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.

Magazine DIY

Every month I get a few photography magazines to read and examine. Each month I look at 90% of the photos and sneer at them with an "I could do that" attitude and then toss them out. A few of the photos are out of my league but most (I feel) are well within my range of ability.

This month I saw one of the most basic shots, "The Water Drop" in Digital SLR Photography and decided to try my hand at one of these "easy" shots.


There wasn't much to the set up: a dark paint tray, tripod, flash, macro lens, and off you go. The only problem was setting up the hanging bag where the water would drip from. After about 10 minutes of trial and error, I was able to get water to drop consistently in a single place.

After that it was timing. I have so many shots of the pan itself (too early) or just ripples (too late).

Really cool things started to happen when I anticipated the drop and was able to catch it before it flew upwards. I was excited to be able to move the flash all around the pan thanks to my pocket wizards and that gave me creative control over where the shadows would fall.

I attached a few different colored gels on the flash to get different looks, and after I was done I looked back at the original article in the magazine with a feeling that I did a pretty good job overall. This should be the start of a new habit of mine... trying to replicate shots I admire and like.