Do Inanimate objects have feelings?

That question is non-photo-related (NPR). It has to do with my car.

I've been thinking about changing cars. I drive a 2003 VW Passat with 210,000 km on it, and it's time. I need a bigger vehicle and AWD would be a good thing to have up here, so I've been hunting for a Subaru Forester and we found one: a 2007 in silver, the usual goodies (I'm not that fussy. If I get in, and turn the key, it should start. It should drive to where I want to go with the minimum of fuss and not burn a lot of dead dinosaur goo. It should have power locks and windows, and I don't care about much else. It shouldn't be black because then I'd have to wash it...).

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, before heading up to Wawa for the Gales of November workshop, a 2000 km drive into potentially snow country, I brought it in to have the winter tires put on. I think the car knew that this was going to be our last long trip together, because Rusty came over to me in his waiting area and said, "did you know you don't have any front brakes?" $450 later, I did have. Could the car have been punishing me for thinking about breaking up with it?

Oh, a side note. They didn't install the brakes correctly. And this being the country, the mechanic drove me the 15 km home and picked me up when the car was ready, apologizing for the "crunchy" noises the brakes were making, saying it was because he used metallic pads, that's all they could get at the last minute. Crunchy and grabby was a real understatement. Still, as long as the car stopped when I pressed on the pedal... anyway, around 5pm, the night before I was leaving for Lake Gitchigumi, a car pulls into my driveway. It was the mechanic. He said, "I was thinking about your brakes and I think I didn't install them correctly". I said, "well, I don't have time to bring it in..." and he said, "don't worry, I brought my tools". He then worked on my car in my own garage and presto! No more crunchy! Can you imagine a city mechanic actually doing that for you? I love living in the country.

Back to the car. On Thursday this week, I drove to Toronto. When I stopped at the first traffic light I encountered (I live in the country, remember?), the car started running rough. In fact I had to work to keep it running. To make a long story short (too late!), I spend most of Friday, and $641, at the VW dealer. It was the thermostat and another acronymy thing, $80 worth of parts and $500 in labour.

Oh, on Friday morning, Philip, my leasing broker colleague told me he had found a Subaru for me. I swear the car knew it.

Not over yet. On Friday I discovered a crack in my windshield. This on a car that was due to be sold. So I had to have it fixed, I chose the 'repair' instead of 'replace' option. You can still see the crack, but it's small and no threat.

So I think inanimate objects have feelings and make them known to you.

The thought of changing to Mac from PC has entered my mind. Today, my laptop decided it didn't want to recognize the fact that it had a battery installed...

This is a message to my D300, and my 70-200 f/2.8 lens, and most of my other photo stuff, also a message to my laptop computer: "I'm not now nor am I EVER (shhh!) thinking about replacing you. I love you all..."

OK but I do have some stuff I want to sell.

I have a studio setup that I never use. Two 600w monolights, one 150w mono, Manfrotto stands, backdrops and backdrop supports, etc. Worth probably around $1500 on the used market. Contact me if you're interested but keep it quiet, I don't want the equipment to hear about it. I'll break it to them gently that I've found them a new and loving home...

More on the Moose Peterson book

I realize now that Moose was documenting his photography career and the work at the beginning of the book was when he was new and young. The book is fascinating. This is an incredibly dedicated and talented man and his work is outstanding. If you're at all interested in wildlife and/or bird photography, you must read this book. Click on the NAPP link at right (or this one here) to order it.

By the way, this guy HANDHOLDS a 600mm f/4 lens with a 1.7x teleconverter on it. And refuses to crank his ISO up above 100. I swear, that's a physical impossibility!

Time to share some pictures

It always seems to be creeping up on 3am when I'm writing this stuff. So here are some images to enjoy (I hope you do!) and then I'm going to bed.

It's only a chickadee but I worked hard for this shot! Shot in the fading dusk light, the exposure was 1/13 second at f/2.8, ISO 2000. This is about half a frame on my D300. I used Topaz denoise -- works rather well, wouldn't you say? PS: clearly the camera was on a tripod but it took over 100 frames to get one where the little guy held still long enough!

