I brought along the 40D with the Tokina 12-24mm lens as I knew I wanted to shoot it wide to get a better perspective and knew when I got to editing that Black and White would be the flavour of the day.

The school house was used from 1924 to 1960 and was located just behind the Airport until it was moved due to expansion of the Airport.  Jim and Judy transported the building to their property 3 miles away and have been restoring it so others may have the chance to see this part of our local history.

Thanks Jim and Judy… the tour was fantastic and you’ve done a wonderful job of bringing the old school house back to life for all of us to enjoy.

I ended up going in for night shifts almost immediately after leaving the airport with only a brief stop at home to shower and clean up for the night ahead.  I worked from 6pm-6am and once I got home in the morning had my first chance to look at the shots from the day before.  Some key points popped into my head… first one being that the cameras needed a good sensor cleaning as the lens cleaning I had done just didn’t seem to cut it.  Given the sand/pollen storm at the airport all day Friday might have just overwrote my efforts, yet I had to try again as I was seeing too many dust spots on the shots.  Along with the dust spots I couldn’t help but be dissappointed at the dull colours the sky was giving us.  A bland grey colour, so hard to lock focus and when you did… the planes just wouldn’t show up crisp enough.

I tried out my 70-200 f/4 L IS lens with the 1.4 TC on it as well as the Tokina 12-24 yet because of the sky… hmmm

Sensor cleaning done, batteries refreshed, cards downloaded and formatted… it was time to head back out with the gear again.  This time though I was taking along the 17-85 IS for getting some close ups of a certain surprise visitor Dryden was getting to open the ceremonies, the Prime Minister of Canada… Mr. Stephen Harper!!  I wasn’t sure how close I could get, didn’t want to rely on the 70-200 or acccidently distorting features with the 12-24 so even though the 17-85 isn’t my favourite lens… it was the focal length I thought I needed.  I was also bringing along the Tamron 200-500mm … could’ve used it on Friday… so thought why not try it out and cross the fingers it focuses quick enough.

With that… the day began… and I was off to photograph not only the aircraft for the day, but the Prime Minister of Canada as he opened the ceremonies here in Dryden.

It was a great day shooting, I ended up using almost all the lenses I took with me and the weather… was almost perfect.

Almost being the fact that for photography… it ended up being one of the worst days as the sky turned a dark grey featureless colour and no matter how long you tracked the aircraft… there was very little features in the background to make the aircraft stand out.

As the show neared the end I stuck around to chat with my good photography friends and by the time we were done for the day… it was almost time to sleep.  I lucked out on the night before and had found someone to cover my night shift so I would be able to get at least a good 8 hours in Saturday night.

Sunday rolled around…and off I went again… but this time… wow… talk about a beautiful sky.  Blue with whispy white clouds… GORGEOUS!

So for now… the teaser above is just a few of the shots from the weekend… but more will be coming in the next day or two… I promise

I got a message the other day again about shooting some of the Centennial Events here again in Dryden and this one… looks to be a BLAST!   A couple of months ago Val had asked if I’d be interested in shooting some of the Centennial Events this summer and to come up with a costing of such.  Well… how does one figure that all out…hmmm…

This week though… the mail arrived again via facebook and the events are starting… NOW

The organizers of this years big air show looked back at the last Air Show that Dryden hosted and found that there were no records of it (20 years ago) so they want photographic documentation.   The e-mails begain, then the phone calls and today… I picked up a VIP Photo pass and instructions that I had full access to shoot anywhere  (I’m sure there are limits but supposedly I get more of a free run than the general public as well as I get to shoot from in front of the fencing where the general public stands/sits).

Yes, there are also media VIP passes and they are expecting quite a few… but my job is to document the show for the committee so Dryden will have reference to the accomplishment of pulling this all together on the 100th anniversary.  This could be fun… but it’s going to be a long weekend shooting… and even longer week editing I think.

