Jeff Lewis Photography Blog

Van City Trip

2011-10-04T13:36:00.001-06:00

A couple weeks ago I was able to spend a few days in Vancouver with my wife and some friends. We had a great time and although I didn't focus on photography that much, I did manage to grab a few decent frames as we wondered the city.

The above image is of a captive Bald Eagle at the Vancouver Aquarium. They do a regular show with a number of different birds performing demonstrations of flight and other things that birds do (yeah, real scientific stuff, I know). I was standing about six feet from this guy and grabbed a shot with my 70-200mm.

We also spent some time wondering Stanley Park after the aquarium visit. We went and checked out the Totem pole display. There were way to many people there for me to interested in trying to get any good shots of the totems, so this is all I came away with.

Sunset on English Bay from my hotel room at the Coast Plaza.

And finally a pano type shot from the 33rd floor of the hotel. Shot with my fisheye, with some minor distortion correction in Lightroom, and then cropped to a pano aspect. All in all it was a quick trip, but it was fun. We ate some great food, tried some great beer and I enjoyed a much needed 5 days off! Now I'll be working on another little vacation before winter comes. I'm really hoping I can get down to California for a few days this November, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the time off. Guess we'll see!

Tunnel Girl..

2011-06-30T12:28:00.002-06:00

While walking the dog and shooting a little from the hip as I walked through town the other day, I decided to snap a few images of the new underpass in Jasper. It was built for pedestrians so that when trains go by (which is quite often) they can pass under the tracks and make it to the other side instead of having to wait for long periods of time as 11,000 foot trains go by at 15 mph.

So when I started shooting the tunnel, just as an experiment to see if it would look cool for future portrait projects, there was no one around. Then people started showing up and walking through and this image of the woman walking through sort of caught my eye. Of course it had to be in black and white, the color version has no punch and looks shitty in the tunnel, less color takes my mind of the rest of the clutter. Maybe soon we'll get some actual summer weather and I can get out shooting more often? Only time will tell.

Oh yeah..I joined Twitter and y'all should follow me..... @JeffLewisPhoto

My Favorite Images of 2010

2011-01-13T13:55:00.005-07:00

So it only took me half a month to get this ready, but in reality it took me 20 minutes to get it ready and 14 days to remember to post it! Oops! So in absolutely no particular order, here are my favorite images from the year of 2010. I tried to get it down to ten pics, but in the end a few spoke to me as much as the others, so you get 15! Happy viewing!

The power of Mother Nature. This was a powerful summer storm that passed over in August after a beautiful summer day.

We had an awesome display of fall color this year. I was happy to be out shooting most days as in previous years I seemed to miss the best of the color.

When I first shot this image I didn't think it was anything special. I guess in terms of great photos it's not that spectacular, but I absolutely love the contrast of cool and warmth in the image. The blue in the ridges of the right side of the tree just pops out at me and it's a great contrast to the whole left side of the frame. I like it.

This one is more for me. I have never taken a self portrait that I was proud to display until I rented the Nikkor 24mm PC lens and shot this image. I think it's a great representation of myself and how I view my photography and what I have learned in the past year. Kudos to me!!

This is just a pretty image, plus it was the first one to sell from my gallery at Coco's Cafe, I don't think it lasted a while 24 hours there.

Ahh, Maligne Lake in winter. It was cold, and even colder when I fell through the river after shooting this image. Good times. At least I came home with a good picture AND a story!

This one just screams Fine Art Photography in my opinion. I am amazed how simple the image is, but how powerful all at the same time. Most likely one of my favorite Black and White images of the year.

Sunrise at Medicine Lake, that was pretty much happening when I got out of my van. I almost missed this one, and this was the second frame of the morning. Glad I got out of bed on this day.

A blistering cold winter sunrise over the Athabasca River in early January, just an overall nice picture.

I really don't know what to say about this one. I find it's different from most of my photography, but at the same time it really represents me as a photographer. I don't know if it's the composition, the processing, or what it is, but I really like this image and up until now I don't think I have even shown it to many people.

An image I have been chasing the past couple of years, but finally captured to my pleasing this time around. Definitely one of those trophy hunting shots, but I'm happy to go hunting every once in while.

The colors in this one make me smile. Fall was nice this year.

There is something peaceful about this one that just puts me in a calm state of mind. Maybe it's the thought of sitting on a calm quite mountain lake in a boat that puts me at ease.

The Edith Cavell road was closed for a while this year, and this was taken the second day it was open. I didn't spend as much time up there as I had anticipated, but I'm happy with the images that I came away with.

This was sort of an unexpected image. I went to Maligne Lake one night in search of a completely different image, but after walking around the shore of the lake for a while and not leaving when I was feeling unmotivated, the sun began to set and this turned out to be one of my top images this year. I love the color and the composition a lot.

Hopefully this year will prove as fruitful for my photography as last year, guess we'll have to wait and see......

365 Days... thoughts, comments, and where to next

2011-01-05T12:54:00.007-07:00

Just over a year ago, a few days before the 2010 new year, I made a haste decision to try to take one picture everyday for a whole year. Why? For a few reasons... let's talk about it.

First, ever since I started with photography only a few years ago, I have been totally consumed by it. I have that sort of personality I guess. Years ago I was a snowboarder, then I got into climbing, and sold all of my snowboard gear in search of the endless summer, so I could rock climb as much as possible. With climbing I traveled North America a fair amount, and even made it to Southeast Asia for a while. During my travels with rock climbing, I always found myself in these exotic places that, when trying to describe them to family and friends, I just couldn't do justice in words alone. There begins my photography roots.

Fast forward a year or two, and I purchased my first DSLR, a Nikon D40x with two kit lenses. That summer I barely climbed as I tried to learn as much as I could about photography. I read books and searched the web endlessly to try to absorb as much info that I could, all the while progressing a little bit every once in a while. Now this time I didn't drop climbing like I did snowboarding. Climbing and photography seemed to go hand in hand for me. Generally the places I go to climb are extraordinarily beautiful, so all I had to do was take my camera with me on my outings. For a while it was hard to find a balance, I either climbed and didn't touch my camera, or shot images all day and didn't climb. That doesn't bode well for my progression at either activity, so I had to choose. After a decent summer of climbing, and very little photography, I took a turn to take more images the following summer.

Fast forward one more time, it's the end of 2009, which was a busy year for me. I did a fair amount of shooting, and also got married and worked two jobs for most of the year. When the dust settled after the wedding, I decided to spend a little more money on camera gear, and really make a commitment to becoming a half decent photographer. This is where I decided that to really make a difference, and to try to make something of myself I needed a project, or a goal. That goal turned out to be the 365 Project. I know it's not original, and tonnes of people do it every year, but everyone has different reasons and approaches to the whole thing and I would be no different.

At first I was going to try to shoot images that were outside of my strengths like portraits or using lighting gear. Shortly after starting I found I felt my best and in my prime when I was out shooting landscape images, so that was the direction that the project went, which I had no problem with. Why would I bother spending a whole year trying to shoot stuff that I really wasn't that interested in? When I am out in the wilderness I feel at home, and the images just flow out of my camera and I absolutely love that state of mind that I have when I'm out alone shooting with only the sound of the river, or wind in the trees, or just no sound at all.

Maybe that defeated the purpose of the whole year, but I feel that my landscape photography progressed to a level I didn't think it would get to. I can now go to a location and set up and I don't think about my camera settings, or technical stuff at all. I just walk around and shoot. Sometimes the images flow like the river in spring run off, other times it's like a dried up lake bed and I couldn't find an image if I tried, but that's the nature of landscape photography, or all photography for that matter and we learn to live with it and in the end it makes us better photographers.

You may be thinking, "Yeah Jeff, you just shot a bunch of pretty landscape images...good for you, but did you really learn anything?" I can tell you right now I have learned tonnes. Even though a vast amount of my time was spent romping around Jasper and Banff National Parks, I became so comfortable with my camera system, that whenever I moved into a different type of photography, be it weddings or portraits or anything, I felt so comfortable and confident in my abilities, that those aspects of photography became easier just from my comfort level!

Another major thing I learned was how much my attitude in life affected the whole project. The year started off really well, I was out shooting a lot for the first three months, and felt great. Life was good, I loved my job, things were just all around good. In April I moved into a new apartment (only up 1 floor, but still a move), and with the move I had to paint, pack and transport stuff for a few days. I was tired, cranky and this lasted about two weeks and at that point I almost abandoned the project thinking it was "stupid" and I could do better if I just went out and shot when I wanted and not everyday. Bad state of mind = poor photography. That was my first downturn. After another week or so the weather got better, we settled into our new digs, and I was on a high again. This time the high lasted quite a while. The spring season was great, work was good, photography was awesome, and I made effort to get out every single day...awesome. I also found a good balance with climbing this year. I started to shoot as much as I climbed and it worked out well. My life was great and things were going well. As the summer stretched on though, I became sort of stuck in a rut in my job at the time. I felt I was just hanging around and not fulfilling my full potential as an employee. I filled that void with some photography work, it's always nice to make some money from your hobby, so that helped a bit. Each day at work though, I became more unhappy as I couldn't see a bright future in that position. Even though I had the best co-workers and boss I have ever had, I still continued to realize that I needed a little more opportunity in life. There was my second big downward spiral of the project. I didn't even want to look at my camera after a while.

So if you're still with me now, thanks, and sorry to bore you, I'll wrap this up now and you can stare at some pictures for a while. Fall season was awesome, great color, I'm very motivated to shoot. At this point I can see my photography evolving and I am right where I wanted to be as a photography, making a little money shooting the images I choose. Very cool. Over the summer I applied for a job with CN Rail, and come mid October I got the phone call, "are you still interested in the Conductor position?". Of course I was. I took the next two weeks to shoot as much as I could as the next two months I would live in a hotel in St. Albert while I trained to be a conductor on the railroad. Those months saw very little good photography, but I was okay with that as I felt I had my life on track and I would make time for photography when I was home, which I did.

Lots of lessons learned over the past few months, got questions? send 'em my way and I'll do my best to answer them.

Lastly I would like to thank my extremely patient wife for sitting at home, or in the car, or where ever we were while I shot pictures. This project would not have been finished without your support, thank you so much. And to my friends and family who either went shooting with me, or followed the project through the year, thank you for your support as well! Stay tuned for a "Best of 2010" post shortly.

All the best in the new year to everyone!

A Canadian Icon

2010-10-21T09:30:00.004-06:00

I made a quick trip down to the Lake Louise area yesterday morning for sunrise shoot, seeing as after next week I'll be in Edmonton for a while. After a less than stunning sunrise at Lake Louise, I stopped at Peyto Lake on my way home. Peyto is probably my favorite lake in the Canadian Rockies, with the very unique Abraham Lake being my second fave. Here is a three image pano that I shot with the 24mm PC-E lens from Nikon. Shooting panos with this lens is just too easy!

Photo: Nikon D300s, 24mm f/3.5 PC-E

Tekarra Time Lapse

2010-10-18T23:32:00.002-06:00

Here is a very short time lapse video I shot on Thanksgiving, while we ate our dinner. I had the camera set up with a remote that triggered an image every 30 seconds. It's not terrible, but I think I can do better.

