Haven't had much time or energy to work on pictures lately, but thought I'd take a stab at a couple this evening. Not sure if I'm happy with the results or not, but if I wait until I've made a decision nothing will get posted at all, so here we go.

This (apparently) abandoned gas station is on the road out to Cultus Lake. Although taken in fairly early morning light which is normally good, in this case it didn't work out so well as the sun is behind the station rather than in front of it. I don't think I`d do any better at any other time of the day though, so I'll have to live with this lighting.

Played around with a few different ideas for processing. The first and third pictures we processed similarly, while the middle one was actually processed about two weeks ago and has been sitting waiting for some attention since.

As always, let me know what you think.

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After several months of not even looking at the camera I finally got motivated again. Couple of weekends ago I joined up with fellow amateur photographer (and co-worker) Deborah; we joined another co-worker Debbie who is learning horseback riding. We had a good time shooting all sorts of things in the stables - this is one of my shots, and no, that's not Debbie in the picture - and generally playing paparazzi while Debbie was having her riding lesson. Most of those shots aren't that great as it was a wonderfully bright sunny day which resulted in mostly too high-contrast pictures. I've still got to go back and take a look to see if there's anything there that I might be able to coax along a bit with some processing, but thought I'd post this one for now.

I also shot some other stuff this past weekend, which I'm also still going through, but I have high hopes that there will be something in that batch worth posting.

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Low Key Cool

For quite some time now I've wanted to try some low key photograpy; on Friday afternoon I finally got the chance. My nephew was willing so we headed out in search of something to use as a dark background. He actually spotted the wall that we eventually used (nice and dark - on the side of a nighclub). One bonus of the location was that it was partially sheltered from the rain under a bridge on-ramp, and that came in very handy.

To do this type of photography properly I really need a few additional items of equipment. The effect is much better when the light source (i.e. flash) is from the side rather than straight-on. With an umbrella reflector it is softened as well.

Still, given the limitations of the equipment and that this was a first attempt, I'm quite happy with the results.

[Hmmm.  Little problem with this post earlier.  When I uploaded the pictures and edited prior to posting I'd noticed a few differences in the way the code for the pictures looked but when I looked at the final result everything was fine... for a very short time.  Next time I looked at the post the pictures were missing.  Turns out there a new known problem posting from Picasa (which I always use for posting) which hasn't been fixed yet.  The upshot of this is that if you looked at this post during most of the day of April 4th you won't have seen the pictures, just the text, which wouldn't have made all that much sense.  Think I've got it working now, though all the hidden text for all my previous posts isn't working correctly either.  Sigh.  If  it's not one thing it's another.]

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Texture Fun

I'm going to post this quickly before I change my mind...

I took this shot last weekend at Finn Slough (South Richmond). Originally processed as a fairly straight black & white but it was lacking something, and there were a few bits about the photo that I didn't like much. I've just spent a bunch more time working on it, with this result. I think I like it, but if I let it sit for a while I'll probably change my mind and then it won't get posted, so here it is, before that can happen.

There are multiple texture layers applied, along with some vignetting and a few other things. It started out just as a texture-application exercise but probably turned out a little better than just a workbook result. The textures are a little heavy-handed, but that's okay - the end result looks a lot like a pretty old, abused picture.

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Rusty Bracket, #2

Meant to post this about a week ago but seem to have missed that deadline...

Second, and final shot of the rusty metal bracket. I do prefer the first one, but this one's okay too.  Taken after the feather added by my nephew had been removed.

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White on Rust

An actual new shot - not raided from my archives...

Had the opportunity to go out to shoot with my nephew yesterday. He's the new owner of his first SLR and we were going to do a bit of photography and then work on the shots later so that he could get a sense of some of the things I do to process my shots.

We got on location, started to get cameras out and he said "I think I forgot to put my battery back in the camera, it's still in the charger".  Rookies! So instead of both of us collecting some shots, I took some then we headed back to try out the processing end of things. This isn't one of the ones we worked on together, but I rather like the colour and texture in this one so I thought I'd post it first.

What you see is a very rusted metal bracket bolted onto a rock that would be underwater at high tide. The feather, which I'll admit gives a bit of scale, was added by my nephew.

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Gone to Seed

Resorting once again to archive raiding...

This one was taken back in August. I must admit that I no longer recall what it was that I wanted out of this shot, just that I wasn't fully satisfied with this result. Now that I can't remember what I wanted I find that I like it a little more.

Quite a bit of work was done on this one. I think it's worth noting that what looks like a shadow behind this dead flower (wild marigold or something like that I think) is actually another dead flower in the distance. The picture was actually shot in very bright (and hot) sunlight, which I suppose gives a little bit of a hint of what was done in processing.