The Canadian Snowbird Demonstration Team, the A-10 East Demonstration Team, the Ministry of Natural Resources and many more are in town ready to show us how it’s done.  Today we lucked out and saw a couple of quick over flights by the Snowbirds (pumping out the smoke, flying in formation just as the schools let the kids out) and a quick pass by a couple of the A-10′s on their way to the airport.  It should be interested seeing who does the flights over town to rile everyone up…  :)

Tomorrow… I’m heading out during the day to see what I can get during the practice sessions… but so wishing I wasn’t working nights this weekend so I could be there as the sun comes up (or goes down for that matter) to get some really unique shots of the planes in their sleeping state.

The big shows are Saturday and Sunday though… and I am kind of envious of my buddies who are out there working as well as shooting all day.  Chris and Derek… well… we’ve already seen Dereks amazing shots from today of the Snowbirds and the Warthogs… and Chris… always manages to nail the shots home.  I can’t wait to see what they come up with and I know others like Bruce will be out shooting non-stop as well.  Hmm… stiff competition boys… you’re gonna make me work for this aren’t ya? haha

So… now to wrangle the hours… working 6pm till 6am, come home and sleep for a couple of hours and back out to the show to shoot till 4:30ish.

Practice tomorrow, work tomorrow night, shoot Saturday, work Saturday night, shoot Sunday, work Sunday night and then… holidays for a week where I can spend it all editing.

This session was very informal and to be very short in duration.  I had lined up Dave and Natasha again (they volunteered) and Kyla and James were also planning on coming out to pose for any photog who showed up.  Yes… I forgot all about it being Easter Weekend… it was just a weekend off like I get every two weekends… holidays don’t mean much when you’re a shift worker as it’s either a day to work or not (or night for that matter).  Needless to say once it was pointed out to me I wasn’t sure what kind of turnout we’d end up with as most I’m sure would be spending time doing the ole Easter thing?

I had talked to my niece the night before and asked her if she’d like to come along… Alex said yes quite enthusiastically.  At 11am we took off in search of a watch battery…. “what do you mean stores are closed” were the words out of my mouth yet again having flashbacks to Friday… again… my weekend off… but forgetting that most do in fact get such things scheduled.  Luckily for me Shoppers was open and had the battery I was looking for, a simple little item that would allow me to use my Cybersyncs and off-camera flash or have to rely on ambient for the days shoot.

Yep…. we’re in business, the flashes now worked and we were off.  We settled in at Earl’s Court downtown to wait for the rest of the crew and soon enough Derek dropped by on his way to work, Andrew, Bruce, Sarah and Rob all showed up along with Dave and Natasha.  Missing were Kyla and James… but we waited for a bit… then had to start our shoot..

My goal for the day was to shoot high contrast shots so I could bump up the detail if needed or convert them over to Black and White.  I wanted something edgy today… not the traditional portraits…. something… different.

We started our shoot off in a little back alley on main street… a curved metal wall/roof where the paint was peeling quite badly.  The problem with the location was the sun was only coming in off to the models upper left… up high… not even a bit in front of them to light up their faces.  The big reflector came out…. as did the flashes and we started shooting…

For the next shot, I did two edits.

First one… straight up colour shot…

Second one… converted using SilverEffects

After this spot we took off to another alley behind the Sears building.  Upon walking into the alley I look over and see Dave striking a pose.  I only had a second or two, but luckily for me I had the camera lens cap off (yes… it is great advice) and the flash in the other hand still turned on as well.  I roughly composed and fired off a shot…

We ended up further down the alley to find it quite cold… but there was this graffiti on the wall… the sun was hitting the wall… come on… why not… it’ll be warm up against the cement wall basking in the sun wouldn’t it?  Why waste and oportunity for another shot or two.

Again… next shot is straight up colour

More after the break….

…continued

Then converted with SilverEffects

Alex had already taken a few shots with my camera but I wanted her to shoot some more…   I then decided for some reason to pull out the 16gb 3Gs IPhone… and see what it could do.

After all this we headed back down behind the Central Hotel and that back alley.

