One Swell Foop (Not)

Sometimes I like writing this blog all in one swell foop. But occasionally I'll start writing an article, then revisit it a few days later when something interesting happens that I can add in. Doing it this way (a bit at a time) makes it more topical for me and hopefully for you. But it does make it somewhat disjointed, with a bunch of non-related topics! Sort of a stream-of-consciousness kind of thing. Hope that floats your boat!

Last week, I showed you a picture of a bunch of ice huts teetering on the edge of falling through the ice on Mountain Lake, because we had several days of unseasonably warm temperatures and two days of rain. Not to worry, they didn't fall through. Today is a whole other thing.

Country Living Challenges (part 2)

Last night, we reached -33°C with a wind chill of 44 below. My sump pump line froze up (it does every year) so I had to run a temporary line (I have two of them; when one freezes, I bring it in to defrost in the bathtub!). I'm hoping I got it right this time: if it has a continuous downhill slope, the water should just flush out of the hose and not stay in there to freeze.

This is the setup. I think I solved it: I was just out there (next day) and it isn't frozen up. By the way, this is a pano created using Lightroom CC 2015.4 in about 5 seconds! Four shots, and the new boundary warp feature is awesome!

if anyone is interested, here are the details.  The pipe at left is the problem: it runs underground across my driveway and even though there's a heatline connection (not sure it works) it freezes every year. I think it's because it comes up at the other end and water sitting in the pipe freezes. The connection in the house goes to the sump pump in the crawlspace. I attached the flexible hose and ran it up further to the hook you see (the check valve will let water drain back down into the sump).

Then I used this old metal frame to stretch the hose downhill. The logs are there to help support it when the water is running, and there's a bungee cord holding it in position where it drops on the right. 

Then I used an old piece of eavestroughing to keep it straight and a couple of logs to keep the end of the hose out of the frozen water on the ground. 

Pretty ugly, but it works (I hope!). I'm going to have a skating rink behind my house but I just use that area to turn the car around so I can back it into the garage.

PS: It's two days later and yesterday's temperatures were well above freezing. Water everywhere and the lake ice is dangerous. Such a weird winter!

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FWIW, this is how I transport my firewood into the house. Beats carrying armloads! I generally split the wood this small, I find it burns more easily. 

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When I woke up this morning, it was still 27 below. I had posted that I was planning to stay inside today but I had to go out to fix the sump pump line, so I bundled up and went out. Wool longjohns, snow pants, thinsulate jacket liner, down jacket, sheepskin hat, insulated mittens, the whole works. You know what? It was a beautiful day! So I hopped on the 4-wheeler and took a run out on the ice. No spectacular pictures (I had to take my glove off to shoot. THAT was cold). Then my face got cold. I headed back in. But just to prove I was there:

It doesn't really look that cold. Trust me. It was. 

There are people whom I know TENT-CAMPING in Algonquin Park this weekend. I submit that they must be of a different species. Even when I was young I wasn't that foolish! 

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That was yesterday. Today is crispy cold beautiful again.

A chickadee trying to keep warm at -25°C. This was shot with my 70-200 f/2.8 shooting at f/8, 1/320 sec, ISO 640 and cropped. I was right to send back that cheap 500mm mirror lens. Have to find a way to get a Nikon 400mm lens. A lot of people are telling me that using black-and-white for nature shots isn't really appropriate: but I thought in this case, the detail comes out better. 

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OK, I did buy a new lens

Well, mint condition used. I bought a Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD lens because I can't afford the one I really want, the Nikon 200-400 f/4 which is only $7000 at B&H (but it's backordered, so I guess I have to pass on it!).

I took a couple of test shots with it. I was hoping to see a pine marten attacking a rabbit on the side of Hwy 118 on the way home, but no such luck! Maybe tomorrow, when we're going looking for bald eagles. In the meantime...

I shot this at 1/1000 second, f/8, ISO 1100, 600mm handheld. After seeing this picture on my camera LCD, I agreed to buy the lens.The blowup isn't quite 100% but you get the picture. Stay tuned...

I think notwithstanding the shake reduction (Tamron calls it "Vibration Compensation") I'm going to try to stick to  the 1/focal length rule until I can test how effective it is. That means, 1/1000 at f/8 is going to be my go-to setting when shooting handheld at 600mm.