When I refilled the suet feeder, I put the remnants on the deck in the hopes of attracting something photographicable and got a visit from this little guy. The exposure is 1/40 second at f/8, ISO 400 and the lens is the 200mm and the 2x teleconverter, or 400mm. It took MANY shots to get one in tack sharp focus. Needless to say, the camera was on the tripod, autofocus and VR turned off, so I manually focused and used a cable release. These shots are not easy!

I haven't done any pixel painting in a couple of years, and I totally forget how. I did this in Painter 11, spending a lot of time trying to remember how it works (sometimes, I'm painting on a new layer and absolutely NOTHING is happening. I don't remember how!). Anyway, the only thing in this painting that was in the original photo is the bird itself. I created everything else from scratch — the fence, the seed in his mouth, everything. I think I should spend some more time doing paintings!

That's it for now! Drop by any time!

I'm so ashamed!

Hi, my name is Glenn.

"Hi, Glenn"!

I'm a blog-a-holic. And it's been 34 days since I Blogged. I'm so ashamed.

I could tell you how busy I've been (I've been busy!), how I've been focusing on other things (I've been focusing on other things), how life has thrown me a few curve balls (life has... you know) but in reality, I haven't been motivated for the longest time.

It's winter, coming into spring. You know, that time when the earth renews itself, when animals come out of hibernation, where the days start to get longer and warmer... SO WHEN'S THAT GOING TO START?

There are a few exceptions. This roadside rock formation gave birth
to an Ice sculpture with that blue colour one normally associates with
icebergs.

Truth be told, this is the ugliest time of year. That crisp, white snow is caked with mud; the trees are naked, the earth is brown. the melting ice on the roof is dripping down in the house. Yuk. But OK, we got through it! I went for a walk on a muddy country road without putting on gloves or a hat, I did shoot a few pictures, the creative juices are starting to flow again.

That said, I'm lying. Just a little. I have been doing some stuff over the past several weeks, not the least of which was to attend Hilarie's Pixel Painting Workshop 10 days ago, and, well, I've added another brush to my palette, another tool to my chest. Throughout the course I kept bemoaning the fact that I'm not an artist. Several people challenged me on that but I still think I'm not one. I did manage to create a couple of images that I like, here's one:

Mountain Man. Created by painting on top of an existing image,
using Photoshop and Corel Painter 11

The course was an eye opener. There are other things in life than sharp focus. And as I read somewhere and have said before, photography is all about what you put INTO the picture; painting is about what you leave OUT. So if you have a photo that would be great except for the background, then when you create it as a painting, DON'T INCLUDE THE BACKGROUND!

Anyway, I was out shooting a few pictures today, a different technique so I don't know how they're going to come out. I'll share them in the next Blog. For today, I'll add a couple of images I took a few weeks ago, of people ice fishing on 12 mile Lake.

Portable Ice Hut. It was really chilly out but nice and warm
inside, despite the fact that there was no floor.

It was already starting to thaw. In fact, most of the ice fishing huts had been brought in for the season. These guys were being quite careful how and where they walked.

Not this guy, though. He blithely drove his truck out on the ice, through foot-deep puddles of water. Apparently there was about two feet of ice thickness, even on a warm day like this one.

Allow me to leave you with one more image. I was asked to shoot some photos at Humber College, some detail shots of a new straight truck they had in their training program. While I was at it, I shot a 5-shot burst and created an HDR image. I shouldn't post it before I clean it up completely, but... here it is

It’s 30 below and all’s well!

For the last two mornings, the thermometer outside my bedroom window has said -30°C. The sky is a crisp, hard blue and the stars were out overnight, like the proverbial diamonds in the sky. A perfect time to get some exquisite time exposure star shots.

Are you out of your mind? Did you not read where I said it’s -30°C? I’m sure the camera would do just fine, but these old bones are not going out there in the middle of the night in these temperatures. I did go out during the day yesterday, to chop some firewood and a short walk, and I did bring the camera, but I failed to capture the essence of the cold. I need a picture of someone bundled up, with their breath condensing in the air and icicles hanging from their nose or beard. However everyone I know is staying indoors where it’s warm.

