The snow is mostly gone, here on the prairies, but it will be some weeks before we see greenery and flowers blooming. I can’t wait! It has been a long winter and I sure could use a bit of color. Late spring or early summer images are great for it because all is fresh and green is bright and not dimmed by dust of late summer days.
We are lucky here in Alberta, because some nights are full of light show. We had a couple of gorgeous Aurora showing last fall and I have managed to capture some shots without leaving the city.
I know, I know it is winter and everybody posts winter photography, but I am not ready for it yet. I see it outside my window every day, so I want to see something warm, colorful and pretty. Hope you are in need of this as well.
It has been a while since I’ve posted anything about Elk Island National Park. So, I think, it is time for some lovely sunset from the beginning of summer, when all was green, flowers were blooming and days were warm and long.
Olivia Kovios is a great family photographer, so I was a little nervous when I was invited to photograph her family. She has three wonderful kids, that are as photogenic as their parents. It was a lot of fun, but nerve racking at the same time. Alsways having the thought in my mind, how these snapshots are going to be received by a fellow photographer. It was a success. Enjoy.
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.
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.
So it's Christmas eve, and really I want to wish you, the reader and the follower of these pages, and your loved ones, a very very very Merry Christmas and a big thank you! To add to these wishes here is a small sample of my wife's baking, and kids portraits. Enjoy!
So it's that time of the year again. The time we wait for impatiently whole year. Our Christmas preparations really start in early November. Lists are being made, checked at least twice. Little hints are dropped in the middle of conversations. Then first week of December it starts for real. On a weekend we all go out and pick a fresh christmas tree. Then take it home, trim it, and usually decorate it the same day. Everyone is involved. Then the rest of the house gets it's share of garlands, lights, and bows. It's festive. But that doesn't even touch on the baking that goes on after the decorations... on that in the next part. Here are a collection of photos from the day the Christmas tree arrived home. Enjoy!
Here are some more shots from the Devonian Gardens. Enjoy.
I thought that during our last outing to Devonian Botanical Gardens I will have some opportunity not only find some nice flora, but also be able to finally take a couple of snaps of my family. I did. I shot a lot, and it was hard to choose the one's to post. So here are the best that I chose. Enjoy.
This was a great photo session. I think everyone had a good time, and it shows in the pictures.
Kids are so much fun to photograph, specially when you allow them to be themselves, let them goof around and have fun. Here are the next series of photos from the photo session with 2 families. Enjoy.
A good friend of mine asked me one day if I would be willing to take some photos of his family. I jumped at the opportunity. For months we were trying to schedule an outing, and finally a few weeks ago we found a nice saturday morning. Actually he managed to ask his sister-in-law and her family to join in the festivities. So now I had two families to shoot, at the same time. At first I thought it would be challenging, but everyone was quite at ease, and halfway into the shoot they were coming up with their own ideas which made my work considerably easier. For the next several posts I'll be showcasing their photos. Enjoy.
A few weeks ago, and good friend of mine and a vet went out to Elk Island National Park, to see if we can catch the sunset. We arrived at our favourite spot by Astotin Lake. I've photographed a lot of sunsets on that lake, and they are always different. Every one. One always meets some interesting people either watching the sunsets, or like us trying to capture it. This time we met Brian. Very interesting character. On the first glance you would not say he enjoyed sunsets. It was not the case. Here are some pictures of Brian, and his little puppy. Enjoy!
I wanted to see the difference between my Canon 17-40mm wide angle lens and the Canon 16-35mm lens. The 16-35mm is twice as expensive as the 17-40mm, probably because it's a f2.8, and the 17-40mm is only f4.0-5.6. Numbers aside, testing it in the field produced very similar results. For landscape they are pretty much the same as landscapes are usually shot at f8. I can see the 16-35mm being an interesting effect lens specially with such a small aperture. So I tested that on Sebastian. As always he was willing to have some pictures taken, and made some faces for the camera.... I'm hoping I'm not creating a monster here :) So here are the tests results.... see if you can tell the difference between a 17-40mm and a 16-35mm.
Funny thing just occurred to me. I take lots of photos, of everything, but hardly any of my own family. Maybe it's because I see them all the time? I don't know. So that's why I put this compilation of photos, from a couple of our trips this summer. Yeah I know, my kids are cute.... I mean all you have to do is, look at their parents :) Enjoy.
On our recent trips to the Fort Edmonton park, I managed to test my strength agains a Canon 5D Classic with a 70-200mm f2.8. Not the lightest piece to lug around, but it's a such a wonderful camera to use. Again I was trying for candid shots, and the 70-200mm certainly helps with that. I managed to get these shots of a little girl, which was crying at first, then started to twirl around, and pose.... like she knew I was photographing her. Maybe she did? Over the years I've learned to respect women's sixth sense.... :) Enjoy.
Yes, it's been a long 2 months. Long and slow recovery, but everything is getting back to normal. I've been trying with different cameras, and finally a few days ago, I started with my old big cameras. I've been doing all kinds of photography, but mostly I was concentrating on candid shots. I have to say that after using the Panasonic GF1 at the beginning, because it was small and light, it was a big pleasure to be able to hold my Canon 5D. Panasonic GF1 isn't a bad camera, but having a non-electronic view finder is such a beautiful thing.
First are pictures taken at local playground with the Panasonic. Enjoy!
My youngest decides that a week before Halloween he's ready to go trick or treating. It was very hard to convince him that it wasn't time yet. The concept of a week was an abstract notion to him, and it would usually last anywhere from 5 min to 15 min, before he would start asking again. He spent almost a whole week running around in his Spiderman costume. I managed to get some shots of him during that week, and here they are. Enjoy.
I figured I will try some portraiture with my youngest son Sebastian. I read an interesting passage today. The best way to start with photography, is to start photographing your loved ones. Either you will get clobbered, or you might get some interesting shots like these. These were taken with on camera flash and a Fong diffuser. Enjoy.
This was taken for "2 Person Portrait" challenge. I thought of taking a photo like this for a while now. Tried different settings and places. Unfortunately the first attempt weren't very good. I figured that the aperture will have to be small. Because of position, I was almost touching the ball with the camera, and the focus was on boys faces. Making the aperture small at around f/10 made the ball and their legs in focus. The initial shot had the bar of the goal on the top, but after good advice from friends I decided to crop it out of the picture. The rest of the effect was done by selective desaturation, of practically every color except for yellow and orange. This gave the boys some color, and everything else black and white. Thoughts?