I did go out in search of telephoto subjects on Friday. Larry and I went to the Scotch Line landfill (euphemism for "garbage dump"!) because there be bald eagles there. So here's the 600mm doing its thing:

This was cropped a bit, it's about half-a-frame. However it took a fair bit of post-processing to get it looking this sharp. Shutter speed was a bit low – 1/400 sec – but I was on a tripod. The lens does autofocus pretty quickly.

"Mom and Dad and little Eddie" (you know — 'Eddie the Eagle'...). Rico suggested another name for this image: "Family Tree". Again it took a lot of work to get it this sharp. I've had a lot of good comments on it in Facebook. Same shutter speed, shooting at f/8, ISO 2000. Technically, not the greatest image: it's quite noisy if you blow it up.

So how do I feel about this lens? It's not a $10,000 piece of Nikon glass. But I think with some practice and work, it will do a good job for me, especially at places like Carden Plain in the Spring.

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From the sporadic musings department...

 1. Do as I say, not as I do

I'm typing on a new keyboard and have a new mouse too. Both wireless, both from Logitech. My old one more-or-less died last week, they've been working sporadically so I dug out an old wired set for the time being.

I should learn not to eat at the keyboard. You would not believe all the crumbs that came out of both of the older keyboards when I turned them upside down and shook them. Unbelievable. 

Oh, by the way, I'm sitting here enjoying some cranberry-almond thins, they're like tasty crunchy baguettes. There are already a couple of crumbs on the new keyboard! {sigh}

2. Like a kid in a candy store

On my way home yesterday, via the 400/11/118 (I went that way to meet Mike with the Tamron lens) I stopped at Cabela's in Barrie, at Missy Mandel's suggestion. I had told her I was planning to go to Bass Pro to buy some camo's for bird shooting and she suggested I try Cabela's instead. Good call, Missy.

They're both about the same size – huge – with similar products and selection, but I think Cabela's might be a bit higher end. I've dealt with Cabela's before, by mail order from Nebraska. I still have a Goretex duck hunting shell from 25 years ago; the Goretex isn't completely waterproof any more, it was time to replace it, but the quality is great and it lasted forever.

Anyway, put me in a store like that and I'm a kid in a candy store. It's like going to Costco, you know, "just to pick up one item"... so I now have a set of waterproof camo pants and parka, both on sale, plus some other stuff. Don't ask.

They also carry camo ground blinds that would be great for bird shooting. They weren't on sale so no hurry, but I'm tempted.

This one's a folding chair surrounded by a camo shell, which you can easily carry, then pop it open and sit down. The sales guy told me he also uses it for ice fishing (don't look at me. I'm not sitting out there in the cold!) Only about $100. There's another one that's tall, designed for archery shooters, but I could easily stand up in it. And bigger ones for more than one person. Hmmm.  By the way, doesn't that look like a Pine Marten crawling into the blind? It's not, but it sure looks like it in this picture!

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PS: re Gales of November

I have expressions of interest from enough people to fill up the second session. But they're sitting back, not committing yet. Folks, if you want to attend this, you need to get booked or you might be disappointed. There is still space available October 27-30.  October 20-23 is technically full, but a couple of people have said they could do either weekend, so we might be able to shuffle.

www.photography.to/gales in case you lost the address.

Several people have said they'd like to find someone to (a) car pool with and/or (b) share a room with. If that's you, contact me. I can probably help.

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The day before (nobody said this had to be in chronological order!), the weather was also exciting. We had huge snow squalls, to the point where visibility was down to zero on the highway. In-between, there were some great photo ops.

I want to preface this by adding that I've been re-reading Freeman Patterson's "Photography and the Art of Seeing", and improving my visual thinking was in my mind as I was driving home. I stopped by the roadside because the patterns of the trees and the dead hanging leaves caught my eye. Here's one result:

This is what I saw. Not only the red leaves, but also the pastel, charcoal-like trees half-hidden in the blowing snow. That's what I wanted to capture. 

Instead of driving straight home, I headed down Pleasant Point Road. I had something in mind:

I viewed this scene through a painter's eye. I plan to put oil paint on canvas, using this image as a source. Stay tuned. 

There was also this scene:

No doubt you've seen images like this one: the technique is not new, it involves moving the camera while the shutter is open. I've done many of these over time but this one seems to capture the depth and the textures the way I saw them. By the way, the magic of this image is that it is 100% "Straight out of Camera". Nothing was done to it, not even a crop or exposure adjustment. A departure for me.