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Bald is Beautiful

A new shot!

It was a beautiful day out there today, and I actually got out and took advantage of it.

I headed out with the camera and ended up at the Ladner dike on Boundary Bay. Not sure what, if anything, I expected to find to shoot out there but thought that at least I'd get some much needed exercise. I had a good walk along the dike with a couple of other photographers I met up up with. When we parted company - they'd parked at a different access point - I headed back to my car with nothing noteworthy in the camera. Then I spotted this eagle landing in an old tree just near the viewpoint I was approaching. It obligingly stayed put while I got my shots (this was the best) and was still there when continued on my way.

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Heron in tall grass

Another shot mined from the archive.

Most of the shots I've posted of birds have been close-in shots, with very little in the way of natural surrounding/setting. I've recognized for a while that this is a bit of a deficiency, something that I've tried to keep in mind when out shooting birds or any other nature subject.

With this shot I didn't have much choice anyway as it was quite a distance from me on the other side of the pond - just at the extreme range of my lens/extender to to still yield a usable result. I like this shot for many reasons and think that I simply didn't post it at the time as there had been too many birds (and probably too many of them Great Blue Herons) to justify posting another one. The happy result of this is that you get to see it now instead.

(taken in early March)

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Home for Sale

First of the archive-mining shots (I haven't anything recent to post).

There's an area at Deas Island Park that was cleared in the not too distant past. It's starting to grow over a bit now, mostly scrubby weeds, moss and wild marigold-like flowers so far. The odd thing about it is that is seems to be a dumping ground for snails as the ground is fairly littered with empty snail shells. Not sure if the shells are naturally abandonded or if they've been left there after being picked clean by some kind of predator.

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Ooops.... (read the text)

I'd intended to post this quite a while back but as I'm out of the habit of posting I guess I just forgot. It was taken the same day as my last post and I didn't initially like the result as I felt that it was achieved through photoshop 'gimmickry' rather than practiced skill but it has grown on me in the interim.

I've also been doing a little sifting through some of my archived material (stuff that didn't get posted first time around) looking to see if there isn't something more that might do in a pinch until I get something new that I like. Assuming that I don't forget to get around to posting some of it, posting should get a little more regular, at least for a while.

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"The Crusher"

I've been trying to make a little more effort lately - I have fewer excuses at the moment for not getting out with the camera. I must admit, it felt a little foreign today, and I only took a few shots.

I'm posting this now as I know that if I don't I won't do it later. I'm not particularly happy with this shot - there are focus issues for one thing - but it's more interesting that anything else I've shot in the past 3 months and i'm way overdue to post something.

Post processing is one of the things holding me back at the moment. I still don't have a handle on Photoshop CS5 yet - it's different from CS2 in subtle and not so subtle ways. While I haven't spent all that much time working with it (need to shoot something more often for that), when I do work with it I'm usually left with a feeling that I'm resorting to gimmicks rather than truly creating something myself. There are so many preset things that it'll do, it seems to stifle any individual creativity. In the old version you had to spend more time creating the final product yourself, with the corresponding sense of achievement at the end of the process.

I won't promise that this signals a return to more regular posting, but I will try.

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Different Day, Different Insect

I've kind of gotten side-tracked for the past couple of days and almost forgot to post another picture... My attempt to get a roll going is off to a shaky start!

This was taken the day after the previous post at a totally different park (Deas Island as opposed to Fraser River) but the insects are were both caught/shot on the same kind of flower (I was told that it's chamomile?). The 'poses' are almost identical - I have a great report with my bug subjects to get them to strike such similar poses. Actually, it's just that I wanted to get a nice sharp shot of the eyes and that's only possible from this angle or very similar angle.

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Bumbling Along

I knew when I started my holidays that it would probably not be my busiest posting period as I've been having a bit of an inspirational drought of late. However, 5 weeks into my holidays and this my first post is a little bit less than even I expected. Chalk it up to computer failure (computer died on the first day of holidays, replacement took over two weeks to arrive), computer reconfiguration (took several days to get it set back up to my liking), briefly out of town, then helping a friend re-roof his garage. Along with the new computer comes new software, and the newest version of Photoshop is taking a bit of getting used to compared with the relatively old version I had been using.

I finally took the camera out yesterday, not really because I was feeling inspired but thinking that I ought to at least make the effort. Most of what I captured was, predictably crap, but I did get one or two shots that aren't bad. They're not exactly what I'd like to be posting at the moment, but it's what I've got so it'll have to do.

Here's the first one.

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Speed Freak

This is Sam's brother Roy. Roy hasn't been racing for as long as Sam (I think he had his first real race shortly after this shot was taken) but he's very enthusiastic. He's also quite a bit taller, which makes scrunching down on the little bike a lot harder!

