If you worry about equipment, you’re an amateur,
If you worry about money, you’re a professional,
If you worry about the light, you’re a master
This is my 2005 Year in Review
Taken at Thetis lake, this was one of the very few snow days in Victoria in 2005.
A Macaulay Point Park walk with Yoshi. Nice sunny February day. I had looked through these trees many times before, but the light, the sky, and the clouds combined perfectly for this shot.Taken at Thetis lake, this was one of the very few snow days in Victoria in 2005.
This is an unusual shot of cherry blossoms done in black and white. In the camera I bumped up the contrast to achieve this almost infrared effect. Beyond this and the resizing, there are no enhancements.
This is one of my most favorite pictures of the entire year. I saw this scene in my head as I looked at a slowly dripping fountain. I was able to achieve what I envisioned.
Taken days after I got married. I love the colors, I love the rings, I love the depth of field, I love my wife.
The was one of the most amazing plants I photographed this year. While on this shoot I neglected to double check my camera’s settings. I was shooting ISO 1600 the entire time. This shot wasn’t ruined too badly though. I corrected the white balance, and bumped the contrast to accentuate the white.
A craggy old tree up at Rathtrevor beach, a wonderful backdrop, and a slight spotlight tokeep the eye interested. For some reason I can stare at this picture for hours.
At a wedding reception for some very good friends the kids were entertained by clowns who did some face painting. E here was a ferocious lion. I can never get over how lucky I was with this shot. The right location, right timing, the right pose. I love it.
Sunsets can be hard to capture. What you see is hardly what you get. I took many shots this day, but this is one of my favorites. The setting sun, the textured water, the fading colors.
Taken in Ottawa during the fall, the colors were a little more muted that previous years (or so I am told). On the way to a walk we drove through this bridge. After the hike we stopped a few times along the way so I could take some pictures.
A smooth lake with a mirror finish, mist rising lazily, people out walking dogs. There definitely is an element of luck in photography.
This was the highlight shot for December. Tough month photography wise. I didn’t get out very often due to Christmas plans. For this shot I stopped down the aperture, and bumped up the exposure time. With the shutter open I took half the time to zoom in, and the other half to expose the leaf. This creates a somewhat dreamy leaf.
Busy time of year like always. Seems I haven’t made time for blogging, something I will try to do more of.
The last couple weeks are work have been extremely busy. I have worked hard for many long hours. The goal was reached though, so it has relaxed a little. The customer is happy with the product, management was happy with the effort. The worst day I worked from 9am until 4am the next morning. That is a long, tiring day.
This past weekend, Sox’s mom came over for a visit. We went and saw Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash movie. Excellent movie. I really enjoyed it. The focus wasn’t on his music, but about him and his life. It was very well written, well casted, and the actors provided a great performance. I don’t know a lot of his music, but I am more inclined to check it out now.
The Christmas season is most definitely upon us. I am happy to report that I am well into my Christmas shopping for this year. Maybe I will even finish early. That never happens for me though. We got our outside lights up this past weekend, and we are quite happy with them. We did something different that past years, and we quite like it. We bought our tree last night, and tonight it will be decorated. If we don’t run out of steam, then we may decorate the house. I am not counting on that one though.
Also this past weekend was Sox’s companies Christmas party. It was pretty fun, but the food was outstanding. They held it at Sauce (a nice restaurant downtown) again this year. Their prime rib was one of the best I have ever had. Tomorrow is my companies Christmas party at Laurel Point Inn. I am looking forward to it. I think it is going to be a very good time. We have a secret Santa exchange, which is different from the anonymous gifts of years past. Anyone remember the Christmas Cock?
Yoshi has been busy the past couple weeks too. He has yakked on the floor a couple times, destroyed the refill to the diaper genie, and generally driven us nuts every couple days. Who says neutering slows dogs down? They obviously haven’t met Yoshi.
The last thing to note is that I heard about a 1 day course being offered this month for learning digital image manipulation to get it ready for printing. There were only 5 spots, and I managed to get one of them. I am pretty pumped. I have learned from the instructor before, so I am quite excited about the course. Dec 17 is the day. Some of the topics:
That will be my present to myself. Merry Christmas to me! 🙂
Friday night I witnessed a beautiful sunset from our house. Last night I vowed to get to the park and shoot it. I wasn’t dissapointed in the least. The light was pretty amazing, and the only thing that could have made it a little better was if there were more clouds in the sky for effect. I also forgot to check the setting on my camera (once again), and shot half of them at ISO 1600. :grr: You can also see in some of the shots, there is something on my lens. Another :grr: on me. Next time I will try to be more prepared.
All pics are here.
From my front step the other night.
January
An awesome snow walk with Yoshi and Digger. I woke up extra early that morning for some unknown reason so I took the dogs to the off leash park for first tracks.
February
One of my most favorite riding photos from 2004. Taken at Broom Hill, I managed to freeze Shane in the air like I had intended.
March
Sue and I up at Point no Point. This was taken right before I asked Sue to marry me.
April
Cheena. May she rest in peace. This was Suede’s dad’s dog.
May
Some flowers on my front porch right after a lovely rain shower.
June
This is spook, Suede’s mom’s cat. This was right after Pat arrived home with her new puppy. The cat was a little “spooked” and climbed up here for saftey from the pup.
July
Taken at Christ Church Cathedral, this shot just speaks to me. The slight off axis tilt, the color, the composition.
August
Reflections have been big with me lately. This boat caught my fancy, and since the water was so calm, the reflection was quite intense.
September
A fluke that I spotted this shot. Originally I was shooting across the street from Esquimalt City Hall. As the sun was seting I headed back to my truck and cought this super shapr shadow.
October
Suede and I enjoying a beautiful suinset on our Mexican cruise.
November
A lucky catch on morning before work. This sunrise is facing east off the deck of the house we are renting. I had to stand inside, and hold the camera over my head since it was raining, and I wasn’t dressed to go out in it.
December
A wonderful photographic experience. The photoclubmet early one morning to catch a sunrise. After waiting for what felt like an eternity in near freezing temps, we witnessed a spectacular sight. The clouds in front added a lot of drama to the shots from that morning.
Stormy day here in Victoria. I awoke to the sounds of a huge downpour. Just before leaving for work, the sun tried to come out from the clouds, and this sunrise was the result. Gorgeous! I would have liked to get better angles and better compositions on these shots, but it was still raining quite heavily when I took them, so I couldn’t go outside. Still, I like how they turned out. Later in the day the rain gave way to wind. It was pretty neat walking around downtown seeing huge columns of leaves swriling around in a circle.
Photography is much like a wave crashing on a rock. You choose the subject …
then aim for the subject …
and when you are all ready to take the shot …
the subject strikes back! I was attempting to shoot a flying seagull. As I was panning, I felt something hit my hand. I didn’t take the shot, and when I looked, I had seagull poop on my hand, and splatter on my hoody.
Photography is dangerous!
Saturday I had my 100 Ways to Sell Your Photography course. It certainly wasn’t what I was expecting/hoping for. My goals did not mesh with what the instructor was teaching. I want to just go out and shoot lots of nice, interesting pictures then sell them. Most of the class was about selling your photography skills, not your pictures. Many of the ideas presented were to show photographers how to set up photo shoots, something I am not really interested in. I much prefer to wander around looking through the lens and capturing what I see.
I guess I am more interested in the artsy side of photography. Oh well, $75, and 7 hours gone. I did get a couple ideas, but nothing that I plan to implement right away.