— 30 —

Good guys, bad guys

I don't get sick very often (well, colds, flu...). Flu every few years, colds probably once per year. But I get cranky when I do! As I write this, I'm on day 5 of my cold and we all know that if you take care of yourself, the cold will last 7 days. If you ignore it, it takes a week...

I wrote that I was really grumpy and sneezy, the meds that Doc gave me made me dopey and sleepy, I've never been bashful and in a little while I'll be happy again. Mr. Disney got it right...

...from the sporadic musings department...

Live Long and Prosper, Mr. Spock

Leonard Nimoy passed away yesterday. A character if there ever was one and if you look up "typecasting" in the dictionary, you'll find his picture there. He wrote a book entitled "I am NOT Spock" but well, yes he was.

Turns out he was a passionate photographer too. Something you didn't know unless you were connected... and he had an Orthodox Yiddish upbringing in his native Boston. Google where that Vulcan greeting gesture came from!

Coincidentally, being under the weather, I finally got around to watching "Star Trek: Into Darkness" a few days ago. Nimoy had a cameo role in this and, unless I'm mistaken, in ALL the Star Trek movies.  

It occurred to me that of all the people I could think of, it would be most appropriate were his remains lifted into space. Well him, and Steven Hawking when his time comes. Hope someone thinks of that. 

While shooting smoke in the light tent at the camera club meeting this week, I got this shot. If you look at it for a while, you might be able to pick out Nimoy's face. He's looking down, the nose is quite prominent. I'm displaying it here small, click to blow it up: sometimes things appear differently at different sizes. Eerie, don't you think?

Good Guys, Bad Guys

I seldom talk about merchants and customer service (OK, I do from time to time. Humour me). I had two notable dealings that I thought deserved comment, one good, one bad.

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Sun Camera Service

2150 Steeles Ave W

Thornhill, ON

905 669 6355

I normally clean my own sensor. But I had some persistent spots on my D800 and really didn't want to do a heavy liquid cleaning so I phoned Sun Camera from the car on the way into Toronto last Tuesday. I was prepared to explain that I was from out of town, only in for part of a day, was getting ready to whine and cry... I started by asking if they still cleaned sensors and whether they could do it while I waited.

"Well, sort of: if you drop it off and go get a cup of coffee, it'll be ready when you get back". A far cry from Nikon service's, "send it in, give us two weeks and we'll send it back when it's done".

Perfect job, only $60 (vs. Nikon's $80), personal service with a smile. By the way, Sun is an authorized Canon service depot, but apparently Nikon Canada has been sending work their way recently. 

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Canadian Tire

8081 Dufferin at Highway 407

Vaughan, ON

This is the email that I sent to Canadian Tire this morning. Let's see how they respond. 

This is a HUGE customer service complaint relating to the store at 8081 Dufferin in Thornhill, ON. I hope this is not a CT-wide thing, just a local store problem.

Let me start by going on record that I generally like dealing with Canadian Tire. Especially the one up here in Minden where you get personal service and they go out of their way to help people out. I've had lots of good experiences with them and I can't believe they would treat a customer like I was treated at the one on Dufferin at Highway 407 yesterday. I even use your credit card services. Let me set the scene.

I'm a senior citizen, not officially disabled but at my age... I live up in Minden but was visiting in Thornhill. It was Sunday morning. I had bought some stuff at Walmart, went out to the car (Subaru Forester), put the stuff in the back and started to close the tailgate. The hydraulic closer arm on the right side broke off at the bottom but it was extended out and I couldn't force it back in so it kept the tailgate from closing all the way (it was sticking out). All I had to do was unscrew the top two bolts holding it on but I had NO TOOLS in the car. All I needed was a pair of pliers or a Philips screwdriver and 30 seconds to remove it so I could drive home. Imagine driving 200 km in sub-zero temperatures with the tailgate open.

I went to the Canadian Tire. I went inside to the service department and politely asked if I could borrow a tool for a second and was told in nasty terms, "the mechanics do not lend out their tools". "Then could someone come out for a second and unscrew the thing so I could drive home? I'm from out of town". "You'll have to make a service appointment and complete a workorder (they had no customers in the shop and the mechanics were standing around), and there will be a charge".

