Over the past few months, a lot of the well known blogging photographers like Chase Jarvis, David Hobby, Joe McNally, and Drew Gardner have been talking  a lot about the value of shooting for yourself.  Personal work is good for the soul.

Well, it happens that  a few days ago I was in a real funk.  I couldn't get motivated to slog through the pile of office work I had stacked in my in-box, or the editing waiting for me in the depths of the hard drive.  I find that times like these, when I ' not being very productive anyway are perfect times to get out an revive the creative juice flow by trying to shoot something new.  My subject of choice is usually some type of abstract nature.  The weather was lousy,  gray and overcast with a little bit of rain.  Not perfect landscape shoot weather, but then again, is there ever such a thing as perfect landscape weather?  Suddenly I remembered the B+W 110 3.0 (10 stop Neutral Density filter) I bought months ago.  I have been meaning to try it out for ages, it's still in the box. It's just the type of thing that would lend itself to shooting on a less than perfect day.  The filter would allow me to to take quite long exposures (2 minutes I discovered) which would blur the clouds, and water, while stationary objects remained sharp. All of a sudden, the funk was gone, replaced by creative excitement.

here are a couple of the results...

This is the Squamish Estuary, looking south towards the ocean

The same estuary area, looking east towards the Stawamus Chief, the second largest granite monolith in the world (Gibraltar is 1st)

I had planned to go to the old docks by the ocean too, but I got so into it at the estuary that I ran out of daylight.  The sky even co-operated a bit, and opened some late in the day blue patches, providing me with some interesting cloud movement.  Exposures were f22 @ 2 min.

No matter what your creative outlet is, taking some time to do something just for yourself always energizes. Write a poem, or a song, design you ultimate kitchen, paint, take some photos, whatever gets your mind going.  After this little selfish outing, I came back to the office refreshed, and was able to tackle my work with enthusiasm.  I also have a couple of new pieces that will likely end up on my wall.

Get out there and do something for yourself!

I have been playing around with some time lapse photography in my spare time. Trial and error and online learning.  As an architectural photographer, it's something I could see offering to my clients for the right exterior projects.  This one was just for fun, and is far from perfect, so I played around with some "Tilt-Shift" depth of field effects.  Let me know what you think in the comments. Don't forget, if your connection can handle it, click the HD button to see it in the best quality.

The time lapse sequence was photographed the Sasquatch Music Festival, this year on May 24th.  It's a shot of the Main Stage at The Gorge Amphitheater, in Washington State.  Probably the best place in the entire world to see an outdoor concert.  (more...)

Vancouver Police announced today (June 17th 2009) that they will be officially updating their policy manual to prevent officers from confiscating cameras and other recording devices from the public without consent, a warrant, or a lawful arrest.

While they say the policy has always been in place, they are now putting it in writing, and enforcing it. Nice of them to bring thier policies in line with Canadian law, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The issue came to a head when Vancouver Province news photographer Jason Payne was roughed up, and had his camera taken by police while photographing a Police shooting incidnet. In fairness to the Police, they did apologize shortly after the seizure.  This comes on a long string of bad press for Vancouver area Police made famous by the RCMP Robert Dziekanski tazer death at the Vancover Airport.  The video of that incident was surrendered to Police on scene who promised to return it in 48 hours.  Then they changed their minds, and the videographer Paul Pritchard had to retain a lawyer to get it back.

The announcement of Vancouver Police to update their camera seizure policy is a big step in the right direction.  I'm not a press photographer, but this is a victory not just for the freedom of the press, but for all Canadians.  Everyone has the right to take photos of Police officers at work, or anything else that happens in public. Compared to what's going on in the UK where police can arrest anyone with a camera if they have a "suspicion" that the photos may be used for any type of terrorist purpose.  It's a very vague and dangerous law as far a free speech goes. Especially when many authorities think they can tell you to stop taking photos for any reason.

