Something from Nothing ~ Wide Angle Wednesday!

"Converging City"

(Toronto's ROM which hangs out over the sidewalk, taken during Nuit Blanche)

It's a blustery day and I haven't left the house except to walk the pooch. So in keeping with the chilly weather, thought I'd post the only keeper image from my night in Toronto for the art festival called Nuit Blanche, which could have been retitled The "Every street in TO is a wind tunnel, where did I put my long underwear, people must be crazy to wander around the city at 3am looking for hidden art, because all the streets have been sectioned off for the festival" Festival.

As you can gather, it was a less than perfect night.

The wind was so strong, that the tripod still wobbled after I lashed my two teenagers to it. It was so cold, my hands stayed in the shape of the camera even in my pockets. And the set up was so confusing we wound up at one point in front of the Parliament buildings...in Ottawa.

So, I made one shot count. I was determined. I found a nice corner tucked out of the wind up against The Crystal addition of the ROM, composed to get a tidy convergence of shapes and forms, and even caught the odd star burst from the lights. My wide angle lens bowed the scene inwards to emphasize the way the ROM leans out over the street defying gravity... and then we hightailed it back to the car, shivering and complaining.

 A great night was had by all. Sort of.

Not really.

Moving right along. So... any location disasters that taught you to work fast for one doable shot? Or are you trying not to remember, like me?

Have a great day, stay warm, and thanks for the ramble!

Swingtime! Wide Angle Wednesday

"Carnival Designs"

You'll have to excuse me if over the next few days you see images from my ramblings with the family 'cause it's VACATION WEEK!

First up, we went to the CNE or the Canadian National Exhibition or affectionately known as The EX... take your pick. Regardless of what you call it, it's an entire day of midways, rides, shows, competitions, animals and food. It's just so gosh darn fun to take the family. So we did.

At night, the place is lit up like a Christmas tree on the fourth of July. While I wasn't there to play photographer except to capture some memories, I managed to sneak in some shots just for me anyways. The swings are one of the classic rides of all time. And it sure is purdy at night!

I jacked my ISO to about 800 or 1000 for this one I believe and steadied the shot across my forearm on a post nearby. Very little has been done in post processing.

Today we're off to the WarPlane Heritage Museum... images are sure to follow!

Enjoy your day folks! And happy rambling!

Still Learning!

"DeGroote School of Medicine"

At the start of January I made a conscious decision to take myself back to school as it were, to read, dig through various learning sites, and tweak all the areas of my photography AND small business skills that are in desperate need of tweaking if I'm ever going to expand my horizons as a serious photographer. I am even now on the lookout for a couple of specific night classes or workshops to hone two areas that have always intimidated me. I knew I had two choices. I could waffle around and learn what works and what doesn't by accident, or I could take the bull by the horns and make a serious effort to be the photographer I know I can be. Anyone out there know anything about bulls before I step into the proverbial ring?

Part of this learning process has brought me back to older, earlier photo files. Specifically images that on the whole would be considered very successful if only I hadn't ______ (pick any flaw here). Now, this isn't dwelling on the negative just for the heck of it. This is being realistic about whether I have been growing, learning, and improving since then. This is about taking stock and figuring out where I'm still struggling. I must admit, doing this very simple step has been enlightening. And it's not as awful as I thought, since being real about my weaknesses has strengthened my resolve to start getting it right. And not by fluke. Although I too love a good "happy accident" where everything comes together in the lens despite my disjointed efforts.

The image above is a reworked version of one I took two years ago, on a photo walk with the Hamilton Flickr Group on the McMaster University campus. This may have been one of my first attempts at night photography from back then. I was able today to correct the distorted perspective gotten from my wide angle, decrease the noise overall in editing, and sharpen it much better than in the original. (And even now it's not that sharp, lol) With this first attempt reworked I can still see where I went wrong. I had paid no attention to my aperture (sitting at F/5 if you can believe it) which meant  lost clarity as the building faded into the background, and since I had a tripod with me, should not have needed my ISO to be at 400 either, and wouldn't have needed to excessively reduce the grainy effect like I did to get it looking cleaner. I know now, to enable my remote shutter release so as to avoid touching the camera and avoid any camera movement whatsoever when using a slower exposure on tripod. And my speed would have been set to an ISO 100 to allow for more light, and less noise. I also have learned since that night, that you never walk away with one shot or composition, you keep shooting, you keep changing your angles, your point of view. Then I would have had more than one image to show from that part of the walk. (In fact, it's almost second nature to me today.) And all this is just grazing the surface. Man I was so green... and still am in so many areas.

We artistic types often times will move on to some new inspirational lesson, something that excites us, leaving the flops and failures in the foggy past where they can't squelch our enthusiasm. But after working on this image from the past, and isolating what went wrong AND what went right, I find myself deeply motivated and inspired. In fact, if I can convince my poor hubby to brave the -18 degree temps with me in Hamilton, Ontario tonight, I may go practice a bit, just because I can.

Thanks for letting me ramble on! And have a good one folks!