It's C-c-c-cold out there!

...so I'm inside, working on the computer with the fire going in the fireplace behind me. I've had it going all night which was nice until I went to bed and discovered that the thermostat had been fooled into thinking it was warm in the house... how's 13°C for a bedroom temperature? Brrr. I fired up the portable heater and dived under the covers!

Tastes Change
My cousin requested some of the pictures I did for him and his band last fall, so I revisited the folder (Lightroom lesson: really easy to find if you take the time to keyword your photos when you first put them in!). While looking through the images, I came across some that I hadn't discarded but hadn't remarked on at the time. Changed my mind. Maybe I'm more into 'mood' and 'emotion' and 'character' now than I was.

Here's Steve, with his harmonica (he plays harp, slide guitar and sings. I'm jealous envious!)

The above shot was a lucky accident. I had been using my Speedlight off-camera with a Gary Fong diffuser, but by mistake I took 2 shots in a high-speed burst and the flash didn't fire in the second one. Talk about great lighting!

This shot was at their Hugh's Room concert last fall. Lead guitarist Steve Weimann has that "Leonard Cohen Look" going. I told him the only difference is that Cohen is younger... good thing Weimann doesn't own a gun: I hope!

So these are shots I hadn't considered before but they're going in my portfolio!

Back to the "it's cold" thing...
You know how a 10°C (50°F) day feels in March? You take off your coat to enjoy the warmth? But in October, it feels frigid? Same thing here, maybe. It's the first real cold snap of the winter and it feels really icy out there. Windy, actual temperature -30°C, probably -40 with the wind chill... nah. IT'S COLD!

It wasn't that bad out on the ice on the weekend, probably around -10°C but windy. I wasn't cold, bundled up in my down coat, ski pants, snowmobile mitts, balaclava under my helmet... so I was able to get some pictures without shivering (the first lesson in my Winter Wonderland eBook!). Taking the gloves off to shoot was another issue, though!

Does this look cold?

I found out that these people actually did have a shelter, but didn't set it up until they decided where they wanted to be. They were in no hurry because they were wearing these very expensive expedition suits.  

On Saturday, it was actually quite a bit warmer. Some people go out without a lot of fancy equipment and shelters, just augur a hole and sit on a pail to fish.

These guys came up from Coboconk, looked for a likely spot to fish and just plunked themselves down. 

Their dog was gorgeous. He was intensely interested in the goings-on in the minnow pail and they had to constantly drag him away to get some minnows! I offered to take him off their hands, but they politely declined. Dogs have facial expressions...

This is what he looked like when he wasn't so intense!  

Back to Frosty Sunday

See? That's a pop-up shelter behind the guy on the left. They also had a power augur and an electronic fishfinder. This is a guy and a girl. I'm just imagining him saying to her, "so for our date, let's go out ice fishing!" Wouldn't go over very well with any of the women I know!

This is an HDR, by the way, just to get the background and sky exposures better. I actually had to tone DOWN the colour of their fluorescent orange suits. Using de-ghosting, the area around them is from just one of the three exposures.

Here's their buddy about 20 or 30 feet away. Looks like he caught something! I ask you again, "does this look cold"? 

A couple of days earlier, I caught this shot:

It's also an HDR, but I used the oil paint filter in Photoshop CS6. This was just at sunset and you find unexpected colour in the sky in all directions: this was looking North!

On Saturday, these guys were on their way home. No fish, but "a bad day on the ice is better than a good day in the office any time"! 

Here's an image taken in my back yard on Sunday morning.

I didn't think the colour added to it, I was more interested in the textures, so I converted it to black and white using Nik Silver Efex Pro. It's an HDR too, if you hadn't guessed. 

By the way...
Two things. First of all, as I'm writing this, some emails arrived notifying me that people had purchased my Winter Wonderland eBook online. Among them was one from Colorado and one from France! Exciting! That was precipitated by me posting some images on Google+ and on Facebook, along with a link. Looks like I'm really going to have to get into this Social Networking stuff.

