181.365 Robin.

 

Thursday June 30 2011.

I just missed this one downing a worm! That would have been cool. Ah, well, they are a very nice bird. One of my favorites.

Chris.

178.365 The Girl, Window Light.

 

Monday June 27 2011.

Such a happy kid.

Chris.

177.365 Caterpillar

 

Sunday June 26 2011.

Picked up a hitch hiker while out on a quad ride with the boy. This creepy crawly was riding on my sweater.

Can I get an EWWW. LOL. Funny little critter.

Chris.

176.365 Ruby.

 

Saturday June 25 2011.

Ruby is one of the resident dogs out at the lake. She is ever present. She has a thing for my daughter. She will go straight up to her waiting for some attention. The rest of us, well we just don't matter.

Chris.

174.365 Geese 2011

 

Thursday June 23 2011.

Stopped at the pond in Goldbar Park today to watch the geese for a while. I love these birds. They are not afraid of me at all. Here I was only about 20 or so feet from them. The adults were so unconcerned with me that they let the goslings get between me and them. Usually the adult will get between the goslings and you!

They are such fun to watch.

Chris.

173.365 Portulaca - Selective Color.

 

Wednesday June 22 2011.

The Portulaca, my favorite flower from my childhood. My mom planted these every year.

I went for the selective color here as the background was very drab and I've always liked the look of selective color images.

Chris.

172.365 Trapped!

Tuesday June 21 2011.

I was over in our equipment storage yard checking on some generators I have for sale and I scared a group of gophers. 2 of them ran into the pipe that makes up part of the frame for the generators transport skid and would not come out.

So, I grabbed my trusty iPhone and turned the flash to on and stuck it in front of the opening of the pipe. Snap....Aren't they cute. LOL.

They look really scared. The funny part is that the other end of the pipe is open and they could have ran away at any time.

Chris.

171.365 Flood.

Monday June 20 2011.

It's been raining for the better part of a week now with barely any breaks in between. Over the weekend it was non stop. As a result the run off ponds in my area are...well let's say full. LOL.

This bench is supposed to be about 20 feet from the shore and the sign that you see on the right is on the shore. It's 7 feet high. Gotta love the rainy season in Edmonton.

Chris.

168.365 At One.

Friday June 17 2011.

Went for a drive at lunch time to a park not too far from work. Capilano park. There are tables and firepits here for picnics. Love the setting of this one.

Can you think of anywhere better to be at one with the universe? Squirrels and birds everywhere. So peaceful. I'm going to eat lunch here next week if it's not raining.

Chris.

167.365 Staples.

Thursday June 16 2011.

Staples standing on a magnet on top of my desk. They look neat the way they sit together in all those angles.

Chris.

How To Photograph Your Own Kids.

Sounds simple enough. They are my kids, they will do what I say right. Well every parent know just how wrong that is. Oh, how wrong. It's a rare child who will do what the parent asks without a fight. They just have such a mind of their own. Especially when the get to be 4 years old and older. Forget about it.

So what are we to do? There are many different things you can do I suppose but here is my approach. I just let them do what they are going to do. They are happier, I'm less stressed out and usually I get photos that are much better than I had planned on.

Now, that said, I'm pretty lucky. My kids have had a camera in their faces since the day they were born. They are used to me and my cameras. My daughter is destined to be a model I'm sure. She loves to pose. But, if they are not in the mood for my antics they will not cooperate at all.

Here's some of the attitude I get.....

Wont even look at me. Barely a smile.

The 'are you gone yet' look. Although it was cute. Still it took 5 minutes for her to look my way.

Now, once I decided to stop directing them my photos of them got better. No forced smiles, no stiff posture, just a much more relaxed look and feel to them.

All I said to him here was 'Hey look at me' then he turned to me and gave me such a nice natural smile.

For this one we were outside doing homework with my son. He was reading to us. I had my camera up and she just looked at me with such a happy smile. Snap, there it is.

Quite often, I just follow them around when they are playing. I get some great candid stuff when they are just being themselves. I much prefer to see photos of kids as they are. Not sitting at Sears or Walmart. Those are not my kids, those are the ones who are mad at us and have decided not to cooperate. Here are some following around candid shots...

Setting up his Hotwheels track not paying any attention to me at all.

On the swing. Saw me at the last second.

Climbing a boulder in the desert mountains of southern California. I was waiting for him when he looked up to see where I was.