To end off the day we took off across the road to overlook the river and the mill.  I love this next shot… except for one glaring issue… the Mill smoke stack seemingly protruding from Dave and Natashas heads.  Hmm…. even after I looked through the shots… the best pose/facial expressions come from this shot… the ones after where I moved them to the side as I knew it was an issue… didn’t catch my eye as much.  Oh well… lessons learned…

Next up Alex did up this shot… definately catching onto the composing a shot this girl…

First in Topaz Detail but actually bleached out a bit

Then run through Redynamix

Lastly… just a quick capture of Dave getting a little into the photo shoot as he attempts to fly across to shore following his dunk in the river.  Yep… in the name of photography… Dave took a slight swim in the water just prior to this shot… luckily not hurting himself… and none the worse for wear.

A terrific day out shooting again.

For us the photographers, it was a chance to socialize with other locals sharing the same intrests, a chance to learn new techniques, a chance to photograph people we may or may not know… but best of all… it’s us getting out shooting instead of wishing we were.

Now… this couldn’t have all worked without a big group of people who showed up, our Models.

Yes… we lucked out completely on this as we couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to come out with us tonight.  These locals came out to see what we could do with a camera in our hands and in turn… we’ll make sure they get the best of our nights photos.

We had kids, couples, Belly Dancers, Maternity shots and more.  A big thank you goes out to Nicole, Brooklyn and Falon, Emma, Melissa Sue, Karali, Krista, Jonathon, Stacey, Jessica, Natasha and Dave for being our Models tonight!

For Photographers we ended up with Laura J., Anne S., Chris M., Chris P., John T., Bruce H., Derek K., Andrew S., Joel J., Doug R., Carolle E. and her son (sorry… forgot a name ), Robin E. as well as myself.

We couldn’t get into the Airport prior to 5pm as we had to wait till the last flight was finished, but once the place emptied out we started filling it again.  For the first hour we set up our lights, scoped out locations, generally just got used to the whole situation.  Once the initial awkwardness was dealt with though… things started running so smoothly… people were moving from room to room, shooting different people, trying out different lights and reflectors and generally having a blast.

Unfortunately I didn’t get much chance to shoot tonight as I wanted to make sure all our models and photographers were set up and having fun… but I did manage to sneak in a couple of shots here and there.

Here are two shots I managed to get of Nicole… while standing on top of a 12′ ladder.  Unfortunately this was also a rush… the lights were on too hot… out of position… and yep… I had my 70-200 f/4 IS USM lens on the camera and didn’t have time to swap it up.  In post though… ran it through some spot corrections and into Portrait Professional.. and… voila…

This shot… was done in about 5 mins… I walked in the room… asked Joel if I could borrow his Cybersync transmitter… and bam… about 5 shots and done.  I ended up throwing the shot into ColorEffects to bring out some detail (instead of using Topaz Detail) and then ended up sharpening it a bit using the high pass filter on the way to saving it.

I was hoping to do the shot a bit differently as I wanted to flag the light off the shoulders… maybe snoot it… but… with bare Vivitars… I’m happy.

And with that… a simpler shot of the above in Black and White… a bit more subtle…

So… bed calls… but it was a blast tonight… and can’t wait to see more of the shots from the night…

Hmm… have never tried it before… but… weather holding the way it has… could be fun.  Now… given… Melissa wants an outdoor shoot… woodsy style… and it has been +10C for a week or so.

Well… the temperatures did not hold… she’s 7-8 months along and we really don’t have much time left.  So… we bundled up and headed out to a local park in town to see what we could round up for shots.  Yes… it was cold… well below freezing and the sun only shining here and there.

First up… the walk to the bridge… candid snapshot…

Next up… hanging out on the bridge itself trying to set up the shot sequence…

And onto the Maternity shots for the day….

Melissa wanted a shot of herself sitting cross legged…

Continued below….