Second thing: I came across a very neat product in Costco on Monday: a set of 6 "Light Pucks". I'll write a quick post on the technical blog, but I'll have to update it later after I finish unpacking and setting them up. They look PERFECT for use with the light tent!

— 30 —

Fall is in the air!

Yes, folks, the leaves are starting to turn. As I write this, colours are at about 10% around here (in the Minden/Haliburton area) but I just read that Algonquin Park is around 40-49%, the dominant colour is Yellow/Orange and they're even reporting some leaf falls already. Check out the Ontario Parks Fall Colours Report for more information.

Last week I commented on a Bridge technique if you have multiple monitors. I took a picture of the monitors so you could see what I meant. The large monitor on the left is a synchronized window with everything minimized except the preview frame. So I can navigate on the laptop screen and see the detailed images on the other monitor with no sweat. Here's the picture:

Now some notes about missed shots... I can't show you the pictures, I missed them!


Open your Eyes
I stopped enroute up North the other day, for some pictures of a causeway running along the water's edge. I've often meant to stop there but never did before. Too bad, because I've seen boats navigating the waterway and the juxtaposition of a boat and a car would be interesting.

Anyway, I took some pictures from different vantage points, and shot a couple of pictures from the roadway, including this not-very-interesting shot of some flowers.

Now take a closer look at the top of the hydro pole in the photo. Yes, a large hawk or eagle's nest. I flat out didn't see it. And I was standing about 30' away from it a few minutes later, and never looked up. Open your eyes! (Fortunately, I know exactly where this is. I'll be baaaaak...)

Don't leave home without it!
I was in Toronto, enroute to dinner with my folks, and had left the camera at home. I had an excuse: I was driving a loaner car while mine was in the shop and didn't want to leave the camera with my car so I left it at home. I missed the greatest picture: there's an old graveyard at Bathurst and King Road, and there was some construction so cars and trucks were creating a dust cloud. The setting sun lit the dust in the air so you can imagine the sunbeam effect behind an old graveyard... I missed it.

Up North, I always take the camera. Often, I'll mount the 200mm lens and leave it on the seat beside me in case I have a chance at some wildlife. I had a deer sighting a couple of months ago on the way to my cousin's place in Haliburton, and all I had to shoot with was my Blackberry. Take your camera. You never know...

Speaking of my cousin...
I had an enjoyable dinner and evening at his place in Haliburton this weekend. After dinner, the guitars came out, accompanying his daughter Lindsay (who will be married in a couple of weeks!), who has an awesome singing voice. Another cousin, from the other side of the family, though, is a professional musician: he's a bassist and also a composer and arranger and has some impressive shows under his belt. Anyway, he didn't have an instrument with him... or did he? Yes indeed. An i-Phone. Which he plugged into some speakers. First he played it as a piano keyboard, then he switched to a bass. Fantastic! Here's a shot of them doing their thing, with a couple of insets so you can see Lindsay and the i-Phone.

Steve is in the middle, and Ari, the groom-to-be is on the right. Lighting is with the Gary Fong Diffuser on the flash, f/8 @ 1/60, ISO 400 to capture some of the warm tungsten light from the lamp. But the warmth in that house was not from the fireplace that night, it was the people and the music and... it was a great evening.

Since I can't sing (my voice problems are still plaguing me. So much for my professional singing career), I took pictures. I captured this image of Steve, which I really like:

Interesting, for you Photoshoppers, how I created that. I close-cut Steve out of another image (similar to the one above but zoomed in a bit). Then I opened a shot that I took the next morning, by deliberately moving the camera sideways while the shutter was open, shooting some early fall foliage in the sunlight. I imported Steve on a new layer, then used a graduated screen from black to transparent on the layer mask. I touched up the mask further by erasing it to white over his face. I painted, again on the mask, with a small chalk textured brush around the edges of his hair to blend it in.

One more image to leave you with: I was in "Richard Martin move the camera while the shutter is open" mode. This shot was made by rotating the camera while the shutter was open. Just trying to give you some ideas!

"Tunnel Vision"

TTFN...