Week 2

Good news, it looks like my New Years Resolution has made it past the first week of the new year.  Writing this Blog is definitely making me take more pictures.  It is teaching me that the photos taken in natural light with moving objects (mainly a 2.5 year old that never stops moving) is the biggest challenge.  It is tough to nail exposure and focus on a moving subject.

The Christmas tree came down this last week.  But not before taking one last photo of it.  This was taken with my point and shoot camera (Canon G9) with a 1 second exposure.  I carefully traced the exact shape of a santa hat in the air with the result as follows ;)  (Picture #1)

The next image is the one that I spent the most time on set up and trial and error this week.  I have been trying to think of different ideas for photographs and figured that my hand lit with light sweeping from the side would show texture and would be interesting.  I ended up having to add a second light to the other side, and blocking the light spilling in to the background so that I could have this on pure black.  I then added the 3 left over mandarin oranges that we have in the house. (Picture #2) 

My Dad came over to babysit on Friday night so that Cyndy and I could go watch the Flames play hockey.  It was a good chance to get a picture of Grandpa and Carolyn together.  Carolyn managed to make sure Pooh bear and her blanket made it in to the shot.  I'm happy with how it turned out, since Carolyn jumps off the chair and races over to the camera to see what it looks like on the little screen after every shot.  Lighting information is octabox camera left, beauty dish  above camera and background light with 20 degree grid spot.  Grey background. (Picture #3)

The next shot was a request by my wife.  She needed a head shot of herself for a work thing.  She thought I should just crop one of the photos I took of her at Christmas, but I managed to talk her in to sitting down and having a few pictures taken.  Same set up as Granpa and Carolyn above. (Picture #4)

Saturday was Gymboree day which is organized Chaos for 2.5 - 3 year olds.  You go to this strip mall that has an area set aside with padded mats, ramps, slides, ladders, inner tubes, tunnels, etc.  A young lady tells stories, and tries to organize an overall theme, which sometimes interests the kids. The rest of the time the kids race around, slide down things, jump off platforms and have a great time.   Most of my photos that I took at this event were blurry and not of very good quality.  The one below has a bit of motion blur, but is one of the better ones.  (Natural light and overhead flourescents). (Picture #5)

We had beautiful warm weather in Calgary this last weekend, with both days getting above 0 C.  Sunday we went to the Zoo to see the animals and Carolyn's favorite the Hippos.  This is a picture of Carolyn sitting on a bench in the recently renovated Enmax Conservatory.  Natural light mostly from camera left. (Picture #6)

While in the hippo building at the zoo.  Sunlight was shining in to the Meerkat enclosure, and the Meerkats were taking turns standing up in the sunlight.   (Picture #7)

Thanks to everyone who is posting comments, or sending emails.

The 2 things I learned the most this week is to carry a gray card with me so that I can get the white balance correct in different lighting situations, and to make sure my histogram is shifted as far right as possible (but not blowing out the highlights) especially when shooting at high ISOs.