Welcome KTC Photography!

Congratulations to Conrad and the launch of KTC photography!  Conrad has helped me on the last two tourney's that Halex Photo shot.  He's a great shooter.  Check out http://www.ktcphoto.com/ to find out what he can do for you!

Halex Photography goes online!

Halex Photography is finally here!

Visit us online for all your imaging needs.  Corporate, commercial, industrial, personal and sports photography serving Calgary and the regions of Central and Southern Alberta.

Visit us online at http://www.halexphoto.com/!

Christmas Wish List

It's not as fun as going through the Sears Christmas Wish Book when you're nine years old, but it's going to have to do. In no particular order....

Casio EX-FC100WE Point and shoot camera - Futureshop - $130
Gaffer Tape - Black 2 inch - Camera Store - $35
Cameron Portable Background Stand kit - Camera Store - $249
Lightrein 10 x 24 muslin - Black - Camera store - $180 (need the above stand first)
Lightrein 10 x 24 muslin - White - Camera store - $180 (need the above stand first)
Panasonic ear buds - Source - $??
Thinktank Hydrophobia Flash 70-200 Camera Cover - Camera Store - $168.74
or 
Kata E-702 Elements Cover - Camera Store - $60.00
Lowepro Photographers Gloves (Large) Hard to find - may be out of production - $40.00
Nikon SB-900 Flash - Camera Store - $479.99 
MacBook Pro 15-inch 2.53 GHz i5 w/7200rpm drive - Apple - $2102.00
StoFen Omni Bounce For SB-600 (I need two of these) - Camera Store - $32.92
Lumiquest SoftBox III - Camera Store - $52.95
Nikon SC-28 Off-Shoe Sync Cable - Camera Store - $69.95
GoPro Camera 1080p - BestBuy - $349.99
GoPro Suction Cup Mount - BestBuy - $29.99
GoPro Handlebar Mount - BestBuy - $29.99
iPad 64GB with Wi-Fi + 3G (on Telus) - Apple - $879
OR
MacBook Air 1.4 GHz w/SuperDrive - Apple - $1328
The Moment it Clicks by Joe McNally - Chapters (in stock at Sunridge) -$39.59
The Hotshoe Diaries by Joe McNally - Chapters (in stock at Sunridge) - $31.67
LaCie 1TB Rugged XL Desktop USB 2.0 7200rpm External Hard Drive - Vistek - $149.95
Socks
Underwear
T-Shirts
Lotto tix
Battery Charger with Batteries - $87.00
Additional Batteries - $75.00

What A Weekend!

I spent the weekend at a seminar with Joe McNally.  This was the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed with respect to photography.  Joe spent two very full, very fast paced days discussing lighting and setting up shots on stage and in the audience.  The format of this session was relaxed and very open. 

Joe would discuss the setup as he went and answer questions on the fly.  He was always patient, polite, professional and very entertaining.  Each scenario was built slowly and methodically with explanaitions along the way.  Every shot (with the exception of a couple of long exposures) was projected live from the tethered D3x onto two large screens on either side of the stage and the results of virtually every frame were discussed.  Problems were experienced and resolved live, sometimes with the help of the audience, sometimes with Joe's amazing creativity.  I witnessed Joe build everything from outstanding portraits with a single light, to a paparazzi like scene with over a dozen Nikon SB-900s under his control - many of which were in the frame! 

Here's a sample of the kind of shot that Joe built live on stage infront of hundreds of people. The dancer is Melissa Boniface of the Alberta Ballet.

Challenge #18: Dark

This memorial was created in honor of local service men and women who have paid the ultimate price while serving our country.  It's a touching tribute that should be experienced by all who have the opportunity.

It's overwhelming to imagine that each cross represents a life,  a young life, that was never realized to it full potential because each one of them felt they must fight to preserve the freedoms that they held dear to their hearts and better the lives of those who desperately needed their help.

It's overwhelming to imaging the horrors of war that these people experienced and witnessed; the sudden finality of a violent death, or worse, being mortally wounded and left to die.  Slowly.  Painfully.  Alone.  

It's overwhelming to try and understand the impact that the death of each one of these people had on the lives of those who were close to them.  The insufferable pain that their families must have felt when receiving the news that their loved one had been killed in the line of duty.

It's overwhelming to think of the opportunities that the world has lost because of the tragic deaths of so many people and many of their off-spring that will never exist.  Great minds in science, medicine, the arts who will never have the chance to take us to new galaxies, show us how to cure cancer or entertain us with intricate concertos or spellbinding classics.

