It was the best of times...

Today I had some time to kill with Kole. Nina was busy preparing an awesome dinner as we had friends coming over later so she needed to have some room to move. I thought maybe we should go for a walk somewhere but Kole on wanted to go for a bike ride. Sweet! I have not been on my bike enough lately. I love riding with Kole buckled into his WeeRide seat as we get to interact and he enjoys his front row seat as we ride along. I really wanted to take some photos of us riding along and have some cool motion blur but I've done that before when riding on my bike and taking shots of my brother and its not easy. So I wasn't going to risk crashing with Kole strapped in front of me. Instead I put my lightest lens on my camera and packed it into my bike pannier and off we went.

We rode along the new rail trail near our house and enjoyed the fresh air and scenery along the way. We stopped at a bridge and Kole asked if I could take a picture. So I did. I took a few. After each shot he wanted to take a look and then he would make a different face or pose for the next one. The shots were just fun candid shots which are not technically perfect by any means but who cares! I was having the best time and I wanted to catch it in some photos.

The point is this - I realized not too long ago that time really is passing by. Some of us have different gauges for this and for me Kole marks the passing of time as I watch him grow. I also realized that I had not been catching many candid shots of him lately as I had been focusing on my more "professional" type shots. I feel bad for this and am working on getting back to just having fun. So get out there with your camera and catch those moments before they're gone because you don't get a second chance!

Shameless plug - My website has just been overhauled: http://www.kurtknock.com/

Big trouble

Why do we always think "oh, oh, trouble" when we see the police? Not me. I never do anything wrong because I'm perfect... I thought it would be a good opportunity to set up a shot that might seem a bit cliche but at least I wanted to technically get it right.

I'm having a lot of fun with portrait work where lighting is involved as you get to dictate the mood of the photo rather than having to accommodate the setting which is often the case when shooting outdoors or at other events. It's just something different so it brings new challenges and that is what I like.

If only I could have found a cheery Santa to do a shot of...

Merry Christmas or Festivus or whatever you like to celebrate!

The end is near!

The end is drawing near for my first ever photo exhibition at Coffee on the Moon. Jan 1st is the end and there are still some great images available. The sizes are 16x20" and 16x24" and all are block mounted by a professional shop in Victoria.
The response has been great and this has brought a lot of positive feedback. I was really unsure going into this as my work is pretty diverse compared to most people but it seems to have worked.
Now I'm trying to nail down a new venue to display my work. Maybe a restaurant , coffee shop or gallery...

A day in the life...

Sometimes it is fun to put a project together just for the sake of trying something out. A while back I rode shotgun with my brother who is a logging truck driver. I was hoping to get some cool shots of the industry that people seldom get to see and hopefully market these photos to industry publications. Turns out the industry publications I contacted only use freely submitted photos and don't have a budget to pay for professional photos. At least I got some interesting shots...

My brother Kevin also rides and races road, mtb and cyclo-cross so I of course have some cool shots of him on the bike.

And once in a while Kevin likes to head out to the awesome "shed" he built himself to do a little work on his Harley or clean up his bikes and maybe enjoy a beer. So I thought it would be fun to catch him relaxing here. This was the hardest spot to take photos as there was no useful light other than my flash and a little continuous light I use for fill. And it was really tight in there! But I'm sure Kevin didn't have photo-shoots in mind when he designed the shed so its just one of those things you have to learn to deal with.

The point here is capturing someone in their natural "habitat" or environment. I like the honesty of shots like these as they really show who the person is, no props involved. With just a few photos of my brother you can probably get an idea of who he is and what he does.

So, this is something that I want to do more of. A day in the life of... 

To the office!

Today was fun. A photo shoot in an office setting. The biggest challenge was the time constraint of 45 minutes. I tried to get as much variety in as possible while still getting the shots to make Mr. Al Slang happy. Setting up and tearing down the lighting and gear took 10 of my 45 minutes allotted and Al is a very friendly guy so you can't help but get immersed in conversation with him. A few more minutes... I think my actual shooting time was about 30 minute and I had a blast. Al is such a cool guy and even though he told me he wasn't terribly camera friendly I think he was great! I wish I had another hour to spend with him to chat about motorcycles, boats and all the other fun stuff but he had clients starting to arrive as I was packing. That was 45 minutes well spent! 

Time to get schooled!

Today I learned a lot. I learned that experience goes a long way. I learned this from Daryl Griffith, a friend and professionally trained photographer. Today when we were having coffee at the Moon, he offered to come over to my little studio and give me some pointers. That was the sort of offer you don't get every day - Professional advice from someone with years of experience! He even sat there as my photo subject while helping me along. I thought I new a bit about lighting. I was wrong. Almost all of my work has been outdoors thus far. Not much lighting needed there. But now winter is setting in and the studio will be seeing more attention and other indoor photo shoots are coming up so I am glad I had this chance to sharpen my skills.

This is the setup we were tinkering with today:

Here's to good people who share knowledge just for the sake of furthering the art! Thanks Daryl!

What have I become?

Putting myself out there is something which I think I have to do to establish myself as a photographer. But at what cost? Sometimes I feel a bit self indulgent or maybe somewhat of a narcissist, but should I? I don't know... To get some added press I got a blurb in the Citizen news paper a while ago and there's another coming out in the News Leader/Pictorial soon. I also contribute occasionally to the Valley Voice magazine. All this local publicity helps for sure, but can it also backfire? Maybe. Maybe it is the right direction to take. I have discussed this with another well known artist and I was told this is what has to be done to get a name established. It is not something I am totally comfortable with but I love taking photos so if I need to be a little aggressive with my approach it may get me up and running faster. And at 37 years of age it's not like I can just wait around for people to come seeking me out.
The other factor weighing on this is my other business which is Everti Bicycles. I love bikes and love cycling. I always have and always will. This is what got me going with photography, doing product shots of my bikes and photos of my riders at the races. I have to make sure I do not overlook what I've spent the past 10 years building here.
At any rate, I am working to achieve a balance which will see me successful in both my endeavours and I am enjoying the learning process in photography, just as I enjoyed starting my bike biz years ago. I guess things will sort themselves out...