Dancing for the Kids

On Wednesday night I had the pleasure of attending the 4th Annual Dancing for the Kids fund raiser at the Shaw Conference Centre. This annual event is presented by the Rotary Club of Edmonton and supports the Kids with Cancer Society. Six celebrity dancers were paired with six professional dancers and each performed a different dance in front of a crowd of approximately 800 people and a panel of guest judges including Nicola Crosbie, Jamie Sale, Lynn Mandel and Katherine Frey. Celebrity dancers included Gillian Foote, Jason Gregor, Steve Hogle, Daryl McIntyre, Anna Posteraro, and Schoena Strudwick. They were paired with professional dancers Vince Davis, Samantha Gotlib, Daiana Sanchez, David Lam, Dominic LaCroix, and Delphine Romaire.

 

 

It was a great night of dancing and all of the celebrity dancers put forth an amazing effort. Dances included the Salsa, Fox Trot, Cha Cha, Argentine Tango, Lindy Hop and the Rumba. Video of each performance is available on CTV’s website at:

http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081126/edm_dancing_with_the_stars_081126/20081126/?hub=EdmontonHome#TopVideoAn

After each couple performed their dance, the panel of judges provided their feedback and then presented their scores. Once the judges had their say, the audience then had the ability to vote using a remote control voting system at each table. After all of the couples had performed and the results were tallied, Daryl McIntyre was crowned as the eventual champion with Gillian Foote taking 2nd place overall.

On a side-note, Daryl’s partner Samantha Gotlib was actually our dance instructor when my wife and I went to Arthur Murray to take some dance lessons for our wedding so it was great to run into her again after all these years.

Once the mirror ball trophy had been handed out, the dance floor was opened up to everyone to get up and strut their stuff. While out shooting the dances for my friend Anna Posteraro, I was approached by representatives of the Edmonton Oilers and asked to take a few photos of some of the Oiler’s players including Steve Staios and Jason Strudwick with his wife Shoena who was one of the celebrity dancers this year.

Pictured above: Steve Staios with 14 year-old Jennifer Taite who represented the Kids with Cancer Society.

Edmonton Oiler Jason Strudwick with his wife and celebrity dancer Shoena Strudwick.

More photos of Shoena’s performance can be found on the Edmonton Oilers website at http://oilers.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=MediaGalleryPlayer&galleryId=8614

For more information on this event, visit http://www.dancingforthekids.com/

del.icio.us Tags: Edmonton,Events,Dancing for the Kids 2008,Kids with Cancer Society,Edmonton Oilers

My Magazine Debut

Sometime last year I discovered a fantastic Canadian photography magazine called Photosho. Although it has only published 3 issues so far, the quality of the magazine and the images selected are outstanding. In addition, it is a Canadian magazine for Canadians featuring Canadians so that also gets bonus points in my book.

When the editor of the magazine put a call out for submissions or ideas for columns, I decided to pitch my idea for a column dedicated to promoting some of the great on-line resources available for photographers. This includes things like blogs, podcasts, photo sharing sites, educational sites, forums, review sites, etc. The editor loved the idea and asked me to submit a column for the next issue.

I’m pleased to announce that Issue #4 of Photosho magazine is now available for just $12.99 an issue and features my new column - “Click On – Web Resources for Photoraphers”. Click this link for a preview of Issue #4 http://www.photosho.ca/ps4.pdf. If you have already had a chance to read my column, I would love to receive any feedback or comments as well as suggestions of great on-line resources for photographers.

If you love great photography and would like to support a great Canadian publication, there is also a campaign running right now looking for people to donate to the publication to keep it going. Publishing a magazine is an expensive endeavour that requires a lot of funding so if you’re interested, you can head on over to www.photosho.ca and click on the Donate tab to make a contribution. Donations of $50 or more receive a free subscription to Photosho as well as recognition in the next issue.

David Foster Star Search Competition

I am fortunate to have been selected as the official photographer for the David Foster Foundation Harmony Gala which will be held in Edmonton at the Winspear on Saturday, September 13th. Leading up the event, a talent competition was held this past weekend at the River Cree Resort and Casino where 240 talented young performers took to the stage for their chance to perform for David Foster at an exclusive VIP dinner at LUX Steakhouse this Friday. Performers were given 30 seconds to sing acappella and then the top 58 ended up being selected to return on Sunday where they were given 3 minutes to perform with accompaniment. From that group of 58, six were selected and will perform for David on Friday. David will then select the winner who will go on to perform at the gala the next evening. Here are a few shots from this past weekend.

