Wednesday, April 20, 2011

A new Hope.


The Mustard Seed Street Church of Victoria operates the Hope Farm Healing Centre  in the Cowichan Valley, just outside of Duncan. The farm is an addiction rehabilitation centre. Their mission statement is: 'Hope Farm is a restorative farming community grounded in Christian practice that offers a sanctuary of hope.' Our programme centres around our four core values of 'faithfulness, community, stewardship, and shalom.'


The farm is operated on private donations, fundraising, and revenue generated from good old fashioned farming. The farm grows crops like wheat and barley, raises chickens, sheep, cattle, sells eggs and grows greenhouse nursery stock. They also host a great outdoor dinner/silent auction with live music around the end of harvest season. All of this keeps Mike Burdge, the farm manager/pastor, very busy as there's no shortage of things to do on a farm.





For me, it is quite a relaxing atmosphere to take photos. I try to capture what is happening at the time or season. It also has it's challenges. For example, taking photos of lambs is not as easy as one might think. It takes a while (like 40 minutes) for the sheep to accept you near the lambs before decent shots can be taken. The cows are more quick to warm up to. They only take about five minutes to gain the trust of. Chickens run up to you right away, assuming you have food, just like my crazy Lab-mix.

(from last year's barley harvest)

(from last year's silent auction/dinner)

It feels good to take photos at Hope Farm as I can see the progress they're making and the good they are doing for people. So go out there, buy some free-run eggs or chicken and you'll know the money is going to a worthy cause.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

All revved up.


This past Sunday I was asked to shoot photos for Duncan Motorsports' ladies off-road ride. Sounded like fun to me. And it was! We left the shop in form of a small convoy of dual-sport bikes and off-road bikes loaded in vehicles to ride Mt. Prevost and Mt. Sicker.


The weather was your typical crazy mix of sun, clouds and a little snow up on the mountain. The ladies were guided by several experienced guys from the Duncan Motorsports, including the owner, Don Hatten, who is also a professional ralley racer. 


We made a few stops along the way to take photos and my favorite location was a huge slag pile left behind from an old copper mine. The hill must have been around 75 vertical feet and very steep! This made for some exciting shots!


After this stop we made our way to the lunch stop, on Mt. Sicker, looking over the ocean and Gulf Islands. As I was being driven around in a truck, we had to go the long way around the mountain a couple of times as the route the motorcycles were taking was too rough for us.



Action photography is such a change from portrait, or for that matter, any other type of photography. You have to really immerse yourself, and predict what is going to happen just to be able to catch the shot. On the slagpile, I was so close to one of the riders as he went by I was sure I was going to get mangled by his bike (top photo). Instead, he was able to keep the bike upright and I was covered with dirt and rocks. All in a day's work!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

One thing leads to another.


My last post was of the pre-gig photos I got of Kathryn Calder and band. While at the Duncan Garage Showroom I was already thinking of my next self-assignment. I wanted to get some photos of Longevity John Falkner, the proprietor in his environment.


Anyone who knows John understands he is a bit of a character. He stands out from the crowd as he's well over 6' tall and has long flocks of grey hair. I love taking photos of characters. They don't get any better than John. His showroom is really a museum of curious tidbits from the past 60 years or more. Everything from a belt-drive dentist drill to his prized nose flute... You have to stop by to check it out.


At any rate, as a result of my interest in taking photos at the Garage, I've been asked to come back and be the photographer for upcoming music gigs. Sweet. Sometimes putting yourself out there really pays off. Aside from this I had another great offer this morning which I'll post more about in the days to come.
This last photo was a mistake. My camera was set to a super slow shutter speed and I knew this as soon as I hit the trigger but I think it turned out pretty cool, especially if you take the subject into consideration.


Thanks John!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Show time.


Yesterday I had the opportunity to take some behind the scenes shots of Kathryn Calder and her band setting up and doing their sound check before their show at the Duncan Garage Showroom. Some of you may know of Kathryn from her other band, The New Pornographers, as they've had a lot of play on the radio and have been featured numerous times on late-night TV shows like Letterman and Jimmy Fallon.


I was aiming to catch scenes that the average show-goer doesn't get to see and do this while trying not to get in the band's way or trip on all the cables that were snaking around on the stage. The other challenge was the lighting. Or lack of it. I didn't dare use a flash as that would be most annoying for a band that is trying to get a job done without being bothered. So this was a good test of my camera's low-light ability and my ability to keep a steady hand. The shutter speed never exceeded 1/40th of a second and the ISO was hovering between 2500-3200. Sorry for the tech stuff...


Any way, the band was quite welcoming and Kathryn was super nice. If you have not seen them play or heard them, you've got to! They are great! Nice indie-rock that is really best seen live. I actually first saw them at a pub in Crofton of all places! Kathryn and band are using these smaller venues to fine tune their set for their upcoming tour of the USA. From what I heard, they're definitely ready.











And that's it. Off they went for their dinner break before taking the stage.
Thanks Kathryn and band!

Friday, April 1, 2011

How enlightening.


Jason Nielsen is a fellow cyclist and has a cool business, Digital Realm New Media in Victoria. He's a creative guy, a family man like me and I got to take some shots of him in his office setting and kicking back.



I was looking to create some highly detailed and somewhat intense shots, using pretty dramatic lighting by professional portrait standards. I feel that with guys, you can get away with showing a lot of detail. The more interesting the subject looks, the better. I also did some shots which were more neutral to suite Jason's needs!



In this shot of Jason drumming, I let the back-light into the shot for demonstration purposes. This way you get to see how the position of this light really kicks up the detail and outlines Jason's head and back. You'll have to guess where the main light was located. I can't give away all my secrets...



In this shot of my lovely wife, Nina, you can see how soft lighting is really nice on a portrait of a lady. You don't want too much detail. You want a soft, beautiful image that is borderline dreamy. So in conclusion: guys - character, girls - dreamy.
At least this is how I approach portraits.
And knowing how to do it helps...