It's all so overwhelming to think of.  So we don't but only for a brief moment or two once each year.

To all who have served in the past, all who currently serve and those who will follow in your footsteps, I thank you.  And to those who, like Corporal Alexander Cameron, paid the ultimate price to preserve my rights and freedoms I am eternally grateful.

Motorcycles in November?

Who'd of thought that I'd be riding into November?!?  Without any significant snowfall or icy roads yet this fall the roads remain clear of sand and gravel.  It was warm enough this weekend (about 14 degrees) to get out on the bike again.  This time Conrad and I made our way east through the rolling (and very windy) prairie farmland and into Drumheller.

After a poor choice of roads, the need to double back 20km or so and a slightly tense moment revolving around the remaining amount of fuel left in one of our bikes we made our way into Drumheller, then doubled back to Wayne, AB.  You have to cross 11 bridges within 6km to get to this strange little community nestled deep in a canyon.  While the climate was a lot nicer than Drumheller, I don't think I could keep up with all of the excitement that Wayne has to offer.

Time Lapse

Been wanting to try this for a while.  I figured that today was as good a day as any, so here's my first time lapse movie.  Compelling subject matter, I know, but what the hell....

What A Ride!

Winter can come to Southern Alberta any time after September.  Warm days in mid-October are a real treat.  It took a bit of juggling, but when Conrad proposed one more ride over the Highwood pass it was too enticing to pass up.  This brief video shows the beautiful weather we had for the ride, but it was clear that winter has arrived in Kananaskis.

Challenge #17: Unforgettable

Had a chance to Ride the 40 this weekend and jumped at it.  It was the first weekend when schedules and weather allowed.  Actually, I have to thank my wife for making my schedule work.  Shannon graciously offered to take our son to hockey so I could make this ride.

My timing couldn't have been better as the colors in Kananaskis were spectacular.  And baring a couple of mishaps that could have turned out to be a whole lot worse, the ride was outstanding.

With that said, I present my challenge for unforgettable, a pseudo HDR shot that I've titled 'Where Bad Things Happen'.

Let's just say you had to be there to understand the title.

Challenge #16: Reflect

I'm reflecting on what I should shoot for this.... Yes, it's late... yes it's over due... Stay tuned.

Challenge #15: Daybreak

This one was shot near my house in the Nose Creek valley.  My schedule and the weather have been working against me and this shot is two weeks overdue.  But never the less, here it is.

I awoke last Saturday morning without an alarm shortly before sunrise.  I could see some clouds in the dark sky to the east and thought I had better seize the day if I was to ever get this challenge done.  I quickly packed up and headed out - it was cold, only a few degrees above freezing.

This is a three frame HDR shot (-2,0,+2) created with my Nikon 10-24 mm lens, which I really enjoy using.  Having a 90+ degree field of view offers a lot more opportunity for making pictures.

Challenge #14: Round

Another HDR shot.  I used to drive past this place every morning on my commute to work.  An interesting idea for old LP's, and it makes for an interesting shot. 

I scanned the record labels and didn't see many artists that I knew.  There were a couple of Disneyland labels on there that caught my eye.  They seemed out of place to me for some reason.

Challenge #13: Warm

I'm tardy completing this challenge.  I wasn't terribly motivated over this one for some reason.  It wasn't until we were invited out visit Conrad and his family at their campsite in Banff National Park that I was inspired.  I was sitting in front of a campfire at the time so it wasn't much of a stretch.  I tried a few different kinds of shots, including a couple of night shots that didn't work well, but I liked this one the best.  It's simple, but it captures my boy having fun with fire in the forest. 

This is a compilation of two images.  The first image makes up much of the frame and was a pseudo-HDR shot.  I liked the shot, but the fire was more dramatic in another shot, so I used a mask in Photoshop and brought the more interesting flames into the scene.  A little perspective adjustment to remove most of the convergence created by the Nikon 10-24mm lens and that was that.

Wish List

I always have something that I want to add my photo kit, but with a couple of school aged kids, there always seems to be higher priorities looking to drain my bank account.  I thought I'd use this space to keep a running list of the things that I'd like to ad to my kit, so when the chance (and funding) comes along I can come back to pick something.

Camera's
Casio High Speed Exlim point and shoot EX-FC100WE - $255.00
This little point and shoot camera gets high marks for its high speed HD video allowing for slow motion playback of your videos. 