My panning technique was a little off (no surprise really - haven't done much before and it's been quite a while since the last) so this was one of the few such shots that I like from the day. Unfortunately most ended up in the recycle bin, and more should have except I thought Sam and Pat might find some interesting and I'd promised to share as many as I could "even the bad ones" (but not the horrible ones).

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Look where you want to go, not where you are

Finally... a new post!
 
My longest interlude by far - sorry for the lack of posts. I had been almost completely lacking in motivation and inspiration for the past couple of months. I was almost beginning to wonder if I'd ever get it back. I suppose I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself though - after all, I've only just had the one day today - but it felt good to be out with the camera again shooting something different and challenging.

I spent much of the day out at the Greg Moore Raceway in Chilliwack, where I'd been invited by this guy (his name is Sam Pat - a colleague from work). I had no idea there was so much variety to "mini-bike" racing - there are all sorts of classes (and vehicles). I heard any number of racers today talk about how if you go down (wipe out) it's no big deal and doesn't really hurt. Given the number of crashes and the fact that everyone seemed to have walked away from them I suppose they were telling the truth, but it did seem to me that they were in fact going pretty fast nevertheless.

To be fair, many of the crashes seemed to be rain-related (it rained a fair bit for a while) even though the experienced guys talked about how, after the heavy downpour the wet track (as opposed to damp) would actually be safer and have better traction.

I'll probably post a couple of more pictures from today over the next week or so. Then I hope to be shooting real motorbike (as opposed to mini) racing on Canada Day, and I've also got 6 weeks of holidays coming up and hope to get back into the swing of things then.

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Not exactly handsome, but good looking in it's own way.

I didn't shoot anything new this weekend and took only about a dozen crappy shots last weekend, so reluctantly, I suppose I'm left with nothing else to post but this shot from a couple of weeks ago out at Reifel. In some ways I'm more than happy with this shot as it was hand-held and manually focused and still came out quite sharp anyway.

Sorry for the prolonged sequence of bird pictures, but it's all I've got on hand and I'm not much motivated lately. Still looking for a willing victim, er, model to pose for me. Barring that, any suggestions for subject matter will be given serious consideration.

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This Bird Doesn't Need to Smile

For some time now, my 'list of want-shots' has included a quintessential shot of a wood duck.

This isn't it that shot.

It's not bad I suppose, but the eye could be a little sharper and the colours would benefit from better lighting (at Reifel, the wood ducks tend to hang around near one of the most tree-covered paths - not a total blanket, but it's limited). I met a woman who told me that the place to go for wood ducks is Burnaby Lake, so I guess I'll have to check it out one of these days to see if it's any better.

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Birds Don't Smile #3 (but they do punk out)

I'll apologize now for what will probably be a continuing series of bird pictures. I haven't been shooting much lately, but what little there is is almost all from Reifel. I've needed the exercise and Reifel is one of the few places I know that I will invariably spend 3-4 hours packing around all my gear. In the past 5 or 6 weeks I've socked away quite a few shots from there, and there are a few decent ones among them. Not to worry, I won't post all of them, just enough to keep thinks going until I get something else worthwhile.

This shot was from this past Tuesday, and it's a juvenile Sandhill Crane that's ruffling it's feathers, giving it a bit of a punked-up look I suppose. While it's someone similar to another shot I posted a while back, I thought it was unique enough that it merited the 'honour'.

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Birds Don't Smile #2

In my continued quest to avoid the downtown Olympic mob scene I once again found myself out at Reifel last weekend. Over all, I didn't get much in the way of interesting shots, but thought I'd post this one anyway as it is so similar to my last post.

This time around it's a Black Crowned Night Heron, as opposed to the Great Blue Heron in the last post. Locally there are also Green Herons, but I've only seen two since I started this photography shtick so it's probably safe to say that you won't see that one in the next post...

One thing that I did see/photograph out at Reifel was a little Saw-Whet owl. It was kind of nice since for some time now any kind of owl - in the wild as opposed to at the Vancouver Zoo - has been on my list but I've just had no luck until Saturday. The pictures actually are horrible, so don't expect to see any posted here, but I did see and photograph it. Then, on Sunday, I got a couple of opportunities with what I believe was a Short-Eared Owl flying around in the middle of the afternoon out at Iona. Those shots have more potential, I think, so it's possible one of them migtht appear at some point. Apparently there are at least three of these owls hanging around Iona at the moment and they make regular appearances. Now that I know that I'll probably stop by there again soon to see if I can get a little closer - though my stealth skills are a little rusty at the moment.

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