Back in the action.

This past Sunday marked my return to the cycling scene, in a way... Normally I'd be racing, as I have been for most of the past 23 years, but this time I was behind the camera. I love mountain biking and it is a huge part of who I am, but right at this moment I'm having more fun taking photos of it than racing. The bike biz is something that I've made a living at for some time now and combined with racing or training on weekends, it is hard to find time away from. So I guess I'm giving myself a breather from being so serious about cycling. I love it but I have found there is more to life (for me any way...).

It was great to see familiar faces at our Everti Cobble Hill Classic mtb race, which is part of the Vancouver Island Cup race series. Everyone was having a great time and the course conditions were excellent. My brother, Kevin, has pretty much made this event his baby and really did a great job of pulling it together with help from a list of reliable volunteers from our cycling club who are there year, after year.

I was having fun in under the cover of huge cedar trees catching shots of riders as they flew past. For the most part, I was experimenting with and external, remote flash, which one needs in low light to freeze the action in sports shots (photo above).

Freezing the action is fine, as you get to see all the detail of the subject, but I usually like a bit (or a lot!) of motion blur to convey the sense of movement and speed (That's what the sport is all about!). To do this you forgo using a flash, set the camera shutter speed really low and either pan along with the subject (second photo from the top) and blur the background or you hold the camera steady and let the subject blur (photo above).

At any rate, I think it's good to be able to do everything as you never know when you might get a client who asks for a certain type of shot and you had better be able to do it! So practice everything...

Thanks to all my friends who came out to make this such a great event!

Spring break

This past week has been a nice break from the norm. I spent it all with my son as his daycare was closed for spring break. This meant not really getting any work done but it also meant a lot of quality time that I will hopefully never forget. I did take some time for myself on Sunday to sneak out for a ride and play with my camera a bit - trying some motion blur shots (see above and below). And I really needed the exercise!

It is a bit unnerving riding and trying to take pictures at the same time. The risk of crashing is high as you're not really looking where your going so much as your trying to take a picture. The risk of dropping the camera is high. I was sure to have the strap around my neck to prevent this. But I stayed upright and kept the camera and myself safe from harm.

I did bring my Olympus OM-PC film camera out for some fun too (see above shot and below). It was needing some love and I thought why not. I was dying to play with it some more. It really gives some character to the shots with it's warm tones. And the 50mm, f1.8 lens allows some really nice shallow depth of focus (see above shot). Kole and I had so many little adventures together over the span of the week I could do a huge, mega-blog on that alone. But I won't. :)

Today was the last day of the spring break in my eyes. I'll be busy the rest of the weekend and then life goes back to normal next week. So today we had a family outing and since I'm fighting a cold, Nina drove us up to Nanaimo. I used the opportunity to relax and play with my camera. Why not play around and have fun?

For the shot above, I just manually set the focus by guessing, put the camera on timer and placed it on the dash. Fun. I think I was having more fun than Nina...

A shot of the cockpit.

A shot focused on the windshield with shallow depth of focus to give a more interesting look.

I was so tempted to give some tech info on these shots but I digress. Maybe one day. For now this blog is for entertainment purposes...

A work in progress.

I'm lucky to have a beautiful wife who happens to be a bit pregnant. Good time for me to practice some maternity shots. The shot below was taken two weeks ago and since then there has been a fair amount of growth so we thought it was time to get some more shots. Above is a shot from today and you can see the difference. I was also experimenting with some different lighting which gives a more dramatic look.

Maternity shots are actually not too difficult to set up. You just need to get the lighting from the right directions and at the correct output. Posing the subject I think is critical. This makes a huge difference in the feel of the shot. These are things you don't really want to be testing for the first time with a client. One needs to go in, get the pictures the client expects and get out in a timely and professional manner.

At any rate, it's great to have such a beautiful test model in-house who is willing to work with me to help me improve my skills!

The long road.

Last Thursday I left for a little solo road trip to Seattle to catch a photography seminar from a couple of the best in the industry. Joe McNally and David Hobby were presenting the Flashbus Tour. A 29 stop tour across the USA in just over a month. I can't imagine how exhausting that is going to be!

Since it takes forever to get to Seattle from Duncan, on Vancouver Island, I had to give myself a day for travel time. The seminar was actually on Friday. I lined up at the Duke Point ferry terminal in Nanaimo and waited. So I set up my camera on the tripod and put on a ND4 filter to catch the motion blur shot above. Better than just sitting there zoning out...

Once on the mainland the next stop was the Peace Arch border crossing. I was happy to see a very short line and it only took about 15 minutes to get through. I took at shot of the beach as the sun was creating a pretty nice light and a shot of the border control station because it is so pretty...