Fire in the sky

2010-10-09T09:18:00.003-06:00

I went out for a shoot on Tuesday night at Medicine Lake, hoping for a bit of a sunset. For the first little while I though it was going to just get dark, with no exciting color to end the day...Boy was I wrong!! The show started a little slow, then built and built, and ended with some color and light that I haven't seen in quite a while. What a day. Take a look for yourself. Above is what I though would be he peak of the sunset..below is what happened moments after I thought I should head back to the van and drive home! Guess I was wrong!

Photos: Nikon D300s, 17-55mm f/2.8

A quick one..

2010-10-09T09:15:00.003-06:00

I had to drop a vehicle off at the Berg Lake trail head for a friend this week. Steph and I took the dog for a bit of a walk up to Kinney Lake. It's only a 4km walk to the lake, on pretty easy terrain, but it was a great day nonetheless. Here's a little view from the edge of the lake.

Photo: Nikon D300s, 17-55mm f/2.8

Does it pay to wait around?

2010-10-02T12:30:00.004-06:00

I've been driving in and out of Jasper National Park a few times this past few weeks. I have made a few trips to Edmonton, Hinton, and Rock Lake. The trees on the eastern edge of the park had been getting better and better with every trip. I knew the photo I wanted to get, I knew where I would set up, and I knew what type of conditions I wanted to have. So this past Tuesday, after dropping some friends off at the North Boundary trail head, I stopped at my pre-determined location, set up my camera with the 70-200 attached, focused on the pattern of trees that looked the most interesting to me, and I then I proceeded to wait....and wait...and wait. After about 30-40 minutes of watching the clouds roll by, and shooting a few other interesting forest shots, I saw the sun coming, I quickly reset my camera to the previously chosen set of tress, and fired away as the sunlight danced across the different shades of yellow. Was it worth the wait? I think so. Look above, the image is just of the pattern in the trees with no sunlight, just clouds above, cool colors and patterns, but it's lacking something. Now look below, the shot with the light has that edge that makes it that much better than the original shot. I could have packed up and drove home right away, but instead I chose to wait around for a bit, and I think I'm glad I did! So a little lesson for y'all, sometimes it pays to wait around, something sort of interesting, may get very interesting if you have the patience!

Photos: Nikon D300s, 70-200mm f/2.8

This sums it up....

2010-09-23T23:22:00.004-06:00

It's been a long day, I've already driven 800 kms, the sun is out and the air is cool. I take a quick look outside and I know I can't let this day pass without a taking a photo. I pack my camera bag, check all my filters and lenses for dust and off I go again. "There was patch of bushes I saw on the drive home that had some great red and yellow color in them, maybe I'll try to go there, there should be some light on Roche Miette as the sun sets." Thirty minutes later I'm standing in a swamp off the highway, away from the sounds of the cars and trucks. Just as the sun dips below the mountains I enjoy the last warm rays of light. The air quickly turns cool, the smell of Autumn is everywhere now, I shoot a few images then change spots. The light is quickly racing up the mountain face now, I had better work fast, but don't rush. I'm not just out here to make pictures, I'm experiencing the world, nature at it's finest hour. The picture will just serve to help my memory down the road. It's days like today that I realize why I love shooting pictures, experiencing nature's finest moments, then presenting them for others to view. The light is fading away now. I walk back to the van, plug in the iPod and make the quick drive back home. "I wonder what nature has in store for me for tomorrow?"

Signs....Long term stuff.

2010-09-21T22:19:00.003-06:00

Ohhh blog, why is it that you are the first thing to get left behind when I get "busy" or unmotivated? Oh well. Lots has been going on, still shooting a bunch, more weddings these days, it seems that Sept, or Fall in general is the time to get married in the Rockies. My wife and I made a quick trip to Washington state over the Labor day weekend, it was nice to get away. The only sad part was when it was time to leave, I wanted to keep driving south, but alas, we headed north, and back home to Jasper. I did however find a new long term photo project I will pursue for the next while. Signs. Old type signs, or signs in odd places, or just odd signs in general. I found a few on our recent travels, and now I think it will be something I'll be looking for, for the next while. I may have to make a trip to the Neon Graveyard in Vegas, that would be a good time. I would have a complete portfolio of signs then! Anywho, here are a few to keep your eyes satisfied for a while. I'll post a few more pics from the trip in a day or so. Enjoy!

Summer Haze...

2010-08-03T00:28:00.004-06:00

It was unusually smokey in town on Thurs. and Fri. of last week. I found out today that there is a forest fire in the Kamloops area of British Columbia. As unfortunate of an event as that is, it did make for a pretty cool sunset the other night at Patricia Lake. This was a pretty easy composition for me. My main point of interest was the light on the big cloud above the mountains, and the smoke in the air. I composed with the shore line just above the center of the image so that there wasn't too much dead space above the mountains, and used the reflection to show what else was in the sky. I also had on my polarizer, which is usually used to cut reflections, but in this case I used to get the most reflection I could, a 2 stop Neutral Density filter was used as well to balance out the exposure between the lake and the mountains and sky. Happy shooting!

Then there was Tuesday..

2010-07-29T22:40:00.004-06:00

Following Sunday's amazing light show, my wife and I took a camping trip to Lucerne Campground in British Columbia, it's only about 25 minutes away, but still a nice getaway. I went down to the lake to shoot a few sunset shots, but it was nothing in comparison to the day before, so we headed back to camp for some roasted marshmallows.

The next day was another beautiful summer day and after some paddling on Pyramid Lake, followed by a quick swim with the dog, we headed to Maligne Lake for another try at sunset. The light was good, and I was moving around a bunch to capture a few different images, all the while swatting at the mosquitoes. Since I had been to Maligne a few times already this year, and in previous years, I knew it was time to stray away from the typical "Boat House at Sunset" shots. I headed to the opposite side of the lake, where there is another wharf, and a boat launch, and shot the sunset from there. I did shoot a few "Boat House at Sunset" shots...but from a completely different angle, so I'm happy about that.

Soon after the sun started to set, the clouds started to light up again, similar to Sunday night, but not quite as vibrant. I still shot tonnes of images, moved around a lot and got a bunch of different compositions, although that was mostly so the bugs wouldn't bite! Another lesson learned, don't be afraid to shoot something new!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, Cokin P164 Polarizer, Cokin P120 GND.

Good start to the week!

2010-07-29T01:19:00.004-06:00

I had the chance to attend the first day of a Night Photography workshop this week. That was Sunday night. What a show to start it all off! Check it out!

The workshop was put on by Chantal Thorlakson, and it ran for three days, of which I attended the first night. Hope the rest of the crew had a great few days!! Here is a taste of what we saw the first day!

More to come soon!

Wildflowers

2010-07-22T23:15:00.004-06:00

Just a quick "check in"...I'll have more in a day or two, when I've got more time, but for today, I've got a little group of some of the more prominent wildflowers that are around Jasper. Some of these can be found right in town, others are a little harder to find, but all within reach! Enjoy!

In order of appearance: Wild Rose, Bunchberry, Harebell, Wood Lily, Indian Paintbrush.

Sunset Pass

2010-06-27T08:03:00.005-06:00

Earlier this week I had the chance to go for a short day hike in Banff National Park with a friend of mine. He phoned me the night before to see if I wanted to go up to "Sunset Pass", which is about 15kms North of "The Crossing" on the Icefields Parkway. Seeing as I had no other plans, other than to sit in front of my computer all day... I gladly accepted the invite!

We left town just after 6am, and were on the trail by 8:15. The initial few meters of the trail is fine, nice and mellow, but after about 10 minutes, you start to climb steeply uphill, for about 2.9km.

After 2.9km, you can either head left, to Sunset Lookout, and gain anther 300m (approx.) over a short 1.6km trail. Or you can continue straight, and gain almost as much elevation, and you end up in Sunset Meadows, near Norman Creek Campground.

We ended up going in both directions. First we headed left to the lookout, from which you get the view above. Absolutely spectacular. It wasn't the most beautiful day, but that view alone would be good on any day. I think from the trailhead to the lookout, which is 4.5km, with approx. 650m of elevation gain, we got there in just under 2 hours. And within the first 45 minutes I had blisters on my heels the size of a loonie, that I am still nursing four days later...Ouch!

After the lookout we headed back down the where the trail split, then continued on to the Meadows and Norman Campground. It's only a small campground, with 3 or 4 sites, but what a nice spot! Mountains all around, Norman Creek right there, huge open meadows. I think I'll head back here this summer for a small photo trip. One side of the meadow would get great sunrise light, the other would get awesome sunset light.

After a quick lunch at the campground, and a quick lesson on how to actually "properly" use a compass from Chris, we headed off into the meadow to see if we could make it to the top of the pass. Which we didn't make it to. We got about 1/2 way to the top of the pass, and my feet were so sore, I couldn't take anymore elevation gain. So we turned around, and after a few snack stops, we were back at the truck by 2pm. It was a great day, even with the blisters, and I'm definitely planning a trip back here with the wife and dog sometime this summer!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, 10.5mm f/2.8

In the Big City..

2010-06-10T08:47:00.004-06:00

Well, it may not be the biggest city in the world..but it sure is a lot bigger than Jasper. Last week I spent two days in Edmonton and while there, I had to do a bit of shooting. I always love shooting from hotel balconies when I travel, so I of course got that taken care of. My balcony shot on this trip was of the sun rising over Edmonton's Downtown area, they day we drove back home.

When I was in Edmonton a few months ago, I heard that The Art Gallery of Alberta had a new home, in a fancy new building. This trip I found the new building, which has some super cool architecture, and managed to get down there just after sunset for some twilight shots. I really like the shapes of the building, and how the light plays on it.

From one of the spots I shot the Art Gallery, there was a subway station nearby. I headed over and looked down the stairwell and though..."that might be a cool shot", and it turns out it was kinda neat. The color shot is cool, there are about 4 different light sources, so the colors are very vibrant, but I though the black and white gave it the feel I was looking for. Summer in the city is so much nicer than winter. I'm sure I'll be back shooting here before long!

Photos: Nikon D90, 10.5mm f/2.8, 17-55mm f/2.8

On the move..

2010-05-22T10:57:00.003-06:00

Quite literally! I guess this past week I have been shooting a lot of "motion" shots. I didn't really realize until I picked a few shots for this post and thought..wow, out of the past five days, three of them I've shot photos that depict movement or motion....interesting. So in light of these ideas, I know proclaim this week "Speed Week"...in my world anyhow. I set up the skateboard shot on Monday, first I found some fresh pavement so that the ride would be as smooth as possible, then I set my camera to Aperture Priority, chose an F-stop that allowed me to have a shutter speed that would be less than 1/10 of a second..and then I just fired away until I found the composition and blur that I liked. Finished it off in post with some contrast to the pavement and clouds, then converted to Black and White..and done! Next!!

The train shot was fairly simple as well. Same scenario as above, but I just panned with the train as it sped by. In an ideal world I would have liked to get at least part of the train in focus, but I think my shutter speed was a bit too slow for this attempt, and the whole thing is pretty blurry. I still like the shot though, the colors and composition make me smile. Enjoy!