Does this say "cold" to you? I don't feel like I captured that, although the spiderwebby frost under the eaves is from the condensing vapours from the furnace exhaust. And the icicles say to me, "I hope this isn't going to cause an expensive roof problem!"

So I ventured out and asked someone to pose for me, when I stopped at the bank in Minden. I lied and said I was working for a newspaper...

I actually went out knowing in advance what I wanted to shoot, and set it up. I'm not good asking people to pose for me. This guy wanted to know what Newspaper I was working for and I had to assure him he would not be recognizable in the picture.

Except the dog owners, of course. But then I would have to go out at the same time as them and get them to stand still long enough to get their pictures. Oh, and the ice fishermen. I don’t know what’s so attractive about snowmobiling in -30° temperatures, out to a freezing hut and dropping a fishing line into a hole in the ice, when you could just go to IGA and buy some fish if you really wanted some. Again, it’s hard to catch pictures of them from in here by the fire!

I haven’t posted anything here for a while. Mainly because I’ve been (a) working on some projects that has kept my attention and (b) I’ve been lazy, still in “holiday mode”. I haven’t taken a lot of photos in the last while, but as soon as it warms up, I’ll get out there. Actually, there are two people who want me to shoot business type portraits (both of them want them closecut so they can use them on various backgrounds. One wants an overhead shot, holding some test equipment, for use on a flyer). I’ll try to line those up for next week.

The only other thing I’ve done is to frame and put up some prints up at TrueNorth. As I mentioned earlier, I had printed 5 images on canvas, now, how to frame them? Since I didn’t know any better, I didn’t leave enough canvas to stretch them over a frame; so I took the easy way out. I went to Michael’s and bought 5 matching frames. Then I took them apart, threw out the glass and spray-glued the canvases to the back of the matte. That worked. Here’s a photo of the wall with the pictures on it. Hope the arrangement looks good: I don’t like doing things all lined up…

photos arranged on my dining room wall.

One of the projects I mentioned above is the Pixel Painting Workshop that I’m putting together with Hilarie McNeil-Smith. If you’re not in the loop, then you wouldn’t know that the course is over-subscribed by 100%! That means that we have 12 spaces and there are 24 people who want the course! I’m working on Hilarie to schedule a second session, but we’ll have to wait and see when that can be. Probably in the Fall.

In anticipation of the course, I've been doing a little painting. I have no idea what I'm doing (which is obvious from the results above) but it's fun. I'm SO looking forward to learning how to do this!

OK, it figures. I go out for a walk ONCE without my camera. And two deer walk out of the woods 50m away from me, cross the road, and stop and wait in a little open area. I walked up within about 20m and stood and watched them as they watched me, for at least 15 minutes. AND I DIDN'T HAVE MY CAMERA.

One was a yearling and the other was either a large doe or a buck who had shed his antlers (they do that this time of year). We just stood there and watched one another. I was thinking, OK, that would make a good photo. And that, and that, and... grrr.

I had gone out to bring in some firewood, and knock the icicles down, then I thought I'd watch the sunset over the lake for a couple of minutes and see if anyone was at the ice fishing huts. I thought of bringing it, but I had my arms full with firewood. Oh well, next time. I found where they like to cross and I'll hang out there late in the afternoons.

What else is new? Well, I’ve offered to adopt a dog. Ginger is a 7 year old Golden Retriever and she’s currently in foster care under the auspices of Golden Retriever Rescue. I met her, and I’ve offered to adopt her, but I’m waiting to be contacted for my home inspection (they’re serious about the environment the adopted dogs go into). Should happen in the next couple of weeks.

I’m posting a “silly” picture here. This is the best I can do BEFORE taking Hilarie’s course. She gave me a little guidance (OK, a lot…) but then she sent me a picture showing me “…and this is how you SHOULD do it…”. I’m not posting her picture. Suffice it to say it’s a lot better than mine! She’s an artist. In my dreams, I’d like to be one…

This is Ginger. I'll know in a week or so if she's going to be my dog.