Caught this shot of Melissa sitting over looking the ravine…

Melissa in thought…

The Melissa we all know… full of laughter and funny faces…

Melissa and her best friend Krista

Well… it was a blast out shooting in the freezing cold today and I still have some work to do on the edits.  Melissa likes the washed out look… “country” style shots… so I’m going to play a bit more with the sepia/light toning and see what I can come up with.

In the mean time… Melissa has also offered to come along to our local Camera Club Photo Shoot this weekend so we can try out some indoor shots.  With this weather as of late there are no gaurentees that the temperatures will be the least bit warm… so an indoor shoot is most likely…  and even though the shots for her will not be “country”… maybe we can get some unique or traditional shots in to add to these?

Sure enough she did… Carole searched high and low and despite her travels during the week she was still able to fire off an e-mail to me with some very specific locations that we could use to try and get a sunset photo or two in for the group outing.  We set a date… Sunday March 07, 2010, crossed our fingers for the weather to hold and had a general location to start with.

The week prior to the shoot I went scouting on my own… and after finding a couple of areas that might be good  (Carole had some awesome ideas/locations) sent out a note to the club members that we should meet an hour before sundown… at the Oxdrift store.  I was thinking from there we could split up and venture out on a few of the local roads to find our own spots… so each would have something different from the field trip.

So… the e-mail went out and I heard back from a couple… it was a go!

On Sunday night I took off to Oxdrift, gear in hand… coffee at the ready.  I decided to take the  back roads to the store though and sure enough… I was 5 mins late trudging through the slush/mud via my chosen route.  Oh well… still lots of time…

But…. coming down the hill into the parking lot I almost fell out of my truck… there were vehicles everywhere !!!  I couldn’t believe it… a dozen people had shown up for the field trip… some I’d met last year, some from this year, some that come out to the meetings, some that haven’t had the chance to yet.  A dozen photographers…. wow… and such a variety of backgrounds and experience levels.

I think I was a bit overwhelmed at first in all honesty… it was soo amazing to see such a variety of people out for this field trip… yet each and every person there had at least one thing in common.  We all were interested in photography and were interested in meeting others with the same interest.  Yes… I was proud of each and every person there… proud our community has people like this… people of all ages and experience levels… all helping each other out.

After the initial chit chat… again I mentioned that maybe we should split up and try a few different areas to shoot from.  One daring soul took me up on it… ha… but the rest continued to chit chat for a bit experimenting with the different settings on their cameras.  After a few minutes of this it was suggested that at least we head down the road to “Stephenson Road” so we could set up while continuing to experiment with the gear.

Well… it may not have been the best location… but perfect for such a group as ours.  There was NO traffic, a huge expanse of a field… and the weather was beautiful.  While setting up I looked over to see some pulling out their tripods, others foregoing their shoot time to help people out, some of the newer members playing non-stop with the various settings and positioning… it was sooo diverse a group… and everyone was mingling helping each other out.  Honestly… it was GREAT!

Of course since I had been out scouting over the past few days myself I decided to try out some different shots when I could… such as a silhouette like this…

and another of Bruce setting up…

Then a couple of the actual sunset while showing one of the group how to set up in manual mode and how to darken/meter the scene such as these two shots (as well showing that one can flip the camera on it’s side for a portrait shot of same scene).

Yet… I still had to play a bit more so I pulled out the old XTi and the Lensbaby to shoot one of the last shots for my evening….

I think I can say that we all had a terrific time … and the first field trip of this year was a tremendous success!

Now… given that I have to mention one little fact that I’d overlooked throughout the shoot…. one of our members at the beginning had taken my advice to head off and scout out some of the local roads for better views than what I’d found (as well as the ones I’d mentioned in my e-mail) and sure enough… lucky for us… they (husband and wife ?) found us near the end of the shoot sitting as a group still on Stephenson Road.  Yep… they had taken the initiative and ventured down the mud/slush covered Adams Road to shoot… and I honestly forget all about them

Ooopss… a lesson learned… ha… remember how many are there at the start… head count… and don’t loose anyone!

