Photo Friday's Are Back!

It's been far too long.  But in addition to being back in school, I'm participating in the Photo Friday challenges with Conrad once again.  It's good to be pushing the button again.

Photo Friday:  Evening

The Peace Bridge crossing the Bow River in Calgary

 I wasn't a big fan of this bridge when it was being built, but now that I've seen it for myself I actually like it a lot.  I can see this being the subject and the backdrop for many photos in the future.

Photo Friday: At Play

I'm lucky to have a family that is very accomodating of my requests when it comes to photography.  Some of my favorite photos are favorites not only because of the content, but also because of circumstances surrounding the shot.  This is one of those photos.

 

Our Son, Alex.

This was a fun shot.  It also doubled as a class project shot.  Alex was standing on one side of the tipi shaped rope climber spinney thing and I was on the opposite side.  While is was shooting Alex, Shannon was running around in the snow, spinning us around as fast as she could so I could blur out the background with motion.  I thought it turned out pretty good and it seemed to be well received in class.

Photo Friday: Constructed

This was a concept that I had been thinking of for quite some time.  When they were first introduced people were happy to get a company BlackBerry.  But it didn't take too long for them to realize how much it tipped the scales of work-life balance in favor of the company.

I've seen it time and time again.  It starts slowly at first.  Emails coming in on the "shoulder hours" of the work day and usually containing a disclaimer like "FYI..." or "Don't worry about this until tomorrow, but...".  The disclaimers soon fall away.  Then the emails eventually become immediate in tone,  often demanding a reply in short order.  That's when it happened.  The company now expects you to be available on short notice to answer; available day or night, weekday or weekend to answer to them.  Where's the balance in that?

I took this opportunity to 'Construct' my work around the clock concept by shooting a single BlackBerry and building the clock around that image.  After I was done I thought it would make a cool t-shirt, which you can check out here.  Maybe you'll think it's cool enough to order one too!

Love or Money....?

I came across a Youtube video that posed a simple question.... What do I desire?  In this short video the author suggests a seemingly simple scenario.  Do what you love... if not you'll be trapped doing what you hate only to get by so you can continue to go on doing what you hate.  Seems stupidly obvious when you're on the outside looking in.  Perhaps not so obvious when you're on the inside looking out.

This photo is demonstrative of at least two people doing what the love in one finite moment in time.

Paradise

You can't always judge a book by its cover. 

Maui

It's kinda hard to take a crappy photo there.

Just sayin'.

Your Own Back Yard

It's rare to act like a tourist in your own back yard.  Sometimes you only see the 'cheese' in your local tourist attractions.  Sometimes you need to eat the cheese.

A few weeks back my family and I spent a couple of days checking out the Drumheller valley in Southern Alberta.  A very odd place with a lot of local history.  Mostly known for dinosaurs and the Royal Tyrrell Museum the valley has a lot more to offer if you look hard enough.

This is a shot of Alix.  She was our tour guide at the Atlas Coal Mine, the only mine left of 139 that were once in production in the valley.  I recommend the shaft tour (no jokes here... really) - it was very cool and you'll be lucky if you get Alix as your guide.

Move Along People... Nothing to see here!

Wow... it's been a while since I've been here.  I don't really have anything noteworthy to contribute today, but as they say, use it or lose it.  So, with that in mind, I thought I'd post one of my more popular photos.



That is all. 

(my work here is done)

The Great White North - Well, Not Exactly.

I did a motorcycle ride from Calgary to Canmore and back again today.  Nice news at any time, but when you're riding a motorcycle into the Canadian Rocky
Mountains on January 8th it's pretty sweet!

I hooked up with Conrad at his place and we agreed to try to get to Canmore.  The ultimate destination being The Grizzly Paw restaurant and microbrewery. If things didn't work out then we'd turn around and evaluate our options at the time.  As it turned out, with the exception of a couple of wet spots in the shade (and a very ice packed parking lot at a gas station) the road conditions were bare and dry! 

We saw some guys riding on the ice at Ghost Reservoir, and stopped to watch them make a few laps; would be fun to try some day!  Other than that, we saw maybe three or four other bikes out on the roads. 

The weather afforded us the chance to make it all the way to the Grizzly Paw for a beer and a bite.  The snow started to fly as we made our exit from Canmore, but it wasn't long before we were kissed with sunshine as we hit the foothills.

View from the Grizzly Paw - Never seen the patio empty before!

 All-in-all, it is was a fantastic start to the 2012 riding season!

Nikon D4 Is Here!

Even better than imagined.  A built in web server?!?!  You gotta be kidding me!  Can't wait till CES and hope to get my hands on this baby.  Visit nikon.com for more amazing specs :)

D4 Launch at CES?

So all of the chatter says that Nikon will launch the D4 at CES on Tuesday, January 10th in Las Vegas.  If their booth size and location is any indication, chances are high it's true.  By comparison, Nikon's tiny display was set up in a tiny conference room in a part of the convention center that I, along with all of the other attendee's,  didn't even know existed!  This year, their location is large and centrally located in the Central Hall.

According to a leaked document (which reportedly was dated January 10, 2012) that was briefly posted then promptly removed some specs include:

• Lighter body
• Native ISO range of 100 to 102,400
• Expanded ISO range of 50 to 204,800
• 91,000 pixel metering sensor
• Face detection (seems odd for a camera of this caliber)
• Illuminated function buttons (I like this feature)
• A plethora of video features
• And supposedly NOT produced in Thailand - Japan perhaps?
• Retail expected to be US$6,000

No word on frame rate, but it's expected to be around 11 fps, somewhat faster than the 9 fps rate of the D3S.  A nice bump for us sport shooters!

There's a press event scheduled for tomorrow which may announce the new body.  Here's hoping!

I'm hoping to get my hands on the camera in Vegas next week!!