I’ve been so busy with outside projects that I’ve had to put my own aside for a while, but today, despite my somewhat zombie-like state after chasing the aurora last night, I was finally able to start on one of the bigger, longer-term ones.
I still need some models, so if you’ve got a cute little critter you’re willing to share, please send me an email.
Large events can pose challenges in creating a group photo. It could be that not everyone is present at the same time, individuals are reluctant to be photographed, or are not prepared to be photographed at the time the image is to be made. The sheer size of the group can preclude a good image of everyone together. My solution is simply to not photograph everyone together.
I have four children. Getting the four of them to appear in one image (nevermind getting them all to look good) is a near impossibility. In order to have a family photo of sorts, what I have done is to take them somewhere to snap photos as they allow. From these sessions, I have chosen the best image of each child and framed or hung the resulting group together. It is a clearly cohesive set as the lighting and location are consistent from image to image, and each child looks his or her best — no cajoling required.
Having been asked to shoot a couple of weddings recently, I put this strategy to use. It’s not that the couples expected to get a group shot of everyone at the receptions, but I thought it would be a great way to remember all the attendees. A newer technique, referred to as a Jarvie window, let me make the images fun for the bride and groom, and also for the guests as we could chuckle over the silly results displayed on the back of my camera. Tiling the resulting ‘windows’ into a large print creates a fun group picture and memory of a special event.
When I plan to photograph, I dutifully lug many pounds of camera equipment, especially if my intended subject is a wild animal (you know how heavy big glass can be). So I’m happy to put it all down from time to time. This is Mr. Murphy’s cue to action.
I didn't make it back in time with a 'real' camera.
I do, however, always have a camera at hand. It took me a couple of years to discover it, but over the course of the last half year I have gained tremendous appreciation for it. It’s my iPhone; an older model too: the 3GS. This 3.2 megapixel quick draw marvel generally resides in my pocket, providing me with helpful (photographic!) information like GPS coordinates, and the precise time and location of a sunset or moonrise anywhere in the world. It’s even capable of remote-releasing the shutters of some cameras.
I don’t generally intend to take photographs with my phone, but you’ve heard that the best camera is the one you have at hand. I have images that would only be memories had my silicone-ensconced umbilical cord to the world not been attached. Internet groups and coffee table books already exist, brimming with beautiful images that might otherwise never have been made.
It’s fun, too. There are powerful and inexpensive apps like Nik Software’s SnapSeed that can turn your image into art with a few quick swipes.
The sunflowers on my first-grader's school playground.
The current 4S model has 8-megapixels. Do you recall how many megapixels your first digital camera had? My husband’s shot 640×480 and saved files to a floppy disk! In addition to a faster processor, the 4S also has an LED flash. Autofocus (and tap-to-focus/expose) simply doesn’t get easier, and images are all geotagged, so even if you don’t use the image from your phone, you can make a reference shot for the images from your big cameras and add the information to the metadata later. Add-on lenses are even available to give you telephoto capability from the built in 4mm up to 12x that focal length.
The biggest drawbacks? The operating temperature is only down to freezing and it has a maximum operating altitude of 3000m — not so good for the mountaineers — but I happily snap through the summers when I have my family in tow as it can be real work to pull out the heavy equipment. I really enjoy adding these images to digital albums, and my kids love paging through the resulting books.
And I now take photos when before I would never have thought to shoot. This image of a storm over Canmore was shot while speeding by on the highway. I wasn’t driving. I promise.
I even have images I snapped with my phone that I quickly revisited with one of my SLRs yet I still prefer the phone image to my attempted recreation of it.
So don’t discount the camera in your pocket. While you may not capture the exact position of every whisker on the coyote’s face as it leaps to catch a mouse, an aerial coyote can still make for an interesting image.
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This article was originally published by The Canadian Nature Photographer. See it here.
A new set of greeting cards is now available. This one features North American mammals including Bighorn Sheep, Elk and Black Bear. They measure 6.25″ x 4.5″ and are printed on acid- and lignin-free stock with inks expected to last more than 98 years on display! The paper has a beautiful, subtle linen texture lending an added feel of artistry. The insides are blank. Each card comes with a matching envelope.
Cards may be ordered individually for $3.50 or as a set of six for $17.50. Raffia-wrapped sets are beautiful gifts for wildlife-lovers too.
I don’t do much work on spec. Typically prints/canvases/books/collages are made as they are ordered, but I had a dream a couple of weeks ago that I printed one of my moose images on a canvas — a large one. In my dream the moose was nearly life-sized, and this particular girl was my height at her shoulder. I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
Of course, it would require a pretty special art collector to choose to fill an entire wall with one moose, so I’m scaling it back a bit; the canvas will measure two and a half feet high by almost four feet wide. If that special art collector is reading this though, please email me and I’ll happily prepare this girl to give you the same experience I had photographing her! 
