Okay okay I know... taking a picture of your cat is a huge cliche! I had my studio lights and backdrop set up at home to take some shots of some equipment for work. The cat kept jumping up and getting in the way, so I snapped a couple of shots while she was checking things out. I thought this one was pretty funny.

A shot of the spillway at the old Pinawa dam. Built in 1906, it was the first dam in Manitoba and had the longest transmission lines in the world. It sits in the Pinawa channel of the Winnipeg River system. It was decommissioned in 1951 when larger dams like the Seven Sisters dam started supplying Winnipeg.

I have a flash gallery that I'll post of shots I took while walking around the site.  Since this is my favorite I thought I'd feature it first.

The Badger Creek swimming hole just outside of Cartwright Manitoba.

A shot of the Badger Creek as seen from on top of the concrete dam that is in place to hold back water for a swimming hole.

A bit of a long story here, but we have a new cat. Amanda came home one day and a man was walking down the street with a kitten asking people if it was theirs. When he asked Amanda he said he didn't want to keep it cause his dog didn't get along with it. He asked Amanda if she'd take it. She said she would, and would try and track down it's owners.

Well kitty has no tattoos and is quite young, around 4-5 months by my guess. So we weren't too hopeful on finding an owner. We've kept an eye out for missing cat posters, and even dropped off fliers and put some posters up saying we found a kitten.  It's been just over two weeks that we've had it, and it looks like we're now the owners of a new kitten.  She's pretty good for the most part, though can be a handful when she gets a bit hyper.

We'll have to get her to the vet soon to make sure she's healthy and gets her shots.  I've been a bit weary about having a new cat since our experience with the previous one, but it's looking like this kitten is quite friendly and sociable.  Hopefully things will go better this time.

A bit of a story behind the name too.  We wanted to come up with something along the lines of luck or fate.  Thought Lucy was close to luck, and it suited her.  I wanted to call her Trixy seeing as how she's black and white, and Tri-X is my favorite film.  Alas, Lucy won out.

Seems like there is always some work to be done around the house. After getting the foundation work done, I now have a list of things to do that is way too long. Right now I'm focusing on getting the yard finished up. Foundation to paint, weeds to pull, flower beds to make, fences to fix... the list goes on. Painting is done... this weekend was weed pulling. I managed to pull around 100 pounds of dandelions and various weeds from the lawn. The price of trying to take care of your lawn organically. Hopefully that'll be a majority of the weed pulling for the year.... or not, we'll see.

Projects around the home are eating up all my time and money for photography... wish that wasn't the case, but it is...

Well today was my first photo shoot with the new strobes. It went quite well I think. Setup was fast and easy. Exposure took a guess or two. Only a couple of small issues here and there.

I was supposed to get a white backdrop, but I couldn't find one in town in the time I needed. I got the lightest neutral one I could find. I had to reshoot a few of the shots because of fingerprints, dust and the person I was shooting for wanting slightly different positioning

I also found out as I suspected that my camera is NOT doing a good job of focusing. It's back focusing quite a bit. At this point I'm not sure if it's the lense or the body. I'll have to do some tests in the next week or so to see what's up.

Anyways, above is one of the final shots I took.  My favorite one out of the group shots.  Tomorrow I will post a shot of my setup.

I the unofficial/official photographer now at the company I work for.  Definitely outside of my job description of Software Developer.  However I don't mind taking photos for work because it gets me away from my desk for a few hours here and there.  One of my bosses decided I needed some equipment for my photos.  He asked me what would be a good set of studio strobes, so I mentioned Alien Bees to him.  I had heard a lot of good things about them and knew that they were very competitively priced.  A few weeks later I had a set of two SB800s, stands and umbrellas at my desk.  Here's a shot of me playing with the new setup:



Yeah I know more light is going out the back than toward me. I was trying out the shoot through umbrellas to see how soft the light is, and I thought it made for a cool shot.

A shot of the oldest and youngest male members of my mom's side of the family. Of course one is my Grandpa. The other is the newest addition to my extended family, my cousin's kid. This shot was recovered from disaster as I accidentally formatted the card before downloading the pictures. Good think I realized my mistake immediately and recovered the shots. Not sure if I got them all. But I'm glad I recovered this one.

