It's all about Personality

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Tamron 10 - 24
f/5.6 at 1/250
ISO 200

In my experience, one of the best ways to produce an interesting picture is to have an interesting subject. The reception for this wedding was a 60's/70's theme party and the bride and groom had dressed their parts well. I had set up two SB-600s on a light stand with an umbrella and I asked attendees to pose in their costumes.

Some of the people had great costumes but the pictures I took of them were not that interesting. Here on the other hand, this is one of my favourite pics from this event and it is because of their personalities. They were animated and really having some fun and it shows in the photo. The best part of this picture is not my lighting or camera technique, it is the bride and groom.

Getting the Details

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 28 - 105
f/16 at 1/250
ISO 200
SB 600 Speedlight

I love Gerbera daisies. I have bought them before just to take pictures of them. On this day the bride had chosen them for her bouquet. I was able to pluck a few from a vase and take them back to my hotel room.

I set them up in an empty wine bottle. There was very little light in the room but I set my camera so that none of the ambient light would play a role in the exposure and therefore give me a pure black background. The flowers were lit by a single SB-600 that was hand held but connected to my camera via an SC-17 cable.

I think getting little details like this really helped to make the wedding album complete. Tomorrow, I will present a shot from the reception.

A Captured Moment

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 28 - 105
f/4.5 at 1/8
ISO 200

After our travels in Jasper my wife and I headed to Edmonton to shoot a wedding. We arrived a day early and scoped out the hotel grounds where the formals were to take place.

The day was overcast, good for shadow contrast but kind of dull in the colour department. So, I mounted two SB-6oos on a monopod and enlisted an attendee to point them where I needed.

Both flash units had a 1/2 CTO gel taped to it to warm up the light. The camera's white balance was set to daylight so the light from the flash warmed up the subjects as in the photo included above. The result is a much nicer photo with better skin tones and nicer colour.

Little Black Bear

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 70 - 300 VR
f/5 at 1/320
ISO 200

This little black bear had come to the side of a highway to nibble on some grass and while I was there no less than 6 or 7 car loads of humans stopped to point lenses at him. One van that had stopped actually was full of photographers who had paid for some sort of nature tour. Lucky them!

One guy got out and lay on the ground snapping shots with a giant lens and the bear only about 10 feet away. I on the other hand stayed on my feet somewhere near a car that I could dart behind if the bear got irritated and it eventually did just that. It gave some grunts to let us know it didn't like us disturbing its dinner. That was my cue to get back in the car and leave.

Once again this is a good shot for a photo album but it doesn't hold a candle to some of the bear pictures I have seen. This was one of the few shots I got where it didn't have its face buried in the grass and you can actually see it's eye.

Alpinisme

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 28 – 105
f/6.3 at 1/125
ISO 200

This is another example of roadside nature photography. The area around Jasper has an abundance of wildlife and to see it all you have to do is go for a drive and I'm sure you will have an encounter or two. In the above photo you can see four bighorn sheep that were part of a larger group of no less than thirty animals that were resting and eating at the side of the road.

They drew quite the crowd of onlookers who stopped to take pictures including myself. Some of them decided to hang out in the middle of the road forcing the traffic to come to a halt. The lighting here was not very good. I needed a faster shutter speed but I didn't want to up my ISO for fear of digital noise.

As a result the images were a little lifeless and needed lots of sharpening to make them viewable. I think they make good pictures for our photo album but I am not sure they are technically strong enough to use them for much else.

Water and Stone

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 28 – 105
f/13 at 1/20
ISO 100

When I go down to a beach or a river I usually spend a lot of time looking at stones. I find them fascinating as each one is unique and generally quite old. Of course, when I search for water to photograph, stones are a welcome addition.

For this shot I was standing on a bridge looking straight down at a small river close to Mount Robson. Photographs are always the result of a series of choices both technically and ascetically. For this photo I chose to use a shutter speed that would not freeze the action of the water. I wanted to see the movement but not as much movement as in the photo from my previous posting. The movement in the water caused the stones to be not crisp or in focus.

The resulting image is somewhat abstract but not unrecognizable. I like this photo but I like stones and water. Others who don't share this same fascination might say this photo lacks a real point of focus or subject. What do you think.

White Water

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 28 – 105
f/18 at 0.3
ISO 100

On our trip to Jasper last June, I had it in my mind to get some waterfall pictures. However, I am a lazy photographer and don't like to walk or hike too far to find an interesting scene. Luckily this waterfall was right at the side of the highway. We were not the only one's who stopped for a pic.

Of course I wanted to do the traditional slow shutter speed thing so as to blur the running water. It doesn't take much as you can see from the third-of-a-second exposure in the shot above. Colour balance was my biggest problem in post. The original camera settings produced a picture that was way too green and yellow. I added a bit of magenta and blue to tone it down.