an ear infection. Not the greatest way to get the baby in a good mood for a photo shoot. Needless to say when they arrived she was crying, angry at being woken up from the car ride, and just plain grumpy.

We did a quick photo shoot outside with the spring flowers in the background, but she didn't like nature much, so we moved inside and then downstairs to the basement where I could hang up a white backdrop. With my model on a soft cream blanket I put a single flash aiming up to the ceiling on the floor and the quickly dialed in the correct exposure. A few toys sprinkled around her allowed me to show a shallow depth of field rather than just her isolated on a white background.

I used a 50mm 1.4 lens for the shoot which gave me about 5' working area where I could move around and look for different angles. One of my favorite shots was with the flower we brought in from the garden. The color really pops and I loved watching her rip and tear apart this flower while handing out the pieces to anyone around.


Mom and Dad did a great job at keeping her anger at bay, giving her lots of attention without over-stimulating her and we had a lot of fun with the shots. I am starting to think I have a knack with babies. Perhaps I should go into baby photography full-time.