Photos: Nikon D90, 10.5mm f/2.8, 17-55mm f/2.8

Thoughts on Technology...

2010-05-12T22:27:00.007-06:00

I know, and have met quite a few photographers in the short time that I have been shooting, and, for the most part, we all have one thing in common.... We're "Gear Heads" or "Gear Junkies". If there is a new camera body, or lens, we know about it, and know the specs before it even hits the shelf. We've read a blog from a "Pro" who has been shooting with it or using it for months, and we just have to have it..or we really want it. For most of us, those are just pipe dreams, but for those with untold amounts of cash, they get whatever they want, while the rest of us drool. I'm no different. I love gear, I love techie things, if it's got "bits and pieces", I want to know what those "bits" are, and how those "pieces" work. I personally am not yet a "Pro", or a "working photographer"..but who knows, someday my path may come to a crossroads where I get to take that road. In my "normal" job, I work with gear everyday, climbing gear to be specific. Climbing and outdoor gear. There are just as many "needs" and "wants" in that business too, but luckily, through my job, I've gotten over that stage of the industry.

Now..."where the @%*$ is he going with this?" is what you may be asking..Here we go... Over the past few months, the geniuses at Adobe have been releasing small videos of the upcoming features of their new Creative Suite, CS5. Being the nerd that I am, I've been keen to check out the new technology. A few weeks ago, Adobe officially released CS5 to the masses, and now it's glorious tools are available to the whole world.

The first day it came out, I was there.. at adobe.com downloading the trial version of Photoshop CS5 Extended to check it out to see if it will be worth adding my desktop on a permanent basis. There are two things specifically that I wanted to check out, Content Aware Fill, and HDR Pro. Content Aware Fill is an amazing new tool that will allow you to select any part of your frame, say a tree that's in the way of a mountain, and then you use the Fill Dialog Box (Shift+Backspace (PC)), select Content-Aware, and within seconds, BLAM, the tree is gone and you have a seamless mountain. WOW..the first few times I used it I was blown away. It took a little bit playing around with to get good at making the proper selection for each "problem", but the results are amazing considering that it would take most people much longer to get that done by various other methods.

Second was the HDR Pro tool. I'm a huge user of blending images together. I make grungy images from the city, and I bracket my landscape shots most of the time to get the best tonal range. For the past few years I've been using Photomatix Pro, and I love it. I have recently started using Photomatix's "Fuse Exposure" method, to blend my images, and, for landscapes, I find I get much more realistic looking images, and people say "Oh...that's an HDR?" and that's the response I'm going for. I have only done a few tests with the HDR Pro, but so far...I'm sticking with Photomatix.

Above is a comparison of an image that I originally didn't like, and was not going to edit, until I got CS5 and used Content Aware. The difference is amazing. The first problem was that I was trying to handhold my ND filter in front of my Blue/Gold Polarizer, and you can see the filter and my finger in the shot. With a quick selection around the problem area, a few seconds wait..presto.. problem fixed. Second, was a big grease spot on my sensor....just as simple, and fixed quicker.Third was the tree..totally blocking that beautiful mountain in the distance. Stupid tree...wait a minute... Content Aware Fill to the rescue...ahhh Fixed!! So there ya go, an image that was on it's way to the trash was saved by technology. And that brings me to my final point, and the point of this whole post, that I have been planning and thinking about for days now, which is.. Is this even a photograph anymore?

I love filters, I have no problem with blending exposures to get the best tonal range the scene provides, but using Photoshop to fix stuff that should just be avoided in the first place. I don't know how I feel about that. I would never alter an outdoor scene to make an image better, I want to bring the beauty of the land to people through my photos, but never at the cost of damaging that place. So does it make me more "environmental" if I just "remove it in post"? All I'm getting at is that I don't want to see this technology abused by people who know how to use a computer, and don't want to put the time into learning to take proper pictures in the first place. I for one will always enjoy an image that was created and captured "on location" or "as I remember it", before I take the time to learn to be a better "Photoshopper". That's my rant for today..and most likely the last one for a long time! I for one will most likely not be upgrading to CS5...but it's mostly due to the fact that I don't have the money right now....I'll need a new camera before I'll need new software!

PS...in case anyone is wondering...the last image was did not touch CS5. It is three images blended in Photomatix Pro, then I added a little saturation and contrast. I also used a Polarizing Filter, and a 2 stop ND Grad Filter.

Down by the River...

2010-05-12T22:14:00.003-06:00

That's the title of a Neil Young song that I really like, Dave Matthews did a cover of it when I saw him and Tim Reynolds in Las Vegas a few years ago. It's great song, look it up, but I think because of the lyrics my wife isn't the biggest fan. Oh well, I still like it. I found this little Crocus down by the river at Tekarra Lodge, just south of town. It's the first of the spring flowers I've seen this year. That's not really surprising though, as it got pretty cold for a couple weeks, after a long warm spell.

This other shot is another one of those "just off the highway" shots. I'm so lucky to live in this park. I need to pinch myself some days, to make sure I take in the beauty of the land, and make sure I don't take it for granted. It's moments like this though, watching the water rush by, hearing nothing but birds and rapids, that I really feel like I'm capturing the essence of the land. Maybe not everyone can feel it, but these are feeling that I'll have with my forever, and can only hope that viewers get a glimpse of that in my photos. Only time will tell....

After the storm..

2010-04-30T22:40:00.004-06:00

After the seminar ended, and the weather cleared, I decided to skip dinner and go for a drive. I had never been through Highway 40, in Kananaskis Country, before, so that's where I headed. At first you head East of Canmore, and think "So I should have stayed in the mountains", but then you turn down the highway, and withing a few kilometers, you're right back in the middle of the mountains, and it's beautiful! I was blown away. It's still pretty brown and "spring like" there right now. I didn't have the time to hike around to look for spring flowers or anything like that, but the scenery alone was great. I'll definitely be making a summer and a fall trip down here.

While at the SNAP seminar I purchased a book by Darwin Wiggett called "How to Photograph The Canadian Rockies". It's a great little pocket sized book that highlights all the great photo stops from Kananaskis to Jasper, with a little bit of B.C. in there as well. I had picked up a few free maps when in Canmore, and marked all the spots from the book, so when I head down later this year I'll know where I'm going, and not miss a photo op due to poor directions...smart thinking..I know!

On the way home I made the trip up the Bow Valley Parkway, or the old #1 Highway, to avoid some construction, and have the road to myself pretty much. I stopped at a great little pull out called Morant's Curve, which was made famous in the 40's by a photographer, Nicholas Morant, who was hired by CP Rail to photography the rail system in the Canadian Rockies. I think I lucked out at this spot, in regards to my timing. Shortly after I set up and had the proper exposure figured out, no more than 10-15 minutes passed and a train came down the tracks! Lucky day for me! I'm sure I'll be back to this spot in the future as well!

SNAP....

2010-04-30T22:29:00.004-06:00

So I've been back from the SNAP Seminar for a few days now, back to work, and back to reality. I had a pretty good time at the course, there was lots of material covered, all kinds of different subjects, from what gear the Pros used and why, to how to get published in a magazine, and lots of shooting tips and info along the way. Overall the atmosphere of the whole thing was really light, there were lots of jokes between the speakers, and with the crowd, and a fair bit of humor within the show itself. That was nice to see, as the last thing you want to do at a first time seminar is intimidate everyone there, that will never help to sell out future seminars.

I think I got the most from a section Sam did on The Use of Composition and Design. It was all about the use of tones and colors in your compositions, as well as the use of lines, shapes, patterns, textures, and perspective to add more strength to your photos. Overall it was great time, and I would probably do it again! An added bonus was that I got out to shoot a bit while I was there, the first day I spend the sunrise at Vermillion Lakes, but the sunrise was less than spectacular, so I shot some Ice Detail shots, seen above. And at the top of the post, you can see the storm moving in on Saturday afternoon, which hung around until Sunday morning, so I didn't do much shooting that night or next day. More in another post....

Taking and Education Vacation!

2010-04-23T08:14:00.004-06:00

That's right... I'm off for a couple days for a bit of a photography learning experience. I'm headed to Canmore, AB to attend the SNAP Photography Seminar, with Darwin Wiggett, John E. Marriott, and Samantha Chrysanthou. The course will cover everything from shooting in the field, down to the nuts and bolts about the business side of photography, with a few fun things thrown in I`m sure. Seeing as I'm only getting started on the business side, that is what I'm most excited to learn about, but being around a few seasoned pros can only bring good things to your craft if you`re open minded and willing to try some "outside of the box" ideas.

On another note... It seems that tomorrow will mark the end of my 1st year blogging!! And I'm still doing it! I was looking back through some posts the other day and it brought back some memories of the past year, which was cool, and I've learned a few things along the way as, I think. So here's to another year, maybe a few extra readers this year, and lots and lots more photography! Cheers!!

The vault...

2010-04-18T23:05:00.003-06:00

I saw a photo this morning that reminded me of one that I shot last fall, shortly after I got my 70-200 f/2.8 lens, and I decided that I wanted to rework it to try a new technique that I've been playing around with the past few weeks. I think I like it, but I'm not sure if the effect would work on all photos, I know I've found a few that were better off left alone. This one I like though.

Photo: Nikon D90, 70-200 f/2.8 VR

Everything at f/1.4....

2010-04-17T23:51:00.003-06:00

I was out climbing the other day, and was taking in the beautiful Spring smells and sights around the boulder, with my camera close by of course! I went about snapping shots of the little detail of the Tonquin Boulder area. Lots of moss is coming back to life, sap is seeping from the trees, the river is melting, snow melting off the boulders. I wish I could capture the smells and post them here, but I haven't figured that photoshop trick out yet!

I also shot all these shots with my 50mm wide open at f/1.4...such sweet blur and bokeh at that aperture! If it's not in the tiny Depth of Field, then it's wickedly blurred, and it looks just awesome! Enjoy these few tastes of spring!

Time to get it together!!

2010-04-14T22:34:00.005-06:00

I've done a very poor job of keeping up with my "web presence" the past month or so, and I think it's about time I take this a bit more serious and stay in touch with the world and the blogosphere! So my sincere apologies to those of you who read this....both of you, if it's that many! I've had a few things going on the past while...keeping up with the 365 Project, I've only missed 4 days so far I think. That's not bad in my book.

At the start of this month I moved to a new apartment, a little bigger, which is nice, I now have my own computer room...sort of anyway, it's a spare bedroom, but we don't have guests that often, so it's my "office" for now..sweet. The few days I missed shooting when we moved, I kinda felt lost without my camera, and when I picked it back up again, everything just felt right! I realized that shooting and editing every day kept me in a groove, and it was, and still is very natural for me to shoot photos, and not have to think about the technical stuff, and just find my vision. Then when sitting at the computer, my workflow has become second nature, it has allowed me to explore a few new things, as I go through my images faster than usual. Now I just need to take the few minutes a day or every couple of days, and keep up with the blog...I think I can make it work. If I want to be seen and heard in this online world of photography, I have no choice but to stick with it. There is no giving up now... no one likes a quitter! So for now I leave you with a few favs from the past couple weeks, and be sure to check in for some more frequent updates in the future!

On the way home..

