Volunteer Photographers Needed

I got an email yesterday on Facebook from Rachael Yeung. She is the Games Assistant for the Alberta Winter Games which will be held in Leduc and Edmonton from November 14th - 17th. They are presently still looking for volunteer photographers who would be interested in coming out to photograph the various events. It's a great opportunity to build up your portfolio and add a major event to it. It is also a great chance to make some contacts and give back to the community. Volunteers also receive a free jacket.

Details and an online registration form can be found at http://www.2008albertawintergames.com/association.aspx. I have signed up to shoot from the 15th - 17th. No word yet on where or what I'll be shooting but I think the experience will be very worthwhile.

Video Mash Up from Northern California Trip

This is a little mash up of some of the photos from our trip to Northern California. I used a great little service called Animoto to create this video. You can upload your photos from a variety of online photo sharing services such as Flickr and Photobucket, select your music and then Animoto goes to work producing a custom video. Once you've created your video, you can embed it on your website or post it to a variety of blogs and social networks such as Facebook, etc. Visit www.animoto.com for more information.

Managing a Growing Collection

So this new "digital" world of photography is great right? No more fussing with film, waiting for prints to come back from the lab, wondering if the shots you took turned out, etc. You can instantly view, share, print, upload, email, crop, rotate, fix, delete, convert, enlarge, and do a myriad of other things to your photos. What's not to love?

Well, with every new advancement in technology that comes along to solve a problem, a whole new set of problems opens up. Case in point with digital photography. It's almost too easy to get snap happy these days and you wind up with a massive amount of photos. If you're anything like me, most of these wind up living on my laptop and never get printed. Today I've decided that I need to get a handle on my growing collection and start to do something with it before it becomes so unmanageable that I won't know where to start.

First step - go through and clean up all the crappy photos that I'll never print. Start with the obvious ones - blurry, total blown out, too dark, etc. Once I've filtered down the collection, the next step is to consolidate all of my digital photos into one central location.

Step Two: Backup Backup Backup. Your hard drive will fail. This is not a prediction but a guarantee. Eventually these things just wear out and when they do you better have a backup. I'm looking at adding a Western Digital 2 TB drive to my network to backup all of my media files. Costco has this thing on for only $599 right now and I think it will be a great addition. I have a 500 GB external drive that I backup to presently and then I burn a DVD every month or so with the new stuff I've shot. This little puppy should give me some good storage space for a least the next couple of years. Merry Christmas to me.

 http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10305569

Style

My final assignment for Creative Design Level 1 was to use different photographic styles to shoot a subject chosen by the class. Several ideas were suggested but everyone ultimately decided upon keys as the subject. The choices of photographic styles include:

• Studied, Contemplative
• Documentation
• Photojournalistic
• Emotional
• Suspended Animation
• Abstract
• Sidelong Glimpse
• Isolation, Ambiguity

This was one of the images that I finally decided to submit and is representative of the abstract style. The viewer can recognize that this as a key but by shooting only the shadow, I have presented it in a creative way not normally seen.

For this image I had my wife hold up the key in front of a flashlight. The backdrop is white piece of foam core. Camera settings were as follows:

• Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
• f6.3 @ 1/6 of a sec
• Tamron 30-200mm Lens at 150mm

I will take a break from classes during the Christmas season which will give me some time to practice my Photoshop skills and attempt to digitize some of my older photos that were taken before I moved to all digital. Wish me luck!

Field Trip to Fort Edmonton Park

I had the privilege of being able to do a night shoot at Fort Edmonton Park a couple of weeks ago. As part of the Painting with Light course that I just completed last Thursday, our instructor arranged a field trip to the park from 7-11. For those who are not familiar with this technique, it basically involves setting your camera on bulb exposure and then"painting" a dark scene using a variety of lights and colored gels. The effect is quite amazing and the results you get are only possible using this technique (unless you were a real master with Photoshop I guess).

Preparation

In preparation for the field trip, I need to arm myself with a few tools. The first was a couple of high powered flashlights from Canadian Tire. I managed to find a couple 1,000,000 candlepower rechargeable lights for around $30 each. The next step was to visit AllStar Show Industries in the west end to get some black foil which I used to create a 'snoot' on the lights. The snoot is wrapped around the front of the flashlight and provides a place to insert your colored gels. The snoot also helps to concentrate and pool the light while cutting down on the amount of spill.

