Balance...

The toy was balanced on her nose. When we tell her she can have it, the result is a flung toy that she has to chase!

Dragon Boat Races

Ring-Billed Gull

Birds, part 2! Today will focus on the Ring-Billed Gull, one of many different gulls you can find around here.

Angry bird is angry! I believe he was angry at another gull, but who knows. As you can see, whatever it was, it wasn't close.

I caught this one having a snack. I am very pleased with the timing, but I'm also sharing it because of the vibrant colours. The oranges and reds are stunning.

BE GONE!

Seriously, it looks like the one on the right is casting a spell at the one on the left. And the spectators seem none too concerned about what's going on. "Oh, it's just Maggie getting mad Joe was out late again." Really pleased with a lot of things in this picture, but wondering if maybe I should have cropped it more at the top, or even cloned the people out...

My favourite of this bunch! Really pleased with the timing, the crispness on the bird to the left, and the colours. It was actually quite empty water around them, but I cropped it way in to just focus on the birds. Thoughts?

Canada Geese

I recently spent a couple of hours at a local park taking pictures of the birds. So I hope you like birds, because there will be a lot of them over the next few days! This post will showcase some of my favourite pictures from that day of Canada Geese.

A beautiful day to ponder life, the universe, and everything. Or at least whether that gull is going to steal a tasty morsel he wanted.

I think this is my favourite from this set. I caught these two in take off. It's not a perfectly sharp, clear image, but that's okay. I was working more on getting my camera in the right place at the right time. They aren't a completely fuzzy blur, so I call it a win.

I imagine he was studying his reflection. He was probably looking below the surface for a bite to eat. He just looks so calm and stately.

A moment later, surveying his domain. I love his reflection in the water. Not completely clear, but quite nice.

Airtime take 2

And now, for a totally different kind of airtime!

They set up their jump and I did my best to set up the shot - without getting in the way of the guy with the controller or of the car. Wouldn't tickle to get hit by that! It was very bright out, so I darkened up the picture just slightly to keep the brightest parts from blowing out. I think it worked well!

1/250 (0.004sec) exposure, aperture f/5.0, 27.6mm focal length, -2/3 exposure bias, ISO 80

Airtime!

A lot of the pictures I took of the parade are mediocre at best, because there are street lights and power lines in the way. (The joys of shooting through an office window!) But there are some shots that are improved by the height:

I saw the Edmonton Eskimoes Cheer Team setting up, and I just pointed at them and hit continuous shot - which resulted in this great shot. I'm very pleased!

1/250 exposure (0.004 sec), focal length 45.6mm, aperture f/5.0, ISO 80. Nothing else fancy!

Table Tennis from above

I was recently reading a book from a photographer who has a strong preference for shooting from above. This got me intrigued, and I also wanted to try it, however, I do not have the resource (or the nerves of steel) to rent a helicopter and strap myself inside the open door to shoot like that. I do, however, have a 6th story office window that overlooks a popular downtown square. A safe and easy place to start! So over the next couple of days, I will share with you some pictures I took from my window, all the while feeling like some kind of stalker! (Please note in advance that my zoom is not really powerful enough for what I was trying to do, but it's not bad!)

Every summer some lovely organization brings out various games and toys each morning that stay in the square all day. This even includes a Table Tennis (Ping Pong) Table! These two guys were quite good, and I'm very pleased you can actually see the ball as a ball-like object, not a vague blurr! (If you haven't spotted it yet, it's yellow and on the left side of the table, coming at the man in the plaid shirt.) I like action shots, I like sunny shots, and this fits the bill. I don't like the guy in the top left who is yawning, but I couldn't crop him out effectively.

1/640 sec exposure, f/5.7 aperture, ISO 125, 100mm focal length

Blurry bird

This little guy is out of focus. I may as well admit that right off the bat! However, there is a reason I'm sharing this anyway.

There are many steps involved in becoming a good photographer. One that I've been struggling with it right place, right time. In the past, a bird in flight has been nearly decapitated. With a faster shutter speed, this would have been a great picture, because the other elements are all there. He's well within the frame, the rest of the picture isn't too busy, there's no wires or other interfering objects. It's maybe a smidge dark, and issue that would have been exacerbated by a faster shutter speed, but that's a risk when shooting in the shade.

I was zoomed waaaaaay in and looking up about 1 storey to get this image and several other uninspiring pictures of this guy and others.

1/400 sec exposure, f/5.7 aperture, ISO 200, 85.2mm focal length

Shadows of smoke

On chilly winter mornings, the smoke from nearby buildings is a visible and constant presence.

And it's thick enough to leave it's own shadow! This image is heavily cropped from the original, which leaves it a little big grainy. I really wanted to clear out the clutter and noise though of the other buildings to focus on the great shadows that are cast by the moving smoke. The view is constantly changing as the wind shifts just a little, the sun rises a bit further... lovely! This was taken in the warm glow not long after sunrise.

Auto white balance, 0 exposure bias, ISO 200, aperture 4.0, 1/80 second (0.013 sec)

Not a success

Here's another from this summer, which was not quite a success.

I can't remember if I had the tripod or not, but I don't think it would have helped much. What I was trying for was a fast enough shutter speed to freeze individual drops of water. You can see I started to get that with some of the larger drops - but as a trade off, the picture was getting very dark. My boyfriend has a better camera, and he had much more success with this. I may never get a great shot of still water with this camera, but I do think with a nice bright day, a tripod, and a lot of patience, that I could do better.

Cannot choose

I admit it, I can't choose which of these two I like better! This strange cat, instead of running off when it saw me, actually kept walking closer. Not quite straight towards me, but sort of parallel to where I would have been going, if I'd kept walking.

Technically, I think this is a better picture. Despite the fact that it breaks the rule of thirds, I like the composition of it. The cat's in focus, but he's further away and had his eyes closed (although that's interesting in and of itself.)

In this one, the cat takes up more of the shot. His face is focused, but his back end is a little blurred. I also like the background much less on this one. He has very striking blue eyes, although in this picture he looks cross-eyed.

In Motion, Part 3

The third part of the motion assignment was "Freeze the Action". There's a little more blurriness than I would like around the feet of #49, but all in all, it hits the mark. Not bad for being at maximum zoom. And I like that neither of his feet are touching the ground.

(Eskimos beat the Blue Bombers, 24-10.)

In Motion, Part 2

Holy crap! I did it! The reverse of yesterday's picture is to get the vehicle (or other moving object) to be in focus, while the scene is blurry. It's not perfect, but I think it's quite a good attempt. Then add in the fact I shot this through the window of a moving bus.

Very pleased with this.

This is part of the assignments related to motion. This was #3, Show the action by blurring the background.

In motion

For being a handheld shot, this actually turned out reasonably well. The goal was to show the car's motion, but not let everything else get blurry. Because it was so bright out, I couldn't have the shutter open too long, or the whole picture would have been whited out. The shutter was 1/13 of a second, while other photos that day were in the neighbourhood of 1/200th.

If I had a do-over, I would put the car in the bottom third instead of the top third. I think the building being in focus would show off the car's motion more than the pavement does. It would also be just plain more interesting to look at.

I found the syllabus for a photography course, and while I'm not formally taking the course, I do want to work through some of the assignments. So the next few days will tackle the assignments related to motion. This was actually #2, Show the action by blurring the foreground.

Cutting aluminum

An even faster shutter speed might have made this one even better. It was at 1/13, because the garage was sort of dark. The shavings at the sides are relatively in focus, while the bit in the center is just a blur of speed.