Practice Practice Practice!

I've been wanting to get the hang of a lighting technique that comes in handy whenever the sun is not aligning with my schedule! Photographing in full sun is nooooo good! But if you can put your subjects with their backs to the sun and use some extra lighting so their faces aren't in shadow, you're set for almost any time of day! Sounds great right? Yep, in theory!

When I went to Seattle a couple of years ago, my (then) new friend Missy gave me a quick demo that was so clear and made sense at the time. Set your camera for the lighting in your background, use your trigger to fire your flash in your foreground and voila you've got the best of both worlds and everything looks great. Well Missy's unfortunately much too far away to practice this with me! So I brought my stuff to the cottage and went out to play.  I got so many random results, realized my batteries were dying and got some fresh ones. I still wasn't getting consistent results but did eventually manage to get some blue skies and subjects that were visible! So here are my short term models who cooperated with posing for all of 2 minutes. Why would you need longer than that right??? Fortunately, Sarah the stuffed bunny was much more patient after these 2 ran off on me!

High Tech Photography

I'm trying to save up for a new camera. I've had mine for a few years and run into lots of situations where it doesn't perform well. Murray and I were talking about it at dinner when Honey chimed in.

H: new camera?!?!?? but you already have a camera Mummy!
Me: yes, but it doesn't work well sometimes so I'd like a better one.
Sweetie: ohhhhh!!!!! a better one!!!!!!!!!! like the kind where the pictures come out right away!!!!

All were in enthusiastic agreement that yes indeed, it would be a glorious day if Mummy got a fancy new camera like THAT!!!!

Kids do say the darnedest things huh?

Smashing Good Time!

I recently went on a photography getaway weekend! I've kept in touch with many of the photographers I met last year at our retreat in Seattle and this year we met in Toronto. Murray's parents gave me the plane ticket for my birthday (yay Aeroplan points!!!) and Murray gave me the time off & some spending money!!!

It was very different from last year and I was much more comfortable going in. A few of us were repeats from last year and I was involved in the planning of this one so I got to know a couple more during many online Skype meetings/chats. We had 4 shoots planned, lots of free models lined up and a makeup artist came in to make them all look good (although I'm not sure any really needed her help for that!)

I arrived on Thursday night & Krista picked me up at the airport & we were checked in to the hotel in no time. Last year I had to leave in the am & arrive at 11pm Seattle time and ended up waiting in a cold, dark, scary parking lot for 45 minutes! So this year, the trip was already much better for travel plans at least! We were starving and headed out for a bite to eat where I amused the locals by asking to use a payphone of all things! In my defense, there was a real phonebooth right behind us! How was I to know it was purely decorative & empty??? One of the cool kids let me use her iPhone to call home & report my safe arrival after the waiter asked incredulously "don't you guys have CELL PHONES?????"

On Friday morning the makeup artist arrived and started getting the models ready. We had 3 girls that she did hair and makeup for and it took several hours. Eventually we headed for the location and were excited to get started. I started off with one lens, then decided to switch to a longer one. After a few shots with that, I took it off & put it back in my bag. Then I grabbed my best lens, my favourite lens, and yes, of course, my most expensive lens. Unfortunately, I was really only holding on to the lens hood which promptly detached in midlift and I watched in stunned silence as the actual lens did a freefall onto the pavement and made a distinctive smash as the glass filter shattered. I heard a sharp gasp (possibly my own!) and everyone and everything stopped. A still silence was ringing in my ears as each photographer, model & even the makeup artist watched in horror and dread as I picked up the lens and glass shards off the asphalt. My stomach felt like it had just about fallen out and if a single person had come over and fussed I would have lost it. Everyone felt absolutely awful and powerless to fix it. I didn't dare look too closely for fear of freaking out. I picked all the loose glass off and shoved the lens back in my bag and loaded on a different one with hands that were barely steady! I reminded myself over and over that it was JUST a thing and nothing to throw up over! The others wanted to know if it was broken but I couldn't bear to test it out right then with everyone watching so I just moved on & started shooting until everyone joined in.

Once everyone was relaxed again, I took a moment and gave it a go but it was useless. The only visible damage was a small dent & the broken filter that I had on the end which absorbed the impact and the actual glass of the lens itself was spared. However, the focus rings were not doing squat as I tried to point at a subject. Well that answered that! It was definitely messed up! The worst part was that this happened within the first 5 minutes of the first shoot of the weekend I'd waited over a year for!!! The only other lenses I had with me weren't as good and I was so disappointed not to have something good to shoot with. It took a few minutes to shake that off, let me tell ya! I decided not to think about it and just shoot what I could and enjoy the time there but it took awhile for my stomach to get the message and settle down. :)))

The graffiti alley was a really cool location, tonnes of colourful artwork and when we got tired of a doorway, we just moved a few feet down and voila, brand new backdrop! The models we had were total pro's! They needed next to no direction at all & just fell into their poses on their own most of the time. This was great for me because I'm never sure how to pose people. Watching them work it gave me lots of ideas to use in future shoots. Why reinvent the wheel??? They already know what works!

We spent a couple of hours at the alley & were all hot & tired and ready for a relaxing meal so we packed it in and headed back to the hotel.

And that's just the beginning!!!! It was a fabulously fun weekend full of laughs and lots and lots of shooting. For 3 days I was just a photographer with nothing else to do but take pictures and talk shop with other camera die hards. It was a blast & I hope we do another one next year because I'm totally addicted to these weekends!!!!