Halex Photography - Growing a Dream

I want to reciprocate Ken Richmond's kind gesture of mentioning me and my new photography site www.ktcphoto.com in his blog.  But, while I had an idea to start my own photography business and was tossing that idea around, Ken took his idea a whole lot further, faster and turned an idea into a growing business!!!

So, congratulations to Ken for turning his dream into reality!!!  Check out his site to see what Ken has been up to... www.halexphoto.com ....  and what services he is offering.

Good luck in your endeavors Ken!!!!

The Universe is a Beautiful Thing

Wow, it's been a while!!!!!  So, what better way to get back to blogging by talking about and presenting one of my more challenging photo shoots.

It's December 21st!!!!!!!!  What?  So!!!  Wellllllll, that's Winter Solstice!!!!  But this year, it coincides with a total lunar eclipse!!!!! Next time that will happen will be in the year 2401... and I, you and the rest of us, will not be around to see that one :-(

I heard about the event on the news, which is unusual, as I am normally up to speed on celestial occurances...  but not this time.  With only a days notice, I gathered my gear and studied up on how to take photograph of such an event... as it turns out, there is a lot more involved in taking a picture of the moon, in the dark, while freezing my a_ _ off !!!  LOL!!!!

Shot with a Nikon D3S, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens and 1.7x Teleconverter  at
ISO 200 to 1000, f16-11 and shutter speeds of 1/100s - 1.3"

Taking the shots was a lot of fun, but it was also scary (that's another blog)...  and it was cold (did I mention that?).  When I arrived at 10 pm it was very bright, but then turned dark as the eclipse unfolded... which was eerie.... and many frames later, viola!!! You be the judge;  I am pretty happy with the results....

Winds of Fall

Back country roads are great for driving... they are quiet, scenic and turn up some great things to shoot once in a while...  you just have to pay attention... to the road that is... LOL!!!

Well, fall is almost a month old and I was recently on one of those back roads when I came across an old wind turbine; it was not in working condition, but with it's position in the field and sun back lighting the harvested field, it sure made me think of the season upon us....

Winds of Fall

This shot was taken with a Nikon Coolpix S8000 and photoshopped to fill in the sky around the turbine;  Wacom tablets are great for that kind of work!!!!

Redwood Corner Store

The days for riding this year are numbered and if today was not the last, it is darn close.  So off I went... and followed the start of the Kananaski's 40 loop;  along Old Coach Road to Sringbank Road and then south on 22 through Bragg Creek, turning around at Priddis.  I was riding to take advantage of the weather, but also to find things to shoot, specifically old buildings.

Just after turning south onto 22 and before Redwood, I noticed a shack far off the left side of the road and made a note.  On the return leg I pulled in and took these...

Redwood Corner Store

Not sure if it was called the Redwood Corner Store, but is sure looks like an old store or gas station that serviced the area years ago.  And there is just something special about old shacks and dilapidated buildings that really appeals to me...

Both shots were taken using a Nikon D3S with a 5 frame bracketed exposure, aperture priority, ISO 100 and processed in Photomatix for an HDR final composition.

And just like the old building, the days (for riding) this year are numbered...  darn!!!!!!

"Unforgettable" - The Choo Choo on the Kananaskis 40 Loop

Another Photo Friday challenge shot - "Unforgettable" was the theme for the week of Sept. 24 - Oct. 1 2010 .

But how so?  An old caboose is "Unforgettable"?  Really?

Well, there is a story here....

I went riding with my friend Ken today.  We did the Kananaskis 40 Loop, so coined by all the motorcyclists who ride the highway from Calgary to Bragg Creek, into Turner Valley, right to Longview and through Kananaskis heading north to the Transcanada highway and back east to Calgary.  It was my first long ride (5 hours), the first time along this loop... and...   IT IS/WAS SPECTACULAR!!!!!   The high mountain pass actually makes it hard to concentrate on riding... a dangerous thing, particularly for a new rider like me!   But, this is not what made it "Unforgettable".

This... day was particularly spectacular, as the leaves were turning with the fall season, making the whole trip a visceral one, with the fresh air smells and the visual collage of splattered yellows, reds, oranges and greens, assailing the senses.  Still, this too, did not make for "Unforgettable".

About a third of the way along the loop, we passed a field that held a dilapidated caboose, all by its lonesome.  It was like someone dropped it there out of thin air.  We made a u-turn and came back for a few shots...  here is just one.  Again, a fantastic site, where you would never expect one to be, but still, not all that "Unforgettable"

The shot has been retouched;  ya, I know, you are shocked... but I can't help playing with CS4.    I did the usual photoshopping, with adjustments to curves, exposure and dodging to lighten up the dark areas... I then erased the old wooden platform that allows access to the steps seen at the back right of the caboose...  finishing with a favorite plug-in called Photo Wiz Contrastmaster, that gave the old caboose a grungy look... a look I really like.  "Unforgettable" yet?  Well no, but.... almost!

It is what you can't see that makes this shot "Unforgettable"... at least for me.  The erased wooden platform I mentioned...  it is that, that sealed the deal... and made the whole day "Unforgettable".  That platform partially collapsed as I stepped off the caboose, dropping me flat on my face...  leaving me in shock and bleeding from my right hand...  it left me shaken enough, that I dropped my bike a little while later in a rest area we stopped at, to clean my cuts... and brought back memories of another time that I fell through a partially constructed deck and almost broke my back...

