Bookends

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Tamron 70 - 300
f/11 at 1/160
ISO 100

Burnaby Lake is a popular spot for recreational activities from jogging to bird watching. Almost every time I go I encounter other photographers. I am usually envious because most of them seem to have bigger and faster lenses than I do.

Lens envy aside, I have taken a few pictures with my less expensive slow lenses that I like. Canada Geese frequent the area and are usually good for a shot or two. This pair passed through an area where the water was reflecting a nice blue February sky.

White Crowned Sparrow

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 70 – 300 VR
f/5.6 at 1/250
ISO 200
SB600 Speedlight

I spent many hours today trying to get a picture of a bird in the Rhododendron outside my living room window. I was completely unsuccessful. It was disappointing.

The plant was in full bloom and would have looked great with a visitor. I had set up a false backdrop and some flash units on stands. I waited and waited and no one showed up. Eventually it started to rain and I had to bring in my gear.

About a month ago I snapped a shot or two of a White Crowned Sparrow that was frequenting that same Rhododendron albeit not in bloom. I present it here in place of the one that I wish I got today.

Aquabus at Sunset

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18 – 70 mm
f/4.8 at 1/125
ISO 400

There are two main reasons that this image is more than just a snapshot of the Aquabus joining Downtown Vancouver with Granville Island.

The first is the vantage point. Unless you work in an office tower or climb mountains regularly we don’t often get to look down on the world. Bridges are a great place where this can happen. This shot was taken from the Granville Street Bridge looking west.

The second thing that works well in this photo is the light. I purposefully went down at a time of day to try to catch a sunset. My initial subject of interest was the Burrard Street Bridge with the sun setting behind it. Unfortunately I didn't like the composition.

At one point I looked down and saw how nice the sun was reflecting off the water. I waited until the Aquabus entered the scene and snapped a couple of shots. This was the best one. The water almost looks like liquid gold.

Circles of Flame

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18 – 70 mm
f/11 at 0.5s
ISO 800
SB600 Speedlight

This is still at the PNE and this is the same girl as in the previous photo. This time she is at ground level. Because I have never shot this type of subject in this type of environment before, I had no idea of what I should be doing technically with my camera settings. I had my ISO set to 800. The exposure settings I chose seemed to have underexposed the scene slightly and when I boost the brightness in post-production you can really see the noise in this image.

In some images this type of electronic noise simply ruins the photo. Does it here? Or, does it take on a grainy quality like high-speed film would? I could have eliminated this noise had I reset my ISO to 200 and opened up my lens to f/5.6 thereby retaining the same exposure.

The other mistake I made that evening was having weak batteries in my flash. I was shooting faster than they could recycle. This is one reason for the underexposed result. I wanted to use a slow shutter speed to capture the movement of the flames then have the flash give a burst of light to freeze the action of the performer.

Given all my bad decisions, I still feel the image captures my interest. I like some of the background elements and the slight blur of the subject combined with the noise give it a dreamy quality.

Playing with Fire

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18 – 70 mm
f/6.7 at 1/45
ISO 800
SB600 Speedlight

After taking pictures of the motorcycle stunt riders I stumbled upon some street performers doing things with fire. By this time it was completely dark. These guys were up on a small stage lit by some spotlights.

Because of the distance from me to the subject, I chose to up the ISO to 800 and use my speedlight. This of course meant I have a final image with a lot of noise but at least I have a final image worth viewing.

I also did a few time exposures to capture the movement of the flames but I was not that satisfied with the results. I will attend again this year and I will try again.

Fire Rider

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 70 – 300 VR
f/9.5 at 1/125
ISO 250

This was taken at the same time as the previous photograph. This guy just finished smoking the tires. The combination of the flames, the smoke, and his bike lying on the ground make for an intriguing photograph. I don’t have much more to say about this one.

Crazy

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 70 – 300 VR
f/5.0 at 1/500
ISO 400
Wow! That exclamation is not for the photograph but for what the guy is doing in the photograph. There were at least 4 guys doing these sorts of tricks for a show at the 2008 PNE. As you can see, amusement parks offer lots of photographic opportunities.

Technically this was not the easiest photo to get. It was cloudy and just starting to get dark. Also, the subjects were backlit by what little sun there was. If I zoomed right in I frequently cut off part of the bike or the rider. I opted to zoom back and rely on cropping to produce the final composition.

Finally, there were some distracting background elements that I could not avoid getting in the pictures. However, with this photo I felt that the flag and pillars worked helping to balance the composition.

Tropical Storm

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 28-105
f/18 at 10s
ISO 100
Manfrotto 055 tripod

This shot was taken at a small traveling fair that stops in Richmond a couple of times each year. For this photograph I had my ISO set appropriately to 100 and this allowed me to have a longer exposure.

All in all this turned out pretty good. One thing I’m not certain of is why I got hot spots near the center of the circle. The lights must have produced it somehow. It showed up in various forms in several photos I took that night of different rides.

Round Round We Go

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18-70
f/19 at 1.6s
ISO 400
Manfrotto 190Pro tripod

Everyone with an interest in photography will find themselves at some point taking pictures at night at an amusement park with rides. The picture I present here is from the 2008 PNE. Even though I made some mistakes with my camera settings I did get a decent shot or two.

I had been taking pictures of some guys on motorbikes earlier in the evening and had set the ISO to 400 in order to get a faster shutter speed. I forgot to change it back. For this shot that ISO setting was unnecessary and perhaps hindered me in trying to get a long exposure.

If I remember correctly, I set my aperture and started taking pictures experimenting with different shutter speeds. Some of the lights on this Ferris would turn off and on while it was in motion while others stayed on all the time. As a result each picture would generate different patterns of colour depending on the how long the shutter was open.