I decided to go in the store and buy a pair of pliers, figuring I'd use it then bring it right back. The cheapest one I could find was $20. At the cash I explained I'd be bringing it back. They said if I opened the package, I owned it. I left it there.

I went to the garage bay and approached a mechanic. I was told in no uncertain terms to perform an anatomically impossible act.

This story ended when I drove into the PetroCan station at Dufferin and Centre street and asked if I could borrow a pair of pliers for a minute. "Sure. Want me to help?" "No", I said, "I can do it myself" and proceeded, arthritis and all, to remove the offending part in less than a minute (while holding up the tailgate with my head!).

I get why you have that policy. I get why the mechanic’s time has to be paid for. What I don’t get is why nobody had the common courtesy to help out someone in obvious distress with literally 30 seconds of their time. I want Canadian Tire to explain to me why I should continue doing business with your company.

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For the record, I didn't get upset, I didn't get angry. I generally don't do that: my style is more to "get even" after the fact. I was especially perturbed by the attitude of the mechanic who was intimidating and aggressive, when all I did was to ask him if he could do me a favour for a second.

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Followup: I got a generic response from Canadian Tire: the classic "bug letter". As I said, I don't get mad, I get even. My first step is to stop using Canadian Tire as my go-to place to shop. My second is right here, to encourage my Canadian readers to do the same. {shrug}.

I'm also waiting for my ATV to come home. It's been out of service for weeks! It suffered an electrical failure (both the stator and the CDI module, apparently). I saved $700 by finding an aftermarket stator: Polaris wanted almost $800 just for the factory part (eBay. California. $50). Hope they bring it back today, although I won't give in to the temptation to take it out until this cold is gone!

Some Photos

It's been a busy week: sick, teaching, meeting, Toronto trip... so I haven't shot much. I did do a little Photoshop work, though.

I shot this on Tuesday enroute home from Toronto, stopping for a quick look for more Snowy Owls (I did find and photograph one, but nothing really different). This array of trees caught my eye, just as it did the previous week. I made a sketch out of it and painted in a couple of birds for mood and balance. Hope you like it! 

Stuck in the house with my cold, and preparing for the HHCC meeting where we were doing a tabletop workshop, I broke out the light tent, set the camera up tethered to the laptop in Lightroom, and shot a series of images of my old carry gun, my Colt .45 (I was a combat pistol competitor and instructor in another life, long ago). Topaz Glow helped me bring out the well-worn character of this piece. I can't tell you how many times it's been in and out of a holster but you can see it. 

At the club meeting, I threw my watch in the light tent as something to focus on, then I experimented with some lighting options, just demo-ing how to do it 

Then with some time on my hands (still stuck in the house), it occurred to me that I didn't have an image for the Richmond Hill Camera Club Creative/Altered Reality competition, so...

A little warp, some liquify, some digital painting and Impression/Chiaoscuro and voilà! 

Dog Sled races next weekend! Stay tuned!

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Winter Games

...from the 'sporadic musings' department...

Gearing up

As I write this, the Intellicast site displayed this (8 am on Monday):

I admit that's Celsius but damn, that's cold. For our American readers, that translates to -30°F. My weather station says 63% R.H. which makes it feel even colder. Thank God there's no wind. 

It's been cold this winter (so much for "Global Warming"). I'm going to say 10 days so far in the -30°C or colder range. There's only a foot or two of snow on the ground up here so far: we missed all the fun that Buffalo and the east coast has had. And we didn't have much of a summer. I actually own 5 different pairs of longjohns, ranging from the heavyduty level 4 stuff from XPS that I bought at Bass Pro, through my old merino wool, polyesters and the cotton weave that I'm wearing right now sitting in my living room. Life's a challenge in God's Country...

Thankfully it's supposed to get a bit warmer later in the week but I really don't want to go out. That said, I watched the guy across the road start and warm up a snowmobile with plumes of smoke and vapour coming from it (I told you. I'm not going out to take pictures!), all bundled up against the cold. Then I have to comment: a pretty, young, blond girl who was likely a guest at the inn, dressed in a slim, stylish snowmobile or ski suit, stood outside and chatted with him: no gloves, no hat, out for a cigarette. You have to be nuts.

Shot through my picture window from the comfort of my computer chair. I think they were heading out to the ice fishing huts on the lake. Certainly not for a long sled ride without face masks. 

