Another Child Portrait

Got another opportunity to get some shots of kids at a BBQ this past weekend. It is really starting to become clear that most kids are so exposed to digital cameras that they don't shrink back from them anymore. Some even see the camera come out and they run over and start posing. Not that this was the case here.

This little girl is two and a half, was an amazing host, showing me her backyard and new puppy. I think that I have had a lot more exposure to young children over the last three or four years and I have a much more relaxed vibe around them that they can pick up on.

This was a color shot that I turned black & white because it was a little bit overcast and the wind had come up. Wispy fine hair can be hell on auto focus, but the lines become crisp again after some recovery and clarity were added in Lightroom with B&W. And because I think it looks better.

This photo needs no explanation or introduction. Let it wash over you. Repeat if necessary.

This is a nice candid shot of my buddy Rich's daughter. It was 47C with the humidity and she was determined to find a way to make this outdoor shower work even after Rich and I had tried in vain for 5 minutes. This was the exact moment where faucets and valves had been tried and she was letting the force take over.

Garden Bells

Found another set of these rustic garden bells to photograph. This set was at an apartment on the plateau that my buddy is renting for his vacation. The distressed, rubbed off cream paint was revealing the brass underneath. Very pleasing to the eye.



I have seen three sets in the last couple of months and want to start keeping a lookout for some. But, old ones, not a new set made to look old. The old one feel heavier and more mojoed. I think they may have been cast iron and the motifs on them are a little less intricate.

Crazy Clouds

We have been under a heat wave here in Montreal for the past 6 days. A heat wave is defined as any periods of consecutive days where the temperature reached 32 degrees Celcius ( 89.6 Fahrenheit) not including the Humididex. The temp with the humidity climbed to 47 Celsius yesterday. I caught this shot at the end of the day around 7:15 pm as the dark clouds were starting to roll in over Notre-Dame-de-Grace Park on Sherbrooke. My buddy Rich and the kids were in the splash park, while I caught some shots from behind the ball field.

I tried one bracketed set that I put through Photomatix and came out OK. I really need to get a bunch of bracketed shots and spend more time playing in there to figure out how to pop the orange and yellows in the clouds, or dial down the green in the chapel roof.



But I also got a nice stand alone shot that I played with in Lightroom and really like. I think it speaks to the anger of the approaching sky eating up the sunshine. I am becoming very interested in taking very vibrant shots to play with and manipulate. This is one of my favorites so far.

A Ducks Arse

I had a busy day yesterday and didn't have time to post, so I am doing a backtrack today. I went to the Biodome with my pal Rich and his crew. Made the mistake of walking into the rain forest section with my Canon in the backpack beside my two bottle of ice water after having exited an air conditioned car. The camera fogged up until we got to the northern forest section and the temperature reduced.It was working good again by the time we got to the Gulf of St. Lawrence section. Lots of great duck and bird shots. This little fella is called a Black Guillemot and is a shoreline bird that specialized in taking long shallow dives through the water for small fish. I caught the best side of him as he was diving.

Red Smog Sun

Last night we had a pretty weird moon here in the MTL. There was a high smog advisory in effect and after 7pm when the sun started to head for the horizon and got behind the layer of haze, it turned red.

I had originally planned to go out to get some sunset shots atop a small hill by my house that gives you a good vantage point to shoot St. Joseph's Oratory and the west side of Mount Royal, but then saw the almost cloud cover like haze and said to myself 'wait for a better evening'. After I got the dog leashed up I remembered reading a post on Digital Photography School about how it is about making time to shoot every day, even if it is just 10 or twenty minutes and grabbed the Canon and slid it in my backpack.

Once i got up by the Auditorium, I could see the red of the sun and took a couple of test shot to adjust the levels to the point it would take one where the edges of the sun were clearly defined and the color came out a bit. Then I headed right down to the waters edge and set the camera up for a series of bracketed shots. Here is what the middle straight up image looked like.


After I got home I took the three photos and ran them through Photomatix and came to realize that I still had the camera set to run on large file jpegs and not large + raw. Bummer. It would have turned out much better, but I'll know for next time. Check every setting and never assume the camera is reading your mind. here is what the finished product looked like.