And Now For Something Slightly Different...

I think it's a pretty wonderful thing when your efforts and passions are acknowledged by your peers! And this week, my blogging efforts (which I realize still need work, don't get me wrong) were awarded with the above "Stylish Blogger Award" by my good friend and fellow blogger Tracy @ http://tracysimmons.blogspot.com/! I was thrilled, thanks Tracy!!!

And we want to keep this random act going too! So, if you'd like to post an award like this and acknowledge your fellow bloggers out there, here's what you do:
~First: Make a post linking back to the person who gave you the award
~Second: Share 7 (random) things about yourself
~Third: Award 15 recently discovered bloggers with this award, or as many as you can.
~Then: Contact these bloggers and tell them they've won an award!


Now for my 7 Random things you might not know about me!
1. I'm such a procrastinator. This is definitely something I've been working hard on since beginning my photography business, but it's still the truth. I work better under immense pressure, so often I let little things go till I absolutely MUST do them or else. One of the few things though that I never procrastinate on is taking my camera out... it rarely leaves my hand. However, could take me months to post the results, hahahaha.

2. I hate to cook. It's messy, it's requires running to the store when I'm comfy at home, and I just don't seem to have the knack... barbecuing I love though (mmmm summer food) and I can make a mean apple pie in twenty minutes from scratch... go fig.

3. I desperately want to visit Turkey. Obviously the photo ops would be awesome, but ages ago I saw a special on the market places and caves way up in the mountain rock face in the desert where you can stay overnight after riding on horseback to get there... and I've never forgotten how amazing it all looked.

4. I love Celtic Music. My family roots are Scottish, and also from Maritime Canada, so I love anything with fiddles, jigs, reels, aires, marches, you name it. I have a family fiddle that's roughly 180 yrs old, and have been known to play it myself ;-)

5. In another time and place (and body type, ha), I think I would have been a dancer. I'm amazed by a dancer's grace and flexibility, and focus too... any style of dance or choreography really mesmerizes me... seriously, it's weird.

6. I LOVE airports. The energy, the anticipation of traveling, the throngs of people, the architecture, the planes lifting off through the massive windows... LOVE it.

7. I really don't enjoy portraits. I love taking photos of my family and friends, because there's already an emotional investment, and I love taking photos of people on the street when I get a chance to... but I have a real respect for portrait photographers. The gear, the pressure, the lighting knowledge I find intimidating. I'll stick with nature, architecture, and design thank you.

So here's some other blogs I would award this badge to. Each one motivates, inspires, teaches, and shares in remarkable ways.
Bob @http://bobtowery.typepad.com/bob_towery/
Tracy @ http://tracysimmons.blogspot.com/
Sarah @ http://myeverythoughtcaptive.blogspot.com/
Heather @ http://heathershomewardjourney.blogspot.com/
Ali @ http://hamiltonmakesart.blogspot.com/
Kelly @ http://stuffiseethingsilearn.blogspot.com/

Anyways, thanks for a ramble of a different kind! And stay tuned, this week we'll have a guest blogger with some photography related tips but from a totally different angle... have a good one folks!

The City Scene...

~Abandoned Decay~

1/30 sec.@ F/5.6, ISO 250, 55mm fl, late day

overcast light, handheld, manual

Urban Decay, Street Photography, Cityscapes... call it what you will, it's one of my favorite genres to work in during the winter. All the different textures exposed, the perfect lines and aging patterns sometimes mingle with lightly falling snow, no crowds impeding your view.

I am particularly attracted to the aging buildings, and old alleyways. Why is that? There's so many handsome, historically restored buildings within the city, but it's scenes like the one posted above that draw me. Closed in, shadowy spaces, filled with wires that crisscross through the image, poles, grids, grates, and iron steps crawling the walls. I've often kept these images to myself, thinking there won't be many like me who'd appreciate the poetry seen within the vertical lines and gritty brick patterns, chipped with ancient paint, or new graffiti. You can't say there's no character within those walls, that's for sure. If you haven't already, I urge you to explore the city limits with your camera in hand!

So what do you need to remember when you decide to take the plunge into street photography? Here's a few things I learned, perhaps they'll help someone else get excited about exploring their city if they aren't already.