Accessories
Manfrotto Tripod Head - 88.00
I have a Manfrotto ball head, but I don't like it much.  I'd like to use the video capabilities of my D300s more, but I find that the format of a large DSLR isn't ver condusive to smooth video.  And a ball head is useless for video.  I want something that will allow for independant pan and tilt functions and I think this one will do it.

Kata E-702 Elements Cover - $60.00
When the rain starts to fall my camera quickly gets tucked away.  This cover would allow me to shoot in adverse conditions.

Nikon SB-900 Speedlite - $500
I love the Nikon CLS.  I already own two SB-600's.  I've been in a couple of stuations where it would have been really nice to have a third lite.  I'd love to have a third souce, and while an SB-600 would be ok, an SB-900 is more powerful and more flexible.

Muslin
I'm finding myself increasingly in need of undistracting backgrounds. I'm adding black and white muslins to the wish list along with a background stand.  A minimum of 10x20 for each, but even larger, such as a 10-24 would be better.  I can already think of situations where two stands would be valuable, but I'd be happy to have one setup for the time being.

Challenge #12: The Street

Challenge #12 is 'The Street'  I like these kinds of challenges because they force me to go outside of my normal 'comfort zone'.  I probably wouldn't wander into the less-desirable part of my city's core at night to shoot a picture just for kicks.  But I might for a challenge :)

This is my first published High Dynamic Range (or HDR) shot in the challenge series.  It's not my first HDR shot - I've done a few of them now, but this scene definitely lent itself to the HDR process.  

To me 'The Street' means something in the realm of tough, lonely, abandonment... I hope this image captures something in that range of emotion.  

One of the coolest parts of this image is that my daughter decided to come with me on this shoot.  I like that we share this interest.  If you have a keen eye you can find evidence that we're both there.

Despite this picture having more of a 'dying small-town' kind of feel, it was actually shot near the core of a city of over one million people. While shooting this location we were questioned by members of the Calgary Police Service as to our motives.  I mentioned the weekly challenge and that we were shooting the pair of shoes (have you spotted them yet?).  They dismissed us as harmless and went about there patrol - and we about our shoot.  After processing this shot I thought it would have been cool to convince the cops to pose in this shot some how - parking their car in the frame would have changed this shot entirely.  Turning on their light bars would have had even more dramatic effect... damn!  Opportunity lost, but lesson learned.

I haven't printed this yet.  Now that I'm into the InkPress sample pack I wonder what paper would work best for this gritty sort of image.  Hmmm.....

Challenge #11: Photoshop Skills

Hmmm.... This week's challenge isn't really a challenge.  Most photos I've used have some post production work done in Photoshop. 

For some reason, I have a picture of Superman laying on the floor in our bedroom.  I don't know why it's there - it used to be in our son's room, but it is.  And every morning since this challenge was issued I look at this picture and think that I should do one of those lame superimpose-your-face shots and replace Superman's face with my mug.  Well... tonight's the night.  I present to you 'Superken'.

I'm probably going to get some letter from DC Comics legal team telling me I can't do this and have to take down the picture (which would be *really* odd since no one ever reads this blog).  But if that's the case I'll take down the picture and replace it with a copy of the letter!

I couldn't quite get the skin tone to the point that I wanted, but I ended up with a reasonable compromise, I think.  Several things are happening in this image, including surface blur, colorization, cutout, posterize, injection of some noise, and a whack of dodging and burning.

I'm beginning to hate printing, which is why I'm looking forward to the Digital Darkroom course I'm registered in at SAIT this fall.  I'm hoping that this class will help remove some of the mystery of printing (mostly from the Mac).  Incidentally, I came across a link that may help get my communication errors resolved on my Mac.  This guy seems to have done a fair bit of research and come up with a procedure that's suppose to correct a bunch of printing issues using the Epson 3800 printer with a Mac.  I'll have to try it on the next rainy day (after I replace the kitchen tap, caulk the new tiles in the bathroom, install the missing baseboard...).

Challenge #10: Best Friend

It's hard to believe that I've been doing the Photo Friday challenge with Conrad for 10 weeks already.  That means that we've met and critiqued each others work over at least 4 or maybe five beers now.  I'm enjoying the challenges, although I have to admit that I've not been feeling particularly creative lately and I think the quality of my work demonstrates that.

Best Friend was an easy shoot for me.  Shot the morning the challenge was issued, my son ended up climbing into my bed with his blankets and his best buddy 'Snowy'.  Before leaving for work I checked my Blackberry for this week's challenge and looked back at my bed.... it was a no-brainer.

