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.

Read the post [+]

Hide the post [-]

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.

Read the post [+]

Hide the post [-]

"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.

Read the post [+]

Hide the post [-]

Another Two-fer Sunday

I've been out with the camera several times over the last couple of days... getting lots of exercise but very few photos. Over all it's been a pretty disappointing weekend.

As a result, here's a shot taken last Sunday of a pair of juvenile bald eagles.

Read the post [+]

Hide the post [-]

Six-Pack of Pumpkins

I was up and out reasonably early this morning with hopes of catching a nice shot of frost at first light. Simply photographing frost wouldn't be that hard (one would think), but with a decent subject/composition was a little more of a challenge. I'd elected to try my luck out amidst the farming areas of Ladner as I hadn't been there for a while and luckily was driving past this field of unharvested pumpkins just as the sun was rising.

When I first got a look at this shot - which I'd thought was the best of the crop (pun intended) - on the computer I was really disappointed, but a little tweak here and an adjustment there and it came out quite close to what I was looking for so I'm rather pleased with it. Photoshop saves the day again.

Read the post [+]

Hide the post [-]

Are Thistles Weeds?

Taken about a week ago out in Ladner. Not much to say about this one except that it feels like summer. And I'm hoping we get back to more of this type of weather soon; it's far too early for summer to be over, which is how it's been feeling this past week.

Read the post [+]

Hide the post [-]