I'm getting ready to shoot the Ontario 55+ Senior Winter Games on Wednesday and Thursday. We got some volunteer photographers together, divided up the sports as best we could and we're going to do our utmost to capture some images. Since I was helping to organize, and did what I could to convince people to volunteer, I had to let them choose which sports they would take: so I ended up with the exciting, Badminton and Table Tennis (I ended up shooting others! See below).

Nobody ever accused my mother of having stupid children. These are both INDOOR sports!

Stay tuned, I can't publish other people's pictures  (without specific permission) but here are links to the Ontario55+ site where they're being posted:

website: http://ontario55pluswintergames.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Ontario55plus?ref=hl

Thanks (in no particular order) to Gord Sheehan, Fred Pyziak, Kathy McKelvey-Brown, Sarah Bell, Rob Stimpson, Amanda Virtanen, Debbie Bradley and Scott McDonald for volunteering.

Debbie Bradley in FRONT of a camera for a change! 

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Sidebar: We know that many people in camera clubs in the GTA cottage or visit the Haliburton Highlands regularly. Unlike most camera clubs, we do NOT shut down for the summer: in fact it's our high season! Cottagers are more than welcome to join! If you are reading this, please bring this to the attention of your members at your next club meeting. Forward the link to this blog and/or the Haliburton Highlands Camera Club website (www.highlandscameraclub.ca) to members of your club, or suggest they contact our membership chair via the website. We will have TONS of events and outings for members in 2015!

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Here come da Judge.

I tried to remember who made that line famous: it was Flip Wilson in the late '60s. But I learned that he didn't originate it, it was Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham (whom no one's ever heard of! Google is your friend).

I want to encourage all of my photographer friends to take a judging course. I took it five or six years ago and have since judged in dozens of competitions, ranging from local clubs to the TCC International Salon. I admit that I didn't intend to become that involved – I just wanted to learn what the judges were looking for so I would score higher in competition.  However it has done four things for me.

• It has helped me in my own photography. By judging competitions, I get to look critically at hundreds of images and it becomes obvious very quickly what works and what does not. So I take ideas and concepts and techniques from what I've seen. No artist is an island unto himself. While your brain is fertile ground, you have to plant seeds for anything to grow.


• It has helped me in my teaching. Of course, knowing what to teach... but also how. It is equally important, if the goal is to encourage rather than discourage, how you say things. The CAPA judging course stresses this but like anything else (especially for me) it takes time for these things to sink in. It's improved my communication skills.


• I've been exposed to genres in which I had zero expertise (and I'm still but a grasshopper) but I've learned more about them and I'm not afraid to try. Birding. Street Photography. Photojournalism. Sports Photography. There are some where I'll admit to no knowledge but an interest has been kindled: Printing. Portraiture. 


• I've met and dialogued with some very interesting people. Photography legends like Philip Sun, Lance Gitter, Harvey Rogers, Stu Freedman, Hilarie McNeil-Smith, Rob Stimpson and many others. Not all of them through judging, it's true: but I feel somewhat more elevated by the practice of adjudicating others' images.

I don't know about other jurisdictions but in Canada we have CAPA and more locally in Toronto, the GTCCC. I'm sure there are equivalents around the globe. Take the step. Contact your local club for information on judging courses.

Shooting the Ontario 55+ Senior Winter Games

An argument for staying in shape. These folks do stuff that I didn't do even 30  or 40 years ago. They should be very proud.

Shooting the games was quite challenging. For one thing, they had 10 different sports in about 17 different locations and we ended up with about 7 or 8 photographers. The toughest part were the medal ceremonies which all took place on Thursday afternoon, all over the map!

I got to shoot a variety of sports, filling in the gaps where others couldn't be there. Here's a look at some of the shots I did:

Alpine skiing at Sir Sam's. I shot at the bottom of the course, needing a long lens and very high shutter speed to freeze the action. Exposure was relatively easy because there was lots of light. 

Curling was tough to shoot. There was enough light but the ugly arc lights were a weird colour.  

The two iconic curling shots were people sweeping and someone throwing a rock. I tried a different treatment on this one to make it interesting. 

I tried an artistic rendering of the rocks and a broom. 