I put a little more effort into the post production of this shot than I have on my last few shots.  A tight crop to the faces of 'the boys', some adjustments to the brightness and contrast to get the shadows to fall off quickly,  the application of some filters (charcoal and chalk to give the image just a hint of a sketched look, and some blur to soften things up a bit.  I printed the image on Ilford Galerie Smooth Fine Art paper which worked well for this shot.  Best Friend - done.  Next!

Challenge #9: Crooked

The crappy summer weather continued into the August long weekend.  Threats of severe weather and guarantees of rain were all over the news so we didn't venture too far.  Finally, on the holiday Monday we decided to get out of town if only for the afternoon.  We drove out to Bow Valley Provincial Park near Seebe, AB and went for a walk on one of the trails.  The walk took through a diverse area within the little park, from the riverbed of the Kananaskis River, where we found trout fry stranded in pools in the rocks away fro the main river, to a high ridge overlooking the river and much of the valley below.  A disturbing part of the hike was near the beaver ponds.  Mosquitoes were particularly thick in that part of the park and we were being eaten alive!

As we walked through the wetland and into the wooded thicket I found this boardwalk to be particularly crooked, along with all of the branches and grasses.  A bit of a stretch, I know, but I'll take it.

Challenge #8: Sky High

We were driving out to Cochrane, AB just west of Calgary to see my nephew and his new wife when my son spotted this huge nest on top of the tower.  Were stopped and I snapped a few frames of the nest but never got a good shot of the hawk, despite all of the noise she was making. 

When I turned around I saw this sunset and thought it would be nice to capture both the nest and the sunset, but that wasn't going to happen.  In order to get that shot I'd have to be standing in a mosquito infested bog.  So, I fired the shot of the next tower towards the sunset and pasted the nest in from one of my previous shots.  Not terribly artistic, nor was it challenging but it was quick, simple and it worked.

I printed this to Ilford Galerie Smooth Heavyweight Matte paper.  I'm learning that I'm not much of a matte finish fan.  Luster is about as far away from glossy as I seem to want to go.

I Sold My Boat

This was the ad that I had posted when I was selling my boat...

Now that I've finally had a chance to take pictures, I'm re-posting this ad. 

This boat is priced to sell!!  For $7000 You're getting a lot for your money.  

Here's what you get for your money:16 ft Lund Pike SS
35 hp Johnson motor (no need to mix gas and oil)
3 swivel seats - five seating positions including front and rear casting decks
Huge aerated live well
Lot's of locked storage including a rod locker
Minnkota Autopilot electric trolling motor c/w foot controls
Eagle Fish finder
Am / Fm / Cassette stereo
Two - two-piece paddles
Anchor
Fenders
One tarp for sure - maybe two (I might have another one in my garage)
Trailer and a Spare tire
Anything else I dig out of my garage before you take the boat away.

What do you need?
Boat is in great shape but it hasn't hit water for three summers.  You're going to need some stuff:
A new starter battery
A deep cycle battery for the Minnkota
A hub cap on trailer
Probably a tune up, (but this motor has always purred like a kitten)
Some new life jackets
A lake

Note... there is one thing wrong with the boat.  The tach does not work properly.  I'm guessing it's a loose wire because it works some times, but not always.  I just don't want there to be any surprises for the buyer.


This boat is currently on my driveway but will have to be moved soon before the city bylaw nazi's come around again.  If you want to see it, act fast.

Cash, certified cheque or money order only.  Local deals only - I will not ship this boat, cash your over-sized cheque and send you the difference or fall for other lame internet scams.  

Challenge #7: Summer Fun

You think a challenge like 'Summer Fun' would be a piece of cake in July!  Well, the first ingredient of that challenge would be summer.  We haven't had much of that around here this year.  In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find three days in a row that have had real summer-like conditions.  Summer for us this year seems to be all about cold, wet conditions.  The May long weekend was snowy, parts of June saw sub-zero temps and highs of 10, 12 and 14 degrees are common in July.  Even the rodeo and chuck wagon events were canceled at the Calgary Stampede due to adverse weather conditions for the first time in anyone's memory.  Needless to say the Summer Fun challenge has truly been a challenge.

But hey, this is Canada and you have to take what you can get and make the best of it.  So, if the lakes and rivers aren't frozen, we'll call it summer no matter what it's like outside and we'll have some fun.  Which leads me to this weeks challenge.

