Saturday, June 26, 2010

We're not in Kansas anymore Toto!!!

The other night, I sat down in Cow-town, and after rather painless red-eye, I stood up and walked out of the doors into Fish-town.  We're definitely not in Kansas anymore...  I'm here in St. John's, Newfoundland with Opera on the Avalon rehearsing for some shows in Mid July.  

So, back to the red-eye flight...  Needless to say, the combination of overnight flights and time differences, jet lag and sleeping patterns are in a state of flux.  So, I decided to take advantage of my alert state of mind and went up to Signal Hill to take in the sunrise as it rises on the easternmost part of Canada.   Photographers always talk about how perfect the light is at dawn and/or dusk, and combine that with  a clear day, it made for a nice morning.

From Cabot Tower, atop Signal Hill (Where Signor Marconi played out his fascination with Ben Franklin Kites) I descended the "Hill" and walked along Duckworth Street which is famous for its brightly coloured houses.  All in all, about a 500 metre descent and 3.5 kms...

















Sunday, June 20, 2010

Family gatherings provide lots of unknowing and willing subjects...

Wow... taking photos of people is so much more difficult than it looks, so I take my hat off to friends such as Lana Gurevich who take really good, professional photos of people. 

I drove up to Red Deer for a gathering with my extended family today, and we were lucky enough to have an amazing day with great weather.   With 30 or 40 people in attendance, it gave me the opportunity to start pointing my lens at real people instead of flowers or nature or buildings.  I'm pretty sure that I prefer catching people in the moment, rather than having formal posed portraits or groupings, so it was interesting (and frustrating) to watch these people and groupings appear out of nowhere and disappear as quickly as they appeared. 

I had some difficulties with the settings in the bright sun, so many pictures didn't turn out as I would have liked them to, but I was happy with about 10% of what I did take.










You really didn't expect me to just take pictures of people did you?





Sunday, June 6, 2010

What do they say about working with Children and Animals?

his morning, the clouds decided to part for a couple hours and hundreds of canines dragged their owners and families to Fish Creek Park for the 10th annual Calgary Humane Society Dog Jog Fundraiser.   I was asked to come take photos of my friend Christie and her "A Walk With Whippets" crew (China, Toby, Casey & Abbey.)

I've been trying to take more pictures of actual people, so I guess that dogs are a stepping stone along that path.  I think that part of the trick of taking good canine photos is taking a lot of photos, and taking the photos quickly, before the subjects get distracted and start sniffing and/or licking other subject's butts (this may be a problem with human subjects as well, but time will only tell.)

I've been trying to find new and different perspectives, which as a 6'5" man, usually means getting down and rolling around in the dirt.  I also used some natural topography to get below the subjects (a little ravine, fallen tree trunks).













Wednesday, June 2, 2010

In honour of a friend's new website...

My friend Christie loves urban trekking and she loves her whippets, so the dreamer collided with with entrepreneur and "A Walk With Whippets" was born.  She's just launched a new website, so I thought I would share.

Here are some pictures of her pack that I've taken over the past year or so.







  
CTV National News did a segment on them this past year.