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.