 

A Bad Break

Have you ever seen the inside of your hot-shoe flash unit? Trust me. You don't want to. I attended the Rexall Edmonton Indy this past weekend and while I was there a certain nameless individual (that's right - I'm talking to you person sitting in Grandstand C - Section D - Row 14 - Seat 8) sat on my camera and managed to snap my Canon 580 EXII Speedlite right off the hotshoe mount.

Now I realize that there are inherent risks taking expensive camera gear into a crowded event so I wasn't expecting said person to compensate me for the damages (although it would have been nice). At the very least however I was expecting him to apologize. Instead he just looked back at me, shrugged his shoulders, put his ear plugs back in and continued to enjoy the race while I sat and fumed. Needless to say I did not enjoy the rest of the race and was tempted on a few occasions to introduce the back of his head to the business end of my 70-200mm lens.

Now with a couple of days to reflect I am going to be the bigger person and look on this event as a learning opportunity. How so you may ask? Well, for one it gives me a chance to try out the Canon repair center in Calgary. For those who ever need to send anything in for repair, here is the contact information you'll need:

Canon Canada

2828-16th Street NE

Calgary, Alberta  T2E 7K7

Tel: (403)219-5939

I'd rather have to test them out with a relatively inexpensive item such as a $500 flash than to have to use their services to fix an expensive piece of glass or camera body. I will do a follow-up blog post in a few weeks once the repair has been completed commenting on my experience with the Canon repair center in Calgary.

The second thing I learned from this experience is that Canon was actually very smart in the way they designed their Speedlite. As you can see from the photos above, it looks like it was designed so that the hot-shoe mounting plate on the flash would actually break away from the body of the flash so as not to put pressure on the hot-shoe mount on the camera resulting in it being bent or broken. While I am not happy to have to send anything in for repair, better it be the flash than my brand new 40D. Hopefully  it doesn't wind up being too costly of a repair and my favourite flash unit will be back in action sooner than later. 

Shooting Animals at the Zoo

 

Calm down PETA. Relax Greenpeace. No animals were harmed in the creation of this blog post. On Tuesday night, my wife and I had the opportunity to photograph some of the animals at the Edmonton Valley Zoo. Throughout the summer, the zoo offers after-hours photography sessions which provides you with special access to the zoo and it's inhabitants. We were able to see several amazing creatures including Emus, Snow Leopards, Porcupines, Muir Cats, Wolves, and Lemurs. The most exciting part of the night was when we were allowed into the cage with the Red Pandas. Our group was the first group outside of the zookeepers who had been allowed into the enclosure. Below are a few shots from the evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

del.icio.us Tags: Edmonton,Valley Zoo

Best in Show

Last week I entered some photos into the 2008 Metro Photography Competition. The competition was open to students who had taken classes in photography at Metro college. There were 4 Categories including: People (General, Portraits, Weddings, Photojournalism), Nature (Travel, Landscapes, Flowers, Wildlife), Commercial (Still-life, Fashion, Industrial) and Abstract (General, Macro, Experimental). I submitted six images in total in three of the categories.

The criteria used in judging the photos was as follows:

• Stimulating subject choice
• Strong composition
• Creative cropping
• An awareness of lighting, lighting positions, shadows, etc
• The importance of tonal separation
• Effective exposure with the camera - technical and aesthetic
• Depth
• Selective styling and propping to enhance the subject matter
• Visual and emotional impact

The evening began with all the photos on display. There were some truly amazing images captured by the participants. Going into the competition I wasn't expecting much and after seeing what my competition had submitted I was even less optimistic.

The Cigar Man - 1st Place - People Category. Winner of Best in Show

When the judging began, each photo was displayed in front of the three judges for approximately 30 seconds. Each judge gave their score out 10 and the combined scores were announced. It was very nerve wracking as the scores were announced. Photos that I thought should have scored higher got low marks and some photos that I didn't find that strong received some fairly high marks. It was an emotional roller coaster as my images were being judged. The first few I entered scored in the bottom or the middle of the pack. I started to get a bit disheartened and wondered if I had really learned anything over the past two years. I had to remind myself that this was a learning experience and that these things are very subjective.

Once all of the judging was complete, the judges retired to another room to pick the top 5 in each category and select the overall best in show. I had loosely been keeping track of the scores and was surprised that one of my images had garnered the highest score of the evening - a 26 out of 30. Still, the judges had to review their scores and debate which ones they liked the best so I knew that the score might not be enough to win the competition.