After about an hour the weather got a little crazy. Strong winds, insane sideways rain, super darkness and the sun found a little hole to poke through to create this strange scene out the passenger side of my van.

Once in Seattle I located my hotel which was right downtown and very close to the convention center that I'd be visiting on Friday. The wind in Seattle was crazy! I have never seen anything like it. Stoplights were blown completely horizontal and my van was swaying in the gusts. When I checked into the hotel, the clerk said this weather was pretty normal and had been like this all day.

After settling into my room I didn't really feel like watching TV so I played around with my camera and a speedlite and came up with the photo at the very top and this one below. Guess where the speedlite is hiding...

Friday morning I got up early and went to the Washington State Convention Centre to get a good parking spot and walk around. I founds this interesting scene from the convention centre gardens. Looks like a bomb went off and the insurance wouldn't cover it. Really strange to see this urban decay right downtown Seattle next to multi bizillion dollar high rises.

Once inside the convention room I realised this was not going to be the most comfortable place to be for 8 hours. Shoulder to shoulder with 400 other people, mostly men, who all had their own personal smells and I can tell you they didn't smell better as the day went along. I'm sure I didn't either though.

The setup was pretty impressive two large projection screens and a large stage area to display everything nicely.

Maybe I should explain what the seminar was about... The Flashbus Tour is hosted by Joe and David who are considered lighting experts in the realm of speedlites (the small, battery-powered flash you ad the top of the camera). These lights are really great once you take them off the camera and use them remotely. This is when shots start to look professional. And who better to learn from than two of the best?

Joe McNally (below, left) is a photographer for National Geographic, Time, and Sports Illustrated. He has the credentials. He also uses a lot of equipment. But he gets the results!

David Hobby (below, right) was a news photographer for 20 years who is now specializing in portrait work and other high-end photography. He has a knack for innovation and using a small amount of equipment to get big results.

Between the two of these guys I came away with so much information I just can't wait to start shooting! The stuff I learned is definitely going to improve my game and help me take my work to the next level.

I highly recommend taking in some courses from these guys, or other top-end professionals to get your skill-set a little extra boost!

So even though it was a long drive, it was worth it.

Product photo art...

Product shots are sometimes boring to look at. For this reason I was happy to work with local potter, Hilary Huntley, of Trial By Fire Pottery. She's an artist who wanted an artistic way to show her fine pottery in print form. I was interested as I had an idea of what she wanted and how to go about doing it.

First consideration was to have the pottery look natural. Not floating in space like lots of product shots give the impression of. Hilary showed me a book with photos of creative teapots that had backgrounds that were really not flattering. Sure your eye was drawn the the subject but the background was so artificial looking. OK, so a black or white backdrop was not going to work here. We needed something more organic. A nice woven material worked just fine!

Then I had to ask - what level of detail to show? A shallow depth of focus looks more artistic but shows less detail of the whole product. Hilary chose shallow depth of focus. Cool!

I got to play around and arrange the items as I liked and it was fun! I've never dabbled in still-life shots but now I can see how it could become interesting. Some of the shots I got, in my opinion, looked like a print you might hang on the wall, more so than a product shot. This made me super happy and Hilary was happy too.

Another nice thing about product photography is the ease of taking the shots once you have the camera, lighting and other stuff set up. You basically put the product on the table, focus, shoot, and repeat. Well, it may not be that easy, but it's a lot easier than catching portraits of frisky dogs! :)

I could have gone into more detail of how the lighting and camera was setup but I'm not sure if that's what people want to read. Shoot me some feedback if you'd like more tech!

I guess it's official!

Birthdays and birthday cakes come and go, every year according to my calculations... Some are more memorable than others and this time I had a birthday cake to remember. It was a fantastic creation my wife came up with. A camera. While the exact model and brand may not be readily apparent by looking at it, I can guarantee you it tasted way better than my Canon 7D!

Those techie camera types out there will notice the built-in, 5-candle light auto-focus assist lamp for low-light conditions. Very cool! It even had a choice of good picture/bad picture modes, designated by the green/red smarty trigger buttons. Very user friendly.
I can't honestly remember the last time I had a really memorable cake. I know my mom made some when I was a kid, maybe 30 years ago, but I've never had one as an adult. It was pretty fun! Now I have a better understanding of the excitement my son and his friends have when their eyes light up as their moms' bring in their beautifully decorated Thomas the Tank Engine, or R2D2, or Cars themed cakes. These cakes mark a significant period in one's life. My cake could not have been more perfect for where I am right now. I guess I'm a photographer. My cake is proof...