That's my approach to taking photos of my kids. Simple. Just be where they are and keep the camera up and ready to go all the time! But keep in mind, sometimes it's nice to just sit and be with your kids. If you are addicted to photography as I am this will be tough.

Chris.

Scenes From Fork Lake. June 11-12 2011.

We go to Fork Lake, Alberta almost every weekend in the summer. We love it there. I'd like to share some of what I see there from time to time.







Chris.

166.365 Scrapes And Rust.

 

Wednesday June 15 2011.

Scraped off paint and rust.

Chris.

165.365 Light Reading.

 

Tuesday June 14 2011.

Reading over some crane service manuals this afternoon. You know, just for something to do. :)

Chris.

164.365 Morning Ride.

 

Monday June 13 2011.

A scene from my morning bike ride today at 5 AM. I love this little pond. Always looks so nice when I drive by. Today I was out on my bike so I figured I'd stop for an iPhone photo.

Chris.

163.365 Me On The Steps.

 

Sunday June 12 2011.

Went for a walk down the beach this morning. I have taken many photos of the kids here on these steps. I figured it was time for one of me.

Man, I need to tan my legs! LOL.

Chris.

162.365 Lazy Summer Afternoon.

 

Saturday June 11 2011.

What a beautiful day at the lake! Hot, sunny, hardly any wind and the clouds just popped over the lake.

I love summer.

Chris.

161.365 Self - Simple Portrait

Friday June 10 2011.

I've decided to do some self portraits. There's just not enough photos of me out there. Haha.

Seriously though, I'm the model that I always have along with me.

I shot this in my office at work during lunch. Just relaxing after a big lunch watching a movie. That's right, I said it. I watch movies at lunch time at work. :)

Chris.

159.365 Watching.

 

Wednesday June 8 2011.

She watches contently as we play another round of Jenga. Of course when she saw the camera, all serenity was gone and out came the goof ball.

She is definitely my daughter. :)

Chris.

Do I Like It?

When it really comes down to it, the only one that has to like your photo is you. Sure, others will have some idea of how you could improve it either creatively or technically but that's all after stuff.

I've even had people tell me that one of my favorite photos was just plain no good. I take all that with a very large grain of salt. If I like it, then I like it. It's not even other photographers that will tell you what's wrong with your photo. Even those who have no idea of what it takes to create a photograph or what the limitations are of the medium. That one gets me the most. But still.....do I like it? This is all that matters.

Here are some of my favorites that others don't exactly see what I see.



This is my Dad on his 71st birthday. When I look at this photo I see my Dad thinking deeply on the many things in his life that have brought him to the place he is at this point in time. Some good and happy, others not so good and really quite sad. This photo brings out a lot of emotion in me.



This photo was taken in Yuma, AZ this pas spring break when my family and I went on vacation to California and then into Yuma for a week. Lots of people have looked at this image but not a one has had anything to say about it either good or bad. To me it brings back all the feelings of time we spent there. The heat, the food, the company. But besides the emotional connection to this image, I also love how the clouds cut across the sky and give some separation to the trees in the foreground. I like it.



 

This photo of my son went over well with my photographer friends but not so much with my family. I get complaints that I take too close a photo all too often. I'm not sure what that means but It may have something to do with putting the photo in a frame. My solution to that is to print it with a border or use a larger frame with a mat. But that's just me. Again, I like it and that's all that really matters now isn't it.

 

Chris.

156.365 Assembly

 

Sunday June 5 2011.

The boy gets the track ready for the races. I remember spending hours with my brother setting up track and racing hot wheels. For some reason it always ended with us using the track pieces as swords.

Chris.

155.365 Birthday Boy.

 

Saturday June 4 2011.

My wife's cousin's little boy turned 1 today!

Happy Birthday Little Man. You are getting really big really fast!

Chris.

154.365 Jenga!!

 

Friday June 3 2011.

We picked up a Jenga game last night for some family fun.

The boy is really, really good. He's very steady and precise. Then it fell and scared us all!

Chris.

153.365 Parking Lot Bunny.

Thursday June 2 2011.

Our parking lot at work is over run with hares. I counted 5 just in my short walk from one end to the other.

I used to think they were so cute until the little buggers ate all the branches off my trees this past winter.

Chris.

151.365 My Bird...

It seems I've been neglecting my blog lately. No much motivation right now. It's been quite busy at work and my mind is often not in the right frame for photography or blogging. But, I feel I must press on so....


Tuesday May 31 2011.

The Red Winged Black Bird. My favorite bird. I need a longer lens.

Chris.