Growing...

I haven't been shooting much in the past month. Instead, I have been logging hours and hours, sitting on my butt culling my massive image library. It had to be done. I could procrastinate no longer. I was down to my last few gigabytes of disk space and I had photos to load and projects to edit. I needed space!

The easy solution would have been to open my wallet, buy some more disk space, archive a bunch of junk and be done with it. But as it turns out going through years and years of pictures turned out to be a pragmatic process.



First, it made me realize how many bad pictures I had to take in order to start making good ones. It gave me a chance to see how my photography had grown and improved since I grabbed my first SLR shot with a Canon Rebel Xti. I was able to spot photographic flaws more readily. I became ruthless in my editing, deleting literally thousands of images. It was a long, tiring, yet rewarding experience that is still only half way complete. But I think the best part of the whole exercise is that I found these little gems along the way. Images that stood out amongst all the - *cough* - crap. Small, positive reminders of growing skills.



It seems to me I *had* to make thousands of crappy shots in order to realize how to make good ones. I just wish I had of cleaned up the mess as I went (sigh).

Keep shooting.

Peace Bridge

Last week, I finally took a break from three weeks of butt surfing and got outside to take pictures of Calgary's new Peace Bridge as it was being pushed across the Bow River. The bridge is over a year behind schedule and has been a tad controversial since it was first announced but I have to admit it was very impressive to see it in person. The shot below I took late in the afternoon on the first day the bridge was on the move.

There still was a long way to go and it seemed like it was done moving for the day.

However, the very next day it was already fully across. I was actually quite surprised. I thought it would take a lot longer.

The bridge still needs to be plucked off of the temporary supports and placed on its permanent moorings. That should make for some exciting pictures so I will be watching the newsfeeds closely to make sure I don't miss it. I am also really excited for the photo opportunities once the temporary support structure is removed revealing the bridge's unique aesthetic fully.

Keep shooting.

Farewell Little Snoof...

Yesterday was a very sad day for my partner Jen and I. We had to say goodbye to a wonderful, loyal companion of nearly 18 years, Jen's beloved cat Snoof. Her real name was Patches but she became a part of my life after Jen moved in with me almost 3 years ago and eventually she became known as Snoof. For some reason the name was the perfect fit for her personality. She was a bit aloof, she was bright and demanding but very loyal and loving. She was a tough, agile, spunky little girl in a small package. She was the Snoof.

Snoof was also quite camera shy. It would be very lucky to get a shot of her actually looking at the camera and nearly impossible for her to seem pleased about the process. As soon as the camera would come out, she would hide her face or completely turn her back to the camera. Sometimes I think she would toy with me and let me believe she was cooperating while I set up lights and umbrellas only to walk away just as the camera came out. On a few rare occasions I was able to grab a shot or two but now that she's gone I regret not making more of an effort to capture pictures and video of an amazing little cat.

It is easy to fall in to thinking the shot I didn't make today is the one I can make tomorrow. Sadly, tomorrow is sometimes too late.



Rest in peace little Snoof.

Why Can't Every Wall be White?

I do not have my own studio. I wish I did but I don't. Someday I will but until that lovely time arrives I rent, borrow and beg for space when I need it. It is certainly not an optimal situation but you do what you have to do.

I shot a bunch of stock images on the weekend in a yoga studio space that I rented from a friend. While reviewing the images one thing became immediately clear - I practically needed zero colour correction. It was a really nice surprise. I alway shoot a grey card during my shoots to use in post and in a lot of instances I can see a colour bias when I pull up the images on my Mac. Fixing the colour in post is easy with the grey card shot but for this shoot the images were clean right out of the camera.

RIP Steve Jobs

Shock, disbelief, sadness.

I arrived home tonight with my partner Jen and shortly after we settled in, Jen announced that Steve Jobs had died. I could not believe it. I pulled out my iPhone and checked. It was true, he had passed. A wave of sadness flushed over my body. I guess we all kind of knew that Steve Jobs would eventually succumb to his illness but this just seemed too soon.

My New Best Friend...

I'm a Mac guy. Long story short I worked in the Information Technology field for over 22 years before moving to a career in Photography and during that time I spent a lot of time on personal computers running Windows. About three years ago I moved to a Mac as I say, "once you go Mac, you'll never go back".

OK, seriously, I really do love my Mac but enough said about that… for now. :)

About two weeks ago I used a built-in Mac OS X application called "Automator" for the first time. Automator is a simple yet incredibly powerful automation assistant. With it you can create workflows, scripts and even executables to manage mundane or very complex tasks. I've known about it for quite a while but never really had the inclination or need to try it out. But just a couple of weeks ago I finally had a reason to give it a try. I had a requirement to rename hundreds of digital images before uploading them to a website. Doing this task manually would have been a complete pain in the butt and likely would have been somewhat error prone. Using Automator for the first time ever it took me about three tries and 15 minutes to create a proper workflow. Awesome! I was quite impressed.

Today was the my second time using Automator and the results were equally impressive. This afternoon I had to resize a bunch of images for my website. Sure, it's something I could have done manually but why would I bother when I have this powerful ally on my side. I fired up Automator and using every bit of my 15 minutes of experience I cranked out a two step workflow in about 20 seconds. I'm not kidding. It was literally 20 seconds! After building my workflow I hit the "play" button and under 3 seconds later all my images had been shrunk to 50% of their original size. Simple, perfect and so, so easy.



My new best friend - Automator.

Keep shooting.

A Few of My Favourite Things… Part 1

Most photogs I know love gadgets. I am certainly no different. Gadgets are awesome, especially when they solve a problem or make your life a little bit easier.

One such gadget is the remote transceiver caddy from FlashZebra.com. For those of us who use PocketWizard Plus, Plus II or Multimax transceivers it is a simple device designed to mount your PocketWizard securely to a light stand or directly to the flash itself. The PocketWizard has a 1/4-20 female threat mount on the back and the caddy quickly and securely screws in to that mount without tools. If you have super strong finger nails you could probably manage to attach it but a simple coin will do the trick. Of course, you could always use a screwdriver.



Once attached, an elastic cord holds the PocketWizard tightly on a light stand or flash. Before I had these little beauties I used to just hang the PocketWizard off my light stand by its strap. That worked OK but it wasn't great. It was messy, prone to falling off, generally insecure and it certainly had an unprofessional look about it. Now my PocketWizards stay exactly where I put them, even when I am relocating light stands.



I really do love these little caddies but nothing is perfect so I have a couple of minor quibbles. First, is the price - $15. Seriously? $15? That's pretty steep for a hunk of plastic! I've been shooting pictures for a while so I know all about paying too much for a hunk of plastic, yeah I'm looking at you Sto-Fen. My other minor (very minor) quibble is the screw mount. Yes, it's secure and yes it works great but when I have to change the batteries, which I admit is not often, it always seems to be at an inconvenient time and I never have a screwdriver or coin handy.



Other than two very nit picky cons I absolutely love these gadgets. They make my photographic life just a bit easier and I like that a lot.

Keep shooting.