Time Flies

Armed with these tools, freshly charged batteries, my wife's cookies, and thermos full of Tim Horton's coffee, I made my way down to Fort Edmonton Park. The goal was to capture 6 good images in four hours. No problem right? Not as easy as I thought. One of the hardest parts of doing painting with light is setting up your scene. When you're working in the dark and wearing gloves it takes twice as long to try and do anything. Once you do have your scene setup, it then can take anywhere from 3-30 minutes to paint your scene depending upon the amount of available ambient light, your subject, size of the scene. Once you are done painting the scene with your lights, you may leave the lens open for an additional time period to allow ambient light to fill in the background and foreground so your subject doesn't look like it's just floating in the dark. Then, once you have finished, your camera goes into noise reduction mode which can take the same amount of time to complete as your exposure (for more information on noise reduction visit the following Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_noise). Only once this process has completed will you see the fruits of your labor and discover whether your image is crap or not. If your exposure is off, or you paint too long in an area resulting in blown highlites, or you don't paint enough resulting in a black image; all that time you spent is wasted and you have to go back to the drawing board. Before you know it, 4 hours have gone by and you don't have much to show for your efforts. I'm sure this will get better with experience.

The Results

After 4 hours, I managed to get 12 photos in the can of which, six of which I was pretty happy with. Here are the fruits of my labour.

In the spring Chantal will be organizing another field trip to the Devonian Botanical Gardens so I hope to practice more between now and then so that hopefully I can produce some great images that I can print and frame.

For more information on painting with light or to see more sample images, visit my Chantal Thorlakson's site at www.nightstockphoto.com.

Creative Design - Assignment #3

It's week 3 in my creative design course and this week's assignment is on creating a focal point by using emphasis (contrast). Below are some of the photos I submitted for this week's assignment.

This shot was taken from the top deck of the ferry on our way back from Alcatraz. The wind was blowing just enough to get the flag unfurled. I had to play around with my angles to get the flag and Alcatraz both in the frame. I really liked the iconic nature of the photo with two such highly recognizable subjects in the image.

This was taken in Napa Valley at the Berrington Vineyard. Some of the staff members at the vineyard grow pumpkins each year and this was one of the smaller ones that one of them brought in. It's only 800 lbs! Now that's a lot of pumpkin pie. I thought this was a good candidate for this assignment since it's clear that the focal point is the large pumpkin due to the contrast in size to the other pumpkins.

Inside Alcatraz

Sarah and I just got back from a trip to San Francisco and Northern California. While walking through Alcatraz I managed to get this great shot looking at the cell blocks through a hole in the visitation area. I only wish I could have taken this photo while the prison was empty although the addition of some people in the scene does add some interest.

Camera settings were as follows:
Canon Rebel XT
Tamron 18-200 XTi Lens

Focal Length: 18mm a f/3.5

ISO: 200

Great Online Training Resources

So I've been busy taking a bunch of courses at Metro and NAIT but I thought for today's post I would suggest a couple of good sites you can go to take courses online.

www.lynda.com is a great place to take a variety of training on over 351 topics. The following courses are of particular note to those interested in photography and online publishing: Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge, iPhoto, Picasa, Aperture, Flash, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver. For only $25/month or $250/year you can take as many courses as you want. For a sample of one of their courses, check out this introduction to setting preferences in Bridge: http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=334

Web 2.0 celebrity lifecaster iJustine introduced me to another great company called Xtrain which offers several different learning tracks in Graphic Design, Digital Arts, Online Marketing, Web Design, and Digital Photography. Their model is similar to Lynda.com where you pay a monthly fee to access all the training. Check out their digital photography program at http://training.xtrain.com/program/show/7-digital-photography

Happy learning!

Creative Design - Lines

So I started another course at Metro. This course is entitled Creative Design in Photography and covers various elements of design as they apply to photography. Our first assignment was to produce 3 images that show strong use of lines. There are many different types of lines - straight, diagonal, parallel, horizontal, spiral, convergent, etc. Each type of line can convey different feelings or emotions depending on how they are arranged. I had several ideas for this assignment and of course as soon as you start to look for lines you start to see them everywhere. I finally decided on the following three images:

The first image I took in the River Valley near the Valley zoo. It was a birch tree that had a very interesting pattern and an almost perfectly straight line running across it. There were also lines in the dark part of the bark as well as lines created by the shadows of the trees behind me.

