Space Quest

"Surface of the Sun"

During shoot week Sarah gave us an "outer space" assignment to do. Yes, the same instructor who gave us our potato assignment earlier in the fall( see my archives for reference). I don't know where she comes up with these assignments but I would definitely say they do fall under the umbrella of creative imaging! This particular assignment was to create space scenes without actually photographing space.  I gave it some thought and the next morning I woke up at 4:00a.m.( I hoped that the darkness would inspire me) and wondered into my kitchen ( It's away from the bedrooms and the sleeping family).  In solitude and the quiet of the night I contemplated  how I was going to get this assignment completed or even started! I walked around the kitchen and decided I would start by setting up my mini studio. My black cloth stuck into my cupboards above the stove and my trusty Ikea lamp. I then began rummaging through my cupboards and fridge to see if anything reminded me of space. I noticed some flat bread lying on my counter-hummm- could those be craters I'm seeing???? (One sees a lot of different things at 4:00 a.m.!) With the right lighting it could become a planet or the surface of the sun as in the photo above. Then I moved on to my fruit bowl.......That orange- I like the texture, a planet? A comet? I know a Nebula! (Photo below)

                                                     "Nebula"

Next I went to my cupboard and found some pancake mix I hadn't used in a while. I mixed it with some water put it in a quiche dish because it's shallow and proceeded to create stars by poking holes in black cardboard and backlighting it with my lamp. It created a cool Moon surface and a cloud-like earth from space!

 Okay, at this point I'm having flashbacks to my grade 4 , Lord of the Flies, project where I constructed an island out of papermache and proceeded to make approximately 200 matchstick palm trees that I painstakingly drilled and glued in to cover the entire island. The project was so large my parents could hardly fit it into the back of the families station wagon! (and they say I have an A type personality-you think?) 

I really didn't believe I would have this much fun doing this assignment, but surprisingly, I did! It forced me to go where I haven't gone before( Ha Ha),  and relive great memories from my childhood. I think as adults it's really important to embrace challenges and to reflect on precious moments and once in a while- just play like you did in your childhood! 

"Surface of the Moon"

                                                                                       "The Earth"

My "studio" How I did it!

Under the Sea Photography!

My brother and I finally connected this weekend for my Dad's birthday and I finally got to view his pics from his trip in January to Jamaica.(This seems to be an issue with my friends and family since I started the course, finding the time to get together.) He was quite exited to show me his photo's taken while scuba diving in the ocean. We played around a little with the images in Lightroom to add a little more exposure, blacks, contrast and alike and the results where really cool. My brother is an amateur photographer and prepared for his underwater shoot. I thought it would be cool to interview him to see what he used and any advice he might have to those aspiring to do underwater photography someday. After seeing his shots I thought to myself could I do that?....

Above: Edited under water shot .

Below: The same image before editing.

Above:My brother went with his brother-in-law, Lawrence. 

Let's begin the interview:

Me: Tell us about the equipment you used and how you went about getting ready for your trip.

Ed: I used a Cannon PowerShot A570IS. The water case I purchased off of e-Bay in New York, for $210.00. It is a Cannon model # WP-DC12. I also needed to purchase a Cannon weight system model # WW-DC1- for around $12.00. These are weights that screw into the bottom of the case to give the camera a neutral buoyancy in the water. All my research and prep was done from the internet.

(an underwater case for my Cannon D40 looks like it would cost me about $329.00- need to be taking a lot of photos underwater for those "doubloons"!)
 Was there any photographic challenges underwater?

Ed: It was a little tricky, as you always had to watch which way the sun rays where filtering through the water. The other problem was the depth of the water. At 70 ft. you had to be extremely close to your subject so the flash could illuminate it.
Any "scary" moments?

Ed: No. It was actually very relaxing.

What was the neatest thing you got to photograph?

Ed: The best part was looking into crevices to see what I could find like the Lobster or Crab.

Anything you had to do after the shoot with the camera and equipment?

Ed: I was sure to rinse the camera case with fresh water. Dry it, and then open it up to remove the camera. It was important not to have direct, hot sun shining on it.

Will you be doing this again? Any more camera/equipment purchases in the near future?

Ed: Oh, Ya!!!! Every year if I can. Next year maybe I'll go someplace different. I was thinking of purchasing some other source of light to take on my dive. To enhance the colors in the images.

