151.365 Left Meets Right.

Monday May 31 2010.

Here is my attempt to make my Left Brain meet my Right Brain.

The micrometer meets the technical requirements of my left brain while the position and neat reflection meet my creative right brain's requirements. Coming together as more than the sum of the two parts.

How's that for synergy!

Chris.

Does The Eye You Shoot With Affect Your Creativity?

I've been thinking about this question lately. It's known that the left side of your brain is more logical. Science and math type of thinking. The left side of your brain also controls the right side of you body, including the right eye. The right side of the brain is more creative. It likes music, art and 3D shapes. It controls the left side of your body, including your left eye.

Does it matter which eye you look through the viewfinder to compose your photo? Would you get a more artistic composure using you left eye or a more technically correct photo using your right eye?

I'm a left eye shooter. I like to think that I'm tapping directly into my creative mind while I'm composing my photos. It may explain why I failed to notice the branch creeping into the photo in my last post! While I'm thinking about my shot and setting it up, I'm using both eyes so I hope my left brain is helping me with my technical issues but once I put that camera to my eye, it's all right brained baby.

I'd like to show some examples of my left eye vs right eye shots but I never shoot with my right eye so I don't have any! I will try to take some shots with my right eye though to compare. In the mean time, here are some of my favorite "left eye" photos.

Chris.

Watch Your Edges!

One thing I've learned from the NYIP Professional Photography course is to watch your background. Watch for things that may be growing out of the heads of your subjects or running through them.
Another is to watch for things creeping in around the edges of the frame.

With this photo, I was so into the snow on the leaf that I failed to notice the branch cutting across the bottom right corner. I've tried cropping it but cannot find a crop to my liking. A slightly different angle would have solved this before it became a problem.

This square crop was the best I could do. I'm not a big fan of square crops. It tends to put the subject dead center on me. But I think in this case I was able to salvage the photo.

Chris.

150.365 End Of May?

Sunday May 30 2010.

Really?! Come on. At the end of May?! LOL.

How could I not make a snow man? I should put him in a freezer bag then into the deep freeze!

Chris.

149.365 Opportunity.

Saturday May 29 2010.

As it turns out, I'm a very opportunistic photographer. I look forward to opportunities to make photographs.

There's just something about water drops on leaves that I just love. Of course this soon turned to snow on the leaves. Love spring in Alberta.

Chris.

148.365 Liquid Fire.

May 28 2010.

How do you check for vacuum leaks on your vehicle? Why with a can of ether of course. Give a little spray around the joints in the lines and if there is a leak, well the roar of your engine will surely let you know. :) Happy to report, no leaks. So what the heck is the problem?!

Chris.

147.365 Again.

Thursday May 27 2010.

Here I am consulting " the book " again. It seems like once these trucks get over 200 000 km, they start to fall apart. At least it's just little things I can fix those. Last week it was replacing rocker arms and lifters, this week the vacuum lines fell apart. LOL. Gotta keep laughing or I'll snap!

Chris.

146.365 Best...Mug...Ever.

Wednesday May 26 2010.

My Canon 70-200mm Thermal Mug has finally arrived! How cool is that? It's thermal properties are...let's just say...not so good. But who cares! This will be my mug from now on. It will go to work around the house and to the lake.

Now given that I'm very easily entertained, expect to see about a million photos of this mug in my stream. LOL.

Chris.

144.365 Cool Shirt

Tuesday May 25 2010.

Just a quick grab shot of the Boy's new T shirt. How cool is that. Now that's a photographer's kid!

The camera is just a part of the picture but it sure looks like it's popping off the shirt!

Chris.

143.365 Pretty Pink Blossoms.

Monday May 24 2010.

The rain went away for just long enough today to pose for a portrait in front of this really pretty tree we found on a nature walk. A good note to end our long weekend on.

Chris.

142.365 Rainy Day Fun.

Sunday May 23 2010.

What do we do when it rains all day? Get goofy in the trailer, that's what.

Chris.

141.365 Packing The Leaves.

Saturday May 22 2010.

Yup, we are back at the lake for the first time this year. Great to be back. First order of business, start cleaning. Picking up all the leaves and packing them down to fit more in the wagon is the chore of the little ones! They don't seem to mind.

Chris.

140.365 Belated Mother's Day Gift.

Friday May 21 2010.

My son made this for my wife in school. They just got it back today. It had to go out to be fired. Very cute.

Chris.

139.365 My High Octane Go Juice.

Thursday May 20 2010.

If not for this amazing stuff, my sorry ass would never make it out of the door each morning! LOL.

Chris.

City Sneaks Pollution Under Our Noses - But I Saw It.

I work down what is probably the last gravel road in Edmonton. The city wants an obscene amount of money from the business in the area to rebuild and pave this road so it is not going to happen. Instead they will spend thousands of dollars a month maintaining the road.

Last week the city decided it was a good idea to start putting down recycled crushed asphalt as an alternative to gravel. Now, I work in the oil industry and we are very aware of the needs to watch our pollution injection, for a lack of a better term, into the environment but the city does not see it this way. Asphalt is mostly oil, when it gets hot and rained on the oil washes away from the crushed up stuff. Where does it go? I think these photos speak for themselves.

And here I am trying to convince the company I work for of the need to haul away some contaminated water we have collected so it can be properly treated. Maybe I should just pour it on the road like the city? I wouldn't do that so why should they?

Chris.

138.365 Peeling.

Wednesday May 19 2010.

We have this great deck at work on the roof of the second floor that we access from the third floor. We have a bench and a BBQ there that makes it easy to have fresh lunch when you want it.

I noticed this year the deck will need some work. I bet it will fall to me to do it because I noticed it first! I will. I don't mind.

Canon 50D, Tamron 18-270mm Di II f/3.5-6.3 VC, ISO 400, f/5, 1/2000 sec.

Chris.

137.365 Stress Ball Hard Hat.

Tuesday May 18 2010.

This little hard hat from the Alberta Construction Safety Association is the Best Stress Ball Ever. Thank you Tanya for the cool toy.

Chris.

Photo Of The Day Postings.

I've been running a second blog for my photo of the day posts. I post an image from each day there. But, doing that has meant that this blog is lacking posts. Originally I had planned on all kinds of interesting tips and techniques on this blog but I find that I just don't have the time for that at this point in my life. Work and two small kids really takes up the time each day.

So, that being said, I'm going to start posting my photo of the day on this blog like I used to and stop posting on the other. If you have been following my By The Day blog, thank you but you can just come here now to get all the daily goodness. LOL.

Chris.

My Hero.

Thursday May 6 2010.

Ok, This is not a photo from today which I never do but let me explain.

As a kid my Dad was my hero. He was the toughest, meanest, strongest guy I knew. He could do anything, fix anything, build anything. He was my hero.

As a Dad now myself, my son is my hero. In the last month he has had two fillings done in his teeth and didn't even flinch when they stuck him with the needle for the freezing. Today, he had both his eyes operated on to straighten them, they were a little turned in. While recovering in his room this afternoon, the other little boy in the room who had his eyes done just before Jacob, was not doing well. The anesthetic was pretty hard on the little guy. As he was waking up at one point, Jacob turns his closed eyes to me and says, "is that little boy going to be ok?". Never mind that he just has surgery on both his eyes and they were sore and he couldn't stand the light, he just wanted to know if that other little boy was going to be alright.

Enter the Hero of my adulthood.

Chris.