The second image was a still life entitled "Bachelor Fine Dining" I played around with this one quite a bit but finally settled on this one because I felt that I was able to capture the correct color without blowing out the hilites on the fork and knife.

The third image happened accidentally. I had actually been shooting three books stacked one on another. As I was putting the books back on the shelf, I happened to flip over this copy of East of Eden and realized that the pages of the book formed some very interesting lines as they were rough cut instead of the nice smooth edge you normally found on a book. I flipped the book on edge and snapped away resulting in the third image.

Based on feedback I received in class, my instructor thought that the image of the book would have been just a bit stronger if it had been turned forward slightly so that you could see the back of the book. Anytime you have text the eye is drawn to it and the view wants to see more. The shadow cast on the bottom bothered me at first but some people found that it added another great line to the image and gave a sense of depth. Another comment from Chantal was that she would have liked to seen more separation between the book and the background as it tends to just look like a book floating in space. If I had added some light or overexposed the shot by a about a 1/2 stop, I probably could have revealed more of the background.

Overall it was a great exercise and now I can't stop looking at lines everywhere I go. Next assignment - color.

Photoshop Level I Complete

On Wednesday I completed my first Photoshop course at N.A.I.T. The next course starts up in February so I have some time between now and then to practice what I've learned. I thought for today's posting I would share a tip with respect to buying Photoshop. If you register for a class at NAIT, you can get student pricing on hardware and software at the Tech Store.  The regular retail price for the CS3 Master Collection is $2499 USD and it includes:

• Photoshop CS3
• Illustrator CS3
• Flash CS3
• Dreamweaver CS3
• Fireworks CS3
• InDesign CS3
• Contribute CS3
• After Effects CS3
• Premiere
• Soundbooth
• Encore
• Bridge
• Acrobat 8

However, if you are registered for a course at NAIT, you can pick up the full suite for only $549 which is still cheaper than just Photoshop by itself if you bought the full version. Definitely a great deal if you are student. You can learn more about the full Master suite at  http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/. If you don't need the web development applications like Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks, you can pickup the Creative Suite 3 Design Premium for around $300. It combines Adobe InDesign® CS3, Photoshop® CS3 Extended, Illustrator® CS3, Flash® CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS3, Acrobat® 8 Professional, Bridge CS3, Version Cue® CS3, and Device Central CS3.

del.icio.us Tags: Photoshop

Tips from the Top Floor Podcast

There are many great Podcasts out there devoted to Photography and Photoshop but one of my favourites is Tips from the Top Floor. This regularly updated Podcast alternates between a video and audio format. Each episode runs from between 5 - 20 minutes and contains some great tips covering a variety of topics such as working with your DSLR camera, image composition, and image processing. The episodes are delivered in an easy to understand format without being too techie or too simplistic. From time to time, the show will also have assignments that listeners can participate in by submitting their photos.

I discovered this Podcast while listening to one of Leo Laporte's weekly Podcasts on the TWIT network. The host, Chris Marquart is from Germany and shows up on the Tech Guy Podcast as a regular guest with a segment on Photography.

I've picked up some great tips from this Podcast and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in photography - whether you are a seasoned pro or just starting out.

Painting with Light

It's my third week of my "Understanding Light" course and my assignment for this week is to produce 3 examples of painting with light. For those not familiar with the technique, it involves photographing scenes in low-light conditions by "painting" the scene with a variety of light sources. This happens to be the speciality of my instructor who's work you can see at www.nightstockphoto.com.

The technique basically consists of setting up your shot, setting your camera to Bulb exposure, opening up the lens using your cable release and then painting the scene using your light source.For my shots, I had to purchase a couple of items including a cable release, some flashlights, and color gels. I stopped by Vistek to pickup my cable release, UK Products for some flashlights, and All-Star Show Industries to get the colored gels (translucent sheets of colored paper normally used in stage and theatre lighting).

Armed with these tools, I set out to start painting. My first subject was a Japanese stone lantern from our front yard. I first tried to shoot it outdoors but couldn't find a good setting that was dark enough. I eventually moved it indoors where I could control the light better.  In this example I lit the lantern from the inside with a tea light and then painted the outside with a small flashlight covered with a red gel. I used my 18-55mm lens with a focal length of 34 mm, an ISO of 200, and my aperture set at f8.