The Vancouver policy comes on the heels of a New York City announcement of a similar reminder to Police that people are allowed to take photos in public (by the way if you want to waste some time and get angry, hang out at the "Photography is not a crime blog" for a while!)

It's good to see that at least some Police Departments are doing the right thing, and reminding their officers of our freedoms.  Let's hope other jurisdictions follow their lead.

I don't end up with tons of time these days to shoot things for fun, so when my brother Paul showed up yesterday with a surprise day off and asked if I wanted to join him for an afternoon in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, how could I refuse? but, still being extremely sore from my bike park visit last Saturday, I decided to take it a bit easy, and take some gear along to try and can a few shots for fun.  Turned out that I was having such a good time that we only stopped twice to shoot a quick shot.

I wanted to do a little strobist thing in the trees, to reduce the ambient, and light Paul comming off a little rock drop on the trail.  I was reminiscing a bit about shooting film, as I realized that the D40x I brought, combined with the strobes would only be fast enough to shoot one frame.  For about 4 min set up, I think I got a decent one.

Shot with 2 SB-80DX units on slave mode both behind the action, pointing 45° towards the camera at full power.  one on the rock, camera left, and one balanced on a tree branch camera right (you can see the flare on the right side of the frame).  The remote strobes were triggered by a SB-28 at 1/2 power on the hot-shoe from about 10m (30 feet) away.  exposure was 5.6 @ 1/200th for a bit of motion blur shot at about 170mm.  A bit of high pass filter for added drama.

Probably not mag cover material, but really fun for a quick little 5 min shoot.  I can't say how good it feels just to get out and shoot something different for a change.  It really is important to go out a do something creative just for fun.  We had a blast biking yesterday, and I have inspired myself to dream up a couple of more produced bike shots to try and pull off before the end of the summer. 

Grab your camera, and go shoot something new, just for fun!

The Guggenheim has a great competition going on. Titled "Design It: Shelter Competition", it's inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's tendency to make apprentice architects design, build, and live and study in a shelter in the Arizona Desert.  The competition invites anyone to follow in the footsteps of Architectural Students at Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and design a shelter that relates to the outside.  The shelter must have a study space, and a sleeping space, and may not have any utilities (no AC in the Arizona desert will motivate you to design a well shaded shelter with good airflow!).

Tetrahedron Tent in Google Earth, Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1937

Google is in on the competition, to enter the contest, you will design your shelter using Google Sketchup, and then pin it to Google Earth, so it can be viewed in the setting you intended, anywhere in the world.  I usually just photograph architecture, but I might try my hand, just for fun! Entries can be made by anyone, and are being accepted until August 23rd.  ENTER HERE,   Good Luck!

Also, just in time for the 50th anniversary of the passing of Frank Lloyd Wright (and since the Guggenheim Opened) you can order a Lego kit of  Falling Water, one of Wright's most famous designs.

Seriously, I think i'll order one for my office!

At TED, Yann Arthus-Bertrand talks about global sustainability accented by some of his amazing aerial photographs.  He also shows off a teaser for his new film HOME which is an aerial extravaganza to show the damage we are doing to the planet, and what we need to do to help the planet rather than hurt it.  All of his work on the film is carbon offset, and the film will be provided to anyone for free without any copyright restrictions for viewing or distribution.  It was released today, and you can watch it online at the "HOME" movie website. 

A while back I discovered the videos that are available on the TED website. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Some of the worlds most inspirational speakers, and forward thinkers talk at the conference, and the TED website makes all of the videos available for anyone to view.

I regularly find inspiration and insight watching a TED talk.  So much so that it has become a regular routine for me to snuggle in bed with my laptop and watch a few TED videos before I turn in.  Be careful, it can be addictive.  Of course, I always love the talks about photography, architecture and design, but there are so many other amazing topics, that I could follow non-stop.  That's why I subscribed to the TED video RSS feed. If you don't have that much time, you can go to the "In Bed With TED" category, or subscribe to the feed for In Bed With TED, and check out my favorites!

I Hope you enjoy!