Sorry about the low posting rate. Since my company moved out of town and I have to commute, it's been hard to find time to go out and take photos. By the time I get home it is dark. I'm really missing it at the moment. So I'm looking forward to the longer days coming up soon.

I think my fridge is telling to try me something. Tonight it froze a bottle of Perrier water and caused it to explode all over the inside of the fridge. I was going to get around cleaning it before. But trust me it's much cleaner now....

This photo doesn't do the scale of this building justice. I wished I had a wider lens while I was there. So I could have gotten more in the shot.

A shot of the Thames as seen from the walking path in front of the London Tower.

Been intching to post some photos of my trip to Europe. A shot of a train leaving the station in Versailles France. I usually do some processing to my images before posting them, but I can't wait until I get home to share some of these.

Well it's a sad day for South Winnipegers that love nostalgia and old gems. A few weeks ago a fence went up around the Palomino Plains Motor Inn. This hotel has been around since my parents moved to Winnipeg in the early 70's. In fact I would venture to say it was around since the 50's, though I don't know that for sure. Looks like it's going to become a piece of our distant history. I had always thought about renting a room there to get some shots of the inside, but it looks like I've missed my opportunity. Lets have a moment of silence for the Palomino Plains Motor Inn......

Another shot from the visit to the zoo.

Went on my annual trip to the zoo today. Amanda goes quite a few times a year because of working in daycare. I still like to go every once in a while, and surprisingly today she suggested it. Always take my camera along even though it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Here's a shot of Richard Parker. Bonus points to anyone who figures out where that name comes from without looking it up on google.

It was Elliot's first birthday today. Happy Birthday! =)

I actually got followed by the guy in that car for several blocks after I took this picture.  Garda security car if you can make it out.  Here is the story I wrote up for a fellow photographer later that evening:

So I just got tailed by a toy cop while I was out for a walk.  It was strange.  I was taking some photos of the Pembina underpass at Jubilee, and he was sitting in a lot near by.  I crossed Pembina and walked back under the underpass and was taking some photos under there cause the light was interesting and a few in his direction too.  You can see his car in one of my shots, but cannot really make anything out beyond that.  I stayed under the underpass for a bit playing with the light.  Anyways I come out from under the underpass (I was on the pedestrian corridor the whole time so not just sneaking around where I should not be) and then he is sitting at Fountain Tire at Pembina and Jubilee.  I walk past him, kept my distance a bit cause I did not want to have to talk to him.  At this point I was not sure if he was actually following me, or if it was a different guy or what.  So I keep trucking down Pembina, and about 4 blocks up he pops out of a street and turns driving my way.  Sees me, and then pulls a u-turn to head further down Pembina.  I see him pull into a lot behind some parked cars.  After I got past him close to home, I decided I would keep going cause I did not need him following me to my front door.  I got to Pembina and McGillvary and he passes me again.  He kept going and went around the bend there and I could not see him.  I walked a few more blocks out of curiosity to see if he was going to pop out.  Went about 5 more and did not see him, so I cut back into residential and weaved my way home.  Strange experience though.  One thing is for sure, he is not very good about following someone unnoticed. =P

My first run in with security.  More annoying than anything.  Apparently he did not have the balls to confront me, but was just fine following me for about half an hour.

Well the wedding was a success.  I got the light I wanted, the rain held up around the wedding, and things went fairly smooth.  Considering it was my first time shooting an even like this, and I was the primary photographer I think there were some great moments captured.  A few missed as well, but I'm sure the couple will be very happy with what they got.

This was my personal favorite of the day.  The flowergirl trying to cope with the wind that stirred up right as the ceremony was starting.

On a bit of a happier note, this is the flower girl of the wedding I'm shooting this weekend.

A barn shaped house in my neighborhood shot at dusk.  Shutter speed was really low on this, hence the softness of the shot.  In this case I think it adds that soft focused spookiness of horror films in the past.