2010-03-02T13:41:00.004-07:00

One great thing about winter is how low the sun is all day. During the summer months when the sun is high in the sky, most photographers would never be out shooting in the middle of the day..shooting landscape images anyhow. High sun makes for harsh shadows, which makes for crappy, bland images. A low sun can cast long soft shadows and the light is not nearly as harsh. On my drive back from Abraham lake, clouds started forming in the sky and I had an immense urge to shot a lot of black and white images of Highway 93. I ended up with about 5 or 6 shots that I really like. The clouds were nice and interesting, and there was lots of contrast in the landscape. Hopefully I'll have a chance to drive a bit further south on the highway in the coming weeks to add to this series, and have a few images all the way from Jasper to Banff. Enjoy what the drive so far....

Abraham Lake - Feb. 23

2010-03-02T13:26:00.004-07:00

On Feb. 22 I spent the night camped in my van next to Abraham Lake, in the Bighorn Wildlands. The area is also known as the Kootenay Plains,and is just east and bordering Banff and Jasper National Parks. I have only started exploring this area this winter and I am completely amazed at how many times I've driven by Highway 11 and never thought to explore! The area is gorgeous and more people should go there to explore it's beauty. The couple of times I've been there this winter I have barely seen more than two cars on the road and have never seen another person hiking around! Last Tuesday I woke to clear skies and what appeared to be a beautiful day ahead of me! Well I was right. I first headed out onto the lake to shoot the sunrise with all the ice formations leading into the mountains, I've seen these shots before, from Darwin Wiggett, and have wanted to got shoot this stuff for a while now to add to my own library. So here are a few of the shots I came home with....

PS....the second and third images are made from a single exposure, no HDR...just smart use of Graduated Neutral Density filters. The first image was a 20 second shot, done at f/4 @ ISO 400. The moon was over my right shoulder to illuminate the valley and road.

Where have I been?....

2010-03-02T12:57:00.003-07:00

It's been almost a month since my last post...guess I've been out doing things!! I've been shooting a lot. A lot more than any other February in the past. If you were to look at my photo library, Feb. is always the month with the least amount of photos. In my efforts to make sure I take at least on picture a day, that changed this year, in a major way. After a bunch of deleting out of focus, or just plain crappy shots, I have still kept a few thousand images in each of he first two months of this year. That may not be a lot for some, but it's a bit of a step up for me...am I'm happy about that. Each one of those frames is helping me to become a better photographer. I'm also starting to notice that certain types of photography are becoming a little easier now as well. The other day I did a product shot, and within a couple frames I had my lighting down, and then shot a bunch of different compositions until I got just what I wanted. This time a year ago that may have taken me the better part of an evening, but this time, my set up and breakdown of my gear probably took just as long as the shoot. Things like that are my goal for this year, and so far, I'm pleased.

I'm also making greater efforts to explore new places outside. I've been to Banff National Park at least three times already this year, a couple of those days I haven't come away with photos that I absolutely love, but I was there, trying to make it happen. The last trip payed off big time for me, I got the conditions I've been waiting for, and in one day shot a number of frames that I'd be more than happy to hang on my wall. So after two full months of this "365 Project", I think I've only missed one day, and that was this past week, and I'm going to use the excuse that I was pretty sick this week. Sleeping in your van in the middle of winter is never a great idea....there's another lesson! I've already learned a few things about myself, photography, and where I would like my photography career to take me. Hopefully the next couple months will bring more lessons, more photos, and more experience behind the camera. The photos on this post were taken early in Feb. and I will do a couple of follow up posts with recent shoots from the rest of the month.

Maligne Morning

2010-02-09T13:18:00.002-07:00

38 - 365, originally uploaded by Jeff Lewis Photography.

I thought I'd try blogging some images from Flickr... let's see how it works!! For the full story on this image check it out on my Flickr page... it was definitely a "Cool" morning!!

Flickr

2010-02-04T17:03:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Shut Down...

2010-02-02T22:28:00.004-07:00

So the mini road trip to Bow Lake in Banff National Park for sunrise was a bit of a bust today. We got there and no more than five minutes after arriving the whole lake and mountain were covered in clouds. I got out and shot a little bit, but only came away with a few frames that I like. Mostly black and white shots of trees and details in the snow.

After a bit of shooting at Bow Lake we headed back towards Jasper with a few stops along the way. First was Mistaya Canyon, a great little spot on the side of the road that I'm not too sure a lot of people realize it's potential photographically.

We also made a quick stop at the Weeping Wall to see if there were any ice climbers, which there was, but there were pretty far up to get a shot. So I took a couple shots of the stream behind the parking lot. I'll probably head down towards Mistaya for a Sunrise in the next few weeks, hopefully I'll start to get a little more luck with the weather!!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, 10.5mm f/2.8 (stream)

Ready for Spring!

2010-02-01T22:52:00.005-07:00

So I haven't kept up on the blog posting like I would like to. Hopefully that will change here in the next few weeks. Just been busy with all the "social media" I've been trying to keep up with. I think the only thing I'm not doing is "tweeting" or using Twitter, but I don't have a cell phone, so I'll start to "Tweet" whenever I get on of those. I've been keeping up with Flickr, Facebook, my web page, and trying to shoot everyday as well. It doesn't sound like much, but for some reason it's all making my head spin and I feel tired!

I only got outside twice this week, as we had to make a trip to Edmonton in the middle of last week. I went out for a sunrise at Pyramid Lake, that didn't materialize, it just got cloudy. Then I got out today, to my current hang....south of town on the Athabasca River. Today I had all my gear with me so I went back to using my good old filters. Only two were used today, the polarizer and my 3-stop Graduated Neutral Density. They are probably the two most used filters in my bag. So much so that they are getting a little scratched up and could use replacing this summer....or for a B-day gift..for anyone listening..hint, hint.

So today's shots have very little done to them in the way of post processing, a little contrast and saturation, and we're done! That simple. No HDR, mo merging exposures, got it all right in the camera....good times. I have plans for another mini road trip south to Banff National Park tomorrow, so with any luck I'll come back with a few pics from there!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, Cokin Polarizer, Cokin P121 GND

Catching up...

2010-01-25T00:27:00.004-07:00

Wow, so I shot so many images this past week that I'm just finally catching up on editing and getting stuff ready for the web and some possible prints. It seemed that every time I would go through the catalog I would find another shot that I liked and just had to edit. It also turned out that a number of the shots that I thought might only work if I bracketed the images for HDR processing, actually worked out using a single raw file. It took me a few more minutes to finish the editing, but I'm pretty surprised by how many worked out that way.

Only one shot from the actual sunrise here, there are a few others on Flickr and also on my website too. I think I'm most impressed with the shots from just after the sunrise, the early morning light is still soft and the skies were a perfect blue color. The light was warm and it just made for some great shooting conditions. I think the only lens in my bag I didn't use that day was the 70-200mm!! All the others got a great workout.

I'll try to get another post up here in a day or two, to show what I shot on Wednesday and a few more outtakes from Thursday as well.

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, 10.5mm f/2.8

Having Fun..

2010-01-22T09:10:00.005-07:00

The past few days shooting has been a blast. It all started off with a cool HDR shot I did in town on Monday night, followed by a great sunrise shoot the next morning. After shooting the sunrise I went a short way down the Icefields Parkway to a place along the Athabasca River, just passed Athabasca Falls and shot the morning light on Fryatt Mountain. That mountain always looks so great in the winter, the snow sticks to the mountain in such a beautiful way. The next day I made the 2 and 1/2 hour drive to Abraham Lake for a sunrise, but the sun didn't really show up, but I shot a few frames anyhow. At least now I know where to stop for the next time I go there. And finally yesterday was great too!! I woke up to -11 Celsius temps in town and lots of fog, which made for great Frost conditions. Everything in town was covered in frost....and I mean everything. I lucked out around lunch hour when the sky cleared and there was blue sky all over. Frosted trees against a blue sky with cool clouds... yeah, it's as great as it sounds! Anyhow, hopefully I can keep this motivational streak going and keep pushing on with the 365 project. I've only posted a little poster from yesterday's shots here, but look back for more later today or tomorrow to see results from the previous days.

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Quick Update..

2010-01-17T23:58:00.004-07:00

This is just a quickie here to keep in touch. I've been keeping up on my 365 Days project, so that's good. I got outside this week which was great, got a little bit of a winter sunset on the Athabasca River, which is what I've posted here. No HDR in this photo, just a single raw image touched up in the digital darkroom, and processed with a few Nik Filters to make it look really contrasty. I've been playing with my speedlite and my softbox a bunch lately too, so I'll post a few of those outtakes in the next day or so. I'll have more free time in the next couple days, but just wanted to get a quick photo up for today!!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Ice Sculptures

2010-01-11T09:28:00.005-07:00

I was driving out to Jasper Park Lodge the other day, and as I passed the last hotel in town, The Sawridge, I noticed that they had a bunch of ice sculptures in front of the hotel. Then I noticed that they had a bunch of lights around them to light them up at night. Well, this past Saturday night I went down there with a friend to check them out a little closer, and of course we brought our cameras. I shot a couple hundred different frames, I went for some abstract shots of just the colors reflecting in the ice, and I shot a few of whole sculptures with out of focus lights in the background. Overall I had a pretty good time and I think we stayed there for almost an hour. That may seem like a lot time with only a few ice sculptures, but I didn't even break out the flash!! I thought about it, but I was pretty happy with what I already had, and I'm sure they'll be there for another week or so, so I may be able to go back if I want. So here are a few shots from the night, not too sure which I like best, but I think it would be one of the Inukshuk shots.

Photos: Nikon D90, 50mm f/1.4, 70-200mm f/2.8

1 Down...51 to go!!

2010-01-07T23:38:00.002-07:00

Well, there we go, the first whole week of 2010 is behind us. Hope everyone is off to a good start. My start has already had a little bump in it, but in terms of photography, I'm off to a good start. In my last post I mentioned that I'd be trying to do a "Photo A Day" project....so that started on Jan. 1st, and I've made it through the first week with little trouble. It was cold trying to take a few pics outside, but I toughed it out and get done what I wanted...with a few mistakes, but we'll call them lessons...and now I've only got 51 weeks left!! If I do keep this up I'll definitely take way more photos than I did in the past year, and that wasn't a small amount. At this rate we're looking to break over 30,000 or more shots this year. I know some pros can shoot that in a couple trips, but I don't think my camera was built for that, and I've got a job to, so that keeps me inside sometimes. For my 365 Project I started a Flickr page. You can find that right her e, and keep tabs on me for every once in a while to see if I'm slacking off or not. I hope to learn a fair bit through this project, and get to play with some fun gear too! I posted a bit of an "outtake" from my Day 1 shoot. I got to put my new Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe to good use with this shot. I put my SB-900 in the Ezybox just to the left of the camera and about a foot higher than my head, the SB unit was @ 1/4 power to light me, and I placed another SB unit camera right and just behind me with a blue gel on it for some rim light. I had fun with this and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Yesterday I drove my wife to work and then headed south of town to catch the end of the sunrise. All I had with me was my camera and wide angle zoom lens, and a tripod as well. I stopped near the Athabasca River and ran out to the edge of the ice, in about a foot of snow, in my skateboard shoes and sweatpants... I know, I wear some real technical clothing when I go shoot. I spent enough time to fire off about 100 bracketed frames in a few different compositions, and this is the one I liked the most. Not bad for being totally unprepared and under dressed for the -24 Celsius weather.