I've shot hockey before, in the same arena. So before I got there I knew where I wanted to shoot from: the penalty box. When I walked in, I discovered they had remodeled the place and EVERYTHING was glassed in, INCLUDING the penalty box. I only found a couple of spots where the glass was clean and undamaged enough to shoot through. So I have lots of shots of the same goalie and the same net (they didn't change ends between periods). 

Although it may look bright inside a hockey arena, you need really fast shutter speeds to freeze the action. I tried my telextender but because it uses up almost two stops of light, the best I could do was 1/500 sec at f/4.8, ISO 6400. And that was deliberately underexposing almost a stop. I switched to the 70-200 (which was enough from where I was shooting) and locked in the camera at 1/1000 sec at f/2.8, ISO 6400. 

Badminton was a huge challenge. It was like, "DARK" in there. And when they swing their racquets it's like squash or racquetball, the racquet is moving so fast you can't time the shots and it's just a big blur. I set up with the flash, but then got told it disturbed the players so I put it away. I got lots of shots of people standing there waiting for a shot. I did get other perspectives, but I thought this one told the story pretty well. 

Typical stance, waiting for a serve 

Table Tennis was another huge challenge. First of all, they were in a small venue (just room for two tables) and it was filled with people. Second, because any breeze disturbed the flight of the ball, they shut off the ventilation system and all the windows. Outside: -15°C. Inside: +30°C  and 100% humidity. Took over 30 minutes before I could shoot a picture through fogged-up lenses!

this gentleman is Andrew Kwan (Kwong Hon Kwan). He and his partner Sandy Chu were easily the best players there and took the doubles gold medal for the 65+ division. Look how the racquet and the ball are blurred, even at 1/500 second! I talked with him a bit: about 8 out of 10 serves are with heavy underspin so that the opponent has to loop the ball up to get it over the net, which gives the serving team a kill shot response. Every now and then they'd mix it up with a topspin ball, and if the opponent doesn't react to it, their shot will sail 'way long! Then there's side spin which leaves the opponent whiffing air instead of a ball! These guys were good!

I shot 3 or 4 award ceremonies. This was the bronze medal winning team in the 55+ division, one of my favourite shots. The coach on the left introduced himself as "Punch Imlach" and said his partner was "Toe Blake". I 'almost' believed them since their namesakes did dress like that for games! But they would have been 98 and 103 respectively and I knew they were gone... as an aside, I went to school with Toe's daughter, Mary Jane, when I was 12 or 13. 

The iconic handshake at the end of the Gold Medal game: the Ottawa Hawks were the winners. Hard fought physical games but lots of camaraderie.  

Gold medal winners got this handsome glass award. 

Local dignitaries making the medal presentations. All of the Games staff and volunteers wore these distinctive yellow scarves and matching laminated ID badges. 

Part of our mandate was to get pictures of the volunteers and staff enjoying their tasks.

Here's a bunch of them at the alpine skiing venue

 

The scarves were really distinctive. Games officials and volunteers really stood out in a crowd. 

You can't see the colour of the scarf in this black-and-white impression sketch. He was in charge of the hockey venue in Haliburton but I can't remember his name. 

This week's closing images

On Tuesday, I had to drive into Toronto (with a stop to see Dr. Ron in Aurora. If I had known when I was a kid how important brushing my teeth was...). Anyway I drove past the snowy owls venue and although I was looking for them, I didn't see any: until I was driving home the same way later in the afternoon. 

This guy was doing his thing, giving me the "evil eye" from atop a hydro pole. I used Topaz Adjust and Clarity to enhance the detail in this image. 

"Working the Scene" at the same spot, I saw this lonely tree and was captivated by the pastel beauty of the sky behind it and the snow in the foreground. I know snow is supposed to be white, but in this case it reflected the same colour tones as the sky.

I did quite a bit of work on this image, including adding textures to parts of it and cleaning up the foreground. Rendering the foreground was a bit problematic: but Hilarie McNeil-Smith (click the link to see her compelling images), whom I've known for a while since she taught a digital painting course I facilitated some years ago, suggested adding some blowing snow. Some of what she taught me stuck! I love the effect: I used an airbrush in Photoshop, lightly loaded with white and at low opacity to make it happen.

Click to blow it up to see it better. My friend Lori wants her entire wall painted like this. I know where to get 8 foot wide prints made! I think I'm going to get a fine art print made for myself (not 8'wide! I may go for 24x36", though). Want one?

— 30 —

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!

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