When the final judging was complete, to my surprise my image of the "Cigar Man" that I captured while in Barcelona, Spain won 1st place in the People category and Best in Show. I also took 2nd place in the Abstract category with my image of the shadow of a co-worker playing golf entitled "Shadow at Play" I won $300 in photo finishing from McBain Camera and $175 in Gift Certificates for more courses at Metro. Needless to say I felt very honored to have been selected. It was a nice to receive some confirmation that I had learned something in the past couple of years and that perhaps I do have a good eye for this stuff. Even though many people have told me that I do, often I am my own worst critic and allow self-doubt to get in the way sometimes.

Probably the best part of the evening was the hour or so we got to spend having the judges critiquing images and giving us some insight into what they were looking for and why the scored the images they way they did. It was a valuable learning experience and I definitely picked up a few things that I will try to incorporate into my next shoot.

 

del.icio.us Tags: Photography,Competition,Print Competition,Metro College,Photos

The Lens Collection

If you ask any professional photographer what you should spend your money on when it comes to buying photography equipment, almost all will tell you to buy the best glass you can afford. Glass is just fancy photographer speak for lenses. All the other accessories and even your camera body you will probably replace every couple of years but if you invest in good glass it will serve you well for many years to come.

Heeding this advice, I have begun to build my collection of good glass. I've chosen to go with Canon which means I'll be sticking with Canon bodies for the foreseeable future as you cannot use Canon lenses with a different body (i.e. Nikon). In my collection I have the following 6 Canon lenses and one Tamron lens in order of price from most expensive to the least expensive.

16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM
This is a great wide-angle lens that I just recently purchased so I haven't got a great deal of shooting time in with it yet. It's a nice fast lens and it's also very light. I had the option of going with the cheaper EF-S 10-22mm f3.5 but in the end I decided to give up a bit of a wider angle in favor of a faster lens that could be used on a full-frame sensor if I ever upgrade my body to a 5D or 1DS Mark III.

24-70mm f/2.8 L USM
This is a great multi-purpose lens but I primarily use it for portrait and landscape work. This is a fast, sharp lens which performs particularly well around f5.6. It's a little on the heavy side but it produces some great results even in low light conditions. I purchased this when I upgraded to the 40D so I'm still experimenting with this lens and finding out when it's best used.

70-200mm f/2.8
This is probably my favorite lens that I've purchased so far. It produces great depth of field so I really enjoy using it for portrait shots and catching intimate moments from afar. I've used it to cover sports photography, weddings, travel, and event photography. I also have the 1.4X tele-convertor which extends the range of this lens which is handy when you need to get in that little bit closer to your subject.

Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3
This mid-range lens is a great multi-purpose lens for the photographer on the go who wants the greatest flexibility in range without having to carry several lenses with them. I bought this lens a couple of years ago and use it quite often when I'm traveling and don't want to bring my heavier lenses with me. It's great in outdoor settings with good lighting but it's not the best choice if I'm going to be in low-light conditions. It's definitely slower and noisier than my other Canon lenses and the auto-focusing system sometimes takes awhile to lock in on the subject I'm trying to photograph.

75-300mm f/4-5.6
Besides the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my Rebel XT, this was the first lens I purchased. At only $300 it's a very inexpensive lens which is great for zooming in on far away subjects or for creating a great DOF for portraits, etc. Unfortunately once I purchased the 70-200 f/2.8, this lens rarely makes it's way out of my bag these days and will most likely be sold off to any interested buyers who are looking for a like-new inexpensive telephoto lens.

18-55mm EF-S
This was the basic kit lens that came with my Rebel XT. I used it for quite sometime until I purchased the Tamron 18-200mm lens. Since then it has sat in my bag alongside my 75-300mm and will most likely wind up in the items for sale pile shortly.

50mm f/1.8
At only $100 this little wonder is fantastic in low light conditions thanks to a nice wide aperture. It is also a great portrait lens producing some tack sharp images - sometimes sharper than my much more expensive 24-70mm. It's small and light-weight so I don't mind throwing this one in the bag and pulling it out when I need it. Being that it's a fixed focal length, it's not the best lens to use in situations where the distance between you and your subjects is changing quickly and you need to get the shot. Having said that, I use it often so I am looking to upgrade to the faster 50mm f/1.4 which is still only around $380 which I think will give me good value for the money.

I'm curious to know what lenses you use and if there are any missing from my collection that you think I should have.

del.icio.us Tags: Equipment,Canon,Lenses,Gear