Peaceful Morning Coffee

It's nice when everyone sleeps in and lets me have a peaceful morning to reflect and catch up on some blog reading. The only one bugging me this morning was the dog!

Chris.

Remember When It Was Just Fun?

I live in Canada and we have lots of snow in the winter. I remember when I was a kid and we would go sledding. It was the most fun in the winter we could have. Even when you got hurt it was worth it!

My kids love sledding too. I don't take them often enough. Always there is an excuse. It's too cold, it's too windy, I have too much other stuff to do today. It doesn't matter what excuse, it's just an excuse. Look at these faces, how could I deny them this much fun?

As an adult we get so caught up in our "problems" that we forget the pure joy that can be found in sliding down a hill on a piece of plastic or bike riding or jumping off a dock at the lake. 

While I was standing there on the hill shivering, I watched my kids and all the other kids on the hill and thought, what a terrible joke life plays on us by making us grow up. Then I thought why do we have to grow up? Where's the fun in that? LOL. There is a difference between being irresponsible and refusing to grow up. You can still be responsible and embrace that child that is still lurking there just under the surface. In fact, it's your responsibility in life to live it to the fullest and enjoy it. So next time the kids want to go sledding, I'm taking my sled too and chasing them down the hill.

Stop taking life so seriously. Get out there and act like a kid again. Your kids will love it and you will too.

Chris.

Photograph What You Love?

Photograph What You Love.

I hear this a lot when talking about photography and business. Photograph what you love and the rest will be easy. Does that mean the business aspects will just fall into place? Of course not but they do say it will be easier because you will have the passion and subject matter more in control.

But how do I know what I love to photograph? Well that is the hard part. I've heard it said by many photographers that you will just know but it may take years to figure it out.

I think the cause of my photographic block I've been suffering through is due to me trying to figure out what I love to photograph. I could say my kids but that's a given. Or is it? I know many people with kids that take very few photos of their kids. Certainly few of my friends and family go through the set up and processing time that I put into the photos of my kids. So there, that's one thing I love to photograph.

But that's more for me isn't it?

Well there is another point. Don't try to love photographing something just because you think that's what others want to see. If we all photographed what we thought others wanted us to, there would be billions of cute cat photos in the world or on Facebook anyway! You need to photograph something that has a meaning to you. The passion you put into that will show in the photo. That will draw like minded people to your work and from there you never know what could happen.

So back to my stuff. I've spent some time looking over my Flickr stream and it looks to me that I love to photograph nature, minimalistic scenes, industry and rusty crusty stuff that is loaded with textures all along with my kids. Texture and color seem to play a significant part in my photos as well. I've also noticed a lot of daily life type photos. You know, food, coffee cups, socks hanging on a railing, people enjoying their hobbies. But in these I'm also seeing a lot of strong colors and textures as well.

Even when I use my phone to take a photo, I tend to punch up the colors and textures in the image.

There you have it I think I have figured it out. Besides my kids its Nature, Minimalism, Industry and Color and Textures.

It has taken me years to get to this conclusion and it may change down the road but for now, I think this is what I will focus on (pun intended).

Chris.

Friday........

Can I go home yet??

Chris.

I'm Blocked.....

I've been fighting with a case of photographers block for months now. It just feels like I'll never get past it. Nothing seems to excite me photographically these days.

Now, I realize this is normal. I've not fallen out of love with my camera. I still have that passion for photography that I've had for years but I'm just not feeling it these days. What can I do to get past this? Do I need to take a trip? No. I don't think that will do it. Do I need a new camera? Definitely not! A new lens? No. I doubt that will make a difference either. What to do, what to do?

The fact that I'm aware of it just being a creative block is the main part. I realize I still love photography. I'm not going to sell all my gear and take up another hobby that's for sure. I just need to ride it out but not become inactive within my hobby. Maybe I'll start looking at more photography or find a photographer whose work inspires me. Maybe I just need a change of scenery. Being stuck at the same place all day and then having the dark cold winter nights everyday is not helping that's for sure.

I think for now, I'll start by looking at more photographs on Flickr and 500px. They always get me motivated. Maybe get involved in a few group discussions about the photos or specific techniques. Whenever I start talking about photography, I get all excited and my passion bubbles to the surface.

That's it. A good place to start.

I did manage to dig out my lighting kit and do a one light portrait of my son. He likes to play on the PS3 on the weekend and I thought I'd capture the moment for him to look back on later in his life. He may get a kick out of it.

I set the umbrella up on camera left and collapsed the umbrella down over the flash to narrow the light a bit so I wasn't lighting up the whole room. I set up a silver reflector on camera right low and bouncing light upwards to fill in the shadows on his left side. None of the angles I was trying was doing it justice so I went high on a chair for a change. I like the resulting point of view. 

Chris.

Photo Of The Day - January 16 2014 - Long John

Only a child would eat a long john like corn on the cob! I had to share this photo. The guy in line ahead of us at Tim Hortons was so impressed with the behavior of our kids that he bought them each a donut. 

What a great thing to do. He told them why as well and they just beamed.

Chris.

Photo Of The Day - Jan 15 2014

The ravages of time. Rust is slowly taking over this propane bottle. Looks like it will be replaced very soon.

Chris.

Photo Of The Day - January 14 2014.

The snow slowly melts around a storm drain.....finally a break from the cold.

Chris.

Industrial Photography

I love industrial photography. I work in the oil industry of Alberta, Canada. I have a fabrication shop at my disposal when I feel like taking some steel and spark shots.

I think if I could find enough companies needing this type of photography on a regular basis, I could make a go at a business based on this type of photography and head shots of the management.

Nothing is as slick as a plasma table for cutting custom parts from plate steel. I'm always amazed when I watch this thing in action.

After tacking the pipe together, the welder puts in the root pass. This takes quite a bit of time and is really interesting to watch.

You can see the light from the welding spark shining though the bottom half of the joint where the root pass has not been put in yet.

The pipe is connected to a spinner that rolls it around for the welder so he can concentrate on making a good pass and not on the position he is in.


After the root pass is in the pipe is moved over to the sub arc welder where the fill passes are done quickly and easily.

There is no smoke, or spark with this procedure. Just a whole lot of heat. No special training is needed to operate this welding machine. All you need is a quick rundown on how the unit works and what to do. Away you go. Saved yourself 4 or 5 years of schooling

This photo is of the cutting and beveling procedure. I added it because I really like how it looks. The pipe is cut to length and beveled to make for proper welding all at one machine.

These photos were really fun to take today. I'll have to try to take more of these in the future.

.

More Thoughts On My Canon 17-85mm Kit Lens

I've had the summer now to play more with my Canon 17-85mm lens and have discovered it's limitations. Good to know so I can work within them.

The photo of my daughter on the right here was taken with my 17-85mm and is what sparked my interest back into using this lens more.

It's sharp and the color and contrast out of the camera were really nice.

I used it quite a bit for most of the summer and have found it's limitations.

Distance. That's pretty much it. The farther away your subject is, the worse the lens performs.

 In this photo of my son at the park, he's just not that sharp. He is about 30 feet from me here. I had focused and recomposed and I'm sure of the focus.


It just seems that as the subject gets farther away, the lens loses some quality. It was not enough for me not to use this image, I still like the image, it just doesn't have the sharpness that the above one of my daughter has.

The shutter speed was plenty fast enough on this one as well so no help there.

Then we have this one that is sharp again. I'm only a few feet, maybe 5 away from the subject here and everything with him looks nice and sharp.

So this helped to further my assumption about the subject distance.

I think I may just have to save for some L series lenses after all. But at least I'm not just lusting after them.





Chris.