And so...  the culmination of all the sights, smells, sounds, the shock and the pain... with the finishing touch of riding with a good friend...  makes this whole experience one that is truly "Unforgettable"...

...and an experience that revolves around an old caboose.

PS...  One day, with late day light, one closer to sunset, this caboose will make a fantastic HDR shot... and will make today, a picture worth hanging on the wall as...  Unforgettable!

PPS... And one more shot from another angle (obviously)...

Sunrise

Or "Daybreak"... another Photo Friday weekly challenge (see some of my other post if you don't know what I am referring to).

I was driving from Canmore AB into Calgary the other morning when I came around a bend and face to face with one of the most spectacular sunrises I have seen in a long time...  which is due to the rotten weather we have been having here and not the fact that I sleep in late and never see the sun rise... LOL

Sunrise (aka Daybreak)

Sunrise Too

Reflect

I was walking my Rotti the other day, along a path I had walked many times before... and never noticed the shot that was always before me.... and finally captured (it).

I am always amazed to what I don't notice day to day... and it makes me wonder what I miss as I saunter along...  and so I "Reflect"....   do you?

If you are wondering why I bracketed "Reflect", it refers to the weekly Photo Friday challenge my friend Ken and I take part in to work on our photography skills and "Reflect" is/was the challenge for the week of Sept. 17-24th, 2010.   Check out the Photo Friday website, sign-up and work on being a better photographer ( www.photofriday.com)....

Wanna Be....

Photographer.

My daughter is taking photography as an option in school.  As a father, I would love for her to succeed and be better than me.  But, if photography becomes a passing fancy and she doesn't take it up again for another 30 years (more or less like I did) well, she can look back and say she was working on it...

So, to the Wanna Be...

Love Dad

Cameron Lake... and....

And another Wateron area picture.... this time at Cameron Lake in Waterton Lakes National Park.  But this shot has something special along with the background...  my daughter!

All you perverts stay away...

Dead Wood

Another shot from Waterton.

This one was taken with a point and shoot, while walking along the shore of Waterton Lake late in the afternoon.  The composition of this shot is what made it special... I took about half a dozen shots of this log, but it wasn't until I laid down on the rocky shore, did the magic of the Dead Wood come to life.

Here is one of those angles that wasn't working...  one of many... LOL

Photo Friday on Thursday... WTF?

Met my friend Ken to compare our PhotoFriday shots...  something we took up as a challenge to each other to keep working on our photo skills.  (For more info, check out the PhotoFriday website @ www.photofriday.com).

We met in Kensington at the Yardhouse, but soon made our way to a better watering hole, the Bottle House Bear Parlour on 10th and Memorial.  On the way to the new location, Ken points out a couple of bikes and says "that would make a great shot"... to which I reply by pulling out my point-and-shoot (something I try to carry with me all the times these days)...  the result below.

Thank you Ken, for the Obi-Wan Kenobi moment...  Gawd, I am dating myself with that comment... LOL

Riding

Riding?  Yup, riding!  Went out for a motorcycle ride to capture some shots I have been wanting to get for a while.   The sun was starting to drop and the shadows working for me...  here is the series.

The color shots I took were OK, but I started playing around with CS4's black and white adjustment and  tint feature and these were the results....

Can't wait to go riding again....

Cameron Falls - Wateron Lakes National Park

I spent a few days in Waterton Lakes National Park this past summer.  If you have never been to the park, you have to go;  it is spectacular, beautiful, grand, breath taking and well, I think you get the idea...  the prairies join the mountains creating a terrain not common in Alberta and provides landscape photographers a choice of many features to shoot.

So, being the tourist, a trip to Cameron Lake was in order; on the way up, I made a stop at what I call Upper Cameron Falls.  There is a lower Cameron Falls in Waterton Town site, but they have been shot this way to Sunday.  Below are two pictures of the upper falls, which I managed to get by scaling down the cliff side to a slick area below the firs set of falls; if a person doesn't get down there, the angle of the shot provides no perspective.  The first shot is looking upstream (obviously), the second downstream (again obviously), with the second shot providing a view into the Waterton Lake valley.

Both shots were composed on a Nikon D3S, using a Nikon 25-70 mm F2.8 lens, an ND filter and taking a 7 frame bracketed exposure, then processing in CS4 and Photomatrix for the HDR effect.

So, what's this blog about?

Whatever.  Seriously,  I have no clue to what I am doing, so laugh if you like, it's true.... whatever!!!

In my first post, I mentioned photography is something I am getting back into; so in part, my blogs will be about that.  I also mentioned my friend Ken, who not only guided me back to photography, but has got me starting a new hobby, motorcycling;  now that is a hobby I can see will be around in my life for a long, long time...  and the two, I can see, will go hand in hand.

So for now, lots of blogs will be around my photography, motorcycling and then... who knows?

Bankers Court at Sunrise

Photography; a hobby, profession, passion or past time?  Whatever it is for you, for me it is an activity that has ebbed and flowed in my life over the years ...   and one I have played with over the past 35 years.

Recently, a friend sent me a link to a photo contest he had entered and won last year (2009) and indicated I should try for a spot this year.  To make a long story short, many early mornings, a trek into the world of HDR and voila...  a third place win out of a field of 200 entries.  I know, not a first place showing, but a placing beyond what I imagined I could achieve... and has pushed my skills beyond limits I would have not imagined just a year ago!!

So, I owe big thanks to my friend Ken, not only for reintroducing photography back into my life, but in helping me to learn more about the field than I ever imagined....