These photo's where taken from 30 ft- 70 ft of water and the water was a 110ft of visibility. 

Me: Is that good?

Ed: Yes- much better than here at home in our lakes.

What are you going to do with your images?

Ed: I'm planning on doing one large image 20x 24 and a few 8x10  mounted on foam and then put them into a "collage" style format. They'll hang in my basement.

What is your favorite image?

Ed: The one of the Lobster, I loved the bright colours, even under the water!

If you've tried  underwater photography  and have a piece of valuable advice, feel free to leave it in the comments section! Knowledge is a wonderful thing!

Edgy, revisited on past pics.

                           "Badlands Dry"  Badlands, South Dakota., U.S.A.

So along with us learning about HDR's (see previous blog) we also learnt how to do "Edgy" photo's by manipulating an image in Lightroom. I got to thinking about it and wondered if maybe my holiday pics from this past summer's trip to South Dakota and some pics from the Lake could be somehow improved or made more interesting by doing an "Edgy" technique to them. I found the ones that seem to work the best are those with "texture" ie. wood, hair, grass, feathers, etc.  I only got my Cannon 40D at the end of July so that was about as far back as I could go.( I was all about film until then.) It was cool to change them up and it was especially kind of sentimental reliving the highlights by looking at the pics again. It sure helps when the snow is still falling and the temps. are a "balmy" -38C - Think warm thoughts, we'll get through this!

                                                     "Wash Station" 1880's town.

                                                     "Signs" 1880's town.

                                     "Sitting on the Dock at the Bay"  Sammy  

                              "Bird on Perch" Reptile Gardens, South Dakota. 

No one person should have this much fun!

Above: HDR Livingroom
Below: Middle exposure livingroom.

2 weeks ago we learnt something really neat in digital techniques. HDR's also known as High Dynamic Range photo's. TOOO MUCH FUN!!! One essentially finds a situation to photograph, the best, being one of dark shadows and highlights. You then find your top highlights exposure image and your lowest shadows exposure image( Use your histograms photographers) and then combine all the images inbetween the two together using photomatix program. My images were made from about 15 exposure images each. It gives a real cartoon appearance to the images. I loved working on this- I'm always looking for new locations to try this technique on.
I've given you the HDR version and then just the middle exposure image of the photo so you can see the change. Enjoy!


"In Storage"

"Artist Alley"


"Downtown Winnipeg from the Forks"


"HDR Painting"

Palm Trees meet Mountains.

I'm back....! I decided to take this "shoot week" and do some traveling, in an effort to work on some portfolio picks. I also looked at it as an exploratory time of what I find interesting subject matter.  Palm Springs, California it was! It's an amazing environment of everything from Palm trees to mountains. Subject matter ranges from golf courses (sports) to incredible sunsets, desert landscapes and lush greenery. I found myself "shooting" just about everything I saw, here is a few of the highlights....

My friend Laurie took me on a scenic ride up the mountains to overlook Palm Springs.

Water was always a great subject matter as every corner appears to have fountains and every closed community has their own beautiful water display as you enter the gates to the communities.

Fruit trees just appear at random, Grapefruit, oranges, lemons. In the community where I stayed, you could pick fruit any time you liked.... and it was goooooood!  

I did a little tourist stuff, like visiting the Living Desert. Below is a shot in the "Oasis".

 The Living Desert also had great desert gardens that you could walk thru.

Flowers where everywhere....

and I even had time to explore the game of golf... I went along with my friend Laurie. We were put together with a great couple from Alberta and they where great sports about me taking pictures- They even enjoyed it. Think about it -how many people spend holidays golfing but have no pictures to show for it- Hummmm, I wonder if there is a business opportunity there somewhere???

Meet Linda and Alan - Yes, me taking pictures of stranger's,  I think that was somewhere in the assignments for this week.... boy, those assignments seen so long ago!

Desert Falls golf course below.

El Paseo, the best shopping in town- unfortunately  no paparazzi- like opportunities presented themselves.

Lunch at the Indian Wells golf course. A little "edgy" work in lightroom.

Okay- their bathroom was incredible- oh, the light!

Curtain of water- shot as the valet pulled up the car for us, as we concluded lunch... ah, the life! To bad we all have to come crashing back to reality sometime! Back to school assignments!