Hey 2012, What's up?

Already 2 weeks into the year that is 2012!

The weekly photo blog is behind me now so what's next? Well, for the time being I'll be continuing with my writing work for Capcom Games (it's all very hush-hush but once it's official I promise I'll give a little more detail), I'm working on my feature project The Death of Alec Gray which I'll reveal more about soon, the webseries which is approaching its launch and of course there'll be more adventures afoot with my trusty Canon 60D camera.

As you know, even really basic little point-and-shoot cameras these days can capture video as well as pictures and in 2012 I'm hoping to do a LOT more on the video/movie-making side of things. The Canon 60D has already proven itself in my eyes with the quick and dirty short film I threw together early last year but I'm keen to do a lot more with it in this area.

I don't fully know what shape or form these experiments will take yet or how feasible they will be (i.e. paid work commitments) but I have a ton of ideas!

Of course, I'll still be snapping good old-fashioned pictures too. Speaking of which...

The above shots were taken just West of Lost Lagoon and in addition the wide angle fun, I also got a much better chance to play around with the new Tamron 90mm Macro lens.

Though it's designed for super-close work, it handles pretty well as a telephoto lens too. The below is not a leper's foot but is in fact an oddly shaped piece of drift wood.

And here's a macro of the splinters jutting out from the bottom of the "foot"...

The lens renders the out of focus detail (the bokeh) in a very pleasing manner don't you think?

And it handles flare pretty well too.

This final shot turned out to be my personal favourite though...

Until next time folks.

The Best of 2011 Part III

October began with me scoring front row tickets to a Vancouver Canucks pre-season game against the Edmonton Oilers and the pictures that resulted led to (in terms of numbers) my most popular blog yet. According to my tracking software, I received 1500+ page views - and that was just within the first 2hrs of posting!

TIME magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2011 was The Protester and October marked the beginning of the Vancouver "Occupy" movement. Given the events that followed the Canucks loss in Game 7, I'm sure the officer below had a busy year when it came to crowd control...

Week 42 brought with it a trip to the Westham Island pumpkin farm.

The result of my pumpkin carving certainly isn't up there in terms of great pictures from 2011 but as creative endeavors go I had to include it because I'm still proud of what I came up with!

Week 43 brought with it a trip to the PNE's "Fright Nights" exhibition. I had a frustrating night as far as picture taking went and mostly failed to meet my high expectations (if only I'd brought a small tripod!) but this one turned out great and wins the award for "Most Macabre Shot of the Year"!

One of my regrets of 2011 was not taking my camera everywhere I went. There were so many missed shots. However, in November while on my way to a meeting across town I did have the foresight to pack my gear and ended up with some nice images in and around historic Gastown. This one turned out to be my favourite...

Despite the freezing cold temperatures of Week 45, I wrapped up and had one last foray into long exposure night photography downtown. This image from the corner of Burrard and Nelson ended up being my personal favourite.

With the Fall there often comes some stunning sunsets and armed with what turned out to be one of my best performing lenses of the year, the Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 wide angle zoom (had to get some geek material in here!) Week 46 ended up being hugely successful.

Inukshuks and Canadian Geese - talk about being a true Canadian eh?!

As 2011 came to a close, terrible weather and massive work commitments curtailed my photo-taking adventures to a large extent. Testing out a lens I picked up dirt cheap from a pawn shop I was happy with how this one at Vanier Park from Week 48 turned out...

And in another test (the newly acquired Tamron 90mm Macro lens), this one turned out okay considering the low light.

Sticking with lovable pets, Max, the Powell River Goldendoodle made a return and won the award in the 2011 "Awww!" category!

Perhaps its fitting that I close this retrospective photo blog look back through 2011 with this image...

All in all, 2011 was a big, crazy, unwieldy year in many ways. A lot of transition for me personally and professionally. Through the tougher times, along with my awesome circle of close friends (you know who you are!) my trusty Canon 60D and this blog helped me stay creatively inspired.

Though the sun has set on this particular journey, others await! There may be fewer photo blog posts to come in 2012 but I'll still be out there doing my thing - Stretching the muscles of my creative side is hugely important to my physical, mental and emotional health.

Thank you for letting me share my pictures with you over the last 12 months, for giving me hugely appreciated feedback and for continuing to encourage my endeavors. Stay tuned for what's to come next and as always...

Until next time folks!

2011 WEEK 49: Hello Macro

I'm back!

I'm a little disappointed that I missed the last few weeks of posting, especially when I'm so close to the end of this 52 Week photo adventure. However, work commitments have been more than a little crazy lately and I couldn't spare even an hour to snap some images never mind blogging about them.

But here we are again and I'm ready to bring this 2011 visual jaunt to a close. Hopefully in style. I plan on taking lots of photos between now and December 31st!

In the meantime, Santa came early for me (care of Craigslist and a deal too good to pass up).

This is the respected Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro lens. It's been on my radar for awhile so I was very happy to finally snag one. So why Macro? Well why not?! I'm fascinated by the idea of getting close, real close, and seeing details that we either take for granted or that we generally never even see.

I've barely had a chance to play with this new addition to my photographic arsenal  but I've already made a few discoveries. In low light it's a tricky little beast - as one focuses closer and closer one loses a fair amount of exposure so a flash or good natural light is a must. The above shot of my keys was taken indoors at night wide open at f/2.8 and with a high ISO (hence the grain).

This close and this wide open, depth of field is-...well, very small! As you can see in all these pictures, I was generally working with about 5mm or so of area in focus. I should have used a tripod for these shots instead of going hand-held because even the slightest little shake of the hand can throw things off.

Hopefully future subjects will be a little more welcoming... Talk about being given the evil eye!

The Tamron 90mm is also regarded as a great portrait lens and it has lovely bokeh (the out of focus area of the pictures), soft and creamy!

At some point it would be great to pick up a set of extension tubes. These little do-dads fit between the lens and the camera and take things even closer allowing one to capture some really crazy images. Here's an example from Flickr of just how close one can get...!

EEEEK!

Until next time folks, thanks for hanging in there despite my recent absence.