Well… haha… after all that… photos are showing up on our web site, on flickr and I’m sure we’ll see even more at the next meeting.  In the mean time… we have another shoot coming up on March 20th… a Head Shot/Portrait shoot and I CAN”T WAIT!!!

Thanks to Derek… we might have an alternate location that will handle even more than I can fit in our small house… ensuring that despite the weather… we’ll be able to shoot indoors or outside… and have lots of room to spare.

More info coming soon on the next adventure

I was in at Acklands Grainger about two weeks ago looking for some metric screws for my new stainless kitchen handles and noticed a new flyer out on the desk. The sale started that Monday (Feb 01 – March 26, 2010) but noticed they have the Pelican PLC1550BK on sale for $129.99 (regular $308.99).

Anyhow… the flyer has the wrong sizes (but the girl there verified the new catalog dimensions are the same as the flyer) as it states the exterior dimensions are 52.4″L x 42.8″W x 20.6″ D yet the Pelican site says the interior dimensions are 18.43″ x 14.00″ x 7.62″ (46.8 x 35.5 x 19.3 cm).

I assumed the Pelican site was right and Acklands has a misprint in both their flyer and upcoming catalogs… and yes when it arrived it is definitely the smaller version like Pelican states.

Either or… I picked up two of them as they are almost indestructible and waterproof to boot. I was thinking they would be great for the small flashes I have or even lens storage.

To that end… I’ve only managed to “pluck and pick” the foam from one of them for now…  and I decided instead of making it into a kit to grab and go that I’d set the case up for storage of my main camera/lenses.

I’ve still got one more to fill with my Flashes and Accessories such as the triggers, remotes, hotshoes and such… but am actually wishing I had two more for my studio lights as well as these.

Hmm… what’s a guy to do?  Did I mention they have a LIFETIME GAURENTEE on them?

It’s one of those rest days… work around the house, drink lots of coffee, run around a bit and catch up on the e-mails type of day.

Yet… as we were getting ready to head out again I looked out past the deck onto the lake and wow… a Muskrat trudging along in front of the house.  Just a wee little one… slowly trodding along and stopping to take a break right in front of the house so I could run downstairs to get the camera.

Yep… I had the camera taken apart as I had been “plucking and picking” today, trying to get the gear into the new Pelican 1550 cases (more on that later).

But… I did manage to throw the 70-200 f/4 L IS USM on the Canon 50D as well as the 1.4 Teleconverter as I did not want to get to close to the wild little critter and ran through the snow in the front yard down to the lakeside.

Here’s a few shots with very little editing to bring back the blow-outs caused by me using spot metering to get the detail in the critter (and choosing to blow out the snow a bit).

Check out the rear feet on this thing…

So much for him hanging around for much longer… breaks over and off he/she goes…

And there go the after burners….

So… had to blow out the highlights with the snow a bit to get some detail in the Muskrat but wanted that instead of a darker object with all the bright, white snow.  I threw the camera on spot metering, single shot for focus and tried as best possible to stay steady despite my java infested veins (lots of caffine today).

Well…. what can I say… Chris managed to do it again… he got a group of local photographers into the races, behind the scenes and right smack in the middle of it all.

I’m pretty pumped to say the least… last year I shot from the outer rim of the track and this year we had open access to the inner ring.

Saturday morning rolls around… I’m ready to head out the door when the phone rings again….

Nicole took a nasty fall off her horse while in the ring at the farm… it’s icy and hard packed… and she was laying on the ground when she called.  Not good….    Well… after our trip to the Emergency Department to find out she had a good concussion I knew shooting was out of the question for the day.  There’s always tomorrow… and more importantly… I wanted to stick around the house with Nicole till she felt better.

Sunday… I headed off for an early start and ended up at the track all day.  Here are the results for the one day of shooting I managed to get in this weekend.

That’s it for now… I’ve got a couple hundred more shots from the race… but these were my favourites.

A HUGE thank you goes out to Kevin Szachury, the UCMA team and of course to Chris Pollard for getting us local photographers right into the action.