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Best of '09

2010-01-03T23:24:00.005-07:00

The other day I saw a post on Darwin Wiggett's blog which provided links to other photo sites that were displaying their best photos of 2009. I had been planning on doing a recap/2010 plans post, so I thought this would be a nice way for me to say goodbye to the past year and welcome the new one. The only problem with choosing the "Best of" for me was that I have taken a number of photos that I really like this year, I've also taken lots of photos that are total crap, and no one will ever see those, but of the ones I like, it's very hard to narrow it down to the best. In the end I thought it all out in a reasonable way and I chose a few that may have marked a bit of a photographic milestone for me, others I just enjoy looking at because of color or composition, and a few I just seem to have a bit of an emotional tie to. All of these photos mean something different to me, an with a little luck they may have some sort of appeal to you as well.

As for the coming year I have a few plans. I have started a bit of a "Photo A Day" project...that I hope to run all year.... all 365 days of it!! We'll see how that goes. I have started a Flickr account to try and reach a slightly larger audience. Hopefully I'll get more backpacking trips in this year, all of which will be based around photography. My biggest goal of all is to learn more about this craft and hopefully better myself as an artist. So good luck and best wished to all of you in the new year, and lets all have fun on our next adventures!!

Happy Holidays!!

2009-12-24T08:58:00.003-07:00

From my family to yours I wish you all the best and a happy and healthy holiday season!!

Recent Goings on...

2009-12-23T15:32:00.005-07:00

Ohhh man, I knew puppies were a lot of work, especially when you first get them, trying to get a schedule and routine down and all that. But man am I tired!! The first few nights he slept like a charm and I though "man, this is gonna be easy". Until the past two nights he's been up at 3 and 4 am, although I think I woke him last night when I got up for a drink. So that's why my "Returned with Puppy" post has taken so long to get up. What a day we had last Thursday too!! Drove from Jasper to Calgary via Hwy 93, which I'm surprised we even made it, there was so much snow. So instead of risking an accident on the way back, we drove Hwy 2 from Calgary to Edmonton, then Hwy 16 from Edmonton back to Jasper. What a day...7am to 12:30am. Needless to say I was a bit tired at work Friday. My wife got to spend the first few days with him....his name is Indie...and I'm on duty today and yesterday. Fun times for sure, he's playful and I'm sure in the long run he'll be great for our health, as he seems to be an active little fella. So here's a few pics of the new family addition, and because I was so amazed how much we drove on Thursday, pretty much all over Central Alberta, I added a little map for anyone who doesn't know exactly how much driving that is. And last, I added a little mountain photo for good measure. The beauty of driving the parkway in the early hours was that we got to catch a little bit of a sunrise! I had to pull over to relieve myself and took the opportunity to grab a quick photo. Enjoy!!

On the road again...

2009-12-17T00:22:00.006-07:00

So with any luck, if you're reading this today, I'm on the road again. This time to the airport to pick up our newest family member, Indie, our new Kooikerhondje puppy. It's been a bit of a wait for us, as we've had to wait for good weather to send him on the plane, but, none the less we are super excited and can't wait to have another little buddy around here to take on photo walks and hikes in the park. So as we're on the road, I decided to post a HDR photo of the Petro-Canada outside of Calgary, because I'll be passing it once again. Coming back from Barbados I took a few minutes to shoot a couple frames there, and I like this one. The cool feeling and the sky make me want to go for a winter walk, especially now that it is not -30 anymore!! It's only -3 right now, and that seems like a summer day compared to what we had a few days ago! And on another note, I have now put up my Barbados gallery on the web, and FINALLY finished the "About Me" page. That was the hardest page by far, I'm too shy to ask someone to write it for me, and had a heck of a time trying not to talk myself up "too" much, oh well, it's done now, leave some suggestions if you like, I'm sure it'll change a few times.

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Coming soon...

2009-12-14T01:09:00.004-07:00

Been working at getting through all the photos from Barbados the past few days. I've got a few final edits to do and I think I'll be all done pretty soon. Instead of just posting all of the good shots here, I think I'll have enough to add a new gallery to my website, which you can all check out in a few days. So check back in a few days for that, as I'm sure once that is done I'll have my hands full with a new family member!! Hopefully our puppy will get flown up to us this week as long as the cold weather breaks, currently it is -36 Celsius as I write this, which is much too cold send a puppy on a plane! I wouldn't even go outside right now!! So more photos to come soon!

Photos: Nikon D90, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR

So Proud...

2009-12-07T17:32:00.003-07:00

Two days ago I posted as to why I was in Barbados, not just to relax, but to support my wife in her fight against arthritis and to cheer her on while she ran to support such a great cause. In total the 64 competitors here have raised well over $300,000 and more than 1/2 a million this year alone!! This alone is no easy feat, and yet they all came down to Barbados to run in a race to show their support for this cause. Not all competitors are arthritis sufferers, but they all know someone who is. My wife was diagnosed with arthritis about 4 years ago and since then she has experienced many of the ups and downs of this disease, all of which I have experienced through her. Yesterday was a very proud and emotional moment for me to watch her come down the final stretch of the course with all the Joints in Motion Cheer Team cheering her on. I cannot begin to explain how proud I am of her, she trained hard all summer and has gone through a lot of pain to get where she is today. This post is for you sweety!! No pretty pictures today, just a shot of an amazing woman who I am proud to call my wife and someone I will love and cherish for the rest of my life!! Thank you for sharing this experience with me Steph!!...And for those who care the last photo is of the guy who won the whole marathon, notice the time.... he ran over 40 kms in 2 and 1/2 hours!! WOW!! Congrats to that guy too!

Sunshine...

2009-12-05T18:43:00.004-07:00

Ahhhh....that was the feeling I had getting off the plane yesterday afternoon upon my arrival in Barbados. Yeah, some of you hate me right now, but you'll get over it, and in the blink of an eye I'll be back in The Great White North with the rest of y'all freezing my butt off in the -25 weather!! I am hear for a reason though...other than a bit of relaxation... my wife is running in a 1/2 Marathon tomorrow for the Arthritis Society. She raised over $6000 for this event over the past few months and now we're here and her big day is quickly approaching. So this will be a very quick post as we have to get to bed before the 2:30am wake-up call. The race starts at 4:30am, which is pretty freakin' early if you ask me, but I'm sure the runners will be thankful they don't have to run in the mid-day heat. It's almost 10pm right now and it's still 23 degrees!! Awesome!! Anywho, we got to take in a nice beach sunset today, I've posted one frame here, but not too sure if it's too my liking as I was shooting in a hurry and to add to that the color on my slow laptop is terrible! So I apologize for a photo that may or may not look so great, but trust me, it was a nice sunset to watch!! Especially because I got to watch/shoot it in my bear feet and shorts!! Stay tuned for some race shots tomorrow!!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Feeling the Mood

2009-11-29T23:31:00.004-07:00

Been spending a fair amount of time in the Snaring area lately....I got out there early last week and got a few shots I like and thought it would be great to get out there for a sunrise shoot. Well, I made it out there with a friend on this past Friday. We made it out there well before the sun peaked into the mountains, but we arrived to some heavy cloud cover on the mountains we wanted to shoot. Like I always do when I go out, I'll shoot no matter what the weather or if the sunrise will be nice or not. Turns out one of the first shots I took is one of my faves from the day. I knew when I took the shot it would not be a color photo in the end, and that there would be some sort or mono or duo tone processing done to it. I knew I wanted some sort of Black and White-ish shot, but I really wanted to convey the mood of the scene, so that just by looking at the image people would think it was a cold winter morning and almost feel as if they were there standing on the lake alone in the winter breeze. I think I got pretty close to getting that feeling through to the viewer this time. It was also helpful that when we arrived the wind had blown away the light snow from the previous days, leaving the ice bare and making a great foreground for that picture.

So after a few minutes and making a few shots like the one above, we realized that we might not be seeing a brilliant sunrise that day, so we started to explore the rest of the ice and shoreline to see if there was anything interesting to shoot, but there was not much that interested us. Then on our way back to the van the clouds cleared and gave us a great little show of soft winter morning light that we took a few moments to shoot. I had already packed up my gear so I just pulled out the camera and tripod and fired off a few quick HDR shots, and luckily I walked away with a few that I liked, and this was one of them. After all of that, I'd still like to try to get a nice sunrise out there...but you know I'll keep trying!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Couple more...

2009-11-26T00:40:00.004-07:00

Here are a couple more photos from yesterday's outing. I always make sure to bracket frames when I'm out shooting, then try to put together some HDR photos when I get back to my computer. So the sunrise is only two photos. My metered exposure, and another at +2. I used Photomatix Pro to put them together, but did very little work in the Tone Mapping section of the program and ended up with what I think is a much more realistic result, that I'm quite pleased with. Second we have a view of the edge of the river, the water couldn't have been more that a foot deep there, but the ice wasn't too thick either, so I didn't bother to go in for the tight Macro shot, I opted for this view instead of risking an early morning swim. Next time I'll bring out the longer lens!!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Slow time...

2009-11-25T00:23:00.004-07:00

Ohhh man!! Almost two weeks with not a thing to post! There really hasn't been much going on here, and the weather the past few weeks has been rather "winter" like. There is a boat load of snow in the mountains and the temps are getting pretty cold in town. I have either been too lazy to get up in the morning, or woke up and it has been snowing. However much I wanted to go shoot, I just didn't get out. Alas, today was a new day, I got up quite early, knew where I wanted to go and I think I came out with some shots I really like. Caught this great sunrise just south of town, which I'm pretty happy about. I got a number of shots of the sunrise that I really like, but the others still need a bit of work, this is the only one that is pretty much done.

Down near the Snaring Rd., I revisited the water and mountains down there. Only now the water is frozen, which was pretty cool. I'll probably head back that way soon for a sunset/sunrise shoot. The black and white shot is similar to one I posted here, but the clouds were better today, so I shot it again. Then I just played around with the Fisheye a bunch and got some results I'm pretty impressed with. I've had this lens for a couple years now, but I am only now realizing the power and usefulness it truly has. I'll post more shots from today when they're done, as I also found a nice group of Bighorn Sheep that I got a few nice shots of. More later....

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, 10.5mm f/2.8

Frozen...

