Downtown candid
Nikon D300, Nikkor 105 f/2.8, f/2.8, 1/350 sec, ISO200
Wow, its been awhile since my last post. Time flies…
My inspiration on the coming posts comes after reading a couple of blogs I frequent regularly. It was basically something like go photograph whats in your back yard. I got nothing in my backyard to shoot, so I have decided to explore my neighborhood and my town instead. My town, Sudbury, located in Northern Ontario, is not very exotic, but there’s a lot going on. We got lots of rocks, lakes and forests up here. It’s a mining town, mostly nickel, copper and other precious metals. And of course there are plenty of heavy industry that support the mines in the area.
My neighborhood is a very typical working class community close to downtown. Small houses, most of them are old – like my house is – just a few of them are new-err. It’s all well established, not much room for new development in this area. We certainly don’t have million dollar mansions in this end of town. Reason being is probably the proximity to one of the mining companies smelter, which is just a short drive from here. In fact, I can see the super-stack from my street. I will post some images of that bad boy later.
But I choose to live and work here, so I’ll make the best of it. I have during my walks in the area discovered quite a few gems that I will return to again.
Today’s shot is from downtown. Its late evening, the stores are closed and the streets are empty. This old guy is sitting on the corner of a downtown intersection reading his book. He never looks up as I walked past him. A heat wave has been going on for a couple of weeks now, and the only time to be outside for a longer period of time is around sunset. And I’m sure this guy was just wanted to get some fresh air and escape the heat in his apartment – well, that’s the story I’m sticking to…:)
The shot is processed in LR, Nik Silver Efex Pro and OnOne’s Focal Point.
As I went through my shots, I had a couple where the sign in the back ground was sharp and it had some interesting thoughts written down on it, so I thought I would share its wisdom…
Busy week
Wheew, what a crazy week. Went camping with the kids on the Canada Day long weekend, where I had a chance to shoot some fireworks. This was my first time trying this. Example above and below. Here is what I found tough that night about this type of photography.
- Focus – where do you focus? Its pitch black and for a quick second you get a short burst of light. That’s all there was to aim at. Of course auto focus is out of the question. So it was a bit of a guessing game on my part. I picked a small aperture, so I tried to imagine how far out the fireworks would go and focus about a third into the scene on manual focusing. The depth of field should hopefully take care of the rest. I did get some sharp images, but also a fair bit of blurred images, so perhaps the lens I was using has a problem with focus creep (if that is even possible) when the camera is tilted up wards. I have to look into that a bit more.
- The bugs – The camp ground was on a lake, so of course they would shoot the fireworks out over the lake. So I picked a spot just by the shore about 100 ft away from where they were launching. I got bitten by mosquitoes so bad on my left hand that I had a hard time bending my fingers the next day. My neck and face was in the all-you-can-eat/drink zone too, so that was not fun at all. Next time, I’ll bring a bug-jacket. I just didn’t want to take the chance and spray bug spray on me and then by accident get some on my gear. I hear that stuff is pretty aggressive.
Back at work for Monday and Tuesday, then of to Toronto for Scott Kelby’s Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It seminar, which by the way was absolutely outstanding. If he brings this seminar close to a city near you, sign up – you wont be disappointed. I also had the pleasure of meeting Terry White at this seminar. Great guy and extremely helpful.
A couple of busy days back at work before the weekend, this time fighting of a cold I probably got at camp. I’m still a bit under the weather but its going the right way.
Being off-line for a week means that I still haven’t caught up on all the blogs I usually visit, I’m working on it though. But boy did I miss some good ones this week. Like Mike Olbinski’s Phoenix Haboob time-lapse movie. Scott Wood also made a movie of the event. The time-lapse movies these guys made was just spectacular, and congrats on all the attention they got out of it. Simply amazing.
Then there was Zack Arias review of the Fuji x100 camera. Best review I have read in ages! Check it out. A guy next to me at the seminar had just purchased this camera at a store in Toronto the day before and I had the pleasure of checking it out. Very nice camera, with some great features.
I hope within the next couple of days I get around to all of your posts. In the mean time, take care.
