Inspired by Walden’s “Great Outdoor Gallery” I decided that it would be fun to share some of my shots of last May in Alberta. I’m feeling like I’d like to get a daily photo BLOG like others I’ve seen like this one Top Left Pixel. Hope you enjoy them. Overall, the trip was 8 days long and I took 923 photos - all great!
My wife Dee, along with my kids flew out to visit friends just south west of Calgary in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Rob and Janelle, our hosts, have a cattle and alpaca ranch from whence we saw a calf being born the first day and two creas being born simulataneously from two alpacas. It was an amazing site and something Kate and Liam will never forget. Life on a farm has such a connection with flesh and bone, something we don’t experience in suburban Ontario. Winters are cruel, they are the demise of the weak.
You’ve got to have a big 'ol red car somewhere on a farm! My son and daughter on the right, Rob’s son Tristyn on the left.
Alpacas are beautiful beings. They are most comfortable amongst a crowd of alpaca since they have very strong familial bonds. Janelle’s herd of alpaca have adopted she and Rob as their own, in so far as protecting them from a cougar that wandered onto their ranch by placing themsleves in between them and the cat.
Not this cat.
My son Liam.
A wee rascal we met at Lake Louise (which I call Weezy Wake)
The field of Rob - evening in May.
And the inevitable Rocky Mountain shot from a tram in Banff.
And the always pleasing rodeo shot Millarville Rodeo
Man, those are nice photos, Paul!
I spent several minutes trying to figure out what makes the Red Car
photo so compelling, and professional-looking. Still don’t know.
The focus on that squirrel is facinating. Did the rest of him just lie past
the focal length, or is that some other trick? (I’m a rank amateur,
forgive me if I sound like one.)
In my equally amateurish opinion, the Red Car shot is so appealing for two reasons.The first being the almost perfect symmetry - pity the young girl is not seated in the same way as the boys - and second, the front of the car is very facelike, in the style of Thomas the Tank engine, and this compliments perfectly the delight in the childrens smiles.
Gosh, these are really nice. The cat and the alpaca are lovely, and the rodeo shot is definitely pleasing! I got mixed up on which picture the remarks went with so I thought the little fellow between the bales of hay was some wee rascal you met at Lake Louise at first.
The red car photo, in addition to symmetry as dubh pointed out, also the colors make it so lovely I think. The colors of the clothes of the girl and boy on the outside edges echo each other----her pants with reds, green, his green shirt, red pants. And the same or similar colors are seen in the red car, the red in the license plate, the greenishness in the weeds. The colors on the center boy, particularly his sweatshirt are echoed in silver on car, white in license plate, in lines painted on car around him.
Thanks gang! I’ve been shooting (mostly professionally) for about 18 years now. Switched over to digital last year and absolutely love it! It has made my life as smooth as an Apple commercial! Most of my work is very high-end corporate stuff - annual reports and such. Shooting family and personal subjects is just so easy and relaxing to me. I’m sure my family pix are different than most!
I have a couple of favourite lenses that are almost always on the camera. First off I shoot Nikon. Always have and thankfully my latest camera a D2X has allowed me to keep my older glass. Though I suspect in the next two years I’ll have everything replaced with newer stuff that has been engineered for the exactly flat CCDs. I haven’t shot 35mm film in almost two years and I don’t miss it!! 4x5" is a completetly different story, but I digress.
The car shot, and most of the others, have been taken with a 80-200mm f2.8 lens which is nearly always at the 200mm mark. With the smaller CCDs though the lens is multiplied by 1.5, so 200mm is now 300mm. I love the compression/flatness of these lenses. The chipmunk was taken with a really old lens of mine - a 105 f4 macro lens (early eighties model). It just has this strangeness with digital cameras, as though it’s not quite right. But I love the natural softness and the fall off from a shallow depth of field is so smooth. This little guy was digging the trail mix we had about 6 inches from us, not a shy creature!
Cynth, you’re analysis is frighteningly meditative! You really nailed the nature of the colours. The most challenging shot was of the cat - handheld at about 180mm focal length, the sun had nearly disappeared and thi exposure was at 1/8 second. Relax, hold breath, tuck in elbows and hope for the best.
You’re absolutely right, Cynth. The reds are all very similar, and
compliment each other, but are not so close that they get muddled.
Also, the half light, half shade on the faces is lovely, anyone using a
flash would have ruined that effect…
Not only am I a novice photographer, I can’t tell my rodents apart!
D’oh. Of course, that’s a chipmunk! If he was that close for so long,
you guys must make some really good trail mix!
It’s good that you can take your profession with you on vacation, and
find it a relaxing hobby, as well.
Ditto there! My whole pro rig is Nikon. My field kit ranges from an F100 to the new D2X…(which is totally killer, I might add!!! Huge improvement over D1X IMHO!)
For my rough-stuff shooting or when I know I have a potential for loss, I keep a pair of D70s around in a Pelican case.
A good deal of my shooting has been investigations, though…not a ton of time for personal work until recently…My favorite unit to shoot with, though, is an old 120 box camera from 1908. Fantastic stuff there. ( I’m starting to collect classic cameras, mebey start dealing in them in the future.)
It’s nice to know there are other pro photographers here, I thought I was pretty much alone!
That’s very cool Tyler. I have a back-up D70 as well - I’ve committed it to the family hack-around camera
Most of my stuff in the past has been large format studio work, but that has really been displaced over the last couple of years by these location shoots, which I really enjoy.
There is another photographer on board; Peter Laban. His work, specifically involving Irish musicians of the past and present, is really quite beautiful. A marvellous intimacy and sensitivity to these images. I’d love to see a gallery devoted to these shots so they can be fully appreciated. Anyone at NPU interested?? Huge cultural significance!!
I should have my own show ready in a couple of years. I think I’ve settled on “Makers and Players” as the show title; a compilation of photos, and interactive interviews and multi-media about uilleann pipe makers and players. A travelling gallery, and then who knows?
Good to know you Tyler! (Wasn’t that F100 a beauty?? I sold mine earlier this year, it was collecting dust.)
Sheesh. You’d think anybody who could take shots like those would be able to put a few sunrays around Doris Day’s head, wouldn’t you. (No, I’m never going to let you forget it, Paul.)
F100 is grand for sure…does most everything my F5 does but in a lighter, more space efficient package. It’s usually what I use when I do anything in 35mm anymore, unless it’s artistic type stuff; I found a Minolta Hi-Matic 7s rangefinder in it’s original packaging at a thrift store a few years back. It has a leaf shutter and a 45mm fixed lens that has a rediculously shallow depth of field…some very interesting stuff.
Do you have a life project you’re working on?
The major project that I have been working on the last few years is taking vintage-style shots of Yerba Mate to go along with an essay that I have been putting together in my spare time over the past five years. Sometime in the near future I’m planning a trip to Argentina to photograph the Gauchos of modern times to work into the essay. One day I’d like to see if I can get it published.
Most were taken on my D70 (before I bought my D2X) on the RAW/JPEG setting. The setting provides a regular RAW file plus a “Basic” JPEG.
Some were shot on the “Fine” JPEG setting - more at the end of the trip (I was running out of room on my iBook!!) Now that I’ve got the D2X, I’ll be using the iPod as a portable hard drive!
Millarville Rodeo
(No, I’m never going to let you forget it, Paul.)