2009-11-11T19:22:00.004-07:00

Amongst all the snowfall the past few days, I did get out to shoot a bit. I headed East towards Talbot Lake, and my hopes seemed to fade as I drove into a wall of snow and cloud. When I arrived at the lake I decided to shoot anyway, and I lucked out as the clouds cleared away within 20 minutes and I ended up with at least one shot I'm happy with. What I was really pleased with was my new Cokin Slim Filter holder. I've been using the Cokin system for quite a while now, and it works well, but my only complaint was that I could never use my 17-55mm lens at it's widest focal length, 17mm. I could only go to about 20mm and then you could see the filter in the frame. (Keep in mind I shoot on a D90, which has a cropped sensor, therefore if you have a "Full Frame" camera you may not be able to shoot as wide). So yesterday I made sure to bring the Slim Holder and it worked out well. This shot was at 17mm and I was able to compose the scene how I wanted with out having to get further away to get as wide as I wanted. Needless to say this is a piece of gear that will not leave my camera bag!! And I'd just like to give a quick thanks to whoever left that canoe out so late in the season. This shot would be a lot more boring if it was not still sitting on the dock!! Thanks!!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Beauty Creek

2009-11-03T22:23:00.004-07:00

I have been trying to get some decent shots from this area for a while now. During the summer I would work to late and not be able to get down the highway in time. I'd love to get down there for sunrise, but I seem to be rather lazy of late. So today we decided to take a bit of a drive down to see if I could get a sunset shot. As the sun went down most of the coulds disappeared, but I did happen to get a nice black and white shot of an old tree with Mt. Kitchener in the background. I would really like to shoot a sunrise here soon, as the first light of the day lights up that peak.

I have been looking for a way to get a bit more creative with blog posts lately, so I decided to download the onOne Photo Frame program and try out the 30 day trial. The second shot here is an HDR I did a few weeks ago at Tekarra Lodge. There is a "grunge" frame, as well as a "instant picture" frame that I put together in Photo Frame 4. I'm sure I'll play around with this more in the future and I'll be sure to post the results here!!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Old Man Winter

2009-10-31T10:45:00.004-06:00

Today is the first morning in two days I have gotten out of bed and it is NOT snowing..Thank God!! I guess it's not that bad really, but it did make for some hazardous biking conditions to get to work the past couple days!! It literally snowed all day Thursday,and half of Friday, very odd for this time of year. We normally do get a bit of snow throughout October, but that much in such a short time is pretty odd I think. Anyhow, just a quick post today to show what I saw when I left the apartment yesterday morning. Enjoy!

For those of you wondering, that is not my bicycle...it's my wife's sweet ride that I got her as a wedding gift. My bike is not quite as photogenic as hers. As you can see, it's probably time to put it away for the winter!

Photos: Nikon D90, 70-200mm f/2.8 (top), 50mm f/1.4 (bottom)

Autumn afternoon, in Black and White

2009-10-28T21:29:00.003-06:00

Although I seem to keep missing out on some of the fall sunrise shots, I have been enjoying how nice the light is getting so early in the afternoon. I got out the other day and headed towards the Snaring River area, east of the Jasper townsite. I headed out there to try and shoot a panorama, which I did, but I'll add that to my website as they seem to look a bit better there. While there the colors were nice and vibrant, but the light also made for a nice Black and White conversion in the digital darkroom. It was a simple two minute setup..import, add contrast, convert to Black and White with Silver Efex Pro, and DONE!! Pretty quick and painless and I'm pretty happy with the result.

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Fun with Bokeh...

2009-10-20T21:59:00.004-06:00

Had some free time today (a little too much actually), so I did what I usually do on slow days.... browse the internet for all kinds of photo stuff to inspire me and hopefully get my off my @$$! So I was browsing the Strobist Flickr Group and did a search for Bokeh. If you're not sure what that means...go here. It's a really cool effect, when you actually figure out what it means and how to use it!! It works best with high end, fast glass, like the Nikon 50mm f/1.4, which I just so happen to have. By the way, this is probably one of my fav lenses, it's super, super sharp and produces some awesome color and contrast. So I went ahead and set up a little candle studio in my hallway, and went to work. It took a couple tries to get the flash power right, but after two test shots I had it down. It was then time to set up everything properly, once that was done I just shot a bunch of frames and called it a night. The photo above has been slightly tweaked in post, I added a few Hue/Saturation layers and changed the color of a few of the candles.

Here you see the original shot, still pretty cool (I think), but the color adds a bit more fun and creativity to the picture. Tech stuff...SB-900 @ 1/128 power on tripod camera left about 35 degrees to candle. Put a green gel on it to add a slight green highlight on the candle. Camera was in Manual focus so I had a complete control over focus. I'll most likely play with this more in the future, check back for some updates!

Photo: Nikon D90, 50mm f/1.4

Here comes winter!!

2009-10-16T00:02:00.005-06:00

Just as I was getting excited for and soaking up some nice fall weather...SNOW!! Blam, just like that, it's over, winter is here, 8 long months until the sun does anything more than light up the earth! Okay, so maybe that's slightly dramatic, but I'm not a huge fan of cold weather. It has made for a few interesting photos, so I'll take that, but winter is long around these parts of Canada. I think I'll have to embrace it a little more this year and keep my creativity flowing and hopefully grab a few new photos to add to the constantly growing collection. The photo here is from my wildlife adventure I had this past Monday at Maligne Lake, I took this before seeing the moose. I waited around the shoreline for a little while to see if the clouds would clear, but no luck. I first processed the shot in Photomatix Pro, it was my usual three frame bracketed exposure of -2/0/+2 EV. I didn't like the color version, so I went with Black and White so concentrate a little more on the smaller details of the photo.

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

My new routine??

2009-10-13T18:59:00.007-06:00

So last week I got out to shoot on Monday morning only to find myself uninspired by landscapes and very draw to wildlife photography. So who would have thougth the same thing could happen again one week later? Not me, but that's exactly what happened. I left the house at 7am yesterday, ready for what looked to be a hopefull sunrise. The coulds were clearing East of town so that's where I planned to head, until my plans were dashed by an accident which closed the road for a few hours. So instead I headed to Maligne Lake again to see if I could catch a nice sunrise with the new snow on the mountains. It has been close to -18 degrees celcius here the past few nights, so there has been a fair but of snow falling up high. As I got closer to the lake the clouds set in and I didn't get a sunrise at all. I took a few shots of the boat house which is now closed, then decided to walk a little up the lake to try and find something cool, which wasn't too hard, within minutes I almost literally ran into three Moose!! I was playing with my camera and walking and looked up too see this moose staring at me from about 100ft away!! AWESOME!!

I shot with these guys for about 45 minutes then went down the road and shot a few frames of the fresh snow on Medicine Lake. Like I said last time, my wildlife photography needs work, but it's definitely something I want to work on for the future. I find I'm like a tourist again, driving around waiting on the side of the road for Elk, Bighorn Sheep and other animals...funny how that happens.

The moose photos were pretty simple, I usually keep my camera in Aperture Priority, and let it choose the shutter. Due to the low light I was shooting almost wide open on the 70-200 here, around f/4.0 I think. The landscape was really easy, three frame HDR to get all the detail in the trees and add a bit more contrast that usual. Shot this one at f/22 to get maximum DOF, shot bracketed frames at -2/0/+2 EV. I did the same shot in a single frame with a Graduated Neutral Density filter and I'm undecided which one I like more. Maybe in the next few days I'll post both so people can see the differences between the two shots and you can decide which you like more. More to come later....

Photos: Nikon D90, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 (moose), 17-55 f/2.8 (lake)

Not my photographic strength.....

2009-10-05T11:17:00.006-06:00

So I wake up to my alarms (yes..."alarms", it's painfully hard for me to get up somedays) at 6:30am this morning to get ready to go out for a sunrise shoot. I got my gear ready, dressed warm, as it was -8 celcius this morning.....yikes!! I raced up to Medicine Lake to watch the sunrise and hope to get another pano crossed off my list, but I got there to find myself extremely un-motivated to shoot. I tried a few compositions, a few HDR's and a pano. I wasn't inspired by anything I got, so shortly after the sun came up...and turned the sky almost white with no detail, I got back in the van and headed back to town. On my way back I was thinking about how this is the life of a photographer, and we can't always go out and be inspired by every little thing we see and you will not always end up with great photos just because you got outside really early in the day. The more I thought about this and how I wasn't motivated, I remembered passing a heard of elk on my way out of town, so I pulled over and put my telephoto lens on my camera and thought if the elk were still there I would try and snap a few shots and see if I could get out of my little morning mood I was in.

Turns out I was lucky enough that the elk were still there and I spent about 25 minutes with them trying to get a few shots. My lens only goes to 200mm so unless I got dangerously close, I wasn't going to make and spectacular shots, but I'm still happy with the few frames I got, plus the experience definitely took me out of my crap mood. I'm learning that motivation can be found in a number of different places, you just have to keep your eyes open and be patient and you'll find it! I know these pics are not the greatest, there are people out there who eat this wildlife photography for breakfast and are waaaayyy better than I, but I still had fun and I think it's something I'd like to pursue a little more in the future.

Photos: Nikon D90, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR

Crazy Clouds

2009-10-02T00:28:00.003-06:00

So I've been meaning to post this for a few days now. I came home for lunch one day and on my way back out of the apartment I looked up at the sky, as I always do to see the clouds, and there were the craziest and coolest clouds I've ever seen! I ran back in and got my camera and wide lens and fired off a few frames to try and capture what I was seeing. It was a shame I had to go back to work, the clouds lasted for about another hour after that and would've made for some really interesting landscape shots. I've been starting to get out more and more lately, so I should have more to post soon!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

A few from Vancouver...

2009-09-23T22:40:00.005-06:00

So I'm back from Vancouver, back to reality, work and all that fun stuff. Thankfully things are slowing down a little in town, a nice mellow pace for Fall. My eyes are pretty sore from editing photos for the past few days, so this will be quick and easy for y'all. Here are a few shots from the trip, there are a couple HDR's in there, one of the Taxi, and one of the Inukshuk on the beach. The pano is not really the one that I was hoping for, I did shoot a night pano when I was there, but I'm not completely happy with my current result, so it needs work, or just to be redone altogether. The Ferrari shot is just for fun, man that's a sexy car! The sunset shot is not really the best shot on earth, but I really like the color and the clouds in the sky, so I'm throwing that up here to. Then there is just a plain ol' shot of Downtown Vancouver, from the 33rd floor of the Coast Plaza Hotel (from the balcony of our room). Enjoy these, and I'll try to get a few more up in the next couple days.

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4(pano)

Catch up....

2009-09-15T21:45:00.005-06:00

Not too much new to say today, just going through the paces of packing my gear for the trip to Van., getting batteries charged, cords packed, sensor cleaned, nothing really exciting. I did manage to shoot a bit last night, got a few cool HDRs I'll post in a few days, but what I really wanted to post were a couple of shots I've had ready to post for a month now, but I just keep forgetting to do it. I was in a bit of Black and White mode for a few weeks this summer and it's all I could think about when I composed shots. The first one is of Whistler's Mountain, there is a tramway that takes visitors to the top in about 7 minutes, where they are free to roam the top of the mountain and get a different perspective of the town/area. I was about to get on my bike to head to work that day, it was fairly early int he morning, and the clouds hadn't quite lifted of the mountain.

Next up we have a shot of Pyramid Mountain from the Jasper Park Lodge waterfront, near Lac Beauvert. There were some great clouds passing through the sky that day, and I know this shot is not the greatest, but I enjoy the clouds and I had a good day that day, so it's just a little reminder for me!!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8.

Heading Out...