“Make something!” is an imperative across which I stumbled a number of months ago. I’ve lost track of where I read it, so can’t give credit to the fire-lighter (sorry!), but this order has rung in my head since. With the request of a local coffee shop to display my work, I now don’t have a real excuse not to follow through. There are a few framed wildlife images already hanging there, but I’m now working on a series of smaller, more abstract images for the shop. Something like this:
We’ve had some solid frosts now and the few remaining leaves are brown and quickly dropping. There’s no longer any “fall colour” (unless you count the crispy brown carpet underfoot), and people are grumbling about pulling out their winter wear. Even yesterday a few tiny flakes of snow from a very isolated cloud whispered hints of what is coming. Fall isn’t so much a proper season here as a brief transition into winter.
The last few weeks have been fun though; I’ve been out romping in the park with kids and families, soaking my eyes in the birch’s yellow and the cotoneaster’s red. But I’m ready to be done with fall. The wind, the trick-or-treaters, and the diligent gardeners will see those last leaves crumbled and removed, leaving the orderly tidiness of bare branches and last-mowed lawns to meet winter’s first snow. The days are quickly shortening and I’m happy with the change of gears, but I’m also happy to have those colours in pixels and in prints to later refresh winter-weary eyes.
It’s as simple as it sounds: people get together for a friendly social outing and to make pictures. Scott Kelby took it further and instead of having just a local group, he decided to get the world together for one enormous walk. There were 1116 groups of walkers this year (the fourth) with 27954 walkers participating the first weekend of October. Just over half of those walks took place in North America, and the rest were scattered over every continent but Antarctica. That’s some friendly social outing!
There is no charge to participate, but as incentive to join and share images, Scott awards prizes to the best image for each walk, as well as a grand prize and ten finalist prizes selected from the walk winners. I believe there’s a people’s choice award as well.
All of this is very cool and I signed up for the first time this year as I can always use an excuse to go out, socialize and shoot. It was a perfect fall afternoon and I lucked into a dear and interesting woman with whom to walk (who doesn’t give herself enough credit for her photographic talent). That alone made my day.
Sharing images from the walk on flickr and seeing how differently so many people had viewed the same few blocks we walked, maintained the happy high of that afternoon. Then reminders started coming about submitting images for consideration for the local walk prize. I waffled. There were some outstanding images in our flickr group and those people certainly were going to win. I asked a few friends who pressed me to enter. I agonized about which image to submit, and then decided that I was investing far too much energy into trying to decide that it was simpler to not enter. The walk leader then insisted I submit an image. I caved.
I sent in the image that had effectively been chosen by a consensus of friends on flickr, Facebook, and in real life. Then I made myself forget that I had entered.
In my emailbox this morning was a very understated email from our walk’s leader simply titled “It’s official”. I must have skimmed it too quickly because I didn’t initially notice that it had been addressed only to me, and clicked through the link to be surprised to see my own image featured. Too cool.
I’ve attended a conference in Las Vegas the past two years called Photoshop World. For a photographer it’s three days of stuffing as much information from industry pros as you can possibly jam into your brain, and returning home not quite knowing where to start implementing the massive amount of information that you’ve retained (nevermind what you’ve forgotten again by the time the plane touches down at home). That’s all great.
But it’s Vegas, and you have to get out of the conference center to take in some of the sideshow that is The Strip. Photographing hotels and casinos alone could fill numerous days. The characters both in and out of costume would complete the week. The shows, restaurants, and shopping could keep you there many more.
It’s not me though. Sure, I have snapshots, but I wanted to get out to see the countryside. I wanted to explore the arid mountains, curious rock formations and scrubby vegetation to see what lives there and simply to appreciate a landscape vastly different from home. My friend Theresa was driving in from California; she graciously offered her car and we were joined by friends Mel, Gail, Brandon and Sue on a half-day trek to Valley of Fire.
A state park which name could derive from both the colour and the temperature had to be intense, and it was. A desert is not only about sand and cacti — we climbed hoodoos, examined petroglyphs, and wondered about perfectly spherical stones along the path. We played with a fearless chipmunk, eager to cache all the granola he could snatch, and marvelled at miles of empty tarmac leading through this otherworldly place. We know we saw only a small portion of what is there, but it was as much an education as many of the courses in the air-conditioned chill of the conference building.
He’s intelligent, hardworking, funny, and truly kindhearted. This image doesn’t do him justice but was requested by a member of his campaign team — to print life-sized! I’ve had a few photo sessions with Jeremy now, both formal and more relaxed event photography, and don’t see him as a wholly stereotypical politician. His relative youth plays into that, but I think his sincerity plays a larger part.
We’re gearing up for a provincial election that may be held as soon as early November, so if you’re wanting to learn more about Jeremy’s ideas and Wildrose policy (or just see more of the images I made), his website is http://www.jeremynixon.ca/. The constituency association has a Facebook page with event photos.
This Tuesday evening I’ll be at a function for Jeremy, which is insanely ironic for me personally because I started postsecondary academics wanting a Political Science degree to get into the foreign service and ended up running as quickly as possible in another direction after taking a few courses, wondering what made me believe I had any interest in things political. Really, I’m just excited to see if Jeremy, as you see him here, turns out as good as Jeremy in real life.
