Family at the beach

Recently we had a great pleasure to photograph a lovely family at the Astotin Lake.  I have to say, it was a wonderful time, and beautiful weather.  Time filled with laughter and happiness.  There is really not much I can say about the experience, only that it was one of those times when I really love being a photographer.  My wife felt the same.  It did not matter that one was shooting with Canon, and the other with Fuji.  It did not matter what lenses we had.  It was the beautiful family in front of us, and our ability to capture the fun, the smiles, and the love.

Taking the fish eye to the streets... Part 3

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Well.... a part 3 to the fish eye post.  I guess I liked so many of the photos from the little downtown trip, that I just can't help myself.  I guess it's the thrill of a new thing, a new curved perspective on the world.  Yes I like the fish eye lens.  I like the way the world looks through it.  It puts a smile on my face.  So here are the last shots from my downtown Edmonton trip.  Enjoy!

Taking the fish eye to the streets... Part 2

Continuing from yesterday, here are more images from Edmonton downtown fish eye trip.  The more I use the lens, the more I'm liking it.  The effects it creates are unique and interesting, at least to me.  Enjoy!

Taking the fish eye to the streets... Part 1

One lens, one camera, one city.... sounds like a intro for a challenge, but it really isn't when you take a fish eye lens, to the streets of downtown.  Fish eye and architecture, don't mix well, specially for purists.  I'm not a purist, and I really like when a building is bending in a weird and interesting way in an image.  That was the main goal that day.  See how many interesting photos can I take just walking around downtown Edmonton with a little fish eye lens.  Enjoy the results!

Here fishy fishy fishy

Playing around a little more with the fish eye lens.  What better place to test it out than a lovely Elk Island sunset.  So here is another Elk Island sunset, but this time with the huge distortion of a fish eye lens.  Personally I'm really liking the effect this lens produces.  Makes me wonder if fish really see the world that way :) Enjoy!

Golden Lake

Sometimes I like to challenge myself.  I know I'm going to, lets say, Elk Island National Park, in the evening.  That usually means a sunset photo session.  Now I only take one or two lenses, and none are wide angle.  I challenge myself to take a good image of the sunset, with a 90mm or a 400mm for example.  It's not easy having only a Canon 5D full frame with a 90mm tilt-shift lens, and a Panasonic G1, with a M42 ring adapter and a 400mm old Minolta lens. Yes the tilt-shift is a little easier to use, since it can quite easily create dreamy, partly focused images.  Still the focus length at 90mm is not really designed for landscape.  I would say the 400mm is more of a landscape lens than the 90mm.  Of course the having the big 400mm on a G1 micro 4/3 camera is not an easy thing to work with either.  The lens is manual focus only, and the Panasonic camera only a digital view finder to look through (or it's little screen), but when pointing the lens at the sun, everything becomes washed out.  Thus the challenge of it all.  Learning to work with the gear that you have.  Is it frustrating?  A little.  Many times I was wishing I brought my wide angle, but then I just narrowed my view, and captured what was available.  Enjoy.

Beauty in Digital

Here are some photos from the last photos session with Deb, but this time in digital. Enjoy!

Spring Model Session - Last Part

As all good things come to an end, so did this fun photo session.  Here the last shots of this series.  Enjoy!

Spring Model Session - Part 3

Enjoy part 3 of the Spring Model Session!

Spring Model Session - Part 2

Continuing the Spring model session series.  Enjoy!

Spring Model Session - Part 1

What better way to welcome Spring, then to do a nice session downtown Edmonton with 3 models and 4 photographers.  Randy Pond, Tara Ruptash, Jennifer Plant and little ole me.  Beautiful sunny day, warm breeze and beautiful models.  Enjoy.

Birthday Girl - Part 2

As the birthday party was winding down, the Birthday Girl got a little tired.  It was quite cute. I was glad I was able to capture these moments. Enjoy.

Birthday Girl - Part 1

My youngest son, Sebastian was invited to his friends birthday party, and I tagged along for fun.  I could have dropped him off, but I decided to stay and take a few snapshots for fun.  Sebastian had a lot of fun, as any guy would have surrounded 7 pretty girls :) ... and he's only 5.  Enjoy.

Back to Normal

Wow.  It's been almost a month from the last post.  I have been rather more busy lately, with work and all kinds of photo shoots.  This means the collection of pictures waiting to be posted is growing and growing.  So with out further ramblings from me, lets get this started, shall we? Lets start with my extended family.  These were taken during a supper that I was invited to with my silly cousin way back during the time were leaves were still green on the trees.  Enjoy.

Bee or not to bee

Found this guy sitting on our screen door one day.  He wasn't moving.  I thought to myself, finally a perfect macro subject, but had to run to work.  When I came back, he was still sitting there.  I think he moved an inch.  Once I enter my home, I promptly forgot about the bee on the screen door, until the next morning.  He was still sitting on our screen door.  I gently moved him from the screen door to the door step to get a better angle.  All this time he wasn't very active.

All this time I just kept shooting.

At the end of our little photo session, I gathered him up on a leaf and set him on a flower.  I never saw him again.

Randy-thon: Olivia

I had an honour to meet Olivia at the Randy-thon a few weeks back.  She's very talented photographer, and not too shabby at posing herself.  You should definitely check out her facebook page HERE.  So with out more rambling from me, here are images of Olivia.  Enjoy.

Randy-thon: Danielle

Continuing right along with Randy-thon.  Here the second lady that decided to pose for us, Danielle.  Enjoy.

Randy-thon: Madison

I was invited to my good friend Randy Pond's little studio in Vegreville AB.  He had lined up two great girls, that agreed to pose for us, and invited another local photographer, who also does not mind being on the other side of the lens.  We started off in the studio with Randy's self made super ring light.  You can click HERE to see it.  After a few shots in the studio, we moved outside, since it was a beautiful sunny day.  So here is one of the girls that posed for us, Madison.  Enjoy.