No tip today, except drag out any book you have on Photoshop (including Photoshop User magazine, which you ALL should be getting. Go here to join NAPP, it’s worth it!) and try some stuff. Get really comfortable with layers and adjustment layers and masks. They’re probably the most powerful tools in the program. Oh, and STAY WARM!

I'm a published author!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Well, busy in the sense that I’ve been working on a project and have been sitting in front of the computer for lots of hours to get it done.

The project? My first Blurb book. Yes, now I can say that I am a published photographer and author. The fact that it’s self-published, and I only ordered a couple of copies to see how it turned out does not have to come up in conversation. UNDERSTAND?

I put together a 40-page 8x10” (landscape) hardcovered book with a sleeve. It’s called “The Path of Least Potholes”, and to find out why, I guess you’re going to have to buy a copy! Blurb is not that simple to use, but considering we’re generating a whole book here, it’s not that bad. I’ll talk about the process and some of the mistakes I made (me? Misteaks?) in my photo tips section below.

I got an email from them telling me my book has shipped. Can't wait to see it! I'm published!

Last week when I started writing this, I was staring out the window at the snow coming down. I was up in “True North” (as I am now), of course. The lake was now iced over. a couple of nights before, there was open water and the setting sun lit the steam coming off it, reminiscent of a misty dawn. It was tough to capture on camera.

When I woke up the next morning, it was -22°C and everything outside was crispy crunchy. It was a beautiful winter day and when I walked down to the dock, Susan from the Inn across the road told me to check out the frozen ice crystals on the fresh lake ice. They looked like giant snowflakes, so I went back for the camera and took a couple of shots.

These crystals were about 2" (5cm) across. I false-coloured the image to make them stand out.

I also took a couple of shots of my axe, embedded in a log I was splitting for kindling. I painted the background, since it was kind of messy. I’m calling it, “That’s Life NOT in the Big City”.

When I came back in, I waited for the camera to warm back up to room temperature, then set it up to take a couple of self-portraits to use for the back flap of the book. Don’t you hate pictures of yourself? I do…

This is my workstation up at "True North". I've since moved a larger widescreen monitor up here.

By the way, last week I got a few images at the landfill (OK, the “dump”) when I dropped off a bag of garbage. It’s not going to win any prizes as ‘prettiest photo of the year’, but it does tell the story of what they do there. They’re feeding a whole mountain of stuff into that big red machine which reduces things to one or two foot size chunks. Then they plow it all in (that’s why they call it a ‘landfill’.


Planning is well under way for the Pixel Painting workshop we're doing with Hilarie McNeil-Smith in March. Watch this space for an announcement in the next week or so.

I did buy the Wacom tablet I mentioned last time: Future Shop has them on sale for under $100. If you're planning to attend the workshop, you need one. The Wacom "Bamboo" is $79 but the "Bamboo Fun" is only $20 more. You get a mouse with it as well as some software, so it's worth it. It's seamless. No issues with multiple monitors, no locking up the computer, works great.