My daughter agreed to pose for this shot under the threat of being grounded if she didn't.  Her mom happily agreed to shoot her with the water gun while I shot away.  This was shot during early evening and the light was still quite harsh, so I used the burn tool to recover some detail in her face and used a photo filter effect in Photoshop CS4 to warm up the overall image a bit, then used a mask to remove the effect of the filter from her teeth to keep them nice and white.  Some quick work with the spot healing brush got rid of some water drops that I didn't like and a couple of blemishes and that was it.

A simple shot capturing a moment of summer fun.

I printed this to an A4 sized sheet of Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl Paper.  The Epson Stylus Pro 3800 successfully printed this image without issue.  The result was a smooth, warm and soft picture that looks great!  I'm really impressed with the quality of this printer when it works!! 

Challenge #6: Bloom

My first commissioned work!  Ok, it wasn't really commissioned... my wife asked me to shoot a Gerbera Daisy with the possibility of hanging the shot in our newly renovated bathroom.  Not sure if it will ever make the 'hanging' stage, but I shot the daisy in my studio.  Ok, it's not really a studio, just a bunch of gear that I drag into our family room every once in a while and play with my Nikon D300S or even my D80.  I needed to practice a little bit more with Nikon's Creative Lighting System so I used two SB-600's and the on camera flash as a commander to drive the two Speedlights.  I wanted as much control over the shot as I could get, so I used the amazing Nikon 70-200mm F/2.8 lens to give me a very shallow depth of field.

So, the original shot was the orange daisy.  I messed with it in Photoshop and replicated it a couple of times, each in a different color.  The current version is the last one I completed before I got bored.

I tried to print this on a large format (17x34") on my Epson Stylus Pro 3800 printer.  I continue to have problems with this printer and have lost confidence that it will work flawlessly every time I press print on my Mac.  In this case, it printed all of the orange daisy and about an inch of the blue one then it stopped.  The display panel said printing and the green light flashed away like it was doing something, but other than that, the printer was silent.  The Mac printer toaster poped up with the now familiar and very frustrating Communication Error and that was that.  Another print screwed.  More ink and paper wasted.  More nasty words. 

At least I was able to salvage 'something' from this print.  I ended up cutting the orange daisy off of the print (about 11x17") and giving it to my daughter.  I printed this on InkPress Luster paper.  The portion of the print that worked actually looked pretty nice!  It's a shame the Epson couldn't finish the job.  Maybe I'll try printing to the Epson from my PC and see if there's more success there.  Now onto the next challenge...

Challenge #5: Motionless

Credit goes to my wife for the inspiration for this shot.  We were out the other day when a motorcycle roared by us and I made the comment, "So that's what a motorcycle looks like when it's moving!"  It was at that moment that Shannon suggested my bike for this week's challenge.

Due to a lousy spring (weather wise) and being trapped by tools and materials for some renovations being done at our house my bike had been collecting dust - lots of it.    I wanted this shot to be stark and contrasty.  I also had to shoot the bike as-is, where-is since moving it even just the slightest little bit would show signs of handling the bike in the thick layer of dust.  That was a bit of a challenge, since the garage is full of stuff for the reno right now.

I hung a dark blanket on the wall to cover up the tools behind the bike.  I wanted a dark background and didn't want any tools to be a distraction.  I used a Nikon Speedlight SB-600 aimed directly at the bike on a light stand high enough to cast a shadow on the garage floor and door.   I liked how the light captured the dust at that angle and, for me, the shadow was critical to the shot, but the rest of the bike was being lost in the shadows.   I used a second SB-600 set to its minimum output and bounced it off the underside of a workbench that was right behind me.  The effect was what I was looking for... just a minimal amount of light on the tail light and rear fender to show where the end of the bike was with no effect on the rest of the bike or the shadows.

I did little post production on this shot.  I dropped the white balance a few hundred degrees to keep the overall feel of the image cool.  I removed a couple of distracting lens flares and I dodged the sidestand to make it stand out just a little in the shadows - an effort further convey 'motionless'.  The crop is as-shot.  Mostly because I couldn't get any wider, but I think it works well.

Right after this shoot I rolled the bike out onto the driveway, washed it and went for a ride.

I printed this to Ilford Galerie Classic Gloss Paper.  The paper has a bit of a graininess to it that I can't describe.  It's almost like the image has microscopic cracks in it.  I chose to print this image to glossy paper, but this kind of paper doesn't lend itself well to this kind of shot.   I expected more vibrant colors that I normally associate with glossy papers.