2009-09-15T00:02:00.003-06:00

So it seems I may get to a better blogging schedule very soon. Hopefully it will be a more frequent thing, as I find it keeps me hungry to make new images instead of always putting up something that I just resurrected in PS..(although, photos do need resurrecting from time to time). I was asked a few days ago to drive some friends up to the trailhead for the Skyline trail, a popular trail here in Jasper. Most people would say "No way!" to this sort of thing, but I thought "Hey, why not? Maligne Lake is right there and I'll be there just before sunrise, sounds like a good time for a sunrise photoshoot." So around 5:30am Sunday we left town and dropped the girls off at the trailhead around 6:20, then waited for the sun to come up. Normaly you get to play the game of "hurry up and wait", but that day we walked down to the shoreline to check out what we had in store, and there was the Boathouse, with all the outside lights on, with a PERFECT reflection in the water, with the most awesome blue twilight behind it. So we ran back to the van to get our kit and starting shooting right away. Turns out they were some of our favorite shots from the morning, and also the shot I opened the blog with today. I also had a great chance to use my Blue/Yellow Polarizer from Cokin too. There doesn't seem to be many times when this filter is the most useful, but then there are times when then light is just right and I think it totally made a difference in the Pano you see here.

I'm heading to Vancouver this week, spending about 4-5 days there. I have a few shots I would like to take while I'm there. I have ideas for a few shots in the downtown part of the city with my 10.5mm, I would really like to get a nice night time pano of the city as well from across the water, I'm gonna have to do some scouting for that one I think, but it'll be worth it for sure. Then I'll just shoot whatever I think is interesting. So until next time all I have left to say is Happy Birthday MOM!! Hope you had a great day!!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8.

Start your engines!

2009-09-10T21:06:00.002-06:00

I believe that the fall season is upon us, and for most photogs that mean getting out as much as we can to shoot the changing of the seasons. It has alread begun here in Jasper, as I found out in the last couple days. Now that the hours have been cut back at work and I get out at a decent time to still go shooting, I imagine that I'll be getting out early most days and trying to get out after work to catch the last rays of the day. There are two things I absolutely love about fall, first; that the colors are so vibrant and interesting to shoot, two; the sunrises start a bit later!! That's great, now I don't have to get out of bed until 6:30am instead of 5am!! This means great things for me, sleep wise anyway. Yesturday I got to play around with the Nikon 60mm f/2.8 Micro lens. It's a pretty nice little lens, pretty sharp and produces great color, but methinks I may hold out for the 105mm f/2.8 VR lens, yes it is much more expensive, but it gets a bit more reach that I like in my macro shots. So today I leave you with one of my shots from yesturday from around Cottonwood Slough, just outside of the Jasper Townsite.

Photo: Nikon D90, Nikon 60mm f/2.8 Micro

All is well!

2009-09-03T22:34:00.004-06:00

Things have been busy in my neck of the woods these days, and I mean REAL BUSY!! All of the crazy and stressful planning my wife did for our wedding was all put to the test during the wedding week, and it could not have gone any better. She did an amazing job of keeping both families on track and had lots for everyone to do and see. I give her 100% credit for everything that happened during that week, my job was to be at the ceremony on time and that was it, and to make it more sweet I was actually a few minutes early!! WOW. So after all that fun with the families and lots of activities, everyone was gone as fast as the arrived, and we were left as a newlywed couple ready for our first adventure as husband and wife. And what was our first adventure you may ask? Very simple...GET A VEHICLE!! Man did we need some wheels. So after a few days research we rented a car and drove to Calgary to check out a few vans. We ended up getting the main one we went down to see, a 2002 Chevy Astro. Man am I stoked. We used to own a GMC Safari a few years back and I built a bed/couch in the back so that when we traveled we could sleep in the van at night and didn't have to set up the tent or get a hotel room. It is definitely one of the best ways to road trip and I can't wait to get back on the road to explore some new places to shoot photos and get back out climbing again!

So I leave you with two photos today, one of the Calgary skyline from 15 Ave. We stayed at a friends condo in the downtown area and we had access to the roof, so I shot a few photos before heading to sleep that night. Pretty simple 3 exposure HDR, all exposures were pretty long. Processed it in Photomatix Pro and that's about it. The second photo is not mine! Two great friends of ours shot photos at our wedding, this one is from Jeremy Salisbury who was also a Groomsman as well as the photographer, and when he had to be in a photo his partner Lisa shot photos for us. They both did an amazing job and I couldn't have asked for two better people to do the job, they were awesome!! Thanks guys!!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8 (top), Nikon D700, 17-35mm f/2.8 (bottom)

I'm glad my apartment has windows!!

2009-08-19T21:57:00.002-06:00

So for the past few months I've been without a car, which in reality isn't that big of a problem in this town. I can bike to work and I'm there within two or three minutes and if I don't bike, I can walk to work and be there in less than ten minutes. So why would I even need a car you may ask? Well, since I do live in a national park it is nice to go explore and see some sights every once in a while, most photogs get to do this on a daily basis, but I've been working in town a lot lately so I haven't been able to get anywhere for sunrise or sunset. The sun is usually setting when I ride home from work, and I usually get to see enough that I wish I hadn't worked so late and had a car, but then I get home and forget about it until the next day. Well today was another one of those days, except today I was at home and had no wheels to get out for sunset as I watched the whole sky turn so pink I think the inside of our apartment lit up as well!! At least I was keen enough to get the camera and point it out the window for a few frames. I like the shot I have here, but it definitely would have been nice to be sitting at Edith Cavell or Medicine Lake this evening too! In the next few weeks our first job is to get a vehicle once we have the wedding put behind us and things calm down a little!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Lots goin' on...

2009-08-05T23:01:00.004-06:00

It's been a while, so I've got two photos for y'all. An HDR from June of a shoot I did of and old GMC truck at a local hotel in town. I really wanted to do more car and old vehicle HDR's so I went out and worked this truck a few times one day. Turned out to be a great day and I got a few shots that I really like. It was my usual HDR setup, 3 bracketed shots at 2 EV apart. Shot this one with the 10.5mm f/2.8 aimed slightly up towards the sky, so it sorta looks like the truck is smiling. I think it gives it a bit more character.

Next up is a pretty straight forward 25 shot Mega Pano. This is something I still need lots of work on, as I'd like to perfect it and do a series of panos from around Jasper National Park and hopefully sell them in a number of stores here. I've been working a lot lately, mostly to make up for the time I'll be taking off for the wedding at the end of the month, which is fast approaching!! The excitement is building and I hope to shoot tons of photos that week, so I'll have material to blog for quite some time after that. We've also got a short trip planned to Vancouver in September, can't wait for that either, lots of photo ops to be had in that town!

Photos: Nikon D90, (top) 10.5mm f/2.8, (bottom) 50mm f/1.4

Lights in the sky

2009-07-23T23:16:00.003-06:00

We don't get to see the Aurora Borealis that often, only about twice a year if I'm lucky. Sometimes more, but it all depends on weather and solar activity and all that jazz. It does help being in the middle of the mountains with almost no light pollution at all. This was two nights ago, we were walking home from the movies and I saw a faint light in the sky. When I got home I decided to take the car for a quick drive out of town to see if I was really what I thought it was, and sure enough, after a 30 second exposure, my LCD was glowing green and I had the biggest grin on my face! I'm sure if someone saw me, they would be wondering what I was so happy about. I got a few good frames and then they died off and I got freaked out from the dark, so I went home, but at least I got a few shots. I went looking again last night, but it was way to faint to even register on my camera's sensor, oh well. We've got some great weather in the forecast for the next few days, so I'll keep my eyes open and keep checking the web for Aurora forecast and maybe I'll catch them again soon.

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

The Best Beverage EVER!!

2009-07-14T14:02:00.005-06:00

I only discovered Jones Soda a few months ago. When I had my first one, I thought "Where have you been all my life!?!?" It was so full of flavor, much different than my regular old pop I would usually have with my lunch. And the best part is all the flavors it comes in!! I'm pretty sure these two are my favs for now, I'm also a big fan of the Orange & Cream, it reminds me of Orange Creamsickles that I used to love as a kid. So today's blog post is dedicated to the supreme awesomeness of the beverages produced by Jones Soda. Check them out here, and learn more about just how sweet this stuff really is. Keep in mind I do not get anything from these guys for doing this, I'm just a guy who loves Jones, and wanted to let the world know..well at least those on the internet that read this thing!! It also gave me a great opportunity to take some pics of Jones, that I shot today. Shot with a single SB-900 flash slightly right of the camera and high above the bottles, I used to sheets of white foamcore in front of them to lighten up the shadows as well. Thanks for looking, and hope you're thirsty, I'm gonna go have a Jones Soda right NOW!!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, SB-900 @ 1/4 power.

Such a gear junkie....

2009-07-11T00:12:00.000-06:00

I remember when I first started rock climbing, and I was so excited to be doing something new, something challenging. It was the same when I started out with photography. After a few months climbing I started to get a bit of a gear "collection". I had a rope, a few quick-draws, a handfull of carabiners, some cord, harness and rock shoes. I thought at this point..."well, I'm set now." Man was I wrong. One winter in the gym and I didn't think my shoes would last another season, so I "knew" I had to have a new pair, and while I'm at it, I should get a few more draws too, and another biner. A few months go by, and I'm planning a road trip...."should we get a second rope? and a few more draws?....Yep, better do that!!" Now, five years later, I've got so much stuff for climbing I could outfit a small army.

Funny thing about hobbies I think. I'm not gonna lie, photography has been the exact same for me. I first bought a beginner DSLR and two lenses and thought "what else could I need?" Turns out there is always something else you need...or should I say "want"!! I have recently gotten into off camera flash, and I love it. It's a whole different thing than shooting landscapes and wildlife. I still love that, and I think landscape photography is where my true passion lies, but using a flash adds another element to the game that I absolutely love. I'm lucky in a way too, as a good friend of mine also decided to purchase a flash recently, and he's a Nikon shooter as well, and got the same flash as me. Great!! Now the two of us almost have two flashes each!! (almost) I then made the mistake a few days ago and borrowed a macro lens from another friend, and I became quickey addicted to the degree of closeness that was achieved with this litty guy. I snapped this shot of the spider on the flower the other evening, keep in mind that that spider didn't even appear to my eyes until I focused on the flower and thought "holy crap, there's a spider there!! AWESOME!!" I spent a few minutes with that little guy and went back inside to avoid the return of the rain.

The first shot, for anyone who cares, was done in my kitchen, it's small, but it worked. It's a self-portrait I thought I'd do for fun. Mostly b/c I'm too lazy to ask anyone else to sit there while I learn what the hell I'm doing. This was lit with two SB-900's, one camera right at about 45 degrees to me @ 1/4 power (i think) and the other was to camera left at about 90-100 degrees to me @ 1/80 power and zoomed to 135mm. I did a bunch of post processing on this one, but I kinda like the end result, now I just need to try this out on someone other than me..or my extremely patient fiancee!!

Photos: Nikon D90, Sigma 105mm f/2.8, Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8

Happy Canada Day!!!

2009-07-01T17:06:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to say a quick Happy Canada Day to everyone. Now go enjoy it!!

One of my Favorite Places....