1) Use light to your advantage. Early morning side light can give real definition to brick, stone, and glass patterns. Cloudy or overcast days are good for detail, stormy and sunset skies are perfect backdrops for cityscape's in a wide lens. Warm late day light is great for illuminating angles, reflections, or including people on the street.

2) Vary your perspective. Get down low on the ground, use an ultra wide lens, and emphasize the sprawl of a classic piece of architecture. Find a position that lets you photograph looking down on a busy street or deserted alley at dusk. Lean against a soaring tower or condo and distort the receding stone pattern till it looks like it never ends. Use a telephoto and zone in on one rustic detail clinging to the side of an abandoned building.

3) Be safe! Certain locations or times of day require a photo buddy. And they can double as a model in a pinch. Never step backwards into traffic... if the angle you need is in the middle of the street, find yourself a crossing guard or find a new angle. Don't carry so much gear that you'd tempt being mugged for it... I was once asked why I don't carry a tripod in the city. It screams "female photographer with her hands too full, and her attention elsewhere!" On my own, shooting urban decay, I make sure I can raise my camera easily from around my neck or shoulder, and that my backpack is strapped on well. I never stay in one spot for too long bringing attention to myself, and if alone, I shoot in well populated areas. I know this all sounds like common sense, but I've heard stories to the contrary.

I hope this has been helpful in some way. I've met many a beginner that simply shot in every tourist location, and never considered anything but composing from eye level. Add a new element and watch your street photography come alive.

The image above can be enlarged by clicking over it and I'd be ever so pleased to hear what your thoughts are on the image or the topic that accompanies it...

thanks for letting me ramble, and have a good one!



New Directions for a New Year...

Ah, January... when so many make resolutions and build for themselves impossible goals. It's a recipe for failure often times, and I for one try to avoid failure at all costs.
I have been reading David duChemin's book "VisionMongers" and learned a very important principle I'm going to apply to my photography and my business for 2011. And that principle boils down to this; pursuing what you love to photograph, and positioning it where you want it within the photographic community... like giving yourself a road map and prepping for a long trip, you can take your photography to your ideal destination, and have an adventure along the way. The preparation is the focus, even more so than the journey sometimes, because it's in the prep work that you secure a successful journey in the first place.
I find myself wishing I could go back and change things about my photography or my approach to some gigs I wound up with last year... but instead I'm going to spend January digging deeply into my past images, and learning from them... who I am as a photographer, the direction I need to be going now as I mature and grow, and what I need to aim my Nikon at next... not to mention how to update my website, bring in a new logo, and decide what my true market will be that I begin to strive for...
Check out David's site at http://www.davidduchemin.com/  where you'll see his incredible images and come across some excellent books, and perhaps start thinking about where you'd like your photography to take you, and vice versa in 2011.
The image above is called "South Side" and was taken last weekend as I drove around my city. Architecture is one subject I can't help but photograph. You're about to see a lot more of it on this blog!
Thanks for letting me ramble... and with the new year, you'll see me ramble on perhaps a bit more frequently so you all have a peak into my own journey with my photography! Have a good one folks!

2010 in Review....