FacZen Photography Tips You too can be an author! There are a number of online companies who will help you publish your own book. The one I used was “Blurb.com”. They seem to be quite affordable, much less than the likes of Vistek or Black's, and from what I’ve seen, their quality is quite high. There are some limitations but there are some workarounds that can make your book fully customized and looking just the way you want it. The first thing to do is go to the blurb website and download their software, called "Booksmart". Version 1.9 is the current one as I write this. My book cover Even though I put together a small book (only 40 pages) as a first test, I realize that workflow is an issue. Jim Camelford (he’s published a couple of hefty tomes) gave some hints which I unwisely ignored, so here they are again, but in my words. The concept is like this: Blurb offers several designs from a small square book to a large format coffee table sized book (13x11”). You can have as many pages as you like in it, up to 440 pages (now THAT would be a book!). There are dozens of page layouts provided by Blurb, but you can’t modify them. So if you don’t find the layout you want, you’ll have to work around it. You make .jpg files to fill the containers they provide. So if a page has two 5x5.5” image containers in it, that’s what you give them. The problem is, you’re probably going to end up cropping your pictures to fit their layout, unless you use a larger container and drop the pictures wherever you like in it. You could drop, say, a 5” x 3” image in a box and align it top or bottom or middle. You could also use a full-page bleed, create a suitably sized image in PhotoShop and position things where you want. Text too. Work with a grid, though, especially if you're going to put a customized page opposite a standard one. All files should be prepared for printing: proper exposures, clean cropping, sharpened appropriately, 300 dpi resolution and high quality. You get out what you put in. You could just drop your pictures into the Blurb containers and let the program resize or fit them. But then the sharpening and resolution wouldn’t be optimum and, well, it is your book, so you decide. Pre-plan your text. Blurb has several default styles: body text, headings, captions, etc. Choose the font, size and colour for each of these and store them as defaults. You should make everything consistent through the book. The thing is, PLAN YOUR BOOK FIRST. Collect all your photos and text in one place then make subfolders for each section (which could be just one page!). Decide what fonts and colours to use and preset them. Decide on picture sizes and prepare them in advance. Here are a couple of things Blurb doesn’t tell you: 1. You don’t need to import pictures into their library. You can just drag them from Explorer or even Bridge directly into the program. 2. Resize them according to the pixel sizes given in Blurb. Not 6”x6”, 1801px x 1796px. By the way, in Photoshop be sure to enter “px” in the crop size box or you’ll end up with inches. 1801 inches is one HELL of a big file! One of the page layouts from my book. 3. If you’re working in Word to write the text, set the font, size and colour to what you want in the book. If you have to, change the page colour so you can see your text (I couldn't figure out what was going on until I realized I was trying to look at black text on a black background!). 4. Try to be consistent. Your book will look MUCH better if pages look similar throughout. Stick with only one or two fonts and colours and sizes; try to keep the page layouts the same or similar. Creating the book is a tedious process. And "niggly". I scrolled several times through the book and found little problems every time. Remember, this is going to be printed, so you have to get it right. When you're all done, you connect to the Blurb site and upload the book for printing. Remember, it's a pretty big file so it will take a while even at high speed. Then you need to tell them how many copies, where to ship them and give them the usual credit card information. My 40-page book was $33 (I chose premium paper), plus shipping. So go for it! You can be a famous author and published photographer just like me!

Pixel Painting Revisited

I tried it again. I think I've found a technique that I really enjoy doing, and I owe Hilarie for my inspiration.

In fact, we corresponded several times by email and she has shown no hesitation in helping me to understand and use the concepts. If anyone is interested in a course on how to do this, please get in touch with me and let's see what we can put together. I already know two people in addition to myself who are interested.

Here's my second effort. It is very significant to me because Gary, the subject of the "painting" was a dear friend and he died in July at the age of 53. Two of the many loves in his life were motorcycling and sailing, probably in the other order. In August, 2006 I went out sailing with him on Dr. Ron's boat and took a few pictures -- this was one of them. I find Gary really at peace in this image. Click on it to blow it up. I hope you like it.

Pixel Painting

At the Richmond Hill Camera Club last night, we were treated to a presentation from Hilarie Mcneil-Smith. Hilarie is a self-proclaimed "Pixel Painter". She takes a photographic image and applies magic to it. I was intrigued.

I always wanted to do this but never knew how. I still don't know how, but I did come home and play with an image -- with no success whatsoever. I painted, all right, but handing someone a paintbrush does not make him an artist.

The evening started a bit slowly, I couldn't really get into it. That is, until Hilarie started actually creating a painting on the spot and it got exciting. here's a link to Hilarie's gallery, check it out: www.pbase.com/hilli

Anyway, this morning, I brought up an image I had captured yesterday and started playing with it. Two hours later...

So everyone knows I like pictures of rocks and trees. Guess what I started with? I couldn't possibly tell you what I did in detail. I created a few layers, labelling them "log" or "rock" or "beach" or "water" and used different brush effects on each. Don't ask me which brushes! In the end, I didn't like the log, so I applied PhotoShop's "cutout" filter to its layer.

So here's my first attempt at pixel painting. Now if you came across one of Picasso's first original sketches, it'd be worth a fortune, right? So this is my FIRST pixel painting. Anyone want to buy an original print?