2009-06-30T21:40:00.000-06:00

Mt. Edith Cavell is one of my favorite places to shoot in Jasper National Park. Don't get me wrong this park is extremely beautiful from park gate to park gate, but it seems to me that I always end up back at the Cavell Lake or in Cavell Meadows, or just strolling along the "Path of the Glacier" at the bottom of the mountain. In the few short years I've been taking pictures in a serious way, I already have a few thousand shots from the Cavell area. I've spent a number of freezing cold mornings waiting for sunrise, only to have clouds roll in and drive back home without a shot, or at least the shot I wanted that day. Last year there was a four or six week period where I was up at Cavell for sunrise at least one of my days off, if not both of them. Eventually I got the photo I wanted, and I'm extremely pleased with it.

Mid August holds the best month to explore the meadows above Cavell, mountain wildflowers bloom inches off the trail and well into the forest, just begging to be photographed with Edith Cavell in the background. As I write this the last light of the day is hitting the North Face of the mountain and it is just amazing. Maybe this is the reason I haven't left this park in the last five years. I was up there a few weeks ago to check it out, and of course, I got a few new photos to add the collection, and I know for sure I'll be up there again later in August and September, trying to add to the library once again.

Photos: Top-Nikon D40x, 17-55mm f/2.8, Bottom-Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Trains, Planes and Automobiles

2009-06-23T00:28:00.000-06:00

Got some cars the other day...trains to weeks ago, now I just need to find some planes! There has been a helicopter flying around town a lot recently, but I don't think I've got a long enough lens to get a decent shot of it. Just a quick post here today. I got out two weeks ago and shot at a few locations that were new to me, and great for a little train photography.

I tried a panning shot to get the graffiti on the train, it worked out pretty good, I'm pleased with that. Then a little closer to town I got a better close up of a train heading east. The color version is nice, but I was in a bit of a black and white mood that day, so that's what I put up here.

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Car Show

2009-06-20T23:33:00.000-06:00

So in the last few weeks I have been storing photos to blog, in case I had ended up not shooting due to weather or just due to being to busy, but now I've been shooting almost daily, getting lots of photos I like, and I haven't been posting anything because I've also been working a ton too!! So I'm gonna try to post more frequently here in the next week or so, and try to get some new stuff up on the blog, and try to get out and shoot at the same time. We'll see what happens.

There was a bit of a "Car Show" in town today, only about 15 cars in a small parking lot, but there were a few that I really thought were interesting and caught my eye. Of course my first thought was HDR, and that is pretty much all I tired to shoot for all day. I only spent about 45 minutes shooting, but still came out with a few images I'm pretty happy with, so that makes it all worth it. Two of these are HDR that may be processed a bit too much, but I'm happy with what I've got for now, I've only made minor color and contrast adjustments on them for now, but when I'm ready to print, I'll do some more work in photoshop and make sure that they're top notch.

I tried a new technique on the image of the black car, I added a massive amount of contrast to the whole photo, and than ran the "high pass" filter on the image to give it a whole new level of "pop"....it's more like a "bang" in my eyes, but I can live with that for now.

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, 10.5mm f/2.8

Busy busy busy...

2009-06-15T10:09:00.000-06:00

I've been a little busy as of late. I've been getting out to shoot on my days off and have been working a lot every other day. It seems as though summer has finally made itself permanent for a while, so that's great. The wildlife have been out and about quite a bit. We went for a drive last week to find a Black bear with a couple of cubs. We weren't the only people looking either, there were about five other cars that were just driving up and down the road for a few hours waiting for the bears to come out of the woods. After about two and a half hours we decided to direct out attention to the mountains for a little bit. I have been trying to really get my HDR workflow perfected, and trying to edit them to be ready for printing in the near future. I shot a few HDR panos of Edith Cavell from the road, and I think they came out really well. The one I've posted is four vertical shots, left to right. Each shot is also an HDR of three seperate frames bracketed at -2/0/+2 exposure. I once again used a pano stiching program to make the final pano, then just some minor curves layers to finish it all off.

So to top that day off we never did see the bear and cubs, but we did end up seeing a lone black bear. It could not have been more than two years old, he may look a little big in the photo, but I'm sure that's just because of the framing of the shot. I did get out for another shoot last week, but I'll post that in the coming days.....

On a non photo related note, a friend of mine has created a cool new Jasper website. It geared towards promoting local businesses, events, artists/musicians, etc. . You can also post things you want to sell or give away on there too. Check it out Here.

Photos: Nikon D90, 80-200mm f/2.8 (pano), 55-200mm (bear)

A whole new can of worms!!

2009-06-02T23:41:00.000-06:00

Well, the past 24 hours have been quite productive for me in a photographic sense. For the past few weeks I have been reading about off camera flash, and considering buying a flash to add to my camera bag. So I was in luck when I found out a co-worker of mine has an Nikon SB-800 and said I could borrow it to try it out. I am an avid reader of the Strobist web site, and last week there was a really cool video on how to use off camera flash to capture water drops. So for my first attempt at off camera flash, this is what I chose to try out.

Now the possibilities of off camera flash spread WAYYYYY beyond lighting water drops, but this is for sure an awesome application of the technique, and I was pretty happy with some of the results I got in the first tries.

For my first few tries I had the flash at about 1/32 to 1/64 power and pointed it at a colored background. This proved some decent results, but then I thought I'd try to change my camera to Auto FP (High Speed Sync) so I was able to shoot at sutter speed into the 1/1000s of a second. This produced the results that I've posted here and my pics from the day. I plan to borrow a Macro (close-up) lens in the next few days and I'm interested to see the results from that as well.

Needless to say, I'll be buying a flash sooner than I thought I would be!!

Photo: Nikon D90, 50mm, SB-800

Summer is here...I think

2009-05-27T22:56:00.000-06:00

Another few days off and great weather this time. I didn't get out to do much shooting these days, but I did go over some older images again. I've been having a bit of car trouble as of late, so getting further than 10 minutes from my home is kinda hard, unless I feel like walking back.

It was nice to get out and walk around a bit today and hopefully the car issues will be over soon so I can get to some great summer spots and work on a few projects for the summer.

This image is from a few weeks ago. My fiancee and I went for an overnight trip at the Num-Ti Jah Lodge on Bow Lake. Being in a rush to get out of town, I forgot my tripod mount, so sunset and sunrise shoots were out of the question, I went out anyway, but there wasn't much light to shoot. After breakfast the clouds broke and I tried to get a nice Pano of the area. A friend of mine had just purchased a new Panorama Stiching program, PT Gui, so I asked if I could give it a try to see the results from my panos. This particular one is 24 vertical images, and I was really amazed at how fast and seamless the pano came out. I'll have to look into this program a bit more, but from this trial, I'm pretty impressed.

A Revival of Sorts

2009-05-20T23:55:00.000-06:00

So here we are again, a couple days off and more bad weather...don't get me wrong, I really don't complain all the time, and I actually could have put up with some rain this week, I wanted to work a few street scenes in the rain, but of course, I woke up yesturday morning to AT LEAST 6 inches of snow on the ground!! Wow, I know we live in the Rockies and the weather changes every day, but Spring sure has been delayed this year!

On a very good note, the slightly displeasing weather caused me to go through some older images from the past few months, I created a few presets in my software and cleaned up some files on my computer that seemed to have no sense of organization. So it has been a productive few days. It's back to the ol' 9-5 tomorrow..or lets make that 10 to 9...I have started a second job so I'll have some extra cash over the summer. Getting married costs money, and I currently don't have a lot of that, so it's time to work my butt off for a few months, then relax and hopefully have lots of time for photography over the fall and winter!

On the old photo revival note, this image is of a church in Reserve Mines, NS. I shot a wedding during my Christmas Holiday in Nova Scotia, and this was the church where the wedding was held. I think i shot this after the wedding while waiting for the bride and groom. It is a three shot HDR , shot handheld, and processed in Photomatix Pro. I originally did it as a color image, and you can see that on my website here. I do like the original color image, but I have been wanting to play with textures lately, so today my motivation finally came about and I made this. It was pretty easy acutally, I simply converted the color image to a sort of nostalgic old time look, and added the texture layer on top and changed the "blend mode" to overlay, and presto...there you have it! Maybe next week I'll get my rain and put my ideas to work in town with some rainy street scenes. Who knows?!?!?!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

2009-05-14T20:18:00.000-06:00

Ahh, another beautiful day in paradise. Oh wait, that wasn't today, or yesterday, or the day before, because it's been RAINING the past few days!! Man, I know we need the rain, and that I still got out to shoot those days, but I am a bit tired of not being able to get any great sunrise or sunset shots the past few days. Rain is great for rivers and streams and sometimes we've had some pretty cool clouds here, but not as nice as a great sunset!

This shot is from earlier in the week, we got out to a little spot East of Jasper, along the Athabasca River at the end of the Colin Range. I got this one just as the sun went beyond the horizon and lit up the mountain with the rays of the day.

I used a Graduated Neutral Density filter on this one to keep the sky a little darker and keep the warm glow the center of attention.

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8, Cokin 121 GND

Finally got out to shoot

2009-05-07T23:33:00.000-06:00

Well, after more than a week of no activity here, I've been working at my regular job a lot lately, I finally got out to shoot a couple times this week. I got out with a friend of mine who really got me into photography and taught me a few things from the start.

A few days ago we went out the Miette River just west of Jasper, and got some cool shots of the clouds that were around at the time, great clouds that day, I haven't finished any good images yet, so I may post one in the next few days after I get through them all. I've been trying to really perfect my HDR skills, so that is mainly what I shot that day.

Today we went south of town to try and catch a sunset on the Athabasca River, but as our luck would have it, the storm clouds rolled on in just as we left town and about ten minutes later we were standing in the rain on the side of the river. No worries there, we kept on shooting, and didn't mind the weather, there was a really great old tree root on the side of the river that made for some great shots, and the overcast weather got me thing Black and White.

The above shot is of the Athabasca River, with Mt. Kerkeslin in the distance, storm coulds on their way to the south. The photo was converted to B+W in post processing, added some contrast to the overall photo, mostly in the coulds. I used a circular polarizer to keep away the reflection on the water and make the rocks the foreground subject.

Photo shot with: Nikon D90, 17-55 f/2.8, Cokin Cir. Polarizer

First Ever Blog Post

2009-04-26T23:49:00.000-06:00

For those of you who have found my blog... WELCOME!! This is my first ever post, obviously, and most likely will not be the last. Some of you may have stumbled upon this from a web search, or maybe it was a complete accident and you'll never be back again. Who knows, but either way, I urge everyone to check back here frequently, as I have great ambitions to post lots of stuff on here.

What will this blog be about, well if you read the whole title, it will mostly be about Photography, and all things photography related. As that subject goes, I may be fairly new, I've only been in the game for about two years now, but I am learning fast and plan to keep up with that pace. I'll be adding photos on here from time to time, photography news, maybe the odd "how to" post now and again on subjects I am comfortable teaching, and I will of course add lots of rambling thoughts about whatever I feel I need to write about.

The photo I've posted is from "The Crossing" a hotel and rest area on Highway 93, between Jasper and Banff in Alberta. The photo is of the mountains behind the crossing, it is a 3 shot HDR processed with the Tone Mapping tool in Photomatix Pro.

So that's it for now, check back again soon!!