For my next shots, I moved outdoors to the lake near our house to try and capture some of the late fall cattails on the lake. The pathway around the lake has many sodium vapor lights so the first challenge was to find a spot dark enough. Fortunately we managed to find one nice dark corner and one spot where one of the bulbs had burned out. For my first shot I used the same camera settings as I used with the lantern, along with a combination of yellow and orange gels. For the second shot, I switched to my Tamron 18 - 200mm lens with a focal length of 54 mm, an ISO of 200, and an aperture of f18. I used a slightly larger flashlight with a blue gel applied to it.

Overall it was a great learning experience and definitely a great way to gain a better understanding of light. Not sure if I can see myself heading out in the wilderness to shoot in the middle of the night but you never know.

iPhone - Revision 2

So it's only been a few months since the iPhone was launched and I managed to scoop the exclusive photos of the 2nd generation Apple iPhone. Check it out!

Okay, just kidding. This was actually a test shot I submitted for my class on Understanding light. To achieve this shot, I first setup my props on some inexpensive black velvet. Then I setup my camera on my tripod and used my Canon 50mm f1.8 lens to shoot this scene. The objective was to illustrate the four different lighting positions: front, back, side and three quarter-lighting.

In this particular shot, I propped up a piece of white foam core on top of my camera and then shone an LED flashlight up from below the camera. I was pretty pleased with the even lighting effect I was able to achieve which gave the image a very lifelike 3D look and feel. Class is tomorrow so we'll see what Chantal has to say about it.

Fall Courses Start for Me

So fall is here and it's back to school for me. For the next 8 weeks I'll be taking three courses at both NAIT and Metro College. My first course is a course at Metro on understanding light being taught by Chantal Thorlakson. She does some really neat painting with light photography which you can see at www.nightstockphoto.com. Check out Metro's course offerings at www.metrocontinuingeducation.ca.

The second course is a Photoshop course at NAIT geared specifically towards photographers. I've been meaning to learn Photoshop for quite some time so I decided that rather than hack around in it and try to guess my way around, I would take a course and finally learn how to use it properly. The new NAIT lab my class is in is full of shiny new iMacs which is nice because I've been considering upgrading to one to use for all my photography work. Visit www.nait.ab.ca for information on their photography programs.

Once my Understanding Light course is done I'll be taking another course at Metro called Creative Design in Photography Level I. Once that has been completed I will receive the first level of recognition so that I can move on to more advanced courses.

My First Ever Winning Contest Entry
I belong to a Facebook group called the Young Edmonton Photographers Group and each month the group holds a challenge. The first challenge was for the month of August and was a portrait challenge. I entered this photo that I shot in Barcelona and it was selected by the group as the winning entry! The reward is that my photo will be used as the group's photo for the month of September. Not exactly something I'll be able to retire on but it was great to have my portrait selected by my peers. There were some great photos submitted so I was definitely suprised to win.

The next challenge is an Urban Photography Challenge where we will try to capture Edmonton's urban soul. I have a couple of shots that I plan on submitting. I can't wait to see what the other members of the group come up with.
(http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2888804300)

Kaiya in the Sunlight
Our friends were up from Calgary last weekend and I managed to capture this photo of one of their daughters with my new Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. I thought the lighting in this one turned out very nice although the blanket got a little washed out. I probably should have underexposed it by a half stop or so. Perhaps I'll play with it in Photoshop to see what sort of results I can get.

The First Snapshot

Well I created this thing a few days ago so I figured I better put at least one post up to get started. I decided to start this blog to document my discoveries, trials and tribulations as an amateur photographer. Hopefully each week I will be able to share my photos and provide some tips and advice on photography as I learn from a variety of sources.

Today's tip is about a new store that I discovered in Edmonton called Vistek. You can find them at Vistek.ca. They are located on 109th Street and 107th Ave. They sell a wide range of equipment from camera and lenses to a full line of accessories, computers, memory cards, photo paper, bags, tripods, etc. Starting in January they will even be renting equipment so if you've had your eye on a certain lens but want to test drive it before plunking down your hard earned dollars you'll be able to rent lenses for a day, weekend or week for a reasonable cost. Definitely looking forward to trying out some hi-end lenses.