Challenge #4: Stand Out

This has been a busy week and I've not had a lot of time to devote to this weeks challenge, but I'm trying to keep within the simple guidelines that we established at the onset; Shoot the shot and process it during the week of the challenge.

I proudly present the 2010 Hornet Bantam Girls lacrosse team.  They won their City Championship series against the Sabrecats 2 games to 1.  Well done girls!! Champions definitely 'stand out' and so does the girl in the green jersey.

This week's shot was my first real foray into on camera flash bounce.  I used a Honl bounce on my speedlight.  This was a rushed setup and I'm not really pleased with the outcome.  I'll have to play with it a lot more to get things working the way I would like.  While there's not a lot of specular light in the shot, I was hoping to get more out of the speedlight for this shot.  I'm looking forward to playing with speedlights and Nikon's creative lighting system a lot more.

I printed (most of) this photo on Ilford Galerie Classic Pearl paper.  I didn't like the way the photo appeared on this paper.  It's somewhat similar to Inkpress's Luster paper.  It may be a profile issue, but the image appears darker than it should.

Challenge #3: Heavy

One of the things that I've discovered with this weekly challenge is that it can be very difficult for me to find inspiration for the topic at hand.  I originally intended to shoot the literal interpretation of 'heavy' by shooting a heavy object.  On my way to the location where I planned to shoot I was reminded of this sculpture.
 

This heavily Photoshopped image features Dennis Oppenheim's 'Device to Root Out Evil', aka the 'upside-down church'.

You can't get much more 'heavy' than the battle of Good vs. Evil.

I printed this image on Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss Paper.

Challenge #2: Aqua

Inspiration for this image came from a weekend of over-indulgence of fine tequila while at an out-of-town lacrosse tournament with our daughters.  Conrad graciously offered to share his Cabo Wabo Repesado with me on the Friday night.  We packed it in around 1:00am that night which may have seemed kind of early to some, but only until you realized that we had to be up at 5:00 to get our daughters to their game 7:00 game on time.  That was a rough morning.

We gathered again on Saturday evening, but it was fairly apparent that I couldn't party like I did in my younger years.  I was in bed and asleep shortly after 11:00 that night.

The inspiration for the shot came on the Sunday after driving home from Edmonton when I realized just how parched I really was.

If I were to do this again I would shoot it on a less busy surface and crop more off the right side of the image.  This image was printed on Ilford Galerie Silk paper - Very nice stuff.

Challenge #1:Arranged

I titled this shot 'Organized Crime'.  This is a shot of a new sculpture (?) in Calgary's Olympic Plaza.  Each pole in the sculpture represents a park in our City.  The older the park, the taller the pole.  The old sandstone building in the background is Calgary's old City Hall. 

This pic was shot on an overcast day with a flat sky.  The 'as shot' image was full of converging lines; the poles on the outer edge of the frame were leaning towards the center of the image.  I used a lens distortion filter in Photoshop to correct the convergence and straighten out the poles.  There's still some slight convergence to the image, but not as severe as it was in the original.

A point to note: This was shot at 12:50 on a Monday afternoon.  It was rather odd that I was able to get a shot like this without any traffic or pedestrians in the frame at that time of day in a very busy part of the city.  Timing is everything!

So Here I Go...

I created this blog because I need a place to store what I've learned about what I'm doing.  What I'm  doing is working with images.

I've long been interested in photography.  I was the president of the school camera club in grade nine.  I had my own darkroom, worked in a pro photo lab in high school and dabbled off and on with photography for years.  I somehow lost my passion for photography over the years, but whenever I'd pick up a camera, I'd always ponder over the possibilities of what could be caught on film (and later silicon).

I recently re-kindled my passion for photography.  Over the last few years I've dedicated more of my time to shooting and, recently, to post production of my images.  I've invested in some technology (yeah, I know equipment doesn't make the image, the photographer does - whatever) and have taken some courses at SAIT to help further my skills.

I've made a friend who share this passion and we've entered into a friendly weekly challenge to encourage both of us to shoot and use what we've learned in our classes.  The challenge is based on the Photo Friday website.  This website issues a weekly challenge (on Fridays, oddly enough).  The challenge is simple - interpret what the challenge means to you and shoot/produce it.

We've completed three challenges so far.  They were 'Arranged', 'Aqua' and 'Heavy'.  I'm learning with each image that I produce, and I welcome Conrad's input, both positive and negative, and look forward to our critiques shared over a pint or two.