Had to give my head a shake when I realized that 2010 is nearly done! Wow... and realized I needed this time between Christmas and New Year's to reflect on what my favorite things were about my photographic journey this year. Looking back I'm overwhelmed at the amount of images taken and all the hard work I put in.... but I'm most excited about all the things I learned. Thought perhaps I'd share some with you, and then at the end post my most favorite shot from all of 2010. Right now this sounds like a tall order to me, but I'll do my best.... here we go!
One of my biggest lessons this year I learned while filling my contract from the City of Hamilton, documenting the parks in the area for almost 8 months (the resulting collections are being featured one at a time on my website if interested). Photographing the same five spaces frequently, capturing every seasonal change, during several different times of the day, from every possible angle, for three seasons meant I HAD to be creative, and yet still provide images that provided information and an overview of how the parks evolve through the year. What a balancing act! And after a while, no matter what you do, you're afraid that all the images are going to start looking similar. I learned to stretch my perceptions of what an environmental portrait was, how to keep important detail while exhibiting beauty, and how to use the natural design elements at my disposal (ie colors, shapes, patterns) to enhance what could be a very tedious subject at times since not everyone who views the finished images will be gardening fanatics either! For wide landscape shots, I learned to wait for the right interesting light, while for close detail shots of nature I learned to wait for clean light, less shadow, and the perfect cloudy day with little to no breeze. I hope all these things will be evident when you view the first gallery "Gage Through the Seasons".
The second really important lesson I learned is that learning the technical aspects of your work flow in editing, and compiling said images into collections for clients easily and smoothly is something you should be very familiar with BEFORE you begin the contracted work, whether you're documenting city parks, or shooting extreme sports for a possible commercial gig. Thinking that you know "enough" just doesn't cut it. Many a night I spent tearing my hair out, getting very little sleep, and "misplacing" the odd file only to find it right where I left it weeks before meant wasted time that could have been better used editing the next files instead of falling behind right before a deadline and wishing the magical "work" fairy would just snap her fingers and I'd be saved. Never did miss a deadline, but came very close and in the midst of it all made my family stressed and anxious right along with me.
Lastly, although I really could go on and on, I learned this year that you can't fake doing what you love. I LOVE landscape, nature, and architectural photography, nothing excites me more!  The job for the parks was a blast really... I found it very exciting. But I also caved to the attitude that any job opportunity is good if you can pull it off... and those jobs not within my forte were the ones that I really had to make myself finish, and never really wanted to go back to (with the exclusion of some photo sessions for friends which I thoroughly enjoyed) and it's because they really weren't me to begin with. Now there's nothing wrong with knowing what your weak areas are and improving them to expand what it is you love to do... but you also have to know which areas really suck you dry, are a waste of time and steal your joy in pursuing whatever it is you're pursuing too. I've learned the difference over the course of this year.
In the end, what all this means for my photography in a practical way is that you'll see the pages for portrait sessions and weddings disappear from my site.... and you'll see new things take their place soon in 2011, and in exciting ways I hope. If you're a fan, keep an eye on http://www.c-duncans-photography.com/ in the coming months for new elements to my business.
And as promised, here's my own personal favorite image from 2010.... can't wait to start 2011 with all of you! Thanks for letting me ramble on over this past year, and have a good one!



Dreaming of Fieldcote
by M.Christine Duncan 2010 ~ please click on image for larger viewing, then back click to return to post ~



Chrysanthemum Days

"A Floral Crown"

(1/50 sec.@ F/7.1, ISO 320, 55mmfl, handheld, diffused late day light)

Today's post is an image I took this past weekend at the 90th Anniversary of the Fall Mum Show put on by the amazing parks staff at the Gage Park Greenhouses.

Each year they display over 75,000 chrysanthemums for the public! The bloom pictured above was one of a giant wall filled in part with these rare beauties, this one's head twice the size of my fist.

And oh the colors... ranging from deep reds, to pure whites, creamy yellows to vibrant fuchsias. Any photographer's delight. I will post an overall image to give you a glimpse as to the extent of coverage throughout the greenhouse. Think wall to wall color, jam packed into amazing patterns and displays. And tucked within each section, a waterfall too! It was simply beautiful.

This flower above is my personal favorite from the day. It's colors understated yet regal, and it's shape telling us that it's about to fully burst open any second.

Some facts about this shoot; firstly, the greenhouse is so jammed with blooms that you'd be inciting riots if you wandered through the popular show with a tripod, so this was shot handheld. I shoot in manual, and manually focused as well to get the desired sharpness despite my aperture. It was very late in the day, so the light filtering in through the opaque glass above was minimal, hence my reluctant use of a much higher ISO than I like to. But it allowed me to get the exposure I was looking for so there you have it. And these days ISO is much kinder when it comes to noise or grain visibility, so I wasn't overly concerned. I could have resorted to flash, but I knew it would have given a less subtle look and would add a harsher shadow or color tone within the composition.

My only real adjustment in editing was to heighten the red tones a bit to compliment the warm yellow, and to add a bit more drama overall.
As usual, if you prefer to see the shot enlarged please click on the image. Press your return arrow to come back to the page.

I'll take the opportunity to applaud the greenhouse and parks staff who have been preparing for this year's show for many many months, and who have once again delighted the community with their hard work and effortless looking beauty. Hamilton is certainly a more beautiful place with them in it!

Thanks all for letting me ramble on, and as always feel free to leave a comment or two! Have a good one!