Dare to be Different

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Tamron 70 - 300
f/22 at 1/15
ISO 100
Manfrotto 055 tripod

The same technical strategies were employed here as with the previous photo that I presented. They were taken the same day at the same location. With the previous photo I tried to include as much of the bands of colour as was possible with my zoom lens and at the same time compress the distance between the rows of flowers.

With this photo however, I decided to zoom in on just one row and the single yellow tulip amidst a sea of red seemed to capture my attention. I do find the red to be almost over saturated and perhaps could use to be toned down a little.

Tulip Festival

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Tamron 70 - 300
f/22 at 1/30
ISO 100
Manfrotto 055 tripod

Also in Spring a farm in Agasiz has a tulip festival. Actually, it’s not much of a festival it’s more like the farmer will sell you flowers and let you walk around his fields. It is an interesting sight. It is a field full of colour. This photo gives you an idea of what it looks like.

Here I wanted as much in focus as possible so I set my aperture to f/22. With a shutter speed of 1/15th of a second I chose to use my camera’s mirror lockup function to avoid camera shake. Also, I underexposed the shot by a half stop to achieve some good colour saturation.

Bathed in Yellow

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 70 – 300 VR
f/16 at 1/45
ISO 100
Manfrotto 055 tripod

Each Spring these Laurnum trees at Vandusen Garden bloom and create quite the spectacle. My goal with this shot was to create something with a painterly quality to it. I decided to do a 10 shot multiple-exposure.

Some times I hand hold the camera. As a result, because you can’t keep the camera completely still, with each shot you take there is a certain amount of overlap and this is what creates the effect.

Other times I use a tripod so that I am in more control of the overlap. By tapping the tripod as I release the shutter there is some camera movement but it is to a lesser degree than with handholding.

As you can see it creates an image that at first glance looks more like a painting than a photograph. This technique works best when you have a subject with lots of texture such as these trees.

Reaching for the Sun

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18-70
f/8 at 1/40
ISO 100

Flowers are everywhere especially in Spring and Summer. I have taken lots of pictures of flowers over the years. For this shot I decided to shoot them looking up from below.

This viewpoint helps to make this picture a little different because we don ‘t usually focus on the bottom of a flower, we usually look at them from the side or straight down into the centre where the stamens reside.

The other thing I like about this point of view is the fact that the petals become backlit by the sun which changes their colour and makes them almost glow.

Preparing for Departure

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 70 – 300 VR
f/5.6 at 1/200
ISO 100

This photo was taken as we were getting ready to depart on our sailing voyage. Our friend’s children were quite excited and were running around checking out every corner of the boat. I happened to have my camera ready when Kyle poked his head out from one of the hatches.

It was a spontaneous shot and it turned out really nice. In fact, I think it was the best picture I got of him during the entire trip. I like the expression on his face and the morning sun backlighting him was warm in tone.

This photo is good example of where the rule of thirds was used to create a nice composition. Also, an aperture of f/5.6 allowed both the background and the foreground to blur some potentially distracting elements.

Lots of Knots

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18-70
f/4.5 at 1/80
ISO 100


Ropes and knots are everywhere at a marina. Learning to tie several types of knots is an essential part of learning to sail. Therefore I felt it necessary to take a few pictures of ropes in order to fully capture our experience at sea.

Floats on Fishing Boat

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18-70
f/4 at 1/350
ISO 100

You can’t go on a sailing trip without spending a certain amount of time in marinas. We spent a couple of nights at the marina in Lund where we gassed up and bought supplies. It was very photogenic. As the main photographer for the trip I was trying to capture some of the details along the way.

This boat should have been out doing its job but it had a problem with something that kept it at the dock. The owner was busy trying to get it working again while having a beer or two. I got pictures of him and the boat but it was this detail shot of the floats that caught my eye.

Sometimes we pass by these things and although we notice them we don’t really see them. My senses were really open to the sights, sounds, and smells of these places because I don’t normally get to experience them. I will present a few more of these details in the next post or two.

BC Seascape

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 70 – 300 VR
f/5.6 at 1/500
ISO 100

This picture was taken at the beginning of our sailing trip as we headed out of Vancouver. This was a difficult shot because I was on a moving boat and was handholding the camera that I had zoomed to 270 mm. I hoped the shutter speed was fast enough to get a sharp image. I was reasonably satisfied with the results.

However, the biggest problem was that we were a long way from shore and it was a hazy day. As a result the image was flat and dull and lacking colour right out of the camera. It took a lot of adjustments in Photoshop to get it to be acceptable enough for viewing.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to deal with haze to eliminate the negative affects it has on a photograph?

Calm Before Storm

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18-70
f/5.6 at 1/3000
ISO 640

I was standing on another boat that was moving with the waves trying to take a picture of these two boats that were also moving. It was getting dark and a storm was approaching. Every now and then the evening sun would break through the clouds and shine on these two boats.

To eliminate movement as a factor for ruining the shot I chose to up my ISO to an uncomfortable setting. This gave me a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action. These settings worked as you can see in the photo. However, once again there is a lot of noise in the image.

I really like the sky in this image. I am always drawn to scenes where storm clouds and sun seem to contradict each other.

Little Red Rowboat

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18-70
f/4.2 at 1/500
ISO 100

In June of ’06 we went on a 9-day sailing trip up to Desolation Sound and back to Vancouver. Of course we got lots of pictures of boats. I liked this little red rowboat and took a few shots as I passed by.

I decided this scene would work best with what some call the “Orton Effect”. The technique involves taking two shots of the same subject, one properly focused and one out of focus. You then combine the two to create one image that takes on a dreamy quality with lots of saturated colour.

Digitally it is easy to create a similar effect from just one image. For a detailed description on producing this effect in both film and digital formats visit PCIN.NET